Oxford American 2003 Southern Music CD No. 6

I'm happy to be posting something that readers have requested. So this one is going out to you, Cor and finvarra. Oxford American 2003 Southern Music CD is one damn fine collection and does exactly what a good comp should do: feature tracks that make the listener want to go out and explore a musician's discography. For me, the opening cut did it. Those twangy guitars and unforgettable lyrics in "Why You Been Gone So Long" make it a stone cold outlaw country classic. This song just grabbed me from the get-go, and I just had to check out more Johnny Darrell even though he was a complete unknown to me. I'm glad I did. Talk about a guy who didn't get his just dues. I highly recommend the excellent Raven comp, Singin' It Lonesome - The Very Best 1965-1970, which includes a well-chosen selection of singles and the landmark California Stop-over album in its entirety on one CD. Swamp Dogg's "Total Destruction to Your Mind" is a funky, mind-expanding masterpiece. Another guy who has yet to get the accolades he deserves. "Evelyn Is Not Real" by My Morning Jacket is fine rock of a more recent vintage (anything post-1975 is recent as far as my tastes go). Esther Phillips' "No Headstone on My Grave" has a haunting majestic quality to it. "God Moves on the Water" is a slide-guitar tour de force that recounts the sinking of the Titanic courtesy of Blind Willie Johnson. P.J. Proby chips in with a tough version of the Southern soul-country standard "Niki Hoeky." "Columbus Stockade Blues" is good early-period Willie Nelson. There is a lot of other good stuff on here as well. This is another tastefully assembled Oxford American Southern Music compilation which goes to show how diverse the sounds of the South can be.

Get the 1997 CD here and the 2005 CD here.

1. Why You Been Gone So Long - Johnny Darrell
2. Total Destruction to Your Mind - Swamp Dogg
3. 1952 Vincent Black Lightning - The Del McCoury Band
4. La Chanson d'une Fille de Quinze Ans (Song of a Fifteen Year Old Girl) - Ann Savoy & Linda Ronstadt
5. Swan Blues - King Pleasure
6. Run on for a Long Time - Five Blind Boys of Alabama
7. Evelyn Is Not Real - My Morning Jacket
8. Lake Charles Boogie - Nellie Lutcher
9. Hot Rod - The Collins Kids
10. No Headstone on My Grave - Esther Phillips
11. El Paso - The Gourds
12. Leaving Loachapoka - Marshall Chapman
13. Grits Ain't Groceries - Little Milton
14. Killer Diller Blues - Memphis Minnie
15. Miss Maybelle - R.L. Burnside
16. God Moves on the Water - Blind Willie Johnson
17. Niki Hoeky - P.J. Proby
18. See That Coon in a Hickory Tree - The Delmore Brothers
19. Leaning on You - The Yo-Yo's
20. You and Your Sister - Chris Bell
21. Columbus Stockade Blues - Willie Nelson
22. A Little Girl from Little Rock - Marilyn Monroe & Jane Russell
23. Goodnight Moon - Will Kimbrough