Townes Van Zandt has come up a couple of times in this thread.

I love "Pancho and Lefty," but his true masterpiece is probably "Tecumseh Valley." I've always found it to be bleak, beautiful, and hard to listen to because it has always struck me as too bleak, too beautiful, and too perfect. Nanci Griffith does a hell of a version of it at about the 15-minute mark of the ACL tribute to Van Zandt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc32Z424DCc&t=933s.

The real highlight of that show, though, is Steve Earle's performance of "Fort Worth Blues," which he wrote about Townes shortly after his death. It is a quiet, understated song, but it still seems to wipe out everyone else sharing the stage with him. Nanci Griffith cries, Willie Nelson looks like he's holding back tears, others seem almost paralyzed by it. Earle's intro starts at 9:25 or so: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc32Z424DCc&t=933s

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That's some great stuff TM...I'll watch the whole thing when I have time.

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i think merle and willie doing pancho and lefty is one of the best country songs ever.

ha. this is one of my favorite ACL's of all time. this and SRV top 5 for sure.

I read these posts in the Christian Bale American Psycho voice.

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This song, written 30 years ago, is the original Hillbilly Elegy. Iris Dement, "Our Town":

Studio version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9IUj1mDENg
Snipped but great live version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIOPl9RowXk

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Don’t take this as a criticism of the quality of recommendations that you tend to make.

But, in any cultural aspect of your life, is there anything that you like that would be considered...popular?

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You know me like that.

I liked the song.

Not sure it fires me up on a Saturday morning to attack the weekend though.

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You know me like that.

Chicks. Beer. Football. The United States of America.

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I'm going to go out on a limb here and call "Friends in Low Places" a pile of shit song when compared to the country greats. Its pop rock country and its sung by king poser himself Garth, the man who ruined country music. Its fine now and again if it pops on at the bar or in the car but it has no place amongst the greatest songs of all time especially when you consider that it helped lead to the horse shit product that exists today. Garth is a weird dude too that doesn't seem very country at all. He had that awful alter ego rock thing that bombed, his xm sirius channel never plays a single country song and the man is like 60 and uses about a gallon of just for men per week on that beaver pelt beard of his.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

I dont think it is a shit song, but IMO it does not come close to the true classics of Jones, Haggard, Cash, etc.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

She contributed "Big City" on the songwriter's tribute album to Merle. The gem on that is Tom Russell covering "They're Tearing the Labor Camps Down."

Speaking of Merle, he makes an appearance on "Ugly Girl Blues" with Wylie & the Wild West Show, which is sort of a fun song.

I guess shit song is a bit harsh. That should be reserved for Shania's "Honey I'm home" It is if its placed in a list of the greats but overall its alright and I usually don't turn it of if I hear it on the radio.

There are so many early 90's artists that I would take over garth. Jackson, Black, Diffie, Tritt.... I love going down youtube rabbit holes for old country. The last time I did it I was going early 80's stuff and found Mel McDaniel who I was not really familiar with by name. I watched the "Stand Up" video about 5 times. What a jam and to think I had never heard it before.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

There are so many good artists from the 70s and early 80s. I love that stuff. My parents used to listen to it when I was a kid and I hated it then, but now I love it all.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Louisiana Saturday night is another good mel mcdaniel song

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

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Don't take it personally.

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You know me like that.

I actually prefer Don Gibson's version.

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I actually prefer You Don’t Know Me but I refuse to consider that country.

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You know me like that.

Great song, not country.

I'm a huge fan of the Ray Charles Birth of Soul anthology from the early 90s. It's an amazing collection if you haven't checked it out.

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I knew you must like something popular.

We should kick back someday and listen to some Ray Charles and devise various strategies to infiltrate and destroy the American Corporate Hegemony.

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You know me like that.

That's not country music, even in today's pop-influenced version of country music.

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Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

https://youtu.be/dNblxfWTWU4

Cool little Kris Kristofferson interview about the making of Bobby McGee and his time with Janis.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MtdYqaLe4w

One of George Jones' best. Elvis Costello does a nice cover as well

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I forgot thank god I'm a country boy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRm-D8n ... EPnLXn4-qe

Timmy Matlock and I wrote that song on the first day we met. And a couple days later I gave my friend Bill Harnden- you may know him as Rockin' Billy- a cassette and I told him, "You won't believe this, but a fifteen year old kid I just met and I have written the perfect punk rock song. Well, Billy listened to the tape and he said, "It's good, but it can't be the perfect punk rock song because you haven't mentioned war or Ronald Reagan or Nazi skinheads. So I wrote this last verse and my friend had to admit, Timmy Matlock and I had written the perfect punk rock song:

President Reagan
Alzheimer's patient
He loves war
Like in El Salvador
Wants every boy
To join R.O.T.C.
Like Clark Martell
Ronnie's a Nazi

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Don't take it personally.