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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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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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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Country Music Reclamation Project: Lorene

I read a statistic this week that a quarter of teenagers today have sexted another; that is, they’ve “shared sexually explicit photos, videos and chat by cell phone or online.” The speed at which we can communicate now is not only immediate, but is faster than common sense can keep up with. Technology has yet to perfect the means to pull back a poorly considered, quickly composed thought. I’m sure text-messaging kids would be fascinated to learn that, just a few decades ago, people wrote letters, and the wait for a response may have been weeks or months. Not all …

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Passings: Les Paul

You know that you’re a success when your name is used to represent your creation and, in the same breath, endows in it a sense of quality and authenticity. I’m going to defer to the many guitarists who are mourning the 94-year-old Les Paul online today, who love what he created and did with his life — they are better than I am at describing how his work changed the world. But I want to acknowledge the passing of this man and what he accomplished. By all accounts, a master with a guitar in his hands, Lester Polfus didn’t settle …

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Country Music Reclamation Project: The Sweetest Gift, A Mother’s Smile

For my mom, gone from this world six years now. I hope she wakes up with breakfast in bed every morning, and with no worries about her kids. The Sweetest Gift, A Mother’s Smile (performed by the Blue Sky Boys) Written by J.B. Coats One day a mother came to the prison To see an erring but precious son She told the warden how much she loved him It did not matter what he had done She did not bring to him parole or pardon She brought no silver, no pomp or style It was a halo bright sent down …

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Thank You Lord (for Kelly Willis)

The lesson a music fan can take away from the career of Kelly Willis may be this: If you resist the manipulation of major-label tools, you might not be invited to walk the red carpet at the CMAs. But at least there’s a chance you will earn respect through the virtue of solid songwriting and performing skills, and still get to be the same real you. Recording three albums for MCA, beginning in 1990, Kelly was a promising, attractive — if not a little bland — act that the label had a hard time marketing. After being released from her …

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Country Music Reclamation Project: Mama Tried

If you live in Minneapolis, you’ve probably read the recent news item about a couple of teenage burglars who beat an 85-year-old man nearly to death in the process of stealing a few bucks from his modest home. The man has survived, but the photos they show of him on the news are sickening — red bruises all over his face, and stitches around and over the top of his scalp, the result of attempts to relieve swelling in his brain. This is the kind of thing that makes me sick and angry, and I don’t have any sympathy for …

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Passings: Hank Locklin

I made a bad joke to friends a few years ago when Hank Cochran died that he was the fifth best-known Hank, and we were down to just a few contenders left. Well, I consider Hank Locklin the third best-known Hank, and the highest-ranked “living Hank” before his death yesterday. Hank Locklin’s greatest moment may have been “Send Me The Pillow That You Dream On,” a really sweet song, so earnest that it could never be recorded today, when the sentiment would be considered creepy. I believe that “Please Help Me, I’m Falling” was an even-bigger hit, although both songs …

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Country Music Reclamation Project: Rank Stranger

A few years ago, I drove through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee. Besides being one of the most beautiful places in America — the trip took place while the leaves were changing through an incalculable range of colors, and the damp cold could be felt on the mountaintops and in the shadier areas — there was an oppressive feeling of isolation, not only because the park is large and the visitors few that week, but because if there had been others in the park, you likely wouldn’t have seen them through the trees and around the endlessly …

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