Why I Am Taking a Break From Listening to Country Music

When I was younger, I pretty much listened to country music exclusively. Believe me, being the only country music fan in a high school pumped up on AC/DC or Guns N' Roses was not an easy row to hoe. One gets teased mercilessly when one shows up at school in a Judds t-shirt. Oddly enough, based on my social media feeds, many of the kids at school who completely rejected country music have openly embraced it as they have gotten older.

I still listen to country music. I have a ton of favourite country artists: Vince Gill, Sawyer Brown, T Graham Brown, Ronnie Milsap, Ricky Skaggs, George Strait, George Jones, Mickey Gilly, Johnny Lee, Alabama, Restless Heart...these and many, many more made up the soundtrack to my young life.

For as long as I can remember, music has been extremely important to me. I love it - always have, always will. Over the years I have branched off to enjoy other genres, many of them hard and heavy. But, at the core of my music collection is still a lot of country music. It's been my go-to music, my comfort music, my reliable old friend. There are so many songs that I know off by heart and have listened to thousands of times over the years.

But, then, a few years ago, my marriage ended. I wrote about it, put it out there for the public to read, for better or worse.

That's when a lot of the country music that I have listened to really started to hit home. Man, some of those country songs are really quite depressing. When I started to re-listen in post-break-up life, they really brought me down.

Songs about losing love at a time when I was actually losing love was a bit much to take! Okay, you want an example? Well, let's take a look at the lyrics of the "When I Call Your Name" by Vince Gill.

I rushed home from work like I always do , I spent my whole day just thinking of you .

When I walked through the front door my whole life was changed , 'Cause nobody answered when I called your name .

A note on the table that told me goodbye, It said you'd grown weary of living a lie .

Your love has ended but mine still remains , but nobody answers when I call your name .

Oh the lonely sound of my voice calling , is driving me insane . And just like rain the tears keep falling , nobody answers when I call your name .

Son of a frickin' heck. Then you combine these lyrics with Vince Gill's voice that he can make absolutely drip with pain, a slow tempo, that haunting piano, and BOOM, you have a tear jerker! If I drank beer, there would be tears in it!

When I listened to that song in the past, I was blown away by the harmonies, the heart and soul of the song, and the style. That was before the heartbreak. Now, in my post-breakup life, this song rips the heart out! Ouch! It's like rubbing salt on a festering wound.

And this is just one example. But it's a good one. Or a bad one? I guess it depends how one looks at that.

Good lord. Still a terribly amazing song by a terribly talented musician, but, as an act of self preservation, listening to it is not a good idea at all!

So, ya. I have had to take a step back from a whole lot of the country music that I have enjoyed over the years. I haven't abandoned it. I haven't turned my back on it. But, until my heart is much more patched up, I might look for musical enjoyment in a few other places.

How is the EDM-Klezmer-Reggae scene these days? Anything good coming out of that?