Silver Wings
Download the PDF chords and lyrics for Silver Wings
“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” – Aldous Huxley
Momma Tried
“Mama Tried” is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Merle Haggard and The Strangers. It was released in July 1968 as the first single and title track from the album Mama Tried. The song became one of the cornerstone songs of his career. It won the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999, and was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry due to its “cultural, historic, or artistic significance” on March 23, 2016, just 14 days before Haggard’s death. In 2021, it was ranked at No. 376 on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.
Background
In “Mama Tried”, Haggard focuses on the pain and suffering he caused his own mother by being incarcerated in 1957 in San Quentin. Haggard ultimately served three years on a robbery conviction.
However, the song is not literally autobiographical, as many country music historians point out. While writer Bill Malone’s assessment of the song is in agreement with Ace Collins’ (referring to his own experiences that saw him sentenced to prison), Malone points out that Haggard never was sentenced to “life without parole,” as the protagonist in the song was. Still, the song’s lyrics, and the protagonist’s experiences, are heavily influenced by Haggard’s early life.
Whiskey in a Jar
“Whiskey in the Jar” (Roud 533) is an Irish traditional song set in the southern mountains of Ireland, often with specific mention of counties Cork and Kerry. The song, about a rapparee (highwayman) who is betrayed by his wife or lover, is one of the most widely performed traditional Irish songs and has been recorded by numerous artists since the 1950s.
The song first gained wide exposure when Irish folk band the Dubliners performed it internationally as a signature song and recorded it on three albums in the 1960s. In the U.S., the song was popularised by the Highwaymen, who recorded it on their 1962 album Encore. Irish rock band Thin Lizzy hit the Irish and British pop charts with the song in 1973. In 1990, the Dubliners re-recorded the song with the Pogues with a faster rockish version charting at No. 63 in the UK. American metal band Metallica in 1998 played a version very similar to that of Thin Lizzy’s, though with a heavier sound, winning a Grammy for the song in 2000 for Best Hard Rock Performance.
“Do it again on the next verse and people think you meant it.” – Chet Atkins
Sweet Home Alabama
“Sweet Home Alabama” is a song by American rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, released on the band’s second album Second Helping (1974). It was written in response to Neil Young‘s songs “Southern Man” and “Alabama“, which the band felt blamed the entire Southern United States for slavery; Young is name-checked and dissed in the lyrics. It reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1974, becoming the band’s highest-charting single.
The song remains a staple in Southern and classic rock, and, along with “Free Bird”, is arguably the band’s signature song.
The political lyrics of the song compare Richard Nixon and his Watergate scandal with the governor of Alabama George Wallace and his political supporters in Birmingham. The lyrics have been perceived as mocking the American liberals and their outrage at Nixon’s conduct.
“Inspiration may be a form of super consciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness – I wouldn’t know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness.” – Aaron Copland
Edelweiss
“Anyone who loves music can never be quite unhappy.” – Franz Schubert
Hallellujah
“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.” – Plato
Trashy Women
“Trashy Women” is a song written by Chris Wall and recorded by American country music singer Jerry Jeff Walker in 1989 and later by the band Confederate Railroad. It reached number 63 on the US Country chart in 1989 for Walker, and was a number 10 country hit four years later from Confederate Railroad’s self-titled debut album.
According to legend, Walker was in the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar in Jackson, Wyoming one evening and heard either Wall (who was also a bartender at the bar) or Kip Attaway performing the song. He then asked whichever it was to come to his hotel room later to teach him the song.
“If only the whole world could feel the power of harmony.” -Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mr. Bojangles
“Mr. Bojangles” is a song written and originally recorded by American country music artist Jerry Jeff Walker for his 1968 album of the same title. It has since been recorded by other artists, including the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1969 whose version hit number 9 on the Hot 100 in November 1970.
Walker said he was inspired to write the song after an encounter with a street performer in a New Orleans jail. While in jail for public intoxication in 1965, he met a homeless man who called himself “Mr. Bojangles” to conceal his true identity from the police. Mr. Bojangles had been arrested as part of a police sweep of indigent people that was carried out following a high-profile murder. The two men and others in the cell chatted about all manner of things, but when Mr. Bojangles told a story about his performing dog who was killed by a car, the mood in the room turned heavy. Someone else in the cell asked for something to lighten the mood, and Mr. Bojangles obliged with a tap dance. The homeless “Mr. Bojangles”, who was white, had taken his pseudonym from Bill “Bojangles” Robinson (1878–1949), a black entertainer.
“Music is powerful. As people listen to it, they can be affected. They respond.” – […]
It Had To Be You
“It Had to Be You” is a popular song composed by Isham Jones, with lyrics by Gus Kahn. It was published on May 9, 1924. by Jerome H. Remick & Co. of New York. The Isham Jones Orchestra recorded an instrumental version of it on April 24, 1924, at Brunswick Studios, 799 Seventh Avenue, New York City, and it was released in July.
A version with lyrics by Gus Kahn and vocal by Marion Harris (who had signed with Brunswick in 1922) and Phil Ohman on piano was recorded for Brunswick in March 1924.
“Music is only understood when one goes away singing it and only loved when one falls asleep with it in one’s head, and finds it still there on waking up the next morning.” – Arnold Schoenberg, 1934
Desperados Waiting for a Train
“Desperados Waiting for a Train” is a song written by Guy Clark and originally recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker for his 1973 album Viva Terlingua. It subsequently appeared on Rita Coolidge’s 1974 album Fall into Spring, David Allan Coe’s third album, The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy (1974), Tom Rush’s album Ladies Love Outlaws the same year, before Clark’s own rendition was released on his first LP, 1975’s Old No. 1. Clark stated that the song is about his grandmother’s boyfriend named Jack who was a grandfather figure to him.
The American country music group the Highwaymen released it as a single in September 1985. It was the second single from the album Highwayman. The song reached #15 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.
Nanci Griffith recorded it for her 1998 album Other Voices Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful), accompanied by Clark, Jerry Jeff Walker, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Eric Taylor.
Jason Isbell covered the song for Guy Clark’s induction into the 2015 Austin City Limits hall of fame ceremony.
Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time