Loretta Lynn hugged me. In her dressing room in Reno. After I had sent the country singer two dozen roses to say there were no hard feelings.
More about that later.
Country music gets the short shrift up North. People like me who enjoy it — who've been to the Grand Ole Opry and seen Montgomery Gentry, twice — tend to be on the down-low on the subject. Maybe we're embarrassed to defend our affections. For me, it's the honest human emotion. I don't have a daughter, but Ashley McBride's "Light on in the Kitchen" still chokes me up. Admitting that is off brand, I suppose.
It shouldn't be, not in Chicago. For all the talk of Chicago as home to the blues, to jazz, and even to house music, we somehow rarely get around to talking about our rich country music heritage. Rich and deep — the WLS National Barn Dance, which predated the Opry by two years, was first broadcast 100 years ago Friday, on April 19, 1924.
If you haven't read Mark Guarino's "Country & Midwestern: Chicago in the History of Country Music and the Folk Revival," it's a richly-researched, utterly fascinating revelation, from the Barn Dance to Ernest Tubb coining the term "Country and Western," in 1947 at the prodding of "a record man from Chicago," trying to escape the confines of "hillbilly music."
The program was the center of country for decades, drawing all sorts of stars. Gene Autry lived in Aurora . Bill Monroe recorded "Blue Moon of Kentucky" at the Wrigley Building. In the 1920s, Chicago mayor William Hale "Big Bill" Thompson was known as "the cowboy mayor" for his Stetson hat and Nebraska ranch, and once rode a horse into the City Council chambers. We've gone from that to a mayor who can't hold an impromptu conversation.
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The Ken Burns PBS documentary, also mentioned that about early days WLS. Glad you got to meet LL.
ReplyDeleteIt's worth noting that Loretta Lynn's granddaughter Emmy Russell is a contestant on this season's "American Idol." Nice kid (well, 25), and writing her own songs. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
ReplyDeleteAnd today's my oldest daughter's birthday, Neil. The song you shared was unknown to me until just now, and I sent it to her as a beautiful birthday gift. Thank you for your writing.
ReplyDeleteThere was a great 2-season podcast from a few years ago that dives into the history of country music called "Cocaine and Rhinestones." It's hosted by the son of David Allen Coe, Tyler Mahan Coe. It was a wild listen, and I learned a lot of inside industry stuff that I found fascinating.
ReplyDeleteAs a kid classical musician with only enough talent to play in orchestras with real musicians who went on to professional careers in major orchestras, I got to listen to a lot of great music up close. Growing up outside Detroit I loved Motown and jazz and soon came to the Duke Ellington conclusion, "There are only two kind of music, good music and the other kind." The most memorable live performances I ever heard were by Vladimir Horowitz, Yo-Yo Ma, Leon Russell at the Uptown....and Dolly Parton at the Auditorium Theatre. Great backup musicians and wonderful songs in her reedy country voice.
ReplyDeleteMy first wife was a backup singer for Dolly in the 80s.
DeleteThis is as weird to type as it will be for you to read, Mr. S, but I was literally at the Gate of Horn before you were born.
ReplyDeleteEarly in 1959, I was still in sixth grade when the JCC rented a storefront near Oakton and Kostner and turned it into a "tween" (pre-teen, literally "between" childhood and adolescence) activity center. We had co-ed "socials" with a similar place in East Rogers Park, in an old mansion near Touhy and Greenview. One of the highlights was a bus trip to hear folk music at the Gate of Horn...a special "tween" performance on a Sunday afternoon.
All I can recall about that day is a large Black man singing a Negro spiritual called "Rock My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham"...very loudly. All the Jewish tweens had to sing the unfamiliar lyrics. Who was he? Not a clue. Wasn't Big Bill Broonzy...he had died the year before. And there's a Chicago scene in a great 2013 film..."Inside Llewyn Davis"...about a struggling New York folkie. It's set in what was probably supposed to be the Gate of Horn in the early 60s. Art imitating life.
My folks were charter subscribers to the National Observer, a weekly newspaper owned and operated by Dow Jones from 1962 to 1977. I clearly recall a series of pieces about Uptown, and how it drew thousands of poor Appalachian whites in search of work, and how awful they had it, and how sketchy the neighborhood was. Which was true. Prejudice kept them struggling, and barely surviving. And those were the years when a number of white and Hispanic street gangs were born in Uptown. Sound familiar? Only the skin tones were different. I think one of the writers may have been Hunter S. Thompson.
When I worked at two of the big LaSalle Street brokerage houses in the early 80s, the R.R. Ranch on Randolph was extremely popular as an after-hours watering hole. Sadly, I was something of a musical snob in those days, having exchanged rock and bluegrass music for jazz and classical. So I never went, even though I heard it was quite a party. Sounds like I missed something.
It's encouraging not to be the oldest guy in the room.
DeleteNeil, I for one hope you won't be the oldest for a long while -- I turned 18 the day you were born.
Deletejohn
Despite a trip across the Texas radio desert, listening to endless odes to pickup trucks, beer and date rape, I still enjoy country music. Sometimes. Usually it's the women like Ashley McBryde, Kathy Mattea's "Where've You Been", almost anything by Mary Chapin Carpenter, and even Faith Hill's "There's a Place" makes this atheist almost wish for belief.
ReplyDeleteThis whole topic seems sorta "off brand" to me, but any regular reader of EGD or your column knows that you contain multitudes! Regardless, this piece was a fine way to mark the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the National Barn Dance, which surely would have slipped by unnoticed by me. That book has gotten some fine reviews.
ReplyDeleteWe've attended the Grand Ole Opry and would tune it in occasionally if we were driving somewhere, and we managed to slog our way through the 16-hour Ken Burns documentary "Country Music," mentioned in the first comment here by Private, but I can't really say that we're fans. Oh, we also watched "George and Tammy" a miniseries about George Jones and Tammy Wynette that featured brilliant performances by Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain. Frankly, I've always preferred bluegrass to straight country, however.
Anybody with a PBS Passport account can watch the whole 16-hour documentary anytime, if they want to! The WLS National Barn Dance gets its moment in the sun, needless to say, and the part about Loretta Lynn is excellent.
https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/country-music
If anyone wants to read more about Uptown & the Appalachian migrants, this is a great article:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.wbez.org/stories/uptowns-moment-as-a-hillbilly-heaven/30865527-ab8a-4432-a637-14c4f614f424