What is "Country", exactly?

Joe Drivdahl · Post by **Joe Drivdahl** » 8 Jul 2008 11:00 am

In the 1970s, Lynyrd Skynyrd was considered "Southern Rock." Then they became classified as "Country Rock", whatever that was. Now they are "Country". Kid Rock has Gone Country with his new version of "Sweet Home Alabama."

These days you might find some semblance of country on CMT's "The Edge of Country" along with John Prine, and maybe Bob Seager. So who defines "Country?" these days? Robert Plant? I used to think it was Alan Jackson, but now it seems he's gone rap with his new line-dancing, Good Time video, so I don't know who is country anymore.

Which person today do you think defines the future of Country Music?

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 8 Jul 2008 11:11 am

Here ya go.

(Of course, I could be wrong...)

Ben Jones · Post by **Ben Jones** » 8 Jul 2008 11:16 am

just me personally , and really, I know very little about country music or its history but I consdier hank 3 and Wanye Hancock and Dale Watson to bne playing "country" music. The modern artists you hear on CMT and the radio I would call bad "pop" i guess if i had to come up with a label for it.

I have a question tho for those of you who have had alot of experience with country music over the years.
Has it always been like this?
Back in the 70' and 80's where there new artists who were seen as ruining country music? Maybe Hank Jr. with his electric guitar solos? just curious if this is a contemporary thing or if "country" musicians have always sort of been breaking away from the roots?

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 8 Jul 2008 11:45 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4XT-l-_3y0

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 8 Jul 2008 11:48 am

Not that I'm a cutting edge kinda guy when it comes to keeping up with "labels," but I had never heard Lynyrd Skynyrd referred to as "country rock."

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 8 Jul 2008 12:23 pm

So, get this: the recent New Orleans Jazz Festival included such 'jazz luminaries' as:

Alison Kraus and Robert Plant?
Stevie Wonder?
The Neville Brothers?
Billy Joel?
Jimmy Buffett?
Tim McGraw?
Santana?
Sheryl Crow?
Dr. John?
Al Green?

!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, to be fair, they changed the name to be the 'Jazz and Heritage' festival, but come on! Don't tell me Jimmy Buffet, Sheryl Crow and Billy Joel are 'Heritage' either! As far as I can tell, the only real jazz artist on the program was Diana Krall. And THIS is what you get, of all places, in NEW ORLEANS! The one city in America you would HOPE would hold the banner for REAL JAZZ in America.

Sad, sad situation.

Larry Scott · Post by **Larry Scott** » 8 Jul 2008 12:29 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nJ1SwqfF-8

Larry Scott · Post by **Larry Scott** » 8 Jul 2008 12:31 pm

Jim Cohen wrote:So, get this: the recent New Orleans Jazz Festival included such 'jazz luminaries' as:

Alison Kraus and Robert Plant?
Stevie Wonder?
The Neville Brothers?
Billy Joel?
Jimmy Buffett?
Tim McGraw?
Santana?
Sheryl Crow?
Dr. John?
Al Green?

!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, to be fair, they changed the name to be the 'Jazz and Heritage' festival, but come on! Don't tell me Jimmy Buffet, Sheryl Crow and Billy Joel are 'Heritage' either! As far as I can tell, the only real jazz artist on the program was Diana Krall. And THIS is what you get, of all places, in NEW ORLEANS! The one city in America you would HOPE would hold the banner for REAL JAZZ in America.

Sad, sad situation.

Where the hell is Robben Ford

here it tis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmgVZRZW ... h_response

Doc Rickles · Post by **Doc Rickles** » 8 Jul 2008 1:39 pm

Where is their greatest jazz musician. David Easley
Doc

Alan Miller · Post by **Alan Miller** » 8 Jul 2008 1:41 pm

I might get shot down in flames by more knowledgeable people for saying this but it looks like almost every genre of music these days is loosing its identity. Looks like murder is been committed not only on music row , but everywhere .

I was at a "blues festival " weekend recently and there were only three bands that I would call "blues". What is happening ? Are festival organizers diversifying to get a wider range of paying public in ?

Joe Drivdahl · Post by **Joe Drivdahl** » 8 Jul 2008 1:49 pm

Larry,
I wish "Pride" was the future of country music, but sadly, its not.

Alan,
I agree. The old "melting pot" that was America has become homogenized and I guess the same is happening to music. Maybe the word "Genre" will soon be meaningless in the world of music.

Joe

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 8 Jul 2008 2:18 pm

Country is whatever was playing on country radio when you were in your formative years, say high school into young adulthood. Everything after that is new fangled junk. Unless you are a young slicker delving into retro stuff to try to find really neat old stuff.

Alan Miller · Post by **Alan Miller** » 8 Jul 2008 2:34 pm

David , you are probably spot on there, I remember thinking " what is that doing on a country radio programme" when I heard "I can help" by Billy Swann, and " Love is like a butterfly , Dolly Parton.
I also remember thinking this is when it all started going downhill...cant just remember the years ( dates ) though.
Good songs but not "country".

Ben Jones · Post by **Ben Jones** » 8 Jul 2008 2:52 pm

David Doggett wrote:Country is whatever was playing on country radio when you were in your formative years, say high school into young adulthood. Everything after that is new fangled junk. Unless you are a young slicker delving into retro stuff to try to find really neat old stuff.

oh nooooo!

that means country is Alabama, the soundtrack to Urban Cowboy and Hank Jr.s monday night football theme song

still better than todays equivalent tho ...somehow...

Theresa Galbraith · Post by **Theresa Galbraith** » 8 Jul 2008 3:14 pm

Country to me is not Alabama.....

It's what we grew up with and what is on the radio today still.

JMO

Bill Dobkins · Post by **Bill Dobkins** » 8 Jul 2008 3:33 pm

Question is, what isn't country ?

Bo Legg · Post by **Bo Legg** » 8 Jul 2008 3:37 pm

When is a song Country?
10. When you can't call it anything else.
9. If you can understand the lyrics.
8. When you hear a fiddle instead of a violin.
7. Any song with a PSG.
6. If it's sung by anyone with a Jr. or Sr. on the end of their name.
5. Anything you hear on RFD.
4. If you hear it playing on an 8 track.
3. If any of the lyrics were ever on a water tower.
2. Any song by a group that has thrown the banjo player off the bus while it was moving.
and number 1. Any song not listed in the top 40 Country.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 8 Jul 2008 3:45 pm

Alabama...country? What country?

Well, Alabama has probably won more "country" awards than anyone. Brooks and drums are likely a very close second. That shows you where John Q. has his head, doesn't it?

If you want to know about country music, you have to ask country people.

(If you want to know about rap music, you don't talk to people in North Dakota, do you?)

Sadly, country music (for all intents and purposes) died in the early '70s.

Randy Travis gave it a brief resurgence in the '90s, and then it died again...never to return.

Now, all that's getting pushed on radio and TV is schmaltzy country rock.

Kid Rock will never be "country", though...until he gets so old and fat that the younger crowd doesn't want him. Then he'll suddenly become "country" to eke out a few more sales.

Not that I'm a cutting edge kinda guy when it comes to keeping up with "labels," but I had never heard Lynyrd Skynyrd referred to as "country rock."

Don't get out much, do ya?

They're country rock, southern rock, swamp rock or blues-rock, take your pick. All 4 of those genres are so close that even experts have a hard time delineating between them.

Oh, and by the way, "Sweet Home Alabama" never was, and never will be, a country song.

Sorry 'bout that.

Mike Shefrin · Post by **Mike Shefrin** » 8 Jul 2008 4:14 pm

Antolina · Post by **Antolina** » 8 Jul 2008 4:20 pm

Country is... same as it's always been. Three chords and the truth or as Woody G would say, "if it's more than three chords, yer just showing off".

Scott Shipley · Post by **Scott Shipley** » 8 Jul 2008 4:23 pm

No, Kid Rock is not Country, but he at least RESPECTS Country music and the folks who shaped it.
He and I had a very lengthy conversation one night in Memphis about Bill Monroe.
How many of the new Country artists even know who Big Mon was?

Country is sittin' on the back porch listen to the whippoorwills late in the day
Country is mindin' your business helpin' a stranger if he comes your way
Country is livin' in the city knowin' your people knowin' your kind
Country is what you make it country is all in your mind
[ guitar ]
Country is workin' for a living thinkin' your own thoughts lovin' your town
Country is teachin' your children find out what's right and stand your ground
Country is a havin' the good times listen to the music singing your part
Country is walkin' in the moonlight country is all in your heart.

Joe Drivdahl · Post by **Joe Drivdahl** » 8 Jul 2008 4:26 pm

Bo,
Thats a good top 10 list, but I think I've heard some pretty good PSG in music other than country... like Jazz.

I have to disagree with country dying in the early 70s. Merle and some others did some of their best work in the mid to late 70s. Geo. Jones didn't record "He Stopped Loving Her Today", considered by many to be the quintessential country song, until sometime in the early 80s.

I think I agree with country being what it was during our formative years. I mean, if you go back to the forties and fifties, some of those songs were pretty hoaky really.

I'm sure everyone thought it was the end of country when they introduced drums on the opry. I thought it was the end of the opry when Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show played it.

Joe

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 8 Jul 2008 4:36 pm

Donny Hinson wrote:

Not that I'm a cutting edge kinda guy when it comes to keeping up with "labels," but I had never heard Lynyrd Skynyrd referred to as "country rock."
Don't get out much, do ya?

They're country rock, southern rock, swamp rock or blues-rock, take your pick.

If not getting out much means that I'm not hip to the label thing (I guess the only one regarding Skynyrd that I can recall was "Southern Rock," since I pay no attention to the modern Lynyrd Skynyrd "franchise" as it were) then I'm fine with being being ignorant...

Charley Wilder · Post by **Charley Wilder** » 8 Jul 2008 5:35 pm

Country Music is defined as any type of music Nashville can make money with.

Joel Meredith · Post by **Joel Meredith** » 8 Jul 2008 5:42 pm

Dwight Yoakam

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What is "Country", exactly?

What is "Country", exactly?

country as good as it gets

Jazz in New Orleans