Friday Five: Occupation Blues

Whatever job you have, chances are you suffer from the occasional bad day. Seamen, working girls, bartenders…it seems just about every occupation has a song about the blues that come along with the job (you can find those blues, by the way, recorded by Ernest Tubb, Hazel Dickens, and George Jones. But you probably already knew that). Anyway, here are five other songs about various jobs and the specific blues associated with them.

• 5. “Picker’s Blues” – The Gibson Brothers

  Being a professional bluegrass picker sounds like nonstop fun, especially if you’re as good at it as Eric, Leigh, and their band. Turns out that a life of roaming the country playing music is hard on the emotions; as Eric sings, “It can drag you down/Or make you dance on air/There’s not enough of the in-between/But who says music’s fair?“

• 4. “Revenuer’s Blues” – The Del McCoury Band

  The guy just wants to drink and sell his bootleg booze in peace without some government agent enforcing the 18th Amendment. If you don’t already own last year’s Family Circle, check out the sharp picking, sharp singing, and sharp looking quintet below.

• 3. “Farmer’s Blues” – Marty Stuart and Merle Haggard

  Marty and Merle sing about the plight of the farmer, whose livelihood depends on the fickle mistress Mother Nature. This here’s a damn fine country song—borrowing both the tune and the evening train from Hank Williams’ “(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle”—from two of the best singers out there.

• 2. “Truck Driver’s Blues” – Cliff Bruner

  Feeling weary and low down is a rough way to live, but somehow this trucker makes do. Can’t get enough of sad truckin’ songs? There’s always Bill Monroe’s “Lonesome Truck Driver’s Blues.” The “Lonesome” makes the blues even bluer.

• 1. “The Brakeman’s Blues” – Jimmie Rodgers

  Being a brakeman in the days before the automatic airbrake was pretty dangerous work, but this guy’s blues don’t seem too bad: after all, he’ll be in New Orleans eating dinner and picking up strange women by nightfall. That sounds like a cure for just about anything.