[Dixielandjazz] Country & Western to Dixieland?

[Goggin, Brian (Dublin)]

Louis (with Lil) backed Jimmie Rodgers on Blue Yodel #8 I think - "Standin'
At the Corner" back in 1930. Jimmie also recorded with Earl MacDonald of the
Dixieland Jug Blowers.

Many of the Country guys were excellent. Country music seems to have taken a
wrong turning somewhere in recent years and a lot of it is terrible stuff.

Merle Travis was a helluva guitar player. Recorded fingerpicked versions of
many jazz standards like "Muskrat Ramble", "I'll See You in my Dreams",
"Who's Sorry Now" etc. aswell. His Westerners in the early 1950's with
cornet, violin, 2 guitars, steel guitar and bass, had a jazz-ish sound.



>    Charlie Hooks has negleted to mention that he and I played some country
> music traveling about with Gary Miller's Celbration Road Show.
> We did a lot of school shows and found that the only way we could do
> country songs for kids ( and for our night club audiences as well) was to
> do parodies.  So we did the 'Lyin' Time parody on 'Cryin' Time.'   Another
> tune we did was "She's only a barmaid in the Honky-tonk Downstairs."  We
> did this one as straight as we could because it parodied itself.  I played
> country piano on these tunes and I think that Charlie sang backup.  Or
> more likely he was at the bar, the appropriate setting for 'drinkin' and
> cheatin' music.
> 
> Country music in its way is a very creative field and there is a lot of
> music and artists within this genre that I've always liked.  I have found
> that a lot of country artists really like Dixieland jazz and some of them
> like Merle Haggard have recorded tunes more or less with a dixie line-up.
> 
> As Charlie points out Louis Armstrong and his bnd could could take any
> country tune and swing the bejesus out of it.  Louis did record many
> country tunes throughout his career.
> 
> Jim Beebe
>  << File: ATT203504.txt >>