What's a nice Jewish girl like you doing listening to Country Music?

What's a nice Jewish girl like me doing listening to country music, they ask. If I was into Jazz, nobody would say a word. I've never been to New Orleans. My parents didn't listen to Jazz. But if I liked Jazz, that would be cool. How about hip hop or soul? I went to a Mary J. Blige concert with a friend who had an extra ticket. I didn't really know her music but I enjoyed it. Nobody thought it was odd that I was going to a Mary J. Blige concert.  I was one of a handful of Caucasians in the audience of 10,000, but nobody told me that they were surprised I was going because I'm white. Nobody laughed.

I'm an educated Jewish woman who really likes country music. Don't laugh because it's rude.

The seed for my love affair with country music was planted 1979 when a babysitter turned on the radio and changed the station.  The song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" was on.  I remember this moment clearly because my parents only listened to classical music and the news, so it was very surprising. "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" was the most wonderful song I had ever heard. It told a story. It had drama. It was noisy. I could feel the hellish fiddle in my hair follicles; the virtuous fiddle down to the bottom of my stamping feet.

From that moment on I've loved music with a bit of twang.  I grew up in the South and, being Jewish, have felt like a bit of an outsider, but country music and Southern rock have always sounded like home to me.  My family lived on the outskirts of a small Southern city and I had a rather pastoral childhood, running around in the fields and woods, catching tadpoles and crawdads. Dad is a conservative doctor (retired) who listened to classical music, drove a truck and kept guns. As a teenager I once had to give our Rabbi a ride somewhere in my Dad's truck and he told me that my Dad is an enigma. Perhaps I'm following suit. I'm an upper-middle class Jewish housewife who watches CMT and GAC while folding laundry.  I ditch the husband and kid to spend many a summer evening on the lawn of an amphitheater, drinking beer and dancing to the likes of Brooks & Dunn and Toby Keith.

One day I wanted to communicate with some fellow country music loving tribe members and did a google search for "Jewish country music fans". Virtual silence. So I decided to start a blog. If you're out there, holler and we'll kibitz.