White Freightliner Blues -- Can We All Agree To Stop Covering This Song? [Opinion]

[Note: This is not to be taken personally.  The folks at alt512 love the artists we mention in this post.  We're trying to help.  Honest.]

A while back, we here at the alt512 tried to urge that artists stop covering a few songs that we felt had been overworked and deserved a break for a few years.  The brief list was only these ten songs.

Truck Drivin' Man

Six Days On The Road

White Freightliner Blues

Hey Good Lookin'

Folsom Prison Blues

Rock Island Line

Good Old Boys (Dukes Of Hazzard theme song)

Whiskey River

Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain

Wagon Wheel

We are writing again to re-request that we put just one of these songs out to pasture.  We have seen no fewer than three covers of Townes' White Freighliner Blues in the last week featuring the following artists in various configurations: Jason Eady, Joe Ely, Ryan Bingham, Hayes Carll and Jonny Burke.

Make no mistake.  White Freightliner Blues is a great song.   Classic certainly.  Country standard for sure.  Unfortunately, it's vernturing into Will The Circle Be Unbroken territory in that it's the defacto end-of-the-show jam to which everybody knows a verse.  In the interest of fairness, we would also like to see Wil The Circle Be Unbroken retired.  But our complaint isn't the song.  It isn't the artists.  Not at all.  We love them all.  It's the frequency with which we hear this particular song.  There is no other song by TVZ or anyone else that has the draw of WFB that so many artists end up covering it.

If it's Townes you want to pay tribute to, buy a copy of Live at the Old Quarter and learn Tecumseh Valley, Loretta, Mr. Mudd & Mr. Gold or Fraternity Blues or Waiting Around To Die and starting covering that.  If I Needed You?  Heavenly Houseboat Blues?  No Lonesome Tune?  Pancho And Lefty?  Don't You Take It Too Bad?  Two Girls?  Rex's Blues?  They all work.  They're all brilliant.

When everybody covers a particular song, it starts to lose its luster because every-fucking-body is doing it.  Doing a cover that everybody does fails to show the depth or breath of musical knowledge that you hope to convey by doing a cover in the first place [at least not to us here at alt512].  It shows that you can pick off the top of the musical stack.  When we're at a show, we want the covers that show you love Townes (or whomever) and that you love his deep back catalog or at the very least the songs that aren't waaay overplayed like WFB.  [Thank you, Dedringers, for dusting off Black Jack Mama.]

Dedringers doing Black Jack Mama from June 27, 2006 at the Carousel Lounge in Austin.

Maybe it's us.  Maybe Austin has such a rich musical tapestry that it's spoiled us.  Maybe we're missing the point.  Maybe not.  If you search youtube or archive.org for "White Freighliner Blues" you will see videos / hear recordings of Redbird, Woody & Paul, Max Creek, The Tuttles, Stoney Mountain Ramblers, Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Steel Creek Bluegrass, Joe Ely, Joel Guzman, Lloyd Maines, Porter Davis, The Siver Family, Stringcheese Incident, Cornmeal, Greensky Bluegrass, Leftover Salmon, Drew Emmit and Brock Zeman all doing this song.  EVERYBODY.

Folk/Country music standard or not, we now stand by what we said over a year ago more than ever before.  It's time.  Give this song a break.

My point is simply that there are hundreds of thousands of songs out there to cover. 

You don't have pick a song off the top of the pile. Especially if you've heard someone 

else cover it already. I am available to give council to anyone needing help selecting a cover.

ps, If this blog appeal doesn't take, we'll be the folks at the next show, not with the "JOHN 3:16" banner but rather an "Anything But White Freightliner" banner.  And maybe a "Serenity Now" banner for when WFB is being covered.

pps, Maybe the underlying message here isn't that we want you to stop playing WFB.  Maybe it's that we're done with WFB.  Maybe we'll just step outside or head to the bar while it's going on hence forth.  Hearing it covered less would also help to that end.

Brock Zeman, Dan Walsh & Blair Hogan doing WFB from November 16, 2008 at the old Gruene Hall in New Braunfels.

45 Years Ago Today

[2008.03.07: I am reposting this entry with the audio from that evening].

Damon Bramblett should have been playing his music at the Dry Creek Cafe 45 years ago today. The Dry Creek itself wouldn't have looked much different...the old tables and chairs would still be there. Sarah would have been a spry lass of 49. Her green trailer still would have been parked out back. The contents of the 45s on the jukebox would be the same. And the bar itself would still have been, as I understand, only slightly less rickety. The only problem with this whole scenario is that Damon Bramblett wasn't born yet. I would put Damon somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 trips around the sun.

The first thing I noticed about Damon when I first heard him sing was that he sounds a lot like Johnny Cash. Well, an other-worldly version of Johnny Cash who never smoked a cigarette and never had a proclivity for popping pills. With the timelessness of Johnny Cash's music, Damon transported my wife and me back to 1962 there on Mt. Bonnell Road back when the Dry Creek had live music on a more regular basis. Warm, humid evening. Cold Lonestar. No A/C. A great little band with some great songs to play.

The band on this evening consisted of Damon on acoustic guitar, harmonica and vocals, Tom Lewis on drums and Kevin Smith on upright bass. Tom and Kevin play with Heybale here in town. The guys did a bunch of Damon's tunes as well as covers of "I'm Gonna Sit On The Porch And Pick On My Old Guitar" and "Busted" (both Cash tunes) as well as Townes Van Zandt's "Loretta" and a cover of the classic "Sea of Heartbreak".

One thought I had while trying to wipe the huge grin off my face was "this must be what old Austin was like." I don't know that it's possible to miss something I never experienced first hand, but given my taste last night, I badly miss old Austin.

They created a fantastic semblance of the steady-like-a-train, sharp-like-a-razor sound that JC & Tennessee Two made famous. I closed my eyes several times and just basked in that "this is what 1962 felt like"-vibe. Moments like that are priceless but being that it came to me essentially free made it ever more sweet.

If you get the chance, go check out Damon live sometime. He's got a record floating around somewhere. Buy it if you can find it.

Damon's myspace: www.myspace.com/damonbramblett
This show on archive.org: www.archive.org/det..tt2007-08-30.ds70p.flac

ps....Damon's version of "Loretta" was fantastic. Completely not sad in the way that TVZ's interpretation can be.

A Passionate Plea To Anyone In A Band

Psst, hey you. Yeah, you over there, without a record deal with the guitars and the amps and the drums working your ass off to get your music heard. Do you and your band do any covers in your set? Unless you're Bob Dylan, Fred Eaglesmith or Billy Joe Shaver, I betcha do a cover or two. I've got a little advice for you.

Doing covers is a fickle thing. It's hard to do them justice when you do them straight up and other times it seems like you're a genius when you re-tool an old standard. You know...speed it up, slow it down, turn a rap song into a country song (Thank You, Gourds!), make an old country standard a punk song (Thank You, Social Distortion!).

If you're doing the speed-it-up/slow-it-down/musical-reincarnation of a song, I will give you leeway to do whatever you want. But if you're doing the tunes straight up without much differentiation from the original, I have a list of songs I would like you to avoid at all costs. Because everyone and his brother and his band is doing these. If we all gave these songs a rest, I think that'd be swell. They've earned it.

Truck Drivin' Man
Six Days On The Road
White Freightliner
Hey Good Lookin'
Folsom Prison Blues
Rock Island Line
Good Old Boys (Dukes Of Hazzard theme song)
Whiskey River
Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain


and above all else...stop doing Wagon Wheel (aside: whoever that guy is who put Wagon Wheel out as his first single should ashamed of himself)



You wanna do a Johnny Cash song? Do "I Never Picked Cotton".
Dylan? "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall", "Shelter From The Storm" or "I Shall Be Released".
Waylon? "There Ain't No Good Chain Gang" or "Waymore's Blues".
Willie? "Shotgun Willie" or "I Gotta Get Drunk".
Townes? Don't cover Townes unless you knew him personally.

My point is simply that there are hundreds of thousands of songs out there to cover. You don't have pick a song off the top of the pile. Especially if you've heard someone else cover it already. I am available to give council to anyone needing help selecting a cover.

Recommended Listening...The Stillwater Pioneers...Archive.org

One of the finest bands in Austin is the Stillwater Pioneers. Part jam-band, part outlaw country, part singer/songwriter-fare. Already a rag-tag lot with varied musical interests, they can now add to that list an absentee singer/songwriter in Johnny Dango who is moving to the coast...Corpus Christi to be exact to be a sports reporter. Hopefully, Dango can show off his reporting chops, advance and get back to the 512 in short order. They're still going to be playing around Austin but they'll most likely be expanding to include a few shows down in Corpus, Port A., and other points south.

Their new cd "Let's Go Pioneering" is easily the best cd to find its way into my collection so far this year.

This is a great little show from the Mean Eyed Cat from August 2007 where you can hear them do a bunch of great covers including Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard, Todd Snider, Hank Williams, John Prine, Townes Van Zandt and the Georgia Satellites in addition to a slew of the tracks from their record. There's also a great cover of the NWA classic "Automobile".

Recommended tracks: 4, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 22, 24, 25, 27.

The Real First Post....Danny Schmidt

(for fans on Dylan & Townes Van Zandt)

Chances are you have never heard of Danny Schmidt. Danny is an Austin-based singer songwriter. Singer/songwriter doesn't begin to describe Danny's immense talent as a songwriter. "Poet" is a much better description of what Danny does. I am convinced that had music not called him, poetry in its purest form would have and he could almost certainly make a living at it.

Danny's songs aren't simple. And they aren't obvious. You might have to dust off your musical-interpretation/appreciation hat to fully realize Danny's talent. I realize comparing anyone's songwriting to Bob Dylan's is musical sacrilege, but I think here it's fair. There's a lot of gravity to Danny's writing that manifests itself in songs that reflect human emotions and the human conditions without in any way being preachy.

"Stained Glass" is a song that people love to deconstruct and I am no exception. Here's the climax to the song where the omniscient narrator runs through a glut of situations that everyone comes across on a regular basis....

There was every fearful smile, there was every joyful tear
There was each and every choice that leads from every there to here
There was every cosy stranger and every awkward friend
And there was every perfect night that’s left initials in the sand
There was every day that filled so full the weeks would float away
And there was all those days spent wondering what to do with all those days
There was every lie that ever saved the truth from being shamed
And every secret you could ever trust a friend to hide away
There was the fortune of discovering a new face you might adore
And the thrill of coming home to find her clothes upon the floor
And the prideful immortality of children in the home
That the storm can’t grind the mountain down, it can only shift the stones
And there was everything your mouth says that your lips don’t understand
And every shape inside your head you can’t carve with your hands
And every slice of glass revealed another slice of life
Emblazened imperfections in a perfect stream of light
It all flooded through the window like rapids made of fire
And then God rode through on sunshine and sat down cause he was tired
He was tired.

Easily, one of my favorite songs. Outside of Dylan and TVZ, easily one of the deepest, most profound works in any writer's cannon. Have a listen here.

"Stained Glass" is not alone in Danny's catalog. Many others like "Esmee by The River", "Cleopatra", "Serpentine Cycle Of Money", "Make Right The Time" and "Two Guitars On The Sofa" are there to keep "Stained Glass" company.

On top of his tremendous musical acumen, Danny is one helluva guy. But, you can find out for yourself when you go out to see him somewhere, sometime soon.

Danny's Schedule: http://www.dannyschmidt.com/schedule.html

Cactus Cafe show from June 2007: http://www.archive.org/details/dannyschmidt2007-06-05.sbd.flac
A House Concert from 2007: http://www.archive.org/details/dannyschmidt2007-06-30.sbd.flac
Another House Concert from 2006: http://www.archive.org/details/dannyschmidt2006-07-15.sbd.flac