{"id":483,"date":"2007-04-12T23:35:08","date_gmt":"2007-04-13T03:35:08","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-12-10T22:43:58","modified_gmt":"2008-12-10T22:43:58","slug":"thrifty-music-vol-4-nashville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/thrifty-music-vol-4-nashville\/","title":{"rendered":"Thrifty Music, Vol. 5: Nashville"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends — the Thrifty Music show, that is!<\/strong><\/em> And why exactly does this show never end? Because people will never — repeat, never<\/em> — stop throwing perfectly good music away. Well, society’s loss is our gain here at RTH, and it’s my job to scour the junk stores and thrift shops to catalog all the cool stuff that folks are tossing in the bin.<\/p>\n

This week’s Thrifty Music sampler comes to you from Nashville, Tennessee<\/strong>, where I had the dubious pleasure of spending around 14 hours a few days ago. While on my whirlwind visit, I stopped by my fave thrift store on the outskirts of town, and — lo and behold — somebody had finally lost patience with the vinyl medium and dumped their entire collection of 45 RPM records. In this rather sizable pile, I managed to find a few oddities and nostalgic boomerangs that I thought worthy of sharing. So, onwards!<\/p>\n

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\nFirst up: “Dream Queen”<\/strong><\/a> by Rusty & Doug<\/strong> — as in Rusty and Doug Kershaw. I just love this number — a perfect stew of ’50s doo-wop, cajun abandon, and Everly Brothers polish. The number one find of the day, for sure. Dig that doo-wop backup vocal in the chorus!<\/p>\n

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\nNext: “Muleskinner Blues”<\/strong><\/a> by The Fendermen<\/strong>. Wow — what a wonderfully weird record! Before any Townsman<\/strong> goes conjuring up some romanticized, obscurantist fantasy about two barefoot hillbillies in overalls, a-stompin’ their feet and smokin’ corncob pipes, while waving jugs of “X X X” moonshine<\/strong> over their heads — the Fendermen were actually a couple of teenagers in Wisconsin who had a freak hit with this song back in the early ’60s. But, “authentic” or no, it still kicks major ass, sez I.<\/p>\n

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\nTrack 3: “I Know I Should”<\/strong><\/a> by The Sophomores<\/strong>. I knew it would finally happen — I’d find a dusty old 45 out there about which the Internet seems to know nothing<\/em>. This one has really grown on me — maybe it has something to do with the weird, circular chord pattern in the verses. Plus, every now and then, everybody needs a solid dose of Vox organ. Enjoy!
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\nNext: “You, I”<\/strong><\/a> by The Rugbys<\/strong>. Okay, I admit, this is only a slightly-better-than-mediocre, vaguely psychedelic rave-up by a Grade Z Blue Cheer wannabe<\/strong>, but I felt I had to share. Why? Because The Rugbys are still out there, mining whatever brand recognition they ever had, as a somewhat pathetic cover band in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. See their set list here<\/strong><\/a>. Stranger yet is the fact that The Rugbys make no mention of their brief 1960s flirtation with rock stardom — nor do they play this song (which evidently grazed the Top 40) in their current set!<\/p>\n

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Last up: “Five O’Clock World”<\/strong><\/a> by The Vogues<\/strong>. I love it when this happens — I grab a 25-cent slice of vinyl, knowing nothing about what I’ve spent my money on, get it home, and… hey! This was one of my favorite songs when I was a kid! And come on, did the ’60s get any better than those vocals in the chorus there — you know, the “la-da-da-dee-dees” and “hep! hep!”s? No, they didn’t. Thank you, ThriftSmart in Franklin, Tennessee<\/strong>, for bringing back some fine childhood memories, just when I needed them!<\/p>\n

As always, experiencing the Thrifty Music feature comes at a price — namely, that you should feel obligated to answer at least one of the following questions<\/strong>, which sprang to my mind when enjoying the preceding tracks:<\/p>\n

1. Other than the Davies brothers<\/em>, tell us something about your favorite sibling rock and rollers. Do you think their chromosomal similarities have anything to do with why their music thrills you so?<\/p>\n

2. Note that “Muleskinner Blues” by The Fendermen predates Rock’s recent flirtation with bassless music<\/strong> — hell, they don’t even have a drummer! Question, then: has the bassless combo finally reached the stage of unfashionableness, and — for extra credit — will all those “bands” start adding lower register instrumentation to get hip again?<\/p>\n

3. What’s your fave odd time signature<\/strong> pop\/rock number?<\/p>\n

4. Are The Rugbys to be pitied or praised<\/strong> for their recent musical career choices? Is it better to fade away into over-glorified rock obscurity, or keep trying to make a modest living playing weddings and block parties?<\/p>\n

5. Give us a pop song from your childhood that warms the cockles of your cockles<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends — the Thrifty Music show, that is! And why exactly does this show never end? Because people will never — repeat, never — stop throwing perfectly good music away. Well, society’s loss is our gain here at RTH, and it’s my job to scour the […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[71],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}