It’s been a while since I’ve taken the time to sit down and write a Monday Musings post but this morning after hearing news of the attack on Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas I knew I had no choice but to write.
By now, I’m sure, you’ve heard that during Jason Aldean’s set at Route 91 in Las Vegas a gunman opened fire with an automatic rifle killing, at least, 50 people and injuring hundreds of others.
There have been attacks at festivals before but, as tragic as they were, none have ever hit as close to home for me as the one last night at Route 91. Route 91 is a country music festival, and we cover a lot of country music festivals and as we grow into the US market Route 91 would’ve been a festival on our radar.
When I heard about the news of the shooting there was no initial mention of which festival was hit, but, to my knowledge, there was no other large scale festival going on in Las Vegas this past weekend. Once it was confirmed my heart sank. When it comes to country music in the US Route 91 featured all of the big names from Eric Church to Jason Aldean as well as Canada’s own High Valley. Many country music fans from Canada had traveled to Las Vegas to take in this festival, at this time it’s still unknown whether any Canadians were killed or injured.
Terror only wins if we stay silent and if I know country music fans the way I think I do we won’t stay silent for long!
The question in my mind this morning is why? Why choose a country music festival? Why chose a peaceful gathering of music fans enjoying one of the most peaceful genres of music you can think of. Country music is about peace, love and having a good time. Was the shooter jealous of the country music lifestyle? Perhaps peace love and having a good time is now a threat to people? or perhaps this shooter was simply so angry that he chose to target the largest group of people he could find because he wanted to inflict pain on others.
Well whatever the reason or motive for the shooting I know country music and I know the fans of country music and I know that they, we, won’t be silenced for long. Today, this week, we will mourn the fallen and pickup the pieces. But I can assure you the music will play on and it won’t be long before we gather together once more to party and celebrate like only country music fans can. The beer will flow, the plaid will be plentiful and it’ll be cowboy hats as short shorts as far as the eye can see.
I would like to personally send my condolences to the friends and families of the fallen and prayers to the injured, our best tribute to you all will be to get back into the saddle quickly. Terror only wins if we stay silent and if I know country music fans the way I think I do we won’t stay silent for long!
