As the spring semester progressed, I dove into a few different country experiences that gave me a bigger picture of what it means to be a fan of country music. I attended my first concert by seeing Eric Church at the Frank Erwin Center, visited the Willie Nelson, went two-stepping at Midnight Rodeo, and watched O Brother,Where Art Thou? By doing more than just listening to country music, my appreciation for the genre has increased.
https://storify.com/jmm7745/blame-it-all-on-my-roots-jordanne-s-experiences
When I arrived at the Frank Erwin Center, one thought took over my mind. This Eric Church concert better be worth the cold trek I took to watch him. Long story short, I was impressed. Eric Church’s Outsiders Tour may have been my first concert experience, but it will not be my last. I learned that hearing the artist perform a song live portrays the emotion and story of a song a lot better than just listening online. Now whenever I hear an Eric Church song on Spotify, I think back to that cold March day and how I took a big step in appreciating an artist and his ability to connect with his audience as a whole and individually.
As for visiting the Willie Nelson statue, I actually did not know anything about Willie Nelson other than what he looked like before I took Rhetoric of Country Music. I felt very out of the loop, because of this. He’s such an enormous part of the development of country music. When I heard about his involvement in the Austin live music scene, I now understood why he is memorialized in Austin as opposed to Nashville. Now that I know some of his history, I feel more educated about the genre and would definitely be more willing to listen to older songs from artists like Willie and Hank.
Dancing at Midnight Rodeo, although not a new concept to me, was my second favorite activity next to my concert experience. I feel like music is not complete unless there’s some form of dancing connected to it. Although I did not attend a night with live music, I still enjoyed dancing to the hits of yesterday and today. I feel like places like Midnight Rodeo would deeply benefit from either having a section of the night or one night a month specifically playing some of the oldies. Midnight Rodeo does stay true to its name in the fact that it plays country music past midnight. However I feel if they keep playing more and more hip-hop and pop hits to cater to the younger audience, it will lose its title as a “honky-tonk”. I feel that this was the activity that I felt the most immersed in the country music scene, out of the four I’ve chosen, despite the other music genres thrown in the mix.
Finally I liked the movie, because it showed that country music still has its place in the cinema. Granted, O Brother Where Art Thou? takes place in the 1930s South. I feel that country music often gets overlooked when it comes to movie soundtracks, because people think that country music has to stay in the country. I’m not saying, “Let’s put a George Strait song in this super hero flick as the theme song”. However if a character is driving a car, it’s not realistic that every character that drives a car listens just to hip-hop and pop. Why can’t the character be listening to a nice George Jones or Dolly Parton song? Overall, I have to say I really appreciate that these experiences were part of the class. It really put the history of country music and its current songs into perspective. I definitely want to try more things on the list, in particular Chicken S*** Bingo sounds like it could be a blast. In a culture where hip-hop and pop rule the masses, country still rings in at number one to me because of the themes, lifestyle, and experiences that come with it.
