Country Music Reclamation Project: Mother, I Saw You With God Last Night

For my Mom, a song that always jumps out and surprises me. I would’ve thought it was corny when she was here, but I don’t any longer. Mother, I Saw You With God Last Night (performed by Onie Wheeler) Written by George Sherry and Jean Crowe Mother, dear sweet precious mother, mother, sweet precious mother, I saw you with God last night He was holding to your hand, showin’ you around in the Promised Land I saw you with God last night Gonna write two letters to the heaven’s blue, one to God and one to you I’m a gonna …

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Passings: Charlie Louvin

It’s been a sad day as I note the passing of the great Charlie Louvin, singer and songwriter. Charlie and his brother, Ira, were The Louvin Brothers, of course, who recorded and performed some of country music’s most-beautiful songs, including the song that inspired the name of this blog. The Louvin Brothers story deserves a screenplay. Ira had a temper and a problem with alcohol, but wrote sincere and inspirational country gospel standards, very possibly aware that the sinner he often sang about was himself. He died, with his wife, in a car accident in 1965. Charlie, who began singing …

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Country Music Reclamation Project: Someday We’ll Look Back

I get my love for country music from my Dad. I can remember him on one knee in front of the endtable/stereo, intently listening to his Johnny Cash singles, memorizing the words so he could sing them around the house. He was always singing, and despite having an ordinary voice, was never shy about it. As embarrassing as it was when I was a teenager, it was endearing when we were both much older. We definitely bonded over my rediscovery of country music, and a lot of records I brought him as an adult reawakened the love for this honest …

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In My Day: A Day For Fathers

I have nothing else to do on Father’s Day but reminisce. I am not only fortunate to have had good fathers in my life, but have still have photos and their accompanying stories to remind me of the tremendous role that a father plays. I flip through the photos I have in iPhoto, and am amazed at the power of photos taken decades ago can still have, even when viewed through such a cool medium well into the 21st century. I can look at photos of my Dad (1924-2008), who loved to share jokes and listen to music. A guy …

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Movie Review: The Messenger

2009. Starring Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson. Directed by Oren Moverman. My Dad was fond of an old country song, “The Letter Edged in Black.” He recalled that, back in the day when all communication, however urgent, relied on mail service, letters bearing bad news were enclosed in envelopes marked with black around the edges. The intent was to warn that the message inside was not routine correspondence, and that the recipient should be prepared to hear the worst. The shock of learning some things without warning would only amplify the message. The next of kin (“NOK” in military parlance) …

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Movie Review: Crazy Heart

2009. Starring Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Directed by Scott Cooper. I’ve probably watched a total of 15 minutes of American Idol over the years, usually early in the season when they focus on those who perform, well, less Idol-like. Those not-ready-for-prime-time singers get a inordinate amount of airtime — enough so the audience can relish the dream-crushing coups de grace from the show’s judges. Whether the early cuts take their discouragement in tears or by rejecting the judgment they lusted for minutes earlier, they have to accept that they have failed. Their belief in themselves has betrayed them. I’m …

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Country Music Reclamation Project: Sweet Dreams

Sometimes I wake up in the morning confused about what I just dreamt. Why has someone I haven’t thought about in years suddenly appeared in my subconscious, or why did a person I barely know walk into the scene I watched while deep asleep? What did that appearance mean? Our dreams might seem like keys to mysteries we need answered, but more often than not, they result in more questions. One of the best-loved of all country songs, Sweet Dreams is one of the simplest, saddest expressions of lost love that I’ve ever heard. Few things are worse than using …

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Movie Review: Make Way For Tomorrow

1937. Starring Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi. Directed by Leo McCarey. Leo McCarey’s Make Way For Tomorrow is known by more than one critic as “the saddest movie ever made.” I think that claim could be challenged if you consider sadness to be tragic, cruel and the result of the too-often human disregard for humanity. In that case, you’ve got Schindler’s List, The Killing Fields and Fires on the Plain to compete with. No, the kind of sadness that permeates Make Way For Tomorrow is a sentimental weariness concerning the passing of time and the changing role of parents as …

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Movie Review: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

2002. Directed by Chan-wook Park. Starring Kang-ho Song. American movie portrayals of “vengeance” are crowd-pleasers. Mel Gibson has practically adopted the motivation as a screen persona. Vengeance as a plot device kept Charles Bronson employed for many uninspired years. Picture Harrison Ford in almost any movie in the past decade-and-a-half and he’s probably yelling, “Give me back my daughter!” or “I want to know what happened to my wife!” while the veins in his neck threaten to secede. The Korean director, Chan-wook Park, has explored vengeance in a trio of movies — Oldboy, Lady Vengeance and, in the first of …

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Movie Review: Anvil! The Story of Anvil

You learn something every day. One day, you know nothing about a Canadian heavy metal band named Anvil, and suddenly you learn that they’ve recorded twelve albums (and are working on numbers 13 and 14) and were considered to be a contemporary of metal legends like Metallica, Anthrax and Motorhead. You might not have known that Slash of Guns ‘n’ Roses was a teenage fan and that, once in their youth, they met with head-banging reverence by festival crowds. And, surprisingly, you learn that a documentary about a past-their-prime Canadian heavy metal hair band on a long, long losing streak …

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