Country music fans... a question

[GreenPartyVoter]

I just had a debate with my bro-in-law, who loves country top 40. I told him I was surprised that he didn't get into Southern rock like Skynyrd and he told me that no self-respecting country fan would listen to a rock band like that.

So.

Are you a self-respecting country fan who also digs southern and swamp rock? :)

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Seriously, no country fans here tonight? Maybe I need to take this to the

music room.

[mvd]

2. I'm into a lot of country, but I don't know them enough to say

I like Montgomery Gentry and Wynonna Judd, so chances are decent I'd like Skynyrd.

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Well, I encourage you to check them out. I can't listen to songs like

"Things Going On", "Mississippi Kid", "The Breeze", "Three Steps" and so forth and not think that they ought to appeal to country fans. :)

[libnnc]

4. my answer: No self-respecting country fan would...

listen to today's country top 40.

What you bro-in-law hears on his radio is corporate crap.

These are the real country artists. Listed by first names cuz they don't need last names.

Johnny
Loretta
Merle
Dolly
Willie
Waylon
Patsy
Hank

:smoke:

[mvd]

5. Many top 40 songs are good

You just like a different kind of country - not all the songs are bad.

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. Yep, I do like a lot of the top 40 stuff out there.. depends on who is

singing, what they are singing about and the instruments in the band (see post below)

[mvd]

8. Yes, if they are singing those jingoistic songs, I hate it

Also, too many top 40 artists are trapped in the same production. I'd like them to reach out.

Lee Ann Womack, Keith Urban, and Brad Paisley are some of the top 40 artists who are bringing great stuff. I don't care for Rascal Flatts and Toby Keith.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. I'm not a country fan, and yet I know all those names, thanks to Hee Haw

Hey, it was the only show on at that time of day. *g* Still, that was a genre of music that really told a story, just like any music worth its salt. "Another day older and deeper in debt" Who can't relate to that? BIL, though, doesn't like the older country.

I find country, old and new, is like anything else to me. Some songs and artists speak to my soul and others do not. But I can't dismiss the entire genre out of hand. It's the sliding steel guitar that doesn't work for me. I love celtic music, so bluegrass works great for me.. but I'd just as soon have pipes or whistles or the dulcimer added to the band than the steel guitar. He, on the other hand, loves that instrument so it really is part of the draw of country music for him.

[ChoralScholar]

10. All of the names

are self explanatory except the first one.

Is is Johnny Cash, Johnny Paycheck, or Johnny Russell? All three are old school country...

[Bake]

26. Paycheck? Russell?

Second or third tier performers, compared to the incomparable Johnny Cash! Hell, Paycheck even ripped off his NAME from Cash!

Bake

[ChoralScholar]

55. sure..since Cash was obviously the first person ever to be named Johnny..

:) just kidding... EOM

[Ron Green]

36. Or Johnny Bush. The King of Texas dance halls.

[intheflow]

11. Yes, but I'll never forgive Dolly for covering

REO Speedwagon's "Time For Me To Fly." I mean, that song sucks anyway, but she added banjos and sped it up so much it sounded like a bad Chipmunks acid trip.

:smoke:

[GreenPartyVoter]

16. Aw, I liked REO's version *g*

[mac56]

20. Ever heard her cover of "Stairway To Heaven"?!

Check it out.

[GreenPartyVoter]

23. One country cover of a rock song that hurt my heart... "Piece of my heart"

That is not a spunky, perky song when Janice sings it. I say that the original was the best.

[intheflow]

31. You are SO right on!

Perky? Spunky? The country cover makes a mockery of the pain involved with loving someone so much you'll let them hurt you. :cry:

[intheflow]

30. No, but I've heard Wynonna's cover of "Freebird"

which I think would be hard to top for sheer pain while listening.

[Not_Giving_Up]

18. I agree!

You forgot Tanya though!

[GreenPartyVoter]

22. I'm adding EmmyLou, even though I hear she has branched out from country?

[Left Is Write]

35. I like Emmylou.

[Bake]

24. You nailed it DEAD ON!!

Last names not necessary!

Toby who? Dirks who?

When you say Johnny, or Merle, or Dolly, or Loretta, or Reba, we all know who you're talkin' about!

And oh yeah, I loves me some Southern Rock! Skynyrd, Allman Bros., hell, even CDB (in the old days).

Bake

[mac56]

25. Add George, Tammy, and Lefty.

Also Dwight, Lyle, and Rodney.

[Radical Activist]

33. damn right

most modern country is crap and doesn't sound like country at all. Its mass-produced Nashville garbage. Some good country still comes out of Austin.

You could also add Steve Earle, Pat Green and Lucinda Williams. There are a few good new country artists that are basically banned from corporate country radio.

[Left Is Write]

34. I agree with you. I used to work in country radio.

Country radio today is soulless. Absolutely soulless. I had a very different view of country radio when I left it than I did when I entered it, and it made me sad.

[GreenPartyVoter]

49. Corporatism kills art.. just sucks it dry and renders it unto a formula

to make money.

[immoderate]

37. Let's not forget George!

--IMM

[GreenPartyVoter]

53. Jones?

[immoderate]

54. Yup!

--IMM

[intheflow]

9. Current country IS rock.

Not all of it, but a sizable portion. Especially women, who have a phenomenally cross-over rate into pop top 40.

I grew up loving Skynyrd's music, but now can't stand the racism implied by some of their lyrics.

[ghostsofgiants]

12. Go back and read some of the old Skynyrd flamewars

They weren't racists.

And any self-respecting music fan wouldn't listen to modern country.

[intheflow]

14. Like all top 40,

you can't judge an artist by ther top 40 work. I never really liked country until the only singing job I could get was in a country band. What you hear on the air from the really popular people like Faith Hill and Clint Black is not their best stuff. Some of it really rocks. You just have to wade through the sappy twangy crap that the industry pushes to find it.

And if I find Skynyrd offensive, then it is offensive to me. Doesn't mean anyone else has to feel the same way.

[mark414]

13. yeah...skynyrd weren't racists...

i learned that myself here a couple weeks ago

they were actually quite progressive...while ronnie was at least; the band took a serious nose dive after he died...he and neil young were really good friends

[RagingInMiami]

38. What racist lyrics?

Things goin on
Lynyrd Skynyrd

Have you ever lived down in the ghetto?
Have you ever felt the cold wind blow?
If you don’t know what I mean,
Won’t you stand up and scream?
’cause there’s things goin’ on that you don’t know.

Too many lives they’ve spent across the ocean.
Too much money been spent upon the moon.
Well, until they make it right
I hope they never sleep at night
They better make some changes
And do it soon.

They’re goin ruin the air we breathe
Lord have mercy.
They’re gonna ruin us all, by and by.
I’m telling you all beware
I don’t think they really care
I think they just sit up there
And just get high.



The Ballad of Curtis Lowe
Lynyrd Skynyrd

well I used to wake the mornin
befor the rooster crowed
searchin for soda bottles to get my self some dough
brought em down to the corner
down to the country store
cash em in and give my money to a man named Curtis Lowe
old Curt was a black man with white curly hair
when he had a fifth of wine he didnot have a care
he used to own and old dobro used to play across his knee
I'd give old Curt my money he play all day for me

(chours)
play me a song Curtis Lowe Curtis Lowe
well I got your drinkin money tune up your dobro
people said he was useless them people all were fools
cuz Curtis Lowe was the finest picker to ever play the blues

he looked to be 60 maybe I was 10
momma used to whoop me
but I'd go see him again
I'd clap my hands, stomp my feet tryin to keep in time
well he'd play me a song or 2 then take another drink of wine

(chours)
play me a song Curtis Lowe Curtis Lowe
well I got your drinkin money tune up your dobro
people said he was useless but them people all were fools
cuz Curtis Lowe was the finest picker to ever play the blues

on the day old Curtis died nobody came to pray
old preacher said some words
they chucked him in the clay
well he lived a lifetime playin the black mans blues
and on the day he lost his life thats all he had to lose

(chours)
play me a song Curtie Lowe Curtis Lowe
I wish that you was here so everyone would know
people said he was useless but them people all were fools
cuz Curtis your finest picker to ever play the blues

[NightTrain]

15. No self-respecting country fan listens to today's Country Top 40!

Worst. Music. Ever. :puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke:

[GreenPartyVoter]

17. I dunno. "Pop in a can" top 40 is pretty lame too, although there are a

few tunes that catch my ear.

[mac56]

19. Word.

Barry Manilow with slide guitars.

I was a DJ on a "new country" station for a year and a half. Never, never again.

[GreenPartyVoter]

21. *lol*

[Bake]

28. Oh? So Britney and Christina et al. are better???

I'm not big on Top 40 Country -- much prefer the REAL thing -- but there's at least shit out there that's equally bad.

Bake

[supernova]

27. I can't stand today's country "music"

:puke:

Give me Flat & Scruggs and Hank Williams Sr anyday.

[Bake]

29. Now that's what I'm talkin' about!

Give me Lester and Earl (last names not necessary), or Big Mon, along with George and Tammy, Dolly, Merle, et al.

Oh, and to whoever up the thread dissed the banjos, a polite "bite me."

Bake

[RagingInMiami]

32. does your bro in law like hank williams jr

I always think of him as country, but apparently a of country fans don't like him

[GreenPartyVoter]

42. How can country fans not like him? That doesn't make sense to me at all

I don't think BIL listens to him. He is more into the current crop of top 40 musicians.

[RagingInMiami]

48. He even wrote a song about not being accepted by the country music

establishment.

Family tradition
Hank Williams Jr.

Country music singers
have always been a real close family
but lately some of my kin folks
have disowned a few others and me
i guess its because
i kinda changed my direction
i guess i went and broke the family tradition

[GreenPartyVoter]

52. Curious. I wonder what was at the root of the disowning? That he wouldn'

go corporate-sounding, maybe?

[bobthedrummer]

39. My sister and my brother-in-law are both country and bluegrass musicians

in Eat'n'Run. I'm not into country that much at all-it could be sibling rivalry here though. I do like the 50's and early 60's C&W stuff like Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Kitty Wells, Marvin Rainwater, Lefty Frizzell, George Jones and, of course, Johnny Cash.

The only Southern-Rock band that matters is the original Allman Brothers Band.

[Radical Activist]

40. Allman Bros are the best

But I'll still take Skynyrd over most of what comes out of Nashville today.

[GreenPartyVoter]

43. Allman and Skynyrd are both heads over the rest, but I love that

Southern sound. Even though CCR may not have been the best band out there, still love their stuff.

[Radical Activist]

44. CCR was even from CA

There are Southern bands that do it better but rarely get on the radio. There's a lot of new stuff you would like if that's what you're into.

[GreenPartyVoter]

47. Hubby is the one who is really into the sound. I like it, but he LOVES it

so pass on some names. (He listens to a lot of other stuff too, but this is a perennial fave of his. Loves the bands mentioned thus far, and also the Black Crowes, the outlaws., .38 Special, Molly Hatchett, the Eagles, although they aren't exactly southern rock)

[hfojvt]

41. well I was a rock fan before I was a country fan

So I would just tell him that:
"we know old waylon, and we know Van Halen
we like ZZ Top, we like country and rock ...
we are young country, we like all kinds
of music and people, 'cause we don't draw no lines."
Hank Williams Jr.

I was at a Confederate Railroad concert and they play a song called "I wish I was somewhere stoned playing pinball" that was a kick-ass rock song. So some country bands know how to rock. What about Mutt Lange and CDB? I had a red-neck girlfriend who said Charlie Daniels was definitely country, and he is in the Skynyrd tradition.

[GreenPartyVoter]

46. I like devil went down to georgia. And I love old ZZ top, Tush and La Gra

-nge..

And then there are the bluesy rock bands and the folksy ones. I can't listen to Melissa Etheridge or Jewel's first CD without thinking that, hey, this has to appeal to some country folks.

So I guess my point is that it irks me when folks write off an entire genre of music, because surely there is a piece or two that will reach your soul. For example, I don't go wild for opera, but yeah, there are a few arias that I find incredibly beautiful.

[Stop_the_War]

45. country sucks. southern rock? oxymoron....

[Radical Activist]

50. Hey, rock was born in Memphis

in case you forgot. Thank you Elvis and Jerry Lee.

[GreenPartyVoter]

51. Early rockabilly. Gotta love it!!!

[leftofthedial]

56. country has been openly and liberally stealing from southern rock

(Skynyrd and Marshall Tucker especially) for the past several years.

Montgomery Gentry, Toby Keith, Trace Adkins . . . a bunch of them owe a big debt to southern rock.

[William Bloode]

57. and he told me that no self-respecting country fan would listen to a rock

Hahahahaha! he's more fulla shit than a Christmas turkey lol! Really you should tell him not to speak about things of which he apparently knows nothing about.

Country, Blues, and Rock-n-roll are all linked, and have drawn on one another's styles from the beginning.

To quote Hank Jr "The day young Skynyrd died we'd show our Southern pride"

Not to mention the fact that the Outlaw movement of the 70's relied allot on Rock. This movement helped change Country music, but it has since went back to the over produced faux Country of the past.

Also Waylon was a rocker in the beginning, in the band with Buddy Holly for those who don't know, so was Conway Twitty, not to mention Buck Owens was absolutely thrilled when the Beatles covered him. Or how about Johnny Cash?

The real acid test was passed along time ago. For as long as i can remember of my life Southern rock is excepted in country dance halls, and just as excepted as any "pure" country artist.