Country music

[RockabillyHell]

Most modern recorded music is over produced, It's fed through computers and processors and thick on the bass. It's like the difference between velveeta cheese and some nice aged upper Wisconsin cheddar. Contemporary top 40 so-called "Country" has been sanitized and disneyfied to such a point that it all sounds like karaoke backing tracks. It's missing the piss and vinegar that it once had.

[Shnate McDuanus]

Milod and Jaxson50,

 

I hear what you're saying. It is all country and on a higher level it is all music. Being a bit of an audio snob, delivery matters to me a lot. I don't dig on a lot of Nashville produced country because it is so produced. Garth Brooks was a big part of making that sound the norm. I like my music with more dirt on it.

 

I certainly must agree with you on the "dirt" comment. I have lots of trouble with listening to a very over-produced recording, which is definitely part of my problem with Nashville-produced music, although a lot of it is fine on technical and compositional levels. It's also why I always tended to stay away from a lot of the Motown soul records. I can't stand the heavily-arranged orchestral string and horn sections--I was always much more of an Atlantic and Stax kinda guy. Give me an organ, guitar, bass, drums and some poor, desperate soul singing his or her heart out. Give me Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Carla Thomas, Judy Clay, Sam and Dave--but now I've left the subject entirely, and I apologize for the digression. It's the same reason, though, why I'll always prefer Dwight Yoakam, Willie Nelson and Vince Gill to Big & Rich, Brooks & Dunn or Faith Hill. Today, it's hard for me to name contemporary country artists who haven't gone to the sort of production style I don't care for, and that's why I have so much trouble with country music of the contemporary era--notice that the three artists I mentioned, as far as what I like in current country, have been performing for decades.

[Silenced Fred]

Milod and Jaxson50,

 

I hear what you're saying. It is all country and on a higher level it is all music. Being a bit of an audio snob, delivery matters to me a lot. I don't dig on a lot of Nashville produced country because it is so produced. Garth Brooks was a big part of making that sound the norm. I like my music with more dirt on it.

 

Listen to my recordings, it's dirty and nasty. I don't want it to sound amazing, I want it to sound like me. I refuse to touch things up, or use pitch correction or any of that garbage. That's what is wrong with music

[jaxson50]

I like a more organic sound myself, if you are just getting into C&W music keep in mind great C&W is not about trucks and beer bottles and bar room fights.

It really is a form of story telling. That is why I posted Don Williams "Good Old Boys Like Me". Don started out as a radio disc Jockey, you can hear that influence in his singing, listen to the words of the song and he says,

"I was different from most, and I could choose, Learned to talk like the man on the 6 o' clock News"

There are of course some very commercial C&W,. Flashy clothes and lots of hype...just like in R&R and R&B..and that has it's place in the mix.

In Patti Boyd's book "Wonderful Tonight" she writes about Clapton's pre-recovery from addiction, he went into him self, locked him self away in his Hurtwood mansion and listened to two artist endlessly; Don Williams & JJ Cale.

Simple story telling is what drew him to those guys, and you can hear their influence on his music after his recovery. More laid back, focusing more on telling a story then on burning ears away with soaring guitar solos...not that there is anything wrong with that.

[milod]

Yeah, I agree entirely in general with "more organic," but I'd add that this is not necessarily what audiences want or expect regardless of music "style," be it country or rock.

 

E.g., it seems all the "big" concerts regardless of musical style require lots of fancies of one sort or another. I know bands that have tried to stay more "organic" that found themselves at best "opening" bands rather than headliners for just that reason - again, regardless of the type of music.

 

Country and all other "pro" outfits, though, through the years until perhaps the 1960s have tended to go for a bit of stage flash. It ain't all bad.

 

Yeah, I tend to prefer the small saloon venues in ways because you get that kind of sound whether it's blues or rock or country.

 

m

[Jeff-7]

Evol...

 

Garth's okay. Great range; storyteller tradition from the old folk days... In ways what I'm saying is pretty much what Chris said in the beginning of the vid I put a jump to earlier: It's all the same stuff, just said in different ways.

 

Actually I think one difference with a lotta "country" musicians is that when they're paid to do so, or when they're so inclined, most of them can manage to handle other styles quite well - just not necessarily the current teen "rock" of the day.

 

I do remember Garth attempting this very thing...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO-Qn-amzkY

[saturn]

I like some of the twists of language that some country songs use. Like that one old song where he says something like "when the phone doesn't ring, it'll be me."

[Daryl M]

I grew up on it, and still like country music. I'm not a big fan of some of the current stuff, but I do like artist like Willie Nelson, Vince Gill, and Brad Paisley who can write the song, sing it, and take the guitar break. That is a good thing about the evaluation of the music-there is something for everyone. Here are 2 totally different styles-both considered country, but I totally dig both. To each his own.

 

 

[TommyK]

I like some of the twists of language that some country songs use. Like that one old song where he says something like "when the phone doesn't ring, it'll be me."

 

Yup, that's a country way of speakin', like "All hat and not cattle" (or saddle, if'n you prefer.)

[Versatile]

For me Country is a rich source of guitar virtuosity...if I may include Rockabilly too. Chet Atkins influencing George Harrison...my favourite Albert Lee...Brian Setzer...Mark Knopfler...Rolling Stones etc etc.

[milod]

Yeah, I think in Anglophone North America stringed instruments have had increasing influence on "rural" music whether early blues or early "country." The cross influences of those two streams of music brought us a lot of post WWII music of many different styles. The banjo, for example, once was considered a rural "Black' instrument. Nowadays it's considered more a "white folk/bluegrass" instrument. Interesting.

 

Both major streams of "rural" music then got into urban environments and that's one place electric guitars and "orchestral" sorts of arrangements started to hit us. The B3 and Leslies for the more blues-oriented music is a perfect example along with symphonic backing for some "country" ballads to show "country" could be sophisticated music too.

 

To me the bottom line is that I doubt ever there has been a lack of crossing influences between rural "folk" music and urban "art" music - at least not in the past 200 years or so.

 

m

[Versatile]

Yeah, I think in Anglophone North America stringed instruments have had increasing influence on "rural" music whether early blues or early "country." The cross influences of those two streams of music brought us a lot of post WWII music of many different styles. The banjo, for example, once was considered a rural "Black' instrument. Nowadays it's considered more a "white folk/bluegrass" instrument. Interesting.

 

Both major streams of "rural" music then got into urban environments and that's one place electric guitars and "orchestral" sorts of arrangements started to hit us. The B3 and Leslies for the more blues-oriented music is a perfect example along with symphonic backing for some "country" ballads to show "country" could be sophisticated music too.

 

To me the bottom line is that I doubt ever there has been a lack of crossing influences between rural "folk" music and urban "art" music - at least not in the past 200 years or so.

 

m

m...you have summed everything up in one post!! Interesting point about the banjo, I think people forget it's negro folk/blues roots. Off the wall...one of my favourite albums is Joey deFrancesco with John McLaughlin and Dennis Chambers...who would have thought it possible?......

[guitarkid]

acdc never talks about depression. neither does guns n roses or led zeppelin. i HATE country

[Californiaman]

What country were we talking about again?

[milod]

We have the same problem talking about "country" as we have with "blues" and "rock."

 

There's no one "type" within the genres. Tell me, is this rock, country, blues, country blues? Rockabilly blues?

 

 

As for "depressing" stuff, consider that in the late '50s, early 60s, "Rock" had a heavy dose of "my girlfriend got killed in a car wreck," "I'm gonna commit suicide 'cuz my girlfriend's parents don't like me," or the "Terror of Highway 101" or...

 

I could go on and on with just some of the top tunes.

 

This stuff always is cyclical within any given genre.

 

Blues: "I'm gonna lay my head, on that lonesome railroad line, let the 2:19, satisfy my mind..." (That's how I learned the lyric.) Whatever.

 

Bottom line is that one difference with rock, blues, country, whatever, is that the closer it is to "roots," the more likely to have a degree of "depression," and yet as I've mentioned before, more of a narration style (even the blues shouters and country yellers are continuing a tradition from before amplification).

 

Listen to some of the really old stuff and you'll see what I mean whether it's blues or early rock or country. All "story" or "feeling" songs are heavy on a narrative sorta take on things in vocal style whether it's "I wanna drop dead" or whether it's "my girl (or boy for girl singers) is the best."

 

m

[Jeff-7]

M, tried to send you a message but your inbox is full apparently. Didn't know if you'd heard/seen anything about this:

 

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/290228/

 

Sevareid Symposium in Bismarck at the end of the month.

[milod]

Jeff...

 

Actually I got your note - I think it just went a bit long and I was working on a word and pix piece for print with a deadline on it.

 

Eric S. was quite a guy and his tale kinda reminds me of my Dad's. The depression and climate were not kind to rural areas of the plains.

 

BTW, the music of the 1920s and 30s in this area was kinda interesting as the radio era entered. Out in the rural areas crystal and battery radios would listen to directional commercial radio signals that were heavy on older-style music with live music and live audiences. Lawrence Welk, for example, got his start in this region that way - and many years ago I even used the same mike several times at the same radio station with the same old tube transmitter. Unfortunately the place burned down complete to hundreds or thousands of old wax recordings of live performances.

 

m

[Jeff-7]

That's a terrible shame on all those recordings burning up, I bet some museums and collectors would love to get their hands on those nowadays. That discussion on NPR this afternoon was really engrossing, they discussed quite a bit about Sevareid and Rather during their early years and their overall careers, as well as discussing the deterioration of the current media and intellectual discussions in the current population. Neat little part of it was the discussion on how sound bytes have decreased over the years from 2 and a half minutes all the way down to 8 seconds or less. Sevareid made a comment before he passed that 2 and a half minutes was an eternity and it was like writing the Gettysburg Address every day. Made for an enjoyable ride home for sure.

[mrktwn]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPj3yjXJzYw

AND hes playing a Gibson.

[mrktwn]

Keith Urban is another pretty good picker

Keith Urban is 'frickin awesome. But I think of him as really a pop star.

[jaxson50]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPj3yjXJzYw

AND hes playing a Gibson.

I love Hanks playing...do you know the story behind that Sugar Foot Rag? It was a warm up exercise Hank wrote for himself and recorded when he was 16...

[mrktwn]

Wow, did not know that. Hank Garland is the shiznitz. I love the Grady Martin, too.

[Riffster]

Don't care for much Country music but I do like going Honky Tonkin' in downtown Nashville, great atmosphere.

[milod]

The older I get, the more convinced I am that "American" music is an incredible stew of musical styles, concept and histories.

 

Some is heavy on one ingredient and some is heavy on others - but basically it's so terribly integrated by cooking for so many years on the back of the stove that it's almost indelibly "American."

 

For what it's worth, I'd consider Canadian music a set of regional variants of "American" since we do, after all, share a continent and have the same sort of cross pollination as European music has shared. Perhaps the term "North American" might be more appropriate.

 

I'm also convinced that the folk music of the British Isles may have more of an effect on "American" music than pop music perhaps even in the U.K. and Ireland.

 

m

[Big_Guitarra]

My Mother is a big country music fan. I grew up listening to Elvis Presley, Conway Twitty, George Jones, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn and so many others.