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Andy Sullivan: Against the Grain

When I was a kid, I used to pretend I was Kasey Kasem or Bob Kingsley.  Don’t know Bob? Let me explain.  I would come home from school, go to my room and sit in front of my tape collection.  I would count them down according to popularity.  Well, popularity that I made up.  I would do it the way. The pros did.  “This is ____ and welcome to your weekly countdown of all the country hits.  We begin at #20(the number varied, obviously, when my cassette/CD collection grew).  It was definitely the highlight of my afternoon.  Sad life or clever imagination? I choose clever imagination.

I’m sure nobody knew I did it.  I was always a quite, almost painfully shy kid.  That was my outlet.  Music has always been my outlet in one way or another.  From those early years of making up countdown lists(sometimes I’d even write stuff down), I was always into music.  Sure, everybody listens to music but I wanted to explore several avenues.

I’d say the countdowns ended after elementary school.  Honestly, though, I’m fairly certain I did some in the afternoons here and there in middle school as well.  At some point I stopped. I can’t say when.  I got into guitar and started playing when I was a sophomore in high school(1995).  So, in some facet, music has been a part of all of my 38(39 next month) years. 

If you’re still in school, no matter the year, I’d strongly suggest considering music.  I’ll be biased and say guitar.  I promise it’ll see you through good times and bad.  I cannot promise you that it’ll get you noticed by the opposite sex.  Seems like I recall something about being told that women dig guitar players.  I should take that up with my former teacher, Greg Drake. 

Times have changed.  I don’t do countdowns in my room anymore.  These days I choose something off my iPhone and just listen.  I do get my countdown fix, though. I record CMT’s Top 20 countdown pretty much every weekend.  Let them do the work! I’m glad I used to do that, though.  It was a source of entertainment for me and it was a an early hint of a lifelong interest. 

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