What are the classics that every country bassist should know?

[NKUSigEp]

I had a brief conversation with a local country bass player a while back that stuck in my mind. I was picking his brain for advice on getting started playing bass in a country band and he told me to learn the numbering system, a few chords on guitar, and the classics.

If you had to pick 5-10 songs that you would consider the most popular country songs ever that any band would know, what would they be?

[JTE]

From when I started gigging back in 1976, these were the standards every band did that they kept doing for at least 10 years. I quit playing country when Garth Brooks' fans and the line-dancers ruined the biz.

"Good Hearted Woman" by Waylon Jennings
"I Walk The Line", and "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash
"Crazy" by Willie Nelson, the classic recording by Patsy Cline
"Hey, Good Lookin'", "Jambalya", and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" by Hank Williams (the first and only one that really counts)
"Crazy Arms", or "Heartaches By The Numbers" for some classic country shuffle type stuff
"He Stopped Lovin' Her Today" and "The Race Is On" by George Jones.
"Okie from Muskogee", "Workin' Man Blues", "Today, I Started Loving You, Again", and "Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down" by Merle Haggard

There's a bunch of others I'll kick myself for not recalling too...
John

[5StringBlues]

^ +1 to all of the above,especially "Crazy Arms" and "Heartaches By the Number".Country shuffles are becoming a lost art form.

Ain't It Funny How Time Slips Away-Willie,many covers.
Night Life-Willie,Ray Price.
Amanda-Waylon Jennings
Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound-Hank Williams Jr.
Redneck Mother-Jerry Jeff Walker

EDIT:Whiskey River-Willie

[countrybassist]

Lay you down, Conway Twitty
Family Tradition. Hank Jr.
Here's a quarter, Travis Tritt
Rocky Top, Osborne brothers
Cry cry cry, Johnny Cash

[bassist4dalord]

Forever and ever, amen. Randy Travis. Good one for a couples' dance or something.

[NKUSigEp]

Thanks gentlemen! Anyone else?

[JimmyM]

No Garth??? Friends In Low Places and Ain't Goin' Down Till The Sun Comes Up are musts.

No Dwight??? Fast As You and Guitars, Cadillacs are musts.

Also, Skynyrd and Allman Bros are always welcome at country gigs.

[JTE]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

No Garth??? Friends In Low Places and Ain't Goin' Down Till The Sun Comes Up are musts.

No Dwight??? Fast As You and Guitars, Cadillacs are musts.

Also, Skynyrd and Allman Bros are always welcome at country gigs.

Well, I don't consider Garth to be classic at all. I find Skynyrd an abomination anyway, and real Allman Bros playing won't be happenin' in any classic country band I could imagine.

Now, Mr. Yokam is a different story. He's firmly rooted in classic country and a lot of his material SOUNDS like classic country. Those others you mentioned while they may be popular at certain kinds of country gigs, aren't what I'd call classics in any way.

Perhaps because of my aversion to the way Garth's sucess has negatively impacted the sale of country music. See, when Billboard switched the charts data collection from calling record stores and getting (apparently highly subjective) opinions of the top selling records to using actual point-of-sale data collection, Garth's CD went from somewhere like 10 or so to #1 that week. And Metallica got knocked down from 1. Record company sales staff were shocked and took notice right away.

So that's why all of a sudden we had generic pop music being foirsed off as "country" music. The big rock shows, the screaming guitars, the glitz, the folks who can't sing in tune, the dumb lyrics, all pass as country music if the singer wears a hat and they slip a few seconds of fiddle or pedal steel into the track.

I don't blame Garth at all- he's following his muse and while I don't pay much attention to his music, it's who HE is. It's the mindless followers. Plus the mindless radio programmers who'll play someone young who sounds just like Merle Haggard, but won't play Merle.

So, now you kids, get offa my lawn!!

John

[NoTalentHack]

Originally Posted by JTE

From when I started gigging back in 1976, these were the standards every band did that they kept doing for at least 10 years. I quit playing country when Garth Brooks' fans and the line-dancers ruined the biz.

"Good Hearted Woman" by Waylon Jennings
"I Walk The Line", and "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash
"Crazy" by Willie Nelson, the classic recording by Patsy Cline
"Hey, Good Lookin'", "Jambalya", and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" by Hank Williams (the first and only one that really counts)
"Crazy Arms", or "Heartaches By The Numbers" for some classic country shuffle type stuff
"He Stopped Lovin' Her Today" and "The Race Is On" by George Jones.
"Okie from Muskogee", "Workin' Man Blues", "Today, I Started Loving You, Again", and "Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down" by Merle Haggard

There's a bunch of others I'll kick myself for not recalling too...
John

Oh, man! That's a nice list. Add some Gary Stewart and Dwight Yoakam to it and it will be golden! O.K. it is golden, but even more so.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by JTE

Well, I don't consider Garth to be classic at all. I find Skynyrd an abomination anyway, and real Allman Bros playing won't be happenin' in any classic country band I could imagine.

Now, Mr. Yokam is a different story. He's firmly rooted in classic country and a lot of his material SOUNDS like classic country. Those others you mentioned while they may be popular at certain kinds of country gigs, aren't what I'd call classics in any way.

Perhaps because of my aversion to the way Garth's sucess has negatively impacted the sale of country music. See, when Billboard switched the charts data collection from calling record stores and getting (apparently highly subjective) opinions of the top selling records to using actual point-of-sale data collection, Garth's CD went from somewhere like 10 or so to #1 that week. And Metallica got knocked down from 1. Record company sales staff were shocked and took notice right away.

So that's why all of a sudden we had generic pop music being foirsed off as "country" music. The big rock shows, the screaming guitars, the glitz, the folks who can't sing in tune, the dumb lyrics, all pass as country music if the singer wears a hat and they slip a few seconds of fiddle or pedal steel into the track.

I don't blame Garth at all- he's following his muse and while I don't pay much attention to his music, it's who HE is. It's the mindless followers. Plus the mindless radio programmers who'll play someone young who sounds just like Merle Haggard, but won't play Merle.

So, now you kids, get offa my lawn!!

John

Um, OK?

[modulusman]

George Strait goes over well. We play "amarillo by morning" always packs the floor.

[Hizzoner]

So, now you kids, get offa my lawn!!

John
__________


great gran torino reference...

bump

[GM60466]

King of the Road - Roger Miller (great Bob Moore Bass line)
Walking after Midnight - Patsy Cline
On The Road Again - Wille

[praisebass]

'Green Snakes on the Ceiling' - or anything else by Johny Bush

[5StringBlues]

Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain-Willie Nelson
Wasted Days and Wasted Nights-Freddy Fender

[Stinsok]

Silver Wings!

[carneyc]

In the late 70's I was playing
1. Family Tradition-Hank Jr.
2. I believe in you- Don Williams
3. Storms never last- Waylon
5. Folsom prison- Johnny Cash

And if you were from the "south" you would know you don't tell people to get off your "lawn"!
It's your "yard" or "property"! Go easy on Jimmym!

[Thundar]

Originally Posted by carneyc

And if you were from the "south" you would know you don't tell people to get off your "lawn"!
It's your "yard" or "property"! Go easy on Jimmym!

+1 ...Ain't that the truth...dadgumit

[5StringBlues]

Originally Posted by carneyc

And if you were from the "south" you would know you don't tell people to get off your "lawn"!
It's your "yard" or "property"!

I had to think back aways,but as I recall it was "Get OUTTA my yard!"

[carneyc]

Originally Posted by 5StringBlues

I had to think back aways,but as I recall it was "Get OUTTA my yard!"

That's it Brother!!