Whats country music come to?

[Super Black Eagle]

as long as people are buying it they will continue to produce it.
The community as a whole will not support the music "we" like to listen to.

There is a market for the stuff they are playing on fm country radio, if there wasn't....it wouldn't sell.

[DeltaCotton12]

Chris Knight, the untold modern country music... you'll never hear anything on the radio of his, but most country lovers know who he is...


if you dont know who he is,

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... arch_type=

[dukhunter]

Again I want to ask the question. Who says what is real country? How do you define it? I'll bet that there are as many answeres on here as there are age groups. I like the new stuff for what it is "fun music to listen to". I like willie, waylon, conway and yes charlie pride because of the attatude they put in there music, I don't realy like hank sr or carl perkins or realy anybody form that era, and that was country music, so I guess you could say I don't like county, right? Country music has been changeing since the first time someone threw a steal gituar slide in a bule grass tune and it hasn't stoped yet, and its not gonna.....

[Super Black Eagle]

A few months ago I got to see Chris Knight at Sullivan's in Knoxville's Old City. It was fabulous! there were less than 75 folks there...just him and his guitar player....cool stuff.

If you don't have his "enough rope" album....you gotta get it.

speakin of the top floor at Sullivan's. This weekend I saw Adam Carroll, Owen Temple and Jason Eady doing a song swap with just their acoustic guitars. There were only 23 people there (Sullivan really needs better advertising!!). If you get a chance to see this show, I highly recommend it!

[h2o_dog]

Again I want to ask the question. Who says what is real country? How do you define it? I'll bet that there are as many answeres on here as there are age groups. I like the new stuff for what it is "fun music to listen to". I like willie, waylon, conway and yes charlie pride because of the attatude they put in there music, I don't realy like hank sr or carl perkins or realy anybody form that era, and that was country music, so I guess you could say I don't like county, right? Country music has been changeing since the first time someone threw a steal gituar slide in a bule grass tune and it hasn't stoped yet, and its not gonna.....

What defines country music to me is that it has to be written and performed by someone with a rural/hardknocks background, and the performer should have authentically experienced (or been in the position to have experienced) the subject matter of the song. These pop songs being sung by beauty queens (female and male) don't cut it for me. The poetry should communicate a message of truth from a legitimate background (i.e. Hank Sr., all those above, Elvis, etc.etc.)

.... words thrown together for the sole purpose of being a catchy pop-culture record seller song just screams FAKE, SHALLOW, FAKE to me....regardless of who sings it.

[Bullreds & Greenheads]

What is country music? Hmmmm. I feel a long flow of conciousness typefest coming on.

Spending weekends at my grandparents in Rich, Mississippi when I was a kid, it was a Saturday (I think) evening ritual to watch the Porter Wagner Show, Hee Haw and the Lawrence Welk Show(definitely NOT country!) That was my first introduction to country music, and I'd have to say I didn't care for it.

Listening to my dad's 8-tracks of Johnny Cash Train Songs and Tennessee Ernie Ford's Greatest Hits, and Jim Reeves Greatest Hits when we were in the car. Kind of liked some of the train songs, and "Sixteen Tons", but didn't care for most of it at that age. Would love to have that music today. Be good for those trips down memory lane.

Really liked the country-rock & Southern-rock of the mid to late 70's. The Eagles, Jackson Brown, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Marshall Tucker Band, the Allman Brothers, etc. This is when I remember Waylon, Willie, and Bocephus started getting popular with outlaw country. Still didn't care for country music much.

About 78, 79, or 80, The Gambler by Kenny Rogers broke on the scene. I'll go ahead and admit that I bought an 8-track of Kenny Rogers' Greatest Hits - The Gambler, Coward of the County, Ruby, many other good songs at the time. But now, admitting you liked Kenny Rogers is kind of like admitting you liked Barry Manilow. Just not something you want to do.

My Grandparents moved to Vaiden, Mississippi in 1975. From 1975 till at least the late 80's, my grandparents had a clock radio on the kitchen counter turned to a country station out of Winona (I think it was an AM station, WONA). It played a lot of Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, T.G. Sheppard, Earl Thomas Conley, John Conlee, Ed Bruce, Keith Whitley, Vern Gosdin, Don Williams, Alabama, The Judds, Randy Travis, and many other 70's and 80's country stars. The name of the singer escapes me now, but the radio station absolutely loved playing "Baby's Got Her Bluejeans On," "Lousiana Saturday Night," and "Tight Fittin Jeans" by ConwayTwitty. In the 80's is when I started to like country music.

As a matter of fact, I can point the finger at one country performer for turning me on to country music -- DON WILLIAMS. If you don't know what I'm talking about, find you a Don Williams compilation CD and find out. Many trips to Starkville in the 80's with Don Williams in the tape deck. Many a night sitting around a campfire with Don Williams in the boom box. A staple on long road trips. Still one of my absolute favorites.

1989 was the death knell for most of the old country crooners. 1989 is the year Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Clint Black, Travis Tritt, and Vince Gill exploded on the scene. It was the last year that Vern Gosdin, Don Williams, and most of the old guard would have anything new hit the air waves. The very next year the old faithful country music stars got unceremoniously got kicked to the curb. They were replaced with Mark Collie, Mark Chestnutt, Tricial Yearwood, Pam Tillis, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Brooks & Dunn, and most horribly, Billy Ray Cyrus & Restless Heart. Some of the new guys were good, don't get me wrong, but the rapidity with which country music stations dumped the old guys was a slap in the face and an embarassment. In their rush to fill air time with "new" country and pump out videos, they (Nashville) kicked their veterans in the face and replaced them a bunch of pretty boys and hot babes -- music be damned.

The country dance craze of the early 90's had Nashville putting out some of the worst dreck to ever be called "country" music. To me, it was nothing but disco with boots on. With the exception of Alan Jackson, I pretty much stopped listening to the bs.

In 1995, I went into a record store in Edgewater Mall in Biloxi. They had a song playing over the store's speakers. "Pretty good song." I thought. But having been burnt buying an album based on one song, I wasn't compelled to ask who it was. The next song came on, and it was good too. I was a little more interested. Third song came on and I was compelled to find out who this was. I asked the guy at the counter who it was and he said "Son Volt." So I bought it. The next day I came back and said, "Man, have you got any more like this?" Thats when I found out about Wilco (don't care for them much now) and Uncle Tupelo. That led me in a whole new musical direction.

Whiskeytown, Blue Mountain, Cary Hudson, Gillian Welch, The Jayhawks, Ryan Adams, Drive By Truckers, James McMurtry, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Hank Sr., Johnny Cash (old stuff and the American albums), Shooter Jennings, and many others. Some sound like (and are) traditional country, some I'd classify as country-metal or country-punk, but mostly just plain out good music. Unfortunately, some of these acts (Son Volt, to name one) have taken to preaching left-wing politics lately, and I won't give them anymore of my money. But before they got preachy, I really liked them.

Alright, I'm out of steam. Whatever was in me that needed to get out, got out. Later.

[JDgator]

The name of the singer escapes me now, but the radio station absolutely loved playing "Baby's Got Her Bluejeans On," "Lousiana Saturday Night," and "Tight Fittin Jeans" by ConwayTwitty.

Mel McDaniel. He rocks!

[JDgator]

H20 Dog:

I really agree with your post about coutry singers needing to be authentic. If they go to a tanning bed, a beauty salon and get teething whitening, they don't have what it takes to be county.

When I picture a real country music group, I see a bunch of whiskey-soaked old dudes riding around in the back of van.

[crow]

I was sittin in Miami, pouring blended whiskey down,
while an old black gentleman was sweeping out the lounge.
Uninvited he sat down, and opened up his mind,
On old dogs and children, and watermelon wine.

Son! That rite there is a drankin song!

I always seem to go country whenever I go drankin! Hey that wouldn't be too bad as a country song either!

crow