The Man in Black

I was talking with a friend of mine about this the other day: that country life as I knew it might really be a thing of the past and when music people today, performers and fans alike, talk about being “country,” they don’t mean they know or even care about the land and the life it sustains and regulates. They’re talking more about choices – a way to look, a group to belong to, a kind of music to call their own. Which begs a question: Is there anything behind the symbols of modern “country,” or are the symbols themselves the whole story? Are the hats, the boots, the pickup trucks, and the honky-tonking poses all that’s left of a disintegrating culture? Back in Arkansas, a way of life produced a certain kind of music. Does a certain kind of music now produce a way of life? Maybe that’s okay. I don’t know.

Cash, Johnny & Carr, Patrick. Cash: The Autography. New York: HarperCollins, 1997, pg. 17

This, my friends, is why Johnny Cash was the best. I am also using this passages as part of my language arts lesson tomorrow for the grade eights. Yeah, I'm that awesome.