BY PAUL KENT
FOR THE STAFFORD COUNTY SUN
Published: May 1, 2008

So I got an e-mail the other day from a lovely lady named Sue. I like getting e-mails, because it means somebody’s reading the column. All these early mornings staring at blinking cursors actually entertains someone enough to respond! Sue’s e-mail, in its entirety:

“I would love to hear ‘I’ll Walk’ by BUCKY COVINGTON!! He is such a charming guy...don’t you think?”

Two points to Sue and control of the board.

The best part about music, not just country music but every style, every artist, everything, is that at the end of the day, it’s art. Art is subjective; art is open to interpretation and most importantly, it doesn’t have to mean a darn thing to anyone but you.

Country music, like any other genre, has purists and snobs. Just as some folks will stop talking to you if you ask who Van Gogh or Picasso is, most of your friends and neighbors here in Thunderland expect you to know, much less like, the classics. Country music is our lives. We all have shared experiences through these songs; we party to them; we cry with them; we work and play and cook and clean and there they are, always ready, never judging, sometimes popping up at just the right time to capture your mood. If somebody doesn’t know these songs, that person doesn’t know you. If you don’t like the songs, it’s a personal attack. It’s an indictment of your character.

But at the same time, your taste is yours alone. Just because you have the basic pallet doesn’t mean you can’t branch out into spicier things, different things, goofier things. And just because there are billions of songs to be discovered doesn’t mean you have to find all of them, or even half. That’s the kind of madness that music geeks like me go after. Some folks - like my old roommate Fitz - collect baseball cards. Some folks — like myself and many of my friends — collect songs.

So if Sue enjoys Bucky Covington, good for her. If you’d rather hear the old classics like Loretta and Cash and Patsy and Hank, feel free. If you want to own albums that are essentially an hour of different tones of static and distortion, well, enjoy your deafness in your old age. Another basic part of country music is acceptance — as Charlie Daniels put it, “If you don’t like the way I’m livin’ /you just leave this long-haired country boy alone.” Do as ye will, folks.

That said, given the choice between Bucky Covington and Shooter Jennings, I’ll take Shooter every time. My muse is high energy, and I’ll follow it off a cliff.

Paul Kent hosts Thunder After Dark, 7 p.m. - midnight weekdays and the Saturday Night Special, Saturdays 7 p.m. - midnight on Thunder 104.5 Everything Country and More.