"Other Voices: Response To 'Is It Country?'"
A RESPONSE TO MY ARTICLE "IS IT COUNTRY?".
By Ron Dawson
General Manager
WMBS Radio
Uniontown Pa
When I first started to drive, my vehicle was a big old 68 Ford.
Nice car, but I really wanted a 58 Mercury.
Now I've a nice Chevy but would give anything to have the old 68 back.
It's all about perspective, where you're at now, where you were then.
One ever aging mind placing things in a different lineup of importance,
so to speak.
I've nothing against corporate country,
may It wander whatever direction lifestyles take it. It always has
What's "too modern" now may in twenty years sound "down home".
How did I find country music? Came right smack dab in the back door.
It was the recordings that popped in the pop charts....
Jack and Misty, Roger Miller, The Statlers,
yes, even Glen Campbell and Eddy Arnold.
They led to every other stitch of country music that I know and love dearly.
All those tunes were too "pop" then for the traditional minded.
Today, they play on my show right next to Tubb/Snow/Williams and the rest.
Nobody flinches an inch.
Will there come a time when they're gone from the mind forever
and the few brave souls who run country oldies shows
will play Garth/Martina and Reba
and cry about whatever modern country is at that point?
Of course....nobody plays Vernon Dalhart anymore,
unless they're trying to make a point leading to something else.
For that matter,
when was the last time you heard an Alma Gluck or Enrico Caruso recording?
Let's do what we can now with what we have
and who we're lucky enough to still have.
God bless those still recording
and those lucky enough to have a station to play it.
Today is what really matters my friends!
Regards,
Ron Dawson
WMBS Radio
(Good words, Ron. Thanks. Jack Blanchard)
Copyright © March 3, 2002 by Ron Dawson. All rights reserved.
