DIXIANA Song Inspirations and References

This list is bound to grow, and may in fact be incomplete already, but these are many of the songs that influenced and inspired the writing of DIXIANA. Like most of my fiction, songs are key: the narrative of the DIXIANA saga is on one level meant to mirror and echo the history of ‘hillbilly music,’ what came to be known as country music. A few rock songs round out the list.

Selected youtube performances included here are intended to provide the flavor and tone of the themes of this ambitious, work-in-progress literary novel.

The first song, by outlaw country great Waylon Jennings, also provides the general epigraph of the entire book (although the sub-books all have their own unique introductory quotes):

Lord it’s the same old tune, fiddle and guitar

Where do we take it from here?

Rhinestone suits and new shiny cars

It’s been the same way for years

We need to change…

THE SONGS

Waylon Jennings — “Are You Sure Hank Done it This Way?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_72-7TFHEnU

Sara Ogan Gunning — “Dreadful Memories”, “Come All ye Coal Miners”, “Just the Same Today”

Shep and the Limelighters — “Daddy’s Home”

Kitty Wells — “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honkytonk Angels”, “How Far is Heaven”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5Ikl-y_rZA&w=640&h=360]

Hank Williams — “Son Calls Another Man Daddy”

Grandpa Jones — “8 More Miles to Louisville”

Wesley Tuttle — “Rose of the Alamo”

Stonewall Jackson — “18 Years with Life to Go”

Vern Gosdin — “Do You Believe Me Now”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez70cpRX7lE&w=640&h=360]

Ernest Tubb — “Waltz Across Texas”

Webb Pierce — “A Thousand Miles Ago”

Porter Waggoner and Dolly Parton — “Daddy Was an Oldtime Preacher Man”

Floyd Tillman — “They Took the Stars Out of Heaven”

Ray Price — “For the Good Times”, “Heartaches by the Number”, “A Way to Survive”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T27WQZHAiYA&w=640&h=360]

Hank Thompson — “I’ve Run Out of Tomorrows”

Elvis Presley — “Honkytonk Angel”

Faron Young — “Leaving and Saying Goodbye”, “She Went a Little Bit Farther”

Merle Haggard — “The Old Man from the Mountain”, “If We Make it Through December”, “Hungry Eyes”, “Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noB183N-pi4&w=640&h=360]

The Louvin Brothers — “Must You Throw Dirt in my Face”

Uncle Dave Macon — “Keep My Skillet Good & Greasy”

Johnny Cash — “Any Old Wind that Blows”

Kris Kristofferson — “Sunday Morning Coming Down”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbqGWTxwZEA&w=640&h=360]

Connie Smith — “Where is My Castle”

Jim & Jesse — “Paradise”

Lefty Frizzell — “Mom & Dad’s Waltz”

Patsy Cline — “Half as Much”

Skeeter Davis — “My Last Date With You”

Bobby Bare — “Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEXDHhnwqTo&w=640&h=360]

Tom T Hall — “I Want to See the Parade”

Traditional — “All My Trials”

Conway Twitty — “You’ve Never Been This Far Before”

Jean Shepherd — “Another Neon Night”

Will D. Campbell — “Anna, I’m Takin’ You Home”

Marshall Tucker Band — “Can’t You See”

Hank Snow — “I’ve Been Everywhere”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2Cj444ZGug&w=640&h=360]

Ernest Tubb — “Steel Guitar Rag”, “When the World has Turned You Down”

Red Foley — “Sugarfoot Rag”

Jack Greene — “State of a Fool”

Tompall Glaser — “T for Texas (Blue Yodel #1)”

Red Steagall — “3-Chord Country Song”

Tanya Tucker — “Delta Dawn”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO09q5LRmGo&w=640&h=360]

Gillian Welch — “Down Along the Dixie Line”, “Red Clay Halo”

Marshall Chapman — “I Love Everybody”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBGZTCwPhQQ&w=640&h=360]

Billy Holiday — “Pennies from Heaven”

Bing Crosby — “Red Sails in the Sunset”

Andrews Sisters — “Rhumboogie”

George Harrison — “Crackerbox Palace”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOvnG-WTDXw&w=640&h=360]

 

Blue Oyster Cult — “Black Blade”, “Fire of Unknown Origin”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSKeo5AS5vM&w=640&h=360]

Phish — “Maze”, “Golden Age” (TV on the Radio cover)

Grateful Dead/Traditional — “And We Bid You Goodnight”

Traditional — “We Are Called”