{"id":4823,"date":"2015-05-09T08:00:27","date_gmt":"2015-05-09T13:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/?p=4823"},"modified":"2015-05-06T14:05:44","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T19:05:44","slug":"home-sweet-country-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/2015\/05\/09\/home-sweet-country-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Sweet Country Home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Listening to Brad Paisley\u2019s \u201cThis is Country Music\u201d gives anyone a great overview of what country music is to a lot of people and clues the clueless into the values that it speaks to. However, there\u2019s one line in the song that I think is majorly overlooked. In the second bridge, Paisley sings \u201cThis is real, this is your life in a song \/ Just like a road that takes you home \/ This is country music.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Brad Paisley &quot;This is Country Music&quot;\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7yBNa8MTSAA?start=10&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I hadn\u2019t thought about it much until I really started reading the lyrics, but that line characterizes the feeling I get when I listen to country. I think we all know it too\u2014the comfort of turning down familiar roads and all the memories that start to flash across your mind\u2019s eye. Your body moves almost as if on auto pilot because your mind is elsewhere. A pleasant, almost nostalgic feeling pervades my thoughts. It\u2019s comfortable. It\u2019s what I know.<\/p>\n<p>Country music has been the soundtrack to my entire life. From the time I was born, it was engrained in my brain that George Strait is the King and that Alan Jackson is his right hand man. In fact, Alan Jackson\u2019s \u201cLivin\u2019 on Love\u201d was probably the first song I knew word-for-word since we played it coming home from church every Sunday. It\u2019s like my family&#8217;s song, you know how boyfriends and girlfriends have \u201ctheir song\u201d or whatever, my family has one, too.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Alan Jackson - Livin&#039; On Love (Official Music Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DDXLmYyFu4I?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As I grew up, I learned that I could like things that weren\u2019t just what my dad listened to\u2014though raising me on the greats definitely influenced my taste. I became interested in different kinds of country especially female singers like Taylor Swift, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood and others. Admittedly, they\u2019re more pop country and it wasn\u2019t a real shock to anyone when Taylor Swift left the scene to explore new avenues and a larger audience.<\/p>\n<p>But something struck me about what she had to say at the CMA&#8217;s this year talking about when she left. She said that country music would always be her home and where she got her start. I think giving the genre that kind of recognition was important to fans everywhere because while we no longer lay claim to her as a community, we would welcome her back if she wanted to make a return. For me that speaks volumes about the community and sense of home country creates. Like Lynden\u2019s mom said, country music is one of the most forgiving communities\u2014from exploring new genres to problems in your private life, if you admit you\u2019re wrong country will welcome you home. (Start at 3:52)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iIDa-A8ZPH0\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iIDa-A8ZPH0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>So whether country means literal home to you or just mimics the feeling of home, I think the community as a whole is, as Mrs. Orr said, like a family. We\u2019re all connected by the common ideals that country promotes and a cohesive fan base that will support you no matter what which is something a lot of genres don\u2019t have.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s your country story? Are there any songs or moments in country music that define your life? Do you agree that country music is like a home? Or do you think I\u2019m crazy? Let me know in the comments! (Except that last one, I don\u2019t need to know about that one).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listening to Brad Paisley\u2019s \u201cThis is Country Music\u201d gives anyone a great overview of what country music is to a lot of people and clues the clueless into the values that it speaks to. However, there\u2019s one line in the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/2015\/05\/09\/home-sweet-country-home\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflection","category-song-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823","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\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4823"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4840,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823\/revisions\/4840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}