Jennifer Nettles knows that some people like to stereotype country music as music that is about your dog dying and your car breaking down and your wife leaving you, but she says, “Really, what that is, is I think that country music is unafraid to celebrate brokenness and to celebrate realness, and it has a tradition of doing that to allow itself to be confronting – everything from ‘D.I.V.O.R.C.E.’ to ‘The Pill’ to ‘Fist City,’ or to whatever else it might be that felt brash or edgy, or even ‘Folsom Prison Blues.’

Jennifer also likes that country music acknowledges all walks of life and isn’t afraid to acknowledge people’s imperfections.  She says, “To acknowledge other ways of life, to acknowledge your own pain, to acknowledge the pain of others in a way that says this is real guys we’re not gonna whitewash this and act like it isn’t happening. We’re not going to sanitize this for you. We’re gonna talk about something that’s hard and we’re going to get through it like adults.”

You can hear a lot of that real life on Jennifer’s latest album, Playing with Fire, which features her latest single, “Hey Heartbreak.”

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Jennifer Nettles – country is real and raw  :51

“Well that’s what I say a lot of times about country music is that people, they can make fun of it and say, ‘Oh it’s about your dog dying and your car breaking down and your wife leaving ya.’ But really, what that is, is I think that country music is unafraid to celebrate brokenness and to celebrate realness, and it has a tradition of doing that to allow itself to be confronting – everything from ‘D.I.V.O.R.C.E.’ to ‘The Pill’ to ‘Fist City,’ or to whatever else it might be that felt brash or edgy, or even ‘Folsom Prison Blues.’ I mean, like, to acknowledge other ways of life, to acknowledge your own pain, to acknowledge the pain of others in a way that says this is real guys we’re not gonna whitewash this and act like it isn’t happening. We’re not going to sanitize this for you. We’re gonna talk about something that’s hard and we’re going to get through it like adults.”