A question that would be on everyone’s lips and minds would be “of all the Christians in all the world, Why did you pick Miley Cyrus, her sister Brandi and Miley's friend Demi Lovato?” It all started when I was three, as detailed in a two-year old essay about “Ready, Set, Don’t Go,” attached below.
For my piece of music that focused on words, I chose the #4 Country Single of 2007, Ready, Set, Don’t Go, written by Billy Ray Cyrus and Casey Beathard. In order to understand the conceptualization process of Ready, Set, Don’t Go, a fair amount of knowledge of the life of its creator, Billy Ray Cyrus, is required. Billy Ray Cyrus was born on August 25th, 1961 in Flatwoods, Kentucky, the son of Little League Coach and Steel Mill Worker, later Kentucky State Legislator Ron Cyrus and grandson of Eldon Cyrus, a Pentecostal Preacher. Billy Ray started singing with his father in the Crownsmen Gospel Quartet when he was five, and in college, decided to give up his goals of being a professional baseball player to sing and write songs for a living. In 1992, that dream came to fruition, with his first single, “Achy Breaky Heart” topping the country charts and climbing to the #4 spot on the Pop charts, due to its unique country-pop style. Due to the fun romp of the song, Billy Ray Cyrus’ first album, Some Gave All, spent 34 weeks atop the country charts and 17 weeks atop the Hot Billboard charts, earning Multi-Platinum honors. Also in 1992, Billy Ray Cyrus married Tish Finley, and was blessed with a daughter, Destiny Hope Cyrus, the first child of that marriage. Billy Ray released many more albums with Mercury Records, earning six top ten singles, three singles of the year and an album of the year. After his album of the year, Shot Full of Love, Billy Ray Cyrus and Mercury Records parted ways and the country star went into acting, appearing as the lead in the independent film Radical Jack and having a bit appearance in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. His most famous acting role was Doc, a TV show on PAX where he played Dr. Clint Cassidy, the lead role. Billy Ray also contributed the show’s theme song and spent the years on the show living in Ontario, far from his Tennessee family. After finishing the show and releasing his Gospel album, The Other Side, Billy Ray Cyrus decided to make one last album, go on tour one last time, then retire to spend time with his family, feeling that he was missing the childhood of his kids. However, shortly after returning to Tennessee, Billy Ray’s daughter Destiny Hope, now nicknamed Miley for her frequent smiles, had a surprise. Having been bitten by the acting bug on a brief visit to Ontario where she played a girl named Kylie in Doc, Miley had successfully auditioned for and gotten the lead role on the newest Disney Channel sitcom, Hannah Montana. The Cyrus family would have to move to California and they did so, Billy Ray staying behind briefly to tie up some loose ends. As he saw the U-Haul leaving, his family inside, Billy Ray Cyrus wrote Ready, Set, Don’t Go, and then gave it to his songwriting friend Casey Beathard to refine it. It was then recorded for Walt Disney Records by Billy Ray Cyrus and placed as the first song on his album for Walt Disney Records, Home At Last. As a single, the song fared well, like most of Billy Ray’s works, reaching #33 on the charts. Billy Ray Cyrus, who had been given the role of Miley’s character’s father, performed it acoustically on Hannah Montana, then a duet version of Billy Ray Cyrus and his daughter Miley was performed on Dancing With the Stars. This version was later released as a single, rocketing to #4 on the Country charts. Home At Last was re-released with the duet version attached as a bonus track and the duet was also released on the compilation album Country Sings Disney. The song also received the Most Played Song Songwriter’s Award in 2008. Billy Ray Cyrus also sang the song at Miley’s 16th Birthday Party in Disneyland, and the duet version was performed at the Country Music Awards in 2008, as well as the Kids’ Inaugural, a celebration of the election of President Barack Obama, with Miley singing her lyrics differently, having more soul in them.
What makes Ready, Set, Don’t Go unique? Well, many elements give the song a truly unique and interesting feel, making it stand apart from other Country songs, or even other Billy Ray Cyrus songs. Unlike most tracks from Billy Ray Cyrus, the song begins with the haunting sound of a guitar tuning, briefly interrupted by two piano chords. Soon, the acoustic guitars begin playing their chords, an electric guitar playing in the background. The lyrics are in Native Ballad form, a form derived from Ballads in Europe, story songs with emphasis on four syllables the first line, three syllables the next, then switching between the two. In Native Ballad form, emphasis is usually found on eight syllables, then six. “She’s gotta do what she’s gotta do/and I’ve got to like it or not/She’s got dreams too big for this town and she needs to give them a shot, wherever they are/Looks like she’s already to leave, nothin’ left to pack/Ain’t no room for me in that car, even if she asked me to tag along/God, I’ve gotta be strong.” The Chorus switches up the form, now using short long with emphasis on the ends of lines. “She’s at the starting line/ of the rest of her life/ ready as she’s ever been/Got the hunger and/ stars in her eyes/the prize is hers to win/She’s waitin’ on my blessin’s ‘fore she hits that open road/oh, baby get ready, get set, don’t go.” Unlike the Native Ballads of old, however, Billy Ray Cyrus puts passion into the words, as he always does. The song is sung with Billy Ray’s voice seeming near heartbreak, during the choruses it almost feels as though Billy Ray Cyrus will burst into tears after singing them. In the duet, Miley also brings passion, however, she seems fairly excited by contrast. In the Kid’s Inaugural version, though, Miley brings the passion, but is not excited that her dreams are coming true, instead, she appears to be passionate that she has the chance to sing this song with her father again. The most surprising things about this song are its lack of what people consider country music, the scope of instruments involved and the fade out ending. Country Music has been traditionally identified usually as men wearing cowboy outfits, strumming on an acoustic guitar and singing about breaking up. Billy Ray Cyrus has never been an artist like that. Sure, he sings about breaking up and has been seen with a cowboy hat and boots, but it is rare to find a song of his without a drum set delivering the rhythm and this song continues the trend, prominent drumbeats occur from the first verse onward. The scope of instruments in this song is much more vast than traditional country, containing electric guitars, acoustic guitars, a mandocello, drums, keyboard and other percussion. The audio for this song also sounds crisper than most of his previous albums, something almost magical seems to hang on every note and word, maybe due to the fact that the song was recorded and released by the famous Walt Disney records, who have released amazing musical films and successful albums like their Disneymania series over the years. The last surprise is the fade out ending. Like some of Billy Ray Cyrus’ previous works, the song is structured as verse 1-chorus-verse 2-chorus-chorus. After the last chorus, which ends with Billy Ray’s surprising word painting (where the lyrics match the words being said, i.e.: high if singing about moon, sky or sun) “please don’t go” which is said briefly and to the point without backup instruments, the song slowly continues with only instruments, Billy Ray repeating “she’s gotta do what she’s gotta do,” as well as calling out “don’t go.” In the duet version, itself a surprise to the already existing song, during this part Miley repeats “let me go now, I’m ready,” and hauntingly calls back “I’ll be all right/I’ll be okay/know that I’ll be thinking of you each and every day.”
Why did I pick Ready, Set, Don’t Go? There lies a story almost as old as its conception. In 1992, “Achy Breaky Heart” was everywhere, and as such, it was easy to hear. My first recollection of hearing the song was on America’s Funniest Home Videos, then hosted by Bob Saget. The fun combination of guitar, catchy lyrics and pop dance beat were exciting to a three-year-old as I was. Over the years, the song was heard again at a roller-skating rink in Lynden and as the parody about electricity on Bill Nye the Science Guy. Due to the Southern Baritone voice and fun, hip-swinging beat, I thought for years the song had been sung by Elvis Presley, and with none of Billy Ray’s other hits getting so high on the charts, plus a lack of country music in my life, there was nothing to contradict this statement. Then, in 2006, Destiny Hope “Miley” Cyrus became a household name due to her musically fun and Full House-esque moral show Hannah Montana. I was someone who got attracted to the show, after all, fun pop music, snappy lines, catchphrases and a guide for a good way to live your life, what more could you want in a television show? It was then that I discovered Billy Ray Cyrus, who plays Miley’s father on the show in addition to being her father in real life, was the artist of the catchy Achy Breaky Heart from my childhood. In December 2007, I decided to finally buy the CDs to the show, enjoying hearing the popular songs from the show in full as well as Miley’s first steps to her own career as herself. Mileymania had hit me hard and I needed more, so I turned to her father’s album, Home At Last, where she was also singing. The fact that the first track, the above Ready, Set, Don’t Go, was featured on Hannah Montana didn’t hurt, and the album began my now-exceedingly expansive collection of Billy Ray Cyrus albums, all started by the amazing combination of covers and original songs that is Home At Last. Why was Ready, Set, Don’t Go singled out, then? Several reasons. One, I don’t know why Don Von Tress wrote Achy Breaky Heart, and the statement that a singer-songwriter had to be the author of the song eliminated it, Billy Ray Cyrus didn’t write Achy Breaky Heart, but he contributed the catchy words “Achy Breaky” after meeting a friend who was going through a divorce. Second, Ready, Set, Don’t Go is a newer song, enabling easy track of its performances, I don’t know when Billy Ray Cyrus performed his hits “Some Gave All” or “Stand” as they are not singles. Third, the song has both Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus. Both artists are easily capable of producing quality work; most tracks by them received five stars on my iTunes. However, picking a song only one had sung was difficult, so I picked their only duet single, Ready, Set, Don’t Go. My opinions about the song are that this is one of Billy Ray Cyrus’ saddest and most passionate pieces, only his cover of Over the Rainbow later in the album and his Acoustic Version of “Some Gave All” from Time Flies pass it in the sadness factor. Billy Ray Cyrus and Casey Beathard have constructed a masterpiece by which Billy Ray Cyrus will forever be known. If this song doesn’t make those who only think of Billy Ray as a one-hit wonder change their minds, nothing will. Forever, this song will remind us that we must hold onto our children as they grow up, as they will leave their parents one day.
Now, some may say “Miley’s failed as a Christian, why pick her still? And where did Demi come from?” I don’t know if she’s necessarily failed, I’ve read Dietrich Bonhaeffer’s works, he asked, “do we have a romanticized view of sin, or a more realistic Christian view of sin?” All have sinned; no one is exempt, no matter how much we desire it. Miley Ray Cyrus has been selected due to her amazing music, an internal thump from God and to say “God can forgive anyone.” Miley does pretty well considering, as well, and I love her dedication to stopping cancer, cystic fibrosis and for people to “get their good on.” I also loved Miley’s book, it shows a very real person who is very kind and very funny. Demi was added through feeling the same thump, her music, her friendship to Miley and my brother’s girlfriend’s love of them both. Brandi was included due to a dream involving all three, the same thump and an enjoyment of Frank and Derol's music. I’ve thought many a time about using Selena Gomez instead of Miley, but what does that say? That says only the good get forgiveness; that God picks and chooses favorites and doesn’t forgive those who fall, even if they want it. The idea behind the band is to see a collection of Christian Pop Artists playing Gospel music, since that would be awesome. If it’s going to happen is mainly up to those involved, but I imagine they’d be a great band, especially if they play their songs as well as Gospel/new songs (especially if the new songs are Pop, Hard Rock and CCM).
