I confess that once, not so long ago, I was a music snob. And the genre at which most of my snobbery was directed was country, for two reasons: first, it was fashionable to be snobbish about country music and, second, I’d never really listened to it. Well, it was my wife who straightened me out, introducing me to the music of Vince Gill, Randy Travis, Faith Hill, and Garth Brooks. I realized that – quite apart from its surprising and surprisingly intricate musicianship – country music was storytelling. Where hip-hop and 99% of rock, pop, jazz, and blues are about one of two topics, country of the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s ranged unabashedly over the landscape of the human heart. Here were songs about real love – the kind that embodies sacrifice and strives to last a lifetime; about real loss – the death of a loved parent, a spouse, a child. The loss of health, fame, fortune, a dog. They were also about faith, persistence, courage, dreams, resilience and all of those conditions that ennoble humanity. They were often told with grace, and salted with genuine humor. Granted, there’s no shortage of Jesus, Pass the Whiskey tunes, as well, but even these are sung tongue-in-cheek in the shared knowledge that we’re all just kids, raising the canvas for a peek under the carnival tent of life. The following aren’t so much pure country, as country influenced. So, to Punkin, Dreamy, Gweeka, Dale, and all the others who tried to make me see the light years ago, well, better late…