It’s been awhile since we updated the Bourbon playlist, and it’s not for lack of inspiration, but more of perspiration. Tonight we do a small rectification of this situation by adding a couple of tunes to the growing bourbon playlist.
First, from the Jerry Jeff Walker camp, it’s Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother. I remember seeing Jerry Jeff live at the legendary Commodore Ballroom back in the early 1980′s. I was a pup of a lad and didn’t know much about Jerry Jeff, other than that he was responsible for one of the most recognized songs from my youth, Mr. Bojangles. My brother was in town for the occasion, on the rebound from a recent divorce and ready for trouble. We pretty much drank the house out of booze on the night, ordering rounds of beer and whiskey until we ran out of money. Jerry played his set and was obliging enough to the crowd to repeat a few numbers several times: “If you keep buying, I’ll keep playing” was the way he put it. Redneck Mothers was played at least twice.
The other song just spun out of the random song generator and it’s a beauty: a woman named Sippie Wallace singing a knock-out called Dead Drunk Blues. Her entry in Wikipedia reads like something out of the Old Testament. One of thirteen children, father a deacon, stealing nights at tent shows, recorded with a legendary cast including Ma Rainey and Louis Armstrong. I have it on good authority that she once unwrapped a bedroll with Beethoven, but that may be hyperbole attributed to tuba players.
Anyway, bourbon is the genre which keeps on giving. I raise another glass…
