ELLN August Music Quick Pick
Each month, I highlight an album as part of the ACC’s Employment and Labor Law Network’s outreach and engagement, and just to give you something non-legal related to enjoy every month. I hope you join us on our Forums and at tomorrow’s monthly teleconference entitled Today’s Labor Shortage: What’s an Employer to Do?
The labor market is ever-tightening, and human capital is proving to be increasingly scarce. As employers struggle to retain their workforce and fill open positions, Pat Peters from Jackson Lewis will address how to meet the demands of today’s workforce for flexibility and paid time off. He will also provide guidance on revisiting background check and drug screen processes to increase candidate pools, and ways to partner with your local community to cultivate skilled workers.
If you’re an in-house counsel and not part of the ACC or the ELLN, you can join ACC and ELLN today and see what we’re all about! I hope to (virtually) see you soon.
ELLN August Music Quick Pick
Former ELLN Chair Doug Hass has long been a music buff (he founded country music site Roughstock.com in 1993) and had plenty of windshield time for work over the years. That’s given him lots of time to indulge and explore his music interests! To help entertain you on your commutes or at the gym, office, home, or on the go, Doug is offering another year-long series of picks that will showcase some of the best albums you may have never heard, or that deserve another listen. We hope that each monthly choice piques your interest in these albums and artists. These may be titles that you have never heard of, but our hope is that your interest will be piqued and your musical world enriched!
| Roger Miller – The 3rd Time Around (1965) |
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| YouTube |
If you are not a huge country music buff, you will find that the genre is full of artists, like last month’s pick Ray Charles, that you’re familiar with anyway. This month’s pick, Roger Miller, is definitely one of those. Even non-country fans are familiar with “King of the Road,” Miller’s 1964 hit that has been covered by everyone form Alvin and the Chipmunks to R.E.M. to Randy Travis. Even casual country fans have heard Alan Jackson’s “Tall Tall Trees,” co-written by George Jones and Miller (both of whom also recorded their own versions). Miller’s songwriting talents and his ability to turn a fun phrase or put an upbeat spin on the dark subjects put him in that same rare category of writers like Shel Silverstein. 1964’s “Dang Me” (check out the classic video from Dick Clark’s American Bandstand) not only spent two months at No. 1 on the country charts but the pop Top 10, too, joined by “King of the Road” and other megahits “Chug-A-Lug,” and “England Swings.”
It’s not all lighthearted fare in Miller’s career, either. That’s the inspiration behind this month’s pick, The 3rd Time Around. Recorded over just two days in 1965, you will find five or six of Miller’s most recognizable hits here, though he wrote or co-wrote every song on the album, which was uncommon at the time. Standouts for me include “The Last Word in Lonesome is Me,” a simple ballad that showcases Miller’s smooth, heartfelt delivery, “Kansas City Star” a catchy rockabilly-tinged song…about a kids’ TV show host, and “One Dyin’ and a Buryin’.”
Even though Miller is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, he often gets overlooked because his mid-1960s peak was short. Whether you tend toward the ballads or the goofy songs, though, you will find depth in The 3rd Time Around and throughout his catalogue. To get a sense of Miller’s songwriting abilities and effortless delivery, it is hard to start with just this month’s pick, though. That is especially true since The 3rd Time Around was recorded on long-defunct Smash Records, is out of print, and not available on streaming services. To supplement that, I’ll give you two Greatest Hits collections below, neither of which overlap significantly, as well as Miller’s brilliant songs from Walt Disney’s 1973 animated adaptation of Robin Hood (“Not in Nottingham” stands up to anything on the box set).
Enjoy!
Can’t get enough? Further Listening:
Roger Miller, King of the Road: The Genius of Roger Miller (1995) (via Amazon)
Roger Miller, The Best of Roger Miller, Vol. 1: Country Tunesmith (1991) (via Spotify)
Roger Miller, Walt Disney Records The Legacy Collection: Robin Hood (2017) (via Amazon)
