A Wonderful Era Remembered

I've posted a few times about my childhood, my dad was a truck driver and how I developed a appreciation for classic country music. The Statler Brothers, Marty Robbins, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Glenn Campbell, Tom T. Hall, Dave Dudley, C.W. McCall (I still get pretty fired up when I hear Convoy or Wolf Creek Pass), and a few others.

Well one of those 8 tracks we listened to a lot when there wasn't a radio station around was from Red Sovine. Red Sovine was THE master of the spoken word song. A genre that has long died and gone away. Jimmy Dean with Big John is a classic, Lorne Greene had a few like Ringo, even Walter Brennen tried his hand at it and Grandpa Jones. Red stood head and shoulders above all of these great artists though.

As old as I am, I still get very misty when I hear Phantom 309, Giddy Up Go, Little Joe, and probably his masterpiece Teddy Bear.

No one before or since Red can do a ballad like he does. His quiet quivering voice can reduce me to wiping my eyes in no time at all. Well that doesn't mean a whole lot, there are lots of things that do that but Red probably is close to the record!

Sometimes I wish that the spoken word song would make a come back. It really is a great art form and it is sad that no one records this style of song anymore. There are so many stories out there to be told. Alan Jackson attempted to bring this kind of song back but it lasted about one song and that was it.

If you can find Teddy Bear out there (which you can since it is now posted on my My Space page) listen, have something to wipe your eyes with just in case.