Hard Core...Bluegrass!: Jim & Jesse and The Virginia Boys

Jim and Jesse McReynolds are the unsung heroes of bluegrass music.  I first got into their music in the late 70s when I became immersed in a Bill Monroe Bean Blossom Festival record.  "Their harmony was exceptional, a rarity some say only brothers can produce.  Jim's enhanced high tenor combined with Jesse's deep lead and unique mandolin style set this duo apart in the world of traditional music, now termed Bluegrass." They were the longest brother duo in country and bluegrass music, playing together for 55 years, until 2002, at which time both brothers were diagnosed with cancer.  Jesse beat it; unfortunately, Jim did not.  Jesse continues performing with The Virginia Boys today.  Their contributions to bluegrass remain under the radar, but, here in this entry, let's say thanks to Jim and Jesse.

Hard Hearted

Ole Slew Foot

My Baby's Gone

When I Stop Dreaming

Please Be My Love

The (Third) Day The Music Died: Honky Tonk Badonkadonk

 

Previously, I've posted on the "First Day The Music Died"--the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper--and what I called the "Second Day The Music Died"--the plane crash that killed Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas.  In my view, there's a "Third Day The Music Died," not as tragic when actual lives of gifted artists were lost; rather, a big nail in the coffin for real country music.  It's the day, back in 2005, that Trace Adkins released, "Honky Tonk, Badonkadonk," a billion-selling record.  Per the internet, Jamey Johnson, who co-wrote the song, the idea for "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" came when Johnson and two of his friends were watching a young woman dancing at a club.  Badonkadonk is urban slang for shapely female buttocks.  Within an hour, the three had written the song."  Frankly, that's four times longer than I thought it had taken.  A record executive summed up the song this way, "We knew it was a magical song, but we didn't know it was this magical."  Obviously, the magic has gone over my head.  Ironically, I heard of the song after seeing Adkins on "The Apprentice" (the first and last time I watched it) and thinking this guy's pretty cool.  I look him up on YouTube and found this song.  

There's absolutely nothing wrong with putting out magical songs like this.  It's seems it's what a majority of Americans want.  Just, PLEASE DON'T CALL IT COUNTRY, BECAUSE IT'S NOT.

Honky Tonk Badonkadonk