For the past few months I have been taping On The Edge Of Country on GAC (Great American Country). At the outset I was excited to see some videos from the music that I actually like and not just Toby Keith threatening to putting a boot in my ass and/or Big & Rich proving Houston Marchman so, so right (son you gotta write for an 8th grade level divorced housewife in Nashville). It didn't take me long to get annoyed with the show. They never started on the hour so getting the entire program was a challenge and the host was a bore. She also cut into the time that actual videos were being shown and I hold that against her for no good reason. Appearances by Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez, Buddy Miller, and Charlie Robison were neat to see, but I'd rather see their work as opposed to a stiff interview. Beyond that GAC tended to repeat the same 10 videos every week, airing about 3-4 videos an episode.

So the novelty wore off and what I thought was going to be awesome left me unfulfilled. Then I just happened to be scanning CMT (Country Music Television) the other day to see if they might have a similar program and found Wide Open Country. I taped it for a few days and then finally sat down to watch it. I got excited way to fast when I noticed it started out on time and it only got better when there was no host! I only saw one repeat of a video over the course of three episdoes and that was completely acceptable since it was Dwight Yoakam's Blame The Vain (BUY THIS RECORD!). The artist selection was the similar but just a tad different and CMT mixed in some older stuff from years past which I am completely fine with because it helped with the variety. The bottom line is CMT's Wide Open Country is worth some space on the Tivo.

This brings me full circle to one of the first times I realized there was something else out there, something better out there, something much more like my life in Texas out there. CMT's Jammin' Country used to be a staple amongst me and a couple of friends. It had the most awesomely bad theme song that of course got blurted out in full falsetto (by everyone in the room) and we made a point of watching The place where rock and country collide! whenever it was on. I remember the first time I saw Chris Knight singing Framed on Jammin' Country. I dug it and thought to myself that it wasn't bad for someone that sounded like Robert Earl Keen! Months later a black and white video came on Jammin Country while I was hanging out at a friends place. I have no recollection of what else was going on, but I'll never forget when on the screen a school bus rolled by that said Bandera High School. I was already digging the song, but when a fellow member of 1993's district 26-AAA (Texas High School football rears its ugly head!) was there in front of me I was hooked into the gills. Charlie Robison's My Hometown started off a chain reaction that steered me away from the straight and narrow which I can't be thankful enough for today.

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