Last weekend my little family and I sojourned down to Tucson to help my grandmother celebrate her 80th birthday. We had a nice visit with my family and Moses's sister and hit a couple of our favorite spots in Tucson: Blue Willow for breakfast and Sabino Canyon for a Saturday morning stretch of the legs. Sabino turned out to be a bust because the boy was sleep-deprived, cranky, and not in the mood for walking (I'm talking about Garion here, although the description applies to Moses too except that Moses was in the mood for walking, so we had a nice little scene on the Sabino Canyon trail). Anyway, as we were driving around Tucson, we had the sense that Tucson is huge. It seemed like we drove, and drove, and drove, and we were still in the city. I mean, really, we drove for twenty minutes to get from our hotel to the restaurant. As Moses pointed out, if we drove twenty minutes from our house in Flagstaff, we'd be halfway to his dad's place, which is out in BFE. I also found myself thoroughly enjoying the temperatures, which were in the mid-60's in the morning and I accordingly took my sweater off. At which Moses fainted with shock and declared the end of the world because hell must have just frozen over. "You're not warm are you?" he said. To which I replied, "no, of course not." But the fact of the matter is, it appears that after a year in Flagstaff I have adapted.
"So," you ask, "what's this got to do with country music?" Well......ahem.... it seems that since moving to Flagstaff I have developed an appreciation of country music. Yes, I find this as mysterious and unfathomable as the rest of you, but there it is. It might have something to do with the fact that the country music station is the only station in town that comes in loud and clear no matter what part of town you're in. I know, that's weird. But Flagstaff is small and next a really big mountain that seems to interfere with radio and the country music station is the only one that has successfully overcome this problem. Now, I feel I need to clarify that this new appreciation does not extend to all country music, there is still a good bit of it which makes me want to pull over to the side of the road and immediately vomit its ooy-gooy, sappy-sweet, cornily-patriotic taste out of my mouth. On the other hand, there's a good bit that I can now sing along to. Lord, help me. Dixie Chicks, Sugarland, and Allison Krauss are my favorites. And, I think I should point out in my own defense that Allison Krauss is really more bluegrass music, which is different. Isn't it? Suspecting that this appreciation may actually be the result of the something in the air up here, I asked my brother (who as a kid hated country music as much as I did) if he listens to country. He does. Ha! It's not just me. But he also said that it's required in Williams (where he lives) and that if you don't listen to it, the pick-up-truck-with-a-gun-rack-posse comes after you. Hmmm. Regardless, you have to admit this is a pretty darn catchy song.* And the air is thinner up here. It's not my fault.
*You might have to click play at the top of the page to hear the song. Just to be clear, the song I'm referencing is "It Happens." I don't know how long that song will be playing on their website, so if you go there and it's a different, not-at-all-catchy tune, you'll know I'm not completely off my rocker.
Um. Wow. Well, we won't stop being friends with you or anything, but we might have to listen to cds or ipods if ever we're in your car with the radio on.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I really hate categorizing music into genres. Of course, there are lots of things that fall into the middle of a genre - no one will argue that Metallica is rock, and Michael Jackson is pop, etc. However, there are so many subgenres and crossovers that for many musicians the traditional classifications just don't apply. Especially when rock as a genre evolved from jazz, blues, and gospel roots, country evolved from blues, gospel, and folk roots, etc. Bluegrass as a genre could be said to have evolved prior to country...blah blah blah
ReplyDeleteMy point is, I, too, like the Dixie Chicks and Alison Kraus, primarily because they are damn fine musicians. I have been known to like individual "country" songs. Sugarland, the band you link too, immediately made me think of Melissa Etheridge, whom no one would classify as "country". So who cares about genre? I'll still be your friend. :-)
I don't know which is more shocking, this newfound love of country music or the fact that you came to Tucson and did not schedule a lunch with your work friends. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnd there's Mary Chapin-Carpenter who I list as folk in my i-tunes because she's more that.
ReplyDeleteBut, yes, there are bands and artists that cross genres. The Eagles are ones that definitely cross from rock to country. And Skynrd for heaven's sake.
I also like Alison K, and the Chicks. And I like the new Taylor Swift song.
One of my friends in grad. school was heavily into country and he got me into some of them. Some of them I still like see above, but some of them not so much. Kenny Chesney is the representative example of one I do not.
And there's classic country like Patsy Cline and Elvis also was a little bit country too. (Oh dear, I am referencing parts of the Donny and Marie show).
Don't know if this is helping or not.
You changed your template. Permanently so? Or temporarily so.
ReplyDelete