Despite their long hair and fancy stage garb, they don't seem like outlaws, and you may think that choosing such unprepossessing material was either prescient-covering Motown and the great Nashville songwriter Jack Clement was certainly an interesting move in the golden era of Kris Kristofferson, Hank Cochran, Dallas Frazier and other Music City tunesmiths-or just plain eccentric. They smile a lot as they lip-synch to their versions of Jack Clement's "Now I Can Live Again" and Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland's "Stop! In the Name of Love," a 1965 hit for the Supremes. You can view the Country Cavaleers in all their glory in reruns of these old television shows, and the first thing that will strike you about their stage act is their long, straight hair and their red and blue cowboy hats. Yet they existed, and have achieved a kind of immortality through three 1972 appearances on The Wilburn Brothers Show. Until a couple of years ago, I had never heard of them and I believe I can safely say that the Country Cavaleers are among the most obscure of country performers. No lovingly assembled Australian or English label retrospectives exist of their 1970's work, and no reference book mentions them, much less gives credence to their claim that they helped to invent outlaw country in the days before the Glaser Brothers, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson broke free of the stifling Nashville music industry. Even more than similarly eccentric country artists such as Jim Nesbitt, Earl Richards, Lorene Mann and Dee Mullins, the Country Cavaleers have remained unknown and uncelebrated. Apart from any attempt to establish a canon of country music, appreciating the art of the Country Cavaleers may require immersion in the waters of a drowned Nashville-a forgotten city of hard-working songwriters, second-rate record labels and fringe missionaries who set out to haul country into a confusing new world of hippies, rock music and marijuana cigarettes. The story of the Country Cavaleers resounds from a zone that is marked off by the barricades of mid-'60's pop music and the outlaw country of the 1970's. The Strange Tale of the Cavaleers by Edd Hurt Perfect Sound Forever: Country Cavaleers article/interview Country CavaleersĬirca 1971-1972, James Marvell notes 'The rebel guitar used by The Cavaleers was their way of rebelling against prejudice of any kind' Hang On to What
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |