Monthly Archives: September 2015

by Morgan Lohmeier | September 11, 2015 · 5:00 pm

Avoiding the Black Train

One nation under God is said daily across the fifty states. Christianity is the prevalent religion reigning over our lands. Churches unite the Christian communities across the country and bring together the millions of Americans that worship the Lord. The Christian community is one I’m blessed to belong to. Country music has always been the top genre of music to subtly praise God almost as much as the Christian genre of music itself. Most country artists have at least one song that relates to their faith or lumps Christianity and being an American into one. I admire country music for that. Rarely do artists in other popular genres of music proclaim their faith as often as most of my favorite country artists do.

As a Christian, I strive to associate my actions with my faith. I aim at being a humble, good person in all aspects of my life. However, in today’s society, it’s all too easy to fall into bad habits and unfriendly behaviors. There’s a specific country song that comes to mind as I talk about the traps of society in relation to staying true to my faith. Not surprisingly, it’s a song by the good-boy, Christian, charming, mesmerizing voice of Josh Turner called “Long Black Train.” The music video on YouTube alone boasts a whopping ten million views.

josh turner Turner’s deep, silky smooth voice hums the tunes about a long train that feeds off the souls of those lost and sad people. The rails of the train track are made of sin and evil and Turner warns us to steer clear of the train as it nears us. Turner then tells us that there’s redemption, peace, and protection if we just choose to look to the heavens and burn our tickets to the black train.

“There’s victory in the Lord, I say, victory in the Lord. Cling to the Father and His holy name, and don’t go ridin’ on that long black train.” Turner’s use of the metaphor of the black train as all the temptations and evil in the world paints a vivid image of darkness Christians struggle to avoid on a daily basis. But not to fear, because Turner’s welcoming murmur reminds us that the Lord is always here to protect us.

The engineer on the train, later in the song revealed to be the devil, drives the train around and tempts us to hop on, making us wonder if it wouldn’t just be easier to give in and join the others on the long black train. I believe this song became so popular with Turner’s fans and country music fans all over the world as they listened to the meaning of this song because it paints a vivid scene of the daily struggles every Christian faces as we try to follow the Word of God while being tempted by numerous evils daily.

Most Christian country fans will find this tune a lovely reminder to our daily struggles, but country music fans that aren’t of the same faith may take offense to the praises this song emanates. While some country songs very subtly praise the Lord, this song focuses solely on faith and the redemption of the Lord, along with the temptations the world presents us with daily. I think even people that aren’t Christians can relate to the daily temptations and the metaphor of the black train Turner speaks of. This may be another reason why the song was and still is one of Turner’s fan favorites. The overall message can prove relatable to any person, honestly.

I have such a soft spot for this song and the meaning behind it. It’s a song I can play any day and never get sick of it. Plus, who wouldn’t love listening to josh Turner’s deep, handsome voice singing about his faith. I sure could daily, on repeat, every day. Did I mention I could listen to it every day? You get the point…

1 Comment

Filed under Blog Post 1

Tagged as Christian Country, community, Josh Turner, Long Black Train, religion

by Annie G | · 11:00 am

Music to Helicopter Parents’ Ears

For me, the country music craze started around 6 or 7 years ago when I was in middle school. I attended a private Catholic school from age four to fourteen. Over the years, I came face to face with the definition of helicopter parenting. From monitoring their kids Facebook’s to their text messages, these parents knew and controlled every aspect of their child’s lives.

A huge thing that these parents were against was today’s rap and pop music. The constant cursing- these kids weren’t even allowed to say “fart”, mind you- and drug and sexual references led these parents to hide this kind of music from their children’s innocent little ears. Here’s where country music- a genre constantly referencing God and promoting Christianity- comes into play.

I really didn’t notice the growing popularity of country music in my friend group until I joined my private school’s basketball team in sixth grade. The team parents set up a carpool system to divide up who would take all of us to get an after school snack before practice or who would drive us to the away games. I ended up spending a lot of time in my friend’s parent’s cars through this and in turn, led me to spend a lot of time listening to country music. Who knew “She’s Country” by Jason Aldean could be considered a warm up song?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AZLUohDCGo

Of course, even country music features songs that could be deemed inappropriate, but the drug and sex references are considerably less frequent in country music than in pop or rap songs. It also helped that these parents had the uncanny ability to filter the songs that came through their car speakers.

Personally, my parents never really controlled my life like some of my friend’s parents. My parents had me when they were older and just weren’t interested in spending all of their time monitoring my life. Granted, they still forced me to add them on Facebook and weren’t into me watching R rated movies, but they never looked at my phone or told me what music I could or couldn’t listen to. Because of this, I had no idea all parents weren’t the exact same way. In fact, I had never really heard country music before (outside of Robert Earl Keen or the Dixie Chicks) until my friends’ helicopter parents were constantly driving me to sport practices.

At first I absolutely hated this genre. I hated being forced to listen to it even more, especially since it wasn’t even my parents forcing me to listen to it. I went from hardly ever being told what I could or couldn’t do by my own parents to being forced to listen to a certain type of music by my friend’s parents. But I quickly got over this, mainly because the country music fad literally took over my private school. Our school dances featured country music more than any other genre. Imagine jamming out to “Big Green Tractor” at your eighth grade dance- I mean how much “jamming” can you actually do to a song about riding through a cornfield on some guys tractor. But we somehow found a way, and my love for country music grew quickly.

Today it’s pretty much all I listen to, and when I hear those old Jason Aldean songs I soft smile at the thought of middle school and my friends’ crazy parents. The parents have lightened up since then, but country music stayed with all of us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9jqNCAOisc

ATX: My Favorite Beach

P1080219_HDR_1-2

My freshman year at UT felt like one long, endless, horrible day. It was my backup plan to say the least, and a place I ended up due more to my parent’s desires than my own. I actually paid for housing at A&M! (dark days for me)- Austin was not a place I wanted to be; it was a dirty hippie town with too much pop culture for me to handle. I spent my days dreaming of the east coast, of the beach, just wanting to get away. Between the “foreign car drivin’ [frat] dudes”, their “road rage attitudes”, and a pretty nasty oral infection: my freshman year went a LOT like Blake Shelton’s day in “Some Beach”.

[Editor’s note: Shelton’s YouTube account apparently does not allow this video to be embedded in posts published on sites like this one.]

Shockingly, once I left my dorm room and ventured out into the UT atmosphere- aside from just going to class and back- I realized maybe I was being a little close-minded. I joined a spirit organization on campus, the Texas Angels (also very much instigated by my mother, she’s very persuasive), and began to branch out a little more. I found my niche in an otherwise overwhelming city and I have gained several close friends over the past year, I definitely wouldn’t move to the east coast now, even if I had the opportunity.

Everyone told me how incredible Austin was and how much I was going to love UT before I left, but I was way too fixated on a some beach fantasy to even give it a shot. Every time I listen to this song I want to go back in time, grab myself by the shoulders and scream STOP AND SMELL THE ROSES! THE BEACH SUCKS IT’S JUST SAND IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES AND JELLYFISH AND THE OCCASIONAL WARDROBE MALFUNCTION! Blake Shelton was clearly having a rough day, but out of that came a really catchy song with a very happy vibe that makes me think even Shelton knows he’ll feel better tomorrow.

tumblr_mk9f79EoKN1riqywyo5_250 I’m not sure why this song still makes me think of my freshman year of college, maybe because I’d still love to live a life in constant vacation-mode, or because you can’t get take a trip down 35 without getting honked at by some road-rager at least once, but regardless, I turn the radio up every time it comes on. As I’ve grown to love and engage with the beautiful city of Austin, I’ve also grown to realize that Austin is a city where I can truly be myself, I can interact with great and interesting people, I can even drink a margarita and I don’t have to worry about when the last time I applied sunscreen was. ATX is my beach.

Like Father Like Daughter

It surprises me sometimes just how much my family influences my opinions and attitudes. Growing up I had my fair share of “I will never do that to my kid” moments, but recently I have begrudgingly realized that I am the spitting image of my parents. Their influence, especially my father’s, has carried over into my tastes in music. As an eight-year-old kid I craved the moments we would go driving on rural country roads because it meant my dad would let me sit in the front seat. He would pop his favorite CD of easy-going music in the radio and sing along to Jimmy Buffett with the windows rolled down. This was the kind of music he referred to as “the best stuff on earth,” and I could not agree more. As a child, I had no idea what a “margaritaville” was, I just knew that I liked the sound of the steel drums and thought the singer was overreacting to the loss of a salt shaker. Soon I found myself knowing all of the words to the songs on the CD and loving it.

It wasn’t long before my dad exposed me to a slightly different type of music. This time the acoustic guitar was the star and the songs described the exact country roads we were driving on. Kenny Chesney was the first country artist I was introduced to, and he remains to this day one of my absolute favorites (he even pays homage to the great Jimmy Buffett in his hit “How Forever Feels“). His down-home lyrics and nostalgic sound make even the most unsentimental listener wistful for the past, a characteristic I find to be especially important in country music.

The song I think best reflects the role my family played in developing my taste in country music is “It’s Five O’clock Somewhere” by Alan Jackson featuring Jimmy Buffett. And no, not for its literal meaning, but rather for the way it makes you feel like you don’t have a care in the world. When I hear the hints of island sound, it reminds me of the breeze blowing through my hair as I listened to Jimmy Buffett in the car with my dad, and of course Buffett’s vocal cameo in the song only makes that memory stronger. I also appreciate how the lyrics create a sense of total relaxation. The line “The sun is hot and that old clock is moving slow, and so am I” makes the listener feel warm and stress-free as if they themselves were in margaritaville.

All around, Alan Jackson is an amazing artist and holds a special place in my love of country music. His classic sound has inspired me to listen to older country stars in a time when pop-country is pervasive throughout the genre, and he reminds me to always stay close to my roots. His was the first country concert I ever went to, and on top of it all it was one that I was able to attend with my dad. So I guess no matter how hard I might try to refute it, my parents do have some good taste.

2 Comments

Filed under Blog Post 1, Classic Country

by Stephanie Sebo | · 11:00 am

Young Country

Most people assume that being the youngest child of a family is synonymous with being a spoiled brat, but I think otherwise. Has anyone ever thought that maybe a child is a spoiled brat because their parents allow that? I, for one, am the youngest of four children and work for everything in life. For me, this is easily relatable to classic country music. Many songs like Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” express hardworking woman, without discriminating against age or what number child you are.

Sure, there will be spoiled brats that just so happen to be the youngest child, but that goes for all stereotypes.

There’s more to being the youngest than just getting people to see you for you. Some of the biggest issues of being the youngest child are “How will I get people to stop stereotyping me?” or “Will I ever be able to break out of the shadows of my older siblings?”

Frankly, I can’t help if my parents look at me as their “baby” because I am. I’ll admit that, but it doesn’t mean I had any control over the matter. As soon as people hear I’m the youngest of four kids, they automatically begin to assume I’m either a trouble maker (which in fact is my sister-number 3) or I get what I want. While “The Baby” by Blake Shelton tunes into the youngest child stereotype, it also does a great job of describing how my mother sees me.

The same concept could go for people who are only children or the middle child. No matter where you are in the pecking order, it seems like you have a stereotype. Truth be told, I did tattle when I was younger, but as far as I’m concerned everyone has at some point or another. It even seems like youngest children get the most grief from their older siblings when they get older about their past. However, I’ve always found comfort in country music growing up. No matter how much my siblings and I fought, when we turned on Garth Brooks or the Dixie Chicks, we put all matters aside.

Despite what others may think, I know many youngest children who actually end up baring the most responsibility of any of their siblings. Getting a job and paying for my own things came naturally to me, but when I’d treat myself to things, I still would get stereotypical thoughts that my parents paid for it. If there is one thing that country music has taught me, and that I’ve been able to relate to my situation, is that hard work won’t always go unnoticed. If I keep fighting against these stereotypes, people may see me for me, not as the youngest child.

Monthly Archives: September 2015

Avoiding the Black Train

Music to Helicopter Parents’ Ears

ATX: My Favorite Beach

Like Father Like Daughter

Young Country

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives