Makes me want to go Country

When I was about 12 or 13, I would help my dad deliver milk door to door. We'd get up at midnight, when everyone else had the luxury of snoozing away, get into the Carry Van, and head over to the giant refrigerator he kept the hundreds of glass half-gallon bottles full of milk. I'd watch as he loaded up the van, then we'd drive all over the city filling orders from his customers. I would take the wire basket and fill it according to his instructions: "OK, the Smiths. They need two half gallons of homo (homogenized, or whole milk), a carton of half-and-half, and one dozen eggs." Then out I'd go, into the blackness, hoping the Smiths' dog was tied up in the back, which, of course, he never was. I hated it. I hated it more than anything. It colored the rest of my childhood with awful memories of being so tired that I'd get out of the truck and puke on the road, of not getting any sleep because I was so afraid I wouldn't get enough sleep before we had to go, of getting screamed at because, in a daze, I had gone back to bed. While we delivered milk, we listened to Earlybird Bob Burtenshaw on the radio and his parade of country favorites. I heard Johnny Paycheck, Mickey Gilley, and Tom T. Hall sing about honkytonkin' (whatever that was) and stronger whiskey, looser women, and faster horses, or however the song went. And I was sick of hearing whoever it was say she never promised me a rose garden. The music was a monotonous drain on my little-boy sensibilities and I hated it, too. To this day I hate country music. It opens a sick and oozing wound whenever I hear it.

That's why I'm always so surprised to find that there's some of it that is good. I just read an article about Loretta Lynn's new album and it makes me want to get it. I like the idea of Jack White but I haven't heard his music yet. I know, I know. I must be the last one on the planet to be able to say that. I'm currently in a music bubble. It used to be that I was up on everything new and cutting edge. I listened to punk and new wave and just plain weird stuff. But nothing's new anymore. The "alternative" scene is a bunch of crap, repeating itself over and over. So I got into classic rock, immersing myself in the stuff I missed because I thought it was dull. It's been quite an experience, discovering the good music that I'd ignored--almost like living in a new era. But in doing so, it seems I'm missing out on good stuff again. I was the last one to discover Nora Jones, and now the White Stripes have eluded me.

This article reminds me of an interview with Dolly Parton that I heard on NPR a few years ago. She was discussing her new album, and despite my intense dislike for Country Music, I found myself really enjoying what I heard. As a person, she was cute and funny, and her music, hearkening back to old English folk, was a startling surprise. I still haven't purchased the album but I need to. There are country musicians I like because of their willingness to step outside the box: Willie Nelson and his love of blues, Johnny Cash and his pushing the envelope into darker and harder genres, The Kentucky Headhunters and their Led Zep influences, and now it seems possible that Loretta Lynn might work in there as well.