Wolves

When two musicians marry each other, it can make for an interesting mix. You can have the George Jones and Tammy Wynette kind of marriage where whatever broken thing inside of each spouse makes them love sad country songs turns them into their own sad country song.

Those kinds of marriages are best avoided, you can imagine, but they happen.

Then you can have the kind of marriage Mama and Daddy. Mama was a classically trained pianist that started teaching lessons when she was a teenager; Daddy was a guitar picker that spent his teen years cleaning horse stalls for fun.

Mama grew up on the old hymns, reading the music as she played like a mathematician solves a complicated formula. Daddy grew up with a harmonica in his pocket and an old cowboy tune at the ready should something need to be whistled.

They both grew up in the church, she a Baptist and he a Methodist, and carried their faith into adulthood, but it was interesting to see it play itself out differently along the fault line of their musical tastes.

This was driven home one night when Garth Brooks asked Daddy what song should be dedicated to Mama on the Opry one Saturday night. Daddy said Wolves, a cowboy song on the last track of one of Garth’s albums.

He could have chosen any number of love songs, but he had Garth sing a song about a rancher trying to hold on to praying to God to keep him from being one of the ones the wolves pull down. I thought the choice was funny, until I remembered Mama’s favorite song was Great Is Thy Faithfulness; a song about trusting in God no matter what.

Two musicians. Raising a young family. Leaning on their faith in their own way. And using music to communicate it to each other.

I listen to both songs regularly; I reflect back on my life and remember the hard times and sometimes I’ll sing the old hymn, but other times I’ll imagine a leather skinned cowboy with his hat in his hand staring up at the sky.

And whichever I do, I’m thankful those two musicians found each other all those years ago.