Are there any Merle Haggard fans out there?  

I know that Mama tried. She gave it her all. But boys will be boys, men will be men, and life just doesn't stop for those of us who will not stop doing all those things that women don't approve of.

Thank-you so much for responding. I hope that I will have another few days to mylot. "If We Make it through December" will bring tears to my eyes everytime. "Wanted Christmas to be right for Daddy's girl..." Never seems to work out. I made it through December, but I'm barely making it through April, much less May. Oh, I've got a lot of business, and I could even get some music gigs, but it's just all gone awry.

"Everything does change except what you choose to recall..." From my "My Favorite Memory". It gets so hard sometimes. If I could only resurrect all my friends who have gone on to the grave. But I cannot, for there is only one begotten Son. There is only one - and I am not Him. I believe that Merle had a concept of Christianity that 99% of us don't have.

Again, thank you, and may God give you the blessings of life,

Dan

If country music's only appeal was to those that live in rural areas (thanks for commenting, by the way - bless you), it would never gotten off the ground. Fact was, it did get off the ground in a big way because of not only Johnny Cash, but Glen Campbell, Tammy Wynette, Waylon and Willie, Patsy Cline, and Loretta Lynn. And those are just the artists - the list of songwriters behind those great songs we remember from the 60s and 70s would boggle the mind. And then there are the producers and the studios themselves. It is indeed a huge industry, today.

I had the rare opportunity to play with the remaining members of Bob Wills' Texas Playboys many years ago. They played alright - from morning to about 2 AM the next morning. I was friends with Jerry Gimble, Johnny Gimble's brother, who played a little piano, and made his own beer. A little sweet, but it got us by. Johnny Gimble played that awesome part on George Strait's "Amarillo by Morning" - you know, the fiddle? That's all that Johnny wanted to do - that Johnny. Unheralded, and unsung, but yet another fabulous artist in the country music field.

Country is not always my favorite genre, but it keeps its place because of the sheer amount of effort I know that goes into making it. In other words, singers have to be able to sing so that we can understand the words. Pickers have to get every note right. Piano players can't just bang out the melody or the chords. Bass players can't go off in a spasm of their own, and drummers sure don't want to lose time. I've got respect for the Nashville sound because I've got respect for the players. I may not be much, but I'm something.

Hang in there, as my "Johnny", or Jonathan David Brown, the producer of my CDs, loves to say.

Dan