I was introduced to country thanks to Bill Mack, the Midnight Cowboy, who was on WBAP Radio (40,000 Watts of Power!) and my grandmother. I can still recall the hot summer nights visiting my grandmother, with the windows open to catch any breeze. There were the sounds of crickets and the occasional howling tomcat coming from outside; and from a transistor radio resting between our pillows came the sounds of Bill Mack and country music.

Thinking back on on my early love of Country Music, I can’t help but think about Willie Nelson.   Nelson was from Texas and did a stint as a DJ in Hillsboro, Texas, which is a short 45 minutes from my grandmothers. He was a song writer as well, writing such classics as Crazy, Pretty Paper, and Hello Walls for other singers. His first number one single as a singer was Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain, from his Red Headed Stranger Album. Can you believe that Columbia Records questioned the album’s use of only a guitar and piano?

I could share a dozen songs from Willie Nelson that I can listen to today and still recall the wonder and appreciation of hearing it like it was the first time and long to sing along. I won’t share a dozen, however, but I will share this wonderful recording of “Always On My Mind“, which won a Grammy in 1982 as Song of the Year. The songwriter in him certainly certainly lends itself to just the right mix of instruments and pacing and I have to admit I like this version better than the Elvis version:

As I got a little older, I realized the Country Music wasn’t so popular with my friends. It’s funny, I grew up in a town where the Kowbell Rodeo had a rodeo every Saturday night between 1958 and 2004, yet the music that was popular was pop and rock. I could enjoy the pop, but I still went through spells of listening to country. By the time I was 13, I had begun singing in spaces outside of my shower (and my living room, where my sister played the piano and I sang). No matter how much I wanted to sing classical arias and popular songs, my voice was best suited to the music I had always loved, country and folk.

When thinking about the days of purchasing sheet music and scrambling for a piano or guitar player to serve as an accompanist, I can’t leave out the amazing Patsy Cline. The movie “Sweet Dreams” came out when I was in high school, and music from that soundtrack made it’s way into both performances as well as part of my audition for a scholarship for college. This is probably one of Cline’s most famous songs,and it was written by Willie Nelson.:

It’s funny, when I was surfing for videos to post, I ran across this song from the 80′s by the Judds. Funny, because I ran across the sheet music to this song in the garage a week or so ago. It’s also funny because the song is quite appropriate for me these days.

It’s been at least two years since since I’ve sung in public, unless, of course you count singing at the grocery store. I do that mainly in an attempt to embarrass children, though I think they find humor in it. I haven’t purchased sheet music in twenty-years. To be honest, I was never a reader of music. I learned everything by ear. These days, I just need to hear a song a couple of times to sing along. The IPod is a wonderful thing as is the ability to search for videos via Google. I’ve been on a habit of listening to CMT in the mornings when I am doing my morning emails, so an introduction to some of the newer faces in Country Music is part of that process.

In addition to the new faces, however, I am treated to hearing from an artist I would consider a real classic. Like Loretta Lynn. In 1994, a Coal Miner’s Daughter does an album with rocker Jack White of White Stripes, which was released when Lynn was 69. Portland, Oregon is one of the best songs in that collection. As I was pulling videos for this post, my youngest commented “her voice doesn’t sound old at all!”  No, ma’am, she doesn’t:

And now that I’ve shared some of the older voices that I’ve grown to love throughout my lifetime, how about closing this post with this sweet song from one of the newer artists, The Zac Brown Band:

I hope you are having a lovely Good Friday. I know that I am……