Side-pullers...

[partly]

I love country music. It's the music I grew up with and it's the music that speaks to me the most. Now, that's not to say I don't like other kinds of music, because I do. I'll listen to everything from classical to speed metal. But it's country music that I always go to when I need a pick me up or a bit of comfort.

Now, there's a certain category of country music that my dad calls "side-pullers", and it's a category of song that are unique to country music. A side-pullers is a song that is so sad or that speaks to you so clearly that you have to pull off the side of the road.

There are quite a few side-pullers out there and there seems to be a spate of new ones that are popular right now.

Alan Jackson's "Monday Morning Church" is about a man who lost his wife and his faith. My favorite lines in it:

'Cause I can't seem to talk to God without yelling anymore

It used to be so full of faith and now it only hurts
And I can heart the devil whisper
"Things are only getting worse"

I've heard the devil whisper that, and always when there seems to be no way out and everyone else doesn't see a thing wrong.

Rascal Flatts' "Skin (Sarabeth)" is about a girl who has leukemia. The lines that always get me are:

Six chances in ten it won't come back again
With the therapy were gonna try
It's just been approved
It's the strongest there is
I think we caught it in time

Six in ten is just over half and I can't imagine having to sit there and hear my child sentenced to those odds. To have that lead ball of fear 24-7... The song never says what happens to Sarabeth, but it ends with the line:

For a moment she isn't scared...

Which has to count for something.

Kenny Chesney's "Who You'd Be Today" is about the death of a child. It goes:

Sunny days seem to hurt the most
Wear the pain like a heavy coat
I feel you everywhere I go
See your smile, I see your face
I hear you laughing in the rain

"Wear the pain like a heavy coat" -- I love that line.

Montgomery Gentry's "Something To Be Proud Of" is a song about the simple, average life that most people live.

"That's something to be proud of
That's a life you can hang your hat on
That's a chins held high as the tears fall down
Gut sucked in, chest stuck out
Like a small town flag a-flyin
Or a newborn baby cryin
In the arms of the woman that you love
That's something to be proud of"

Life isn't about the big moments. It's not the parties or celebrations or deaths or milestones. It's about the living itself. It's the living everyday--good or bad--the best you can. It doesn't matter if you're wearing a coat of sorrow or a cloak of pride. It's the getting up and breathing in and out, the doing your job, the sitting in the quiet and facing who you really are.

Or at least that's how it seems to me tonight, when I've been listening to too much country music.

Comments

[alliesings.livejournal.com]

There are some of these songs that fill my eyes with tears so much that I either have to pull over or turn the radio off for a minute to regain my composure.

When I first got pregnant, I used to love "She's Somebody's Hero", (I cried then, but blamed the hormones) but since I've lost the baby, I can't hear that or "Something to be Proud Of" without tearing up because of that line.

Whenever I hear one of the songs like "Letters from Home" and "I'm a Soldier's Wife," I get teary, and I can't help but be thankful for what I have and for the people who are away from their loved ones. That's what I love about country music. It's not afraid to speak to the heart.