Covers wish list: Little Jimmy Dickens edition

Earlier this year we lost one of country music most beloved artists. Little Jimmy Dickens was truly one of a kind. A great artist, he had a special talent for delivering both a lyric and a story. He was so funny that you could hear him say the same joke more than once and it would be just as funny as the first time. Even when you knew what was coming, he would still make you laugh. Every single time. What made Little Jimmy so special, however, was not his musicality or his sense of humor. What made him special was the way he cared about and loved other people. People don't say nice things about Little Jimmy Dickens; they say wonderful and beautiful things about him. People light up when they talk about him. You didn't simply like Little Jimmy Dickens, you adored him.

I never had the privilege of meeting him in person, but I was fortunate enough to see him perform on the Grand Ole Opry several times. It didn't matter who else was on the line up. Little Jimmy Dickens was always going to be one of the highlights from the show. You'd see him in the program and you knew that you were in for a treat. One of my fondest memories of Little Jimmy Dickens is from one of the first times I saw him. People don't seem to do it as much anymore, but back then people would go up to the front of the stage to take pictures. This was always encouraged, the only rule was the stoop down so you don't block anyone's view. Anyway at this show I was one of the few who went up while he was singing and he made a point to pose for the picture. He even joked about how I obviously wanted the picture to put up on my mantle and he could probably fit on there himself.

Little Jimmy Dickens was great that way. He was always so aware of the audience and what was going on. He always did what he could to make the show as great as he could. A picture of genuine humility, he would almost always close out his segment of the show by saying that if you ever saw a turtle on top of a fence post that you know it had some help getting there. He was a legend in every sense of the word and he never lost sight of the people who made him one.

When I heard that he had passed, I knew that I wanted to do some kind of tribute to him, but I couldn't decide what exactly I wanted to do. And then it occurred to me that as well-known as he was there's probably a lot of people out there who aren't all that familiar with his music. Or maybe you know a song or two, but that's it. Let's remedy that, shall we? I don't know if we'll ever see any kind of Little Jimmy Dickens tribute album or not, but I have some thoughts as to which of today's artists would be good for some of his songs. Thoughts that I would now like to share with you. Little Jimmy Dickens had so many great songs and it was so hard to narrow it down. So I'm going to go ahead and say that that there will be at least one more installment of this somewhere down the road. I'll be including some of the pictures I got of him over the years. So let's get to it.

"We Could" I'm imagining this with Blake Shelton on lead and Miranda Lambert doing background vocals. I think it'd be a great fit for them, especially given the subject matter. Some of the lyrics: "And just as long as I'm with you/ I'm happy anywhere/ If anyone could pray each night/ And thank the Lord that all is right/ We could, we could, you and I". 

The picture I talked about. My camera wasn't the best back then. He was smiling at the camera, but of course by the time the camera decided to actually take the picture, he was about to talk. Still a great memory.

"May the Bird of Paradise (Fly Up Your Nose)" - Jerrod Niemann. I wouldn't be surprised if I found out that Jerrod has in fact covered this at some point in his career. This song just seems right up his alley. 

"A Rose from the Bride's Bouquet" - Home Free. This song popped up while I was preparing this blog and for whatever reason, Home Free was the first act to come to mind. So I'm going with it. I'm actually very curious to see what they'd do with this.

"My Heart's Bouquet" - Easton Corbin. This is such a sweet song and I can just picture Easton singing it. 

"Rockin' with Red" - Hunter Hayes. I'm convinced that Hunter would do something very cool with this song. I think he'd have a lot of fun with it too.

"Salty Boogie" - Brad Paisley. There is no way I could do a post like this and not include Brad Paisley. I'm pretty positive that Brad would do a pretty rocking version of this. 


"Life Turned Her This Way" - Chris Young. I actually included this suggestion in another of my covers wish list posts and I want to hear it more now than I did then. This is my favorite Little Jimmy Dickens song and I have no doubt in my mind that Chris would knock it out of the park. Beautifully sad lyrics. "She's been walked and stepped on so many times/ And I hate to admit it/ But that last footprint's mine/ She was crying when I met her/ She cries harder today/ So don't blame her/ Life turned her that way". 

"Hillbilly Fever" - Swon Brothers. This just feels like a good fit to me. It just does.

"Just When I Needed You" - the Band Perry. This would be a great lyric for Kimberly to sing and their harmonies would take it to another level. And it would be good. It would probably be very good.

"Me and My Big Loud Mouth" - Justin Moore. Another instance where I can just hear someone doing this. I was thinking if there might be a better artist or another song that could work for Justin, but I kept coming back to this combination. 

And that'll do it for this installment. As I wrap this post up, I do so hoping for a couple of things. First, I hope that someone puts together a tribute album for Little Jimmy at some point. It'd be a shame not to and he most certainly deserves one. And second, I hope that this has inspired you to go check out some of his songs. This is traditional country, right here. That might be a little different for some of you, but I wish that you would give his music a shot. You can't go wrong with Little Jimmy Dickens. 

He was a light in this world and as such the world is now a dimmer place without him in it. There is no doubt in my mind that Little Jimmy Dickens is up in heaven right now. I only hope and pray that he knows just how much he meant not just to the country music world, but to the world in general. We truly loved you, Tater, and you are and will always be greatly missed.