Something I wrote late one night in March of 2013....
LA
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Just some thoughts:
The other night I sat in one of Nashville’s libraries of culture, a honky tonk. It had been, well let’s say, a “rousing” evening. The crowd was good, the band was cookin, “Okie from Muskogee,” “Mountain Dew,” “I hear that train a comin,” “I’m a rambling man,” just good stuff. The singer fronting the band was good and the musicians behind him gave the group a tight sound. They were all good.
As the evening neared closing, the singer did something that probably took many by surprise. I’m sure some were only interested in, “where did that girl/guy I was dancing with/talking to go?” “I’d like to do a song here,” the singer said, “some of you might think it’s a bit out of place being sung in a place like this, but this song has been on my mind. It’s one hundred years old this year, so I’d like to sing it and I hope you don’t mind.” With that, he turned to the fiddle player and had him kick it off.
"Robert's Western World wasn't just a honky-tonk on Lower Broad, though, it was a spirit and a sound that the boys of BR5-49 were carrying out into the world. It wasn't just their spirit and sound. It was Hank's and Webb's and Buck's and Johnny's and Faron's and Ernest's and Merle's and Patsy spirit, revved up for a new world."
The crowd paid little attention at first and probably cared less. But as the song progressed, it was interesting how they quieted and began to listen, most even stopped dancing.
An Evening Prayer
If I have wounded any soul today, if I have caused one foot to go astray,
If I have walked in my own willful way, Dear Lord, forgive
If I have uttered idle words in vain, if I have turned aside from want or pain,
Lest I myself shall suffer through the strain, Dear Lord, forgive
If I have been perverse or hard or cold, if I have longed for shelter in Thy
Fold, when thou hast given me some fort to hold, Dear Lord, forgive
Forgive the sins I have confessed to Thee, forgive the secret sins I do not
See, O guide me, love me and my keeper be, Dear Lord, Amen
Sometimes special things do happen in unlikely locations. Whatever one might feel about the location, I think there is little argument about the message.
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March 17, 2013
Keep on,
Larry Adamson