Month: May 2012

Courtesy of my old bro Sang…a voice like this is not only a gift but a treasure.  These early clips of this out of this world band blow me away…

We’ve already established that I’m a little burnt out, maybe not so much so that in conversation with a person they aren’t saying to themselves “damn this guy’s a really burnt out”. But memories are an odd thing, when I try to dig them up, it’s easy to find the worst 10 or so, they haunt me, but those casual everyday events, all the good times escape me. Most of my memories though include me drinking, doing drugs or some combination of the two, invariably part of the reason I’ve forgotten so many events (they were burnt up), and then doing something else.  So get high and drunk and go to a concert, get high and drunk go to a party or get high and drunk and do whatever.  Wish I had more than that.

My buddy Bjorn kicked down another Pilleemandjoonks tune from their live set the did back in 2005…love this band…
Pillemandjoonks – This Town

Traffic jams here in Northwest Kansas usually are the result of some agricultural piece of equipment, some farmer/rancher tooling along (moseying) in his pickup truck or some grandma too scared to go over 40 in her town car. Being a born and raised city jerk, these types of scenarios at times can lead to road rage. I’m not a speed demon or anything, it’s just that I think all vehicles should go the posted speed limit. If it says 65 and we all go 65 things should proceed in an orderly fashion and we should arrive at our destinations safe and sound, and in a reasonable amount of time. The other day I was redeemed. I was in Hays a town that can probably pat itself on the back and say that it is no longer a big town, but is a very small city. It’s where we go for supplies every pay day weekend. Anyway so I find myself behind a few vehicles behind a farmer in a truck going 20 in a 35 zone. The two cars in front of my are enraged trying to pass this guy and finally after a couple of miles are able to do so as it goes from one to two lanes. I’ve had the luxury of being behind the people with the road rage this time so rather than being enraged myself I’ve been entertained. I casually pass the guy thinking he’s either damn rude or totally clueless, but this time no sweat off my back. Sure enough though as I’m watching him in my rear view mirror, sort of in awe of how slow he’s driving through the middle of town, and a cop pulls him over. I thought to myself finally, after all those times of being stuck behind someone, they finally get pulled over for being too slow.

The title says it all here and pretty much sold me on buying it in the first place. Pick out any synonym for strange (hold on I’ll do it for you)…
aberrant, abnormal, astonishing, astounding, atypical, bizarre, curious, different, eccentric, erratic, exceptional, extraordinary, fantastic, far-out, funny, idiosyncratic, ignorant, inexperienced, irregular, marvelous, mystifying, new, newfangled, odd, oddball, off, offbeat, out-of-the-way, outlandish, peculiar, perplexing, quaint, queer, rare, remarkable, singular, unaccountable, unaccustomed, uncanny, uncommon, unheard of, unseasoned, unusual, weird, wonderful
…this is what you get as far as these tunes. They’re all country, although it’s a stretch in some places, twangy…yes, hokey…yes, storytelling ballads…yes. But this is nothing like the lameass pop country you get today. The newer tunes don’t feel out of place either with the few classic artists represented. You really should listen to the likes of Porter Wagoner, Johnny Cash (a live tune even), Willie Nelson and the maestro Hank Williams Sr, but take a few minutes to give those unknowns (to me) a listen to like Calexico, the Handsome Family and Smog. There’s even a Sparklehorse (you can find other stuff of theirs around here) tune. Apparently there is a series of these compilations, the other one that comes to mind is “Strange Folk”, which I wouldn’t mind having.  Anyway…all in all this is a great listen, so do just that, give it a listen.
All the tunes

 

Calexico – Ballad of Cable Hogue

The Handsome Family – So Much Wine

Porter Wagoner – The Rubber Room

Sparklehorse – Spirit Ditch

Johnny Cash – The Long Black Veil [Live]

Hank Williams – Ramblin’ Man

Just on a side note…this is one of those things that’s still available and I’ve tried to stray away from posting stuff that you can still get new.  EDIT: I went ahead and deleted most of the tunes, the rest are for sampling…go out an buy the CD. In this day and age, with the collapse of Megaupload and the Gestapo tactics of Mediafire at the hands of our government and ultimately the Record Industry, sharing music is just plain risky. I’ve always though of this place as somewhere you can come to give stuff a listen and then go out and try to find your own copies, but it would be idealistic to think that’s what’s really going on. I’ve done the best I can to make this place our little secret, but not allowing it to be included in the search engines, so when you type “Strange Country” you aren’t gonna end up here. Of course that’s not enough to keep this place free of abuse but what can I do. I think of what I’m doing as something I did back in the 80’s, everyone did, making compilation cassettes for my friends to listen to. I know when I got those cassettes, I would search out the bands that stuck out in my mind and buy their stuff. I never meant to take money out of a musician’s pocket. So if you like this Strange Country thing, go out and get you a copy, Johnny Cash’s kids might get a nickle for your trouble.

Thanx for 30+ years of tearing shit up, you will be missed.