“I had everything I needed to get me killed.”
- Steve Earle/South Nashville Blues
When I'm driving, I flip around my presets on SiruisXM. I have a variety of things. I try to stay semi-current on the music that's out there: The Spectrum, Alt-Nation, Deep Cuts, Comedy Roundup, Coffee House, et al. One station I land on a lot is Outlaw Country. They play stuff I'm drawn to, grittier, edgier Americana and not the slick, poppy, mainstream Nashville stuff. Steve Earle has a show called “Hardcore Troubadour” (The title of one of his songs) that's engaging for people that find it engaging, like me. Steve's a true music historian or musicologist. He knows all kinds of background info and minutia about musicians and such. He's been down 40 years of hard road himself and has the stories to go along with them.
After his time slot comes Elizabeth Cook and her show “Apron Strings.” How does one describe Elizabeth Cook? I first knew of her when I saw her on David Letterman years back. I was instantly struck. I couldn't turn away - She had a magnetic appeal, like, I don't know, some pretty, redneck cousin you didn't know you had that showed up at a family reunion and charmed everyone. “Who is she?”
She talked to Dave about her crazy upbringing in southern Georgia/northern Florida. How her daddy went to prison for running moonshine among other things. For some reason the clip is not available on Youtube any longer, but I've included an eTown interview with her that touches on some of her history. Her Apron Strings show is worth tuning into just to hear her talk between songs. Everything she says is amusing and delightful, in a sort of ADD kind of way. Just hearing her tell about a trip to the grocery store for some noodles or how much she loves a new pair of fuzzy socks someone gave her makes you hope she'd never stop talking. The late, great comedian/storyteller Jerry Clower from Yazoo City, MS, once described what he did this way, “I don't tell funny stories, I tell stories funny.” That's Elizabeth Cook.
Yesterday on the show she played a song by Lola Kirke called Hungover Thinkin' that was new to me and pretty darn original. It's included below.