'In Tune'

“What can I get you sir?” asked the bartender
“Whiskey” was his obvious reply, I was always falling for the cowboy type; he had whiskey on his breath, a skol can stain on his old blue jeans, a well worn cowboy hat on his head. I couldn’t help but stare, something about his demeanor was intriguing. I wanted to know everything.
“We have a special guest tonight to sing for us, Otis Tucker everyone!”
Naturally he was a singer, musicians seem to be my weakness; hopefully he doesn’t sing a love song, I can’t afford to fall in love again. I decided I was now in desperate need for a shot of whiskey.
“This one is called ‘I’m still a guy’” he announced to the hazy room. It turned out to be an anthem for the type of men that I choose:

‘And I'll pour out my heart, Hold your hand in the car,

Write a love song that makes you cry;

Then turn right around knock some jerk to the ground,

'Cause he copped a feel as you walked by.
These days there's dudes gettin' facials,

Manicured, waxed and botoxed.

With deep spray-on tans and creamy lotiony hands,

You can't grip a tacklebox.’


His was becoming more and more perfect to me everytime I heard another chord on his gutiar. The perfect man that I wanted to be with was on the stage, sensitive and manly; I knew I had to talk to him after his set. Suddenly the mood in the room changed, “This one is a little slower, its called ‘She’s Everyting’”.
Oh no, this was it, the love song, the love song that would cause my down fall; I had not been very successful in resisting him in the first place never mind with his singing a beautiful love song! And then it began:

‘She's a warm conversation

That I wouldn't miss for

She's a fighter when she's mad

And she's a lover when she's loving.’

The girl he described in his song was the girl I wanted to be; I wanted him to want to hear my voice when we were ninety, I wanted him to want to me to be his everything. Great, he made me fall for him, last time this happened I ended up leaving. Musicians have this great quality for never being around and cowboys have this great tendency to drink all night every night, the combination is deadly for a relationship.

I watched her take a shot of whiskey; she was so beautiful, I wish that I could get up the gaul to go and talk to her but women don’t usually fancy the cowboy musician type, they see a bad combination. I decided to sing “I’m Still a Guy” because I wanted her to know that I was that type of guy:

‘Well love makes a man do some things he ain't proud of

And in a weak moment I might walk your sissy dog,

hold your purse at the mall

But remember, I'm still a guy’

I am willing to give up looking tough all the time for love because I know that her happiness is more important than my own. She doesn’t know this but I would even give up fishing one weekend a month to go furniture shopping with her, maybe.
She was watching me and I was watching her, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her.
My next song was sure to make her at least want to talk to me, hopefully. If I was lucky this love song would at least make her pay attention to me. “She’s Everything” is the kind of song that is about a great love but it is not too sappy, I prayed that she loved it. As I sang, I looked directly into her eyes when I sang:

‘She's the answer to my prayer

And she's the song that I'm playing’

I watched her reaction, she tried to hide it but I could tell she was starting to listen, really listen to my song.
I walked off my set and toward the most beautiful girl in the room; I wanted so badly just to kiss her lips, to tell her everything she wanted to know. All I could seem to muster was a simple “Hello”


I cannot believe that he came over to me and said ‘hello’! I was so nervous I could barely reply. I wanted so badly for him to kiss me; I wanted to ask him everything that I ever wanted to know about him. Despite my nerves I asked him if he would like to get a drink with me; he said yes and we went to the bar. We spent the night talking about our dreams, fears, passions. We decided to go out again.
His music, the feeling, and the meaning, and the realness behind his songs caused me to fall for him. Six months later we were married and touring the world. Finally my dream had come true a loyal, musically talented, compassionate, hardy man had fallen as deeply in love with me as I was with him.

- Taylor Murphy