This is country music.

“So turn it on, turn it up, and sing along

This is real, this is your life in a song

Just like a road that takes you home

Yeah this is right where you belong

This is country music”

Whereas I know how it happened, I still can’t believe it did. It was about 25 years ago, I was in a Yellow Cab in Chicago, and I heard Randy Travis on the radio. I had no idea who he was, nor did I care at that moment to learn. I did ask the driver, “What station is this?” My tone was pretty even, and he said, “Oh that’s US99.” I thought, “that figures, it’s the only country station in Chicago.”

I got out of the cab a few minutes later and didn’t think much about it.

A couple of days later, different cab, there it is again, US99 and country music. It was kind of a cool tune this time—so I listened for it to end and heard the name, “Mary Chapin Carpenter.”  Her voice was not twangy, and her words were quite good. Really this was country music?

I took the bait.

That night, of what I recall, I was driving home and turned on US99 for the first time. This is well before satellite radio, CD’s were a treasured item (much better than cassettes) and there certainly was no country of anything in the car--except the radio. I have often described country music like scotch whiskey. It’s an "acquired taste." You take a sip, think about it, look at it, still not sure, and then take another sip..and so on. By the way, whiskey and beer are big topics on country radio—you probably knew that.

It was not long until I bought my first country CD. It was Mary Chapin Carpenter, the artist I had heard in the cab that day. Suddenly more CD’s were ending up in my car  and finally, I actually went to a concert. A new artist named Toby Keith was playing at a local fair near where we lived. Yes, you read that right. He had just launched his first album and there he was playing in front of probably at least 700 people. If you know of him, you’re aware he has since sold millions of albums since.

During the past 25 years I have sold advertising for Country Weekly magazine, met several artists, and today country music fills my iPod. You see, country music is now part of who I am and if you read, “Snap. Shot.” on any type of regular basis, you will find many of the lyrics are country songs. 

The photo above was taken one night driving down a busy road where we live. The truck, the dog, and yes, country music was flowing out into the night. It was the perfect setting to travel down the road of memories of another day and take a good sip of country music.

Thanks for stopping by.