Educational

One reason I like country music, and Brad Paisley's music in particular, is that it's very educational. Who ever heard of a duck blind, trot line, or hula popper? Not me, certainly. My outdoorsman relatives would be ashamed at my ignorance.

FYI:
duck blind = little shack that hunters sit in while waiting for ducks
trot line = line to put fish on after you catch them
hula popper = fishing lure

I feel like it's cheating to write such a short post, so I'll continue on a related subject.

First of all, KOSY 106.5 has gone insane. They are a soft hits station. In October, they had a poll to see when people thought they should start their continuous Christmas music. I thought "cool. I'd like to see it start early this year, so I'll vote for the day after Thanksgiving."

I went to the poll and the options were "right now", "November 1st", or "Thanksgiving weekend". What the heck?!? Now? October? November 1st even? No way!! I voted for Thanksgiving. Well, they've been playing Christmas music since HALLOWEEN DAY. Apparently November 1st won, and they pushed it back by a day. Personally, I think that there were a bunch of jokesters inflating the votes. Who really wants to hear Christmas music in October? Nobody, that's who. Here are a couple articles about it:

Lee Benson, Deseret News
ABC 4

So now I need to admit something. This week I found out that Brad Paisley has released a Christmas album. I downloaded it and have been listening to it every single day. The best songs:

"Away in a Manger" - At first I thought it was a little too harsh - too much electric guitar - for a sacred song. But I really like the arrangement now.

"Penguin, James Penguin" - A totally fun, rocking kids' song, along the lines of "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer". It's about Santa's secret spy penguin. The chorus is "He's Penguin, James Penguin, that dapper little guy. Like a well-dressed duck in a three piece tux, he's Santa's secret spy."

"Born on Christmas Day" - This is a (historically inaccurate) song that Brad Paisley wrote when he was 13. It's very good for a 13-year old. It starts out with the 13-year old Brad singing accompanied only by guitar. During the chorus, they subtly bring in the current band's accompaniment, and then current-Brad changes the key and sings the rest of the verses. On the very last line, they overlay the 13-Brad and now-Brad's voices, and it sounds kind of weird and cool.

"Kung Pao Buckaroo Holiday" - The chorus has "it's a completely non-offensive and politically correct holiday", and every time anyone says "Christmas" it is bleeped out! Other offensive words such as "Orient" and "white" are also bleeped :-) It's hilarious!! Apparently this album has been out for quite some time - here's another blog post on it: Sunny Side of Life.