Pronouncement re C&W

[Walden]

While I was stuck in the dark without electricity, I was listening to local radio, for weather reports. I came to this conclusion: I don't care for much of what passes for country music these days.

[Joseph E. Smith]

While I was stuck in the dark without electricity, I was listening to local radio, for weather reports. I came to this conclusion: I don't care for much of what passes for country music these days.

I'm not even certain it IS country music anymore... country pop is a better classification I believe.

[emmline]

In that case, I suggest you have a battery operated cd player (or ipod) and some Hank Williams cds on hand for the next power outage.

[peeplj]

Agreed: since I've started developing a taste for Country, I've found that I like the "classics" much better than a lot of the new stuff.

I've also found I love Bluegrass, but oddly enough, there are no radio stations here that ever play it. You've actually got a better chance of hearing an Irish reel than a Bluegrass one...in Arkansas. Strange, huh?

--James

[rh]

i believe the newer old-style country now goes under the designation "Americana".

check out Gillian Welch, you won't be disappointed.

[SteveShaw]

To check whether any given song is properly to be regarded as a true C&W song, it should be checked for content against this song, which was specifically designed to contain all the necessary elements:

Country & Western Supersong, by Billy Connolly

Yes my granny is a cripple in Nashville, friends
This story I tell you is true
One day she went out on her wheelchair
Never knowing it had a loose screw
Well a wheel came off of that wheelchair, friends
And on three wheels it trundled away
And it trundled right over the edge of a cliff
In an old seaside town far away

A-dee-oh-lay-hee, oh-lay-hee, oh-lay-hee,
Wooh-wooh-ooh-ooh.

Now the boy who was pushing the wheelchair
Was a little blind orphan call Joe
And he said, "Oh where is my grannie?
And where did that damn wheelchair go?"
Well he ran off to search for that wheelchair friends
But his sightless eyes led him astray
And he ran right over the edge of the cliff
In that old seaside town far away

A-dee-oh-lay-hee, oh-lay-hee, oh-lay-hee,
Wooh-wooh-ooh-ooh.

Well somebody sent for a doctor
And an ambulance too, it was called
And the people who lived in the neighbourhood
Stood around and they cried, how they bawled
Well the doctor and the ambulance came rushing, friends
They were rushing from two different ways
And they crashed with a BIFF and shot over the cliff
In that old seaside town far away

A-dee-oh-lay-hee, oh-lay-hee, oh-lay-hee,
Wooh-wooh-ooh-ooh.

Well they sent for brave Father Maloney
To pray for the poor souls' repose
And he said, "Well now that we're gathered here, good people,
Well we might as well pray, I suppose"
But too many people had gathered
And the edge of the cliff gave way
And they dropped with a yell and they all shot straight to hell
In that old seaside town so terribly far away

A-dee-oh-lay-hee, oh-lay-hee, oh-lay-hee,
Wooh-wooh-ooh-ooh.

[beowulf573]

A few years ago a local country radio station had a tv add that started out with a pickup truck in center screen and bluegrass music playing in the background. Then you heard the sound of a needle being scrapped over a record and the announcer said, "Well, you won't hear any of *that* type of country music on our station."

Needless to say I've never been tempted to listen to them.

There is good country music to be found, you just won't find it on the radio. In an odd twist the Coen Brother's <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0190590/">O Brother, Where Art Thou?</a> brought good music to the foreground for quite a while. The documentary <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0284067/">Down from the Mountain</a>, which shows behind the scenes of a concert by the performers from the soundtrack, is a must see.

I'm in love with Gillian Welch...and Alison Krauss...and Emmylou Harriss....and Naci Griffith...and...

[beowulf573]

One more thing, I highly recommend <a href="http://www.tv.com/lost-highway/show/282 ... html">Lost Highway</a> ,ironically by the BBC. It's a fantastic history of country music narrated by Lyle Lovett. He's another favorite of mine, and not just because he lives a ways over from me.

[Dale]

Good:

"He Stopped Loving Her Today"--George Jones

[beowulf573]

Bad:

"Achy Breaky Heart" by Billy Ray Cyrus.

Good:

"Guitars and Cadillacs" by Dwight Yoakam

[susnfx]

My dad always used to say that country/western was for anybody who couldn't make it in any other kind of music. I had to laugh when I saw the liner notes on a c/w album (and for the life of me, I can't remember who it was--a man with a white beard, I think? - very famous)--and it said something like "he tried rock and soul [a whole list of music types here] but finally found country/western."

Susan

[BrassBlower]

Agreed: since I've started developing a taste for Country, I've found that I like the "classics" much better than a lot of the new stuff.

I've also found I love Bluegrass, but oddly enough, there are no radio stations here that ever play it. You've actually got a better chance of hearing an Irish reel than a Bluegrass one...in Arkansas. Strange, huh?

--James

I would tend to agree, with the exception of Brad Paisley, Trace Adkins, and Big & Rich.

No Bluegrass here, either. Actually, Fort Smith probably has more in common with Oklahoma and Texas than it does with the rest of Arkansas.

The problem with our C&W stations is that they are still Carrie-crazy. We do, however, have some good classic rock, rock oldies, and country oldies stations. The Spanish-language station sometimes plays some good tunes, too.

[Cynth]

I have gone through periods where I really liked Country and Western and although I don't really seek it out right now I'd sure like to be able to get it on the radio in the car, but there's nothing on. It used to be that you could always find a C&W station but now anything resembling that kind of music ends up mostly being what I would call Country Rock. I'm not up on that music at all now, and I'm sure there are exceptions, but it's a sad state of affairs. If I had a long drive, that kind of music would really help get me through it. I don't know, maybe if I listened more I'd find more I liked.

What I would call just plain country music and bluegrass have never been very available on the radio to me in Iowa---just a few special shows on a couple of stations and you'd have to know the schedule to hear them. In CA there was a great bluegrass station called KFAT, but I'm sure it doesn't exist anymore. I'm not too surprised that there isn't much bluegrass, but real C&W had such a big audience. I guess the audience changed.

I went to a Robin and Linda Williams show---not saying they are country---and he commented about how they had to drive so much and it was really sad that they couldn't get any kind of good country music on the radio anymore.

A country oldie station sounds like something I would really like.

[missy]

the stuff they call country now is just southern rock from the 70's, performed by "pretty" guys!!!!

I grew up listening to real C&W - Bob Wills, Hank Sr., etc., along with almost every Chet Atkins and Les Paul album out there. On Saturday evenings there used to be a concert by the people on "Midwestern Hayride" from WLW held on the farm the repeater for their antenae was on.

While we play a lot of bluegrass, I honestly prefer to listen to old time over bluegrass. I prefer a good clawhammer banjo player over 5 finger roll style any day.

[crookedtune]

I prefer a good clawhammer banjo player over 5 finger roll style any day.

That would be 3-finger actually, but I'm right with you there. Bluegrass had its heyday, and it rocked, but the "newgrass" is, to me, no more pleasing than "country pop". Oldtime music just continues to get better, (and I'm talking about the new artists here).