alt.country

I just had to laugh at the following posted by Wil Wheaton over at his blog:

If you like Wilco or Uncle Tupelo, you must get Son Volt's first album Trace.
Heh. If the 1990 me ever met the 2005 me and discovered that I'd become a fan of alt.country, I think I'd kick me in the nuts. Goddamn know-it-all 18 year-olds.

My S.O. first came into the alt.country fold upon his hearing of Son Volt's Trace, and that has turned into an assumption of him always being into alt.country and growing up on "the old stuff" to people just becoming acquainted with him. I assumed this of him for a while until I found out the truth: that I was listening to country before he was. My best friend in high school listened to nothing but country, where I was raised on oldies and top 40 pop. She brought me, er...forced me into the fold in 1990; Son Volt didn't release their first until 1995, and I'm not exactly sure when he discovered it. But, even though I was immersed at least 5 years before he was, he's got me on the knowledge; he knows more about the history and the current than I ever have or ever will. My ears came around to alternative in 1993, and by the end of college country was phased out until he came into my life with his breadth of knowledge of the country tradition.

Saturday night we attended the Hank III show at The Dame, and brought along my sister and her husband. She was a big fan of Hank Jr. back in her redneck days so I figured she might enjoy seeing his son. It was a hot, sticky, hell-raising evening and she enjoyed the show, but not the crowd. It was a bit on the rowdy side, even for a Hank III show; the drunken frat boy first-weekend-back-to-school element made a huge difference. It was a great show, even better than the first one I saw last year. I'm used to a rollicking crowd, there was hardly a weekend that I wasn't out seeing a rock show for about 4 solid years, but this show even had a tad bit of moshing once they went into the hard-core part of the show. They were doing a lot of "dancing" during the country set, so I wasn't surprised the "dancing" turned to moshing for the hard-core set. The country set was blistering and fast-paced and a down-home good ole' time was had by all.

ADDITION: If you click on the alt.country link above in the Wil Wheaton post, it will take you to a definition of what alt.country is in Wikipedia. It lists a myriad of other names for the movement. The one I like best is "y'allternative". Too funny.

Orgainized Labor and Wal-Mart

Whenever I head over to Blue Grass Report, I find interesting, well thought out posts that are either quite ahead of the main stream media or covering topics they won't touch. Today I read a post set around organized labor and Wal-Mart. I agree with him on many points, but I of course have my own views on the topic.

Organized labor was needed when it began, and over the years it has helped the working man. Today we live in an international corporate world and to compete, wheter union or not, companies in the U.S. have to offer the same working conditions, pay, and benefits to gain desirable employees. The big one around here is Toyota. They are still not part of UAW, though there have been pushes for it over the years. When I was working there, there were red shirt Wednesdays to show your support for the union and many other things people where doing to get workers to sign up. Then it fizzled for a few years, and it came back again recently. The thing is, to all of us who are not Toyota employees, we don't get it. They have the best pay and benefits for their jobs in the state. Get over yourselves. We'd all love to get what y'all get, and this is at a non-union company.

Wal-Mart came into my little hometown of Mt. Sterling and pushed out all the little stores that sold the same wares. We had a handful of places you could go to get what you need for school supplies, and if one was out, then you could go to 3 more places in town and hopefully find what you needed. When Wal-Mart came, if there was no more white posterboard at Wal-Mart, you were screwed. You couldn't get it anywhere else. You had to drive to Winchester to see if maybe they had some at their Wal-Mart or K-Mart, since we weren't big enough for K-Mart to take over before Wal-Mart came around. It was this way for years. A few weeks ago I was helping my mom put together some gift bags for our out of town wedding guests, and she needed some nice gift bags that would hold everything. We did not go to Wal-Mart. We went to the Dollar Tree, Big Lots, and Dollar General and found what we needed there. I then realized that we had attracted some more stores and that Wal-Mart hadn't won. We have a choice again.

Wedding Bells

Its been a busy couple weeks since my last post, between traveling and preparing for my sister's wedding this Saturday. Its hard to believe it is almost here. The dresses are done and safe at our parents' house, the hair has been decided, and the backyard has been spruced up with twinkling lights dancing in the dusk. Ahead us are the manicures and pedicures, packing, and watching the weather every day worrying about that chance of rain on Saturday.

We'll arrive into town on Friday with tux in hand and start the arranging and rearranging as the tent, tables, and chairs arrive. The arch and flowers have to be placed, tablecloths to be hung, furniture to be moved, and centerpieces and favors to be placed. And a hundred other things will need to be done that I'm not aware of I'm sure. But as the sister of the bride and maid of honor, I'm sure I'll find out and be helping with what's left to be done. The bride returns from her manicure Friday afternoon, and if she's like any other bride, her fingers will be done working. Praying for a nice afternoon that's not too hot, low on humidity, and zero on the rain.