When you get past the mullets and the name, Danny Shirley and Confederate Railroad put out some quality songs across the spectrum of the country genre, from cutesy to honky tonk to some superb ballads. This, from their eponymous 1993 debut album, is one of the latter:

Why hasn’t this story received much, much more attention in the political blogosphere? It’s potentially the biggest economic story of the year. The WTO has decided in favor of Antigua’s case against the United States on gambling: The dispute stretches back to 2003, when Mr. Mendel first persuaded officials in Antigua and Barbuda, a tiny [...]

Beloit College has published their annual list, ostensibly to clue aging professors into the mindsets of their incoming freshman but, in reality, as Slublog notes, to make us all feel old. What’s particularly striking about this year’s list is how incredibly lame it is. Indeed, some of the items could have appeared on a list [...]

The Vince Foster Political Playbook Edition OTB Caption ContestTM is now over.

The first, and perhaps only, post-Lionel Richie Commodores hit. It was a good one:

In 1994, then-41-year-old David Ball became an overnight success (after a couple decades in the music business) with his debut album, “Thinkin’ Problem.” The title track was more clever and charted higher (#2 on the country charts, #40 pop) but this one was my favorite. Powered by AOL Video

Kia Vaughn, one of the Rutgers basketball players shock jock Don Imus referred to as a “nappy headed ho,” is suing him for defamation. Don Imus is facing his first lawsuit from a player on the Rutgers Women’s Basketball team for derogatory comments that cost him his job as a radio host in April, ABC [...]

“House” star Hugh Laurie takes advantage of his hosting duties on “Saturday Night Live” (October 28, 2006) to sing a deep and meaningful protest song. Personally, this made me want to go out there, and well, you’ll see…

Garth Brooks covers Kiss’ “Hard Luck Woman,” with Kiss doing the instrumentals, on “The Tonight Show” on July 13, 1994. A much better version than the original, to my tastes anyway, owing to the fact that, unlike Peter Criss, Brooks can actually carry a tune.

Back in the late 1960s, early 70s, I was editing a Washington, DC alternative newspaper, “Woodwind”. The publisher, Mike Schreibman, funded the paper as a labor of love. He subsidized the paper with his earnings from his music promotion business, Woodwind Entertainment, specializing in producing concerts at area colleges, from Baltimore down to Richmond. I [...]

Ellen Gamerman examines some new issues married couples are having to cope with in an increasingly digitized world. Marriage often requires coping with the loss of some individuality, whether it’s adopting a spouse’s last name or setting up a joint bank account. Now, some couples say it can be equally tricky to navigate intimacy in [...]

“Waitin’ Around to Die” from the lengendary Townes Van Zandt, reportedly from 1977′s “Heartworn Highway” documentary:

I was never a huge fan of Queen but 1980′s “Another Bites the Dust” is a major exception. It’s from their album “The Game” and Wikipedia reports that it was their biggest selling single ever.

Something a little different: Jimmy Cliff’s “Many Rivers to Cross,” from his 1969 self-titled album. It has been covered by artists ranging from Linda Ronstadt to Joe Cocker to Elvis Costello to Cher to The Blind Boys Of Alabama.

George Jones was putting out hit records a decade before I was born but 1980′s “He Stopped Loving Her Today” is his most memorable. Indeed, it is generally considered among the best country songs of all time. Here’s a live version:

Continuing the back home theme (yes, we made it), here’s Cross Canadian Ragweed with “Alabama.” Hardly the anthem of last night’s selection or, indeed, having much to do with the state. Still, a pretty good song by an excellent band that has gotten far less attention than they deserve.

A live performance of his classic “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.” It was his first #1 single as a performer after several as a songwriter and won him a 1975 Grammy. Ironically, he didn’t write it.

A live cut of “Wish You Were Here,” reportedly from the “Pulse” tour. The song was the title track of their 1975 concept album.

On of Billy Joel’s non-ballad hits: “Big Shot” from his 1978 album “52nd Street.” The video looks to have been shot somewhere during that time period, judging from Joel’s hairstyle.

A Marine corporal has been convicted for his role in the kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi civilian but spared additional prison time. He had previously accepted a plea bargain that would have landed him in jail for 12 years. Thomas, of Madison, Ill., was among seven Marines and a Navy corpsman accused of snatching [...]

Probably the definitive song about life on the road: “Turn the Page.”

Kathleen Parker begins her latest column, “The Pornification of Politics,” thusly: If our enemies don’t hate us, it’s an oversight. The confluence of the worst of modern American trends — national narcissism, the sexualization of all things animate and otherwise, and the devaluing of currencies from literature to public discourse — has reached a perfect [...]

The title track of John Hiatt‘s eleventh album, released in 1993.

Matt Kibbe notes the irony of Al and Tipper Gore sharing the Live Earth stage with the likes of Madonna, Prince, and Snoop Dogg. Remember the Parents Music Resource Center, co-founded by Tipper Gore a few years before her husband ran for president in 1988? The PMRC was the perfect political platform for the Gores [...]

While it may be technically true that a Southern man don’t need him around, anyhow, we’d be a lot poorer without his forty years of music.

In anticipation of tomorrow’s celebration of Independence Day, I had hoped to share Robert Earl Keen’s “4th of July.” Sadly, I was unable to find a decent video version of it.* Instead, I present this collection of decidedly different takes on the “America” theme. Waylon Jennings: Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel: Neil Diamond: John Mellencamp: [...]

A majority of Americans now think homosexuality is A majority of Americans believe that gays and lesbians could not change their sexual orientation even if they wanted to, according to results of a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Wednesday. It’s the first time in a CNN poll the majority has held that belief regarding homosexuality. [...]

The other night, the wife and I watched “The Last Waltz,” Martin Scorsese’s 1978 film about The Band’s last concert together with band leader Robbie Robertson. Here’s a clip from that performance: “Stage Fright,” with the late Rick Danko on lead vocals: It’s not the best performance of the show — Levon Helms has several [...]

Conn Carroll passes on word of the latest YouTube campaign musicial video, “I’ve Got a Crush on Fred Thompson’s Politics.” I predict this won’t have quite the viral effect the ObamaGirl “Crush on Obama” video.

Paul Waldman and Kevin Drum, understandably, resent the notion that rural folks and, especially, Southerners are perceived as more “authentic” and “American” than people from the cities and the coasts. Waldman finds it “deeply insulting” and Drum believes Southerners are downright “intolerant” because they won’t vote for Yankees. Alex Massie, a Scottish-born, Irish-educated, D.C. journalist [...]

Some alarming news from UPI on the declining health and morale of our soldiers: The acting secretary of the U.S. Army says he is seeing a troubling spike in key morale indicators among soldiers — suicide, divorces and accidents. Acting Secretary Pete Geren told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday at his nomination hearing to [...]

The meme that kids today spend more time indoors these days continues to spread, with a push in today’s WaPo that has the blogosphere and talk radio buzzing. I made my thoughts on the issue clear over the weekend but some good points made elsewhere deserve highlighting. Jim Henley argues that it’s the risk-averse nature [...]

Rioters around the Palestinian territory have looted and ransacked the homes of several Fatah leaders, living or otherwise. Most notably, the late Yasir Arafat’s home was stripped clean, including his Nobel Peace Prize. Enraged Fatah leaders on Saturday accused Hamas militiamen of looting the home of former Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat in Gaza City. [...]

Somebody calling herself “Obama Girl” is generating quite a buzz with her “Crush on Obama” video. This immediately brought to mind the so-called racist ads run against Harold Ford in the closing days of the 2006 campaign. So far, though, most of the reaction I’ve seen has expressed either bemusement or admiration. Obama Girl is [...]

Two posts stand out from my stroll down memory lane of four years ago (a rather light posting day): “MUSICAL HANGING CHADS?” examines a scandal in the voting in the “American Idol” final, in which Ruben Studdard beat Clay Aiken by a slim margin. In “HANDICAPPING 2004,” I rebut the extant conventional wisdom that President [...]

Agitator guest blogger Jim Bovard draws attention to a rather disturbing story from last week in the Washington Post that got very little attention. Indeed, the story was buried on page B07, indicating that the editors figured this had relatively little news value: D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier put out fliers yesterday warning officers [...]

As part of a continuing series, I’ll be highlighting material buried deep in the OTB archives that I still find interesting. Four years ago today was a Sunday and blogging was light and the pickings slim. Nonetheless, I’ll carry on: “JEFFORDS DENOUNCES DNC” pondered the mind of Jumpin’ Jim Jeffords. “MUSIC IS HELL” was one [...]

Quick links from around the Blogosphere: Megan McArdle‘s dog, Finnegan, has died. Julia Montgomery is, despite persistent rumors to the contrary, still alive. Venomous Kate has a secret for getting scratches out of CDs.* Michael Demmons is perplexed that the military is blocking soldier access to family MySpace sites. Craig Henry is not at all [...]

Joy McCann is urging readers to contact their representatives to support H.R. 2060 and save Internet radio. She points to a longish explanation by Michael Minn*: On July 15, 2007 (recently extended from May 15), a new royalty structure will go into effect that will shut down most streaming Internet-only music broadcasters and cause havoc [...]

Big Tent Democrat rightly excoriates Frank Rich for hypocrisy in denouncing Don Imus only after he could no longer benefit from using his show for self-promotion. His conclusion, however, is troubling: And to call this a free speech issue is a joke. We’re supposed to worry about the freedom to tell racist and sexist jokes? [...]

Constance Rice,* a civil rights attorney in Los Angeles, has the smartest take I’ve yet seen on the Don Imus “nappy headed hos” controversy. More to the point, Imus should only be fired when the black artists who make millions of dollars rapping about black bitches and hos lose their recording contracts. Black leaders should [...]

Two former record store owners in the New York Times: The sad thing is that CDs and downloads could have coexisted peacefully and profitably. The current state of affairs is largely the result of shortsightedness and boneheadedness by the major record labels and the Recording Industry Association of America, who managed to achieve the opposite [...]

The Chinese have pretty good reason for feeling picked on by the United States these days. There are hints that the U. S. may move to crack down on intellectual property piracy by the Chinese: WASHINGTON, April 6 — After months of prodding China to crack down on pirated copies of American movies, music and [...]

It’s looking like the Beatles catalog will finally be available for legal download. Record company EMI Group PLC said Sunday it planned to unveil “an exciting new digital offering” with computer company Apple Inc., raising expectations that The Beatles’ music catalog is about to be made available through Apple’s iTunes online music store. EMI said [...]

Sean Hackbarth has announced that his blog has been bought ought by the folks who own rottentomatoes.com to inject MySpace with some “gravitas” and that he would be moving to Des Moines, Iowa to cover the primaries. No word on whether his site will feature a garish color scheme, poorly coded HTML, and annoying music [...]

Eliot Van Buskirk reports that one knowledgeable source has estimated that an annual fee of $50 per music lover would allow record labels to remain profitable while allowing unlimited downloads. At a SXSW panel called “Reinventing Payment Models for Digital Music,” Cambridge-educated economist-turned-music-manager (Pink Floyd, The Clash, Ian Dury And The Blockheads, Billy Bragg) Peter [...]

Via Megan McArdle, I came across this whitheringly funny attack on the insipid Apple Guy vs. PC Guy ad campaigns from Charlie Booker in The Economist from a few weeks back. I hate Macs. I have always hated Macs. I hate people who use Macs. I even hate people who don’t use Macs but sometimes [...]

Jim Henley promises to play the “Look Through Your March 2003 Archives” game over the weekend. I decided to go ahead and do it now. OTB was in its infancy then, having started January 31st. It was then a solo-author blog, featuring yours truly at his most prolific. (It was also on BlogSpot, but the [...]

The Gaza Strippers Edition OTB Caption ContestTM is now over.

Tyler Cowen has an interesting op-ed in today’s New York Times on how different cultures around the world adapt to or resist American pop culture exports. The relative social mobility of societies in Western Europe make them especially acceptant of American movies, television shows, and music whereas people in caste-bound societies such as those in [...]