ASK A COUNTRY MUSIC EXPERT

ASK A COUNTRY MUSIC EXPERT

Cocaine & Rhinestones’ Tyler Mahan Coe explains where cowboys come from

Tyler Mahan Coe

Dear Tyler, Alt-country. Please discuss.

—©chattanoogacharmer

Goddamn it... First question? How much am I getting paid for this? All right, “alt-country” was one of several labels affixed to one of several moments in history when publicists and journalists agreed to lump a bunch of artists/bands together as if their music represented a collective and purposeful backlash to mainstream country music, a genre that almost none of the people mentioned in this sentence listened to very much at all, which was fine because neither did the audience they were trying to reach. All any of these people needed was to hear the occasional poorly played lap steel, fiddle, or banjo to agree that, yes, it was definitely alt-country. Even though none of those bands actually set out to create music they thought of as alt-country, once a few bands became marginally successful while being called alt-country by publicists and journalists, other bands who hoped to become marginally successful made their guitar player pretend to know how to play lap steel and started name-checking Hank Williams in interviews despite no sound they ever produced having anything in common with “Move It On Over” or “Wedding Bells."

For all you rock fans reading CREEM magazine, this would be like me saying that AC/ DC’s “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ’n’ Roll)’’ is alt-pibroch because (a) it has bagpipes in it, (b) pibroch has bagpipes in it, and (c) I don’t listen to pibroch and neither do you so nobody involved in the conversation has a clue what the fuck we’re talking about...but the whole thing starts making some money so pretty soon there are bands calling themselves altpibroch all over the place. Unlike AC/ DC, nearly every band that has ever been called alt-country (all the bands you’re thinking of) were boring trash. fl

However, there is a tangential connection to Australia in that the best music that got labeled alt-country (Munly & The Lee Lewis Harlots, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, 16 Horsepower, etc.) all sounds like it was made by people who listen to a shitload of Rowland S. Howard/These Immortal Souls.

Who is outlaw country now?

—@mykillprize

Literally nobody. If you’re at a show and any person on stage younger than 65 years old refers to themselves as an outlaw, you should get the hell out of there immediately because nothing good is going to happen.

Did Lee Hazlewood get Gram Parsons killed? Saw a doc on YouTube about it.

—@dankfizzer

Given the known, objective facts of Phil Kaufman’s behavior in the immediate wake of Gram Parsons’ death, I think it’s safe to assume Kaufman would’ve gone full Charles Bronson on anybody even rumored to have knowingly orchestrated Gram’s demise, whether it was Lee Hazlewood or anyone else. As far as I’m aware, though, no such rumors exist because the sad truth is Gram didn’t need any help bringing about the end of his own life.

If that YouTube video actually exists (which I doubt, but send me a link if you aren’t joking), my guess is it’s rooted in the backstory of Hazlewood’s girlfriend recommending he sign the International Submarine Band, then Gram skipping out on the contract to join the Byrds before ISB’s (incredible) Safe at Home LP could be released, allegedly prompting a lawsuit from Lee.

I haven’t researched any of this the way I would if covering the subject for Cocaine & Rhinestones... But since we’re throwing around conspiracy theories, the first question I'd want to answer for myself would be whether Hazlewood really even cared that much or if this contract lawsuit story was meant to provide Roger McGuinn with a seemingly rational reason for erasing Gram’s vocals from most of Sweetheart of the Rodeo. You know, any reason other than the possibility that he was terrified of losing control of the Byrds to Gram Parsons right after finally getting David Crosby out of the band.

Is this some kind of Billy Strings cosplay post?

—@uglykid_o

Oh, please. The stylist on Billy’s next photo shoot would off a whole herd of kittens if it meant they could pull from my wardrobe.

George Jones is the best country singer. Who is the best country songwriter?

—@flacotechs78

I don’t know if you two arranged this or my editor did it or what but the next person may have just answered that for me.

Roger. Miller.

—@itscollinnash

Indeed. To return to flacotechs78’s question, there are hundreds of country songs (“The Long Black Veil,” “Green, Green Grass of Home,” “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” etc.) that so artfully impart such profound existential insight, it seems impossible there was ever a point in time when those songs didn’t exist, let alone that they were written much more recently than you’d assume and by someone probably sitting at a desk, clocked in to their job as a professional songwriter the same way a stenographer clocks in to transcribe events in a courtroom. That’s an extraordinary accomplishment, difficult for most folks to understand.

Much farther down the same road you’ll find Roger Miller.

Not much need be said here regarding Roger as a performer, since he’s one of country’s greatest pop crossover success stories, to the point that—much like Patsy Cline—many of the millions of people who enjoy his music don’t even realize they’re listening to country. (Because they don’t and wouldn’t listen to country music, except for Johnny Cash and Hank Williams, of course.) Even among those of us who do listen to country on purpose, though, Roger Miller rarely receives the recognition he deserves as a songwriter. First, it is simply not possible to write a song like “You Can’t Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd" or to make the word “syrup" rhyme with the word “purple." Roger doing those things changes nothing about that statement; they were impossible when he did them and still are. To also somehow imbue such songs (or “Reincarnation,” if you haven’t heard that one) with the same sense of profound existential insight as the three songs listed at the start of this answer? Maybe someone at a Zen monastery can explain it, but I sure can’t. Next, lest you decide this is just some kind of clown act being credited with more depth than it deserves, dial up “Husbands and Wives,” “I Catch Myself Crying” or “Engine Engine #9.” Now try to understand that all of these songs and who knows how many others attributed to other writers were the product of a guy whose brain came up with this stuff almost against his will at such an unstoppable rate, even two or three days deep into an amphetamine-fueled run through several cases of beer, other writers were known to follow Roger Miller around just to write down the things he said in conversation so they could go write their own songs from it later.

I’d ask a question, but I’m afraid of getting made fun of.

—@tattoo_ronnie_

The kids are coming for all of us sooner or later, Ronnie. It can’t be stopped. I’m just here to try to help with the changing of the guard.

Who’s your favorite emo band and why?

—@theroughlife

What, because I listen to country music then I must listen to emo, too? Is that it? Or is this just a trap to get me to name a band and start a whole pile-on over the country guy not knowing what “real emo" is? You really want to play this game with me in print? I don’t give a shit what happens here, man. I’ll call Fall Out Boy the best emo band of all time right now, leave you and the other Saves the Day fans to crow about it in the Soulseek chatroom while some old dudes who were in Orchid mack on your girlfriends. (Congratulations to Jay Green, singer of Orchid, and his beautiful wife, Emma, on the upcoming birth of their first child! —Ed.)

Do you have any leads on books or publications that go into the Little Darlin’ record label? I’ve been going down the rabbit hole gathering what I can find that they pressed but can’t find much on the story behind Little Darlin’.

—©bullardjo

Unfortunately, no, I don’t know of any single source that devotes much space to the story of the label, if there’s even much of a story there to tell. Like you, what I know of Little Darlin’ was pieced together from scattered anecdotes in various books and liner notes. Johnny Paycheck and Aubrey Mayhew start a record label, hire Lloyd Green as in-house arranger, kick out some scorching-hot honky-tonk music for a couple years, nobody really knows how to mn a record label, Paycheck and Mayhew have a falling-out, the end. There’s the bonus content of Aubrey Mayhew being a creepy weirdo who was obsessed with the JFK assassination and the trail of legal paperwork I uncovered on C&R pointing to him very likely being the guy Jeannie C. Riley claimed tried to extort her with the threat of nude photos...but that’s all I got.

I’m fascinated with the career of Willie Nelson and I’m curious what aspects off his career Tyler would zone in on for the C&R treatment?

—@dprobbins23

He’s one of very few country artists who’ve had a whole shelf full of books written about him. The only reason I’d venture into such thoroughly covered territory is if I felt most of the people who were already there didn’t get it right. That isn’t the case with Willie Nelson. Unlike George Jones or Tammy Wynette, Willie is not an enigma. You spend an hour talking to the guy, you’re walking away with a solid grasp of who he is as a person. For my purposes, which are mainly to correct serious oversights and misunderstandings in the written history of the genre, Willie works best as an occasional reference point to an immensely popular figure because some story related to his career also has something to do with the main story I’m trying to tell.

Thoughts on Ween’s 12 Country Golden Greats?

—@yerboi

If you’re gonna hire Nashville A-team players to play country music better than you can just for you and your friend to do bad karaoke over it, why not also hire someone to sing country music better than you can and write songs making fun of country music better than you can, then still go the annoying extra step of putting your band name on the album cover? At least the end results may be worth listening to more than once.

Cocaine & Rhinestones: A History of George Jones and Tammy Wynette by Tyler Mahan Coe (illustrated by Wayne White) is available now.