There is only so much oil in the ground
Sooner or later there won’t be much around

Do you know this record?

Back in the early days of ’74, we had an oil crisis.  There just wasn’t enough gas.  I remember waking up at seven to drive down to the Mobil station in Middlebury to fill up.  And if you know me, you know what an amazing story this is, because frequently I see the OTHER side of seven, but getting up that early is beyond anathema, it’s a crime against humanity!

The record I’m quoting is Tower Of Power’s "Only So Much Oil In The Ground".

Can’t cut loose without that juice!

And that’s what I was doing at a party about forty streets south of downtown Salt Lake, cutting loose.  Living in Utah for two years, I’d finally found my crowd.  That’s the amazing thing about starting over, going to college, beginning again in a new city, you start off with the wrong people, not that you realize this, then you run into the right people and you abandon the wrong people and on one hand you’re happy, but on the other you’re creeped out when you bump into your initial buds, it’s so uncomfortable.

I didn’t last much longer in the City of Salt.  Because I realized if I didn’t leave soon, I’d be there forever.  And that’s not a life you want to live.  Amongst the ski bum scavengers trying to get by.

This was the spring of ’76.  And when I walked into this party, "Only So Much Oil In The Ground" was on the turntable.

But not long thereafter there was this country number, which I’d never heard, but sounded so right.

I asked my newfound buddy, who’d acquired the funds to be a ski bum by fishing off the coast of New Jersey, what this was.

TENNESSEE STUD!

Yes, he had to shout.  You know how it is.  With the music blasting and a beer in hand.

HUH?

You know, from "Will The Circle Be Unbroken"!

I started looking through the pile of albums.  ‘Til I got to the cover I’d seen in photographs, but never up close, the three record set of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in Nashville, which contained no hits but had slowly permeated the marketplace.

When I relocated to Los Angeles, one of the first albums I purchased was "Will The Circle Be Unbroken".  I needed to hear "Tennessee Stud".

I thought of "Tennessee  Stud" the other night in the mountains, listening to Jamey Johnson’s "Guitar Song", the title cut of his new album.  It was three cuts deep into the second of this two album package.

The guy singing was not Jamey Johnson.  Turns out it’s Bill Anderson.  Someone this dyed-in-the-wool rocker knows the name of, but could not pick out of a lineup.  The music was rollicking.  Like a bunch of pickers got together one night to drink and play, like the Dirt Band and those cats thirty-odd years before.  That’s what the entire album sounds like.

I’m not gonna say I immediately loved every cut.  But I was struck how this album was unclassifiable.  It made no nod to commerciality.  Most records are made in genres.  Which have space on the radio.  And no genre is more rigid than today’s country.

But the best country records don’t get airplay.

My favorite modern country record?  Steve Earle’s "Guitar Town".  Listen to that.  I’ve got little problem with Garth Brooks, but "Guitar Town" is more honest than anything the Oklahoman ever cut.  It’s one man’s story. Not made for the back row, but for no row, for the artist himself and the individual listening alone.

Yes, we used to be an army of individuals.  We only came together at the show.

Today it’s the opposite.  We come together at the club, listen to the beat-infused music, and don’t play it at home alone.  Who needs to listen to it alone?  It’s a party, and life ain’t one.

You can make it by following your own muse.  You may or may not have a hit, but there are millions of people out there looking for music to tell them a story, to unfold in their ears, with a wisp of humanity, making them feel connected in a nation that specializes in alienation.

Jamey Johnson is getting a lot of ink for two reasons.  He’s good, and he’s doing it his way.  Let this be a beacon to you.

"Only So Much Oil In The Ground"

"Tennessee Stud"-I can’t find the Dirt Band version, but this live Doc Watson take is a great approximation

"Someday"-every track on "Guitar Town" is great, but start here