Listen: Take This Job And Shove It / Johnny Paycheck
Take

Never predicted it might happen but nowadays am finding myself intrigued by occasional styles of older country music. Other than all the 50′s and 60′s females, and the 70′s too I guess, I never did get hooked by many of the male singers. Similar to my early interest in soul, it was the female voice that grabbed me most.

So not counting the odd contradiction to the above, I find Outlaw Country as it seemed to be coined, hugely entertaining. And in the case of Johnny Paycheck, even more so. Probably not by design, but turns out he actually lived it. All the elements a trashy made for TV documentary would require apply: alcohol, drugs, divorce, problems with the IRS, guns and jail.

I couldn’t resist this trailer trash icon and his accompanying take on David Allan Coe’s trailer trash anthem ‘Take This Job And Shove It’.

If anybody has some preferably harsher, post Rockabilly, demented hillbilly recommendations, bring them on.

Listen: I’m The Lover Man / Little Jerry Williams
LittleJerryWilliamsLoverMan.mp3

Every much a writer and a producer as he is an artist, Jerry Williams began a long timeline of releasing 45′s as Little Jerry Williams in ’54. Ten years down the line from there, he recorded ‘I’m The Lover Man’ as a one off for Loma, the Warner Brothers imprint created primarily as an outlet for RnB/Soul and Bob Krasnow, who oversaw the operation.

By ’74, he was Swamp Dogg.

In a recent on-air interview for NPR, Jerry Williams claimed to be raised on country music.

“Black music didn’t start ’til 10 at night ending around 4 in the morning and I was in bed by then. If you strip my tracks, take away all the horns and guitar licks, what you have is a country song.”

In fact, as proof, he even earned a Grammy nomination in ’71, along with Gary US Bonds, for composing the Johnny Paycheck Country Single Of The Year, “She’s All I Got”.

‘I’m The Lover Man’ indeed seems to exemplify the template, while maintaining his signature tongue in cheek lyrics.