Thinkin' 'bout drinkin'

One song I heard while listening to Thayrone the other day that I'd never heard before was a perfect pop/country/bluegrass gem by the Meat Purveyors called "Thinking About Drinking". So I listened to a little more of their stuff on Rhapsody. They're an Austin Bluegrass band that likes to cover songs from other genres -- that last album covered everyone from Nick Lowe to ABBA to Ratt (yes, Ratt!).

The hook is a thing of beauty, and reminds me of a very similar song by Jimmy Buffett which tried to distill country music to its essence, "Why Don't We Get Drunk" (actually, the two songs sound quite similar but then again, why wouldn't they?) Anyway, the hook is

When I'm not drinkin'
I'm thinkin' 'bout drinkin'
When I'm not thinkin'
I'm drinkin' 'bout you

It'd be corny if it wasn't so darned good, and that's what good country pop is about. Heartfelt corniness to help you feel better when you're blue.

They also covered a really good Nick Lowe song I'd never heard before called "Without Love" - which isn't corny at all, it's actually a lyrically pretty song for the most part and I think they actually did a better job capturing that beauty than Nick did. And then that got me looking around for his contemporaries, one of whom is Nanci Griffith -- and I saw the old song "Gulf Coast Highway", which I believe is an Emmylou Harris song. But the group "Evangeline" (unfortunately not carried by Rhapsody) is the one I first heard do it and it made the hair on my head stand on end it was so beautiful. It's closer to Emmylou's version than Nanci's, but there's just a little extra something about their version (and no, I don't think it's Jimmy Buffett but he does sing the male part of the duet on the song) -- perhaps it's because it's a nosalgic song about the gulf coast sung by people who are from there and love it.

Ah, the wanderings through the train of thought music world.