If you had asked me before today, I wouldn’t have listed Kenny Chesney as one of my favorite Country artists. Billy Currington, John Michael Montgomery, and Tim Rushlow would have made the top of the list. But today, as I listened to my “new” (from Half.com–a great place to buy CD’s!) Kenny Chesney Greatest Hits CD, I realized that he sings a lot of my very favorite songs. “Fall in Love,” “Me and You,” “Because of Your Love,” and many more!

When I look around at my church, I see couples in their eighties, still holding hands. And I like listening to music that celebrates the lifelong, “for better for worse” commitment of older couples, like Kenny Chesney’s “Fall in Love”…

Old folks sittin’ in a front porch swing
Still holdin’ hands like they were sixteen
Fifty good years they’re a lover’s dream
Darlin’ that could be you and me
Don’t that make you want to fall in love
Don’t that look like a picture of us
A match made in heaven if there ever was

Another reason I appreciate Country music is the way it celebrates the “faith of our fathers.” Today I heard Kenny Chesney’s song “Baptism” for the first time, and it took me back to the time so long ago when I was baptized…

Down with the old man, up with the new
Raised to walk in the way of light and truth
I didn’t see no angels, just a few saints on the shore
But I felt like a new baby, cradled up in the arms of the Lord

Yes, sir, that’s the kind of music we listen to, back where I come from.