Country Music

I was born in southern California and love country music. It may seem like a contradiction. I loved it way back in the late 60's to this very moment. When I was a wee lad, I listened to K-FOX on my little AM radio that my aunt and uncle gave me for Christmas. I remember loving the twangy guitar that always accompanied Buck Owens songs.

In my teens I was turned on to west coast country through listening to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. I loved the steel guitar so much (I believe it is like the Hammond organ of country music). My mom would tell me of the times she listened to the Opry growing up in Clarksville, TN and I would imagine visiting one day. I love Emmylou Harris. She put out a bluegrass record called Roses In the Snow where I heard Ricky Skaggs for the first time. Linda Ronstadt also pointed me in the right direction as her mid-70's records were full of hard-core, country songs.

I have never loved country for the fast licks and the fancy picking. I love it because its honest. I am mostly attracted to the traditional side. People like Ricky, Emmylou, Dwight Yoakam, Patty Loveless and Vince Gill. I like some new stuff but my heart is in the songs that came out of the "hollers", where the ache is always on the surface. Probably it's the harmonies that draw me to the music. I can see that all of the music I love has great harmonies.

Now that I live in greater Nashville, I am blessed to make my home in the most beautiful place on earth. Sorry, California, I am a Tennessean now. Really, I am only one generation removed from a deep connection to middle Tennessee on both sides of my family for hundreds of years. That little AM radio dusted it all off. It must have awakened in me an interest to discover my southern roots. Still, I'm smitten with the twang, the harmonies and the ache.