Louise Carroll: Country music plays in our hearts

My friend Tony Barge stopped over one afternoon and after the 'How are you doing?' the conversation turned to country music. We are always ready to sit down and reminisce about the music that plays softly in our hearts.

I'm a country music spectator, but Tony has been on the center stage and in his quiet voice recounts what it was like to be friends with the legends of our area and national greats like Ernest Tubb and Little Jimmy Dickens.

Knowing them on a face-to-face basis he has had the unique opportunity to be on the inside of the music industry. When he was in Nashville, Tony got to know Ernest Tubb and continued a friendship with Ernest's son Justin Tubb.

In Nashville, Tony performed on the Midnight Jamboree which was live when the show ended at the Grand Ole Opry and at the iconic Tootsies Orchid Lounge.

Tony is a believer in old-timey country music but as a member of Tony Barge and the Honky Tonk Heroes, a band that mixes country with some foot-stomping Southern Rock and Blues, he has mellowed some. They played last summer at the Community Concerts to a very appreciative crowd.

"Back in the day combining the different genres wouldn't have happened but it is now. I'm busier than I've ever been," Tony said.

Most of us couldn't go to Nashville in the 1950s, but we went to the Wheeling West Virginia Jamboree as often as we could. We would pitch in for gasoline which was about 26 cents a gallon. Now you know why they call them 'the old days.'

In the day on Friday and Saturday nights, country music was all over our town including most of the bars and I remember hearing it at the CIO and the VFW. We were blessed with many very talented groups such as Donny Boy and his amazing fiddling and the Mazzants, Dave Mac and the Country Swingers, Leroy Cortez and his brother Froggy Cortez, who was a really good country comedian, Donnie Clark and Charley McVey. A number of these musicians and singers still come to Tony Barge's annual country music bash in Chewton and currently McVey's son Charley plays with Barge's group. Country music and family just go together.

Duffy's Tavern was the fun Capital of Fombell and many remember not only the pickin' and singing but the peanut shells on the floor.

In the day before television (yes, there was a time with no TV) we got our good old country music on the radio; WFEM was the FM station in Ellwood City and WKST is still the AM station in New Castle. We listened to Stoney Cooper and Wilma Lee, Slim Bryant, Big Slim and Cowboy Copas. The list is almost endless. I particularly remember Doc Williams and the Border Riders with his wife, Chickie, his brother Cy Williams and Cy's wife, Sunflower, and Curly Sims. I really believed her parents named her Sunflower, but learned her name was Mary.

Tony was born into the country music scene as his mother had a popular group Rose and the Rhythm Rangers. As a youngster, he was exposed to the country sound and the country people who played it.

He recalls his parents taking him to a Buck Owens show, and before the show Buck was sitting on the stage and people were talking to him and giving him gifts.

"My mother wanted me to sing for him and he encouraged me, but I was too scared," Tony said.

Tony and I and many others have country music in our soul. I also know that some people not only don't like they make fun of hillbilly music, but country folks know how to laugh at themselves.

David Alan Coe sang this song written by Steve Goodman and Doug Supernaw "You Never Even Called Me by My Name." One verse is about writing the perfect country western song.

"I was drunk the day my mama got out of prisonAnd I went to pick her up in the rainBut before I could get to the station in the pickup truckShe got ran over by a damned old train."

I hope you smiled, but even more, I hope you listen to some of the really fine country music you can find on the internet. I am glad I can listen to my old favorites and some I have forgotten.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Carroll: Country music plays in our hearts