Cow Town

dsco's Podcast

L’il sumpin’ to get y’all moovin’ and grazin’ now that it’s nearly summer. You’d think this was occasioned by my discovery of the three Nashville Rhythm Section elpees that are the new holy grails in my ceaseless search to reach the pinnacle of disco-dixie hybrid. And what weird grails they are. Sold as media for dance class instruction, I’m pretty sure they were recorded in Nashville and pressed, issued and distributed primarily in Germany. The song mix is heavy on expected hits, but some real ringers get tossed in the egg basket too, such as Cheryl Lynn’s bonkers “Star Love” that becomes no less frantic when tricked out with pedal steel and fiddle. Lyrics and credits get scrambled, too. They confuse Chanson with Alan Parsons (I wish they had done them both), and I love how in “Heart of Glass” could have made it cruisin’ gets translated to could have made it, cousin, adding incest to injury.

Instead, this whole mess of turnip greens got upset by one cowpoke-come-lately named Orville Peck, who introduced me to Paul Cauthen thanks to their recent Everly Brothers duet. I had to investigate PC further, and I was knocked out by his 2019 set Room 41, especially Cocaine Country Dancing. (Do check out the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hh974VZjNs; it’s a Scorsese mini-series in the making. Could he be lineage to disco-singing jockey Steve Cauthen? Nah….) Orville makes the cut as well with his Bronski Beat cover. I have no idea why this wasn’t on Pony or Show Pony as I think it’s by far and away the best thing Peckerwood has done. This feels honest and heartfelt. Everything else he’s done has felt like elaborate poses to me. And I’ll throw L’il Nas X in the mix if he ever delivers a complete song.

Which brings us to the Dancing Queen of Disco Boot Scoot, Scooter Lee. While I find her fascinating (no less than Porter Wagoner skippered her maiden voyage), she also frustrates me in that she holds back on genre identifiers such as harp, banjo, fiddle and pedal. But Lord knows she puts the pedal to the metal when she sings. Her gutbucket performance on Radio/Last Dance is way more fierce than it has or needs to be, and I swear when H.W. Casey heard her wrangler-on-’roids take on his “That’s the Way,” his mountain oysters crept back up into his barn. Slop those hogs, baby!

Dim All the Lights—Nashville Rhythm Section ’81 ʬ On the Radio/Last Dance—Scooter Lee ’98 ʬ I Feel Love—Two Nice Girls ’90 ʬ Hot Stuff—Nashville Rhythm Section ’81 ʬ Bad Girls—Nashville Rhythm Section ’81 ʬ Love Will Always Find You—Donna Summer ’79 ʬ I Just Need More Money—Shadee ’79 ʬ Pop Goes the Country, Part 1—Atlanta Pops Orchestra ’82 ʬ Jive Talking—Barry Gibb and Miranda Lambert ’21 ʬ Cocaine Country Dancing—Paul Cauthen ’19 ʬ Don’t Hold Back—Nashville Rhythm Section ’81 ʬ Staying Alive—Scooter Lee ’98 ʬ Heart of Glass—Nashville Rhythm Section ’81 ʬ Rock With You—Nashville Rhythm Section ’81 ʬ Dancing Queen—Hayseed Dixie ’20 ʬ High Voltage—Tennessee Valley Authority ’76 ʬ That’s the Way I Like It— Scooter Lee ’98 ʬ Just Hooked on Country, Part 1—Atlanta Pops Orchestra ’82 ʬ Small Town Boy—Orville Peck ’21 ʬ Star Love—Nashville Rhythm Section ’81 ʬ I Was Made for Loving You—Steve ’n’ Seagulls ’18