Tag: Country Music
With the nice weather I've had a chance to spend a lot of time outside. We've either walked around the neighborhood or played the with kids in the yard. The last couple times we've walked, I couldn't help but think that something was missing.
I hear the usual sounds on our walks:
Singing birds
Kids at recess
Woodpeckers knocking on trees
These are sounds I have heard all my life in the spring and summer. The thing that was missing goes to show the progress of technology I suppose.
Growing up, weekends were spent mostly outside. I recall vividly that Saturday afternoons, my dad would pull out a big bucket, huge sponge, and the garden hose and wash the car.
It was also the day that he'd pull out the lawnmower and cut the grass. All the yardwork was done on the weekends.
Toward the end of the day, dinner was prepared on the grill. Burgers, hot dogs, or grilled chicken would be typical weekend menu items.
These things all still happen today, but in most cases, something is missing – Music.
When dad washed the car – we'd listen to Casey Kasem and American Top 40. When dad mowed the lawn or did work out in the yard, the radio would be sitting on the cement by the garage blaring music. The music would continue as dad flipped burgers on the grill. Sometimes it was music, sometimes it was a Detroit Tiger game. The radio was always on and the sounds from it interspersed with the other sounds I mentioned earlier.
There was a guy outside on our walk yesterday who was waxing his freshly washed car with no music whatsoever. The guy we saw grilling was just standing there staring off into space. He took a second to say hello as we passed, but then went right back to staring. Then there was the guy shoveling some dirt and working in the yard. He had ear buds in, so there was music, but only he could hear it.
I guess one of the things I loved about music being everywhere as we grew up was the discovery of new music. Everyone's radios were tuned to whatever they wanted to hear. The sounds of pop music, oldies music, rock music, country music and more all screamed from the speakers of boom boxes, car speakers, and cabinet speakers from a stereo system. As I'd pass a house, it was often possible to hear a song I had never heard before. This would lead to a trip to the local record store to find it.
Don't get me wrong, I love being able to hear the songs of the birds and children playing, but that sound from a distant speaker is one I miss. To be fair, I still get my fair share of music on walks, because my daughter is often singing "The Wheels on the Bus" or "Mary Had a Little Lamb" at the top of her lungs. Come to think of it, that may be the only music I need …
nostalgicitalian Uncategorized 8 Comments June 2, 2022 June 2, 2022 2 Minutes
I follow quite a few blogs that focus on classic movies, classic TV, and great music. One of the bloggers I follow posted a bit about Dwight Yoakam and his great song "Ain't That Lonely Yet." You can see that blog at the following link:
Dwight Yoakam – Ain't That Lonely Yet
When I am driving in to work, or at work listening to my iPod or Pandora, I will jot down songs that I think I might want to post for Tune Tuesday. The day he posted his Dwight song, I had been listening to my iPod and heard one of my favorites, which is today's tune.
In 1990, Dwight Yoakam released his fourth album "If There Was a Way". It produced 5 top 40 singles – "Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose" (#11), "You're the One" (#5), "Nothing's Changed Here" (#15), "It Only Hurts When I Cry" (#7), and "The Heart That You Own" (#18). He also released a duet with Patty Loveless called "Send a Message to My Heart" which reached #47. The album also includes some great cuts that never played on the radio: The uptempo "Since I Started Drinking Again", the bluesy title track, a cover of Wilbert Harrison's "Let's Work Together" and the opening song – "The Distance Between You and Me"
The song opens with a lone guitar lick, and then goes into a classic country riff. A teacher I had in high school used to say country songs always had an "un-chicka un-chicka un-chicka" beat to them….LOL. When you listen to it, you will know what I mean.
Dwight wrote this song. I'm not sure what his inspiration was, but I LOVE the illustrations he paints for us with the lyrics. He is in a dead relationship. They two are co-existing. They are two people who could not be farther apart. How far? The lyrics explain.
The Distance Between You and Me
Take a rock tie a rope
Throw it down in the sea
Let it fall to the bottom
Nobody knows how deep
Stare real hard through the water
And you might just perceive
Take a map of the world
And measure with your hand
All of the miles
Across all of the land
Write it down add it up
And you might understand
About the distance between you and me
I lie awake and hear you breathing
Only inches from me in this bed
Not much space but it's all that we needed
To live alone now that our love is dead
Climb the Earth's tallest mountain
To where it reaches the sky
Take a gun fire a bullet
Straight up out of sight
Where it stops in the heaven
Well that ain't half as high
As the distance between you and me
I love the haunting final chord at the end of this song! I saw Dwight in concert a few times and he really is great on stage. I actually had the chance to meet him once and it was … weird. Everyone with Meet and Greet passes all went into his tour bus. We all sat down and he exited what must have been his bedroom on there. He walked around to each of us. Shook our hand. Looked directly into our eyes and asked our name. He then repeated our name and said, "Hi,(your name). I'm Dwight." The whole time I was thinking, "Dude! You have been making records for years…..you have a ton of hits…..we all have tickets to your show….we know who YOU are!!" He was very gracious and signed autographs and took pictures, but it was one of the most awkward meet and greets I have ever been though.
nostalgicitalian Uncategorized 4 Comments May 7, 2019 May 7, 2019 3 Minutes
I spent the majority of my radio career playing country music. I started with oldies, dabbled in classic rock, played adult contemporary songs, and even had a stint at an urban station. If I add up the years by genre, I have played more country music than anything.
Today's country music, in my honest opinion, is more like a southern rock. Some of it even borders on rap. My current PD (and many others) call it "bro country," whatever that means. Recently, on my weekend show, I actually played a George Strait song – a new one at that! It actually sounded country!
While some laughed at Darius Rucker for cutting a country album, he actually fit right in. Darius, of course, was/is the lead singer for Hootie and the Blowfish who burst on the scene with their album Cracked Rear View in 1994. They had some huge hits and great success. Darius did some solo stuff in 2001, and in 2008 signed with Capital Records to release a country album. That album was called "Learn to Live".
The album had some great songs on it. The first three singles (Don't Think I Don't Think About It, It Won't Be Like This For Long, and Alright) all reached #1! While I Still Got The Time, Drinkin' and Dialin' and Learn to Live are also great songs lyrically and musically. The song that just stands out the most for me on the album is "All I Want".
Darius co-wrote the song with songwriter Frank Rogers, who wrote Brad Paisley's "I'm Gonna Miss Her." (Brad Paisley, coincidentally, plays lead guitar on the song. ) Darius says that the song sounds like it was written by two guys who hate their wives, and thought when he played it for his wife, she'd think he wanted a divorce. He says that wasn't the case at all. Darius stated that when they wrote the song, there were a lot of people around him getting a divorce, and that's where the idea came from.
As someone who was recently divorced, this song was one that I played often on the iPod. The entire first verse, I could relate to:
"Don't act surprised, it ain't like you didn't know.
It's been like a long time coming and it's time for me to go."
While the subject matter of the song is a bit more serious, the way it is written in a tongue and cheek sort of way, is just one of the reasons I love it. The last lines of the chorus, is one of my favorite lines in music. Darius said when his wife heard it, she was on the floor laughing. I also love it because it has a great boogie-shuffle rhythm to it.
"All I Want"
Don't act surprised, it ain't like you didn't know
It's been like a long time coming and it's time for me to go
Tryin' to split things up could drive us crazy
So I'm gonna make this easy, baby
You can have the money, you can have the house
Take the Cadillac and that boat out back
And your mother's pink and yellow couch
You can have every penny that I'll make from this here song
Girl all I want you to leave me is alone
Don't get me wrong I will always love you, girl
You were my life you were my heart, you were my world
But we both know it's over, there's no need to fight it
Girl I just need some peace and quiet
So you can have the money, you can have the house
And ugly pink and yellow couch
You can have every penny that I will make from this here song
Take the big screen and your diamond ring
And those shoes that you swore you couldn't live without
Girl all I need you to leave me is alone
Side note to trolls: All I want you to leave me is alone! 🙂
nostalgicitalian Uncategorized 4 Comments April 30, 2019 3 Minutes