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Easr and Eye

CD Country CD
Dirty Laundry
Various
US-0333

Black Americans are not only a large proportion of Country Music's listeners, but have also contributed enormously to the tradition. For outsiders it might seem that the Afro-American contribution started and ended with Charly Pride - they couldn't be more wrong!. If you take a closer look at the relationship between black artists and Country Music you'll find a great undiscovered world out there: Black Country.

Artists include: The Pointer Sisters, James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, Solomon Burke, Ella Washington, Joe Simon, Bobby Powell, Arthur Alexander, Candy Staton, Betty Lavette, Roscoe Shelton, Stoney Edwards, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Earl Gaines, Etta James, Johnny Adams, Bettye Swann, Freddie North, Otis Williams, Bobby Jonz, and more.

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Hank Williams -
I'll never get out of this world alive
Various
US-0247

HANK WILLIAMS is one of the musical heroes of the 20th century. He turned country music upside down and tore down its borders. From 1949 to 1952 he dominated the charts and from that day to this, his songs have constantly been covered by other artists. Here are 23 of the best.

Artists include:
Beasts of Bourbon, Hasil Adkins, The Burning Rubber Dolls, Freddy Fender, Al Green, Isaac Hayes, Charlie Rich, Joe Patek, Townes van Zandt, Bedlam Rovers, Skeeter Davis & NRBQ, Buckwheat Zydeco & Dwight Yoakam, Alfred A. Alfa, Jad Fair, Link Wray, Stephan Eicher, Killdoze, Mekons, APC Allstars, The Bartlebees, The Residents, Teenage Larvae

"A motley crew from Charlie Rich to the Mekons tackle the great man in many and varied ways. Individually tracks run from the great to the strange; as a sequence it's brilliantly bizarre. Recommended."

Ian Anderson, FOLKROOTS

"This is a totally off-the-wall exercise in weird, a kind of country meets the Twilight Zone. In fact, it's not the country artists who make this such a fascinating experience. File under freak."

Craig Baguley, COUNTRY MUSIC PEOPLE

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a boy named sue -
Johnny Cash Revisited
Various
US-0298

This tribute - compilation to Johnny Cash, the No. 1 of country music and a man respected by musicians of all genres, celebrates not only his 70th birthday on February 26th 2002, but also pays homage to the fact that, from 1951-54, he lived as a GI in Landsberg, Bavaria, Germany. It was here that he bought his first guitar and played in his first band. The Landsberg Barbarians. This Compilation of Cash covers in country, pop and electronic styles, performed by German bands or musicians living in Germany, is a special feedback to the Man in Black and his German Years.

"What a great record!"
Charlie Gillett, BBC - Greater London Radio

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Feeding Time
Cow

US-0303

C for Cowboy yodel, O for Old time music, W for Western swing - that‘s COW! The quartet from Hamburg has 3 instrumentalists (mandolin & fiddle, upright bass, drums) and the English female singer Peta Devlin. All the members are prominent in the German independent rock scene in bands such as Die Sterne, Die Goldenen Zitronen und Die Braut Haut Ins Auge. With COW they follow their passion and play old time tunes and early country and bluegrass songs in their own style.

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Sweetkorn
Michael Hurley
US-0296

The Life and Times of Michael Hurley
(alias Doc Snock or Snog)

- born 20 December 1941, four brothers and sisters

- father works as a producer of operettas in Florida, family has to move a lot

- grows up in Eastern Pennsylvania, spends longer periods in Florida and California

“That was how I first came to hear the pedal steel guitar of country & western music. We would go into these steel joints on the ways to and from Florida.”

- spends his teenage years in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where he meets Jesse Colin Young (Youngbloods) and Steve Weber (Holy Modal Rounders)

“We smoked aspirin. I drank wine all the time.”

“When I was 17 I began to ramble. I hitchhiked to New Orleans, New York and Mexico. I was then learning to play the guitar. I just liked the looks of it. I liked banjos, too. I like mandolins, too. I liked anything with strings and a resonation chamber. I was having a lot of fun with it and eventually became a local party entertainer.”

- 1959 performs in coffeehouse in Greenwich Village

- meets blues and jazz historian Frederick Ramsey who records a demo tape and brings it to the attention of Moses Asch of Folkways Recordings.

“One day I was hitchhiking up the road with a guitar, never had a case for it. Fred picked me up. He asked what kind of music did I play. I told him mostly the blues. He invited me to his house to learn more blues from his legendary blues record collection. Fred could make good homebrew beer and had an organic garden. He taught me a lot about organics and homebrew and American blues and jazz, all of which I still love today.”

- 1965 records debut album “First Songs” for Folkways on the same tape recorder that taped Leadbelly’s “Last Sessions”.

“Moses Asch said go ahead on the Snock Archives.”

“Robin Remaily played a couple of fiddle cuts for the album I did for Folkways. I used to punch him sometimes. which is why he shot me with a 38. Luckily the bullet only lodged between my scull and my skin, it probably didn’t do no brain damage.”

- performs in New York’s Carnegie Hall along with Buffy St. Marie, Johnny Cash, Phil Ochs , Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters

“I wandered in New York City and hung out in the village. I was interested in beatniks because they didn’t have to go to school and got to drink wine and they were very cool. After a while, of course, I began to see through all this and went back on the rural route where I lived in a tepee in our own hipster campground.”

- meets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg (The Fugs)

- works in different jobs such as a cleaner or broomsweep

“Most of the years of my so-called career I did not perceive any career.”

- 1967 The Holy Modal Rounders cover two of his songs on the album “Indian War Whoop”

- 1968 works as a carpenter in Vermont, draws cartoons and collects old records

- learns to repair cars

- 1971/72 records two albums “Armchair Boggie” and “Hi Fi Snock Uptown” for Raccoon/Warner Brothers curated by teenage friend Jesse Colin Young, then a successful country rock artists

- plays support for The Youngbloods

- 1976/1980 records two albums (“Long journey” + “Snockgrass”) for Rounder Records

“Snockgrass just means that it would be bluegrass, but Snock got a hold of it.”

- 1980s - 1990s records several albums for different independent labels, tours Germany and Ireland

“I’m playing for the nice night-life type. If you are with your girl and you feel romantic, maybe you wanna drink some wine and light a candle. I wanna appeal to you. I’ll play your requests. I’m not playing for the museum crowd that just wants to make an anthropological report on the sociological impact of Doc Snock. It’s for the action crowd.”

- 1996 plays with alternative country rockers Giant Sand and Friends of Dean Martinez

“I framed a bunch of my paintings and took them down to a gig I had at Folk City, and I hung up 11 of them onstage. I sold 7. That was the beginning of the end for me doing other jobs - selling Christmas trees, house painting, working at a barbecue stand.”

“The opportunities are more open now. Maybe all my past efforts have paid off.”

- plays support for Son Volt

“The summer months are my busiest time for music, but it’s also the best time to work on cars.”

- after the death of Townes Van Zandt and John Fahey there is only Michael Hurley left

“... let’s just shut up and listen and go to where Michael Hurley is. After all, we can always turn around and come back. He can’t.” Nick Tosches

(Compiled by Christoph Wagner from articles and interviews by Richard Martin, Peter Margasak, Robot Wisdom, Frank van den Elzen and Leslie Gaffney)

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I'll never get out of this world alive

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