We were watching the CMA Summer Music Festival on TV the other night, and we were so amazed that so many performers were ones we had never heard before. AND music, country music? No, I don’t think it was that kind. There was no “Hello Darlin'”, “He stopped liking her today” or no “Boy Named Sue”.
And do you remember how older stars like Porter Wagoner, Glen Campbell and Hank Williams dressed? There was more bling than a pass from “Red Hat Ladies.”
On the night of the CMA special, there were ripped jeans, failed t-shirts, caps and tennis shoes. Although some of the ladies should have had more yarn so that so much skin wasn’t showing through the dressy clothes being worn. What happened to the bling? I liked it.
The songs I listened to growing up were about lost loves, cheating, double-dealing, bluegrass and dance music. Now his message is a mixture of pop, rock and hip-hop and the words repeated over and over again, and my old ears can’t even understand the words, so I just listen to the melody. There are only 12 different notes on the chromatic music scale that can be played on different instruments to get different sounds, but somewhere they have to overlap and sound the same. Older crooners put so much expression into their music – remember Bill Anderson’s whisper? He could make me cry when he sang “Still”, now it’s a volume: booming. You can’t tell if they’re singing about cheating, love, or fighting. I really miss old country music, but I guess that’s because I’m old.
Roy and I loved to dance and would go back to the days of our antics quite often, but there would be no way we would get caught up in the new dance moves like Shiggy, Shoot or Renegade or TikTok dances. I’m not sure, but if I walked into one of those dances I’d probably think they all had some kind of tremor or shock vibe and I was getting the hell out of there.
I miss authentic old country music – slow ballads, smooth, sweet music. But, if any of our young dancers entered one of our dances called the twist, the ballad or even the Watusi, he would think that we had lost control of our faculties and would put us all in the dumps.
DANCING CHICKEN
(Grilled chicken on a can of beer)
1 whole chicken, 3 pounds, washed and patted dry
Mix 1 tbsp dry rosemary, 1 tbsp dry poultry seasoning, 1 tbsp garlic powder, salt and pepper with 4 tbsp olive oil. Rub the mixtures all over the chicken. Place a cut lemon and a cut onion inside the chicken with 3 tablespoons of butter. Push a fully opened beer into the can inside the cavity and place it in a deep-lined pot. Bake at 375 degrees for 50 minutes. The liquid will help the chicken stay moist and tender. Use the liquid in the bottom of the pan after cooking to baste the chicken.
