My kids make fun of me because I rarely listen to music while I drive. It is not that I don’t enjoy music; I have just found over the years that my driving skills require me to pay attention and my mind tends to drift when I listen to music. Typically, I find myself imagining the story that goes with the songs. I have some songs where I have conceived mini-movies about them, probably a result of growing up with real, video-playing Mtv. I do love listening to music when my husband drives, which honestly, he does most of the time.
My husband has the most versatile taste in music. When he makes a playlist for a trip, Crystal Gayle’s “Don’t it Make My Brown Eyes Blue” might come right before Usher’s “Yeah.” I must admit, I am more of a pop/jazz/rock fan, but John loves it all. Without him, I would have little exposure to country music.
I like country for the most part, but I rarely take the chance of listening to it on the radio because, frankly, so much of it is sad. I will proudly say that I have only listened to “He Stopped Loving Her Today” one time – that was enough. If it even starts to come on, I make John turn the station. However, even with the sad songs, what I do like about country music is that almost all of the songs tell a story.
Last night we braved the rain to see Brad Paisley and Chris Young. John has always wanted to see Brad Paisley in concert and I thought he’d love the tickets as a Father’s Day gift. We took some good friends with us and I have to say that I loved my first country concert. Brad Paisley is enormously entertaining! I loved his lighting and the videos playing behind him [again, a throwback to my Mtv days]. At one point he played on a mini stage at the back of the arena, which to me made him seem so genuine. The best part, I didn’t cry during any song! Now, he didn’t sing “Anything Like Me” or “Letter to Me” which both make me think of my son and bring on tears, but he did sing “Waiting on a Woman” during which my no-tears strategy was to watch the couple argue in front of me [I think they missed the point of the song]. He closed the concert with “Water,” which is a fabulous song, and closed his encore with one of the funniest songs of all time, “Alcohol.” Trust me, for a lot of the concert goers, that one was what they had waited on all night! Brad Paisley’s music is witty and clever, and he is a marvelous entertainer. I hope to get to see him in concert again one day!