Ten Favorite Music Songs: Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (And Loud, Loud Music) (#1)

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The music fades on another series, this one dealing with "music" songs, or songs that have the word "music" in the title. Here's the top song on my list of favorites with "music" in the title. #1: Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (And Loud, Loud Music) - Joe & Rose Lee Maphis Joe Maphis was one of the greatest guitarists ever in county music: technically good and flashy. They called him "King of the Strings." So why haven't you ever heard of him? (Well, the fact that he was popular in the 1950s aside....) Simple: he was a west coast-based country singer. And, much like other greats like Rose Maddox, Skeets McDonald and Wynn Stewart, the west coast country acts just couldn't get through the Nashville-centric hype. (That's still true: if you want country music, go anywhere but Nashville, yet what does the entertainment industry tell you?) Oh, well, it is what it is. At least people have recognized the greatness of this, the best-known song in Joe and Rose Lee Maphis' career. Flatt and Scruggs were the first to record this, even before Joe and his wife Rose Lee (who's still alive and living in Nashville, working as a volunteer tour guide at the Hall of Fame) did their own version in 1953. As old as this classic is, and as many times as it's been covered, it wasn't until Vern Gosdin's version that it finally made the Billboard country charts. It's a timeless song, country to the core. Thanks for reading. Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (And Loud, Loud Music) Written by Joe Maphis, Rose Lee Maphis, and Max Fidler Recorded by Joe & Rose Lee Maphis Released as a single, 1953 (Also covered by Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, 1952; and Vern Gosdin, 1985) The only kind of life you'll ever understand: