And that goes for "Giddyup Go" too

Well that Trucker's Jukebox Anthems double-set seems an odd bunch of songs. It's got a few songs that don't have anything to do with trucking that I can discern, such as "Busted" by Johnny Cash, "Patches" by Alabama and Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" covered by Waylon Jennings. That cover of "Up Around the Bend" by Elton John is another odd one. I had to do some research on it; apparently he recorded it in his early days but it was never released on an album until 2009 when it was put on a sort of retrospective of his early years. To my ears it doesn't even sound like him, and basically it's a carbon-copy of the original. The set is a definite win, however, in that it's a collection of trucking songs without a single song by Red Sovine. If I ever hear "Teddy Bear" again, things are gonna get ugly. Of course they had to put C.W. McCall's "Convoy" on it, but in my opinion "Wolf Creek Pass" beats that one by a long shot.

And now we come to the most difficult part of this post, in which I admit something potentially embarrassing: I like LeAnn Rimes. You may now feel free to ridicule me mercilessly, but I don't think it will change my mind.

Now that that's out of the way, I came across an interesting cover the other day. I was looking for other versions of "Seven Bridges Road" and found that Rita Coolidge had recorded it on her first album, which is not available anywhere anymore except as a collector's item. I went looking to see if maybe as a last resort I could download a bootleg copy of it and couldn't find it, however I did come across her version of "For the Good Times." Written by Kris Kristofferson (one of the greatest song writers of all time, in my opinion, but an execrable singer himself again in my opinion). The only version I've ever heard is the famous one by Ray Price and I've always counted it as a favorite, but Rita Coolidge changed my mind. Her version is now my favorite by far. It's on her album Out of the Blues.

Finding Ian Matthews' version of "Seven Bridges Road" the other day reminded me of another song that I put on a keeper tape from The Tumbleweed Connection radio show. It's a trucking song that, so far, I have never heard on any compilation of trucking songs.