I'm Phoenix Chestnut

Who's Phoenix Chestnut? I am. My name is Felix Castaneda and Phoenix Chestnut is a pseudonym I created. My last name means Chestnut in English. 

I've been on this country music kick for several years now. First I was scratching the surface, now I'm digging deeper. I'm middle aged now. I've been nostalgic for my childhood ever since I turned fifty. 

My first memories of listening to country music is sitting in the back seat of my childhood babysitter Nita Taylor, and she always had on KRAK 1140 AM out of Sacramento. This was probably the late 1970's. I don't remember exact songs, but I can remember the catchy jingle and DJ Joey Mitchell on the radio. At Nita's house, she'd play Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, among others. I would imagine Buck Owens, Porter Wagoner, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, and Conway Twitty. Let's not forget Willie Nelson. 

I remember Nita being excited about the Loretta Lynn biopic, Coal Miner's Daughter. I can imagine her excitement about the movie was the equivalent to mine and Star Wars. She told me Loretta Lynn grew up dirt poor, but became a very successful singer. She showed me pictures of Loretta Lynn and she would look very dressed up with very nice clothes. Hard for me to image in my youthful mind she was once very poor. 

Also during this time, Kenny Rogers 'The Gambler' album was very successful and was always on the radio. I enjoyed listening to it. It was more than a country song, it was a crossover mainstream album and song. 

Country music was all around me. My aunt Patty would play Eddie Rabbit's 'I Love a Rainy Night' over and over again. She also played Dolly and Kenny's 'Islands in the Stream' and make my sister and I sing along with her. 

I got disconnected from my main source of country music at 10 when my mom and father divorced and my mom could no longer afford to send my sister and I to Nita's house. So we bounced around from aunt to aunt after school until I became a latchkey kid at 11 in late 1983. By this time I was listening to more Top 40 radio on FM 102 when it was a pop station (now it's a awful modern R&B, Soil, Hip Hop station). I really liked listening to Huey Lewis and the News. Aunt Patty introduced me to the bubble gum pop music while my Uncle Mike introduced me to The Cars, KISS, The Rolling Stones, etc.

Update...it's January 3rd...

So now I'm back listening to country music full time. 

So this blog will feature what I think about old country music and the present day form of it. It's mainly Country Pop now.