connie smith

Mickey Lawson · Post by **Mickey Lawson** » 23 May 2009 1:51 am

Why can't Nashville produce songs/recordings like this again?
www.fileden.com/files/2007/8/21/1369510 ... 20Love.mp3
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www.fileden.com/files/2007/8/21/1369510 ... 0Again.mp3

Michael Douchette · Post by **Michael Douchette** » 23 May 2009 3:48 am

1) Writers don't write songs like that anymore, because the "fast food" public won't buy them. If they want that quality, go to the vault at Sony/Tree and pick one of tens of thousands that are just sitting there.

2) Vocal isn't king anymore. The drums have to be harder and louder. The people with the money want to buy that.

3) Upright bass is not the standard these days.

4) Steel guitar is now a "color" instrument, like a banjo. It's a guitar town. Everybody wants to be a guitar player; even Haggard.

There's a start...

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 23 May 2009 6:13 am

Old music, old songs, an old folks.

Nobody wants any of them anymore.

Ruling today's music world are the four B's...

Butts, biceps, boobs, and belly-buttons. (With a generous spritzing of a few tats and a hat.)

Rick Campbell · Post by **Rick Campbell** » 23 May 2009 8:18 am

1. You can't line dance to either one of those songs.

2. Country fans have not taken up for the real music, and went along with the crowd to allow the new junk to take over. "Junk" you say.... it's not junk in it's right place, but I don't think the Grand Ole Opry is the place for 70's and 80's rock and roll. The slow status of the Opry and talk of moving it out of Nashville are evidence that this is not working.

3. There's not enough of us true country fans left to make a difference and get the record execs. attention.

4. We might as well accept it that country music, as we knew it, is dying a slow and painful death. The "so called fans" are starving it to death.

5. Our music has become a niche music and will only be found at venues that cater to this music. It's no longer in the mainstream of the average listener's ear. To hear it you have to subscribe to XM, watch RFD, or buy CD online....it's almost impossible to find it at the music stores.

6. For real country to survive at all, the best we can hope for is that enough fans still exist to allow people like Justin Trevino, Amber Digby, etc... to stay busy enough to keep them playing.

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 23 May 2009 5:03 pm

Sadly, Rick

You are right-on.

Dumb cliche, I know, "But all good things must come to an end".

Even, all of our real lives.

If I can speak to the choir for a second - we all know what's good and what isn't.

I still play "older" stuff all the time. I'm undaunted. I go out and do it. People just love it. Smallish crowds, yes. But who cares?

Most of us will be dead and gone when this great music is re-realized and embraced once again to it's rightful place.

I have no doubt, or fear, about this.

Carry on brothers. Carry on. That's all you can do!

Rick Campbell · Post by **Rick Campbell** » 24 May 2009 10:26 am

Chip Fossa wrote:Sadly, Rick

Most of us will be dead and gone when this great music is re-realized and embraced once again to it's rightful place.

I wouldn't hold my breath on that. On second thought, if we're all dead, it won't really matter will it?

Billy Tonnesen · Post by **Billy Tonnesen** » 24 May 2009 1:27 pm

Country music as I know it is not dying out, It's the Market that is literally dying out. Country Music became popular in the 20's and 30's in rural America. Between the Dust Bowl, Depression, and WW2 it came to the Cities and their suburbs. My parents liked Country Music and it rubbed off on me. When I had kids in the 50's and 60's to a lesser extent it rubbed off on them along with their new Rock & Roll.
This is pretty much where the generational passing on stopped. My Grandchildren have no conception of it or learning what it might be all about. As my generation finally dies off it will only be a cult type of music similiary to what happened to big band and Dixieland music. It will no longer be mainstream. This is how I see it, I hope I am wrong !

Mickey Lawson · Post by **Mickey Lawson** » 24 May 2009 3:10 pm

I think as long as kids love music, can pick up a guitar, learn 3 or 4 chords.....and sing any ballad, there'll be country and gospel....maybe.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 24 May 2009 7:03 pm

Old music, old songs, an old folks.

Nobody wants any of them anymore.

Thank you Donny, for that vote of confidence, and incidentally, are you old enough to have joined the (unwanted) masses? (I like to know who my detractors are...)

Chuck Huffman · Post by **Chuck Huffman** » 24 May 2009 9:55 pm

There are too many of us for country to die off. They said it was dead when Randy Travis came along. They say country is dying when profits are low. It's the greedy men in Nashville and L.A. that have changed. When the day is done they have thier money and could not care less about the music.
It's great INDIE lables like Country Discovery Records that in the end will save the day for traditional country.
As far as Connie Smith goes, your right great music and great steeler, Jack Smith.

Cameron Tilbury · Post by **Cameron Tilbury** » 27 May 2009 8:19 am

I don't understand. Why, if the category of "rock music" is big enough to welcome varying styles, can't "country music" be the same?
Every time a new style of rock comes along, people say that rock and roll is dead--but it keeps moving along because it adapts and changes. Traditions remain though.
Country music should be big enough to do the same--and in my opinion, to survive, it has to.
Here's a great analogy. Stephen Fry uses it about the english language but I think it works for music too.
Picture 2 cities: London, England and Paris, France.
London consists of varying styles of architecture--modern is built next to Victorian which is next to Edwardian which is next to hacienda-style which is next to French Country which is next to...you get the idea. London is a thriving, functioning, modern city.
Paris essentially has one style of architecture. For the most part, anything modern is pushed away from the city. It's nice, but it's basically a museum. The French language fights the influence of other languages--they even have a department that makes sure that signs don't contain too much of any foreign language.
What language is spoken in most places around the world?
London, like the English language,like rock music accepts new and different styles and makes them its own. New buildings, new words from other cultures are all accepted so the style can grow. Rock has been through disco, new wave, punk, reggae, metal...and it still remains rock.
By saying that country should always be "traditional" and unaccepting of new trends means that country music becomes a museum piece--and we already see it happening.
Country music must accept new styles, trends, subject matter--even instrumentation in some cases--to become stronger.

Another thought...country music is often described as "white man's blues"...songs about the common man. Well, what today is common? Real working cowboys are few and far between. The family farm is almost history. Factory jobs have gone to developing nations...
It all means that what made country has changed so country has to change.

But what do I know. I'm just one guy with an opinion. And we all know what opinions are like.

One more thing...who are the highest grossing concert acts? Not the new guys. It's the old guys: Springsteen, Stones, The Who.

Leslie Ehrlich · Post by **Leslie Ehrlich** » 27 May 2009 10:01 am

Cameron Tilbury wrote:By saying that country should always be "traditional" and unaccepting of new trends...

The people who say this are most likely older steelers who got more gigs back in the day. The traditional 'whiney' style of steel guitar playing doesn't figure as prominently in the newer country music. I'm not surprised that complaints about the state of country music keep recurring again and again on this forum. The pedal steel guitar has unfortunately gained a reputation as a traditional country instrument, and some players refuse to see its role evolve with changing musical styles.

Cameron Tilbury wrote:Another thought...country music is often described as "white man's blues"... songs about the common man. Well, what today is common? Real working cowboys are few and far between. The family farm is almost history. Factory jobs have gone to developing nations... It all means that what made country has changed so country has to change.

True. The 'traditional' country music appealed to that type of audience, but today's society is more urbanized and ethnically diverse. How can music not be reflective of the social change that surrounds us?

Cameron Tilbury · Post by **Cameron Tilbury** » 28 May 2009 2:06 am

I agree. I remember hearing Blake Shelton's "Austin" for the first time. Good song, but as soon as it started talking about leaving messages on answering machines I thought, don't these people have cell phones?

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 28 May 2009 5:35 am

Ater reading Cameron Tilbury's post about Blake Shelton, I checked this song out and I admit that I don't like it much. One reason is that the chords are so predictable and overused, like the writers used an old Elton John ballad as a template.Thirty years I might have liked it but I'm tired of it nowadays.
Country Music always consisted of various styles of music, cayun, swing, folk, and many more I can't tink of at the moment, but I don't see why it should take in bad "Classic Rock" influences.