{"id":3094,"date":"2017-09-22T23:00:47","date_gmt":"2017-09-23T03:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=3094"},"modified":"2017-09-25T08:35:49","modified_gmt":"2017-09-25T12:35:49","slug":"tennessee-birdwalk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/tennessee-birdwalk\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee Birdwalk (Blanchard &#038; Morgan)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tennessee Birdwalk\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GuvQWVM4K5w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>One of the pleasures of touring across country was country radio. This was back in the days before national networks had taken over, and you still had local stations playing mixes of current hits and oldies, varying from region to region. The Boston area station was pretty lame, so it was always a relief to get out west, and in 1986<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3096\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/jack_blanchard_misty_morgan-tennessee_bird_walk_s_4-298x300.jpg?resize=246%2C248\" alt=\"\" width=\"246\" height=\"248\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/jack_blanchard_misty_morgan-tennessee_bird_walk_s_4.jpg?resize=298%2C300&amp;ssl=1 298w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/jack_blanchard_misty_morgan-tennessee_bird_walk_s_4.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/jack_blanchard_misty_morgan-tennessee_bird_walk_s_4.jpg?w=300&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 246px) 100vw, 246px\" \/> there was a definite shift toward a more rootsy sound &#8212; I particularly remember Merle Haggard&#8217;s &#8220;I Had a Beautiful Time&#8221; and Dwight Yoakam&#8217;s &#8220;Guitars, Cadillacs, and Hillbilly Music,&#8221; both playing pretty regularly as Hazel and I drove through eastern Montana and on across North Dakota. We were somewhere in the middle of the badlands when this came on the radio.<\/p>\n<p>Neither of us had heard it before, and it flew by, and we instantly fell in love with it&#8230; but that was long before the internet and we didn&#8217;t know the artists&#8217; names and weren&#8217;t even sure what the title was. It was clearly an obscure and minor oldie, so we marked it down as one of those once-in-a-lifetime pleasures and rolled on into Minnesota.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe six months later, my friend Jeff McLaughlin asked if I would give him a hand organizing his records &#8212; he was an arts writer for the <em>Boston Globe<\/em>, the man who got me into writing, and he had a lot of LPs, mostly stacked randomly on the floor, and he could never find anything when he wanted to hear it. I had free time and was interested in looking through the records anyway, so I punched a hole in the wall and moved a light switch out of the way to give him more space for shelves, and began pulling albums off the old shelves and the floor, and piling them in categories for reshelving &#8212; and halfway through I hit <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3095 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Blanchard-and-Morgan-LP-297x300.jpg?resize=297%2C300\" alt=\"\" width=\"297\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Blanchard-and-Morgan-LP.jpg?resize=297%2C300&amp;ssl=1 297w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Blanchard-and-Morgan-LP.jpg?w=600&amp;ssl=1 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 297px) 100vw, 297px\" \/>Blanchard &amp; Morgan&#8217;s <em>Birds of a Feather<\/em>, with a sticker on it saying &#8220;Featuring Tennessee Bird Walk.&#8221; So I put it aside, and when Jeff got home I asked him where he&#8217;d got it&#8230; and he said, &#8220;I&#8217;ve never seen that record before in my life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So it was kismet. I took the record home and learned the song, and the next year I gave up on the US touring circuit and headed back to Europe for another couple of years of hitchhiking, which meant I had a lot of time by the roadside to do picking exercises, and somehow this ended up being my exercise tune for fingerpicking flatpick licks. Then, when I got back to the States, I started playing it at gigs and recorded it on a cassette, and as a hidden track on my CD, and the rest is history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the pleasures of touring across country was country radio. This was back in the days before national networks had taken over, and you still had local stations playing mixes of current hits and oldies, varying from region to region. The Boston area station was pretty lame, so it was always a relief to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/tennessee-birdwalk\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Tennessee Birdwalk (Blanchard &#038; Morgan)<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Tennessee Birdwalk (Blanchard &amp; Morgan) - Old Friends: A Songobiography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/tennessee-birdwalk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tennessee Birdwalk (Blanchard &amp; Morgan) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the pleasures of touring across country was country radio. This was back in the days before national networks had taken over, and you still had local stations playing mixes of current hits and oldies, varying from region to region. The Boston area station was pretty lame, so it was always a relief to &hellip; Continue reading Tennessee Birdwalk (Blanchard &#038; Morgan) &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/tennessee-birdwalk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-23T03:00:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-09-25T12:35:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/jack_blanchard_misty_morgan-tennessee_bird_walk_s_4-298x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/tennessee-birdwalk\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/tennessee-birdwalk\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"headline\":\"Tennessee Birdwalk (Blanchard &#038; Morgan)\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-23T03:00:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-25T12:35:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/tennessee-birdwalk\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":471,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/tennessee-birdwalk\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/08\\\/jack_blanchard_misty_morgan-tennessee_bird_walk_s_4-298x300.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/tennessee-birdwalk\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/tennessee-birdwalk\\\/\",\"name\":\"Tennessee Birdwalk (Blanchard & Morgan) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/tennessee-birdwalk\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/tennessee-birdwalk\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/08\\\/jack_blanchard_misty_morgan-tennessee_bird_walk_s_4-298x300.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-23T03:00:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-25T12:35:49+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/tennessee-birdwalk\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/tennessee-birdwalk\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/tennessee-birdwalk\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/08\\\/jack_blanchard_misty_morgan-tennessee_bird_walk_s_4-298x300.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/08\\\/jack_blanchard_misty_morgan-tennessee_bird_walk_s_4-298x300.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/tennessee-birdwalk\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tennessee Birdwalk (Blanchard &#038; Morgan)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\",\"description\":\"Revisiting the songs that have made a home in my head\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\",\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"width\":70,\"height\":85,\"caption\":\"Elijah Wald\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tennessee Birdwalk (Blanchard & Morgan) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/tennessee-birdwalk\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tennessee Birdwalk (Blanchard & Morgan) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","og_description":"One of the pleasures of touring across country was country radio. This was back in the days before national networks had taken over, and you still had local stations playing mixes of current hits and oldies, varying from region to region. The Boston area station was pretty lame, so it was always a relief to &hellip; Continue reading Tennessee Birdwalk (Blanchard &#038; Morgan) &rarr;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/tennessee-birdwalk\/","og_site_name":"Old Friends: A Songobiography","article_published_time":"2017-09-23T03:00:47+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-09-25T12:35:49+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/jack_blanchard_misty_morgan-tennessee_bird_walk_s_4-298x300.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Elijah Wald","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ElijahWald","twitter_site":"@ElijahWald","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Elijah Wald","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/tennessee-birdwalk\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/tennessee-birdwalk\/"},"author":{"name":"Elijah Wald","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"headline":"Tennessee Birdwalk (Blanchard &#038; Morgan)","datePublished":"2017-09-23T03:00:47+00:00","dateModified":"2017-09-25T12:35:49+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/tennessee-birdwalk\/"},"wordCount":471,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/tennessee-birdwalk\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/jack_blanchard_misty_morgan-tennessee_bird_walk_s_4-298x300.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/tennessee-birdwalk\/","url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/tennessee-birdwalk\/","name":"Tennessee Birdwalk (Blanchard & Morgan) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/tennessee-birdwalk\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/tennessee-birdwalk\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/jack_blanchard_misty_morgan-tennessee_bird_walk_s_4-298x300.jpg","datePublished":"2017-09-23T03:00:47+00:00","dateModified":"2017-09-25T12:35:49+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/tennessee-birdwalk\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/tennessee-birdwalk\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/tennessee-birdwalk\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/jack_blanchard_misty_morgan-tennessee_bird_walk_s_4-298x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/jack_blanchard_misty_morgan-tennessee_bird_walk_s_4-298x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/tennessee-birdwalk\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tennessee Birdwalk (Blanchard &#038; Morgan)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/","name":"Old Friends: A Songobiography","description":"Revisiting the songs that have made a home in my head","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9","name":"Elijah Wald","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","width":70,"height":85,"caption":"Elijah Wald"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1"}}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3740,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/goin-down-hill\/","url_meta":{"origin":3094,"position":0},"title":"Goin&#8217; Down Hill (John Anderson)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"June 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In the early 1980s there was a decent country radio station in the Boston area and I kept my radio tuned to it, with the result that I picked up on Rosanne Cash, Lacy J. Dalton, and John Anderson -- also lots of other people, but those are the three\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/John-Anderson-LP.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2293,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/im-my-own-grandpa\/","url_meta":{"origin":3094,"position":1},"title":"I&#8217;m My Own Grandpa","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"January 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This little masterpiece was composed by Dwight Latham and Moe Jaffe, and first recorded by Latham's vocal trio, the Jesters, who had a regular radio show on NBC in the 1930s. Latham said he found the original anecdote in a collection of\u00a0 pieces by Mark Twain, repeated it on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"the-jesters","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/The-Jesters-300x239.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2884,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/statesboro-blues\/","url_meta":{"origin":3094,"position":2},"title":"Statesboro Blues (Willie McTell)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"June 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not sure exactly how I learned \"Statesboro Blues\" -- of course I listened to the original recording by Blind Willie McTell, and I know Woody Mann's tablature played a part, but I don't recall playing it much until I was touring in the early 1980s, and even then I\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Willie-McTell2-300x277.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3099,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/readin-ritin\/","url_meta":{"origin":3094,"position":3},"title":"Readin&#8217;, Ritin&#8217;, and Route 23 (Dwight Yoakam)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"September 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The first time Dwight Yoakam's \"Guitars, Cadillacs\" came on the radio, I was driving through eastern Montana and it was the perfect soundtrack. That was 1986 and it was getting played pretty often, though not as often as his version of \"Honky Tonk Man,\" and as soon as I got\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dwight-yoakam-guitars-lp.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2742,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/last-truck-drivin-man\/","url_meta":{"origin":3094,"position":4},"title":"World&#8217;s Last Truck Drivin&#8217; Man (Shel Silverstein)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"May 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not sure how or when I first became aware of Shel Silverstein, but I'd already heard a bunch of his songs. \"Cover of the Rolling Stone\" was all over the radio when I was in high school, and of course I'd heard \"Boy Named Sue,\" and at some point\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Shel-Silverstein-in-cowboy-hat-264x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4441,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/watermelon-dream-guy-clark\/","url_meta":{"origin":3094,"position":5},"title":"Watermelon Dream (Guy Clark)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"October 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"This is probably my all-time favorite summer song -- partly because of the lyrics and the way they fit with the melody, and partly because the guitar arrangement fell together so comfortably. It may have taken an hour or so, just playing and seeing what felt right, and that was\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Guy-Clark-old-no1-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3094"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3156,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3094\/revisions\/3156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}