A little country now and then

Every so often, I tune into the only "country" music station in my adopted metropolis and listen for about an hour, until they start repeating the same songs. 95 percent of it is either gooey junk with no discernable beat or melody, or stupid songs about the glories of getting drunk. But about 5 percent of the genre consists of incredibly poignant, powerful songs to which the likes of pop and rock never compare.

My favorites:

"Concrete Angel" and "The Little Girl" -- both about child abuse.

"Independence Day" -- about the horrors of domestic violence and one woman's solution.

"Watermelon Wine" -- an exquisitely beautiful oldie by Tom T. Hall.

"Buy Me a Rose" -- a slightly less old song by Kenny Rogers, about rekindling an old relationship.

"I Will Always Love You" -- Dolly Parton's original, a thousand times better than Whitney Houston's version.

The other day, I heard another, don't know who it's by, don't know the name of it yet, don't even know for sure whether I interpreted it correctly or not, but if I did, wow ...

Starts out sounding like another one of those guilt-producing songs about being sensitive to the homeless, a well-worn theme for the genre. Young guy's at a bridge and sees some homeless guy. They interact briefly -- you get the impression that the old fellow shares his street wisdom about everybody life's mattering and that the young guy gave the homeless guy some change and went on his way feeling better.

But then comes the kick-in-the-heart. The young guy was actually on the bridge getting ready to kill himself. The homeless guy convinced him not to jump -- it was the worth of the young guy's life that he was trying to emphasize. And though the old guy went back to his alley and his trash burner barrel, he had done something to feel good about on that day, something that truly made even his bleak existence valuable.