by | March 4, 2016 · 7:00 am

I heard God Today

111652025For many people, upon hearing the phrase, “country music” the first idea that comes to their mind is one of the three: drinking, trucks, or heartbreak. Personally, one of the things that I have always loved about country music was the fact that faith and God was intertwined so heavily in the songs of multiple artists over the years. The list contains performers from Johnny Cash to Carrie Underwood to Randy Travis. The prominence of faith in country songs range from subtle hints to the most blatant lyrics one could listen to.

The fact that country music generated in the south (AKA The Bible Belt), a place known for deep religious roots, it isn’t hard to understand why there are a plethora of songs that tell listeners about God, the concept of heaven, or miracles being done. I love how the genre has artists that sing about the values that they hold dear to them, despite some backlash from critics.

The prime example of this is Carrie Underwood. Underwood had recorded the song, “Something in the Water,” that tells the story of her being baptized and how it changed her life, with lyrics such as: “So I followed that preacher man down to the river/ and now I’m changed/ and now I’m stronger.” Despite criticism from her atheist fans Carrie was quoted expressing to Glamour magazine, “I’m not the first person to sing about God, Jesus or faith [or] any of that, and I won’t be the last. And it won’t be the last for me, either. If you don’t like it, change the channel.” I admire her strong stance for her faith and the fact that she isn’t going to waiver because some people may not like it.

Despite the fact that religion and Christianity is a controversial topic that usually isn’t heard in other genres Brad Paisley said it best when he sang, “And tellin’ folks Jesus is the answer can rub ’em wrong… But this is country music and we do!” My love for country music will never change because this is the only field of music that sings about concepts of value and ones that are important to me.

I have compiled a list of my Top 3 Favorite Faith Filled songs and why they mean so much to me…

1). I believe by Brooks and Dunn

I love the story in these lyrics because it tells of times when people go through hard times of loss and the only way to find the strength to get through it is by reading the Bible, praying, and understanding there is more after this life ends.

2). Three wooden crosses by Randy Travis

This song makes me tear up every time I listen to it because it tells a story of how we should love every person, no matter his or her walk of life, because every person is important. The song is from the point of view of a preacher who is telling a story of a horrible car accident, where a preacher, teacher, farmer, and a hooker. The preacher gave the hooker his “blood stained bible,” as she was the only one to survive. The hooker ends up being the mother of the narrator (the other preacher), who changes her life due to the bible she received that night.

3.) Jesus Take the Wheel by Carrie Underwood

This song resonates with me so much due to the fact that I have had to tell Jesus multiple times “take the wheel!” When life gets hard or unbearable at times, I know I can’t get through it myself and I need help from Him to guide me the direction I need to go.

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by | March 3, 2016 · 7:00 am

Prom With A Country Twist?

I went to high school at The Bolles School which was a boarding/day student preparatory school in the beautiful city of Jacksonville, Florida. It was a pretty conservative school with a very ethnically diverse population. Kids from all over the world (Spain, China, Greece etc) went there as it excelled not only in sports, but also in the classroom.

Anyway, moving forward to my senior year of prom… I’m not sure what prom is like in other schools but I’m sure it’s all the same. We dressed up in fancy tuxedos, took pictures at a location, and then hopped into a limo that took us to the dance. There were poker and black jack tables, picture booths, the whole 9 yards. We had a “lock in” till 10pm for some security reasons so basically we’d dance around, eat, and have a great time. The last song was usually a slow song where you’d slow dance with your date (by slow dance I mean step back and forth while slowly turning around in a circle).

This was when “Wagon Wheel” by The Old Crow Medicine Show came on, and I must admit, was probably the first country song I actually fancied and took the effort to find out the name of it. Which brings me to share a little cool things about the song. When I first googled the song, the Darius Rucker version, which was released in 2013 popped up. In my humble opinion, I thought this version was a rip off. For starters, Rucker’s music video gets kinda weird half way through. He’s basically playing the guitar on a railroad (which makes sense), but then switches to him literally “thumbing” a ride to a bar in Tennessee to play in. In the bar, the bouncer tries to stop him from going in. From what I’ve gathered, the bouncer either stops him because he’s looking at this pretty white girl, or because he’s black. Either way, I find that part a little odd.

I find the original version and music video a lot more relatable and traditional. The music video portrays a more traditional and conservative setting, which helps bring out the “country” in it. The twang in Ketch Secor’s voice helps bring this song about a hitchhiker traveling from New England through Virginia trying to get to his lover in Raleigh, North Carolina to life whereas Rucker’s version lacks the persona and character needed.

While this song has reached platinum and gold certification in the U.S. and Canada respectively, it has been scrutinized by some. The song was written by Bob Dylan and later modified by Ketch Secor. In an article by the Nashville Scene, it claims Wagon Wheel was a by product of Dylan’s “Rock Me Mamma”- which was scrapped in the 70s. Secor picked up the song and tweaked the verses around the song’s chorus to make it a hit.

hqdefaultIn all honesty, I think Secor and his band should be praised for turning a scrap, kept alive only by bootleggers, into a one of the best country songs out there. This song also happened to be the band’s ticket into the Grand Ole Opry. So props to Secor and his band members for turning a broken record into a magical piece that will always hit home in my eyes.

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Filed under Blog Post 3, Dancing, Hall of Fame

by | March 2, 2016 · 7:00 am

Nacog-where?

It was the middle of the second semester of my freshman year at UT, and more importantly, only my sixth month living in Texas since I was two years old. I’d traded in my t-shirt and converse for a dress and boots on game days and started to pick up saying “y’all” instead of “you guys”, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into by going home with Ally Wild for the weekend. We had both somehow cheated the UT registration system and ended up with no Friday classes, and Ally had invited me to go back to Nacogdoches with her to see where she grew up.

579148_10151874185234242_983078365_nWe had only known each other for a few months, but my family knew her as my 5-foot-nothing, blonde hair teasing, pink lip gloss wearing friend who lived by the motto “the higher the hair, the closer to God”. My mom said “Well, you sure didn’t waste any time finding a friend who’s a real Texas girl!”, and thought it’d be fun for me to see a real small Texas town. We took off early Friday morning in her little white car with pink license plates that read “A <3 WILD”, and a few hours later we pulled up the dirt road to her house in Nac. Ally’s mom, Miss Tracey, was waiting for us at the door holding their yorkie, Lily.

Later that night, Ally took me out to Banita Creek Hall with her high school friends who now go to SFA. Surrounded by thick accents and teased hair, I walked into a dance hall where the live band was playing their hearts out, singing The Everclear Song by Roger Creager. Before I knew it, every boy had grabbed a girl and started dancing, spinning and dipping her around the room. Ally took my hand and started dancing me around just like everyone else, and all I could do was try to keep up – this was nothing like the high school reunion parties I had gotten used to after going back to Oregon for winter break.

Apparently, The Everclear Song was ‘the song’ of Ally and her friends’ high school years, and they all convinced the band to play it over and over again throughout the night until I’d learned the words myself. We danced and danced all night long, went back and did the same thing the following night, and by the end of night #2 I had (sort of) figured out how to dance and learned every word to their favorite song.

Truthfully, I’d never even heard of everclear before college. When Miss Tracey found this out, she decided to take it upon herself to convince both me and Ally that we’d never want to really find out what Roger Creager meant when he sang “Until I wake up and I’m face down in the hall, / Hey, I’m completely naked, for a reason I can’t recall.” She poured some in a glass and offered us each a sip, but luckily for us, we both started coughing from the smell and turned away.

Two years later, I’ve still yet to experience a single thing more country than that dance hall filled with teased hair and cowboy boots. Just in case I ever forget, Ally and her mom still love to play that song to remind me just how terrible everclear is, and how much I missed out on by growing up anywhere that wasn’t the great state of Texas.

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Filed under Blog Post 3, Live Music, Texas

by | March 1, 2016 · 7:00 am

Back to the Beginning

1917829_1199599942455_8288245_n (1)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.

IMG_5407Over 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!

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by | February 29, 2016 · 7:00 am

I’ve Got Friends In Low Places

Garth Brooks’ “Friends In Low Places” has been one of my favorite songs ever since I got into college. This song is one of best drinking anthems around. There aren’t many songs that people that don’t listen to country music know, but this seems to be one of them as a lot of bars that will play this some time throughout the night. And I swear, a majority of the place will start belting out this song no matter how good they are at singing or not. To add on to that, this just happens to be one of my favorite songs of Garth’s. One of things about this song that stuck out to me, is it brought me back to listen to some older music. Not too old but more of his music and George Strait’s too. The country they played is what true country music should sound like unlike today’s singers that like to add rappers to their song to make a remix. You also don’t see too many still wear the big cowboy hat like Garth and George. You could also see this as a love song. He talks about giving up on a girl after she left him. One of the big things about Garth Brooks, is that he has never wavered from country music. And that shows in the beginning line of the song, “Blame it on all my roots, I showed up in boots…”. That’s all you need to know about Garth in regards to if would ever leave country for another genre. It seems as if his girl was cheating on him and he’s taking ways to get over him. Like by confronting this guy at black tie affair. You could tell that he wanted to get back even and this guy didn’t want anything to do with him. Garth says he’s got friends that are in low places, so he has people who can do anything to help him get back. I believe there is also a little piece of this song about Austin, when he talks about going to the oasis, which happens to be a restaurant out on Lake Travis. Good chance that’s not what he’s talking about even I’ve always thought it was that.

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