Going back almost a month to my Country Music article , as well as the Nashville series I wrote last year , I've been mulling over a lot of things lately. Specifically, I've been trying to figure out a way to write 2,000 words about how I don't get Hank Williams...but even with that thesis statement, I can't elaborate for more than a paragraph or two. Sure, he's highly influential...but he's exactly of his time . His overall tone and sound are exactly what you'd expect from a 1940s country artist. He's memorialized and venerated due to his short career, that's all cool and good, but I don't understand the reverence and sanctity that are held around his name. Again, that's all on me. I lack the context of being involved in mainstream country in a pre-Hank world, and simply cannot appreciate the changes that he and his popularity brought to mainstream country. The closest analog that I have context for is the paradigm-shifting song, Crui...
Not pertinent to anything, but I don't have any other proper outlets to write this. I've been making a conscious effort to listen to my entire record collection lately - rough estimate, I own somewhere around 100 to 120 records, most of which were purchased over the years at thrift shops for $20 or less (my favorite era was the 2010-2020 era when records were as cheap as 3 or 4 for $1). I've got them arranged alphabetically by artist, then title (or simply title in case of a compilation/anthology or soundtrack), and marked with a sticky note in the corner to show which ones have been played: I'll remove the little sticky note flag when I play one. As vinyl has had a recent resurgence, I have maybe a dozen new purchases from merch tables at my Year Of Concerts , or online from various podcasts about music . I started buying records right around 2013 or 2014, searching thrift shops for specific titles which I'd cut into guitar pickguards, as seen in this Etsy pos...