OldiesButGoodies

September 2024

« Previous Page — Next Page »

You Missed

Country

A SOFT RETURN OF FEELING — Long after life had quietly carried them in different directions, Merle Haggard came back on his own, with only an old guitar and the weight of everything left unsaid. In the hushed place where Bonnie Owens now sleeps, he sang “Today I Started Loving You Again,” his voice stripped bare—gentle, trembling, honest. There was no audience waiting. No need for approval. This was never a performance. It was a confession released into the air, a goodbye shaped by memory and time rather than conversation. Every note carried its own history—of mistakes forgiven too late, of gratitude spoken too softly, of a love that never vanished, only learned to live differently. In that quiet moment, the song stopped being just a song. It became a passage—between past and present, between two hearts once inseparable. A reminder that some loves don’t end with distance or time. They remain, patient and enduring, choosing to speak only when the world grows silent enough to listen.

Country

THE CHRISTMAS SONG JOEY NEVER SANG — UNTIL HER DAUGHTER DID. Joey poured her heart into “What Christmas Means to Me” just weeks before she quietly slipped beyond this world. The song was finished… but her voice never had the chance to carry it beneath the lights. That moment was left waiting. Last night, it finally arrived. Her little girl, Indiana, standing alone in the sacred wooden circle at the Opry — the very spot Joey once whispered was holy ground. Small boots resting where her mother once stood. A child’s voice rising where a mother’s dream paused. Joey never went to that song onstage. But love has a way of finishing what life leaves unfinished.

Country

The Grand Ole Opera Night was silent, filled with tears. Rory went to Joey’s music store alone… then from behind, the childish voice of her 11-year-old daughter blended in—only a child could fully understand those words. The whole room held its breath. Heaven must be like earth. “Mom’s voice lives on, gentle and immortal, in every breath of Indiana music the store plays.”

Country

“SHE SAW SOMETHING IN ME BEFORE THE WORLD DID.” You can hear that quiet faith woven through their 1964 duet. At the time, Merle Haggard was still untested, a young voice searching for its own weight. Bonnie Owens, by contrast, sang with calm certainty—her harmony settling beside his like a steady hand on the shoulder. Just Between the Two of Us never tried to announce itself. It moved softly, the way real conversations do when trust has already been earned. Her voice didn’t smooth away Merle’s rough edges; it grounded them, gave them purpose. Long before the spotlight and the legend, this song marked one of his earliest moments of becoming. Not because of success or applause, but because someone close enough already understood the man he was growing into.