In my first 20 years of life you could not pay me to listen to country music. As big as a fan of music I’ve been, I wouldn’t sniff at a country tune. But change is inevitable, and over the past two or so years I’ve grown fond(er) of the country genre. This change of taste was through no choice of my own. Consider it forced listening. In which after enough time, I began recognizing songs and almost enjoying the deep steady voices preaching lost love and pickup trucks. All thanks to my buddy, Tyler.

I come from one of the most diverse areas I’ve seen in my life. I haven’t seen too much of the world, mostly PA for a matter of fact. Regardless, the music I was exposed to as a child came from two primary sources; my mother, and friends at school. My mother exposed me to her collection of vinyl albums of classic rock and much more. I bet I’ve heard only a fraction of her collection, honestly. Other than that it was the classic rock, hard rock, alternative and grunge radio stations I would hear in the car. Besides that, I was exposed to plenty of hip hop, rap, and pop music growing up in my school district. I made most of my friends through playing sports in school, and basketball being the most prominent. In an area as diverse as mine, not too many other white kids played basketball. This exposed me to, and ultimately fell in love with the genre of hip hop.

Then I go off to college and the few times I come home there’s just a select few friends I still see consistently when I go back. Even through my college career, seeing friends at home has dwindled down to Tyler for the most part. Tyler is from the “country” part of town; farm land and pickup trucks. He’d gone country at birth. In recent years he’s almost made me go country. Lets just say Tyler aint no Okie from Muskogee. While we hangout we often listen to music to enjoy ourselves, and Tyler puts on country 9/10 times. He often sputters “this is a classic!” before turning up the volume and singing along to a song I’ve never heard before. But as a drummer, I tap my feet along to the rhythm and enjoy it with him for what I can. Something about Tyler that always makes me laugh are his impromptu remixes that he’ll sing over songs. One night with two other of our friends, we joked around with the idea of each remixing a verse to “Highwayman” by The Highwaymen. I’m the only one who took the time to write a remix, of the second verse. Which its probably for the best because some of my friends material in the other verses were pretty messed up to say the least. But hey we’re kids thats what we were going for. I had so much fun remixing this verse of “Highwayman”, I decided to write a full remix to another country song Tyler made me familiar with, “Dixieland Delight” by Alabama. & if I must say so myself, “Dixiecup With Some Ice” would do wayyy better numbers. Jokes aside, I’m far more familiar with country music than ever before. Granted, I’m no expert or super fan and rarely if ever put on country for my own enjoyment. But it’s because of my friendship with Tyler, that allowed me to be more open to it. In all seriousness, country music made our friendship so much stronger today. I’ll get down with a little Honky Tonk, but only with my buddy Tyler.