On December 4, 2021, one of the last true country music stars passed away. Stonewall Jackson was born in Tabor City, North Carolina, on November 6, 1932. Growing up with an abusive stepfather and little in the way of formal education, Jackson served as a submariner in the U.S. Navy before moving to Nashville to try his hand at songwriting. Having impressed Wesley Rose of the famed Acuff-Rose publishing house, he was given an audition at the Grand Ole Opry. He is the first cast member in history to have been offered a spot without even having a record out, much less a hit record. He remained a cast member for 60 years.
Jackson’s music reflected the trials and concerns of everyday people trying to make their way through this world. None of the characters he sang about were saintly, many were not even good (“Life to Go, I Washed my Hands in Muddy Water“), but they exemplified the vagaries and contradictions of human life in a way that was never vulgar or glorified evil. The New York Times suggested that “A Wound Time Can’t Erase“—perhaps his most poignant song—was in some way a reflection upon his abusive stepfather: “Is it power you’ve won, for the things you have done? Just what you’ve gained I guess I’ll never see.”
Stonewall Jackson was married to the same woman for 62 years, a rarity if not a record for someone in the music business (Juanita Jackson died in 2020). Whatever his religious beliefs may have been, whatever the state of his soul—and let us not presume to judge, for we all have but One Judge—it is certain that Stonewall Jackson represented not only a simpler time, but a kind of authenticity and genuine humanity so rarely seen in a society that idolizes “personal authenticity” and prides itself on “humanitarianism.” Tragically for the rest of us, Jackson’s lyrics and warm, direct way of singing them passed out of favor and have been replaced with tripe, vulgarity, and autotune.
Requiescat in Pace
A clip from Stonewall Jackson’s 1971 album “Live at the Grand Ole Opry,” one of the first live country albums:
And still in good voice at age 80:
