Tragic Songs of Life by The Louvin Brothers should have been titled Tragic Songs to Comment Suicide To. I will be honest with you. I hate country music. It sounds like a cat being raped by an elephant. I imagine a bunch of kitties with little collars that have #metoo stamped on it when I hear country music. It sounds depressing without the melancholy lyrics, but I guess country artist like to add insult upon insult to their listeners. Yes, I called them artist. I cannot sing nor can I play an instrument so I have to appreciate them as artist.
I know I wrote that I will be open to new music, but this is way to open for me. I feel about this music the way people today say they feel about rap all sounding the same. These songs do have something in common with rap songs. They are about betrayal, heartbreak and murder so if you add a few hos and some marijuana, then you would have rap music.
The brother’s voices are perfectly blended in the album, but the country twang is hard to handle for extended periods of time. Honestly, none of the songs spoke to me, except that one song was familiar and through a search online I discovered where I heard it. “In the Pines” has been covered by many artist and one in particular I have seen in concert was Nirvana. I did not realise at that time that it was a cover. Back in the 90s we did not have the ability to search out that information as easily as we do now. Even trying to understand the lyrics to your favourite song was difficult because you had to play it over and over. You can hear Cobain’s version here.
The life of Ira Louvin was a tragedy. He was married four times and died with the fourth wife in a head on collision. He was known was drinking excessively, but ironically the other driver was drunk. Charlie lived to be 83 years old.
This type of music reminds me of O Brother, Where Art Thou? which takes place in the 30s. I really enjoyed this type of music in the context of the film so perhaps I would enjoy this album more if I heard it in a really good film. 4/10.
an ocean roars 
I can comment! I guess if you are being open-minded, I can too. But it’s hard.
You can do it.