The older I get, the more I am driven into the past towards a fascination with older country music. With Henry toddling around our household we have made a specific effort to limit the amount of television that is on as well as keep any music reasonable (translation: much of my metal and hardcore is not the best choice).

Fast forward a bit and you end up with lots of old country music in the air thanks to many WW2 era radio shows on the mp3 player (all out of copyright and thus free). (There is also plenty of doom metal as well, particularly of the plodding, psychedelic variety.) My favorite show these days is Melody Roundup, which was on the armed forces radio network during the war. The comments about shortages, dedications to soldiers, and rationing is fascinating. The music is wonderful and the cultural snapshot is charming.

The Sons of the Pioneers played most of the show's songs and I now consider myself a huge fan. I can't speak to their later stuff yet, but the 1940's tracks are a delight. They've written and recorded a plethora of songs, which makes it all the more frustrating that I cannot track down a specific song that I heard on the show. The internet and google has failed me completely. The lyrics are plain as day:

Open Country is calling me...Just let me live where there's plenty of room...Let me live and die in that Open Country

Thankfully, I didn't have any trouble tracking this one down.