Pickles and Music

Part of the reason that we took this trip around the country was to learn about the people and their cultures. So, tonight is really just a study lab. As we sat down to dinner and enjoyed the local favorite Fried Pickles we asked ourselves, why do people like country music?

On the way into The Grand Ole Opry we met a famous celebrity, Mini Pearl. With her high pitched "Howdy!" and her dangling price tag hat she welcomed us to the show.

It's a beautiful performance hall that has had countless country singers have their voices echo between these walls. I'm sure all the names and pictures along the hallways indicate that their famous. The show was being taped and will air this Saturday on your local country cable channel. Just like old time TV the show would stop for a few minutes while the MC would read off a couple of commercials. "This hour is sponsored by Trane AC units."

There was one singer that when I heard her name I thought it was someone who invented the fried pickles we had at dinner but once we saw her I knew the name, Kellie Pickler. Good thing I watched American Idol a few times.

So the question remains, why do people like country music so much? The lyrics are usually about something sad. Wife cheated on me, crashed the pickup truck, dog got run over, boyfriend is no good, cook'in chili. I just don't get it. Well, I learned tonight that most country music songs are really just stories. Maybe grownups still enjoy having a good story told to them. It must have worked on the gentleman next to me because he was sound asleep by the time the last act got on stage. I guess there really is not an answer to the question but I can tell you that Nashville has a big concentration of people who happen to like twangy, washboard, accordion, violin, guitar playing music. Not that there is anything wrong with that.