Country Music

If you know anything about me, you know that my music tastes are nothing if not eclectic. I am a 49-year-old African American woman who likes all kinds of music. Really. Riding in a car with me can be annoying because I have no allegiance to any particular radio station; I hear one song I like and then switch stations until I hear another song I like.

So...even though I have been known to fire up You Tube, and listen to just about anything I stand before you ready to make a huge confession: I like Country Music.

It's really indicative of advancing age that I can admit it. I just don't give a rip. When I was younger, you could light hot matches and stick them under my fingernails before I'd admit to liking country music; there was just no "street cred" to that type of music. So sad, so twangy, so "my truck broke down" and "she done me wrong"-yecch!

When I was in college I worked as a cocktail waitress. One of the bars I worked in had a jukebox stocked with country music- a lot of country music. For hours I'd hear Hank Williams Jr., David Allen Coe, and Alabama and after a while I knew all the words to all the songs. A little while later I was singing the words to those songs...not always at work. I don't think you've lived until you've heard me warbling, "why don't you ever call me by na-a-ame?" at the top of my voice.

Well hell, now I'll admit my liking for some country music. I'm no "Redneck Woman" but I love Gretchen Wilson's song, Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" is a ditty that is just too easy to sing along with, and Tim McGraw's "Live Like You Were Dying" really ought to be the national anthem.