Last week’s link took us to Uncle Tupelo’s ‘Anodyne’, the title track from their 1993 album. Track two on that very album was ‘Acuff-Rose’, which opens up a wonderful field of opportunity for me, an unashamed enthusiast of vintage country music. For the uninitiated, Acuff Rose was the publishing house formed by the combined talents of war era country megastar Roy Acuff and talent scout Fred Rose. They agreed that song writers shouldn’t be ripped off by publishers, which was the norm in 1940s Nashville (or for that matter pretty much everywhere) and ran their business accordingly. Over the coming decades they would sign the likes of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, Roy Orbison, Don Gibson, The Everly Brothers and Mickey Newbury to their songwriters’ stable. They also gave little Hiram ‘Hank’ Williams his first big break too!
Anyhow, Acuff himself recorded this little ditty in 1943, although it was written in the late 1930s by Dorsey Dixon, about a serious road accident in North Carolina. The Louvin Brothers probably gave us the best version of it, steeped as they were in the struggle between good and evil. But for the purposes of our chain, we choose Roy.
Drive safe now y’all!
