As usual I was dragged to another "party" by one of my friends. Having little faith in what the night had in store, I reluctantly went. As we drove through the night, the city lights began to dissapear behind the pines. We eventually made it to what looked like a pasture with flickering lights from a bonfire. My interest perked up but I still wasn't sold on this "party". We had been there 30 minutes and it looked like I had been right, lame party. The music on was a mix of synth-pop, garage-fuzz noise with a beat, but no soul. Eventually a guy came up and asked if he could pop his iPOD in. He pressed shuffle, he pressed play then he left. I heard some white noise, some background chatter, some laughter and then a guitar hook that sounded catchy. "whoa, is that banjo?" I thought to myself. What happened next I couldn't have ever predicted. A voice unlike anything I had ever heard before began a wildmans rant in fast forward! "Well Ive been lockin' myself up in my house for sometime now Readin' and writin' and readin' and thinkin' and searching for reasons and missing the seasons.The Autumn, the Spring, the Summer, the snow.
The record will stop and the record will go." I, then and there, in that pasture, by that firepit and around people I didnt even know, I fell in love with this music. Music was new to me once again, they sang about truth, they sang about emotion, they sang from the barrel of their gut and didnt care what anyone thought of it! Since then I feel that I have learned alot from the message that they convey and the image that they portray and I try to live a life that they would find admirable as well. And so with every show that I go to, my love for their music increases, they hook me in just a little more. I'm thankful for that friend that dragged me out to that party and that guy that popped his iPOD in and I'm also thankful that I was able to share this thing I love, with the one that I love most. So why am I a fan? Because I'm lucky I guess.