Country Musings Archive

2009 Country Musings

• How does Merle Haggard do it?
• An Open Letter to XM-Sirius Satellite Radio

2008 Country Musings

• Sturgeon, Rimbaud, Buck and Me
• Father of the bride, part 2
• George Carlin on country
• Wedding bells blues
• A spoonful of musical history
• Dan Fogelberg's living legacy

2007 Country Musings

• Not by any stretch of the imagination a country music column
• I Get Emotional
• Standing by Tammy Wynette
• Maybe they'll name a county after me
• How I wish Dallas was in Tennessee
• When Will I C You Again?
• Let's talk about sex
• Remembering Felina

2006 Country Musings

• Time isn't on my side
• Random thoughts from a guy who thinks about country a lot
• I don't know, but I want to know
• Smoke that cigarette
• Coming to grips with technology
• Money and honey
• Signatures and Buck
• Music matters
• Two words to the wise

2005 Country Musings

• The end of the innocence - the death of Stringbean
• Happy anniversary to me, part two
• Happy anniversary to me
• Revisiting old friends
• My Hart belongs to Freddie
• Love that lasts
• Mondegreens revisited
• Cheesecake conundrum
• Sinking your teeth into music

2004 Country Musings

• The concert experience
• And the answer is
• Death of an unknown legend - Johnny Bragg
• Long live the king of country music
• Living in interesting times with Big & Rich
• The new rules of the game
• The ones that got away
• Where have all the funny songs gone?
• Good art, great art and masterpieces

2003 Country Musings

• Are we eskimos or witch doctors?
• 1-800-HAS BEEN
• Everything I know about geography, I learned from country
• To share or not to share
• Now about that CMT list
• Missing June Carter Cash
• Janis and Patsy
• Memory problem
• 2 minutes and 26 seconds of therapy

2002 Country Musings

• With quo vadis y'all, or what's country
• Controversy rears its ugly head
• George Jones and the difference between love and lunacy
• Silence everyone with a contrary opinion?
• In the nick of time
• Thank you, Miss Emily Litella
• What's wrong with outmoded technology, like cassettes?
• Waylon Jennings made an outlaw out of me
• Music would play, and Felina would peddle refried beans
• About questionable lyrics

2001 Country Musings

• The ultimate heresy
• A time to laugh, a time to mourn
• No more kidding around
• The handyman special or how to write this column
• You have thought of cheating, haven't you?
• Didja hear the one about Billy Ray and the blonde?
• Who let the (George Jones) dog (food) out?
• Watching you kiss yourself or other favorite pastimes
• Conway and me

2000 Country Musings

• Meandering through the country music magazine meat market
• Monologue man a look at the latest country news
• David Allan Coe: an open letter to the mysterious rhinestone cowboy
• Surf naked, and get paid for it
• Arpeggio - Wasn't he that wooden puppet with the nose that kept growing?
• Elementary my dear Jackson
• The new supergroups
• Okay, I was wrong, but don't "rub it in"
• The golden age of radio, maybe

1999 Country Musings

• My ride with the Unicorn
• The conclusion about remakes is…
• The lack of crap alas
• Gazing wistfully after the taillights of Phantom 309
• Looking for something trashier
• And he'll never have that recipe again, or what's wrong with Dave Barry
• Things go better with....How's that song go?
• The best country song you never heard of, at least according to the web
• Silence is golden, but you look like an automobile

1998 Country Musings

• He was Johnny Rodriguez
• Loving lumber
• Six degrees of Dolly Parton
• And the new queen of country is....
• Tammy Wynette saved me from being a sheep
• Hold me close now, Tony Danza
• Where have all the scandals gone?

1997 Country Musings

• The top 100, or is it?
• If you think it's country, it's country
• With a little help from the turtle dove above
• And this year's Hammy goes to
• Whither the music video?
• Bubble gum and dead cowboys
• And the winner is
• Talk back to your radio
• From the CD side of country, or whatever you call it?

1996 Country Musings

• Not Exactly "To Be or Not To Be"
• Is country condemned to repeat itself?
• "Nut Once Worthy and Other Letters"
• Hypespeak or the difficulty in being a reviewer
• A gift that will blow you away
• Deja vu all over again
• They sent you a tie clasp?