Country Mike Blog

10 K race and more

Mike Sudhalter  |  November 25, 2007

I met my goal in completing the 10K race in under an hour, with a 53 minute, 20 second finish. I was pretty pleased with it, and I think listening to country music on the ipod helped out. However, I listened to a couple of rock songs - I can't even remember them - during the final stretch. Since I have the ipod on shuffle, it was totally random. But I thought it was fitting that there were some fast ones just as I was trying to speed up.

Actually, I was trying to find a song by Granger Smith as I was coming down the home stretch, but I couldn't multitask and find the song in the ipod library.

Friday was a hectic night for me as I traveled an hour to the south on business, but I got to listen to newcomer Jeremy McComb. I didn't know what to expect, but I'm really high on McComb's music. He's traditional yet contemporary, and "Wagon Wheel" is a really cool song. I also like the ballad, "This Town Needs A Bar". Sounds like a good song for my town.

Jeff Griffith is all traditional, hard-core country music, and you've gotta love the tune "The Radio" where he sings a first person song from the perspective of a radio. Love the line 'Are you laughin', are you lovin', are you leavin'...no matter what you're going through, I've got a song for you.'

Another great traditonalist is Star De Azlan, a Texan. Her retro-style ballad "She's Pretty" is great, and according to De Azlan's myspace, will be on itunes next Tuesday.

Shanachie Entertainment is a company in that country music hotbed of New Jersey, but they've been a leader in traditional country. Releasing albums by the likes of Daryle Singletary, David Ball and Gene Watson.

They recently released a compilation called "The Greatest Country Love Songs." There's 13 covers of classics, and the best one is probably Tracy Byrd with "Today I Started Loving You Again".

Could there ever be too much country music? I used to go to a local music store and buy a ton of stuff in the closeout sale. Now, I go back and there's a lot of CDs left, but none that I want.