I'm a little bit Country

I should probably start off by acknowledging my daughter Kendall and Taylor Swift as chief contributers to me writing this post. For without the two of them I wouldn't be singing at the top of my lungs everywhere, thinking that I should have learned to play the guitar and would be better off living in the middle of the country on a giant cattle farm raising cowboys.

My listening repertoire never ever included country. I can fully admit that I used to mock those that wrote a song about everything from their dog Buster to their grandfather who sits on a rocking chair on a rickety porch in Louisiana. I felt they all sounded the same. They all had the same rhythm and the same lines about a no good mister who's granpappy warned her about.

Then I had a daughter. A daughter who believes in fairy tales and princes and that girls can do anything; like play a guitar and write some really awesome songs if she wants to. Taylor Swift quickly became her 'thing.' She still is her 'thing.' I know every last one of her songs since I am privilege to her concert performances daily, reenacted by her number one fan. No lie, this chick has the concert dvd and has got every quirky expression that Taylor makes down to a science.

I couldn't deny it. She was catchy. Quickly there I was singing, 'someday I'll be livin in a big old city...,' like I could actually carry a tune. I was left like, 'hmmm....if shes good and I like her, there must be others.

I had to be completely honest with myself after having children who like music and singing and dancing. The Beastie Boys do not write nursery rhymes. It's a shocker, I know.  However, I have also previously mentioned that I have been known on occasion, to maybe while rocking a baby for hours and having run dry of sweet little lullabies, to I don't know, possibly start singing 'Brass Monkey,' softly and slowly. Then though, your children start to grow and start to learn things, and memorize things, and mimic, something like developmental stages, blah, blah, blah. And well the music that perhaps I liked probably wasn't something I really wanted them belting out in the grocery store or at a family dinner, or while playing with friends. Could you imagine?

Kendall: Hey let's make our barbies sing our favorite song
Friend: Ok
Kendall: 'Coolin' by the lockers getting kind of funky
Me and the crew - we're drinking Brass Monkey'

Yeah, I'm thinking, not so much.

However, there is only so much Laurie Berkner a person can mentally take. I'm all for kids music really, I am. They are silly and the kids identify the characters singing.  But sometimes, I just need a little normalcy; not some 'skit a mir rinky dinky dink.' And Kids Bop. Please. Do not get me started. Children all singing in the same tone a song sung well by Katy Perry about being a California Girl. Then when they start changing lyrics to make them kid friendly and ok to sing, is actually almost enough enable you to willingly commit yourself. They sound like members of some weird kid cult chanting.

Taylor Swift was a compromise. But again, the same music over and over and over and over again, can get irritating on a good day.

So I allowed myself to explore country music for a week. I stuck to it. And what I found was that I liked it. Not everything. The overly country music is still a little too much for me to digest, like goin' out to shoot some ducks in the swamp and drink beer, uh, no thanks. But for the most part, it kind of stuck on me. And you know what? They really don't sing about inappropriate things. Did I just say that?

Yo. You guys. I am totally a mom now. I used the word, inappropriate.

So I sing right along with Lady Antebellum in my off key ugly way, and I don't mind a bit. And the lyrics, I really kind of like most of them. I am still a bit baffled by the entire thing myself.

There are some, I will admit, I listen to on my own, like say Miranda Lambert, but man she's a lady after my heart who sings my songs. I highly recommend her.

We have been listening to The Band Perry on our playlist for a bit and I don't mind at all when I hear:

Kendall: Hey, let's make our barbies sing our favorite song
Friend: Ok
Kendall:Would you walk to the edge of the ocean, Just to fill my jar with sand. Just in case I get the notion, To let it run through my hand...

Because Ken would totally do that for Barbie...as he should, as he should baby girl.

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