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I hate to be one of those stereotypical northerners that says stuff like “I like any music but country” (this statement obviously excludes outcast genres like techno and death metal, which nobody likes, except for people that still wear JNCOs). I don’t consider myself one of those kinds of northerners. I love Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash, and plenty of bands like The Allman Brothers, The Band, The Grateful Dead, and Lynyrd Skynyrd, which all had deep roots in southern music. I lived in VA for 5 years and I’ve been exposed to plenty of country music.
Ugh, now that I think about it, yeah, maybe I am one of those people. The only country music I like is Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash. Music is pretty much my life, but still I couldn’t name one Tim McGraw song. Or one Toby Keith song. And if you played me a Toby Keith song and a Tim McGraw song, I couldn’t tell you which was which. And also, I couldn’t think of the names of any country music stars to list as examples of country stars that I’m not familiar with, so I had to Google “country music stars”. That’s how I came up with the names Tim McGraw and Toby Keith. The only other one I know is John Rich, and that’s only because of that reality show where Donald Trump fires people. Yeah, I guess I’m a stereotypical northerner.
Today I was listening to NPR (all I listen to is Hot 97 and NPR), and I heard this song. When it started, the twangy guitars made my stomach muscles clench, like they do when you think you are about to experience some kind of physical pain. It might be a reaction that only northerners experience, I’m not sure. As the song went on, I started really getting into it. By the end, I was jotting down the lyrics so I could go home and Google them to find out who sings it. It’s Hayes Carrl. The song is called “Hard Out Here”. It’s from the album KMAG YOYO. You can get it on iTunes.
Listen below…
