Believe it or not I don't use the piano roll view at all, just been using the notation view all these years. 
 
Anyway, I am making some examples for an article about making drums parts in Sonar 8.5 Producer.
 
When I use the piano roll view, and right-click on the left side where the piano part usually is, then change it to "General MIDI Drums", the names don't show up there unless I hover my mouse on a note that I entered. So I can only see the one note name, then when I move the mouse off the note, the name disappears.
 
Is there a switch somewhere to tell it to just keep all the note names showing all the time?
 
I saw a video on YouTube, and when the guy changed it to Note Names (he was using Sonar 4....old video I guess) and selected the one I picked, "General MIDI Drums", then names for all  of them show there on the left side, but mine doesn't do that.  If I pick Diatonic, then it shows the piano keys again, but any others I pick (General Midi, Roland Drums, XG Classic Kit, or whatever) and the list is blank, unless my mouse is on top of a whatever note.
 
I have Sonar Producer updated to the latest version, 8.5.3.282
 
Thanks ahead of time,  
-Rob

I figured it out.
 
I had a color theme that must have been using the same colors for the background as for the text. When I switched back to the boring default colors, I could then see the note names. I just goofed around with some others till I got it looking better again (but still able to see the names) and then saved it.