Country Music

[skilletlicker]

Before Country was Cool

I chose "Love Country" but I don't recognize most of the songs or most of the artists when I accidentally hear the local country radio station.
What I love is the music played on porches, in churches, jook joints or just around the old stills of Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta. The best of it came before the music bidness got its claws in and labeled it Hillbilly or Country or Race music. Examples are The Carter Family, Jimmy Rogers, Blind Lemon Jefferson and even Robert Johnson. By the way, I'll bet nobody ever called AP Carter a hillbilly to his face.

I love Hank Williams Sr. He seemed to take off where Jimmy Rogers left off. Junior -- not so much.

Love the old acoustic Delta blues; Muddy Waters and even BB King, great as they are, don't have the same appeal.

Favorite "recent" "country" album is Iris Dement's 1993 Infamous Angel. I swear she's channeling both Sara and Maybelle Carter. Listen to Our Town, Mama's Opry (with Emmy Lou Harris) or Let the Mystery Be.

A favorite song writer is Gillian Welch. Red Clay Halo and Tear My Stillhouse Down are great country songs. Some of her other stuff you'd swear couldn't be written by anybody not born in an Appalachian "holler".

Doc Watson is a national treasure; a human archive of Americana music.

Of course, I can't help but mention the rock star southern string band of the 20's, Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers.

 

[The Z]

Favorite "recent" "country" album is Iris Dement's 1993 Infamous Angel. I swear she's channeling both Sara and Maybelle Carter. Listen to Our Town, Mama's Opry (with Emmy Lou Harris) or Let the Mystery Be.

A favorite song writer is Gillian Welch. Red Clay Halo and Tear My Stillhouse Down are great country songs.

Good stuff here. Iris is something, all right... (Mama's Opry is also very well covered by new artist Sunny Sweeney in 2007). Another female artist I like very much is Elizabeth Cook (similar sound to Dolly, with a number of really well written songs).

Let me also highly recommend the debut album by Steve Earle's son Justin Townes Earle called "The Good Life". I think you would really like it.

(edited to add: I just playing Sunny Sweeney's album for the first time in a little while and, based on your Appalachian leanings, I think you'd like this, too.)

 

[pacanis]

As long as we're posting YouTube links, here is my current favorite that is near the top of the charts (get a little choked up every time)
YouTube - Crystal Shawanda - You Can Let Go

Wow..... Ditto, swelled right up and I knew it was coming.
Kind of parallels Tim McGraw's "Don't Take the Girl".

 

[suziquzie]

oooooo....
Tim McGraw......
Yummy......

 

[pacanis]

oooooo....
Tim McGraw......
Yummy......

Yummy? He can cook? What's his username here?
I always kind of wondered how he snagged Faith..... but that could get waaaaaaaay off topic

 

[suziquzie]

HE snagged her cuz he's HOT!!!

Not that you'd noticed of course.

Garth Brooks is what started me on country.... I used to hate it. Until I heard friends in low places, and then thunder rolls....
Kenny Chesney was next..... when I found Tim I was HOOKED!!

 

[GrantsKat]

HE snagged her cuz he's HOT!!!

Not that you'd noticed of course.

Garth Brooks is what started me on country.... I used to hate it. Until I heard friends in low places, and then thunder rolls....
Kenny Chesney was next..... when I found Tim I was HOOKED!!

DITTO!! OK Im buying that house next door to you

 

[suziquzie]

It's a steal I'm tellin ya!!!!!

 

[buckytom]

That is what everyone who hates country music says. Have you ever listened to the lyrics to most rock songs? SSDC. And how about the Blues?

don't take it personally patty. country is just not my preference, while i relax under the tarp of my double-wide.

and yes, i often listen to (and then have to look up) lyrics. everything from "carmina burana" to "baby got back"...

almost all of my sig lines are favored lyrics.

i can appreciate som country music, however. the last time that i visited my bil in virginia, we went line dancing. it was fun. i even bought a pair of python boots and a stetson to get into the spirit.

those boots and hat were a big waste of money until recently, when i have reason again on occasion to dress up like a cowboy.

 

[pacanis]

You slapped leather with your BIL?

 

[jabbur]

I chose "Love Country" but I don't recognize most of the songs or most of the artists when I accidentally hear the local country radio station.
What I love is the music played on porches, in churches, jook joints or just around the old stills of Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta. The best of it came before the music bidness got its claws in and labeled it Hillbilly or Country or Race music. Examples are The Carter Family, Jimmy Rogers, Blind Lemon Jefferson and even Robert Johnson. By the way, I'll bet nobody ever called AP Carter a hillbilly to his face.

I love Hank Williams Sr. He seemed to take off where Jimmy Rogers left off. Junior -- not so much.

Love the old acoustic Delta blues; Muddy Waters and even BB King, great as they are, don't have the same appeal.

Favorite "recent" "country" album is Iris Dement's 1993 Infamous Angel. I swear she's channeling both Sara and Maybelle Carter. Listen to Our Town, Mama's Opry (with Emmy Lou Harris) or Let the Mystery Be.

A favorite song writer is Gillian Welch. Red Clay Halo and Tear My Stillhouse Down are great country songs. Some of her other stuff you'd swear couldn't be written by anybody not born in an Appalachian "holler".

Doc Watson is a national treasure; a human archive of Americana music.

Of course, I can't help but mention the rock star southern string band of the 20's, Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers.

Hey Skilletlicker, you might like the new band Old Crow Medicine Show. They have that old time sound. I love their music! It sounds like the guys sitting around on the porch picking.

 

[Elf]

I drifted to country because it is not loud and in our face, well most of time, I'll also listen to jazz, blues and some classical. I use music for relaxation, so I can concentrate on what I am doing, I don't like any music that sets you on edge.

 

[Chico Buller]

I like it quite a lot, and that's a new thing, probably over the last three or four years.

Talk about "songs about me," I find that Trace Adkins speaks to a group I find myself in. Let me explain that, it is not a group I joined, it's more of a survivors' group formed by disenfranchisement.

I believe my initial recognition of this phenomenon centered around Toby Keith and unvarnished opinions. An idea which I believe is simply baby-boomers growing older. That's 78 million Americans who have either retired, or are about to retire. A large demographic who are now taking stock of the lives they lived under a shared history.

When Trace Adkins barks, "No, I don't have a permit..." it doesn't actually refer to any one idea or activity. To 'boomers, their lives and their actions were supposed to build a better society, not a more intrusive central government.

Popular music was the voice of 'boomers for decades. It's now the stomping ground of Britney Spears and gansta rap, no longer a medium we recognize as our artistic vocalization. Fueling it, is an uncertainty of just where the autumn of our lives will take us.

I find C/W music funny, irreverant, touching, spiritual, and a reassurance that many people view our country with a similar ideology. That concept alone makes it a valuable genre' for me.

 

[JohnL]

Good stuff here. Iris is something, all right... (Mama's Opry is also very well covered by new artist Sunny Sweeney in 2007). Another female artist I like very much is Elizabeth Cook (similar sound to Dolly, with a number of really well written songs).

Let me also highly recommend the debut album by Steve Earle's son Justin Townes Earle called "The Good Life". I think you would really like it.

(edited to add: I just playing Sunny Sweeney's album for the first time in a little while and, based on your Appalachian leanings, I think you'd like this, too.)

Wow,
Never knew Steve had a son in the buis. Will deffinately check him out.
Thanks,
John.

 

[PattY1]

don't take it personally patty. country is just not my preference, while i relax under the tarp of my double-wide.

and yes, i often listen to (and then have to look up) lyrics. everything from "carmina burana" to "baby got back"...

almost all of my sig lines are favored lyrics.

i can appreciate som country music, however. the last time that i visited my bil in virginia, we went line dancing. it was fun. i even bought a pair of python boots and a stetson to get into the spirit.

those boots and hat were a big waste of money until recently, when i have reason again on occasion to dress up like a cowboy.

Opions are like.....

To each his own. I like Rock, Country, Blues and a little Jazz. But my heart is in Southern Rock.

I am not so much into Country that I have ever line danced. I just listen to it sometimes. Depends on my mood what kind of music I listen to.

 

[carolelaine]

DH is a camera man for grand ole opry live, so I watch alot of it. I really like some of it, hate some of it and just don't care one way or another for the rest. I let him think that I love it usually though.

 

[luckytrim]

Old dogs, and children.....and watermelon wine!

U GO, uncle bob! Tom T. Hall is a great story-teller!

I have an extensive collection of classic country music. (It's so large that I'm obligated to carry a rider on my home-owners insurance)

But for a few artists, my cut-off date came in the late seventies-early eighties when, as Uncle Bob said, the genre morphed into something else;
I refer to it as "City Country", or "Country Pop", and my mother calls todays country singers the "Hat of the Month Club".
I'll still buy Alan Jackson, Ricky Skaggs, Allison Kraus, George Strait and a few others........

My friends tend to refer to Classic country as "Hard Core" !

 

[jkath]

What happens when Cookie Monster listens to too much thrash metal:

 

[BigDog]

. . . . . Allison Kraus . . . .

With all due respect to every female country artist that has been, is, or will be, this woman absolutely mesmerizes me. The amazing thing is I'm not overly into her music. She hooked me with "When you say nothing at all" but beyond that I didn't really listen to anything by her.

Until A Hundred Miles or More was released. To me, this is an amazing album which allows Allison to show off all of her talent. I realize this is more of a greatest hits, but man I love it. Her mastery of her voice allows her to sing a wide range of topical music, from love songs (When you say nothing at all) to break up songs (Whiskey Lullaby) and even being able to maintain a "cold" sound when singing Jacob's Dream. Even old spirituals like "Down to the River to Pray" are well within her realm.

I don't see the devil challenging her to a fiddle dual any more then the devil calling out Charlie Daniels again. Boy that would be a go, though, Charlie and Allison . . . . . . . WOW!

 

[Alix]

OMG...BigDog Whiskey Lullaby gives me chills. She is fantastic, what pipes!