Saturday, February 28, 2009

NFL Draft

It's a shame Keith Brooking couldn't finish up with the Falcons. Len Pasquerelli tells us why. Surprise, money was the hangup.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Mideast

We are sending $900 million to help rebuild Gaza with no good reason to think the Israelis won't blow it all up again.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Baseball

Joe Niekro's son is knuckling.

My Sunday column

Word wranglers

I interviewed David Cady for dalton magazine this week. Some of you know Cady as a longtime Dalton High science teacher. Others know him best as a football coach at DHS, first as an offensive line boss and later an offensive coordinator.
Not as many know him as a novelist, but that number is growing.
Cady’s book “The Handler” has been a popular read locally in recent months. It’s a hard-edged crime thriller set in the Deep South.
Cady talked about his novel and how it came to be in an hour-long interview in my cramped office. He talked about researching the book, finding the time to write it and then, most notably, how he continued to refine and retool it for the better part of a decade before finally seeing it published by Surge Books.
I admire his tenacity,
Writing can be fun, a pleasure and even a release.
But it can also befuddle your mind, decimate your patience and break your heart — all in the same day.
Writing a newspaper column doesn't seem like a tough task and sometimes it is a breeze. A fat idea parachutes into your brain and 90 minutes later you’re smoothing down the rough spots. Voila!
Other times, writing a column is like dragging a grizzly bear out of a cave.
The late, great Lewis Grizzard told a story about being propositioned by a hooker who promised to make him the happiest man in the world for $200.
OK, Grizzard said.
“Here’s the money,” he said. “Now, go write my column for me.”
If it’s that hard to write a newspaper column, 500-700 words on average for me, imagine the suffering that would come with writing a 100,000-word novel.
That’s what Cady delivered with “The Handler.”
How many times did he want to chuck it all and go bowling?
How many times did he agonize over a chapter, a paragraph, the right word?
Sometimes it comes down to a single word.
Years ago I had a news reporter here. I asked his advice on a crucial descriptive word needed for an editorial. I wanted to use one word. He suggested another. We talked about it, debating the merits — meaning, sound, etc. — of each word and I made the decision to stick with my original choice. He shook his head in disagreement, but that was that.
Or so I thought.
Months later I fired the guy after some job-related problems. It wasn’t a pleasant separation for either of us and he left a bitter man, so bitter in fact that he quickly penned me a letter ripping my parentage, my place of birth, my management style and last, but not least, the fact that I had put the “WRONG!” word in that editorial all those many months before.
Sure he was nuts. But that’s a common affliction among those of us who make our living herding words.
As for myself, I am the author of about a blue million newspaper columns and stories. I have also finished (mostly) a handful of short stories. I like to think of myself as a highly successful writer of fragments. Scattered in my files (paper and hard drive) are dozens of pieces of short stories, novels, screenplays, etc. Some of it is actually pretty good.
I have ideas aplenty and many of them are first class, if I do say so myself.
But converting those ideas into completed works is a bear, you know that same grizzly I mentioned earlier trying to force out of a cave.
I admire the David Cadys of the world, the folks who have the determination and discipline to bring the word herd in, no matter how bad a blizzard is blowing. Some are very talented, some can’t write a lick. But their sheer stick-to-it-iveness is to be admired.
I am not yet one of them.
But I want to be.
It’s time to finish this column and get home, grab a bite to eat and pop the top on a single can of liquid refreshment for the evening.
Then, it’s time to get to work.



Jimmy Espy is executive editor of The Daily Citizen.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

"Fairness"

Obama opposes return of Fairness Doctrine That's good as far as it goes, but he could always come up with a new twist on the idea. Let's hope not.

Monday, February 16, 2009

The Jihad

It would be easy crack wise on this one, but the sheer horror of it is stunning. There's crazy folk in every religion, but this felow stands out.

The Great Undoing

Revolutions have been launched for less than this outrage. Beer drinkers of the world unite!

Gas

Why gas isn't cheaper.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Hitchens

Hitchens on Iran.

Politics

Reliable Jim Wooten.

Braves

Atlanta should have closed the deal on Bobby Abreu, but a healthy Ken Griffey could be a good move. Of course you can't stipulate "healthy" in the deal which means the Braves would be adding another injury-prone starter.The Mariners don't seem likely to get in a bidding war.

Georgia politics

Sunday alcohol sales back on the agenda in Atlanta. But there's not much chance of this passing. Too many thumpers, including elected ones.

Movies

Jason Voorhees is going to want a raise. Friday the 13th hits it big as recession doesn't slow movie attendance ... so far.

Speech

Axelrod silent on Fairness. I suspect the administration is still hatching its plans. I've a real bad feeling on this.

My Sunday column

If I was an old black man I would sit down on a stool with a glass of bourbon and write a slow, sad, angry song ... one of those “My Baby’s Gone” tunes that echo through every Chicago back alley (at least the Chicago of my imagination).
My faith in the American political system, already tottering like a whupped heavyweight fighter, was KO’d for good on Friday.
Fight’s over.
I knew better, but right up until the end I told myself that someone would step forward like Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and set the country straight, just in the nick of time.
Didn’t happen.
The stimulus-bill-that-isn’t-really-a-stimulus bill passed muster with the House and Senate on Friday, committing more than a trillion dollars (interest included) into one of the most dubious economic schemes in our nation’s history.
The Republicans fought back, but lacked the ammunition to win. Not one supported the bill in the House. Three — those silly boobs from Maine, Collins and Snowe, and that old fool Arlen Specter from Pennsylvania sided with the Democrats, giving them the votes they needed for an outright victory.
Got to do something, they said, just before sticking the nation’s head in a fiscal meat grinder.
The next time a Democrat starts blabbing to you about our children’s future, tell him his party just dropped a trillion dollar debt at your kid’s door. That’s who’s gonna be paying for this monstrosity, just about the same time that the Social Security and Medicare systems start to belly up. Good luck.
In Ayn Rand’s powerful novel “Atlas Shrugged,” the United States suffers great economic reversals, declines which are accelerated by the fact that the nation’s most productive citizens, the people of the mind who demand freedom as an environment in which to work, go on strike. They walk away from a system dominated by political schemers, hacks and parasites.
At 18, that seemed like a farfetched idea.
At 46, that very reality has slammed me in the face.
My baby’s gone. Da-da-da-duh.
•••
There is a rising chorus of calls to Buy American! As the economy has weakened, many would like to see imports restricted or even halted. Go back to making everything here and pay ourselves a lot more money to do it. That’s the thinking
The sentiment is understandable.
The idea is stupid.
World trade is a vital part of our economy. It allows us to purchase items for less, saving money which can be spent on other things. It lets American consumers — rich and poor — maximize their budgets.
It also allows us to sell goods overseas. Many Americans have no idea how vast our export markets are and how vital they are to many American businesses, including the carpet industry
International trade also creates jobs in shipping and transportation. You think American port workers want to see less trade?
World trade has also financed our debt. Countries which sell more to the U.S. than they buy must put those dollars to work. Most do it by investing in our Treasury bonds. That’s how Uncle Sam pays a lot of his bills.
In one of the numerous gaffes that marked the early days of the Obama administration, the Democratic leadership sent out signals that “Buy American” might well become the nation’s new policy. Some of our trade partners took notice and quickly made it clear that restrictive trade policies by the U.S. would be matched.
The threat worked. Obama retreated.
Let’s hope our new president puts aside this silliness for at least the next four years.

Jimmy Espy is executive editor of The Daily Citizen

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Your Sunday free tune

I found this beauty during the great country and western song search. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Charlie Pride.

Politics

More on those corruption-busting Democrats.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Mugabe Watch

The New Era may already be at an end. Mugabe thugs won't give up power.

Politics

BUY AMERICAN!!!!
Well ... sort of.
More sloppiness from the new administration "corrected" by additional comments. His fans could care less, but Obama is diminished every time one of these gaffes unfolds. It has to embolden his political opponents.

Live music

The Claire Lynch Band will play in Dahlonega in April. That's a band worth hearing.

Chuckles with Chuck

It Couldn't Happen Here?


It probably isn’t a good idea to show up drunk in court, even if you are a judge. In England, District Judge Esther Cunningham was fined and suspended for six months after she showed up in court drunk. Cunningham was representing her cousin in a dangerous dog case. She reportedly showed up at the hearing staggering around, and forcibly kissed another lawyer, insulted an usher, unleashed a few F-bombs and swore at a prosecutor. She reportedly defended that last action by saying the prosecutor had been “called worse things in his time.”
---
La Quinta, Calif., officials are threatening to jail Ageda Camargo if she doesn’t convert one of her home’s bedrooms into a garage. Code enforcement officials insist that bedroom is actually a garage that was illegally converted. Camargo didn’t convert it. It was a bedroom when she bought the house more than 30 years ago. But city officials say that doesn’t make a bit of difference.
---
Officials in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas say they want it to be the first bilingual state in Mexico. Starting with the next year, each student in grades one through six will have 40 minutes of English instruction a week. Officials say that speaking English will be necessary in the global economy. Or maybe even in the local economy. The state and federal governments are pumping millions of dollars into the state’s Gulf Coast to attract United States residents who want to visit or live, and officials say residents will have to learn English to deal with those people.
---
It took four DUI arrests in one year, but the Prince George’s County, Md., police department finally suspended Lt. Kenneth Parrish. The first time Parrish was arrested, the charges were dropped after the arresting officer did not show up in court. The second time, just five months later, Parrish allegedly ran a roadblock where police were investigating a fatal traffic accident, argued with the officers who tried to arrest him and was Tasered, pepper-sprayed and wrestled to the ground. The prosecutor dropped charges of DUI, reckless driving and willfully disobeying a police officer as part of a plea agreement where Parrish pleaded guilty to driving with a suspended license. Parrish was arrested again two months later after hitting another vehicle. Then three months after his third arrest he was arrested again when officers found him asleep at the wheel of his SUV. He was suspended from the police force that day.
---
Three high school girls in Greensburg, Pa., have been charged with manufacturing child pornography. And three high school boys have been charged with possession of child pornography after the girls allegedly took nude or semi-nude photos of themselves on their cell phones and sent them to the boys. If convicted, all six would have to register as sex offenders for at least 10 years.
---
In Syke, Germany, firefighters lost all of their trucks after they accidentally burned down their fire station during a training exercise. Firefighters from a neighboring town managed to extinguish the blaze.
---
The Los Angeles Police Department told officers not to wear helmets while policing protests against Israel’s military actions in Gaza. They said it might provoke the protesters. Apparently, the protesters were easily provoked since one of them bashed one of the bareheaded officers over the head with a piece of wood.
---
In England, the government is paying “food champions” to go door-to-door to teach people about proper serving sizes and what those expiration dates on packaged foods mean. They’ll also be encouraging them to eat more leftovers instead of throwing them out.

Charles Oliver is a staff writer for The Daily Citizen

Movies

In the Electric Mist With the Confederate Dead. How this got made without me knowing is a mystery. It's my favorite James Lee Burke novel with the perfect lead actor. So shy straight to video?

Books

I stumbled across this old James Ellroy piece today. It is fascinating. The new book comes out this year, finally.

Friday the 13th

S.T. Karnick from National Review discusses the original incarnation of Jason Voorhees and what it showed about our culture. Guess what, he isn't a fan.

New York, New York

A big, fat stupid idea gets torpedoed. New York won't unleash the Fat Police on chubby citizens, yet.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

The other Georgia

The Prez tries to rebuild fortunes in the shadow of the bear. From the BBC.

The Bug

A brutish infection has put a major damper on the blogging but I am now properly medicated and getting better. Will offer some commentaries soon.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Second Greatest County Song (the finale)

I promised you the answer to the question “What is the Second Greatest Country and Western Song” — broadly defined — of all time, and after 10 days and an avalanche of public input here’s the answer, along with 18 other picks to round out my Top 20.
It should be noted that I have limited myself to one song per artist as a singer. (A writer can appear more than once.) That made for some tough decisions, but it forced me to look at a wider selection of songs as well.
20. “Side of the Road” by Lucinda Williams. The enormously talented Williams was finding her stride when she wrote this.
19. “Galveston” by Glen Campbell. I hate that overly slick 1960s country sound, but Jimmy Webb wrote this so well it couldn’t be ruined.
17. “I Can’t Be Myself” by Katy Moffat. You probably never heard of her but Moffat takes this fantastic Merle Haggard song and wraps it around her soul.
16. Speaking of Merle, how do you pick just one of his songs? “Mama Tried” gets a long look, but let’s say “What Am I Gonna Do” for argument’s sake.
15. Delbert McClinton wrote “Two More Bottles of Wine” and he does it justice, but Emmylou Harris made it hers. Go with that magical version.
14. I am not the biggest Willie Nelson fan in the world, but his take on the Townes Van Zandt song “Marie” is powerful. One of the greatest “common man” songs ever written. Is it country? Close enough.
13. Van Zandt is back and I’ll give his rough-as-a-cob version of “Pancho and Lefty” the nod here. Great music isn’t always about singing pretty ...
12. .... as Steve Earle knows. Another songwriter/singer with a tremendous list to choose from, Earle makes it here with his graceful “Fort Worth Blues.” “Copperhead Road” is his greatest concoction, but it fits better on another list.
11. You may have noticed that I lean toward the sad tunes. A college friend called ‘em “dead daddy songs.” One of the best is Dwight Yoakam’s “I Sang Dixie.” Every Southern man should know this one.
10. Guy Clark has written some of the best songs ever. He is a giant and no list would be complete without him being included. I planned to put “L.A. Freeway” here, but at the last second the mournful “Desperadoes Waiting for a Train” could not be denied.
9. Steve Goodman joked about writing the greatest country and western song ever but he actually wrote one that deserves to be in the running. How can you listen to “City of New Orleans” and not want to hop a freight?”
8. Here’s one nobody else mentioned and everybody else should have. “Mr. Bojangles” HAS to be on any serious list of this type. I saw Jerry Jeff Walker play it in Virginia and a Smithsonian Institute crew filmed his performance of it for the national archives. That’s pretty good.
7. One of the fun things about this series of columns has been listening to old songs. Nothing I heard was more than a fraction better than “For the Good Times” by Ray Price. Perfect.
6. My daughter is not yet 4 and already knows most of the words to “Long Black Veil.” Recently she asked about it, “Daddy, that woman still loves that man up in heaven, doesn’t she?” What a kid! Let’s go with the version by the Seldom Scene.
5. Johnny Cash was The Man. “Sunday Morning Coming Down” was The Man at his simple, powerful best.
4. Charlie Waller of the Country Gentlemen may be the least appreciated great voice in country music. You want perfection? Listen to Waller and his bandmates do “Dark as a Dungeon.” Chilling.
3. Waylon Jennings is my favorite singer ever. Picking out one of his songs is near impossible but I stuck to my rules (mostly) and whittled the list down from 10 or so (“This Time,” “Mona,” “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?”) and came up with his smooth, soulful version of “Dreaming My Dreams.” Every good woman should be sung to like this.
And now, for our winner,, the No. 2 Greatest Country Music Song of All Time ...
Are you people crazy? Of course it’s a Hank Williams song! Williams IS country music despite George Jones being in the No. 1 spot with “He Stopped Loving Her Today.”
My brain tells me that “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” is inarguably the second best country music song ever. But to heck with my brain. This is about country music. The heart rules!
2. “Rambling Man” by Hank Williams. Just listen to it. Listen to the master.

Jimmy Espy is executive editor of The Daily Citizen. Tell him he’s crazy at jimmyespy@daltoncitizen.com or by phone at 706-272-7735.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

On the border

Bloodbath in Chihuahua.

Mugabe Watch

Hitchens says arrest him.

Movies

This movie is based on a really sharp Clive Barker short story. It made it to a few screens but essentially debuts on DVD next week. You might want to try out Midnight Meat Train. Great title, huh?

And the nominees are ...

In my column last week readers were asked to help determine the second best country music song of all time. I did not know what kind of response to expect, but after a seven-day barrage of e-mails, faxes and phone calls, let me say this .... ENOUGH!
Seriously, thanks for the great response.
I’m not the only who loves country music, as the thoughtfulness shown in many of your suggestions demonstrated.
I was very happy to see that almost all of the nominees were country “classics,” not popish modern day fluff by the likes of Prissy McBlonde and Buck Handsome. One caller did make a case for the Toby Keith tune “Beer for My Horses,” though surely he was pulling my leg.
I knew most of the nominated songs, but a few had me scratching my head. Somehow I had lived 47 years without hearing “The Blizzard” by Jim Reeves. A caller was so passionate about the song I tracked it down on YouTube and enjoyed it immensely. They just don’t write songs about brave horses anymore.
Another mystery was “Fussin’ Mama” by Cliff Carlisle. That one had me Googling and YouTubing for awhile before I determined that Mr. Carlisle was a contemporary of the Singing Brakeman, Jimmie Rodgers.
This column gave me a great excuse to rummage through my old records and hunt down tunes on the Internet, which was a reward in itself. For instance, listening to Ray Price’s flawless rendition of “For the Good Times” reminds how sophisticated country music can be in terms of singing and lyrics.
On the flip side of that, it’s also fun to crank up the Kentucky Head-hunters “Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine.”
Here’s a list of suggestions made by readers. It should be complete, but if your pick is missing, it was by mistake. Determining the second best country song is a near impossible task, so everyone’s input was valued.
Here are some the results:
Songs receiving multiple nominations:
“Hello Darlin’” by Conway Twitty (four votes, including one from my big brother, Greg.)
“Sunday Morning Coming Down” by Johnny Cash (three votes)
“Crazy” by Patsy Cline (three votes).
“For the Good Times” by Ray Price (three votes).
“Will the Circle Be Unbroken” by various artists (three votes).
“Chiseled in Stone” by Verne Gosdin (two votes)
“Help Me Make It Through the Night” by Kris Kristofferson (two votes).
Songs receiving one nomination:
“Fussin’ Mama” by Cliff Carlisle, “Beer for my Horses” by Toby Keith, “Thank God and Greyhound She’s Gone” by Roy Clark, “The Gambler,” and “Coward of the County” by Kenny Rogers, “Coal Miner’s Daughter” by Loretta Lynn, “I Was Almost There” by Craig Morgan, “Give My Love to Rose” by Johnny Cash (great pick!), “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash.
And, “500 Miles” by Bobby Bare (great pick!), “All I Have to Offer You is Me” by Charley Pride, “I Fall to Pieces” by Patsy Cline, “I’ll Go to my Grave Loving You” by the Statler Brothers, “I’ll Fly Away, Are the Good Times Really Over” by Merle Haggard, “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” by Freddie Fender.
And, “Golden Rings” by George Jones and Tammy Wynette, “Rose Colored Glasses” by Jon Conley, “Faded Love,” “Luckenback Texas” by Waylon Jennings, “Mama Tried” by Merle Haggard, “You Ain’t Woman Enough” by Loretta Lynn, “Fighting Side of Me” by Merle Haggard, “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.”
And, “Ghost Riders in the Sky” by Gene Autry, “If Loving You is Wrong” by Barbara Mandrell, “Orange Blossom Special,” “Can’t Stop Loving You” by Don Gibson, “We Can’t Make It Here Anymore” by James McMurtry (great pick!), “She Thinks I Still Care”, “Third Rate Romance” by The Amazing Rhythm Aces, “Friends in Low Places” by Garth Brooks, “Almost Home” by Craig Morgan and “El Paso” by Marty Robbins.
Shew!
That should be all the nominations.
I will announce the winner in a special column on Wednesday and also include 20 or so of my favorites.
Thanks to everyone who pitched in their two cents.
It’s been fun.

Jimmy Espy is executive editor of The Daily Citizen.

Monday, February 9, 2009

On the border

Rancher faces lawsuit. Any idiot can file a lawsuit but it's stuff like this that drives a lot of Americans crazy.You would like to think it wouldn't go anywhere, but more likely the man will have to waste his time and money on these losers.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Music

Buddy Holly remembered in Rolling Stone. Rave On remains one of my favorite tunes. I heard Dylan do a Holly cover ( Not Fade Away) in Fort Myers and it remains one of the magical highlights of my concert-going life. Here are the Stones doing it in 1964.

Health

A good piece by William Saletan for Slate on compensation for organ transplants.

MMA

Weekend action has fans buzzing.

Your Sunday Free Tune

A little Southside soul from Koko Taylor, with help from Little Walter. And here's a really tight live bonus tune.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Immigration

Hispanic Christians push for reform.

The Dawgs

From USA Today, Georgia lands Top 10 class, or so they say. Why do the Dawgs recruit smaller players? Only one 300-pounder in this group and this isn't a new phenomenon. Philosophy or just a recruiting error?

The Jihad

Woman says she recruited suicide bombers in Iraq.

Down South

Mississippi belles go gunning for ducks.

Politics

An interesting piece on feuding Democrats. Are Obama and Pelosi really at the other's throat.

Mark Steyn

Mark Steyn on the retreat of the West.

My Catoosa Life Column

It’s cold outside.
It’s also windy and wet and gray.
Gray. Gray. Gray.
I feel like a lookout on a Viking ship, plowing across the stormy, frigid North Atlantic.
There are whispers of spring.
People talk about it. I think about it. Sometimes it’s all I think about.
When I was younger the winter didn’t hit me this way. It was more fun. But not so much now.
Maybe it’s because I’m getting older.
There are signs starting to appear.
My wife turned 40 the other day. I never expected to be married to a 40-year-old woman. Two 20-year-old wives, maybe. But not a full-fledged 40-year-old.
For Christmas, the old lady — I believe that’s her official title now — bought me some furry slippers to wear around the house. Furry slippers? I’m not a furry slippers kind of guy. But they’re warm and comfortable and I wear them every night now.
I bought a puzzle and worked it. And I don’t mean some 200-piece puzzle a monkey could assemble, a full-fledged 1,000-piecer. If my old buddies knew this I would get laughed out of town. A puzzle? What’s next, bridge? Crochet?
In my defense I would mention the fact the image on the the puzzle is a battle scene from the fall of the Alamo. What red blooded American male — young or old — wouldn’t proudly assemble a puzzle showing Davy Crockett blazing away at Santa Ana’s hordes?
I’ve completed the good part of the puzzle — the guns, the old missionary building, etc. The only thing left to complete is the starry sky, which does not strike me as nearly masculine enough to piece together as Crockett’s coonskin cap.
Like a lot of other old men I watch loads of TV this time of year. The other night I watched a couple of men sloshing around in three feet of water in a bat-laden cave so deep in the ground they had to worry about methane poisoning. They also had to worry about snakes — huge reticulated pythons, the pursuit of which was what brought these fellows into the cave.
When I was a kid my mom and aunt would take my cousin Jeff and me on their blackberry hunting excursions. We would wander around the backroads of Chattooga County until we found some blackberries. Inevitably, the delicious morsels would be in the middle of a thick patch of brush — mostly briar bushes.
My aunt and mom would then order us to crawl into the brush to get the blackberries, but not before warning us to “look out for snakes.”
Snakes?
You couldn’t pay me a million dollars to wallow around in cold, nasty water in a methane-gas drenched cave full of irritated bats and murderous snakes.
Unless my mom made me.
---
What winter is good for is reading.
Lots and lots of reading.
History. Science fiction. Thrillers. Horror. Mysteries.
I love them all and there’s a big stack of books on a table at my house. That’s my winter reading assignment for this year.
Hopefully, this issue of Catoosa Life Magazine is on your reading list.
Emily Patton has two stories in this issue, “For Pets Sake” and “The Designing Women of Ringgold.” “Designing Women” takes a look inside the door at Kudzu Interiors on Nashville Street in Ringgold. “Pets” is about the Animal Medical Center of Fort Oglethorpe and the Ringgold Animal Hospital, veterinary practices which see to the health needs of local critters.
Victor Miller authored a profile of former county commission chairman and countr historian Bill Clark, who has spent years gathering information about local people and events. Check out “From Politics to History.”
There’s more local history on tap in Bill Mitchell’s feature “How It became Taylor’s Ridge?” Bill fills us in on the history of Dick Taylor, the part Cherokee who left his name on the dominant geographical feature of Catoosa County. Bill, whose family is from the Woodstation area, grew up in the shadow of the ridge in nearby Chattooga County.
And while we’re talking about the Cherokee, Charles Oliver’s Southern Bookshelf this issue is about Jon Meacham’s biography of Indian fighter and U.S. president Andrew Jackson.
I may add that one to my winter reading list.

Jimmy Espy is editor of Catoosa Life and executive editor of the North Georgia Newspaper Group.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Reds

Old thugs unhappy with new thugs.

Economy

What's this, not everyone supports the Big Stimulus Idea.

My Sunday column

The late Steve Goodman teamed with the great John Prine to write a song called “You Never Even Called Me By My Name.” It’s more commonly known as the “The Greatest Country Western Song Ever,” was a huge hit for David Allan Coe and has been sung/mangled by every roadhouse drunk in America.
It is an enormously popular sing-a-long. A sing-a-long is a song that people who can’t sing a lick think they can sing, though they can’t.
I put myself in this category.
Though I cannot sing, I love music. I can’t carry a tune for three seconds, but I know when someone else can.
Now, for the point of this column.
I need your help.
I am attempting to determine the second greatest country song ever.
Second greatest?
No, God bless Goodman and Prine and Coe and all those million of sing-a-long drunks, but the greatest country song ever isn’t that one, despite its title.
The best ever, as everyone who’s ever tapped a toe to Johnny Cash can tell you, is “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” by George Jones. No argument accepted.
The song itself is a simple story tune, a tale of lost love and never-ending heartbreak, themes which tend to define country music. It’s beautifully written and when performed by Jones at his best, it is devastating in its anguished simplicity.
Perfection.
So, with the top spot locked up, I am on a quest for the second best country song of all time.
Why?
Why not?
It just seems like something that someone should do.
Call (706-272-7735), e-mail (jimmyespy@daltoncitizen.com) or fax (706-275-6641) me your nominations. You can also call Today’s Forum (706-272-7748) or zip over to my blog, espysoutpost@blogspot.com to leave your nominations.
Before you bother I will admit to being hugely prejudiced toward older songs written by people who look like they might have been beaten up a few times ... and not by their big sisters.
For instance, a philandering Willie Nelson was once sewed up in his bedsheets by an ex-wife who took the opportunity to beat him with a broom handle.
That’s the kind of life experience that leads to writing a great country song.
Merle Haggard spent time in San Quentin.
That’s the kind of life experience that leads to writing a great country song.
Hank Williams had marital problems, a drinking problem, a pill problem and health problems.
That’s the kind of life experience that leads to a writing a great country song.
Getting extra credit in my grading system are songs that include dead people/horses/dogs, bank robberies, bourbon, hookers and of course, love gone bad.
Bluegrass and mountain music are included in this competition and if you’re not sure a favorite tune is country enough, toss it on the pile anyway and I’ll try to keep an open mind
Hope to hear from you soon.

Jimmy Espy is executive editor of The Daily Citizen.

Your free Sunday tune

Lucinda Williams remembers Blaze Foley with Drunken Angel.

Politics

Is paying your taxes optional for Democrats? Tom Daschle seesm to think so and apparently so does our corruption-busting new president.