If I still had the crazy traffic of my political blogging days, LBC Media would be an influential one-woman PR agency.
I’d work long, hard, and passionately for my clients. Hanson, Rissi Palmer, and all the others could fire their PR people and hire me! 
Hey, you’ve got to have dreams and seemingly impossible-to-reach goals, or life loses its color. Challenges make the heart race and the adrenaline flow. Thinking big transports us from the sometimes mundane existence of day-to-day living. It’s stimulating to plot, plan, and execute each step toward a goal. Taking risks, no matter how small or unimportant those risks may appear to others, is what makes life…fun. (I work from home, sometimes in my pajamas, because I took a risk three years ago and quit a boring 9-5 job to start my own business.)
And certain well-connected people might be reading your blog. (Or following you on Twitter.)
Where was I? Oh. For the record, I admire people who do the unexpected. It’s a welcome change from lockstep conformity. That’s how I try to live my life, and I’m attracted to that quality in others like iron to a magnet.
Blacks singing country music – that’s unexpected, at least to me. I’d heard about Cowboy Troy and his “hick-hop” style. It was a gimmick, but it got him noticed. I was blown away when I first heard about Rissi Palmer and even more surprised that her first single, “Country Girl,” made the chart. Then I found out about Miko Marks. Wow.
I heard Bobby Brown was going on a show called “Gone Country” to compete with others for a chance to record a country song. But it felt like a publicity stunt and not for love the genre.
Then again, some might say the same about the others. A black person has a much better chance to stand out in the country music scene more than they would R&B and hip hop. Wouldn’t you agree? Is it a coincidence, or are more black artists doing country music? Or perhaps I’m only hearing about them now. I’m sure plenty more are entrenched in the country music scene. I suppose I need to broaden my listening and news-reading habits.
Earlier this year, I learned that Darius Rucker, lead singer for the Grammy-winning Hootie and the Blowfish, was working on a country album. His first single, “Don’t Think I Don’t,” has hit Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. Check it out. As one LBC commenter said, Darius has the voice for country music.
All the Hootie band members went to the University of South Carolina, so there was a lot of pride flowing in my home state when their first single, “Hold My Hand,” got massive airplay back in 1994.
Excuse me, will you? I’ve got to go plot, plan, and execute.
Update: Sold! At least one reader plans to buy Darius Rucker’s album based on this post. We’re rolling now. Hire me to help with your blog marketing campaign, Darius!
