Corduroy Mountain

Sometimes a Man Must Feel Ill at Ease

2010-05-29T17:12:00.000-07:00

Artist: Gene Clark

Album: The American Dreamer

Song: "Outlaw Song"

The Chemical Times Try to Tangle His Mind

2010-04-21T22:10:00.000-07:00

Artists: Pott. County Pork & Bean Band

Album: Spreadin' It

Song: "Some Other Road"

Fifty songs into Corduroy Mountain, and the time has come to recognize the genesis record for this pursuit of forgotten albums and unknown musicians. Lost in a row of dollar-bin overflow at Vinyl Solution in 2002 was Pott. County Pork & Bean Band, a name so ridiculous and captivating that I fell prey to its immediate charm. The hirstute band members on the cover—four in all—are holding court in a pig pen, the earth as dark as the pigs' coarse hair. They are clothed in denim and plaids, cowboy hippies stuck in their tiny Kansas farm community. But a flip of the cover proves more revealing and tantalizing; Jim Richardson's photography captured the local kids gathering at the local auditorium for a Saturday night of music, dancing and other shenanigans among the discarded cans of Colorado Kool-Aid.

I wanted into this world, circa 1975, where the success of a weekend night could be quantified by the number of hoots, hollers, and handclaps. Until Doc Brown makes his DeLorean available for sale, Pott. County Pork & Bean Band's Spreadin' It album will have to serve as my auditory time machine. Mixed between their set of covers—songs by Merle Haggard, Peter Rowan, and David Bromberg—were two original compositions, including "Some Other Road." The back cover features the subtitle "Alive in Belvue (pop. 176)." Listening to this song I imagine that population increasing by one.

I Want to Love You

2010-03-12T01:54:00.000-08:00

Artist: William Truckaway

Album: Breakaway

Song: "Be the One"

Walk onto the porch at Corduroy Mountain. Yesterday's clothes, a western shirt and Levi's bellbottoms, feel better today. An arid breeze pushes through wild grass and causes the unbuttoned shirt to flutter. Draw a deep pull from the jar of sweet tea, pulling the sugary residue from your upper lip with the lower. The barn and its jacket of fading paint rests at the bottom of the slope. That ol' mother can still host an all-night Saturday dance. The tandem Schwinn stands propped against the side of the house. Meandering across the scrub field like an unfurled lariat is the dirt road, its soft curves forever a siren call. A gentle moan announces the arrival of the One on the porch. She's wearing an embroidered tunic and a calico skirt. Swoon. Step down to the ground and hear the crunch of gravel under boot. A nod toward the bicycle is invitation enough.

He's My High and Holy Lover

2010-02-27T23:10:00.000-08:00

Artist: Diane Kolby

Album: Diane Kolby

Song: "Nah-Me-Nah"

The small couch, shoved against the wall, cradled my tired, sprawling body. Steel-gray clouds drew their heavy curtain across the afternoon sky. A steady percussion of rain drops collided against the window; a cyclical drop echoed in the chimney like an amplified cowbell. I struggled from my prone position to put Diane Kolby's record on the turntable. The needle slipped into the groove, and an audible dawn swept from the speakers and filled the room. Was this an LP or a choir of sweet-voiced birds? Soon Diane began singing in tongues, her joy palpable in the nonsensical words. When the song reached its ecstatic peak, I looked outside. A phalanx of nourishing God rays streamed through the storm clouds.

The Sweets of the World

2010-02-16T01:33:00.000-08:00

Artists: The Bernie Leadon + Michael Georgiades Band

Album: Natural Progressions

Song: "How Can You Live Without Love?"

Yacht rock as a genre designation has only one flaw—the concept identifies the millionaire musicians, not its blue-collar audience. Who would have been listening to Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers, and Loggins and Messina and buying their records in copious quantities? The florists, chefs, and secretaries of 1970s America. For these nubile fans, a yacht would have been a dream docked beyond the fence of an exclusive marina. Water wouldn't have been a dominion to own, but rather savor as a refuge from the week's monotony. These individuals would have turned to a more affordable means of aquatic transportation—the catamaran. Much like the boogie van on land and the hang glider in the sky, the catamaran created enough of a craze in the 1970s that clubs formed wherever an inviting body of water and a sweet breeze could be found. The men would wear OP cord shorts and the women bikini tops and Daisy Dukes. After the day's rigorous sailing had come to a satisfactory end, the randy participants would unfurl blankets on the shore and watch the pink and violent sunset as they cuddled and sipped wine. Perhaps their transistor radio would be dialed to the one local station cool enough to be playing "How Can You Live Without Love?" And all would be righteous in their world.

Is It Pretty? It's Pretty

2010-02-11T10:40:00.000-08:00

Artist: Bubba Fowler

Album: ...and Then Came Bubba

Song: "Louise (My Cajun Woman)"

Your resume couldn't have been more impeccable: the acerbic talking political blues; a recording contract with Columbia records and production by Bob Johnston; a credited spot on Bob Dylan's underrated Self Portrait album. Bubba Fowler, you could have been the new Dylan. Hell, even your initials are almost the same. Only one problem. Any new Dylan's best song mustn't be an instrumental, even when the bayou romp is so funky that Jerry Reed may have turned his head and yipped, "Son!" But thanks for applying.

I'm Going to Roam No More

2010-02-09T01:34:00.000-08:00

Artist: Jeanie Greene
Album: Mary Called Jeanie Greene
Song: "Going Home"

Someone named RomeoSidVicious wrote an entry at the Nine Bullets blog about funeral songs. As in what songs you would have played at your funeral. A morbid playlist to be sure, but being someone who plans to micromanage the set list at his wedding, selecting the soundtrack for my great sendoff doesn't seem unreasonable.

The Nine Bullets post directed readers to choose five songs, and the first four I chose were:

"Meet Me in Heaven" by Johnny Cash
"Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground" by Willie Nelson
"When I Cross Over" by Tift Merritt
"Shooting Star" by Bob Dylan

I knew the fifth song would be "Going Home," which has an entire backstory that can be read here. Annie Haslam's bombastic performance is my favorite, but I want to share another version I found during a recent rummaging of dollar bins. Jeanie Greene, wife of Marlin Greene, used "Going Home" as the caboose track to her lone LP, and this rendition befits the album's substantial Muscle Shoals roots.

When You Go Away, That'll Be Too Soon

2010-02-01T13:27:00.000-08:00

Artist: Steve Young

Album: To Satisfy You

Song: "The River and the Swan"

For hours, for days, for weeks I packed. Record crates, poster tubes, cartons of books, hangers full of jackets, suitcases crammed with clothes, piles of photographs, stereo equipment, towers of compact discs, bed, dresser, and nightstand. The night before the move to California I still found myself playing God with stray belongings, what to bring and what to leave behind. When the bric-a-brac became too minute, my knees buckled and I collapsed on the staircase leading to my mom's basement, a barnacle-crusted anchor colliding with water's sandy bottom. I heaved heavy tears into the crook of my arm. Appearing in the frame of the staircase, my mom wanted to know why I was crying. Was I OK? I wondered how I would find homes for the last details in these dwindling minutes and was I insane for deciding to move so far west, a plan that still carried the fragrance of wet paint?

Mom had found a few issues of Playboy in a gym bag the first time we talked on the creaky and carpeted stairs. That incident was a dozen years prior. I felt embarrassment then; now I felt doubt's tugging undertow. Sitting at my side, mom reassured me that I was making the right decision to try something bold, to see another place in this world. If the noble adventure ever stopped being fun or meaningful, she would still be here to welcome me in her arms.

Perhaps I cried enough for mother and son. Mom remained of resolute voice even as she helped send her only child out into the great expanse. I'm sure her tears fell hard after I set out the next morning, car and trailer rumbling for parts unknown and future unimagined. This particular Steve Young song, "The River and the Swan," reminds me of the stoic facade a parent must have when the nest becomes too small, but the love remains unconditional.

Pass That Pipe

2010-01-26T15:46:00.000-08:00

Artist: Bob Frank

Album: Bob Frank

Song: "Judas Iscariot"

In his book God Is Red, Vine Deloria Jr. noted:

Theories abound as to the exact origin of the Jesus movement, but at least one reputable theory is that it came as a desperate effort by young people to get off drugs....Jesus became a drug substitute for a significant number of people....Jesus was a perpetual "high"...

Perhaps Bob Frank was a free-spirited archaeologist, unafraid to dirty his patched bellbottoms as he explored damp caves and forgotten city sites. He seems to have brushed stringy hair from his eyes long enough to discover an unknown gospel, one written by one of Jesus's more progressive disciples. In this little-studied manuscript, Jesus did not just turn water into wine. He also may have turned grass into, um, hash.

Pushin' That Diesel Since Early Dawn

2010-01-25T21:55:00.000-08:00

Artist: Bud Brewer
Album: Big Bertha, the Truck Driving Queen
Song: "Caffein, Nicotine, Benzedrine (and Wish Me Luck)"

Corduroy Mountain is overdue for another truck-driving song, so let's turn to Mr. Bud Brewer and this ode to one long hauler's favorite passengers. Notice the energetic pedal steel seems to personify the frantic pump of an overworked heart, and the sawing fiddles imply the motion of a forearm wiping a torrent of sweat from the brow. Please forgive the misspelling in the song title; your spell checker would be fried too with a highway diet consisting of such a copious amount of stimulants. Listen to his story and wish the man good luck. Sounds like he needs it.

No Need to Take No for an Answer

2010-01-12T17:39:00.000-08:00

Artists: Bread

Album: On the Waters

Song: "Blue Satin Pillow"

I'm posting this fine example of firm rock for my friend Josh. During a recent brunch at Langer's Deli, he expressed his desire to hear Bread rocking out harder than their classic singles would allow. Josh mentioned scouring the blogs for concert bootlegs where he rightly expected the band to get fuzzier and wilder. But I think "Blue Satin Pillow" off of Bread's sophomore platter is downright thunderous make-out music.

Offer on a Hundred Beautiful Memories

2010-01-08T00:29:00.000-08:00

Artist: Wayne Parker

Album: Oklahoma Twilight

Song: "This Van's for Sale"

Boogie vans crisscrossed America in the 1970s. The shaggy occupants searched for another breathtaking sunset, keg party, or airbrush competition. These rectangular steeds with their shag interiors were the first hybrid vehicles, running on a mixture of gas, grass, or ass. That last ingredient surely sparked many impromptu romances and road trips. The great Sammy Johns memorialized this bellbottomed era with his classic "Chevy Van." But what happened when the gas tank of love hit "E" and there were no more tokes to be had on the romance roach? Wayne Parker gives us the tragic answer song.

You Don't Hear My Voice

2010-01-07T01:19:00.000-08:00

Artists: Black Grass

Album: Black Grass

Song: "Lock, Stock, and Barrel"

For someone whose patron saint of losers and unrequited love is Paul Westerberg, the soaring beauty of "Lock, Stock and Barrel" hits like the surprise of finding a $50 bill on the ground. My soundtrack for desperate yearning has always been hoarse, bleary-eyed, and coated in stubble, but Black Grass offers a compelling flipside that shows even wallflowers can stand elegant and proud.

Don't Want to Be Nobody

2009-12-30T20:06:00.000-08:00

Artist: Johnny Cash

Album: The Sound of Johnny Cash

Song: "Mr. Lonesome"

The forgotten outlaw, Tompall Glaser, penned this dark tune—a sharpened dagger to the yearning soul. Songwriting this plainspoken is as timeless as the emotion it personifies. Add the heavy echo to Johnny Cash's iconic voice and behold an audible frown. You almost need to put your hands in jacket pockets to withstand the discernible cold.

If the Band Keeps on Playin'

2009-12-12T16:45:00.000-08:00

Artist: Little David Wilkins

Album: Little David Wilkins

Song: "Makin' Love in Waltz Time"

1-2-3, 1-2-3.

Of all the dance steps I learned during my brief time as Arthur Murray's 6' 5" tower of cash, the waltz proved to be my favorite.

1-2-3, 1-2-3.

That simple box step resonates with an almost-forgotten elegance. Man and woman locked arm in arm, a safe but tantalizing space between them.

1-2-3, 1-2-3.

I champion the modern-day grind, but that roots you to the floor. The waltz allows you to glide around the room, like a golden leaf carried upward and away by a cool fall wind.

1-2-3, 1-2-3.

Perhaps the attraction is sentimental. Even the older students—retirees, widows, and widowers—shied away from this old-fashioned step in favor of the hip-shaking and exciting cha-cha-cha and merengue.

1-2-3, 1-2-3.

Perhaps these interests met at a dance crossroad: the elders preferring steps with more vitality, while I enjoyed a chance to step back in time. When romance ruled over sex.

1-2-3, 1-2-3.

Rings on Her Fingers, Flowers in Her Hair

2009-12-07T16:44:00.000-08:00

Artists: Ben Dover & Tennessee Tucker

Album: Carpetbaggers

Song: "Road to Norfolk"

An excerpt from Ed Buryn's Vagabonding in America:

Just as travel is a dramatization of life, so hitchhiking is a dramatization of travel. It breaks down even deeper norms and releases even more energy. Hitchhikers, like all adventurers, vibrate with this energy. It makes them sensitive and alive to their experiences, and attracts others to them. Of course, handling this energy is difficult: The more that things are random and unexpected, the more you need to improvise, the more you fully use all of yourself in the business of being. But then one day on the road, you suddenly realize that you're having the time of your life. You feel the energy of the universe flowing right thru you. It's the dream come true.

There's Magic in the Air

2009-12-06T23:13:00.000-08:00

Artists: Lindisfarne

Album: Dingly Dell

Song: "Dingly Dell"

This LP's cover kept me from giving up on the record: five scuzzy hippies camped out in a forest, two even slouching in a psychedelic hammock. There had to be some gem hiding among the political screeds. I was reaching for the tone arm when the album's final track began to shapeshift, devolving into a primal pagan chant. I began to imagine those same hippies circling a campfire, encircled by a wall of tall trees. Arms and smoke stretch into a starry night sky, and voices wobble in a crescendo of stark desperation.

Tried to Hide My Fear

2009-11-29T22:31:00.000-08:00

Artist: Charlie Brown

Album: Up From Georgia

Song: "Ain't Gonna Stay"

Consider this galloping Charlie Brown rocker the soundtrack to a deleted scene from an early '70s Burt Reynolds movie. Something like White Lightning, where Gator McKlusky careens through dirt back roads in a souped-up sedan. Mason jars full of precious moonshine clink in wooden crates while plumes of dust burst in the air. The local fuzz—dastards all—follow in hot pursuit, but ol' Gator can only look over his shoulder and grin, wiping the afternoon sweat from his tanned brow.

What's Come Over Me?

2009-11-19T02:07:00.000-08:00

Artists: 1910 Fruitgum Co.

Album: 1, 2, 3 Red Light

Song: "Blue Eyes & Orange Skies"

Somebody put acid in the bubblegum.

Our Souls Must Grow Light

2009-11-14T13:10:00.000-08:00

Artists: Akshooyooliak & Lou Gossett

Movie: The White Dawn

Song: "Untitled Chant"

Netflix has been great for exploring the dustier corners of the Warren Oates filmography. After watching the engaging Arctic drama The White Dawn, with its engrossing exploration of Inuit culture, I took to the Internet in search of the Henry Mancini-composed soundtrack. Some quick research revealed that a complete LP was never issued, and only a few scraps from the poignant score have found their way to various Mancini releases. Yet the most affecting musical moment was provided not by Mancini but one of the actors, an old medicine lady named Akshooyooliak. Her song simmers with a spectrum of emotions: sadness, hope, desperation, and resolve.

She Holds Her Lantern High

2009-11-07T01:29:00.000-08:00

Artists: Patchwork

Album: Patchwork

Song: "Mountain Lady"

I've been finding most of the songs for Corduroy Mountain tucked away as deep cuts on forgotten (or never-known) 99¢ albums. There has been a specific quality to these songs that I hadn't been able to define until I read the new Bill Simmons NBA book. The Sports Guy is a master of developing homemade classifications and concepts such as "foxhole guys" and "stocks." In a moment of inspiration, I found the word that describes an excellent song stuck amongst lesser tunes: "stopability."

So there's a backhanded complement here. But as a record listener, that is what makes the hunt so exciting. The chance to discover greatness, to hear a song that requires you to stop reading a magazine or eating a chocolate donut and pay attention to the music. To go from multitasking to just tasking—listening to a song in rapture or disbelief. (Maybe you even swivel your noggin as the LP spins in an attempt to read the song title rather than checking the sleeve. Or is that just me?)

Stopability is a great and rare presence. "Mountain Lady" by Patchwork? That song has supreme stopability.

The Wide-Open Spaces Are Closing in Quickly

2009-10-26T01:43:00.000-07:00

Artist: Waylon Jennings

Album: This Time

Song: "Slow Movin' Outlaw"

The undulating hills and their skins of skyscraper-straight emerald grass hid the old farmhouse in its folds, away from the snaking road below. A path of stone fragments led into the building's simple courtyard. Above the home's entryway, carved into the white facade, was the singular word "Eldorado." The homeowner added slivers of wood to a well-used fire pit, and a vibrant flame began to illuminate the dark sky, its dancing shadows flickering like a silent movie projected on the nearby slope. Clouds filled the sky, but a strong wind would allow for periodic glimpses of the sparkling constellations. Music poured into the courtyard from magnificent stereo speakers. Warm American voices—Calvin Russell, Steve Young, Billy Joe Shaver, Waylon Jennings—filled the chilly Burgenland night. Wrapped in a thick blanket, senses engaged, I realized that country is country, language be damned.

Turnin' Out Lights

2009-10-07T23:41:00.000-07:00

Artists: Maggie & Terre Roche

Album: Seductive Reasoning

Song: "West Virginia"

Maggie Roche wrote a 99 dollar song that is hidden on a 99 cent album. "West Virginia" is so fragile—piano creaking, voice angelic—that it needs to be heard on a pair of headphones late at night. Such profound music resonates during these still hours. That's when distractions are few and thoughts, perhaps, more melancholic. Moments of doubt, discouragement, and despair can be alleviated by a few resonant songs, bringing reassurance to a distressed soul. That these particular musicians can distill beauty from tragedy, light from darkness is why I'll keep listening. I hope you will, too.

Astral Projection, Cosmos Connection

2009-10-05T20:01:00.000-07:00

Artists: Aztec Two-Step

Album: Second Step

Song: "Cosmos Lady"

When Larry Dallas needed to seal the deal, he would drop the needle on this panties melter. Maybe he still does.

Spacemen Came and Took All the Children Away

2009-10-01T18:27:00.000-07:00

Artist: Buddy Red Bow

Album: Buddy Red Bow

Song: "Fifth Dream"

Sometimes iTunes lies. Today, my play count for Buddy Red Bow's "Fifth Dream" stands at a respectable 16. But that number doesn't reflect numerous vinyl spins or the dozens of times I've skipped back to the song's beginning before the timer could reach 0:00. The reason for this compulsive listening is the weirdness that permeates the music.

Spaceships, rainbows, and hawk wings. Perhaps peyote fueled this incredible imagery, although Buddy's Lakota tribe is not typically associated with the ceremony. Does the title refer to hard alcohol, an impending stupor? American Indians have had hard battles with the bottle, and Buddy himself was subdued by such demons.

I have yet to understand whether the fifth dream is to be welcomed or dreaded. Not having that definitive answer will continue to make this song a fascinating experience.

Let the Son Come In

2009-09-27T22:46:00.000-07:00

Artists: Our Generation

Album: Praise and Prayer

Song: "Praise"

What church had Our Generation as the house band? I might not have become a lapsed Catholic had this rock show erupted every Sunday morning. If the Devil stole the beat from the Lord, God must've borrowed a riff from ol' Beelzebub himself. Behold this caustic example of stigmata for the ears.

Success Is Survival

2009-09-21T20:57:00.000-07:00

Artist: Michael Murphey

Album: Blue Sky Night Thunder

Song: "Goodbye Old Desert Rat"

The Reverend Joshua Duncan Sloane's eulogy at the end of The Ballad of Cable Hogue stands as the profound resolution to a forgotten western. I like his words enough to share them here.

We are gathered here in the sight of God and all His glory to lay to rest Cable Hogue.

Now most funeral orations, Lord, lie about a man. Compare him to the angels, whitewash him with a really wide brush. But you know, Lord, and I know that it just is not true. Now a man is made out of bad as well as good, all of them. Cable Hogue was born into this world nobody knows when or where. He came stumbling out of the wilderness like a prophet of old. Out of the barren wastes he carved himself a one-man kingdom.

Some said he was ruthless. But you could do worse, Lord, than to take to your bosom Cable Hogue. He wasn't really a good man, he wasn't a bad man. But, Lord, he was a man!

He charged too much. He was as stingy as they come. Yes, he might have cheated, but he was square about it. Rich or poor, he gouged them all the same. When Cable Hogue died, there wasn't an animal in the desert he didn't know. There wasn't a star in the firmament he hadn't named. There wasn't a man he was afraid of.

Now the sand he fought and loved so long has covered him at last. Now he has gone into the whole torrent of the years, of the souls that pass and never stop. In some ways he was your dim reflection, Lord; and right or wrong, I feel he is worth consideration. But if you feel he is not, you should know that Hogue lived and died here in the desert, and I'm sure Hell will never be too hot for him.

He never went to church. He didn't need to. The whole desert was his cathedral. Hogue loved the desert, loved it deeper than he'd ever say. He built his empire, but was man enough to give it up for love when the time came.

Lord, as the day draws toward evening, this life grows to an end for us all. We say, "adieu" to our friend. Take him, Lord. But knowing Cable, I suggest you do not take him lightly.

Amen.

His Head Is Full of Diesel Smoke

2009-09-15T23:22:00.000-07:00

Artist: Lonnie Mack

Album: The Hills of Indiana

Song: "Asphalt Outlaw Hero"

Sometimes you need a song to suffocate any air of ambiguity, subtlety, or interpretation. "Asphalt Outlaw Hero" does just that. This clobbering performance puts the hammer down and begs to be cranked while screaming down a deserted highway in the black of night.

Been Five Years But It Seems Like Yesterday

2009-09-12T02:56:00.000-07:00

Artist: John Braden

Album: John Braden

Song: "Baptist Funeral"

MTV's Singled Out flickered on the silent Zenith screen, and a CD—Oasis, Everclear, or Bone Thugs N Harmony—would permeate the dorm room. Amid discussions that bled from late night to early morning, a quote from my friend Gweedo has followed me through the subsequent years:

"Life is a series of distractions before you die."

I have struggled more often than not to remember this thought while drifting through my daze. Recognizing life's finite window seems to only occur at great moments of loss or upheaval. That fiery epiphany roars for a moment. Much like the characters in Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru, routine is quick to extinguish the oxygen of clarity. Should we not strive to make those distractions—how ever many we get—as interesting as possible?

Ain't Nobody Say Amen

2009-09-11T00:38:00.000-07:00

Artist: Larry Jon Wilson

Album: Let Me Sing My Song to You

Song: "Willoughby Grove"

A pile of dissected National Geographic magazines stands stacked in a crate on my closet floor. Dried glue remains stuck to the paper where I tore the perfect binding apart. Most of the issues I have collected were published between the late 1960s and late 1970s, the era where bellbottoms mingled with the boot cut. Perhaps inspired by the impending Bicentennial, most every month contained at least one article about the United States: a town, city, state, or region. There would be an economic analysis and an appreciation of the people. When I read these pieces and study the pictures, I am filled with conflicting fascination and ache. Fascination because the articles are inspirational for planning road trips; an ache for a time I can never visit. So I travel. To find any places time has left untouched, to discover what happened to Willoughby Grove.

No Sound Returns to Me

2009-08-29T15:41:00.000-07:00

Artist: Leo Kottke

Album: Greenhouse

Song: "Tiny Island"

Nowhere, Nevada. An ancient ring of jagged mountaintops pierces an afternoon sky so blue that even Crayola doesn't have the equivalent. Overhead, an orphaned puff of cumulus floats to nowhere. The Mojave's dry air lingers still, hot, and invigorating. Alluvial fans deposit their sediment on the desert floor. A streak of black highway slices through the hard land as it escapes to civilization. Jutting off this lifeline is a parasitic track that stretches into the expansive sea of Mormon Tea and sage. Far from the sight of passing motorists, secluded in this rural bastion of raw nature, is a lone cabin, its occupant finding nourishment in a crate of Merle Haggard LPs; a copy of Zen Flesh, Zen Bones; and the daily connection to a land of ceaseless revelations.

You're Just Like a Chariot

2009-08-23T09:22:00.000-07:00

Artists: Sutherland Brothers & Quiver

Album: Reach for the Sky

Song: "Love on the Moon"

Professional wrestling explains all. When two boys are drifting south on the mid-card, or worse—curtain jerking, repackage the talent as a tag team and see if there's newfound chemistry. Such an arrangement worked for the Sutherland Brothers and Quiver. Talk about a patch job. The two factions didn't even christen the partnership with a new name. But that's OK. Their captivating balance of mellowness and groove is worthy of a Barry Horowitz pat on the back.

Houses of Whitened Wood

2009-08-14T03:15:00.000-07:00

Artist: Steve Young

Album: Honky-Tonk Man

Song: "Traveling Kind"

Steve Young must've seen a parallel between "Ramblin' Man" by Hank Williams and his own song "Traveling Kind" when recording both for his 1975 album Honky-Tonk Man. "Ramblin' Man," of course, is iconic. With its frosty lyrics and loping gait, ol' Hiram crafted country's definitive drifter song. "Traveling Kind" doesn't reside in such historical airs, however. But what Young wrote feels like an examination of the ramblin' man's very soul. Perhaps there's motivation more compelling than just an endless stretch of road or rail. And underneath that cool exterior, maybe, his defiant heart beats aflutter.

Maybe an Aluminum Cat

2009-08-10T00:43:00.000-07:00

Artists: Crack the Sky

Album: Crack the Sky

Song: "Robots for Ronnie"

A geeky outcast, school bullies, and overly concerned parents with advanced engineering degrees. Did Crack the Sky write a power ballad or the pitch for an ABC after-school special?

If He Outran the Wind Itself

2009-08-07T14:10:00.000-07:00

Artist: Tom T. Hall

Album: One Hundred Children

Song: "Pinto the Wonder Horse Is Dead"

There is an inevitable conclusion to Bobby Bridger's ode to childhood heroes. Tom T. Hall's song is the epitome of Bob Dylan's poignant "broken mirror of innocence" image. Heroes die and nostalgia is born. But what of our unbridled dreams and youthful imagination? Have we made those thoughts come to fruition? Or have they been filed away like last year's tax return, something to trip over while rearranging the deck chairs? Hold on to your dream. Feed your imagination. Drag your feet as the Machine marches you to oblivion. Pinto the Wonder Horse may be dead, but I believe his essence lives on. Just grasp his reins and heel your spurs.

I Watched 'em and I Always Knew

2009-07-29T13:31:00.000-07:00

Artist: Bobby Bridger

Album: And I Wanted to Sing for the People

Song: "Hopalong Cassidy and Gabby Hayes"

I had questions during the recent media coverage of the Apollo 11 anniversary. What defines a hero, great talent or great determination? Is the awe found in ability ("can do") or execution ("will do")? While I doubt a young Bobby Bridger had such thoughts while sitting in a dark movie theater, cowboys and outlaws flickering on the screen, he does capture the pure exuberance of childhood.

Heaven Must Be Near

2009-07-26T00:36:00.000-07:00

Artists: Barefoot Jerry

Album: Southern Delight

Song: "Smokies"

Barefoot Jerry was an all-star band of Nashville session pros. Friday nights, when the studios closed, these friends would load Ford pickup beds with bags of groceries, instrument cases, and bottles of sour mash. Forty-eight hours of freedom awaited. Tucked in an Appalachian holler was a shotgun shack, its paint peeling from the elements. The men would wheel a piano onto the creaking wood porch, pull out guitars, pass the drink. And so they would play their music, not that of rote producers. Inspired by the living beauty and primal energy of the surroundings, the men wrote "Smokies." At least that's what I hope happened.

Sittin' Here Walkin' the Floor

2009-07-21T00:01:00.000-07:00

Artist: Gene Watson

Album: Between This Time & The Next Time

Song: "I'm Gonna Kill You"

Country music has never shied away from murder: cheating lovers, vengeful spouses, and grim endings for all involved. The air in these songs is heavy with uncontrollable grief, rage, and disillusionment. So straight-up honky tonker Gene Watson recording a murder song isn't out of the ordinary. Except this tune bops to its own beat. Never before has a cuckolded man sounded so damn remorseless. Pushed over the final edge, hear the true voice of insanity.

You Can Fool Them All Right

2009-07-15T00:36:00.000-07:00

Artists: Horslips

Album: The Tain

Song: "You Can't Fool the Beast"

When composing my first concept album, I need to remember the timeless lessons that Horslips made apparent. There must be thundering tribal drums and bursts of handclaps. Where there isn't a maniacal flute, a happy fiddle will play. Love will cause strife, and an immortal warrior shall do battle on an infinite plain. Of course the sleeve will be gatefold.

Lying Here in My Confusion

2009-07-11T00:47:00.000-07:00

Artist: Brian Friel

Album: Brian Friel

Song: "Pisces Lady"

Prison doesn't have to be a cold cell and steel bars. That private jail can be spiritual, emotional, social, financial. Brian Friel is a prisoner, defeated and alone except for the whispering wind. But much like Andy Dufresne, the echo of a song can stir the resiliency of the soul. And soon those terrible walls are brought to rubble, one patient tap of the chisel after another.

Daydreams and Southern Pine

2009-07-02T00:51:00.000-07:00

Artist: Marlin Greene

Album: Tiptoe Past the Dragon

Song: "Fields of Clover"

Should I ever find myself floating across a blue summer sky like an untethered balloon, picking wisps of clouds as if they were sticky cotton candy, I would need this Marlin Greene opus and its inherent pedal-steel breeze as my lazy-day soundtrack.

The Revolution's Gone Way Beyond Me

2009-06-25T19:51:00.000-07:00

Artist: Gary P. Nunn

Album: Nobody But Me

Song: "Tennessee Road"

Even a King is but a mother's son. Eliza Gilykson's "Tennessee Road" does not celebrate Elvis Presley. It pities him. The grandeur of incredible fame isolates, confuses, and grinds. Perhaps it is only fitting that his downfall serves as the tragic precursor for Michael Jackson. Well, that and Lisa Marie too.

Barrelhousin' 'til the Moon Is Low

2009-06-18T23:16:00.000-07:00

Artists: Bob Seger System

Album: Mongrel

Song: "Lucifer"

If you're turned off to Bob Seger's late-1970s arena rockers and radio ballads, be aware he has a prefame universe of albums that stomp with diesel-powered grooves. "Lucifer" is a Nuggetsesque blast of urban swagger, bloodshot blue-eyed soul, and a foghorn organ. This is strut rock of the highest degree.

You Knew I'd Take What You Were Giving

2009-06-17T18:58:00.000-07:00

Artist: Rusty Wier

Album: Stacked Deck

Song: "Good, Good Lovin'"

The orange heat of the BBQ coals fades into silent oblivion. Crickets chirp in the tall grass that surround the old farmhouse clearing. Clusters of friends laugh and shout as they wipe sweat from their brows using icy beer bottles and cowboy hat brims. And if I ever find myself here, slow dancing with a pretty cowgirl under the light of a full summer moon, I want this song playing.

People Are Known to Fall in Love Anyway

2009-05-20T12:03:00.000-07:00

Artists: Rupert Hine and David MacIver

Album: Pick Up a Bone

Song: "More Than One, Less Than Five"

Imagine that Cat Stevens at the last minute pulled his songs from the Harold and Maude soundtrack. With little time to score the movie and even less money to record new material, Hal Ashby is somehow put in touch with Bill Fay, who happens to be recording his debut album. Upon hearing the movie's premise, Fay agrees to write a song and record it during his sessions. Such circumstantial alchemy would have borne "More Than One, Less Than Five."

Nothing Less Than Love Complete

2009-05-19T16:47:00.000-07:00

Artist: Donnie Fritts

Album: Prone to Lean

Song: "Winner Take All"

Donnie Fritts got knocked in the 1979 The Rolling Stone Record Guide for "not [being] a lead singer, or any kind of vocalist at all." I want to offer a decades-late rebuttal to that accusation. Whether you hear fierce pride or sweet ignorance in his wounded voice, Fritts sounds like Cool Hand Luke picking himself off the dirt in his yard fight against Dragline. Tired but determined. Could a big, slick Nashville voice have infused these lyrics with that semblance of weary authenticity?

Pine Wood Box and It's Got You Inside

2009-05-14T15:15:00.000-07:00

Artists: Frummox

Album: Here to There

Song: "There You Go"

My friend Jeremy once asked if there was such a niche as psychedelic country. Stuck following the epic (and perhaps tiring) "Texas Trilogy" on Frummox's debut album, "There You Go" is a prime example of a cheating song getting lost in Topanga Canyon. The cuckolding wife and the self-loathing husband are forever bound together by a haunting guitar lick and piercing fiddle. This is a lysergic murder ballad.

Wheels Gotta Roll Again

2009-05-12T14:48:00.000-07:00

Artists: Rock Killough & Dan Eckley

Album: Killough & Eckley

Song: "Back on the Road Again"

The early morning sky begins to fill with a vivid spectrum of violets, reds, yellows, and oranges. A ribbon of darkness snakes into the distance. This world is at rest when two glowing eyes break over the still horizon. Few trucker songs seem to capture the speed and momentum of the chugging rig the way "Back on the Road Again" does. The mandolin leans into the curves, the bass shifts gears, and that flatpicked guitar puts the hammer down.

Beyond the Stars and Flaming Sun

2009-05-07T16:16:00.000-07:00

Artist: Dennis Linde

Album: Dennis Linde

Song: "DR-31"

"DR-31" unfolds like a feverish hallucination. Every image in the song is fantastic and each becomes more incredible as events unfold. The year: "9005." The immense size of the "best spaceship man had ever built." A "zillion" people screaming. Then the DR-31 launches. And, well, I'm not sure if Dennis Linde made up what happens next, but I'd recommend looking to the night sky to see if his words come to pass.

Making Dreams Reality

2009-05-05T12:22:00.000-07:00

Artists: Batdorf & Rodney

Album: Batdorf & Rodney

Song: "Under Five"

There's soft rock. There's hard rock. Might there be a middle-ground genre called "firm rock?" Such a phrase would describe "Under Five" by Batdorf & Rodney. This song unleashes a scalding riff that would have jolted any arena or roadhouse to attention in 1972. Those sweet soft-rock harmonies still soar, but this song pummels like a pile driver.

There's Millions in the Ground

2009-04-30T19:38:00.000-07:00

Artist: Gene Clark

Album: Two Sides to Every Story

Song: "Give My Love to Marie"

"Give My Love to Marie" isn't an exact rewrite of Johnny Cash's "Give My Love to Rose," but they are two songs cut from the same thematic cloth: hearing a dying man's last wish. James Talley's original performance didn't catch my ear when I first played it off his Tryin' Like the Devil album. Fortunately Gene Clark rescued the song and made it a genuine revelation. Whereas Talley gives his lyrics a straight-faced reading, Clark imbues the sparse words with the necessary specter of dread.

Never Again Can I Go Home

2009-04-28T14:08:00.000-07:00

Artist: Robert David

Album: Robert David

Song: "Manitoba Sun"

Looking like a suave Chuck Negron doppelgänger, Robert David filled his self-titled album with plenty of by-the-numbers California soft rock. So when one of the songs is set in Manitoba of all places, eyebrows are raised. Don't go expecting bikini-wearing babes on the shores of Lake Winnipeg though. The protagonist of "Manitoba Sun" is Canada bound at Christmastime. Turns out there is a compelling reason.

Yesterday's Songs Today

2009-04-26T22:34:00.000-07:00

Corduroy Mountain will be a depository for some interesting songs I've heard on unknown, ignored, or forgotten albums. Most of the records were found in either 99¢ racks or "miscellaneous letter" bins. Ripped direct from the original vinyl. Please consider any pops or hiss part of the authentic listening experience.

There are two ways to enjoy the songs. Either use the embedded player or click on the song title to download.