The Wilkinsons

Showing recordings that were created recently for songs by The Wilkinsons. The recordings are sorted by date. Click the year links to view recordings for a specific year.

26 Cents

Video Recorded On Apr 13 At 4:12am
By philosoraptor
In The Style Of The Wilkinsons
30 views 7 comments no average

Unconditional:love that doesn't know "too late." the year i left for university, "26 cents" had to be on every radio station in town. on the hour. its outbreak wasn't tolerably managed; it could ambush the unsuspecting top 40 listener with outrageous emotional exploitation rarely allowed outside country confines. at least it is a comfort to know i didn't have a chance: that summer, my dad kept the silver boom box's needle on country. that summer, his whistle acrobatically followed fiddles with george strait & guitars with alan jackson while he sanded my new-to-me 1987 190e to the metal to spiff it up before it would be loaded down with my artifacts to go off to school. when you're a recovering navy brat, it's easy to get used to feeling like parts of you are littered across the country. you invent yourself as a professional, think you're a realist, maybe even aspire to be a stoic, or a vulcan. This is the way of your world: you stay only a little while, then you leave. It is; it was. Truth can get past even a too-wise 18-year-old: it IS the way of the world to stay, always too briefly, & to be left, always to soon, & to leave. this sappy, schmaltzy, Canadian steel magnolias of a song made me think of things i didn't want to think about: i was going to miss THIS. yes, i was impatiently ticking the days til MY uncertain adventure began, waiting for the humid summer drag to go to bed a little earlier & the temperature to drop to the mid-90s & bring fall. i was ready to be finished being dutifully shut in the garage with sand paper, bondo, spatulas, paint, & primer, handing my dad this wrench or that, and tuning out the Wilkinsons & their insidious tear-gas of a song. i wouldn't have to tell my mom about my friends before we met up & where we were going--i could (scandalously) visit a barnes & noble with a friend of the opposite sex! i could even stay out way into the night, without keeping anyone from sleeping soundly or leaving the porch bright with a yellow bug-loved bulb like tom bodet & the motel 6. but those lyrics reminded me that i would miss THIS, the banal that bored me to impatience. Unconditional love: the man who worked in the coastal bend heat & humidity, hands blackened with oil, grease, brake dust, whistling better than any bird; the woman who made the dinners despite long days, kept our clothes clean & even sweetly folded them to deposit on beds...that was what i was leaving. & for what? even the super-deluxe-imaginary bachelorette loft can't say good morning like your mom & dad can, with funny klaxxon sounds, handclaps, snaps, & whistles. this stupid song. every single day was closer to the future, to being farther from everything i had wanted to hurry up, closer to the end. i had to start belching words, any awkward conversation would do, if i heard it, so i could block it out. i wouldn't get caught crying over an evil, manipulative canadian country tune. or let my parents concentrate on it & face the mortality i was just recognizing when i looked in my mirror. unconditional love may be immortal, but the lovers are not. i become more & more aware of the fragility of everything & the blessing that it is to be comfortable enough to assume there'll be a tomorrow. until we run out of them, i will try to follow their beautiful examples: my mom & dad have been married 36+ years, & they spill love to my brother & me, & everyone who has the privilege to meet them. they are giving personified, & always do for others, but out of honor & goodness; never in the obnoxious, put-upon self-effacing style seen in people who do for recognition & not for love. their creativity & sense of humor are fabulous--when i got an honor at work, a cardboard placard met me in their driveway shouting, "RESERVED FOR EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH"; my mom has been known to slyly add, "in bed," to the end of fortunes, just to mess with my brother & ask that i add crickle geal to her pedicure so her nail sparkles like diamond in the sky for her "boyfrien" (dad). this is what happens when you introduce them to youtube. unconditional love is the dad who will ask his coworker for advice on how to comfort your broken heart; it's the mom who will answer your midnight phone call, no questions asked, & come to see you--7 hours away--& will be there by morning, even when you are a whiny, mopey, self-pitying brat. it's waking up after the worst day you can remember to go to work & being surprised with a love note & a latte. it's the parents who get up extra early just to start your car so it'll be warm when you leave, even though you stayed out too late. with who-kows-who. doing who-knows-what. it's the mom & dad who still want you to call when you get in, always, anytime at all, no matter why you left...& they'll wait up. -------- (&i can't sing this without crying...i made it to the very last refrain this time!) i pray you have that unconditional love in your life, love that doesn't know the word selfish...& if you haven't been blessed, practice living it to others, everyone you meet, & be that blessing. thank you for reading! & thank God for my family.

The Yodelin' Blues

Video Recorded On Apr 12 At 7:53pm
By joybeaulieu
In The Style Of The Wilkinsons
8 views 0 comments no average