{"id":19809,"date":"2019-10-31T13:48:11","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T19:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1813958"},"modified":"2019-10-31T13:48:11","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T19:48:11","slug":"scary-carrie-garths-ghost-story-and-13-other-spooky-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/music-news\/scary-carrie-garths-ghost-story-and-13-other-spooky-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"Scary Carrie, Garth\u2019s Ghost Story, and 13 Other Spooky Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:ao:image:cmt.com:677761?width=1200&amp;height=675&amp;.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"byline\"> by <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/author\/morrise\/\" title=\"Posts by Edward Morris\" rel=\"author\">Edward Morris<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"date\"><br \/>\n38m ago<\/span><br \/>\n<\/span> <\/p>\n<p>With Halloween upon us, we turn our attention to digging out our Blake Shelton and Dolly Parton masks, it\u2019s a good time to remember that country music has always been congenial to strange and scary songs \u2014 and not all of them concerning erotic fixations on pickup trucks.<\/p>\n<p>Here are 15 tunes with widely varying fear factors as they apply to stalkers, spirits, apparitions, murderers, religious miracles and kindred chill-inducing elements. So cross your fingers, check what\u2019s behind you and read on\u2014if you dare.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>\u201cTwo Black Cadillacs\u201d (Carrie Underwood, 2012)<\/strong><br \/>Trifling with one passionate woman is dangerous enough, but crossing two of them at once can prove fatal, as it has here to the \u201cgood man\u201d being buried. The two surviving \u201cblack widows\u201d are scarier than ghosts.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\"> Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oVEBZLrjpw4?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oVEBZLrjpw4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen>\t<\/iframe><\/noscript>\n<\/div>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe Beaches of Cheyenne\u201d (Garth Brooks, 1995)<\/strong><br \/>What\u2019s with these damn rodeo types, anyway? Have they learned nothing from \u201cMuch Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)\u201d and \u201cAmarillo By Morning\u201d? Jeez! Some people! Here this young couple is living an idyllic life in California and facing a sunny future when the guy sneaks off to Wyoming to take on a bull \u201cno man could ride.\u201d You can guess how that turned out. <\/p>\n<p>After trashing their house in her grief over her lover\u2019s death, she walks out and is never seen again. And that\u2019s where the ghost story starts: \u201cThey say she just went crazy screamin\u2019 out his name\/She ran out into the ocean and to this day they claim\/That if you go down by the water you\u2019ll see her footprints in the sand\/\u2019Cause every night she walks the beaches of Cheyenne.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>\u201cMidnight in Montgomery\u201d (Alan Jackson, 1992)<\/strong><br \/>No one else in country music matches the ghostly aura of Hank Williams, who died in the back of his Cadillac at the age of 29 on his way to a concert. His funeral in his adopted hometown of Montgomery, Alabama, drew an estimated crowd of between 15,000 and 25,000 mourners and curiosity seekers before he was laid to rest in the city\u2019s Oakwood Annex Cemetery. That\u2019s the site at which the singer of this song stops by to pay his respects. <\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s on his way to play \u201ca big New Year\u2019s Eve show,\u201d just as Williams was when he died. As he stands by Williams\u2019 grave, \u201ca drunk man in a cowboy hat took me by surprise\/ Wearin\u2019 shiny boots, a Nudie suit and haunted, haunted eyes\/He said, \u2019Friend, it\u2019s good to see you, it\u2019s nice to know you care\u201d\/Then the wind picked up and he was gone, was he every really there.\u201d For another Hank encounter, see \u201cThe Ride\u201d below.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\"> Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZCvSBVDZTDE?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZCvSBVDZTDE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen>\t<\/iframe><\/noscript>\n<\/div>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe Ride\u201d (David Allan Coe, 1983)<\/strong><br \/>Oooooo! We shudder! So this cat is thumbing from Montgomery to Nashville, lugging his guitar, when a skinny guy driving an \u201cantique Cadillac\u201d stops to give him a ride\u2014not to mention a few useful tips about achieving and surviving stardom. If you haven\u2019t already guessed who the driver is, he\u2019ll tell you himself at the end.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\"> Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EF0R4k8hH-E?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EF0R4k8hH-E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen>\t<\/iframe><\/noscript>\n<\/div>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>\u201cGhost in This House\u201d (Shenandoah, 1990; Alison Krauss, 1999)<\/strong><br \/>With the fracturing of love, the one who remains and the one who\u2019s gone are both reduced to spirits, one tormented, one composed entirely of memories. \u201cI\u2019m just a whisper of smoke\/I\u2019m all that\u2019s left of two hearts on fire,\u201d sings the one who\u2019s been left behind. Two of the greatest voices ever to grace country music made pure crystals of this Hugh Prestwood classic, Marty Raybon, as Shenandoah\u2019s lead singer, and Alison Krauss in a cut on her 1999 album, <em>Forget About It<\/em>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\"> Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9VF-qXdWcgU?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9VF-qXdWcgU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen>\t<\/iframe><\/noscript>\n<\/div>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>\u201cRiding With Private Malone\u201d (David Ball, 2001)<\/strong><br \/>Sometimes a stark absence can conjure up a supernatural presence. So it is with this song in which a 1966 Corvette seems inhabited by the spirit of a young soldier who bought it that year and soon after died in a war Just how strong that ghostly occupancy is becomes clear in the last dramatic verse of the song.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>Highwayman\u201d (Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, 1985)<\/strong><br \/>Jimmy Webb, who wrote this song, and Glen Campbell, who became the most succcessful exponent of Webb\u2019s music, both recorded \u201cHighwayman\u201d before the Four Horsemen of Music Row took a crack at it and made it a No. 1 Grammy winner. The song recounts the stories of an English highway bandit, a sailor and a dam builder, each of whom dies violently. <\/p>\n<p>Then we hear from the pilot of a \u201cstarship\u201d searching for the edge of the universe who may have embodied all these men is his past lives. \u201cI\u2019ll find a place to rest my spirit if I can\/Perhaps I may become a highwayman again\/Or I may simply be a single drop of rain\/But I will remain\/And I\u2019ll be back again and again and . . . .\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\"> Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aFkcAH-m9W0?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aFkcAH-m9W0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen>\t<\/iframe><\/noscript>\n<\/div>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>\u201cEl Paso City\u201d (Marty Robbins, 1976)<\/strong><br \/>It helps to know first the story of \u201cEl Paso,\u201d Robbins\u2019 wildly popular 1959 hit about a cowboy who kills his lover\u2019s suitor and is, in turn, killed himself. In \u201cEl Paso City,\u201d the singer is flying \u201cthirty thousand feet\u201d above El Paso when he recalls those long ago events with such vividness he thinks he might actually be the reincarnation of the doomed cowboy. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy mind is down there somewhere as I fly above the badlands of New Mexico\/I can\u2019t explain why I should know the very trail he rode back to El Paso\/Can it be that man can disappear from life and live another time\/And does the mystery deepen \u2019cause you think that you yourself lived in that other time.\u201d Fanciful, yes; shallow, no.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\"> Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8xvo_BBkIbg?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8xvo_BBkIbg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen>\t<\/iframe><\/noscript>\n<\/div>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>\u201cMy Old Friend the Blues\u201d (Steve Earle, 1986; Patty Loveless, 2005)<\/strong><br \/>Not all ghosts are frightening. This one exudes a morose but calming familiarity. \u201cAnother lonely night, a nameless town\/If sleep don\u2019t take me first you\u2019ll come around\/I know I can always count on you\/My old friend, the blues.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\"> Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/G9XEg-wI5dA?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/G9XEg-wI5dA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen>\t<\/iframe><\/noscript>\n<\/div>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>\u201cPhantom 309\u201d (Red Sovine, 1967)<\/strong><br \/>This isn\u2019t a song, properly speaking, since Sovine speaks rather than sings the lyrics. Here, the hitchhiker is real, but the trucker, Big Joe, who picks him up in the rig he calls \u201cPhantom 309,\u201d turns out to be a bit vaporous. The folks at the truck stop will tell you why.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe Long Black Veil\u201d (Lefty Frizzell, 1959; Rosanne Cash, 2015)<\/strong><br \/>A chilling classic in which a man goes to the gallows for a murder he didn\u2019t commit rather than reveal he was in flagrante delicto with his best friend\u2019s wife. Although she watched the hanging and \u201cshed not a tear,\u201d the eerie part is this: \u201cSometimes at night when the cold wind moans\/In a long black veil she cries o\u2019er my bones.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Creepier still, if we\u2019re to believe the lyrics, the man who\u2019s buried is the only other one who knows of her nocturnal visits. Besides Frizzell, an insane number of other artists have recorded the song, including Joan Baez,the Band, the Dave Matthews Band, Johnny Cash, Tommy Cash and Rosanne Cash, the Chieftains and, yes, Barry White (as an instrumental). While the lady in black may not be a certified ghost, I\u2019m sure as hell not going to trick-or-treat her.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\"> Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eyQdlOE5PWk?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eyQdlOE5PWk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen>\t<\/iframe><\/noscript>\n<\/div>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>\u201cBringing Mary Home\u201d (The Country Gentlemen, 1965)<\/strong><br \/>\u201cShe must have been so frightened, all alone there in the night\/There was something strange about her, and her face was deathly white\/She sat so pale and quiet in the back seat all alone\/I never will forget the night I took Mary home.\u201d In folk music scholarship, \u201cBringing Mary Home\u201d belongs to the category called \u201cthe vanishing hitchhiker.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>But on a personal level, it\u2019s virtually impossible to sing these lyrics without getting a lump in your throat. The teller of the story explains how he picked up this \u201clittle girl\u201d on a lonely road at night and took her to \u201cthe driveway where she told me to go.\u201d You\u2019ll have to listen to the song to get the rest of the story.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\"> Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Bvq_23pDHSU?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Bvq_23pDHSU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen>\t<\/iframe><\/noscript>\n<\/div>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>\u201cIt\u2019s Me Again, Margaret\u201d (Ray Stevens, 1985)<\/strong><br \/>Pity the poor stalker. His life is infinitely more risky now that everyone has caller ID. It\u2019s hard to imagine a more politically incorrect foray into humor than this heavy-breather is. That makes it scarier in its own way than all your ghosts and goblins. Understandably, it was not one of his works cited when Stevens was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Stevens can\u2019t shoulder all the blame for this clinker. It was written by the late Paul Craft, a member of the Nashville Songwriter\u2019s Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\"> Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4Wb2nZR6qbE?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4Wb2nZR6qbE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen>\t<\/iframe><\/noscript>\n<\/div>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>\u201cScarlet Ribbons (for Her Hair)\u201d (The Browns, 1960)<\/strong><br \/>In 1952, Harry Belafonte recorded this story of a little girl who miraculously gets the hair ribbons she longs for. But his recording was never released as a single. The Browns \u2014 Maxine, Jim Ed and Bonnie \u2014 still riding high on the mammoth crossover success of their 1959 hit, \u201cThe Three Bells,\u201d followed it with \u201cScarlet Ribbons.\u201d Their single went to No. 7. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll the stores were closed and shuttered\/All the streets were dark and bare\/In our town, no scarlet ribbons\/Scarlet ribbons for her hair.\u201d Could this have been the inspiration for Amazon, which delivers anything any time?<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\"> Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZmDltvSkttg?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZmDltvSkttg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen>\t<\/iframe><\/noscript>\n<\/div>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>\u201cRiders in the Sky (a Cowboy Legend)\u201d (Vaughn Monroe, 1949)<\/strong><br \/>Now generally referred to as \u201cGhost Riders in the Sky,\u201d this tale of encountering a phantom herd of cattle was a crossover hit for the mellifluous Monroe, who rode it all the way to No. 1 on the pop chart and to No. 2 on the country listings. Folksinger and actor Burl Ives charted it a week after Monroe and saw his take rise to No. 8 country. In 1973, Roy Clark had a No. 27 with the song, and Johnny Cash scored a No. 2 in 1979. <\/p>\n<p>The \u201cold cowboy\u201d who witnesses this celestial miracle is told he must change his ways or else spend eternity \u201ctryin\u2019 to catch the devil\u2019s herd across the endless skies.\u201d Spike Jones, the Weird Al Yankovic of his day, had some fun with the lyrics. In his version, when he gets to the line that describes the spectral trail riders \u2014 \u201ctheir faces gaunt, their eyes were blurred, their shirts all wet with sweat\u201d \u2014 you hear a voice intoning, \u201cDon\u2019t be half safe,\u201d an instantly recognizable riff on the then-popular deodorant slogan, \u201cDon\u2019t be half safe \u2014 use Arrid to be sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\"> Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0Fhy8o7ufi8?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0Fhy8o7ufi8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen>\t<\/iframe><\/noscript>\n<\/div>\n<p>Wait! Did you hear that? Someone\u2019s at the door. Who could it be on a foul night like this? <\/p>\n<div class=\"author\">\n<div class=\"description\"> Edward Morris is a veteran of country music journalism. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a frequent contributor to CMT.com. <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/1813958\/scary-carrie-garths-ghost-story-and-13-other-spooky-songs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Edward Morris 38m ago With Halloween upon us, we turn our attention to digging out our Blake Shelton and Dolly Parton masks, it\u2019s a good time to remember that country music has always been congenial to strange and scary songs \u2014 and not all of them concerning erotic fixations on pickup trucks. Here are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19809","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 09:02:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}