The Black Velvet Band

I guess the moral of this story is to beware the pretty colleen, eh?



This one picks it up a bit....The Dropkick Murphy's

Night Rider's Lament

Nancy Griffith with Don Edwards' beautiful cowboy yodel


Doesn't that make you want to be a cowboy when you grow up?

Of course, when you're too old to wrangle and ride on the swing, there's nothing left but to be the camp cook on the Goodnight Loving Trail. This next song was written by the late U. Utah Phillips, the Golden Voice of the Great Southwest.


Ok...one more cowboy tune. Here's David Bromberg and the Cowpunchers playing the great Ian Tyson tune, Summer Wages. Nice, very nice.

Every now and then....

...not even all that often, but every now and again I get a hankerin to hear Stompin Tom Connors sing "they ate the deli pickle and forgot about the nickel and everybody's pickled on a Sudbury Saturday Night". I hope my friends from up Sudbury way will forgive me.


I grew up thinking all potatoes in the whole wide world were grown in Prince Edward Island delivered by the one and only Bud the Spud. Didn't you?


Eat your heart out Paul Bunyon. Big Joe Mufferaw paddled up the Ottawa all the way to Mattawa in just one day.


Remember you can't do gumboot cloggin in a disco.


This song makes my back hurt...


Ok Ok....let me post one more and I promise that'll be it. What will it be? Luke's Guitar? Moon Man Newfie? Nope. It's The Ketchup Song...

Siemiatycze - Kapela "Zabuzaki" /1/ Oberek

Anchovy Swamp

Our area experienced very severe thunderstorms today which dumped a remarkable amount of water down in just a few hours. Driving home from work, I couldn't get through the underpass south of Horner on Dixie, Thirtieth or Kipling due to 2-3 feet of water under the bridge, but finally discovered that Brown's Line was OK.

The photos are the Anchovy Swamp, formerly known as our backyard. I may go out there after dinner with a fly rod if there's an evening mayfly hatch and see if I can hook into a big grass trout. The good news is that our basement is dry!

The Storms are on the Ocean (Mother Maybelle Carter)


Shelter from the Storm (Bob Dylan, live 1976)


Stormy Monday Blues (T-Bone Walker)

The Happy Wanderer

This one is special...


This version has a Dixieland feel


And for the dressier crowd...

Bayou PonPon

The Basin Brothers



Danny Poulard
The beginning 20 seconds has a technical problem, but bear with it. This is some excellent playing

Billy

Gretchen Peters and Tom Russell - Billy (Bob Dylan tune)


Joe Ely - Me and Billy the Kid

Nobody knows you when you're down and out

Alberta Hunter

Promised Land

Chuck Berry wrote this great rocker while serving time, and released it in 65. Here's a nice cover by Rockpile

Johnny Allen did a nice swamp pop version with excellent accordion

Earworm

I haven't heard this song in years. I don't know how it snuck in my head today, but if I have it, you're going to get it too. Here are the Proclaimers:


Of course there are a few songs called 500 Miles. Here's one by Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience. I saw Terrance Simien perform quite a number of years ago, here in Toronto, when his band was the Mallet Playboys. This tune has a nice groove.


Here's Bobby Bare with another song by the same title

Tennessee Stud

Here's Doc Watson...


Hard to follow such a great guitar picker, but Johnny Cash recorded a fantastic version of the tune on American Recordings. Johnny's guitar playing is pretty basic but it doesn't matter, does it? His performance is great.


Porter Wagoner's version is worth a look if only for his amazing outfit


Here's Jay Boy Adams. I'm not crazy about this performance except to not that that's Flaco Jimenez on squeezebox...

Poor old Dirt Farmer

Levon Helm.

Memphis

Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again...


Memphis Tennessee


Goin back to Memphis


Memphis Shakedown

Que Sera Sera

Doris Day of course, from The Man Who Knew Too Much:


How about Sly and the Family Stone?


Shakin Stevens


Pink Martini

Rock Salt and Nails

This includes some comments about the origin of the song, which was written by the late Utah Phillips.

Here's another sweet version by Highway 76

Ghost Riders in the Sky

I was thinking about the late great Handsome Ned today, and recalled what a kick-ass version of Ghost Riders he did. Here's some other renditions of the song, starting with Five Star Homeless.



Here's Johnny Cash, wearing a spectacularly bad outfit


Ghost Riders was written in 1948 by Stan Jones. It's been covered over 50 times.

Guitar picker Duane Eddy


And finally, The All American Boys Chorus

Lake Charles

We used to drive through Lafayette and Baton Rouge, in a yellow El Camino listenin to Howlin Wolf.
I love that lyric. This song always gives me shivers.

This is Lucinda Williams, of course.

Tonight the Bottle let me Down

There are a few performers on earth who haven't tried this one. I'm not even sure who wrote it. Was it Merle Haggard? Or Gram Parsons? Anyway, here's some other versions...

Waylon Jennings



Elvis Costello
This has Nick Lowe on bass and John Hiatt picking guitar + Pete Thomas and Steve Nieve



The Party Wreckers for the rockers in the crowd...



Finally, here are The Mavericks with a kind of jumpin western swing version. Very nice.

Old Joe Clark

Matthew Sabatella & the Rambling String Band with the Pompano Beach Old-Time Jammers


John Fowler playing "Old Joe Clark" in the old Timey Appalachian Style


Will Pound (Harmonica) Eddie Jay (Accordion)


Radio performance of Old Joe Clark by Bill Bosler on hammered dulcimer and Kevin Lockhart on guitar.