Keith wasn’t a favorite pre-9/11 but I liked some of his stuff. I still like “Should Have Been a Cowboy” and think some of his other stuff is okay. It wasn’t even him specifically; I just got tired of everything be “Rah-rah, America!” and just stopped listening one day.
The last time I saw him was about 5 years ago, but even at 70+ Willie Nelson was still putting on a hell of a show. He’s one of my favorite artists, and he’s willing to take a lot of chances that other people are reluctant to. Some of them work and some of them don’t (he put out an awful reggae album a few years ago), but he’s had a lot more hits than misses over the last 50 years.
A few of my favorites have already been mentioned (Dwight Yoakam, Lyle Lovett, Bela Fleck, Merle Haggard). I haven’t seen Guy Clark’s name yet, though.
I liked Toby Keith until after he released his greatest hits. After that, he started to cater to the “I’m supposed to be a redneck, so I’m going to fit the stereotype on purpose” crowd.
There are some good modern people. Miranda Lambert has been mentioned a few times. Dierks Bentley also has some great CD’s.
Blackhawk was another great band from the 90’s. Everybody likes Chris Ledoux. Garth is still my favorite.
Oh, right, I should have remembered to put Toby Keith into the pop-country category. He’s the one who wrote that anti-America song that everyone thinks is pro-America, right? “If tomorrow all the things were gone I’ve worked for all my life, at least this would still be a free country”. So, freedom isn’t one of those things you’ve worked for all your life?
I grew up a country fan (I was nearly born at a Johnny Cash concert) but in the 90’s, while in college, I discovered bluegrass. That was about the time country started to turn in to pop-overdubbed-showy crap. See some acoustic music live and treat yourself to true musicians. It will impress you greatly.
Tony Rice and other greats doing Freeborn Man.
I almost consider bluegrass as the metal of country music. Often fast, technical, and raw. There are really some talented bluegrass musicians. To me it suffers from too many songs that sound alike though.
If it’s got drums, it ain’t country.
Kids, today … .
I think male voices sound okay with twang, but female voices generally don’t. That said, I’d rather hear the twangy female than those girls who just sing with an overly affected accent.
I too really liked the 80s-90s “New Traditionalists”. It sounded like country music. What I hear on the radio these days, the rare time I try it, is bland, popified/rockified crap.
I’ve heard that once upon a time, radio played all kinds of music. I wish it still did. 
Just because I like rock, doesn’t mean I don’t also like pop, soul, folk, jazzy stuff… Bring back variety.
Bring back talent, too. Looking at the 70s music videos, and cruising through YouTube for more of the stuff was a wakeup. So many of the musicians, even taking out the outdated hair/clothes/style factor, weren’t hotties. They seemed to actually get musical success on talent. Now you just have to look great, sue autotune in the studio and lipsynch on stage.
I grew up not liking country because that and heavy metal was what white people listened to. During award shows I would surf channels during country music performances. But looking back there was always a song or two I didn’t mind hearing. 9 to 5, Islands in the Stream, Devil Went Down to Georgia, probably anything that crossed over into pop.
I’d say that when Shania and Faith became megastars was the closest I came to being a fan of a country musician. I know some consider them more pop than country.
I enjoy the well crafted country songs from the past and present. Like all genres, there are great ones, good ones, meh ones and ones that just plain suck.
The country station that my house radio is usually tuned to is mixed classic and top 40 country with some old school Western swing, bluegrass and mountain music thrown in for good measure (in case the Nashville area Dopers are wondering, it’s WANT / WCOR out of Lebanon).
The current crop of top 40 country musicians mostly grew up in the eighties and nineties on a variety of styles and it works it’s way into their songs: Brad Paisley or keith urban’s guitar styles, Taylor Swift’s vocals, etc. There are those who claim that it’s too pop, but when you listen to what was the Nashville Sound back in the sixties, it too reflected the pop styles of the previous decade.
Personally, my favorites are bluegrass, folk and alt-country, but I listen to anything that is reasonably good. I also work in the business once in a while. What everyone hears as the end product is actually some of the better stuff, although once in a while, I get to hear something that is absolutely awesome, but totally unmarketable.
Like almost any music, country music is in constant evolution. What most of us really like about the old stuff is that we only hear or remember the best of it.
Country is a bit different with its evolution, I think. It starts to change for about 10 years, then there’s a massive return to its roots. They keep repeating that cycle. Once it gets back to the traditional sound, it gets good again.
I do a bluegrass radio show the first Saturday of each month, 11 am to 1 pm Central Daylight time
wluw.org or listen in Chicago WLUW 88.7 FM
Old bluegrass, new bluegrass, live bands, the works.
Listen in!
David
Some Fun Stats form the Hot Country Songs Book based on Billboards Country Music Charts
Top 10 Artists (1944 - 2009)
[ol]
[li]Eddy Arnold[/li][li]George Jones[/li][li]George Straight[/li][li]Johnny Cash[/li][li]Conway Twitty[/li][li]Merle Haggard[/li][li]Dolly Parton[/li][li]Webb Pierce[/li][li]Willie Nelson[/li][li]Ray Price[/li][/ol]
Top 10 Male Artists
[ol]
[li]Eddy Arnold[/li][li]George Jones[/li][li]George Straight[/li][li]Johnny Cash[/li][li]Conway Twitty[/li][li]Merle Haggard[/li][li]Webb Pierce[/li][li]Willie Nelson[/li][li]Ray Price[/li][li]Buck Owens (12)[/li][/ol]
Top Ten Female Artists
[ol]
[li]Dolly Parton[/li][li]Reba McEntire (11)[/li][li]Loretta Lynn (21)[/li][li]Tammy Wynette (30)[/li][li]Tanya Tucker (34)[/li][li]Kitty Wells (40)[/li][li]Crystal Gayle (48)[/li][li]Barbara Mandrell (55)[/li][li]Lynn Anderson (58)[/li][li]Anne Murray (60)[/li][/ol]
Top Ten Groups/Duos
[ol]
[li]Alabama (16)[/li][li]Brooks & Dunn (33)[/li][li]The Statler Brothers (44)[/li][li]Oak Ridge Boys (56)[/li][li]Bellamy Brothers (69)[/li][li]Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers (87)[/li][li]Lonestar (88)[/li][li]Rascal Flatts (104)[/li][li]The Judds (116)[/li][li]The Kendalls (131)[/li][/ol]
Overall ranking in parentheses
It’s kind of intersting to see how heavily weighted Country music is toward single males as opposed to groups and solo females
Achievements
Most #1 Hits - Geroge Straight - 40
Most time spent at #1 - Eddy Arnold - 145 weeks
Most consecutive #1 hits - Alabama - 21 #1 songs (1980 - 1987)
Most top 10 hits - Eddy Arnold - 62
Most top 40 hits - George Jones - 143
Most songs to chart - George Jone - 167
A friend sent this to me in email Music Calls Us Home which is more about Nashville than Country Music per se, but there’s no denying that the two are linked in many people’s minds. Other genres are well represented as well and the video is a good promo for the city, I believe.
I heard a Tim McGraw song I liked once, but I got over it.
D
I grew up listening to country in the late 1980s/early 1990s.
My favorite artist of all time would probably have to be George Straight. That man is a hit machine, from Amarillo by Morning to Troubadour. Forty-three #1 hits and a career spanning decades.
And Garth Brooks is something special too. He always had such a unique and intelligent way of writing songs. He isn’t afraid to take artistic risks or sing about controversial subjects. He can do a song like Rodeo that is just full of grit and passion, and then turn around and do something like Cold Shoulder or Wolves that just breaks your heart.
In case you can’t tell, I have a soft spot for rodeo songs and truckin’ songs.
The newer stuff is a lot more hit-and-miss for me. I used to moderately enjoy Toby Keith until he turned into a giant douche. Martina McBride and Faith Hill both had great early careers, but I can’t get into their newer stuff very well.
I think the best recent country music song is ‘‘Don’t Blink’’ by Kenny Chesney. Damn, if it ain’t true.
My two all-time favourite songs are “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by the Charlie Daniels Band and the much-covered “Hallelujah” by Lenord Cohen, although Cohen is more the folk-end of country. And personally, my favourite cover of “Hallelujah” is that of Bon Jovi.
I also really like Trace Adkins, but he’s more the pop-end of country.
I play flute, piccolo, Irish whistle (aka tin whistle or penny whistle) & bodhran in Bush Bands and Irish Bands - I always thought of that as country music, but I’m guessing Irish jigs and reels and the like don’t fit the definition of country we are using here!
Actually, Irish jigs and reels, old English and Scottish ballads and other folk music from the British Isles are kissing cousins. Most of what we know as mountain music in the USA had its beginnings across the pond.
During the Depression, songcatchers were sent to the Appalachian mountains as one of the work programs sponsored by the government. They found that some of the Child ballads (Child Ballads - Wikipedia ) had survived there, almost unchanged from when those hills were first settled by Europeans.
You don’t have to listen too closely to hear some of the same themes and chord sequences in mountain music, bluegrass and to a lesser extent, mainstream country as the songs that were brought over by the earliest settlers. Think Barbara Allen, Mountain Dew and all of the songs about killing a young lover by the river. It isn’t much of a stretch for a bluegrass musician to sit in with a traditional Irish group or vice versa.
Whether the people who set and delineate categories of music would agree or not, I personally see a great relationship between Celtic Music and at least the instrumental part of Country. I think the origins of Instrumental Country with fiddles playing a large role have obvious Irish and Scots roots. The reels and jigs and “square dance” rhythms, too.
And “Old Time” vocals tend to have that keening quality thet Celtic Music is noted for as well.
I’m no real student of musicology or anything, but my ears tell me there’s a strong connection.