It might just be the anti-authoritarian streak in me talking, but that feels like all the more reason to do for the genre. Taylor Sheridan doesn't own the genre, and there are better stories to tell than one about the rich guys.

If you do it, I'll do it too. I'm about overdue to unpack some stuff, myself. When you're mucking through the shit, it can help, knowing you're not doing it alone.

In especially lucky. A lot of folks carry the weight of Jacobson's death alongside me, making it a little lighter of a burden.

One of the folks carrying that weight with me happens to be a retired CMSAF. Did my soul good to find this tribute.

You're helping me realize this evening what a bittersweet privilege it is to have your fallen friends memorialized; to have served during a time where death was rare enough to give each one the weight it deserves.

And if you feel like you don't have time for a full performance, let me give you some bite sized suggestions:

When you look at other performers of her scale, you see things like Kendrick Lamar's Juneteenth show, or Tyler the Creator's Camp Flog Gnaw. In both cases, you can clearly see someone trying to use their star power to raise up as many other folks as possible. I would LOVE to see that from Beyoncé.

*to be fair, desegregate is a bit of an oversimplification. It would still be a minute before the audience for the live shows would see a mixed crowd, but given the hayride's massive radio presence in the area, the physical space hardly mattered.

And that doesn't even bring up the Charley Pride of it all. An argument could be made that Cowboy Carter is pretty heavily inspired by the "Countrypolitan" genre Pride made famous, except he actually did some pretty revolutionary shit, like desegregate the Louisiana Hayride.

Oh damn, you're right. Apologies to Alan Jackson for the stray, because I know Tim McGraw deserves it. It's early yet, and apparently my brain hasn't come fully online.

And, honestly? I'd agree. 2016 Beyonce hadn't put the work in to the genre yet to earn that spot.

Oh, I'm not saying these guys in particular. Brooks and Dunn seem to honestly have fun experimenting with new things, and certainly don't need to chase trends for a payday.

Alan Jackson, though? I dunno. I still remember the cultural appropriation shitshow that was Indian Outlaw.

But also, I think we can blame Santana and Rob Thomas for this trend. Smooth was inescapable for the latter half of 1999 and country was already chasing trends hard. We were still a few years away from honky tonk badonkadonk, but the genre was already scrambling to find something to make it relevant

If I had the inclination, I'd look into just how many country artists that jumped on this trend back in the day are online now complaining about Bad Bunny at the Superbowl. There's got to be some overlap in that Venn diagram

*Hideo Kojima.

Goddammit....

I'll do you one better. This cover of Sledgehammer has less than 1k views, and I'm at least 111 of those.

Do yourself a favor, and give this version a listen. I promise you, it fucks.

I took the time to listen to some of his stuff from previous bands he put together, and it's all generally unremarkable.

Some folks are calling the guy a modern-day Bob Dylan, but I think he's just the Dick Wolf of Folk Music. Without headlines to rip from, he would barely make a blip.