Heartbroken by Ireland’s tragic crash-out last week, I forgot about putting up a new post yesterday. So this is a rushed affair.
Further reading
Don’t miss Deebee’s analysis of the quarter-finals, or Utnapistm’s predictions for this weekend.
On the telly this week
Friday 25th October
| Ulster v Cardiff | 19:35 | S4C / Premier Sports 1 |
| Munster v Ospreys | 19:35 | TG4 / Premier Sports 2 |
| Bath v Exeter | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 26th October
| England v New Zealand | 09:00 | ITV |
| Dragons v Glasgow | 14:45 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Gloucester v Wasps | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
| Treviso v Kings | 15:00 | FreeSports |
| Connacht v Cheetahs | 17:15 | TG4 / Premier Sports 1 |
| Zebre v Leinster | 17:15 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Edinburgh v Scarlets | 19:30 | Premier Sports 2 |
Sunday 27th October
| Wales v S Africa | 09:00 | ITV |
| Leicester v Saracens | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Ovally Balls 
Good to hear BB! Love that band. Only got to appreciate them later in my yoof and early 20s when I dated a lass who loved them. Before that it was 80s metal and 60s /70s rock and metal.
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Excellent stuff there Iksy! A homage to Dov and the gentle art of drink-induced self destruction.
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Although I am more of a fan of Closer than Unknown Pleasures. Just can’t get UP but love Closer.
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Should add (not that it’s important) that it was whilst I was delving into the roots of Led Zepp and other early rock/metal bands, along with the Eagles, Strawbs and others that I found Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson etc. Not what you’d expect to match up, but I loved the attitude of those guys S much as the magical music.
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Ah, now Led Zep is thaum-pleasing (but please not bloody Stairway…).
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I love the piano riff in this cover:
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“in 2nd half to be fair Mo’unga does well to chase down Kolbe ”
Twas a marvelous, match saving piece of defensive work.
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I mighta played this one before, but this here’s my favourite country song, y’all. It also fits nicely into the Stones theme of a few days ago.
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“Twas a marvelous, match saving piece of defensive work.”
It was a terrific tackle but it’s difficult to know if it was match saving. It came at 17-3 and after Kolbe hurled the ball blind inside, NZ played a couple of phases before SA got it back – massive cheating by PS du Toit – and du Toit went over for the score.
After such a super piece of defence last month, it was disappointing to see Mo’unga miss Daly so badly in the run-up to the England try on Saturday.
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Thaum – you must have a soft spot for Dolly
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OT – scroooollllllll
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Ok, last one. This is country and is good
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There are so many Venn diagrams when it comes to music. The Stones learned about country music from Gram Parsons, who used to hang around the studio with the Stones getting, err, stoned, really stoned. Gram Parsons had an intense working relationship with Emmylou Harris.
First Aid Kit came to fame with a song about Emmylou and Gram, Johnny Cash and June Carter
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Hank Williams (the original rock’n’roll lifestyle guy) has a ‘ grandson, Hank III, son of Hank Williams Jnr funilly enough, he does country for about half his show, the second half is given over to his thrash metal set.
He also sits in with a band with members from Pantera and other side project metal stuff, playing bass and drums.
I won’t post links but he’s an interesting fellow if you want to look him up
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Oxymoron alert!
Ticht – I do like Emmylou’s album with Daniel Lanois (Wrecking Ball) a lot, but it’s not really country.
I would argue that Faraway Eyes is a – very good – parody of country music. Sure, that doesn’t exclude them having respect for Parsons and others.
More seriously, I don’t mean to denigrate anyone’s tastes (much…), but that country twang is like fingernails down a blackboard to me. Urgh. Add in banjos and ukuleles and other such horrible instruments. I’d rather have bagpipes or accordions – well, bandoneĂ³ns.
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Gram Parsons worked with the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers
if you expand those family trees they take in everything from Sinatra to Randy Newman to Crosby Stills and Nash and Neil Young etc
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“that country twang is like fingernails down a blackboard to me. Urgh”
No worries, I understand, it’s not an uncommon point of view. I really love that twang, but I can’t stand modern pop country.
I’d contend that Richard Thompson is a hop and a step away from a lot of the country stuff I like, although I love pedal steel and the inflected voices, (is inflected the word I’m looking for here?) it’s not all like that.
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It was the Scots and Irish that started it – going over there with their fiddles and stuff
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I’m going to a gig on Thursday – this remarkable young woman, Molly Tuttle, is just about the best guitar picker out there at the moment
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Ticht – aye, I know all that. Funnily enough, I love a lot of folk / folk-rock music, but not the really fiddle-bound stuff that evolved into country.
I had a boss (in the US) who loved folk music of the fiddly variety. I asked him if he liked … Pentangle, I think it was, and he hadn’t heard of them. It’s electric folk, I told him. Rubbish, he said, that doesn’t exist.
So I gave him a tape. He then conceded that electric folk *did* exist, but refused to like it. :-)
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Aye, it can all get a bit Monty Python at times with the genres and subgenres, Thaum
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A very cursory search of the internet can throw up a not unpleasant collaboration between Johnny Cash and Joe Strummer.
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Ticht – it’s almost Brexity. ;-)
‘Twas this I gave him:
Saw this band in a small venue in Ann Arbor; they were brilliant.
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Thaum, I’m trying to convert you or anything, but what about this?
I love it, it’s just so cool and laid back
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Ticht – that’s not so bad; it’s not too twangy. But still a bit plinky-plonky for my taste.
What I love about folk is that it tells stories about ordinary people, and probably country does that as well, if I could get over my aversion to the sound of it.
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Well … ordinary folk, and the faery folk and so on!
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Pentangle are another big family tree venn diagram band – they reach out to Danny Thompson, Richard Thompson, Bert Jansch, Pogues, and my ultimate desert island disk guy, John Martyn
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Thaum, idulge me for a minute or three, this is my favourite country singer who is around at the moment
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There was a prog on the Beeb a few years ago called the Transatlantic Sessions that paired up folkies and country players. The mister liked it a lot. I mostly didn’t. Have to say that it was really well done, though – nobody beats the BBC at recording live music.
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Ticht – the version I saw had both Jansch and Renbourn – as well as Jacquie McShee. In a wooden venue. Unless my memory is enhancing it.
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Like the Chris Stapleton. More bluesy though, no?
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One more and I’ll leave it at that – songs of real people
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Bluesy yeah, soul yeah, but country, that’s kind of my point, it’s not all spangles and steel guitars and fiddles
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S’gone onto the next song, Death Row. Definite Southern blues-rock, Ă la Allman Bros.
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Glad to see that Mr Stapleton spells ‘whiskey’ correctly.
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Here’s Duane Eddy and his twangy guitar.
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There is an absolutely brilliant husband-wife team in this genre. Cannot remember their names. Anyone?
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Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings I reckon you’re thinking of, thaum.
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Guns – I prefer this Duane.
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Guns, that the thing, Country can and does mean anything from Duane Eddy and Rockabilly to solo fiddle and clog dancing to early Taylor Swift style pop to Blues and Cajun and Zydeco, Western Swing and rock’n’roll and twang and all sorts
It’s a lot like Classical Music or Rock Music, it is a big field (no pun intended)
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“Glad to see that Mr Stapleton spells ‘whiskey’ correctly.”
Yeah, well he’s talking about Bourbon, the poor lad
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Titch. Love C&W. From Duane to the Civil Wars and all that Americana. But Johnny Cash above all else.
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TomP – no, I don’t think that was it. I have consulted the mister.
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Ticht
*cough* *gasp*
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Guns. growing up my mum had Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Hank Jnr, Glen Campbell records but I discovered Johnny Cash on my own.
I was about 11 and “one piece at a time” came on Dave Lee Travis breakfast show on my radio alarm, (for the benefit of others) the one about the car worker nicking one piece of a car over a number of years and then them not fitting together, I tought it was hilarious, and I’ve been a Cash fan ever since, it was an easy sell to me because of the music that was aroun my house at the time.
That and Shirely Bassey, she was big in my household at that time too.
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I advise you to take a tour of the Bushmills distillery one day. They have many (jokingly-snide) references to why Irish whiskey is superior to Scotch whisky. For one thing, it’s triple-distilled, apparently.
But I’m sure they’d welcome a Scot’s input to the discussion. No, really. (I bet they’re secret fans of not a few whiskys.)
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Ticht – I grew up with Beatles, Stones, Cream, Animals, Queen – and Beethoven, folk music (dad ineptly playing himself on guitar), plus all sorts of others.
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This is the wife/husband band I referred to earlier:
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I’d love to go to the Irish distilleries, Thaum, there are aound a dozen of them I think.
I’d like to think I’m not biased but I can’t swear to it, but in terms of quality and value, the produce from Scotland is still the stuff to beat. I’ve had whisky from all over Europe, Asia, India, Aus/New Zealand, but Scotch whisky is still the best – ay you can get a lovely Japanese whisky …. for about treble the cost of the same quality from Scotland, and we are talking about over £150 a bottle, low end
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