Trollheart's TRAP

[Trollheart]

No, no! Panic not! It's neither my awful attempt at rap music, nor is it me going into town on a wagon led by horses. No, TRAP is one of my not-at-all-famous acronyms, and it stands for Totally Random Artist Profiles. It does exactlly what it says on the tin. Nothing easier. I go to RYM, click on their random artist link, then write about who comes up. The chances are that it will be someone I don't know, it may be someone on whom I can get little information, or it may be someone well known. Either way, I'll write what I can and try to sample some of their music. Ideally, I'll list all their discography and listen to three tracks of my choice, and from that short listen will then rate the artist as to whether I liked or disliked them.

So who's up first? Well, as it happens, this guy.



Artist; Sherwin Linton
Type: Singer/songwriter
Nationality: American
Genre(s): Country
Familiarity: Zero
Active from: 1957
Active to: Today
Hits or well-known songs, if any: "Cotton King", "When She Cries", "Santa Got a DWI"
Discography: Sherwin Linton and the Cotton Kings Play Mule Skinner Blues and Other Favorites/My Kind of Song/Hello I'm Not Johnny Cash/ Dusty Roads and Prairie Towns/In a Nineteenth Century Lifetime/Driftwood on the River/It Happened in America/Town of Dreams - Centennial/ Hillbilly Heaven/ Heartland Centennial/This is My Story/The Last American Frontier Centennial/Dakota Railroad Town Centennial

Profile: Described (don't know by who) as "a nationally unknown superstar" and "Mid-America's Country music legend", it seems Linton began his career in the rockabilly genre but then in 1966 moved to Nashville, where he quickly became a country star (it says here). He has been inducted into the South Dakota Musicians Hall of Fame, the National Traditional Country Music Hall of Fame and the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, and seems to have some sort of link to the music of the Man in Black, though when I clicked on the link to JohnnyCashStory.com I got forwarded to some Asian-language website, so for once my stupid browser was being properly cautious. I don't recommend you click the link.

Okay, I've researched a little further and this story has, if you will forgive the pun, legs. Seems in 1975 Cash was performing at the South Dakota State Fair and invited Linton up on stage. He took off his cowboy boots and told Linton to try them on, and ever since Linton has been performing Cash's music in the Johnny Cash Story. So I guess he wasn't just cashing in on the fame of the Man in Black. Sorry, sorry.

Comments: I will say that, while I know very little about country music and the awards and inductions are obviously all real, so this guy clearly is popular, it's odd that in a career apparently spanning sixty years I can only find a total of maybe eight albums (hard to say, with all the compilations, tributes to this or that and so on), one live album and four singles for the guy. I suppose a lot of his work could be on the road, but still, that means he only went into the studio on average once every seven years. Sure, that's probably not the whole story but still, for a guy who's trumpeted as a country legend, not a whole lot of work to back that up I feel.

Anyway, what's his music like? Well, as I say there isn't exactly a record shelf of material to choose from, so given that I've said I'll listen to three tracks, I'll take one (assuming I can get these of course) from his debut, one from his last album to date (that's 2005, believe it or not) excluding any compilations, which I never really consider a real part of someone's work. Sure, they're part of the discography, but it's the real studio albums - and the occasional live ones - that really make up their music. After all, I've looked at bands in other threads who had one album and four or five times as many compilations, greatest hits, best of etc., so that doesn't really mean much to me.

His first album, then, so far as I can see, discounting one with his band the Cotton Kings, is this, released in 1968, and as it contains one of his hits, indeed "Cotton King", I guess we'll give that one a shot.
Meh it's all right but it's not inducing me to root out my cowboy hat that's for sure. Incidentally, and oddly given it was apparently a number one for him, I can only find live versions of the song. Might be a blessing. Anyway, standard country stuff I guess, nothing to write home about. How this made number one is beyond me, but who knows what goes through the minds of country fans?
Rating: 2/10

So far as I can see this is or was his most recent album (hard to say, as sources don't seem to agree) and while I would love to sample this one just for the fact that the title is so long and has so much alliteration - "Sick Sorry and Sober Stuck in Stickney South Dakota Singin' Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down in September in the Rain" (!) - I'm intrigued by "We Need a Lot More Guitars and a Lot Less Guns on the Streets of America", if only because in general (as I understand it) country artists mostly seem to be on the side of the Second Amendment, though there are those such as Steve Earle who are totally against it. However, perhaps as a sort of anomaly, I'd like to try it.

So I will.

Sounds more like a blues song than a country one, to be honest, and he sets out his stall immediately with the full title the opening line. Okay, he's still looking to preserve the Second Amendment, but wants ownership restricted to those who aren't going to use them to kill people. Well, I guess that's what we all want, and it helps him to retain the respect of his fellow country stars I guess. Again it's not much of a song, though he sure can play the gee-tar, and there's some nice organ, the sentiment is hard to argue with, but it's not a song I'll remember once it's over. Good line there: "If guns are outlawed then only outlaws will have guns." It's a point, I have to admit. Prohibit something and it only goes underground.

This song is ridiculously long though, at eight and a half minutes. I suppose it goes into an extended jam after the fourth, where it looked like it was in fact ending. It's a better song than the previous one for certain, though I have to admit I find his deep drawl a little hard to take seriously. Not bad though.
Rating: 5/10

So what for the last track? Let's see. Something from the middle. How about this?

An album of songs by Jimmy Driftwood (yeah) and the music of the Ozarks, recorded by him and his wife Pam in 1996. What can I get from that, I wonder? Let's try this one. Well, as it's the only one I can get it'll have to do. Again, for a country star there's not much of his music on YouTube. This is called, um, "Tennessee Stud". I think it means the horse. God I hope it means the horse.

Sort of a folky bluegrass with some nice fiddle, one of those songs that tells a story, but it's a story I'm not interested in. This is kind of like the "Cotton King" one, just shrug and move on. In fairness, I guess it's not his song, it's this Jimmy Driftwood guy, but either way it's not something I want to hear again.

Rating: 2/10

Verdict: I'd have to say that either the profile - which appears on his own website, by the way - is very exaggerated or for some reason his music just hasn't been uploaded by many of his fans. What I've heard would support the latter contention. I don't hear star material here, though what do I know about country music? I have heard some country artists I've liked though. Sherwin Linton is not one of them.
Rating: 3/10