Gettin' the Feel of Hickory Wind

First post! I'm very excited about getting this blog off the ground. I've been kicking the idea around for a very long time now, since this past summer. I originally thought that I wasn't arrogant or self-centered enough to start my own blog, but after a while it dawned on me -- who was I kidding?

I'm hoping to grow along with this site... to meet people, like-minded or otherwise, and to share my love of music and the South and people and just life in general in my own special sort of way. These are just my opinions, and like anybody else, I find them important simply because they're mine.

I hope this works out okay, but I'm more excited about the journey than the destination.

Here's how I see this site laying out in the future: First, my blog entries, which I hope my friends (new and old) will comment on, and make for lively discussions. Secondly, I want to link to the many many places that I visit to find out about old-time, country, alt country, rock, classical, or whatever kind of music. I live in the Research Triangle in North Carolina, and it's a great place to listen to music. However, they haven't made it easy to track it down. I wanted to create this site almost as much as a big bookmark site (to keep my sanity) as much as an actual blog. I also want to keep a small list of shows that I'm going to see, so that hopefully people will be interested in hearing of these bands as well.

Anyway, time to get a little serious and explain the title, "Hickory Wind."

There is a terribly beautiful song of the same name by a genius songwriter who died a few years before I was born, at about the same age I am now (26). He died far too young, far too early. Gram Parsons made a mark on this world, though only precious few now remember his name. You can hear his music in the Eagles, Byrds, the Rolling Stones on up to modern country-rock and folk. It's through the people that he inspired -- Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Ryan Adams, Beck, Steve Earle, and on and on, that I came to know of his music.

This song, "Hickory Wind", the lyrics of which are included below, are about the love and pain of home. He grows up in the South, needing to get away, but then when he does, he feels such a loneliness and longing for it. I recently read a quote by Charlie Louvin, an old-time Gospel/Country singer from the Golden Age of Country in In The Country of Country, that sums up this feeling well: "A [man] spends the first twenty-five years of his life trying to get off the farm, and then he spends the next twenty-five trying to save up enough money to buy one."

It's this dualism, and paradox, that interests me. If you take Charlie Louvin's "farm" as a metaphor for the home that you miss and want to recreate for yourself, then I feel this song and Mr. Louvin's quote sum up my life pretty well right now. Eager to move on, go forward, but rooted in the past, supported by the love and memories of my family and friends. I think, probably incorrectly, that this is a very Southern feeling, and I love it. This site is dedicated, in some small way, to that feeling.

Here's the lyrics:

"In South Carolina there are many tall pines
I remember the oak tree that we used to climb
But now when I'm lonesome, I always pretend
That I'm getting the feel of hickory wind

I started out younger at most everything
All the riches and pleasures, what else could life bring?
But it makes me feel better each time it begins
Callin' me home, hickory wind

It's hard to find out that trouble is real
In a far away city, with a far away feel
But it makes me feel better each time it begins
Callin' me home, hickory wind

Keeps callin' me home, hickory wind"

Ryan Adams, the mercurial (at best) carrier of Gram Parson's flame, wrote a song with a similar feeling, called "O My Sweet Carolina." Here are the lyrics:

"I went down to Houston
and I stopped in San Antone
I passed up the station for the bus
I was trying to find me something
but i wasn't sure just what
man I ended up with pockets full of dust

so I went on to Cleveland and I ended up insane
I bought a borrowed suit and learned to dance
I was spending money like the way it likes to rain
man I ended up with pockets full of cane

oh my sweet Carolina
what compels me to go
oh my sweet disposition
may you one day carry me home

I ain't never been to Vegas but I gambled up my life
building newsprint boats I race to sewer mains
was trying to find me something but I wasn't sure just what
funny how they say that some things never change

oh my sweet Carolina
what compels me to go
oh my sweet disposition
may you one day carry me home

up here in the city feels like things are closing in
the sunset's just my light bulb burning out
I miss Kentucky and I miss my family
all the sweetest winds they blow across the South

oh my sweet Carolina
what compels me to go
oh my sweet disposition
may you one day carry me home
may you one day carry me home"

And with that, I consider my new site, Hickory Wind, to be christened!