BCB 100 - The Everly Brothers

[The Fish]

Album: The Complete Cadence recordings has just about all the classic stuff you need, and Roots really is terrific.

If two-thirds of the classic stuff (and I'm giving Warner Bros. the shaft here) is good enough.

I'll add Mr Picky to your growing list of names shall I Mr Chuckles/Crusty Old Bastard.

You're right of course though. What you get is everything you need of classic era stuff.

I had Crying In The Rain as one of my BCB cup picks and that's not on it so I'll concede your point.

[Mychael]

Album Songs Our Daddy Taught Us

Song Always It's You

[take5_d_shorterer]

A fairly long time ago, I checked out of my neighborhood public library just the sort of anthology that public libraries have, which was The Smithsonian Collection of Country Music. Most of it had almost no resonance with me at all. There were two tracks though that made me think, "this is unusual.'' One of those was Buck Owens's "Excuse Me", and the other was the Everly Brothers's "Down In the Willow Garden", which is also on Songs Our Daddy Taught Us. This track is better than any of the major hits I've heard. Scarier than anything Elvis recorded; scarier than the folk sources it came from. Very clear, very pure. You don't find hatred and evil in this form in everyday life, even from everyday killers. The type of killing that's done in this song is done with well-honed instruments that don't leave any blood. There isn't another group that could do murder ballads the way this one could.

Listening to this, you know where all those myths of pathological insanity secreted away in the recesses of the South come from.

Song: "Down In the Willow Garden" (also known as "Rose Connely")