You Can Take the Girl Out of the Country...

…but you can’t take the country out of the girl. I don’t know how long ago it was—maybe 2 or 3 years ago—I was scanning through radio channels when I came upon a song that made me put a permanent halt on the scanner. It was The Dixie Chicks belting out "Long Time Gone"—a song about a small-town girl who goes to the city to be a star, only to find that she prefers the country life. I had heard of The Dixie Chicks but I’d never heard any of their songs, and this chance encounter was quite a revelation to me. I was raised on Oldies and Classic Rock and spent my high school years (and beyond) listening to ‘80s pop, but I had always turned my nose up at country music. I remember making faces at my dad’s Garth Brooks’ CDs—now I own 5.

After hearing “Long Time Gone,” I found myself often turning back to KZLA to try and catch it again. Eventually I just stopped changing the channel all together. Despite my initial skepticism, it seems country music is well-suited to my current disposition. For one thing, today’s country sounds similar to pop music, so it’s not as big a stretch for me as it might have been 15 years ago, especially with artists such as Keith Urban, Shania Twain, Tim McGraw, and Phil Vassar. Country music is keeping a steady pace in record sales alongside rock music, and in the last couple of years there have been an increasing amount of rock stars putting in some country time. Kid Rock(!) is putting more country on his albums, and he’s appeared at the last 2 KZLA Country Music Bashes. On his latest CD Jimmy Buffett has duets with Clint Black, Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, George Strait, and Martina McBride. Tim McGraw is featured on the song "Over and Over" by R&B artist Nelly. Big & Rich and the Muzik Mafia perform an electic and energizing blend of rock, rap, and country. And what rock star hasn’t done a duet with Willie Nelson? (A few of the ones who have: Keith Richards, Rob Thomas and Matchbox 20, Sheryl Crow, Jon Bon Jovi, Al Green, and Jerry Lee Lewis.)

The other aspect of country music that I find even more appealing is it’s predilection to focus on a simpler way of life. I wouldn’t say it precipitated my move to Colorado (I’d been thinking about that for about 15 years), but it did seem to make the need to leave more earnest and pressing. It made me homesick for a pace and appreciation of life that isn’t manic, or filled with millions of cars and strangers and mechanical noises and pollutants and view-obstructing buildings. I know that life in Colorado will not be as pristine as my childhood, but it’s closer to it than L.A. is. Country music—most especially The Dixie Chicks and Tim McGraw—echo my desires for a better, less capitalist-driven, more fulfilling way of life. The music both takes me back and inspires me to move forward.