Academy/Country Music Awards

Bill Cunningham · Post by **Bill Cunningham** » 8 Apr 2009 5:19 pm

Yea, I didn’t bother watching the show. Country music’s been junk for a long time. I think it really wasn’t the same after Claude Gray recorded that shuffle with the Glockenspiel turn around. I don’t believe there is any steel of fiddle on that tune.

I keep waiting for things to go back to that great country music of my high school days. You know…Glen Campbell, Mac Davis, Jim Stafford, Ray Price with strings…..

If you want to hear good "hard country", traditional country" or whatever the correct term is, I believe there is more of it available from Jim Loessberg and Juston Trevino's companies alone (not to mention others) than there ever has been. And its readily available through the internet!

Ron ! · Post by **Ron !** » 8 Apr 2009 6:05 pm

I keep waiting for things to go back to that great country music of my high school days. You know…Glen Campbell, Mac Davis, Jim Stafford, Ray Price with strings…..

That will probably never happen.What I am basing my topic at is that today's Country(and you can't stop time)is not what we Country lovers think is Country.
We miss the whining steel guitar...the Flattop guitars....the fiddles....the Mandolin etc etc.

I know that music evolves and that there is no stopping that.....but today's Country Music cannot be called Country.
Like someone mentioned before.....why not give this kind of music a whole different name and category?

In our opinion (steel guitar forum) they are raping Country Music as we know it.
And I agree a full 100% to that opinion.

Ron

John Macy · Post by **John Macy** » 8 Apr 2009 6:37 pm

quote:

"In our opinion (steel guitar forum)"

Right or wrong, when did you get to speak for everyone on the forum?

Ron ! · Post by **Ron !** » 8 Apr 2009 9:44 pm

Well....forgive me for generalizing here John.It seems that you approve in what they call today's Country Music.
It does not take a rocket scientist to see (by looking at all the posts on the forum) that most forum members don't agree with today's music choice.

IMO are we deserting Country and Western Music as we know it.
Just listen to the lines they put in the lyrics these days.
Do you really approve with the words "Hoe" in it?
There are a couple of bands that still try to keep the 'ole spirit alive but they know in the back of their heads that they are fighting a lost cause.

It is just a big scam if you ask me.
Billy Ray Cyrus coming back to promote his daughter.Give me a break for crying out loud.

Carry Underwood is at least trying to make it work.When was the last time that you have seen a Country singer in a gown?
Carry does it.It would not surprise me if she gets the Minnie Pearl award (and she deserves it).

I might get flamed over this but it is the truth......our beloved Country music is going to h**l.

The real love in Country and Western music contains more then money.It contains us!!!!.......you and me and lots of people(forum members)that try to keep Country Music alive.
Country and Western Music like we know it.

Not people like Simon Cowell(or whats his name)that try to make fame over the backs of someone else.
Where are the good 'ole days?
The days that people could go out and have a dance and have a good time?
Where are those days gone too?

Do you play background tracks to learn how to get certain chords?Do you listen to Lloyd, Buddy, Paul, Hal, John?
Ask yourself this.......do you really agree with bands like Sugarland, Jessica Simpson and bands like Love and Theft being called Country Music?

I sure don't.
Today's Country(what they call it)has nothing to do with the traditional Country what you and I grew up with.
Give it a different genre name and move on.But it is all about the mighty dollar......that's exactly what it is all about.

Ron

Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 8 Apr 2009 10:36 pm

It seems like some folks around here must be walking around with blinders on, because I see and hear plenty of country music every day.

In fact I would say that there is more country music, and more country bands, around then there has ever been. I'm talking all kinds of country especially the crying steel, fiddles, waltzes, shuffle, drinkin' songs.
Sure, you may not see it on TV(unless you have RFD-TV), or hear it on your top 40 radio station, but if you setting at a computer reading this then you have full access to it all.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 9 Apr 2009 7:20 am

We miss the whining steel guitar

I don't know who we is, but I don't miss it. I sat behind one for 40+ years and made it do a lotta things, but I (intentionally) never made it whine ...

Ron ! · Post by **Ron !** » 9 Apr 2009 11:51 am

So what you are saying Barry is that you rather have Sugarland then
THIS? <---please click.....

IMO that is country music.I think that the majority will agree with me.

Ron

Bill Cunningham · Post by **Bill Cunningham** » 9 Apr 2009 1:35 pm

Ron said:

I know that music evolves and that there is no stopping that.....but today's Country Music cannot be called Country.

Ron, you are making my point. When I tongue in cheek mentioned Glen Campbell et al, what I didn’t mention was that at the same time we had George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Merle Haggard, and sometimes Conway Twitty depending on who produced his tunes. The mix has always been there.

Then Haggard and Mac Davis…. Today Alan Jackson and Sugarland...

But a lot of folks (me included) tend to filter out most of the past except the part they liked the best!

Amazing! this argument has been going since before Al Gore invented the internet!

John Steele (deceased) · Post by **John Steele (deceased)** » 9 Apr 2009 1:51 pm

Bill Cunningham, LOL

Bill's right. If you don't learn to swallow the watermelon and spit out the seeds, you'll never be happy.
- John

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 9 Apr 2009 4:41 pm

So what you are saying Barry is that you rather have Sugarland then
THIS?

I didn't mention Sugarland, but I don't like them either. I don't consider the example you gave as "whiny." Pretty damn good, actually.

Joe Miraglia · Post by **Joe Miraglia** » 9 Apr 2009 4:56 pm

What would I gain if we stopped calling the NEW COUNTRY MUSIC,country music. If we named it,?? or /// would I get more playing jobs,be a better player? Is it a matter of pride,or being so conservative that makes one so against calling, a different forum of country music, country music. Joe

Charles Davidson · Post by **Charles Davidson** » 9 Apr 2009 7:25 pm

I know it's hard to believe,but true,but there are millions of kids and sadly some older folks that should know better that think that some CONTEMP-orary artist such as Chesney,Big and Rich,RF,Montgomery Gentry,Cowboy Troy,etc,play country music,they REALLY believe this,It's really not their fault though,The music industry has brain washed the public into believing this.Throw enough manure on the side of the barn,some of it will stick. DYKBC.

John Macy · Post by **John Macy** » 11 Apr 2009 10:23 pm

Ron,

In answer to your comments....

"Well....forgive me for generalizing here John.It seems that you approve in what they call today's Country Music.
It does not take a rocket scientist to see (by looking at all the posts on the forum) that most forum members don't agree with today's music choice."

Well, sort of...I unashamedly like a lot of the current crop of country music, just as I unashamedly dislike a lot of bad traditional country...I like good music... I also heard there around several thousand forum members, and nowhere near that number posts here. Heck, we are steel players, so I am sure it is mostly slanted towards to those who don’t like the new stuff, but I think there are many people are not nearly as upset as you feel...

I play with one artist who is very traditional country, and I play with another band that is all ‘60’s and ‘70’s country with a Bakersfield slant. I also play with a female artist who is definitely “new country” and some pop acts that I play very non-traditional steel with, and to tell you the truth, I can;t tell you which one I like best. I love Mexican food, but not 7 days a week (unless of course, I am hanging out with Jerry Fessenden

)...

"IMO are we deserting Country and Western Music as we know it. "

I have been hearing that for the nearly 40 years I have been in the business—the Outlaws were ruining it in the ‘70s, Urban Cowboy in the ‘80’s...too pop in the ‘90’s...too rock now...

"Billy Ray Cyrus coming back to promote his daughter. Give me a break for crying out loud."

Gee, even Kevin Hatton, one of the forum’s stauchest supporters of traditional country, likes her...

"Carry Underwood is at least trying to make it work. When was the last time that you have seen a Country singer in a gown? Carry does it. deserves it). "

From allmusic.com... ”Now, Carrie's country is hardly traditionalist -- despite the lack of Diane Warren tunes, there are plenty of power ballads here, along with light drum loops that aren't commonly heard in Nashville -- but her approach is completely contemporary country, in how it blurs the borders between country and arena rock, something that's perfect for a girl who made her first big splash singing Heart.”

"The real love in Country and Western music contains more then money.It contains us!!!!.......you and me and lots of people(forum members)that try to keep Country Music alive. Country and Western Music like we know it. "

There are plenty of great artists doing just that, though the genre will never be as big as you would like it to be...

"Do you play background tracks to learn how to get certain chords?"

Not sure what you mean there...though I can hold my own in most any session with the exception that I am a lousy jazz player...

"Do you listen to Lloyd, Buddy, Paul, Hal, John?"

Uh, yeah...I have just about everything they have put out, and oh yeah, I have made records with Buddy and Paul (and Sonny and John and Dan etc...)...

"Ask yourself this.......do you really agree with bands like Sugarland, Jessica Simpson and bands like Love and Theft being called Country Music? I sure don't."

I guess it doesn’t bother me too much—I don’t seem to have any problem in getting all the real country music I desire...

"Today's Country(what they call it)has nothing to do with the traditional Country what you and I grew up with."

Words that have been said by just about every generation since country music got recorded....

"Give it a different genre name and move on. But it is all about the mighty dollar......that's exactly what it is all about."

Well, it is called the music business, not the music fun or the music integrity... And I really like what Joe said above—

“ What would I gain if we stopped calling the NEW COUNTRY MUSIC,country music. If we named it,?? or /// would I get more playing jobs,be a better player? Is it a matter of pride,or being so conservative that makes one so against calling, a different forum of country music, country music. Joe”