Two for Tuesday
Providing background information on music from popular genres like Country, Classic Rock, Southern Rock etc.
Two for Tuesday
Cash, Cline, and Country Music's Transformation
In this episode of Two for Tuesday, Michael Pezent of 2nd Round Music takes you back to the 1950s and early ’60s — the birth of modern country’s 3rd generation. From the stripped-down grit of Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line” to the smooth Nashville Sound of Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces,” discover the stories, struggles, and studio secrets that made these songs timeless.
Link to the 2nd Round Music YouTube channel where Michael will perform these two songs: https://youtu.be/o-NU-E5B_A4
Welcome back to another edition of the Two for Tuesday podcast brought to you by 2nd Round Music. It's the podcast that deep dives into the artists and stories behind the music we love. I'm your host, Michael Pezent, and today we're going back to another critical turning point in country music history, a period when honky-tonk transitioned into polished national sound and modern country music truly began to take shape. We're talking about the third generation of country music Now. This is a time frame from the, say, the 50s through the early 60s. This generation included a whole new level of commercial appeal and songwriting sophistication Major labels, national TV appearances and country stars becoming household names. And today we'll wrap it up in true Two for Tuesday fashion with a deep dive into two absolute giants of that era Johnny Cash's I Walk the Line and Patsy Cline's I Fall to Pieces.
Michael Pezent:All right, before we jump into today's spotlight songs, let's set the scenes for what country music looked like and sounded like in the early 1950s. America had just come out of World War II, small towns were growing, radios were in every household and jukeboxes well, they were spinning in every diner you could find. And for the first time this style of hillbilly honky-tonk music wasn't confined to the front porches and dance halls in the South anymore. It was everywhere. And the 1940s had been dominated by pioneers like Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb and Lefty Frizzell. These guys poured every bit of heartache and joy into steel guitars and fiddle-driven arrangements. Those artists laid the foundation for what we would soon call modern country music.
Michael Pezent:But it was the early 1950s that things really began to evolve and morph into something different. Nashville, tennessee, started to rise as the epicenter of country music, and the Grand Ole Opry, also referred to as the Mother Church, became a national touchstone. Artists like Kitty Wells and Webb Pierce weren't just popular, they were turning into full-blown celebrities. Now, guys, I want you to hang on to that name Webb Pierce, because he's going to get his own episode on this podcast a little bit later.
Michael Pezent:But something else was happening behind the scenes. Record producers started talking about crossing over, taking a country song and making an appeal to fans and pop and easy listening music. Now a brand new sound started to emerge slicker, smoother, more polished than anything before, and it eventually became known as the Nashville Sound, and producers like Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley drove it forward. They replaced fiddles with string sections and added background vocal groups and created songs meant for both country charts and pop charts. Now I've also heard this quote unquote sound called country-politan. And out of that moment, two artists broke through who would forever alter the direction of country music. One represented the raw, stripped down spirit of working class America.
Michael Pezent:The other brought elegance and emotional vulnerability and an incredible voice like no one had ever heard in country music before. I'm talking about, of course, jr Cash, aka Johnny Cash, and Virginia Patterson Hensley she's better known as Patsy Cline. And after this sponsored message, I'll talk about the first of our two songs today. I'll see you on the other side. Are you ready to take control of your finances and build a brighter future? Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired and feeling broke all the time? My name is Michael Pezent, a certified master coach, and I created 2nd Round Financial to provide personalized financial coaching based on the proven principles of Dave Ramsey's seven baby steps. Our services include, but are not limited to, one-on-one financial coaching through Zoom, conference or face-to-face budgeting strategies, debt reduction plans, emergency fund creation, retirement planning and investment guidance. But why choose us? Because we believe in empowering our clients with the knowledge and tools they need to achieve financial peace. With our guidance, you'll gain clarity over your financial situation, develop a realistic and achievable plan, and experience hope and confidence in your financial future. I have over 15 years experience teaching and guiding families in the Ramsey Principles, along with a degree in finance and work experience in the banking and insurance industries. So let's get started today. Go to 2ndroundfinancial. com and click book now to schedule your free consultation today.
Michael Pezent:So let's start with the man in black.
Michael Pezent:Johnny Cash wasn't looking to write a hit. I Walked the Line was born in a tiny Air Force barracks overseas while Cash was stationed in Germany back in 1954. It started as a personal pledge, a reminder to stay faithful to his then-wife, vivian. While he was so far from home, cash kept playing around with his auto harp late at night, experimenting with chords over and over, until he landed on something he called a strange little progression. Now, once he got back to the States, he signed with Sun Records in Memphis, tennessee, and he brought the song to Sam Phillips, but not the anthem that we know today. Originally it was much slower and much more melancholy. Then, during one of the sessions, cash happened to play the tape backwards by accident, and he noticed how the chords shifted keys, naturally. Well, that happy accident led to what became one of the most unique structures in country music Five different key changes in one song. That's just amazing. Now remember these recording sessions were stripped down no drums, no extra instrumentation. So Johnny actually took a piece of wax paper, stretched it over the strings of his guitar and he created a sort of a snare drum effect just by hitting on the strings and that's the sound you hear pulsing underneath the vocals. It's homemade, it's honest and it became iconic.
Michael Pezent:And when I walked the line dropped in May of 1956, it shot up to number one on the billboard country charts and it didn't leave the top 10 for 43 consecutive weeks. People immediately responded to how simple and how powerful it was. And what most fans don't know at the time is that Johnny wasn't trying to write a hymn or a song of faith. The whole thing was just a love letter to his wife. And one last interesting detail If you ever listen closely to the recording, you'll hear Johnny hum a deep note before every verse. Now, he wasn't trying to be artistic. He was literally humming the root note of the song so that he could stay in the right key after each modulation of the song so that he could stay in the right key after each modulation. It's one of the most practical pieces of music ship in history and it accidentally became one of the most memorable.
Speaker 2:I keep a close watch on this heart of mine. I keep my eyes wide open all the time.
Michael Pezent:So, while Johnny Cash was delivering this raw, stripped down declaration of loyalty, another artist, and really another entirely different sound, was beginning to redefine what country music could sound like. Her voice didn't growl, it floated. It resonated with emotion in a way that crossed every demographic. I'm talking about the one and only Patsy Cline, and the song that launched her into country music history wasn't a rocker, it was a ballad full of heartbreak and sophistication. I Fall to Pieces. Now let's break it down and the story behind it.
Speaker 2:I fall to pieces Each time I see you again.
Michael Pezent:Now here's something a lot of people don't know. Patsy Cline didn't originally want to record I Fall to Pieces. It was written by the songwriting super heavyweight duo of Harlan Howard and Hank Cockard. Both of these guys are hall of fame songwriters and individually have written some of the most popular songs in the history of the genre. They were both working in Nashville as staff writers and they had just teamed up when Hank played Harlan a melody he'd been humming. Harlan immediately grabbed his guitar and said that sounds like falling to pieces and the lyrics started pouring out. Well, they pitched this song to Decca Records and producer Owen Bradley. So Owen went on a quest to find somebody that would sing it and it was turned down several times. But as Patsy was standing in the hallway outside Bradley's office, one day she overheard a discussion, if you will, with another artist who again was turning this song down. Patsy came in and asked if she could record it and Bradley accepted.
Michael Pezent:Now, during the recording recording, once Patsy got to the studio, she thought the arrangement sounded too pop and it didn't match her honky-tonk roots. So Mr Bradley, who was helping build the Nashville sound at the time, had to convince her to at least try it and the recording session was held at Bradley Studios in Nashville and it included the Jordanaires on background vocals, to which Patsy was not too thrilled, and according to Jordanaires member Gordon Stocker, she wasn't too friendly on their first meeting either. Patsy thought that they were going to come in and drown out her sound. But here's one of the most fascinating parts. Patsy still wasn't buying Owen's sales pitch on this song during rehearsal and she reportedly stopped midway through and said this just isn't me. So Owen asked her to try it with a little more restraint. Rather than belting it out like a honky-tonk number, he told her to try to sing it like you were talking to one person, and that changed everything. She stepped back to the mic and delivered a smooth, emotionally controlled performance that made the entire control room go silent.
Michael Pezent:Now Bradley started the track with a slight shuffle rhythm, something that bridged country and pop music, but according to song co-composer Harlan Howard, the session musicians were having trouble in the studio with the song also. Now he stated once on the night of the session we absolutely did not want to do a standard 4-4 shuffle. That had been done to death. We were trying all kinds of other basic rhythm combinations, but they all just laid there and bled all over the floor. Combinations, but they all just laid there and bled all over the floor, so it had to be the shuffle then, like it or not. But the amazing thing was, once Patsy got into the groove she just caressed those lyrics and that melody so tenderly that it was just like satin. We knew we had magic in a can. When, on the fourth take, every grown man in that studio was bawling like a baby and Bradley said Now, after listening to the playback, patsy realized that Owen was right about the Torch songs and she ended up liking the track, stating that she had finally found her sound identity. And subsequently the Jordanaires became fast friends and part of Patsy's inner circle. Now, how about that?
Michael Pezent:Now, when the song was released in January of of 1961, it took a few months to catch on. Radio stations didn't know where they put it on the pop rotation or the country rotation but by august it climbed to number one on the country chart and it topped number 15 on the pop chart, breaking a barrier that few female country artists had ever crossed before. Now this song became a classic and it's placed on three different Rolling Stone magazine greatest songs lists. First, in 2004, it ranked number 238 on their 500 greatest songs of all time. In 2014, it was number 40 on the 40 saddest country songs of all time, and then in 2024 it reached number 72 on their 200 greatest songs in country music. It was also number seven on the cmt 100 greatest songs in country music and in 1994 aaron neville and Trisha Yearwood covered the song on an album called Rhythm, country and Blues, and it went on to win a 1995 Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals, and that's the actual version that you'll hear me play Now. This became Patsy's first major crossover hit, and it proved what the Nashville sound could do bring massive emotion into a polished, universal package without losing its country soul. To this day, I Fall to Pieces is considered one of the most important recordings of all time, not just in country music but in American music history.
Michael Pezent:Hey guys, thank you for listening today and I hope you're enjoying this podcast. If you are, please subscribe or follow the podcast, click the like button, share it with other music lovers and please consider giving a five-star rating so we can reach a bigger audience. Now back to the show. So there you have it One song forged in a lonely air force barracks, another crafted in a polished nashville studio. Two totally different paths, but both help define what we now call modern country music.
Michael Pezent:Johnny Cash proved that you didn't need big production to say something powerful, and Patsy Cline showed that country music could be elegant, expressive and cross any boundary. So thanks so much for joining me for this week's Two for Tuesday podcast, brought to you by 2nd Round Music. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a big favor subscribe, follow the show, leave a quick review, share it with another music-loving fan, and all these small things help us tremendously by triggering that algorithm and pushing it out to more listeners. It's the easiest way you can support what we're doing and I greatly appreciate it. So join me next week when we dive into another iconic chapter in music history. Until then, I'm Michael Pezent, reminding you we love you and we need you. And keep that music playing and those stories alive. God bless you. We love you and we need you, and keep that music playing and those stories alive. God bless you.