Music. According to Kim.

It's been way too long since I've gotten up a new post in my Music Therapy series and I thought it might be a good idea to go with a theme this time. Namely, beauty and self-image. In this society, it's so easy to get caught in the trap of thinking that we have to look a certain way. To think that if we don't fit in, if we don't look that way, that there's something wrong with us. We might feel insecure. We may feel ugly and unwanted and unlovable. This can lead us down some dangerous paths if we aren't careful. The way I see it, even the most secure of us need some reassurancesometimes. Maybe we don't fit into what Hollywood considers beautiful. That's okay. Maybe we've been picked on and made to feel worthless because of the way we look. That's not okay, but you know what the good news is? Our worth does not come from other people. As a Christian, I believe that our worth is given to us by God. We are beautiful because we're His creat...

I've been wanting to write about the Grand Ole Opry ever since I started this blog and for some reason it's just never happened. So I'm very happy to be getting this post out there as part of my CMA Fest recap. Just a heads up: this is pretty picture heavy. In case I haven't mentioned it before, clicking on a picture should enlarge it. Every picture I post is one I took, unless I say otherwise. All of these in here are mine. CMA Fest really got me in touch with the zoom on my camera, I'll say that. I'm going to talk more about this particular Opry show after the break, but first I wanted to talk a bit about the Opry in general. Starting with some basic facts that I'm sure some, if not many, of you will already know. The Grand Ole Opry is a radio show broadcast on WSM 650AM. They've recently created an app and you can listen to the shows on that as well. The Opry started in 1925 and is the longest running radio show in the United States. I've been t...

I'm a big fan of the shuffle feature. Sometimes there'll be a specific album I want to listen to and in those cases I usually end up listening to the songs in order. But most of the time I'll listen to music on shuffle. Whether it's a certain artist I'm listening to or one of my many playlists. I like the randomness of it. Of course, as anyone who listens to their music on shuffle knows, it can make for some pretty interesting transitions. Downright strange ones at times. Especially if you're like me and have some playlists that have a little bit of everything on them. It is said shuffle feature that inspired this post, which is going to be the first of who knows how many. I see this being an ongoing thing. See, the other day I was doing something on my computer and listening to music and it went from Carrie Underwood to Janet Jackson. As I was listening to the Janet Jackson song, it occurred to me that Carrie Underwood could probably do an interesting cover...

I was just thinking about this list and thinking about all the great artists who didn't make the cut. And there's a lot! I keep saying it: 2012 was a very good year for country music. It seemed to be a year of artists discovering exactly who they're supposed to be, musically speaking. I get so excited when that happens. It just makes everything that much better. Finding and creating the music one is supposed to make increases their confidence. You can see it. They start seeming a lot more comfortable and in that, having more fun. 2012 was a great year for that. In saying that, it is my hope that those who found their sound keep it. And that the ones who are still looking, still trying to figure it out, find it. That's my hope for 2013. One of them anyhow. Of course, now it's time to look back. But first it's time to make a change. See, I really wanted to keep this at 12 artists. 12 for 2012. I deliberated over my choices and had to make some tough cuts. Ther...

Before I begin my review, I want to acknowledge that this one has been a long time coming as it came out a few months ago. I debated just not doing it since it's been out for a while, but that idea didn't settle right with me because this album is too good to ignore. And it's not like my opinions on the songs has changed since I heard it the first time right after it came out. So, here is my long overdue review of Kellie Pickler's 100 Proof . First, I'm going to give my general thoughts about it before the cut if you want a quicker read. Feel like a long read? Well, then after the cut I'm looking at each song individually and going into a little more detail like I do in my song reviews. It does get kind of long in there, just to warn you. So really, I got ya covered whatever your reading preference may be at this time. - In a nutshell, I feel like this is the strongest CD Kellie Pickler has done so far by a lot. I enjoyed her first two, especially her first ...

I know I've been doing a string of song reviews and this is going to be yet another one, but there's just so many new songs out there that I want to get to. 36 to be exact and it seems like every day I find out about another one. It's crazy; you know a lot of songs get put out around the same time, but until you start keeping track you have no idea. It brings home just how competitive the music business is - especially when you consider that the new songs make up a small fraction of the songs that get played on radio. I imagine some of the songs I review won't get much airplay at all and that's a sad thing in a way. That said, I have a feeling that this one I'm talking about here won't be one of those. Why? Well, it's by Kellie Pickler who is obviously a pretty known artist and that never hurts. But aside from that, this is a pretty great song. Which means that my streak of reviewing songs I like is going to continue for the time being. Not a bad pro...

Before I go into the next batch of videos, I just wanted to post the links to the previous blogs in the countdown. You can of course find them all just by scrolling down, but I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to put them in here too. Videos #50 - #46:  http://countrymusicatk.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-top-50-videos-of-year-50-46.html Videos #45 - #41:  http://countrymusicatk.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-top-50-videos-45-41.html Videos #40 - #36:  http://countrymusicatk.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-top-50-videos-40-36.html