Newspaper Page Text
Southern Voice/February 14, 1991
7
VIEWPOINTS
Homoville, GA
I Notes from a GWM who lives
where the City meets the South
by A1 Cotton
Making my Peace
with Country Music
Like lots of other Southerners, I was
raised on country music and I hated it. My
parents are from Tennessee and I was
raised in Alabama, so when we headed to
Grandmother's house, the Grand Ole Opry
would always wind up on the radio. And
my brother and I fought against listening
to it like hens at Frank Purdue's house.
Anything but that nasal twang and those
country guitars and Martha White com
mercials, please!
Once we arrived, we often ended up at
square dances or cake walks or perfor
mances in the gym of the three-room
schoolhouse in Pineview (Unincorporated,
Population 256), and the music would be
even nasal-er and twang-ier. At that time,
I would have taken a blood oath that I
would never become a country music fan.
Then last year, a nasty breakup left me
in need of music with some emotional res
onance. I started listening to a local coun
try station, and in a month, I was hooked.
I disliked Old Country for the same
reasons I dislike the Old South—back
ward, regressive, unevolved, sexist. Take
Tammy Wynette's Stand By Your Man—
does Ms. Wynette know there are times
when “your man” may need a knee in the
groin instead? At least there was Patsy
Cline, whose resonant voice and patient
delivery speak directly to the heart about
love and pain. Wynette sounds incredibly
unevolved in comparison.
Country music has changed in Patsy's
direction. Nowadays, Urban Country (is
that an oxymoron?) is more rock and less
twang. And there's a slew of new women
singers—Kathy Mattea, Patti Loveless,
Reba McIntyre (who does whine some
times), the incomparable k. d. lang (a
friend calls her Patsy Cline with hair on
her legs).
Their songs aren't traditional women's
country songs, about how they're get
stomped on by their man but still love him
anyway. Today, Lorri Morgan tells him
he's got “five minutes to tell me what I've
needed to hear” or her taxi's gone.
My favorite is Mattea, who sings about
people being true to their dreams. She
Came from Fort Worth is about a waitress
who meets a man, chucks her dead-end
job and moves because “She came from
Fort Worth, but Fort Worth couldn't hold
her/Her dreams were bigger than the
Texas sky.” Flip the pronouns and you've
got the story of 95% of Atlanta's gay male
population, leaving home to find what
they can't get in Eufaula or Greenville or
Pineview.
Even the male singers like Clint Black,
Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson and Vince
Gill, express a New South mindset.
Black's classic goodbye song even helped
me survive my “recent unpleasantness”.
He sang, “I'm leaving here a better man /
For knowing you this way / Things I
couldn't do before, now I think I can / And
I'm leaving here a better man.” That's
when I realized that if my ex- couldn't
sing that song to me, then he wasn't the
man I thought I fell in love with.
New Country can best be summed up
by Lyle Lovett's version of Stand by
Your Man. Just his bravery in recording it
makes that song resonate with a truth
Tammy never dreamed of.
If I ever have weeknights off again, I'll
go to the Cove on Thursdays and learn to
two-step, which makes my mouth open in
amazement if I think about it long enough.
When I told my parents that I listened to
country music now, I heard, “Can you
believe this, James?” from my mother,
who is not prone to astonishment. “Well,
your brother listens to it, too. I would
have never have thought...”
I agreed with her, but I couldn't give
her the satisfaction of admitting it. And as
with every situation, there's a country
song lurking in here, too. How about I f
My Gay Son Likes Merle Haggard, Then
There's Hope.
Love It
Dear Southern Voice:
Thanks for your fine, fine publica
tion. This is the one Gay/Lesbian peri
odical in Atlanta that I read devotedly
from front to back, each issue. There
are so many things you do so well that
is not easy to single out a few for
praise. But, I especially admire your
balanced coverage, your thoughtful edi
torial section and the well-reasoned and
colorful musings of Gary Kaupman and
KC Wildmoon, Terry Francis' incisive
movie reviews and Dave Hayward's
lively eloquent, and informative theater
critiques.
The series of reprints that you have
ran from other publications (particular
ly Partners magazine and the San
Francisco Chronicle) are also greatly
appreciated.
Your layout is sharp, your typefaces
are classy—I even like your unabashed
advertising sections. And, of course,
"Dish" is without peer. Practically
nothing else gets me laughing so often
and so loud as that "piquant serving of
succulent morsels, bon mots and lubri
cous tidbits." Plus your calendar is
clever, concise and very readable. And
whoever is compiling your organiza
tions listing is doing a good job and
providing a great service.
Your newspaper box outside Life
Grocery in Marietta is where I find
Southern Voice when I can't make it
into the Big City. Thanks for remem
bering us outside the perimeter; I
always feel a bit of pride (and get a kick
out of) seeing your box right beside the
Marietta Daily Journal's.
Thanks kindly!
Mark Salamon
Hate It
Dear Sir or Madam:
After reading K.C. Wildmoon's
review of the Omni Awards, I find it
necessary to let my opinion of her opin
ion be known. That article was written
and published in poor taste. I am
appalled that her article even got pub
lished. She is obviously very upset
about not winning the "Writer of the
Year" Award. So upset that she states if
she had won the award she would have
given it back. I find that hard to believe.
Not only does she knock the entertain
ment (i.e., 2-1/2 drag queens) but she
bitterly criticizes the audience. K.C.
Wildmoon take note: if your writing is
anything like I read in this article, you
didn't deserve to win and I'm more than
surprised that you were even nominat
ed. Your writing style has much to be
desired. Not only do you let it be
known that you are upset because you
lost the Award, but your own imperfec
tions allow you to publish your bitter
thoughts on the entire evening. It's
obvious that each person is nominated
for an Award because their peers feel
they would represent themselves in a
respecting manner to those that watch.
From what I can tell of your attitude,
my dear, you could never hold the
honor of winning an Omni Award nor
any other Award for that matter. Why
did you feel it necessary to criticize the
audience that attended this awards cere
mony? It seems to me the lesbian and
gay community has a hard enough time
with outsiders criticizing us and our life
style. Why must you, someone who
lives amongst us, criticize? How can
we ever be expected to be treated
equally with our own passing such
acrid judgement?
Tracy Dodd
Stimulate It
Editor -
I would like to thank Julia Penelope
for the enlightenment she provided in
your Jan. 3 issue. Her comment that the
only thing lesbians have that gay men
don't is brains has convinced me that the
key to a well-developed intellect is to
stimulate the clitoris, not the brain. If
only I had realized that being male and
homosexual doomed me to inherent stu
pidity, I'd never have wasted all those
years in that Ivy League doctorate pro
gram. Silly little me.
James Allen
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