I HATE Country Music...

...but now for new reasons.

In the past few weeks, for some frightening reason I'm diggin' on Country music. COUNTRY music. C-O-U-N-T-R-Y music. You know... that stuff sung by guys in cowboy hats and cowboy boots and by gals who wear sequined cowboy hats and sequined cowboy boots.

Maybe I'm trying to subconciously reconnect with those Southern Roots I left behind when I came here from Tallahassee three years ago....

So. Did I mention the part where I'm liking COUNTRY music....?

OK. To appreciate why this frightening turn of taste is, well, frightenting, you need a bit of backround on me. Not much. Just a touch. A tiny bit. I promise it won't be much. Here it is:

I grew up in white-toast, suburban San Diego, CA.

'Nuff said, right?

Usually, that would pretty much cover it. Sure, country music exists in San Diego. However, it didn't hang out much where I lived.

Well, except for my brother, Mark. He dabbled in the Urban Country-Boy fad, doing dip, cowboy hats and boots, big belt buckles and Charlie Daniels music. Actually, now that I think about it, he wasn't "dabbling" in country. At that time Mark was a Fire Fighter with the US Forest Service. In my book, when a man earns a living facing down hundreds of acres of uncontrolled natural combustion, he can do whatever the hell he wants in his off-time -- and it's by-God NOT a fad! Sorry, Mark. I love you maaaaann.

So... back to my current obsession with this thing called Country Music...

In my youth, I left SD to serve in our Armed Forces. One thing led to another, which led to another and that to another thing. Because of all these things, I spent the bulk of my adult live in the South (Alabama, Texas and Florida).

Despite this, I successfully avoided a personal interest in Country Music. Sure, I was exposed. I lived in the South fercryinoutloud. And I tolerated it in my friends' cars (or trucks) just to be polite, though I grumbed about it and they often changed the station for me. I have nice friends.

I spurned CM as being vapid, emotionalistic and overly-dramatic. YAWN.... In the 70's and 80's Country put me to sleep. In the 90's, we had Shania, Faith and Martina. However, these gals were more Pop-ish than Country-ish -- at least the cross-over stuff I heard (and bought). Everything else seemed twangy -- the music and the voices.

Well, now we're in the New Millenium and Country Music has apparently evolved. Or perhaps my ears have evolved. No. It's not my ears. It's the music.

I was flipping stations on the radio in my car and landed on a Country station playing Shania. Now, I've always been a bit of Shania fan (I think Mutt Lang is the luckiest sot on the planet), so I stopped to give her a listen. The music became background noise and an hour later, I was still listening to that same Country station.

Scandalous!

I was surprised that it was still on. But I was even more surprized that I was actually enjoying it.

Very, very strange thing, that.

So, for the next few days, the car stayed on that station. And I like what I heard.

Then one night, there as an 80's retrospective. I hated it. I changed the station about 14.3 seconds into the first song. Ick. So, I'm thinking that country has evolved. I don't like 80's country. I do like 00's (how do we refer to this decade in short hand, anyway??) Country. Hmm.

Since that first night, I've returned to that station a couple of times and the radio stays there for a couple of days at a time. Then I go back to NPR or one of the local dance or pop stations, or whatever.

So, now I think I like Country Music.

But why is is that I also hate it?

Well, I have only a handful of Country Music CDs and I don't know the names of any of the current artists. So now I have to learn about a new genre of music, buy new CDs and rip them to my iPod. And I still haven't finished that for the 300 or so CDs I have that aren't Country Music.

Such is life....