He was born in Oklahoma/His wife's name is Betty-Lou Thelma Liz
It took me a while to warm up to country music although I'm sure a lot of that had to do with timing more then anything else. When I first started to seriously listen to pop music in the '70s, Country was going through its very heavy "Rhinestone phase" while trying to appeal to the popular music crowd at the same time.
As a kid I remember Glen Campbell having a variety show, Hee Haw was still a staple, and in Canada every Friday night for the longest time was the The Tommy Hunter Show. Tommy's show was probably the worst of the lot as far as I was concerned: big hair, rhinestones, and stiletto boots – and you should have seen what the women were dressed like!
Okay so that's cruel and unfair, but to be honest I almost couldn't tell any of the songs or people apart. It seemed like Country music on television at that time was a never-ending procession of cowboy hats, slow mournful dirges about broken hearts, and people talking about Jesus all the time. There's nothing wrong with any of that I suppose, but it wasn't my idea of entertainment at the time, or now either.
You know he loves to drink that Lone Star beer/Chases it down with that Wild Turkey Liquor
My first inkling that there might be something more to Country music than what I had been seeing on television was my older brother's record collection. In amongst the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, and The Band albums were mixed in stuff by Kris Kristofferson, Hank Williams, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and one album recorded live in Luckenbach Texas by this guy named Jerry Jeff Walker.
When I listened to the Kristofferson records, I didn't notice that much difference between him and some of the folk music to which I liked to listen. I was surprised to see that he was referred to as a Country musician. This made me wonder about what was on that really country looking album by Jerry Jeff Walker.
He's got a '57 GMC pickup truck, with a gun rack and I'd rather step in shit than smoke it bumper sticker
Well what I heard on that record just blew me away. Side one was mostly studio music and featured one of my favorite songs of Jerry Jeff's to this day "Desperados." It was only years later that I found out he had also written the song "Mr. Bojangles", which had been a hit for him on the pop charts. The thing was that alongside of those country folk songs, he was also playing music that sounded suspiciously like Rock and Roll, but with a hearty country twang.
Now as part of their Vanguard Visionaries series Vanguard Records has released Jerry Jeff Walker with ten songs reflecting all aspects of his repertoire. Although he only released two albums originally with Vanguard, the material on them provides examples of every type of music that he has recorded over the course of his career. From the more typical folk/country sound of "Morning Song To Sally" to the highly unexpected "Lost Sea Shanty" with its very San Francisco Bay area sound, complete with jangling guitar, pop vocal harmonies, and incessant tambourine.
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