How country music made me a better copywriter

For effective business storytelling, your best role models come from those twangy old tunes everybody is secretly listening to.

Well, it finally happened. country music (C&W — Country & Western) has gone respectable. In the US, PBS ran 8 episodes about the history of country music. Originally it was called hillbilly music. Today you’re more likely to hear what’s called “country crossover” from singers like Kacey Musgraves and (in my opinion) Garth Brooks.

Most people don’t know that I am a big fan of country music — classical country, the real thing, with Hank Williams, George Jones (my fave!), Johnny Cash … the whole line-up. However, now that it’s a big PBS hit, I can come out of the closet and admit it’s one of my two favorite genres.

I discovered C&W while driving around the US a long time ago in a classic VW bug with just a radio. Country music filled the airwaves and frankly, those truck driver songs were just what I wanted to hear on those long, lonely highways. It’s my background music when I’m writing copy.

While PBS claims country music is “America’s own,” the genre has found fans all over the world.

I remember standing on a curb in Amsterdam, Netherlands, when a familiar Johnny Cash tune came…