When I grew up, country was the music that people I hated listened to. I was a kid in the 90s when there was a real modern country boom. It all sounded the same to me. They committed some real studio sins back then, featured some terrible sounds. As I grew up, the stories started speaking to me. The teles sounded hot. The sounds stretched back through history. The infinite influences we're revealed to me. I started to hear blues and swing and gospel and rockabilly in there. Now I'm in a country band.

Still the classics appeal to me more, but the newer country types have firm roots, though not derivative, you can hear the echoes of the past.