June 7, 2005
The Second Anti-Spam A-bomb
The word "casino" has been added to the blacklist, for the same reason as "poker." I have far more joy in adding this one, although it may prove troublesome when dealing with public policy discussions of indian gaming. Perhaps we should use "houses of blight" when referring to Indian casinos, especially when they pop up in otherwise beautiful places like the Anderson Valley.
As to Kenny Rogers, I used to think of him as bland pseudo-country, but the other day I was listening to a country station in the Central Valley, and "The Gambler" came on, and I realized that it isn't a bad song. I pulled out the album it was from, and was pleasantly surprised.
Posted by erik at June 7, 2005 1:48 PM | TrackBackI definitely second your endorsement of Starday King. Go Stanley Brothers! Yee haw! There are a lot of interesting stories about some of those old country labels floating around the record industry.
For country music fanatics, I recommend the Bear Family boxed sets. Some amazing stuff.
The thing with country music from the 70's is that it had its faults, but there was a basic craftsmanship that has gone AWOL from a lot of the country of the 80's and 90's. Fortunately I am hearing it come back (more fiddles, for instance). But I am finding that the 70's stuff is actually quite enjoyable. It ain't Hank Sr., but it beats a lot of the black hat crap.
Posted by: Erik Keilholtz at June 9, 2005 9:53 AMTo anyone who even likes country music a little I say this:
Go find and buy anything from the 60's on Starday or King records. You'll have to hunt for vinyl, but I think a few things might be on CD by now.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on Kenny for the simple reason that I was surprised how great old Johnny Paycheck records (from the 60's) are. He was on Starday I think. Another label was L'il Darlin'. Much different than the "Take This Job n Shove It" stuff from the 70's.
Posted by: tony c at June 9, 2005 8:58 AMi am rather fond of kenny rogers, myself
thanks for running my palm pilot back to me at the airport
will probably blog our dinner party after I get back from the munchkin's Pops Concert