Making an Independent Woman Yours

I went and got my country on over on southside.

There's words you might not have expected out of this fan of new music, but I'd been wanting to hear Loversville for a while now.

So in the quest for classic country music, I headed over the river to Crossroads coffee to listen to songs by the likes of Loretta Lynn, Faron Young, Buck Owens, Conway Twitty and Roger Miller.

Foolishly, given that I'd never been to Crossroads, I under-estimated the crowd size.

Most every seat was taken when I got there but I found a couple with a spare chair and they let me use it.

Since I'm not a coffee or hot tea drinker, I went with ice cream, perhaps not the best choice on a 39 degree night, and even more so given that the guy at the counter was a musician who recognized me from his band's shows and gave me enough ice cream for three people.

But with a seat and a bowl, I was ready for whatever was next.

"Okay, it's country time," singer Cassandra said by way of getting the ball rolling, starting with Glen Campbell's "Try a Little Kindness."

Now that's what I'm talking about: a singer/guitarist, bass player, drummer and pedal steel/fiddle player.

Glen was followed by the classic Hank Williams' tune, "Your Cheatin' Heart" ("Everybody knows that one, it's a universal thing"), and Dwight Yoakum's "Close Up the Honky Tonks" in short order.

Although I don't much go out for country music, every song's a story, so it's a lot like going to Secretly Y'All, Tell Me a Story except the stories are all about drinking and relationships.

You know, life.

By the third song, it was standing room only and people came in saying either they loved this band or they'd been trying to catch this band.

Midway through "Crazy Arms," Cassandra smiled beatifically and said, "Isn't that pretty?" about the pedal steel solo.

If the music was "purdy," the song titles were appropriately dire, like "I'm Down to My Last Cigarette," a crisis I've never known.

They did one original ("We made this one up and it's kind of autobiographical"), "Independent Woman," which contained my favorite lyric of the entire evening.

I sure could use a hand getting out of this dress.

True story.

As they were finishing that instant classic, in walked a woman who was immediately called to the stage.

"This lovely woman is Octavia, who used to play bass in this band," Cassandra explained. "Until she was stolen away by the drummer's best friend. How's that for a soap opera?"

Octavia did several songs with the band, songs like "Walking the Dog" and "Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down" but it was "You're Out of Time" that had the best lyrics.

I said baby, baby, baby, you're out of time
Yes, you are left out, yes you are
I said you're left out of there without a doubt
Cause baby, baby, baby, you're out of time
You can't come back and be the first in line

No, sir, mister, you'll have to wait your turn.

There was a run of Loretta Lynn songs, including "Farther to Go," which Cassandra said, "She wrote it and no one else but us ever covered it."

While the band took a break to get alcohol, because how can you play this music without it, a young man named Cole came up and played Cassandra's guitar.

Doing all sad songs - "House of the Rising Sun," "Hallelujah" and "A Broken Heart is Blind" - he captivated a crowd old enough to be his parents if not grandparents.

Loversville came back with the best song title of the evening, "Grits Ain't Groceries" and after singing it, Cassandra said, "Grits ain't groceries, eggs ain't poultry, I don't know what that means except he really loves her."

By then I knew there are only two options in classic country music, either it's love or it's heartbreak, no in-between.

Almost as good was "It's the Bottle Talking," with lines like, "But it's the bottle talking when you say you're mine. It's the bottle talking that makes the love light shine. But your heart is as empty as the bottles in the wine."

Wait, country types drink bubbly?

Between songs as the band tried to decide which song to play next, Cassandra would throw out pearls like, "George Jones! Boy, did he leave the world a better place."

A couple of the covers they did were kind of surprising, like when she said, "We're going to do a Ramones song written by the Seeds."

Whoa, what?

Actually, they did a fine version of "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" with a killer pedal steel accompaniment that I doubt Joey Ramone could have imagined.

The other was the Rolling Stones' "Time is On My Side," which got a lot of affirming head nods from the boomer crowd in the room.

Late in the set, a guy took a recently-vacated chair near me, smiling and saying he liked my tights.

"Tell me the truth, though, do they keep you warm at all?" he asked. Truth be told, they're better than bare legs and that's the best I can say about them.

Okay, so it wasn't my typical Saturday night, but I had a ball and heard some classic story songs of love and drinking gone bad.

You want me to prove my love for you
I'm surprised that's the way you're asking me to
You've known me so long I can' understand
What kind of girl do you think I am?

The kind of girl who occasionally needs to spend a night in Loversville, that's who.

And, by the way, she could use some help getting out of this dress.