UPDATE, Feb. 26: Check out "Journalism Blues" by the Texas Center for Community Journalism.
By Al Cross
Director, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues
Asked to name their favorite song tied to newspapers or broadcasting, subscribers to "Connecting," the daily newsletter for Associated Press retirees and friends, had some good offerings, from the famous (the Beatles' "A Day in the Life") to the little known but neat ("Newspapermen Meet Such Interesting People," which Pete Seeger wrote in the 1940s. Another little-known song is my favorite, and my story about it begins at the Great Wall of China. Or, precisely, on the freeway back to Beijing.
Our driver was playing CDs of American country music, and on came a 2011 song by Charley Pride, "Hickory Hollow Times and County News." I was flabbergasted. After 50 years in newspapers and associated trades, I had finally heard a song about a rural newspaper like those I started on and now serve. And I had to go to the Great Wall to do it. Pride, 78, wrote the song. He is from Quitman County in northwest Mississippi, home of the Quitman County Democrat. The lyrics are below; here's a link to them and the audio; however, be advised that the lyrics on that page contain errors; whoever transcribed them from the recording didn't quite appreciate Charley's accent. I have no problem with that; I grew up playing his records as a young disc jockey on WANY in Albany, Ky.
"Hickory Hollow Times And County News"
I was sitting on the sofa in my Music Row apartment
Opening up a letter from my best friend, Silas Blue.
He included last week's issue of our tiny hometown paper
With a note that said he finally got his picture in the news.
So I started on the front page with the mayor and the fire chief
Driving big old tractors in the Founders Day parade,
And a story about the Jaycees' annual bake sale at the fire home
Raising money for the orphans, selling cookie and lemonade.
Got the farm report, the high school sports
Fishing news and bowling scores
The weather and the ladies' gossip too
Who's left town and who's come home
Who's been born and who's passed on
Who's divorced and who's married who
In the Hickory Hollow Times and County News
It's reported Henry Johnson was seen courting the widow Jackson
Outside in the moonlight on the Moose Lodge patio.
Sue Walker said she saw him holding hands in church on Sunday;
Holding hands in church reminds me of my old sweetheart, Betty Jo.
And right there on the next page, grinning like a possum,
My old buddy, Silas, in his tux and cowboy boots;
And standing close beside him in a bridal gown and diamonds,
Betty Jo, my high school sweetheart, the new Mrs. Blue!
(refrain)
And you know it makes me happy to see 'em happy too
In the Hickory Hollow Times and County News
In the Hickory Hollow Times and County News.
By Al Cross
Director, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues
Asked to name their favorite song tied to newspapers or broadcasting, subscribers to "Connecting," the daily newsletter for Associated Press retirees and friends, had some good offerings, from the famous (the Beatles' "A Day in the Life") to the little known but neat ("Newspapermen Meet Such Interesting People," which Pete Seeger wrote in the 1940s. Another little-known song is my favorite, and my story about it begins at the Great Wall of China. Or, precisely, on the freeway back to Beijing.
Our driver was playing CDs of American country music, and on came a 2011 song by Charley Pride, "Hickory Hollow Times and County News." I was flabbergasted. After 50 years in newspapers and associated trades, I had finally heard a song about a rural newspaper like those I started on and now serve. And I had to go to the Great Wall to do it. Pride, 78, wrote the song. He is from Quitman County in northwest Mississippi, home of the Quitman County Democrat. The lyrics are below; here's a link to them and the audio; however, be advised that the lyrics on that page contain errors; whoever transcribed them from the recording didn't quite appreciate Charley's accent. I have no problem with that; I grew up playing his records as a young disc jockey on WANY in Albany, Ky.
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| Charley Pride (from latest album cover) |
I was sitting on the sofa in my Music Row apartment
Opening up a letter from my best friend, Silas Blue.
He included last week's issue of our tiny hometown paper
With a note that said he finally got his picture in the news.
So I started on the front page with the mayor and the fire chief
Driving big old tractors in the Founders Day parade,
And a story about the Jaycees' annual bake sale at the fire home
Raising money for the orphans, selling cookie and lemonade.
Got the farm report, the high school sports
Fishing news and bowling scores
The weather and the ladies' gossip too
Who's left town and who's come home
Who's been born and who's passed on
Who's divorced and who's married who
In the Hickory Hollow Times and County News
It's reported Henry Johnson was seen courting the widow Jackson
Outside in the moonlight on the Moose Lodge patio.
Sue Walker said she saw him holding hands in church on Sunday;
Holding hands in church reminds me of my old sweetheart, Betty Jo.
And right there on the next page, grinning like a possum,
My old buddy, Silas, in his tux and cowboy boots;
And standing close beside him in a bridal gown and diamonds,
Betty Jo, my high school sweetheart, the new Mrs. Blue!
(refrain)
And you know it makes me happy to see 'em happy too
In the Hickory Hollow Times and County News
In the Hickory Hollow Times and County News.
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