On this day in 1964, Willie Nelson made his debut at the Grand Ole Opry.

Before becoming a successful performer in his own right, Willie was a songwriter and penned a number of songs for Nashville musicians in the early 1960s including the Patsy Cline hit song “Crazy.”  But Willie didn’t fit in well with the Nashville Sound that ruled the charts at the time.  His languid, behind the beat, sprechgesang style did not generate him any individual chart hits.  He relocated to Austin, Texas where he found a home in the burgeoning hippie community of the most liberal city in Texas. There he developed his own unique style combining spare arrangements with folk, rock, and western swing influences.

Willie also was a founding force in the Outlaw Country movement of the early 1970s.  In 1975, Willie released the concept album Red Headed Stranger to great critical acclaim and cross-over commercial success.  The story of a man on the run after murdering his wife, it was ranked as #1 on CMT’s list of the greatest country albums of all time.

Perhaps the most famous song from the album is Willie’s cover of “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.”

Written by Fred Rose and first performed by Roy Acuff in 1945, Willie’s “Crying” hit #1 on the Billboard Country Charts and an impressive #21 on the Billboard Hot 100.  In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked “Crying” as the 302nd greatest song of all-time.

Here’s the original Acuff version.

Here’s Hank William Sr. doing “Crying” in 1951 on the Mother’s Best Flour Show.

“Crying” is the last song known to have been sung by Elvis before his death in 1977.   Obviously no recording of the event exists, but he had recorded his own version in 1976.

And wrapping it up is Sheryl Crow explaining her love of “Crying.”

Last night while Norm Peterson my husband was upstairs working on our bedroom renovation/redecoration, I got sucked into several hours of the Biography Channel.  I’m pretty confident that I can now tell you just about anything you need to know about Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, or the upcoming special about celebrity encounters with ghosts.  Critical information.

One of the segments I really enjoyed was a program called “Johnny Cash America” and included all sorts of amazing video footage of his life.  In it, certain portions had voice-overs by Johnny himself, lending a rather eerie quality to the old film.  His unmistakable voice and larger-than-life persona made me hunger to know more about someone I had previously only encountered via Joaquin Phoenix in Hollywood’s Walk the Line.

One of the things Johnny said about faith got my attention, making me stop to grab a pen.  I rewound the DVR to get the words just right.  Maybe you’ll find them to be profound, as well:

“What is man if he doesn’t have a spirit, and what is man’s spirit if it cannot connect with the Master of Life?”

~

Later, in the Willie Nelson biography, Kris Kristofferson praised his friend as the kindest, funniest individual he’s ever known.  He lauded Willie’s “outlaw” style of blazing his own trail and not falling into the easy traps of sounding like someone else, dressing like other Nashville stars, or wearing his hair like most country stars of the 50’s & 60’s did.  But it was, again, one sentence that struck me as especially meaningful.  Kris said this about Willie:

“[Willie] wears the world like a loose garment.”

~

Both of these quotes have stuck with me today.  In particular, I’ve been thinking about the last one and about whether the same will ever be said about me.  That I was in the world, but not of the world.  That I engaged fully in this place, but was not tossed about aimlessly by the quickly-shifting winds of culture and expectations.  That I wore the world like a loose garment: draping myself in it, but not constrained by it.  Not confined or limited.  Not bound by the seams, stitches, whims of another.

To me, that’s a beautiful thought.

Music biographies mesmerized me when I was a kid. Whether it was Glenn Miller or Elvis Presley, it was always the same fascinating formula: talent and tenacity leading to the precipice of success, with the artist always searching for that one elusive element to define his signature sound, to breakthrough. With Miller it was the addition of trombones. The proceedings always put me on the edge of my seat and the breakthroughs set me reeling. I guess it was in my blood.

It persists. Last night I watched two great documentary-style bios on TV, one on Johnny Cash, another on Willie Nelson. Willie, as many of his fans may not realize, was actually a Nashville songwriter, penning such classics as “Crazy,” which Patsy Cline etched into the music lexicon. Despite his pre-eminent status as a writer, Willie couldn’t get arrested as an artist in Music City. His quirky phrasing was way too off beat for the 60’s sound, which was infused with sweet strings and pop arrangements.

At the age of 40, Willie returned home to Texas. Such a move would have meant a life sentence selling insurance had history not intervened. As fate would have it, Woodstock Nation had opened the doors to multiple music movements by the early 70s, and Willie realized that Austin clubs were ready for a new kind of country artist. He enlisted his buddy Waylon Jennings, among others, and set about launching a novel sound to a new audience. His ultimate success turned country music, and the music establishment at large, on its head. Ultimately, he was responsible for redefining music, establishing its “outlaw” class, creating the Austin revolution and worldwide social activism that persists to this day.

Despite his huge outsider success, Nashville rejected this giant yet again. By the 1980s, you couldn’t find a Willie song on mainstream country radio, and forget about a major label deal.

Okay, let’s get right down to the hard part. Cash was just another music god to be tumbled unceremoniously from Olympus. By the 80s, he, too, was cast out like so much trash. His popularity was dwindling, and he was struggling to find an audience and make a living.

So these outlaw outcasts banded together, literally, forming the country supergroup The Highwaymen, along with Waylon and Kris Kristofferson. Talk about a Mount Rushmore of talent. They had taken fate into their own hands and, once again, set out to redefine the music scene, outside the establishment, all on their own.

A Bronx boy, I was still getting my country legs under me, when I hit Nashville in the late 80s. At the time, I couldn’t understand why the likes of Willie and Johnny weren’t getting mainstream air play, why I could eat lunch with Emmylou Harris but couldn’t hear her songs on country radio, why Nanci Griffith was considered a darling in all the clubs, to all the execs, but couldn’t get the chart toppers and eventually carped about it in interviews.

I was just getting introduced to the hard truth of the music industry: bitterness. Griffith was bitter, my friend Artie Traum (from back home in Woodstock) — one of the sweetest guys to ever grace the business — was expressing a degree of bitterness, too, in interviews of the day. I was just learning.

The songwriting trade in Nashville was rough. By year two, I was saying you had to learn to live on a diet of stones. Rejection was the blue-plate special everyday. It took me two years to get my first major song contract and more to get my first staff writing job and my first cut. Everyone who stuck with it had war stories: the song on hold that never happened, the artist cut that got dropped by the label or never got released as a single or didn’t make it above 20 on the charts. But, despite eventual successes and even industry support, I left after a decade to pursue to a career as an artist, packing scars and wisdom, love and hate.

But back to Johnny Cash. One of the greatest artists to “walk the line,” he faced the pure pain of artistry more deeply, more movingly than anyone before him. Late in his career, with the help of producer Rick Rubin, Johnny faced his inner darkness, his demons, his truth, his soul. With such albums as “American Recordings” and “Unchained,” he found a vast and vital new audience, just years before his death. His new material was so raw that family members had a tough time listening. They told him it sounded like he was saying goodbye. He told them he was.

Pure Johnny Cash

In the Cash bio, artists such as Sheryl Crow, John Mellencamp and Vince Gill expressed the true painful tumble that all artists must face. Mellencamp himself recently penned a telling if rambling article on the biz in HuffPost, a blog post that established a wellspring of conversation in the social media sector.

So, this little Bronx boy, who reeled from the Glenn Miller story and cut and broke his teeth on Music Row, finally came to understand bitterness and the role it plays in any music career. No one is exempt. It may be (excuse me) a bitter pill to swallow, but I recommend downing it to develop a good artist-immune system. Another words, one has to learn to deal with it, to embrace it, pain and all, and find a way to move on, carry it on your back, in your suitcase, in your heart, on your skin — the rose tattoo of the music artist.

Phoenix

Thanksgiving. For years it’s brought people together to feast on turkey. In honor of this joyous American holiday, 20 Watts has decided to elucidate you, fine reader, on the many bands named after a variety of fowl. We bring you our very special Thanksgiving 20, based on artists named after a variety of avian creatures.

So what’s the very best of bird-themed music? 20 Watts’ STAFF has the answer in our tenth 20 installment. Watch for new 20s each Thursday, only on 20 Watts, and check out our previous 20s below!

It can’t all be negative here at FiS. Well, it can, and it probably will be, but I can attempt making something positive here, right?

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I believe I will let you all in on what I am thankful for this holiday season.

I Am Thankful…

• For Gummy Worms! Or bears, or fruits, or anything in the gummy family, really. Hell, you could throw a bag of gummy penis’ in front of me and I’d probably be willing to nom on them.
• That I Am Not One Of John And Kate Gosselin’s Shitty Children! I’m not kidding. If I was I’d be forced to shoot myself. Not only because my childhood would have been stolen by my over-zealous attention hungry shit-for-brains parents, but also because I’d have a chance of growing up to look like THIS GUY:

Can you say stupid looking Goober?

• That I Have Gone 22-Plus Years On This Planet Without Being Fully Engulfed In Flame. I can’t even begin to express my thankfulness for this one. If there is one thing I’d like to avoid being for the duration of my time on this planet, it’s a human inferno.
• They Can’t Censor The Internet. Because if they did, I’d have no vessel for my colorful language. Where else can I put words such as “Fucktardation” and “Fuckilution” into the public eye? I do, however, believe that BECAUSE the internet isn’t censored, we have a lot of fuckilution clouding it up. But that’s what you get when you have a bunch of people running around screwing things up with all their fucktardation.
• My Radio Has An Off Button: I mainly feel this way because Sheryl Crow exists. I’d be REALLY thankful if gravity reversed in the small patch of land she occupies and then she flies away into the sky and burns up in the atmosphere on her way out. I swear, I didn’t hate the word “Sun” until she started writing music. Sheryl, babe, do you have to use it in EVERY damn song?! No one is that happy all the time. And if you are, you need medication. Also, I call you babe simply to be facetious, because you are hideous to look at as well as listen. Something is seriously wrong with your face. It’s too fake to be fake. It’s as if they carved a statue of your face, then beat you with it repeatadle until shards of your own face stuck in your face. This stopped making sense a few sentances ago, but it’s still making sense. Does that make sense? Sheryl Crow ruins all sense. “IIIIII  wanna soak up the sun!” Fine, then get in a rocket and shoot yourself at it, you obnoxious lunatic.
• I Don’t Have Barophobia. That’s fear of Gravity, in case you’re wondering. Wouldn’t that be a bitch!
• We Made A Holiday That Celebrates The Wonders Of Pie. That’s something we can all be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Pie. And usually multiple kinds of it. In fact, someone brought pie into work today. Which means in a little bit, I’ll be shoving pie in my face. Be jealous, fuckers! The only way it could be better is if it was pie with gummy worms on it. MMM Gummy Worm Pie! OM NOM NOM.
• I Haven’t Gotten Anyone Pregnant Yet. If only because I’m not that big a fan of watching a girl fall down the stairs…
• I Haven’t Had To Kill Someone Yet. Basically, it’s somewhat of a minor miracle that I haven’t. I mean, everyday the thought crosses my mind. Guy on the bus tries to “Axe” the bus driver a question. I want to murder him. With an axe even. Several co-workers simply open their mouths and it makes homicide seem like a viable option. One time, I actually just SAW a person on the street and wanted to push them in front of a SUV. Why? ’cause they kinda looked like a douche, that’s why. I’m also thankful I haven’t killed someone ’cause then I’d go to prison. And for those of you who don’t know, I’m a tiny fucker. Which would make me a wonderful candidate for wife.
• I Was Born A White, Male In America. It’s like winning the fuckin’ universe PowerBall man. I’m not saying White Men are BETTER, we’re just not ever on the shit end of bigotry. Unless we’re gay. Or fat. Or non-Christian… FUCK! Nevermind…
• “Touched By An Angel” Was Taken Off The Air. BEFORE the priest molestation scandals.
• Women Dig Guys With A Sense Of Humor. Oh wait, that’s completely bullshit. Nevermind that one either…
• The Nintendo Wii Has A Wrist Strap. ‘else there would be a pretty fair chance I’d have flung the controller through the TV while pwning bitch-ass goblins in Legend of Zelda. That, and there is also a good chance I’d have thrown it through the TV just trying to keep up with how quickly it tears through batteries. What the fuck, Nintendo, you don’t even SELL batteries so this doesn’t benefit you one bit! Does Mario and the Energizer Bunny have some kind of pact I don’t know about.

Ultimately, these are obviously meant to be a bit on the oddball side, so I figured I’d end this with some serious things I’m thankful for.

I’m thankful I’m still here, despite the fact that I sometimes wish I wasn’t. This place is fun, Earth I mean. It’s like one giant ball of things to make fun of. It’s wonderful in it’s total and utter shitty-ness. I’m also thankful that this blog has given me a medium not only to vent this shit out before I explode, but also to use it to make a couple people laugh. Which brings me to you, you crazy bastards, who are reading this. I’m thankful you fuckers are still around, reading my ranting and raving and considering it mildly amusing. Without your constant ego-boosting compliments, I wouldn’t be the ego-maniacle son of a bitch I am right now. In all seriousness, the last couple of months I’ve managed to become more active, and have also managed to read a ton of hillarious shit. I love you guys, all of you. You’re a bunch of lunatics and weirdos, and it makes my day better. Thanks for putting yourselves out there and saying what needs to be said. And hey, let’s keep  it up. Maybe someday we’ll become so well known that a few pre-teens will occasionaly leave horribly written comments on our blogs with shitty grammar and terrible spelling! We can always dream.

Anyway, now that I got all that positive bullshit out of the way. I’d like to end it with one more thing I’m thankful for:

• I’m Thankful That I’m STILL Not Engulfed In Fire.

Thank you, and enjoy your Day of Over-Eating And Sleeping For Extended Periods Of Time While Not Working.

~Bob

Sheryl Crow is coming to Japan! i’ve got the ticket! I can’t wait!!

looks like she’s not come to Japan for 6 years and it’s gonna be my first time to see her concert!!

Well if love is a cocktail of all that you do,
I get drunk with the thought of you

love her lyrics!

love it when it sounds like she’s even having fun with a crush on someone she misses

me? I’d almost pass out, then.

Daniel de los Reyes as a percussionist has worked along side the who’s who of music. To name a few Yanni, Don Henley, Earth, Wind & Fire, Sheryl Crow.

Daniel de los Reyes gives back with his time and talent to enhance the lives of people with intellectual disabilities.

Here he is teaching the Opportunity Village clients in his community.

Check out Daniel de los Reyes’s sites:

www.myspace.com/danieldelosreyes

http://www.myspace.com/drumjungleinc

www.youtube.com/user/DanielDeLosReyesDrum

Check out his Video Bio:

If you would like to be notified about Daniel’s personal appearances,

 latest news, YouTube video releases, and more,

please sign up on his mailing list by emailing us at danieldelosreyes@drumjungle.com .

#182 – Sheryl Crow – “All I Wanna Do” – (1993)

“Until the sun comes up over Santa Monica Boulevard…” Oh, and the way this song progresses from chorus to verse is just awesome. Also from Tuesday Night Music Club, check out the differently paced “Strong Enough.” On second thought, this song should probably be in the top 25…

ABC & CMT.com Covers the 2009 CMA Awards

The annual CMA Awards are hailed as being the biggest night in country music every year.This year’s 43rd annual show will be hosted by Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood.CMT.com will be covering news from the event as ABC airs the award show live tonight on Weds.November 11,2009  8/7 c .Kid Rock will perform a duet with four-time CMA nominee Jamey Johnson and will also present an award. The rap rocker is no stranger to the CMAs – last year, he performed his country hit “All Summer Long,” and in 2003 was nominated along with Sheryl Crow for vocal event of the year for their song “Picture.”Martina McBride will also join the list of show performers, who already include Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney and show co-hosts Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood. Newly announced presenters include Kris Kristofferson, Lee Ann Womack and the Judds.

Now, some of you already know that I am mosttimes the King of Absolutely Worthless Trivia, and today I came across a piece of trivia that surprised me.

Sheryl Crow is Dirty Diana!

The hot chick walking through the Michael Jackson video is Sheryl Crow, who, at the time, was one of his backup singers. This was always one of my favorite Jackson videos – mainly for the hot chick walking through the video – And now I know why! Because, directly behind my Number 1 & Number 2 favorite Hot Chicks of All Time, Stevie Nicks and Jolene Blalock, respectively, is Ms Crow.

Last week was full of the usual strains that you might associate with the life of a burger flipper. Most of the stressful moments involve customer interactions. I find myself more and more taking a one (or three) beat pause, breathing deeply in and out and then moving on. Part of the sale is letting customers think that they are better than me. It lets them feel more confident in their purchase.  Saturday, not having to deal with this, I got in the car with a random/on- purpose batch of music and headed east along I-94. My not-so-random choices included Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, The Best of Sheryl Crow, and Who’s Next. Kind of generic titles, but I tend to think that a person’s core music says as much about them as their comfort foods (not that I want either to say “generic”). Michigan definitely is showing its bare, November skin. The Fall colors were gone and I enjoyed driving along the empty, quiet flatlands.

New York Times writer Tom Kuntz ran a blog this morning about farming over Detroit (Idea of the Day Blog-Plowing Detroit Into Farmland, NYT, 11/9/09). The idea isn’t exactly Kuntz’, but has been bandied about by the American Institute of Architects and the group Urban Farming (which has based itself in Detroit). As a native Michigander, someone who grew up geographically midway between Detroit and Chicago in Kalamazoo, the notion struck me at first as nonsensical. At first. I am starting to scratch my Charlie Brown head and ask “Why not?”  Why not fight blight with food? Heavy manufacturing isn’t going to come back to eastern Michigan any time soon. There have been the complaints by native Detroiters as well as the national media for years that a lot of the damage of the ’60s rioting has never been repaired or razed. The gag in the last installment of the Scary Movie series in which Detroit looked better after being decimated by alien spacecraft was fairly on target. Stupid, but hit the right note.

Michigan is an agricultural state that had the good fortune to become the first mass producer of automobiles. Those cars have been driven away and maybe it’s time to focus on what we can do. Sustainable farms, wildlife and fisheries resurrection, food for those in need and for the larger market. I’m not the Talking Heads Nothing But Flowers guy lamenting the disappearance of Dairy Queens, honky-tonks and 7-11’s. I think that we can have those things and urban centers that produce food for the world. Onward and (way) upward.

למאזינים שלום!

בתכנית של שלישי האחרון לראשונה הכנסנו שיר שקיבלנו ממאזין! השיר גידי, במקור של שרון ליפשיץ מ-84, אותו קיבלנו בביצוע קאנטרי מקפיץ של תמר קפסוטו, אשר נשלח לנו על ידי המאזין תומר יעקובי. תודה תומר.

אם גם אתם רוצים להגיע לתהילת עולם, שילחו לנו גם אתם קאברים מעניינים ותוכלו לזכות לתודה מכל הלב מאופיר ושחר בשידור שמגיע למיליון בתי אב בחצי הכדור המערבי.

תמר קפסוטו. Cowgirl גידי

עוד הייו בתכנית:

מטאליקה מחדשים את Turn The Page של בוב סיגר בשיר על חייו של כוכב רוק שבקליפ שלהם הפך לסיפור חייה של חשפנית ואמא:

מרגש.. ללא ספק.

עוד הספקנו להחריש לכם את האוזניים עם ביצוע מזעזע של זמרת השקר הגרמניה טניה יונאק ל-La Isla Bonita  של מדונה המלכה אסתר בזירה הבנלאומית. להלן דוגמא:

לאחר מכן, ביצוע נדיר של Blackfield של סטיבן ווילסון ואביב גפן ל-Thank U המצויין של אלאניס מוריסט מתוך סיבוב ההופעות שלהם בארה”ב ב-2007.

ה-Guano Apes, שוב גרמניה, הפעם להקת אלטרנטיב לא מבריקה במיוחד חירבו את קלאסיקת האייטיז Big In japan של  Alphaville כמיטב המסורת של התכנית.

בפינת בקשיש”ק גילינו לכם, למקרה שלא ידעתם, שש-Crying in the rain הוא למעשה לא של A-ha במקור, אלא של The Everlly Brother. ד”א בדרך זו אנו נפרדים מ-A-ha שהתפרקו מתישהו בשבוע שעבר.

Korn שילבו את שלושת החלקים של Another Brick in the wall של פינק פלויד ביחד עם Goodbye Cruel World גם הוא מאלבום החומה, לשבע דקות של שיכרון חושים.

Extreme הזכורים לטובה אך ורק מהשיר More then words מנסים להזכיר שהם בכל זאת להקת רוק ולא הבי ג’יז ומחדשים את Stutter של KISS.

שוב פעם למורת רוחה של שחר נכנסה לתכנית שריל קרואו והפעם עם חידוש ל-D’yer Ma’ker  (קוראים את זה כמו ג’מייקה במבטא בריטי כבד) של לד זפלין.

ואחרונים חביבים היו אלה Dave Matthews Band בביצוע בהופעה חיה של Time of the season של הזומביס.

עד ליום שלישי.. נשתמע

As most of you have probably known, there’s a cool application in Facebook called Pick Your Five. Just now I discovered a really interesting question, “Who would play you, your love interest, your best friend, a parent and your worst enemy in a movie about your life?” so I’d just like to share my answers here. Enjoy~

Me: Andrea Corr
Ah, let’s see. 5′1″, raven-haired and has a passion for singing are some of the things me and Andrea Jane Corr have in common. Furthermore, a reliable website reveals that she is “the messy one in the family”, “known to have an overactive imagination”, “very self-critical and very rarely likes her own work”, “sometimes making a lot out of a simple situation”, and also that she “loves to read and watch movies with the latter often making her emotional”, “loves visiting the world and meeting people of many cultures”, and especially “has the habit of losing things”. Yup, she’d make a good me!

My love interest: Orlando Bloom
Where do I start? Gorgeous, warm smile: check. Hot dishevelled dark mane: check. Fit physique: check. Sophisticated accent: check. Manchester United fan: check. UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador: check. Part of the main cast in Pirates of the Caribbean: check. Long, sexy full name — Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Bloom —: check. What more could a girl ask for?

My best friend: Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Suzanne Crow was originally the top contender to play the role of Sara Dee Rusdiah a.k.a. moi, but seeing as Andrea Corr is almost too creepily that similar to me, I guess it can’t be helped that the latter won the part. On the bright side, however, Sheryl could still be the bestest best friend ever, because 1) we freaking love the same kind of music, 2) we freaking love singing and dogs, and 3) we play the guitar and bass besides piano. AND I’M HER BIGGEST FAN EVERRRRRRRRRRR~ XD

A parent: Johnny Depp
Of course, no one could ever replace my dad for having the ultimate combination of wit, sense of humour, love, protectiveness and rock ‘n roll. If there was one person close enough to be like him, though, I think it would be no other than Johnny Christopher Depp III. Now if only I could get my dad to go to the gym and start watching what he eats… lol.

Worst enemy: Paris Hilton
You know what, I’m not gonna be evil and say nasty things about little miss heiress here because other people are probably already tired of reading about her in a thousand other websites. But psst, Paris, if you’re reading this and thinking, “Oh, no, another girl hates me for being hot and blonde and pretty!” then you’re dead wrong. Keep telling yourself that if you want, I don’t care, but you’re still dead wrong.

Who’d be in your five?