Like Mother, Like Daughter

By Katerina Biancardi, March 1/27/15

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_On_Over_(Shania_Twain_album)

The first CD I have memory of listening to was Shania Twain’s “Come on Over” album at age four. I sang my heart out and danced around to “Man! I feel like a Woman!” and “Honey I’m Home” in my red cowgirl boots. I made the living room my stage, and all my stuff animals, Barbie dolls, and parents were my audience. In my little girl mind I was a country star performer just like Shania Twain.

That Shania Twain CD I was so convinced was “mine” was actually my mother’s. 

My mother is from Gause, Texas. A small town a little over 35 miles northwest outside of College Station, and a population of about 400 people.

Growing up in small Texas town, my mother always told me listening to country music was a normal part of their lives. Eventually, my mother got out of Texas, but carried her deep Texas country roots wherever she went. She found herself with a job as the head women’s soccer coach Boston College. There, she met the assistant men’s basketball coach, Paul Biancardi, a city boy, born and raised (not exactly a country music kind of guy). One can finish the rest of the story; they fell in love and got married, and had me.

Although my dad was not a country music lover, he admired my mother’s deep Texas roots, and once he saw me as a little girl singing to Shania Twain he began to appreciate it. I remember in 2003 when the halftime of Super Bowl XXXVII was about to come on, he called all of us frantically to make sure we saw Shania Twain perform.

My immediate family, a community I have belonged to since birth, has influenced and shaped my love for country music. While Shania Twain, The Dixie Chicks, Faith Hill, and the other country music women of the 90s played in my immediate’s family home more often than not, what really helped increase my love for country music was going to my mother’s home town Gause, Texas to visit my extended family.

During this time in Gause, Texas, we would go to rodeos and attend little country music concerts. Additionally, as my cousins became older and chose music as their career path, we’d have our own country jamboree right at my grandfather’s ranch. We would build a small dance floor, string lights around the trees, barbecue and make a bonfire. We’d invite nearby friends, but with at least 25 family members present it was already a party. My cousins played listening to George Straight and Johnny Cash, and we all sung and danced in our cowboy boots. My extended family is a second community that reinforced a positive feeling of country music. The two communities, my immediate family and my extended family, go hand in hand to shaping my love for country music.

If it were not for my mother’s strong Texas roots, I would never have developed a love for country music. As I grew older my immediate family and I moved all around the country. Therefore, I was able to see how various geographical areas have different music tastes. Nevertheless, my mother’s consistent love for country music, and the memories of spending time listening to country music with my extended family made country music always an easy choice to listen to.

Side note: There’s one more person I have to highlight once more. While country music was not my father’s particularly favorite genre, when Shania Twain came back on tour this past year, he purchased tickets for me before I had to ask. As my father does also remember when I was a little girl dancing to Shania Twain in the living room. Attending Twain’s concert certainly made me feel like that little girl again, and reminded me why I first loved country music.