DOLLY YOUR ENTHUSIASM (19)

By: Charlie Mitchell
February 26, 2023

One in a series of 25 enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of favorite Country singles from the Sixties (1964–1973). Series edited by Josh Glenn. BONUS: Check out the DOLLY YOUR ENTHUSIASM playlist on Spotify.

STONEWALL JACKSON | “I WASHED MY HANDS IN MUDDY WATER” | 1965

I fell towards country, bluegrass, and folk pretty soon after I’d moved away from my home state of Wyoming. Honky tonk staple Stonewall (that was his legal name) Jackson’s “I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water,” from the album Trouble & Me, became for me a homing boomerang. By way of a euphonious salt-of-the-earth tone, Jackson strums out his own iteration of Joe Babcock’s country classic with an edible yet knee-slapping chord progression.

I’m not wild about Jackson’s other heaters — “B.J. the D.J.”, “Jesus Is My Lifeline”, “Don’t Be Angry” — though for no other reason than personal taste and what “Muddy Water” conjures. Jackson tells a story about a man born in Macon, Georgia; a feller who runs with a bad crowd and robs a man despite the warnings of his dad who has spent his life in jail. He busts out, and cuts out for home — only with bloodhounds on his trail.

I tried to do like Daddy told me
But I must have washed my hands in a muddy stream.

This song resonates — but why? I’ve never lived the life of an outlaw.

What resonates with this westerner is the song’s invocation of lawlessness. Well, there’s definitely law — but there’s a certain squirreliness in the citizenry. Interchange Macon for Rawlins, Nashville for Jackson or Cheyenne, and some semblance of home takes form for me in this song.

A high-school classmate on probation was pulled over with the carcass of a thirty-rack; he decked the deputy before booking it out into the sagebrush — where he was tackled by three more officers. The town weed guy, torn between dressing like a Confederate or Motown enthusiast in a psychically wrenching paradox, would vanish into the mountains during the daylight hours to evade capture. Did someone no-show for their shift at the bar where I worked? Check the publicly accessible county inmate list and — OK, that explains it.^* The film Vice, starring Christian Bale as Wyoming warlord Dick Cheney, features similar scenes from a previous generation.

“Nostalgia” doesn’t quite explain what songs like this make me feel. “Homesickness” isn’t quite right either — there’s no fireside coziness in that reckoning of home. I’m grateful that I grew up there; I’m also grateful that I got out. I want to look at Wyoming, and my memories of growing up there, on the level — without ignoring the changes that are taking place there or talking down to my friends who haven’t left.

^* In 2019, House Bill 51 took down Wyoming’s inmate list.

***

DOLLY YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Josh Glenn | David Cantwell on Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton’s WE FOUND IT | Lucy Sante on Johnny & June Carter Cash’s JACKSON | Mimi Lipson on George Jones’s WALK THROUGH THIS WORLD WITH ME | Steacy Easton on Olivia Newton-John’s LET ME BE THERE | Annie Zaleski on Tammy Wynette’s D-I-V-O-R-C-E | Carl Wilson on Tom T. Hall’s THAT’S HOW I GOT TO MEMPHIS | Josh Glenn on Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen’s BACK TO TENNESSEE | Elizabeth Nelson on Skeeter Davis’s I DIDN’T CRY TODAY | Carlo Rotella on Buck Owens’ TOGETHER AGAIN | Lynn Peril on Roger Miller’s THE MOON IS HIGH | Erik Davis on Kris Kristofferson’s SUNDAY MORNIN’ COMIN’ DOWN | Francesca Royster on Linda Martell’s BAD CASE OF THE BLUES | Amanda Martinez on Bobbie Gentry’s FANCY | Erin Osmon on John Prine’s PARADISE | Douglas Wolk on The Byrds’ DRUG STORE TRUCK DRIVIN’ MAN | David Warner on Willie Nelson’s WHISKEY RIVER | Will Groff on Tanya Tucker’s DELTA DAWN | Natalie Weiner on Dolly Parton’s IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS (WHEN TIMES WERE BAD) | Charlie Mitchell on Stonewall Jackson’s I WASHED MY HANDS IN MUDDY WATER | Nadine Hubbs on Dolly Parton’s COAT OF MANY COLORS | Jada Watson on Loretta Lynn’s DON’T COME HOME A DRINKIN’ (WITH LOVIN’ ON YOUR MIND) | Adam McGovern on Johnny Cash’s THE MAN IN BLACK | Stephen Thomas Erlewine on Dick Curless’s A TOMBSTONE EVERY MILE | Alan Scherstuhl on Waylon Jennings’s GOOD HEARTED WOMAN | Alex Brook Lynn on Bobby Bare’s THE WINNER. PLUS: Peter Doyle on Jerry Reed’s GUITAR MAN | Brian Berger on Charley Pride’s IS ANYBODY GOING TO SAN ANTONE.

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DOLLY YOUR ENTHUSIASM (19)

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