Striking the Chord of an Entire Country | Oliver Anthony | EP 382
You know, I've had people say that I'm a fence sitter and that I need to have some sort of call to action. I guess like if there's anything that I would respond to that with, a Pharisee asked Jesus, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?" And Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is love your neighbor as yourself."
If we could learn to make that our priority, it would resolve a lot of the conflicts that have become like way over complicated.
[Music] [Music]
Hello everyone watching and listening. Today I'm speaking with musician Chris Lunsford, better known by his stage name, Oliver Anthony. We discussed the balance between vision and efficiency in artistic and commercial endeavors; why Chris's hit song, "Rich Men North of Richmond," has resonated so broadly and so quickly; the way honest expression through music can combat demoralization; how politics have become confused with the sacred; and what we can do to restore each to their proper order.
Looking very much forward to it. So, Mr. Anthony, your stage name, your stage persona is Oliver; your name is Chris. I'm going to call you Chris, you're going to call me Jordan.
So here's something you might not know about me, and I don't care. You know, maybe you want to know it, maybe not. I've been collecting country and western music for about 30 years, something like that. I had a roommate from Southern Alberta in college in Montreal. I wasn't really a country and western fan at that point. He really liked Hank Williams, and I started listening to Hank Williams, and I thought, "Oh my God, man, this is great."
When I moved to Boston, I started collecting old vinyl records. Of course, I listed—I had records when I was a kid—but in the '90s in Boston, you could pick up vinyl for like three for a buck, you know? It was dirt cheap. So I used to go into the record stores and pick up any old weird-looking album, usually from the '50s, '40s through the '60s, and I built a big collection of country and western music. Then I made a couple of CDs I called "Western Blues" and was giving those out for Christmas presents.
I actually have a Spotify playlist that's 29 hours long now with 600 songs on it that I've collected for 40 years. My wife and I listen to it a lot in the car; it's real good driving music, you know?
I'm going to just list some of the characters that I listen to. You're familiar with all these guys, but a lot of people watching and listening won't be, and they should be. There's Hank Williams, of course, Bill Monroe's Kentucky Boys, Colter Wall's a new guy from Saskatchewan—oh yeah, he's a great young guy; he's great. My son played one of his songs to open my lectures for 11 shows this year; that was really fun.
Johnny Horton, Tex Ritter, Hank Snow, Flatt and Scruggs, The Carter Family, Jimmy Rogers, The Stanley Brothers, Roy Acuff, Hackberry Ramblers, Gypsy Kings, Leon Redbone, etc. Tammy and I—my wife—we've just watched the Ken Burns country music documentary, which is absolutely great; it's just brilliant. Eight two-hour episodes, and I've done a couple of shows at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, so that was fun.
There's a great bar there called Robert's Western World that I go to when I go down to Nashville, and they have a band there called Kelly's Heroes. They did some music for me at the Grand Ole Opry. I played a vicious rendition of the American national anthem on electric guitar, and they do a great version of "Ghost Riders in the Sky," a great blues guitar version of "Ghost Riders in the Sky."
So anyways, I thought I'd tell you that just so you know that I'm not a Johnny-come-lately to the kind of music that you've been playing. And so, yeah, that's very—very in like with my listening. So I love a lot of the older music and older blues, like delta blues and that type of thing. But yeah, that's—I wouldn't have guessed that about you, so that's good to know.