An angsty atheist country music star? Is that even allowed?
I don’t like country music. I’m being up front and honest here but I can’t stand it, and my prejudiced ears ache whenever I hear those steel guitars sliding up and down and the southern drawl singing. To repeat something I heard years ago, everytime I hear country music I can feel myself become more stupid. It’s the musical equivalent of fingernails scraping down a blackboard.
If you asked me to sum up country music in words I’d say “god, america and apple pie”. Then while listening to podcasts of Penn Radio, a caller mentioned an atheist country star called Robbie Fulks.
I downloaded a few of his songs, including one called “God Isn’t Real” which is a heartfelt song about the evident non-existence of any god, a viewpoint I completely share.
But it’s country music, with steel guitars.
I could feel myself become more stupid the longer I listened – even though they lyrics were intelligent and I actually agree with them.
However, I am pleased that there’s an out-atheist in the country music scene, statistically there should be lots of them but like being an atheist politician, being an atheist country musician is probably seen as a bad career choice.
More power to him, I hope he does some good, but it’s really not for me.
1 comment February 2nd, 2007