"It Ain't?"

Saturday, February 2, 2008 - 12:05 a.m.

"IT AIN'T ABOUT HOW PRETTY YOU SING, IT'S ALL ABOUT HOW GOOD YOU TELL THE STORY."
Dellie Norton, Traditional Ballad Singer, Madison Co., NC


I loved Ms. Norton's comment the moment I first saw it. "She nailed it," I thought to myself. I could be wrong, of course, but here's the way I took it.

"Pretty" is superficial. Unimportant, really. Nice to have, surely, but clearly not critical.

What matters in the long run is the content, the message, the punch line.

"Pretty" is the external, the quality of which we know all too well soon dims, and is quickly gone. The Story - the message, the content, and How It Is Presented, is what matters, what lasts, what touches and changes things, and people.

I believe the above applies to ballads, to the stories we live and tell, and to our very lives.

So, "Thank you," to Ms. Dellie Norton for the reminder.

Thanks for stopping by. Maybe we'll do it again -

'Til then,

Tom T