My present to Phillip was half a DVD collection of music called, "Country's Family Reunion - Nashville." Phillip's gift to me was the other half. He saw this set advertised on TV about a month ago, picked up the phone and ordered the whole thing ... paying little attention to cost ... figuring, what the heck! We only live once ...
When the box came in the mail two weeks ago, Phillip insisted I open it on the spot and let the Christmas spirit begin!
We've almost worn out ten volumes of good music and, today, as I write these words, we're still loving our trip down memory lane.
Talk about gifts that keep on giving ....
I once heard an English professor say country music (meaning old classic country not this new modern stuff) was the best loved music in the world, but few people would admit it.
I've often wondered why people are ashamed to claim kinship with the likes of George Jones, Vince Gill or George Strait? Not that George and Vince and George are upset. Their bank balances speak magnificent truths about countless millions of fans who buy their songs. So, go ahead; pretend you love opera and highbrow classical. Country stars won't be offended.
T. Graham Brown is, right-this-minute, singing his signature song in which he begs a merciful God to "Turn the Wine back into Water" He lived this song in his long fight to gain sobriety. The words come straight from his heart. Another of his songs I love so much is, "I Tell it Like it Used to be."
Oh, the power of a song.
Through more than seven decades of living, I've held fast to my appreciation of country music.
When my world was in shambles and my heart broken, I got down and wallowed in the sadness of country songs. During good years, when life was wonderful, I listened to those same lyrics and it was like being nestled in a snug bed with lots of warm blankets, while listening to cold rain beating down on a tin roof. The sadness was still lurking out there but it couldn't get me.
John Conlee is now singing, "I don't remember loving you." A song that always makes me smile. John Conlee lives near Murfreesboro. I saw him recently, coming out of the local Subway with three other men. It isn't unusual to see famous people out and about in the Nashville area. No one - except tourists of course - bothers them about autographs. Nashville people respect a celebrity's right to live a normal life.
So ... I saw this familiar face coming out of Subway and I knew exactly what song he was famous for singing, but I couldn't remember his name. Came home and described the man and tried to sing a few bars of Rose Colored Glasses. Phillip immediately knew his name. John Conlee. Kind of fascinating. Why would a rich man choose to eat lunch at Subway?
When I was a little girl ... 1943 ... my daddy worked on the Rock Island railroad and was away from home during the week, but he almost always came in for the weekend. I liked Daddy to be home. I felt safe when he was in the house. One of my dearest memories of that time was lying in my bed in the dark of night, hearing faint staticky sounds of the Grand Ole Opry coming from the big battery radio beside Daddy's bed. Bill Monroe's bluegrass music and Ernest Tubb singing about the death of his small son, Roger Dale, and Minnie Pearl joking about a place called Grinder Switch. I absorbed it all.
Saturday nights, 1951, a group of Perryville High School kids often parked old cars "down at the junction" for late night dancing in the street. Radios were turned loud and Lefty Frizzell smoothed out the rough edges of honky tonk with a song called, "Mom and Dad's Waltz." or, our favorite back then, "I Love you a Thousand Ways."
In 1954 Elvis Presley, singing Blue Moon of Kentucky, made his one and only appearance on the Grand Ole Opry.
Barbara Fairchild had a hit record in 1972 called, "The Teddy Bear Song." I especially liked this singer because she had a way of crinkling up her nose when she laughed and my Carmen knew how to do that exact same trick long before she reached her first birthday. I'd have loved Barbara Fairchild no matter what she sang, but the Teddy Bear lyrics were always special to me.
I wish I had button eyes and a red felt nose ...
Shaggy cotton skin and just one set of clothes ...
Sittin' on a shelf in a local department store ...
No dreams to dream and nothing to be sorry for ...
The last line speaks to my heart.
Nothing to be sorry for ....
No comments:
Post a Comment