I've moved around a lot, especially in my early 20's when I lived in four states during a five year time span. Now firmly settled in Seattle for the past seven years, it's giving me time to reflect upon my times in other places. As a music junkie, it's easy to associate certain songs and artists with certain places. Gram Parsons, for example, reminds me of the transition from my final year living in Portland, and moving to Phoenix. My first six months living in Phoenix, I listened to a lot of Gram, probably because of the open, dusty, warm air of the southwest. The country-rock of Gram and The Flying Burrito Brothers just made sense on so many levels. So did The Byrds, and Townes Van Zandt. My college years in Portland I listened to a lot of everything, from indie, to hip hop, to soul, to jazz, but if I had to associate any artist with my time in Portland it would be Elliott Smith. Elliott wrote about Portland, and breathed the streets, as it was so wonderfully conveyed in his songs. Yet at the same time, Elliott reminds me of my wife as well, as we listen to a lot of Elliott on road trips. I associate Buffalo Springfield with my brief time living in Southern California, but probably because the only album I bought during my brief residency was the Buffalo Springfield box set, so I drove along the Southern California hills everyday blaring "Flying On The Ground Is Wrong", "Out Of My Mind", "Baby Don't Scold Me", and "Bluebird". My time spent in Seattle conjures up so many artists, but I fondly remember my times when I first moved to Seattle, I had an apartment which if you climbed to the rooftop, you had a view of the entire city, including the space needle. At night, I would bring my i-pod up to the rooftop with a glass of wine, and listen to Miles Davis Ascenseur Pour L'échafaud repeatedly. These days I'm married with an 18 month son aptly named Miles, and will pull out albums I haven't listened to for years, and it brings it all back.
Today I'm focusing on the song "Tennessee Waltz" written by Pee Wee King and Redd Stewart in the late 1940's, such a highly covered song that made it's way through the country music communities in the 40's and 50's, and eventually made it's way into the set lists of R&B/Soul performers in the 1960's by the likes of Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. I thought I'd bring out a few clips of probably one of the most beautiful songs written in our country. It's a beautiful slice of Americana, from Patsy Cline, to Otis Redding, "Tennessee Waltz" is a beautiful song, and Otis's version brings a tear to my eye on occasion. First off is the original recording of Pee Wee King's "Tennessee Waltz". Listen to each recording and see how the song evolved over time. While it started out as a southern country-fried tear-jerker, Sam Cooke's version (recorded 15 years after it's first release) is definitely more peppy. Otis Redding's version is my favorite though I like all five versions I posted of this song, which is why I did so. I enjoy Otis's version the most because he stayed true to the country standard but injected a little more soul into it.
