{"id":3233,"date":"2015-02-09T08:00:53","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T14:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/?p=3233"},"modified":"2015-02-05T09:44:37","modified_gmt":"2015-02-05T15:44:37","slug":"country-can-be-anywhere-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/2015\/02\/09\/country-can-be-anywhere-2\/","title":{"rendered":"“Country” Can Be Anywhere"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_3684-3\"<\/a>It seems like almost everyone, including myself, proudly associates country music with the great state of Texas. Born and raised from a tiny little town in northeast Texas, I\u2019ve always associated myself with being \u201ccountry\u201d. My accent definitely doesn\u2019t hide where I\u2019m from either. And everyone knows that country music and country people always come from Texas, right? Wrong. I discovered that maybe country music and country people could be from any state.<\/p>\n

This past holiday break I got the chance to visit a friend who is from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She told me that she had gotten us tickets to see Garth Brooks live. I had heard the name before, but for some reason I just couldn\u2019t think of any of his songs. I soon discovered that Garth Brooks is actually from Tulsa. Like anyone would do, I googled his name to figure out if he was even that good (because, obviously, he\u2019s from Oklahoma not Texas). It turns out that he is the world\u2019s sixteenth best selling artist of all time. I was shocked. This guy must be worth seeing!<\/p>\n

When my friend and I arrived at the concert, it seemed like we were the only people under 50 in the whole place. But I didn\u2019t mind, because Garth\u2019s music was pretty catchy and I found myself having a lot of fun even if I didn\u2019t recognize a single song. The performance did include bright flashing lights and a few props, but nothing like a Miley Cyrus or Katy Perry concert might have. Simple is good, I thought, because it allows the performer to show their talent without huge distractions. I looked around at the audience and people were dancing and having the best time of their lives. My friend explained to me that Garth Brook actually retired a few years ago to spend more time with his family. He decided to start touring again, and his first priority was coming back to his hometown to perform.<\/p>\n

He did seven shows in a row in Tulsa, and we were attending his sixth. That requires a lot of energy and dedication! Okay, now this guy was really growing on me. It was then that I realized that \u201ccountry\u201d isn\u2019t just about being from Texas, wearing cowboy boots, and riding your horse with a Texas flag flying in the front yard. Country is about keeping things simple, and honoring your humble roots. Garth Brooks may be from Oklahoma, but that doesn\u2019t really make him any less authentic than any other country star. But don\u2019t get me wrong, if I had to choose between George Strait and Garth Brooks, I\u2019d choose the Texan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems like almost everyone, including myself, proudly associates country music with the great state of Texas. Born and raised from a tiny little town in northeast Texas, I\u2019ve always associated myself with being \u201ccountry\u201d. My accent definitely doesn\u2019t hide … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,12,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-music","category-new-country","category-new-traditionalism","category-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3233"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3248,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3233\/revisions\/3248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}