14 Loves: Songs

So, in keeping with the 2-day, 14-things celebration of Valentine's Day, I decided to post a list of my favorite love songs.

Now, if any of these would be on a normal person's favorite love songs list, I don't know.  Yes, they are all country.  (The links go to Lyrics Box.*  They'll have the lyrics and a player for your listening pleasure for those that pique your curiosity.)

14 - "Crazy Not To" by Danny Gokey

13 - "Without Love" by Mindy McCready

12 - "Forever Road" by Darius Rucker

11 - "Like I Am" by Rascal Flatts

10 - "Makin Plans" by Miranda Lambert

9 - "Livin' on Love" by Alan Jackson

8 - "I'm In" by Keith Urban

7 - "Fall into Me" by Emerson Drive

6 - "Deeper than the Holler" by Randy Travis

5 - "Love Don't Run" by Steve Holy (Sorry, this song, you have to watch the video.  It's why I love it so much:)

4 - "Heart of the World" by Lady Antebellum

3 - "You're the Love I Wanna Be In" by Jason Aldean

2 - "We Danced" by Brad Paisley

1 - "You Shouldn't Kiss Me Like This" by Toby Keith (I'm not comfortable posting the official video...)

*Lyrics Box is kind of like the Wikipedia of lyrics websites, it's all fan-added.  Some of the words may be wrong.

Second and Third Honeymoons

I am behind on NaNoWriMo, and it is only day 3.

However, Saturday, whilst I was still working on DinoPaper, I started on a short story that is taking all of my attention.

NaNoWriMo is a chore.  This new short story is fun.  I managed to daydream the whole thing, and it's taking a lot longer in words than I thought it would.

Considering I'm a concise writer, this is a big deal.

This all-consuming tale is one of those second honeymoon pieces.  It reminds me exactly why I love writing.

No, I'm not hippity-hopping happy.  My temperament hasn't improved in the slightest.

But it feels okay.  Not "good, but not great."  Just, like after something horrible happens and you're grieving and then you wake up one morning, and you're okay.  Life goes on.

That sort of okay.

I've been restless lately, and writing this story alleviates it.  It's kind of a lose-lose situation.  Or a win-win.  The story's making me restless by wanting to write it and writing it is the only way to get it gone.

My soul feels empty, but in a good way.  Like the haunted ghost that's found peace.  It's quieted and calmed.

So, because I can't get excited about NaNoWriMo, which is probably because I started the short story (it refused to wait!), I've decided to stick with the second honeymoon story for now.  I'm almost done.

Which, I've been telling myself since Tuesday.

I'll still make myself write a little more, because I'd hate to give up completely, and I really want to write this story (except, just not now) and I know it would be good discipline about writing a story you don't feel like working on for when I'm a full time writer someday, God-willing.

Sigh...  this writing thing's funny business.

Positively GAC: More on Country Music

Yeah, today's the last day of Ragamuffin.  I don't wanna talk about it.  I haven't even left yet.

Because I wanted to chase 3 little boys outta my room, I did something I almost never do.  I switched the TV from SpongeBob to Positively GAC.  I almost never watch it unless there is absolutely nothing else on.  It's not that I don't like the Christian music and some of the country music that plays, it's just that I don't know much of it.  (Although, the stuff I do know, I like.)

People accept what's familiar.  If it's not, discomfort.  The last thing I want to be is uncomfortable, especially in my own home, in the comfort of my room.  Yes, that's my id talking, but if I'm honest, you can't insult me.

Anyway, so today, a song by country duo Montgomery Gentry played.  MG sings "Hell Yeah," most notably.  "My Town" and "One in Every Crowd" are some other common ones.

Today, this played:

The best known characteristic  of country music:  You can sing all about  Jesus in one song, but then talk about getting wasted/laid in the next.  This isn't right, just the way it is.

Country music--a lot of music, actually--has everything to do with being human.  But if there's one genre that covers it all...

Yeah, it's country.  Which is why I love it so much.  A lot of other genres have either dance, love, or sex songs.  Country has this too, obviously, but there's also little towns, mama, and trains.  ;-)  (Although, when it's a country singer with a sex song--or even suggestive--usually the singer's married.  Most notably, Josh Turner and Dierks Bentley).

Brad Paisley sums it up nicely.


 

Why Country Music Is Great

I had my TV on mute.  But I saw Josh Turner on GAC and I HAD to see what he was singing.  I'll give you a hint:  It was his first (I think) single.

Singers don't sound good when singing live and just recorded.  Now, when it's on the radio, CD, or the music video is on GAC, then it sounds good.  (Yeah, videos play on CMT, but I'm a GAC-er all the way!)  He sounded like he was singing through his nose, but it didn't matter.  It was Josh Turner.  And it was "Long Black Train."

Country music, supposedly, has the most loyal fanbase of any other genre.  All of the country singers that lasted a while say it.

Justin Bieber says he has the best fans ever.  If he's still singing twenty years from now, then I'll agree with him.  But he ain't a country singer, y'all.  Does he really have that chance?  Seriously?

I don't think so.  Look at the years of those below, from their first album to their latest.  Some of them aren't retired yet.  But you know they all take breaks from time to time.

Current Reigning King George Strait (1981-2009)
Brooks & Dunn (1991-2007 {their last-last greatest hits before their break up came out in 2009  They'll be missed as a team, but they're supposed to be coming out with solo albums.})
Alan Jackson (1990-2010)
Current Reigning Queen Reba (1977-2010)
Martina McBride (1992-2009).  She just signed on with a new record company.

All those years I got from Wikipedia, just so you know, but those numbers are at least in the ballpark.

Heck, I don't think most Christian singers get that longevity, but I don't know.  My favorite Christian singer, Rich Mullins, died back in 1997.  He had had a ten year run.

Oh, found one:  Sandi Patty (1978-2010).  Never listened to her.  But my buddy from Gport mentioned her.  And some Gospel singers, none of which I know except the Gaither group, and that's because of GAC.  Actually, Gospel is a forefather of country music.

Jay DeMarcus, currently a member of Rascal Flatts, was once part of the group East to West, a Christian duo.  This doesn't work out.  He becomes a country singer in a band and lasts ten years and counting.  How awesome.

But country music's got its flaws.  There are a lot of drinking songs, songs about sex and cheating.

However, there's a country song for every situation.

Opening Lines & Bars

Think back to your favorite song.  Do you think your eyes light up when you hear those first opening bars of music?

Most people know I'm a country music fanatic.  One of my favorite songs is "My Maria"* by Brooks & Dunn.  I love those first opening bars of music.  (I think that's why it's one of my favorites, actually.)  It's really upbeat and it's just a few notes.  Those few notes go a long way.

As far as opening lines go...

"Well, I love her/but I love to fish." - "I'm Gonna Miss Her"* by Brad Paisley <--One of my favorite opening lines to a song.

Okay, let's go to books now before I launch into all my favorite country songs.  Or songs of other genres for that matter.

*Neither of those YouTube links go to the official videos.  The official videos have advertisements.

In your favorite book, is the opening line your favorite part?  Or even the first scene?  An opening hook can make or break a book for me whether or not I'll read it.  Since books speak for themselves, here's some best-sellers/well-known classics' openings that I was able to pull from my bookshelf:

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." - (like you honestly don't recognize this passage but it's from:) Genesis 1:1, the Bible (best-selling, classic, life-manual...)

"When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton." -(Again, do I really need to put where this one's from?) The Fellowship of the Ring, by J. R. R. Tolkien, (classic, best-seller)

"Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance that was never lightened by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable." -Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson (classic)

"Taran wanted to make a sword; but Coll, charged with the practical side of his education, decided on horseshoes." -The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander (first book of a best-selling series, may be considered a children's classic)

As a reader, some of my favorite books have these lines that just suck you into the story. Now, all of those may or may not be well-known works, but I tried to stick to the classics on my own 'read' bookshelves.

Some of my personal favorite openings that may or may not be well-known:

"Linderwall was a large kingdom, just east of the Mountains of Morning, where philosophers were highly respected and the number five was fashionable. The climate was unremarkable. The knights kept their armor brightly polished mainly for show--it had been centuries since a dragon had come this far east. There was the usual periodic problems with royal children and uninvited fairy godmothers, but they were always the sort of thing that could be cleared up by finding the proper prince or princess to marry the unfortunate child a few years later. All in all, Linderwall was a very prosperous and pleasant place.

"Cimorene hated it." -Dealing with Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede (beginning of a bestselling children's series)
"'You, my lord, are a rake and a rogue. A scoundrel.'" -The Wedding Bargain, by Victoria Alexander (NYT Bestseller)

"I saw Byzantium in a dream, and knew that I would die there." -Byzantium, by Stephen R. Lawhead (I don't think this book was a best-seller, but SRL has others that were. This one just so happens to be my favorite standalone.

Well, lovers of books and reading, those are some opening lines that others or I thought were great.  How can you not love a book that begins like some of those do?