Day 324: George Jones & Tammy Wynette - Golden Ring
Today I’m in to listen to an album of classic country music. I’m just too European to know about it and country is having such a big moment today, I’m going back to the basics to understand what’s out today. And let’s face it, I secretly mainly enjoy it but I’m refusing to admit it – it would just be too unchic to become a country fan in 2026, it’s got connotations, I can’t. This is purely historical research, nothing more.
Album cover courtesy of Epic Records
Tammy Wynette and George Jones were a married country music power couple who were only married between 1969 and 1975, but established themselves as a legendary pair in country in that time. Behind closed doors, though, their relationship was reportedly volatile, with Wynette saying he was a volatile alcoholic who once chased her around the house with a shotgun in hand. Golden Ring was released in 1976, a year after the self-proclaimed Mr & Mrs Country were divorced, because reportedly both suffered a slump in sales after they were no longer together.
I only knew Tammy Wynette from the controversy surrounding her song “Stand By Your Man”, but I wanted to give her a bit of a fair shake – if I stop listening to a country artist because of misogynist sentiments, there’s probably only a handful of artists to listen to, hence my reluctance to enjoy this stuff. And let’s face it, she seems like a bit of an unreliable narrator when it comes to love and relationships, considering she defended her husband’s drunken outbursts by saying that she had nagged. She’s a product of her time, I’m sure, and while it may be hard to listen to, I don’t think she’d want us to see her as a victim.
Most of the songs on this album are practically giving you reasons not to get a marriage like hers, which is unsurprising considering that they were already divorced. But as they proclaim on this album, “Even the bad times are good”. There are more serious songs about lost love and reconciliation mixed with jokey songs poking fun at their shortcomings as a couple, like the subtext-laden “Did You Ever?” The arrangements are pretty minimal to leave space for the chemistry between the pair, which unfortunately for them is undeniable.
I am nothing like Morgan Wallen, OK? I don’t want to go watch UFC on the White House lawn. But there’s something so charming about old country music, I’m sorry, even listening to these two walking red flags sing about how crap their relationship was is oddly touching. But then I remember the shotgun anecdote and it’s much less so. 7/10.