By Ben R. Williams
For the purposes of science, I decided to watch some of the Turning Point USA Presents: The All-American Halftime Show and Safe Space for People Who Are Afraid to Hear Spanish.
Serving as an alternative to the Super Bowl halftime show that people actually watched, this event was headlined by Kid Rock and also featured country music stars like Lee Brice, Brantley Gilbert, Gabby Barrett, Barry Grantley, Bricely Bilbert, Leely Brabby, and Grabbert Brabbert (I made up a few of those, but I challenge you to pick which ones).
Now, I’m not going to make fun of Kid Rock. The line’s too long and I have to go to the bank this afternoon. But I do want to highlight a song by Lee Brice, a country music star that I was previously unfamiliar with. His sound can best be described as “like the rest of them.”
To be clear, I don’t hate country music. I love old country music, back when it was about selling illegal whiskey and burying union busters in shallow graves, and I will never touch the dial when “Chattahoochee” comes on. But Lee Brice is a fine example of modern country music, as best evidenced by the new song he debuted at the All-American Halftime show.
I watched Brice perform this song, titled “Country Nowadays,” in its entirety, and I also transcribed the lyrics because they’re not yet available online. These are the sacrifices I make for journalism.
What follows are the lyrics to the first half of the song including the chorus:
“I just wanna catch my fish, drive my truck, drink my beer
Not wake up to all this stuff I don’t wanna hear
Like the same kinda gun I hunt with just killed another man
The only thing mine ever shot was a deer from my deer stand
I just wanna cut my grass, feed my dogs, wear my boots
Not turn the TV on sit and watch the evening news
Be told if I tell my own daughter
That little boys ain’t little girls
I’ll be up the creek in hot water
In this cancel your a** world
“It ain’t easy being country in this country nowadays
The directions the fingers point
When everything goes up in flames
Saying I’m some right-wing devil
Cause I was down-south Jesus raised
It ain’t easy being country in this country nowadays”
Now, I’ll admit, Lee Brice is probably more country than I am. He grew up in Sumter, South Carolina, a rural, backwoods, hardscrabble working-class community perhaps best known for its Swan Lake Iris Gardens, the only public park in the United States containing all eight known species of swan, which also features beautiful plantings of Japanese iris and the annual Fantasy of Lights Christmas event.
However, I feel uniquely qualified to address Brice’s points because I share many of his same passions.
I, too, enjoy fishing. I also own a truck, or at least a body-on-frame SUV I use to tow and haul things. And drinking beer? I love it! In fact, I recently bought an old tractor, and I really enjoy staring at that tractor while drinking a beer. Does Lee Brice own a tractor? Probably not. If he did, I bet he would have mentioned it in his song.
I also own guns, and I feed my dog (it’s just common sense), and I wear boots almost exclusively, and I live deep in the woods. Based on those metrics, I guess I’m fairly country.
But here’s where I differ from Mr. Brice: in my experience, being country nowadays is actually EXTREMELY easy. It’s pretty much the default setting for America.
Don’t get me wrong, being “country” is difficult if you work in agriculture or the beef industry. Those folks are getting slammed by President Donald Trump’s economic policies. But if you’re just into all the window dressing stuff — trucks, beer, fishing, Christianity — it’s super easy. You have a ton of entertainment designed to cater to you specifically. People are always reaching across the aisle to try to figure out how to connect with you because you’re the Real America. Plus, you have all three branches of government in your pocket and they’re at least pretending to care about you. It’s smooth sailing, baby.
Now, if you want to talk about folks who have a tough time in this country nowadays, I’d point to black people, or Mexican people, or really any Latino people, or people who are from a different country than this one, or people who are from this country but specifically from Puerto Rico, or people who are women, or people who are gay.
And don’t even get me started on how bad transgender people have it. On top of everything else they’re going through, they have to listen to some privileged millionaire whine in verse about how he’ll get cancelled if he teaches his kids to hate them.
