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Ethan Minchew

Professor Cassel

English 1201-107

27 March 2019

Then. Now. Forever Country

In 1971 John Denver released “Take Me Home, Country Roads” with the feeling of that

no matter where you are that you’ll always find your home. Then in 1974, Dolly Parton released

“I Will Always Love You” which tells the recipient that you must go but you’ll always love

them and that you wish them the best. Jumping a few more years back to 1980, willie nelson

released “On the Road Again” with the attitude that as long as he’s on the road and making

music with his friends then he’s a happy man. We have “Forever Country” which is a one of the

biggest mashups in country history with the biggest country stars in it. It combines all three of

the songs into a huge tribute to the genre ‘Country’ which makes the listener become fully

engulfed in what seems to be the history of country music as this song encompasses the past of

country music. This song will pull in those who listened to the original way back then.

Tiffany and Bill Dandoff wrote this song about West Virginia but have never been there.

Bill had a friend who lived there and sent postcards and when growing up in Massachusetts, he

was able to pick up a radio station from West Virginia and listened to all the songs they played.

He liked the idea about writing about a place so exotic to him because he felt he lived so far

away from there cause all he did was hear about it and it’s music that was aired there. So Tiffany

and Bill wrote this song and hoped Johnny Cash would sing it. However Denver ended up

listening to it and decided to help them finish the song. So they eventually finished it and went to
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New York to record it. From there it became a big hit. The general rhythm of the song has an old

country feel to it but then again it was created when all that was relevant. The song is very

descriptive when it comes to the lyrics. It talks about landmarks and rivers that run though West

Virginia and about the country roads that make you feel right at home and will lead you home.

When Dolly Parton was a rising star in Nashville, she was greeted by Porter Wagner who

wanted her to sing on his show. So she agreed to sing for five years on the show cause she

wanted her own band and all. So when that five years was up, she decided to go out on her own.

Well Porter wasn’t listening to her as he was stubborn just like Dolly. So Dolly decided that

night she’ll write a song about her feelings and sing it to him the next day. So she sang it to him

and then he understood her feelings. This song entails the singer leaving and that it was time for

them to leave while also conveying their feelings of love to the listener. You can really feel the

emotion in the song as she sings it. However most people didn’t know Dolly wrote this song as

Whitney Houston sang it in her own version which became widely popular. But you can tell that

there is a lot of emotion in this song. Not any bad emotions but good emotion.

Willie Nelson was on a plane and airsick, so he decided to write a song about being on

the road instead. So he started writing about that song where he wanted to be on the road and

traveling with his friends and making music. Going from town to another, singing. Listening to

the song, it makes you feel like you want to take a road trip with friends and have a great time. It

makes you want to have a great time with friends, town hopping from one town to another.

Deciding to do a huge mashup as a tribute to basically all of country music isn’t an easy

thing. You need to go thought all these songs and see what screams “COUNTRY MUSIC’ while

also matching tempos with all the songs. So in the end they decided to do “Country Roads”, “I
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Will Always Love You”, and “On The Road Again”. They call this mashup ‘Then. Now. Forever

Country’. This was a huge project that would be made in a short amount of time.

This song was a tribute to the CMAs, Country Music Association, and honor its 50th

award ceremony. So it was decided to do a huge mashup of three different song. At first the

proposal was denied by the board of CMAs but one of the board members ended of taking the

project on. So first they needed to decide who all would sing in this. They wanted the hottest

country music stars in it at first until further on they basically like “Why not do all the country

stars from out the history of Country music”. So they went on a mission and contacted as many

stars they could that would be in town for the 2016 music festival. They wanted to get the

original singers of the songs, they got Dolly and willie to be part of it as john Denver was dead.

So they got all these country stars to sing a line or two for the song and the next day they started

making the video by getting clips of each star doing their own thing. They then released it on

September 16, of 2016. They had radio stations and live streaming services play it at 8:30 am.

They then released the video a few days later on ‘Dancing with the Stars’.

When watching the video you notice the variety of country stars in it at first. There are

about 30 country music stars in it. The stars in the video ranged from those releasing hits in the

80s till 2016, as that’s when the video was released. You also notice how their surroundings are

being built at first to it suddenly being dissembled and leaving nothing but field and trees for

miles. It appeals to all sorts of people as a lot of us are country fans who know about the old

artist to the newly rising one. They had some of counties biggest hits from willie nelson and

Dolly Parton to Reba McEntire to Clint Black who were all big hits back then. So it kind of pulls

at the heart strings of those listened to them when they were young because they’re listening to

them again singing in a huge mashup. It may bring back memories for them or even heart
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breaking memories. So without a doubt we can say that this was a huge song that made us feel

that original country vibe as if we were at the heart of country music. Therefore giving this song

the title of “Then. Now. Forever Country”.

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Works Cited

“Now & Forever - Forever Country” Youtube, uploaded by CMAVEVO, 20 September 2016,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9gAXwYZtfk

Denver, John. “John Denver - Take Me Home, Country Roads (Audio)” Youtube, uploaded by

John Denver, 5 April 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vrEljMfXYo

Nelson, Willie. “On The Road Again (Official Audio)” Youtube, uploaded by WillieNelson, 3

May 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBN86y30Ufc

Parton, Dolly. “I Will Always Love You” Youtube, uploaded by SNOWMAN1793, 27 July

2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDqqm_gTPjc