Part I: Music For The Heart

I live in a 55+ community in Cornelius. Been here ten years. Expect to be another ten—God willing and the creeks don’t rise. There are some tales I could tell you about our unique neighborhood—mostly good stories. And good people. The story I have chosen for this month is about a friend who lives a few houses from me on Coulter Parkway. I won’t tell you his name, but I will tell you a bit about where he is from as I will about where I come from.

He is a New York Yankee—by birth, by residence, religion, marriage, and by his favorite baseball team, which was always my favorite team growing up because of a certain Oklahoman who hit homers completely out of the ballpark. That hitter and I shared the same name, so I guess it was kismet that made me a Yankees fan. Not a fan of Yankees—geographically, but a fan of the Yankees-on-the Diamond. My friend of whom I write is so much of a Yankee that he has an Eye-talian accent.  The polar opposite of my Red-Neck from Alabama pissant accent. And he is as proud of his brogue as I am of my twangy drawl. Our differences are our strengths.

I trust that this will not upset any my neighbors since we Southerners here are mightily overwhelmed by our friends of the northerly persuasion. But that is not what this column is about.

Actually, it is about the Country Music that all Yankees should know about if they intend to live in the South. Appreciating the artform of the mountains and hollers—the backwoods and farms—is as important to us rednecks as our biscuits, grits, and double first names.

My friend asks me often, “Mickey, which country songs should I learn to appreciate? What a question. One does not learn to appreciate country music any more than an Alabamian can learn to appreciate MOMA. One is born with certain genes or they aren’t. But I will give it a try. So here goes.

I have put the country music performers and connoisseurs in two groups— the young-guns and the graybeards. I begin with the younger crowd.and it has to start with the longest song of any genre (yes, I know that word).

This list starts with the longest time any song of any genre (yes, I know that word) has rated one.
Therefore, Ella Langley and “Choosin’ Texas” has to be at the top of any list of modern country songs and singers. Ella Langley just broke Mariah Carey’s record of 22 weeks: “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”  If you already know about Ella Langley, did you know she is an Auburn Tiger? You do now. Ella was born in Hope Hull, Alabama in 1999—a small town south of Montgomery with population of 7355 people. Likely there are more cattle in Hope Hull than people.

Chris Stapleton slides in easily and confidently at #2. He grew up in Staffordshire, Kentucky. Father was coal miner, and his mother worked in the Health Department—more kismet there than the Yankees being my favorite baseball team. Chris was valedictorian of his senior class of about 225 students. “Tennessee Whiskey,” and “Traveler” are his two most recognized songs, but my favorite is “Maggy’s Song” about a pup someone left in a shopping cart in a parking lot. Nothing pulls at a dog-lover’s heart strings like the chorus:

Run, Maggie, run
With the heart of a rebel child
Oh, run, Maggie, run
Be just as free as you are wild

You can find the entire lyrics at https://genius.com/Chris-stapleton-maggies-song-lyrics. But listen to the entire song. And bring the Kleenex before you start.

Stapleton started in Nashville as a songwriter and has published 370 songs in his career. To get a sense of what needs to come in order to move from young gun to legend, Dolly wrote of 3000 songs.

John Bradley DeFord AKA: Jelly Roll. I can’t ignore his shooting-star popularity. He is from Antioch, Tennessee. He clearly has many-a-story to tell, and the fans have latched on to them.

Megan Moroney is known for her breakout “Tennessee Orange,” and I guess if I can give props to Ella for her Auburn roots, I can recognize Megan for crooning about the Vols although she is actually from Douglasville, GA. Go figure.

The Red Clay Strays, from Mobile, Alabama are a young group worth getting to know. They started out as a successor to a cover band in the Mobile area, but the more they played their own songs, the more people wanted to hear them. Great story. Good group. Maybe great one day.

Readers, next time you come by for a visit, we’ll share a dram of 18-year-old Glenmorangie Scotch, crank up the turntable, and sing along to the music that continues to define the legends, the geography, and the culture of an entire region of America: The South.

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I like that old style of country music—it seems to me that a lot of modern country music is rehashed rock ’n’ roll.

-Leon Russell, Southern rocker