Goodbye, Dean.

And one of the seraphims flew to me, and in his hand was a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs off the altar. And he touched my mouth, and said: Behold this hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquities shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be cleansed. And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send? and who shall go for us? And I said: Lo, here am I, send me.

In which Mel reveals the embarrassing depths of her inner hick.

Listening to a couple of CDs while making dinner tonight, I had a thought. No, really, I did. It struck me that the best cheatin'-husband songs are found in country music. While this probably seems the height of obviousness (there has to be a better word, but I can't find it) to most of you, it had never crossed my mind before. Take, for example, Dolly Parton's "Jolene" and Loretta Lynn's "Family Tree." Great songs. Actually, I prefer the White Stripes' cover of Jolene, if only for its raw pain/passion. And since "Family Tree" is from the Van Lear Rose album, a collaboration with Jack White, does this lead us to the conclusion that all the best cheatin'-husband songs involve an anemic-looking fellow whose wardrobe is restricted to items in black, white and red? No; because both songs were written by the women with the big hair and sequins. And for further proof that all good cheatin' songs are country, consider Willie Nelson's "Red-Headed Stranger" album - all 33 minutes of it devoted to various aspects of the story of a man left by, and searching for, his errant wife. Beauty. Heck, accuradio even has a whole subchannel devoted to the subject: "Married, But Not To Each Other." So it would seem that country music has a monopoly on cheating, or at least on the topic done well. Yes, there are cheating songs in other genres, but only Blue Cantrall's "Hey Ladies" comes to mind, and it simply doesn't compare to the quality of the songs mentioned above.
Which leads me, in the end, to wonder why country singers are so good at this particular subject. Any ideas?