Last week’s Chain Gang featured Moon Mullican’s ‘I’ll Sail My Ship Alone’ which featured on the ‘Maverick Country’ compilation back in 2005. As Clint West noted, Mullican was known as ‘The King of Hillbilly Piano’ and was cited by Jerry Lee Lewis as a major influence. Another one of his best-known songs was the 1949 track ‘Sweeter than Flowers’ which demonstrated his versatility on the piano, but moving the chain along, this made me think of other country songs about flowers, and few have the impact of the title track of Laura Cantrell’s 2002 album ‘When the Roses Bloom Again’, released in the UK on the lovely little Spit and Polish label. The album version was arranged by none other than Wilco but this lovely live version probably shows the song in its most moving light. It’s been almost a decade now since we’ve had something new from Cantrell. Here’s hoping the drought comes to an end soon.
