Songs About Struggling Farmers

Before anyone asks, this playlist has nothing to do with events in my personal life. My farm is doing just fine, mostly because it only exists in my head; it's conveniently insulated from all the very serious challenges facing independent farms in the real world. As always, you're welcome to make your own additions in the Comments section. If you'd like to give some of the pertinent lyrics too, that'd be great.

• Amarillo Sky – Jason Aldean
  He says, “Lord I never complain, I never ask why,
  But please don't let my dreams run dry
  Underneath, underneath this Amarillo sky”
  
  
• Amber Waves of Grain – Merle Haggard
  Can't we save a bit of foreign aid for the farmer over here?
  Or the amber waves of grain may disappear
  
  
• Broken Plow – Chris Knight
  Take you one last look around, shed you one last tear
  For the broken plow, the broken dreams, and the life we're leaving here
  
  
• Cafe on the Corner – Sawyer Brown
  They say crime don't pay, but neither does farming these days
  And the coffee is cold and he's fifty years old
  And he's got to learn to live some other way
  
  
• Cloud of Dust – Brad Paisley
  He's holding his ground, but it's getting tough
  He's keeping his faith in the Lord up above
  Praying for rain through a cloud of dust
  
  
• Country Ain't Country – Travis Tritt
  The back forty was sold to make up for hard times
  Then sold by the half-acre lot overnight
  
  
• Daddy Won't Sell the Farm – Montgomery Gentry
  He's gonna live and die
  In the eye of an urban storm
  Daddy won't sell the farm
  
  
• Don't Sell the Farm – Junior Brown
  After all these years of trying to make a go
  This farming life is all we love, and it's all we know
  
  
• Farmer's Blues – Marty Stuart with Merle Haggard
  I work the land, I watch the sky
  I talk to God and wonder why
  But it's the only life I know
  These farmer's blues
  
  
• House and 90 Acres – Chris Knight
  But I've watched my tools and my tractor leave in someone else's hands
  I grit my teeth and I let 'em go, but I won't give up my land
  
  
• In My Next Life – Merle Haggard
  The muscles in his arms, just like his run-down farm
  Soon withered up and slowly disappeared
  
  
• Song of the South – Alabama
  Well, mama got sick and daddy got down
  The county got the farm and they moved to town
  
  
• The Rain Came Down – Steve Earle
  So don't you come around here with your auctioneer man
  Cuz you can have the machines but you ain't takin' my land

Already December?

I hate doing site news (ack, blogging about blogging), but feel compelled to let you know that my posting schedule might shift into a lower gear for the next month or so. No cause for concern - just a combination of a new work schedule, ever-lengthening commute (Californians don't know how to drive in rain), my family's peculiar desire to do things together around the holidays, and assorted other real-life commitments.

The change shouldn't be too drastic - maybe 3 or 4 posts a week instead of 5 or 6 - but I like to keep you apprised of what's going on around here. Even if you don't care.

And just for the record, January 2009 is going to be fantastic.

Want a Free Book?

Someone needs to enter this book giveaway at Music Tomes so that I don't win all three copies of Robert K. Oermann's Behind the Grand Ole Opry Curtain. Actually, several people should enter so that I don't even stand a chance of winning one copy; I got a book from the site last month and would feel guilty getting another so soon. So, do it.

While you're over there, check out the rest of the blog too. It's quite excellent.

Update: I didn't win! Thanks for your help.

Quotable Country - 11/30/08 Edition

Click the dot after each quote to visit the original source.

It's been quiet. ●
- - Trace Adkins on touring with Alan Jackson.

However, Mindy admits she's still in love with Clemens. May I ask a question, please? Was she in love with Roger Clemens when she accepted a 7-carat ring from actor Dean Cain? Was she in love with Clemens when she got pregnant with her baby's daddy? Just wondering. ●
- - May I ask a question, please? How is this any of Hazel Smith's business?

I will get absolutely belligerently drunk if they have music by Tracy Byrd on karaoke. And I'm not afraid. There's never a hesitation. I'm in. I'm goin' for it tonight. "Watermelon Crawl," all day long. ●
- - Blake Shelton is the go-to guy for great quotes.

Q: Who wrote the song "Crazy" and who first recorded it? Thanks for settling a bet.
(Virginia, Austin, TX) ●
- - Question submitted to GAC.com. I wonder if the bet concerns how much information one can gather from the internet while stubbornly refusing to use a search engine.

Songwriting, for me, is about the hardest thing in the world. It doesn't get easier. It's not like riding a bike. Whenever I sit down to write, it feels like all the old songs are sitting there on my shoulder saying, ‘Nah, that's not as good as us.' ●
- - Even Jessica Simpson thinks that songwriting is totally easy, so I don't see what Dave Alvin's problem is.

I like to sit at home. When I'm at home, I like to spend my nights kinda holding my guitar and sitting on my landing at my house, and just kinda hold my guitar. Sometimes, even in the dark, I'll just sit and play for hours. And I just kinda like to have a lot of alone time, you know, where I'm by myself and playing guitar and drinking coffee and occasionally checking my Myspace page out. ●
- - Jimmy Wayne gives an emo answer to a question on Nashville nightlife.

So what I wanted to do with this song was paint a picture of a person, maybe even a system, that started off humble and just got fatter and fatter until it eventually popped. ●
- - Todd Snider on “Dividing the Estate (A Heart Attack)” from his political EP.

To help this struggling economy get back on its feet, Toby is doing his part by discounting some of the most popular items in the Toby Keith Online Store. There are over 10 items for $10 or less… ●
- - Oh my gosh, THANK YOU, Toby Keith. You just saved my Christmas. Everyone on my shopping list will be getting one of these amazing shirts.

Julianne Hough's Boyfriend: 'We're Very Much in Love' ●
- - Ouch. Chuck Wicks is now just some guy on Hough's arm.

It's funny. You go from something like (writing for Aerosmith) and the next day I'm writing with Clay Walker. I'm loving it because I'm doing all these crazy different things, but the bottom line is I'm trying to find this crazy different song that is going to mean something. Now there's all these crazy projects coming in. ●
- - In summary, songwriter Jeffrey Steele lives a crazy crazy life.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Please Don't Buy My Album

We usually don't hear about disagreements with labels or managers until an artist severs the troubled ties and starts talking candidly about future plans. A notable exception to the rule is Hank III, who has been very vocal about his dissatisfaction with Curb Records and much of the music he has recorded for them. Most singers are more reluctant to speak out, instead opting to conceal their unrest behind a veil of vague, publicist-approved mumbo jumbo that leaves fans guessing about what they truly think.

So, here's the question of the day: According to your best hunch, which current recording artist is most secretly dissatisfied with his or her own recent output?

The Big-Box Blues

In the six years since I moved to this city, I've mastered the layout of the local Walmart right down to the location of the smallest and most obscure item. I'm still not very good at finding the quickest routes, though, as I've convinced myself that going anywhere in the store requires passing through the music section. And passing through the music section requires flipping through all the country CDs by hand to make sure I'm not missing any killer deals. And if they have cheap Vern Gosdin CDs that don't appear to be moving, it's my duty to buy them and ship them off to people on the internet.

Over the past few months, I've watched the country section (and the whole music section) shrink. It now takes up less than half the space it did a year ago. It has also been pushed back a little farther into the corner, so that it's no longer really on the way to anything. Oh, but it is just across a narrow aisle from the big flat-screens, which means I have to battle for precious aisle real estate with a bunch of frothy-mouthed gawkers who (if they're anything like me) can't afford those HD luxuries anyway. Keeping my spot in front of the Haggard section sometimes means elbowing strangers in the face, but in my experience it's usually worth the effort.

None of those gradual changes prepared me for what I saw last Tuesday, though. Upon arriving at Walmart and making a beeline for the music section, I found the sticker at left on every single CD in the store. Obviously, this freebie is not about adding value for CD consumers as much as it is about giving them somewhere to go when their favored format inevitably goes the way of the vinyl record and the audiocassette. The company wants to familiarize customers with its online offerings so that, as its in-store selection continues to wither away to nothing, they'll have a natural, comfortable entry point into the world of music downloads. We've all heard about how the end of the CD era is upon us, but the sight of hundreds of jewel cases doubling as mini MP3 billboards made me feel the changing tide more acutely than ever.

Thoughts on Walmart's strategy? News on changes at CD retailers in your area?


Update: Photocrap has kindly translated the sticker into layman's terms.