Program Notes:  ‘Sounds Like Country from Here:  Songs by Tennessee Walt’

Bay View, Michigan, July 23, 2022 1.  “A Song about You” (Gayden Wren, 2019). A year or two back, I noticed that in 2020 a country singer named Sam Grow had premiered a song called “Song About You.”  I haven’t heard it, so I don’t know if it’s anything like mine.  For the record, I … Continue reading Program Notes:  ‘Sounds Like Country from Here:  Songs by Tennessee Walt’

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Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s ‘An Afternoon in the Country’

Westbury Memorial Public Library, Westbury, NY * December 16, 2022 1.  “Night Train to Memphis” (Roy Acuff, 1942). Roy Acuff It’s impossible to say for sure who did what on this song, since it has three co-writers: Owen Bradley, Marvin Hughes and Beasley Smith.  However, Bradley and Hughes were both best known as musicians, while … Continue reading Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s ‘An Afternoon in the Country’

Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s ‘A Year in a Distant Country’

March 13, 2021 “Honky Tonking”  (Hank Williams, 1947) Williams actually recorded and released this song twice in consecutive years, once for the low-budget, no-royalties Sterling Records in 1947 and again for the far more professional MGM Records in January 1948. Sterling didn’t have much distribution, so the MGM recording is the version almost everybody knows … Continue reading Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s ‘A Year in a Distant Country’

Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s The Other Great American Songbook

Chappaqua Library, January 28, 2023 “Setting the Woods on Fire”  (Hank Williams, 1952) Written by Fred Rose and Edward G. Nelson, this is a great example of why many people said that Fred Rose could write a Hank Williams song better than anyone, even Williams himself.  Since the song first hit the airwaves, people have … Continue reading Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s The Other Great American Songbook

‘Tennessee Walt: An Evening in ‘A Distant Country’: Program Notes

“Waiting for a Train” (Jimmie Rodgers, 1928). Rodgers is credited with writing this song, which he absolutely didn’t do—nearly all of his songs were written by other people or (if his name is on them) adapted from older blues songs or mountain ballads, and this is no exception.  It dates from no later than 19th-century … Continue reading ‘Tennessee Walt: An Evening in ‘A Distant Country’: Program Notes