Origins: English major trapped in Nashville

Subject: Origins:trapped in Nashville
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 11:10 AM

A flute in need caused me to trek across the River to the music store where the Eccentric Genius, she who fixes instruments, has her lair. After taking care of the flute, I lunched at the nearby Popeye's Chicken.

The chicken was good, but the drawback was that I had to listen to country music while I ate. (I know, I know, it doesn't even register with most people, but I'm different.) On the recording, a Standard Baritone - Country (who met all the requirements of Commercial Music Vocal Standard #33P17J) was singing about his rambles, disappointments and heartbreak. He started out by singing someething about Amtrak, and about 11 minutes later sang something like, 'And then I went to Georgia and dared to eat a peach.'

Dared to eat a peach? I sat up as if poked with a hat pin. Somebody in Nashville has read and remembered the Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock! She's probably being held prisoner and is trying to signal the rest of the world to get her out!

See:

http://www.bartleby.com/198/1.html

for the Lovesong. Do a search and you will find the peach about 87% of the way down.

I don't know the name of the song or the singer, and I don't know if it was radio or a CD that I was listening to. So I don't know how to begin tracking her down. What shall we do?

====
Here's another thing about that music. It was so damn slick. I'm sure that somewhere a music producer who grew up in a 3-bedroom ranch turned to a lackey and said, 'You have an MA in music theory and a BS in computer science. Listen to some old-time country and simulate it, cheap.'

For example, in any given song (if you can call a lengthy tuneless monologue a song) every measure had the same drum beat. In the tune with the peach, each measure began with a lifeless whack from a trap set. I don't think there really was a trap set, however, I'm sure it was a computerized track.

Have they figured out how to simulate other instruments? Because the electric guitar accompaniment was equally invariant. There was the same little pattern over and over, with never an ornament, bend, glitch or change in volume. If a real person played it, he's probably in the cell next to the lyricist.

I've decided to call it plastic music.

Subject: RE: Origins: English major trapped in Nashville
From: M.Ted
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 11:38 AM

The best live old timey music I've heard in a long time was in a Broadway play--the recent production of "Inherit the Wind" with Christopher Plummer and Brian Dennehy. They had a Carter Family Style string band, with three part, old time harmonies. These big time professionals give the people what they want--that's the key to Nashville survival (and LA survival, and New York Survival).

At any rate, I think the song you want is Amtrak Crescent, by Scott Miller. And the peach business isn't the only allusion, he makes a real traditional folksong allusion, too.:


Amtrak Crescent
Scott Miller


Well the Amtrak Crescent is a north bound train
When you can't afford to stay no more in New Orleans
So I bought the cheapest ticket and I carried my clothes
And the blood beneath my eyes from a broken nose
When life goes wrong this train goes on and on
When life goes wrong this train goes on

Well there aint no ham like the Birming-ham
To make a fella wanna stay in Alabam
But I crossed into Georgia into Eastern Time
And dared to eat a peach to take it off my mind
When life goes wrong this train goes on

Somewhere between right and wrong
Somehow I manage to keep moving on
Searching for any place but where I am
and a first and second chance

At stop in Charlotte found a hogs leg joint
Seemed like forever 'til we reached High Point
Now Lynchburg to Danville that's a ghost filled rail
If you listen you can hear the engineer's wife wail
When life goes wrong this train goes on

Better say Manassas if you say Bull Run
Or in Virginia you won't get along with anyone
But just across the river you can change your tune
Like all the politicians there in DC do
When life goes wrong they just go on
Chorus

It used to be pretty on the Eastern Shore
Now its more New York down to Baltimore
It took so much effort just to move this train
Why does everything around me have to look the same?
Like when life goes wrong, it just goes on and on

Subject: RE: Origins: English major trapped in Nashville
From: Darowyn
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 11:43 AM

My Steel Guitar playing friends in the US often have a program (sic) called Band in a Box, which is a set of midi patterns which conform to the standard licks in a number of genres, and mainstream country is one of them. In a matter of moments you can type in a few chords, select your style or genre, and you will have a bog standard backing track, exactly as you describe.
They mostly use it for practicing and jamming along with, but it sounds as if somebody is using it to produce finished tracks.
If you sampled a load of Country licks, you could do the same in Garageband- the programme that comes with a Mac.
If you find out who did produce it, send him or her to me and I'll show them how to make it sound a lot more real.
Cheers
Dave

Subject: RE: Origins: English major trapped in Nashville
From: M.Ted
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 12:08 PM

Leeneia's description of the recording is a bit unfair, it is a polished and well produced recording, but no discernable synths, the backing instrumentation is acoustic guitars, bass, and drums with mando, and electric guitar fills--in fact, I think that the band would be offended by her description--sounds like they were trying for a real honky tonk sound--

Subject: RE: Origins: English major trapped in Nashville
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 02:34 PM

Sorry, but that's how it sounded to me. Much too regularized.

Subject: RE: Origins: English major trapped in Nashville
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 02:41 PM

By the way, I'm glad to hear about the band on Broadway. Three part harmony - that's something we don't get to hear very often.

Several years ago my husband and I attended a production of 'As You Like It' in New York. Towards the end, a male actor with a beautifully warm voice, almost like caramel, sang a solo. My husband commented that it was so nice to hear a voice that was different from everybody else's.

Subject: RE: Origins: English major trapped in Nashville
From: Cool Beans
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 04:28 PM

At the Stratford Festival of Canada a few years ago they did "Inherit the Wind" in much the same manner, with lots of singing, hymns mostly, nicely harmonized, no instruments. It was more than atmospheric; it suggested that these dour, narrow-minded townsfolk actually found joy in something--their religion. It suggested further that harmony has something in common with comformity: like minds lead to happy results. That's what I wrote in my review, anyway, and it certainly deepend the play's meaning for me.

Subject: RE: Origins: English major trapped in Nashville
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 09:04 PM

Amazing. I opened the thread expecting to find something about a hapless military man of UK origin, encircled by rebels, near Nashville, during the American rebellion.

Subject: RE: Origins: English major trapped in Nashville
From: M.Ted
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 10:43 PM

In the NYC version, it was very up tempo--definitely in the Carter style, gospel, yes, but with a dance beat. It created the sense that people were there to be entertained--(and I sure was, because they played a lot of tunes!)

Subject: RE: Origins: English major trapped in Nashville
From: GUEST,crazy little woman
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 12:54 PM

'I opened the thread expecting to find something about a hapless military man of UK origin'

Richard, let's not forget how this thread started. It could be that there is a major from the British army trapped in Nashville, but only if he's read and remembered 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.'

MTed, what's the folk song reference you spoke of? Is it the engineer's wife's wail? What's the song?

Subject: RE: Origins: English major trapped in Nashville
From: M.Ted
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 02:26 PM

Sad day indeed, when folks have forgotten "The Wreck of Old 97" Country music's first million-seller hit--and the tale of America's most famous rail disasters--
Here are the relevant verses, as I sing them--I've known them for so long that I've forgotten where I learned them. Your lyrics may vary.

It's a mighty rough road from Lynchburg to Danville,
On a hill with a three-mile grade,
It was on that grade that he lost his airbrake,
You can see what a jump he made.

He was rolling down the track at Ninety Miles an hour
When his whistle broke into a scream.
They found him in the wreck with his hands on the throttle,
He was scalded to death by the steam.

Subject: RE: Origins: English major trapped in Nashville
From: GUEST,crazy little woman
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 05:04 PM

ah! I've heard of the song, but never heard the song itself.

Subject: RE: Origins: English major trapped in Nashville
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 06:53 PM

And the lines

"Well there aint no ham like the Birming-ham
To make a fella wanna stay in Alabam"

echo some patter found in certain versions of Orange Blossom Special.