@YouTheReader this Stumblin’ Along of “I Walk The Line” is for my dad. Johnny Cash is his favorite country singer-songwriter. He’s his favorite solo act, I’m not sure if he’d put Cash above U2, but my guess is they would be neck & neck for the number of songs he’d ask Alexa to play. Either way, I’m saving some U2 for the month of March in the lead-up to Saint Patrick’s Day.
Growing up, Johnny Cash was always played at family parties. I’ll be honest when I was a teenager, I thought Cash&Country music was annoying to listen to because it was what my parents would listen to. Now looking back, if I hadn’t “had to” listen to great records like these, I never would have as wide of a catalog of music to pull from my Back Pocket. Since I know my dad probably has never been on @RapGenius here is a cool Note I saw about Johnny Cash’s influence…
When I was home for these past holidays my dad jokingly asked “why hasn’t there been a song for on the Week to Week Notes yet?” I didn’t really have a great answer other than nothing really clicked at the time. Well, here it is…
Well, I did admit a Red Flag yesterday being that I’m guarded. I’m always keeping my eyes wide open for a different perspective. These new perspectives I’ve gained from writing certainly have already started to change who I am a bit, but trust me, I’m still tied to binds of my past that wouldn't have gotten me to this mindset without their help.
I find it much easier to just tell the truth on Week to Week Notes. If I wasn’t honest about how I felt about sports and/or life, I feel like you could see right past the words. Sometimes when I’m drinking Pints and talking to people, of course, it can appear to be a bit lonely, but at the same time, I think I’ve stumbled on something special and it can lead to some good. That is why I’m more than willing to walk the line alone if I have to. I’ve also never said I wasn’t a fool, but I hope you know I do it for you!
My dad’s worked on construction sites since he was 16 years old. He’s gotten up in the wee hours of the night to beat traffic while working on a skyscraper. At times his schedule would be working nights where he’d sleep during the day and then work in the subways at night. My dad has never complained once about this because he was working for his family. He gets up, puts his body through hell, gets home, and does the same thing over and over again. He walks the line.
@YouTheReader thank you for all the support while I was Stumlin’ Along, because of you I walk the line.
Johnny Cash
J.R. Cash was born on February 26, 1932, in Kingsland, Arkansas. His parents couldn’t agree on his first name when he was born so the man himself decided on Johnny. He was the son of poor sharecroppers and one of 7 children. When he was 3 years old, his family moved to Dyess, Arkansas, so that his father could take advantage of the New Deal farming programs instituted by FDR. (Source: Biography) His childhood wasn’t an easy one as he spent most of it working on the family farm to pay off his parents’ and siblings’ debts.
In 1950, Johnny Cash left Arkansas looking for work and ended up in Landsberg, West Germany, where he spied on the Soviets over the radio. While he was stationed overseas, he started to focus more on music as a side hustle while deployed with the U.S. Air Force. It was in Germany where Johnny Cash bought a cheap $5 guitar and formed the “Landsberg Barbarians” with his Air Force friends. It was on his Euro-Trip that Johnny Cash was able to fine-tune his cheap guitar, perfect his lyrics, and practice for crowds in bars. Johnny Cash later said, "We were terrible, but that Lowenbrau beer will make you feel like you're great. We'd take our instruments to these honky-tonks and play until they threw us out or a fight started.”
When Johnny Cash was discharged from Europe, he settled back home with his first wife Vivian in Memphis, Tennessee. The “Landsberg Barbarians” broke up, but while he was failing as an appliance salesman, J.R. met Marshall Grant and Luther Perkins, also known as the Tennessee Two. Memphis during that time became a bit of a popular scene because a guy by the name of Elvis Presley, another Memphis musician, had just cut a deal with Sun Records owner Sam Phillips. The only reason Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two caught their break was that they showed up at Sun Records studio for an unannounced audition with Sam Phillips. About a year later Cash and his crew drew fame for the song he wrote, “I Walk The Line.”
The fame&fortune that came from Johnny Cash’s music weren’t all sunshine&roses. He would tour around the country 300 days out of the year and didn’t live up to the “I Walk The Line” lyrics he wrote for his first wife, Vivian. While he was on tour, Cash became very close with a female singer, June Carter, and would “at one point was taking 100 pills a day washed down with a case of beer.” (Source: Daily Mail) This led to his divorce from Vivian and some public drunkenness arrests (he was arrested 7 times for drugs&alcohol). I could go dive much further along about his character flaws, but these vices shouldn’t come as a surprise, his music always gave off an Anti-Hero feel.
Johnny Cash and June Carter first met at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee in July 1956. As mentioned, they toured throughout the 1950s and 1960s on the road. They would eventually get hitched in 1968. Johnny Cash credits June Carter for helping him recover from his battles with addictions and never getting charged with another crime after they married. The Iconic Love Story between these two remained together for the rest of their lives. June Carter passed away in May ‘03 and Johnny Cash that September.
@YouTheReader this obviously won’t be the last Johnny Cash song I use from my Back Pocket, but I just felt the Man in Black had to have a bit of his story told on Week to Week Notes before I started using another one of his iconic songs for down the line.
Downtown Nashville
So this may be kind of cheating. I haven’t been to Nashville while I was drinking solely Guinness, but I certainly was Stumblin’ Along so read me out. My parents used to go to Nashville well before I thought country music was cool. Most of the time they would just go on a short weekend trip so if you’re a @YouTheReader who might’ve come over to my house growing up for a night of beer pong, odds are they were away on a weekend trip.
My first-weekend trip to Nashville was with 4 buddies of mine in October ‘21. It was right before I moved to Hoboken so in some ways, the trip kind of kicked off what led to the makings of a new me even before I started writing Week to Week Notes publicly. We had a blast, 1 of the 4 of us had so much fun that he actually moved down there after the experience. Cheers!
While we were down there, we obviously got seduced by the pink flashing lights and fog machines at Miranda Lambert’s Casa Rosa, saw Kenzi Whittington at Kid Rock, and tried fried alligator at a spot I can’t remember on Broadway because my memory is a bit fuzzy. That said, it was a point of emphasis to check out Tootsies. Johnny Cash has his own museum down in Nashville and his influence is all over the city, but it was cool to be at the Honky Tonk Orchid Lounge where so many famous singers have performed.
The 2nd time I visited Nashville was a quick weekend trip this past summer. We got to see some of Nashville’s locals-only spots and I posted this irrelevant link about 10 League Governors in every Fantasy Football League in one of my personal stories while I was Stumblin’ Along Broadway. Oh yeah, Nashville was the host city for League 10965’s Live Fantasy Football Draft. It was a successful business weekend trip. Next time I’d love to review some Guinness and make a point of emphasis on checking out the history around the city! Also just want to admit, my parents were right about Nashville and country music is cool.
YouTube Rabbithole
Zach Bryan - Heading South
I’ll eventually do a Freestyle write-up like Johnny Cash’s above for Zach Bryan. He’s the Johnny Cash of my generation. That may sound like a wild statement but trust me, I’m aware that a statement like that shouldn’t be thrown around often. This YouTube clip was taken in the middle of the night from an iPhone while Zach Bryan had a few drinks and was at his U.S. Navy barracks in humid 95-degree heat. It went viral and could be pointed to how he got his start. Two of my top favorite comments on the video are “This guy is gonna save country music” and “Drunk af in the middle of the night, but still a perfect recording. you're not hearing music folks, you're hearing a man's soul being poured out of his mouth.” Couldn’t say it better myself. I’ll be keeping Heading South in my Back Pocket as I Walk The Line for people like my dad.