Here's a totally yucky song from the early 80s called "I Couldn't Say No". It's by Carlene Carter and Robert Ellis Orall. Carlene Carter is June Carter's daughter and this was a bit of a one hit wonder.
I remember Rosanne Cash, Johnny Cash's daughter, also had a hit around the same time-- perhaps a year or two beforehand.
It was called "Seven Year Ache". I think I like Rosanne's song better than Carlene's.
It's interesting to note that Johnny Cash and my husband have a few things in common. They were both from Arkansas. My husband was actually born in Missouri, because there was no hospital in the Arkansas town where his parents lived at the time. They were both military-- Cash was in the Air Force and my husband is Army. They both married women from Texas the first time and women from Virginia the second time. And they both had ties to San Antonio and Memphis. My husband's mom lives in San Antonio and we're moving there soon. His dad lives in Memphis. Cash married his first wife in San Antonio; that was where she was from. After they married, they lived in Memphis. My husband lived there for awhile, too.
That's about all they have in common, though. My husband can't carry a tune in a bucket... but he does have a spunky wife who puts on a show.
I didn't realize June had a child before she married Johnny.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Rosanne has the better song.
Yes, your husband does have a lot in common with Johnny Cash. Frankly, i don't think johnny sang all that well -- he did a whole lot of talking in his singing -- but he could at least carry a tune, and was generally a class act according to peple who knew him.
My mom's best friend is distantly related to June's family. She has that weird hillbilly musical gene. She can play any tune she hears with complete accompaniment. (She took music courses in college and learned to read music because she said that being a musician who doesn't read music is about like being someone who quotes literature at great length and then says, "I just learned that from hearing it. I can't even read1" as though it were something about which to boast. ) My mom and I can play whatever we hear as well,and even my dad to some degree, by we've been musically educated. My mom's friend had no formal music education when she started playing. She was just born that way.
My mom says it's because many people who were in the southern Appalachian region for generations were of Celtic ancestry, and the Celts are, like the Polynesians, musical by nature for the most part.
That must be why my cousin and I are so musical. We both studied music to some extent, but we also play/sing by ear. My cousin is a professional musician and plays about a half dozen instruments. I only sing, but studied piano, clarinet, and drums. Only the drums didn't come easily. My mom is a pianist/organist, but is educated. My dad is/was a singer but never learned to read music. Several of his brothers and sisters are self-taught musicians. I have an uncle (musical cousin's dad) who plays Ina band but doesn't read music. He just hears something and plays it.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, we're very Celtic and from the Shenandoah Valley.