So...country music...who knew?

My mum’s second favourite artist is the King of the Cowboy ballad, Don Williams.

The only guy who comes ahead of him is this awesome greek dude.

look at all that glorious facial hair...

I remember her getting quite upset on realizing that my uncle (her younger brother) had gone back to Uni with her Don Williams tapes. “Surely, why would anyone do that??!!” she said in vexation, as she ransacked his mostly empty wardrobe. She never got them back. Poor Mummy.

For most people in this country, there is nothing at all  foreign about country music, and if you think about it, that’s a little weird. This morning, matatu FM played two Kenny Rogers hits back to back and I remembered seeing this (slightly uncomfortable) video of Jimmy Kimmel talking to Kenny Rogers about his popularity here. Does anyone actually know why country music is a staple in Kenya? My theory is that it was brought by all those American, mid-western evangelists who came in the 80s and 90s, but that sounds weak. Do you guys know? Does anyone know?

I thought about it a little more and realized that it's that not crazy that it's quite popular, cause as a genre, country music is actually, quite fantastic. Almost always beautifully arranged with lovely, emotive melodies and really well-written stories, it has some of the most sonically pleasing songs I have ever heard.  Then I remembered that I had even  found one I really liked last week.

Is that grass in her mouth? 

“Merry go round” by Kacey Musgraves is a poignant, brutally-honest, sad and sorta-funny look on the prescribed way of life for a woman in the American south. It's really, quite beautiful.

I think women from everywhere can relate to it because we are all expected to fit a certain mold and we often get caught up in the trappings of trying to fulfill these set roles. In the end most of us live lives that are not actually our own.

The writing in this song is just A+++. I mean, just amazing.

Cause mama's hooked on Mary Kay.

Brother's hooked on Mary Jane.

Daddy's hooked on Mary two doors down.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary.

We get bored, so, we get married.

Just like dust, we settle in this town.

On this broken merry go 'round and 'round and 'round we go

Where it stops nobody knows and it ain't slowin' down.

This merry go 'round.

Got a grammy by the way.

I think, if there are more songs like this, perhaps we need a little country revival in these parts? It’s certainly a welcome change from the mostly vapid stuff we listen to anyway. Maybe? Yes? Let me know.

K.