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21 October 2005
Guitars, Cadillacs, Hillbilly Music... What's yer favorite country (countrified is okay for you dabblers) music?→[More:]
Mine's Readin', Writin', Route 23 by Dwight Yoakam.
Where to begin? Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Bobbie Gentry, Hank Williams, Bill Monroe, Jimmie Rodgers, Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam, Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Dixie Chicks, Kathy Mattea, Left Frizzel, Ernest Tubb, Bob Wills, New Grass Revival, Faron Young, George Strait, Ray price, Charley Pride, Tompall Glaser, the Flatlanders....
Hank Williams, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash for sure. Also early Alan Jackson, and some of the Bloodshot Records crowd like Robbie Fulks and the Waco Brothers.
I only like real country music if I find the singer sexy, for some reason. It's all about the video. Shallow of me, I know.
I do like 'rock' (I don't even know what that means anymore) with a strong country bent, though...a lot. Calexico, Cuff the Duke, Poco, Mendoza Line....like that.
Dwight Yoakam convinced me that I liked country music after all. And I spent hundreds of dollars on CDs before discovering that no, I don't. I just like Dwight Yoakum.
Oh yeah, and the Carter Family. There are some recordings of them with Jimmie Rodgers that are incredible -- they have these crazy stagey skits where Jimmie is supposed to have just arrived at the Carters' place in Virginny and is a-settin' down to dinner. The songs they record are a little corny and repetitive, but there's still nuthin like it. Great stuff!
I forgot Dwight Yoakam! Love his stuff, and his live show is KICK ASS.
Calexico is also a huge favorite, but they don't seem that country-ish to me... more latin-western-inspired than anything else.
You wouldn't know it from their name, but there's a cool band here in Georgia called Japancakes who do long, gorgeous country instrumentals... it's not like anything else I've ever heard.
scurius, just about half the artists I cited were straight outta Nashville. The Country establishment has coughed up it's share of dreck to be sure, but it's coughed up gems (less and less as time goes by, although I'll shamefully admit to finding Big & Rich's "Save A Horse.." endlessly chuckleworthy)as well. Never choose music for political or style reasons, it's all about waht's in the grooves.
Since Mutt Lange married Shania Twain and turned her into Def Leppard, creating the most marketable "country" star ever, a real trend towards power ballads, countrified hair-metal, and auto-tuned soullesness has developed in Nashville.
The best thing about commercial homogeneity in any music style is the backlash it creates. "Underground" Nashville musicians are now either going back to their roots or exploring a rocky, rolly, tough-guy snarl that I really cotton to.
But the mainstream, as with all genres, changes at a glacial pace. When it comes to country music, the radio isn't your friend. The internet is.
Might I recommend Brian Setzer's album The Knife Feels Like Justice?
I still have my original cassete of that from back in the day. Setzer proved he was an actual talent and not just a goofball revivalist with that. If only he'd kept going with that and not deicded to become some second rate Louis Prima wanna-be.
(disclaimer: I love Louis Prima)
Hugh, I don't disagree with you about 90% of todays, (other eras were a different story) Nashville. And I like sappy-ass country too, not just the badass Johnny/Merle axis. Sentimentality is nice. specially with alcohol.
and to quote Steve Earle: Shania Twain is the most overpaid lap dancer in Nashville.
Where to begin????? Robert Earl, Emmylou, Dwight, Dolly, Steve...gees, everything listed so far. If you're lookin' check out KNBT.
*disclaimer: I work there part time.
jonmc, I grew up in a place where the only radio station we could receive played nothing but the worst of the worst of Nashville country, I had to drive a half hour to get an excellent modern rock station [WOXY]. I understand that my taste is based on the arbitrary craptasticness of my old local radio station, but it's just one of those things from your childhood that you can't get past.
RB Morris, who I keep trying to push on y'all since nobody's ever heard of him.
James McMurtry, Lucinda Williams, Robert Earl Keene, Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Patsy Cline (goddess!), Emmylou Harris, Nanci Griffith, and any number of *.* Boys playing bluegrass - the list goes on and on.
I saw a man back in the day on the Jon Stewart Show who sang with the voice of Patsy Cline. He was a chubby black-haired fellow, and it was jarring when Jon Stewart did the reveal and the guy walked out singing. Crazy, indeed.
I love everyone mentioned here. I also nominate Gillian Welch, and was going to be pissed that Lyle Lovett hadn't been mentioned (though mygoth took care of that oversight). Let's not forget Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Buck Owens, Bob Wills, Asleep at the Wheel, a big bunch of people from Austin, Kelly Willis, and Townes VanZandt.
My grandmother was a huge country music fan, so I'm partial to anyone who hit their prime in the 70s/early 80s. Good memories.
I adore Loretta Lynn (my grandfather used to refer to her as "my next wife"). Coalminer's Daughter is one of those movies that I can't flip past. The minute I see it, I stop cold and have to watch. Especially the scene where she chases off the "pig girl" and when she tells Dew "I'm not stupid, I'm just ignorant!"
Also love bluegrass. My sister had a local bluegrass band play her wedding. You gotta love any reception where people are playing the spoons. YEE HAW!!!!
Lately? Well, I've been listening to a lot of 16 Horsepower (their last album is so good it can make you cry) and The Byrds (once they went country). Aside from that, gimme '30s depression Country and Wester (oh, and "Blood on the Saddle.") Our classic country station just got sold, and so they're turning it into a Spanish channel... Which kinda sucks.
As a side note, I did an internship in Nashville where Big and Rich were the mentors for the songwriting portion. Some of our music ended up on their debut album. They're funny people. Someday I might be able to sell my CD of the demos for real money... (That's why I root for them...)
And Specklet--is your dad a big guy with a beard? That seems to be a prereq for playing bass in a bluegrass band. (Or singing bass in the Oakridge Boys.)
old: Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Faron Young, Ernest Tubb, Lefty Frizzell, Merle Haggard, the Carter Family, the Delmore Brothers, Patsy Cline, the Louvin Brothers, the Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, Jimmie Rodgers, Flying Burrito Brothers, Gram Parsons, Loretta Lynn, Buck Owens, Dwight Yoakam
new: Gillian Welch, Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, the Jayhawks, Whiskeytown, the Old 97s, Neko Case, Kelly Hogan, Old Crow Medicine Show, Kelly Willis, the Mavericks,
Patsy Cline is the bestest. Lots of the old 70s stuff - Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Charlie Rich, Lynn Anderson. New stuff - Dixie Chicks, Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban, older Brooks & Dunn.
Sammi Smith is worth recalling from the early '70s.
Mary Gauthier's contemporary number "I Drink" is good'n'stark country-noir.
Terry Allen has put out some nice, oddball stuff, notably the album "Lubbock On Everything".
Also we seem to have got down here without the name Kristofferson posted. So that no asses need be kicked, we shall agree that this was just an oversight and not speak of it again.
Lefty Frizzell, Hank Williams, The Star Room Boys, The Handsome Family, Buck Owens, Robbie Fulks, Freakwater, Don Walser, George Jones, Giant Sand (w/ Pappy), The Guthries, Lambchop, Paul Burch, Palace, Sally Timms, Townes Van Zandt, Vic Chesnutt, Willie Nelson, Cuff the Duke, Tammy Wynette...
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