Comments on: Wilco Will Love You, Baby

By: Hugh Green

Hugh Green — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:46:09 +0000

Tom T. Hall is the man. I never met anyone I didn’t not like who didn’t not like I Like Beer. I did have a tape of Willie McCrea’s songs some years back, which I lifted from the van of a work colleague. The songs are blood-curdlingly awful. More in a banality-of-evil way than a my-friend-King-Rat way, if you know what I mean.

By: Seán Báite

Seán Báite — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:12:31 +0000

Holy Willie Nelson, Hugh - Tom T Hall! - most Tom T Hall fans I ever encountered would’ve had their names in the buke at the door of the Garda Club…
Course in terms of alt.country youse from North of Drogheda have the Rev. William MacRea as well (or whatever his name is…)
Might I meekly advance the name of Eugene Chadbourne while we’re at it ?

By: Hugh Green

Hugh Green — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:54:36 +0000

No Tom T Hall fans round here I take it. You can’t get more alt.country than Who’s gonna feed them hogs? or Old Dogs Children And Watermelon Wine. (For cred purposes I should point out that Gram Parsons did cover a Tom T Hall song on Grievous Angel). If alt.alt.country is your thing, may I suggest Bobby Womack’s BW Goes C&W? Course that’s not what he originally planned to call it.

By: Jim Kennedy

Jim Kennedy — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:51:03 +0000

Other Damian - I don’t think you could handle a full review. You would only get upset and it would ruin your Gallic sojourn.

Seán - like all music label, alt.country is silly, yes, but without such labels we would be reduced to fumbling for laboured comparisons - “Wilco are like late era VU, but with Gram Parsons on vocals, if he was channelling the sentiments of the bastard child of a drunken Willy Nelson and June Carter, but with feedback.”

Definitely agree about better music derived from Nashville, rather than in it, sure, but I guess we do owe it a huge debt.

John - Brooking no argument and backing yourself up by linking to pitchfork.com, the most stridently dogmatic music site ever? Fair enough, we concede; the Mekons it is.

By: John Green

John Green — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:49:49 +0000

Alt.country began with the album Fear and Whiskey by the Mekons. I shall brook no argument.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/5208-fear-and-whiskey/

By: Seán Báite

Seán Báite — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 09:17:35 +0000

Welcome back Jim - the last living member of the great Kennedy clan… (now that Ted’s in the ground). Unfortunately, no Wilco gigs anywhere near me in the near future.
alt.country surely dates back from when Big Tom went mainline…
But seriously - do ye not think it’s a bit of a silly term ? There’s always been much more stuff going on (and much more INTERESTING stuff) outside mainstream Nashville than within. Maybe without walls of feedback but you could call it ‘alt’ if you want… if there’s any use in doing so apart from running a newsgroup (do they still exist ?).
Then there’s Gram Parsons slightly pre-dating the VU - when was that Byrds ‘Sweetheart of the Rodeo’ album from ??
Apart from that I think everything good can be traced back to the VU - apart from Guinness (sometime in the 18th century) and whiskey (sometime before Big Tom)

By: Other Damian

Other Damian — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:46:35 +0000

Grrr. Gnashes teeth as not in the country for wilco gig. Jim, I want a full report of the gig, although I fail to see how it could surpass the last one.

By: Jim Kennedy

Jim Kennedy — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:47:34 +0000

Hey Damien - I heard they played for ages last night. What time did they go on at last night? I don’t want to be late….

Donagh - I think we could probably make a case for VU being responsible for everything good in the world, but wow, I’ve just played both of those tracks side by side. It’s the exact same riff.

By: Donagh

Donagh — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:30:03 +0000

Well, I guess you can say that the Velvet Underground influenced most of the bands playing today, especially the older ones like Wilco. A lot of them started out as punk bands, and when they started listening to more music they discovered country – it seems. Listen to Conor’s Jubilee Allstars podcast again (or for the first time). They started out as members of a punk band, but went all country as they developed as musicians. Happens all the time. Actually I think the sound of Wilco owes more to the eponymous Velvet Underground album with Pale Blue Eyes and Jesus. However, in order to support your thesis as a fellow DO person, I noticed this morning that I’m Always in Love from Summer Teeth rips off (or pays homage to) the riff from the VU's Waiting for The Man. Wilco - I’m Always in Love VU - Waiting For The Man Thanks to musical pairings for the Wilco MP3 and Knox Road for the VU track.

By: Damien

Damien — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:09:53 +0000

Wilco were brillinat last night so they were- getting better with age…