This is probably one of the saddest television moments, like… ever.
Im watching u cause I care
Over at the Paris Review Online, one of my favorite writers — John Jeremiah Sullivan — has a short essay about the tension between religious belief and religious music. It is also an essay about a new collection of old country music —Work Hard, Play Hard, Pray Hard — collected by Kentuckian Don Wahle, who kept the records in boxes until the day he died. Says Sullivan about the track “Beyond the Starry Plane”:
From the abyss of the static come “dear Mother” and “no matter what I do” and “we shall meet again” and “Jesus is my God.” I listen to this song and imagine Don Wahle listening to it, leaning forward to hear it better. An infinitesimal point of communion, a shared pause before the obliteration.
Sullivan also wrote the liner notes for the collection, which Milo Miles reviewed for Fresh Air a few weeks back.
-Nell
Image by Tennessee Home and Farm via Flickr Commons
