One Song this time, and it's Country!

Okay, so I get the point that country music might be relatable to many: The themes presented, the rustic quality of the images evoked, and so on. However, in my life, this genre doesn't usually perk my interest. The music (coming from a guy who considers bands such as Massive Attack, Radiohead, and King Crimson normal) is pretty bland and predictable, the themes of living in a southern small town on a farm don't relate to me, whose only small farm-town experience has been up here in Alaska, and the scenes of depressed men going to the bar are silly and, dare say it, depressing. However, like other genres, there are often those that evoke a spiritual reaction even to the inner-city dweller in the Big Apple.

1) Johnny Cash - "Hurt" : This song is very depressing, but also very humble and beautiful. There are three reasons for it's beauty. First, this song was released near the same time of Cash's death, making this song of humility almost an epitaph to the listener. Second, the message in itself talks of a man who has done wrong, who has lost everything, and, without fully expressing it, a man who is crying for repentance... not in like a deathbed conversion, but rather like Alma the Younger as he felt swallowed in the depths of Hell crying for forgiveness and surrendering his life for the savior. Finally, there is the irony of the song's beginnings. While, as you listen to it, you might think it came out of Cash's own life struggles, it is actually a cover of a NINE INCH NAILS SONG! Yeah, that's right, this came from the same man who released such songs as "Closer" in the 90's and helped kick-start the careers of other infamous artists like Marilyn Manson. But maybe that's the whole point of this song, not just for Cash, but also for Trent Reznor and us... no matter what foolish and wicked things we have done in the past, there is always hope for us under the Atonement. As Cash changed for the better, and as Reznor appears to be changing from the man he used to be, and even as Alma the Younger and the Sons of Mosiah transformed from torturers and murderers of members of the church into the greatest missionaries in the Book of Mormon, we can change too. Amazing what power comes through the medium of music.