By: Sarah Chase

When hard times descend on us, we seek relief.  However, relief isn't always what you think it to be. Relief is what we must put our perspective into, in order to expose our misconceptions.  Relief is not a hand out; rather, relief is that which allows us to discover how we stand out. 

Perspective:

Country music is a self-reflective genre.   When times are good, country offers us a few songs to make us cry, holding a mirror up to our faces to keep us grounded in the reality of our human condition.  But, when times are hard ... country music does its part to remind us that it's important to keep life in perspective and to focus on the intangible elements of our existence that are truly, deeply important.  True country is the music of fearless hearts and noble minds.  

Sometimes, a song, something so short and seemingly inconsequential to the events unfolding around us in our lives - well, occasionally it offers just the perspective we've been looking for in order to set our feet firmly back on the ground and give us a safe place from which to take hold of our fate and venture, bravely, forward. 

In the song, "Hard Times," written by Bobby Braddock and recorded by Lacy J. Dalton, you'll find the following lyrics:

Same old sad eyed newsman on my same old TV set

Talking about our big depression, but I ain't worried yet

About hard times, hard times

Hard times is a father and a mother living in a mansion and hating each other

Hard times is a-losing your faith and watching your spirits fall

Hard times is the children too, racking their brains about who loves who

We ain't got no hard times at all.

Misconception:

A viewer wrote in the other day and said, "You like country music, so do you consider yourself to be a "redneck" or a  "hill-billy?" 

No, I am not a "redneck" or a "hill-billy." Nor have I ever aspired to be one.  Truth is, most people who enjoy country music don't fall into any specific stereotype.  We're all rather normal (or some derivation thereof).  But, speaking for myself, there are times when I gravitate toward down-home, loud, proud "hill-billy" music with a renewed appreciation and vigor.  

My family has always had a great respect for both hill-billy music and the other, tastier, products that those crafty mountain pioneers are often credited with perfecting.   

During the dry times of the Great Depression a few of my more entrepreneurial kin realized a niche in the market and managed a profit by providing a much needed link between the "producers" out in the hills and the "consumers" in the towns and cities.  Thanks to their business (and a few cars equipped with an extra "gas tank") hard times were tempered and spirits were left quenched.  

Yet, to be sure, there will always be days when both the actual and metaphorical "whiskey ain't working."   This is why we'll always be looking for those rare "honky tonk angels" to soothe us with their sweeter songs.