Truck-driving country

Truckmusic is a particular sub-genera of country and western music, generally recognized as 'truck driving country' music and it is usually spelled as a single word. Otherwise a simple google search for “truck music” will produce some 12800 references to ‘ice cream truck’ music, which it clearly is not! Truckmusic is spoken word with accompaniment, instrumental, and lyrical song about trucks (i.e. commercial vehicles, not pick-up trucks), truck drivers or truckers, and the trucking industry experience. This would include, for example, references to truck stops, CB (Citizen Band) radio, geography, drugs, teamsters, roads, weather, fuel, law enforcement, loads, traffic, ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission), contraband, DOT (Department of Transportation), accidents, et al. In truckmusic, references to “truck” include the following truck types: 10 wheeler, straight truck, 18 wheeler, tractor (bobtail), semi, tractor-trailer, semi tractor trailer, big rig, and some others.

Truckmusic is often confused with road music (e.g. Willie Nelson "On the Road Again", Roger Miller "King of the Road"), pick-up truck music (e.g. Toby Keith "Big Old Truck"), and/or truck driving music. The last category would be the preferred choice of most truck drivers for eclectic listening while driving/operating all types, makes, and styles of trucks.

Truckmusic is, at least partly, an oral history of trucking. A range of social and economic factors in the United States have strongly influenced the evolution of truckmusic as a sub-genera of 'country' music. These factors include wars, civil rights struggles, the demographic shift from rural to urban areas, the feminist movement, economic recessions, changes in the railroads, and the oil embargo. Their impacts have diversified the folklore of truck songs.

Technological developments and changes related to both the music business and the trucking industry, however, have brought about the greatest changes to truckmusic. Variously, these include the jukebox, 33 1/3 rpm vinyl record albums, 8 track tape, cassette tape, the transistor to digital revolution, the Internet, CB radio, all-night radio broadcasts targeting truckers, Interstate highways, and multiple truck components (sleeper cabs, air suspension, power steering, synchronized transmissions, air conditioning, air seats, and electronics).

Collectively, there are more than five hundred truckmusic songs, all of which more or less originate from the oral tradition of truck folklore. Occupations, of course, have traditionally provided the raw material and inspiration for folk music in the United State (e.g. riverboat, mining, Great Lakes water commerce, lumbering, cowboy, agricultural field work and others), influenced by regional culture as well. Folk songs adopt, adapt, and incorporate colloquialisms, slang, and occupational terms into verbal snapshots. In truckmusic, such specialized words and terms as truck rodeo, dog house, twin screw, georgia overdrive, saddle tanks, jake brake, binder and others borrowed from the lingo of truckers are commonly utilized. CB vocabulary - which is different from truck driver lingo - is used by both truckers and the general public. Some of that vocabulary has evolved into popular culture and subsequently incorporated into truckmusic (e.g. “hammer down,” “shakey town,” “smokey,” and “pedal to the metal”.

There has been a certain mystique attached to truck driving and truck drivers, especially those engaged in long distance driving. It is yet to be determined if the enduring image of the truck driver will achieve true folk hero status, even given the past popularity of truckmusic. The post-CB song era perception of “truck drivin'n country” music was that it was a passing fad. At times, the trucker also has been stereotyped as a “sexist, pill-poppin’, burly, pinball playin’, smokey dodgin’, philandering, truck driving son-of-a-gun,” hardly a flattering or positive image. Not surprisingly, many recording artists have not wanted to be associated with truckmusic because of such negativity, and major recording labels have considered truckmusic a novelty of little or lasting commercial value.

Nevertheless, technological development and change continues to influence truckmusic and keeps it going. Just as truck drivers in the 1970s and 1980s no longer had to rely on AM radio or pre-recorded 8 track tape to listen to the music they wanted to hear by making-up their own playlists on cassette tape, today the portable computer, wireless wi-fi, and the Internet allows singer/song writers to produce and distribute their own truckmusic (Dale Watson, Sonny George, Bill Kirchen). Other artists have started their own record labels (Joey Holiday - Truck It Records; Harold Crosby - Traveler Records). Truckmusic keeps on truckin'.

History

Although there were songs with truck and truckin in song titles before 1939, the truck/truckin refered to was a dance, 'truck'

1939	Ted Daffan, a Texas band leader, wrote "Truck Driver's Blues"
1939	Cliff Brunner & His Boys record "Truck Driver's Blues" on Decca record label -- 'and his record sold 100,000 copies at a time when sales of 5,000 made for a hit country record'.
1940	Delmore Brothers Dying Truck Driver"
1942	Meredith Wilson wrote "My Ten Ton Baby and Me (the Truck Drivers Song)" -- for World War II patriotism. Performed on the Johnson Wax Hour radio show 15 Sept 1942
1947	Art Gibson "I'm a Truck Driving Man"
1952	Bob Newman "Haulin Freight"
1952	Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass, "Lonesome Truck Driver's Blues"
1952	Doye O'Dell "Diesel Smoke, Dangerous Curves"
1954	Terry Fell, writes and sings, "Truck Driving Man" -- Questionably the most covered truckmusic tune, with iconic lyrics and adaptable music (without the hard drivin' beat of "Six Days on the Road").
1954	Wade Ray "Idaho Red"
1956	National Defense Interstate Highway System
1956	Link Davis "Trucker from Tennessee" -- about Elvis Presley being a truck driver before stardom
1957	Johnny Horton "I'm Coming Home"
1959	Duane Eddy "40 Miles of Bad Road" (an instrumental)
1960	Lonnie Irving "Pinball Machine"
1960	Coleman M. Wilson "Radar Blues"
1963	Dave Dudley "Six Days on the Road" -- becomes the trucker's anthem and ushers in the Golden Age (1963-1968) of truckmusic by double charting: No. 2 on Billboard country chart and in the Top 40 pop chart
1964	v.a. Truck Drivers Songs King records -- a compilation of all truckmusic
1964	Betty Amos "Eighteen Wheels a Rolling"
1964	Willis Brothers Give Me 40 Acres The Willis Bros. were stars of the starday record label, (later the Starday label would become the biggest seller of truckmusic), performed a bluegrass style. "Who should be better qualified to sing about the truck drivers of America than a group of Country musicians who travel 75,000 to150,000 miles per year making personal appearances throughout the country. The Willis Brothers stop at the truck stops to share meals, jokes, interesting experiences, road information, and weather reports with the men who drive the big rigs." -- Vic Willis
1964	Jimmy Martin "Widow Maker"
1965	Dick Curless "A Tombstone Every Mile" -- reached the country charts
1965	Red Simpson "Roll, Truck, Roll" -- became a Top 40 country hit
1965	Dave Dudley "Truck Drivin' Son-of-a-Gun"
1966	Kay Adams "Six Days Awaiting" (an answer song) to "Six Days on the Road"
1966	Kay Adams "Little Pink Mack"
1966	Del Reeves "Girl on the Billboard"
1966	Red Sovine "Giddyup Go" -- recorded his first spoken-word truck drivers song, crossover charted.
1967	Red Sovine "Phantom 309"
1967	Dave Dudley "Trucker's Prayer"
1967	Claude Gray "How Fast Them Trucks Can Go"
1968	Del Reeves "Looking at the World Through a Windshield"
1968	Dave Dudley "There Ain't No Easy Run"
1968	Barnett Bros. "Tragedy of Silver Bridge" -- a tragedy song
1970	Johnny Cash Medley of Trucking Songs Johnny Cash TV Show
1970	Charlie Douglas had the first trucking radio show directly to truckers 'Charlie Douglas and His Road Gang.' "All-night radio shows keep truckers informed, entertained, and awake. They also create a strong sense of community for those who work in the solitary field of long-distance trucking. Although trucker shows are carried on many hundreds of AM and FM stations nationwide, the best and most popular shows are those on powerful AM 'clear channel' stations."
1971	Red Simpson "I'm a Truck" -- his biggest hit
1972	'Truckers Jamboree' -- the combination of truckers and country musicians in conjunction with trucker expo.
1972	Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen Hot Licks, Cold Steel, & Trucker Favorites
1972	Lester Flatt "Backin' into Birmingham"
1973	Paul Click "Smokey, Trucks, & C.B.Radios" -- the first CB song
1975	C.W. McCall "Convoy" -- was the third biggest country single of that decade. "Convoy" is about a coast-to-coast truck convoy who use C.B. radio. Like Dave Dudley's sucessful "Six Days on the Road", "Convoy" spurred an era of CB radio themed songs.
1975	Dave Dudley "Me and Ole C.B."
1975	Merle Haggard "Movin On"
1976	Cledus Maggard "The White Knight"
1976	Craig Donaldson & Ralph Harrison "I believe He's Gonna Drive that Rig to Glory"
1976	Red Sovine "Teddy Bear" (a tearjerker)
1976	Rod Hart "C.B. Savage"
1976	Red Simpson "Truck Driver Heaven"
1977	Jim & Artie Marshall "The Ballad of Fancy Gap" -- a haunting folk tune, with 'call and reponse' singing of the hill country
1977	Convoy -- a Hollywood movie: followed by a soundtrack LP record album
1977	Smokey and the Bandit -- a Hollywood movie (the theme song "Eastbound and Down" crossover charted)
1977	Jerry Reed "Eastbound and Down"
1981	Eddie Rabbit "Drivin' My Life Away"
1982	Dave Dudley "I Wish I Had a Nickel" (written by T. Fell) -- last 45 of the Sun record label
1984	Ronnie Milsap "Prisoner of the Highway"
1984	Alabama "Roll On"
1986	federally mandated CDL (Comercial Drivers License)
1986	Dan Seals "Big Wheels In the Moonlight"
1995	The Cowslingers That's Truckdrivin' -- retro Starday album (in 10 inch EP format)
1996	Junior Brown "Semi Crazy"
1996	v.a. Rig Rock Deluxe -- a compilation album of new truckmusic songs performed by pairing old with contemporary artists.
1997	Dale Watson The Trucking Sessions
1998	Sonny George Truckin Country
1998	Dan Hart "Big Rig (on the Information Superhighway)"
1998	The Sovines Owner Operator
1998	Joey Holiday "Big Joe, The Phantom & Red Sovine"
2001	v.a. Truck Driver's Boogie: Big Rig Hits vol. 1 1939-1969
2002	Leland Martin "Stone Cold Fingers"
2004	Steve Earl "Home to Houston" -- a contract truck driver in Iraq.
2005	Bill Kirchen King of Dieselbilly
2005	Joey Holiday "Iron Pony Express" -- a different perspective of contract truck driver in Iraq
2009	Dale Watson The Truckin Session vol 2

External links

• virtualtruckroute.com
• truckmusic.com