Re: dbt tracks-week 11- sandwiches for the road
Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2018 4:37 pm
New waves of musicians were drawn to Hinton’s music, magnetic talent and underdog story. Musicians like Patterson Hood, singer, songwriter and co-founder of respected band Drive-By Truckers and son of Swampers bassist David Hood. “He was kind of always in my life on the periphery,” Patterson says of Hinton. “I have vivid memories of him coming over to my house when I was a kid because he was friends with my dad and he was young and kind of in his prime. He was good with kids, which probably seems odd considering things later in his life.”
Growing up, Hood can remember hearing “Very Extremely Dangerous” when the album was first released. Several years later in the 80s, when he was around 19 or 20 he saw Hinton perform at a Sheffield bar called Calico’s. “He was pretty on that night and it was pretty great,” Hood recalls. “And I became a fan of his music towards the end of his life, around the time he put out ‘Cry and Moan.’ I think that was the first Eddie Hinton record I bought myself and pretty soon after that started collecting any of them I could get.”
The day he heard Hinton had died, Hood sat down and wrote a song in tribute. That resulting pedal-steel-laced tune, “Sandwiches for the Road,” became the poignant closing track on the Truckers’ 1998 debut album “Gangstabilly.” “When he passed away it was just really sad to me,” Hood says. “I’m friends with Wayne Perkins (the Alabama guitar legend who recorded with The Stones and Bob Marley, and considered Hinton his mentor), and some of the specific stories that song talks about were stories I heard Perkins tell me. And in particular the sandwich part. Perkins told me a story about riding with Eddie to go play some shows, I think in Northern Mississippi somewhere, and Eddie fixing these bologna sandwiches and taking them.”
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A decade later, Cincinnati indie label Shake It! Records asked the Truckers to record two covers for a vinyl singles series, “Dangerous Highway: A Tribute to the Songs of Eddie Hinton.” Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli and garage-rockers Heartless Bastards were among other contributing artists. The Truckers decided to do Hinton’s hopeful “Letters from Mississippi” track “Everybody Needs Love” and “Where’s Eddie,” a curious Hinton-penned ballad previously cut by '60s Scottish singer Lulu. Hood recalls the band having a “pretty wonderful day in the studio” recording their versions. “‘Everybody Needs Love,’ I always thought it sounded like a hit record that kind of forgot to be a hit, and so it was really kind of magical recording that,” Hood says. The Truckers’ version, with Hood on vocals, became a soulful ode and live highlight for the band.
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It was decided Shonna Tucker, then the Drive-By Truckers’ bassist, would take the mic for “Where’s Eddie,” and she delivered a remarkable, crystal-river vocal. “I was fascinated with the song anyway because Lulu’s version is incredible,” says Tucker, who now plays bass with Pegi Young & The Survivors. “And I was completely blown away that Eddie would write a song about himself like that, for a female to sing to him, so that was kind of intriguing to me, that perspective.” A Greenhill native, Tucker humbly credits producer David Barbe for how well The Truckers’ “Where’s Eddie” turned out. After discovering Hinton’s work in her early-20s, Tucker “just did a swan dive into his music.”
She says, “I think that Eddie is probably the epitome of soul music, and that probably means different things to different people but it’s kind of unexplainable. It’s more of a feeling you get when you hear certain music. And to me, soul music doesn’t have to be a certain genre, and you can just hear it in his music. His melodies are incredible, his voice has that texture and tone that just grabs you. It’s not like anything you’ve ever heard.” The Truckers’ Hinton covers would also appear on the band’s 2011 album “Go-Go Boots.”
http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.s ... inton.html
Growing up, Hood can remember hearing “Very Extremely Dangerous” when the album was first released. Several years later in the 80s, when he was around 19 or 20 he saw Hinton perform at a Sheffield bar called Calico’s. “He was pretty on that night and it was pretty great,” Hood recalls. “And I became a fan of his music towards the end of his life, around the time he put out ‘Cry and Moan.’ I think that was the first Eddie Hinton record I bought myself and pretty soon after that started collecting any of them I could get.”
The day he heard Hinton had died, Hood sat down and wrote a song in tribute. That resulting pedal-steel-laced tune, “Sandwiches for the Road,” became the poignant closing track on the Truckers’ 1998 debut album “Gangstabilly.” “When he passed away it was just really sad to me,” Hood says. “I’m friends with Wayne Perkins (the Alabama guitar legend who recorded with The Stones and Bob Marley, and considered Hinton his mentor), and some of the specific stories that song talks about were stories I heard Perkins tell me. And in particular the sandwich part. Perkins told me a story about riding with Eddie to go play some shows, I think in Northern Mississippi somewhere, and Eddie fixing these bologna sandwiches and taking them.”
+++
A decade later, Cincinnati indie label Shake It! Records asked the Truckers to record two covers for a vinyl singles series, “Dangerous Highway: A Tribute to the Songs of Eddie Hinton.” Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli and garage-rockers Heartless Bastards were among other contributing artists. The Truckers decided to do Hinton’s hopeful “Letters from Mississippi” track “Everybody Needs Love” and “Where’s Eddie,” a curious Hinton-penned ballad previously cut by '60s Scottish singer Lulu. Hood recalls the band having a “pretty wonderful day in the studio” recording their versions. “‘Everybody Needs Love,’ I always thought it sounded like a hit record that kind of forgot to be a hit, and so it was really kind of magical recording that,” Hood says. The Truckers’ version, with Hood on vocals, became a soulful ode and live highlight for the band.
+++
It was decided Shonna Tucker, then the Drive-By Truckers’ bassist, would take the mic for “Where’s Eddie,” and she delivered a remarkable, crystal-river vocal. “I was fascinated with the song anyway because Lulu’s version is incredible,” says Tucker, who now plays bass with Pegi Young & The Survivors. “And I was completely blown away that Eddie would write a song about himself like that, for a female to sing to him, so that was kind of intriguing to me, that perspective.” A Greenhill native, Tucker humbly credits producer David Barbe for how well The Truckers’ “Where’s Eddie” turned out. After discovering Hinton’s work in her early-20s, Tucker “just did a swan dive into his music.”
She says, “I think that Eddie is probably the epitome of soul music, and that probably means different things to different people but it’s kind of unexplainable. It’s more of a feeling you get when you hear certain music. And to me, soul music doesn’t have to be a certain genre, and you can just hear it in his music. His melodies are incredible, his voice has that texture and tone that just grabs you. It’s not like anything you’ve ever heard.” The Truckers’ Hinton covers would also appear on the band’s 2011 album “Go-Go Boots.”
http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.s ... inton.html