Tag: americana

Moot Davis – Randy’s Rarities

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“Whisky Town” by Moot Davis (2004)

One would think it’s a pretty big break to have one of your songs appear in an Oscar-winning film, but here we are 20 years after Moot’s song “Whisky Town” was in the movie Crash (2004) and I am not sure too many of you have ever heard of him. The song did not appear on the Soundtrack and while he is on Spotify that song/album is not there either. I found it on Apple Music however I think he remains largely unknown. We all have our artists in these niche or undefined genres that just can’t catch a big break, I have many names similar to Moot so he’s a bit of a representative sample.

Moot is from New Jersey and wanted a career in Country Music and with the help of the great Rosie Flores it was off to Nashville with an introduction to Dwight Yoakam’s producer Pete Anderson. This resulted in two albums, the song I just mentioned was from the first in 2004, Moot Davis.

Some of his songs have been used in TV series such as Justified starring Timothy Olyphant (great show btw), not sure how much that helped him either. Five albums have come and gone and I can’t find much about Moot these days. No Wikipedia page and his website has not been updated in some time. No tour dates and his last album was released in 2021. He just hasn’t been able to find a wider audience.

He just announced a new podcast “The Highway Ain’t For The Weak” so I know he’s still around. As I mentioned, he is one of those hard-to-classify artists. He can be straight up Country, to Country Rock, Rockabilly, and the sort of undefined Americana. working with Dwight Yoakam’s producer, he has some Bakersfield sound as well.

I do like his more bar-room/Honky Tonk-style songs. This variation can often be a problem for artists, sometimes finding a lane and sticking to it may be the way to go. Anyway, I enjoy his music and do hope he’s doing well. I will leave you with another Hank Williams-style tune “Highway Kind”. (not the TVZ song)

MootDavis.com

Delbert McClinton

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“B Movie Boxcar Blues”
“B Movie Boxcar Blues” live cover by The Blues Brothers

I’ve have been thinking about Delbert lately and when Keith posted The Blues Brothers as his favorite soundtrack on Turntable Talk, well that sealed the deal. Myself and others have been talking about some of the great Texas Singer/Songwriters of late, with a focus on the lineage of the Country Folk singers like Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt and many others. While there are other genre to follow we find that Delbert McClinton’s roots are more closely related to the Blues lineage.

Delbert McClinton was born November 4, 1940 in Lubbock, Texas. If that town (of about 32,000 people at that time) sounds familiar, it’s probably because you know Buddy Holly was born there in 1936, but also Mac Davis in 1942 and Natalie Maines in 1972. Not to mention the many who grew up there, like members of The Crickets. It seems to be “something in the water” as the saying goes.

Just a bit more about Delbert and then on to a bit of music. His family would move to Fort Worth when he was 11. As a young teen he was in a band that would back some of the great names in Blues such Jimmy Reed, Howlin’ Wolf and Lightnin’ Hopkins. Another name was one of the greatest Blues Harmonica players ever, Sonny Boy Williamson II. This might explain why some of that incredible harmonica playing is a part of what makes McClinton so amazing. As you can see and hear in the above clip.

I am probably not alone in the manner in which I found his music. That was courtesy of the legend that is Emmylou Harris. She was the first to cover his song “Two More Bottles of Wine” in 1978 and take it to #1 on both the US and Canadian Country charts.

“Two More Bottles of Wine” by Emmylou Harris (1978)

He won his first Grammy in 1992 (with Bonnie Raitt) and his fourth in 2020. With 30 studio albums there’s goldmine of great music to find. He is a singer/songwriter, with 47 of his original songs covered into hundreds of versions. As a multi instrumentalist he was the harmonica player on Bruce Channel’s “Hey! Baby” from 1962 when he was just 22 years old. He would give some instruction to John Lennon on playing the instrument when he was on tour with Channel in the UK. This was one of Max’s Picks from 1962.

Like many of his ilk the songs don’t often appear on the pop charts but he’s landed a few, but mostly on the Country charts, the highest being “Tell Me About It” when he accompanied Tanya Tucker on her #4 hit song. He has had a couple #1 selling Blues Albums and continues to influence and perform.

“You Were Never Mine” (1997) written by Delbert McClinton, Gary Nicholson and Benmont Tench
“You Were Never Mine” by Etta Britt (2014)

Perhaps his most recognizable tune is a cover of a Jerry Lynn Williams song “Giving It Up for Your Love” from 1980 that peaked at #8 on the Hot 100.

Jerry Lynn Williams (1979)

When we really enjoy an artist it’s tough to pick your favorites but I really like what he did with a cover of the Bonnie Tyler song “Sending Me Angels” (1992) also written by Jerry Lynn Williams with Frankie Miller.

“Sending Me Angels” by Delbert McClinton (1997)

Never too late to go back to Music Mondays by Leon.

The Great Unknowns (Music I Like)

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At the outset of this series I said I wanted to talk about music that I like but in the context of the ‘lesser’ known songs and artists. By that I meant no Rolling Stones or The Beatles kind of stuff. I crossed that line a couple times but hey I’m only human. Today you are all going to be stumped! From the lesser known to The Great Unknowns. They disbanded some ten years ago or more and the two primary members Avril Smith and lead singer and I believe their songwriter Becky Warren have gone on alone. I loved their album Introducing The Great Unknowns from 2004 and they managed a new one in 2012 called Homefront but you will be hard pressed to track them down. I don’t think they planned to live up to their name.

“A Bad Way”
“I Wish I Was the Girl I Was”
“Round Hill”
“Forever”
“Abilene”

“Abilene” is my favorite of theirs but I could only find this live version. I give them a lot of credit for coming out with an original song with the same name as the albeit much older tune from Bob Gibson, in fact when I saw the title on the CD I just assumed they had covered the song. That one is perhaps best known from George Hamilton IV (1963).

The Great Unknowns on SoundCloud

Becky Warren on Spotify

“Grenade” by Becky Warren

There is one last post at the end of the month and that’s the end of the series (Music I like). Thanks for following along, a new month and more stuff to write about!

You can check out more music today at Lines by Leon and Music Mondays

Jim Croce

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Bad, Bad Leroy Brown

While I have been talking about Songs of Summer, Jim Croce’s “Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown” just happened to on the top of the Billboard chart for 1973. This prompted me to fast track a profile of someone that has been on my list for some time. I was planning a post, quite literally at the end of the summer. It’s hard to believe we are coming up on 50 years since he was lost to his family and his fans.

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Happy Independence Day

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Written and recorded by Lee Greenwood (1984)

Happy 4th of July, Happy Independence Day and a happy day of celebration. I just wanted to pass along my best wishes to our American friends and neighbors to the south and the west as we can’t forget Alaska. Hello to all my friends and family that live in the US.

Maybe we don’t always show it but we in Canada are lucky to have you as our friends and allies. Thanks to the USA, we in Canada enjoy some of the safest geography on the planet.

Wishing you strength and peace.

“We Shall Overcome” is a traditional American Gospel song with lyrics that have changed over the 100+ year history of the song. It was first published by Pete Seeger in 1947. The song is now in Pubic Domain.