Sometimes a Man Must Feel Ill at Ease

Artist: Gene Clark

Album: The American Dreamer

Song: "Outlaw Song"

The Chemical Times Try to Tangle His Mind

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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'

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

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

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

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?

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

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.