Ah, life on the bayou…

Another Monday got you not quite rarin’ and ready to go?  Well, hush your mouth because The Nest will have you whistling Dixie again faster than you can say “kiss my grits!”  It’s time for us to whip up another southern fried earworm straight out of that giant bowl of gumbo we like to call the Dusty Vinyl Archive!  DJ Scratchy’s pickin’ and grinnin’ behind the turntable in her best Daisy Dukes, while the Sponkies listen intently to the dueling banjos in the distance.  If this song isn’t for you, well just bless your heart…

One of the occupational hazards of working for a corporation with its roots in the South is prolonged exposure to country music.  Country’s not exactly at the top of my list of most favorite music genres like new wave and disco are…. but occasionally, I’m exposed to a few twangy songs that can soothe the musical part of my brain.

Enter a country artist by the name of Mel McDaniel.  McDaniel was kind of an anomaly among the country music world who focused more on happy songs than the stereotypically depressing “There’s a Tear In My Beer” type that really came to define classic country and western.  And though he was far from the most successful musician on the Nashville circuit in the 80’s, but he did a few songs even non-country fans have probably heard of before, like his only #1 country charts hit, 1985’s “Baby’s Got Her Blue Jeans On.”

Hey, they’re technically blue jeans.

A few years before that in 1981, McDaniel recorded another song that he’d become closely associated with.  And though it wasn’t as big of a hit, it’s arguably his most lasting musical legacy…

Mecca Radio played “Louisiana Saturday Night” quite a bit during the 2010’s, and while the song itself is nothing special, parts of it really prod at the nostalgic parts of my memory.  The line in particular about “Fifteen kids in the front porch light” immediately takes me back to evenings at Granny’s house when I was a kid with all my sisters and cousins… running through the yard and chasing fireflies to stick in empty jars.

Ahhhh, our first exposure to cruelty to animals!

Another thing you gotta love about “Louisiana Saturday Night”…. it’s rare enough for songs to mention a squirrel.  I can only think of a couple off hand.  It’s even more unheard of for a song to mention a possum.  Yet, there’s our favorite marsupial in McDaniel’s song!  Dead in a sack, of course….

Buster wouldn’t want it any other way…

I’ll have another lost earworm for you next Monday.  Y’all come back now, ya hear?