The state of Country Music

Clyde Mattocks · Post by **Clyde Mattocks** » 10 Jun 2013 12:24 pm

Are you saying that an older audience is not a valid one? Do their $20 bills not have the same value? Any musical form that had it's origins fifty years ago is going to draw people who remember and cherish it. But the younger guys I play with are drawing their peer group also.

Tommy Janiga · Post by **Tommy Janiga** » 10 Jun 2013 12:57 pm

Clyde Mattocks wrote:Are you saying that an older audience is not a valid one? Do their $20 bills not have the same value?

Not at all. I'm just curious if people in their 20s and 30s are also active in supporting a resurgence in traditional country. It's not something I have a feel for where I live.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 10 Jun 2013 1:09 pm

Tommy Janiga wrote:A question for those of you who do traditional country gigs (or go to venues to hear it) - how old are the audiences that you're seeing?

I would say most are 60+. Very few if any younger than that. On the other hand, with the band I also play with that is more new stuff (no classic stuff at all), they are all 20 and 30 somethings, with the few occasional's that above 40 and maybe even in their 50's and 60's.

As far as the age of the musicians playing the classic stuff, very few that I know that are under 50.

Clyde Mattocks · Post by **Clyde Mattocks** » 10 Jun 2013 2:02 pm

Tommy, if my question seemed pointed, it was not meant to be combative. I just see a lot of posts that say traditional country can't find an audience and then there is the qualifier, "well if it does, it's all old people". Granted alot of the audience is older. However my experince is different than Richard's. Jonathan Parker and Eric Strickland, for two, in my area are doing hard core traditional country and drawing a lot of new fans in their 20's and 30's. When I go to see Dale Watson, the audience is 20 -60. I honestly see better days ahead for steel and fiddle driven music.

Leslie Ehrlich · Post by **Leslie Ehrlich** » 10 Jun 2013 2:44 pm

Joe Casey wrote:It would be over for the Steel guitar if all it was made for was to play was Country Music.

I couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks, Joe.

Tommy Janiga · Post by **Tommy Janiga** » 10 Jun 2013 4:07 pm

Clyde Mattocks wrote:Tommy, if my question seemed pointed, it was not meant to be combative. I just see a lot of posts that say traditional country can't find an audience and then there is the qualifier, "well if it does, it's all old people".

No problem, I didn't take it that way, Clyde. I don't have a dog in the fight or an agenda. Just curious.

But FWIW, I wouldn't mind traditional music becoming more popular again - particularly if it was mainly the style and heart of it rather than just more covers of the same songs.

From what little I know of the subject, there have been a couple of resurgences like that in the past, so it could certainly happen again. Tastes change and evolve and sometimes they run in circles.

Bill Cunningham · Post by **Bill Cunningham** » 11 Jun 2013 12:29 am

I am 54 years old and I have heard this same line all my life. Times change, music evolves, get over it. Today we lament about Glen Campbell but he was hardly "real country" in 1967. If Bill Monroe or Bob Wills had only done what those "country" players before them did without the outside influences, where would we be?

But the main point I wanted to add...

I don't get RFD so I don't see Marty Stuart. Two weeks ago I was on vacation and the house had RFD. My 29 year old son and 33 year old daughter were with me. It was the episode with Sheryl Crow, who the kids know and like. My daughter listens to current country radio and has a eclectic collection of music. Son is mostly into metal.(She thinks Zac Brown is the top country singer. But that's a separate thread on packaging and marketing, IMO). Anyway, I was really digging the Marty show and the kids could not stop laughing they thought it was so corny. They left the room. It wasn't the music I think, it was the "package."

Joe Casey · Post by **Joe Casey** » 11 Jun 2013 8:41 am

Your never going to sell "Old" or Traditional Country to Kids. No more than they can sell Hip Hop acid Rock to anyone of us. When I was growing up in Sacramento, My father was into Big bands, Tommy Dorsey Glen Miller and such. Now I enjoyed that too. My Mother was into classical and Opera. and I like that too. I was crazy about Al Jolsen and Spike Jones. So I even liked jazz. And on Sunday nights we all gathered around the Radio to listen too Hawaii calls. There were many influences. (lets not forget all the singing Cowboys) I would say that had a lot to steer me to Country music. Then there was the Firestone show on Monday with Howard Barlow. Back then the radios played a mixture from Jose Iturbi to hank Thompson. When I first heard Hank I was hooked. I even climbed the fence and got to see him at the State Fair. later I would get a chance to tell him that he was my main influence. Then at 15 I got on the State fairs Curt Massey and Martha Tiltons live radio broadcast from the Fair. There were three of us and I won singing Green Light. But my reason for telling this is that was an era. I used to take the # 1 bus to the KFBK studios to see Charley Marshall. And Okie Paul used to let me in the belle Ave Coral on Sundays to hear his band. The influences were not as big as they are now but there wasn't as much distraction for the Younger crowd. There is more media hype now and the younger crowd don't go back into the music archives to buy . And there simply isn't enough traditionalist under the age of 60 to make any difference. It was easy for me to find my niche, there were people I could turn too. The Young will always determine the what's in and what's not. More or less their money will. How many on here would pay 75-80 bucks to see Taylor Swift or any country concert for that matter? How many of us would pay to go to a 10-15000 and a lot more packed arena and hear nothing but noise and need binoculars to see the stage? There you go. Accept what is left you like and support it. That keeps it breathing even if only on life support. All we can now is support what's left. So what state is Country music in. Right now I'd say every State. At least that's what they are calling it now. We were young once and we made our choices. The Kids are just doing the same. Nice living in a free Country isn't it?

Clyde Mattocks · Post by **Clyde Mattocks** » 11 Jun 2013 9:17 am

Joe, you summed it up pretty well. What we now refer to as "traditional country" was never anywhere near the dominant form in any era. The closest we came was during the urban cowboy fad and a lot of that was contrived pap. We'll be a lot happier just supporting the music we like instead of expecting to see our heros on big time TV "gimme my trophy" shows.

Tommy Janiga · Post by **Tommy Janiga** » 11 Jun 2013 9:52 am

I didn't grow up around too much country music, just bits of it here and there, but in NYC in the 60s and 70s, the big radio station was 77 WABC (AM), with disc jockeys like Cousin Brucie and Dan Ingram. That station played lots of different things - soul, Motown, top 40 pop, British Invasion, psychedelic rock, and even things like Tom Jones, Barbra Streisand or instrumentals like Paul Mauriat's "Love is Blue". Kind of a one size fits all.

It seemed like everyone listened to it, and most people were happy with it. The station even survived disco and the rise of FM radio and lasted until the early 80s.

I absolutely cannot imagine something like that ever existing again. Nearly all music now seems very fragmented, and with very few exceptions, survives in its own relatively small niche with its own group of supporters. That's just the way it is.

Brett Day · Post by **Brett Day** » 12 Jun 2013 11:50 am

As a kid in the eighties, I would watch country music videos and memorize songs and artists. As a kid, a lot of my favorite bands didn't feature a steel guitar, but I can remember seeing Ricky Skaggs' video "Don't Get Above Your Raisin' and seeing a steel guitar on tv for the first time-my aunt told me about the steel guitar after I asked her what that instrument lookin like a table with strings was. The steel guitar became my favorite instrument when I was nine-this was in 1989. Some of the bands I listened to as a kid were bands like Little Texas, Blackhawk, Diamond Rio, Sawyer Brown. In the early '90s, I listened to Prairie Oyster with Dennis Delorme on steel, and I loved their sound. I think the reason Vince was one of my favorite artists was because he featured steel. I didn't know much about who steel players were or steels as a kid-I just loved how they looked and sounded. I heard one of my current favorite female artists, Danni Leigh before I started playing steel. Now, as a steel guitarist, I love all kinds of country music and other types of music in general, but country amazes me, and I respect the legends of country. I've got a lot of favorite artists, but Lorrie Morgan and Danni Leigh are two of my favorite female artists who use steel, I'm also a fan of Merle, Ray Price, Hank Sr, and many others.

Chris Walke · Post by **Chris Walke** » 13 Jun 2013 7:35 am

Joe Casey wrote:Your never going to sell "Old" or Traditional Country to Kids. No more than they can sell Hip Hop acid Rock to anyone of us.

The only place I ever hear of such a genre as "Hip Hop acid Rock" is here.

I play in a modern country cover band. Not the kind of music I like to listen to, but the musicians in the band are good, and it's basically like playing pop/rock music with steel guitar. Couple gigs a month, audience loves it, and there's cash in my pocket at the end of the night.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 13 Jun 2013 10:48 am

Hick Hop

Joe Casey · Post by **Joe Casey** » 14 Jun 2013 7:04 am

There are only two types of music. Good or bad.. Choosing either is a choice in taste of the listener. It doesn't mean either is right or wrong. It means everyone has different taste. Thus the world keeps turning and isn't always a boring place.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 14 Jun 2013 7:25 am

Hick Hop

You should copyright that one, Mike!

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 14 Jun 2013 8:23 am

Barry Blackwood wrote:
Hick Hop
You should copyright that one, Mike!

I can't take credit for that, Barry, as I heard the artist Jim White refer to some of his music that way.

Handcuffed To A Fence In Mississippi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7DqR1J3tFw

Michael Haselman · Post by **Michael Haselman** » 24 Jun 2013 3:10 pm

I usually don't jump into this pool, but I was driving between gigs last Saturday night and I turned on the local "new country" station, something I do about twice a year. Can't say I'd ever heard anything by Blake Shelton, but here comes this tune, mostly him talking, or rapping, or whatever you want to call it. One of the main hook lines of the song is "chew tobacca, chew tobacca, chew tobacca, spit." As I could barely listen to the rest of the song, this is the hook that stuck with me. Oy vey indeed.

Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 24 Jun 2013 3:22 pm

Michael Haselman wrote:I usually don't jump into this pool, but I was driving between gigs last Saturday night and I turned on the local "new country" station, something I do about twice a year. Can't say I'd ever heard anything by Blake Shelton, but here comes this tune, mostly him talking, or rapping, or whatever you want to call it. One of the main hook lines of the song is "chew tobacca, chew tobacca, chew tobacca, spit." As I could barely listen to the rest of the song, this is the hook that stuck with me. Oy vey indeed.

Unbelievable how corny and lame some of these songs are today. No one would ever do a song about "chew tobacco and spit", back in the heyday of Country Music!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMw2LKarXfw

Or is everything just the same except for the memories of some??

Michael Haselman · Post by **Michael Haselman** » 24 Jun 2013 3:30 pm

Alvin, that song is so much better than "Boys 'Round Here," which is the name of that Shelton song, there's no contest. Although the Shelton song is about beer, trucks and praying AND chawin' tobaccy. There's a new concept!

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 24 Jun 2013 3:36 pm

Well......several decades back....Remember Spade Cooley's "Chew Tobacco Rag"?

Butch Mullen · Post by **Butch Mullen** » 24 Jun 2013 3:55 pm

I heard one a while back called "makes me want to roll my window down", not a song I would buy. Want to hear some good music try tunein.com/nashville classics.

Bob Ritter · Post by **Bob Ritter** » 24 Jun 2013 7:29 pm

Well chew a backy and spit and chug a beer and drive my truck seems korny today. But I remember Back in the old day when country was supposed traditional there was this singer named Roger Miller and he would say " roses are red and violets are purple sugar is sweet and so is maple supple...my pappy was a pistol so I'm a sun of a gun" and I never hear any body on this topic say well that is just formulated or other wise knock against it. He would go onto say sheep sheep da ba ba beep diddly do . Then George Jones would stick his finger in his mouth and blow really hard and pull it out quick and make a popping noise like a champagne Kork being popped off and say shhheewww white lightning and all you guys loved it. So korny lyrics have been around long before This chew tobacco stuff. Heck I bet Roger and George wished they would have thought about it first and put it on there record....the younger guys think it is funny just like we thought Roger and George were funny...don't forget the guys who sang about love babe " eight days a week"

Buck Reid · Post by **Buck Reid** » 25 Jun 2013 4:26 am

Well said Paul and great playing as always!

Michael Haselman · Post by **Michael Haselman** » 25 Jun 2013 3:16 pm

Well, I'm getting out of this pool, but I thought I'd clarify my silly comments. Before last Saturday all I knew about Blake Shelton was A: he was a game show host and B: he made some remarks about people who liked traditional country could kiss his rear, or something like that. I'd never heard anything by him until that "Boys 'Round Here" song. That is just another of the country hunks du jour singing about beer or whiskey, trucks, dirt roads, NASCAR, hate cities, and love chicks that look like Daisy Duke. One of those comes out every week. I think the fact that he included chewing tobacco makes him a modern innovator. BTW, I did listen to the song Paul posted and he can actually sing. And Paul can make anyone sound great. Later.

Joe Casey · Post by **Joe Casey** » 27 Jun 2013 5:43 am

I don't believe Blake ever said anyone could kiss his -s-. I truly don't mind his direction ,his music ect. He has some good stuff out. Not legendary stuff as of yet. But never the less pretty good. Theres a wave out there and he like all those that are in the spotlight are riding that high tide wave or attempting to. Like for our generation waves have a habit of getting smaller the tide goes out then one can see the sharks just waiting for the next big wave to call Country. It's a round world. Sometimes one winds up in the same spot if he or she can hang around long enough.

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