Emotionalism, another album that sound tracked my years growing up in Lawrence, Kansas. This one makes me think of my freakishly stereotypical Kansas upbringing of running through cornfields and building forts out of hay bales. Playing games in the backyard with friends and being free range kids, running all over the place. My parents were always playing this album when it came out and that is the time of my life that I remember when I hear it. I picture my Mom in the kitchen making the kids dinner, and I picture my Dad out in the yard mowing, or grilling. In “Salina” the first line of the song goes:

“Salina, I’m as nowhere as I can be
Could you add some somewhere to me
Ah Kansas, I’m kneeling, ah Kansas, please”

“The Ballad of Love and Hate” was one of the first songs I actually learned on guitar and not just hit the guitar strings like I did when I was little, I could actually play it. Me and my dad both learned this song and I clearly remember sitting in our living room with the whole family and playing this song together. Not to toot our own horn but I think we sounded really good. Maybe I think this because we got Mom to cry. Moments like those are ones that stick with you for a while. I hadn’t heard this song in a long time as of recently and over this past summer heard it and remembered the guitar for it. I played it and learned a few more of the techniques used in the song that I couldn’t play when I was 13. Playing it was like transporting myself back to those moments.