I’ve lived in Texas for nine years and I don’t listen to Country music. In fact, I haven’t been a Country fan for a long time now. I recall classic country with fondness and wistfulness. I can see the little girl all those years ago in ratty shorts with my knees barely hitting the edge of the passenger seat of the pick-up, barreling down a Texan backroad singing along to Daddy’s 8-track tape of the Wabash Cannonball. 8-track! I’m not exaggerating, I swear!
Then I remember, in my college years, a nostalgic look back to countless hours in the car and on an Oregon beach listening to hits from Don Williams, Jim Reeves, Tom T. Hall, Patsy Cline, Kenny Rogers, and more. It’s grown into an extensive playlist merely dubbed Old Country. Old songs or old memories? A little of both.
Recently my sister convinced me to listen to Highway 16 on XM radio. Only to humor her, I set a favorite on my trusty Delphi SKYFi satellite radio and tuned in on the way home from the gym. That was three days ago. And as I type, I’m happily listening to a newly downloaded Brad Paisley album.
I turned up the radio so I could hear the lyrics to Ticks, a bubbly, tongue-in-cheek list of the many ways in which a man intends to admire his woman. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the cliche daydream of a snaggle-toothed redneck owning his woman! If your special guy gives you this list of excuses for checking you out, you’ll be a Jello in his capable hands. Okay, at least I would be. 
And there’s a special purr-worthy aspect for folks who have ever encountered ticks–unless you’ve had that encounter, you don’t truly know how thorough that search would have to be!
Then I heard Online, which is also dear to my heart because so much of it rings true in this day and age, and for a web geek like myself. The chorus of “I’m so much cooler online,” along with the references to sci-fi geekdom and Macs only ensures this song’s spot on my list of favorites.
Just those two songs were enough for me to preview the entire album on iTunes and subsequently purchase it. But it’s in listening to the entire album that I’m convinced I’m a new Paisley fan. The song Letter to Me stops me in my tracks. The song starts out with, “If I could write a letter to me/And send it back in time to myself at 17,” then offers wisdom to a young heart that only hindsight can offer. That makes me wonder… what would I write to myself in a letter to me at 17? At 22? At 32? Sometimes I sure could use the wisdom of my 42-year old self.
And all of these musings make me think I should keep a section of my journal dedicated to the songs that have given me such gifts of wonderment, humor, and healing. Goodness knows there have been plenty, and fingers crossed, many more to come.
Now go watch the video for Online–it’s a hoot and a holler! Then watch all the video responses to the Online video contest. More hooting and hollering, I promise.
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