"Why I Like Country Music" :)

Howdy!

One of my favorite lines from the comedy classic The Blues Brothers comes when musicians Jake (John Belushi) and Elwood (Dan Ackroyd) Blues arrive to play a gig--sight unseen--at a raucous honky-tonk bar.

"What kind of music do you usually have here?" Elwood asks a waitress. She replies, "Oh, we got both kinds. We got country and western!"

What does this have to do with Jack Kelly? Well, it turns out that this city boy liked country--and western--music! Who knew? Well, I didn't until I stumbled upon an article JK penned during his Maverick heyday for a now long-defunct music magazine . I love country music and was thrilled to learn that JK enjoyed listening to many of the same artists I do.

Here's the article. I'm sure you'll recognize JK's unique way with words and be delighted by his amusing but affectionate take on the subject of:

"WHY I LIKE COUNTRY MUSIC
by Jack Kelly

INTRO: Jack is "brother Bart" in the exciting Sunday night [ABC-TV] 'Maverick' series. He is a very wonderful person who, incidentally, is very partial to country music, and in his own words, Jack explains why.

In a recent issue of this magazine I read an article by Pat Boone on this same subject. Pat's love for, and understanding of, country music along with his endless knowledge of the artists concerned, is easily understandable upon taking into consideration the fact that he was practically 'weaned' on the subject by such a 'great' as Red Foley. [B27: Foley was Boone's father-in-law].

It's not so in my case. Country music was not a part of my upbringing. The appeal it holds for me was developed only through incidental exposure, beginning with a tune I loved the first time I heard it...'Home on the Range'. I was just a little fella then, but it fired my imagination immediately.

The attraction for this homespun type of singing continued to capture my fancy, as did the 'western' variety of entertainment, and as the years passed I had assumed hundreds of child-like aliases, owned numerous fictional ranches, and raised the best cattle for miles around.

I had a mighty vivid imagination; however, my association with the country trend became more realistic when there came to prominence in American hearts a loveable old character with a galvanized Rube Goldberg trombone, which we would be hard-pressed to prove was not the portable, business end of a mountain still. There he was, Bob Burns, and his crazy, fabricated family of oddballs which included his 'Hawg Callin'' cousin and 'Flannelpants', the itchy relative.

Those unending and hilarious monologues, along with the wild calamity he created while blasting away at his homemade Bazooka, certainly earned for him the deserved title of 'great'.

I have always felt that 'Bazooka Bob' was one of the originals to start the fantastic jump to popularity which country music and the country atmosphere has reached today. To a city kid like myself, Burns injected the gentle country feeling that in turn through the years has allowed me to enjoy a growing appreciation for anything 'country'. He offered country humor with such simplicity that you had to like it. His unique styling must have inspired artists who followed him on the road to success, thereby bringing tremendous variations of song styling, tunes, comedy routines and instruments into the field."

TO BE CONTINUED--stay "tuned" for Part II in TDS! :)

Clipart courtesy of Wikiclipart