Call Me: Past to Present Edition

White Stripes: Hello Operator

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Hoyt Axton: Telephone Booth

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Brian Setzer: Pennsylvania 6-5000

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Drive-By Truckers: George Jones Talkin' Cell Phone Blues

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This week's theme got me thinking about how greatly telephones have changed in the last few decades. Years ago operator assisted long distance calls were common. So were phone booths and letter prefixes. Land line hard wire telephones have becoming increasingly scarce with over 285 million American mobile subscribers.That's about 91 percent of the total population of the United States. Some 24.5 percent of U.S. households have also dumped their landlines which translates to about 52 million mobile-only subscribers. Worldwide, mobile subscriptions have reached 4.6 billion! Quite the distance we've traveled since Alexander Graham Bell said to his assistant, Thomas A. Watson in another room, "Mr.Watson, come here, I want to see you."

Winter Wonderland: Snowblind Friend

Hoyt Axton: Snowblind Friend

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To me Hoyt Axton will always be the dad on Gremlins....yes that Hoyt Axton (as if there is another guy with such a cool name). Depending on when you grew up (70's or 80's) odds are you will recognize him. In the 70's he was the go to good ole boy actor, starring in everything from Bonanza and Dukes of Hazzard to Murder She Wrote and Diff'rent Strokes in the 80's. Odds are also high you might recognize one of his many songs that have been made famous by others: Joy to The World ring a bell....you know "Jeremiah was a bullfrog"...Hoyt wrote it. The Pusher...you know "God damn the pusher man"....yep Hoyt wrote that too. Going even further back....Greenback Dollar made famous by the Kingston Trio....Hoyt wrote it. Know that big mac jingle....Hoyt. How about Heartbreak Hotel....no Hoyt did not write that.....his mother did!

So here is one of my favorite songs he has ever written. Much like The Pusher it's an anti-drug song written the way only a man who has been to the bottom and climbed back up could write it, and also like The Pusher this song is more famous for the version Steppenwolf does. Hoyt probably has one of the most soothing yet commanding voices in all of folk-dom....and especially tv-dom. The kind of voice few men are blessed with....and those men are named Kris Kristofferson, Sam Elliot, and Johnny Cash -- pretty good company if you ask me.

Guest post submitted by Truersound