Music

Not that I have a lot of people who check out my blog, but I'd like to think that I have a few that check us out from time to time. To keep you entertained while reading about our latest happenings, I have posted a play list for your listening pleasure. However, I feel like I need to explain this list as my musical taste is quite different from that of most people. So here it is.......

Music. I LOVE music! I am the one at the stoplight jammin' in my seat, singing at the top of my lungs, and the car is visibly vibrating due to the volume of the music. Unfortunately, that is about the extent of my musical abilities. My dad and brother are blessed with the natural musical talent. They are both fantastic singers. While neither one of them can read a note of music, they can hear a song on the radio, pick up their guitar, and play it through perfectly! Me.....I don't sing (at least when there are others within ear shot) and I have to practice a song on the piano a million times before it sounds remotely familiar.

Now to my play list choices.....

My first choice is Marie Lavaue by Bobby Bare. When I was little my dad used to sing this song all the time. He would come in from a long day of work and we would beg him sing it for us. I love those songs that are half sung, half spoken as someone is telling you a story. (I know, that is what most songs are, a story, but this is a little different.)

Then there is Thank God, I'm A Country Boy! by John Denver. First of all, I love John Denver. Secondly, when I was about 5, my dad got a new tractor that had a CAB.....at the time, the fact that it had a cab was a big deal. (One day I'll tell you about the combine we had that had a horn. Hours of entertainment I tell ya! We led such simple lives!) It had air conditioning, which was awesome, and my brother and I were able to ride with him because it was all enclosed and we wouldn't fall out! But most importantly, it had an 8-track tape player. Whoo-hoo! We thought we were so "up town"....or maybe I should say "up country". John Denver was the first 8 track tape we bought to break in that 8-track player, and Thank God...was the song that was playing on my very first ride. Just brings back happy times.

The other tape we bought was Kenny Rogers and my favorite song on that tape was Lucille. "You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille....With four hundred children and a crop in the field." Dad would laugh hysterically when I sang that......it's really not four hundred children, but four HUNGRY children.
Hee! Hee! I was so cute back then.

Put Another Log On The Fire.....that's a tricky one. It is sung by Tompall Glaser and he was a member of The Outlaws which consisted of Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter. I used to love this song and thought it was the silliest song I had ever heard as I couldn't believe that any woman would let anyone treat them that way. Listening to the lyrics now....not so silly...but still like the song.

There is a little town close to where I grew up. Every January, or maybe it's February (could even be March....hey, it's been 20+ years since I've been there) anyway, they have a small festival called "The Quack Off!" What they do is ice over the tennis court in town and you can "rent" a duck and race it down this icy tennis court. As silly as it sounds, it really does draw quite the crowd. In conjunction with "The Quack Off!", members of the community would put together a mock Hee-Haw show.....and let me tell you it was absolutely HILARIOUS! My dad's band was the house band for the show and would do special features in between the skits. One of the special features was Dueling Banjos performed by my brother and dad. Except, in their case, it was "Dueling Guitars".

Just a couple more I promise......

Back in his band days.....one song my dad was known for was The Auctioneer by Leroy Van Dyke. I remember Dad working and working on this song until he got it just right. It was my favorite song he sang at the time and still request it whenever his band mates get together.

I had to include Fat Bottom Girls by Queen but put the Hayseed Dixie version in on my play list to stick with the theme. Even though Fat Bottom Girls is not a country song and Queen was so not a country band......my boys know every word of that song! Our friend, Rick, asked Ro one day, "Do you know your kids (this was back when we only had two) know the words to Fat Bottom Girls? That's kind of cool!" They also know Bohemian Rhapsody.....we all shake our heads wildly through that crazy part in the middle (imagine sitting next to that picture at a stoplight)....well, all of us except Ro....he's a little too reserved for that kind of behavior.

You can't go wrong with any song by Roger Miller. He was so versatile...... Johnny Cash is one of the "great ones" and I chose A Boy Named Sue because Shel Silverstein wrote it. If you know anything about Shel....he is a famous children's poet.....funny, funny, funny!

Did you make it all the way through this post without falling asleep? zzzzzzzz

And finally...Happy Trails by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. My grandma had a beautiful upright piano and my brother and I would sit on the end of the bench while she played and we would sing like we had never sung before. The most requested song by us was Happy Trails. We spent hours sitting on that bench with her and singing along while her fingers flew up and down the keys. I really miss her.

To most of you, the mere mention of the word "country" would send you running as fast as your legs would carry you in the other direction. However, to me, these songs bring back a simpler time and take me back to the country roads of Otoe county, sitting next to my dad in his red Ford pick up truck, windows down, summer breeze blowing through my hair, and the radio turned up.

Good times.....

S