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“I just came in here from force of habit. I don’t intend to spend too much time in here,” sings bestselling country musician and “Hee Haw” host Buck Owens. “But I heard you marching for the music. And if you play ‘A-11,’ there’ll be tears.”
“A-11” is Owens’ tribute to lost love and the jukebox; “Pick the wrong song, and I’ll either cry, or hurt you,” he seems to warn. Jim Waive isn’t that possessive of his record collection, but the man loves his country music in all forms.
We asked Waive for a list of the records that he’d been listening to and affected by during the recording of Strike a Match, and he left us with a long list. Leave it to a lovelorn country fellow to give us the unlucky total of 13 albums.
John Hartford, Aereo Plain
Hartford was a string virtuoso from an early age and won respect as a songwriter when Glen Campbell recorded his song, “Gentle on My Mind,” but his 1971 record was a lyric mix of dark wit and classic bluegrass imagery.
Key track: “Tear Down the Grand Ole Opry.”
Johnny Cash, The Complete Sun Recordings, 1955-1958
We all know why he dresses in black, but Cash’s compiled recordings from Sun, where he shared a label with Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis, gives the man’s drive without the myth attached.
Key track: Well, Waive and the Young Divorcees do a mean cover of “Big River.”
Tom Waits, Closing Time
Waits, the gnarled archaeologist of all things blues and folk, released this debut album in 1973. Without the brilliant eccentricity of his later years, Closing Time set the Tom Waits template: characters of bars and pool halls, jazz piano and upright bass straight out of a greasy spoon.
Key track: “Ol’ ’55”
Dwight Yoakam, Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.
The 1986 album that legitimized Yoakam as a young, authentic country crooner is spotted with classic tunes, from June Carter’s “Ring of Fire” to Harlan Howard’s “Heartaches by the Number.”
Key track: “Bury Me”
Dylan Thomas, The Caedmon Collection
An 11-disc collection of the pissed-off young poet reading his own material.
Key track: “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” is almost a country song!
Nina Simone, Nina Simone Sings the Blues
Blues pianist and singer Simone takes on a song penned by Langston Hughes and “The House of the Rising Sun.”
Key track: “I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl”
Kings of Belmont, Sway
This local power-pop quintet is equal parts Foo Fighters and Tenacious D—skuzzy power chords and songs about weed, sex and drug puns with metal solos.
Key track: “Play For Free”
Randy Travis, Storms of Life
One of the big names in the “neotraditionalist” country music movement (along with Garth Brooks and George Strait), Travis’ debut record sold four million copies through a pairing of contemporary style and classic instrumentation.
Key track: “Forever and Ever, Amen”
X, Under the Big Black Sun
Los Angeles punk rockers that spat poetry about the sights and sounds of their city over surf-rock riffs on their early records get a bit reflective after frontwoman Exene Cervenka’s sister dies in a car accident.
Key track: “Riding With Mary”
The Hackensaw Boys, Look Out!
Charlie Bell’s old crew, who recorded their first two albums with Rod Coles, released their fourth proper album in 2007. The band, which began in Charlottesville, remains synonymous with local bluegrass.
Key track: “Oh, Girl”
Hank III, Risin’ Outlaw
The son of Hank “Ol’ Bocephus” Williams, Jr., soups up his daddy’s country engine with a bit of Black Flag and metal on his records with his band Assjack, but this 1999 solo album keeps a fair bit of twang.
Key track: “If the Shoe Fits”
Barling and Collins, Puberty and Justice for All
Produced by Stu Gilchrist, who put Jim Waive up when he moved from Portsmouth to Charlottesville. This guitar-cello duo has held down regular gigs around town for years, and currently play every Sunday at Miller’s.
Key track: “Jackal of Love”
Sarah White, White Light
 Sarah White |
The latest full-length from one of the two Acorn Sisters was released in 2006, and is a mix of chugging folk-rock and mournful love tunes. White will have plenty of copies at the Satellite Ballroom when the Acorn Sisters open for Waive and the Young Divorcees on February 15.
Key track: “Fighting Words”
