I am in the car a little over an hour every day driving to and from work. I have SiriusXM radio, so I have virtually unlimited options to listen to, but I usually stick to the 80’s channel, a couple comedy channels, and the Pulse (current adult contemporary).
But lately I’ve been spending quite a bit of time listening to Willie’s Roadhouse. This channel plays old school country music. And by old school I mean REALLY old- all the way back to the late 40s up to the 70s.
Since I didn’t grow up listening to country music it might seem odd that this is a channel I’d evet consider. But I’ve listened to it quite a bit in my husband’s car. And back when we did karaoke on a routine basis many of the songs he sang, and the songs our friends sang, were classic country. So that was my introduction to this genre.
There are a couple things that have really surprised me now that I’m hearing more of this music. The first is how flat- out DIRTY some songs are. I am convinced every song Conway Twitty ever sang is about sex in one way or another. Tammy Wynette doesn’t beat around the bush (no pun intended) either on several tracks. There have been several times that I, all alone in my car, have said out loud “What did they just say?!?” There is truly nothing new under the sun!
Another is the amount of social justice songs. Of course Johnny Cash spoke to that in The Man in Black, but he wasn’t alone. Everything from treatment of the poor to women’s issues to distribution of wealth is treated in song. Hell Loretta Lynn has a song called “The Pill”!
The last thing I’ll mention is the masterful songwriting. The double entrendres. The turn of a phrase that turns your idea where the song is going completely on its head. The pure joy and pure sorrow set to music in a way that speaks just as strongly today as it did 50 years ago.
If you haven’t ever taken the time to listen to old country music I encourage you to give it a try. Sure, some of it is corny. But you may be just as surprised as I was how enjoyable it is and find a song or artist that slips into your regular rotation. I know I have.