"South Jersey Cowboy Songs"

I came across Lovesick Blues: The Life of Hank Williams while perusing the music section of Borders.  The appealing cover, featuring a painting of a strikingly young Hank, caught my eye.   After reading the first chapter in the store, I purchased the book.

I devoured it in a single day, and I was tempted to e-mail the author and tell him the story of my own preoccupation with all things country.  After struggling over several drafts, I opted not to send an e-mail.

For a biography, the book is uniquely personal.  The prologue transports the reader back to 1949.  Young Paul Hemphill, a Tennessee native, underwent a rite of passage: he accompanied his father, a truck driver, on a run to Maryland.  It was Paul's first glimpse into his father's world, a place filled with the lonesome sounds of country music, "bennies," truck stops, eggs, bacon, and the American road.  Paul bonded with his father, and they both shared a love for a particular song, "Lovesick Blues," a hit for the young upstart, Hank Williams.

The biography is written in a warm, inviting, and distinctly-Southern language.  I remember being particularly moved by the climax: Hank's death.  I knew it was coming, but the simple treatment of the tragedy was affecting.  

In the epilogue, Paul describes his own father's death.  His father's enthusiasm for the music of Hank Williams never wavered; however, he felt that country music died with Hank.  

The reader cannot help but feel that Hank is synonymous with the author's father.  This creates the book's personal tone.

When I contemplated my e-mail to Paul Hemphill, I felt compelled to share my connection to the music.  I wanted to describe how it felt for me to ride in my father's truck (during his commute to work) listening to Johnny Cash and Marty Robbins.  Like Paul, I associated these men with my father.  However, unlike Paul, I was born and raised in Southern New Jersey.

Perhaps my Dad and I should have bonded over this man's music.  

Which brings me to a question: why does vintage country music appeal to me?  Should it?

Am I alone?

And what about New Jersey?

Nicholas Dawidoff's In the Country of Country: A Journey to the Roots of American Music offers some insight.  The book's epilogue briefly explores Bruce Springsteen's connection to country music.  

A Freehold native.

"Country asked all the right questions," according to Bruce.  "It was concerned with how you go on living after you reach adulthood."  He even admits to writing "South Jersey cowboy songs" (Dawidoff 311).  

Apparently, young Bruce felt that country music explored the struggles of adolescence.  Since everyone is at one time an adolescent, this is certainly a universal theme and one frequently explored in almost every genre of music.  Bruce's rationale is vague.  

I need to further explore country's universal quality.