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Saturday, November 7, 2009

Claw Hammer Banjo, etc

This about really listening, and more about musical style and structure than the songs played. As I watched Oxcyconton Blues it struck that Steve Earle very seldom picks notes, he chords everything. I like his mountain banjo. Haunting. Earl Scruggs was so good at finger-picking that we almost lost the claw hammer style. (Please, no technicians with the "this isn't true claw hammer" crap.) On Steve Earl's version of White Freightliner Blues he gets a really bluesy feeling out of both banjo and mandolin. I love it. I'll let someone else try to run down a copy to post. Let's dedicate the first one to Rush Limbaugh. Then we have Steve stoned on Close Your Eyes. The audio on Hometown Blues is good - the video really sucks. It's free...so we got our money's worth. Nevertheless, our normal Oakwood money back guarantee does not apply on this one.






3 comments:

Jonny Hamachi said...

You are ripping my heart out with all this Mr. Earle. I spent a few of my early teen years stuck on a farm in the Central Valley with nothing but country records. Then, later, escaped from the Central Valley drug culture/trash/jail to a wonderful life of Bay Area self medication.

Everyone from the Central Valley thinks they come from the meth capital of the world. But every town in the valley, from Chico to Bakersfield has an epidemic.

What are your thoughts on the degenerate known as Mr. D. A. Coe?

reverend dick said...

If that ain't country, I'll kiss your ass.

Gunnar Berg said...

Well, obviously the preacher is familiar with the Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy. I have half a dozen vinyls, each progressively worse. Terribly talented,but maybe more preoccupied with his anti-image. Eventually it was just not worth scrapping any more shit from my shoes.