So you are a veteran? In that case I want to say thank you for your service to the country.

I just re-listened to both songs before responding, so here goes:

The differences between the songs are a difference in perspective, not quality.

In “Chiseled in Stone” one gets the sense that the old man is the story is still in the grieving process of losing his wife. He focuses on the immense sorrow and loneliness that he is feeling and warns the narrator that while the fight he is having with his wife may be bad, it’s not as bad as losing her forever.

In the “Good Stuff” one gets the sense that the bartender has come to terms with the loss of his wife. Having passed through the grief associated with his great loss, he is now able to remember the good times they once shared. And true to form, the things we remember most are the little things, like how a person looks with rice in her hair, dropping engagements rings out of nervousness, and all those other experiences that seem insignificant at the time.

I wouldn’t say that this is a sappy song, rather it’s a way to memorialize the positive impact had on someone else’s life.

I know that in my own life, as I have experienced the loss of some of my closest friends in the military, I have identified with the emotions expressed in both songs. The night I found out about my friend’s plane crash off an aircraft carrier in San Diego, I felt very much like the old man in Chiseled. But when I think about that same friend today, I remember the good times we had in college and our first years together in the fleet.

Thankfully in country music, unlike some other genres, there is room for a wide range of feelings and experiences.

First of all, I want to commend you for your willingness to reexamine your feelings toward Kenny Chesney. I agree with you that his music is less edgy than Johnny’s and even Tom T. Hall’s was. I suspect that has some to do with the backgrounds of the artists and some to do with the times we are living in. Nevertheless, they are fantastic storytellers bridging the range of sappy and sentimental to gritty and bleeding edgey.

Secondly, I want to thank you for addressing what I thought was the heart of my blog: human relations. Country music is still most definitely white-dominated. (I like how you juxtasposed it with the black-dominated rap music genre.) And I’m glad you picked up on the David Allan Coe reference. I am well aware of his “underground recordings” and am saddened that he would record such hate-filled music. But the truth is his “You Never Even Called Me by Name” is one of my most favorite songs, ever. It’s just good music. I can’t help singing along with it whenever it is played. Ironically, he mentions Charlie Pride in this song. So who knows, maybe Steve Goodman was trying to move the needle a bit.

I think your performers analysis is right on the money. I wonder if people of color shy away from becoming country music performers because they perceive that they won’t be accepted by the overwhelmingly white majority of fans? I hope this isn’t the case. Because as you say, it’s all about the music.

I am familiar with the reaction that you experienced in reviewing Rissi’s album and am glad to hear that you worked through the issue by continuing to dialogue with each other to clear up any misunderstandings between you. That’s what’s needed and more of it.

We have a long way to go, but looking back, we have also come a long way.

I too am glad that “somewhere along the way, something went right for us all.”

Cheers!

It’s great to see a guest commentary on CU, and I must say that your piece is very well written, and has some great points for discussion. As far as the Chesney-Cash comparison, you’ve stumbled onto a grain of truth that I, at first, did not want to admit. I started to write a real harsh disagreement, but I found that I couldn’t. Though Kenny is, in my opinion, nowhere near meaning what Johnny did to country music, he is a storyteller. I pondered on just the point of each man’s ability to tell a story. Like Kevin, Tom T. Hall came to mind when you said storyteller, as did Red Sovine, and a few others. But you really have a point. Though, as ccf pointed out, Kenny’s stories are often light and sunny, and border occasionally on sappy, they are still story-songs, and are delivered well. To be honest, I favor the grit and edge of Cash, and I couldn’t really accept that from Chesney. What he sings fits. So, in summation, I agree. Though on different sides of the emotional spectrum, they are both great storytellers in their own right.

Moving on, to more the core of your commentary, I want to thank you for sharing your story. You have illustrated a more important point that I would like to delve into, if you will indulge me. As a lifelong devoted country fan, I have seen, through the world around the genre, the best and the worst in people. I have friends and associates that I debate occassionally about the race issue in country music. Country music has always been as predominatly white as hip-hop has been black. Take the story of Charley Pride. His first albums were released without his photo anywhere in sight, from the record company’s fear that if it were known that he were a man of color, his records wouldn’t sell. On the uglier side, David Allan Coe, who you ironically referenced in your concert experince, released his infamous “underground recordings.” Now I will refrain from getting too far into those, as they stirred many issues, but they were, primarily, extremely racist. They put a sour taste in the mouths of a generation, and country music was labled as bordering on being too white.

As far as preformers go, things have not gotten much better. With few exceptions, the genre remains dominatly white. So, I asked myself, how have we gotten to a point where an article such as yours can be so honestly written, and so deeply felt, and how did it take us so long to get there? I think it took artists like Kenny Chesney, and those of his wide ranging appeal, to branch country out, and make it a music that can be related to by everyone. Though I have run Kenny and his pop-leaning brand of artists through the ringer, I needed to read this story. And, as a genre, we need people like him. Just a few months ago, I reviewed the album released by Rissi Palmer, a black singer, on my site, Nashville Now. (Sorry for the plug, Kevin) I got a very strange reaction. As soon as I posted the article, I got a comment from a young lady accusing me of being racist for not giving the record an aces review. Then, through the commentary that followed, we resolved the issue, and she really seemed to understand that all that is at issue is the music. Not race.

So, in conclusion, we need to see this as just another gift of the greatest form of music on the face of God’s green earth. Togetherness. Country music is a music that is about real life, and about crossing boundaries and relating to everyone, from every walk of life. It brings us all together at times like Paul discussed, and we all need that in our lives. Stories like this are why we do what we do, and are so very assuring that somewhere along the way, something went right for us all.

I have Vern Gosdin’s Chisled in Stone and love that song. I didn’t know that Shel wrote Boy Named Sue. That man is everywhere … children’s books and country songs … very cool!

Get a copy of Vern Gosdin’s song Chisled in Stone listen to it then listen to Kenny’s song “The Good Stuff” both deal with a man in a bar after a fight with his wife.

no offense taken btw.