Been listening to Outlaw Country the last coupla days on Sirius XM.
Normally I would avoid a station with an insulting marketing name like that. Implication being you're gonna hear a whole lot of music from the bad boys of country.
Not the case. However the station endeared itself to me because it is intelligent.
Heard a song with Waylon and Willie. In it they refer to Jerry Jeff Walker. Next song? By Jerry Jeff Walker. Not that much of a stretch, but if you don't know who Jerry Jeff is you got a little taste of him.
But they went way beyond that.
Next up - "Four Strong Winds", a beautiful and melancholy song written by Ian Tyson and, in this case, performed by Neil Young. They played "Willin", by Little Feat - one of my favorites. They played a song by Delbert McClinton. Delbert is a blues dude, for Christ sake. They played some Tom Petty. Fuckin' a right. In so doing they mentioned the Tom Petty station on Sirius. I set that puppy up.
You get where I am going with this?
They are painting outside the lines. They are going for a feel, not a genre. I fucking hate that word when it is applied to music. Know which genre of music is my favorite? MUSIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reminded me of when I was a mere teenager listening to FM radio, which was fairly new at the time. They could do anything they wanted to do, and they did.
Sometimes they would play one entire side of an album. Sometimes what they played reminded them of something else, say John Coltrane. Next thing you knew you were listening to John Coltrane on a rock 'n roll station. Tremendous education. Excellent exposure.
They would read poetry or literary quotes. Go on political rants. It was wide open. It was a living, breathing thing.
Now regular radio is programmed by robots and aimed at dead people.
But Sirius XM approximates old tymey FM radio. They are pretty wide open. Steven Van Zandt has a station called Little Steven's Underground Garage. That station blows my mind. No boundaries. You never know what they are going to play and it is all good. From the 40's to right now, maybe going back farther than that. Quite tasty.
Only problem with Outlaw Country is the DJ's. Holy shit, the few that I have heard have heavy Southern accents. And I mean almost indecipherable Southern accents. They sound ridiculous. But I want to believe they are genuine. Otherwise they must be executed.
The icing on the cake came last night on my ride home. Listened to a few good country songs. Then "Free Fallin'" by Tom Petty came on. I belted that out at maximum volume just like me and Alan used to do in 1989. I felt so damn good.
Felt alive.
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