6 ms·

Most anecdotes about pop culture are bullshit. But the one about the implosion of country & western music is very real. The number of country acts that actuall

Most anecdotes about pop culture are bullshit. But the one about the implosion of country & western music is very real. The number of country acts that actually still create music different from pop/rock is so staggeringly small it breaks my heart. The vast majority are a caricature that play pop with a twang. That reality makes the loss of folks like Merle Haggard much more pointed. There hasn't been an effective passing of the torch. It's akin to the loss of the last generation of traditional folk artists in the late 50s.

trgn 11y ago
Justin Townes Earle, Sturgill Simpson (see below), are real good and to a certain extent, many of the "folk-ish" rock bands (Old 97s and the like) carry the torch somewhat. Country instruments have moved quite a bit into indy music in the last ten-fifteen years as well. The worst about pop-country music IMO now, is that popular country used to have absolutely great singing voices, sing cleanly with a sort of neutral phrasing quite different from the emotional grunting of rock&roll singers. Merle Haggard being a great example. Now, men sound like a parody. Not only do they sing like crap, the lyrics are absolute shit. It's pretty much all "it's friday, time to call in sick, take a long weekend to go fishin'". Urgh.
- sk5t 11y ago
  You might give a listen to Jason Isbell. I'm no country aficionado--closest I'll go is Jenny Lewis or Neko Case, usually--but Isbell seems to get back to the thoughtful lyrics and good execution that used to make stars.
- omegaham 11y ago
  What? My life exclusively consists of getting off work on Friday night to drink beer at some tailgate / bonfire out at the county line and finding some girl in Levis and a ballcap to jump in my truck and taaake it slooow on some back road... something something fill your cup with ice-cold beer, look into her baby blue eyes, etc. Country is at a nadir right now, and I'm seeing a lot of parallels to mid-2000s rap. I hope that it experiences a similar revival, because I really do like a lot of older country music. These days, I've been listening a lot more to folk music to get the thoughtful lyrics, and it's sad that it's going further and further underground.
  - rhizome 11y ago
    I think it's an entirely new genre these days. Try to pick out all of the styles, including rap, this song touches on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve8sNTqrzCw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve8sNTqrzCw
scotch_drinker 11y ago
Adding to the list, mostly Texas artists but Guy Clark (leaving us soon), Robert Earl Keen, Slaid Cleaves, James McMurtry, Hayes Carll. These are true storytellers in the vein of Merle and worth looking into.
- tmm 11y ago
  And female artists in a similar vein: Lucinda Williams, Brandi Carlile and Gillian Welch immediately come to mind. A great site (IMHO) for keeping up with musicians in the style of these guys is Jessie Scott's musicfog.com. Jessie Scott was the program director for X Country on XM, before it was replaced with whatever Sirius runs there now and it was her programming that really expanded my music base (I would likely have never heard of any of these artists if not for X Country).
  - sk5t 11y ago
    Kathleen Edwards is another female voice for the list.
  - scotch_drinker 11y ago
    +1 for X Country and Outlaw Country on Sirius. Also, take any artist from the lists above, start a station on Pandora and you will get a wonderful lesson into today's musical storytellers.
- chrissnell 11y ago
  Indeed. The Texas music scene is alive and well. I would classify most of the guys in the parent comment as folk or folk-rock but there are plenty of real-deal country-western singer-songwriters in this genre. Max Stalling [1] is one of the finest country songwriters I've ever heard and it's a shame that he's never gotten the recognition he deserves. Bruce Robison is another that comes to mind, though mainstream country listeners will recognize many of his songs that have been covered by the hat act types. 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYtiE3cAEC0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYtiE3cAEC0 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBcM96iopPo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBcM96iopPo Edit: How could I forget Jamey Johnson? Here's one of him alongside Robert Earl Keen and Raul Malo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dajb94tV-eM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dajb94tV-eM
pjmorris 11y ago
My first reaction is to agree, and wonder whether we're homogenizing our music culture the same way we're homogenizing our food culture. That said, I think all hope is not lost. I took guitar lessons from a local bluegrass musician, and, through him, have learned of a lot of little local jam sessions (I live in Raleigh, NC and bluegrass is one of the local music styles around here.) Through dropping in on these jams, I've heard a lot of great music, both passed down and original, that I'd never hear on the radio. Ask around, there might be something local/live/non-radio where you are.
- rhizome 11y ago
  The mainstream is always a process of homogenization, but there's always an underground from which the mainstream picks and chooses its future.
  - ArkyBeagle 11y ago
    In the 1960s you had Countrypolitan. It's not like something similar hasn't happened before. It always comes back. Besides, WSM stands for "We Shield Millions", the motto of the New York based insurance company that started all that.
    - rhizome 11y ago
      Not only has it happened before, it's continuously happening all the time in an infinity of directions. Pop culture is "you're soaking in it."
      - ArkyBeagle 11y ago
        Yes absolutely, sir.
- chiph 11y ago
  A former coworker is down in Cary and plays banjo. I had no idea it was as difficult as it seems to be. I think WKNC has some bluegrass on their schedule on Saturday mornings.
thenipper 11y ago
You might like my friends' band The Civil Warblers: https://civilwarblers.bandcamp.com/ https://civilwarblers.bandcamp.com/ They're not a band any more since the singer passed last August but they had some great honkytonkesque country songs.

trgn 11y ago

Justin Townes Earle, Sturgill Simpson (see below), are real good and to a certain extent, many of the "folk-ish" rock bands (Old 97s and the like) carry the torch somewhat. Country instruments have moved quite a bit into indy music in the last ten-fifteen years as well. The worst about pop-country music IMO now, is that popular country used to have absolutely great singing voices, sing cleanly with a sort of neutral phrasing quite different from the emotional grunting of rock&roll singers. Merle Haggard being a great example. Now, men sound like a parody. Not only do they sing like crap, the lyrics are absolute shit. It's pretty much all "it's friday, time to call in sick, take a long weekend to go fishin'". Urgh.

sk5t 11y ago
You might give a listen to Jason Isbell. I'm no country aficionado--closest I'll go is Jenny Lewis or Neko Case, usually--but Isbell seems to get back to the thoughtful lyrics and good execution that used to make stars.
omegaham 11y ago
What? My life exclusively consists of getting off work on Friday night to drink beer at some tailgate / bonfire out at the county line and finding some girl in Levis and a ballcap to jump in my truck and taaake it slooow on some back road... something something fill your cup with ice-cold beer, look into her baby blue eyes, etc. Country is at a nadir right now, and I'm seeing a lot of parallels to mid-2000s rap. I hope that it experiences a similar revival, because I really do like a lot of older country music. These days, I've been listening a lot more to folk music to get the thoughtful lyrics, and it's sad that it's going further and further underground.
- rhizome 11y ago
  I think it's an entirely new genre these days. Try to pick out all of the styles, including rap, this song touches on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve8sNTqrzCw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve8sNTqrzCw

scotch_drinker 11y ago

Adding to the list, mostly Texas artists but Guy Clark (leaving us soon), Robert Earl Keen, Slaid Cleaves, James McMurtry, Hayes Carll. These are true storytellers in the vein of Merle and worth looking into.

tmm 11y ago
And female artists in a similar vein: Lucinda Williams, Brandi Carlile and Gillian Welch immediately come to mind. A great site (IMHO) for keeping up with musicians in the style of these guys is Jessie Scott's musicfog.com. Jessie Scott was the program director for X Country on XM, before it was replaced with whatever Sirius runs there now and it was her programming that really expanded my music base (I would likely have never heard of any of these artists if not for X Country).
- sk5t 11y ago
  Kathleen Edwards is another female voice for the list.
- scotch_drinker 11y ago
  +1 for X Country and Outlaw Country on Sirius. Also, take any artist from the lists above, start a station on Pandora and you will get a wonderful lesson into today's musical storytellers.
chrissnell 11y ago
Indeed. The Texas music scene is alive and well. I would classify most of the guys in the parent comment as folk or folk-rock but there are plenty of real-deal country-western singer-songwriters in this genre. Max Stalling [1] is one of the finest country songwriters I've ever heard and it's a shame that he's never gotten the recognition he deserves. Bruce Robison is another that comes to mind, though mainstream country listeners will recognize many of his songs that have been covered by the hat act types. 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYtiE3cAEC0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYtiE3cAEC0 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBcM96iopPo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBcM96iopPo Edit: How could I forget Jamey Johnson? Here's one of him alongside Robert Earl Keen and Raul Malo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dajb94tV-eM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dajb94tV-eM

pjmorris 11y ago

My first reaction is to agree, and wonder whether we're homogenizing our music culture the same way we're homogenizing our food culture. That said, I think all hope is not lost. I took guitar lessons from a local bluegrass musician, and, through him, have learned of a lot of little local jam sessions (I live in Raleigh, NC and bluegrass is one of the local music styles around here.) Through dropping in on these jams, I've heard a lot of great music, both passed down and original, that I'd never hear on the radio. Ask around, there might be something local/live/non-radio where you are.

rhizome 11y ago
The mainstream is always a process of homogenization, but there's always an underground from which the mainstream picks and chooses its future.
- ArkyBeagle 11y ago
  In the 1960s you had Countrypolitan. It's not like something similar hasn't happened before. It always comes back. Besides, WSM stands for "We Shield Millions", the motto of the New York based insurance company that started all that.
  - rhizome 11y ago
    Not only has it happened before, it's continuously happening all the time in an infinity of directions. Pop culture is "you're soaking in it."
    - ArkyBeagle 11y ago
      Yes absolutely, sir.
chiph 11y ago
A former coworker is down in Cary and plays banjo. I had no idea it was as difficult as it seems to be. I think WKNC has some bluegrass on their schedule on Saturday mornings.

thenipper 11y ago

You might like my friends' band The Civil Warblers: https://civilwarblers.bandcamp.com/ https://civilwarblers.bandcamp.com/ They're not a band any more since the singer passed last August but they had some great honkytonkesque country songs.