Home {Gillian's List of Links}

This week's links are about "Home"  Home is a tricky thing when you are an expat. I was born and grew up in Eastern Tennessee. I went to college in DC. I worked and met my husband, Mark in Niger, West Africa. The Teenager was a baby and then a little boy in Zimbabwe and now we are here in Rome. All of these places are Home. It has been a long time since I have lived in the south, but it is never far from me. I make jugs of sweet tea all summer. I long for the sound of the cicadas and a plate of Buddy's BBQ and listen to my fair share of country music. 


Nashville 

We are crazy about this show. It's got Connie Britton (Mrs. Coach from another family fave Friday Night Lights.) There are lots of story lines about the music industry with everything from production, to songwriting to performing, (which is a big deal in my house right now as the Teenager is making his college plans) and lots of silly, soapy drama.  

The Civil Wars

This time last year when I was writing the first version of my App I had Barton Hollow pretty much on an eight hour repeat loop. A little bit country, a little bit folk, a little bit dark and haunting, pretty much everything this duo has recorded is my go-to playlist. As a bonus prize, John Paul White is also a contributing songwriter on Nashville.

Right now Nashville is fully part of the cultural Zeitgeist. This insightful New York Times article is a great read. I am really looking forward to our visit in August. 

"The city remains traditionally Southern in its sensibility, but it has taken on the luster of the current. On a Venn diagram, the place where conservative Christians and hipsters overlap would be today’s Nashville.

Flush with young new residents and alive with immigrants, tourists and music, the city made its way to the top of all kinds of lists in 2012."