Jim Lauderdale Wears Great Suits
And since all roads apparently lead to the Grateful Dead (last hippie post for a while, promise), singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale's version of "Black Peter" was a highlight of the Workingman's Dead evening of last month's weekend-long American Beauty Project. Lauderdale also has two fine new albums, Country Super Hits Vol. 1 (featuring "Single Standard Time" and "I Met Jesus in a Bar") and the even better Bluegrass, which was nominated for a Grammy in the obvious category. (He won a 2003 Grammy for his collaboration with bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley, Lost in the Lonesome Pines). Criminally underappreciated though he's written hit singles for the likes of Mark Chesnutt, Lauderdale spoke recently about his bluegrass fantasies, songwriting, Tai Chi, and about how his best-laid plans go awry:
"I've been wrong about most things that I thought were a plan. From the very beginning, when I was in high school, I wanted to make bluegrass records. Then I wanted to make a record that was half bluegrass, half Hank Williams country instrumental with no drums. And then the next record would have drums and then kind of go on from there and have this progression, and it never turned out that way."