Posted on 04/08/2014 9:32:32 PM PDT by This Just In
Country music has been very good to Collin Raye, and the chart topper returned the favor many times over with hits like Love, Me and My Kind of Girl.
Perhaps that's why Raye dedicates part of his new autobiography A Voice Undefeated to what he calls the genre's biggest problem. Today's country songs, he writes, too often lack the "real life, real love and real loss" qualities that capture the best the genre once offered.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
I don’t gig anymore. 20 years of playing 5 to 7 nights a week kinda burned me out. Plus, I’m not a fan of current Country, except for a few performers. I still have all my toys, about 20 guitars, and almost as many amps! 5 Teles, but I really only play the ‘91 MIJ with a late 60’s Maple neck and different pickups, and my old Strat, a ‘57 custom color,LPB. Going to start thinning the herd drastically. Shipping 2 ‘63 Shobuds to OK today, only getting one back after knee levers are added. It’s insane!!!!!!!! But when I’m gone, my Sister would hold a giant yard sale, and sell the Strat for 50 bucks, and think she got a good deal!
For all the purists, I recommend KOKE FM out of Austin. Independently owned and they play what they want, with no corporate soundtrack. I have heard artists there that I would never have heard anywhere else. Look them up on the web and you can listen to them online.
I was kinda waiting for that old vaudeville cane to haul Shelton and Bryan from the stage at the Academy of Country Music Awards a few nights back.
You’re thinning the heard?! Don’t do it! I regret selling just about every instrument we ever owned. Sounds like you’ve got some killer gear. The thought of your sister having a yard sale after you’ve stepped over to the other side makes me light headed. :^)
Thanks Tarawa. I’ll be sure to ck that out.
My kids like country, which is better than (c)rap music, but comparing it to the real country music of Straight, Cash, Jones, Lynn, Parton... It’s not even close. It all sounds like a rock’n rap wannabe mutant.
My sister listens to country and it is all just meaningless crap. Too many songs about my partying, my truck, my fishin’ boat, my hot girl, my friend’s hot girl, how country I am and how country all my friends are.
Mostly just gimmicks and puns.
Thanks for recommending KOKE FM.
“I regret selling”
I know! I sold my Dr. Z Maz Jr, first one Doc made, and he made it for me! He called me one day and asked me to bring my old Strat to his plant. I sat there all day noodlin’ Gatton and Hellecasters, and Reed stuff while he subbed parts in and ouit of the prototype amp. I sold it to a very close friend who had been begging me for years to sell it to him. It’s the amp Joe Walsh played when inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame. Hated to let it go, but ut was just collecting dust while I was art home playing my 56 Pro. The Z is gig gin’ again, and that’s good! Let’s not even talk about my Kline 12 string Universal steel,,,,,,,Argh!
My stomach started to turn when I read your post. I’m speechless.
Well, at least your buddy owns one. I say, let it collect dust. Our gear mostly consist of piano, keyboard, recording gear, acoustic and electric guitar, Fender P, trapset, and a heck of a whole lot of percussion instruments, etc. Back in the day, a drummaker hand-carved a Koa wood djembe for us. One of a kind. It was a beauty. My better half sold it when we moved along with a lot of other instruments. I try not to think about it.
Our son is a huge Reed fan. I showed him some Gatton, Lee, Red, and Hiland videos. He wanted to sell his sunburst MIM Strat for a Tele. I told him to not to. He’s 16 yrs old. Bought his Strat when he was 15. I had found a great used MIM Tele maple neck, blue w/white pg. it was a score, but he was set on the Strat. To this day he regrets that decision, but the Strats nice. Great action. Sweet tone. When we had it setup, the gtech said it was a score. The neverending gear story continues. :^)
Could I have your sisters phone #, and would you let me know when you’re at deaths door? JUST KIDDING!! Would LOVE to have a Tele AND a Strat! Had a great Boogie Body at one time that just played like butter, and was foolish enough to trade it for a Dano (which got traded for a banjo). I try not to let any of my stringed instruments go anymore. Still have the first bass I started playing back in 83. ‘Bout killed me to wear that thing for 4+ hours at a gig. HEAVY instrument.
He should hang on to his Strat! When he’s 60, he will still have his first guitar, and will be glad he has it!
I’m thinking of selling my newer stuff, that has no collector’s value. Hang onto the old stuff; 47 Gibson Br-1 amp, 52 Pro, 56 Pro, 58 Bassman, 62 Super, 64 Vibroverb, my steel amp that started life as a Quad Reverb, but is now a split-cab Twin with a JBL 15. Will sell the Dr’Z Prescription with Celestion Blues, and the Deluxe Reverb I got from Neil Zaza, guitar maestro. Also will keep, for now, the 72 Princeton Reverb that was highly customized by my best friend tech. It’s 21 watts of clean power that is small. 12” Celestion in it. But guitars? Too many to even talk about!
Well,,,, I’m down to 5 Teles, but I really only play the one. Got the 57 Strat by trading a bunch of stuff for it. It had been rattle-canned black to look like Clapton’s Blackie. It looked so bad that I knew I’d have to have it refinished. But a few chips in the black showed some blue. Took me a whole day, using varying grades of steel wool, then rubbing and polishing compound to bring out it’s original blue. Some say it’s Lake Placid Blue, but a collector told me that it’s San Marino Blue, same as used on 57 Caddy Eldorado convertibles. Got a great Baritone Strat that I built with parts from Warmoth and Fender. Plays just like a regular Strat. I can play all my Gatton, Hellecasters, and Reed stuff on it Bends are the same as on a Strat. Everyone who has played it freaks out! Also have a Coodercaster half built.
Here I am playing lap steel with Neil Zaza
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAY1WKouT18&list=PL08EB2661B19E4B88
And playing lap sled acoustic with Tommy Sche’. This one is kinda rough as I invented the tuning on the spot, had not played one note in it. I asked the engineer to record a first run through, in case they heard anything they’d like me to develop. This is that run through. They wouldn’t let me improve on it, which was disappointing to me, as I could have done better. After the first verse, I switched to lap steel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ100pj82Po
When you cross a pedal steel and telecaster you get a B Bender, aka stringbender. You can put the bender on any string. Brad Paisley uses a G Bender and There's a YouTube video of Paisley demonstrating his G Bender
The Bakersfield sound re-incarnated as country rock when Clarence White and Gene Parsons invented the B Bender in 1967 and put on White's 1955 Tele when they were playing in Nashville West. White was also a session player so that sound was used on the last albums of the 1st Byrds band and the second Byrds band and eventually joined that band for Sweetheart at Rodeo. Many of those groups back then were using that sound. Eagles, Jackson Browne, Roseanne Cash, Everly Brothers, Jimmy Page, Pete Townsend
Marty Stuart ended up owning Clarence White's B Bender and in 2011 recorded the Hummingbyrd album with that guitar. He won a grammy for the album, playing Clarence White music on Clarence White's guitar. Today, mostly C&W guitarists use the stringbenders.
A bar standard. I guarantee you there are freshly-minted 21 yr olds howling that out on the weekends while they down their aluminum-bottle Buds in trendy hot spots, thinking they know all about life and its hardships.
Well, I’m a member of a country club,Country music is what I love, I drive an old Ford pick-up truck, I do my drinkin’ from a dixie cup, I’ve got friends in low places, I’m going back to a better class of losers,This up-town living’s really got me down,I need friends who don’t pay their bills on home computers,And who buy their coffee beans already ground, You think it’s disgraceful that they drink three-dollar wine, But a better class of loser suits me fine, Prop me up beside the juke box if I die.
My Tele has a Hipshot system. Both G and B benders, and three toggles that can but me into G bottleneck tuning.
Oh,,,, and I also opened for the Byrds when they played at UWM Milwaukee. I played a duet performance with my late friend, Howie Epstein, who later when on to plain with Tom Petty.
P;ain means “Play.” It’s late.
Oh, and one of my close friends is Jerry Brightman, who started playing for Buck, as a Buckaroo, at age 17. Spent a couple hours with him a few days ago. Been around,,,,,,,,
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.