My mother, when I grew up, did hysterically funny impressions of Kitty Wells until we asked for it a little too much, and she stopped doing it, because she was worried about being cruel to Ms. Wells. Not because of any respect for Ms Wells, but because she spent most of her life being essentially kind to people.

My mother is very smart, and very plain, and very kind. Essentially kind, in the best Christan way, and I learnt about all sort of things about her Kitty Wells impression. I learned not to be cruel for the sake of being cruel, and I learned that making fun of someone for their god earned talent was excessive, and I learnt to sing in church, loud and pure, because G-d didn't really care about quality as much as enthausim.

I was thinking all of this a few weeks ago, when my friend Sholem talked about me having this urbane gay wit, and this old weird America side--and my momma in all of her earnestness, had a wicked wit and righteous anger. She moved on to sarcastically decimating those who deserved it.

All of this sounds cloying, but one of the reasongs why I love country music, deeply, is that it allows for earnestness and sentimentality to be legitmate. I learned to love country music, when my mom sang it to me, as a kid, when I heard my dad's copy of folsolm prison blues, and when the radio played on the way to school, to scouts, on trips to southern alberta for easter or Christmas.

I still listen to Country radio, when I travel more then a few hours. Nostalgia may be toxic, but like any opiate, it makes me feel better in the midst of pain. I am sitting here, in the middle of the biggest city of Canada, on the morning of Easter Sunday, and I yearn to go back home for a couple of weeks. I am tired and frustrated, and worn out and all I wanna do is go home and visit my mother and listen to the radio and play cards, and eat ham and scalloped potatoes for dinner.

The song is pretty much the embodiment of Cole Porter's sharp line about the power of a cheap tune, except my Mother and Ms Well, and Ms Cash were never cheap, and I would never be as thrifty, or virtuous or holy as they are.