Willie Nelson’s going to headline a concert for Beto O’Rourke come September 29 in Austin.
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That’s not news to Willie fans; the man’s been on the forefront of a good number of what are today considered “liberal” causes (and used to just be common-sense, anti-big-money thinking — Willie advocates for marijuana legalization and biofuels to replace oil) when I was a Texas teen and enlistee in the US Air Force, where I developed a deep abiding love of Johnny Cash to go with my Willie, Waylon and Kristofferson — all three of them bona fide Texans — obsessions.
Outlaw Country — mostly famous because of Waylon, Willie, the Glaser Brothers, and Kris Kristofferson — got its start when real singers and songwriters became not just disillusioned with but disgusted by Nashville’s restrictions: what they could sing, what they had to wear on stage, what they COULD NOT sing about or wear, or talk about onstage or off. Daniels got religion, Cash and Jennings passed away, and Nashville (and record companies and CMT and Clear Channel) decided the time had come to nail the coffin down on Outlaw Country with Natalie Maines and The Dixie Chicks. (Funny how it took getting ticked off with women to turn the key on that coffin lid, isn’t it?)
That’s a discussion for another time. What’s a discussion for now is that Country music hasn’t always been what it is today, and it’s NEVER really turned its back on the issues that matter — tho you might not know that if you depended on Top 20 or Top 40 hits. Loretta Lynn’s “The Pill” proved that. She wasn’t alone; and it hurts my heart when a ‘star’ like Carrie Underwood can reduce our concerns to vandalizing some jerk’s vehicle as a “positive statement for women.” Onward, though:
I’ve loved The Highwaymen for a long, long time. This is their cover of a Woody Guthrie song about a genuine, 1948 event — the crash of a DC-3 full of former migrant workers being sent back to Mexico at the end of the season. The voice you might not know at first blush is another country star, Johnny Rodriguez (and yes, he’s from Texas too).
Kris Kristofferson wrote a song called Johnny Lobo that the Highwaymen used to do in concert. You need to hear that, too, but it’s this one that brings me to tears every time I hear it.
If y’all don’t think it’s topical and political in these days of the anti-everybody drumpf administration, I feel sorry for you. Deportees ought to be our damn anthem, an answer to all the foofarraw about the flag dreamt up by that orange menace who can’t do anything but soil our nation, our Constitution, our veterans (Willie and Kris are both veterans, as was Cash, btw; so are such country stars as George Strait and the late Marty Robbins).
This isn’t about socialism. It’s about doing what’s right for everybody. That’s what drove the Outlaw wing of Country back in the day, and is driving Beto now.
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