My Favorite Place-Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers, February 8, 2021

Country music is the sound of the South, talking about God, girls, and guns. Drunken Saturday nights and church on Sunday morning. Go up North and it ain't all rock 'n' roll, though. I discovered Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers on a Valentine's NoiseTrade sampler. Some indie mix tapes might make the coldest heart sceptic believe in love. The song Kellogg contributed to the mix was "Song for Lovers," which is as much about existential dread as it is a love song. Years later, I discovered the rest of the album Gift Horse, which is Northeastern folk-rock, which is pretty darn close to country music. Kellogg sings about watching his family grow up, relationships that didn't quite work out, the doubt in the existence of God, and life in the country.

I GOTTA GET BACK TO THE COUNTRY. This song struck me today on my walk. I was born in a small town in Upstate New York. And calling it a town is a compliment. We lived off the beaten path down a dirt road that will tear up your car after a few months. If the potholes didn't get you, the salt from melting the snow would. We'd have to drive 20 minutes to the nearest gas station. Two hours on the bus to school and two hours back, unless it was snowy. It could take all night. One year it snowed from Halloween until March and we hardly could get to town. In the early spring we'd make Maple Syrup at my grandfather's farm. We moved to North Carolina when I was 10 where we lived closer to town (which is rightly called a town). I never lived in a city

I GOTTA GET BACK TO THE CITY. until I moved to Korea. A small Korean city is 250,000 people. The town in North Carolina was maybe about 20,000 people. In New York it seemed like it was a population of 500, but I'm probably wrong. In Korea I could walk out my door 24/7 and buy something to eat. I could get anything delivered with a little language skills I didn't need a car. The bus or subway got me there quickly. My current school is in the country with a jacked up bus schedule, but it is possible to get to work using only public transportation. I step outside and there are always people around. It gets hard to clear your head when taking a walk, but the convenience is quite incredible.

THIS IS MY FAVORITE PLACE.  I often wonder which I prefer. When I was young, I dreamed of living in a big city. I didn't know what that would entail--a small apartment, long hours on the job, noise, people constantly around me. Some days I long to go back to the country. I've entertained thoughts about learning a practical skill or getting into farming and moving to a life where I could be forgotten our of sight rather than erased among the masses. But I awake from the daydream realizing that I don't have any of those skills. I never learned them. I wasn't drawn to them as a kid, and I avoided working with my dad. I guess it's life in the city for now. And if you have the ones you love around, it's quite nice wherever you land.

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