CAUTION: Double Shot of Classic Country Music

[Coqui]

OK, this is a treat, closely related to the Echoes post above is the tendency of country songs to hat tip older songs. I'll start with the song that was the genesis of this post, the "hat tipper" that will lead to two songs considered to be truly canonical. Hopefully, the hat tipper will break you in easy to the hard core twang and sadness to come. Driving to work the other day, I heard "Set 'Em Up Joe", an enjoyable, if unremarkable honky tonk song from an enjoyable if unremarkable 70s/80s crooner, Vern Gosdin. Gosdin was perhaps a poor man's George Jones (cf. the RIP Possum post above), known for plaintive, soulful delivery of sad hurtin' and cheatin' songs. He had three number one hits, including Set 'Em up Joe:



Here's the main lyric, and accompanying translations:

They got a vintage Victrola 1951
Full of my favorite records that I grew up on
They got ole Hank and Lefty and there's B24
Set 'em up Joe, and play 'Walking The Floor'.

Set 'em up Joe, and play 'Walking The Floor'
I'm gonna spend the night like every night before
Playin' ET and I'll play 'em some more
I've gotta have a shot of them old troubadours

Hank = Hank Williams, Sr., who was arguably country music's first and biggest star. If early country music had an Elvis, Hank, Sr. was it.

Lefty = Lefty Frizzell, who was a contemporary of Hank Williams, Sr., and who revived his career with the 1964 crossover hit Saginaw, Michigan.

ET = Ernest Tubb, considered by many to be the pioneer of the honky tonk music that Hank and Lefty would, a few years later, make even more famous. He was renowned to have a so-so voice (at best). He was also the first to record "I'll Have a Blue Christmas Without You".

them old Troubadours = Tubb's recording and concert band, The Texas Troubadours. Tubb's nickname was the Texas Troubadour.

Walkin' the Floor = This song[/url], written and recorded by Tubb, widely considered to have started the honky tonk genre of guitars, more guitars, steel guitars, twang, cheatin', hurtin', and drinkin':



If Walkin' the Floor started the genre, Your Cheatin' Heart, recorded by Hank Williams, Sr. shortly before his death in an auto accident at age 29 and released just a few weeks thereafter, perfected the genre. Listen for the hat tip to Walkin' the Floor:



Enjoy!

[John]

Very nice! I never listen to country of my own accord, so I appreciate being exposed to it here.