It is The Singer of the Song who tells the tales along life’s road the most poignantly.
The story of what has been called “the worst disaster in Tennessee since the civil war” was almost washed out with the water last week. Even with 31 dead in its wake, the story of the Tennessee flood was never mentioned by President Barack Obama. It was all but ignored by an otherwise preoccupied MSM, but finally brought home to average folk by country music legends George Jones and Johnny Rich.
When Jones and Rich came forward with the message of the Tennessee flood, two legends, generations apart, showed their innate understanding of the “Tall Tennessean”: They asked for “prayers and help”.
When you’ve lost everything you ever had to Nashville’s Cumberland River cresting at over 51 feet, you need prayers more than anything else.
Down but not out, with the historic Grand Ole Opry, Opryland Hotel (closed indefinitely), and Opry Mills Mall submerged in water, Tennesseans braved it out, laying aside the fact that theirs was a story being largely ignored as they went about doing what they do best: helping each other.
The two troubadours who brought the story of their plight to FoxNews couldn’t have been better ambassadors.
They may be generations apart, but George Jones and Johnny Rich sing from the same page.
When it comes to having to start over from scratch, Jones has been there before. Most folk recognize that he is what Rich describes as “the best country singer of all time”, many may not know that he joined the Marines and served in Korea.
Rich, of Shuttin’ Down Detroit fame, did not allow Fox’s Megyn Kelly to focus on “Granny Rich” who had to be rescued from her flooded home. “There’s a lot of grannies out there on their own,” he said.
With flooding in Tennessee as high as 40 ft., it’s a disaster of mind boggling proportions. Rich brought it into closer perspective when he said, “It was an inland tsunami.”
Both stars pressed the point that it isn’t the giants in their industry whose equipment was lost to the flood that matters most, but average people who don’t have the ability to recoup who do.
A typical Tennessean, Jones caused as many goosebumps as when he sang Hello Darlin‘ in tribute to the late Conway Twitty when he told Kelly: “I just want people to know we’re proud Tennesseans. Everyone will be up and at it again.”
Unlike their Hollywood counterparts, country stars have become part of the fabric of the little people with some like Hank Williams Jr. of “Don’t tread on us, Barack!” fame, taking a stand for the Tea Party Movement.
Country Music is the day-to-day diary in music of the struggling individual; the countless many who go to work everyday and return to their families when the day’s work is done.
In the end it will be the Singer of the Song and not the anemic historian who will capture best the culture of the masses because like Jones and Rich they do it with heart.
And it is with real heart that Jones and Rich say the best way to keep the victims of the Tennessee flood above water is to text 90999 and then text the words Red Cross on your cell phone to automatically send $10 straight to someone who needs it in rebuilding-of-lifeTennessee.
Judi McLeod——Bio and Archives
-- Judi McLeod, Founder, Owner and Editor of Canada Free Press, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in the print and online media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared throughout the ‘Net, including on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.
It is The Singer of the Song who tells the tales along life’s road the most poignantly.
The story of what has been called “the worst disaster in Tennessee since the civil war” was almost washed out with the water last week. Even with 31 dead in its wake, the story of the Tennessee flood was never mentioned by President Barack Obama. It was all but ignored by an otherwise preoccupied MSM, but finally brought home to average folk by country music legends George Jones and Johnny Rich.
