Spring Forward, Country Throwback

Lately, I have been pretty obsessed with listening to my favorite "old" country, and by "old" I mean, country that I loved when I was in late high school and freshman year of college. At that point in my life I always had music coming from my computer. I spent a lot of time searching out new artists (many of which have made it big by now! Yay, Lee Brice!), and had the opportunity to see so many great shows up close and personal at the Grizzly Rose in Denver. Eric Church, Taylor Swift, Lee Brice, Chris Cagle... for about $10 a ticket I might add... Those were the days!

{  View from my spot for the Taylor Swift concert - 2007  }

{  Erich Church concert 2007/2008?  }

{  Becky and I with a sweaty Lee Brice circa 2008  }

This has been my Spring Fever this year. This music takes me straight back to 2007 (ha!). And even though I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE where I am at in life (self, wife, mother), I can't help but long for the "Old Days" ( I keep putting that in quotes because I know it sounds ridiculous). I miss the freedom of not having major responsibilities, of not having a defined path ahead. Everything was unknown and wide open!! I miss that feeling. It was a time of self discovery, falling in love with some of the best new friends in the world, having amazing adventures with some of the best old friends, and all around tom-foolery.

You're the Love I Wanna Be In - Jason Aldean

Alabama - Cross Canadian Ragweed

Watchin' Airplanes - Gary Allen

Wagon Wheel - Old Crow Medicine Show (Get outta here, Darius Rucker! I like you, but you should'a never touched this song.)

Small Town Kid - Eli Young Band

Baby Let Me Be Your Man - Brian McComas

Sumpter County Friday Night - Lee Brice

How 'bout Them Cowgirls - George Straight

Twisted - Colt Ford

Rock This Town - Brantley Gilbert (for some reason I can't find any of his early stuff on YouTube to add to the playlist. Bummer.)

Livin' our Love Song - Jason Michael Carrol

Everytime I Hear Your Name - Keith Anderson

Dirt - Florida Georgia Line

{  YouTube Playlist HERE  }

These songs are a time capsule of my thoughts and feelings in those days. I love that about music! Music as memories is something I come back to time and time again. Here is an excerpt from a (rather sappy) post I wrote in 2011.

"I think about the person I was, the people surrounding me, the boys I thought I loved, and the carefree air of my thoughts and actions. 

A song can pop onto the radio and suddenly I  am taken back to the eleven year old me who is just falling in love with country music and is completely consumed with her love of horses and horse shows and being at the farm on beautiful summer evenings. The memories are like a flood and the emotions come right along with them. There’s no way of stopping them. I’m almost blinded by the present and dropped back into the past.

Music isn’t always needed for my reminiscing though. Sometimes a cool summer sunset or the chirp of a bird will take me back to being really young and the memories of long summers spent at my childhood home with my mom. They always seemed magical. And these are ones that can be particularly frustrating because they are the ones I would like to relive more than any, but they're the hardest to remember, coming in snips and pieces.

And once I start thinking about childhood, I miss it more and more. Reading books with my dad and listening to the stories of his childhood. Waking up to my mom playing the piano in the living room. Popsicles and smashed flower art on the deck. Painting the concrete wall with water with my sister. My grandmas. My grandpas. So many things I miss…

But the truth is, I will never get back to those times or situations, and must learn to remember them with a smile, then return to the present and live this moment to the fullest because one day I KNOW I will look back on it with the same longing. 

I don’t agree that living in the past is a bad thing from time to time... Spending some time laying in bed looking out the window thinking back on your life helps you appreciate how far you’ve come. It reminds you of who you were and who you are now; the differences and similarities. It can re-frame your take on the present and help you see that there’s no need to be so stressed out about your current problems because they are so small in the grand scheme of your life. 

Remember the happy and the sad, because who wants to forget their past? It’s at the core of who we are and sometimes we need that reminder to keep us firmly on the ground."

And it's important to keep listening to NEW music too, so that one day a song that you're currently listening to will be "old," and take you back to NOW. My new one I threw in this playlist is Dirt by Florida Georgia Line.

Hazel's age is so sweet right now, and I'm really trying to soak up all the moments that I can, because I KNOW, I KNOW, I KNOW I will come back to the memories of these days for the rest of my life.  

Even now, listening to 

Bright Eyes - First Day of My Life or 

Killers - Human 

make me tear up thinking about those first days with Hazel just a YEAR ago.

We all have our moments, but I am so fortunate and blessed to have the moments that I do!

And just so you all know, it was really hard to pare this playlist down to a handful of songs and not just hit "select all" in my media library. (Wink, wink, 3SW... some things don't change!)

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