Musical immersion: Sweet Jane & Sweet Tea

Many describe Toronto’s Cowboy Junkies as an alternative country and folk rock act. I’ve been a fan of this band for almost three decades and saw them live years ago back in the Great White North. Never in my wildest imagination did I ever think I would attend one of their concerts in the South.

When the opportunity came up to attend a show during the All That Reckoning tour at the Franklin Theater in March, I leapt at the chance. It’s a gorgeous venue, a former movie theater, first opened on old Franklin’s main street in 1937. It now hosts movies, theater, and concerts. The Junkies’ musical style pulls together the blues, folk rock, and country into a sweetly subdued sound all their own. People sit down and absorb the luxuriant guitars, wind instruments and vocals. During the concert, I was lost and contented in the music.

Music is a powerful emotional draw for me as with most people. This music-focused blogpost coincides with my recent entries mulling my family’s experience of living here in middle Tennessee. That music is impacted by cultural influences and the history is not a new insight. What’s relevant here is the Cowboy Junkies opened their audience interaction by mentioning their early bus tours throughout the small cities of the South, and the influence of country music on their sound and writing. As it turned out, one of the first songs of the evening was “200 More Miles”:

Atlanta's a distant memory, Montgomery a recent birth

And Tulsa burns on the desert floor

Like a signal fire

I got Willie on the radio, a dozen things on my mind

And number one is fleshing out

These dreams of mine

I've got 200 more miles of rain asphalt in line before I sleep

But there'll be no warm sheets or welcoming arms

To fall into tonight

In Nashville there is a lighter in a case for all to see

It speaks of dreams and heartaches left unsung…

So, it seems music has fused who I am – the person I became thanks to where I was born and lived -- and where I live now. Obviously, there’s much more in common between Ontario and Middle Tennessee than previous stopovers in Japan or India. Still, all this thinking -- about cultural differences, history, and simply listening to the damn radio every morning on the commute to work with an open mind -- got me into a major Southern Rock phase. Heretofore I wasn’t a fan of the genre. 

I have to come clean and admit that I drive around in my electric vehicle signing along to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” without derision and now refer to country/roots rock without use of the term “shitkicker.”  

Just for the hell of it, here’s a list of songs that, for me, best exemplify Southern Rock.  

Sweet Home Alabama  - Lynyrd Skynyrd

No Rain – Blind Melon

Ramblin' Man -  The Allman Brothers Band

Mississippi Queen - Mountain.

Black Betty - Ram Jam

The night they closed old Dixie down - The Band

Can’t you see – The Marshall Tucker Band

Southern Man – Neil Young

Let it all hang out – The Hombres

Hard to Handle – Black Crowes

All right now – Free (English band)

Slow Ride - Foghat 

American Girl - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers

La Grange - ZZ Top

Roadhouse Blues - The Doors

Copperhead Road – Steve Earle

Rain on the Scarecrow – John Mellencamp

New Orleans is Sinking – The Tragically Hip