Sonny Garrett's Odds & Ends: Let's hear those old songs again and again

When's the last time you heard Loretta Lynn on the radio? New song or old, can you remember the last time you heard one? What about George Jones, or any country singer who isn't twentys-something, blonde and cute?

I started thinking about that when I heard this week that Jerry Reed had died. There was a time you could hear one of his songs at least once a day, whether it was "Eastbound and Down," or "Amos Moses" or "When You're Hot." But I suppose the refrain in that last song - "When you're hot, you're hot, when you're not, you're not" �?says a lot about why we don't hear classic country music on the radio these days.

What's hot these days in country music, to a large part, are singers who really ought to be pop stars. Pretty little blondes, most with wispy voices, and hard-edged guy singers trying to be macho seem to be the order of the day. Sure, there are some whose music has a touch of traditional country sound, but mostly it seems as if it's all become a bit homogenized.

Now I know I've griped about this before, but it's just been bugging me lately. I guess it really began when we were at Buffalo (Unincorporated), Tenn., and visiting Loretta Lynn's Hurricane Mills. At the restaurant there, they played her songs, naturally, as well as at her museum. But we also heard songs by other traditional country artists at the museum. There was a special exhibit honoring Johnny Cash, where his early music was played.

Young folks these days are missing out on a lot of good music since radio hardly ever plays "hardcore" country these days. They may hear a few of the current performers mention their influences, but likely as not they have no idea who those influences are. You can appreciate music better if you have at least a little knowledge of where it came from.

There are current performers whose work does carry on traditional country sounds and themes, such as Brad Paisley, Toby Keith, Trace Adkins, and Josh Turner, even Gretchen Wilson. There's a fair amount of contemporary sound in their songs, too, and some of it rocks a bit, but they're still in touch with the music's roots.

Yet it's still not the same as the ones I grew up with and learned to appreciate, especially as I got older. Back then, my folks kept the radio tuned to KCMC in Texarkana, or WBAP out of Dallas, back when it was a country station and not talk radio. That was their music, and it became part of my music, too.

I listened to rock stations, too, especially WLS in Chicago at night, back when it was a music station, not talk radio. These days, there are "classic rock" and oldies stations that play those songs. But I haven't found any country oldies stations that play country music from those same times.

It'd be nice to turn the radio to a station where you could hear country performers, most of whom can be recognized by one name by those who know them: Loretta. Marty. Patsy. Willie. Hank (Sr. and Jr.). Merle. Porter. Johnny. Dolly. Ernest. Waylon. George. Tammy. Eddie. Dottie. Chet. Reba. Randy. Lefty. Buck. Webb. Charley. Ray. Mel. Conway. Kitty. Faron. Stonewall. Ronnie. Whisperin' Bill. Vince. And, of course, Jerry.

And if you went a little farther back, how about Jimmie Rodgers �?"The Blue Yodeler" �?and The Carter Family?

These performers created a tremendous body of work that seems to be overlooked these days as everybody looks for the next big thing or the star of the moment. You have to wonder how many of the current stars will have the staying power of there predecessors. Some will; most won't.

It seems if there are rock oldies stations, why not country oldies as well? And what about videos, too?

Like other "music" video networks, CMT and GAC seem to devote more time to other types of programming than music and music videos. I remember when CMT was brand new, and Mountain Home's low-power television station then, TV43, played CMT and its country music videos.

Country music was just getting into video then, so some of them were rather simple. A few of the homemade music videos you find on YouTube these days are more sophisticated than those early professional country music videos. But some were well done, and even elaborate.

"Pancho and Lefty" by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard was a mini-movie that told the song's story. Travis Tritt had a couple of music videos, featuring him in a continuing storyline about a disabled vet that were tear-jerking. Ronnie Milsap had a few cool, well-produced videos, too, and Bocephus had some star-packed videos. There also were a lot of performance videos that were good.

In its final days, local TV station TV43 played a continuous taped loop of CMT videos. It got so you could tell the time by what video was playing. I hope that tape's still around somewhere, because it contains some classic country videostry videos and some from artists who haven't been heard from since then.

Back to the point, I still think there's a market for country oldies because I'm sure there are other music lovers like me who would appreciate hearing those songs again. And I'm sure a lot of the performers would appreciate being heard on the radio again, too.

Sonny Garrett is editorial-page editor ofThe Baxter Bulletin, a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and author of "A View from the Hills." E-mail him at [email protected].