A (mostly) non-Bluegrass fill-in, 8/24/2012

As I'm writing this, Jim is playing all sorts of great BG music on the radio from some BG performers who are celebrating birthdays this week, including folks like the late Carter Stanley as well as banjo legend J.D. Crowe.  He'll be posting today's playlist later on this evening, no doubt, so keep your eyes open to find it...

This past Friday morning, I got to do what turns out to be my final fill-in show for the Summer at WHUS.  It was a fun, fast two hours, and since it was the first filler program I'd done since the death of Kitty Wells in July, I thought it would be quite fitting to play a bit of music from the Queen of Country Music.  As you most likely know, Kitty's biggest hit was 1952's "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels."  That song was an "answer song" to Hank Thompson's hit from the same year, "The Wild Side Of Life."  Answer songs were very popular in country music throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, and it seems that Kitty Wells recorded at least two others others after having such great chart success with "...Angels."  We included those other answer songs from 1953 on Friday's show, as well as the two tunes they "answered" -- hits from Webb Pierce and Carl Smith.  Neither of those songs quite reached the popularity that "...Angels" hit, but they were -- and still are -- worth a listen from time to time.

Early Jim Reeves

August is a busy birthday month for quite a few of the classic country performers I like to spotlight in these fill-in shows, so I also made sure to play songs from a few of them:  Webb Pierce (born 8/8/1926), Porter Wagoner (8/12/1927), Buck Owens (8/12/1929), Jim Reeves (8/20/1924), Carter Stanley (8/27/1927), Kitty Wells (8/30/1919), and two of the Statler Brothers (baritone Phil Balsley born 8/8/1939 and bass Harold Reid on 8/21/1939).  

Early 70s Statlers with Phil & Harold in front

Throw in a bit from the song catalog of the one and only Hank Williams -- a couple of songs sung by Hank, as well as a cover or three from others -- and you've got the kind of WHUS fill-in show that I really enjoy putting together a couple of times a year.  

Hope you'll join us each and every Sunday at the BG Cafe on Sundays, 4-7PM, and we'll be sure to let you know when/if you'll find us on the air at other times throughout the year.  That info is generally found on our BG Cafe Facebook page, which can be looked at by anyone, regardless of whether or not they are Facebook members.  Find the show here:  www.facebook.com/WHUS.Bluegrass Cafe.

Amy

REQUESTS ARE RED.

• Late For School / Steve Martin / The Crow / Rounder
• Foggy Mountain Chimes / Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs / The Essential Earl Scruggs / Columbia
• New Mule Skinner Blues / Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys / Anthology / MCA
• After The Sunrise / Chuck Wagon Gang / The Golden Age / Columbia
• Dust On The Bible / Bailes Brothers / Bailes Brothers 2010 / Gusto
• Are You Walking And A-Talking For The Lord / Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper & the Clinch Mountain Clan / The Golden Age / Columbia
• Broadminded / Louvin Brothers / When I Stop Dreaming:  The Best Of The Louvin Brothers / Razor & Tie
• River Of Jordan / Carter Family / Anchored In Love / Rounder
• There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight / Hank Williams / 24 Of Hank Williams' Greatest Hits / Mercury
• Take These Chains From My Heart / Merle Haggard / Roots, Volume 1 / Anti
• You Win Again / Wanda Jackson / Wanda Jackson Salutes The Country Music Hall Of Fame / Capitol
• I Can't Get You Off Of My Mind / Spinney Brothers / Going Home / Self-Produced
• Honky Tonk Blues / Hank Williams / Live At The Grand Ole Opry / Mercury
• Long, Lonesome Highway Blues / Steve Earle & the Del McCoury Band / The Mountain / E-Squared
• The Other Side Of Town / Gibson Brothers / Iron & Diamonds / Sugar Hill
• Curtain In The Window / Ray Price / The Essential Ray Price / Columbia
• Walking The Floor Over You / Ernest Tubb / 20th Century Masters / MCA
• Release Me / Kitty Wells / Makin' Believe / Country Stars
• The Wild Side Of Life / Hank Thompson / Your Cheatin' Heart:  Classic Country Hits / Dynamic
• It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels / Kitty Wells / Makin' Believe / Country Stars
• Back Street Affair / Webb Pierce / 20th Century Masters / MCA
• Paying For That Back Street Affair / Kitty Wells / Makin' Believe / Country Stars
• Hey Joe / Carl Smith / The Essential Carl Smith / Columbia
• Hey Joe / Kitty Wells / Makin' Believe / Country Stars
• Yonder Comes A Sucker / Jim Reeves / Four Walls:  The Legend Begins / BMG
• Our Last Goodbye / Stanley Brothers / Select Sides, 1949-1953 / JSP Records
• A Satisfied Mind / Porter Wagoner / RCA Country Legends / BMG
• Fallin' For You / Buck Owens / I've Got A Tiger By The Tail / Sundazed
• Pictures / Statler Brothers / The Legendary Statler Brothers / Reader's Digest
• Cold Sheets Of Rain / Grass Routes / Something New / Self-Produced
• Many A Mile / Eddie & Martha Adcock with Tom Gray & Friends / Many A Mile / Patuxent Music
• Music Makin' Mama From Memphis / Hank Snow / I'm Movin' On / Proper Records
• Dang Me / Roger Miller / 20th Century Masters / Mercury
• Roan Mountain Rag / Richard Bennett / Last Train From Poor Valley / Lonesome Day Records