Summer of 1995: I had just come home from my first year at college. It was the closest my life ever got to a Bruce Springsteen song. My old man got me a job at a factory changing computer chips and working in the shipping department (I just like the way that sounds). I spent the summer building shelving, shipping packages and accepting returns. The woman I worked with was a big fan of country music. That was the toughest part of the job. I am a suburban kid from the Northeast. At that time I was much more Pearl Jam, Led Zeppelin than Randy Travis and Garth Brooks. During that time I had 2 weeks that I loved. The first is when my boss went on vacation and I had autonomy of the radio. I listened to Howard Stern in the morning and then classic rock all day. The second was more interesting. In the third week of July the country station had a week of classic country. It was pretty much all Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton. That week changed my perception of Country Music. The music was so raw and real and true. It was like Zeppelin, albeit stylistically different. Then Cash came out with the America albums that Rick Rubin (who produced the Beastie Boys) produced, and a certain type of country music, that I would almost, although I would probably be alone in this, categorize as folk music, became forever in my music mix. So besides being able to afford to buy a TV for my dorm room after that summer the job gave me appreciation of something else as well. Everybody has heard the Cash version of Hurt, you should listen to the rest of those albums because he distills music down to just being voice, guitar and sadness. And sadness is the key ingredient to good music. Compare Shiny Happy People to Everybody Hurts...