Czech Republic -- Pavek Bobek

by Ruth Ellen Gruber

Last night in Prague I attended the launch concert for the new CD by the Czech singing legend Pavel Bobek. The CD is Czech language covers of Johnny Cash songs and much of it was recorded in Nashville. This sparked the main Czech TV news to feature it on its broadcast on Sunday.

I found the concert poignant: the passage of time and all that. Bobek, who is in his 70s, had a bout of bad health in recent years. He got his start in the late 50s/early 60s as "Mister Rock and Roll." I watched videos of his youthful performances before going to see him live....

Backed by the Malinaband (mainly members of Druha Trava), Bobek performed some of his big hits -- covers of Kris Kristofferson and Bruce Springsteen songs, and also the perennial fave "Country Roads".

He encored with the duet "Jeste neni tma" from DT's Dylanovky CD, with Robert Krestan -- a Czech cover of Bob Dyland's "It's not dark yet"

The hall, at a local culture center, was packed with fans of all ages, and they cheered and whooped -- giving him a standing ovation.

Farewell Davy Crockett -- RIP Fess Parker

 

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The actor Fess Parker, who immortalized Davy Crockett, "king of the wild frontier," on TV in the 1950s (and became one of my first media heroes) has died at the age of 85. As this obituary says, he and his character (to me they were inseparable) became an icon for us baby-boomers....and he was so handsome! I well remember sitting with the whole family on the sofa watching the show --and somewhere at home there are photos of my brother Frank in his coonskin cap.

The first installment of "Davy Crockett," with Buddy Ebsen as Crockett's sidekick, debuted in December 1954 as part of the "Disneyland" TV show. The 6-foot, 6-inch Parker was quickly embraced by youngsters as the man in a coonskin cap who stood for the spirit of the American frontier. Boomers gripped by the Crockett craze scooped up Davy lunch boxes, toy Old Betsy rifles, buckskin shirts and trademark fur caps. "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" ("Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee...") was a No. 1 hit for singer Bill Hayes while Parker's own version reached No. 5. The first three television episodes were turned into a theatrical film, "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier," in 1955

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  I myself had a fringed leather jacket, plus cowboy clothing. And of course we all know the song....

 
Here's the full version -- with lyrics.

Berlin -- Modern Earl and Gentle Line-dancers at the Country Music Messe

One of the bands I liked a lot at the Berlin Country Music Messe was a Berlin-based, mainly American group called Modern Earl who play a sort of demented country rock -- and, after starting up here just 2 years ago have proved very successful, touring all over Europe and playing at all kinds of venues ranging from clubs and saloons to country and biker festivals.

There are four stages at the Country Music Messe, where acts perform simultaneously. The scene was quite different on this stage -- just minutes after the end of Modern Earl's performance -- where things were more...traditional. Similar hats, but gentle line-dancing to a band called Duo Diesel that plays "country, oldies & more."

Yeehaw Berlin -- Country Music Messe Scene Video

Here's a quick video showing some of the scene in one corner of the Country Music Messe in Berlin. I love the "YeeHaw" advertisement....(the ad is for a German Trucker magazine)

India -- Cowboy Hats Are the Rage

Photo: IndiaGlitz

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I love stories about the Indian "Cowboy" films and embrace of Wild West trappings by "Kollywood" (southern India's Tamil-language  film industry) and the vast subcontinent as a whole: they demonstrate the universality of the American foundation saga and the global embrace of the mythology and its trappings.... Here's another. According to a web site called IndiaGlitz, cowboy hats are currently all the rage  -- "that essential Prop" even in movies that do not have a cowboy or western theme.

Its retro mode in Kollywood and guess what is the most happening ‘property’ our stars are using, eh sorry, wearing!

Call it the trend or a fashion statement - our heroes are wearing the Cowboy hats., more often than not All you Tamil Film loyalists, rewind to times of Jai Shankar, possibly one of the first cowboys of Kollywood, He wore it for his most coveted cowboy role and then continuing his legacy was Rajinikanth in ‘Thaai Meedhu Sathyam'.

Well those were the days when stories were given the importance and costumes were naturally imbibed in the story. And now, Cowboy hats everywhere. The hero wears the cowboy hat and dances with the heroine in hilly areas, or you see him wear the hat as a ‘prop’ (short for property) and smoke a puff, typically wild... wild... west! [...] 

Cowboy hats are a style symbol. Hats have always been an accessory to mankind, but as a property in movies, especially songs, cowboy hats fill the blank. Spot the actors, be it the hero, the heroine or even the villain in the movies with the cowboy hats on, in upcoming releases. The tradition has been continuing for ages now and just like sky, the hats are here to stay. At least in Tamil Cinema.

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 I have posted in the past about some of the films and actors mentioned in this story -- such as the recent movie Quickgun Murugun.  I know very little of this subculture -- but the pictures and description of the film plots are wild (west)!

 Photo: IndiaGlitz

Berlin -- Asleep at the Wheel Turns 40 (and I'm at the Country Music Messe)

 I look into the somewhat distorting mirror at the Country Music Messe in Berlin. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

As I'm currently at the annual Country Music Messe in Berlin, Germany, country music is on my mind... and here's a nice, long piece in Billboard magazine about the Austin, Texas-based Western Swing band Asleep at the Wheel celebrating its 40th birthday.

NASHVILLE (Billboard) - When Asleep at the Wheel frontman Ray Benson started a band in Paw Paw, West Virginia, in 1970, he had no idea that 40 years later he would still be at the helm of one of America's most adventurous musical outfits.

During a four-decade career, the band has earned nine Grammy Awards, launched a critically acclaimed theatrical production, performed with everyone from Willie Nelson to President Obama to the Fort Worth Symphony, released more than 25 albums and had an airport roadhouse named after its frontman.

"At times it feels like it was yesterday and at times it feels like a hundred years ago," Benson says. "If I look back to 1969 when I quit college and said, 'This is what we're going to do,' it's hard for me to believe that it all happened way beyond my expectations." 

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I've know Ray since we were teenagers in suburban Philadelphia: he went to Antioch College for a bit while I (and Ray's brother) were at Oberlin, and we had a memorable time once hitch-hiking back to Philly together. We two hippies got a ride with a truck-driver who claimed to be "Col. Frank Savage" -- or General Frank Savage -- who was actually a character in the movie and TV show "Twelve O'Clock High". He scolded Ray when he said 'damn" or "hell" or something, telling him "not to use language like that in front of a lady" (i.e., me). He didn't like the fact that I was hitch-hiking (even if accompanied by a 6'7" man) but told me my Daddy should rest easy because Col (or Gen.) Frank Savage would take good care of me during the drive.

Ray Benson and me in Interlaken, Switzerland during the Trucker Festival, 2004

I've   seen Ray and the band perform many times over the years, most recently in Craponne, France in 2008 during the Country Rendez-vous festival. And I wrote a profile of him at that time -- click HERE.

Ironically, the fact that I knew Asleep at the Wheel became a factor, many years later, in my connection to the country music scene in Poland, and with Michael Lonstar -- whom I saw last night at the Berlin Messe.

Michael remembers that we first met in December 1982 at a party in Warsaw, where I was the UPI correspondent. I have to say that I don;t recall the occasion -- but Michael remembers that we "were sitting in the kitchen on stools, and we were talking about Asleep at the Wheel."

Berlin -- More Getting Ready for the Country Music Messe

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Just heard from my friend, the Polish country singer Michael Lonstar, whom I have written about several times on this blog. We'll be meeting up tomorrow and over the weekend at the Country Music Messe in Berlin, where he will be performing (among dozens of other bands).

In past posts I've mentioned his song "What's This Country Thing," responding to skeptics who are turned off the by the rowdy Sauerkraut Cowboy get up that many country fans here affect.

Here is a video of him singing the song at last year's Messe (taken from Lonstar's myspace page):

Michael Lonstar at CMM

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