clevermanka (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
clevermanka) wrote2022-07-10 08:08 am
clevermanka) wrote2022-07-10 08:08 am
Country music
I mentioned to nnozomi recently that I used to be pretty active in the rockabilly scene although I don't listen to it anymore because it's emotionally painful. 😔 There's a lot of crossover between rockabilly and country, though, and I do still listen to a fair amount of country. She asked for some recs, so here we go!
I'm generally a like-and-let-like person, but I also support the idea that if you say you "don't like country music" or "don't like rap" you've maybe got some bigoted tendencies you might want to examine. I go a little easier on the country music thing since country music has had its own bigoted problems for the last two decades and I get why people have an animosity toward it now, especially if they weren't into it before 2001 (fuck you, Toby Keith and your ilk). But country music can be amazing and a lot of fun. I love country music's history of support for the working class, humor, and easy harmonies. So if you've never been able to get into country but those sound like good things to you, too, here are some suggestions to help you start your own search.
I especially like what's referred to as the Bakersville sound, popularized by Buck Owens in the 40s. Try There Goes My Heart, Act Naturally, or Tiger by the Tail. A few modern bands have run with this style and my favorite one in the 90s, The Derailers (not as active anymore alas) put out some amazing songs. Bar Exam is a great example of the witty lyrics frequent in country music. No One to Talk to but the Blues is also one of my faves that incorporates some do-wop and 60s rock influence. Lies, Lies, Lies is more straight-up country and I still love singing that high harmony line.
Of course everybody knows (and hopefully loves) Dolly Parton and Patsy Cline, but there were some other women making their own waves in old country music. One of my favorites is Charlene Arthur who is a little more rockabilly but her influence on Parton and Cline is indisputable. She didn't last very long in the music industry but my god her songs are something. Welcome to the Club, Just Look, Don't Touch, He's Mine, and Flash Your Diamonds are brilliant.
And then of course there's Johnny Cash, Hank Williams*, Roy Acuff, and Ray Price--all amazing contributors to early country. Music history inclined folks might pay special attention to Price. He had a huge influence on the genre when he popularized the 4/4 shuffle, helping to move country music away from its previous 2/4 to 4/4 timing (music theory video, not a song).
*Hank Williams I and III are good, I'm not such a fan of Hank II
The 90s put out some incredible country music and if Toby Keith et.al. hadn't poisoned the well after 9/11 we'd have a very different musical (and imo political) landscape in the US right now. Check out Faith Hill's This Kiss, Mary Chapin Carpenter's He Thinks He'll Keep Her, and of course Garth Brooks' 100% perfect Friends in Low Places. (Brooks deserves every industry award he's ever received, fight me).
It's harder these days to find country music songs and singers who don't toe the rah-rah USA line but they're out there. Of course there are The Chicks (Wide Open Spaces, Sleep at Night) who tanked their career after speaking against George Bush. Miranda Lambert is good (Mama's Broken Heart, White Trash). Thompson Square (I Got You, Trans Am) have stumbled a bit in popularity but I hope they'll find their footing again (I like every song on their debut album). I recently discovered Priscilla Block (Thick Thighs, Wish You Were the Whiskey) and I like her a lot.
No surprise it's harder to find modern country by dudes that isn't offensive or annoying. Please check out Orville Peck, though. I'm linking to his YouTube channel because everything he does is incredible. Dwight Yoakam is very popular and he does have a great sound but for some reason I've never warmed to him.
Anyway, I feel like that's enough to get someone started if they're interested in expanding their musical palate to include country music. I know I've left out a lot of names so please share if you've got some faves yourself.
eta: I checked out the Miranda Lambert radio playlist and so far it's pretty great. I realize the algorithm probably gives everybody a slightly different mix, but of the first ten songs four are already in my Spotify likes.
nnozomi recently that I used to be pretty active in the rockabilly scene although I don't listen to it anymore because it's emotionally painful. 😔 There's a lot of crossover between rockabilly and country, though, and I do still listen to a fair amount of country. She asked for some recs, so here we go!I'm generally a like-and-let-like person, but I also support the idea that if you say you "don't like country music" or "don't like rap" you've maybe got some bigoted tendencies you might want to examine. I go a little easier on the country music thing since country music has had its own bigoted problems for the last two decades and I get why people have an animosity toward it now, especially if they weren't into it before 2001 (fuck you, Toby Keith and your ilk). But country music can be amazing and a lot of fun. I love country music's history of support for the working class, humor, and easy harmonies. So if you've never been able to get into country but those sound like good things to you, too, here are some suggestions to help you start your own search.
I especially like what's referred to as the Bakersville sound, popularized by Buck Owens in the 40s. Try There Goes My Heart, Act Naturally, or Tiger by the Tail. A few modern bands have run with this style and my favorite one in the 90s, The Derailers (not as active anymore alas) put out some amazing songs. Bar Exam is a great example of the witty lyrics frequent in country music. No One to Talk to but the Blues is also one of my faves that incorporates some do-wop and 60s rock influence. Lies, Lies, Lies is more straight-up country and I still love singing that high harmony line.
Of course everybody knows (and hopefully loves) Dolly Parton and Patsy Cline, but there were some other women making their own waves in old country music. One of my favorites is Charlene Arthur who is a little more rockabilly but her influence on Parton and Cline is indisputable. She didn't last very long in the music industry but my god her songs are something. Welcome to the Club, Just Look, Don't Touch, He's Mine, and Flash Your Diamonds are brilliant.
And then of course there's Johnny Cash, Hank Williams*, Roy Acuff, and Ray Price--all amazing contributors to early country. Music history inclined folks might pay special attention to Price. He had a huge influence on the genre when he popularized the 4/4 shuffle, helping to move country music away from its previous 2/4 to 4/4 timing (music theory video, not a song).
*Hank Williams I and III are good, I'm not such a fan of Hank II
The 90s put out some incredible country music and if Toby Keith et.al. hadn't poisoned the well after 9/11 we'd have a very different musical (and imo political) landscape in the US right now. Check out Faith Hill's This Kiss, Mary Chapin Carpenter's He Thinks He'll Keep Her, and of course Garth Brooks' 100% perfect Friends in Low Places. (Brooks deserves every industry award he's ever received, fight me).
It's harder these days to find country music songs and singers who don't toe the rah-rah USA line but they're out there. Of course there are The Chicks (Wide Open Spaces, Sleep at Night) who tanked their career after speaking against George Bush. Miranda Lambert is good (Mama's Broken Heart, White Trash). Thompson Square (I Got You, Trans Am) have stumbled a bit in popularity but I hope they'll find their footing again (I like every song on their debut album). I recently discovered Priscilla Block (Thick Thighs, Wish You Were the Whiskey) and I like her a lot.
No surprise it's harder to find modern country by dudes that isn't offensive or annoying. Please check out Orville Peck, though. I'm linking to his YouTube channel because everything he does is incredible. Dwight Yoakam is very popular and he does have a great sound but for some reason I've never warmed to him.
Anyway, I feel like that's enough to get someone started if they're interested in expanding their musical palate to include country music. I know I've left out a lot of names so please share if you've got some faves yourself.
eta: I checked out the Miranda Lambert radio playlist and so far it's pretty great. I realize the algorithm probably gives everybody a slightly different mix, but of the first ten songs four are already in my Spotify likes.
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Can I add Chris LeDoux to your list? I love his more mellow stuff, like "the ride" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT0NjGMDYhE) and "riding for a fall" or "Western skies" but he has some great upbeat songs too, like "Whatcha gonna do with a cowboy?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICtlA7LfOlY or "hooked on an 8 second ride."
I always wanted to (partner) dance to Sawyer Brown's cover of "the race is on" but it was a line dance so there were no partners to be had. Also, I didn't have the dancing skills at the time. *sigh* I miss partner dancing a lot.
I used to have a CD I made of old country songs that I made from a list I found somewhere. I should find it, but that was where I discovered Roseanne Cash (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miIqI9Gql9M) and "it wasn't god who made honkytonk angels" by Kitty Wells (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKleTa94dC8).
I was a latecomer to 80s country which I was sort of aware of as it was happening, but I appreciate it more as an adult.
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And oh god I miss partner dancing so much, too. For the record, you always were my favorite follow. 🧡
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It's because you were such a fantastic lead!!
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I like your samples!
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Back in the day, I used to go to Wednesday Ladies Nights at a bar called Pengilly's and they usually had The Jeremiah James Gang, a local band. Here's a kinda crappy video of his cover of "Idaho Cowboy" by Pinto Bennett (what a GREAT country singer name!) It's more honky tonk. Love it! My friend Sarah had such a huge crush on him (JJ, not Pinto Bennett).
The Dead South is a mood!
I think the very first CD I ever bought with my own money was Garth Brooks --"The Thunder Rolls" is such a jam! (I might have bought Harry Connick Jr first, but GB was right up there. A family I used to babysit for had his CDs.)
Anyway! Wow, I'm glad you posted this because it brought back some fond memories!
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eta: Are you familiar with Roger Wallace?
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He seems to do the most amazing impressions of country music legends in every song, and it fascinates me how well he does it.
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Country deejays knows that I'm an outlaw
They'd never come to see me in this dive
Where bikers stare at cowboys who are laughing at the hippies
Who are praying they'll get outta here alive
The loud mouth in the corner's gettin' to me
Talking 'bout my earrings and my hair
I guess he ain't read the signs that say I been to prison
Someone ought to warn him 'fore I knock him off his chair
'Cause my long hair just can't cover up my red neck
I've won every fight, I've ever fought
Hey, I don't need some turkey telling me that I ain't country
And sayin' I ain't worth the damned ol' ticket that he bought
'Cause I can sing all them songs about Texas
And I still do all the sad ones that I know
They tell me, I look like Merle Haggard
And sound a lot like David Allen Coe
And the bar maid in the last town that we played in
Knew the words to every song I'd wrote
She said, Janine Rabbit (side note: co-writer of this song, yes, Eddie Rabbit's wife) turned her on to my last album
Just about the time the jukebox broke
Yeah, Johnny Cash helped me get out of prison
Long before Rodriguez stole that goat
I've been the Rhinestone Cowboy for so long, I can't remember
And I can do you every song Hank Williams ever wrote
And I can sing all them songs about Texas
And I still do all the sad ones that I know
I can't help it, I look like Merle Haggard
And I sound a lot like David Allen Coe
But the country deejays, all think I'm an outlaw
And they'd never come to see me in this dive
Where bikers stare at cowboys who are laughing at the hippies
Who are praying they'll get out of here alive
The loud mouth in the corner's gettin' to me
Talking 'bout my earrings and my hair..
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You know I'm a big Dwight Yoakam fan, and I really like Chris Stapleton these days, their rendition of Seven Spanish Angels moves me just as much as Willie Nelson and Ray Charles did.
And you turned me onto Ingrid Andress! Great fun!
My Very Old School country loves include Marty Robbins, Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, and of course Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, et al.
There are excellent Black Country artists these days, they certainly deserve mention.
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It's funny, since listening to a lot of what you linked to, I'm starting to recognize the hints of country (or more than hints?) in some of Cake's songs (probably my favorite band). Would you say that Cake's Sad Songs and Waltzes and Jesus Wrote a Blank Check count as country, or just influenced by country, or not country at all? (I just listened to Buck Owens before posting the comment and it reminds me of Cake's style in some of their songs a bit, although I may be way off base. I'll definitely be listening to more of him, too.)
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Oh my gosh, the first Cake song is bringing back some memories.
I think in most cases, it's largely a matter of intent. Did the artist intend to make a country song for an alt-pop album, or is it an homage to country on an alt-pop album? *emoji shrug* Obvs if Cake said "heck yeah these are country songs!" sure, then, they're country!
Personally though, lacking that, I'd say they aren't really country songs? I feel like there are elements present (ex. the trumpets) and others absent (vocal quality/delivery, some instrumentation choices I can't quite put my finger on) that keep them from being actual examples of the genre.
Not to say elements from other musical styles can't be present in a genre. The trumpets in Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" for example. But he was a country artist making a country album, so it's a country song. And if Priscilla Block covered "Sad Songs and Waltzs" a) of all I'd like to hear it right now, but if she performed it as a country song, it'd be a country song.
Does that make any sense at all? 😂
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It's too bad how the recording industry keeps people in boxes.
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What you called the "Bakersville sound," older and newer, sounds a lot more familiar than I'd have expected, from listening to jazz on the blues and/or Dixieland side; really kissing cousins ;). Charline Arthur too. "Relaxing" is probably the wrong word but I like the easy-going beat they seem to have.
The harmony on the chorus of "He Thinks He'll Keep Her" is great, and the lyrics are something else, I see what you mean.
"Thick Thighs" absolutely cracked me up!
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Some Old School country fans say lot of what happened to country is the chart cross-over, where most of what isn't bro country ends up being naught more than rock/pop with a Southern accent (side-eye at Keith Urban), but OTOH, damn if I didn't love a bunch of it, anyway, because it was getting out there. Then, I got tired real quick of "girl, dance on/get in..ma truck".
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What I meant by that is rap artists are collaborating with country artists, like LL Cool J and Tim McGraw, Nelly and Tim McGraw, Nelly and Florida Georgia Line, and Kane Brown himself. Lil Nas X being booted was total BS (and probably homophobic, considering Cowboy Troy has made the cut); the Billboard executives may have shunned him but the fans didn't.
Hey, a side note, I came across this link about Black Female country artists while looking for female artists collabs besides H.E.R.
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And I don't know how I mixed up that link for the Superbowl ad, I was sending the Wiz Khalifa song to someone else. Oops.
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I was listening to a lot of country and bluegrass in the late 90s/early 00s, as well as what fell under alt country at the time. I have some great mix CDs/tapes from a mail exchange that I need to convert into playlists. A couple of my favs are The Handsome Family (saw them play in a TINY club without ever hearing them before, the best way to discover music) and 16 Horsepower. I do ignore anything about the singer from 16 Horsepower because he's a conservative Christian, but the music is fire. I had the good fortune to see them open for Morphine around 1998, it was a great combo. I also like Whiskeytown and Ryan Adams' first album, though he's trash.
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