breaker, breaker, get bent

How's the trucker country research?

fucking fantastic. one of the takeaways of my presentation is that trucker country, like most modern country music, is pretty apolitical and doesn't really reflect the upheaval and growing conservatism of the times -- but the lyrics are still a "referendum" on the times if you pay enough attention.

i don't want to give too much away, but i think it's gonna be cracking good.

i have a slide about truckers in the movies and i actually do mention the film breaker! breaker!

What about that one Sam Peckinpah movie?

yup, i mention that too.

are you on a country kick tonight?

More or less. Finally made some headway into Richard Peterson's Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity and dipping into some other related books. Listening to the CD from The Oxford American Tennessee Music issue, some of which is in the genre to which you refer.

Although perhaps I shouldn't mention that in case you are one of those "oh, I've got to read that one TOO!" people.

/one_of_those_people

"Break or get bent."

Yeah, man...

Seriously, tho: the time and energy GB is putting into this is IMMENSE. Fabulous stuff!

Looking forward to reading it post-presentation. Now I remember that I wanted to ask about that history of Columbia Records. Took it out the library once but found it kind of dry and slow-going.

Been a while since I listened, but somewhere still have good tapes by Red Simpson, Red Sovine, Dave Dudley, Dick Curless: http://www.virtualtruckroute.com/music_simpson.html
I often like the intriguing bits of vehicle-themed songs (the variety of promising premises! Although all kinds of songs give out of gas after the first verse and chorus, so who knows...) between call-in sessions on Boston NPR's Cahh Tawwwwk, with the Click and Clack Brothers.

These tapes sound good, don, but I wonder if they can be as good as a Beats playlist curated by Ken Tucker.

Sorry