Oh FairyDust, I must concur with you on Hal Ketchum. I can curl up and lie in the sun and listen to him all day. Same goes for Dwight, but Hal has a special place in my heart.
I like some alt-country. Early Ryan Adams and Whiskeytown is good, Wilco is good, and I don’t mind some Waifs, Dan Brodie or even Son Volt (though they sound a little poppy from what I’ve heard). I like Johnny Cash’s cover of The Mercy Seat and his vocals on the Wanderer, but I haven’t really got into any of his other stuff.
I’m new to the fold. But I’m getting there. I now like hip-hop and country, probably the two most hated forms of music out there. I swear I’ll never like prog-rock or metal, though.
Fan-freakin’-tabulous! I’m a HUGE fan. I live in Louisville, which is home to Cathy Erwin. I have everything they’ve done, they are my second favorite band in the whole g**damn world, right behind Cowboy Junkies. My only complaint is that THEY DON’T PLAY OUT ENOUGH! Lazy ferkers. 
Well, it’s their loss. I blew about $500 last year to travel and see CJ’s, and more than that so far to see them this year. Some of that money could go to Freakwater…
Can I just say you have remarkable taste? The only name I don’t recognize and have at least something in my collection by is The Hag. What’s up there? Old-school, you say?
I agree with what you say about current country. If I have to look at Martina McBride one more time I might scream. My poor mother, who is entirely informed about life from television and radio, can rattle off the “legends” about these people, never realizing most of it’s part of the marketing.
I DO have to give Toby Keith props though, for swallowing his politics and playing with Willie, and playing that song (he allegedly wrote) about smokin’ pot with him.
I was raised listening to mostly country music when I was little, drifted away during my teens but was still familiar with most of what was popular because of constant radio exposure. I was an avid Hee Haw watcher, and remember thinking, “It’'s not the same,” after Buck Owens left the show. I nearly cried when I found out my family’s Moe Bandy and Joe Stampley 8-track of Good Old Boys self destructed from constant play. I only knew “Daydream Believer” as an Anne Murray song growing up. I even thought “Do It Again” was a Waylon Jennings song, because I had never the original by Steely Dan until I was in high school. But I remember the breaking point for me, “Bop” by Dan Seals, that song was so awful and uncountry to me.
My tastes broadened and changed over time: rock (classic and modern), jazz, blues, some classical, even a little “world music” (but I hate that name) and electronica (very little). But I do find myself coming back to country music and so many of the songs and artists I’m familiar with, part nostalgia, part exploration of a great genre.
My favorite artists these days tend to be older ones: Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Buck Owens, Roger Miller, Tom T. Hall (probably the funniest and most consistently great storyteller in the genre IMO), Dwight Yoakam, Ronnie Milsap, Marty Robbins and Billie Joe Shaver. I sometimes wonder if I’m the only Kinky Friedman fan on the SDMB. I’ve been growing interested in people like Ray Price, Patsy Cline, Lefty Frizzell, and Jim Reeves these days.
I prefer modern country music more in the alt-country/AAA mode (Ryan Adams, Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, Slobberbone. And wish I could find some Songs:Ohia CDs, what few songs I heard blew me away); but I do like Allison Moorer, Kim Richey, The Tractors, The Derailers, Chris Ledoux, and Nickel Creek. Has anyone heard the group Bering Strait? I’ve been considering buying their CD, I like what little I’ve heard but want to get some other opinions.
Sorry, that would be Merle Haggard… not some crazy old lady from the Ozarks
I’ll go with most of the stuff vl_mungo listed.
As far as the contemporary country that gets radio play, it’s a bit too sappy and formulaic for me. However, I like the novelty songs like “Goodbye Earl” and “She Thinks my Tractor’s Sexy.”
I like some of the more rockabilly stuff. My favorite artists that tie to country:
Dwight Yoakum
Steve Earl
Sixteen Horsepower
Whiskeytown
Uncle Tupelo
Johnny Cash
Hank Jr.
Charlie Daniels
Southern Culture on the Skids
Chris LeDeux
Earlier Terry Clark
Earlier Clay Walker
Earlier George Strait (everything up to “Check Yes or No”)
Have you seen Hal Ketchum’s music video “Past The Point of Rescue”? I forgot I bought a copy years ago. It’s in my home music library. Time to pull it out, pop it into the VCR and watch it again. swoon
Oh my God, that video. Those eyebrows. He makes me want to do naughty things, but while still keeping his mouth free so he can sing.
Rowr.