Gray in the hair, lines on the face required to appreciate country music

Although I grew up in a tiny town where many men drove pick-up trucks and more than a few loved whiskey and dancing on a Saturday night, I had no taste  for country music in my formative years.

In fact, I looked down my crooked nose (broken in a car wreck in 1969) at the bumpkins who sang through their noses (crooked or not), played fiddles and slide guitars, and who mainly lamented dead dogs, cheating women, and bars that closed too soon.

In fact, my disdain for country music nearly earned me a lifetime ban from the Drexel Sanitary Barber Shop.

Old-style country music played constantly in the shop back in the 1960s and another long-haired, slump-shouldered teenage lout and I, both lovers of the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel, made the mistake of ridiculing the twanging cacophony a bit too loudly as we awaited our turns in the chair one Saturday morning.

Irritated by our ongoing repartee, shop owner Lawrence Anthony leveled the old stink eye at us and said coldly, “If you boys don’t like the music, you can get out and never come back.”

Drexel only had one barbershop. If our daddies found out we had been banned for being rude and stupid, our backsides would be tanned. We shut up.

Ah, the follies of youth.

Not until I had been out in the world awhile, fathered children, known disappointment, and earned lines in my face and gray in my hair, did I begin to appreciate country music.

Here then are my Top 10 favorite country songs, at least as they line up on this late summer morning in early September:

1. "Sunday Morning Coming Down." Written by Kris Kristofferson and performed by a host of country artists, my favorite rendition is by Johnny Cash. Loneliness and longing summed up in three verses. “And it echoed through the canyons, like the disappearin’ dreams of yesterday.”

2. "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," sung by Willie Nelson. Willie’s voice, a guitar for the melody, and a supporting bass. What more do you need? Heartbreak and optimism all in a three-minute package.

3. "Whiskey River," sung by Willie Nelson. Not that I’m much of a drinkin’ man, but this just may be the greatest drinkin’ song ever written.

4. "The Man Comes Around," sung by Johnny Cash. Don’t much agree with the theology of this portrait of the return of Christ to Earth in judgment, but it is a powerful combination of music and lyric. “The hair on your arm will stand up,” indeed.

5. "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys." This one is a tossup. Written by Willie but recorded individually by both he and Waylon Jennings, I’m going to give the nod to Waylon on this one.

6. "Dreaming My Dreams with You," sung by Waylon Jennings. Waylon’s voice was truly a remarkable instrument, filled to the brim with every possible human emotion. This one captures it beautifully.

7. "If We Make It Through December," sung by Merle Haggard. My first semester of college didn’t go all that well back in the autumn of 1973 and this song became my mantra. Make it through December, and January would bring brighter days.

8. "Loving Arms," sung by Kris Kristofferson and his then-wife Rita Coolidge. Some would say this is not a country song, but its portrait of a man who wished for loneliness and got exactly that is still powerful.

9. "The Cost of Living," sung by Merle Haggard and Don Henley. The two superstars recorded this song in late 2015, just a few months before Haggard’s death in April of 2016. A poignant summing up of a life well-lived.

10. "I Will Always Love You," written and sung by Dolly Parton. Yes, Whitney Houston had the bigger hit with this song, but I’ll take Dolly’s version. Sometimes, it’s simply better to shut the door and move on.

Honorable mentions:

"Sixteen Tons," sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford. Although written to describe the mining life, it’s also an apt description of laboring for decades in the newspaper business.

"El Paso," sung by Marty Robbins. This is one cowboy who shoulda kept on riding.

"King of the Road," sung by Roger Miller. Who hasn’t dreamed of no responsibilities, no commitments, no time but your own?

"I Hope You Dance," sung by Lee Ann Womack. Some would argue this tune is more pop than country, but it certainly struck a chord with me.

And finally, "Your Cheatin’ Heart," sung by Hank Williams. This might be one of the songs that got me nearly thrown out of the barbershop more than 50 years ago, but I appreciate it now.

Bill Poteat, who has never owned a truck and whose only boots are hikers, may be reached at wlpoteat@yahoo.com.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton sing country