My next book, Just Another Love Song, is set in a small Ohio town. I knew I had to include country music because I grew up in a small Ohio town, and country music was all I listened to as a young kid. Part of that was because my parents listened to it, and part of that was because we were in a valley and we didn’t get a lot of radio stations. It was country or bust.
I went through a long period of pretending I didn’t like country music, because I was a Surly Teen who read music blogs and deeply wanted to be cool, and I guess I thought Tim McGraw wasn’t cool (I was, of course, wrong). My favorite artist in high school was Ryan Adams, but I was still like, “Okay, I only like this one specific kind of alt-country.”
Here’s the thing though: I was lying to myself. I made the characters in Just Another Love Song, Hank and Sandy, roughly my age so I could use the same musical references I had. This gave me an excuse to listen to some 90s country/put Neon Moon on repeat as I wrote. And when I put on a Spotify playlist creatively called 90s Country, I realized that I knew the words to probably 95% of the songs, even the ones I hadn’t heard since childhood. They’re just a part of me, and now they’re a part of my book, too. These are songs that make me think of long summer days, driving with the windows down, and watching videos over and over on CMT. Those years spent listening to nothing but Reba, Brooks and Dunn, Randy Travis, Tim McGraw, Wynonna, John Michael Montgomery, and Alan Jackson lodged the words of their songs in my head, and they’re not going anywhere.
In general, I try very hard to resist the impulse to wallow in nostalgia, which is hard for someone who’s always loved old things. But I believe in what John Hodgman says about it: “Everyone who enjoyed a stable and relatively happy childhood will look back on their childhood and think that it’s the best. That’s the parlor trick of nostalgia, and it’s why nostalgia is the worst. It is a toxic impulse that leads to nothing good, honestly. The idea that things were better once and are terrible now and getting worse every minute is what fuels the worst, in my opinion, movements in contemporary culture.”
And that’s true. As a high schooler, I hated hearing older guys at the bowling alley complaining about how all new music sounded terrible. Just look around, I would think. There’s good music everywhere. I never wanted to be one of those bowling alley guys, stuck in that dark, stuffy, windowless building and romanticizing the past while ignoring what was right in front of me.
90s country, however, absolutely makes me want to yell “NOTHING WILL EVER BE THIS GOOD AGAIN!” Sorry! It turns me into a nostalgia monster! You might as well put me in bowling shoes because when I’m listening to Alan Jackson, I’m those old guys.
If you, too, feel like taking a trip down a dusty, beer can lined memory lane, here are a few of the country songs that loom large in my memory. I’ve listened to them all about five times each while writing this.
Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident) by John Michael Montgomery
Once at an elementary school talent show, a kid sang this and it brought down the house. People were losing their minds. It’s hard to describe the hold that John Michael Montgomery had on rural Ohio in the 1990s. This isn’t even the only JMM song that was performed at a talent show (the other, of course, being “I Swear”). I still know a shocking amount of the lyrics to this song, and when I attempted to sing it to Hollis (who’s from the actual South), he just stared at me blankly as I was like, “SHE’S AN EIGHT SHE’S A NINE SHE’S A TEN I KNOW.” It was basically like this meme except I’d had a single La Croix.
Chattahoochee by Alan Jackson
Name a more iconic country jam. I dare you. The image of Alan Jackson on a waterski holding onto his cowboy hat lives rent free in my mind. This song makes me nostalgic even though I would never in a million years have hung out at whatever my town’s version of the Chattahoochee was in high school because I was too busy underlining my favorite passages in a Dave Eggers book and listening to The Smiths. It’s hard not to feel like I missed out on learning a lot about living, a little ‘bout love, and maybe something about waterskiing in denim.
Does He Love You by Reba McEntire ft. Linda Davis
I think Reba’s number one banger is probably Fancy, which a girl sang at another one of my elementary school talent shows and my mom was like, “That’s inappropriate” and although I didn’t get why at the time…I get it now. When I confirmed this fact with my mom (this newsletter is nothing if not meticulously fact-checked), she told me that after that, they made a rule that all the songs had to be preapproved, which was good because the year before a girl sang “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now.” I know I’m presenting our talent shows as kind of a lawless land, and that’s because they were. Anyway, I think Does He Love You deserves to go down in history as Reba’s true perfect song. It’s a duet between Reba (the wife) and Linda Davis (the other woman). Imagine cheating on Reba! What fool would do such a thing?? Reba is delivering some of the best vocals of her life in this song, most notably when she sings “Is he deceiving me? Or am I deceiving myself?” and somehow draws the word “am” out so much that she adds an ‘R’ to it. The video is great—campy, over-the-top, a little meta. Basically, this is Reba’s version of a Douglas Sirk film, down to a dramatic boat scene.
Daddy’s Money by Ricochet
One of my favorite genres of song is “a guy lists all the qualities of his dream woman.” You know, like Drake’s “Fancy,” when Drake tells us that his ideal woman has a college education, a mortgage, hair done/nails done/everything did, book and street smarts, and an unhealthy obsession with diet culture but, like, in a way where she does it for herself. Honestly, who has the time? Well, Ricochet took it up a level, because their ideal woman has: her daddy's money, her mama's good looks, more laughs than a stack of comic books, a wild imagination, a college education (they have that in common with Drake), a talent for bass fishing (Drake didn’t mention that one), and she’s also a dynamite kisser and country as a turnip green. I’m exhausted just reading that. Inherited wealth and being good at bass fishing?
There’s Your Trouble by The Chicks
“SHOULDA FIT LIKE A GLOVE IT SHOULDA FIT LIKE A RING LIKE A DIAMOND RING TOKEN OF TRUE LOVE” - me, unprompted
You’re Still the One by Shania Twain
This song is in the book and actually, my working title was “Still the One” before I realized there are already a million romances with that name. I like the spoken word part at the beginning, personally.
Neon Moon by Brooks & Dunn
This song is also in the book and I listened to it on repeat as I was writing. It is, in a word, perfect. My five year old asked to listen to it on repeat a few weeks ago and I was like, “Ah, yes, this is my child.”
Time Marches On by Tracy Lawrence
If I’m being honest with you, I heard this on the radio a couple of months ago and teared up, and that’s a real feat for a song that has the line “Sister calls herself a sexy grandma.”
Poor, Poor Pitiful Me by Terri Clark
In high school, back when I was still insistent I didn’t like country music because I was way too busy reading Spin magazine, I read a Chuck Klosterman book where he said that part of country’s popularity was because it was easy to understand. Not in a metaphorical way, but in a literal one: the singers all enunciate very clearly. I hesitate to even include this example because once Chuck Klosterman sent me what I would call a mildly irritated email. Am I suggesting that pop culture writer Chuck Klosterman and I are embroiled in a vicious feud? Well, no, but I am saying he got annoyed at me once and now I’m very hesitant to misquote him, even in an anecdote about a memory from high school. Also it goes without saying that if you tell Chuck Klosterman about this, I’m gonna get mad. I don’t know if I can block anyone from Substack, but I’ll try! What happens in the newsletter stays in the newsletter.
Anyway, this song made me think of that because she says “he was a credit to his genderrrr” so clearly that it made me laugh.
How Do I Get There by Deana Carter
Deana Carter is probably best remembered for Strawberry Wine, but I personally prefer this song. I hadn’t thought of it for about twenty years, but it’s been stuck in my head the entire time.
Fast as You by Dwight Yoakam
We didn’t realize how good we had it in 1993. Dwight Yoakam was out there singing this song, doing his best Roy Orbison. No one in the year 2022 sounds remotely like this (although I’d be happy to be corrected if someone does). Every time I listen to this song, I’m reminded of Leesa Cross-Smith’s short story Fast as You. Listen, Dwight Yoakam was hot in 1993 in an extremely specific way that I just don’t think is possible these days.
I Feel Lucky by Mary Chapin Carpenter
Speaking of which, I must include this song because Mary Chapin Carpenter talks about being lucky when both Dwight Yoakam and Lyle Lovett hit on her in a bar. The 90s were a different time.
No One Else on Earth by Wynonna Judd
I miss Wynonna. I was going to ask “Who’s today’s Wynonna?” but I don’t think we have one. We’re not living in a time that supports Wynonna. The YouTube comments on this video are so good: “I get chills whenever I listen to it.” Honestly, same.
I Think About You by Collin Raye
I’m not suggesting watching this video, but if you do I hope you enjoy the juxtaposition of the upbeat music with the bizarre imagery. The song starts with Collin Raye listing all the times he thinks about a nameless “you”: when he sees a woman on a billboard, when he sees an actress on a movie screen play “Loliter” in an old man’s dream…he thinks about you. When he sees a pretty woman walking down the street. When men look said pretty woman up and down like some kind of treat. Throughout it all, Collin Raye is thinking about you. YOU, his DAUGHTER! You have big blue eyes and a heart of gold and Collin Raye simply can’t help but see that every woman used to somebody’s little girl. This song is the ultimate “as a father of daughters.” It’s also been stuck in my head for twenty years.
What’s It To You by Clay Walker
Before listening to this country playlist, if you’d said the name “Clay Walker” to me, I would’ve assumed he was someone I went to high school with. But the second I heard the beginning of this song, I was like, “TALK TO ME BABY, TELL ME WHAT YOU’RE FEELING.” This song was everywhere. And don’t forget Clay Walker’s other big hit, where he counsels a friend not to cheat on his wife over a calypso beat.
That Ain’t My Truck by Rhett Akins
“That’s My Girl, My Whole World, But That Ain’t My Truck”: How the Pickup Functions as an Extension of Self and a Symbol of Masculinity in 1990s American Country Music - my thesis
Wild One by Faith Hill
“Wow, this girl sure is wild” is one of my least favorite genres of country song, but I do love that “Wild One” includes the lyrics “They said don’t see him, she said his name is Bill.” What a retort! His name is Bill! Her parents can’t do anything now, she won’t comb her hair and she’s dating Bill!
Forever and Ever, Amen by Randy Travis
This song makes me think of my Grandpa because he always said that Randy Travis sang like a cow. To be fair, I’m not even sure he meant it as an insult. This song almost makes me too sad to listen to it, because it makes me think about a lot of people in my life who are now dead, and also I get sad thinking about Randy Travis himself. Tracy Lawrence knew what he was talking about when he said that time marches on. It sure does, even if we don’t consider ourselves sexy grandmas.
(I can joke all I want, but I started crying when this song played and had to turn it off.)
Pickup Man by Joe Diffie
If you need more proof that things were different in the 90s, just look at how these men presented themselves. All mullets and mustaches. Are there any country artists who look like this now (aside from Morgan Wallen, about whom the less said, the better)? “I met all my wives in traffic jams” and “you can set my truck on fire and roll it down the hill” are A+ classic lines.
Just to See You Smile by Tim McGraw
Yes this song makes me cry and NO I don’t want to talk about it! All Tim McGraw wants is to see you smile!
When She Cries by Restless Heart
This song isn’t on the playlist and it isn’t really country, but it was on CMT all the time when I was a kid and I internalized it. It plays in my head all the time even though up until last month, I hadn’t heard it in about 25 years. Why is the melody the Twin Peaks theme? When did men stop having feathered hair and a mustache? Will that look ever come back? Hope and fear wrestle inside of me. No one has ever emoted in a video as much as these guys. I actually think this might be the best music video I’ve ever seen (sorry, Reba). I miss you, Restless Heart.
Well, I’m off to continue listening to 90s country. Feeling cute, might make a pyramid of cans in the pale moonlight later. If you enjoyed this look back, might I suggest preordering Just Another Love Song? I didn’t mention it earlier, but it does include more than one use of She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy. This is book promo, right? You can find preorder links here, and of course you can order it an any book retailer, including your local indie. It comes out on August 2nd!
Thanks for reading along, and I’ll see you next week (probably with less John Michael Montgomery, but no promises).
Trisha Yearwood’s “she’s in love with the boy” will always be my all time favorite country song. Which is saying a lot because this list also includes my favorites.
Also, this newsletter just made me even more excited for the book release!
Kerry, I love all your books and now it makes even more sense because I know the words to every single song you mentioned in this post!! I grew up in a super liberal suburb between two major metropolitan cities and somehow got hooked on George Strait in the late 80s which led to my completely encyclopedic knowledge of 90s country! I was thinking about somehow working it into my WIP but it’s not the right fit (esp bc I write MG and the kids will… not get it!) but you’ve inspired me to find a way to use these songs and their stories in a book! Well done. Can’t wait to read your next.