country singers: forced accents?

[Barry Blackwood]

Andy, I haven't heard Woody sing, but it might be an improvement..

[b0b]

Jason, when did this start happening?

Mick Jagger - "Far Away Eyes"

[Dave Mudgett]

Jim C. is right - music is also theatre. Did you hate Sissy Spacek for trying to sound like Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter?

People are born in a certain place, their language skills are influenced in a certain way for a period of time, and then they grow up and get to decide for themselves where they want to live, how they want to talk, sing, or otherwise conduct their lives. You are not limited to where you were born or any particular approach to doing anything. This is America, that's the way it works.

I try to focus on the music. If I like it, great - I listen. If I don't like it, no problem - switch the channel. End of story. I don't honestly give a damn how other people talk, sing, or do anything else that doesn't specifically interfere with what I'm trying to do. If someone acts in a way to physically or legally stop or try to stop me from doing something that I have a right to do, I'll fight back. Otherwise, it's none of my business. Freedom from competing ideas is not granted in the U.S. constitution or anything else.

[Mark van Allen]

While I agree with your position in principal, Dave, I think one of the things about "country music" is that it's always been perceived, and more lately pretended to be, about the lives and issues of the "common people".
While people were disappointed to find that The Monkees didn't play their own instruments, Linda McCartney really couldn't sing, Ashlee Simpson was lip-synching to tracks, etc., most people sadly chalked it up to greed and pop-star mentalities trumping talent. And that "entertainment" didn't have to be real to be entertaining.
I think a lot of country fans, and, from what I hear in the studio and out on the road, players, are severely disappointed to find that mindset increasingly inhabiting the country music end of the spectrum.
While it's not surprising in our current culture, I do understand the disappointment. Authentic is appealing.

When I was in Sugarland, I used to tell everyone that Jennifer Nettles had more star quality than anyone I'd ever played with. She hit all the notes, all the time, with passion and power, and owned the stage from the minute she walked out, communicating a genuine joy for performing and singing to the audience, who she invariably brought right along with her. She is indeed a Georgia girl, and she speaks with a south Georgia drawl. Even though I understand "branding" and "market penetration", to express my incredulity at the level they turned that drawl knob up when the major label recording started as profound would be a real understatement.
You should hear the difference on the same tracks we recorded in Atlanta.

[Jim Cohen]

Well, which fantasy is more disappointing once the truth is revealed: that it is not the singer's real accent, or that it is not the singer's real intonation?

[Mark van Allen]

And let's not even talk about boobs...

There's always the argument that one can't argue with success.

I bet the cavemen used to kvetch about authentic leg bones and real gazelle skin drums...

[Dave Mudgett]

... I think one of the things about "country music" is that it's always been perceived, and more lately pretended to be, about the lives and issues of the "common people".

Sure, by its very nature, 'popular' music is aimed at "the common people". So I guess I'm not surprised that as the culture of rural "common people" has evolved from a poor, agrarian share-cropper mentality where you were worried about keeping a roof over your head and putting food on the table to a pretty affluent, urban/suburban information-age-worker mentality where imaging is very important, the music/entertainment culture has evolved in kind.

Look, I don't like severe type-casting at all, and that's what all this image posturing and accent manipulation is about, IMHO. To me, it's a tool of demographic marketing, and has a tendency to polarize various demographic groups for the purpose of exploiting them by playing them off against each other, which I view as fundamentally negative. But to me, the only way to effectively counter that is to provide alternatives, as loudly as possible. But unfortunately, since corporations (like the ones that control the vast majority of information dissemination) are people and have all their free speech rights, they have the right to largely drown everything else out using network/computer-mediated means. No point in pi$$ing into the wind. If anybody knows a way to change the underlying problem, I'll be happy to support that. In the meantime, I think it's wasted breath, and in general I think musicians with a different approach would get the best results just pushing their positive ideas forward as much as possible. I realize it can be frustrating - I get frustrated too.

My concern for some time on this forum is that we often sound like a bunch of grumpy old men whining about the world. OK, occasionally a good old-fashioned bitchfest is in order, but I don't think it should be the main course, as it so often is. I know I can't stop it, but every once in a while, I'm gonna interject. C'est la vie.

[Jeff Garden]

Thanks for the insight on Sugarland, Mark. I didn't mean to single out your former bandmate I totally agree with you on Jennifer Nettles' musicality. Interesting take on the studio-induced cranked up "drawl factor". I had lots of friends with real pleasant Georgia drawls over a 20 year military career - just never heard any of them or their wives or girlfriends quite so "affected". I listen to the radio a lot when I'm out on my tractor (I know, what a sterotype, huh?) and have occasionally said out loud during a Sugarland tune "Do you REALLY talk like that?"

[Frank Freniere]

..."Do you REALLY talk like that?"

I've been wanting to ask Elizabeth Cook that very thing.

[Joe Gall]

I know you were talking about male singers but Jennifer Nettles in Sugarland is particularly annoying to me. I realize she is from Georgia (and I love Southern accents) but I've watched her in interviews where she has no trace of an accent - seems it's troweled on a little thick when she sings...

You nailed this one DEAD ON!!!!!!!!! I CAN NOT listen to her for one second. My wife loves her (that's another story, as I think she actually does love her but I am ok with that LOL). I just can not listen to that women sing and or talk, I absolutely do believe she is faking her accent 100% as if sounds so phony and put on!

[Joe Gall]

Interesting to read a perspective from someone who has played in a band with someone whom we are speaking of. LOL I just notice that reply. Now I didn't say I didn't mind watching her on stage. That's why I always have the remote handy and the mute button under my thumb. This way I can clearly hear exactly what my wife has to say about Jennifer's performance as well! LOL

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

Along with more exaggerated accents than ever before, I think I'm hearing more humbuckers than ever before. Am I right?

[Bob Watson]

It seems that the more pop oriented Bluegrass bands also have the exaggerated accent thing going these days. Maybe its contagious.

[Leslie Ehrlich]

Speaking of fake accents, have any of you watched Reba McEntire's sitcom on TV? She sounds like a hillbilly.

[Alan Brookes]

If I sang American country music with my Brummy accent it would sound weird.

I guess you have to stick with the genre. Most white blues singers tend to make themselves sound black, and even use black expressions that they wouldn't use in their normal speech.

But if you want to see what happens when you use your local speech with music that doesn't ethnically match, go to France and watch rap. It's hilarious. A bunch of skinny white people combining their natural French strutting and posing with movements that they've picked up from American rap singers. The last time I was in Paris with the family, we were flicking through the TV channels and came up with a pop music channel. We laughed so much we were reduced to tears.

And have you ever heard the blues sung in German ?

[Jim Bob Sedgwick]

What if country singers all sounded like Woody Allen?

Some of then DID !!!

[Theresa Galbraith]

Yeah, Reba sounds phoney to me!

[Richard Sinkler]

And let's not even talk about boobs...

No. Let's do. Probably a lot more interesting than this topic.

[Jim Cohen]

And have you ever heard the blues sung in German ?

No, but I have heard the "White Man's Blues". Goes something like this:

Well I woke up this afternoon...
Both cars were gone
Whoa, I woke up this afternoo-oon, bay-by
Both cars were gone
I got so gosh-darn mad,
I threw my drink across the lawn...

[Joe Gall]

Yeah, Reba sounds phoney to me!

x10!

[Joe Gall]

And let's not even talk about boobs...

No. Let's do. Probably a lot more interesting than this topic.

Yeah what he said!

[Barry Blackwood]

Did you hate Sissy Spacek for trying to sound like Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter?

Of course not, but who is Jennifer Nettles trying to sound like and for what reason?

[Bruce Meyer]

Plus you want to make sure you poke holes in your flesh and hang various pieces of fishing tackle from the holes..

I never thought of it that way, but it could be very handy versus a large tackle box. I'm going to get pierced for a small sized Rapala this week! You know, besides being practical, it's colorful.

[David Mason]

I remember reading years ago Mr. Jagger's opinion that American C&W singers were ironic and self-mocking, when he was explaining the mocking way he approached songs like "Dead Flowers" and "Sweet Virginia." And it's quite true - what would you call "White Lightning" or any of "Hee-Haw?" I do think it's a great force serving against this ongoing "taking steel guitar seriously" idea that repeatedly pops up here. For most people, it really couldn't make a bit of difference how awesome, crafty, cutting-edge and chord-substitutional your solo was, if it's in a song called "Roly-Poly" sung through their nose by people in discount Nudie suits, it's cornpone.

[Les Anderson]

One of the phoniest Tennessee hills accents I ever heard was by a Canadian singer by the name of Ronnie Prophet. In the US he had a huge southern drawl. When in Canada, perfect English pronunciation.