Big Al's View Of The World
COWBOY SPORTS NEWS MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2012
If I had to carry a tune I'd have to call the people from the tv show Shipping Wars to haul it for me. That is how musically inclined I am. My wife can't even hum in tune. So to sit and listen to our son play the drums, electric guitar and acoustic guitar just blows my mind. He has the ability to watch YouTube for a few minutes and come back down stairs and play the song he just went up five minutes ago to learn.
Each year my wife has pretty much everyone on her side of the family to our house for Christmas. They come the weekend before and almost everyone spends the night. We have a little "city slicker" rodeo during the day after lunch and at night we all sit in the "biergarten" around the fire and tell stories and play the guitar until everyone is completely "give out." Sounds kind of "hokey" but it is really a blast.
Today as I was sitting down to write this article I was trying to find a song on my I-tunes and was flipping through song after song when it came to me that music is a much larger part of everyone's life than you think. The only thing that varied cultures all over the world have in common is that they sit around and beat the drum and sing. You are raised singing Jesus Loves The Little Children, you walk down the aisle to Here Comes The Bride and you're buried to Amazing Grace.
Is there a person living in the South that doesn't feel a little race in their heart when they here the first few cords of Sweet Home Alabama?
Mack Altizer and Roy Cooper used to listen to the band Bad Company while hauling down the road. When Mack started his new rodeo company what else could he have named it other than Bad Company. Mack was such a visionary that he started the "music revolution" in rodeo. Like it or not, he started it and it keeps people on their feet during rodeo performances all over the country. I'll never forget one night at the Huntsville, Texas PRCA rodeo during the steer wrestling. They had just started playing this song that had a long beginning that built up to a climatic guitar rift. The cowboys horse was giving him trouble and wouldn't stand in the box. He fought him for at least 30-45 seconds while the song was building and when the gates popped open the guitar rift started at the exact moment he left. I'd almost thought Mack had paid the cowboy to stall. You couldn't believe the reaction from the stands. I don't even know if he cought his steer but it was cool.
You could be in the corner bathroom stall at the NFR, but when you here the beginning of Kid Rock's Cowboy you know Cody Ohl is just about to enter the arena. Benji Bendele is not the highest paid sound man in rodeo without reason. The committees that hire him know how much his musical talent can add to their rodeo atmosphere.
Where would the world be today without Amarillo By Morning or Marina Del Rey? Have you ever been to a George Strait concert when he does the talking part of You Look So Good In Love? We would probably still be wearing Levi's and taco hats if George Strait hadn't made it cool to be "starched out." I know I owe many a dance at the ol' Jolly Fox to a nicely shaped 20x and some "old School Wranglers." All of this goes back to music.
There wouldn't be but a handful of major rodeos today without big name singers covering the rodeo expenses. You wouldn't have the "county fair" experience we have in South Central Texas each fall without a bus load of Red Dirt Music guys packing in the crowds each night. All of this because of music.
We all have that song that takes us back to wherever "back" is. Noone would know how nice the girls were in LaGrange without ZZ Top telling the world. Elvis would have never been able to leave the building. Carrie Underwood would still be the only vegetarian in the steer wrestling capitol of the world. And last but not least we would have never known about the Devil's trip to Georgia.
Just a pickin' & a grinnin',
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