From Dave Hickey’s “The Song in Coun­try Music,” in Greil Marcus and Werner Sol­lors’ A New Lit­er­ary His­tory of Amer­ica, quoted by Maud Newton:

When I asked Roger Miller what it was about Williams’s song­writ­ing that touched him, he said, “Metic­u­lous. They’re metic­u­lous and all hooked up.” When I asked him what this meant, he sang me two lines from one of his songs.

The moon is high and so am I.
The stars are out and so will I be pretty soon.

“That’s maybe a little too hooked-​up,” Miller said, and sang half a verse of “Me and Bobby McGee” a song by Kris Kristof­fer­son and Fred Foster that Miller had dis­cov­ered and recorded first.

Busted flat in Baton Rouge
Headed for the trains.
Feel­ing nearly faded as my jeans.

“That’s hooked up,” Miller said. “I love the ‘as’ that picks up ‘flat’ and bat.’”

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Hatch Show Print, a let­ter­press outfit in Nashville, got its start in 1879, when it printed a hand­bill adver­tis­ing the appear­ance of Henry Ward Beecher. Hatch printed posters and hand­bills for some of the biggest acts in coun­try music: Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, and they’re still print­ing today. (Above the reg­is­ter they have a poster for the Mother Hips.)

Most impres­sive of all, they still have walls full of their old blocks. If you’re in Nashville you should stop by to check them out. If you do, ask to see Jim Sherraden’s mono­prints. You’ll be lucky to leave with­out one under your arm.

I posted some photos of my visit there ear­lier this month.