Tag: Carter Family

March Winds Gonna Blow My Blues All Away

March in like Lion Although bad weather may still be on the immediate horizon, I still feel relief every year getting through February and knowing that spring is not far away. Thus, there is the old saying about March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb.

The song “March Winds Gonna Blow My Blues All Away,” as sung by The Carter Family, recognizes that March optimism. Although the song hints at heartbreak (“My mama told me long years ago/ Never to marry no girls that I know/ Spend all your money and wear out your clothes”), the song also recognizes the March winds and the warming of the winter sun: “Sun’s gonna shine in my back door some day.” So on this first day of March, we wish you nothing but sunshine and March winds to blow your blues away.

For a bonus version of “March Winds Gonna Blow My Blues All Away,” here is a live performance by the underrated Robbie Fulks. I have admired Fulks’s original works for some time, but here he does an excellent lively version of “March Winds,” showing off his guitar skills too. Check out this performance in Chicago from July 7, 2008.

Lion photo via public domain.

What is your favorite song about March? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Jewel as June
  • I Sit Here Tonight, the Jukebox Playing Kitty Wells
  • Marty Stuart’s “Nashville, Vol. 1: Tear the Woodpile Down”
  • Bon Hiver (First Day of Winter)

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Jewel as June

    jewel ring of fire

    In an upcoming LIfetime biopic, Ring of Fire, Jewel plays Johnny Cash’s wife June Carter. This clip gives an idea of Jewel’s performance. While it is not surprising that Jewel has the singing chops on such songs as “Wildwood Flower,” it is interesting to see her capturing Carter’s humor. It will be hard to top Reese Witherspoon’s fine performance in Walk the Line (2005), but Carter deserves her own film and this clip shows the film has potential. Check it out.

    The movie is based on the book, Anchored In Love, by Johnny and June’s son, John Carter Cash. Ring of Fire premieres on May 27.

    For a bonus video, check out the Carter family singing the same “Wildwood Flower” song in 1990 in this video, featuring June, Helen, and Anita Carter.

    Will you watch Jewel as June Carter? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • The 1977 Johnny Cash Christmas Show
  • Is Kris Kristofferson’s Greatest Song “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”?
  • Clarence Ashley: “The Cuckoo” & “Little Sadie”
  • Rosanne Cash Takes a Stand With “Crawl Into the Promised Land”
  • Johnny Cash’s Journey and “The Gift”
  • Louis Armstrong and Jimmie Rodgers: “Blue Yodel 9” (Duet of the Day)

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    I Sit Here Tonight, the Jukebox Playing Kitty Wells

    kitty wells honky tonk angels

    Country music legend Kitty Wells passed away July 16, 2012 at the age of 92. Among other accomplishments, she will be remembered because in 1952 her record of “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” became the first country music #1 song by a woman soloist. It is a great country song too.

    Although Wells may be best remembered for that groundbreaking hit, she had many other popular recordings, including a version of “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” and she was known as the “Queen of Country.” She was generally listed as the top female country singer for more than a decade during 1952 through 1968 before being dethroned by Tammy Wynette, who was followed by other female country singers. Wells’s website notes a number of honors, including that she was inducted into the Country Music Association Hall of Fame in 1976.

    Although it is hard to imagine now, but “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” was controversial when released. The song was an answer song to Hank Thompson’s “The Wild Side of Life,” where the singer said he didn’t know that God made honky tonk angels and bemoaned the lover that left him to go back to the wild side of life.

    In Wells’s response with “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” written by J.D. “Jay” Miller, Wells put the blame back on the men. At the time, some of the male-dominated radio stations would not play the song and she was not allowed to perform it at the Grand Ole Opry. But the song struck a chord with enough people to become a bigger hit than Thompson’s song.

    Both Thompson’s and Wells’s songs used the same tune, which appeared in the earlier songs of The Carter Family’s 1929 “I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes” and Roy Acuff’s 1936 classic record of Rev. Guy Smith’s “The Great Speckled Bird.” Kitty Wells herself later recorded “The Great Speckled Bird,” where you can hear the similarity to “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.”

    Wells was born Ellen Muriel Deason in Nashville, Tennessee on August 30, 1919. She changed her name to Kitty Wells in 1943 based on a suggestion of her husband, Johnny Wright, who was also a country music performer. The name came from a folk ballad recorded by the Pickard Family, entitled “Sweet Kitty Wells.” Here is the song that provided her name, recorded by Billy Grammer.

    Peace to Sweet Kitty Wells and honky tonk angels everywhere.

    What is your favorite Kitty Wells song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
  • Billy Grammer and Buddy Holly’s Opening Song, “Gotta Travel On”
  • Ned Miller: The Shy Man Behind “From a Jack to a King”
  • Merle Haggard: “Kern River”
  • Song of the Day: Lee Ann Womack “Chances Are”
  • Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog

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    Marty Stuart’s “Nashville, Vol. 1: Tear the Woodpile Down”

    Marty Stuart Nashville Vol 1 Sugar Hill Records has made available a stream of Marty Stuart’s upcoming album, Nashville, Vol. 1: Tear the Woodpile Down. In the new album, Stuart and his band the Fabulous Superlatives present songs with a traditional country sound, with most of the songs written by Stuart. If the sound of the album is not enough to show its country roots, the last two songs bring the point home. Lorrie Carter Bennett of The Carter Family sings on “A Song of Sadness,” and Hank Williams III joins Stuart on Hank Williams Sr.’s “Picture from Life’s Other Side.”

    On Stuart’s website, you may also get a free download of “Tear The Woodpile Down” (“Taxpayer dollar ain’t worth a dime / Government’s got us in a bind”) by providing your email address.

    Check it out.

    What do you think of Marty Stuart’s new album? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Sam Williams: “Can’t Fool Your Own Blood” (Song of the Day)
  • Connie Smith: “Once a Day” (Song of the Day)
  • Hank Williams Live Show from July 1952 (Audio)
  • Marty Stuart’s Celebration of “The Pilgrim” Through A Wall-to-Wall Odyssey
  • D.L. Menard: “The Back Door”
  • Marty Stuart Takes Us “Way Out West”

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