Country Music History 101

Today I read some of this week's lectionary material (if you're not familiar with that term, click on that link and you'll see what this is), and I thought of Joseph and his coat of many colors. Some would call this his technicolor dreamcoat, but to each his/her own. I immediately went back to my childhood to Saturday afternoons at Granny Ione's house. I could smell her perfume and the frying of chicken. I was blessed to have her until I was 40 years old. We watched a lot of Porter and Dolly, and all those other country music TV shows. I made her DVDs and VHS tapes of some of the ones I saw on RFD-TV. Yes, I know that's taboo, but I never had any intention to sell any of them, just to share them with my Granny who didn't have RFD and couldn't get it on her cable system. I guarantee she would have, if she'd thought they would carry it. When she died, I went to her house to get them. I said, "I always knew I would have to take them back. I just didn...

I’ve failed as a blogger again, but this time I’ve had a better excuse. I had surgery last month and I’ve been recovering, watching old westerns like "The Virginian" (I never knew there was a 90-minute TV show! I was too little to realize this when the show was in its first run.) and of course, watching my favorite old TV show, "The Waltons." I considered putting details of my surgery on my other blog, and maybe someday I will. This week I’m back to working. Monday I was in MRI, Tuesday I was off, Wednesday I was on my feet in TEE, and today I spent the day on my butt scheduling. For those who are new to country music, this song was written by the prolific and amazing songwriter Cindy Walker and the song was first recorded by Eddy Arnold, one of country music’s most superior crooners. It was also recorded by Jerry Vale, Ray Charles, Emmylou Harris, Diana Krall, Bob Dylan, and some dude from Memphis named Elvis Presley. Many others have recorded it as well. The rea...