RIP Charlie Louvin

One of the greats is gone. RIP

Satan is real.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYMf_kOYQlc
(Someone else can post the original)

RIP. I got into these guys through Uncle Tupelo in the early 90s & played their records to death in college: my roommates could not understand this gospel dread.

From the NY obit, how emptiness has a body: “When it comes time for the harmonies to come in, I will move to my left because my brother and I always used ... one microphone,” he said of performing solo. “Even today, I will move over to the left to give the harmony room, knowing in my mind that there’s no harmony standing on my right.”

those two did have one of the most perfect vocal blends of all time.

aw man RIP

totally admire how he kept working/playing/performing right up to the end

RIP. I got into these guys through Uncle Tupelo in the early 90s & played their records to death in college: my roommates could not understand this gospel dread.

^^ditto

songs that tell a story in particular

amazing singer. RIP.

This will always be my favorite Louvin Brothers song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZpmoS_2peI

RIP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zouoo9iS3nQ

Light In The Attic fanzine issue 2 (zine of the label) has a great feature w/Kris Kristofferson interviewing Louvin, search that out folks.

9 people on ILX were aware of this guy?

fuck this board

it's only been 3 hours, chill out man.

The Louvins are one of my 5 favorite country acts. Great harmonies, fire and brimstone and soul. Charlie's tenor on "When I Stop Dreaming" puts shivers down my spine every time. Then there's "Don't Laugh," "Pitfall," "Cash On The Barrelhead," "Knoxville Girl," "Wreck On The Highway," "Christian Life".... So many great ones.

Aw damn. So long, Charlie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8USe97jWW4

Discovered them late, after the Livin Lovin Losing tribute a few years back. What a treasure once I started digging to hear their originals for the first time. Beautiful.

ha you'd have to pretty damn old to discover them on time. r.i.p.

the louvins and jimmie rodgers were what made me 'get' country

<3 <3

RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXTdvPZ9hSY

i heard this and was like 'oh'

can't find a youtube of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot unfortunately

so ghostly

this is my fave
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfPFCPDdiSM

god yeah louvin's 'swing low' is just gorgeous

Another great one featuring dreaming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcMmC1EkxK8

hey guys

^^^8 CD box set of complete recordings, from Bear Family (Germany), OOP in the US and usually costs hundreds of $$$

blurgh

(thank you is what i meant)

you're welcome!

the louvins... were what made me 'get' country

I was the same way. their music was a great gateway to discovering other country music, largely because they showed so much love for the music they grew up with. it was touching that before they recorded their Tribute to the Delmore Brothers album, they visited the one surviving Delmore to get his blessing. that album and Tragic Songs of Life (which includes a bunch of ballads the Blue Sky Boys had recorded) really inspired me to look into early country/old-time music. their covers of old material were reverent but always filled with their personal, inimitable fire, and they bridged the gaps between bluegrass and honky-tonk and mountain gospel in a forward-thinking way.

very strong vocal by Charlie here, made even more poignant by his death:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Opd-Uw3__zg

RIP

Me too. The gateway was something called Radio Favorites that came out in the mid-eighties, a collection of live-in-studio material

last paragraph is lol

^^^Dylan on the Louvin Bros

this is the only Louvin Bros thread? wtf

check this shit out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWp7MGY3II4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSj3wQuWckM

OK, the autobiography that came out this year Satan is Real: The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers is the real deal, completely convincing, must read. The cowriter Benjamin Whitmer is to be commended for helping to make it sound exactly like Charlie is talking to you, dear ilxor.

ooh! thx for the heads up

Sure. Presumably the co-author also helped in the sequencing. The beginner chapters pack a great one-two punch.

But not for the faint of heart.

Some of it, in its depiction of hardscrabble Depression-era rural America observed with a darkly humorous eye, reads like a Jim Thompson novel

Oh wow, yeah I def have to read this. Thanks James!!

To Amazon.com!

Enjoy.

Am I the only who didn't know that it was Ira who sang the high parts and Charlie the low? I mean apart from Billy Bob Thornton

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5XVEUdNye0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=4G1tTNzPaco

Oh wait, that is up thread a few posts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_EdgoouQq4
My daddy played the five

This morning I finished the book, which was about as perfect as anything can be in this world. Meanwhile here is an interview with the co-authoer Benjamin Whitmer, with some stories that didn't make the book: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/01/satan-is-real-louvin-brothers.html

I'm 3 chapters in and I've only had the book for a matter of hours

so in love already

This is surprisingly touching. Or maybe not so surprising.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxXlCqbq3jI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Rave review from earlier this month

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303703004577474972942879772.html

Two months before his own death in 2011, Charlie Louvin finished work on an autobiography that was published earlier this year. "Satan Is Real: The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers" (Igniter/HarperCollins), which has the rough-hewn sound of a real person swapping stories after hours, is one of the most important and illuminating memoirs ever written by a country singer. Not only is it as readable as a first-rate novel, but "Satan Is Real," which is named after the Louvin Brothers' best-known album, a 1959 collection of gospel songs, offers urbanites a joltingly vivid glimpse of what it was like to grow up on a Depression-era farm.

Of course I mean last month.

Just bought that book. It's tremendously readable without getting too academic (actually, not academic even in the slightest), and I'm pretty amazed at Charlie's honesty and forthrightness about a lot of stuff most folks wouldn't talk about at all. The bits about his father killing dogs and stuff at the beginning pretty much blew my mind.

Yeah I'm almost 3/4 through it now and I can't recommend it enough. The stuff about Elvis is really great.

Book is great! Co-sign!

Somebody I knew who met him told me he was a total button pusher, which I can believe, but I file it in the same folder with Miles Davis sending out a lot of attitude as a protective measure, like a beautiful Amazonian creature exudes poison to ward off predators. Was just reading something about Ray Charles recording Modern Sounds of Country and Western Music and was reminded of the story of Charlie going to see him in Vegas and Ray announcing "one of my favorite songs" and having then shine a spotlight on Charlie before singing "When I Stop Dreaming" and I was moved all over again.

That's a great story, James.

Here's an article about the guy who put together the book:

Sorry. Here's the link: http://www.avclub.com/article/whats-it-co-write-someone-elses-autobiography-203493

damn. I love the book even more now -- and I loved the shit out of it before reading that.

Yeah, thanks for posting that link, banjoboy, it makes the whole thing a little bit deeper, which might have seemed impossible.

kinda interested in that guy's fiction now

Think he only has the one novel out so far, with another coming this September. I glanced at the first few pages of the first one, seemed like pretty violent noir, which can be good, but not every guy can be, I dunno, Jim Thompson. Still curious, if you read it and recommend it would take the plunge.

Just finished the book. Loved it! I really want him to have lived long enough to see people enjoying his story.

otm

yeah this book was great!

Need to reread

why oh why did I wait so long to read this. the first few chapters are insane.

Yeah I've gone ahead and recommended it to everyone I can.

What finally brought you around, Shakey? Did Barry Malzberg recommend it?

haha no this has been on my list for a long time and when this thread got revived I looked it up at my local library branch and they had it

First version of "I Don't Believe You've Met My Baby" I hit on Spotify seems to be a rerecord with a ringer instead of Ira. Was able to find a more authentic version though.

Listening to the Taylor Coe podcast about the Louvins right now

They just had a big hit with “When I Stop Dreaming” and buy two Nudie suits- each!

https://www.loc.gov/programs/static/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/WhenIStopDreaming.pdf

Highly recommend that podcast

Agreed. The Louvins episode is what pulled me in.

Are you still in NYC?

Yah - I'm here for another two and a weeks or so. I'll bump a thread.

Cool

Now have listened to the Buck Owens/Don Rich episodes. Incredible stuff. This guy knows exactly what I want to hear.

i just subscribed today and am going to give it a listen.

Two things, in no particular order:
1) Don Rich had some crazy eating habits
2) The Buck and the Buckaroos bluegrass album Ruby is great.

Going to see if I can use the long weekend to make it through the three-parter (!) on “Harper Valley PTA.”

Yeah Tyler's no slouch. And he's a deep, deep music nerd -- the final episode of the season, when he responded to listener questions, he damn near blew my mind when he mentioned he was a Disco Inferno fan. Followed him immediately after that on Twitter.

the first episode on Tubbs has hooked me. just the way he broke down Tubb’s singing style & Acuff & George Jones was like,<3 bless u sir

the first episode on Tubbs has hooked me. just the way he broke down Tubb’s singing style & Acuff & George Jones was like,<3 bless u sir

ugh :(

What?

double posting

Listening to one of the Buckaroos pretending to be Ernest Tubb during the Fun N’ Games section of the Carnegie Hall Concert.

What was this? https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/louvin-brothers-lost-album-715231/

No idea! I missed this announcement

Okay, some of these have been showing up in my Release Radar and sounded fine, just hadn’t put two and two together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAMiHXMV8tk

So hey, I wrote a Louvin Brothers pastiche once, which I kind of like. But I never had an appropriate project to perform it in or had friends follow through on their interest in doing so. I could post this lyrics here if you like.

I may post that before the weekend is over.

I will read them

I wrote this Louvin Brothers pastiche once and it kind of scared me, I felt like I was channeling Ira. I am posting it here in honor of this Holy Week of Our Lenten Quarantine. Stay safe!

Don't Be A Stranger To The Manger - James Redd
(Chorus)
Don't be a stranger to the manger
Don't keep your distance from the cross
Don't forget you'll have to answer to
The man upstairs who's boss

One day there'll come an onslaught
Of a great Satanic horde
When we fight that final battle
Will you side up with the Lord?

(Verse)
So many men and women
Pursuing gold and fame
Seeking out their own destruction
Like moths before the flame

They'll enjoy a few good hours
But at what enormous cost
When their one immortal soul
For eternity is lost

( repeat chorus)
(2nd verse)
On the stages of theaters (pronounced "the-aters")
On the floors of ballrooms grand
In the discotheques and nightclubs
Across this sinful land

You can hear their voices rising
In a great unruly swell
Is there anything more certain
Than where in the end they'll dwell?

(chorus)

Haha, that’s great. I wanna hear this now.

One year later....