Alva Review-Courier -

Recently, I was looking on the internet at some music websites when I came across the title of a country song that made me take notice.

My immediate thought was that it might be the best title for a country (sometimes referred to as “country and western”) song that any songwriter has ever created.

A second immediate thought I had was about the tune “You Never Even Called Me by My Name” – a 1975 hit for David Allen Coe.

Steve Goodman wrote that song and one of the jokes in it is that Goodman broaches the idea that it just might be the “perfect country and western song.”

But Coe tells Goodman that it can’t be because it doesn’t mention such things as one’s mother, trains, prison, drinking alcohol and pickup trucks.

So Goodman writes a comical “last verse” for the song that mentions all of those things, thereby making it the “perfect country and western song.”

When I saw the song’s title that I am eventually going to tell you about, I listened to it on YouTube. In my opinion, it is mediocre at best!

So while I won’t claim that it comes close to being the perfect country and western song, I’m still going to nominate it for best country and western song TITLE.

While I’m at it, let me say that while I really like the Goodman-Coe tune mentioned above, I do not think that it is the perfect country and western song either.

I would give that honor (if it were mine to give) to “He Stopped Loving Her Today” by George Jones (written by Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman). But, then, there are lots of great country and western songs that have been written over the years.

The legendary Willie Nelson once told an interviewer: “I’m a country songwriter and we write cry-in-your-beer songs.”

We will look at some of the themes that often find their way into country songs and reveal the “perfect country and western song title” next week.