N.W. writes:

I came across something of the America we are fighting to save, and I thought you’d appreciate seeing it. Tired of what the music industry had done to Country music, Melody Williamson wrote a song, calling out Music Row for being the classless, greedy creeps they are. I think you’ll greatly appreciate the sentiments expressed in this simple song.

— Comments —

Buck writes:

It’s unclear to me what Melody Williamson is lamenting. Who are her “heroes”? What “class” is she remembering? Does she miss the pervasive themes of brooding sorrow, lying and cheating, the very deliberate immorality or the celebrated “redemption” (by which they really mean survival)? The popular history of popular country music is serial “tragedy” and betrayal. Most of it self-induced, and in an alcohol and drug-addled stupor.

Look at the most recognized and most popular names in the Country Music Hall of Fame. One of the most celebrated groups in country music history was a collection of philandering, drug-addicted, drunk “outlaws” with huge musical talents to feed their lifestyles. They even called themselves The Outlaws and The Highwaymen.

Johnny Cash was a drunk, often high or low on uppers or downers. Does she miss his studied “lawless” serenading of murderers and rapists at San Quentin and Folsom Prison? Hard-drinking, pot-smoking Kris Kristofferson has eight children by three different wives. Waylon Jennings had seven children by four wives. He lived addiction and recovery until he died. Everyone knows about the world’s most notorious pot-head, Willie Nelson. He also married four times and had seven children, one to a woman outside of a current marriage.

More mystique? Going back to the early “heroes”; Hank Williams was a drunkard, drug addict. It’s likely that he died at age twenty-seven in a heroin-stupid car crash. His now popular son has survived several cocaine overdoses and a suicide attempt.

Most, if not all, of the country music “greats” were addicted, abusive misfits and malcontents who tempted death as part of the country mystique. “Lying, cheating hearts.”

Current honky-tonker Trace Adkins is widely celebrated as if he is a wounded “warrior,” for his scars and for repeatedly cheating death while drugged or drunk. He survived being shot through his heart and lungs by his angry second wife. Later he had to do a month in rehab after a DUI charge.

 Most of the recognized “greats” have similar stories. Many, if not most, in the hall of fame, may have been admirable, but I don’t think we so easily recall their names. Even someone who did have a relatively “clean” image, like Buck Owens, ended four marriages before he died.

Who are Melody Williamson’s “heroes”?

N.W. writes:

Other than a disdain for the overuse of the word “hero,” something I don’t particularly like either, I don’t quite understand Buck’s response. Sure, there are entertainers who live dissolute lives. This is a common fault found in every genre of American music over the past century. Your charges of substance abuse and infidelity could be leveled against a large number of actors and actresses as well. While one must be wary of entertainers of all stripes, this does not mean that everything they have created is irrevocably wicked.

There has always been a rough side to country music, primarily because there’s a rough side to life. In as much as country music has always reflected the lives and culture of country people it’s inevitably going to reflect the lives of sinners. One thing you’ll find in country music though, is that it unfolds within the framework of a moral society; sure, there’s drinking songs and cheating songs but there are also repercussions and consequences for the actions committed. Country music is one of the few genres of American music that still operates with any acknowledgement of a higher moral authority residing above our own selfish desires.

Your characterization of country music above is accurate, as far as it goes. It is a pretty honest look at the Outlaw movement of the seventies and eighties, and, of course, Hank Sr. before that. If one wanted to paint all of country music as a bunch of philandering adulterous drunks I guess that’s how you’d do it. However, there is quite a bit in country music that your characterization ignores. Sure, you’ve got your honky-tonk cheating and drinking songs. But, you also have your songs about family, like Randy Travis’ “Daddy’s Hands” and “Forever and Ever Amen,” Loretta Lynne’s A ‘Coal Miners Daughter,’ Johnny Cash’s “Daddy Sang Bass,” Alabama’s “High Cotton” or even Miranda Lambert’s “The House that Built Me.” There are beautifully written love songs like the Judds “Young Love,” Keith Whitleys “When You Say Nothing at All” or “Traveling Soldier” by the Dixie Chicks. Furthermore, in what other genre is duty and patriotism as readily embraced?  Merle Haggard’s “Okie from Muskogee” and “Fightin’ Side of Me,” Johnny Cash’s “Drive On,” Kris Kristoffersons “The Eighth of November” and more recently John Michael Montgomery’s “Letters From Home,” Lee Brice’s “I Drive Your Truck” and Carrie Underwoods “Just a Dream.” These songs aren’t outliers or anomalies, they are just as much a part of what country music is as any tear in your beer Hank Williams song.

While I understand your disgust at kids talking about their heroes and then going onto to mention some drug addled entertainer, I don’t think that a sweeping condemnation of  all of country music must necessarily follow from that. Besides, I think Miss Williamson will most likely swing wide of the pitfalls, her families band is oriented more towards the Gospel/Bluegrassy end of the spectrum. Coming back to her song, I especially liked the line about wanting to hear a man sing a love song to his wife and (implicitly) not some guy singing about how hot is girlfriend is. With her lyrics and her innocence I think Miss Williamson really captures the sorrow that a lot of us feel at the continued destruction of our culture and heritage.

Here’s a link to her families band’s Bluegrass/Gospel music site.

Mark Slater writes:

In response to Buck:

Marty Robbins, Charlie Daniels, George Strait, or any of a number of decent Country and Western artists produce tasteful down-home music.

Joe A. writes:

Whether Melody thinks of this I couldn’t say but there was a time before “Country” that there was “Country & Western.” Patsy Cline and Gene Autry come to mind off the top of my head. I’m old enough to remember hearing them on the radio “oldies” programming. It was better then, before New York and Hollywood got their mitts on it all.

Buck writes:

I understand the reaction to my simple and accurate recitation of the truth about certain “legendary” country music stars. But I said nothing like “… everything they have created is irrevocably wicked.” I didn’t suggest my “disgust at kids” wrong-headed hero worship or suggest my “sweeping condemnation of all of country music”

No point in defending what I didn’t say.

I began and ended my comment by asking: “Who are Melody Williamson’s ‘heroes’?” I still don’t know. I’d like to hear from her.

That life has a rough side, and so does music, is obvious. All great music finds its audience.

I said that “many, if not most, in the hall of fame, may have been admirable.” I made no argument that most are not. I gave a simple account of the lives of the big country stars who easily came to mind.

I know what country music means to many people. It’s an authentic American genre. I grew up listening to the great Marty Robbins. His career began the year I was born. I watched his every appearance on TV. He married his only wife that same year, 1948. He was survived by his one wife and their two children.

I loved the amazing voice of the great Patsy Cline. Is she one of Melody’s heroes? Patsy Cline was on the cutting edge of feminism. Her disdain for “housewifery” ended her short first marriage. She was a driven career woman.

It seems that the reaction to my comments about the actual lives of the named stars comes as a defense of music and of the sentiments expressed in song.

All I was wondering out-loud was, in light of what we all know; who and what is Melody singing about?

N.W. writes:

While Buck might have been asking a question out loud, from what he wrote it didn’t seem that he thought there were any positive answers to his question. I thought it was important to remind people there are a lot of good things about country music, especially as a lot of people’s opinion of country music is shaped by the awful stuff they’re playing on top 40 radio these days. Also, given what Melody said about losing from the country music that they play on the radio, I don’t imagine she’s missing the outlaw country scene so much. She says herself in the song that she misses hearing a man sing about how he loves his wife, and is tired of all the songs about honky-tonking and drinking.

Joe A. writes:

Mozart was a potty-mouthed party boy who drank hard, lived beyond his means, and died young.

Beethoven had hopeless love affairs with married women out of his league.

Tchaikovsky had a short failed marriage and a real problem with XXX whatever that may have been (ahem).

Wagner…  Wagner might have written country music were he alive today.  Drinking, gambling, notorious affairs, terminal brain melting VD, skipping out of debts, revolutionary political activities.  Yes, Wagner was certainly unorthodox.  And quite mad.

At least if you believe the salacious gossip of their times.

Far from excusing the blatant immorality – or the obscenities of the Grammy program which I watched for a little while – there is a direct relation between artistic genius and antisocial behavior.  I’m not sure artists were idolized so in earlier times as they are today.  That’s the difference between then and now.

Laura writes:

I’m not ready to address the similarities between Mozart and Johnny Cash at this time. I will just repeat Joe’s point that the music industry as we know it did not exist in Mozart’s time and, yes, it doesn’t churn out saints.

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