Slim's Corner: My Lifelong Quest for Country Music

I am assuming you are here because you are a music lover, just like me. Music was always around... MTV, pop culture, the car FM radio, movie soundtracks etc. Those songs would repeat in my head during real-life situations (something that still occurs today), especially when I heard songs such as "More Than Words" by Extreme. Of course the ballads always attracted my attention. I'd be in the back seat of my Mom's car, thinking about whatever girl I had a crush on. Childhood consisted of a steady diet of Top 40 Pop Radio with Mom, Classic Rock with my dad, hard rock from my Uncle, old Country from my maternal Grandparents, and of course Bluegrass music from my paternal Grandparents. Safe to say, I soaked up a TON of varieties of music. 

Fast forward to middle school, late 1990's, I wanted to be cool. All the cool kids were wearing Jnco jeans, those god-awful choker's from Hot Topic, and misc. band t-shirts. I dived deep into Nu-Metal and Heavy Metal. Countless hours were spent in my room, listening to Metallica, Slipknot, Korn, Sabbath etc. I was a head-banger, as we called ourselves ("Hey man, are you a banger?" was such a cringe thing to ask a random kid at the mall). 

However this all changed in 2002 when I got my drivers license. I was already beginning to hang around some older kids, including my closest cousin (who was big into country music). I immediately felt like an adult. Flannel shirts were bought in bulk, along with work boots. The local Sam Goody store had Alan Jackson's "Drive" album on full display around this time, and I bought it. Those songs in particular, struck a chord that I had not felt in years. The songs were real and the lyrics were honest. This era coincided, miraculously, with the home computer being moved into my bedroom (my grandparents were temporarily living with us). It was here I opened the Windows Media Player, where I found I could mix and match songs from my library onto a "playlist", and then burn a CD. I recall vividly the night I discovered this phenomenon, and that is how I became the "Music Man". I probably burned 200+ CDs over the next few years, for my myself, friends and family. 

Also around this exact time, I had a job (at a grocery store), therefore I had my own money. Across the street from this grocery store, was a place called CD Warehouse. This was a store with all used CDs, cassette tapes, VHS etc. They had CDs from 25 cents. It was here I started hoarding and collecting 80's Country, 90's Country and any Greatest Hits albums from the legends I could find. I was slowly building my musical tapestry, and forming quite the library. Within a year or two, I had book shelves and boxes full of used CDs that I put onto Windows Media Player.

Then came Christmas 2004. My mom got me a new iPod device, which I knew nothing about. I went to the computer and put the disc in and downloaded the iTunes program. It was there I discovered all this music at my fingertips...single song downloads for 99 cents, albums to preview and purchase. Once again, I found another musical obsession. On iTunes I mainly was discovering single's from older artists and developing my taste for the music of bygone eras. I would also listen to tons of those 30 second previews of tracks, which then confirmed my liking of the music, leading me to go purchase the CD. I also began to rip ALL of those used CDs back into the iTunes program, as my new musical library. So much time spent!! It was here I started to become married to this way of life...country music. 

I began to tire of the same 20 or 30 "greatest hits" songs that appeared on iTunes of the classic artists. This was before a lot of their back-catalog discographies were digitized. Around the end of 2008, I was Christmas shopping at the mall (JCPenney to be exact), when I saw one of those huge Crosley units. The nice wooden cabinet with a turntable, and slots for CDs and cassettes, integral speakers etc. Right on the box display it said "Convert your CDs, Cassettes or Vinyl Records into MP3!" . But how? I went home and looked up "vinyl records", and to my pleasant surprise, I stumbled upon pages and pages of eBay listings. I went back to the mall and bought the Crosley unit for $300. A few Johnny Cash albums were bought from eBay. I can still recall the magical feeling of hearing these "new" Cash, George Jones, Bobby Bare, Mel Tillis, Dave Dudley etc songs that I was getting from vinyl. I sat there every night, and put vinyl on the Crosley, pressing the buttons to "Skip Track", saving the album cover image from Google and uploading into iTunes (sometimes I would even enter Songwriter credits!!!). This continued for 1-2 years, where I could not fit any more vinyl records into my room. Around this time (2010), I bought my first house and lost interest in the vinyl. Homeownership would dominate my life for the foreseeable future, with kids etc. 

As the years went on I eventually stopped purchasing physical media, and began building intricate playlists on streaming platforms. Over time, these artists back catalogs are being digitized, and it is still a thrill to listen to songs you've never heard before. For instance, recently, a half-dozen Hank Williams Jr. albums from his pre-mountain fall days were added to streaming services. I cleared my schedule one Saturday morning and listened to all of them. I am now, firmly, back in to the vinyl collecting hobby. I purchased an Audio Technica turntable during the pandemic, and have been slowly adding "lost" country albums (i.e. albums with no digitized footprint) and is now my new obsession. 

I still check the streaming services every Friday to see if some artists have their back-catalogs digitized for streaming. This search criteria is the same every week...Ernest Tubb, Tom T. Hall, Mel Tillis, Dave Dudley, Johnny Paycheck, Billy Joe Shaver, Jerry Jeff Walker, Johnny Bush, and lastly, GARY STEWART. I am still, and forever will be, on the search for Country Music.