More splashin' around in the shoals of the massive ocean that is country music. A few familiar and well-loved names to guide me - Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams (two of her best cuts, "Passionate Kisses" and "Right In Time", no less), Caitlin Cary, Lisa Miller - and other pantheon types whom I know primarily by reputation/name-recognition (the ilk of Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline - plus Dusty Springfield, Janis Joplin and some other more unexpected inclusions). It seems a remarkably comprehensive double cd set, focused on female 'country' artists of course, and there's heaps to enjoy on it beyond that with which I was already familiar.
It occurred to me that one of the reasons why I respond to this kind of music (apart from the obvious double punch that it tends to be both tuneful and sad) is that often there's a sense of coming in midway through a conversation or continuing story, both lyrically and melodically, and both in the sense that individual songs often seem to pick up a thread as if they'd been going on before the song actually started, as it were, and in the sense that there's obviously a rich heritage stretching back upon which these artists are drawing (and of which they're themselves a part), the particular song triggering that thought being Laura Cantrell's "Not The Tremblin' Kind"...
All of this listening to compilations is beginning to give me a sense for how the genre as a whole fits together, from its iconic figures and songs through to its leading contemporary practisers (Shelby Lynne's "Leavin'", say, recurs on a couple of these sets; Alison Krauss is ubiquitous; and so on)...not sure whether this counts as an organic process or quite the opposite. Either way, it's quite exciting to feel this whole field opening up in front of me, waiting to be explored more fully (and explore it I will, I think, despite some continuing misgivings about the simplicity and lack of innovation of much of this music).
Unsurprisingly, I tend to be drawn to the more contemporary musicians - apart from Lucinda, Gillian, etc, Kathleen Edwards' "Six O'Clock News" is one of my favourites (reminding me a bit of Leona Naess' fab "Charm Attack"), and Julie Miller's distinctly pop-inflected "Ride The Wind To Me" is another high point at this stage (her girlish keen reminding me inevitably of Kasey Chambers); Heather Myles' "Love Me A Little Bit Longer", a marginally more 'country' "Right In Time"-esque rocker is also really good. (That said, my favourite 'new' song across the set is probably Wanda Jackson's 1960 number "Funnel Of Love" - the liner notes say it's 'rockabilly' but to me it sounds more like some kind of crazy spaghetti western theme filtered through vaguely sixties-girl-group-esque pop sensibilities and topped by a wonderfully eccentric, gritty voice and delivery.)
