Where has country music gone?

Several years ago, listening to Top 40 music, I began to notice that most of the songs I was listening to sounded the same. The songs had the same subject matter. It all seemed artificial. I switched to a new genre of music, or shall I say, switched back to my roots, country music.

I found the songs new, refreshing, and easy to listen to. I loved the story in the songs. I listened with anticipation and found myself wrapped in the arms of the lyrics. I appreciated how special and unique country music was.

As I listen to country music these days, all that made it special and unique, is gone. I feel as though I am listening to pop, rap, or rock music. I really don't want to listen to those genres of music. If I did, I could push a button, change the station, and listen to those genres. It's invading everything I am listening to, and I am not a happy fan!

I listen to 80's and 90's country on XM radio. Last weekend, my favorite station, was polluting the air waves with rock and roll classics thrown into the mix. If I wanted to hear Tom Petty, The Eagles, The Beatles, etc., I would tune into one of those stations.

I get frustrated with that, so I plug my iPhone into my car and play Pandora. As I'm listening to one of my stations (I think it was Little Big Town), Brown Eyed Girl comes on. I hit the "next" button. Then comes Clarence Clearwater with some song. Are you freakin' kidding me? I switched stations. Eric Church was my choice. I listen to a few songs and then "Stand By Me" comes on. Granted, all the songs are good, but I'm totally frustrated because I clearly want country music and I'm getting rock classics. Ugh!!

I switch to the radio. What do I hear? Carrie Underpants singing "Two Black Cadillacs". Switch stations....Jason Aldean's "1994". Banging my head against the steering wheel out of total frustration, I finally grab my Von Cotton CD and put it on.

Is it just me? Has country music become so polluted these days that we don't recognize that we are listening to crap? I realize that music has to evolve, but come on! This watered down version of country music is ridiculous. I would love to hear someone new that can actually have the courage to make country music, the way it is intended.

I am over Taylor Swift and her botching every award show she is on. I am tired of hearing her childish crap on the radio. I am finally done buying anything Jason Aldean makes. I'm really over him rapping. I am becoming irritated with Keith Urban and his electric guitar. Kenny Chesney needs to stop singing about the beach, beer and women (anyone notice more than half his songs are about that?). Tim McGraw should never ever sell out with Taylor Swift again. Carrie Underpants should make the move to pop music.

I want to hear the steel guitar, a banjo, a harmonica. I want to hear some twang. I want to hear more from Jamie Johnson, George Straight, Eric Church (who's pushing the rock envelope - please stop) and the like. Bring back what was unique and special about country music. Bring me back to a time when it felt good to purchase a new album and memorize every song. I can't even think of the last album I bought, it was so long ago. I like listening to the older stuff, but I know all those songs and I'd love to have something new to fall in love with.

If you feel the same way, pass this along, tell your friends and let's do something about it!!

An open letter to Dottie Sandusky and women like her...

I just read an article about Jerry Sandusky's wife, Dottie, writing a defiant letter to the judge before the Sandusky sentencing, attacking the victims motives, expressing her loss of faith in the judicial system and insisting he isn't a child molester.

"Dottie Sandusky wrote July 9 that she never saw her husband do anything inappropriate to any child, a statement that echoed her trial testimony. She was deeply critical of her son Matt Sandusky, who had been expected to be a defense witness until the trial, when he claimed to investigators he also had been abused by Jerry Sandusky."

Matt Sandusky has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, "but he refuses to take his medication," she wrote. "He has had many run-ins with the law and stolen money and items from our family."

Do all women whose husbands have been convicted of child molestation, jump to this defense? Is there a manual somewhere that has this strategy written down, verbatim? It's becoming the classic defense for these women. They are blaming the victims of conspiracy. The judicial system of failing to work. And claiming that their husband's are not child molesters. Ladies, you need to get in touch with reality!

Child sexual abuse is nothing new. In fact, it's been going on for decades. One of the reasons we are hearing so much about it over the last several years is because there are so many brave men and women, boys and girls, coming forward. When they come forward, it takes a level of courage and strength to confront their abuser. Since they have continued to come forward, we have learned more about this very sick secret, haunting so many people all over the world. We have, as a society, convicted more and more people of child sexual abuse.

In doing research over the last several years, I have learned a lot. I am no psychologist, but the facts are out there for us to learn. The most astounding fact that I learned is this:

If a person is accused of child sexual abuse, has more than one victim and a history of accusations, they are 100% guilty of the crime. There are no other exceptions, excuses, or reasons. They are guilty. Period.

I think we as a society, clearly understand that. But for the women that love and are married to the  offender, it becomes a very blurred line. I believe they have a hard time wrapping their mind around the man that they know and love, and the monster he's accused, and often times, convicted, of being. It must be difficult for women like Dottie Sandusky to separate the man she knows, loves and spent her life with, and come to terms with the fact that he was all those things AND that he is a child molester.

A person can be many things, including putting on one hat to fill a role, and putting on another hat to fill another. Each one of us do it every day. We go to work as one person, and come home to become our natural selves. It's not that far fetched to believe that he did just that.

She says she "never saw him do anything inappropriate to children". Of course she never saw him doing anything inappropriate with children, because he would never allow her to see anything. That's what child molesters do. They keep it very hidden from anyone, except the victim. The victim knows exactly what the child molester is capable of doing. For Dottie or any other woman who supports the child molester, to suggest that the victim is lying, is ridiculous. The only person lying in the scenario, is in fact, the child molester. They've been doing it successfully for years. Plus, they don't see themselves as monsters. They think they are loving the child. It's sick and twisted, but true.

Sadly, my mother is one of these women. Conspiracy theories, victims motives, loss of faith in the judicial system, victims lying, and the whole "my husband is innocent" thing, is the script that she followed. I believe that these offenders, often times, manipulate their wives into thinking these things, because it is the only defense they have. Rather than taking responsibility for their actions and really getting the help that they need, they rip families apart and make their wives look like idiots.

In the end, the wife will be the only connection to the outside world that they have, when the rest of the world sees the child molester for exactly what he is.....a monster! I suppose that's motive enough to keep her in the world of denial, conspiracy theories, purple dinosaurs and make believe. And while these women trot off to their weekly visit at the state penitentiary, the rest of us are doing damage control, picking up the pieces of the lives that have been broken.

I hope women in the future will listen to the children (even adults who now have the courage to come forward) and understand that these men are not innocent. They are working you harder than a Presidential Candidate. They want your vote, your support, when everyone else will turn their back. Don't be that person who turns their back on the victim. No matter how betrayed you feel, never turn your back on the victim.