It’s not really the time of year for love, right? Springtime, sure…mid-February, when there’s nothing else to do but shiver and think of somebody warming you up, okay. But not right now. Or am I wrong? Does fall bring out the ooh la las? It works for me. I’m one of those people who’s just having a love affair with fall itself.
I started thinking about hardcore romance in country music, mostly because song #1 on this list keeps playing on my shuffle. So I found a few others.
5. When Faith Hill and Tim McGraw did that lovey dovey video where she was pregnant.
…I’m just kidding.
5. Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons singing “Love Hurts”.
Not the most appropriate song, I guess (“love is like a stove…” ??), but hasn’t there always been some mystery around this song? And their partnership in general? Even if there was nothing between them, you kind of feel like they must have felt a whole lot of unrequited something for someone in order to sing it like this.
4. Dixie Chicks, “Easy Silence”.
I wouldn’t normally put the Chicks on a list like this, because as much as I like them, I get sick of Natalie’s voice pretty fast. This song is good, though, for the sentiment that love is as much about stepping back and letting someone be quiet as it is about constant interaction.
3. The partnership of Patty Griffin and Robert Plant. I’m not sure why this is romantic to me, but it is. She seems so normal and sweet and grounded, and he seems so crazy. And he calmed down and went country. With her. I like it.
2. The way Waylon Jennings describes meeting Jessi Colter.
I’ll quote from his autobiography:
“I finally gave up. I said, hell, I’m not going to be able to be married. And just when I thought it was all over, when I quit looking, that’s when I found the right one…She was very respectful and everything. Not a bit flirty at all. I was married at the time, and she was too. It was funny, though. We got through [recording], made a copy of the tape, and I saw them to the door. We said our good-byes, and as they walked away, she turned around and looked back at me again. I’ve thought about that ever since, because I stood there waiting for her to do just that. It was as if I knew she was going to.”
1. This song. I guess I saw Pure Country when I was around 20 and I still figured I was going to marry a cowboy and move to the country and spend my days alternating writing with actually working outside. So it stuck in my head long after reality hit and none of that happened. It helps that this song is delivered by the totally gorgeous Strait with no apparent microphone (budding country singers, it seems this is all you have to do to win over the girl you love after you lie to her. It helps if your lie is that you’re a touring stadium artist.).
