Country Music Blog: George Jones

Living in downtown Nashville, it's not hard to find something to do on the weekends, or any night of the week for that matter. I think sometimes I take for granted the fact that I live in the heart of Music City, a stone's throw from the Ryman Auditorium and mere blocks from some of the world's greatest honky-tonks. So, last weekend, my friends and I ventured out for a Tennessee Saturday night and some live country music.

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The singer Maura O'Connell once said that what country music and Irish music have in common is a passion for sentimentality. In other words, you can't have country music without a sense of loss and a lyric that will tear your heart in two. One listen to George Jones singing "My Wild Irish Rose" should leave you suitably teary. Every so often the classic sounds of Ireland will make it on a country record, though admittedly it is rare. The Dixie Chicks tipped their hats to the Emerald Isle on "Ready to Run," as well as "More Love," which was written by Tim O'Brien.

Tim O'Brien has made two fantastic records that explored his Irish roots: Two Journeys and The Crossing. Using a combination of Irish and American musicians, he finds a common ground that honors both American roots music and the change that Irish music would undergo once it came to the new World. A perfect example is "Cumberland Gap," as Irish fiddler Kevin Burke plays alongside banjo legend Earl Scruggs while Tim chops away on his mandolin. It sounds like a journey back in time.

Ireland also has its own array of country stars, such as T.R. Dallas, Big Tom, Philomena Begley and the enormously successful Daniel O'Donnell. Special mention should be made of Ray Lynam, a truly fantastic singer who also recorded in Nashville. While on a radio performance in Nashville, he sang a cover of "He Stopped Loving Her Today," and as soon as he went off air, the station phone rang -- it was George Jones himself calling in to say how much he loved Ray's singing and encouraging him to stay in Nashville. Due to prior commitments, Ray had to return home, but I often wander what might have happened had he stayed...

Come Monday morning, we should proudly wear the greenest item of clothing we can find, and celebrate the warm and welcoming qualities that Ireland embodies -- and of course the great music! I suppose the Guinness and Irish whiskey is optional, but I can assure you it's an option I'll be exercising gladly. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Last week I was cooking dinner at my friend Hunter's new condo and we decided the most tedious thing about moving is unpacking CDs. Especially in this digital age, there's just no point in keeping a disc for one or two songs. You probably won't regret selling it, or giving it away. Speaking of that, Hunter said he'd just put a playlist together of his favorite "songs of regret." By then we were feeling warm after a few glasses of wine from Kix Brooks' winery, so I thought maybe something a little more upbeat would have been better, but my unspoken rule is -- his house, his music. (If you come to my house for dinner, be prepared to listen to a lot of 80s country, and you better like it.)

First was Alabama's "Lady Down on Love," about a woman who's unfortunately back in the single life. In today's country music, she would grab her girlfriends and they'd burn up his trailer or go to Tunica or something, but back in the day, heartbroken people drowned their sorrows (and regrets) in the bars. From there, we said "Awwww" over the first few notes of "I Told You So" by Randy Travis, "Always on My Mind" by Willie Nelson (which is not romantic, people!) and a few chestnuts by Mark Chesnutt. I've always been a fan of Mark Chesnutt's early stuff, and when you listen closely, you'll see that "I Just Wanted You to Know" and "I'll Think of Something" fit perfectly in this list.

The only new song was Sugarland's "Stay," and I think the reason it's resonating with country fans is because almost no current country songs offer any sort of conflict, and conflict is the key to any interesting story, whether it's a novel or a song. I particularly hate songs about how someone is from the country, and that they also like the country. Give me something devastating, like George Jones' "Choices" or Patty Loveless' "Here I Am." Some of these regretful songs I haven't heard in ages, like Vern Gosdin's "Do You Believe Me Now" or Sawyer Brown's "All These Years." But I still knew the words.

Being a traditional country fan, I feel lost in my generation sometimes because I don't know the difference between Radiohead and Oasis, and never bought Nevermind. That's OK. I don't have regrets. Well, actually, thanks to my friend's playlist, I do.

I love Buck Owens. I love Bonnie Owens. I love Merle Haggard. I love Dwight Yoakam. Most of all, I love the sound that is the Bakersfield country song, and GOD BLESS Dwight for putting out this record called Dwight Sings Buck. It's gonna allow a lot of his fans who don't know Buck Owens' music to learn and appreciate what influenced the sound that Dwight's fans have grown to love.

I listened to an interview on XM the other day with Dwight talking about how he met Buck and how he became like a father figure to him. He talked about Bonnie Owens' harmonies on that old Bakersfield sound and how it instituted some of the sounds we are all familiar with today. Bonnie was an artist in her own right in addition to singing with the likes of Merle Haggard and Buck Owens (she married both). She was named Female Vocalist of the Year in 1965 by the Academy Of Country Music, the same year Bonnie ended up marrying The Hag. From that year on, Bonnie dedicated her time to Merle’s children and his career, touring with Merle’s band The Strangers as a backup vocalist. After 13 years of marriage, they divorced, but she continued singing with his band. With her passing last April, the country music industry lost a real one of the greats.

Dwight's sound is so innovative and country chic, that hipsters and rockers and country fans alike dig his sound. To me, he is his generation’s answer to George Jones' song, "Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes." He is a modern-day living legend and will be around for a long time. He never took a second glance at changing his sound. He just did what he did and is still doing that. He's updated it a little, but it's still "Dwight" no matter which way you cut it. Please take a second to go download this brilliant CD. You will see that real country still lives!

It’s astonishing to me the number of readers who have commented on the blog entries about the new Sugarland song, “Stay.” For those of you who haven’t heard it, “Stay” is a cheating song told from the point of view of “the other woman.” Jennifer Nettles sheds a whole lot of tears throughout the video. It’s not exactly the feel-good hit of the year. The blog comments are fairly split between sympathy and disgust for the cheater. I’m not here to pass judgment -- I simply want to share with you my favorite “cheating song” -- “Nobody” by Sylvia. 

I’m serious, and I realize that I am surpassing outstanding titles from George Jones and Merle Haggard. I can’t explain it, and I don’t feel a lick of guilt about it, either. I have always loved this bouncy song, which was on the country charts 25 years ago. You can pretty much guess the era by the weird, synthesizer intro -- although the background vocals more than make up for it. As a kid, I didn’t even know what this song meant, but I loved the melody and the wordplay. Since the husband always answered “Nobody” when Sylvia asked who he was spending all his free time with, she began referring to the “other woman” with a new name -- “Nobody.” Now I wonder, does she think she’s being clever? (“Clever, oh oh!”)

At the end of two weeks of random phone calls and restaurant sightings, Sylvia decides she’s got one chance left to keep her husband and she is staking her claim: “I’m gonna love you like ‘Nobody’ can -- even better!” Um, I’m not sure that out-loving “Nobody” is the solution, Sylvia. But really, what is the answer? It’s a tough dilemma all around, which you can see by reading some of the very personal and revealing comments on the Sugarland blog entry about “Stay.” 

You don’t hear a lot of cheating songs on country radio anymore, although the 1980s had a good share of them. Reba McEntire’s “Little Rock” (also quite perky), Keith Whitley’s “Don’t Close Your Eyes” and Steve Wariner’s “Leave Him Out of This” all come to mind. But since Sylvia’s tune persistently gets stuck in my head, year after year, I think I’ll always love “Nobody” like nobody can.

I don’t know if it was Johnny Ray, Elvis Presley or some overheated divine stomping the floorboards of a rural church who first decided a singer could deliver his lyrics more effectively by throwing his whole body into the act. Whoever it was, I wish he’d kept it to himself. Fifty years or so after the unfortunate birth of rock ‘n’ roll, it still annoys the hell out of me when singers shimmy, strut and prance about the stage instead of letting me focus on the content of their songs, which, presumably, is why they put those utterances on record. Should I ever be in the mood for extravagant motions set to music (a yearning from which I have so far been spared), I’ll watch a DVD of Riverdance.

Although concert contortions have long since taken root in country music, the greatest and most durable acts -- stylists like Eddy Arnold, Ray Price, Marty Robbins, George Jones, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Conway Twitty, Vince Gill, George Strait, Alison Krauss and Alan Jackson have all managed to enthrall millions by the sheer expressiveness of their voices. They didn’t and don’t require a half acre of stairs, ramps, runways and risers to convey strong and sometimes complex emotions. The same goes for opera stars who can bring onlookers to tears without heaving their considerable tonnage hither and yon.

Being a champion of free expression, I have absolutely no desire to impose my preference for immobility on others, even if I could. If some tone-deaf, nuance-starved wailer wants to drape himself in live ferrets and swing from the rafters by his eyelids, he can rest assured that I’ll go to the wall to defend his right to make a galloping ass of himself. But such gymnastics eclipse the subtle art of delivering a lyric. Worse still, they goad the audience into joining in the mindless revelry. There’s no uglier sight than that. Tell you what, why don’t I trade you my ticket for your CD? That way I can at least find out what the songs are about.

Years ago, Tom T. Hall had a hit called “Country Is” that built its lyrics off the difficulty in establishing a perfect definition of country music. A Dolly Parton record that turns 30 this week ends up demonstrating the problem perfectly. Released on Oct. 6, 1977, “Here You Come Again” was the record that took Parton from a respected singer in the country ghetto to an ambassador for the genre across all pop culture. She expected it to generate controversy. She’d already dropped her Nashville management in favor of Hollywood representation, and the song -- written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, also responsible for “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” -- had an overtly pop melody. Parton was so sensitive about its reception that she asked her producer to throw a steel guitar in the background just so she could say one was there.

For all the predictable hand-wringing the song generated among country traditionalists, the public at large loved it. “Here You Come Again” topped the Billboard country chart for five weeks and peaked in pop’s Top 5, right between the Bee Gees and Rod Stewart.

At the time, I was a high school student who loved pop music and I resented hearing Dolly Parton’s country junk on my station. In time, of course, I grew to love the record, and country music too, but I can still see why traditionalists were unhappy. It didn’t sound anything like older Dolly Parton records, and certainly nothing like the honky-tonk-steeped music of George Jones or Moe Bandy.

Today, a lot of traditionalists are mad about current country; it sounds too rock to their ears. If you compare Keith Urban and Jason Aldean hits to old George Jones or Moe Bandy records, or even “Here You Come Again,” they’re right. But they’re also living in a vacuum. If you listen to those songs next to Nickelback or Maroon 5, Urban and Aldean are undeniably country. As a Country Music Hall of Fame member probably should, Parton ends up a good teacher: A country song is defined not by history, but by the era in which it appears.

Photo by Keystone/Getty Images

I guess I'm feeling the need to explain what I'm talking about in the blog I'm fixin’ to write, because questions about where I'm from come up in almost every interview I do. I'm from Texas and live here still. But, in any interview that I do, whether it's with a magazine, a TV station or whatever, this question comes up: "So, what do YOU think about the Nashville music scene vs. the Texas music scene?" I don't know if they are asking me that question just to ask me (because of the obvious geographical differences), or if they are aware of the differences and want me to put my stamp on the answer.

Nashville music and Texas music are, in fact, very different. I love both places to pieces. I live in Texas now, but I'm not saying that someday I won't move to Tennessee. Nashville has been overly spectacularly wonderful to me. They have nice green trees and tons of talented people and meat-and-threes. If you don't know what a meat-and-three is, look it up or ask your favorite Nashvillian and they can tell you.

Well, anyway, here's my answer:

You can ask any Texas girl, but I think we are brought up with a little extra sass down here. I think they put extra sass in the chicken or milk or something, because most all of us have it. It's gotten me in trouble my whole life, but doing this for a living allows me to let it out more than I could if I worked some other type of job. I don't know what it is, and I can't pinpoint it, but if we are staying true to ourselves, like we are taught, then that sass will come across in our music. It may come across more in-your-face than you'd expected, or it might be downright not your style, but once you listen, you are kinda drawn to it, because it's tough, come-and-get-it, raw emotion.

When someone asks me about Nashville music, I say, "Shawn Camp, Jim Lauderdale, Monty Holmes, Radney Foster, Darrell Scott, Thom Schuyler, John Scott Sherrill, Billy Yates, Leslie Satcher, and the list goes on." These are some of my favorite writers behind the hits that the artists are singing. I mean, they live in Nashville, so wouldn't that be classified as Nashville music? These writers have written tons of hit songs for the likes of Josh Turner, the Dixie Chicks, Lee Ann Womack, Sara Evans, George Jones, Faith Hill, Lacy J. Dalton, Martina McBride, and the list I'm sure goes on.

All I'm saying is, check out the behind-the-scenes on the CD booklets. We make those so we can give people the proper credit. I often find myself listening to the original writers’ versions because those are the most raw and in-your-face. I mean, a lot of times, writers are that -- WRITERS. But in this case, all the ones I listed above are singers and performers and musicians as well. They all write what they know and that comes across. Check some of those folks out and let me know what you think. Better yet, try to find some of their live shows. That will get you hooked.

I recently came across a new CD called The Greatest Country Love Songs – now that’s a brave title. I rarely listen to love songs so I’m rather surprised to be telling you that it’s a pretty cool compilation of covers, sung by country artists who don’t get played on the radio anymore. Most of the selections are familiar but a few artists dig deeper, like Daryle Singletary’s fine rendition of Keith Whitley’s “That’s Where I Want to Take Our Love.” (George Strait recently recorded the song too.) Tammy Cochran succeeds greatly with “Help Me Make It Through the Night” and there’s a real sparkle to Gene Watson and Rhonda Vincent’s “Together Again.” My favorite track is Neal McCoy’s lively take on Charley Pride’s “Mountain of Love.” You can tell he’s having a blast bringing it back to life.

Usually I am reluctant to give props to covers but I’ve had to relax my standards lately. My favorite CD this year is bound to be Teddy Thompson’s understated Up Front and Down Low, which almost entirely consists of classic country songs. (I am obsessed with the hidden track, “Don’t Ask Me to Be Friends,” from the Everly Brothers' vault.) Close behind is John Prine and Mac Wiseman’s Standard Songs for Average People, a carefree collection of other people’s songs that they both like, including Tom T. Hall’s insightful “Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine.”

On the R&B side, just wait until you hear Bettye Lavette’s scorching interpretation of George Jones’ “Choices.” Also, try out Marc Broussard’s “Let the Music Get Down in Your Soul” (originally by Rance Allen) and Joan Osborne’s “Break Up to Make Up” (by the Stylistics). Sometimes a melody provides enough inspiration – for example, James Alan Shelton’s instrumental, acoustic take on Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence.” By the way, I recommend the full albums by all these artists.

Do you know Pat Benatar’s “Love is a Battlefield”? Of course. But have you ever considered what it’s really about? You will when you hear Jann Arden sing it on her new CD, Uncover Me. Her version slows down the melody just enough to get you wrapped up in the words. I’ve heard this song a hundred times before, but now I can see myself in it – a lot. The pulsating introduction is definitely killer, but when it comes to the inevitable contradictions and unexpected turns in relationships, this song’s got it covered.