…but didn’t grow up listening to it, what artist, album, and/or song drew you in or changed your mind? Traditional, Western swing, bluegrass, new country, whatever. I’m guessing there maybe some of you who like country-rock yet nothing else similar, but I think it’s more common that once one overcomes the aversion to anything with a twang they would be more open-minded to, say, Hank Williams.
Me? I’d have to say the “Sweetheart Of the Rodeo” album by the Byrds, probably in my mid 20s. I won’t say I disliked country music before that, but that CD opened my ears. I was probably listening to Dylan’s “Nashville Skyline” around the same time, but that one’s not in the same league.
I still only like certain traditional country, but what got me into country-pop in the 90s was CMT. VH1 and MTV had pretty much given up on videos but CMT had country videos all morning on Saturdays. Collin Raye (especially One Boy One Girl) became a favorite, and Jo Dee Messina, Shania Twain, etc.
I then revisited people like Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, etc., with a better appreciation.
I grew up in New York City, but still heard a fair amount of country music during my childhood because the country scene wasn’t completely divorced yet from the folk scene, which was still big in New York in the Sixties.
Johnny Cash had a foot in both Nashville and Greenwich Village. His show introduced me to Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie and Gordon Lightfoot, but also to Waylon and Kris and Willie.
I’m not a fan of country music, but over the decades have discovered things I like.
Roger Miller was funny and smart – I always liked him. Hank Williams Sr. was a fine song writer – I always liked him.
Later on I discovered Willie Nelson by way of his Stardust album – which was also my introduction to most of those American Songbook standards. Willie was an excellent and tasteful singer, and played excellent understated guitar. A few years after that I got a Patsy Cline Greatest Hits collection and became a fan.
I’m not a big Haggard fan, but 'If We Make It Through December" was a crossover hit that got played on the speakers while I worked on an assembly line for minimum wage. I remember it fondly. And “Momma Tried” is a wonderful, ridiculous thing.
I’m a fan of Riders In the Sky, but that’s more Cowboy than Country. Like Bob Wills and Asleep at the Wheel.
So, not a big fan, but I understand there are some fine items to be found.
The only “country” singer I recall hearing frequently with my Berkeley clique circa 1969 was Kris Kristofferson. I don’t know why he was so privileged. (Was it because he was dating Janis Joplin? )
I came in to say something similar. I hated country growing up, my dad and step-mom both loved it and I would just grind my teeth when they played that hillbilly shit.
Then one day in the mid-90s, I was cruising the cable channels, and was going to flip past CMT on my way from MTV to VH1, and a video caught my eye. I wish I could say it was Alan Jackson or Dwight Yoakam or George Straight. Nope, it was Carlene Carter’s “Every Little Thing.”
After that, I’d check the country radio stations on occasion in my car to see if this song was on, and in doing so became exposed to Garth, Shania, Travis, et al. Next thing I know, I’m a country fan. These days I’m more into Johnny, Willie, Merle, Patsy, but I’ve still got a soft spot for the 90s country.
heh I’m an old country fan … grandma listened to wilie nelson George jones jim reeves hank sr … patsy cline she didn’t have much use for 80s and 90s country except for randy travis Dwight yokam alan Jackson and leane rimes oddly she liked lionel Richie’s forays into country …
she did like her country with a sense of humor occasionaly so we listened to ray stevens tom t hall jerry reed … for years it was a tradition for wwki to play sneaky snake by request on my birthday …
I hated Country as a teenager, just like I hated Disco and Opera. They simply weren’t cool compared to Rock.
I came at Country through guitar and songwriting. I couldn’t cite one specific moment, but when my guitar magazines talked about how amazing Chet Atkins, Hank Garland, Roy Clark and so many other players are, you end up checking them out and respecting them. James Burton walks that fine line of rockabilly brilliance and country chicken pickin’. If forced, I’d say he was my gateway drug ;).
From a songwriting standpoint, I was probably in my 20’s when I really listened to some Hank Williams songs, Crazy and Walkin After Midnight by Patsy Cline, etc. The fundamental tightness and excellence of craft in those songs is pretty hard to deny once you get past being a rock-headed teenager.
I always liked Cash due to his early work with Dylan. Willie Nelson has been cool all his life.
In the 90s a friend of mine worked for a record label. She got me backstage passes for her artists; Clint Black, Martina McBride, Alabama, and a few others. If you’re backstage it doesn’t matter what genre the concert is. You’re backstage.
I still have a harmonica signed by Clint Black. He’d asked me which of his songs I liked the most. I told him The Galaxy Song, which he’d just covered. He laughed at my honesty, as it was the least country song he’d ever sung. Turned out we both liked Monty Python. We half assed sang it together and he gave me his harmonica. Cool guy.
I started listening to music as a teen in the 60s and hated country music probably all the way to the 80s and then became a fan of some of the country stuff from the 50s and 60s. The first things I recall listening to seriously and buying were Patsy Cline and Don Gibson. My favorite country songs now would only include a handful more modern than that.
Songs by Marty Robbins, Cash and Patsy Cline routinely crossed over onto pop charts in the 50s, so I grew up listening to a fairly eclectic selection. I still like the older music by those folks, as well as artists like Jim Reeves, Eddy Arnold and Sonny James.
Most of my country exposure came from Cousin Sinc (RIP) and Cousin Lynn spinning discs on Hillbillie at Harvard on WHRB (Harvard Radio Broadcasting) on Saturday mornings (listening right now). Not much Bro-country as Cousin Lynn calls it, but lots of old C&W, gospel, bluegrass and whatever else Lynn wants to work in.
Kris Kristofferson’s album “The Silver Tongued Devil and I” led me as a hater of country music to an appreciation of what it had to offer. It made me receptive to the Outlaw movement and eventually took me to country music as a whole.
Always hated country. Then the Tom Waits channel took me to John Prine and Johnny Cash, which took me to a bunch of those artists, which took me to Guy Clark… and all I can say is, “Willie? Johnny? Waylon? Townes? Guy? Sorry, guys, I was wrong.”
Meeting the great John Prine and Sturgill Simpson helped, too.
Some of it is shit - Sturgeon’s Law - but it’s mostly music for adults, by adults.
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