Whenever I’m down or feeling particularly alone, I always put on my country music playlist (lovingly titled Hillbilly Deluxe) and imagine myself going down that dirt road to a quieter place. I don’t know what it is about country music that gets me, more so than soul or even blues, but country hits home in all the best places. There’s something about hearing about that farmer sitting in his tractor or that beer that two people are sharing that just creates a visual for me beyond what most forms of music manage to do. Country gets right down to the soul of it, listing values that encompass the human experience: prayer, family, hard work.

Now I know what you’re thinking: “she’s officially gone crazy,” and trust me I’ve heard all the jokes. All the attempts to imitate country twang and remarks about fellahin. It doesn’t phase me. What I get from Country is beyond anyone’s joke-making ability. Country is grit personified. Some of my most formative experiences have been a car, country music and a friend. Country has brought me up in a way that most other forms of music have not. If you’re new to Country you’ll realize that there is no topic that’s off-limit in country music and everything is distilled down to enjoying the simple things in life, whether it’s a drink, a prayer, a porch, or a girl/boy. Country is the OG gratitude journal.

I still remember the first time I heard Lonestar’s “Hey God” and being floored at the line “you know what it’s like to lose someone who you truly love when you gave your son to us, you must have cried then too”. Regardless of your religious affiliation, the song managed to humanize God in a way that no amount of scripture had done for me before. The words “Hey God” themselves made God seem closer, here with us.

The irony has definitely hit me that as a well-offish Egyptian I enjoy perhaps the whitest form of blue-collar music. It does not escape me that my favourite genre of music is perhaps an ode to the American experience, and yet I can’t get enough. Honkytonk, Bluegrass, Cowpunk, Rockabilly, if it has a twang and a story in it, I’m there for it. Because that’s what it’s really about in Country. Storytelling. Whether it’s the story of the lover you lost and how you choose to get over them or the son of yours who died in the war, Country will cover it and cover it honestly. As a friend of mine put it, listening to a country song is cheap therapy.

Are you ready to find your inner farmer?

Hedayat’s CURRENT top 10  

1. Chris Stapleton
2. Maren Morris
3. Randy Travis
4. The Highwomen
5. Miranda lambert
6. Sugarland
7. The Chicks
8. Lonestar
9. Johnny Cash
10. Thomas Rhett

Honourable new mention: Morgan Wade & Hailey Whitters  

As always,

Girl With One Earring