Last fall I wrote about the new album from Hank Erwin, Copper. Generally speaking, the record is full of Southern rock ballads and outlaw country tales, many of them at least partially autobiographical. If you’re going to just sample a couple of songs, you can’t go wrong with Altana or Hell Or Harlan, both with jangly guitars and pounding rhythm sections. For a sister song to the iconic Edmund Fitzgerald, check out The Dirge Of the Edward L. Ryerson (The Last).
One of the most striking numbers is Sally. It’s more country than rock, and features some horns that somehow convey the uneasy relationship a band sometimes has with its tour vehicle, particularly as the miles pile up on it. Sally, in this case, actually refers to a recycled airport van that some friends of Erwin’s had turned into a tour bus. Erwin decided to add some footage shot from a moving vehicle and turn it into a tribute. We’re so pleased to be able to offer the premiere of that video here. So go watch Sally, all the way to the end, and then come back here for the rest of the story.
Note at the end the video is dedicated to Porter and the Bluebonnet Rattlesnakes. That’s the band who owned Sally. They had convinced Erwin to come on tour with them, but last minute decided that financially they had to stay with a 3-piece set-up to make ends meet, so Hank stayed behind. During that tour, Sally was stopped in traffic and an 18-wheeler hit her at 70 mph. Two of the three band members were killed. Erwin sat down and ripped the song out of his soul in 10 minutes. He calls it the proudest accomplishment of his musical career, and that tells you plenty more about the man himself.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.