The new album from Ray Benson & Asleep at the Wheel is called Still The King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. It’s out March 3, 2015.
The 22-track album includes these guest artists: Willie Nelson, Amos Lee, Merle Haggard, Old Crow Medicine Show, The Del McCoury Band, Robertt Early Keen, Carriue Rodriguez and others.
Give it a listen:
Tracklist:
1. Intro—Texas Playboy Theme (with Leon Rausch)
2. I Hear Ya Talkin’ (with Amos Lee)
3. The Girl I Left Behind Me (with The Avett Brothers)
4. Trouble In Mind (with Amos Lee)
5. Keeper Of My Heart (with Merle Haggard and Emily Gimble)
6. I Can’t Give You Anything But Love (with Kat Edmonson)
7. Tiger Rag (with Old Crow Medicine Show)
8. What’s The Matter With The Mill (with Pokey LaFarge)
9. Navajo Trail (with Willie Nelson and The Quebe Sisters)
10. Silver Dew On The Bluegrass Tonight (with The Del McCoury Band)
11. Faded Love (with The Time Jumpers)
12. South Of The Border (Down Mexico Way) (with George Strait)
13. I Had Someone Else Before I Had You (with Elizabeth Cook)
14. My Window Faces The South (with Brad Paisley)
15. Time Changes Everything (with Buddy Miller)
16. A Good Man Is Hard To Fine (with Carrie Rodriguez and Emily Gimble)
17. Ding Dong Daddy From Dumas (with Robert Earl Keen and Ray Benson)
18. Brain Cloudy Blues (with Jamey Johnson and Ray Benson)
19. Bubbles In My Beer (with The Devil Makes Three)
20. It’s All Your Fault (with Katie Shore)
21. Three Guitar Special (with Tommy Emmanuel, Brent Mason and Billy Briggs)
22. Bob Wills Is Still The King (with Shooter Jennings, Randy Rogers and Reckless Kelly)
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
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[I published my novel, True Love Scars, in August of 2014.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book. Read it here. And Doom & Gloom From The Tomb ran this review which I dig. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]tter
The mythic travels of Sal Paradise reduced to a Google Maps trip.
Gregor Weichbrodt’s “On the Road for 17527 Miles” removes all the poetry from Kerouac’s journey.
The Guardian says of the book:
Going through On the Road with a fine toothcomb, Weichbrodt took the “exact and approximate” spots to which the author – via his alter ego Sal Paradise – travelled, and entered them into Google’s Direction Service. “The result is a huge direction instruction of 55 pages,” says the German student. “All in all, as Google shows, the journey takes 272.26 hours (for 17,527 miles).”
Weichbrodt’s chapters match those of Kerouac’s original. He has now self-published the book, which is also part of the current exhibition Poetry Will Be Made By All! in Zurich, and has, he says, sold six copies so far.
“To me it’s a concept, an idea. It’s odd in which rational ways we discover, travel the world,” he said. “If Kerouac had a GPS system, he would have probably felt less free. I find it rather discouraging to go on self-discovery with a bunch of route directions.” On the Road, he added, “fitted the idea of the concept I had in mind, but I’m not a beatnik groupie”.
Yesterday I did a post about the first Nashville Skyline session to produce music that ended up on the album. (There was an unproductive session the previous day but no information about what was recorded has surfaced.)
Aside from the resulting album, Nashville Skyline, a country gem that is as peculiar as it is enjoyable, what is most interesting about the making of the album has to do with a guest artist who joined Dylan in the studio on February 18, 1969.
Johnny Cash!
Previously Dylan hadn’t had much luck working with other big stars. Things were awkward with John Lennon, and he didn’t care for Andy Warhol at all, according to those who were at the Factory when Dylan met Warhol.
But with Johnny Cash Dylan hit pay dirt. Their recording of “Girl From the North Country” is terrific, and some of other others are wonderful.
So today I’m posting a bunch of songs from the Dylan/Cash session plus an alternative take of “Country Pie” from the February 14, 1968 session.
Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, “One Too Many Mornings” take 1:
Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, “One Too Many Mornings” version 2:
Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash, “I Still Miss Someone”:
Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, “Careless Love”:
Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, “That’s Alright Mama”:
Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash, “Big River”:
Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, “Girl From the North Country,” this is on Nashville Skyline but it’s awesome so I couldn’t leave it out:
Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, “I Walk the Line”:
Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, “Ring of Fire”:
Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, “Guess Things Happen That Way”:
Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, “Just A Closer Walk With Thee”:
Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, “Blue Yodel” version 1:
Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, “Blue Yodel” version 2:
“Country Pie,” alternative version with steel guitar:
Forty-five years ago, on February 13, 1969, Bob Dylan entered Columbia Music Row Studios in Nashville and began recording an album that would surprise many of his fans.
Why?
Because on Nashville Skyline Dylan debuts a country-style voice we’d never heard before.
This was a new Bob Dylan, and it took some of Bob’s fans a bit of adjustment to get hip to the new scene.
While there are those who dismiss Nashville Skyline as lightweight, or damn the songs because they’re not ‘heavy,’ I’ve always dug this album.
It’s Dylan being Dylan, confounding expectations. But it also sounds great. His singing is terrific and his country songs sound like the real thing, only they’re Bob Dylan country songs.
And it’s really cool that Dylan and Johnny Cash duet on “Girl From the North Country.”
Bob did an interview with Jann Wenner, publisher of Rolling Stone, in June of 1969, two months after the album was released.
WENNER: On “Nashville Skyline”–who does the arrangements? The studio musicians, or…
DYLAN: Boy, I wish you could’ve come along the last time we made an album. You’d probably enjoyed it… ‘cause you see right there, you know how it’s done. We just take a song; I play it and everyone else just sort of fills in behind it. No sooner you got that done, and at the same time you’re doing that, there’s someone in the control booth who’s turning all those dials to where the proper sound is coming in… and then it’s done. Just like that.
And a bit later in the interview:
WENNER: On “Nashville Skyline,” do you have any song on that that you particularly dig? Above the others.
DYLAN: Uh… “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You.” I like “Tell Me That It Isn’t True,” although it came out completely different than I’d written it. It came out real slow and mellow. I had it written as sort of a jerky, kind of polka-type thing. I wrote it in F. That’s what gives it kind of a new sound. They’re all in F… not all of them, but quite a few. There’s not many on that album that aren’t in F. So you see I had those chords…which gives it a certain sound. I try to be a little different on every album.
WENNER: I’m sure you read the reviews of “Nashville Skyline.” Everybody remarks on the change of your singing style…
DYLAN: Well Jann, I’ll tell you something. There’s not too much of a change in my singing style, but I’ll tell you something which is true… I stopped smoking. When I stopped smoking, my voice changed… so drastically, I couldn’t believe it myself. That’s true. I tell you, you stop smoking those cigarettes (laughter)… and you’ll be able to sing like Caruso.
WENNER: How many songs did you go into “Nashville Skyline” with?
DYLAN: I went in with uhh… the first time I went into the studio I had, I think, four songs. I pulled that instrumental one out… I needed some songs with an instrumental… then Johnny came in and did a song with me. Then I wrote one in the motel… then pretty soon the whole album started fill in’ in together, and we had an album. I mean, we didn’t go down with that in mind. That’s why I wish you were there… you could’ve really seen it happen. It just manipulated out of nothing.
WENNER: How many songs did you do with Johnny?
DYLAN: Well, we did quite a few. We just sat down and started doing some songs… but you know how those things are. You get into a room with someone, you start playing and singing, and you sort of forget after a while what you’re there for. (laughs)
During the first session Dylan recorded three songs that made it onto the album: “To Be Alone With You,” “I Threw It All Away” and “One More Night.” He also cut a version of “Lay Lady Lay” that he wasn’t happy with, and two other songs that he didn’t use.
Backing Bob on this and other sessions for the album were the top Nashville session cats:
Norman Blake – guitar, dobro
Kenneth A. Buttrey – drums
Johnny Cash – vocals
Fred Carter, Jr. – guitar
Charlie Daniels – bass guitar, guitar
Pete Drake – pedal steel guitar
Marshall Grant – bass guitar on “Girl from North Country”
W.S. Holland – drums on “Girl from North Country”
Charlie McCoy – guitar, harmonica
Bob Wilson – organ, piano
Bob Wootton – electric guitar on “Girl from North Country”
Below are the tracks that appeared on the album, along with alternate takes, a live recording and a couple of warm-up takes.
Dig the music!
“To Be Alone With You” (album version):
“I Threw It All Away,” album version:
“I Threw It All Away,” 1969 Nashville sessions, rehearsal:
“I Threw It All Away,” Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN May 1, 1969:
“I Threw It All Away,” alternate version, February 16, 1969
“I Threw It All Away,” George Harrison session, May 1, 1970:
“One More Night,” album version:
“One More Night,” alternate take:
“Lay Lady Lay,” alternate take:
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
After suffering with pancreatic cancer for more than a year, country great Ray Price died today at 4:30 PM CST, according to his associate, Bill Mack.
Mack posted on his Facebook page that Price’s wife Janie Price had called him this afternoon:
“JANIE JUST CALLED ME:
RAY PRICE LEFT FOR HEAVEN AT 4:43 PM CENTRAL TIME. HE WENT IN PERFECT PEACE. DETAILS LATER. JANIE AND THE FAMILY SO GRATEFUL FOR YOUR PRAYERS. RAY’S BODY WILL BE RECEIVED AT RESTLAND FUNERAL HOME IN DALLAS.”
Below is the obit I ran yesterday after Price’s son mistakenly posted on his Facebook page that his father was dead.
Country singer Ray Price, who scored #1 country hits including “Crazy Arms,” “My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You,” and “The Same Old Me,” died today at age 87 at his home in Mt. Pleasant, Texas. Price had been suffering complications from pancreatic cancer since late last year.
In addition to charting in the country top 10 (beginning with “Talk To Your Heart” in 1952), for over 30 years, Price is known for his baritone voice and for pioneering the honky-tonk sound still heard in some country music.
For an in-depth look at Ray Price’s career, check out this article in The Tennessean.
Ray Price performs his first #1 hit, “Crazy Arms,” in 1956 at the Ryman Auditorium.
“My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You,” 1957:
“Heartaches By the Numbers,” 1959:
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
