My first memories of music are all filled with the sounds of the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Growing up I spent a good portion of time at my grandparent’s horse farm where the country music flowed through the radios in the barn pouring out the country music greats like George Strait and Garth Brooks. As the days on the farm would wind to an end and I’d have sleepovers with my grandparents, my sister and I would spend our evenings singing “I’ve Got Friends in Low Places” on my grandparent’s karaoke machine wearing our cowboy hats and pajamas. These nights weren’t just filled with country music though; another one of our favorite songs to sing was “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” as my sister and I followed my grandma in a dance we had all made up as The Tokens chanted their iconic “wim-o-weh, wim-o-weh, wim-o-weh”. Every time I hear these songs I am taken back to my childhood and the simple happiness of singing into a microphone at the end of a day filled with love, laughter, and horses. Because of this music my grandparent’s house has always been a refuge for me—even today I can come in their house and find my grandpa listening to music on YouTube and my grandma singing songs from the 50’s and 60’s as she cooks and cleans around the house.

When I was between the ages of 4 to probably around 7, my dad drove a tan Chevrolet pickup truck and each time we rode in this car we would listen to a few different songs, but my favorite was always “Like the Rain” by Clint Black. The song opens with the sound of rain, something I have always loved, but my favorite part of this song is the lyrics, “I never liked the rain ‘til I walked in it with you” and to this day I have always associated the feeling of love with the sound of rain. Each time I climbed in my dad’s little pickup truck I asked to hear this song and dreamed of the day I could walk in the rain with someone I love and teach them how to love it just as much as I do. My mom’s car was a little different for me. Her minivan played popular music, whereas my dad’s pickup truck played 90’s country and alternative. But, my mom didn’t always play the pop stations because in the side pocket of her door she kept a CD of Stevie Nick’s greatest hits and Stevie’s rasp would fill the minivan as my mom and I'd listen to my mom sing “The Edge of Seventeen”.

My taste in music is eclectic now. Some days I wake up missing the sounds of my childhood and turn on George Strait or The Dixie Chicks and other times I just miss home and listen to today’s popular country music. But, a lot of the time I find myself listening to the alternative and indie music that my sister first introduced me to in middle school. This is the music I keep separate from my family and is the music most people today would assume I listen to, not Garth Brooks and Eric Church. This music started with my love for the alternative boy band Mayday Parade and made me fall in love with music. Today I find myself listening still listening to alternative bands, but also indie. Indie music tends to be a good mix of the two genres I love: country and alternative. I continue to find new music that inspires me today as a musician and a writer, analyzing the words of the songs and imitating the voices of the singers. Music has a power over me. Putting me in a trance, I can feel each emotion attached to a song; curing any bout of heartache, homesickness, or angst.