JOHN AND IRIS

This post was prompted by one at Vinyl Stats written by an old pal, Frank.  He recently saw John Prine and Emmy Lou Harris in a concert and mentioned a song that the two dueted on.  I first heard it with Prine and Iris DeMent and since I'm a big fan of hers, that's the version I'll play here.



As I said I've long been a fan of Ms. DeMent with her unique voice.  I once emailed the producer of Austin City Limits saying I thought a show that paired her with Jimmie Dale Gilmore would be fun to see.  He agreed and thanked me for the suggestion but I don't know if they ever did it.

SING THAT SONG!

During the short time that I lived in Austin, Texas, I found a huge number of talented songwriters and performers.  Many of them I discovered after hearing them on some of the many great radio programs at KUT, the station at the University of Texas.  They have one announcer who does a program of nothing but Brazilian music on Friday afternoon, another guy who does a '50's doo-wop show, and the incredible musical programming of John Aielli and his program Eklektikos.  Aieilli has been doing his panorama of music mornings for decades, featuring everything from opera to punk rock.  He also has live music at times in the studio.  It's a great show and you can tune it in on the Internet.

One of the performers I first heard in Texas and learned to love was Jimmie Dale Gilmore.  He was born in Amarillo, grew up in Lubbock, the home of Buddy Holly.  Gilmore's early influence was Hank Williams.  He's known for saying "Here's another one of my songs.  Hank Williams just happened to write it."

Jimmie has one of the most unique voices I've heard in popular music.  Give a listen as he joins Nancy Griffith on stage.