Back to the Beginning

Although country music is a big part of my life now, I wasn’t always the big fan that I am today. When I was growing up, neither of my parents liked country music. My Mom was raised in Texas, but found the genre to be rather irritating and my Dad is from Israel so he had no concept of this type of music. The people who really introduced me to the genre and sparked my love of country music are my maternal grandparents. Although they lived in Massachusetts for most of their lives, they still loved listening to artists like Johnny Cash, George Strait and Alan Jackson. I remember my first encounter with the king of country music, George Strait, when I was about 8 years old. I was in the back seat of my Nana’s car with my little brother Micah. Nana always played the album George Strait: Live from the Astrodome anywhere we drove. Even though I didn’t know any of the words to the songs at the time, I wanted to trick my brother into thinking I did; so I pretended to sing along. Write This Down was actually the song playing when I decided I knew all the words and has became one of my favorite songs on the album. This led to Micah wanting to know the songs since his cool older sister knew all the words. My Nana heard us trying to sing along in the backseat and ended up giving us our own CD to take home.

That little prank I pulled on my brother is what led to our obsession with the country music genre. After listening to this album over and over we realized there are so many other incredible country music artists. That’s when country radio came into our lives. Not too long after finding country radio, I somehow knew all the words to all of the songs that would play. My family members would buy us all sorts of country music CDs for Hanukkah and birthdays. Soon our music library had an equal mixture of the Dixie Chicks, Rascal Flatts, Faith Hill, and Keith Urban to balance out the Shlomo Artzi, David Broza and Gidi Gov, three of the top Israeli recording artists.

Over the years, my Mom has admitted that she has been a fan of what she terms progressive country. She introduced us to Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson. That said, when Micah and I wanted to listen to Country music on the radio, my Mother would balk. She said it was twangy nonsense. Through my brother’s and my love of Country, my Mom has gained an appreciation. It may have taken a good 15 years, but she has come around. The other night my folks were in Austin to visit. We stopped for a drink at Cedar Street and listened to a local band called Encore. When they performed Little Big Town’s recording of Girl Crush, my Mom and I debated whether it was truly country. She said it is and I said it isn’t. She said it could be performed with a fiddle and a steel string guitar (even though it isn’t) and had the makings of a Country tune. When I think back to my childhood and how I had to beg for her to even put a country music station on the car radio, I know that the genre has won her over. We may disagree on Girl Crush, but we are both Country music fans!