Garth Brooks

Garth Brooks is a Gateway Drug

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Neither Prairie nor I are big fans of country, but we both listen to a little bit. Last night I’d popped on a compilation I made a few years ago as background music while I was cleaning house, and still had it going when Prairie came home. It turned out that she knew every song on the CD as well, and we had fun listening to some of the songs and chatting about what got us started listening to country.

In my case, while dad had some small part in it (he’s not a big country listener either, but his LP collection is responsible for introducing me to Johnny Cash when I was a youngster), it can all be blamed attributed to some of my ex-girlfriends. They listened to some, I happened to be around, and I ended up discovering that there actually was some country music that I enjoyed listening to.

Prairie can also blame credit an ex for the songs that she found that she likes. In each case, though, one of the primary artists we found was Garth Brooks. I mentioned that I’d often noticed when talking to people that, if they had even a little bit of country in their collection, there was a pretty good chance that Garth would be in there somewhere, if not the sole representative.

Which led to the realization that Garth Brooks is a gateway drug.

So now you know, kids.

Don’t do Garth.

Herewith, then, is a selection of country music approved by me (and, in most cases, by Prairie, also). It’s pretty much entirely the fun, upbeat style of country…I just can’t get into the ballads.

  1. Toby Keith, How Do You Like Me Now?
  2. Jodee Messina, I’m Alright
  3. Garth Brooks, Two Piña Coladas
  4. Mary Chapin Carpenter, Down at the Twist and Shout
  5. Clay Walker, Then What?
  6. Dolly Parton, Why’d You Come In Here Lookin’ Like That?
  7. Clint Black, Only On Days That End In ‘Y’
  8. Reba McEntire, Fancy
  9. Joe Diffe, Third Rock From the Sun
  10. Shania Twain, Don’t Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)
  11. Tim McGraw, Something Like That
  12. Lee Ann Womack, I’ll Think of a Reason Later
  13. John Michael Montgomery, Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)
  14. Trisha Yearwood, She’s In Love With the Boy
  15. Brad Paisley, Me Neither
  16. Collin Raye, Little Red Rodeo
  17. Reba McEntire, The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia
  18. Rick Trevino, Bobby Ann Mason
  19. John Michael Montgomery, Life’s a Dance
  20. Trick Pony, Pour Me
  21. Rodney Crowell with Johnny Cash, I Walk the Line (Revisited)
  22. Dixie Chicks, Goodbye Earl

iTunes “I Walk the Line Revisited” by Crowell, Rodney with Cash, Johnny (2:43).

Another Music Meme: Cover Me

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Another music meme, this one being started by Terrance: Cover Me.

Here it is. Do these three things, either in the comments on this post or in a post on your own blog that trackbacks to this post.

This one’s not easy, especially given the size of my music library. I’ll try, though…

List your three favorite cover versions of previously recorded songs.

(This is by no means a “final” or “definitive” list. Trying to pin down just three of all the ones that kept popping into my head was difficult enough, and I know that there are tons that I didn’t think of. I’ll be coming up with more and kicking myself for the next week. I’m already coming up with more possibilities — there are a ton of good covers of the Rolling Stones’ ‘Sympathy for the Devil’, for instance, and I don’t think I’ve heard a bad version of The Temptations’ ‘Papa Was A Rolling Stone’, not to mention Tom Jones and the Art of Noise taking on Prince’s ‘Kiss’, or Sid Vicious ripping his way through ‘My Way’…argh!)

List three songs you’d like to hear cover versions of, and the artists you like to hear perform them.

  1. Ain’t Goin’ Down ’til the Sun Comes Up, originally by Garth Brooks, re-done by Ministry with Les Claypool of Primus on vocals

I know we’re supposed to come up with three here, but this particular dream has been in my head for so long that it’s the only one I ever seem to come up with. Take a fun fast country song, re-do it with Ministry’s trademark high-speed distortion-heavy guitar work, and throw Les doing his best country bumpkin patter over the top of it. I’d pay good money for this to become a reality.

List three songs you would like to cover, if you could. (Assume you would have the musical abilities to do it well.)

  1. The Pet Shop Boys, It’s a Sin: One of my all-time favorite 80’s tracks, and at times, one that has seemed all too fitting in my life.
  2. Indigo Swing, How Lucky Can One Guy Be?: Great swing, and this is one of my favorite tracks off of an album that I have a hard time picking single favorites from.
  3. Queen, Dreamer’s Ball: Queen just kicking back and having fun with a silly little ditty. The live acoustic version of this is particularly good.

(Again, hardly a definitive list. One of these days I’ll actually get suckered into Karaoke, and then we’ll see what I can actually come up with…)

iTunes “Stagger” by Underworld from the album Second Toughest in the Infants (1996, 7:37).