Showing posts with label chet flippo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chet flippo. Show all posts

Friday, June 21, 2013

Chet Flippo Made Country Music Cool

In the midst of all the sad passings this week, the death of Chet Flippo sadly sank beneath the radar.

An inherent trait of the true country believer is that, if someone outside the country music whirl acknowledges the credence of country music, then it absolutely has to be legit. Country music lovers have long suffered from feelings of inferiority.

Chet Flippo wrote most notably for Rolling Stone magazine. He wrote articles about the album, Wanted: The Outlaws. He wrote a lot about Willie Nelson. He contributed to the liner notes for Will The Circle Be Unbroken. He penned words about Waylon Jennings.He wrote a biography of Hank Williams.

For a guy who began his career covering Janis Joplin and Keith Richards, Chet probably surprised and confused his colleagues by veering off into the world of country. But, if Chet wrote it, they took it to heart.

Us rubes, who grew weary of defending ourselves against a world that considered itself too way cool could point to Chet Flippo's byline in Rolling Stone and say, see? Chet Flippo likes it!

Eventually, Chet moved on from Rolling Stone. He moved to CMT online, and he wrote a column called Nashville Skyline. I've had a link to Nashville Skyline on this blog forever. I don't know what to do with it now. I think I will just keep it where it is.

Chet, in his Nashville Skyline column, called bullshit bullshit. Chet wasn't namby-pamby. I liked that about him.

I've written about Wanted: The Outlaws before. Truth is, it was a slapped-together album; a sum of its disparate parts. Nobody actually knew that when the album was released, however.

Chet saw something in it, though. He no doubt knew its genesis. Chet was no fool.

Tonight, I'm raising a glass of foamy tap beer to the memory of Chet Flippo.

And I'm listening, in his honor, to this:






Rest in peace, Chet Flippo. Who'm I gonna go to now for my fix of country music sanity?










Monday, December 31, 2007

2007 - The Year In Music

For someone like me who likes to bitch about the state of music, I have to admit, 2007 was pretty darn good. You just needed to know how to find the good stuff.

I've read a bunch of critics' lists of the best CD's of 2007, and unfortunately, I haven't had the opportunity to hear them all. The critics could well be right. After all, they did list most of my favorite CD's of the year.

Critics whose opinions I value include Chet Flippo (of course) and Jon Bream, who writes for the Star Tribune. I also like to read Entertainment Weekly's opinions, although their demographic is, admittedly, younger. I also perused the list that No Depression Magazine compiled.

So, here's where we agree:

"Raising Sand" - Alison Krauss & Robert Plant

"Revival" - John Fogerty

"Dwight Sings Buck" - Dwight Yoakam

"Magic" - Bruce Springsteen (the prettiest song of the year, "Girls In Their Summer Clothes")

Some mentioned "The Bluegrass Sessions" by Merle Haggard (produced by Marty Stuart).

At least one list included "In A Perfect World" by Gene Watson.

I would also include The Eagles, "Long Road Out Of Eden" and "Goin' Home - A Tribute To Fats Domino".

I'm sure there must be new artists who are great. I hear there's some British gals who are pretty good.

What I know is, the artists who produced the best music in 2007 (in my opinion) have been around since the 1980's or longer:

Alison Krauss, Robert Plant, John Fogerty, Dwight Yoakam, Bruce Springsteen, Merle Haggard, Gene Watson, The Eagles, Fats Domino.

I don't know what this means. A cynic would say, there are no good new artists on the horizon. I don't believe that. I guess we just don't get a chance to hear the new, good ones.

But thank God for the old ones!

And here's an old one:









Friday, August 10, 2007

Chet Flippo - A Wise Man

Here’s a link to Chet’s latest “Nashville Skyline” entry:

NASHVILLE SKYLINE: Welcome to "Dr. Phil Country"

This is one BIG reason why country music is in the shape it's in. Hmmm…….didn’t I write something about this in one of my blog entries a long time ago?