Lyle E Style (yes that is his real name) is a country singer/songwriter from Canada that wanted to know more about the life of Roger Miller he found books on the singer/songwriter scarce. So he did what anybody would do…persuade some of the most famous country artists to spend time with him to talk about memories of Miller and wrote his own damn book, Ain’t Got No Cigarettes: Memories of Music Legend Roger Miller. And it’s a gem!

Buck Owens, Bobby Bare, Roy Clark, David Allan Coe, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson are just a few of the legends that took time to talk to Style about Roger and two things seem to be universally agreed upon by all parties, Roger was a genius and he was loved by all of them. Sure he was an addict (amphetamines and coca-cola) and pissed away a lot of money (sending Lear jets from Las Angeles to Nashville to pick up Bar-B-Que!) but all the stroes and with fond memories.

I had vague memories of driving around with my mom in her huge Olds Delta 88 and hearing Roger’s songs playing endlessly on the radio. For a stretch you couldn’t escape his songs - “Dang Me”, “King of the Road” and “Husbands and Wives.” These songs were as ubiquitous as Ashlee Simpson or The Black-Eyed Peas are today…but without sucking.

Roger Miller passed away far too young, at the age of 56, in October of 1992, of cancer.
He left a legacy that shines in the heart of all the old-school Nashville outlaws and legends that still remember him warmly.

Lost Highway/American Recordings have released a promotional trailer for the album featuring producer Rick Rubin discussing the album’s creation and closure. Cut with black-and-white films of Johnny performing live and recording in the studio, it also offers some of the last footage shot of the performer in his final days.

“The last few years, we [Johnny and I] were always working on songs,” says Rubin. “It was the thing that he said was his reason for being alive, especially after June died. I think it was the only thing that kept him going, the only thing he had to look forward to.

“There were about 60 songs that we recorded since American IV came out. I remember we were at my house and we were finishing American IV, and I remember Johnny feeling like, ‘This may be it.’ And I said at that moment that we’re starting on the album today, tomorrow. Start thinking of songs, start writing.”

You can watch the trailer here, or click to the Myspace page created for the album’s release to hear two songs from the record: “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”, and “Like the 309″, the last song Johnny wrote.

http://boss.streamos.com/qtime/losthighway/cashepk.mov

There’s a great article at PopMatter by Andrew Gilstrap providing steps to win friends and influence their aversion to twang. Step one is:

Realize Your Limitations
Straight off, admit to yourself that you probably won’t get anyone to replace their Celine Dion or Sting CDs with Hank Williams or Jason & the Scorchers. If they’re that far gone, there’s really no helping them anyway. So be realistic, and merely hope that your friends will begin accepting twang with the same tolerance with which they might greet their jovial but slightly off-kilter uncle at Thanksgiving.

More excellent advice on cultural infiltration after the link.

While visiting my folks in Dallas for the 4th of July I was lucky enough to see Eleven Hundred Springs play at the great local watering hole the Old Monk off Henderson Ave. There’s nothing better to celebrate what’s right with America is a cold beer and some hot honky tonk. And Eleven Hundred Springs was as right as they come.

EHS have been a Dallas institution since 1998 and lead vocalist/lead guitarist Matt Hillyer, bassist/backing vocalist Steve Berg
pedal steel player Aaron Wynne and percussionist Mark Reznicek (formerly of Fort Worth based rock band The Toadies ), and the newest member of the group, 2nd generation fiddler Jordan Hendrix, whose father Phillip W. Hendrix played alongside the likes of Webb Pierce, Farron Young, and Wynne Stewart in honkytonks across the world (and played a smoking version of the Orange Blossom Special on this night), all play old school country that would make Kenny Chesney crawl home to his mama in shame.

See these boys when they come to your town.