Man in Black

I love music. I love making it, listening to it, watching it. I love the entire performance process, from the initial tuning to the final encore and applause. When it comes to music, I'm not picky about what genre, so long as it's done well. In my lifetime, I've listened to pop, rock, country, bluegrass, indie, hindi, R&B, honkytonk, opera, John Williams, James Taylor and Bob Dylan, who almost deserves a subgenre of his own. You name it, I've heard it all from every decade, and enjoyed it all. I'm not sure exactly why I have such a near-universal enjoyment of music, but I've got some ideas.

Music gets to me in a way that nothing else does. While some say that smells can spark the most vivid memories, in my case, it's music. I think of my life in phases of music; the oldies of my childhood, the 4th and 5th grade A-teens-and-Bewitched-obsessed blip on the radar, and the closet country and Avril Levigne of middle school. Each year of high school had its own genre as well, some of which ranged from Yellowcard and Fall Out Boy, to Cartel and Relient K, to Yael Naïm and KT Tunstell, to TMBG and Flogging Molly. Then, finally, after graduation, I unabashedly embraced my love of country music and declared it to the world. But even more than these simple phases of music and memory, hearing a song brings back the memories associated with its first hearing, subsequent listenings, and even makes me remember the memories I attached to it that time. Listening to music transports me, vividly and realistically, to a different place.

But I love the place I go when I hear country music. That, for me, means Cedarwood, cross-continental trips, the New Mexico wilds, my dad, and even gives me a glimpse of my future. But country as we know it would not be the same without this man, nor would Southern Rock, honkytonk, or anything else that people classify with country/western. Heck, music as we know it wouldn't be the same without him. He did everything - rock, blues, gospel, even folk music - and he did it better than anyone else ever could or ever did. Everyone who came after and tried to improve on it only ended up in his musical debt, and they'll admit it. 

He's "a lens through which to view American contradictions and challenges. Very few figures in recent history are seen as more representative of American identity as [he is]...His has often been suggested as the face that should be added to the select pantheon on Mt. Rushmore." Johnny Cash is the definition of American, of country, and the father of modern American music. He was a remarkable musician, remarkable man, and amazing public figure and voice. Controversial, yes, but he's changed the pop culture, country culture, for good, and I'm rather grateful that he did. "We're about John Wayne, Johnny Cash, and John Deere way out here." 

So, thank you, Johnny Cash. Thank you to the Man in Black.

And Happy Birthday.

Ain't No Grave - Johnny Cash