Not So Much Nashville

So my goal was write a post everyday. Due to my hugely busy social life, however, I need to revise this to a post every weekday. Which still doesn't account for my absence for the past two business days. So, here comes three posts in a row. Being caught up just sits so much better with my neuroses.

I love country music. Many people find this unusual being that I'm from the Northeast. Actually, I'm from the Mid Atlantic, but no one besides everyone else from the Mid Atlantic seems to know what that means, so fine, I'm from the Northeast. In any case, it is true that I didn't grow up anywhere near tractors, trucks, honky tonks or red dirt roads, but love, family, and a penchant for drinking beer are certainly things to which I can relate. In addition, country music is really easy to sing along to. Most lyrics fairly repetitive, so even if you've never heard the song before you can certainly at least chime in during the chorus. And, while country music lyrics are sometimes just as inane, they are at least a little more wholesome than many Top 40 hits. I sound like my mother, but seriously, FLO RIDA- (We get it! Your name is also a state!) "Round up baby 'til the freaky show/ What happens to your body it's a private show"? I just couldn't say that out loud with a straight face and that's not even that racy.

   What I've been talking about is the mainstream Nashville country stuff, but since moving to Austin I've learned about some more local artists, for example, the Josh Abbott Band. His new album, Small Town Family Dream, was released at the end of April and I've been listening to it pretty consistently since. He's actually fairly bitter about the mainstream Nashville country stuff, particularly in "I'll Sing About Mine" when he says that " tractors ain't sexy (oooh burn, Kenny Chesney!)... and the radio's full of rich folk singing about places they've never seen." I happen to think Eric Church has some of the best lyrics in country music, but that's for another post. Anyway, my favorite song on the album, "Dallas Love," has nothing to do with that. Besides being a pretty sweet song, I like that he uses the word "love" in three different ways.

    Here's the first line of the song:

"Climbing through the clouds/ I'm so close now/ To feeling your touch/ I'm heading southwest to Dallas love."

So by "love" he means the love he has with this girl he's going to see, but might he also mean the airport- Dallas Love Field? I think so. And, I am sure I'm reading too much into this, but Dallas is also  headquarters to Southwest airlines. Maybe? All I'm saying is that southeast fits just as well and it's my blog and I'll overanalyze if I want to.

Next he says:

"Oh I can see the light/ Of your smile glowing in the night/ Such a beautiful sight/ And your hair falling down/ And the tender sight of Dallas love"

That's pretty obviously just referring to romantic love, but while you cannot literally see a smile glowing in night, you CAN see airport lights. That may also be a stretch, but just work with me.

And finally, he quotes the airline stewardess when he says,

"Sorry your flight was so rough/ We're ten minutes away from Dallas love."

He's ten minutes away the love of his life, or the plane is ten minutes away from the airport, or, maybe I'm stereotyping airplane stewardesses, but, if you add a comma after Dallas, that could also be a term of endearment. 

Even if you don't buy any of what I just said, it's a catchy song. Listen to it. And read on.