My Secret Soft Spot For Country

Unpacking the urban vs. rural divide and country's moment in the sun. Plus, the genre's Black roots and BTS of a luxury NYC hotel.

Last fall, I made a rare trip to the country. On the long drive to my hotel from Milwaukee airport I chatted with my driver, a local Wisconsiner in his early twenties. We got on the topic of city vs. country life after he warned of how unsafe Milwaukee has become. When I asked why he’d never been to New York City, he told me it’s too “cultured”—there are too many “dangerous people” there. As a former veteran, he’s naturally on guard and a city like New York has too many unknowns. I told him, it’s funny, I feel the opposite—having so many people on the street is what makes New York feel safe to me. It’s when I’m out in the country—walking alone on an empty road with no person or store in sight—that I feel unsafe. As we drove past a Piggly Wiggly, the lone grocery store in a vast expanse of open fields, I told him I feel more unsafe in places like this.

I left the conversation feeling more vindicated in considering myself a city person. It’s been a core part of my identity since I was a …