It's Country

Scroll way down and turn off the playlist player before you play these videos ::

I am Unapologetic.  I love country music.  Many people my age say they don't like country at all, but I find this hard to swallow.  They must be joking, right?  What's not to love?  

One of the best things about country music is what a vessel it provides.  You think about it when you turn on your radio :: country artists work all sort of Christian values and even blatant, unashamed Christian lyrics into their songs.  For example :: A well-known song, "Down the Road" has a chorus that starts like this ::

Her mama wants to know / Am I washed in the blood / Or just in the water 

That's deep right there.  And nobody knifes Kenny Chesney [[although I did a double take when I saw who wrote it because it's so... good!  Sorry Kenny Chesney fans, I just can't stand him and his usually-raunchy songs]] about it.  It isn't plastered over the tabloids or the news, and he isn't blacklisted, and it's played on radios nation-wide.  Or Carrie Underwood's new song, "Temporary Home," which is embedded below ::





That's a pretty clear message, and yet it totally culturally acceptable.  Ironic that music is often the battleground for our culture's movements and revolutions...and yet it seems to be one of the last fortresses of our country's roots.  Only in country music can you find real, unashamed patriotism, value of human life, traditional morals, and really good guitar.... ;)  Seriously though.  


Not to say that there aren't a lot of really nawsty and raunchy songs out there.  A lot of the country music playing on today's radios is dodgy at best.  But personally, I've just learned to pinpoint the bands that have those tendencies (hence the shock at Kenny Chesney earlier...) and avoid them.  It's all just another area where you keep a guard on your spirit.  Obviously you should be careful of what you're feeding into your ears (or eyes, or mind, or heart), but that is no different from any other music you could be listening to.  


And for the most part there is such a good, clean, grassy pureness in country music.  I've grown up on it.  I can remember very clearly (and I have a TERRIBLE memory!) my car-seat days,  driving along when it's raining and asking Mom to turn off the radio and explain every single song.  "Mommy, why is that man so sad?"  "Well, his wife died and..."  Etcetera.  I bawled my eyes out, but it's a good memory now! :)


And it ain't just for country folks.  Heaven knows I'm a suburbanite and only inherit the "Cowboy in Me" (Tim McGraw, go listen to it) from el padre.  But my argument is embodied in "Hillbilly Bone," a song by Blake Shelton with Trace Adkins.  New stuff, old stuff, it's not all that different in the long run.  Grow up slow, with your eyes wide open, and grow up Country.  ;)


AMZi x x x x x