"She Don't Tell Me To"

Our local country stars, Montgomery Gentry, have a fascinating new love song. The characters in their songs are usually tough, conservative guys, unreconstructed men's men. In their latest outing, they start from a traditional masculine theme of independence and not taking orders, a point of pride that is particularly strong among Appalachian men in our region.

The narrator tells of his "goin' my own way attitude." The chorus begins:

Any other woman I know would have tried,
To control me and it would be over.

But, the whole song is about how this stubborn guy, with more than a little self-destruction in him, keeps doing decent things for her and because of her – picking flowers, coming home early, going to church -- "'cause she don't tell me to." This is a subtle step in the dance of courtship and marriage.

The key line, I think, is

An' she don't even know,
That she keeps me lookin' for the next right thing to do,
But she don't tell me to.