I WAS COUNTRY WHEN COUNTRY WASN'T COOL

I am a child of the 80's. And I do love 80's music. However, the type of 80's music that I love is not what one considers traditional "80's music". I love 80's COUNTRY music. Growing up in East Tennessee, I grew up listening to WIVK in Knoxville. DJs Claude Tomlinson, Bob Thomas and Ed Brantley kept me company. The cool country sounds of Ronnie Milsap, George Straight, Alabama, Barbara Mandrell, Conway Twitty, Kenny Rogers, Ricky Skaggs, just to name a few, were staples in my life. I can still vividly recall the day we got The Nashville Network on Cable, as it was a highlight of my young life. I lived to watch the comedy show "I-40 Paradise", which was set in a community only a few miles away from the little town where I lived, and a couple of the shows on the network even filmed their opening credits in my hometown, using our main street downtown as their backdrop, and our huge vintage theatre (now replaced by a drug store) in its opening. That was exciting to me. I was a huge fan of "Nashville Now", a nightly country talk/variety show hosted by Ralph Emery. My 13th Birthday was spent in Nashville, complete with a tour of The Country Music Hall of Fame, a tour of the Ryman Auditorium—and I even got to see the Grand Ole Opry in person!

Here's my confession: While my peers (and even my own mother) were listening to 80s Rock, It was country music for me. Like Barbara Mandrell, I was country when country wasn't cool. When my peers today wax poetic about 80s music—or even when there are songs on the radio from the 80s—I can't relate. They mean nothing to me...but put on some Ronnie Milsap...and that gets my attention. Today, Country music is one of, if not THE most popular genres of music. So, I was a head of my time. Today, however, I have a more ecclectic ear for music, changing my listening preferences when the feeling strikes. Sometimes it's classical, contemporary christian, pop, alternative and certainly country. Something happened in the mid-90s where many of these genres blurred lines and meshed together. I think that's a good thing. But, it's still the memories of 80's country that takes me back to a much less complicated time.