Flying the Honkey Tonk Flag

Janice Brooks · Post by **Janice Brooks** » 14 Apr 2004 5:57 am

Flying the Honky-Tonk Flag
Hardcore Artists Gretchen Wilson, Ed Burleson, Zona Jones Toe the Line

By: Chet Flippo

If all you listen to is mainstream country radio, you may worry now and
again about the state of the health of honky-tonk music. It's there, in
traces, but not in the hardcore sense that it used to be.

Honky-tonk music has long been the strong, uncomplaining backbone of
country music -- it's the heavy lifter, the one that did the hard work
that nobody else wanted to do and for which it was not always thanked. The
honky-tonkers have done the down and dirty work -- Ernest Tubb and Hank
Williams and Lefty Frizzell and Hank Thompson and Faron Young and Willie
and Waylon singing about living the life of the roadhouses and sending
back musical postcards from that edgy honky-tonk world. The songs were
ripped from their hearts about the carnal pleasures of Saturday night's
sinning followed by the guilt-racked confessions of Sunday morning's
redemption.

The likes of Hank Williams Jr. and Montgomery Gentry are trying to hold
the honky-tonk flag high in Nashville. The music is alive and well seven
nights a week in Texas, where artists such as Jack Ingram, Pat Green,
Wayne "The Train" Hancock and Dale Watson maintain the tradition.

Is there a honky-tonk revival underway? I dunno, I just know I'm hearing
some seriously good new stuff these days

Sony Music Nashville's new artist Gretchen Wilson is a star waiting to
hit, and she virtually grew up in honky-tonks -- even working as a
teenaged bartender. She has a voice that can crack concrete, and she's got
ample attitude to spare. In her new single "Redneck Woman," when she
sings, "I know all the words to every Tanya Tucker song," listeners
believe her. That song is going to be a No. 1 hit, no doubt about it. I
know some of the women who will stand up in bars and shout along with her:
"I'm a redneck woman." I've heard from some of them -- they like Wilson
and they are very much like her. "Redneck Woman" is not a derogatory
thing. It's a badge of solidarity with blue-collar women who don't
identify with Faith Hill or Shania Twain. In some ways, Wilson reminds me
of Avril Lavigne -- who is more or less the anti-Britney in what passes
for rock these days. Avril has rough edges, is thinking somewhat
independently and is the complete opposite of the boy-toy sexpot Britney.
Vocally, however, Gretchen Wilson could scorch Avril Lavigne at 20 paces.

Wilson herself is not necessarily the anti-Faith or anti-Shania, nor is
she putting down the glamorous country divas Faith and Shania. I think
she's saying there's a lot of women country fans whose lives don't connect
with what Shania and Faith are singing about and what they represent.
"Redneck Woman" -- as a broad, attention-getting first single -- is not
completely representative of everything Gretchen Wilson is, but it is
captivating a lot of women who have not been hearing songs about their own
lives. And I've heard some of Wilson's other material, and she's as down
and gritty and country soulful as Tanya Tucker or Patsy Cline. As she
sings, there are a lot of women whose lives are more Wal-Mart than
Victoria's Secret and they want to hear songs that deal with that -- songs
that deal with their everyday lives. And -- I tell you what -- besides
everything else, Gretchen Wilson has balls. She is one serious woman.

Moving on to another good honky-tonker, Zona Jones does not write songs.
What he does do is sing solid honky-tonk. His new CD Harleys & Horses (D
Records) draws upon several strong Nashville songwriters His current
single "House of Negotiable Affections" is a witty composition by the
great songwriter Bobby Braddock and is the first good country song about a
sleeperhouse that I can recall in recent years. The title song is the gem
here: It's a replacement for Garth's rodeo songs -- if there's still an
audience for that.

Ed Burleson does write songs, and he writes some very good ones. And he
sings them with a hardcore honky-tonk edge that you may not have heard in
a long while. His new CD The Cold Hard Truth (Palo Duro) is probably the
strongest honky-tonk album I have listened to in the last five years.
Whenever you hear radio executives and record label wonks complain that
some country music is simply "too country," it's a singer like Ed Burleson
they're talking about. He is way far too country for record industry
wimps. No Saab or Hummer drivers need listen here. Burleson is an
uncompromising Texas roadhouse singer whose first album was produced by
the late Texas Tornado Doug Sahm just a few years ago.

Sahm himself was too country for Nashville, with songs like "Cowboy Peyton
Place." On Burleson's new CD, a taped Sahm introduces Burleson's live
version of "Heart Break Highway" as "too country for his own good." And
that song is all that modern honky-tonk should be -- balls to the wall,
rockin', spiritual, roadhouse honky-tonk. Long live righteous excess.

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Janice "Busgal" Brooks
ICQ 44729047

Janice Brooks · Post by **Janice Brooks** » 14 Apr 2004 6:02 am

Gretchen Willson is truely the buzz artest
these days.

Ed Burlson has been mentioned a bit in here including the steel work and production of Tommy Detamore.

Zona Jones is just getting his first nationel
release after 10 years of gigs around San Antonio. Message to the cartell if Flippo and Orman can praise him why can't you.

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Janice "Busgal" Brooks
ICQ 44729047

Chris Schlotzhauer · Post by **Chris Schlotzhauer** » 14 Apr 2004 7:35 am

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>The music is alive and well seven
nights a week in Texas, where artists such as Jack Ingram, Pat Green,
Wayne "The Train" Hancock and Dale Watson maintain the tradition<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I agree with Wayne and Dale, but Pat and Jack are TOTALLY rock now. Sorry.

Sidney Malone · Post by **Sidney Malone** » 14 Apr 2004 8:27 am

I can vouch for Zona Jones, he's from here locally (Beaumont) and has been playing honky tonk and Texas Swing for a lot of years!! I just hope if he hits it big that the music don't change as it so often does.

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Fessy S-12U, Future MSA Millennium S-12U, Stereo Steel

Frank Parish · Post by **Frank Parish** » 14 Apr 2004 12:32 pm

I've tried to buy the yet to be released album from Gretchen Wilson. She's hot and Red Neck Woman is an anthem at some radio stations already. The album is do out in mid May. I never really gave a rip about working with an artist but she's one I'd go out with.

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 23 Apr 2004 7:02 am

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> The songs were
ripped from their hearts about the carnal pleasures of Saturday night's
sinning followed by the guilt-racked confessions of Sunday morning's
redemption. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Are you sure it wasn't the Sunday morning headache that had them feelin' bad...

I don't know why honky-tonk music (or music about the honky-tonk scene) has fallen in quantity or quality, the human behavior that is the source of this art certainly has neither dimmed nor diminished. Does it go by another name now?[This message was edited by Ray Minich on 23 April 2004 at 08:06 AM.]

erik · Post by **erik** » 23 Apr 2004 2:22 pm

Patty Loveless can sing honky-tonk without having to be blatantly obvious.

Jody Sanders · Post by **Jody Sanders** » 23 Apr 2004 8:57 pm

The featured vocalist in the band I work in and the band is definetly keeping 'Honky Tonk Music" alive in SE Texas. Our featured vocalist is a cross between Ernest Tubb and George Jones. Because of his age, he will never get a record deal even though he can blow most of today's so called country vocalists off the stage. Love that "Honky Tonk" music. Jody.

John Lacey · Post by **John Lacey** » 24 Apr 2004 3:51 am

I would call Jess Lee of Edmonton one of the premier honky-tonk singers, in the WORLD!! That guy can make Lefty come alive and also has strong echoes of Hag, but in his own voice. Too bad more people don't know about him.

Andy Greatrix · Post by **Andy Greatrix** » 24 Apr 2004 6:12 am

I'll second that, John!

I'm working with Jess tonight at the Woodcroft Hall. It's 8.11 AM. and I'm
psyching my self up for the gig.
I can't wait!

The money I get paid is just to lug my equipment to and from the gig.
I play gladly for nothing.

I have a ten string MSA, a Musicman Stingray guitar and a Trayner tube amp.
Life is Good!

[This message was edited by Andy Greatrix on 24 April 2004 at 07:13 AM.]

Dustin Rigsby · Post by **Dustin Rigsby** » 25 Apr 2004 9:01 pm

I have heard that Redneck Woman song twice,once one the radio and once on CMT. I hate that song. Any reference to Kid Rock(reads rich boy pretending to be from humble roots) in a country song is blasphemy.

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D.S. Rigsby
Carter Starter and various six string toys