Learning: Music and Water

Music is a very important aspect of my life.  This isn’t to say that I have any musical talents or that I am musically inclined, but listening to music and the lyrics to my favorite songs is what helps me through life.  I grew up listening to George Strait and belting out The Dixie Chicks in the car with my mom and through the years I have grown a special love for country music.  Country artists don’t just create songs, they create stories and tragedies and comedies.  I can truly relate to what they produce and listening to certain songs or artists helps me celebrate, comforts me when I’m sad, and gives me hope. 

Being in this class has made me incredibly more aware of the presence of water in my every day life and I have found myself finding water in the most unexpected places.  Today, while studying and listening to my country music Pandora station, Brady Paisley’s song Water came on.  And then Just Fishin’ by Trace Adkins.  A couple songs later?  Knee Deep by Zac Brown Band.  I couldn’t believe that in less than 20 minutes I had listened to three different songs about water!  I then paused my music to take a minute to research just how many different country songs about water I could find that I recognized.  Here are some of the songs I found:

Redneck Yacht Club, Craig Morgan

It’s 5’O Clock Somewhere, Alan Jackson

All Summer Long, Kid Rock

Pontoon, Little Big Town

Chattahoochee, Alan Jackson

Toes, Zac Brown Band

When the Sun Goes Down, Kenny Chesney

Beachin’, Jake Owen

Something in the Water, Carrie Underwood (a new release)

I have listened to these songs countless times and never gave their topic a second thought.  Now that I have a better understanding and respect for water and it’s influence and presence in our every day lives, I can take a second look at these songs and what message they are using water to deliver. 

My favorite song to analyze was Just Fishin’ by Trace Adkins.  The complete lyrics can be found here but in short, the song is about a father taking his young daughter fishing on the river and while she doesn’t think it is anything more than another fishing trip, he knows that it is a special bonding moment spent with her that she will remember forever. 

She ain’t even thinkin’ ‘bout

What’s really goin’ on right now

But I guarantee this memory’s a big’in

And she thinks we’re just fishin’.

After watching A River Runs Through It and reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and seeing the greater significance a river can hold, I believe the river in Trace Adkin’s song represents a greater meaning as well.  It is a place that brings together a father and his daughter and it provides an intimate environment that separates them from the rest of the world.  All that matters when they are fishing on the river is each other and the time they spend together because “time is tickin’” and trips like these won’t last forever.  The river represents a sacred place that can freeze a moment in time and hold that memory forever.

Country songs incorporate water in so many ways and not all are emotionally significant.  In fact, more often than not I found that songs about water were about partying and drinking on the beach or on a boat.  Definitely more up beat, party oriented songs!  But to end this reflection on another example of how country music portrays the significance water has beyond consumption, here is an excerpt from Alan Jackson’s Chattahoochee:

Yeah, way down yonder on the Chattahoochee

Never knew how much that muddy water meant to me

But I learned how to swim and I learned who I was
A lot about livin' and a little 'bout love.