I don't need your rocking chair, but I'll take the sofa and love seat

It was Christmas Eve and my Wife and I were entertaining the staff of the department store which we run. My wife Lina had just come back from seeing George Jones in concert in Yellowknife. While there a friend took a photo to George and had him autograph it to us. It sits proudly on our wall unit. It is signed on the back so it is not immediately obvious to someone who doesn’t know country music who he is. One of our younger staff and not a country music fan picked up the photo. “Is this your Dad?’ She asked innocently. Her boyfriend Nick, who knew who was in the photo snorted with laughter. I suppressed a smile and explained who George Jones was. I flipped the photo over and showed her the autograph. She had heard of Jones but did not know what he looked like. I let the matter rest but I have a strange sense of humour so no one is ever really safe. The next day, Christmas day the staff joined us again for dinner. Lina was busy in the kitchen. “Boy was my Dad mad at me.” I said to Anna as she entered the room with a cup of egg nog. “Really, on Christmas?” “Well that’s the whole thing. He hated the Christmas present I got him.” “You’re kidding!” She exploded “He got mad over a Christmas present?” “Yeah.” I replied “He said I don’t need your rocking chair!” signing. Nick spit his egg nog back into his glass he was laughing so hard. I was howling. Anna chided me saying “You’re terrible!” So after that I always referred to the photo as “Dad”.
Well I thought I would never get to see the man in person. He had said that the tour where he signed the photo would be his last. But this year he came back to Canada. Not back to Yellowknife but to Edmonton among other stops. Lina and I had three weeks of holidays coming so we booked tickets months ago. Even though we booked well ahead we didn’t get the best tickets in the house but we did get to see it all. Now some might say that “The Possum” is past his prime. You might say that his voice is cracked and he can’t keep up with the faster paced songs. Truth is George probably wouldn’t argue with you. He jokes about slowing the faster songs down into waltzes and he apologizes that his voice is hoarse. But he needn’t do either. The fans aren’t here to hear some pimple faced kid singing in perfect tones they are here to see the man, the legend. You see there are many people out there who have perfect voices and I wouldn’t walk across the street to hear them. There are others like George Jones or Neil Young or even Johnny Cash at the end of his career whose voices were not the best but who know how to sing. Knowing how to sing and having a great voice are two different things.
What George Jones has, in spades, is authenticity. George has lived the life that he sings about. His fans know that. That is what they come for. The jubilee was packed tonight with country music fans from all over Alberta. “You think we’ll see anybody we know?” My wife had asked on the way to the theatre. “Are you kidding? I bet we’ll see a dozen people we know. “ Northerners love George. They grew up on him. Every trappers cabin had a radio in the old days, it was the only thing they often had connecting them to the outside world. Country music was a natural fit and George sang songs about the types of lives that people lived. George lived that kind of life too. You could read it in the words of his songs and in the sound of his voice. That is what his fans relate to. They know George is the real deal. What you see and hear is what you get. George also never let fame go to his head. He remembers where he came from and knows what his audience wants. He doesn’t take a lot of time preaching, he gives them all the oldies, all the tear jerkers and honky tonk songs. That is what they came for.
There are signed CDs in the lobby and George laughingly points out “I don’t need the money. But my creditors doo!” the audience roars. During the concert someone throws a note on the stage. One of “The Jones Boys” reads it. “It says get out of town by noon!” he quips, then hands the note to George. What it really says is that it is the birthday of two ladies in the audience and George sings an a cappella version of Happy Birthday to You. That is the way he is. That is what country music is all about really, isn’t it? Singing about what everyday people are all about. Make fun of it all you want. Like the old joke about the country and western song played backwards where the guy gets back his girl his truck and his dog, Country songs are about life and George, for better or worse, has lived life. Lived it to the fullest, hard drinking, hard driving, hard living. He is a survivor and so are most of the people here. No Dad you don’t need my rocking chair. But feel free to come back anytime and pull up a piece of stage we’d love to spend another evening listening to you sing your life. alf the north will be there.´In a way I wish I could have seen George in Yellowknife like Lina did because I know the response, though smaller in number would be twice as boisterous and heartfelt. Not that the audience here was not appreciative. But there is a special bond in the north, where people grew up listening to George Jones. Even young people idolize him and it is hard to argue with them. I too grew up with country music. My Dad loved all the early country music. People like George, Hank Snow, Hank Williams, Ferlin Husky and so on. Sure there was a lot of grey hair at the co