Michael Elliott's Blog, page 9

Country Musings: Gene Watson

Since I’m new to this platform, I’m rebooting a series from another space a few years ago, Country Musings . Nothing academic or earth-shattering, just short, stream-of-consciousness scribbling from my days as a country music DJ and PD. ( There’ll be other dives into soul, blues, metal, jazz, etc., forthcoming. Consider yourself duly warned. )

Let’s kick it off with my five favorite Gene Watson songs.

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From the archive: John Howie, Jr. Gets Personal

Originally published in No Depression on September 15, 2018

Photo: Kevin Clark

THE CICADAS WERE OUT in full force, buzzing in celebration as the August summer heat had mercifully subsided, at least for a few days.  I ordered coffee (black) and took a seat at a tiny round table outside Caffé Driade, a charming outdoor java house and wine bar nestled in a cradle of trees off Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, NC. 

About 5 behind, apologies.

That’s the text I received seven minutes before the scheduled me...

Raspberries and Waterboys

Eric Carmen (left) and Karl Wallinger

I couldn’t figure it out. The song had started with a riff and a raspy “Maw-maw, yeah!” worthy of a Humble Pie jam before it settled into pure pop with Beach Boys-like harmonies. As a kid, I’d never heard such a combination. It was always one or the other: hard-driving rock or catchy pop. I didn’t even know (at the time) what “Go All the Way” meant. But the singer sure was pleading for it bad.

The group was the Raspberries. They were on a various artists comp...

Remembering Townes Van Zandt in Eight Songs

Townes Van Zandt would’ve been 80 years old today. I don’t think anyone could have imagined him as an octogenarian, least of all Townes himself. A singular artist with deep Texas roots; Fort Worth was founded by his great-great-granduncle K.M. Van Zandt (whose father, Isaac, was a congressman in the Republic of Texas and the namesake of Van Zandt County). He relocated to Nashville and along with Guy Clark, spearheaded a new style of songwriting that leaned on confessional storytelling over folk...

Gonzalez Smith Serves Up Classic AM Gold for the 21st Century

Jay Gonzalez and Pete Smith

Originally published on January 18, 2024.

Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, Bacharach and David, Gamble and Huff, Goffin and King, Taupin and John – the music world is filled with legendary pairings of talented lyricists and their musical counterparts. We can now add Pete Smith and Jay Gonzalez to those sacred ranks.

Pete Smith is a retired comedy writer who helped steer both Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast and its spinoff, the Brak Show, to classic status during the...

From the archive: Dylan Plugz In, Big Hair Falls Flat

Originally published on September 17, 2021.

In writing the manuscript to Have A Little Faith: The John Hiatt Story, I took a few side roads along the way. Naturally, quite a few pages had to be cut to make the story more cohesive. In honor of the book’s release this week, however, as well as the (coincidental) release of the sixteenth volume of Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series: Springtime In New York 1980-1985, which covers some of the period at the beginning of this excerpt, I thought it was fitting t...

From the archive: Don’t Bug Me When I’m Working: Little Village At 30

l-r: Jim Keltner, Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe, John Hiatt

Originally published February 18, 2022.

The following includes outtakes never before published from Chapter 13, “Don’t Bug Me When I’m Working,” of Have A Little Faith: The John Hiatt Story, available here and wherever books are sold.

“Go ahead, we’re rolling, take one.” 

Leonard Chess was perched behind the board in the control room at 2120 South Michigan Avenue - the storied address of the legendary Chess Records - in Chicago, Illinois one afterno...

From the archive: 35 Years of 'Bring the Family'

Originally published May 29, 2022.

Original UK cover for the Demon Records release of ‘Bring the Family’. Photograph courtesy of the Great American Family Archive.

“I had just gone through a hell of my own making and came out the other side which had the effect of rendering all these other seeming monsters to be kind of toothless. They weren’t nearly as scary as any I’d created on my own.” - John Hiatt interviewed by Graham Reid, 1991.

By the mid-1980s, John Hiatt was considering giving up recordin...

Mojo Nixon 1957-2024

Photo by J. Cris Yarborough

First published on February 10, 2024.

The punch was as sudden as it was unexpected, landing with fierce and impressive accuracy. Its target was just to my left, close enough to where I felt the wind from Mojo Nixon’s fist.

It was a sweaty and packed night in the middle of the 1990s at the Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, NC. Mojo was touring behind his then-new release, the Eric “Roscoe” Ambel-produced Whereabouts Unknown. Before the laying of hands, the guy near me had been he...

Terry Anderson and the Olympic Ass-Kickin’ Team: Back and Stronger Than Ever

First published March 1, 2024.

“I moved next to a chainsaw repair shop / I couldn’t believe the rent was so cheap.” So opens the new album from Terry Anderson and the Olympic Ass-Kickin’ Team, Got to be Strong. “Chainsaw Repair Shop” takes a one-liner worthy of Henny Youngman and stretches it over two-and-a-half minutes of glorious rhunka-rhunka rock’n’roll. It’s the kind of noise the OAKTeam can make in their sleep, but it’s the perfect way to reintroduce one of the best all-out rock’n’roll band...