Three chords and the truth

Three chords and the truth…

I like old-style, classic country music, I say without apology. 
 

Oh, I like lots of other music styles too. I won’t name them all, but will leave you to guess. I do love music. I even play a bit of several instruments. I imagine not all of you like country music. That’s ok, I won’t judge you 🙂
 

But for me, classic country music is probably my musical home-base, what I can always be in the mood for.
 

Pretty much anything from the 1990s on back to the roots of country music with the Carter family in the 1920s.
 

I like the raw and homespun sound of the early recordings, originally called “Hillbilly Music.” On up through Roy Acuff, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Buck Owens, George Jones and Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, Don Williams, Waylon Jennings. And the neo-traditional singers of the 80s and 90s–George Strait, Patty Loveless, Randy Travis, Vince Gill, Emmy Lou Harris, Alan Jackson, and too many others to mention by name.
 

Give me fiddles, steel guitar, and a Telecaster. The twangier the better. 
 

But what I like most of all are the lyrics. It’s all about the lyrics. Country music style is simple, basic, unsophisticated. Predictable chord structures that go where your brain wants them to. But the music is just a delivery vehicle for the words. Words that often tell a story. 
 

The great songwriter Harlan Howard once described country music as “Three Chords and the Truth.”
 

Classic country lyrics are about the stuff of everyday life. Sure, there are some silly and fluffy songs, just like in any genre. But much of it is profound, in simple ways. Telling the stories of life, death, love, and loss. The stories of home, family, faith. The struggles of working men and women, trying to get by. 
 

No wonder the musical style is simple and unsophisticated. It needs to be, in order to support and not overpower the simple and unsophisticated lyrics that touch our souls.

You might guess that I’m leading up to something. You’d guess right.

I’ve been on an Alan Jackson binge the last few days. Some of his songs are just fun, but others are simple and profound. 
 

One that I find myself listening to over again is one of his more recent hits (2017), “The Older I Get.”
 

Alan didn’t pen the lyrics of this one himself. Credit goes to songwriters Adam Wright, Hailey Whitters, and Sarah Allison Turner. 
 

But Alan Jackson gave it his voice, and the ring of truth rooted in his season of life. Mr. Jackson is 62 years old, very nearly my age. He recorded this song when he was 59. I think it required someone who was at least 50 years old to do justice to it. 
 

I’ll share it here with you, just because it fits the theme of my blog, A Seasoned Life. Alan Jackson seems to understand, and present very well, what could be an anthem of midlife.
 

Food for thought…

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The older I get

The more I think

You only get a minute, better live while you’re in it

‘Cause it’s gone in a blink

And the older I get

The truer it is

It’s the people you love, not the money and stuff

That makes you rich

And if they found a fountain of youth

I wouldn’t drink a drop and that’s the truth

Funny how it feels I’m just getting to my best years yet

The older I get

The fewer friends I have

But you don’t need a lot when the ones that you got

Have always got your back

And the older I get

The better I am

At knowing when to give

And when to just not give a damn

And if they found a fountain of youth

I wouldn’t drink a drop and that’s the truth

Funny how it feels I’m just getting to my best years yet

The older I get

And I don’t mind all the lines

From all the times I’ve laughed and cried

Souvenirs and little signs of the life I’ve lived

The older I get

The longer I pray 

I don’t know why, I guess that I

Got more to say

And the older I get

The more thankful I feel

For the life I’ve had, and all the life I’m living still

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You can listen to Alan Jackson performing the song here: 

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Related posts:

https://cliffordberger.com/get-better-with-age/

https://cliffordberger.com/how-to-expect-more-of-life/