When the TVs were black and white and made by Zenith, my father listened every evening in the late 1960's to the Porter Wagoner Show aired on a local UHF channel. Rings of ciggarette smoke encircled his head, while he sipped his Ballantine Beer and Seagram's whiskey while perched in a big old recliner in the TV room or in the adjacent and less comfortable kitchen. He'd just about tolerate my pre-teen presence if I sat still and didn't talk much. Sometimes Mom would join us, in between extended journey's to the hospital for soft tissue infections related to her "sugar" problem. My younger brother would be there too, somewhere in the background. Mostly though, it was just me and my dad in front of the boob tube on an early weekend evening, listening to country music.
He thought Johnny Cash walked on water while Dolly Parton sung with a permanent halo shinning around her. This was a hard working man's music which he could understand. Heartache, suffering and the simple joys found when you didn't have a dime resonated in the country music lyrics of the day. Dolly was introduced to the public on Porter's show in 1966, and in early clips her dyed blond hair is piled high and she sings with a twang I've never heard so sweetly sung before or since. Porter stood beside her with an equally tall and unnatural blond pompadour and a sparkly Nudie suit with a lower tenor to compliment the sound. Below is a quick clip from 1968.
Twenty or more years would go by before I got to Nashville. Somehow I managed to get front row side tickets for a Grand Ole Opry show with Porter Wagoner in attendance. He didn't disappoint in performance or costume; showing off an interior flap of his jacket which was all lit up in flashy design to rival the front panels. My children were oh...6 and 8 and sat patiently through the show. To this day, my attachment to country music just grows and grows as life unravels and heartaches, sorrows and joys all pile up through the years. Here's one of my favorite Cash videos which haunts me in it's beauty and sorrow, "Hurt".
There are just too many artists to name who fall under the genre of Country whose music has somehow moved me. Gillian Welch's pure sound brings back early memories of the original Carter Family, A.P, Sara and Maybelle. I hear June Carter Cash in the growl of her daughter Carlene Carter, while Rosanne Cash reflects the musical heritage of her father Johnny with every note she sings. I love the bad boys of country, outlaws like "the possum" George Jones, Waylon Jennings, Dwight Yoakam, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson and more recently Toby Keith. Sly Lyle Lovett excites me just as much as thoughtful Mary Chapin Carpenter does. K.D. Lang's "Big Boned Gal" gets me up and dancing every time while Lee Ann Womack's "Twenty Years and Two Husbands Ago" is like auld lang syne sung with a southern twist. I'm anxious to hear more of the modern country troubadours like Eric Church, Little Big Town and Band Perry.
Just recently, I heard "Red Solo Cup" by Toby Keith which illicits a guilty giggle or two. This one song makes brings to mind my grown up son who I believe has a great many red solo cups in his personal drinking history. It also leads me back to those beer and whiskey infused nights with my father, drowning his sorrow and regret in the sound of a country guitar and the bow of a fiddle. Rest in peace Dad, you're up there with Johnny to sing you a tune.
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