one whole category of my vinyl is david allan coe albums of the '70s, such as david allan coe rides again and longhaired redneck. this was after his initial bloom with "you never even call me". i bought each album as it came out, but sometimes you hop off someone after awhile. few could sing a trad country waltz any better than coe, but he was way way too desperate; he always had six new strategies for self-mythologization running at once ("the mysterious rhinestone cowboy rides again as the longhaired redneck etc etc"), and for some reason he thought that he was going to become a legend by singing songs like "willie, waylon, and me " and also "willie, waylon, and me (reprise)" on rides again, or "hank williams, junior, junior". eventually it got really bad, to the the tune of "divers do it deeper". plus i saw him here and there all along; let's say there was a sad decline.
however, there were great moments and here's one: side two of rides again; it's a suite of simple country songs, joined by guitar figures and related melodically; a kind of opera; actually there is a lot of good writing on it, as well as some not so good. it ends with a model anthem: "if that ain't country".
this concept, i believe, is the basis of jamey johnson's classic album of 2008, that lonesome song, which weaves a similar whole-album spell, but which is overall better than the coe. johnson relies on a very basic waylon-style thump to underpin everything and unfolds a series of really excellent songs. but really it's a tribute to coe and even has a song in precisely his manner, "somewhere between jennings and jones".
johnson is also, like coe, a songwriter of great gimmickry, though he's no doubt laying in bed right now in some hotel regretting like always that coe already wrote "take this job and shove it". but for god's sake, johnson wrote "honky-tonk badononkadonk": truly an or the epic of our time.
[i've got something to say is probably the worst title for an album ever (but cf. elton, "sad songs say so much"), and also it might actually be the worst album.]
