Opinion: Thank Goodness For Country Music During Quarantine

Photo credit: youtube.com

Since March, just like everybody else in the world, I have been stuck in my house for long periods of time. 

However, unlike most people, I haven’t had trouble staying busy.

For the last two months, I have spent my time doing classwork, writing articles for this wonderful website, reading books and playing a ton of Sorry!, Monopoly and Yahtzee with my family.

However, my favorite activity during quarantine by far has been listening to country music!

 If you are a regular listener to my show, “Brandon’s World”, which aired this semester on Wednesdays from 12 p.m. – 2 p.m. , then you know I love country music, and many artists such as Luke Combs and Kane Brown have come out with new music to listen to, and the songs are fantastic!

Combs’ “Six Feet “Apart” describes what we are all feeling right now.

“I ain’t got nothin’ else to do, so I sat down and wrote this song.

I miss my mom, I miss my dad.

I miss the road, I miss my band,

Giving hugs and shaking hands.

It’s a mystery I suppose.

Just how long this thing goes.

But they’ll be crowds, and they’ll be shows.

There will be light after dark.

Someday when we’re not six feet apart.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0CbdOrmX5k

I couldn’t have said it any better myself! While right now we are all stuck inside watching movies on Hulu and playing games, one day we’ll be allowed to go to concerts again. One day we’ll be allowed to have staff meetings in person again. We just have to make sure that we are safe and healthy. 

Browns’ “Take Me Home” alongside Restless Road reminds us of the littlest things in life: Our home.

“Been a lot of places,

Seen a lot of faces,

Now I know.

That I’ve been away for a minute,

That I’ve been away for too long

Take me home, take me home

To the place I belong.

Cause I miss ya’,

And I wish ya would take me home, take me home.”

Reading the lyrics and listening to the song made me take a step back. It forced me to look at myself in the mirror and think about what’s important in life.

While a pandemic is rare, COVID-19 has taught me that we should not take what we do for granted. We should treat everyday like it’s our last because we never know when our lives are going to change forever. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoPb2QW-Mq4

“Six Feet Apart” and “Take Me Home” are just a couple of great new songs I have listened to and enjoyed during this time. Florida Georgia Line’s “I Love My Country” is the perfect example of modern country. It’s got a fast-paced beat, but the words of an old-school country song about fishing and pick-up trucks. It’s a great song to clap along too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sqTi-pmrNs

2020 has definitely been a wild year with a lot of negativity going on around the world, but country music is still going strong, and it honestly has never been in a better place in my estimation.

It’s not just the three people/bands here either. It’s everybody in the country music business. This year alone, I have listened to Luke Combs, Kane Brown, Florida Georgia Line, Gone West, Lady Antebellum, Kelsea Ballerini, Jason Aldean, Dustin Lynch, Jon Pardi, Scott McCreery and Eli Young Band.

Right now, those people are my life. I spend it least 90 minutes a day listening to these artists’ great work, and as I wrote in our first BSR Web Staff collab piece of the semester, “Music We Are Looking Forward To In 2020”, “It doesn’t matter who the song is by, nor does it matter what the song title is. Whoever comes out with new country music in 2020, I’m here for it all!”

That statement could not be more true. 

Thank you country music for making quarantine a little bit easier on my life!