Graham Falk

When I was working on the 'Bronco Teddy' cartoon (please see the last two posts) naturally I wanted to listen to country music a lot, to get in the mood. The only country music CD I had in my apartment was a Lee Ann Womack CD, so I listened to that over and over again. (Here is a sketch of Lee Ann Womack.)

I liked listening to the Lee Ann Womack CD, but it did have one side effect, it made me cry a lot. Even after work, when I was walking around in a supermarket or wherever, I would start crying. I was afraid people would think I was mentally unbalanced!

I don't know much about country music, but I thought some of the Lee Ann Womack tunes had a sort of 'retro' country sound – they reminded me a bit of Tammy Wynette records from the '70s. [I've illustrated Tammy Wynette here.] I like the old Tammy Wynette records – most of the song ideas were goofy, and the recordings were really great.

Another country star I like a lot (just to name a few here) is Kitty Wells – I think she might have been the original Queen of Country? She sang songs like "A Heartache For A Keepsake" and "I Gave My Wedding Dress Away". I'd like to buy copies of ALL of her recordings, once I get my financial situation sorted out.

Another great country singer I like is Emmylou Harris – actually, Emmylou Harris is more of a country/folk singer/musician/songwriter ETC.!

I've had a bit of a crush on Emmylou Harris for the past twenty-seven years, but it's not likely I'll ever meet her. Because I'm a cartoon animator, living in Toronto, and I'm unemployed most of the time, and a bus ticket to Nashville would probably be really expensive, and a couple of guys would probably beat me up when I got off the bus in Nashville, and take the rest of my money –well, my prospects don't look . . . BUT WAIT! – I've got AN IDEA!

Okay, I've created a new cartoon character, so maybe I could ask Emmylou Harris to do some voice recording for my cartoon character, and maybe that way I could meet Emmylou Harris! It could work! Hmm, just let me run through the phone conversation in my mind . . .

"Hello?"

"OH! Hello? Is this Emmylou Harris?"

"Yes, this is Emmylou. Who's this? Hello?"

"OH! Uh, my name is, uh - uh - uh - Graham? and I live in Toronto? and that's in Canada? and I'm a successful, professional cartoon animator, and I've just created a new cartoon character, and now the character needs a voice, and I heard some recordings of YOUR voice, and I thought your voice sounded pretty good – quite, quite good, actually – SO – I was wondering if you might think of, considering the possibility of doing some voice recording for my new cartoon character, Emmylou The Shrew."

"Emmylou the shrew?"

"Yes! That's it!"

CLICK.

Even in my fantasy life I seem to end up being a loser. But, maybe I just have to think of a cuter animal to make into a cartoon character? The way I look at it, we can't all be geniuses, but the important thing is to KEEP TRYING.