March 2, 2006
Breaking My Silence
Posted by James Goodfellow at March 2, 2006 3:13 PMOk, I've remained silent long enough…its time to post. I came across this neat story and I just had to share it with you all. For those who don't know (I just recently learned), horror-master Stephen King is now writing a music column for Entertainment Weekly and this week's column has King discussing his love for none other than Alt-Country music. Yep, you heard it here first – King digs the twang. Though he drops a few well-known names in the article (Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam, Uncle Tupelo, Whiskeytown), the focus of his piece is on a virtually unknown and now-defunct act out of Maine called Diesel Doug and the Long Haul Truckers. I won't steal his story's thunder by giving you all the details here, but I highly recommend you cruise over and take peek at it.
Now, while I'm happy that the Dark Tower scribe is getting some good ink-time for our little music niche, I'm not altogether impressed with this particular choice. Diesel Doug has a few downloads available on their site and none of them really grabbed me. That said, mediocre Americana is much better than Pop Country. Download and decide for yourselves.
Lastly, I've read quite a few Stephen King books but I don't ever recall any alt-country references. Can you think of any that I'm overlooking?
The Dark Tower books had "Man of Constant Sorrow" references...
Posted by: larry at March 2, 2006 3:23 PMNot an actual band, but Bag of Bones (a recent book, and one of his best IMO) revolves in part around Sara and the Red-Top Boys, a turn-of-the-century black folk band that was described as very Americana to me...
Posted by: Ranger Rick at March 2, 2006 4:05 PMApparently in the book "Black House," King makes reference to the Slobberbone song "Gimme Back My Dog." Slobberbone, coincidentally, being another good band that is now defunct.
Posted by: Derek at March 2, 2006 4:25 PMHmmm... King's a jinx?
Posted by: larry at March 2, 2006 4:28 PM
