‘The Pride Of West Virginia’ … And America
Posted on 12.10.11 by Danny Glover @ 2:57 pm

I didn’t know until moments ago, when a colleague forwarded a video, that the West Virginia University band, known to all Mountaineers as “The Pride of West Virginia,” is a viral hit on YouTube.

The video, viewed more than 1.1 million times so far is from the band’s performance at a game played this year just before Sept. 11 memorials. The show, a tribute to the U.S. armed forces, features a medley of songs from all U.S. military branches and amazing choreography that matches each song.

At one point, band members form into airplane to recognize the U.S. Air Force, and as they march forward, smoke billows from the area where engines would be on the plane.

I have family connections to the band. My brother marched with “The Pride” as a trombone player during college and still returns regularly to march as part of the alumni band on homecoming weekends in the fall. Even better, we’re related to WVU band director Jay Drury. His grandmother (my grandmother’s oldest sister) was my favorite great aunt during my childhood. I looked forward to visits with Aunt Kate during her weeks-long stays at my grandmother’s house.

If you appreciate WVU’s tribute to the military, donate a few bucks toward the band’s travel fund to reward the directors and performers who created the show.

UPDATE, Dec. 10: Fans of WVU and of the band’s tribute to the military are trying to get the National Football League to invite the band to perform the show again at the Super Bowl. Join the Facebook group if you like the idea.

Correction: An earlier version of this article said the show was performed before Memorial Day.


Filed under: Family and Human Interest and Music and Video and West Virginia
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Country Roads Lead To WVU, Not Marshall
Posted on 08.23.10 by Danny Glover @ 10:43 pm

Bad things happen when rednecks “think outside the box” — bad things like Marshall University’s band ending its tradition of playing “Take Me Home, Country Roads” at the behest of unenlightened Athletic Director Mike Hamrick:

Hamrick, who is beginning his second year at Marshall, said the university wanted to go a different direction because of all of the changes being made at the stadium. New video scoreboards and an updated sound system are a few components of the $3 million athletic facilities overhaul that fans will notice next month.

“We’re changing our approach to the game presentation,” Hamrick said. “We want to put together a new concept for the presentation, and ‘Country Roads’ is just not part of that new concept.”

Taking “a different direction” than “Country Roads” in West Virginia is like traveling the wrong way on a one-way street. Marshall has gone to the dark side, giving West Virginia University alumni like me yet another reason to despise the Thundering Herd.

But that’s OK because no band performs “Country Roads” better than WVU’s band. Now the master musicians in the Pride of West Virginia will have the tune all to themselves. I hope they play it with an extra dose of passion when we beat Marshall on the Thundering Herd’s home field come Sept. 11.


Filed under: Music and News & Politics and People and Redneck Music and Sports and West Virginia
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Tim Hawkins: ‘Somebody Broke Wind’
Posted on 07.12.10 by Danny Glover @ 9:54 pm

Sheer genius. I wish our minivan had a DVD player just so I could play this video repeatedly on our next road trip when one of the kids “breaks wind” and forces us to roll down the windows for fresh air. It’s the only sure-fire way to get me to stop so the culprit can take a bathroom break.


Filed under: Entertainment and Family and Just For Laughs and Music and Redneck Humor and Video
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‘West Virginia On My Heart’
Posted on 07.03.10 by Danny Glover @ 12:26 pm

West Virginia remembered Sen. Robert C. Byrd at a state Capitol service in the great Mountain State yesterday, and Mark Knoller of CBS tweeted one of the moments that will stick with me:

“He once said, ‘When I am dead and opened, they will find West Virginia on my heart,’” GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell said of Byrd.

That much Byrd and I have in common. West Virginia will forever be on my heart. (The words also were etched into postcard-sized memorial photos of Byrd.)

The other moment from the memorial that moved me, literally almost to tears, is when a bluegrass band started playing “Country Roads” and the crowd sang the lyrics to John Denver’s famous song while the honor guard carried Byrd’s casket back into the Capitol.

I can’t hear that song without getting chills. I love my home, and no matter how long I live in the Washington, D.C., area or anywhere else, I’ll always be a proud hillbilly from West Virginia.


Filed under: Music and News & Politics and People and Redneck Music and Rednecks and West Virginia
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Violent Musical Fantasies That Make You Smile
Posted on 06.26.10 by Danny Glover @ 12:23 pm

Country musicians have a twisted knack for making violence seem amusing. The latest entry in this niche music genre is the song “Pray For You,” by Jaron and the Long Road to Love.

Here are the deadly wishes for a wife scorned from the chorus alone: “I pray your brakes go out runnin’ down a hill. I pray a flowerpot falls from a window sill and knocks you in the head like I’d like to. I pray your birthday comes and nobody calls. I pray you’re flyin’ high when your engine stalls. I pray all your dreams never come true. Just know wherever you are, honey, I pray for you.”

I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t help but smile, especially when I watch the video.

I unsuccessfully fought the same urge — being entertained by violent, sometimes deadly fantasies set to catchy music rather than offended by them — when The Dixie Chicks released “Goodbye Earl” and when Carrie Underwood’s tune “Before He Cheats” rose to the top of the charts. The latter is still one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite singers. Enjoy these online encore performances:


Filed under: Entertainment and Just For Laughs and Music and Redneck Music and Video
Comments: 1 Comment

Broadband For Rednecks Everywhere!
Posted on 03.11.10 by Danny Glover @ 1:37 pm

In my new role as the editorial director of Digital Society, I’ve been focused like a laser on high-speed Internet the past few weeks. The FCC will be releasing its national broadband plan in six days, so leaders of the commission have been making the rounds on the speaking circuit to promote pieces of the plan.

The central message of the plan is that all Americans need broadband access — Commissioner Michael Copps this week even joined the chorus of people proclaiming it as a “right” — so the government must take steps to ensure that the poor, minorities, the elderly and, yes, rednecks in rural areas are enlightened by the Internet.

The FCC is so committed to selling its plan that Chairman Julius Genachowski spoke to the Country Music Association’s board of directors at its meeting in Washington yesterday.

Of course, country bumpkins are way too backward to understand the high-tech lingo of the FCC, so Genachowski’s staff translated his speech into “Nashvillese” that features country music titles:

When I think of those “Country Roads” and “Wide Open Spaces” without broadband, I “Fall to Pieces” and say that’s “Crazy.” We need to address these “Unanswered Prayers.”

As FCC chairman, I have friends in high places and “Friends in Low Places,” and I’m pulled to and fro on policy issues, but “I Walk the Line.” That’s because telecom politics is like a “Ring of Fire.” First I have Senator Rockefeller telling me about a “Coal Miner’s Daughter” who can’t get wireless service in some “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.” Next, “I’m on the Road Again” to where “The Grass is Blue” and “A Boy Named Sue” stops me and says we need super-duper fast broadband all the way from “Boulder to Birmingham”” — and beyond, to “Galveston” and “El Paso.” He complains that his slow dial-up service can’t get to “Amarillo by Morning” and laments that America has gone round and round for years without a National Broadband Plan and plaintively asks, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?”

I explain — to the “Boy Named Sue” — that this issue is “Always on my Mind” and the lack of a plan should not make him “Hurt” or a “Man of Constant Sorrow” with his “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.” Instead, I tell him to “Take it Easy” — “Don’t Rock the Jukebox” … just try to “Keep on the Sunny Side” and dream “Sweet Dreams” — because A National Broadband Plan is coming. Next week.”

Don’t you feel so much more enlightened about broadband now?


Filed under: Entertainment and Government and Music and News & Politics and Redneck Humor and Redneck Music and Rednecks and Technology
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Sen. Ben Nelson Loses Redneck Vote
Posted on 12.24.09 by Danny Glover @ 12:51 pm

America is on the verge of taking a huge step toward socialized medicine, and Sen. Ben Nelson is a key player in that move. The Nebraska Democrat gave his party the 60th vote it needs to limit debate on the health-care bill that the Senate passed today on a 60-39 vote.

Nelson’s decision to sell his vote in a deal dubbed as “Cash for Cloture” doesn’t sit with the the rednecks in his state. Several of them rallied in the capital city of Lincoln on Tuesday to protest Nelson’s support for the legislation in exchange for tens of millions of dollars in federal dollars to Nebraska.

“We’re proud redneck Nebraskans, and we go big red and we’re not for sale,” Lincoln musician Gary Redden sang. The crowd answered back, “We’re not for sale!”

Nelson had plenty of opportunities to hear that message before selling out, but he closed his ears. Unfortunately, Nelson isn’t up for re-election until 2010. Hopefully the rednecks will crank up the volume between now and then, so the state doesn’t forget Nelson’s betrayal.


Filed under: Government and Health and Music and News & Politics and People and Rednecks
Comments: 1 Comment

Uncle Jay Explains The News Of 2009 In Song
Posted on 12.21.09 by Danny Glover @ 12:16 pm


Filed under: Just For Laughs and Music and News & Politics and Video
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Do The Political Hokey Pokey
Posted on 12.21.09 by Danny Glover @ 12:02 am

Senate Democratic leaders yesterday bought the 60th vote they need to impose the heavy hand of government on the American health-care market. Failing a revolt by the more liberal House, “Obamacare” is looking more and more like the future for this country.

But “we, the people” always get the last word, and hopefully the decision by President Obama and Democrats in Congress to force on this nation a law opposed by a majority of Americans will prove to be their undoing politically.

Ray Stevens, my favorite comedic singer as a child, gives voice to that possibility in a new song. The best line: “Please tell Nancy Pelosi, we’re gonna do the hokey pokey — put the right ones in, pull the left ones out.”

And one of Stevens’ oldies but goodies, “The Mississippi Squirrel Revival,” is a metaphor for how the nation reached this point. Obama is the squirrel who went berserk in the first self-righteous Congress, and liberals are singing “Hallelujah” to his plan for socialized medicine.


Filed under: Government and Just For Laughs and Music and News & Politics and People and Redneck Humor and Redneck Music and Video
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Pink vs. Prince William
Posted on 12.12.09 by Danny Glover @ 3:48 pm

American singer and songwriter Pink (her given name is Alecia Beth Moore) thinks Prince William of England needs a better education. That’s the only explanation she has for why someone as royal as he is would stoop so low as to hunt:

U.S. rock singer Pink has called Prince William of Wales … a “redneck” after he responded to the letter she had written to him protesting about fox hunting. … [She] told the U.K. music magazine Q that she was shocked by the manner in which Prince William … responded to her letter regarding fox hunting, saying:

“I wrote to him to protest about fox hunting and I figured he would be this stuffy, privileged a**hole. But he’s like a redneck from the South. If you’re brought up shooting and hunting animals, if you really think it’s second nature and you’re blasting away then it’s hard to see the other point of view. You need educating.

Wear that redneck label with pride, Prince William. And keep on hunting. Pink, like everyone else who works with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is the one who needs educated.


Filed under: Hunting & Guns and Music and People
Comments: 2 Comments

Christmas Comedy
Posted on 12.11.09 by Danny Glover @ 6:28 pm

Yes, Minnesota, there is global warming — because alarmists used the politics of peer review to hide the decline in temperatures. And now Minnesotans for Global Warming has immortalized their dirty deeds in song just in time for the holidays:

And now comedian Tim Hawkins reminds everyone what Christmas is all about:


Filed under: Entertainment and Holidays and Just For Laughs and Music and People and Video
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Before Tiger Woods Cheats
Posted on 12.09.09 by Danny Glover @ 6:02 pm

Some people jumped to the defense of celebrity golfer Tiger Woods soon after rumors began swirling that his scorned wife, Elin, had caused him to wreck his car by bashing the window with a golf club after the she confronted him about marital infidelity.

Woods refuted the rumor, saying that his wife had “acted courageously” to help him after the accident and that he alone was responsible for the accident.

Three days later, however, he vaguely admitted to cheating on his wife: “I have let my family down, and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves.”

Since then, numerous women, if you can really use that word for porn stars, cocktail waitresses and the like, have laid claim to the title of Tiger Woods mistress. At last count, Woods had almost as many alleged mistresses (11) as he as major golf championships (14).

Granted, Woods hasn’t directly admitted to adultery and certainly not with any specific ladies. The evidence of him having cheated with anyone also is scant at this point.

But if even a kernel of what has been reported is true, perhaps Elin Woods can take a cue from country singer Carrie Underwood about how to respond to a cheatin’ scoundrel:


Filed under: Music and News & Politics and People and Redneck Music and Sports and Video
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The Cumbersome IPod
Posted on 11.27.09 by Danny Glover @ 6:28 pm

You whipper-snappers who jog with iPods in tow don’t know squat when it comes to “cumbersome” technology, so let comedian Tim Hawkins enlighten you to life during the era of the Walkman and portable CD players:


Filed under: Entertainment and Just For Laughs and Music and Technology and Video
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Redneck Musical Moment Of The Decade
Posted on 11.26.09 by Danny Glover @ 9:33 pm

To hear Country Music Television tell it, the term “redneck” began losing its stigma a few years into the first decade of the 21st century, all thanks to a song:

“Redneck Woman,” Gretchen Wilson (2004) — Gretchen Wilson tapped into a vein of country music that no one else sensed was there. That vein was a growing sense of identity by an ignored and overlooked group of women country listeners. Redneck pride soared as a result, for women and then for men, as well. And gradually the term “redneck” itself began to shed the stigma that many people liked to attach to country fans — and to Southerners, in particular.

I disagree. Catchy music aside, “Redneck Woman” wasn’t exactly a boon to the reputation of rednecks. And if the term “redneck” had begun losing its stigma as a result of Wilson’s work in 2004, I wouldn’t have launched this blog in 2008.

We rednecks are maligned as much now as ever, perhaps even more since the rise of Sarah Palin and the angry mob across America.


Filed under: Hatin' On Rednecks and Music and People and Redneck Music and Rednecks
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Close Encounters Of The Redneck Kind
Posted on 11.24.09 by Danny Glover @ 9:21 pm

Deliverance will come to the universe once all aliens learn how to play “Dueling Banjos“:


Filed under: Entertainment and Just For Laughs and Music and Rednecks and Video
Comments: 1 Comment

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