For
most people, songs about truck drivers begin and end with C.W. McCall’s 1976 hit “Convoy,”
the novelty song that went to Number One on the charts during the C.B. radio
craze and later became a film with Kris Kristofferson and Ali McGraw. But if
you listen to Jeremy Tepper of Brooklyn, New York’s Diesel Only Records,
truck-driving songs are an important sub-genre of country music. He claims it
started as far back as 1939 with Cliff Bruner’s original recording of “Truck
Driver’s Blues” and continues today.
“It’s an ongoing tradition,” says Tepper. “If you look at the history of
country music, there have been blips where it crossed over to the mainstream
audience. There was a big one in the Sixties when Dave Dudley’s `Six Days On
The Road’ was a hit. But there’s a truck-driving song on the new Brooks &
Dunn album and Randy Travis has included a version of the song `Highway Junkie’
on his new record.”
Tepper’s label is a part of that tradition as well. In conjunction with
Upstart Records (a division of Rounder), Diesel Only has just released Rig
Rock Deluxe: A Musical Salute to the American Truck Driver, the third in a
series of “Rig Rock” compilations. The previous two, Rig Rock Jukebox (1992) and Rig Rock Truckstop (1993) are excellent collections,
spotlighting the underground country scenes both in New York City and around
the United States. Featuring the likes of Five Chinese Brothers, Mojo Nixon,
the Blue Chieftains, Gwil Owen, Killbilly, Jean Caffeine, Go to Blazes,
Courtney & Western, and Tepper’s own World Famous Blue Jays, Rig Rock
Jukebox and Rig Rock Truckstop collected songs that Diesel Only had
originally released in the jukebox-friendly 45rpm single format only.
Yet with Rig Rock Deluxe, Diesel Only has moved up a notch. This time
around, Tepper has corralled a healthy herd of `name’ acts such as Buck Owens
(his first recording in six years), Steve Earle, Marty Stuart, Son Volt, the
Bottle Rockets, Shaver, Jim Lauderdale, Nick Lowe, and Bill Kirchen. Austin
being the capital of alternative country these days, its artists are fairly
well represented as well: Kelly Willis, Don Walser, Junior Brown, Dale Watson,
Wayne Hancock, and Toni Price all make appearances, while a good part of the
recording was done locally — including the now-famous SXSW Saturday afternoon
at The Hit Shack, where Walser recorded his track with a small media mob
looking on.
“I think this record is about being part of a living tradition,” says Tepper,
“acknowledging the past and bringing it forward with new songs that will
hopefully become standards.” Some of the artists involved, while happy to be
part of this celebration of country music, don’t fully agree.
“I got a bigger grin out of this record than any record I’ve heard in a long,
long time,” says Marty Stuart, the most commercial country artist on the
record. “There’s just more heart and soul of country music there. But as far as
truckin’ songs, they’re as obsolete as a guy singing about trains, or the land
or fishin’. The subject matter is clich�, but I think it’s a cryin’
shame that it’s gone by the wayside.” Stuart’s contribution, “Miss Marie &
the Bedford Blaze,” is a wild and tragic tale of two truckers bound by their
love for David Allen Coe. “I’d written the song before this project came along.
I wrote it, kinda laughed at it, and put it away. It comes from way too many
days of smelling diesel fuel on the bus.” “My husband drives a truck,” says Cheri Knight. “Everybody has these really romanticized ideas
about what truck drivers are. But it’s not like this gun-slinging,
tobacco-chewing kinda lifestyle.” Best known as bass player and principal
songwriter for Boston’s Blood Oranges, Knight embarked on a solo career earlier
this year and along with her first solo album on East Side Digital, The
Knitter, found her contribution to the Rig Rock Deluxe project a
good coming out. Her tune, “Wagon Of Clay,” stands out with its dirge-like
tempo, but obviously the subject matter — a woman who is married to a trucker
that hauls ceramic supplies — hits close to home. “I’m writing about the
reality of it. It’s true of all my songs. I try to write about stuff that I
know about from first-hand experience.”
When it comes to first-hand experience, Dale Watson has plenty; he spent a
good chunk of this summer touring truckstops. “One thing I’ve found out through
this tour is that a lot of truckers miss the kind of country music that we’re
doin’,” says Watson of his brand of hardcore honky-tonk. “But anybody that puts
out an album of truck-driving songs, [is doing it] purely because they love the
music, ’cause they’re not gonna make a killin’ on it — by no means.” That
said, Watson nevertheless confesses that he wrote nearly 20 trucker songs
during his summer trek and hopes to release an album of them some time soon.
As the original guitarist for Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen,
Bill Kirchen has a long history of playing trucker music. The group’s 1972
album, Hot Licks, Cold Steel & Truckers Favorites, is a landmark of
the genre, and it’s from this album that Kirchen’s contribution to Rig Rock
Deluxe, “Semi-Truck,” originates.
“I remember a record called Roll, Truck, Roll by Red Simpson,” recalls
Kirchen. “That was the first record I heard that was nothing but songs about
trucks. It was recorded during the heyday of the Bakersfield sound in the
mid-to-late Sixties. There’s a relationship between the low-end bluegrass runs
that Doc Watson is so good at and the Don Rich [of Buck Owens fame] twangy
bottom-end stuff. When I first heard that stuff, I was just learning how to
play electric guitar and I tried to steal as much of it as I could.”
Kirchen and his guitar have the distinction of appearing three times on Rig
Rock Deluxe. Besides his own track, he’s also on Nick Lowe & the
Impossible Birds’ hot version of Johnny Horton’s “I’m Comin’ Home” (recorded
live in that hotbed of country music, Stockholm, Sweden), and Don Walser’s
positively uplifting contribution, “Truck Drivin’ Man,” which opens the album.
“We had a ball that day,” says Walser, referring to that Saturday session
during this year’s SXSW. “They picked the song for me and asked if I could put
a yodel in it. I told ’em I didn’t know if I could or not. But now, I think I
could put a yodel on anything.” A known historian of country music, Walser
agrees with Tepper on the album’s perspective. “Truck-driving songs have been a
big part of country music. Truck drivers especially like my kind of traditional
country music. There’s still several over-the-road radio programs late at night
that are geared to the long-haul truck drivers. I’ve been on them a couple of
times.”
Walser follows a long line of artists that have covered “Truck Drivin’ Man,”
including the
J. Geils Band and Uncle Tupelo. It was originally recorded by
Terry Fell for RCA’s “X” label in 1954 and remains a truly enduring country
music classic. Still, it wasn’t until 1963 when Dudley hit it big with “Six
Days On The Road” that trucking songs emerged as an important sub-genre of
country. Artists identified with the genre, like Dick Curless — who passed
away during the recording of this record and subsequently has the record
dedicated to his memory — Del Reeves, and Red Simpson all had their biggest
hits in the mid to late Sixties.
That’s not to imply that trucker songs were done by men only. Kate Adams was
voted the “Most Promising Female Artist” by The Academy of Country Music in
1965 for her concept album, Wheels And Tears, which featured “Six Days
Of Waiting,” the answer song to “Six Days On The Road.” On Rig Rock Deluxe,
Kelly Willis follows in Adams’ footsteps with a stunning version of a
Lowell George/Bill Payne song, “Truckstop Girl,” which appeared on the first
Little Feat album. “We were looking around for a cool song to do,” explains
Willis, “and my A&R woman, Teresa [Ensenat], suggested it. I don’t think
it’s ever been covered by a woman before. It’s not really a truckers’ song, but
I felt the subject matter made it appropriate for the record.” At a time when alternative
country is garnering a lot more attention from music fans and critics alike,
Rig Rock Deluxe amplifies the connection between the past and the
present that for the most part has been ignored by Nashville these days. The
best examples of this are in the record’s collaborations. Simpson (who wrote
“Close Up The Honky Tonks” and “Highway Patrol”) and Junior Brown duet on
Simpson’s revved up “Nitro Express,” while Reeves (best known for “Lookin’ At
The World Through A Windshield”) and Jim Lauderdale pair up for “Diesel,
Diesel, Diesel,” a song Lauderdale wrote specifically for Reeves. Also, Adams
teams up with Nashville’s traditional country outfit, BR5-49 on “Mama Was A
Rock (But Daddy Was A Rolling Stone),” a classic composed by her husband, Buck
Moore.
As Tepper explains, “What we were trying to say was, country music, and
truck-driving songs in particular, don’t have to be just one thing. Musically,
we wanted the artists to be free to go wherever they wanted. All the camps of
the alternative country scene are represented and it’s totally now, 1996. My
only fear is that the record won’t age well.”
With a record this diverse and packed with good songs, he has nothing to worry
about. n
This article appears in September 20 • 1996 and September 20 • 1996 (Cover).