Why I Love Country Music

...and might a i also site the likes of:

Waylon Jennings
Connie Smith
Ernest Tubb

also see, What is Country?

i think nearly all artists of all stripes do it for both reasons.

xpost

on the fucking money!

I've said this before, but what I like about mainstream, radio-friendly country music is the songcraft (Nashville still has a stable of mighty fine writers) and the subject matter.

This is music for the masses, buy it at wal-mart, dance to it every saturday night (dancing culture is HUGE in country, by the way) and it's addressing some really intense subject matter in a very adult way. It's talking about the emotions and issues that come with being married and having kids and growing older, and I don't get that anywhere else in pop music and rarely anywhere else either.

Here are a couple from the top 20 Country chart last week.

http://www.countrylyrics.circularmoney.com/kennychesneytheregoesmylifelyrics.html.html
http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/atkins-rodney/honestly-write-me-a-list-10202.html

----

There's a war going on and shit, so I don't have time to argue with y'all much, so I'm just going to cut and paste a couple things I posted on other threads a few months ago and leave it at that. First:
Best Tim McGraw Album: Place in the Sun.
Best songs on Tim McGraw's new album: Comfort Me, Tickin' Away, Red Ragtop, That's Why God Made Mexico, Illegal, Sing Me Home, Who Are They, Tiny Dancer.
Best Tim McGraw song to mention the Village Voice: Who Are They.
Best Tim McGraw song mentioned by My Name is Kenny: Where The Green Grass Grows
Second-Best Tim McGraw song mentioned by My Name is Kenny: Refried Dreams
Best Tim McGraw song to rewrite "Indian Reservation" by the Raiders:
Indian Outlaw
Best recent song by Tim McGraw's wife: One
Best early song by Tim McGraw's wife: Wild One
Another song by Tim McGraw's wife that's just as good: The Secret of Life
One Album which would be immeasurably better if Tim McGraw was the singer: 69 Love Songs
Best songs on Kenny Chesney's most recent album: Young, Big Star
Best song on Kenny Chesney's Greatest Hits album: How Forever Feels
Best country album of 2002: Toby Keith, *Unleashed
Best country single of 2002: Ty Herndon, "Heather's Wall"
Best Taylor Dayne single of 2002: LeAnn Rimes, "Life Goes On"
Best country album of 2001: Montgomery Gentry, *Carrying On
Best rock album of 2001: Montgomery Gentry, *Carrying On
Best anything album of 2001: Montgomery Gentry, *Carrying On
Best songs on Montgomery Gentry's current album: Break My Heart Again, Free Fall
One band that *might* rock harder than Montgomery Gentry: Turbonegro

-- chuck (cedd...), March 28th, 2003.

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And now this (from my Pazz and Jop ballot of a couple months back):
In Nashville country, there are producers (Mutt Lange, most obviously) as enamored of middle-eastern modes as Timbaland is, and other boundaries are being exploded left and right. Faith Hill and Toby Keith are singing what amounts to soul music, and Montgomery Gentry are rocking as hard as any garage-revival band in Detroit, and LeAnn Rimes is making full-fledged disco albums, and Brooks and Dunn are collaborating on stage with Sheila E. Most rock critics can't hear any of it, of course, but they still think Wilco are brave for tip-toeing outside of alt-country, which may well be the blandest, most conservative, most whitebread-anal-compulsive sub-genre in rock history. How come when alt-country bores stretch a little it's considered godhead, but when Nashville types, who've been doing it unabashedly for years, do it, it's considered the essence of cheese? How come rock critics never fully embraced the Dixie Chicks, who I often love (the album rocks fine until it slows down halfway in), until they retreated back into acoustic *O Brother* bluegrass? I considered voting for "Long Time Gone" as a single, but its stupid pandering line about Haggard and Cash pisses me off. You don't hear rock people whining in their songs about how modern rock music doesn't sound like Elvis and Chuck Berry, do you?

-- chuck (cedd...), March 28th, 2003.

Ringo Starr must be the connection.

oh this would make me
so happy; especially
Justin or Pharrell!

Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton "Islands in the Stream"

or maybe

Terri Gibbs "Somebody's Knockin" (same rhythm as Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" or Lou Gramm's "Midnight Blue," not to mention Robert Johnson style devil words. And the singer is a blind woman, no less.)

Here in the UK, I'd never heard of Tim McGraw until Will Oldham did a fantastic cover of one of his songs on a covers ep. Oldham also led me to David Allen Coe and Dick Gaughin. His song 'I See A Darkness' works like a dream on the third Johnny Cash 'American' alb. I'm not sure these divisions between alt. and mainstream country are as set in stone as all that - Oldham, Wilco, whoever, seem to stand in relation to today's country music in the same way that Dylan, the Band, the Byrds etc. stood in relation to the contemporary country of their day - a wary, parasitic, mostly one-way relationship, but some kind of relationship nonetheless

so actually i'm agreeing w/you and going you one further.

There's also the whole question of how it's always really funny to hear Brits talk about country; I loved looking at the NME's country end of the year lists back in the '80s -- it's like they were on another planet or something. (Australians, too, though one of the weird things in recent years is how many new country stars actually COME from Australia. It's like the new Canada. Or something.)

"I like Van Halen and I like George Jones
Charlie Daniels and the Rollin' Stones
Bocephus when he rocks and rolls still kills me
There oughtta be a law against cowboy rap, (you're right)
And all that boy band crap, a little sissy in a cowboy hat in country
No

That's a good way, that's a real good way
That's a good way to get on my bad side"

But where does that leave Bubbba Sparxxx, David Banner, Kid Rock, Nappy Roots, Toby Keith, and all of those kind of people who do both?