1986 Top Ten Songs: Montana Cafe (#6)

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This ought to put your head in a spin, especially if you play today’s song after yesterday’s tune. I can’t help myself, I just like good music. And yes, I acknowledge that my definition of “good music” is completely different from everyone else’s, but then that’s true of everyone when it comes to matters of taste. So, with a hearty “Linda? NO!!!!!!!” (I haven’t had to say that in a while), here’s today’s 40-year-old song. #6: Montana Cafe - Hank Williams Jr. The first time I heard this song I couldn’t believe that Hank Williams Jr. set everyone up for a mention of his dad then didn’t mention him. The verse about the jukebox (“there’s names like Johnny Cash and Ernest Tubb, and I’ll bet you’ll find we’re gonna relax ya, sit back and listen to ‘North to Alaska’”) just screams “mention Hank.” And he didn’t. What restraint! And, for a guy who had Tom Petty and Huey Lewis guesting on this album, this song sounds pretty darn country. This is the man bragging “we know Van Halen” in “Young Country”?? Yeah, that’s why my dad never liked him. (Glad Hank Jr. wasn’t inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in my dad’s lifetime…it would’ve killed him!) I tend to like Williams’ output before he fell off the mountain, but this (putting in a subtle reference to his near-fatal accident on Ajax Peak, Montana in 1975: “I’m way out here on the Idaho line,” which is where his life nearly ended) is a marvelous song. I listened to it nearly non-stop while I was in Montana in 2021. The lyrics proclaiming “I finally got my priorities right” and the promise that “the special is the peace of mind” resonate with me. And even though I don’t drink coffee, the promise of “coffee and a smile here anytime” is quite inviting. Montana Cafe Written by Hank Williams Jr. Recorded by Hank Williams Jr. From Montana Cafe, 1986 I do not miss what I left behind: