Country Music Isn’t as Grumpy as Oliver Anthony

Kicking off the first 2024 presidential debate with a question about a country song was music to my ears.

Alas, the song was Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond,” which turned Mr. Anthony into an overnight superstar. That chart-topper is about young men despairing because the elites “keep on kickin’ them down.” It will be a shame if pop or rock fans come away from the debate thinking Mr. Anthony’s song is representative of country music.

I was a late-blooming country fan, but what hooked me is that more than any other genre, country songs often emphasize contentment with what you have. You’re much more likely to hear a country song about spending time with family than living in a mansion or flying on a private jet.

The tracks I enjoy are in sharp contrast with Mr. Anthony’s song. They’re joyful, gratitude-laden tunes like Kane and Katelyn Brown’s “Thank God,” in which the husband-and-wife express gratitude for bringing them together, or Jordan Davis’s excellent “Next Thing You Know,” which covers the full span of a married couple’s relationship. It includes a touching take on becoming empty nesters that sees opportunity in loss: “You get to know your wife again / And you’re more in love than you’ve ever been.”

Of all the great country artists, none may be a better antidote to despair than Cody Johnson. Dozens of his songs focus on his gratitude for his wife, daughters and faith.

Mr. Johnson was a bull rider in his youth. He was good enough to make the professional circuit but not good enough to be elite. When he washed out of bull riding, Mr. Johnson said he was in a “pretty dark period” and felt like a “loser” and “failure.”

Mr. Anthony’s hit song opens with a young man lamenting that he works hard only so he can “waste my life away” and “drown my troubles away.” It’s easy to see how that could have been Mr. Johnson at his nadir.

Mr. Johnson could well have gotten stuck in a rut. Luckily, he wasn’t alone. His wife quit school to help support him while he pursued his dreams. He has been writing songs about her ever since.

In Mr. Johnson’s new hit “The Painter,” he sings about how his life was “black and white” before he met his bride. She “brought the beauty I was missin’ with her / Showed me colors I ain’t ever seen. . . . I thank God every day for how He made her / My life was black and white, but she’s the painter.”

Mr. Anthony may be right that the rich men north of Richmond “just wanna have total control,” but they’re powerless to keep someone like Mr. Johnson down. Maybe in the next debate the moderators will play a tune by Mr. Johnson and ask those vying to be the next leader of the free world to explain the limits of what politics can do—and what lies beyond.

That’s the real beauty of country music. Find someone or something to bring color to your life, and you won’t be able to help but say, sing, or shout how thankful you are.

Mr. Kritikos is a lawyer in Texas.