Thank God I'm a Country Boy

     Somebody shoot me now. I think I might be starting to like country music.

     How's that for an opener? Yeah, it's true. I haven't been much of a fan of country music for most of my life. I'm still not but that might be....... (shudders) changing. Need an explanation? Yeah, I thought so.
     So I think I need to explain my musical tastes a bit. I can appreciate the skills and talents of a country music band without liking their music. Most of the time, it's the topic or voice that irks me and turns me off interest-wise. I enjoy folk music and occasionally blue-grass. Lots of classic rock tends toward the country sound too (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Tom Petty, the Eagles). Basically what I'm saying is that my musical tastes are very situational. I won't pick up a Tim Mcgraw album and listen to it. But I might settle for a John Denver, Charlie Daniels, Kris Kristofferson or Pure Prairie League album.
     When I was growing up, I wasn't exposed to much variance in music. Hymns and worship songs at church and popular stuff on the radio. Later in highschool, my tastes started shifting towards classic rock. But I do distinctly remember when I visited my grandmother (mom's mom), she often played older country music. Even then, I didn't like it. And I think it's down to one specific thing; the singing style. The twanging drawl even while singing just wasn't something I enjoyed. Plus with the introduction of modern pop-country, there's even less to like. Kris Kristofferson is credited as saying "If it sounds country, man, that's what it is, a country song." Hence, "Shoot me now."
     But last night, I went to a country music concert. So what changed? Probably the fact that it was a Christian group from Texas. Michael Gott is a man from Texas who leads an international ministry organization. The group has an interest in Ukraine and the people here. They've been playing a series of concerts here since the 20th of April introducing Ukrainians to the sound of country music as well as the Gospel. That photo up at the beginning of the post is me with four of the band members.
     The Country Boys aren't a professional band. They don't tour regularly. From my research, they gathered together specifically for this tour of Ukraine. But you wouldn't be able to guess from the way they played. The production value of the concert was very high. I was disappointed that some of the songs were merely compilations or snippets of whole songs. They didn't play through the whole of Sweet Home Alabama or Take Me Home, Country Roads. Their rendition of three of Johnny Cash's most famous songs was good but it felt mashed together. They even played a few praise songs with a country flair. But what really resonated with the audience, I believe, was when they played the Ukrainian national anthem. You can see some of the show in the video below.

     So, what's the takeaway from all this? I'm not likely to get my own cowboy hat and boots any time soon. But I did have fun being at my first real concert in a while. I always appreciate well-played music and this was definitely it. Even if I didn't like everything about it, it was still a good choice to go there. Plus it got me out of the apartment for an evening and out seeing more of Kiev.
     And on a programming note: sorry to everyone who was expecting another cooking video today. I have to prepare my apartment for the youth group tomorrow. Since their normal meeting place is in use on Saturday, they asked to use my apartment. I'll be gone all day tomorrow, and thus I need to clean it now and get things ready. Plus, I need to pack my camera equipment for the trip and make sure everything is ready. And a third plus, I'll be having dinner at the Eide's house tonight as well. So that doesn't leave much time for instructional cooking videos. You can look on Youtube for those if you're jonesing for a fix like that. Have a good Friday and I'll talk to you again soon.