Blogmas 2023: Day Eighteen: Deep Dives And Reactions: Two Of A Kind: The Power Of Duets.

 Blogmas Day Eighteen:

Well, as most of y'all know by now, I'm a crazy music lover and we've seen posts about Niall Horan, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, The Love Junkies (Lori McKenna, Liz Rose and Hilary Lindsay), Justin Moore and Priscilla Block, Ashley McBryde, Olivia Rodrigo, Kelsea Ballerini, Carrie Underwood, Abbey Rowe and Abbi Scott on this here blog.

   Anywho, I love me a duet and have recently-ish gotten into a lot of Americana Country Music, which could have a whole post. I have been super obsessed with Emmylou Harris since before Halloween. And obviously, as it happens, Emmylou led to me getting into "the tragic nut", as I've started calling him, Gram Parsons.

   It's simply impossible to be a  musicaholic and not know at least a little about these two.

   Their duet and collaborative projects are so stunning and their voices very much complimented one another beautifully, hers sweet and melancholic, his with a sort of roughness to it, almost like velvet wrapped barbed wire. I have a firm belief that duets are the very epitome of music, especially Country, Bluegrass and today's specific topic, Americana.

   Duets such as "After The Fire Is Gone" by Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn, "Golden Ring" by George Jones and Tammy Wynette and "Jackson" by Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash have always been favorites of mine.

   To paraphrasely quote Willie Nelson, "there are only two kinds of men (I'm gonna broaden that term to simply 'people' in this context) in this world; the ones who love Emmylou Harris and the ones who don't know her" and I think that's true. Her voice goes from powerful to the thinnest strand of sunlight that is so close to breaking, but doesn't.

   A beautiful song, one of the best I've ever heard, is "Hickory Wind", which was a song she did with Gram but later did a version on her own. The two have extremely different vibes though. The duet is sad, but the full instrumental makes it happier somehow, like it's looking back fondly.

   The version from her album of the same name, though, sounds much more tragic, more longing. Maybe it's the rawness of the stripped instrumental or her voice or just the fact that it was his song, I can't put my finger on it.

   If it wasn't for the two of them, Country Rock, Roots and Alternative Country wouldn't be where they are today.

   I wish music still had the heart and soul it had then, the truth and the feeling. Modern "Bro-Country" and "Country-Pop" is so over glossed, and I'm sure the artists are happy to have all these number one hits, but the songs are played to death on the radio and as soon as they drop off of constant rotation, they're pretty well forgotten.

   On The Other Hand, old songs have entire fanbases sometimes, for a SINGLE. SONG. That's pretty amazing!

   People weren't afraid to be real and genuine and sometimes even a little goofy if this clip of Gram and The Flying Burrito Brothers (what a name, y'all) is any indication).

   Anywho, I'm gonna sign off as It's gettin' late. See y'all tomorrow! 😎