Country Music Medicine

For Christmas last year I bought my sister a new Cosley record player. I picked it up on Black Friday for a steal so I figured she was worth it that year. The old record players at our grandmothers house had long since quit working and both my sister and I had wanted to start a collection of classic vinyls. Mom thought we were crazy, wanting music with all the pops, crackles and static that accompanied those old records. But to me, the idea was perfect. That's how my favorite music was supposed to sound. That's how fans all across the world listened to the best of the best before those records and those artist were legends. I won't lie; I shrieked, I cried, I jumped up and down and acted like a child when I found my Greatest Hits of Waylon  album. Waylon is my hero. The music he made, his duets with Willie, all the songs and love with Jesse, his work with the original boy-band super group The Highwaymen. He was as imperfectly, perfect as the idolization you still see wh...

American country musicians have always kept a strong backbone with their country and faith.  So many country music songs have told the truth in God's word. Fans have found grace in the ballads and gospels brought to us by some of His greatest problem children and strongest believers. One of my all time favorite gospel songs is "Wings of a Dove".  While I was growing up , my Grandpa Guy never had a truck that had a reliable radio- a working CB radio- but never an F.M. dial and the A.M. stations were hardly anything but talk radio static at best. However, the old township truck he drove plowing snow for Richwood Township, could actually get the A.M. stations that played music.  At the young age of 8 or 9, riding with him, plowing snow one winter, coming up Sugar Creek Road and by the Hagen family farm, what would be my 1st recollection of both "Wings of a Dove" and Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" came through that distant sounding A.M. radio static....

Welcome to Female Friday where feminists and music lovers rejoice! Everyone knows that the country music industry is crushing big time on "bro country" and has been for the last five or so years.  While the 90's to 2000's roared to life with Shania's upbeat female anthems, Terri Clark's more traditional twang, Faith and Martina's love songs.  We were busting Jo Dee Messina's give a damn and Trisha had us falling in love with the boy. The new era has reversed us into a downward slide off of super-girl mountain.  With T-Swift bowing out of the country side of town, our two greatest sold female performers are, Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood, standing alone on the mountain, desperately clinging to the ground they fought to claim.   Even as I claim to stick to my guns of being a well rounded fan, my own female music list can, on occasion, be found lacking.   While stars such as, Kacey Musgraves, Kelsea Ballerini, Cam and Maren Morris, fight...

Today turkeys are thankful for vegans, the Waltons are thankful for Nixon and Clinton's trade deals with China and one of my many things to be thankful for is all of you. My new readers. That's right you guys. Families gather round to stuff bellies with grandma's old fashioned recipes and that new thing your sister-in-law made she found on Pinterest.. Then it's off to shop for most of the country (I'll probably do some from my phone- after all, Christmas isn't cheap) and we will spend America's holiday embracing, then forgetting the things we are truly thankful for. Not the 50% off t.v.s but family, friends, and freedom to pursue our happiness. (Unless you wish to be a criminal minds unsub. Then please abstain.) So on that not let me leave you with a song that brings memories of family. The rocker gone country singer Aaron Lewis released it on The Road album before Blake Shelton did on his 2013 Based on a True Story. Penned by Dallas Davidson, Rhett Ak...

The Turnpike Troubadours. Haven't heard of them? Don't worry they are on my more recent list of discoveries too. Fear not your day is quite literally about to be made. The country American folk-rock band from Oklahoma has been actively making music for over 10 years, they boast five albums with the most recent release Along Way From Your Heart haven been released last month. If you're into beautiful young love songs, even without the happily ever after- "Good Lord Lorrie" from the 2012 Goodbye Normal Street album is for you. When you live in an Illinois River town "Long Hot Summer Day" from the 2010 Diamonds and Gasoline, is bound to be your favorite song.  The song talks about working the tow boats and hauling barges, specifically mentioning Beardstown and Alton. Which, is awesome when your tiny half-horse town is pretty much smack dab in the middle of the run. For any of you Texans out there, you can catch the band on tour dates through December ...

One-third of the Pistol Annie's power house is bombshell, Ashley Monroe.  Her song "Satisfied" seems like a good as any heart breakin', Man-Ache Monday.        "I want him but he don't want me/        He wants somebody else that I can't be." In these two short lines, she is hitting the nail on the head for about 75% of the single women population, but hey, at least she's being honest with herself and helping her audience do the same.      "And his wife's got a letter that she can't read/      from a boy who never came back from the sea." So crying?  That's what we're doing today?  It appears so, because  Ashley Monroe wasn't satisfied until we were all gut punched in the feelings with this one.  "Satisfied" comes from the album of the same name that was released back in 2009, but received next to no credit that it deserved, much like Ashley herself. M...

Our first Throwback Thursday belongs to the 80's.  1981 to be exact and Willie Nelson's classic- "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground".  From "Seven Spanish Angels" to "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground", the self proclaimed outlaw and problem child of God has always been able to seduce perfect rustic harmony from any tune he sings. In early '81 he brought to life the haunting and beautiful sound, telling the story of finding love and wishing best for a fallen angel. The story was rumored to be about the "Hell's Angels" as one of Willie's good friends was a member of the notorious biker gang. While Willie never confirmed nor denied the rumor, however, he once commented on it being about his wife Connie.  The hit would peek at #1 on the country charts following the still successful hit, "On the Road Again". There has been at least six covers recorded of the Willie penned song, "Angel Flying Too Close...

Music heals the soul.  Country music in particular has always had that ability.  From the cords and lyrics to the artist and the fans, a community of one.  From healing broken hearts, to healing the heart of a broken nation.  A heavily recommended dose of Country Music Medicine.

Bocephus Illinois State Fair August 2015 On my 9th or 10th birthday, my uncle Ted bought me a cassette (yes a cassette) tape of Hank Williams Jr. Greatest Hits "Dixie on My Mind" "Kaw-Linga" and the like.  I knew who Hank Jr., Bocephus, Rockin' Randall was. I know it sounds like a strange gift for a girl who - although I loved grandfathers A.M. classic country stations - was listening to Faith, Martina, and Shania (it was the early 2000's).  I didn't know it then but that one record would change my musical life forever.  My first real step into outlaw world, my very first outlaw album. Hank Jr. would go on to be the soundtrack to my favorite nights, my favorite concert. Music that would help heal the devastated heart. A man who could sing "All My Rowdy Friends", and change the lyrics to "all my rowdy friends have been called home" at the Illinois State Fair 2015 and make a grown woman and ahem -at least one grown man - bawl. ...