Waymore's Blues

I was listening to the late, great Waylon Jennings while I was out taking the dog for a run in the field down the road. He one of those artists I never tire of, never think “Oh, jeeze, this song’s been played into the ground.”

In high school, of course, we would have been appalled at the thought of listening to “stomp” music—stomps being what the cowboy types were called in those days.

There were two major FM stations then. KRST was the rock station (which oddly enough went country about 6 years later and is still—if you can call much of that pop drivel “country.”) The other station was the now-defunct KMYR, and it played some rock, but was more singer-songwriter driven. All the cool kids listened to KRST and I, I listened to KMYR (because I was cooler!) They played stuff like Dylan “Story of Hurricane,” or Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (before they went country.) The Band (Up on Cripple Creek she sends me. If I spring a leak, she mends me.”) Renaissance’s “Ocean Gypsy.”

When I went into the army, I was stationed up in Washington State, at Fort Lewis. I had a friend, an older guy, who played guitar and turned me on to Jimmy Buffet, John Prine, and Jerry Jeff Walker. By extension, I got into Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and the other Outlaw Country artists. These are all people I still like today and am not embarrassed to admit. Unlike others. [cough] Leo Sayer and [cough-cough] Ted Nugent.

I guess a lot of people of my generation turned to country as they got a bit older, rock having taken off in some weird direction for a while. I think cocaine ruined the industry for a while. Most rock music of the early to mid 80’s just blew total chunks.

Nowadays my musical tastes is all over the boards, and I probably have at least one song in my collection for everyone. (This collection is something like 18 continuous days of music, according to iTunes.) I’ve got a substantial folk collection. Some interesting alternative (Eels, Cake, The Hold Steady, Decembrists, Built to Spill). I also started collecting Celtic music about 9 years ago. I’ve got everything from traditional ballads sung in Gaelic, to the Vancouver celtic punk bar band, The Real McKenzies. Great stuff.

And that’s my story. Music makes me happy, though I don’t get to listen to it nearly as much as I’d like.