Howdy Friends. This Wednesday morning I will again be hosting Back to the Country on WORT FM and this week's theme is Air Travel. Recent headlines have been dominated by unpaid TSA agents, overworked traffic controllers, planes being shot down, and long lines at the airport, so I decided to go back and listen to air travel representation in classic country music over the last 100 years to determine how the times have changed or stayed the same.
Of course, classic country music is known for its thousands of travel songs about trucks, trains, and the endless black ribbon, but there are a surprising number of great songs about air travel as well--high speed jets, tragic plane crashes, lucky cross-Atlantic flights, lonely airports, broken guitars, and numerous other airline-specific complaints. There were also several successful classic country musicians licensed as pilots (including Rex Trailer, the Calhoun Twins, Kris Kristofferson, Randy Hughes, Jimmy Kish, and more) and we'll hear from them as well. As usual, we'll be mostly looking at tunes from the 1920s-70s, but I'll throw in a few recent faves as well. The problem now is just halving the 100+ air travel tunes I've already picked out.
Get your seatbelts securely fastened, your belongings stowed, and your tray tables and seats in full upright position! Show airs live on Wednesday 4/8 from 9am-noon (CST) and heard via 89.9FM in southern WI or streaming via wortfm.org.
