Holy Crap! I Like Country Music.

... and I'm not just talking about old Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and the other stuff that's cool to like, I'm talking about right now, on the radio!

Something very strange happened to me last week. I was driving upstate, rollin' the Corolla alongside the mighty Hudson listening at the foot of the wise old Catskills. The Corolla has a jack for an .mp3 player and all, but I like radio. The radio turns you on to stuff you wouldn't otherwise hear.

As you spurt out of the greater New York City area, you hit sort of a standard American radio zone and realize that there are, in fact, not stations at 101.1, 101.3, 101.9, 102.2, 102.9... you know, the radio offerings are limited in most of the country. You can't get that weird obscure shit you hear on any one of New York's 42 public radio stations (it's probably not 42 but it seems like a lot), and you can't (yet) get a sophisticated rock format like RXP or a hip-hop mix like Hot 97.

Nope, out there in Realmerica (as I like to call it), you typically get a Top 40 station or two, a classic rock station or two, an alternative station or two, a couple of country stations, a couple of classical stations, maybe a jazz station or a public radio station that mixes it up between World music, jazz, bluegrass and the like... and that's basically it for the FM dial.

So anyway, I'm spinning further into the radio rabbit hole that is non-NYC-America, and as the mountains start to get bigger, the radio choices are whittled down further. I have my choice of Jesus, classical (Why do all these places in the sticks have classical radio stations? I've noticed it since I was a kid. You get out in the Bumblefart Flats of Wyoming and there's nothing on the radio except classical... it's weird.), or two country stations.

I got nothin' against Jesus, but a lot of his followers just rub me the wrong way, especially the ones that start radio stations.

Classical is nice, but I can hear it any time.

Country... hmmm... does New York even have a country radio station? I'm sure it must, but I've never heard it. Curious to see what's goin' on in AchyBreakyHeart Land, I decide to stop pushing the seek button and just let the country music flow.

You know what? I liked it. A lot. The songwriting is good, I mean like frickin' nutso good. These guys and gals are telling stories that touch everyone, universal human stories about growin' up, growin' kids, growin' old, tryin' to make a livin', knowin' Jesus loves ya' even though you ain't worth a damn. I mean, these are GREAT songs coming out of Nashville! Not only are they lyrically sublime, but musically they are comfortable and solid, nothin' fancy. There's a reason that those same three chords have worked for ten thousand years -- 'cause they sound nice. People dig it. I dig it.

I like the production, too. It sounds real, like it's played properly in a studio by human beings rather than cranked out of an assembly line of midi-powered robots.

Does this mean I've grown up or grown old? Call me square. I don't care. I'm on a country music kick. Yeehaww!