More about country music..............

[Bob Wright]

Under the thread about the Golden Age of Country Music, I opined that there was no more country music because there was no more "country." That is, a way of life has disappeared.
My uncle, Mr. Arthur Williams, lived near Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee. His house was perched on a hillside with a creek flowing past the front yard. There was a path that followed the creek between his house and the creek. The front porch of his house was maybe four feet high above ground.

Now my uncle and his wife never had any children of their own, but years ago somebody gave them two young boys to raise. I never knew whether the boys were brothers or not, but they were raised as such. One of the boys married, and he and his wife kept house for my uncle, as my aunt was confined to a wheelchair.

On Sundays, the "cousin's" wife, would prepare a big dinner and set it on the front porch. Folks coming from church in town would stop and take dinner with them under the shade of the big tree in the front of the house. This the big tree where the man was hanged. After dinner, folks would start a singing that would last well up into the afternoon. Mostly church songs, but a good sprinkling of ballads and old folk tunes. Some of the songs I remember were "Lonely Tombs" "I'll Fly Away" and "When I take My Vacation in Heaven."

Now that was real country, a lifestyle gone forever.

Bob Wright

 

[rkittine]

I enjoyed my time living in Franklin, Tennessee and driving through Leper's Fork every day on my way to work past many a home like you describe with some very down to earth good folks.

Bob

 

[Trucker]

You can still find pretty much the same sort of attitude and music but you'll have to find it in local jam sessions. Sometimes it's called Blue Grass although I personally make a distinction. Some of my Bluegrass friends won't allow electrified instruments although they will allow one to mic an instrument. Sometimes they're called "Garage Bands", and so on. They're out there if you know where to look. Commercially, Country Music is gone gone gone .... The spirit is gone and as the generation that begat real Country Music and their children ride off into the sunset there is no demand for it.

Could real Country Music ever make a comeback? Not impossible but not likely either.

 

[ned]

Mr. Wright, we have never met but I lived in Germantown TN as a lad. Although we have never met and I have never seen the house you refer to….I sure remember it and others like it. Good times gone. It was nice to read your post and go back to the front porch with sweat tea and cornbread at least in my mind. Ned

 

[Colonialgirl]

We lived in Millington, TN on the Navy Base when my Dad was in; He was a "lay" preacher for the Church of Christ and would get invited to small country congregations to give the Sunday Morning service; NEVER FAILED that we would get several invites home for Sunday Dinner and they were always delicious (lots of Fried Chicken) .
Boy, now THAT's a LONG LONG time ago; I was in the 3rd/4th grade.

 

[ned]

Spent some time doing civilian stuff at Millington- walked into a bar near the base in mid day sun; bar was as dark as a tomb...as I walked in a guy yelled
'look out for the hole'...I stopped fast and short, they all roared with laughter. I must not have been the first to walk into their dummy trap

 

[Colonel Daddy]

Makes me think of Tom T. Hall's song "Country Is....."

 

[Selena]

Makes me think of Tom T. Hall's song "Country Is....."

Makes me think of Hall's "Kentucky, February 27, 1971"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjkx44dt2uA

The moldboard plow is a thing of the past due mainly to the higher price of fuel. Square bales of hay fell victim to the idea that teenagers "deserved" minimum wage for the task. Pigs used to be called "mortgage lifters" but today if you can't raise a semi load at a time you can't sell more than 2 or 3 a year. In Dad's day there where 3 terminal livestock markets within 100 miles, now there is none. The sections we farm by ourselves now where 13 "family farms" when Gramps was still running the place. Gramma used to wait until late June for fry squash out of the garden, today I can buy them in mid-December at Kroger. The woodlots that once provided the fuel to heat the "home place" over the winter are now planted in corn to pay for the propane that heats the place now. When my Dad, uncle and aunt where my son's age they roamed all over the country. Enough so that Gramps made sure each had a dog so when he needed to find them he could call the dog and head the direction the dog came from. If I allowed LR to do the same I'd be up on child endangerment charges before he crossed the pasture fence. The human race has made a lot of progress in many areas, but somehow we have become victims of that progress in many ways. You have to think before you place the blame.