I Love You, Good Carlene

She went to Australia to tour and perfect her stage act. She became more popular outside of the US than she was inside. Returning to her own country she began assembling a concert package. If she sang pop she would have no problem finding a promoter; she was a pop star but not yet a country star. If she sang country, no one seemed interested. George had called and invited her to open for him; it would be a full one hour set. While no one really co-bills with King George, it was as close as anyone gets. "If George likes her, maybe she does have talent...but she couldn't really...she's too beautiful!" Country radio began to play her second album. CMT and GAC invited her on for interviews. She shot her first music videos. America quickly fell in love with good Carlene.

She owed so much to George; her natural style of performing was not unlike his...stand up there and sing a great song and sell it from the heart. George played to massive audiences in selected cities. All of Music Row sat on the edge of their seats waiting---and hoping---for her to suck. She didn't; after twenty gigs on the road with George, promoters were calling daily. The most important thing she learned from George: "Do it your way. You have an amazing ability to pick and write great songs---I suck as a writer---I'm a little jealous! You have the voice of an angel. You connect with every single person in the audience...don't let anyone change you."

It had taken some time to find the right promoter and concert producer, people who would trust her instincts and let her be good Carlene. It was unheard of for anyone as new as she was---and a female to boot---to headline her own tour. She initially had trouble booking appropriate opening acts.

Her invitation to perform at the Opry finally came. Some advised her to shun them as they had shunned her. Instead she went with her gut and accepted graciously. By the time she arrived in Nashville, her second album, her country album, had gone platinum, yet it quickly became apparent that she had been booked to fill in time between two female icons and legends. As fortune would have it, she made her second and third real friends in the industry, two of the leading ladies of country music going back decades. The first one, a backwoods girl who had long since been inducted into the country Music Hall of Fame invited her to perform during her set and told the Opry audience that she was pretty sure Carlene would be every bit as big as she had become.

She brought the auditorium to their feet during her set. She performed two songs with the other grand lady of country music. The three of them came back together for an impromptu encore which was shown on CMT as a special presentation. By the time the three of them came off stage everyone back stage wanted to shake her hand and congratulate her.

Begrudgingly, Nashville was beginning to accept her. Country radio added five songs from her second album to their play lists. Record company presidents courted her and wanted to sign her to their labels. She put together the best concert musicians in the industry and found a promoter she could live with. When her tour dates were announced, they were sold out within the first few hours; in some cases second dates in the same city were added. Two of the most respected artists in country music agreed to do a full opening act for her; both could have headlined on their own but neither wanted the hassle of putting together their own tour package or enduring a full tour schedule. People loved her country music and they cried during her plaintive love songs; they also went nuts when she injected a couple of ass-kicking rock numbers that shook the house. They were in awe when she sang her encore virtually without accompaniment, for her voice truly was the voice of an angel. As they say, the rest is history and all of the doubters slinked back into their little holes. The country album won every award for Album of the Year.

She won all of the "new artist" awards in her industry. She won three Grammy's. She was nominated for a dozen industry awards and won most of them. Two of her videos won top honors on both country networks. She did late night TV and morning shows. She was on Larry King and Sixty Minutes.

Within a year, the doubters were back; she was a one trick pony. No one could follow up that level of quality in their next album. The first country album ultimately went double diamond. Carlene went back to the studio. When her recording contract ended she kicked off her own recording label. She solidified her inner circle. She produced her second country album herself. In spite of her success, the naysayers came back out of their holes. They were wrong again. In four short years she had become one of the top three or four stars in any music genre with huge cross over appeal and was universally respected and liked by those that mattered in the industry.

And now, almost on the anniversary of her seventh year in the music industry and after putting the finishing touches on what would be her last album for at least two years she would drop out. There would be no interviews, no tours and probably very limited studio time---if at all. She had more money than she could ever spend. She had signed good artists to her new label. She had good people around her to keep the business on an even keel. What she did not have was a life; it was well past time to get one. She just wasn't exactly sure how to start. The answer would come from a completely unexpected source.

She had heard the business jet make its downwind pass and the "in the blind" UNICOM call and sauntered out to greet the man who would be her next collaborator. In the distance she could see a man in pressed Wranglers tying down the sleek airplane. She was more than a little startled when he went back inside the cabin, exited carrying a guitar sans case and began walking toward her. Apparently he had flown in alone...owns the damn thing and flies it himself, alone? That's impressive. Nice walk..."good carriage" as daddy used to say...strong shoulders...blond...oh my God...no...it couldn't possibly be...he hasn't changed a lick...she was expecting a song writer named Phil...she knew this man...his name was also Phil.

He was the last man in the world she expected to see this morning---or ever again---but she knew in her heart that he was the only man in the world she wanted to see. He had something that belonged to her...he had a big piece of her heart...if not all of it. She prayed silently that he had come back not to return that sizable chunk of her heart but to let her know...tell her...that it had been more than a college romance...that she mattered...that he loved her...oh, baby, don't say anything other than those three words...that's all I need to hear.

Phil stopped ten feet in front of Carlene, smiled and stared at her wordlessly. God she was so beautiful...that nothing to hide sun dress...no makeup...obviously shocked to see him standing in front of her. Well, here goes, he thought to himself, as he slipped the guitar strap over his head and began to sing a song that he had written for Carlene...not for her to sing...to sing to her...a song that only he should sing to her. After a few seconds of intro he quickly got down to the meat of the song...simple words really..."I love you good Carlene".

Tears were streaming down Carlene's face long before he finished his musical ode to her...she was laughing and crying at the same time. He put the guitar down on the ground, all five thousands dollars worth of it. He spoke.

"Think it'll sell?"

"I'd sure as hell buy it."

"Did you like the hook?"

"Oh yea...loved it."

"Am I too late?"

"No, I think you're right on time...perfect timing, I'd say."

"What do we do now?"

"You need to kiss me, hug me and tell me again and again and again..."

"That'll work." Phil said, doing exactly as she had indicated.

In the magic first moments as the two former lovers embraced and their lips met the future became crystal clear for both of them. It was right; it was as it should be. They walked back to the house hand in hand.

"I always figured you'd moved on with your life...married someone...that I was just...you never called..."

"It's not easy getting through on the phone to a superstar. Plus, not unlike you I haven't made much time in the last decade for personal life issues...affairs of the heart."

"How did you get the CD to me? Simon has no recollection of putting it in the stack...it just appeared."

"Your new publicist, Marie, is not only an unrepentant and incorrigible romantic but a very dear friend who once worked for me. She slipped it into the stack; don't be too angry with her."

"Not much chance of that."

"Carlene, I just have a few things to say about young fools who are too dense to recognize the real deal when they see it. Look, I know we were too young...we both had plans...lives to get on with. You need to know that a day hasn't gone by in the past ten years when I didn't think about you. First true love...first adult love...too good to be true...but it was true, wasn't it? We were in love and I've been in love with you all these years. I had no idea how you would react..."

"Hush, baby, hush. No apologies needed. We parted as friends...it was a mutual thing...there were never any bad times. We just had things to do, places to go, people to see. You are the only man who ever, ever, ever slipped inside my heart and took a major piece with him! I never dreamed you'd come back to me but right this minute I'm the happiest little girl in the world that you did! Look, this is going to be my last album for a while...I'm going to take some serious time off and..."

"Same here."

"What do you do, actually?"

"It's called arbitrage. I basically buy and sell currency on the world markets and hopefully sell it for more than I paid for it. I also buy and sell other assets, even businesses. I've had a very good run; I've stayed on top longer, by far, than anyone could have expected. I have a few more weeks of jet setting and then I'm cashing out or at least letting go of the day to day stuff. There are some people that desperately want me to head up a major international charitable operation and I'm considering it."

"Are you telling me that 'Mr. Businessman' sees value in the not-for-profit sector?"

"Oh, please! We can compare tax returns and I'm pretty sure I give away more than you do---and not just for the write off. I just like to have control of it so that I'm damn sure it gets to the people that need it as opposed to being skimmed off by bureaucrats."

"So exactly how successful are you? My daddy wouldn't want me getting serious about a lazy guy without a job or a future. Or are you one of those guys that thinks his woman should leave the house and bring back a pay check?"

"I'm sort of one of those traditional, 'barefoot and pregnant' kind of guys."

"Don't be talking to me about no pregnancy unless you've got plans to make me an honest woman."

"Well, I need to ask your daddy...and then we need to pick out rings...but yea, if you'll have me, good Carlene, I was sort of hoping we might get hitched. And in answer to your question, I'm pretty sure I can bring home enough so that you don't have to work---unless you want to, of course. Oh, hell Carlene, I didn't write those songs or show up here today with anything other than honorable intentions....tell you I love you and no other woman...ask you to marry me..."

"Hold on cowboy! I'm not playing hard to get but I've developed a cautious streak in this damn business. At this very second I love the sound of the woo you're pitching. It's been ten years...we've got a lot of getting reacquainted to do. I intend to marry one man, only one. It would be kind of special if that one man was the first man who ever took my heart...ever made love to me...you. I want to scream, 'yes, yes, yes' at the top of my lungs. Work with me here; you're in love with a vision...eighteen year old Carlene...I'm not that little girl anymore. I fell in love with that irreverent red neck---and you're obviously not that boy anymore. Plus, we've got work to do. I'd like us to spend as much time together as is humanly possible. I've got one more major concert performance---a charity thing---an album to get out and then, hopefully by the end of the month, I'll be ready to kick back. How about you?"

"I'll have my business affairs wrapped up by then...and then I'm yours, if you'll have me."

"Well with the entrance you just made and the big piece of my heart you stole back in college, your chances are easily better than fifty-fifty. Phil, you were always the most honest straight shooter I've ever known...if I'm not who you remember...who you want me to be...need me to be...the woman you want to spend the rest of your life with...I have to know...this is who I am now...so..."

"That'll work hon. I'm not planning on marrying more than one girl in my life and when I hear you sing on the radio I'm pretty damn sure you're the little girl I fell in love with way back when...but you could have become an evil witch, I suppose...let fame go to your head."

"I'm still good Carlene, Phil; a little older and wiser and certainly tougher. This business builds thick skins. I cried a lot when the establishment refused to accept me...I hated reading stupid reviews in Rolling Stone...they depressed me. But I had my family and good people around me. I am still that good hearted, kind soul you fell in love with but I'm a lot more guarded and protective...and I'm a pretty sharp business person in my own right."

"Let me say without hesitation that you've surpassed everyone's expectations. And while you were always the most beautiful girl I'd ever known, time has been very good to you."

"Ooh, la, la, what a silver tongued devil you've become! Oh, Phil I was so sure you didn't remember me...think about me..."

"We've both come a long way since college, Carlene. I thought about you often...more so every day."

"Well, I see that my sound guy has arrived." Carlene said noting the pick up truck pulling up to the barn next to the main house. "Do you want to freshen up?"

"Let's get to work!"

"Where exactly do you live, anyway?"

"I own a farm, not unlike this one, one state up about three hundred miles from here."

"Isn't that near where you grew up?"

"Within thirty miles; my folks still live up there, also on a farm but I convinced dad to retire a few years back---I had to buy his farm to get him to quit! He drove a pretty hard bargain."

"Well, welcome to Carlene's very private studio. After listening to the demos a number of times I noted that you used a real piano, a grand if I'm not mistaken, so I procured one for our session together."

"Who all is going to be here?"

"You, me and Ralph, my sound guy who is semi-retired but he has helped me produce every album. He has his own mantle full of awards. I'd like to tape this straight with no dubbing. I do know how to play the guitar and I've rehearsed the music you sent on the CD and I think I can do it justice. You, me, Ralph, a six string, a grand piano and your amazingly beautiful words and music."

"Don't forget...the voice of an angel." Phil said softly.

"Your angel, I hope."

"You've got that right."

Phil and Ralph introduced each other; Ralph could not miss the chemistry between the two of them. He was as protective as if Carlene had been his own daughter. Carlene noticed it immediately.

"Ralph, Phil is a very old and dear friend...not unlike you except that, well, we were once very much in love, think we might still be, and after we get done with this album, we're going to spend some time together and figure out if we should spend the rest of our lives together."

The edge was off; Ralph sat down to listen through the three demos while Carlene and Phil caught up on the past ten years. By the time he got through the third song, his eyes were decidedly moist.

"Good stuff, kid...Jesus! Damned good stuff! It was made for you to sing, hon...written for you. Let's run through the first number, set some levels and run some tape."

The sound level run through of the first song would have been good enough to keep. It was as if Phil had studied every nuance of Carlene's voice and written a song which perfectly showcased her amazing talent. In fact he had. Ralph hit the record button; the second take was perfect. They did one more just in case and as perfect as the first one had been, the final one was beyond belief. There was a good reason.

It happened between the first and second take after the sound check. Carlene sat a few feet away from Phil who was at the piano hanging on her every note and she knew. She was singing a tender, plaintive love song...her forte...her signature piece of music. As she gazed into his deep blue eyes, she knew she had just done something she had never done before. She had just sung a beautiful love song to the man who would hold her in his arms until her dying day...she was sure of it. She had thought of him when singing similar songs but this was different...more personal...more authentic. She didn't have to try to sell it; it was what every legendary country song from Hank and Patsy to George and Tammy had to be...completely real and believable. He had written it just for her and she had just sung it for him and only him. She was in his arms. Ralph was hooting ecstatically. They had just made music and personal history.

The second song was more up-tempo, playful, even sexy in spite of the sparse accompaniment but it was still unmistakably her kind of song, more a jazzy torch song. It was far more a teasing, "I'm going to take you home tonight and fuck your brains out" kind of song than the first tender love song. It took them a few aborted attempts to get in the right mood. They decided to can the six-string and try it with just the piano. Carlene jammed her cute little butt tightly against Phil and put her hand on his thigh.

"How did you come up with this song? I love it! It's steamy, sultry...teasing...but everyone knows what she's got in mind."

"I thought about the first time you and I...you made the first move, if you remember. I was petrified that I'd do something stupid and chase you off...we were giggling...playful...you were playing peek-a-boo...teasing and tantalizing me in those outrageous harem pants you had bought just for the occasion."

"I still have them...but you're the only man who has ever seen them."

"Ooo, la, la!"

And with the vision of Phil's strong hand finding every special place on her body that first time so many year earlier, Carlene made an easy decision. You ain't staying at a B&B tonight, cowboy, your boots are going under my bed.

By the second take, all three knew they had another winner. Carlene felt the moistness between her legs; the song had turned her on...she loved singing it...couldn't wait to do it on stage...knew what she would be doing with Phil a few hours later.

After listening to the playbacks, they took a short break before going to the next number. Ralph laughed that he might just get out on the lake and do some fishing by early afternoon if things continued at the pace they were on.

As they set up for the third and final song, the duet, they decided that Carlene would play the six-string to accompany his vocals and he would play the piano when she sang. This song was a little more complicated as they worked to bring the transitions together. They experimented with singing backup for each other, depending on Ralph to get the levels right.

This would be a very different effort for Carlene; Phil's voice would be heard first even though she was the mega star. For the final verse they would sing a pure duet...to each other, for this was the ultimate love duet, reminiscent of the great ones that legends like Conway and Loretta, Garth and Trisha or George and Tammy had done.