let's get serious for a minute

There are a few artists I like mostly for their sense of humor, you might even say clownishness, but every once in a while they come out with something un-absurd that also really catches my ear. I'm thinking mostly of Jerry Reed; I LOVE "When You're Hot, You're Hot", I don't care if some people think it's redneck b.s., because it's GREAT--musically accomplished and hilarious. But right now I'm wearing the grooves off his RCA Lp "Oh, What A Woman." With the exception of the sappy "Today Is Mine" (there's always a sappy ballad on Jerry Reed's albums) this record is full of moody guitar pieces played by Reed and a funky band. The title track is a collection of hip southernisms (the word "britches" appears in it twice) about an excellent wife, I love it. But the killer track here is "Wayfaring Stranger", a gospelish lament, done here though with a sort of bossanova organ accompnying the scat singing, guitar picking Reed. It's way too short. And "Roving Gambler", done up with some sweet countrypolitan strings and an uncredited female singer who takes just two lines to make you wonder who she is, is not bad either.

Well, now that I've teased you with those descriptions I'm sorry to say I don't have mp3s of these; I'll see what I can do about that. In the meantime, here's one by another cat who's usually seen as a caricature of a pimp, but on this track he's doing something a little different: it's a reworking of the old gospel number (I know it through Rosetta Tharpe's version) "This Train."

Johnny "Guitar" Watson, "Jet Plane"