So, I have a confession here. Not one of shame though. I was firmly in the, “old country was the only real country,” camp. I heard someone on the radio speaking about that but more on that later. My time with country music was with my Dad. He liked everything, but he listened to country in his car and would sing along with many songs. Though George Strait was his fave, he had many older and newer artists he liked. And … that was about the biggest amount of time I spent with country music, until very recently. Understand that was 80s up until about 2000ish and mostly second hand. Then my father died and I had a bit of a messy time listening to anything he liked as it would remind me of him and the feelings were too raw.
Along comes a few months ago and I pick up and have been playing Farming Simulator 22 here since release. And almost jokingly, I tuned to a pop country -streaming- channel that was built in to the game. I thought, I’m roleplaying a farmer here, I should jam out to some country tunes. And what was playing on that stream but a throwback, a George Strait song. And I sang along. Then a new song came on, and I listened. It didn’t stick immediately, but I left that station on because it passed the time a little better in-game. And not but a day or two later, I was humming the melody to a few of the songs and singing small pieces I could remember. The thing, probably one of the BEST things about country isn’t necessarily the content, it’s the ability to hear the words and understand them fairly well. They can still cover complicated subjects, but many can also be just about letting go … having fun … remembering the good things about being younger, etc.
And some of the voices of those singing it are annoying, but on the flip side of that, some are very memorable. Not sing-song voices, but being belted out with some hard feeling. I did NOT expect as much of that. And that brings me back to what whoever that person was saying on a radio station I flipped on, or maybe it was youtube, I don’t remember now. But their subject was that we have so many generational people in regards to country fans, meaning, they listened during a particular decade and that was the only defining country for them. We don’t have as many decade based country music channels, so that leaves them with, usually, “nothing on today is good,” or, “old country was the only real country.” And that threw me for a loop, I’m very much one of those voices.
So I’ve given today’s pop country a shot, and strangely, I really like some of the artists.
Back to Luke Combs, everything about the kid, and I’m calling him that because damn he’s young, matches me. From North Carolina, lived in Huntersville and Ashville, went to college in the mountains, gave up the country because his mom and dad weren’t listening to it anymore and was all set to live his life and go on to be a detective (this is where we stopped being the same.) And then he heard a country concert and it spurred him to listen a bit more and sing it. And holy fuck can that kid sing. Not a light voice either, he belts songs out like he means business.
How can I NOT like him. Or some of the voices I’ve heard in the last few weeks? Granted, there are still some that annoy me. Either their voices, or their a bit too right leaning subject matter, etc. But a lot of them are good.
To be frank, in todays country music scene, it’s some of the older artists checking in with somewhat trite songs that annoy me. Some of the newer artists are still trying to work for their fame versus trying to pay for a fifth vacation home. It shows.
