A Little Bit of Country...A Little Bit of Rock n' Roll

Last August I got an email for free tickets to see a concert at Boston Harbor. I didn't care who it was. Free tickets! Boston Harbor! Clam Chowder! All I knew was that the singer was John Prine. Who? John Prine. Who's that? Yup, that's exactly what I thought. Who IS that? It didn't matter. Did I mention that the tickets were FREE?

After I got a confirmation that I had tickets, I drove from Providence to Boston for what I presumed would be an AWESOME concert. Well, I soon found out that John Prine = Country Music. What!!?? I'm definitely more like Donny Osmond for my music taste than Marie. Country? Really? I don't even like Taylor Swift because she's quasi-country.

Then it hit me as I sat in the semi-darkness under the huge tent that this music is important to all these people around me who were humming along. They knew all the words and there was a hush when a certain song about angels was sung. I began to make an effort to really listen to the words and observed how people responded to their power to bring laughter and even tears.

I also realized that as much as I talk about and believe in diversity, I had my limitations due to my own taste and what I am used to due to my cultural upbringing and context. Bottom line I'm an 80's throwback with plenty of disco on the side.

And yet...what does it mean for me to enter into the world of country music and learn to appreciate it to the measure that it mattered to other people in meaningful ways? In time I may surprise myself, learn to like it and value a music genre that someday I may own for myself.

Maybe a Dancing Queen can actually become a Rhinestone Cowboy....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVZmSEpuJtg

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