I never grew up listening to country. When you’re an Army brat, even though you live in the South, you might not be Southern.
But for some reason, I started listening to country in the early nineties, when my kids were in elementary school. I think the first one that got me was “Bubba Shot the Jukebox”, and I was laughing so hard that I almost put my car into the ditch alongside Neubert Springs Road.
Joe Diffie, Mark Chesnutt, Jo Dee Messina, Clint Black, Collin Raye, Kathy Mattea, Randy Travis, Junior Brown...
For a while there, country songs had a story to tell, and they were often pretty damn funny with it.
I’ve given up on country now. Americana stations keep me going.