A Smile to Your Face and a Tear to Your Eye
Country music has a very special place in my heart.I remember my first favorite country song. My dad would play it and I would dance and sing along with it in the living room. It was Heartland by George Strait. I loved that it started with a little kid singing (like me)...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6-7j948l6MI'd ask my dad. "Where is the heartland?" And my dad would answer, pointing outside. "It's right here. Its all around us." I love the realness of the music. The values. The handwork and love they sing of. The emotions. And the Sounds... Real instruments. Acoustic and Steel Guitars, Fiddles, Banjos... the music feeds my soul. I love that each song is a story.When I was little, we'd go to the Crystal Palace all the time to see Buck Owens play on Saturday Nights. It was my version of the Opry. I loved it so much.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5P6zdlPJ34I'd see people out on the dance floor and wish that I could dance like them. Line dancing, two step, spinning around on the dance floor...When I was in school, it seemed like no one liked country music, except me. I'd go to school dances with friends but I could never feel the music. I began to think I didn't like dancing. And when I would "dance", I felt so awkward because I was just forcing my body to move. I wasn't feeling it, so I couldn't dance to it.My love for country music, started out with George Strait, Buck Owens, Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, and Faith Hill. My parents had a few of their CD's at home and I would play them all the time. I just loved playing them on the stereo. When I finally got an iPod in high school, those where the first to go on there.When I learned to drive, I really started to discover country music for myself. I would listen to the radio all the way to school and then back home. It came to the point where I could recognize the artist by their voice, even if I never heard the song before. When the song was really good, I'd be singing it in my head all day. Then after school, I would rush home and buy the song on iTunes. Songs like:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nADTbWQof7Yhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLrnwnNycoQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xZMQPFN0LYThe station I listened to played a good variety of country music, the new stuff, the old stuff. They played it all.It was also my version of therapy. Whenever I felt sad or lonely, or any other emotion, country music was there for me. There was always a song that showed me that someone had felt exactly the way I did.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnJ3-EErdKIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY2Yct8LjOoWhen I started college, I still didn't have many friends that listened to country music. But every roommate I had, learned to really like it. I played it almost 24-7, so it was really good that they did!In my last year of college, I finally found a little honky tonk in Southern California. Of all places, I was so surprised to find it there. My friend, Carol, and I went to learn how to line dance. They have classes, so we would show up early to learn. I was in awe. For the first time, I saw people enjoying the music as much as I had. After the lesson, they would have a live band and people would go out and dance. They all knew exactly what they were doing and a lot of them danced most every song, it seemed. We were there on the sidelines, just watching until they played the song from the lesson.Eventually though, we got asked to dance. We told them we didn't know how, but the kind gentlemen offered to teach us. And after a month or two, I could finally two-step without them repeating "Quick-Quick. Slow. Slow." The feeling was amazing. I could finally dance to the music I loved so much. We'd go every night the honkey tonk was open. Sometimes we'd dance for 6 hours straight!Every week I would look forward to dancing. Every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday night after class, I'd put on my boots and meet Carol. I was dancing to old songs and new. Songs I never heard before, and songs that I had grown up listening to. Two stepping and line dancing into the night...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW-1Pha0KoEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtVeDaZxAXohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpExMZVKvs4 Carol and I would listen to country music on the way there and back, too. And so many of songs on the radio, reflected the same kind of feeling we were feeling at the time...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvdoKvHYxcAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YfNFR6gh2Ehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iXPlJHKB1g"Funny how a melody sounds like a memory..." When ever I hear this song, it brings me back to those days. Of Carol and I riding in the car to go dance and dancing all night long. Such amazing times.
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Lately, though, I feel like popular country music has lost a lot of the values that they used to be known for. And the sound. What happened to the steel guitars? I turn on the "country" radio only to find pop and rap music. A lot of the popular country seems to have lost what made it so special. Most songs I hear, sing of superficial things. Nothing with depth, soul, and emotion.George Strait puts it best in this song:[embed]http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97txFWkqSiU[/embed]I really miss the time when I could turn on the radio and love every song that played.Maybe its just where I am, right now, in Southern Cali, that those "less country" songs are put in the spotlight. Maybe in other parts of the country, they are still playing songs with heart and soul. I really hope so...In a way, I guess its kind of good that I've been driven away from what is considered country music on the radio, because it has pushed me to look back and rediscover those older songs, that have so much depth to them. Real music that you can sway and dance to. The songs that send shivers down your spine, because they touch your heart so much.Songs like:[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Biz5kBIAtic[/embed] But there are still a few newer artists out there that still sing country music. And it really excites me when I discover them, because it gives me hope that true country music isn't disappearing!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGQmKA15VCkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Zv_QULhRMohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhQbhDjtreIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWhvS8ciEpQ