h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This week I have been transported back to my youth on musical wings.

Now I'd expect these wings to be metal - very heavy metal, but I am (as I am rather frequently) mistaken.

Driving my lad to book motorcycle lessons (so proud he may be getting on two wheels) I noticed a small shop, still open, located firmly in the sidestreets of my memory.

Skeleton Records. The shop has been there since Dick docked. Quite a new place when I discovered it, but ancient by today's high street standards. A true blast from my past.

Weekends spent thumbing through acres of vinyl encased in grubby, but wonderfully illustrated, second hand sleeves. Trying to look cool whilst choking on the fog of cigarette smoke and patchouli oil that blanketed the first floor.

Musical memories stirred.

Then I found a whole boatload of programmes popping up on the telly, one after the other, Guitar Heroes, Old Grey Whistle Test era stuff.

The wild, the weird, the wonderful, the taken-too-soon-wasted-genius type of musical legends.

Seen them. They were Brill. He was awful. Wow what a drummer. Stage show was fantastic. Met them. Comments muttered to myself at stupid o'clock in a quiet house. The curse of shift working.

Everything from Led Zep to Motorhead, Free to AC/DC, days when my Sabbath was Black and Purple was Deep!

I must've been born to be wild, with long hair flying and a denim and leather nappy!

Erm, not quite.

Memories, further back than Ozzy and Lemmy.

Names like Willie, Charlie, George and Roy came bubbling up. My mum hoovering around Crystal Chandeliers and Islands in the Stream.

My musical devices and apps bear testament to my childhood influences, there's still an awful lot of country music mixed in with the rock tracks.

Montgomery Gentry sit between Moore and Motorhead, Toby Keith and Keith Moon, Bon Scott and Bonnie Raitt, all mix together happily.

Listening to my radio at work, loving the resurgence and new popularity of southern rock bands.

A perfect mix of the heavy riff and hillbilly twang. New names on my playlists.

Young bands, hopefully destined for a bright future.

Collateral’s Midnight Queen now on repeat.

My musical bridge across time and taste!

Oh, and a Mongolian band called the Hu are worth a listen!

I came close to hijacking your thread, but caught it just in time. I will make a list of favorite southern rock music in my own journal, later.

Always welcome mate

Ah, that reminds me! I was going to share my recent discovery with you.

Don't run away, a banjo is involved, but it is not bluegrass. As one Youtube commentator posted, Rhiannon Giddens is a goddess. Here she is at the Grand Ole Opry with her group, the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcCmg9Oj9XM

Here she is in Northern Ireland, sitting in a church and singing 'Wayfaring Stranger', than which there is no more beautiful song in all the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1Z4PAZX9Bs

Okay, then, here goes:

I like "Proud Mary," by Credence Clearwater.

Also,. Country Joe's "I feel like I'm fixin' to die"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soy3PHV3RiM

"City of New Orleans" wasn't actually written by a Southern band, but I'm making an exception here.

Southern pop music sometimes eases over the line into folk music. That Country Joe song was included in a colleciton of folk songs.

You haven't mentioned anybody Southern yet, Paul. John Fogarty and Country Joe? Both Californians, as far as I know. I note that the composer of 'City of New Orleans', a fine song, was Jewish and hailed from Chicago - the *North Side* of Chicago. He also wrote the quintessential country music song, 'You Never Even Called Me By My Name', which proves something, but I don't know what.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQPNiDyriH0

Of course, my favourite cowboy songwriter is Dimitri Tiomkin: A87835486

Reminds me of the Mike Harding song, it's hard being a cowboy from Rochdale!

Or those modern classics *just can't open the front page blues*, *drowning in a sea of classic goo* and *this darn skin takes me back to 2009*

Lots of people transcend the places where they were born, Dmitri. Stephen Foster was born in Pittsburgh and died in New York, but many of his songs *about* the South are admired.

There is a genre called Swamp Rock, which is "Closely associated with the music of Louisiana (and with good reason)[.] (S)swamp rock combines New Orleans-driven R&B with the traditional Creole and French Louisiana sounds"
http://www.ranker.com/list/swamp-rock-bands-and-musicians/reference

The article continues: "So, what are the best swamp rock bands? For starters, you'd have to include outsiders like Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty, Doobie Brothers, Bobby Charles and Tony Joe White as some of the best swamp rock artists."

As for Country Joe, I concede your point.

I stay with my premise that "City of new Orleans" honors New Orleans, where swamp rock originated. It is one of a small number of songs that evoke that city. "Do you know what it means to miss new Orleans," made famous by Louis Armstrong, is another well-known one.

Anyway, I was talking about songs that I enjoy, grouped around a somewhat southern theme and/or genre.

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Didn't say you couldn't like it.

'City of New Orleans' doesn't honour New Orleans, as far as I can tell. It honours a train.

I should probably go back to that swamp rock site and see if I recognize other bands that I like, or might learn to like.