GOT-DAMMIT COUNTRY SHOULD SOUND LIKE COUNTRY!!!

[Taverner]

Pedal steel - slide guitar - 4/4 beat...etc

Hank Williams (Sr.), Patsy Cline, etc...

Dixie Chicks are nice Folk Rock Vocalists, but I would never call them country.

Brooks and Dunn, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw...that stuff is nice lite rock, or Adult Contemporary - but it sure isn't country.

Toby Keith? I thought White Supremacist music was underground?

Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, hell even Shooter Jennnings and Hank III qualify as country - music you'd expect to be heard in a state pen, not your local Wal-Mart...

OK...rant over

[peekaloo]

1. crying in your beer, heartbreak drinking music is my definition.

:beer: :cry: :-(

[Taverner]

7. Hmmmm that sounds more like Goth to me

Would Morrissey be country? ;)

[miss_american_pie]

2. I'd add Allison Kraus and Union Station

[Taverner]

8. I like Allison Kraus but country?

I think of her as more of a Jazz Vocalist..

[miss_american_pie]

10. Bluegrass maybe

:shrug:

[Shell Beau]

3. Brooks and Dunn are country, IMO!

Boot, scoot, boogie???? Need I say more?


:P

[Taverner]

6. But would the Eagles be country? Aerosmith?

Sounds the same to me :shrug:

[Shell Beau]

13. The Eagles have some country-ish music, but certainly not all!

[Spider Jerusalem]

17. The fact that they're a couple of rednecks in Stetson hats, Frye boots...

Wrangler jeans, and dinner plate-size belt buckles doesn't make them country...and 'Boot Scoot Boogie' is about as much a genuine country song as 'The Macarena' was. It's a lame pop song about a stupid dance. It doesn't SAY anything. You certainly can't compare it to Hank Williams, Sr., Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, or any of the other country musicians who actually SAY something with their music (which, by the way, largely grew out of the Scots-Irish ballad tradition...which is where the roots of REAL country music as opposed to Nasville pop are). Brooks and Dunn are to country as Bon Jovi are to rock and roll.

[Taverner]

19. Although I will tip my hat to Dwight Yokham

He does revive the old style real country...

[Shell Beau]

20. No, they are just an updated version of country.

I never ever compared them to Cash, Nelson, or Haggard. But music evolves. And Brooks and Dunn are most certainly country. Maybe not in the same aspect as the originals. But most of their songs are country in nature (lyrically and muscially)

[HughBeaumont]

4. Country's too citified . . .

. . . blame Eddie Rabbitt (RIP) and Exile.

[Radical Activist]

5. The best country has always come from outside Nashville.

Corporate country out of Nashville has destroyed the genre. I wouldn't call most of what's coming out of Nashville today country music either. It all happened when the Grand Ole Opry moved out to the suburbs and became a shopping mall.

[XNASA]

9. You need 'Hank's Place' on XM Radio.

It's the shit.

[Taverner]

14. ...or Outlaw Country on Sirius

[leftofthedial]

11. there is a strong tradition of 3/4 waltzes in country music

(not to mention 2/4 two-steps, you whippersnapper


There is a theory that any person's definition of "country" is determined by what was played on country radio when they were a kid

Country actually has probably changed less over the years than, say, rock. How close is Bill Haley to the Red hot Chili Peppers?

But yeah, most of what Nshville produced in the 90's wasn't very country. Then again was the countrypolitan crooner crap in the 60's or the lite pop of the early 80's.

[Common Sense Party]

12. If it's not Johnny Cash IT'S CRAP!!! ............n/t

[Shell Beau]

16. Aw, what about Hank, Sr. and Willie, Waylon and the boys?

I love them!! But Johnny Cash is awesome!

[Common Sense Party]

22. Well, I may have a bit hasty and too broad in my generalization.

I just mean, give me the old-time stuff. I'm not a huge Hank Senior fan. Waylon & Willie are pretty good.

[SteppingRazor]

15. I have to (choke) admit that I (gasp, puke) kinda like that new Toby song

"As Good As I Once Was" is a pretty good cut. I ain't afraid to say it. Thematically, it's reminiscent of Springsteen's "Glory Days," and that theme carries some weight with me these days, as I near the dreaded 30th birthday and grow softer around the middle with each passing day

[jobycom]

26. Toby puts out a lot of good stuff

People bash him because of his war views, mostly, I think. Though the OP called him a white supremacist, so maybe he's got a darker side I don't know about yet.


"Good as I once was" is good, but I wonder about your comments. I just turned forty-one, and I listen to the song as something that will happen to me in the future. :-)

[Mike Daniels]

32. Willie Nelson cut a song with him so he must not be a major jackass

[MadHound]

18. Amen, and thank you

Never was a big country fan, but I absolutely can't stand what is passing for country music these days. For awhile I thought I was relegated to the old classics, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, etc. But I've found a few alt country bands and artists out there that are pretty good. My latest discovery is BR-549. Give them a try sometime, I think you'll be pleasantly suprised. Bonus points for figuring out where their name derived from.

[bmbmd]

21. It really really is

Progressive Austin Texas Rock-like Bob Wills.

[jobycom]

23. And rock should sound like Bill Hailey--screw Led Zepplin!!

Here's to the good old days! DOwn with progress!!! (Not that Keith Urban is progress...)

Question: What's Toby done that's white supremacist, or any more white supremacist than most commercial entertainment is, anyway? Serious question, I'm not sure what you mean.

[Taverner]

24. Courtesy of the Red White and Blue

[jobycom]

28. Arrogant, boorish, and misguided, but hardly white supremacy

There's no talk of race, no talk of the opponent, nothing but a cheerleader rant against an undescribed enemy who attacked us. Now if he said "Let's kick everyone who looks like the people who attacked us," that would be white supremacist. IMHO.

You want to get pissed, listen to Ray Stevens' new song, "The Second Battle of New Orleans." That's much closer to white supremacy, in addition to forcing him on to my "people I'm sorry I ever liked" list. Or read anything Charlie Daniels' writes. He's on the same list as Ray Stevens, as well as on my "Should be forced to live in a country more to his liking, like IRaq or Kuwait or the old Mongolian Empire" list. Toby's just a blowhard.

[Shell Beau]

29. Don't forget David Allen Coe!

:o

[jobycom]

30. Ew!

Yeah. Him!

[Taverner]

25. Thing is, rock EVOLVED into Led Zep

Country music just copied rock from 10 years ago....

Now if Country took the direction Marshall Tucker Band was taking it (true geniuses in my opinion) - that would have meant they would start using jazz licks in country, or the occasional classical one.

[jobycom]

27. The commercial stuff is always weak

There's good stuff in Austin, and some of the oldies are still putting out fresh music, like Willie, or Lyle Lovette. Although they are both Austin, too, aren't they? It's the Nashville pop country that sucks, but not because it sounds like rock. It sucks because it all tries to sound like whatever sold last year, and it winds up being pale imitations or farcical misinterpretations.

I don't agree that country just copied rock, though. At it's worst, yes. But it also evolved. Groups like the Mavericks, for instance, or what a lot of the "Young Country" artists were doing last decade. Garth Brooks, Dwight Yoakum, Ronnie Dunn, Trisha Yearwood, Gretchen Peters (as a writer), etc, all had a unique sound that was different than Hank, but was still an evolution of country.

My own theory on country is that it is cyclical in quality because the more it sells, the more it sucks. When a lot of genuine talent gets involved, like in the early 90s, it starts to sell, and so the money people get involved and start trying to sign new acts who sound like the ones who are selling, so pretty soon it all sounds the same again, and the people who bought the new artists go back to another style of music and the artists themselves either fail to develop further (like Garth) or fade to another genre (like Trisha), so the money leaves, and eventually there's nothing left but the hardcore fans and a lot of boring acts without the talent to make it elsewhere (like the 80s, or now). Finally, there is so little money that the record execs lose control of the industry, and you get artists who really like country and want to do something different, and then it starts getting popular again.

But to me it's not a battle between genres, it's the age-old battle between artists and money. Just that in Nashville, the money controls everything more tightly than in other fields. Nashville Country is the music equivalent of the WWF.

I haven't heard what Marshall Tucker has been doing. Sounds interesting.

Anyway, that's my opinion. Probably wrong, it usually is.

[Rob H.]

31. Couple of guys country fans might want to check out

Redd Volkaert (used to play guitar with Merle Haggard) and Deke Dickerson, especially his latest CD, The Melody. Good old-school country tunes and both of them are unbelievable guitar players. Deke's latest isn't strictly country, though--it's more a combination of country and rockabilly tunes in the vein of Buddy Holly. Either way, they both get :thumbsup: from yours truly. :)