Some Of My Favorite Country & Bluegrass Songs

[tjmurphy]

Terrible loss to Country Music

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nky/ob ... =148101150

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUhYckHo ... re=related

[jerryd6818]

It's a shame those old timers can't last forever. They were great. Thanks for the update T.J.

[jerryd6818]

Saw Willies thread on those three young kids (http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... 21&t=24809) and after listening to them I listened to a couple others on YouTube. Found this one of Flatt and Scruggs doing Cripple Creek and just had to dig up this old thread and post it.

[tjmurphy]

That was Earl in his prime. Take a gander at Stringbean. He's playing the old time "Clawhammer" style. Stringbean was Bill Monroe's first banjo player when he hit the stage of the Grand Old Opry in 1939. As an aside, the murderer of Stringbean and his wife is up for parole from prison.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uOy3WdT ... re=related

[jerryd6818]

That was Earl in his prime. Take a gander at Stringbean. He's playing the old time "Clawhammer" style. Stringbean was Bill Monroe's first banjo player when he hit the stage of the Grand Old Opry in 1939. As an aside, the murderer of Stringbean and his wife is up for parole from prison.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uOy3WdT ... re=related

Now that's pure 'D', Down Home Country Music. Do you ever remember seeing Stringbean smile?

I didn't know anything about the murders so I looked up Stringbean on Wikipedia and found the following.

"Marvin Brown died of natural causes in 2003, at the Brushy Mountain Prison, in Petros, Tennessee, and is buried in the prison cemetery. His cousin, John Brown is incarcerated in a Tennessee Special Needs Facility. In July 2008, the Tennessee Parole Board deferred any parole for 36 months. He was again denied parole in July 2011."

[Cowboy7130]

Fox on the Run!

How in the HECK have I missed this thread the past couple of years???? I have thoroughly enjoyed listening and learning!

Now then, I think I remember thinking I remember that Ken Curtis was briefly one of the Sons of the Pioneers ...??????
At any rate, he had a decent singing voice, his performance in "The Searchers" aside!

Check out some of the "Fox on the run" vids on youtube ... this guy is claw-hammerin' away on that last chorus!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2p7a5HbLIw

[jerryd6818]

Yes, Ken Curtis was with the Sons of the Pioneers and I didn't even know he could sing until after I started this thread.

Cowboy, I like that song but I like this version much better.
Country Gentlemen - Fox On The Run

I don't know who that Tom T. Hall is. The one I know is the one of 'Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine' renown and The Year That Clayton Delaney Died

I wish Tom T. could have learned a couple or three new tunes to put his songs to but the man was a hell on wheels song writer.

[tjmurphy]

Have to go with Jerry on this one. Charlie Waller (RIP) and the Country Gentlemen did absolutely the best cover on this song. Tom T. Hall is the writer of "Fox on the Run" or as we call it "Fox with the Runs". Sorry Cowboy but I just could not sit through that three piece version.

Not Tom T. Hall, but here are some of my friends that I'm proud to consider as friends. With the exception of the bass player they are all former Ralph Stanley band members: Lead singer - Sammy Adkins, Banjo - Danny Lee Davis, Lead Guitar - Junior Blankenship. The song - Rank Strangers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbHeOS8vp0Y

[jerryd6818]

Rank Strangers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbHeOS8vp0Y

Tom T. Hall is the writer of "Fox on the Run" or as we call it "Fox with the Runs".

I'll be darned. Another reason I like this site. I learn something new almost every day. Thanks T.J. - Oh Great Knower Of All Things Bluegrass and Many Things Country.

[tjmurphy]

Thanks Jerry, but I'm not the "Great Knower". I know a little bit about a lot of things and a lot about a few things. Make sense??

[jerryd6818]

Thanks Jerry, but I'm not the "Great Knower". I know a little bit about a lot of things and a lot about a few things. Make sense??

Yepper. Me too.

I have, on occasion, been called a know-it-all but damn, I can't help it if I know stuff. I guess I could just keep my mouth shut but so far, that hasn't worked out very well.

[Cowboy7130]

According to Wikipedia, "Fox" was first recorded by Manfred Mann, written by Tony Hazzard, in England in 1968. THEN it crossed the pond and has become a bluegrass staple ... Hmmmm .... that just don't sound right to me ....

When I was a kid I got a cheap 8-track player/radio tuner stereo for Christmas and one of the first songs I heard from the dinky little speakers was Tom T. Hall's "Fox on the Run." It sounded incredible to me, having had to listen to an old clock radio for years! That song has remained one of my favorites for decades now.

[tjmurphy]

Different "Fox on the Run"
Sweet version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k1-kh6HbHQ
Country Gentlemen/Tom T. Hall version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjQRzH-S_JM

One thing about Wikipedia you have to remember is that the information they have has been submitted by folks like you and me, and sometimes have their information wrong.

[Cowboy7130]

Nope, same version, according to YouTube, too. Several Manfred Mann versions available on YouTube. And it is defnitely not the Sweet song, "Fox On The Run"

I thought the same thing, TJ, so I had to go and look it up!

[Cowboy7130]

And by the way, since I have "Women Walking" songs on my mind, I was reminded of this one:

"She walks these hills, in a long black veil.
She visits my grave, when the night winds wail.
Nobody knows, nobody sees,
Nobody knows, but me."

"Long Black Veil", more of a folk tune, I suppose, but still one of my favorite oldies.

[jerryd6818]

Manfred Mann - Fox on the run

Different.

[tjmurphy]

I stand corrected. Looked up the Manfred Mann version and it is indeed the Country Gentlemen's version. Got to go back to Jerry's statement; "I learn something new almost every day". Thanks Cowboy. I'll file that away in what's left of a brain under major facts.

[Cowboy7130]

well, I would have bet YOUR last set of guitar strings that Tom T. Hall wrote it!

What I don't get, is where is the corn in London that Manfred Mann's fox is walking through???

[jerryd6818]

I would have sworn 'The Long Black Veil' had been posted here but unless T.J. did it, I guess not. Here's Johnny Cash & Joni Mitchell - The Long Black Veil. I would have preferred Emmy Lou Harris but sometimes you get what's available.

[tjmurphy]

She walks through the corn leading down to the river
Her hair smelled like mold in the hot morning sun
She took all the love that a poor boy could give her
And left me to die like A FOX WITH THE RUNS

Man, I'm glad you didn't bet my last set of guitar strings. Actually, I don't let myself get down to my last set.

[Cowboy7130]

She's on YouTube singing it with Dave Mathews at a Johnny Cash Tribute. Sounds awesome! Well, she does, and Dave Mathews is not bad ...

She has a GREAT voice for that song, even though it is a "man's" point of view song. ...

[Cowboy7130]

She walks through the corn leading down to the river
Her hair smelled like mold in the hot morning sun
She took all the love that a poor boy could give her
And left me to die like A FOX WITH THE RUNS

Man, I'm glad you didn't bet my last set of guitar strings. Actually, I don't let myself get down to my last set.

[Cowboy7130]

And one of my alltime favorites ... Don Williams and EmmyLou Harris singing Townes VanZandt's "If I needed You."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BRUC7d8 ... re=related

[jerryd6818]

Found a posting that says neither Manfred Mann nor Tom T. Hall wrote 'Fox on the Run'. The Wikipedia entry that says Tony Hazzard wrote it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Hazzard

If you do a Google search on 'fox on the run lyrics', every response gives T.Hazzard credit for the song (the one we're talking about, not the one by Sweet).

[tjmurphy]

My favorite version of "Long Black Veil" - Lefty Frizzel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50k18gL76AU
J.D. Crowe and the New South - "Lefty's Old Guitar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYNMnW_UCKU (speaking of Lefty Frizzel of course) J.D. Crowe is probably the second most famour banjo player, after Earl Scruggs of course, in Bluegrass Music.