The Echo of a Distant Time: Country Music

Showing posts with label Country Music. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 25, 2026

Fare thee well, Dolly Parton

A vivid colour studio portrait shows Dolly Parton smiling directly towards the camera against a deep navy background. Her famously voluminous platinum-blonde hair is arranged in cascading curls and an exceptionally high bouffant, framing her face and shoulders. She wears lavender eye shadow, dark eyeliner and glossy pink lipstick. Her fitted dark teal dress is dramatically contrasted by a bright pink ruffled neckline and enormous sheer balloon sleeves, gathered into extravagant tiered cuffs. Both hands rest across her waist, displaying long manicured nails and numerous ornate rings. The saturated pink, teal and platinum palette, theatrical styling and exuberant proportions give the portrait an unmistakably glamorous 1970s country-music aesthetic.

Dolly Parton Archive

A fond farewell to one of America’s most beloved public figures: Dolly Parton, 19 January 1946 to 25 August 2026. {NYT 25 August; photo: Dolly Parton Archive}

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/arts/music/dolly-parton-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8FA.CnX_.KKzjuoNR1foq&smid=url-share

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Pining for better days with Elizabeth Hurley. Sixty-one years old today, if anyone can believe it

A black-and-white photograph of Elizabeth Hurley, as a young dark-haired woman, standing in a marble-tiled bathroom. She is topless, wearing lace briefs, both hands raised to her hair. She gazeth directly at the camera. A floral curtain and white towels are visible behind.

Getty Images

One of modern England's most astonishingly beautiful women, actress and model Elizabeth Hurley is possessed of striking features, effortless glamour, and the peculiarly English combination of elegance and mischievous self-awareness.

Born on 10 June 1965 in Basingstoke, she emerged during an era when Britain was unusually proficient at producing women of remarkable beauty and exporting them to the wider world. She has also possessed uncommon staying power, navigating modelling, film, television, fashion, and celebrity culture with an ease suggesting that she understands the machinery of fame better than most of those operating it.

North of sixty, she is still very much in striking form, carrying herself with the confidence and poise of someone entirely comfortable in her own skin and wholly uninterested in apologising for it. I must confess that I do not know what to make of reports that she is dating Billy Ray Cyrus, of all the bloody people in this world, except that beautiful women have been making baffling romantic decisions since the dawn of civilisation. Hugh Grant may attest to that, though obviously it is not at all baffling why almost any woman would, at least at first sight, be swept off her feet by a devastatingly handsome British gentleman. Billy Ray, a redneck American whose only claims to fame are a hit song from thirty-five years ago and fathering an obnoxious daughter who nonetheless scored more hits than he ever did, is a lot harder to figure out. But I digress.

No matter. Elizabeth Hurley remains a vibrant and shining presence in this undeserving world, and Mr ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ had better not break hers.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Thursday, July 20, 2023

Lowlife pseudo-country music star stirs controversy with video shoot at an infamous Tennessee courthouse

Beginning seven years ago, with the emergence of Donald Trump as the ultimate populist demagogue, this former right-winger was left with no recourse but to finally stop giving all these people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to most anything. In particular, in matters of race, religion, and morality. The assclown musician Jason Aldean and his people chose a particular courthouse with a sordid history for his video shoot as a dog whistle to his neo-Confederate fans and white nationalist populists everywhere. Let us be real, those types are by far the largest consumers of this kind of trash modern ‘country’ music, and Jason Aldean certainly knows this clearly and capitalizes. Trump has taught his little grifters quite well in the game, but how difficult can it be when there are millions and millions of Americans so gleefully willing to be gaslit and swindled by con-men who say or imply the sort of things they want to hear. Especially any rhetoric stating or implying that blacks must be kept in line. Do read this article from the Washington Post and the harrowing account of what happened at the Maury County Courthouse in November of 1927. {WP 7/19}