I know I've always been a fan of outlaw country or early folk music. That whole revival from the O' Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack I was really really into at one time.
Somehow this song comes to mind. It's an ok country song, but it's really a big pop song as you illustrated. It's my earliest memory of "country selling out":
The country band named Sawyer Brown just released a new album named Desperado Troubadours and it is awesome. This year marks the 40th anniversary of them being on the radio. Their song named "Leona" was released in 1984 and it got as high as #16. Their follow up named "Step That Step" is the first of their three number one songs.
God bless you and each past and present band member always!!!
Holly (one of their many fans)
P.S. Go here to see the rest of their radio history. The reason why certain songs on that list did not do as well compared to others is because of how the country radio powers that be looked at the band. They weren't considered the most traditional then and so even things did get better for them once the 90s were here, they are no stranger to the way that things can go for a musical act that may not mix perfectly enough with others.
Finally got around to checking out Leona. It suffers from that "classic" blown-out 80's production the same way almost anything did, but there's the core of a great song there. Looks like I have more to dig into! _________________ music is good
First of all, this thread brings us straight to John Travolta. Travolta, who has, in a very sneaky way, made probably more bad movies than anyone in the history of Hollywood, had been hailed for his help in the rise of disco with Saturday Night Fever. Travolta was asked to do the same with country music in 1980, which resulted in this soundtrack to the film of the same name from 1980:
If you want to find where country music took a weird left turn, this is where you want to start. The film was Saturday Night Fever with Debra Winger, cowboy hats and a mechanical bull, and it started the pop country movement of the 80's. And not in the best of ways. There is some country music on this album (Mickey Gilley, whose bar is the featured scene, had a career resurgence, and Johnny Lee), but most of what this two record set does is pass off people like Joe Walsh and Charlie Daniels and the Eagles and Boz Scaggs as country acts...and people ate it all up. Every bite. In reality, this soundtrack is about as representative of country music as Jethro Tull is of metal. But the film was a huge hit, the soundtrack was a massive seller (it reached number one on the Billboard Country chart), and suddenly kids in places like Omaha and St. Louis and Boston were wearing cowboy hats and riding mechanical bulls. More importantly, an entire generation was taught, over the course of an album that ran just over an hour long, that this was country music.
And since Urban Cowboy, there has been a growing sense that country music is pop-rock music with hats, banjos, steel guitar and that the best story in all of the land is that there's a girl wearing cut off shorts looking at you. You invite her to climb way up into the jacked-up cab of your truck, but be careful not to spill the red solo cup in the cupholder that you spit your chew into. You may ride off somewhere, listening to the old country classics (one of the best ways to claim country legitimacy is to namedrop an actual country artist) before pulling over in an empty field and making sweet love til the morning light. Of course, you have to look the part, you have to have that just right twang in your voice, and you have to try your hardest to make that pop rock song based on Urban Cowboy and both Eagles greatest hits albums that was written for you by that stable of songwriters that Nashville thinks they need sound like it fits with all the other not-really country songs on that station. There's the ridiculousness of bro country, the sheer empty badness of pop country, and the formulas that bring them all together under one sad roof.
You can trace it all back to Urban Cowboy.
As for alt-country, it's been there since long before Urban Cowboy. There were rockers who felt it necessary to do it the right way like Gram Parsons, The Dirt Band, Poco, and, especially, The Rolling Stones. (As an aside, you may be surprised that if you put together a playlist of great country tracks by the Stones, you'll end up with at least a double album plus bonus tracks.) It's still there, but it's not now, nor has it ever been, mainstream, so you have to look for it. But it's out there, and there's a lot of it. The nineties work of Uncle Tupelo to Son Volt (and early Wilco) to Ryan Adams. Drive-By Truckers. Turnpike Troubadours. Trampled By Turtles. Jason Isbell. Lucero. The list is long and pretty great.
There are still traditionalists who have made it their mission to keep non-pop country alive. George Strait and Randy Travis and others who look towards the traditions of those who came before them to keep the original spirit of country music alive.
There is the more rocking Bakersfield Sound, coming from California since the 1950's that includes people like Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, and more recently Dwight Yoakam and Marty Stuart. The real Outlaw country of Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson to people like Steve Earle and Guy Clark...there's Texas Swing, Red Dirt, Honky Tonk, and so many other sub genres to explore that have been putting out great (but non-mainstream) music for decades.
And there are the straight down the middle country artists who have survived Nashville's transformation and kept the fire of country music alive in good ways. Reba McEntire. Vince Gill. Rodney Crowell.
You will also find that hidden vein of people you didn't even know were country. Songs by people like Bruce Springsteen keep popping up as "I didn't realize that was country" moments. Tom Petty has emerged as a surprisingly great country writer, who performed country songs with zero shame. You could easily record a country album of nothing but Dire Straits covers. The list goes on.
Country is not dead. It's not gone the way of the dinosaurs. What has happened to country is that the mainstream of country took a left turn in about 1980 and never came back. But that doesn't mean that ALL of country went down that road. There's still a lot of it left that is very, very good. You just have to look a bit harder for it.
I end with one of my favorite country covers...this song was written in 1948 and was a hit for Hank Williams in 1949. This is a live rehearsal recording by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers from 2006. It's beautiful and perfect, and it illustrates how, at its best, country music is simple yet wonderful, deep and emotional music that has a tremendous ability to reach across genres and styles. When done right.
Link _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
The country band named Sawyer Brown just released a new album named Desperado Troubadours and it is awesome. This year marks the 40th anniversary of them being on the radio. Their song named "Leona" was released in 1984 and it got as high as #16. Their follow up named "Step That Step" is the first of their three number one songs.
God bless you and each past and present band member always!!!
Holly (one of their many fans)
P.S. Go here to see the rest of their radio history. The reason why certain songs on that list did not do as well compared to others is because of how the country radio powers that be looked at the band. They weren't considered the most traditional then and so even things did get better for them once the 90s were here, they are no stranger to the way that things can go for a musical act that may not mix perfectly enough with others.
Finally got around to checking out Leona. It suffers from that "classic" blown-out 80's production the same way almost anything did, but there's the core of a great song there. Looks like I have more to dig into!
You're going to find plenty of awesome when digging into Sawyer Brown's music.
God bless you and each past and present member always!!!
Holly _________________ Me & my favorite singer James Otto
Check him out here when you can!
By the way, where do we all stand on Cowboy Carter? I'm listening for the first time right now and am still formulating my opinions. Initially, I feel like even calling it a country album is doing a disservice to both the album and the genre, if that makes sense. It's not really accurate to call it a country album, but I also don't really know what it is. It's more Americana, right? _________________ music is good
By the way, where do we all stand on Cowboy Carter? I'm listening for the first time right now and am still formulating my opinions. Initially, I feel like even calling it a country album is doing a disservice to both the album and the genre, if that makes sense. It's not really accurate to call it a country album, but I also don't really know what it is. It's more Americana, right?
This is my take.
I love R&B and hip hop music. It is a big part of my love of music, and anyone who has performed it well, past or present, has my total respect. It has been, in many ways, a big part of how my singing and my taste in music has evolved.
With that being said, I would never attempt to record an R&B or hip hop album. Because, as much as I love the music, it is not in my particular set of skills to perform it as well as it should be, or to do it justice.
That is all. _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
I love R&B and hip hop music. It is a big part of my love of music, and anyone who has performed it well, past or present, has my total respect. It has been, in many ways, a big part of how my singing and my taste in music has evolved.
With that being said, I would never attempt to record an R&B or hip hop album. Because, as much as I love the music, it is not in my particular set of skills to perform it as well as it should be, or to do it justice.
That is all.
Have you listened to the album yet? If you set aside the genre category discourse, it's quite an interesting and quality work of music. The first run of physical copies is abridged though, so best to wait a bit if you're getting it on CD. _________________ Add me on RYM
By the way, where do we all stand on Cowboy Carter? I'm listening for the first time right now and am still formulating my opinions. Initially, I feel like even calling it a country album is doing a disservice to both the album and the genre, if that makes sense. It's not really accurate to call it a country album, but I also don't really know what it is. It's more Americana, right?
I am a white girl, but there are plenty of white singers that I do not listen to. In other words, it isn't about race where I am concerned. For me, it is more about musical style. Am I interested in the Cowboy Carter material? No.
God bless you always!!!
Holly
P.S. My most favorite African American singer is late Sesame Street actor Northern Calloway. I wish that he was still here. I love his voice. _________________ Me & my favorite singer James Otto
Check him out here when you can!
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