Jake Parkhurst Maybe I just liked ItEnglish 2, period 4

When I was a small child, I was infatuated with cowboys. I wore cowboy boots and a cowboy hat, and I read cowboy books. But above all, I listened to cowboy music. My definition of cowboy music was anything that was sung with that southern accent, so most country bands made their way into my cd collection. It was irrelevant if the song was of life, love, or home on the range; as long as it could have been sung by a cowboy. Hearing the twangy accent inspired cowboys singing around a campfire, accompanied only by a harmonica and the howl of coyotes.

There was one song that particularly galvanized my imagination to visualize cowboy life style. The song was about the necessity of having a fiddle in ones band if he wanted to perform in Texas, as can be grasp from the title: If You Want to Play in Texas, You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band. This song grasped my heart because it carried all of the emotions experienced by a cowboy. I could feel the fiery passion of riding on horse-back, the peaceful bliss that comes only after a long day working on the range, and the freedom of the grassy Great Plains that are skimmed by sweet smelling breezes.

The feeling that I heard in this song excited me. This excitement usually was expressed by physical activity. This physical activity included jumping, running, air-guitaring, and singing. In the vicinity of the radio were the two main accessories that I used to express my energy: a couch, and a counter. I would clamber onto the counter and pretend that I was on a stage and perform to the millions of spectators. Then I would stage dive onto the couch, jump up, and run around before repeating this series of energy release. I liked stage-diving the most because I felt like I was flying, so I would sometimes stage dive as many time as I could before the song ended. I think that watching this time trial must have been amusing.

As much as this song reminded me of cowboys, I think that I just liked this song because I did. Some songs are enjoyable because of the message they spread, but others, and I have a hunch that this was one of them, are just fun to listen to. Whether I repeatedly listened to this song without getting tired of it because I associated it with cowboys, or because it just made me happy I am always going to remember this song.