Sunday night murder ballad, etc.

At the office lunch-table this week somebody made a disparaging remark about country music. I was surprised to find that mine was the only voice raised in defence of this fine genre. Crazy easterners. A colleague, somewhat surprised, I take it, to hear me profess a love for the old, lonesome sound wondered why I never post any such music here. The answer is: there’s no good reason. Tonight, by way of partially redressing the neglect, I post a couple of country tunes.

I am tempted to reach back to classics by the Carter Family, or the Louvin Brothers, or Hank Williams, or Ralph Stanley, or Johnny Cash, and perhaps another time I will, but doing so might give the impression that all the good country music is in the past. It is true, of course, that much of it is, but isn’t that true of everything? And it is true, equally, that most of the modern stuff — Shania Twain, those Dixie Chicks, Barf Brooks, and what not — is garbage, yet there are blessed exceptions.

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings have made a few terrific records together. She lends her cool, clear voice and he his virtuosic guitar work. Here they are in a live performance of their murder ballad “Caleb Meyer”, from Hell Among the Yearlings:

Meanwhile, back in the land of milk and honey, a tight little outfit called Corb Lund and the Hurtin’ Albertans have been turning out some pretty excellent songs. Their most recent record, Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!, leads off with a jaunty war ditty called “I Wanna Be in the Cavalry”. This is a music video, not a live performance, and therefore suffers a little from the inherent silliness of all music videos, but the song itself is downright top-notch:

Later, pardners!