A few years ago, Rick and I took a trip to Nashville. We did all the important stuff: we went to the Grand Ole Opry for some truly toe-tapping entertainment, toured Sun Studio and stood on the Singer’s Sweet Spot, and walked Broadway and listened to live music pour out of every single bar and restaurant. And, of course, we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame, a gargantuan 3-storey repository of all things that twang and yodel.

On the top floor, we lucked out: one of the rotating exhibits then featured Johnny Cash’s creative and friendly relationship that he had with Bob Dylan. The display educated us about Johnny’s prowess in the musical world, his love for all genres and his openness to collaboration with oh, so many other artists. All the pictures, stories, music, movies and artifacts led us to a new appreciation of how country, folk and rock ‘n’ roll music were in each other’s back pockets all the time.

Of course, the usual suspects were there: Waylon and Willie and the boys. And then I rounded the corner and found Shel Silverstein.

Shel Silverstein? Of Where the Sidewalk Ends and Falling Up fame? The creator of children’s books Runny Babbit and The Giving Tree? Yup. It was the one and same. This was one of those times when my awareness of an author’s gifts barely scratched the surface of the sum total of his artistic contributions.

Silverstein didn’t look like your typical country music lyricist. Indeed, his roots were Jewish and he hailed from Chicago, far north of the Mason-Dixon line. But his words read whimsical and wise, not completely unlike a Jewish rabbi’s. They were also often quirky and dark.

The Giving Tree (also illustrated by Silverstein – yes, more talent) tells of the relationship between a young boy and a favorite tree – a tree that throughout the boy’s life keeps giving and giving and meeting all the boy’s needs until it makes the ultimate sacrifice. And then it still has more to give. (Read the book!) Its message is so poignant it can make you cry. It can also quite possibly make you mad – the book has been banned because it was interpreted as sexist: the tree exhibited some overexploited female qualities to some Colorado librarians in 1988. Read more about The Giving Tree here.

(Incidentally, you can find most classic children’s picture books on YouTube and have some gramma or grampa turn the virtual pages and read them out loud to you and spare you the embarrassment of checking out piles of picture books for yourself from the library. Like I do.)

Knowing Silverstein’s style, it all came together for me that day in Nashville as I read the huge placard that talked about his contributions to Country Music. And his connection to Cash? He wrote A Boy Named Sue. Well, duh.

As if there wasn’t enough for me to take in that day at the CMHOF, I whipped out my trusty portable encyclopedia – er, iPhone to you rookies – and found out even more lyrics he was famous for:

• Loretta Lynn’s One’s on the Way – a cheeky tribute to exhausted motherhood
• Sylvia’s Mother released in the same year by country singer Bobby Bare and, in the version I knew, by Dr. Hook and the Travelling Medicine Show
• Put Another Log on the Fire, subtitled the Male Chauvinist National Anthem

The great thing about Silverstein’s songs? Like another Dr. Hook tune The Cover of the Rolling Stone? They were just so darn singable.

On the surface, Shel Silverstein’s lyrics and picture may have looked rudimentary and maybe even unsophisticated, but if you dig in you can see that “(they) sing about beauty and (they) sing about truth”. And it’s all told in a way to make you smile.

And really? What more could you ask?