Jackass Cigarette Dispenser

Elton Britt  -  Jackass Blues

Goin' Out To Hollywood (MP3)

Bill Emerson - Goin' Out To Hollywood

So here's a mighty fine record by Bill Emerson, who lays out the inspired tale of a backwoods country boy with a plan to head west to Hollywood, stoked up on visions of movie stardom, limousines, and flashy Fender guitars.

Is it country, rock & roll, or maybe rockabilly? All of the above, I guess, but to tell you the truth I think it's mostly in the ear of the beholder.

Wreck Of The Old 97

Flatt & Scruggs? Definitely, but let's not overlook the delightful Joi Lansing as a high-heeled hillbilly songbird. Let's hear it for whoever the casting director was....

Hillbilly In The Whitehouse (MP3)

Jeff Raymond - Hillbilly In The Whitehouse (2:44)

I Want To Be Loved (MP3)

Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper - I Want To Be Loved

Dolly's A Mule Skinner?

She is!

Dolly Parton - Mule Skinner Blues

Wire My Grave With Country Music (MP3)

John & Margie Cook - Wire My Grave With Country Music

Unfortunately, the production on this deep fried country effort makes the whole thing sound slightly mossy, but I can find no fault with the philosophy they're espousing.

If you're not inclined to embrace such a philosophy, spending the next two and a half minutes of your life listening to this record might not be such a good idea.

In The Jailhouse Now (MP3)

Nudie suits don't come much cooler than this one, sported by Webb Pierce as a salute to his biggest hit, In The Jailhouse Now.

Webb Pierce - In The Jailhouse Now

Preparation X (MP3)

Farris Garland & The Lonesome Valley Boys - Preparation X

I have no idea who Farris Garland is or was, but he deserves to be remembered for one of the most remarkable truck driving songs ever recorded. Preparation X is his deliriously cockeyed tribute to Preparation H, the hemorrhoid medication that's been around since the mid 1930s.

For the song, he shrewdly changed the name of the product to Preparation X, no doubt in an attempt to protect the Garland family fortune from Big Pharma's predatory legal sharks.

Since I don't expect I'll ever revisit the subject of hemorrhoid medication here on the blog, I should probably go ahead and mention Dave Dudley's Rolaids, Doan's Pills And Preparation H, a greasy 1980 release that somehow wound up being a minor hit on the Billboard chart. If you have the inclination and a strong stomach to go with it, you can check it out on YouTube.

Hillbilly Hades

Texas Bill Strength - Hillbilly Hades (3:07)

In 1955, Eddie Dean had the biggest hit of his career with a maudlin effort called I Dreamed Of A Hillbilly Heaven. The song details Dean's dream about about the aftermath of his own death and his experiences of being welcomed into heaven, where he encounters all his favorite deceased country stars. In 1961, Tex Ritter revived it and had a hit with it as well. You can see Tex doing it live over on YouTube. Unfortunately, the embedding feature on the clip has been disabled.

Texas Bill Strength's Hillbilly Hades is a slyly hilarious parody that came out in 1970.

I'm From Georgia, That's All

Not that I'm defensive about it or anything.

Denny Peltier - I'm From Georgia, That's All (2:10)

Jed Clampett On The Doubleneck Guitar

Speaking of CBS (Country Broadcasting System) here's an insane clip I've been meaning to put up ever since my pal Jerry hipped me to it a day or so ago. That's some kind of stringbending style Jed's got on that doubleneck Danelectro! Someone sign him up for Deke Dickerson's Guitar Geek Festival!

Snuff Dipper (MP3)

Malcolm Miller - Snuff Dipper (2:33)

I don't know about anyone else, but whenever I see an actual street address, as opposed, say, to a Post Office box, listed on a record label that put out something really odd or exciting, I sometimes cannot resist going to Google maps to check to see if a "street view" photo is available. So many weird records came from labels set up in small, unassuming houses in very normal looking neighborhoods. Below is the Hunstville, Alabama house from which Snuff Dipper emerged.

Wine Me Up

Faron Young shows us how it's done.

Don't Shake Hands With The Devil (MP3)

Cowboy Copas - Don't Shake Hands With The Devil (2:07)

My Benny's Wearing Off (MP3)

Tom Hyatt & The Black Mountain Boys - My Benny's Wearing Off (2:18)

My Benny's Wearing Off, a Sid Kleiner's House Of Guitars production, was recorded in Califon, New Jersey - less than 50 miles from WFMU headquarters in Jersey City.

The Devil In Mrs. Jones

Billy Larkin - The Devil In Mrs. Jones (2:34)

Give a listen to this breezy chunk of infectious mid-70s country pop from Billy Larkin.

Turn My Picture Upside Down (MP3)

Merle Travis - Turn My Picture Upside Down (2:28)

Here's one from the multi-talented Merle Travis, the pride of Rosewood, Kentucky, located in Muhlenberg County. Warren Oates grew up just about 15 miles down the road in Depoy.

When Is Mama Coming Home (Sad MP3)

Daddy, where did they take Mommy in that big black car?

Leroy Copling Of The Ozark Troupadors - When Is Mama Coming Home (3:12)

Mommy, Can I Still Call Him Daddy (MP3)

Dottie West - Mommy, Can I Still Call Him Daddy (2:53)

Dottie West's Mommy, Can I Still Call Him Daddy features what has to be one of the most absurdly off-key child vocal performances ever committed to tape.

West recorded the song along with her 4 year old son Dale, who belted out some overwrought lines of toddler angst from the perspective of a kid glumly looking at the wreckage of his parents' marriage.

The flip side of the record (and the name of the album on which these tracks can be found) is Suffer Time. Incredibly, this song was a charting hit, making it all the way to #24 on Billboard's Country chart in 1966. How the hell did that happen? Must've been the fact that the great Buddy Emmons is on steel!