‘What’s the worst genre of music and why is it country?’ my friend likes to joke. But I can’t tell you if it’s because my family’s background is in farming, but I love country music. Not the parts about getting heartbroken from a girl, the beer and truck, though sometimes I like singing about trucks and beer. No, I like the instruments that make me feel as if wind is making music, or I can somehow sense that peace that one feels sitting alone on the plain hills of grass, no civilization for miles. It’s the drum beats that are used in most country songs, the belting of lyrics by the singers with raspy voices at the top of their lungs. It all makes it seem as if country was meant to transcend you to a place where singing with a loud voice is perfect as in outside, alone. Its that intimacy, the middle classness of singers that totally gets me. They go through those hard times; they just make the best of it. That optimism and vulnerability together is quite rare in any other genre, I would argue. As Johny Cash said “Of emotions, of love, of breakup, of love and hate and death and dying, mama, apple pie, and the whole thing” They aren’t just lyrics that maybe apply to a few, the lyrics are life in all its happiness, its struggles, sorrow, death. What makes country different is the tight way country fans have held on to ensure the genre stays authentic. When Beyoncé won that Country album of the year, the boos were loud. Even non country fans understood why it seemed unfair that Beyoncé would come in do one country album and suddenly be perfect at it, as to beat legitimate country singers. You can do pop after you do country, you can do rap, but country requires the loyalty of the fans, the authenticity of you as a country boy or girl to truly make that career a success.
Like Dolly Parton says: “If you talk bad about country music, it’s like saying bad things about my momma. Them’s fighting’ words.” Country is a lifestyle, it’s a genre you pass on to your children, it’s not a phase. You either love country or you don’t there’s no in between. I too like some, used to think country is too simple, it’s only about girls, beer and truck. But once I started listening to the songs, I realized how much of life it encompasses in its lyrics, how many different variations the singers still bring to the genre. And how much it relates to my family’s life as farmers, those lyrics about dirt, and playing on the road, the horses, this was our life. Our folk music is very much like country music; it talks about life that everyone experiences. It became my anchor for when I felt that need for home, those sounds are so nostalgic, though I have no idea what life is like in rural Canada, only rural India. Those instruments are so similar to the ones used in Indian folk music, that I had no choice but to love country. Today, when life moves so fast, especially once you become an adult, country slows it down. It’s the same instruments, the same stability, you know what you are getting. Country invites us into a shared story. Its heartfelt, it doesn’t shy from the quiet or the messy; it captures what we don’t always say. It channels life into a song. And in a world that too often feels curated, perfectly executed, that unfiltered connection is something I’d argue no other genre delivers quite like country.
Manraaj grewal
manraajgrewal@gmail.com