Dolly Parton

Is playing at the San Francisco Bluegrass Festival next weekend. It’s not really a “bluegrass” festival, but there is *some* bluegrass involved–just most of the music is basically country and/or old time folk. Not that I’m complaining. The festival is free, the music’s GREAT, and extremely well organized.

Charlie Poole


This guy’s story is pretty wild. He was a Southern singer, regional appeal, who wound up with quite the reputation as a boozer and ladies man, but also a top-notch musician and front man. And quite the charmer, or so they say. He cut at least several dozen songs (I don’t know how many), and believe it or not, Sony (which owns Columbia, for whom Poole recorded in the 1920s) is releasing a four CD (yep, four) box set on the guy. Pretty cool, must say.

Heading Down the Wrong Highway

Ted Daffan recorded that song in the 1940s – Ted’s a sadly overlooked country artist, an original honky tonker. He wrote “Born to Lose,” an absolute classic that’s since become one of the genre’s defining songs. Ray Charles took the song to new heights on his landmark Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. But Daffan’s original has its own charm. Hear it below.

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