MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC

Remember the old song, “Put another nickel in, In the nickelodeon, All I want is loving you, And music, music, music”? That sums up how I feel about music. I love all kinds --- from classical to fifties rock’n’roll to big band to inspirational, and on and on. But probably the music I appreciate as much as any is good ole Country.

First of all, the songs usually have a lively beat and often the lyrics are priceless. Kenny Chesney’s song about summertime brings to mind my high school summer days when life was soooo easy (although I’m sure we didn’t think so at the time). Trisha Yearwood’s “Jasper County Rain” tells the sad story of unrequited love, and while it is sad, there’s something about it that is so true to life. And songs like that about the South really hit me right where I live.

Many of them tell a great story. There’s one about a bus wreck in which four people, a teacher, a preacher, a farmer, and a hooker are described. Three of them die because there are “three wooden crosses on the right side of the highway.” We know as the song progresses that the teacher and farmer die, and that the preacher says to the hooker, “Can’t you see heaven?” but we are not sure until the end which one of them goes. Finally, the singer tells us that he is in church listening to his preacher tell the story. From the pulpit the preacher holds up the blood stained Bible and reveals that it was his mother who was the survivor. I had actually listened to this song quite a few times before I really "heard" the words and understood the ending. What a story of redemption!

Other country songs can be quite inspirational. Denise Jackson once told me that she was sure some of the songs that Alan writes are inspired by God (“Where Were You?”, “It’s All About Him”). But then she laughed and said “Not all of them, though --- ‘It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere’ was not.” But you know, I really like that song, and when Jimmy Buffet comes on in the middle of it, I just get chills --- I can just see him strolling out on stage as a surprise and joining in the song.

I think that one of the best lines in country music is from a song by Randy Travis (?) “Forever and Ever, Amen”. In it he sings “I’ll love you as long as old men sit and talk about the weather, and as long as old women sit and talk about old men.” Can’t you just see a group of old weather beaten old men sitting on a front porch talking while their wives are sitting in the kitchen complaining about them? I love it!!