(SPECIAL EXTRA-LONG MY FAVORITE COUNTRY/WESTERN SONGS EPISODE!) First up, the Canadian-born country/rockabilly/dance-hall-geniuses
Ray Condo & His Ricochets are on full tilt for "Done Gone Crazy" from their 1997 album
Door to Door Maniac (
Amazon). Then
The Dave & Deke Combo did their toe-tappingly fun song "Two Timin' Mama" from their 1996 album
Hollywood Barn Dance (
Amazon). Next I laid the smack down with some quality country covers of non-country songs. First was the Gap-tastic
Queen cover by
Dwight Yoakam of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" from, among other places, his
Very Best of... (
iTunes,
Amazon). Then Austin's
Dollar Store did the best
Cher cover ever, "Believe" from their not-terribly-good self-titled album (
iTunes,
Amazon). (Cowboy hats off to
Coverville for turning me on to that one.) Then it was back to the good-ole traditional country/western sounds with
Tennessee Ernie Ford doing "Ballad of Davy Crockett" from any number of his around 100 releases, like this
Greatest Hits (
Amazon). Then we took it to the trailer park for
Southern Culture on the Skids stand-out Little Debbie Love Ballad "Camel Walk" from their album Dirt Track Date (
iTunes,
Amazon, Other Music). Faux-old-timey-band
Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys were next with "Three Years Blind" from their 1997 album
Feelin' Kinda Lucky (
iTunes,
Amazon). Then we heard two songs by the legendary Austin country songster
Blaze Foley. First was "Wouldn't that Be Nice" (not a Beach Boys cover), followed by the title track to the album, his prescient "Oval Room," which one can only assume was written about the Bush Dynasty (
iTunes,
Lost Art Records). And finally the classic western swing band
The Light Crust Doughboys did "Happy Trails" from their limited edition, no longer available album
Doughboy Way.
This week's episode features a clip from the podcast for Ebert & Roeper at the Movies as they review the new Dukes of Hazard movie.