Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Simplicity

There is definitely beauty in simplicity. I had earlier found such beauty in country music. My earliest memory of thoroughly enjoying country music is kind of an odd story. My parents, for some unknown reason (and I don't accurately remember precisely WHAT they would purchase) went 'shopping' at a local discount store called TOPPS. They did this EVERY FRIDAY evening.
When I was younger, I would go, of course. In my later trips to Topps, I would spend the period in the record section of the store browsing through all the vinyl beauties that were available at the time, popular items of which retailed for $3.47. (I'm not sure why I remember that number. It may simply be due to the fact the I had little money and kept close tabs on how much I would need to purchase things that I found desireable. By the way, Luskins (another retailer of the time) sold record albums for $2.99 so needless to say, I visited Luskins whenever I could.) I found myself drifting toward country music record albums. It's now unclear what, specifically influenced this branch in my musical development, (I do remember my cousin owned the 45 of Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash, which MAY be the original spark to the country music fire that consumed me at the time.) but I do remember (and don't laugh PLEASE) that the television program "HeeHaw" came about before, during or shortly after this time, which undoubtedly provided another opportunity for exposure to country artists of the day.

So I spent my Topps evening looking at Buck Owens, Charley Pride, Porter Wagoner, Merle Haggard, Tom T. Hall and others popular country artists at the time. Later, when my parents embarked upon the weekly jaunt to Topps, I stayed behind to happily wash the dinner dishes. Why happily? Because in the other room, the 'ancient' (even back then) radio we inherited from an aunt was playing WBMD AM loudly enough for me to hear in the kitchen. The 'genre' of the playlist on WBMD at the time - Country Music.





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