Music and junk...

So, when it comes to music, I listen to a little bit of everything. Mostly pop/alternative, but with a fair amount of country (I am from Texas, after all) mixed in. Some barbershop quartets, some classical, some "indie" music. Not much rap, but I dig a lot of hip-hop.

I fucking love anything with Carlos Santana, because he's the only guitarist I've ever heard that can make a guitar talk. I know it's said about a lot of guitarists, but he's the only one that I can hear it.

What kills me about my taste in music lately is typified by the country band Lady Antebellum.

For a lot of years (heh, I originally typo'd that into "alot of years" and had a mental flash of a Hyperbole and a Half style alot with a long white beard and a clock) I've listened to very little country music. I grew up with Garth Brooks and Clint Black. Arron Tippin and Vince Gill. John Anderson and Tricia Yearwood. Doug Stone and Reba McEntire. Clay Walker and Rick Trevenio. In the mid-nineties, I moved away from country and more to pop/alternative music, because that's what all my friends were listening to, and to be honest, I was a musical sheep back then.

I didn't really listen to much country music for the next decade. I missed out on the heyday of Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood, Tracy Lawrence, the early work of Brad Paisley (for which I'm truly sorry, because he's a-freakin'-mazing),  and Blake Shelton.It wasn't until Keith Urban's 2006 release of "Love, Pain & The Whole Crazy Thing" that I bought another primarily country album of any kind.

From then on, I listened with slightly increased regularity to some country music, but didn't really pick it back up until Sugarland's "Baby Girl". I was driving off in the middle of nowhere for some reason late one night, and the song came on, and I was fascinated. I dove back in, and two of my car radio presets became my local country stations.

Now, to Lady Antebellum.

I kind of took pride in the fact (especially when I was in the Army) that I was from Texas, but my tastes in music didn't run towards country. The guys in country music (for the most part) were indistinguishable to me. I couldn't name them based solely on their voices to save my life. Even now, there are songs that I really like (such as Chris Cagle's "What Kinda Gone" that's playing on my Pandora even as I type this), but I can't tell you who sings it.

Then comes in Lady Antebellum (and to a very slightly lesser extent, the Zac Brown Band). I FUCKING LOVE THIS BAND! Every song they come out with, just hits all the right chords in the music part of my brain, and in the music part of my heart. I've become addicted to them.

Also, Kid Rock is fucking not country music.

That is all.