Category: Nonfiction

I’m Reading Too Many Books At Once (hooray?)

My brain works in cycles these days. . I have an ever-growing list of books I want to read. It exists alongside an identically organized (that is, whatever order I thought of them) list of movies and TV shows I want to watch, and a highly dissimilar (that is, painstakingly curated) list of stories that … Continue reading I’m Reading Too Many Books At Once (hooray?) →

Country Music For People Who Hate Country Music Part 6: What are we doing? Oh, crime.

Yep, crime tales get their own segment. The murder ballad is a classic format, and the broader category of the crime song is as well. These are essentially musical crime fiction, with the unquestionably guilty as their protagonists. Johnny Cash had a lot to say about sympathy for the murderer, but he doesn’t appear in … Continue reading Country Music For People Who Hate Country Music Part 6: What are we doing? Oh, crime. →

Country Music For People Who Hate Country Music Part 5: Story Time!

This is another large section, and rightly so, because it constitutes what I would consider the real tasty bit of the article. This is the thing that I think I like most about this genre, its great strength as a set of tools. These are the songs that exist to tell a short story, beginning … Continue reading Country Music For People Who Hate Country Music Part 5: Story Time! →

Country Music For People Who Hate Country Music Part 4: Songs That Didn’t Have To Go This Hard But Did

We gave a little attention to the genre’s political origins back in the bluegrass section. Now we’re going to dive into that with more focus. The biggest subgenre you will find here is Fuck The Police, but it also dips into Be Better To Each Other and Fuck The Nazis (Woody Guthrie is back). The … Continue reading Country Music For People Who Hate Country Music Part 4: Songs That Didn’t Have To Go This Hard But Did →

Country Music For People Who Hate Country Music Part 3: Women Going Apeshitt (sic)

This segment was originally going to have a title related to utterly justified murder. However, right about then, Miranda Lambert stomped in, screaming “I am going to have a breakdown in public and NO ONE CAN STOP ME!” and I realized the rage ran a little deeper than mere murder. This is a return to … Continue reading Country Music For People Who Hate Country Music Part 3: Women Going Apeshitt (sic) →

Country Music For People Who Hate Country Music Part 2: The Original Sound

            For this segment we’re reaching into history here and there. I like a bluegrass sound now and then, and that takes us right to the root of country music. This is going to be a mix of the real old stuff, and songs that imitate the real old stuff. Country has a certain political … Continue reading Country Music For People Who Hate Country Music Part 2: The Original Sound →

Country Music For People Who Hate Country Music: Part 1

So, you hate country music. . No, okay, you know what? Valid. There is no getting around the fact that we are talking about a genre where a song called Honky Tonk Badonkadonk was deprived of #1 Hit status only because it had the bad luck to come out the same month as Jesus Take … Continue reading Country Music For People Who Hate Country Music: Part 1 →