Lee Hazlewood: Some Other Guy

It’s hard to convince people that country music – and its related tributaries – aren’t all cow tippin’, sad stories and drinkin’. Well, some of it is, but the best of it can move past all that or even so succinctly relate some downer message as to come off as a creative music. Limited by instrumentation, the genre sometimes winds up falling into itself, unable to create new concepts. And if over produced, the results can be even worse. Luckily, Lee Hazlewood is able to add a buncha surprising instrumentation to his work, while still talking about lost love and a great deal of other genre stuff that could come off as tired. Cowboy In Sweden is many things, but played out is not one of ‘em.

Over fifteen years or so, Hazlewood would release an unheard of amount of work. It veered from some more traditional sounding laments and by the dawning of the ‘70s the guitarist and song writer had so thoroughly made use of country music’s backlog of history that he was necessitated to re-imagine it. Yea, he’s gonna come off like Leonard Cohen sometimes – alright, a lot – but he’s still able to move well past that without turning into an over produced joke. Even the title of Cowboy In Sweden should point out the fact that Hazlewood wasn’t approaching this album or the genre from the same angle as his contemporaries.

The first thing that listeners hear when tossing this biscuit on the ole stereo isn’t a guitar or harmonica or a drum beat. It’s a viola bowing the basic melody of “Pray Them Bars Away.” Lyrically, Hazlewood doesn’t get past the barroom and lost love, but the song – after its introduction – picks up a traditional country vibe only to be joined by some percussion and strings that while rooted in antecedents comes of as tasteful and thoughtful.

He wasn’t George Jones or someone of that ilk and most certainly was thought of as kinda odd, inside and outside of the genre. But Hazlewood, even while including some supplemental sounds unheard elsewhere in country music, was still capable of spinning a good scenario. “Hey Cowboy” begins with some female vocals and a progression that recalls Cohen again, but it switches back and forth between voices while questions are hurled at and from the singer. Those horns are tied to AOR styled nonsense, but the brusque piano that crops up atop the remonstrations makes it one of the high points of the disc – as well as easily digestible by any segment of the country music audience.

Oddly, Hazlewood was in Sweden as a result of some acting gigs he picked up. And while Cowboy In Sweden doesn’t function as a sound track, the singer appeared in a film of the same name. Regardless, this disc gets referred to as psychedelic on occasion and I guess a case for that could be made, but really, it’s just thoughtful country music that gets squeezed through the mind of an individualist singer and songwriter. Recommended for educational purposes of the genre as well as for chillin’ out with weirdos.