Del Reeves RIP

Here at Tinsel and Rot, when a member of the Grand Ole Opry dies, we mourn (a policy we reserve the right to revisit in a few decades). And so, we note the passing of Del Reeves on New Year's Day at the age of 73.

There are four Del Reeves songs that find a home in the deep, tangled morass that is the psyche of Tinsel and Rot. The first is "Philadelphia Fillies," which I first heard as a youth on "Baseball's Greatest Hits: Let's Play II," the less entertaining sequel to the classic first volume. It was Reeves's last hit and hardly one of his best, but it's a cute novelty song (written by Jim Mundy) anyway.

The other three songs that register in the Tinsel and Rot universe are all truckin' songs, starting with Reeves's first big hit, "Girl on the Billboard," which can be found on the swell "Truck Driver's Boogie" CD from Diesel Only/Audium. It's up there among some of Red Sovine's songs and, of course, "Six Days on the Road" as one of my favorite truckin' songs. And it seems like Canadian country band the Road Hammers released a cover of it last year. From what I can hear on YouTube, it don't beat the original.

Another of Reeves's hits, "Looking at the World Through a Windshield," may be my all-time favorite trucking song. And Son Volt's cover of it on the "Rig Rock Deluxe" record is the closest I've come yet to actually liking Son Volt. That record also featured Reeves and Jim Lauderdale doing "Diesel, Diesel, Diesel," which you can listen to right now, should you click here.

That whole record's great, and you oughta get it.

And you also oughta raise a glass to the memory of Del Reeves.