civ

“True country music is honesty, sincerity, and real life to the hilt.”

-Garth Brooks

“Country music has always been the best shrink that 15 bucks can buy.”

-Dierks Bentley

            Ever since I have started college, I’ve made it a point to listen to more and more country music, shuffling 278 shadily-obtained Nashville-recorded songs into my daily playlist, trying to learn the new culture that I have been thrust into through the music of four basic chords and a Southern twang.

            I’m a classic rock guy, letting my days before this defined by The Beatles or The Eagles or The Who or The Commodores, by guitar solos and impossible-to-understand lyrics. So this is new.

            I’ve been slowly trying to ease myself into this, wearing the only two plaid shirts that I own on a fairly-regular basis, letting myself grow used to the heartbreak and comedy and slow polkas of these new artists, trying to put myself in their inspired position, trying to find something in common with the surrounding, boot-wearin’ student body.

            I was surprised by the relatability coming from the words streaming out of my dinged-up iPod, the lyrics giving new heartbreak to old wounds, transposing whatever mostly-imagined problems I have had in the past into a chorus or bass riff.

            And amid the bustle of the still-newness of the crowds around me, my hands jammed into my new jean pockets, sometimes the songs remind me of the past. It is terrible and sad and, again, mostly-imagined. But I just can’t stop listening and singing along.