On the road between Versailles (Ver-sails) Kentucky and London (Luhhhn-dun) Kentucky we find ourselves confronted with signs for some kind of bluegrass / country music hall-of-fame / old-fashioned good-timey fun. Naturally, we digress from our destination (Cumberland Falls) to check out what fun can be had:
An old barn -and a new barn!?!?! What!?!?! That's cra-za-zee!
The grocery-store merry-go-round is rusted, the rumps of children just a misty memory. The country music themed tchotchke (that's how I spell it godammit!) stores are silent. Sometime you build it and they -don't- come.
Candy canes, empty walkways, and denuded trees. It's a happy place!
Even the crickets have left the country-themed, old-timey streets and therefore can't lend their voices to the chorus of desolation that is this forsaken spot between Versailles and London.
A bronze hillbilly stands behind an aspiring hillbilly.
If you put your head in this hole, you can pretend there are other people here!
We visited the country music store and bought a CD (out of pity). We got a
Faron Young CD (I had never heard of him) mostly because there is a song on the CD called "Unmitigated Gall" which seemed like an awesome title for a song. (Though my gall is mostly mitigated.) Faron is pretty twangy and likes to switch from a deep bass to an Orbison-like falsetto. Here's a
YouTube video of him in 1961. The other cool thing about him is that he continued to sing even after injuring his tongue in an auto accident. (True story, it came from the liner notes.) I didn't love the whole CD, but my hat's off to
Mel Tillis who wrote "Unmitigated Gall". (Really, "unmitigated" is such a difficult word to put in a song -- it's a remarkable feat that it works so well.) Here's the first verse:
"Well, how can you have the unmitigated gall
To come back now, expecting me to fall?
Right down on my knees and kiss your feet? Yeah, feet.
Feet that one day went a-walking out on me
With a fast talking slob, you hardly new his name.
Your mind is de-arranged."
(yes, de-arranged!)