Who else likes country, besides me? I'll listen to in the radio but most of the CDs I have are women singers cuz so many of them are so fine and they generally sound better than the guys, although lots of the guys are very good, too. I don't care for too much twangy voices, like Dwight Yoakum's or Tim McGraw, the bastard who stole my Faith from me. Thanks to him I have no Faith now. Some twangy stuff I can stand in small doses now and then.

Anyways, I like some old country as well as new. I used to not care too much for it in the mid-80s cuz I thought it sounded too much like rock, but then later I got more into the newer stuff. One guy I'll never have any respect for whatsoever is Barf Brooks. I don't care for showy, fat, adulterous hack braggarts with overly developed senses of ego and self-importance, and who just happened to have an affair with another adulterous country singer who I never thought was very good too, let alone attractive in the least. They're very perfect for each other. I wonder if they'll cheat on each other now? Probably.

I prefer the older country music than the modern stuff. Nowadays, it sounds to me that country is trying to 50's/60's rock and roll.

I like Hank, Sr., Johnny Cash, Tom T. Hall, Tanya Tucker, Glenn Campbell so on and so forth.

I own 3 country albums (cds, actually):

1. Garth Brooks - Greatest Hits
2. Garth Brooks - Sevens (got it the day it was released!)
3. Kenny Chesney - Greatest Hits

The only other country artists I like are Toby Keith, Brad Paisley, Yankee Gray, Restless Heart, Hank Williams (Sr and Jr), Faith Hill, Travis Tritt, and Shania Twain. (And some Jerry Reed)

The last concert I went to was last year. It was Kenny Chesney headlining, with Yankee Gray and Brad Paisley as the opening acts. Yankee Gray had microphone problems for most of their set, but were still pretty good.

I wonder where country music would be if it wasn't for the whole "outlaw" thing in the 70's. It's still pretty corporate but nowhere where it used to be. Time was when a country artist worked for the label and did what it told them to do: song selection, musicians, arrangements, even one's identity were controlled. Willie and Waylon were primarily responsible for telling TPTB "I'm recording my songs in my way with my band and I'm dressing how I like to!" They made some good music also. In a way there wouldn't be a Garth Brooks if somebody hadn't put their foot down.

Country acts I've seen, some in their prime, some past it though I thoroughly enjoyed them all:

Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Hank Jr., Merle Haggard, Clint Black, Alan Jackson, Highway 101, Patty Loveless.

Memo to The Mavericks: you guys are bursting with talent, boast probably the best singer of his generation in Raul Malo, and have awesome taste in covers but...LOOSEN UP for God's sake!!! Why do I get the feeling that you're being "handled"?

(I know they'll never see that but I just had to get it off my chest )

Of course, you know what happens when you play a C&W album backwards...

Your girlfriend comes back, your dog comes back to life, and your truck starts working.

And you keep your job, and the rent's paid up and you're still married and everything's just fine in the world with you.

Does anyone listen to Cledus T. Judd (no relation to the Judds)? I used to think he was just some Southern bubba putting out parody records, but he almost grows on ya. I've only heard a few of his songs, and even then only sporadically, and I don't really understand Southern humor all that much either, but he can be pretty funny: First Redneck on the Internet, My Cellmate Thinks I'm Sexy, How Do You Milk a Cow?

My favorite Cledus T. Judd song is Coronary Life (How Do You Milk A Cow? is my second favorite). He also did Every Light In The House Is Blown, and Did I Shave My Back For This?.

The video for First Redneck On The Internet is hilarious! Buckapalooza!

Hey Scott, you just brought to mind a Steve Goodman song, recorded by David Allan Coe, called "You Never Even Call Me By My Name" which set out to be the perfect country and western song. It contains all the requisite elements (read: cliches, in bold)-

"I was drunk the day my mama
got out of prison .
I went to pick her up
in thr rain.
But before I could get to the station
in the pickup truck ,
She got run over by the damned old train ."

I've got that on a Best of David Allan Coe CD. I actually found in the parking lot of a biker shop. It plays, too!

I always liked the "Longhaired Redneck" type attitude stuff, sounds great on a poolhall jukebox. He can get real cornball as well, which I'm not so fond of. Human Emotions is probably his strongest album, it deals with his breakup and divorce at the time. The vinyl was divided into two sides: "Happy Side" and "Sui-cide". Attitude!

Johnny Cash is THE Man when it comes to Country
Music.Have you seen the commercial for Chevorelt
where they talk about Johnny Cash and say in
the end of the ad:"Never send a boy band to do
a MAN's job!"?Pretty funny put down of all those
boy bands that are out there today!!!
Any way besides Johnny Cash there's also:
Glen Campbell,Roy Clark,Buck Owens(in one of
their songs CCR talks about"listening to
Buck Owens"),Barbara Mandrell,June Carter Cash
and of course Reba!

Oh yeah! Creedence's "Looking Out My Backdoor". I remember hearing that when I was a kid.

At work, I see and hear a lot of Modern Country music thanks to the almost ubiquitousness of the Country Music Television (CMT) channel running on the TVs at work. What I've noticed is that if you didn't have the volume on for more than half of the videos shown, you'd have no idea they were country songs. Most country artists today look like pop or rock artists. In some cases, even if they are wearing cowboy hats, they still look like they could be in an MTV video.

Musically, Country sounds like it's either Contemporary Adult Pop or Country Rock Lite. It doesn't sound anything llike true country music. There really doesn't seem to be much to distinguish modern country as a separate musical genre beyond an increasingly meaningless label. And that's a shame, because, like Jazz, Country is a distinctly American musical styling.

At least that's how it seems to me. Does anyone else hear or see it differently?

Seems like a fair criticism to me Benn. The local big country station rarely plays anything from before the 90's. That's why I listen to the less popular AM station.

It's been that way for what seems like forever. If you remember the whole "outlaw" movement in the 70's ...it was mostly about artists trying to wrest creative control over the music from the corporate interests, which have always held a firm hand over the product. Recording your own material, in your own way, with your own band just wasn't allowed in Nashville. Fortunately the pulse of indiginous American music has always been alive and well on the indie labels. They're calling it Alt-Country nowadays, but it's been there as long as recording studios have been around- usually lumped in with the "Folk" section of most stores, but still the only legit Country Music in my eyes.

"It's been that way for what seems like forever." - Miko Iko

I agree, Miko. It's just that given the exposure I've gotten to it here of late, it just seems all the more pronounced.

I'm not too familiar with Alt-Country. Can you name any acts I should be aware of?

np - Hydra - Toto

It's just that given the exposure I've gotten to it here of late, it just seems all the more pronounced. You're probably right, though I couldn't say for sure. There's not much country radio in NY, and what there is is very bland.


I'm not too familiar with Alt-Country. Can you name any acts I should be aware of? Like I said, the terminology is pretty recent (under 10 years) but to my ears the "music" that it describes has been around since Gram Parsons or Steve Young- country with elements of folk and rock (in other words- the direction that country should have taken). The "alt" prefix sorta came about when the rock elements started to become more punk-like :i.e. Uncle Tupelo, and it stuck (for now). If you're curious try looking in AMG, but here's my 2 cents...all HIGHLY reccommended

Elder Statesmen
Steve Young
Guy Clark
Gram Parsons
John Prine
Townes Van Zandt
There's something about Lubbock...
Joe Ely
Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Butch Hancock
Groups
Sir Douglas Quintet
Uncle Tupelo
Jayhawks
Wilco and Sun Volt (via Uncle Tupelo)
How's about some women?
Lucinda Williams
Nanci Griffith
Iris DeMent
...I would put Emmylou Harris here too

...and I'm just getting started...

Big oops...I just re-read the entire thread and noticed the similarity between my post of June 10, 2001 and yesterday's post. I'll have to be more careful next time.

I've always loved Tanya Tucker. She has a wonderful 'Earthy' voice and distinctive style.

"Way to go!!!" to Loretta Lynn. Her Van Lear Rose is pretty doggone incredible and proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that she's not ready to be put out to pasture quite yet (she wrote all 13 tracks). Those fearing Jack White's influence can officially stop it- he is smart enough to let Lynn be the star of the show. This is definitely a country album, and a genre defining one at that.

I just read something about David Allan Coe’s album Human Emotions and it just brought a bunch of stuff to the surface (please bear with me)- but since I remember posting about this album as “Miko Iko” I thought this would be a good place to ruminate.

The place to begin, I suppose, is when I first heard Coe’s music. It sorta came unexpectedly- it was the late 70’s and I was the editor of my high school newspaper. I had recently seen Willie Nelson and was so impressed by his performance of his song “Night Life” that it must have crept into my conversation, especially with the staff. Later that year we started to win regional school paper awards and as a gesture of appreciation they went out and got me a copy of the only Willie Nelson album that they could find with that song- The Longhorn Jamboree Presents Willie Nelson and Friends. Here’s the relevant part: even for 70’s bargain bin standards it is a strange thing- One side has Willie Nelson songs, but the other side features three artists ( Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and David Allan Coe). Even stranger- The B side has genuine ‘A’ material, it’s not just throwaway stuff. Actually, with Jerry Lee and Perkins there are two classic Sun recordings each. The two Coe songs are examples of the most incredible and raw country jailhouse blues songs imaginable. On par with Johnny Cash’s best on most levels (though lacking in cultural significance, I’ll admit). Let’s just say that I still have and cherish that album decades later.

Jump forward a few years to when the mood struck me to finally buy some more DA Coe: all I knew then was that I wanted to hear more of the same, so I searched out an album that seemed to fit the bill (not an easy task on Long Island at that time BTW). Human Emotions screamed ‘buy me’ the second I saw it. But contrast that with what Thom Jurek (of AMG) says (it is a very favorable review FWIW) :"Human Emotions is a very commercial record that might have done well with radio and in stores had it not been for the positively menacing cover of an aviator-shaded Coe in full biker attire holding an acoustic guitar, next to the skull of an antelope." He forgets to mention that Coe's full name is written out in bike chain as well.

I guess I was looking for something threatening. What I got was a genuine lost classic, and I knew that from the start. The first side is no slouch by any means, in fact it contains the best version of “Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)” ever recorded (IMO), but the second side is an unqualified country masterpiece: 5 amazing songs blended into each other like a roadhouse Sergeant Pepper. Definitely genre bending stuff, though still prototypical outlaw C&W at the same time.

Anyway, since then I’ve learned that DA Coe can be either really amazing or, unfortunately, really corny. He still has a great overall track record, but is essentially an artist who benefits from the ‘best of’ format. Human Emotions stands alone, however, and is well worth searching out. As for me, I’m preserving the vinyl to CD via my Philips and may just frame that incredible cover…

The only thing I have by David Allan Coe is a CD that I found on the streets of Farmers Branch, TX. (Ironically, it was in the parking lot of Bikers' Dream, a motorcycle shop.) The disc is Super Hits - David Allan Coe. On it are the following tracks:

1. "Cheap Thrills"
2. "You Never Even Called Me By My Name"
3. "Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)"
4. "Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile"
5. "If This Is Just a Game"
6. "The Ride"
7. "Willie, Waylon and Me"
8. "Jack Daniels If You Please"
9. "Family Reunion"
10. "If That Ain't Country"

That one does look pretty good, Benn. It hits a lot of high points- no "Longhaired Redneck", though. And I must admit that "Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile" has grown on me over the years. Tracks #s 3, 5 and 8 are from Human Emotions, BTW. "Jack Daniels If You Please" is from the particularly dark second side and really benefits from that context. It's right before the song "Suicide" and the self destructive theme seems really pronounced. I could see it sounding like more of a drinking song by itself.

Here's a question for ya- when I record this album onto a CDR I have the option of separating the tracks or letting it run straight through. The downside is that I would have 5 songs lumped into a single CD track, making advancing to a particular song difficult and annoying. The upside is that part of the beauty of this particular album is how the songs blend together and I would retain that flow. How would you do it?

If you could record the five cuts as individual tracks without a noticeable gap, I'd record them separately. Otherwise, I'd go ahead and preserve the medley effect you like.

np - Declaration - the Alarm

"Music is a world within itself and a language we all understand."

At work the radio station occasionally plays Shania Twain.

Besides knowing if I'm ugly, stupid, and car-less she'll consider me a "potential" one thing bugs me.

I might be mishearing the lyrics, but "If I could grant you just one wish/ I'd let you see the way you kiss."

Um, If I bought you just one thing in the bakery it would be the crullers with raspberry frosting.

It was never even considered that maybe the guy she's singing to might not want her deciding for him.

Kinda like a female version of Billy Joel's "Just the way you are." (Billy likes 'em stupid and Shania likes them with no will of their own.)