"What do you mean you don't listen to country music?!"

 "What do you you mean you don't listen to country music?! Your life could be a country song!"

... I get this response a lot from people when they bring up some newer song or artist that I've never heard of. Truth be told, I do listen to country here and there, but it's either older or non-mainstream. Not to be trendy, but the crap they play nowadays is just that, crap. Whilst riding in a pickup with a group of people the other day listening to the radio, I happened to pick up on some lyrics;

Me: "Did he just say 'Truck You'?"
Them: "Yeah, that's Tim McGraw"
Me: "And this is why I don't listen to country music."

  I grew up with Mom rocking out to country in the house and in the car, so yes, I do know mostly every lyric from 70's, 80's and 90's country. I like the majority of that and listened to country until I moved to college where I will say that I "found real, good music".

 My first dorm roommate, Elyse, would jam out to bands that I had never heard of and eventually I went into a head spinning love/downloading fit of Punk/Emo/Metal/Acoustic and back to my Northwest roots of Alternative. Somewhere around 2004 I found Flogging Molly and my life was therefor changed forever. Bagpipes + electric fiddle + punk + great lyrics about drinking among other things?! I was in. Now, I forever have to explain myself when I say I listen to "Celtic Punk".

 I found The Tossers and have a great respect for them, there's not much that they put out that I don't immediately love. They go from dark, brooding songs based on Irish history and the Irish immigration to the States to those that may have on occasion had me drinking whisky until the sun came up and attempting to destroy things. It'll happen to the best of us if the weather is favorable. Trust me. This is one of my favorites:

So while yes, I do listen to country... it's just a different breed of country. I just can't handle it. I would honestly rather set myself on fire then listen to 98% of the new stuff that they play on the radio. Hank III and a little gem from Kentucky named Chris Knight are the only two country musicians that I actively follow. Not trying to be a music snob, but it just ain't my thang. Remember ya'll, "I was country, before country was cool".