Barbecue Music by John Morthland

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Barbecue Music
by John Morthland

Americans disagree, often fanatically, on the definition of a barbecue. In Texas, where I come from, for example, it means smoking meat — most prominently brisket, sausage and ribs — “low and slow,” with indirect heat from hardwood coals; variants on this, often using different meats, are standard operating procedure in Kansas City, Memphis, the Carolinas, and other parts of the South. But to many people, barbecuing still means grilling hot dogs, hamburgers and steaks quickly over intense direct heat from charcoal briquettes. There is one thing about barbecues, however, that we can all agree on: To have a good one, you must have good music. (A swimming pool doesn’t hurt, either.) Barbecue music should be summery, rollicking and upbeat, with a deep groove. It should also be familiar to most of the guests — the better to bind them in a copacetic communal bond — though the host is advised to throw in a few left-fielders just to prove that he definitely knows his stuff. There are many songs about barbecue; to hear some, simply go to the top of this page and select “track” in the search box and the words “barbecue,” “bar-b-q” or “BBQ” in the slot next to it. You’ll get a slew of song titles. But this list ignores music about barbecue; this is barbecue music.

Willy and the Poor Boys
Artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Release Date: 2000
No band from the classic rock era created better barbecue music than John Fogerty and crew. Recasting their hard rockabilly as a kind of jug-band stomp, this represents their most good-timey effort — even “Fortunate Son,” one of the most biting topical songs ever, can sound kinda fun. That jug-band feeling permeates “Down on the Corner,” “Cotton Fields,” “Poor Boy Shuffle,” “The Midnight Special” — the ghost of Lead Belly also hovers over these proceedings — and even the Cold-War-paranoia allegory “It Came Out of the Sky” uses gleeful satire to make its point with a laugh.

Night Train
Artist: King Curtis
Release Date: 1995
Dilettantes used to debate whether Curtis was “really” jazz or “just” r&b, as if the two weren’t already joined at the hip. In truth, Curtis is groove, and that’s all you need to know. He yakety-yakked wooly tenor sax solos on hits by everyone from the Coasters to John Lennon to Aretha, but his own records work by cutting a fat, funky night-time-is-the-right-time groove and holding it until the last partier drops. This works just as well outdoors, especially when you’re strutting tunes like “Honky Tonk,” “Hot Saxes” and “(Let’s Do) The Hully Gully Twist” with a band that combines r&b blowers like fellow tenorman Sam “The Man” Taylor and jazzmen like organist Brother Jack McDuff.

Giant Sand - Backyard Barbecue Broadcast
Artist: Giant Sand
Release Date: 1996
A drum roll, please, for our sole high-concept selection. This was recorded partly at a backyard-barbecue benefit for WFMU in New Jersey, and audience members definitely like what they’re hearing. So you might say this music has already test-marketed high for our list. And well it should. Giant Sand, the forerunner to Calexico, hails from the desert college town of Tucson, and knows how to make hot-weather music for people in pursuit of the good life. Indeed, the 22:40 “BBQ Suite” moseys haphazardly but purposefully all over the place, like a slacker wandering around town in search of the next opportunity for free beer and food.

America's Most Colorful Hillbilly Band - Vol. 1
Artist: The Maddox Brothers and Rose
Rose Maddox and her brothers, who ruled the West Coast country scene in the ‘40s and ‘50s, were also America’s most clattering hillbilly boogie band; with Rose singing in a near-bray, their country music approached sheer foolishness in its purest form. But it’s the kind of exuberant, irreverent foolishness any crowd can get into — and best of all, underneath the hilarity was some fiery, abandoned and daring picking. The instrumental “Water Baby Boogie” is as hot as any music in any genre of this era (1946-51), and their repertoire was wildly eclectic, taking in religious and traditional music as well as pop, novelties, blues and then-current country hits.

Moments from This Theater
Artist: Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham
Release Date: 1999
You know most of these songs in versions by everyone from the Box Tops (“Cry Like a Baby”) to James Carr (“Dark End of the Street”) and Aretha (“Do Right Woman, Do Right Man”). Now hear them done by their writers, Penn on guitar and Oldham on piano. The former proves to be a great backwoods singer, and they harmonize like brothers, which they sorta are. They personify that distinctly Southern musical paradox by being simultaneously intense and laid-back, or maybe just intensely laid-back; at any rate, this is both deeply passionate and seemingly carefree, a perfect soundtrack to lazy, languorous days.

Haul Up Your Foot You Fool
Artist: Mr. Peter's Boom And Chime
Release Date: 1997
Backed by a four-piece Belizean band whose members play guitar, boom and chime — a bass drum struck on one side with a mallet (the boom) and on the other with something called a

Author's Biography:

Here author John Morthland writes about Barbecue music which he says is rollicking and upbeat, with a deep groove. Visit emusic.com and enjoy the real taste of some good music combinations and real good titles with

Posted on: July 17,2008

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