Making a name for himself as a folk singer in the early sixties and penning songs for other groups (his credits include “Joy to the World,” “Greenback Dollar,” “The Pusher”), Hoyt Axton soon started boozing and snorting and eventually took the country road in the mid-seventies.
All country music, to my undiscerning ear, sounds almost the same. With similar rhythms and meters, the use of typical instruments and sounds, and often the same subject matter, the only thing that distinguishes one artist from the next is their style of singing. In Axton’s case, his voice sets him apart from not only his country contemporaries but much of the pop, folk and rock world too. His earthy baritone has an organic feeling to it that rumbles as smoothly as rolling fog, fostering both a sense of comfort and foreboding. On 1976’s Fearless, the album that finds his flexible lower register deeper than a bullfrog’s, he sings with a wry warmth and optimism as he croaks through road-weary laments, sly come-ons, and tough-guy threats. But on “Snowblind Friend,” from the album of the same name, you can hear the longing and regret in his voice as he woefully tells the cautionary tale of the ills of cocaine addiction. Indeed, the malleability of the instrument with which he was born and his engaging style of songwriting have left an indelible mark. Though he died in 1999 and the record companies have yet to properly reissue his material on CD, you can still find it on vinyl.
LISTEN TO HIS COVER OF TOWNES VAN ZANDT’S “PANCHO & LEFTY”
All country music, to my undiscerning ear, sounds almost the same. With similar rhythms and meters, the use of typical instruments and sounds, and often the same subject matter, the only thing that distinguishes one artist from the next is their style of singing. In Axton’s case, his voice sets him apart from not only his country contemporaries but much of the pop, folk and rock world too. His earthy baritone has an organic feeling to it that rumbles as smoothly as rolling fog, fostering both a sense of comfort and foreboding. On 1976’s Fearless, the album that finds his flexible lower register deeper than a bullfrog’s, he sings with a wry warmth and optimism as he croaks through road-weary laments, sly come-ons, and tough-guy threats. But on “Snowblind Friend,” from the album of the same name, you can hear the longing and regret in his voice as he woefully tells the cautionary tale of the ills of cocaine addiction. Indeed, the malleability of the instrument with which he was born and his engaging style of songwriting have left an indelible mark. Though he died in 1999 and the record companies have yet to properly reissue his material on CD, you can still find it on vinyl.LISTEN TO HIS COVER OF TOWNES VAN ZANDT’S “PANCHO & LEFTY”
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1 comment:
Well said. No singer can match Hoyt. His loss was a huge one.
Mike
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