RIP Charlie Louvin

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One of the greats is gone. RIP

kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 26 January 2011 17:02 (2 years ago) Permalink

Satan is real.

kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 26 January 2011 17:02 (2 years ago) Permalink


(Someone else can post the original)

A Man Needs A Meme (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 26 January 2011 17:04 (2 years ago) Permalink

RIP. I got into these guys through Uncle Tupelo in the early 90s & played their records to death in college: my roommates could not understand this gospel dread.

From the NY obit, how emptiness has a body: “When it comes time for the harmonies to come in, I will move to my left because my brother and I always used ... one microphone,” he said of performing solo. “Even today, I will move over to the left to give the harmony room, knowing in my mind that there’s no harmony standing on my right.”

Euler, Wednesday, 26 January 2011 17:12 (2 years ago) Permalink

those two did have one of the most perfect vocal blends of all time.

tylerw, Wednesday, 26 January 2011 17:13 (2 years ago) Permalink

aw man RIP

totally admire how he kept working/playing/performing right up to the end

ex-heroin addict tricycle (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 26 January 2011 17:17 (2 years ago) Permalink

RIP. I got into these guys through Uncle Tupelo in the early 90s & played their records to death in college: my roommates could not understand this gospel dread.

^^ditto

songs that tell a story in particular

amazing singer. RIP.

smang a goon (get it on) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 26 January 2011 17:40 (2 years ago) Permalink

This will always be my favorite Louvin Brothers song.

kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 26 January 2011 17:58 (2 years ago) Permalink

RIP

ergonomically chromium plated fish slice (La Lechera), Wednesday, 26 January 2011 18:02 (2 years ago) Permalink

Light In The Attic fanzine issue 2 (zine of the label) has a great feature w/Kris Kristofferson interviewing Louvin, search that out folks.

sleeve, Wednesday, 26 January 2011 20:11 (2 years ago) Permalink

9 people on ILX were aware of this guy?

fuck this board

ex-heroin addict tricycle (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 26 January 2011 20:18 (2 years ago) Permalink

it's only been 3 hours, chill out man.

peacocks, Wednesday, 26 January 2011 20:21 (2 years ago) Permalink

The Louvins are one of my 5 favorite country acts. Great harmonies, fire and brimstone and soul. Charlie's tenor on "When I Stop Dreaming" puts shivers down my spine every time. Then there's "Don't Laugh," "Pitfall," "Cash On The Barrelhead," "Knoxville Girl," "Wreck On The Highway," "Christian Life".... So many great ones.

Jazzbo, Wednesday, 26 January 2011 20:27 (2 years ago) Permalink

Aw damn. So long, Charlie.

Discovered them late, after the Livin Lovin Losing tribute a few years back. What a treasure once I started digging to hear their originals for the first time. Beautiful.

VegemiteGrrrl, Wednesday, 26 January 2011 20:28 (2 years ago) Permalink

ha you'd have to pretty damn old to discover them on time. r.i.p.

contrflowvers-e (tremendoid), Wednesday, 26 January 2011 21:03 (2 years ago) Permalink

the louvins and jimmie rodgers were what made me 'get' country

<3 <3

RIP

i heard this and was like 'oh'

HOOS the master?? STEEN NUFF (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Wednesday, 26 January 2011 21:17 (2 years ago) Permalink

can't find a youtube of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot unfortunately

so ghostly

ex-heroin addict tricycle (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 26 January 2011 21:48 (2 years ago) Permalink

this is my fave

tylerw, Wednesday, 26 January 2011 21:49 (2 years ago) Permalink

god yeah louvin's 'swing low' is just gorgeous

bear, bear, bear, Wednesday, 26 January 2011 21:51 (2 years ago) Permalink

Another great one featuring dreaming

Never Make Your Moog Too Soon (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 26 January 2011 21:52 (2 years ago) Permalink

hey guys

ex-heroin addict tricycle (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 26 January 2011 21:52 (2 years ago) Permalink

^^^8 CD box set of complete recordings, from Bear Family (Germany), OOP in the US and usually costs hundreds of $$$

ex-heroin addict tricycle (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 26 January 2011 21:56 (2 years ago) Permalink

blurgh

tylerw, Wednesday, 26 January 2011 21:57 (2 years ago) Permalink

(thank you is what i meant)

tylerw, Wednesday, 26 January 2011 21:57 (2 years ago) Permalink

you're welcome!

ex-heroin addict tricycle (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 26 January 2011 21:58 (2 years ago) Permalink

the louvins... were what made me 'get' country

I was the same way. their music was a great gateway to discovering other country music, largely because they showed so much love for the music they grew up with. it was touching that before they recorded their Tribute to the Delmore Brothers album, they visited the one surviving Delmore to get his blessing. that album and Tragic Songs of Life (which includes a bunch of ballads the Blue Sky Boys had recorded) really inspired me to look into early country/old-time music. their covers of old material were reverent but always filled with their personal, inimitable fire, and they bridged the gaps between bluegrass and honky-tonk and mountain gospel in a forward-thinking way.

very strong vocal by Charlie here, made even more poignant by his death:

RIP

the loneliness of the dexys midnight runner (unregistered), Wednesday, 26 January 2011 22:07 (2 years ago) Permalink

Me too. The gateway was something called Radio Favorites that came out in the mid-eighties, a collection of live-in-studio material

Never Make Your Moog Too Soon (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 27 January 2011 00:46 (2 years ago) Permalink

last paragraph is lol

ex-heroin addict tricycle (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 27 January 2011 17:59 (2 years ago) Permalink

^^^Dylan on the Louvin Bros

ex-heroin addict tricycle (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 27 January 2011 17:59 (2 years ago) Permalink

9 months pass...

this is the only Louvin Bros thread? wtf

check this shit out:

unorthodox economic revenge (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 27 October 2011 20:18 (1 year ago) Permalink

Jazzbo, Friday, 28 October 2011 00:24 (1 year ago) Permalink

7 months pass...

OK, the autobiography that came out this year Satan is Real: The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers is the real deal, completely convincing, must read. The cowriter Benjamin Whitmer is to be commended for helping to make it sound exactly like Charlie is talking to you, dear ilxor.

Stumpy Joe's Cafe (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 22 June 2012 01:09 (11 months ago) Permalink

ooh! thx for the heads up

a dense custard of infinity (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 22 June 2012 15:53 (11 months ago) Permalink

Sure. Presumably the co-author also helped in the sequencing. The beginner chapters pack a great one-two punch.

Stumpy Joe's Cafe (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 22 June 2012 16:16 (11 months ago) Permalink

But not for the faint of heart.

Stumpy Joe's Cafe (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 23 June 2012 23:44 (10 months ago) Permalink

Some of it, in its depiction of hardscrabble Depression-era rural America observed with a darkly humorous eye, reads like a Jim Thompson novel

ratso piazzolla (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 24 June 2012 03:03 (10 months ago) Permalink

Oh wow, yeah I def have to read this. Thanks James!!

Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 24 June 2012 03:06 (10 months ago) Permalink

To Amazon.com!

Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 24 June 2012 03:09 (10 months ago) Permalink

Enjoy.

Am I the only who didn't know that it was Ira who sang the high parts and Charlie the low? I mean apart from Billy Bob Thornton

ratso piazzolla (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 25 June 2012 04:26 (10 months ago) Permalink

ratso piazzolla (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 01:26 (10 months ago) Permalink

Oh wait, that is up thread a few posts.

ratso piazzolla (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 01:28 (10 months ago) Permalink


My daddy played the five

ratso piazzolla (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 01:34 (10 months ago) Permalink

This morning I finished the book, which was about as perfect as anything can be in this world. Meanwhile here is an interview with the co-authoer Benjamin Whitmer, with some stories that didn't make the book: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/01/satan-is-real-louvin-brothers.html

ratso piazzolla (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 02:30 (10 months ago) Permalink

I'm 3 chapters in and I've only had the book for a matter of hours

so in love already

Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 04:42 (10 months ago) Permalink

This is surprisingly touching. Or maybe not so surprising.

ratso piazzolla (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 28 June 2012 00:05 (10 months ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

Rave review from earlier this month

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303703004577474972942879772.html

Two months before his own death in 2011, Charlie Louvin finished work on an autobiography that was published earlier this year. "Satan Is Real: The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers" (Igniter/HarperCollins), which has the rough-hewn sound of a real person swapping stories after hours, is one of the most important and illuminating memoirs ever written by a country singer. Not only is it as readable as a first-rate novel, but "Satan Is Real," which is named after the Louvin Brothers' best-known album, a 1959 collection of gospel songs, offers urbanites a joltingly vivid glimpse of what it was like to grow up on a Depression-era farm.

Like Monk Never Happened (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 2 August 2012 00:07 (9 months ago) Permalink

Of course I mean last month.

Like Monk Never Happened (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 2 August 2012 00:10 (9 months ago) Permalink

Just bought that book. It's tremendously readable without getting too academic (actually, not academic even in the slightest), and I'm pretty amazed at Charlie's honesty and forthrightness about a lot of stuff most folks wouldn't talk about at all. The bits about his father killing dogs and stuff at the beginning pretty much blew my mind.

crustaceanrebel, Thursday, 2 August 2012 00:34 (9 months ago) Permalink

Yeah I'm almost 3/4 through it now and I can't recommend it enough. The stuff about Elvis is really great.

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 2 August 2012 01:39 (9 months ago) Permalink


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