We're Country, y'all

I went through a country music phase when I was younger, I think about 7/8/9th grades or so. I never got into the whole "kicker" look with boots or Wranglers or anything, but I got into country music. I became a big fan of Garth and Reba, Alan Jackson and Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney before he decided to become the next Jimmy Buffet. Sure, sometimes the songs were extremely depressing, but country also seemed to have the most beautiful love ballads. It is the only music genre that brings a tear to my eye and a lump to my throat on a fairly regular basis while listening to it. And the lyrics tended to be simple and clearly sung so that words were easily understood, and after just a few listens you'd be able to sing along making it great car music.

I later moved away from listening to country music much, other than when out two-stepping at Midnight Rodeo. However I tend to gravitate back to it on these trips back home to Texas. I don't know if it's just the local radio stations, but it seems whenever I turn one on about 50% of the songs are ones that I remember from my country music days. And, since the lyrics were simple to begin with, I'm still able to sing along to The Dance or Don't Take the Girl when they come on.

And so while I think I might only own 1 or 2 country CDs at the moment, and I listen to them almost never, there's this comfortable, warm fuzzy feeling I get from listening to the country music stations when we come here. It kinda feels like home.