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“Tony Tost's America” (tonytostsamerica.blogspot.com) comes from Tony Tost, a Walt Whitman Award-winning poet and former Arkansan, who's writing a book about Johnny Cash while in grad school at Duke. His approach is a sort of postmodern take on Greil Marcus' “old, weird America.” Which is to say, his purview is Americana — blues, country, folk, jazz — that takes a sharp left turn from the norm. You'll hear the likes of Slim Galliard, jazz king of gibberish, clucking, profanely, like a rooster or gospel singer Sister Wynona Carr offering a pastiche of “Dragnet” for Jesus. If that wasn't enough, occasionally, in a measured radio voice, Tost offers epigrams that tie everything together. Tune in.

Tony Tost's America | Episode 4 | "The Soul Saving Station"

Welcome to Tony Tost's America. My name is Tony Tost, and this is my America:

Set 1

Big Maybelle, “Ocean of Tears”

Billie Jo Spears, “Get Behind Me Satan and Push”

Leonard Cohen, “Don’t Go Home With Your Hard On”

Carl Story, “You Don’t Love God (If You Don’t Love Your Neighbor)”

(Tony Tost is authorized by the soul saving station to perform such duties consistent with his special advisory position)

Set 2

Johnny Burnette Trio, “The Train Kept A-Rollin’”

Jerry Lee Lewis, “Honey Hush”

Billy Lee Riley, “Saturday Night Fish Fry”

The Blenders, “Don’t Fuck Around With Love”

(Tony Tost explains: America leads a life of allegory; its works are comments upon it)

Set 3

Sister Wynona Carr, “Dragnet for Jesus”

Skeets McDonald, “The Tattooed Lady”

John Anderson, “Tokyo, Oklahoma”

The Rio Rockers, “Mexicali Baby”

Little Walter & Baby Face Leroy, “Rollin’ & Tumblin’ (Part 1)

(Charles Manson discusses doors, perfection, and conditioning.)

Set 4

John Phillips, “She’s Just 14”

Tanya Tucker, “Blood Red and Going Down”
David Allan Coe, “Death Row”

Bob Dylan, “Man Gave Names to All the Animals”

Slim Gaillard, “Fuck Off (The Dirty Rooster)”

(By the touch of America's wand, divine troublemakers are transformed into porcine stone figurines)

Set 5

Memphis Minnie, “Ma Rainey”

Robert Gordon, “It’s In the Bottle”

Sisters of Saint Francis, “In Heaven There Is No Beer”

Sonic Recycling Program, “I’m Fucked Up, I’ve Got Problems, and I’m Dangerous”

Charles Manson, “Arkansas”

(At the nethermost core of Tony Tost, and at the underside of his America, lay novelty, terror, and the transcendence of good taste)

Set 6

Robert Mitchum, “The Ballad of Thunder Road”

The Blue Sky Boys, “I Wish I Had Never Seen Sunshine”

Judy Lynn, “The Calm Before the Storm”

Scott Walker, “The Lady Came From Baltimore”

Download the entire podcast as an MP3, right HERE.

Or, listen to Tony Tost's America, right down here below:

Tony Tost's America | Episode 3 | "I Want Your Head to Hang On My Wall Tonight"

My name is Tony Tost, and this is my America.


Set 1

Union Avenue, “Ace of Spades”
Wanda Jackson, “Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad”
Hasil Adkins, “No More Hot Dogs”
Bobbie Gentry, “Sermon”

(Tony Tost plays Dionysus to America’s Apollo)

Set 2

Elvis Presley, “An American Trilogy”
U.S. Senator Robert Byrd, “Rye Whiskey”
Charlie Rich, “Don’t Put No Headstone on My Grave”
John Fahey, “On the Sunny Side of the Ocean”

(Like a politician at a touch table, Tony Tost is delighted to feel America again)

Set 3

John Anderson, “Wild and Blue”
Dolly Parton, “The Mystery of the Mystery”
Washington Phillips, “I Had a Good Mother and Father”
Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn, “You’re the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly”

(Our immersive digital environment demands new responses from America; what does it mean to be Tony Tost in the Internet age?)

Set 4:

Pee Wee King, “Plantation Boogie”
Maddox Brothers & Rose, “That’ll Learn Ya Durn Ya”
Jean Shepard, “Twice the Lovin’ (In Half the Time)”
George Jones, “I’m Gonna Burn Your Playhouse Down”
Johnny Cash, “Folgers Commercial”
Guy Clark, “Instant Coffee Blues”

(Tony Tost uses his own subjectivity to make this podcast a container that America may pour itself into; he cares little for the outcome)

Set 5:

Anita Carter, “As the Sparrow Goes”
Norman Blake, “The Minstrel Boy to the War has Gone/Ash Grove”
Bonnie “Blue” Billy, “Little Boy Blue”
Laura Cantrell, “The Whiskey Makes You Sweeter”

(Tony Tost embraces his guilty nation)

Set 6:

Iris DeMent, “Sweet Is the Melody”
Michael Jackson, “Billie Jean” (vocal demo)

Thank you for visiting Tony Tost's America.






















Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.

Sha'mon sha'mon sha'mon.


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