# Country: The most popular music genre for over 100 Years



## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

I recently saw *this video* which shows how Country music has remained the most popular, lasting music genre for over 100 years. That's quite a phenomenon! I wonder if anyone would give their thoughts on this supergenre of music and why its traditions remain so beloved to this day. What are some aspects of Country that makes it objectively great to people, enough to keep it thriving for over a century? I'm going to post examples of music from each decade, although its origins supposedly began somewhere in the 1910s and much earlier.


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

Country music has typically had excellent musicianship and songwriting, and the best of it is eminently relatable, even if you have not found yourself in that exact situation.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

I lived and worked as a professional songwriter in Nashville from 1992 to 2019. The level of songwriting artistry was very high, even though most often songwriters were asked to write "ditties" instead of something of higher value. Still, every songwriter had his "desk drawer songs" - the ones he was especially proud of, and we might hear them at a writer's night, but which were not suitable for the market.

Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Harlan Howard, Guy Clark, Curly Putnam, Max D. Barnes, Hugh Prestwood, Bob McDill, are a few of the songwriters whose songs were both successful commercially but also extremely well-written songs.

Songs like 

The Song Remembers When (Hugh Prestwood)
You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive (Darrell Scott)
Chiseled in Stone (Max D. Barnes, Vern Gosdin)
The Dance (Tony Arata)
Down the Road (Mac McAnally)
Good Old Boys Like Me (Bob McDill)
Today I Started Loving You Again (Merle Haggard)
Desperados Waiting for a Train (Guy Clark)
Pancho & Lefty (Townes Van Zandt)
Streets of Baltimore (Tompall Glaser)
Angel from Montgomery (John Prine)
Lost Highway (Leon Payne)
Hello Walls (Willie Nelson)
The Gambler (Don Schlitz)

These are a few off the top of my head which are extremely well written songs, and they all became hits. The songwriting community in Nashville was the most concentrated assemblage of talent I have ever experienced. And I lived in NYC and worked as a jazz musician in all the clubs.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Country is merely one of a group of popular musics which enjoy great popularity - Irish and Scots traditional music both have a similar popularity. Country music merely gets sold better.

When you look at the history of such music, you can spot a number of characteristics - family groups, singing, connection with dancing. All of these tie the music to its community. Bill Monroe started as dance band. Then add records - the Carter family started their career that way. Then add radio where both the Carter family and Bill Monroe prospered. Then add marketing and you get today's country music industry.

There are a lot of great musicians. There are a lot of crossovers - Dylan and Cash, the Chieftains and Béla Fleck. There are a lot of great songs.

Great thread :tiphat:


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

Country compared to most genres does really seem to be about the melodies. Has country music, and similarly pop, 'evolved' throughout the 20th century? I know as someone akin to country throughout the 70s-90s, it seems that way to me, but I know I'm ignorant of a lot of country music.

I know just a few examples of some great writing:

Dolly Parton - I Will Always Love You (1974)





Deana Carter - Strawberry Wine (1996)





John Denver - Take Me Home, Country Roads (1971)





Don't forget, Honky-Tonk dance music!
Brooks and Dunn - Texas Women





Tony Arata - The Dance - Great performance by Mick Lloyd (2000)


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

The place where the Venn diagrams of Country and Rock overlap are often areas of great musical fertility--I'm thinking of Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allmans, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Maria McKee's output both in Lone Justice and as a solo artist. There are many other examples--Dylan and Cash certainly have been mentioned, and Springsteen, Bob Seger, and John Mellencamp can be included easily here.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

A brief story told in Ken Burns' Jazz tells of Charlie Parker, the great saxophonist, listening to country music on the jukebox at every opportunity he had. His band members would chide him for listening and ask "Why?" And Charlie Parker would reply, "It's the stories, man!"

I really enjoyed watching Ken Burns' Country Music in 2019. I would like to see it again when it comes to the television one more time. I enjoy listening to classic country, music from the 1950s through to the 1970s. Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Charley Pride, and Willie Nelsen. I don't listen often, but I like it when I do.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Like any other music there is a ton of formulaic, forgettable garbage manufactured for the charts and there is stuff that is unique coming from artists of substance. I never bought mainstream country records. I've mostly been interested in acoustic instrumentalists who are also good songwriters or interpreters. These artists are well known by musicians and producers in Nashville but anonymous to the general public. We lost two of the finest over the past few months including Tony Rice, and Peter Ostroushko. The closest thing to mainstream I listen to is Emmylou Harris. But she was probably considered a liberal hippie by conservative audiences although her longevity and collaborations have made her a household name.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

As to the evolution of country music look to the Louvin Brothers or the Stanley Brothers. In some ways what they are singing moved into the folk scene - things like Man of Constant Sorrow (on Dylan's first album). The Carter Family - Will the Circle be Unbroken has become another folk standard. Then there's all the 50's cowboy stuff - Marty Robbins and Frankie Laine. Somebody mentioned Springsteen and he did a lot of Seeger covers. Pete Seeger, although not a country singer, gets tied in through his work with Alan Lomax in recording backwoods music. Seeger's dad was an ethnomusicologist and his step-mum (Ruth Crawford Seeger) worked with people like Carl Sandberg composing arrangements for American folk (and work) songs. Cash has done some excellent covers of Springsteen - Highway Patrolman is brilliant.

Into the 60's and there's a lot of crossover with Kenny Rogers and Jeanie C Riley. Harper Valley PTA is by Tom T Hall who has written songs for dozens of country stars, including Johnny Cash, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Waylon Jennings, Alan Jackson, and Bobby Bare. He's one of the unsung heroes of country music. Roger Miller - King of the Road - is another crossover act.

Then there's Charlie Daniels, Steve Earle, Big and Rich, Iris DeMent, Gretchen Wilson - all different, all country and nothing like the early country music.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

There are some great country songs, but also a whole lot of stuff that is as annoying as pop music in general.

Here are some good country albums:

Dylan: Nashville Skyline:


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## jiraffejustin (Jul 26, 2018)

Country music is my favorite genre and we have a great crop of modern country artists

Cody Jinks: 



Sturgill Simpson: 



Tyler Childers: 



Charley Crockett: 



Angaleena Presley: 



Karen Jonas: 



Jaime Wyatt: 



Kacey Musgraves: 



Chris Stapleton: 



Turnpike Troubadours: 



Hellbound Glory: 



Zach Bryan: 



Colter Wall: 



Nick Shoulders: 



Sierra Ferrell: 



Nikki Lane: 



Joshua Ray Walker: 




I could keep going, but this is probably too much as it is. I just hope somebody tries at least one of these and gets something out of it.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

> Taggart: "Then there's all the 50's cowboy stuff - Marty Robbins and Frankie Laine."


Great stuff! I grew up listening to the cowboy stuff, and it goes back richly into the 1940s with the Sons of the Pioneers doing _Cool Water_ and _Tumbling Tumbleweeds_. Vaughn Monroe sang the best-known version of _Ghost Riders in the Sky_. Even Bing Crosby got into the act with _Don't Fence Me In_. Tons more from Tex Ritter, Roy Rogers, etc. The whole western/I am an outlaw vein has yielded material for decades. _Theme for an Imaginary Western_ by Mountain just one example; _Bad Company_, another.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Some other more "modern" Western/I am an Outlaw songs: Love 'em all.......

Christopher Cross: Ride Like The Wind
Styx: Renegade
Bon Jovi: Wanted Dead or Alive
Grateful Dead: Me and My Uncle


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

jiraffejustin said:


> Country music is my favorite genre and we have a great crop of modern country artists
> 
> Cody Jinks:
> 
> ...


Nice list. There has been a resurgence of classic country informed new songwriters; many living in East Nashville.

Otis Gibbs
An American Forrest
Danny Burns
Grayson Capps
Hayes Carll
Adam Carroll
Slaid Cleaves
Rose Cousins
Diana Jones
Eilen Jewell
James McMurtry
Danny Schmidt
Joan Shelley
Anna Tivel
Walt Wilkins
Malcolm Holcomb

Writers like Guy Clarke, Townes Van Zandt, Kris Kristofferson as well as John Prine and others have also remained a big influence for a brand of new country which side steps the corporate Music Row assembly line.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*Joshua Ray Walker* - _Voices_


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Strange Magic said:


> Some other more "modern" Western/I am an Outlaw songs: Love 'em all.......
> 
> Christopher Cross: Ride Like The Wind
> Styx: Renegade
> ...


Buoys - Give up your guns
Eagles - Desperado


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I'm listening to Sweetheart Of The Rodeo by The Byrds.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Tiffany Williams - "Stay Broken"


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

I'm more partial to the "golden age" Nashville/mainstream sound than most, probably, so the Lefty Frizzell compilation "Look What Thoughts Will Do", and pick a few George Jones/Tammy Wynette albums are required listening.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I like some country, mostly older stuff, musicians like Marty Robbins, Glenn Campbell, Jerry Reed, Chet Atkins and Willie Nelson come to mind.

Some of the stuff mentioned in this thread I don't consider country music for example Bon Jovi, The Eagles, Neil Young, Christopher Cross, The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan etc.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

tdc said:


> I like some country, mostly older stuff, musicians like Marty Robbins, Glenn Campbell, Jerry Reed, Chet Atkins and Willie Nelson come to mind.
> 
> Some of the stuff mentioned in this thread I don't consider country music for example Bon Jovi, The Eagles, Neil Young, Christopher Cross, The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan etc.


No, it was presented as music where C&W and Rock intersect, not as country per se. For many of the named artists, it was the Western aspect that most triggered the selection of those songs and artists, and spawned a burst of distinctive musical fertility.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*Rise When the Rooster Crows*






Norman Blake & Peter Ostroushko


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*The Wailin' Jennys* | _Bird Song_


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Ordered myself a copy of this set. http://omnivorerecordings.com/shop/complete-capitol-singles/










Actually paid over 25 dollars less from a discount retailer. I'm not even a huge country fan but I just happen love Buck Owens' voice and Don Rich's guitar.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Ethereality said:


> I recently saw *this video* which shows how Country music has remained the most popular, lasting music genre for over 100 years. That's quite a phenomenon! I wonder if anyone would give their thoughts on this supergenre of music and why its traditions remain so beloved to this day. What are some aspects of Country that makes it objectively great to people, enough to keep it thriving for over a century? I'm going to post examples of music from each decade, although its origins supposedly began somewhere in the 1910s and much earlier.


Because country music is easier to compose, it has free flow within its boundaries. 100 years is not that long compared to classical. So I don't see what the big deal is.

Two well loved songs:


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Marty Stuart!


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Righteous Bell - Mike Barnett and Sarah Jarosz


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Just Like Leaving - Bella White


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

Y'all forgetting about the GREATEST country rockstar of all time...

:lol::lol::lol:


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

The Complete RCA Victor Recordings
Jimmie Rodgers

View attachment 154159


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

_The Ultimate Collection _
*Hank Williams *

View attachment 154170


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

A virulent racist, even by country standards, but this is still a masterpiece.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Diana Jones - Better Times Will Come


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

fbjim said:


> A virulent racist, even by country standards


According to Wikipedia he vehemently denies being racist.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Barbebleu said:


> According to Wikipedia he vehemently denies being racist.


He only uses the N word on those private tapes he sells directly to his fans. You won't hear it on his commercial label releases.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

_White Line Fever_
*Bobby Osborne*

Compass Records
Bluegrass legend Bobby Osborne teamed up with producers *Alison Brown* and *Garry West* and an A-team cast of players for a bluegrass remake of Merle Haggard's 1969 classic "White Line Fever". To augment their rearrangement of Haggard's story of life on the road, Brown and West asked *Jeff Tweedy* (Wilco) to craft a new verse reflecting on Osborne's 60+ year career and the many white lines under his wheels both as a member of the iconic Osborne Brothers and as a solo artist. Tweedy contributed the perfect handful of lines with nods to Osborne's roots in Kentucky and his family's rust-belt migration to find work in Ohio. The new single features *Tim O'Brien* and *Trey Hensley* on harmony vocals and a crack band consisting of *Sierra Hull* (mandolin), *Stuart Duncan* (fiddle), Trey Hensley (guitar), *Todd Phillips* (bass), and Brown on banjo.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*Junior Sisk*: _I'm Going There_


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

The most depressing, and therefore the best, George Jones song. Absolutely my favorite exponent of the mainstream Nashville style - he's one of those people like Sinatra and Elvis whose vocals are a category of their own and can hardly be measured against anyone else.

"And the lip print on a half-filled cup of coffee that you poured, but didn't drink/
but at least you thought you wanted it; that's so much more than I can say for me"


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*Buddy Miller* - _Midnight and Lonesome_


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

John Moreland "You Don't Care for Me Enough to Cry"


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## Amadea (Apr 15, 2021)

Ethereality said:


> Country music has remained the most popular, lasting music genre for over 100 years.


Sorry, but I live in Europe and we don't have much american country music here. So the assertion "country has remained the most popular genre" is questionable and can refer just to USA. It has surely remained a stable genre, meaning the sales probably remained high while the others (jazz, blues, rock, classical) fluctuated. In my opinion, it is because obviously country is rooted in the american *white* tradition and culture as a genre. It represents the white americans, their values and the rural areas in my opinion. It is the most ancient and only music genre white middle-class americans have as reference (being musical more for elite, theatres are not cheap). In other words it is the genre of white american middle-class and it has remained so because all the other genres were mainly black (jazz, blues, rock), mainly city music, or music seen as "without values" (rock), or too elite (classic, musical) and still are seen this way by some.


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

Strange Magic said:


> The place where the Venn diagrams of Country and Rock overlap are often areas of great musical fertility--I'm thinking of Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allmans, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Maria McKee's output both in Lone Justice and as a solo artist. There are many other examples--Dylan and Cash certainly have been mentioned, and Springsteen, Bob Seger, and John Mellencamp can be included easily here.


Country music is Africanized Scots-Irish folk music with ties back to the Minstrel music of the 1900s (which is why its better than traditional British folk)


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*Darrell Scott*: The Open Door - Transatlantic Sessions






From Wikipedia



> Transatlantic Sessions is the collective title for a series of musical productions by Glasgow-based Pelicula Films Ltd, funded by and produced for BBC Scotland, BBC Four and RTÉ of Ireland. The productions comprise collaborative live performances by various leading folk, bluegrass and country musicians from both sides of the North Atlantic, playing music from Scotland, Ireland, England and North America, who congregate under the musical direction of *Aly Bain* and *Jerry Douglas* to record and film a set of half-hour TV episodes.[


I've got all the CD installments, they are one of the most enjoyable collections I've heard.


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)




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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*Rhiannon Giddens* along with *Dom Flemons* and *Súle Greg Wilson* visited the *Black Banjo Gathering* where they met *Dena Epstein* whose book _Sinful Tunes and Spirituals_ documented the African history of the banjo. They also met other African American Old Time musicians which inspired them to form the group *Carolina Chocolate Drops*.

Their 2010 album, _Genuine Negro Jig_, won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album and they went on to record several other albums.

Great stuff.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*Clarence Ashley *- _The Coo-Coo Bird_


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

"Well I have seen the David/I've seen the Mona Lisa too/And I have heard Doc Watson play Columbus Stockade Blues"


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

fbjim said:


> "Well I have seen the David/I've seen the Mona Lisa too/And I have heard Doc Watson play Columbus Stockade Blues"


Guy Clark was one of the greats.


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## Barnaby (Jan 10, 2015)

Since we're defining country pretty loosely then how about this guy ?











Hmmmm not sure why it didn't come up in big sexy pics like the ones above


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*Ronnie Milsap* (featuring Vince Gill) - "Big Bertha"








> Country Music Hall of Fame legend Ronnie Milsap is back with new music this spring. His 10-song album, A Better Word for Love, will be released April 30 on Black River Records, and is the follow-up to his all-star project Duets.
> 
> Teaming with longtime co-producer Rob Galbraith, Milsap recorded much-loved songs that didn't fit his prior albums, including those by renowned songwriters Mike Reid, Gary Nicholson, Al Anderson, Jim Weatherly, Brent Maher, Allen Shamblin, and David Ball.
> 
> ...


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

SanAntone said:


> The Complete RCA Victor Recordings
> Jimmie Rodgers
> 
> View attachment 154159







(Robert Christgau)
Rodgers isn't the most accessible of totems--read Nolan Porterfield on his "raw energy" and "driving" guitar and you'll think somebody made a mistake at the pressing plant. But he didn't invent country music being a purist. He was the first to put into practice the retrospectively obvious truth that Southerners wanted more from their music than hymns, reels, and high-mountain laments--blues voicings and pop tunes and even a little jazz, though most of these classics are strictly solo. [...] Also encompassing both is "Waiting for a Train," as signal a Depression song as "Brother Can You Spare a Dime." It was recorded in 1928.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

The meter- oh man, the meter.

Legs to walk and thoughts to fly,
eyes to laugh and lips to cry,
a restless tongue to classify,
all born to grow and grown to die.

[...]

I'm chained upon the face of time,
feelin' full of foolish rhyme;
there ain't no dark till something shines,
I'm bound to leave this dark behind


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Country music.

Damn, it is just so DIVERSE . . . it's evolved so much over the decades.

And there are so many sub-genres of "country" music.

Western swing
Western
Bluegrass
Cowboy
Rockabilly
Americana
Country Blues
Country Folk
Honky-Tonk
Country Rock
Nashville
New Country

I'm fairly positive that this little list is just the tip of the iceberg.

Heaven forbid you should change the subject to "Mexican" music. I fear that y'all would think it's solely represented by Mariachi bands.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

pianozach said:


> And there are so many sub-genres of "country" music.
> 
> Western swing
> Western
> ...


Just now, while searching for country prog (not convinced by the results btw), I found out that there is a genre called "cow punk".


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Art Rock said:


> Just now, while searching for country prog (not convinced by the results btw), I found out that there is a genre called "cow punk".


Mekons!!!!! One of the great albums ever!


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Country prog = The Dixie Dregs


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*Miranda Lambert* - "Tin Man" (From _The Marfa Tapes_ Film with *Jack Ingram* & *Jon Randall*)






*No Depression*:



> Say this for Miranda Lambert: The country superstar is not afraid to share the spotlight. Whether teaming with Angaleena Presley and Ashley Monroe in Pistol Annies or, more recently, cavorting with Elle King, Lambert seems to revel in collaboration. Maybe that's one reason her solo work has maintained a consistently fresh edge.
> 
> For The Marfa Tapes, Lambert took off for the remote West Texas hamlet of Marfa with two songwriting buddies, Texas country-rocker Jack Ingram and Nashville studio ace Jon Randall. Reflecting Lambert's well-earned clout, the results are unlike any major-label release you're likely to hear - and one of the best albums of the year. It's just the three performers, with equal billing, sitting outdoors singing and playing acoustic guitars.
> 
> To say the tracks sound like demos does not do justice to the intimacy and depth of these performances. The loose-limbed chemistry among the three is palpable: They're obviously having a lot of fun, as you can gather from the between-songs banter, but it's also clear they mean business.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*della mae | for the sake of my heart*








> Della Mae is a GRAMMY-nominated, Nashville-based, all-female string band made up of lead vocalist/guitarist Celia Woodsmith, 2-time national champion fiddle player Kimber Ludiker, and mandolinist Jenni Lyn Gardner. Hailing from across North America, and reared in diverse musical styles, they are one of the most charismatic and engaging roots bands touring today. They have traveled to over 30 countries spreading peace and understanding through music.
> 
> Their mission as a band is to showcase top female musicians, and to improve opportunities for women and girls through advocacy, mentorship, programming, and performance.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*flatt lonesome | highway of pain*


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Rockabilly is a sub genre of rock n roll, not country. And there are bands that invented a sub genre such as New Grass Revival.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

starthrower said:


> Rockabilly is a sub genre of rock n roll, not country. And there are bands that invented a sub genre such as New Grass Revival.


Actually, early rock & roll came out of country, Elvis, Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly, and some Johnny Cash (the Sun sound), even Chuck Berry cites country influences. Rockabilly took its inspiration from that early rock & roll.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

It also came out of the blues. But Rockabilly is rock.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

starthrower said:


> It also came out of the blues. But Rockabilly is rock.


If you listen to some early George Jones it is rockabilly. I think you are being too compartmental, but it is not worth debating.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

starthrower said:


> Rockabilly is a sub genre of rock n roll, not country. And there are bands that invented a sub genre such as New Grass Revival.


Yeah, you're probably right, technically.

But as a genre it blends the sound of Western musical styles such as country with that of rhythm and blues.

It's a bastård child.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Early Charlie Rich is in that rock n roll ballpark as well. Sounds like he wanted to be another Elvis.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

starthrower said:


> Early Charlie Rich is in that rock n roll ballpark as well. Sounds like he wanted to be another Elvis.


Yep. Btw, the New Grass Revival was a band founded by Sam Bush and one of several "progressive bluegrass" bands from the 70s. They did a great live record with Leon Russell doing rock songs in bluegrass arrangements. Their version of Wild Horses is one of my favorite versions.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I'm a long time fan of NGR. And Sam Bush solo albums as well.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Empty bottles and broken glass/busted-down doors and borrowed cash/borrowed cash, borrowed cash


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

fbjim said:


> Empty bottles and broken glass/busted-down doors and borrowed cash/borrowed cash, borrowed cash


Great songwriter.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Just saw this in No Depression: *Lucinda Williams Had a Stroke Last Year*

We're always glad to have *Lucinda Williams* in our lives, but we're especially grateful after Rolling Stone reported this week that she had a stroke last November. She felt off balance and then couldn't walk one day at her home in Nashville as she prepared to take a shower, but luckily her husband happened to be on the phone at the time with her doctor, who advised going to the hospital right away. After a week in intensive care and a month in a rehabilitation center, Williams was able to return home and is working on her recovery. So far she is unable to play guitar, but she is writing and "singing my *** off," she tells RS, and is expected to make a full recovery, with tentative plans to return to the stage in summer.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

SanAntone said:


> Just saw this in No Depression: *Lucinda Williams Had a Stroke Last Year*
> 
> We're always glad to have *Lucinda Williams* in our lives, but we're especially grateful after Rolling Stone reported this week that she had a stroke last November. She felt off balance and then couldn't walk one day at her home in Nashville as she prepared to take a shower, but luckily her husband happened to be on the phone at the time with her doctor, who advised going to the hospital right away. After a week in intensive care and a month in a rehabilitation center, Williams was able to return home and is working on her recovery. So far she is unable to play guitar, but she is writing and "singing my *** off," she tells RS, and is expected to make a full recovery, with tentative plans to return to the stage in summer.


Strokes suck. Glad her prognosis is 100% recovery, even though it will take an extended amount of time.

She was 67 when she had her stroke, 68 now.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

John Hiatt with The Jerry Douglas Band - "All The Lilacs In Ohio"


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Louisa Branscomb: "Barefoot Girl"


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

garrison starr | downtown hollywood


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## Open Book (Aug 14, 2018)

Bwv 1080 said:


>


She joined Yo Yo Ma's SilkRoad Ensemble last year, as artistic director, no less. The Boston Symphony website offered a Silkroad performance that included her, one of their video offerings during the height of the pandemic. I thought she was great and will probably take them in new directions.

https://www.silkroad.org/rhiannon-giddens-announcement


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## Open Book (Aug 14, 2018)

Bwv 1080 said:


> Country music is Africanized Scots-Irish folk music with ties back to the Minstrel music of the 1900s (which is why its better than traditional British folk)


It does seem to be music that originated in the British Isles but with bluesy tones incorporated. I don't know if that makes it better than traditional British folk music.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Not to start a "is bluegrass country" debate, but one of the first uh, "americana" discs I owned was the famous Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album which was really just them showcasing a bunch of bluegrass legends with them playing in the background.

This, in particular, blew me away the first time I listened to the thing. Just pure moral macabre - you have to love a song with a vocal hook of "I didn't hear nobody pray". (This is the great Roy Acuff (he's a guy who fully deserves a "the great" title) on vocals - it was one of his signature songs)


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Ralph Stanley did not buy into the limited idea of Country music being only what was produced in Nashville on Music Row. He called all of it, Old Time, Bluegrass, Country music. And in fact, it all came from the same sources. Some say that The Carter Family were the progenitors of Old Time Mountain Music which led to Bluegrass, and Jimmie Rodgers style led to honky-tonk songs and Country Music.

Both The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers debuted during the Bristol Sessions in 1927 conducted by Ralph Peer, which Johnny Cash called the Big Bang of Country Music.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

fbjim said:


> Not to start a "is bluegrass country" debate, but one of the first uh, "americana" discs I owned was the famous Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album which was really just them showcasing a bunch of bluegrass legends with them playing in the background.
> 
> This, in particular, blew me away the first time I listened to the thing. Just pure moral macabre - you have to love a song with a vocal hook of "I didn't hear nobody pray". (This is the great Roy Acuff (he's a guy who fully deserves a "the great" title) on vocals - it was one of his signature songs)


And I think during the sessions for this record, Roy Acuff asked one of the NGDB guys "what do you call this music?" They hemmed and hawed, mentioning several genres, when he broke in and said, "It ain't nothing but Country music."


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Oh yeah, I mean, subgenres are useful for defining specific aesthetic styles, but I don't feel any need to really say "That's not country!". Every genre has purists, though, so once can't be too careful (god, electronic music arguments on subgenres)


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Ethereality said:


> I recently saw *this video* which shows how Country music has remained the most popular, lasting music genre for over 100 years. That's quite a phenomenon! I wonder if anyone would give their thoughts on this supergenre of music and why its traditions remain so beloved to this day. What are some aspects of Country that makes it objectively great to people, enough to keep it thriving for over a century? I'm going to post examples of music from each decade, although its origins supposedly began somewhere in the 1910s and much earlier (...)


That's a US perspective, of course.


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)




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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

joen_cph said:


> That's a US perspective, of course.


This is an interesting one. I've always considered country music one of a handful of *inherently* American art forms, along with things like the Western film and certain genres of religious music, specifically because of its association with specifically American mythology and folk culture. (Other art forms may have started in America but American culture and mythos aren't inherent to the work- see: Jazz).

e) I actually don't want to start some kind of debate derailing the thread here but - I'm not trying to demean bluegrass or country players from other countries- it's more that I think it's inherently American in the sense that mass music is inherently Catholic.


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

I love Keith Urban's approach to music. Here is one of his most recent releases.


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## Superflumina (Jun 19, 2020)

The title of this thread isn't correct.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*clarence "tom" ashley | baby all night long*


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*the carter family | can the circle be unbroken*






Original 1927 recording


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*james mcmurtry | no more buffalo*






*From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia*



> James McMurtry (born March 18, 1962, in Fort Worth, Texas) is an American rock and folk rock/americana singer, songwriter, guitarist, bandleader, and occasional actor. He performs with veteran bandmates Daren Hess, Cornbread and Tim Holt.
> 
> His father, novelist Larry McMurtry, gave him his first guitar at age seven. His mother, an English professor, taught him how to play it: "My mother taught me three chords and the rest I just stole as I went along. I learned everything by ear or by watching people."
> 
> n 1987, a friend in San Antonio suggested McMurtry enter the Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk songwriter contest; he became one of six winners that year. Also around this time John Mellencamp was starring in a film based on a script by McMurtry's father, which gave McMurtry the opportunity to send a demo tape to Mellencamp. Mellencamp subsequently served as co-producer on McMurtry's debut album, Too Long in the Wasteland (1989). McMurtry also appeared on the soundtrack of the film Falling from Grace, working with Mellencamp, John Prine, Joe Ely and Dwight Yoakam in a "supergroup" called Buzzin' Cousins.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Billy Strings & Don Julin


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper "Lee Highway Blues"


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Merle Haggard - Sing Me Back Home


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

I've just heard this gorgeous version of Crazy on a aluminum lap steel:


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

These guys help to build a bridge between country and classical music:

*The Kruger Brothers & Kontras Quartet - Appalachian Concerto*


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*jp harris *| _don't you marry no railroad man_






Just released, this excellent old time/country record by JP Harris is a real treat.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

One of great mountain ballad (ballit) singers, *Dillard Chandler* was profiled in 1969 by John Cohen in a film "The End of a Song."






In his introduction to the original liner notes, John Cohen writes, "With Dillard Chandler, the ballads are not just a preservation of something that is passing. They are his connection to the world as he grew up in it. They are not merely stories which he passes on, but contain moral and amour-al positions by which he lives. In this sense they become his definition of himself."

I never saw the movie until finding it ion YouTube, but knew the album made from the songs. Excellent stuff.

View attachment 156821


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Some more amazing stuff that crosses the bridge between bluegrass/country and classical music:

*The Kruger Brothers Perform Live at The 2017 NAMM Show*


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

My wife's grandmother was from Turkey and dated Bob Wills in high school


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*willie nelson* | _red-headed stranger_

View attachment 157310


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*willie and the wheel*

View attachment 157329


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

A classically trained violinist, *Betse Ellis* became dedicated to old time fiddle styles, especially Ozark styles, when she realized this music related directly to her regional heritage. Recognizing the deep soul present in the source music inspired Betse to spend the next 20 years of her life learning, performing, and teaching these styles. In 2009, Betse released her debut solo album Don't You Want to Go? (Free Dirt Records), which earned her an Independent Music Award nomination; her work with The Wilders, the acclaimed "hillbilly riot" band of which Betse is a founding member, won the IMA for Best Alt. Country album (Someone's Got to Pay) the same year. Prior to embarking on the development of her solo career, Betse toured internationally with The Wilders and contributed her fiddling, singing and songwriting talents on their numerous studio albums. In addition to her time with The Wilders, she has played in several roots and rock groups in and around her home base of Kansas City, Missouri. (About artist website)






Recordings:

View attachment 157447


View attachment 157448


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Several versions of Hick's Farewell

Doc Watson






Tim Eriksen






Blue Highway






The Chieftains


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