Help! I need an intervention

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’m starting to like the Dixie Chicks. :eek:

My lovely roomie is a big fan, so they are in the stereo a great deal here. When we first moved in, I’d tolerate it- as soon as the CD stopped I’d be ready to replace it with some Radiohead or something, anything else.

That lasted for a while, then gradually I wouldn’t rush to the CD player, I’d just sort of tune it out.

Then I started being able to tell the songs apart, and even laughing at expressions such as “I need a boy like you like a hole in my head” and “I’m gonna do a little mattress-dancing.”

It came to a head this week, when I taped the Network special for my roommate (who had a class), and I found myself watching the entire thing from beginning to end.

Which brings us to today - Roomie is out running errands, and I am sneaking Dixie Chicks! I got the CD out of her room! I think I know all the words to “Cowboy Take me Away”!

What explains their strange power over me? I am NOT a country music fan. Okay, I own Johnny Cash’s “Live From Folsom Prison,” but doesn’t everyone? What is happening? I swore “it would be a cold day in July” before I’d become a country music fan…what’s next? Riding off into the sunset with some guy with achy-breaky hair? Alcoholism, or worse ::shudders:: Shania Twain?

I am at a vulnerable point right now: unemployed, getting over a no-good-lying-cheating-son-of-a-bitch, far away from home - I fear that I could slip into full-fledged country music fandom very easily if action is not taken now. We do NOT want that to happen.

Dopers, help me:
Suggest some music I could listen to in order to drive out the evil?
Suggest evil country music that would remind me why I hate it?

Help. Please. You are my only hope.

2

Being a person who actually listens to country music, I don’t agree that it is evil. If you do want a song that will remind you why you don’t like it, here’s a humdinger:
“The Little Girl” by John Michael Montgomery.
It is the most awful song ever recorded. It is about a little girl whose parents are evil athiests, complete with drug and alcohol problems. They beat on each other until the man finally shoots the woman and them himself with the child as a witness. She goes to live with a foster family and they take her to church and she says that “that guy on the Cross” was with her when her parents died.
Are you sick yet?
I hate to turn away someone who has started to like country music, but there you go.

3

Skip the ersatz emotion. Go for the straight-ahead blues, maybe some good old-fashioned torch singing. Or go the other way and play some Vivaldi.

4

Just listen to the country played on most radio stations. That should kill any incipient appreciation of CM. Don’t judge all CM acts using the Dixie Chicks as a yardstick.

If you wish to continue holding CM in contempt, stay away from Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Dwight Yoakam and Joe Ely.

And never, ever allow yourself within hearing range of Patsy Cline. Your soul will be forfeit.

5

The Dixie Chicks would appeal to me more if they were less Dixie. It sounds forced, like they’re doing Elvis impersonations. But they are one of the few country groups without an over-the-top hillbilly twang, so I do listen to them.

6

eulalia - “ersatz” emotion? C’mere, I got some Faded Love for ya.

7

[police bullhorn]

Step away from the mechanical bull!

[/police voice]
And that goes for the C&W bull as well. The highest rates of alcohol consumption are recorded while people listen to C&W music. The only reason that C&W has risen back into the spotlight is that Nashville went to Hollywood and raided all of the good rock and roll sidemen to liven up their two stepping drivel.

Yes, there is some good country music out there. Just not very much of it (like almost every type of music).

8

I like the Dixie Chicks, myself. As the terrific “Sin Wagon” shows, they have bluegrass sensibilities that are not usual in these days of pop crossover dreams. Natalie Maines’ voice is big and expressive and instantly recognizable (though I admit she does have an on-and-off relationship with pitch). But she has a honky-tonk style that is a nice change from the slicker Martina McBride/Faith Hill camp, and it’s worlds better than Shania Twain’s gimmicky posturing.

Most pop culture of all kinds is junk; good country music is no harder to find than good rock or good pop or good hip-hop or a good book.

(As to Zenster’s point about where all the rock ‘n’ roll sidemen have gone: I believe they’re all playing with Larry Carlton and Craig Chaquico over on that Smooth Jazz station…)

9

Hey Mags, want to go shootin’ rifles or four-wheelin’ this weekend? I’ll bring the chewing tobacco.

Maybe we can score some tickets to the next tractor-pull at the Silverdome.

:slight_smile:

They do a good rendition of “Lie to Me” with Sheryl Crow on her live in Central Park CD.

I haven’t heard much of The Chix, but they strike me on the surface as sort of the country equivalent of The Go-Gos. And who hasn’t secretly grooved to “We Got the Beat” or “Our Lips are Sealed”?

Looks around, realizes no one else has. Slinks away …

10

Generally, it’s about…

a. losing the guy/girl and being melodramatically suicidal over it.
b. finding the guy/girl of your dreams, and falling melodramatically in love
c. cheating on the guy/girl of your dreams…
d. begging your guy/girl to come back after you’ve cheated on them
e. bragging about how much you can party
f. how wonderful country life is
g. remakes of older songs
h. heart rending, yet banal philosopical garbage.

Oh, and there will be a truck, or a dog, in the song.

There, now that I’ve covered everything, you’re safe. :smiley:

11

Thanks everyone (except Milossarian, you bloody enabler!)

The CD started to grate after I listened to it 3 more times…maybe I’m cured?

::hums Wide Open Spaces::

12

Short, shameful confession: I like the Dixie Chicks, too. I even own a copy of Fly.

As for what to listen to, I highly recommend Tonic’s Sugar. Lots of bitter lyrics with peppy chords.

13

Just tell yourself, like I do, that really you only watch them on tv and listen to the songs when they HAPPEN to be on 'cause there all just such hotties.
Me personaly? I can’t stand them.

looks left, looks right
Really!