Anything to do with Country, C&W, Western, Hillbilly, Blue Grass, Old Time, or whatever fashionable term there may be for the sort of sounds you’ll hear on the radio where there’s a “country” format.
Songs, artists, songwriters, TV shows, awards, halls of fame, venues like Grand Ole Opry and Branson.
Just anything to do with Country Music.
Is this just a general discussion on the subject?
If so, I’ll listen to anything from the 50’s through today, but my favorite stuff is from around 1985-1996.
Yes and no. As general as you feel like, or as specific as you wish. I didn’t even bother with a search for previous threads.
My own tastes and interests go back to childhood, when I can remember the jukebox across the street at the Prattville bus station playing things like San Antonio Rose and other Bob Wills music.
I’ve never been a full-blown fan of the genre, my main bag is jazz, but I do have a soft spot for lots of it.
Being a resident of Music City, USA, has its advantages for the true fan. But I have never been to an Opry performance.
So, make of the thread what you will. It’s just a thread so far.
Item 1: Listen to the the following shows on the KEXP website (or radio if you live in Seattle):
Swingin’ Doors (all country)
Shake the Shack (more rockabilly focused but a lot of country is played)
The Roadhouse (soul, R&B, and other genres appear but there is a good dose of country)
Item 2: He’s not a great singer, but I am really enjoying Jeff Bridges’ songs from the “Crazy Heart” soundtrack. My favorite lines are “I used to be somebody/now I am somebody else” and “Funny how falling feels like flying/For a little while.”
Oh god, I hate country music. It literally makes my ears hurt, it’s so awful to me. There was a short time back in the 50’s-60’s when country music was ok (like Johnny Cash) but that’s another category than modern country. Which sucks. Did I mention that I hate it?
Although the local country station is #1 on my truck’s radio preset list, I don’t listen too much anymore. There’s just too much crap out there. Two out of three songs today are basically “country life is teh gr8est!, woo!” said in a variety of ways.
There are a few gems, though. While trying to catch a particular funny commercial my wife wanted me to hear, I caught Lee Ann Womack’s “Solitary Thinkin’” which is just awesome.
Also, Zac Brown is the best thing to come along is years (although not immune from my complaint above), and I’ve got to get some Darius Rucker on my iPod sometime.
That’s why I love the mid 80’s to the mid 90’s. It was real country music, but it covered all kinds of topics. Most current country singers like to sing about how country they are while having a rock and roll band back them up.
Also, I’m tired of non-country fans always talking about how great they think Johnny Cash was. Just because they saw a movie about him makes them think he’s suddenly the only good thing that ever came from the genre. He’s probably not even in my top 25.
I think radio must have been different when I was growing up (50’s, Iowa). I’m remembering getting country music along with rock 'n roll and R&B, and that a top 40 list included Elvis, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Pat Boone, Neil Sedaka, the Drifters and the Coasters. Was that just a Midwest thing or was there some point when radio stations started to specialize? Or did some songs cross over?
Anyway, I got back into country in the early 80’s, if I remember right. A friend told me about k d lang, Lyle Lovett, and Dwight Yoakam, and I found George Strait – played his second greatest hits tape until it wore out. Later on I started listening to Garth Brooks (saw him in Seattle before he hit big), Rodney Crowell, Brooks and Dunn, and Ricky Van Shelton (gorgeous voice).
I haven’t paid attention for years now. Hubby has country radio on in the truck but the songs all sound the same and they’re all pop-ish, no country flavor. When I’m in the mood I play the old CDs. Oh, I do like BR549 and the Mavericks.
The A.V.Club has been running a series called Nashville Or Bust. In which a writer who has specialized in Hip-Hop has begun studying up on Country Music. So far, he’s covered major influences like Jimmy Rogers, Hank Williams & Bob Wills. (He started with Johnny Cash, of course.) Plus rebels & oddballs like Gram Parsons & Kink Friedman. And Garth Brooks: “Is Garth Brooks history’s greatest monster?”
It’s a pretty educational beginning for newbies & highly amusing for those of us who’ve got a bit more background. Personally, I like Old-Timey, Western Swing, Honky Tonk & some of the Alt-Country Usual Suspects. Of course, I remember Country Rock & the Cosmic Cowboys with fondness.
[tic nitpick] “Darius Rucker” is just part of the band’s name, the singer is actually Hootie. [/tongue-in-cheek nitpick]
Jamey Johnson’s “That Lonesome Song” album rules. Also look for his live performances on YouTube. Good old-fashioned outlaw country.
If it came out after 1987- I can’t stand it (although I do like Garth Brooks). My particular taste focuses on the “outlaw country” era and the 50’s.
If I had to name it- after Cash, my favorite is Don Williams.
I grew up hating country because that’s how suburban kids in my neck of the country were *supposed *to feel. Sigh.
But over time I have come to learn:
There are some great songs - Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Buck Owens - the craft of constructing a 3-minute country gem is as special as any other songcraft, and these writers and countless others are as practiced in their craft as the songwriters in the Brill Building or at Motown.
There is some great technique - watching a “Nashville Cat” - i.e., an insider Nashville musician who plays in certain studios and shows up on everybody’s albums - is a lifetime’s education. Great pedal steel players, fiddlers, guitarists - most can run circles around your average rock player. As insider musicians, they are the equivalent of LA’s Wrecking Crew, Muscle Shoals, the Funk Brothers (Motown) or Stax (Booker T and the MG’s)…
There is great showmanship - an entertainer has to deliver a show. Country may not be my idea of a show, but to watch a professional like Garth Brooks or the Dixie Chicks - or Dwight Yoakam or what’s-her-name Lambert sell a song is an education in showmanship…
I may not put the CD’s in all that much, but there is much respect for Country done right…
I’m 28 and grew up listening to Country. Garth was my favorite as a teen but I also really liked Travis Tritt, Clay Walker, Collin Raye, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, and others. I listened up until 2002 or so, until it just got way too poppy and jingoistic for me. Toby Keith and that stupid answering machine song by Blake Shelton ran me off.
Today, my tastes are totally different. I mostly listen to indie, electronic rock, trip hop, and similar genres but I still have a soft spot for some of the 90s stuff and really love some artists, like Johnny Cash, Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam, Allison Krauss, Marty Robbins, Nickel Creek, and folky alt-americana like Neko Case, Jenny Lewis, and She & Him
Which genre are we talking about, here? There are two completely different genres that both get called “country”, but I can’t really see anything in common between them. On the one hand, you’ve got folk country, like Johnny Cash, John Denver, and the Statler brothers. On the other hand, you’ve got pop country, which I don’t really follow well enough to name names more current than Garth Brooks or Billy Ray Cyrus.
I like the extremes. I grew up with cowboy singers like Marty Robbins. And I like Hank 1 and 3 but strongly dislike Hank 2. Kid Rock is just a mess but I like him anyway. Patsy Cline is good. So, classic country and western, and hellbilly for me please.
What form of Toby Keith? He some pretty good stuff pre-9/11, and seems to be returning to that sort of sound with singles like “She Never Cried in Front of Me” and “Cryin’ for Me.” (Not that those are great, just better than his 9 year slump.)
And if you didn’t like “Austin,” for Og’s sake don’t listen to “Hurry Home.”
The “Country” umbrella surely keeps the rain off a lot of performers. I don’t even try to keep up with the sub-genres which by now probably number in the dozens at least. But I will name a few that have been under that umbrella at one time or another and whom I really like.
Chet Atkins
Bela Fleck
David Grisman
Ray Price
Eddy Arnold
Roy Drusky
Eddie Rabbitt
Glen Campbell
Ricky Skaggs
Jerry Reed
Ray Stevens
Jim Reeves
Willie Nelson
Waylon Jennings
Merle Haggard
Merle Travis
Mel Tillis
Roy Clark
Johnny Gimble
Homer & Jethro
For many others, in case your memory is on the fritz, look into Country music and Category:Country music
Yeah Miranda Lambert is the real deal, she’s good. There is still good country out there.
Miranda Lambert - Crazy Ex Girlfriend
Zac Brown Band - Chicken Fried
Zac Brown Band covers Devil Went Down to GA
Jamey Johnson and Lee Ann Womack cover Give It Away
Jamey Johnson - That Lonesome Song
Jamey Johnson - High Cost of Living
I liked country because my parents liked country. I still like some of it (mostly for nostalgic reasons) but a modern country song has to be particularly impressive for me to like it.