penandpatience

WRITERS WORDS: “Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” – Plato

NOVEMBER 2021 MONTHLY MUSING

HEY FOLKS – ARE YOU LOVIN’ THAT OLE’ TIME COUNTRY MUSIC?

Music, according to Meriam-Webster, is “sounds that are sung by voices or musical instruments” or, per English/Oxford dictionaries, “vocal or instrumental sounds combined to produce beauty of form, harmony and expression of emotion.” Other definitions suggest not all music is musical, beautiful or harmonious within its many genres.

Country Music began and became a proud American tradition. It is, to this day, timeless.  Every song tells a story.  It offers advice about life, love, and how to get back at your “ex.” Early songs came from the heart with a rich Bluegrass, hill folks’ history. Country fans always understood what artists were saying or trying to say. Singers sang emotional songs and wailed about cheating’, loving, dying, crying and lying!  Who can forget Tammy Wynette singing about her D-I-V-O-R-C-E or Johnny Cash’s “I Walked the Line,” and “A Boy Names Sue.”  My name is Sue, how do you do 😊

The oldest form, Old Time country of North American traditional music, other than Native American music, dates back to 1923.   New Country often emphasizes instrumental background with a traditional country vocal style. What is called the Bakersfield Sound developed in mid to late 1950’s and was significantly influenced by rock and roll.

I muse. I was exposed to Country Music through my father in the early twentieth century. His favorite country group was the Sons of the Pioneers (1935). He played their songs on the family 45 record player, listened to them on the radio and his favorite song was “Tumbling Tumbleweeds.”   Our family had a furniture- sized radio, yes, with dials!  Almost always it was set to country music. Through the years we listened to Glen Campbell, Conway Twitty, George Jones, Buck Owens, Hank Williams and Hank William, Jr., Patsy Cline, Roy Clark, Loretta Lynn, Statler Brothers, George Strait, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Garth Brooks, Willie Nelson….and so many more artists.

For many years my car radio was always tuned to a country station when I traveled back and forth to work. To this day, my favorite female country singer is Emmy Lou Harris. I believe she has one of the most beautiful and purest country music voice. She is a singer, songwriter and musician. She has won 14 Grammys, the Polar Music Prize, inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and numerous other honors.  In 2018, she was presented the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. My favorite Emmy Lou Harris tune that tells a great story is “Pancho & Lefty,” I enjoy her and other earlier country singers’ albums and play them often.

Currently, my radio station is no longer set on a country music station. I do enjoy many of the twenty-first century artists, but too often, I miss a hot banjo, old-time harmonica and guitar-banjo picking’ to an oldie but a goodie.

If you haven’t yet viewed Ken Burn’s Country Music Documentary that reviews the origins of country music through current songs of today, go to: http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/country-music.

And, November is a month when we focus on giving Thanks. This November 2021, despite the Covid-19 pandemic and the many woes of our country and world, we all have something to be thankful for…  including that “ole time country music.”

HAPPY THANKSGIVING