My Thing with Country Music

A lot of my life I have not been a fan of country music. Sometimes it annoys me, sometimes it wears me down. But this is the same of all types of music that I can tend to like more than this genre, like rock, jazz, classical, R and B, and other music. Some or a lot of anything can be annoying or tiresome.

But, at this point of my life (half a century, no small feat), I think that I may have a deeper, more nuanced relationship or reaction to country music and its sound[s]. Growing up with parents who were not fans or aficionados of this music certainly was an influence, but unlike them who grew up in the 1940s Boston area, they raised me in 1970s Bloomington in south central Indiana, a small college town surrounded by a lot of country. There were us town kids who did not have any particular regional accent, but close by in every direction were the kids from the country, where southern Hoosier or Kentucky accents and drawls abounded.

Now, when my oldest daughter saw the title I tried to give her the thought of this blog post in a nutshell, and how I was exposed or intermixing with country kids, some of whom stayed in my house as foster kids, and others that I went to school with and others at church, but it was not just this label or identity on them that drove me a little country crazy. I recently have thought there was more to it than my view on the others surrounding me that country music reminded me of. It was more about me, and where I saw myself.

Thinking about the outside world, I am pretty sure that I appreciated my home state and the state on the East Coast of my parents, but I did not necessarily want to remain there, or be stuck. I am pretty sure that I felt destined to go other places.

Country music, like many around me, was too much home, too insular, making me feel claustrophobic, perhaps. I grew up with parents from 900 miles away, next to the ocean. They had both traveled and lived in West Africa, a place they regarded with fondness.

Too much Hoosier seemed a bit confining to me. Far from the sea, far from major cities, or mountains, or foreign exotic locales, I think country music signified that I was back in the place of no escape.

I am definitely psycho-analyzing myself, and perhaps others; perhaps using my blog entries as a means to arrive at deeper or more ambiguous truths about myself or others, but I may have been afraid of being trapped; country music possibly signified the entrapment to me.

 

When we are little, or older, at whatever age, we realize our limitations and constraints and many of us seek for a greater freedom or liberty, the feeling of empowerment and strength to do and go where ever we want.

 

There are stylistic aspects of country music (again, many genres) that I could go over, and cross-reference, but I wanted to speak out on this part for now.

 

I grew up surrounded by country. I wanted more than the local populations of farmers, trailers, country music, the rolling hills and creeks...  I am not trying to insult or offend the people and places of my home county, and the surrounding more rural counties... I am trying to tell you and me that I wanted things beyond that. I wanted to go around, see some more. Rock and other music gives me that, very often.

 

And then again, thinking of he music itself, there is all the twanginess... The heartfelt melancholy does strike some chords... And there are for sure many country songs that I like all these years later, but at a price.

 

Who knows all the reasons we like what we like? Or how often we like it?

 

There are many beautiful country songs and artists, that is for sure. There are tremendous hits and not so known hits that I cherish and adore. I will save those for another post. 

In many ways "country" is home, and going back to it nostalgic and rich. In my poor, broken heart. I can handle some doses in it, after escaping the confines of my youth and southern Indiana.