Wagon Wheel

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 19 Jun 2016 9:59 am

interesting. i wonder what the story behind that is?

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 19 Jun 2016 10:42 am

Wagon Wheel= The new Achy Breaky.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 19 Jun 2016 11:39 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvKyBcCDOB4

Darius Rucker as a hipster. Video also includes Duck Dynasty personnel and the ubiquitous Shure 55SH microphone so necessary in any "cool" video these days....

IMO, the sign expresses at least one way to fight back against the line dancers.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 19 Jun 2016 12:34 pm

I remember the old "Wagon Wheel" bar on lower Broadway. Even played there one time.

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 19 Jun 2016 1:13 pm

The germ of the song was off a Bob Dylan bootleg from a long time ago, but the whole "Rock me mama" thing really comes from an old blues line. It was completed by the Old Crow Medicine Show in the early 2000s, they share songwriting credit.

Sorry, man - da peeps wanna hear Wagon Wheel. Guaranteed to get them bobbing and weaving on the dance floor. It is, IMO, much less objectionable than achy breaky crap, and I'd rather play it than SHA or FB any day.

The problem is that people will drive you crazy to play it 3-4 times a night if you cater too much to them. So it's outworn its welcome with a lot of people. But it is not a bad song, IMHO. Just your standard Americana fare. Don't ask me why people go so nuts about it, but they do.

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 19 Jun 2016 1:21 pm

Dylan fooled with the chorus a bit and Keith Secor of the Old Crow Medicine Show finished it up. The "Old Crow" cut was recorded around 01, not bad and at least they had a band to divvy it up and somewhat deliver it from monotony.

Once DR had a big hit with it, everybody and his brother was doing marathon sessions of it in the clubs and the drunks were having sing-a-longs ad nauseum.

Some Innkeepers around the country banned it. I think mostly people just got sick of the damned thing ala Achy Breaky.

I've seen club owners, managers tell bands not to do certain songs. One I played with for a while demanded that Cowboys Sweetheart not ever be sung in his establishment again. Another one banned All my Exes.

I think that's too much control personally, but it they tell you to lose it or walk, I dunno.

admin · Post by **b0b** » 19 Jun 2016 2:26 pm

Around here, the line "had a nice long toke" always gets a big cheer. It's a popular song.

I know musicians who refuse to play it.

Don R Brown · Post by **Don R Brown** » 19 Jun 2016 4:19 pm

Some years back we used to go to a so-called "country" bar. Some of the casual guests used to ask for the Electric Slide. The DJ at first offered some country songs which would have worked fine. Nope, they "couldn't dance to that" and prevailed until they played the actual Electric Slide song they play at weddings - no idea who the artist is.

It grated on my ears - if you want to do that dance, fine, go do it, but I wish they had banned the playing of the song by that name.

Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 19 Jun 2016 9:54 pm

Saw one the other day, leaving a green room, that said "This Stage has been Wagon Wheel Free for 67 days. Please try your best to keep it going!"

Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 20 Jun 2016 4:51 am

This is a note from Axle, the guy doing house sound at a club in Fort Worth.. NOT the guy you want to mess with.

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Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 20 Jun 2016 6:31 am

That's funny. You have an Axle but no Wheel.

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 20 Jun 2016 7:18 am

There is a great "Do Not Play" list on the White Horse stage. It includes "Folsom Prison" and a bunch of others. "Wagon Wheel" is not on the list but it is so forbidden that no bands that would even think of playing it would ever get booked there.

Texas can be a different sort of place.

Dustin Rhodes · Post by **Dustin Rhodes** » 20 Jun 2016 7:53 am

That's a big one here. Same with Never Been to Spain and Oklahoma Breakdown.

Walter Killam · Post by **Walter Killam** » 20 Jun 2016 8:14 am

If people want to dance to a song, we will do our best to play it, Wagon Wheel included. That said we take any song and make it our own, so while the song is recognizable, it wont be just like the album. Maybe that helps, maybe not

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 20 Jun 2016 8:17 am

There is a great "Do Not Play" list on the White Horse stage. It includes "Folsom Prison" and a bunch of others. "Wagon Wheel" is not on the list but it is so forbidden that no bands that would even think of playing it would ever get booked there.

If only this could become a trend...

Bill L. Wilson · Post by **Bill L. Wilson** » 20 Jun 2016 8:26 pm

When we start any of these songs, Sweet Home, Wagon Whl, Brown Eyed Grl, Folsum Prsn, Free Bird, the crowd goes nuts every time. They'll fill up the dance floor, the Tip Bucket, and I actually enjoy gettin' to play all of these old songs. One of the very 1st songs I ever learned to play on guitar (in 1959) was the Cash song, "Don't Take Your Guns to Town", so I'm still a Cash and Luther Perkins fan after all these yrs. I can't figure out why a bar keep would not want you to play a requested song by a patron whose spending money on their drinks? These Cowboys around here want to hear their song, and if it's not played, things can Get Ugly.

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 21 Jun 2016 6:51 pm

Hmm. I had no idea the song was so reviled. We have a nice arrangement of it and keep it on our set list. It always fills the dance floor. I even see some of the dancers singing along. $:\$

I don't believe anyone has ever requested the song; but, the dancers always seem to enjoy it when we play it.

Lee, from South Texas

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 30 Jun 2016 1:42 pm

well, here in NC..we play it...it's just shy of mandatory...

I don't mind, I like it !

In fact here it is on our home grown trio CD
Acoustics, Dobro and of course a Telecaster...

http://www.tprior.com/Wagon%20Wheel%20.mp3

Its beyond me why anyone would BAN a song that dancers or listeners request or want to hear, especially if they paid cover charge to get in !

The point of the band in a venue it to KEEP THE CROWD there...or well, it used to be..

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 30 Jun 2016 5:38 pm

I feel like a big dosage of self-congratulations!! Not only have I never been asked to play "Wagon Wheel," I've never... to my knowledge... ever HEARD the song.

And I don't even have the slightest urge to Google the tune, or go to YouTube and seek it there.

Skip Edwards · Post by **Skip Edwards** » 30 Jun 2016 5:54 pm

Yeah, Herb... I'm with ya. I've never even heard of it.
The only Wagon Wheel I know about used to be that 24-hour place to eat after a gig in Oxnard...

Don R Brown · Post by **Don R Brown** » 30 Jun 2016 6:24 pm

Tony Prior wrote:
Its beyond me why anyone would BAN a song that dancers or listeners request or want to hear, especially if they paid cover charge to get in !

The point of the band in a venue it to KEEP THE CROWD there...or well, it used to be..

I must admit he's got something there!

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 30 Jun 2016 6:28 pm

Skip
I was going over tunes with Greg Harris today for some upcoming Bandini gigs, and your ears should have been very pleasantly burning. We decided to put steel on "Last Country Rocker."

Okay, sorry for the topic drift. Y'all go back to whatever song being discussed.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 30 Jun 2016 6:31 pm

Don't know any wheel song, but we never had anyone request "Free Bird" that wasn't stoned, drunk, or stupid, and they were always loud and obnoxious!

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 30 Jun 2016 6:36 pm

I should correct myself, I have been a fan since childhood of the Sons of the Pioneers singing the Billy Hill song "Wagon Wheels".

This was by Billy Hill the songwriter, not the fiddler with Hank Penny, Spade Cooley, et al.

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Wagon Wheel

Wagon Wheel

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