Yes, but the whole "dialog in a pseudo-musical form" is definitely "Trapped in the Closet"

Jewish? I assumed he was Polish because of the name.

SWEET
Finally found a reason to use that Blu-Ray player.

Mixtape
I just found this mixtape I made for a friend of mine who was a punk who loved Johnny Cash and wanted to know more about country. It's a little skewed towards outlaw country, but it's got some good stuff on it.

I think Jimmie Rodgers predates the Carters by a little. Even if I'm wrong, at least one article should be about Rodgers. The Carters made some good music, but Jimmie Rodgers is fascinating for a number of reasons. The Carters were very much in the tradition of mountain music and old-timey gospel, even as they were…

Getting old and becoming an honorary yankee have dulled his edge, but Guitar Town and Copperhead Road are both full of great songs.

He's from Fort Worth and he will be covered for sure. He's basically the go-to country singer for music geeks, although he's really more of a folksinger than anything.

Billy Joe is the closest to the real thing you will find in popular music. Almost all of his songs are very literally autobiographical. Honky Tonk Heroes even mentions the name of the bar that he used to play as a young man. And he really is that combination of sensitive poet and barely civilized problem child that…

This Lubbock Lights movie sounds cool. I spoke with Terry Allen for about an hour once and he is a pretty interesting guy. Plus he wrote "Amarillo Highway", which has some of the best wordplay I have ever heard in a song. "I don't wear no Stetson/but I'm willing to bet, son/ that I'm just as Texan/ as you are"

American Recordings is great, but it's barely country.

I second the suggestion to visit Texas. Skip the Texas Music Hall of Fame and visit Gruene and Luckenbach. Still one of the best road trips I've ever taken.

even more Texas country: Guy Clark. I'm going to stop now.

Willie Nelson spent a decade and a half writing songs for others before his own breakthrough. Maybe the discussion of Willie could veer in that direction. Then you could discuss 70s country singer songwriters and the way they recorded each others songs. Jerry Jeff Walker in particular seems to have taken on the…

Hell yeah, that UGK record is fantastic, and almost nobody listened to it.

Hell yeah on Jerry Jeff. A pretty good go-to for friends who are curious but wary about country.

Johnny Paycheck's stuff in the 60's is so great. I had "I've Got Someone To Kill" as my voice mail message for a brief time before I realized how annoying it was to do that.

This is all fine and good, but cover the old stuff too. Southern Culture on the Skids is no replacement for Hank Snow or Bob Wills.

You guys are blowing my mind. Not only are you dropping the knowledge that pop-country is pop, but also that some singers don't write their own songs. WOW!

Hank III is such a fraud. The nerve that guy has presuming to lecture us about "real country" when it's pretty obvious that he's just a marginally talented Slayer fan who gets to make money playing "outlaw country" because of who his grandfather was. He's not even "Hank III" considering his first name is Shelton or…

Well, I just posted a huge list of stuff and the AVclub wouldn't let me post it. So basically I just want to say that Rabin is my favorite pop culture writer and country is one of my favorite genres, so I am excited as hell about this.