OP/ED: Why This Former Blue-Stater 'Converted' and Became a Country Music Lover

In 1999 I was living and working in the Washington DC metropolitan area. I was 36 years old, thought the perfect Sunday afternoon was spent with a latte and Smithsonian Magazine at a trendy coffee joint, and listened almost exclusively to NPR.

I didn't know it then, but I perfectly fit the profile of the contemporary fan of country music. Here are some statistics: 67% of people who listen to country music are in the 25-54 age group. 57% of country music fans have had some college. 52% of the average country music station's audience are women. Yup, that's me. I did not grow up in a home that was even remotely what you could call country-music-friendly. Country music hostile was more like it. Although my father (a music education professor) did occasionally play string bass for a local bluegrass group, my mother (an elementary school music teacher) controlled the stereo and the radio (and pretty much everything else) and was more likely to listen to Handel or Bach. So what changed me, and made me join my demographic majority? It took a while, but I realized that I could only listen to the hits from the '60s, '70s and '80s so many times on the "oldies" station without feeling like Kevin Kline in [the movie, i]The Big Chill who never, ever listened to anything but what was popular during his high school years. And, having reached official "middle age," I realized I couldn't understand a word of what was being sung on what now passes for Top 40. And what I could understand, I decided was too "co-dependent." Although I am not a particularly religious person, spirituality is very important to me. Something about country music's message of redemption appeals to me. My spouse, who grew up on Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline (and Elvis songs performed by German oom-pah bands, but that's another story) was and is a country music fan. He kept that little fact in the closet, however, until after I married him in early 2001. With his nudging (and the domination of the sole office radio by a country-music loving co-worker), I saw the light and converted. My 2-year-old adores Montgomery Gentry. My mother is appalled. My father has since "outed himself" as a Hank Williams, Sr. fan since childhood. There's hope for my family yet!