To go from early 2000s beach country to an absolute legend with Kitty Wells’ legendary Country Hit Parade is, at first, a little jarring. The classic sounds of steel and twang are much more present in her iconic songs. Yet, the reality is, Chesney is in the same lineage, and you can see it in […]
For some reason, I didn’t expect Kenny Chesney to be on this list. I don’t know why. I enjoy his music, I think he has his finger on the pulse of a certain kind of country fan. He’s not bro country, nor is he beach country. He feels a lot like John Denver’s Windsong album. […]
Rolling Stone released their The 100 Greatest Country Albums of All Time list a few days ago. And it inspired me. I’m going to write a reflection on each album. My goal is one reflection a week for the next 100 or so weeks (almost two years). I can guarantee you I will miss a […]
Hey Y’all,Updates to the website are slowly happening. I’ve added some upcoming classes, and of course my podcast (Rusty Water Towers). I also have a couple series planned for the website. Look for a post on Monday to explain the first!
I’m in a hotel room about to head down to a conference on rural life and resilience in North Carolina. I haven’t written in 11 days. I worked through that in journaling and contemplation. I think it was imposter syndrome and anxiety of completing something and sending it into the world (the anxiety of releasing […]
I spent a large portion of today editing video. Hence, the featured photo screen grab. However, before that I was able to celebrate a student defending his Master’s Project and get my 500+ words complete. I’m starting to get to the point where I wonder if this is any good. I’m 25ish pages into this […]
Alright, back in the groove. Writing today was less challenging. One reason was that included a ton of country music lyrics. In academic writing I see so many people shaming people who quote directly from other writers. I understand the need to prove that you can interpret a work and not just directly quote it, […]
I haven’t posted on the blog for a few days. It was a mix of being tired and the content I was writing about. Having to write about film and TV depictions of rural life is hard. Particularly, writing about the way both comedy and horror distort rural life, often from the perspective of the […]
I’ve decided to take on a self-imposed writing challenge. My goal is to write approximately 500 words a day, every day from now until Easter (on April 17th). This is writing 500 words for fifty days straight (inclusive of Easter and today (Transfiguration Sunday). I’m using my blog as a space for accountability and updates […]
The story of the woman at the well from John Chapter 4 is a story I used to find annoying. I think, because it was an overdone story about Jesus being Jesus. It gets overused as a salvation story for a way of life that is no longer feels like an issue. Women, in general, […]
Jonathan LeMaster-Smith 