Agreed. He sings plainly about human themes that are familiar to all of us. He doesn’t use the fake kuntree-fried affectations or posturing other CW singers do. Plus he smokes weed and has girly ponytails.
This thread speaks to me, but like the OP, I don’t have an answer. I listen to Willie’s Roadhouse on Sirius/XM quite often, and whenever a song he’s singing on comes on, it’s like I can breathe deeper and I’m more relaxed. His voice shouldn’t be such a beautiful thing, but somehow it is.
I’d probably call “mellifluous” a 25-cent word, a multisyllabic word that is perhaps pretentious. I thought a 10-cent word was the pretty much the same thing, is there some other meaning to it?
My 10th grade English teacher was the nicest man you’ll ever meet (doubly so as a teacher). His constructive criticism was more “I want your story to be even better” than “you fucked up again.” In a short-short story of mine, he circled “inexorably” and wrote “a 10-cent word” in the margin and since then it’s meant, to me, a word that classes up the joint, and I’m sure that’s how he meant it. When I tagged kayaker’s post (mellifluous) as such, it occurred to me that maybe the usage was incorrect–indeed, it seems to imply pretentiousness. I would never insult kayaker, who’s not only a decent gent but a Pennsylvanian. Hence my apology.
As for TriPolar, due to inflation, a 10-cent word in 1975 has got to be a 25-cent word today, so I will adjust my usage accordingly; thanks.
Sorry for the hijack.
PS Mr. Meyer, if you are out there, you have left your mark. Kudos!
That’s a lot of it- Willie’s voice is unique. He doesn’t sound like anyone else, especially mainstream country, and as a result, he sounds very genuine.
I think also his songs always seems to have a bit of wistfulness or melancholy to them, which tends to make them a bit softer and more approachable.