The Ballad Of Roger Miller

Homer & Jethro - The Ballad Of Roger Miller (2:33)

You know you've really made it when Homer & Jethro point their satirical daggers at you.

Roger Miller - A Man Like Me

Roger Miller - A Man Like Me (2:28)

Here's a stellar Decca honky-tonker that Roger recorded in late 1958, featuring the great Johnny Paycheck on harmony vocals. The rest of the guys on the session were from Nashville's fabled A-team.

Roger Miller - Vocal
Owen Bradley - Leader
Hank Garland - Guitar
Donald Eugene Lytle (Johnny Paycheck) - Guitar, harmony vocals
Jack Evins - Steel guitar
Joe Zinkans - Bass
Buddy Harman - Drums
Tommy Jackson - Fiddle
Floyd Cramer - Piano

This track, the photo above and all the session details were borrowed from Bear Family's excellent A Man Like Me CD that compiles all of Miller's recordings from 1957 - 1960 and features Deke Dickerson's liner notes that provide insight into Miller's many talents.

Mack The Knife

Generally speaking, I'm a firm believer in staying far, far away from square dance records. There are, however, a few exceptions. Joe Maphis, for instance, released a few square dance instrumentals that are worth hearing for Maphis completists.

Another exception is this oddly captivating version of Mack The Knife, by The Squarenaders, which is almost certainly one of the greatest band names in all the world.

Squarenaders - Mack The Knife (3:47!)

Roger Miller & Ray Price

Here's the great Ray Price belting out Invitation To The Blues, featuring some fine harmony vocals from Roger Miller, the song's author. Miller spent a year or so in the Cherokee Cowboys, Price's backing band.

Thanks to Gatorrock787 for the clip. He has the best YouTube channel going. Check it out.

Goin' Out To Hollywood (MP3)

Bill Emerson - Goin' Out To Hollywood

So here's a mighty fine record by Bill Emerson, who lays out the inspired tale of a backwoods country boy with a plan to head west to Hollywood, stoked up on visions of movie stardom, limousines, and flashy Fender guitars.

Is it country, rock & roll, or maybe rockabilly? All of the above, I guess, but to tell you the truth I think it's mostly in the ear of the beholder.

Joe Tex's Green Green Grass Of Home

Yesterday, Dr. Filth put up a fine post examining the intersection of the worlds Joe Tex and Roger Miller, which reminded me of another Joe Tex effort that came out of the country field.

The Green, Green Grass Of Home begins with a man happily recounting his eagerness to return to the familiar comforts of home after a long absence. There is, however, a catch. As the song unfolds, we learn the man is actually a Death Row prisoner and he's only been dreaming of going home. In reality, he is to be executed the following morning.

It's become something of a standard in the years since 1965 when singer Johnny Darrell released the original version of the song, followed almost immediately by Porter Wagoner's definitive interpretation, in which he added an extra layer of intensity by doing the final verse as a recitation. Tom Jones took the song to #1 in the UK in '67 and Merle Haggard, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Hank Snow, among many others, also recorded memorable versions.

So, all that said, check out Joe Tex's moving version of The Green Green Grass Of Home, performed live on Spanish television in 1968.

Marijuana Grave (MP3)

Sam & Annie Taylor - Marijuana Grave

Here's some first-rate anti-drug propaganda warning of the perils of marijuana use.

Rainwater Goes Fuzztone!

Marvin Rainwater - Indian Momma (1:56)

Here's a breathtakingly cool Marvin Rainwater track with some extra snarl provided by a fuzztone guitar.

All I Want For Christmas Is A C.B. (MP3)

Jim Hubler - All I Want For Christmas Is A CB

Daddy's Drinkin' Up Our Christmas

Here's some indisputably bleak Yuletide "cheer" from Commander Cody & The Lost Planet Airmen, the pride of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Liza Jane

Cecil Surratt & Smitty Smith - Liza Jane (2:03)

Cecil and Smitty absolutely nail it here with their 1960 instrumental country take on an old standard.

Wife Of The Party

Liz Anderson - Wife Of The Party (2:28)

Honeymoon With The Blues (MP3)

Eddie Noack - Honeymoon With The Blues

I'm Gonna Tie One On Tonight (MP3)

Wilburn Brothers - I'm Gonna Tie One On Tonight

Trouble In Teepee (MP3)

Deb Wood - Trouble In Teepee (2:01)

Rainbow Over Texas

This photo comes to us from the 1946 Roy Rogers movie Rainbow Over Texas, which also featured Bob Nolan (vocalist for the Sons Of The Pioneers) and Sheldon Leonard, who went on to produce the Andy Griffith Show and, I think we could all agree, much more importantly, Gomer Pyle, USMC.

Kathy King, The Dallas Dazzler

Happy Birthday, Melba Montgomery (MP3s)

Big Big Heartaches

South Of Lonesome

Big Tears Are Coming

From the Ichiban satellite office down here in Georgia, I'd like to wish Melba Montgomery a very happy 73rd birthday. Melba, who was born on October 14, 1938 in Iron City, Tennessee, came from a very musical family.

Her brothers Earl and Carl, like Melba, were also talented songwriters. Carl, in fact, co-wrote two great trucker anthems, Six Days On The Road and Give Me Forty Acres, while Earl (also known as Peanutt) cut his teeth as a studio guitar player in the Muscle Shoals area (that's him playing on Arthur Alexander's You Better Move On) and went on to write over three dozen songs recorded by George Jones.

After spending a few years as the "girl singer" in Roy Acuff's band, Melba began releasing records under her own name in 1963, around the same time she began recording a string of duets with George Jones. Her solo material from this time period is comprised on numerous superb honky-tonkers like the three tracks above and, as Joe Sixpack points out, it remains a scandal and a shame that no one has put together a good compilation of her early years.

Country Music Week / Judy Lynn (MP3s)

Here are two highly alluring instrumental tracks from Judy Lynn's 1965 United Artists LP titled The Judy Lynn Show. Both numbers are highly atypical selections for a country performer, but thoroughly enjoyable all the same due in no small part to the exotic sounds produced by Gene O'Neal, the band's pedal steel guitarist.

Judy Lynn Show - Night Train (3:18)

Judy Lynn Show - Baby Elephant Walk (3:08)

Down And Out With Merle Haggard (MP3)

Merle Haggard - Sidewalks Of Chicago (2:29)