Thoroughly enjoying the ACM Awards.  My father thought country was "below" us, although due to his mismanagement of most everything, we were poorer than the neighbors he viewed with such contempt.

We kids grew up isolated and pretty much friendless until we broke away, so the Georgia red clay and pines were part of my life until circumstance forced me away...

So while I have the occasional quibble with themes in country music, I relate to it so much more than I ever could to the opera and classical music my father wanted me to adopt.  (Mom had a lot more success with Broadway musicals, and I still put Liza or Judy on occasionally.)

Not all country artists are saints, and some of them probably aren't even country.  Still, a lot of the entertainers whose music I enjoy talk about what's important to me--family, love, and committment.  I can laugh at a Trace Adkins song about what you find in a honky tonk or cry when he talks about missing his kids' young years; I can relate.

And that, I suppose, is what music, writing, and even life, are about.  Relating.

So I don't drink and wouldn't hunt if I had to.  Doesn't matter.  I drive a pickup, don't I?