Page 22 - The Magazine of AAA Ohio Auto Club – November 2020

Photo: Bigstock/ Ifistand
Photo: Shutterstock/ f11photo
Continued from page 19
Regarding the Burns documentary, Gnezda said: “The first thing that struck me was that the purpose of commercial music was to sell. Radio is made to sell and you need music to make that happen. So that’s the bottom line.”
To better understand this, consider that in 1925 National Life & Accident Insurance Company founded the Nashville radio program known as WSM Barn Dance. (The WSM call letters stood for the company’s slogan:
We Shield Millions.) The WSM radio signal was so strong that on a clear night its signal could be heard all
the way out to the West Coast. Two years later the show’s
name was changed to the Grand Ole Opry and was
eventually moved to the hallowed stage of
Ryman Auditorium. The Ryman, built in 1892 as the Union
Gospel Tabernacle in honor of fire and brimstone preacher
Sam Jones, quickly became known as the
Mother Church of Country Music.
What makes this story so remarkable is that the whole effort was
undertaken to sell insurance policies.
“Country music has a lot of appeal to a lot of people,” said Gnezda. “That’s never going to change. That’s why it’s lasted as long as it has. Country really is American music.”
Reflecting on the Burns’ documentary series, Gnezda said he was grateful that Burns spent as much time as he did on the song, “Where Have You Been,” by Don Henry and Joe Venzer.
“That song is a brilliant song,” he said, “and they gave it the kind of attention it deserves. I wish (the documentary) had gone into a little more depth on the writing of the songs, because that’s where the music lives.”
As listeners of music, we tend to think of the big stars who perform them, not the songwriters behind the scenes.
Gnezda recited the lines from one of his favorite songs, “The House That Built Me,” performed by Miranda Lambert but written by Tom Douglas. It’s
a story about coming home to the house where you grew up:
“Ma’am I know you don’t know me from Adam .... If I could just come in; I swear I’ll leave
Won’t take nothing but a memory
From the house that built me.”
20 | AAA MAGAZINE