I just spent an amazing week – went to California in 24 hours on Hiway 10. Stayed a day to recoup and see some good folks. Spent the next 5 days returning through Yosemite, Nevada, stopped in Ely, Went on through Utah – just beautiful, Grand Junction, some exquisite canyons. Went on down 25 through Pueblo, into New Mexico, snuck over onto the panhandle of Texas thru Amarillo & Abilene on some backroads and finally down hiway 35 toward home. Most of the trip was backroads. What made it so special is there was no traffic on the road – the road belonged to me. And, even more amazing than that was the fact that there were no RVs on the road. Not one. There was the occasional truck, bt those guys know how to move and were often going much faster than I. This long preamble is to let you know why I listened to Willie’s 4 CD collection entitled One Hell Of A Ride quite a few times. Good collection, I can only quibble with the fact that a few very relevant recent songs were left off (Beer For My Horses & the hilarious Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond Of Each Other), but I have no quibbles with what was included. This new single CD is a live collaboration of sorts between Willie & Wynton’s band. I have no qualms with the album, having had listened to many many bootlegs over the years. Sound-wise, this is largely a bootleg-sounding record (on some songs Willie’s guitar work can barely be heard, even the solos, and in some cases his vocals are way in the background). The CD remains important because it’s the only record of these two gentlemen working together. What is hilarious to me is the fact that the band is hot, the band is excellent, the band is well rehearsed, and the band takes few chances. The band does very little of what could be interpreted as improvisation. Except for Willy. He is completely and totally free and easy with his rhythm and phrasing throughout. The band sort of ignores him, which is okay. It just strikes me as very interesting that among a group of jazz musicians the only one improvising is the vocalist who is usually listed as a “country artist”. I love it.
The song I chose to highlight has special meaning for me because my mom used to play it many years ago – I think around the time of Woodstock, when country & rock were starting to find out their blues roots were similar and some lines were beginning to blur. I was also at that point in my life trying to understand how organized religion fit in with the New Testament. Everything I was reading as a teenager seemed to be saying Jesus came to destroy religion, not create a new one. Very confusing for a young man. Obviously, for an old man too, because I still don’t have an answer. Willie borrowed this song that another great songwriter, Merle Travis, wrote 20 years earlier. It still stands today as a message that fits the times. I spent several years in seminary understanding that the main business of seminary is how to run a business, not how to love. The love has to come before you enter seminary. School cannot teach you to love, but it can teach you the ups and downs of the tax code, and how to market yourself. The point is this song taught me more than several years of seminary. And it rocks on the album (My Own Peculiar Way), complete with horns & background vocals.
“Some people go to school tryin' to learn how to teach
Some people go to school tryin' to learn how to preach
But if you can't preach without goin' school
Brother you're ain't no preacher you're an educated fool
And that's all and that's all
You'd better change your way of livin' cause the good Lord say that's all
Now a feller I know is a miser man
tryin' to save all the money that he can
One day undertaker lets him down
Where's he gonna spend that money under the ground
And that's all and that's all...
Now man comes from monkey some people say
But the Good Book, brother, just don't tell it that way
And if you believe that monkey tale like some folks do
Then I'd rather be that monkey than you
And that's all and that's all...
Well my little song is ended and my little song is through
And I didn't necessarily mean this song for you
But if you don't like the way the little song goes
Well it's a mighty good sign that I've been stompin' on your toes
And that's all and that's all...”
Willie & Wynton
Extra notes: A Peaceful Solution by Willie & Amy Nelson.
"The truth is my weapon of mass protection
And I believe truth sets you free" - Willie Nelson
