Choices…
Though I was born and raised in Tennessee and have resided in the Nashville area for the last 19 years, I’ve never been a big country music fan. Yeah, I know, heresy… Sorry, but somehow Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Reba and the rest just never quite did it for me like Miles Davis or Brubeck, Charlie Parker or MJQ, Mingus or Ella.
Recently I was scanning around the dial while driving and paused long enough to hear a song by “The Possum” himself, George Jones, who lives a few miles down the road on the other side of Franklin from my home. (Aside: One of the many interesting things about living around here is that all these celebrities are your neighbors, from Dolly her-own-two-selves, to Alan Jackson, Amy Grant and Vince Gill, the old story teller Tom T. Hall, and on and on… And yes, you see them at the grocery, the gas station, high-school football games, and the mall; mostly they are just folks like us, ‘cept they’ve got millions in the bank and live in multi-million dollar estates behind locked gates.)
The lyrics made an impression on me as George warbled them out in his inimitable style. So I made a note to look up the lyrics later. It turns out that this song was written after George tried to stare-down a concrete bridge abuttment at excessive speed just a couple of miles from home back in 1999. Reports have it that he had been having a long meeting that evening with some guys named Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, Johnny Walker or whatever, and was damn lucky to have lived to write this one. This also caused him to cancel all future meetings with those gentlemen. You can hear his regrets in the lyrics. Good life lessons here for all of us.
According to The Country Music Hall of Fame “Choices”, a single from the album Cold, Hard Truth on the Asylum label, received a Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal Performance. Chastened by his accident, Jones gave up alcohol and cigarettes and turned to sacred music for the 2003 double CD The Gospel Collection: George Jones Sings the Greatest Stories Ever Told on BNA/Bandit.
Thank you, neighbor, for sharing this with us…
4 Comments so far
Winston, I love the idea of seeing all these celebrities in the grocery store! And this surely sounds like a song with purpose and meaning, although I have to say that I often enjoy a good “crying in your beer” type Country toon to get the tears a tumblin’ down my cheeks on a rainy day!
That was a very interesting song which I have never heard. I am a fan of country western but only when it got into the ‘hard to tell it from pop’ phase and not all of them. I like Tim McGraw, JoDee Messina, Gary Allan, etc. the ones that went for more rock sounds and were considered heretics by some for how they didn’t stay true for country’s roots. Speaking of heretics, I like Big and Rich. *s*
I also like the more pure western which would be like Ian Tyson albums.
I know my comment doesn’t follow the thread of this post, however I’ve just read your comment on thinking out loud. Yes, as a child who grew up looking on America as a country of freedom and liberty, this return to religion does disappoint me. If only someone had written in the constitution, “and the freedom not to believe if you so chose”.
Next time you see Dolly, tell her that a Rayfield cousin says ‘hey!’