Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Guitar Man” by Jerry Reed It was difficult to take Jerry Reed seriously, and one suspects it was all by his own design. Reed’s larger than life persona was that of a goofy country hick who sure could tell a tall tale, and numerous TV appearances on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour and The Johnny Cash Show, novelty story-song records like “Lord, Mr. Ford” and “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot,” and numerous movie appearances with the likes of Burt Reynolds and Adam Sandler cemented this notion in the psyche of the American music loving public. But Jerry Reed was a C.G.P. The C.G.P., or Certified Guitar Player, was a title originated...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Undo The Right” by Willie Nelson “If you can’t say you love me say you hate me / And that you regret each time you held me tight, If you can’t be mine forever then forsake me / If you can’t undo the wrong, undo the right.” Totally brilliant in its simplicity! And so is this demo recording made for Pamper Music, the music publishing company owned by Ray Price and Hal Smith. Only Willie Nelson could put this song over so matter of fact, and that’s why he is not only considered one of the greatest songwriters of all time, but also one of the greatest song stylists bar none....

  One of Cool Album of the Day’s favorite performers graced The Late Show with David Letterman yet again recently. Elizabeth Cook not only performed a great classic song but also put smiles on faces with yet another fun interview.  You can see both below. Enjoy! Her latest  EP is a Gospel record called Gospel Plow. It was released a year or so ago. In fact, this is her second appearance on Dave’s show in that time. We’ve also added that performance below.     Here’s Elizabeth’s most recent interview on the show. She and her band performing “If I Had My Way” A great performance of “Hear Jerusalem Calling” Here’s an older interview as well Related Links Here is...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#831 in the Series) is Johnny Cash, American Recordings V: A Hundred Highways The year was 1994, and it was not the best of times for Johnny Cash.  His health, starting to fail from a series of illnesses and decades of hard living, was seemingly bringing “The Man in Black” much closer to the end than he was ready to admit.  His latest major record label, Mercury Records had dropped him after one last commitment record, The Mystery of life, that was released in 1990 and included updated versions of “Hey Porter”, “Angel and the “Badman”, and “The Greatest Cowboy”, that were good simply because they are very good songs, but showed none...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “The Mercy Seat” by Johnny Cash By the year 2000 and the third album in the American series, Johnny Cash had reestablished himself as one of the greatest singers, not just in country music, but in all music. Producer, Rick Rubin, began working with him several years before and allowed Johnny Cash do what he did best in the studio…be JOHNNY CASH! Cash began working with Rick Rubin in 1994. Rubin was the founder  of Def Jam Records, and was responsible for producing seminal recordings by Public Enemy and The Beastie Boys. It must have taken quite a leap of faith for Johnny Cash to, not only work with Rick...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Good Year For The Roses” by Elvis Costello & The Attractions – They were young, drunk, marketed as punk rockers and cut loose in Nashville, Tennessee, behaving very badly. Such was the backdrop for Elvis Costello and the Attraction’s album-length foray into straight-ahead Country music back in 1981. Costello was coming off a white-hot streak of records including 1977’s My Aim Is True, followed by “This Year’s Model” in 1978, Armed Forces in 1979, and both Trust and the 20-track Get Happy record in 1980, all stuffed to the gills with self-penned classic songs. Add to that the 20-track Taking Liberties album that gathered up the rest of the stray...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#805 in the Series) is Iris DeMent, Sing the Delta  Well, we’re into November now (already!) and to be honest I was starting to get my head around compiling my Albums Of The Year list. There are a few weeks to go but I thought we’d had all the good stuff and it was wind down time, compilations and reissues to the fore in the bid for our Christmas present cash. Then this little gem appeared like a bolt from the blue and took me over. It’s a delightful treat which has held me enthralled all week and has, naturally, caused me to rethink that list…….. I knew Iris DeMent had to be something...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#784 in the Series) is Brewed in Texas. Part collection of morality tales, part Saturday night party record, and part Austin hill country travelogue, Brewed in Texas  is quite possibly the best collection of drinking songs on one barstool since the Merle Haggard classic, Back to the Barrooms. Lovingly produced by Houston based Compadre Records, this album celebrates the joys of getting plastered, the necessity of drowning your sorrows, draining your tears in your beer, and most importantly, the Honky-Tonk. This album features contemporary Texas singer songwriters Kevin Fowler, Slaid Cleaves, Beaver Nelson and Hayes Carll, right beside hill country road dogs Jerry Jeff Walker, Tommy Alverson, and Rusty Weir, the bastard...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#365 in the Series) is the self-titled debut from Heartsfield Happy Birthday to Us, Happy Birthday to Us, Happy Birthday Dear “Cool Album of the Day.” Happy Birthday to You!!!  Well, not exactly.  This is our 365th entry. So we’re going to call this our birthday! Yeah, we may have started a little over a year ago but we did miss a few days early, but since this is # 365, it’s our birthday. Keeping that in mind, I’m going to feature another album by my dear friends, Heartsfield. Yes, we’ll be getting back to some more current goodies very soon, but since it’s our birthday, I’m going to give myself this gift...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#709 in the Series) is Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy Most music fans will know the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (if they know them at all) as the makers of “Will The Circle Be Unbroken”, a superb album which has become semi-legendary in certain circles, with good cause. It was an essential purchase when it came out in 1972, a wondrous 3 LP set within which tribute was paid by a younger generation to some of the most revered performers of traditional Country music. The likes of Mother Maybelle Carter, Earl Scruggs and Roy Acuff were on board for a seminal release on which both sides of...