I don't know if a thread like this has gone before.

I've recently re-read the Reggae Got Soul article in an old copy of Voices, conincidently around the same time Candi Statton's "Stand by Your Man" and a couple of tracks from the Womack album "BW goes CW" came up on my pod and it got me thinking. What about turning the Voices article on its head and changing it from reggae to country music.

Surely theres are a few good discs with soul artists recording country records? Country music has similar roots to soul and there have been some prolific writers, Willie Nelson being one of them, not that I know much about country music.

When I was younger I'm sure I ignored tunes with writers like Dolly Parton (real left field example) and we have all seen Don Covay and Wee Gee in cowboy hats.

So give it a go...

John

I don't know if a thread like this has gone before.

I've recently re-read the Reggae Got Soul article in an old copy of Voices, conincidently around the same time Candi Statton's "Stand by Your Man" and a couple of tracks from the Womack album "BW goes CW" came up on my pod and it got me thinking. What about turning the Voices article on its head and changing it from reggae to country music.

Surely theres are a few good discs with soul artists recording country records? Country music has similar roots to soul and there have been some prolific writers, Willie Nelson being one of them, not that I know much about country music.

When I was younger I'm sure I ignored tunes with writers like Dolly Parton (real left field example) and we have all seen Don Covay and Wee Gee in cowboy hats.

So give it a go...

John

Here's a few to start you off, then...

Joe Hinton - Funny How Time Slips Away (original: Willie Nelson)

Mighty Sam - In the Same Old Way (original: Bobby Bare)

Bobby Sheen - My Shoes Keep Walking Back To You (original: Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys)

Moses And Joshua Dillard - My Elusive Dreams (original: Curly Putman)

Arthur Alexander - Set Me Free (original: Curly Putman!)

Aaron Neville - The Grand Tour (original: George Jones)

Betty Swann - Today I Started Loving You Again (original: Merle Haggard)

Al Green - I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (original: Hank Williams)

Ray Charles - Together Again (original: Buck Owens) + many others!

Cookie Jackson - Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad (original: Tammy Wynette)

Big Al Downing - The Story Of My Life (original: Marty Robbins)

James Carr - Life Turned Her That Way (original: Little Jimmy Dickens)

Solomon Burke - Detroit City (original: Billy Grammer, as "I Wanna Go Home")

J Blackfooot - I Don't Remember Ever Loving You (original: John Conlee)

Esther Phillips - I Saw Me (original: George Jones)

Willie Hobbs - Don't Take It Away (original: Conway Twitty)

Joe Simon - Chokin' Kind (original: Waylon Jennings)

Joe Simon - Yours Love (original: also Waylon Jennings)

Johnny Robinson - Green Green Grass Of Home (original: Johnny Darrell)

Percy Sledge - Take Time To Know Her (original: Steve Davis - no not that one!)

Otis Williams - I Fall To Pieces (original: Patsy Cline)

Tami Lynn - Wings Upon Your Horns (original: Loretta Lynn)

Johnny Adams - Hell Yes, I Cheated (original: James Pastell)

Curtis Womack - Last Date (original vocal version: Conway Twitty)

Millie Jackson - Sweet Music Man (original: Kenny Rogers)

Bobby Powell - Lucille (original: Kenny Rogers)

Millie Jackson - If You're Not back In Love By Monday (original: Merle Haggard)

Bo Kirkland and Ruth Davis - Easy Lovin' (original: Freddie Hart)

Irma Thomas - A Woman Left Lonely (original: Charlie Rich)

...I'll doubtless think of some more later....

TWO GUN TONE

Can I recommend this book by a guy who used to work at NME with me. It gets to the heart of the thread:

4 Say It One Time for the Broken Hearted: Country Side of Southern Soul

~Barney Hoskyns

Bloomsbury

Joe Hinton "Funny how time slips away" Willie Nelson song. One of the greatest records ever made, period.

How about, Joe Simon "Georgia Blue" Not sure who made the country version. Just a magic record. I like the "Simon Country" Album as well. Some great tracks on that.

On a lighter note, I really like Clarence Carter's version of Harper Valley PTA.

There must be hundreds.

BFN

Alan

I recently sold a Beverley Ann 45 (Yov've got your mind on other things fame) called We got trouble which was country music meeting northern soul head on. Strange record , anyone else ever heard it?

Joe Hinton "Funny how time slips away" Willie Nelson song. One of the greatest records ever made, period.

How about, Joe Simon "Georgia Blue" Not sure who made the country version...

Amazingly, it would seem that nobody did - this song, written I think by Buddy Buie and J.R. Cobb of the Classics IV (and later the Atalanta Rhythm Section) seems to have been originally either by the Classics IV or by Joe himself. In a country collection that numbers several thousand singles (which perhaps I shouldn't own up to here!) I've never owned any other versions....

TONE

barbara redd - I'll be all alone - spqr

Amazingly, it would seem that nobody did - this song, written I think by Buddy Buie and J.R. Cobb of the Classics IV (and later the Atalanta Rhythm Section) seems to have been originally either by the Classics IV or by Joe himself. In a country collection that numbers several thousand singles (which perhaps I shouldn't own up to here!) I've never owned any other versions....

TONE

Well, I've had a long hard week!

I stand corrected. It bloody well sounds like it should have been.

Regards Alan

I don't know if a thread like this has gone before.

I've recently re-read the Reggae Got Soul article in an old copy of Voices, conincidently around the same time Candi Statton's "Stand by Your Man" and a couple of tracks from the Womack album "BW goes CW" came up on my pod and it got me thinking. What about turning the Voices article on its head and changing it from reggae to country music.

Surely theres are a few good discs with soul artists recording country records? Country music has similar roots to soul and there have been some prolific writers, Willie Nelson being one of them, not that I know much about country music.

When I was younger I'm sure I ignored tunes with writers like Dolly Parton (real left field example) and we have all seen Don Covay and Wee Gee in cowboy hats.

So give it a go...

John

Hi John

We are at times a close relation to country music;

I remember picking this one up in a second hand shop years ago, because it was on M-G-M

Diane Landry MGM 13656 7" If you can't hold your man

The records arrangement almost has a Northern feel to it.


Obviously nothing like the Wonderful "Queen Of Fools" by Barbara Mills who I believe is a country artist?

Edited June 20, 201410 yr by 45cellar

We are at times a close relation to country music;

..Charlie Rich-'Love is after me'.......

..Ray Charles did a Country Album...

It could be said that 'Country' is a kind of 'white'Soul.....

mary fox on her show last night said this was a.country song ?









ricky.





sock it to em shorty.

..Charlie Rich-'Love is after me'.......

..Ray Charles did a Country Album...

It could be said that 'Country' is a kind of 'white'Soul.....

"Love Is After Me" - not a country record in any way - not even slightly - and Charlie Rich is by no means a typical country singer. His favorite music was jazz and blues, and Bobby Bland was one of his most admired artists. You can his his love of Bland on the B side of "Love Is After Me", the fantastic "Pass Me By" - which sounds for all the world like a long lost outtake from "Two Steps From The Blues"...

Ray Charles actually recorded six country albums, as well as a considerable number of country songs that went on his regular albums. During the early 1980s he recorded nothing but country music, and his records regularly made those charts without crossing over to pop

It could equally be said that Soul is a kind of black country, but that would be as patronising as saying that "Country is a kind of white soul", in my opinion. They are both wonderful types of music, with many common threads to link them - great songs, superb singers, messages that touch the heart and move the soul. A great many soul artists have remaked that they grew up listening to Hank Williams records or the famous Grand Ole Opry on the radio, and most of the Memphis and Musicle Shoals musicians who played on our favourite Southern Soul sides have also put in more than their fair share of time pickin' on a-list Nashville sessions.

To me, you can't separate the two genres. They are equally important, equally compelling and equally collectable (although I'm glad that most soul fans don't seem to agree with me on these points, as it means I can pick up killer diller country 45s for barely a fraction of the price that I have to pay for their soul equivalents!...)

TONE

Anybody mentioned Dolly Parton - Busy Signal?

Pure delight.......honest!!

.....and Charlie Rich is by no means a typical country singer.

-...I was referring to him as such...a Country Singer, NOT, the song..

It could equally be said that Soul is a kind of black country, but that would be as patronising as saying that "Country is a kind of white soul", in my opinion.

.....glad to see, that as I thought, my comments would, they have sparked a little debate....

Never mind that - just WHO was it who put the c*** in Country and Western?

Slight deviation from the origional post but on another soul site some months back I posted a question on the lines of what soulies felt about Elvis (can't remember exactly how I couched the question) but part of my post stated that I had just been listening to Kentucky Rain by Elvis. I said it then and I say it again, I defy anyone (nicely) to tell me that song isn't soulful.

I'm not a C&W fan by any stretch of the imagination by the way.

KTF.

Drew.

Slight deviation from the origional post but on another soul site some months back I posted a question on the lines of what soulies felt about Elvis (can't remember exactly how I couched the question) but part of my post stated that I had just been listening to Kentucky Rain by Elvis. I said it then and I say it again, I defy anyone (nicely) to tell me that song isn't soulful.

I'm not a C&W fan by any stretch of the imagination by the way.

KTF.

Drew.

At his best (e.g. "If I Can Dream", "Suspicous Minds", "His Latest Flame" and hundreds of others), Elvis is one of the greatest singers of all - any genre, any style of music. At his worst (e.g. "An American Trilogy", "My Boy", "Always On My Mind" and, again, plenty of others ) he's as bad as any of his myriad impersonators...

TONE

PS - Those of us who like Country as much as we like soul (and there are many more of us than most "Source"-ers might think!) haven't called it "Country And Western" or C & W in years, and we all wish everyone who still calls it that would stop, by the way. There's nothing remotely "western" about singers like George Jones, Charley Pride, Merle Haggard and the late Waylon Jennings, any one of whom is a match for the very best soul artists that have ever come to the world's attention. The term "Country And Western" was phased out by Billboard magazine around 1970, and I really don't know why it still persists -but I heartily wish it wouldn't. :angry:

Here's one I've recenty picked up. Buddy Wayne "I'd Fight For My Baby" on Garpax.

Never mind that - just WHO was it who put the c*** in Country and Western?

I think it was the same guy who put the soul in arsehole !!

At his best (e.g. "If I Can Dream", "Suspicous Minds", "His Latest Flame" and hundreds of others), Elvis is one of the greatest singers of all - any genre, any style of music. At his worst (e.g. "An American Trilogy", "My Boy", "Always On My Mind" and, again, plenty of others ) he's as bad as any of his myriad impersonators...

TONE

PS - Those of us who like Country as much as we like soul (and there are many more of us than most "Source"-ers might think!) haven't called it "Country And Western" or C & W in years, and we all wish everyone who still calls it that would stop, by the way. There's nothing remotely "western" about singers like George Jones, Charley Pride, Merle Haggard and the late Waylon Jennings, any one of whom is a match for the very best soul artists that have ever come to the world's attention. The term "Country And Western" was phased out by Billboard magazine around 1970, and I really don't know why it still persists -but I heartily wish it wouldn't. :angry:

At his best (e.g. "If I Can Dream", "Suspicous Minds", "His Latest Flame" and hundreds of others), Elvis is one of the greatest singers of all - any genre, any style of music. At his worst (e.g. "An American Trilogy", "My Boy", "Always On My Mind" and, again, plenty of others ) he's as bad as any of his myriad impersonators...

TONE

PS - Those of us who like Country as much as we like soul (and there are many more of us than most "Source"-ers might think!) haven't called it "Country And Western" or C & W in years, and we all wish everyone who still calls it that would stop, by the way. There's nothing remotely "western" about singers like George Jones, Charley Pride, Merle Haggard and the late Waylon Jennings, any one of whom is a match for the very best soul artists that have ever come to the world's attention. The term "Country And Western" was phased out by Billboard magazine around 1970, and I really don't know why it still persists -but I heartily wish it wouldn't. :angry:

Fair enough.

KTF.

Drew.

To me, you can't separate the two genres. They are equally important, equally compelling and equally collectable (although I'm glad that most soul fans don't seem to agree with me on these points, as it means I can pick up killer diller country 45s for barely a fraction of the price that I have to pay for their soul equivalents!...)

TONE

Big Country fan - Not such a fan of Western mind you.

My favourite Country Soul record - Magnificent Men - By the time I get to Phoenix. Brilliant!

Kenny loves it too so he may be along with a soundclip if we're lucky

Slight deviation from the origional post but on another soul site some months back I posted a question on the lines of what soulies felt about Elvis (can't remember exactly how I couched the question) but part of my post stated that I had just been listening to Kentucky Rain by Elvis. I said it then and I say it again, I defy anyone (nicely) to tell me that song isn't soulful.

I'm not a C&W fan by any stretch of the imagination by the way.

KTF.

Drew.

i don't know if it is still there or not but i posted an elvis track that i have played out ( as well as many other people ) called "let yourself go " which in my opinion is great

Big Country fan - Not such a fan of Western mind you.

My favourite Country Soul record - Magnificent Men - By the time I get to Phoenix. Brilliant!

Kenny loves it too so he may be along with a soundclip if we're lucky

Any minit` now,and another maybe?

i don't know if it is still there or not but i posted an elvis track that i have played out ( as well as many other people ) called "let yourself go " which in my opinion is great

Can't find it Davie. Could you post it again.

What response did an Elvis record get played out?

KTF.

Drew.

I don't know if a thread like this has gone before.

I've recently re-read the Reggae Got Soul article in an old copy of Voices, conincidently around the same time Candi Statton's "Stand by Your Man" and a couple of tracks from the Womack album "BW goes CW" came up on my pod and it got me thinking. What about turning the Voices article on its head and changing it from reggae to country music.

Surely theres are a few good discs with soul artists recording country records? Country music has similar roots to soul and there have been some prolific writers, Willie Nelson being one of them, not that I know much about country music.

When I was younger I'm sure I ignored tunes with writers like Dolly Parton (real left field example) and we have all seen Don Covay and Wee Gee in cowboy hats.

So give it a go...

John

Hi..Hows about ...Charlie McCoy .......singing...My Baby's Back Now ?ATB Stevie

HOLLYWOOD FLAMES 'DROP ME A LINE' VEE JAY

JOHNNY WILLIAMS 'HE WILL BREAK YOUR HEART' EPIC

LUV-EM BOTH.....SOUL BEAT WITH COUNTRY VIBES

CHRIS M

Let not forget B Goldsborough,T Martin

Heres Magnificent men,not really country though?,Jim Webb more mad R+B mod rokcer,who writen loads of good toons,got a album somewhere by him,couple of the trakcs where played at Wigan.

Let not forget B Goldsborough,T Martin

Heres Magnificent men,not really country though?,Jim Webb more mad R+B mod rokcer,who writen loads of good toons,got a album somewhere by him,couple of the trakcs where played at Wigan.

GOT A COUPLE OF THOSE LPS KEN IF ANYONE'S AFTER ONE !!

I've recently re-read the Reggae Got Soul article in an old copy of Voices, conincidently around the same time Candi Statton's "Stand by Your Man" and a couple of tracks from the Womack album "BW goes CW" came up on my pod and it got me thinking. What about turning the Voices article on its head and changing it from reggae to country music.

I'm sure I heard Bobby Womack say he wanted to call the album

Step Aside, Charley Pride, Give Another N***** a Try

I think he was jok=ing.

Barney Hoskins' book Say it one more time for the broken hearted is devoted to the country side of southern soul. One can hear it in Ray Charles, Solomon Burke, Arthur Alexander and Percy Sledge.

I'm sure I heard Bobby Womack say he wanted to call the album

Step Aside, Charley Pride, Give Another N***** a Try

I think he was jok=ing.

Barney Hoskins' book Say it one more time for the broken hearted is devoted to the country side of southern soul. One can hear it in Ray Charles, Solomon Burke, Arthur Alexander and Percy Sledge.

PERCY SLEDGE SUCH A THIN LINE BETWEEN COUNTRY AND SOL 'SUDDEN STOP' IS WONDERFULL !!

Berry Gordy had loads of country releases on Mel-o-dee records,pretty good too!!,and lets not forget Bobby Daren(sail away)is the original on Motown.

Can't find it Davie. Could you post it again.

What response did an Elvis record get played out?

KTF.

Drew.

from the crowd in attendance the response was excellent , from some people on here not so great

elvis.mp3

I don't know if a thread like this has gone before.

Candi Statton's "Stand by Your Man" and a couple of tracks from

So give it a go...

John

I used to play this at George Jackson. It always went down a storm with the non-soul crowd, but some of the soulies found it very difficult, stern faces. I think they thought I was being ironic or something. I just played it because I think its a great and overlooked record. Speaking of Elvis, just been enthusing about the Arthur Alexander Warner Brothers LP (incidental but has a version of Burnng Love). What a great LP.

Edited June 21, 200618 yr by noss

Roy Hamilton's version of Oldham & Penn's "Dark End of The Street" is a very beautiful and poignant record. One of his last I believe.

Well I am gob-smacked at the amount of records I know or have, but didn't realize were country songs.

Willie Hobbs on Bandit IMO was one of the best records of 89.

Once thing which is disappointing is James Carr's unreleased version of Ring of Fire on a CD not long ago and I must admit I do prefer Johnny Cash.

I think it's time I got my tunes out of storage, but on my Stetson hat and "go a huntin".

John

Nancy Wilson - Don't let me be lonely tonight - James taylor record

Here's a few to start you off, then...

Joe Hinton - Funny How Time Slips Away (original: Willie Nelson)

Mighty Sam - In the Same Old Way (original: Bobby Bare)

Bobby Sheen - My Shoes Keep Walking Back To You (original: Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys)

Moses And Joshua Dillard - My Elusive Dreams (original: Curly Putman)

Arthur Alexander - Set Me Free (original: Curly Putman!)

Aaron Neville - The Grand Tour (original: George Jones)

Betty Swann - Today I Started Loving You Again (original: Merle Haggard)

Al Green - I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (original: Hank Williams)

Ray Charles - Together Again (original: Buck Owens) + many others!

Cookie Jackson - Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad (original: Tammy Wynette)

Big Al Downing - The Story Of My Life (original: Marty Robbins)

James Carr - Life Turned Her That Way (original: Little Jimmy Dickens)

Solomon Burke - Detroit City (original: Billy Grammer, as "I Wanna Go Home")

J Blackfooot - I Don't Remember Ever Loving You (original: John Conlee)

Esther Phillips - I Saw Me (original: George Jones)

Willie Hobbs - Don't Take It Away (original: Conway Twitty)

Joe Simon - Chokin' Kind (original: Waylon Jennings)

Joe Simon - Yours Love (original: also Waylon Jennings)

Johnny Robinson - Green Green Grass Of Home (original: Johnny Darrell)

Percy Sledge - Take Time To Know Her (original: Steve Davis - no not that one!)

Otis Williams - I Fall To Pieces (original: Patsy Cline)

Tami Lynn - Wings Upon Your Horns (original: Loretta Lynn)

Johnny Adams - Hell Yes, I Cheated (original: James Pastell)

Curtis Womack - Last Date (original vocal version: Conway Twitty)

Millie Jackson - Sweet Music Man (original: Kenny Rogers)

Bobby Powell - Lucille (original: Kenny Rogers)

Millie Jackson - If You're Not back In Love By Monday (original: Merle Haggard)

Bo Kirkland and Ruth Davis - Easy Lovin' (original: Freddie Hart)

Irma Thomas - A Woman Left Lonely (original: Charlie Rich)

...I'll doubtless think of some more later....

TWO GUN TONE

Didn't Loretta Lynn get slated at the time for Wings Upon Your Horns because it was thought to be rude? Not sure if slated is the right word for the response the record got but you'll know what I mean.

See Tone I do now something about country (not called it C&W).

KTF.

Drew.

Mad Lads "By The Time I get To Phoenix", Just THE best version - listen for the backing vocalists sing "judas priest,junkie,thief" - sublime!

Has it taken you 8 years to come up with that response Shuggie61?  

Kent has now released two CDs of country covers by soul artists.

Cissy Houston - Midnight train to Georgia - Country soul perhaps - the original version and a great take on the song.

 

Adam

"Love Is After Me" - not a country record in any way - not even slightly - and Charlie Rich is by no means a typical country singer. His favorite music was jazz and blues, and Bobby Bland was one of his most admired artists. You can his his love of Bland on the B side of "Love Is After Me", the fantastic "Pass Me By" - which sounds for all the world like a long lost outtake from "Two Steps From The Blues"...

Ray Charles actually recorded six country albums, as well as a considerable number of country songs that went on his regular albums. During the early 1980s he recorded nothing but country music, and his records regularly made those charts without crossing over to pop

It could equally be said that Soul is a kind of black country, but that would be as patronising as saying that "Country is a kind of white soul", in my opinion. They are both wonderful types of music, with many common threads to link them - great songs, superb singers, messages that touch the heart and move the soul. A great many soul artists have remaked that they grew up listening to Hank Williams records or the famous Grand Ole Opry on the radio, and most of the Memphis and Musicle Shoals musicians who played on our favourite Southern Soul sides have also put in more than their fair share of time pickin' on a-list Nashville sessions.

To me, you can't separate the two genres. They are equally important, equally compelling and equally collectable (although I'm glad that most soul fans don't seem to agree with me on these points, as it means I can pick up killer diller country 45s for barely a fraction of the price that I have to pay for their soul equivalents!...)

TONE

The musicianship as well is usually spot on and crystal clear tony.....bobby Patterson and George Jackson surely blend a bit of country in the odd recordings 

dave L

Edited June 19, 201410 yr by lfcjunkie

Candy Carroll (aka Carolyn Franklin) did a great version of Hank Williams Your Cheatin' Heart on Double L. One of my favorite records.

 

 

In other news: How about weird soulish country done by a strange c&w singer? A strange and wonderful record for those of us who like weird 45s.

Edited June 21, 201410 yr by LarsC

Never mind that - just WHO was it who put the c*** in Country and Western?

I think it was the same guy who put the soul in arsehole !!

 

Once stopped by local pub landlord who asked where I'd been....

I said  "Dog & Partridge"...they have a soul nite on Thursdays"...

 

He replied "we have arsehole night  every night in here"

Edited June 20, 201410 yr by Guest

Hi Mike L it's been incubating...I also didn't know George "Get Involved" Soule was white until 5 years ago...

John Abbey editor of Blues and Soul his first love was country music.

Ray Charles was a massive influence on all our heroes and his country blues helped to define our music. I like Country, but I hate Western. Good post.

Got loads of this stuff at home. Mostly obscure and i can't bring titles to mind!

There is however, a double LP of some of Charlie Rich's 60s material that came out in UK in 70s. *Very easy to pick up.There are one or two killers on that- an uptempo dancer called 'Time on My Hands' and an awesome beat ballad which i think is called 'Something's Gotten Into Me' or something like that

Also got a blinding northern / popcorn version of 'High Noon' on Canadian CBS. Female singer ...can't for the life of me remember her name...

Bought a good Joey Gilmore 'miss your sweet lovin' recently (thank you mr dearlove !) , more than a bit country ish !!