George Jones - Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes

George Jones is 79 today. Check out this classic 1985 video for Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes? Apart from Willie, Merle and Jerry Lee I think all the others in it are dead. How the hell are the Killer, the Possum and the Red Headed Stranger still alive. Obviously the other guys didn't abuse themselves enough!

There's a few lumps in the throat moments in the video, like the clip of Jerry lee pounding the keys and a lovely smile from Marty Robbins. When it flashes to Johnny Cash the hair's on my neck stood up - what presence the man had.

Anyway, happy birthday George, take a ride into town and have a beer. There must be some gas in the lawn mower!

Feleena - Marty Robbins on youTube

Thanks to Shakin' Steve Walker for finding this gem on youTube. It never ceases to amaze me what turns up out of the blue. No idea where this early 60's black and white clip comes from. No idea who the bartender is, but he does well to contain himself that much. I'd have gone off my trolley if I'd been two feet from Marty Robbins as he crooned this western classic.

Flip's Clips No.1 - Hank Snow

An Occasional Visual Treat aka Flip`s Clips

youTube is to music fans what early eBay was to vinyl collectors. Loved Mister Hank Snow since hearing his Nobody`s Child on an old RCA country EP,I only knew the cool Billy Fury version back in the mid 60s.

When Shaun and I visited the Great Escape record store on Broadway in Nashville I picked up a great Opry promo pic of Hank at the vintage mic and a few years later Shaun got me a great autograph of Mr Snow to frame alongside the pic, now sits here above the PC. I also picked up a great promo 45 of I Don't Hurt Anymore and his Sings Jimmie Rodgers LP.

Hank, like say Marty Robbins, couldn't be pegged to one style, he often dabbled in proto rockabilly and was a great singer, songwriter , always had great sidesmen in his Rainbow Ranch Boys and always dressed like a star (probably to make up for the rags he wore in his often difficult years as an abused child).

This clip of him doing his Uber-classic I`m Movin On is amazing, sounds just like the recording even though this Opry clip is from 1967. There are earlier clips on the tube of you but this is in glorious technicolour, breathtaking outfits, small in stature (but a giant talent) the oh so cool (ahem!) Mr Snow lives up to his name in a blaze of red and the canary yellow suits of da Boys are only outmatched by epic black and white spat like boots, these boots are made for strumming, enjoy - - - -

Check out the man`s music on Bear Family, if you can't afford the mega boxes then I highly recommend the single cds Snow On The Tracks (rail songs natch) or especially the Goldrush Is Over probably the best comp ever.

Grady Martin tribute

Just months after the death of Chet Atkins, the world of country music suffered another massive loss when legendary session guitarist Grady Martin passed away this week aged 72. One of the most important musicians of the pioneering era of the 50's and 60's, Martin appears to have suffered a heart attack at his home.Martin was born on a farm near Chappel Hill in Marshall County, Tennessee, the youngest of four children. He spent many childhood hours listening to music on the families battery-operated Zenith radio, and soon developed a love for country music and the Grand Ole Opry which the family listened to every weekend. Young Grady began playing the fiddle and guitar and by his teens was playing in local bands and sitting in with visiting bands. At fifteen he was heard by Big Jeff Bess who persuaded Grady's parents to let him move to Nashville to play with his band Big Jeff and the Radio Playboys. Two years later he joined Paul Howard's Arkansas Cotton Pickers and then became a founder member of Little Jimmy Dicken's Country Boys. By now he had retired his fiddle and was becoming known as one of the town's top guitarists. He worked the Opry and played with the Bailes Brothers, Curley Fox and Texas Ruby.He took over the lead of Red Foley's band and as well as the Opry they played the Ozark Jubilee. It was with Foley that Martin played on his first big seller, Chattanooga Shoe-Shine Boy. During the session he formed a long time partnership with Decca's Paul Cohen and their influential Nashville producer, Owen Bradley. The next two decades were when Martin made his name and built up an unprecedented reputation. Although he recorded with his Slewfoot Five for Decca it was his session work where he excelled.He started working with Johnny Horton and the late 50's saw him at the peak of his craft on such Horton classics as Honky Tonk Man, I'm A One Woman Man, I'm Coming Home and The Woman I Need. It was Martin who suggested at one Horton session that Harold Bradley play a banjo on When It's Springtime In Alaska (It's Forty Below). It was a master stroke which completely changed the song's make-up and set a trend for such historic folk songs - Horton repeated the idea for his million-seller, Battle Of New Orleans. He was respected as a versatile and inventive guitarist and the full range of playing he used when working with Brenda Lee summed it up, whether it be his rockabilly boogie playing on Bigelow 6-200, or his fills on the poppier material like Let's Jump The Brromstick or My Baby Likes Western Guys.The first Grammy ever awarded for a country song was Marty Robbins brilliant western ballad, El Paso, but only a fool would suggest the song would have been half as good without Grady Martin's fluent Tex-Mex picking. It was a high point in both men's illustrious careers. When they worked together a year later (1960), history was again made when Martin's malfunctioning amplifier caused a distorted sound, known from that day forward as fuzztone.He worked thousands of sessions and amongst the artists Martin backed were; Johnny Burnette, Johnny Cash, Jim Reeves, Patsy Cline, Flatt & Scruggs, Lefty Frizzell, Don Gibson, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Joan Baez, JJ Cale, Merle Haggard, Bill Monroe, Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb and Roy Orbison.In the 70's he worked extensively with Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn and produced the country-rockers Brush Arbor. After a brief spell with Jerry Reed he became a member of the Willie Nelson Family troupe, touring the world from 1980 to 1994 and working on such studio sessions as On The Road Again and Always On My Mind. He retired and spent his time back in Marshall County. He became the first recipient of the Nashville Music Association's Masters Award in 1983 and was awarded a Chetty last year during Chet Atkins' Musician Days festivities in Nashville. Married three times, Martin left behind ten children, seven grandchildren, one great-grandchild and an enormous body of guitar solos that helped change the face of popular music. As Bob Moore told the Tennessean newspaper, "I think he's the single greatest guitar player we've had here in Nashville".