Ron Spears just wrote critical piece about “corporate country.” I happen to concur with his point of view that the bottom line of commercial country industry is the bottom line, but hasn’t this always really been the case for decades? Maybe one’s taste and tolerances for country music are really a generational matter. I mean Hank Thompson and 90’s icon George Straight are miles apart. And Hank Jr. Sounds more like Rascall Flatts than he does Sr..
So what is real country? How far do we stray from the Carters and Roy Acuff before we draw sonic margineax line? (Eddie Rabbit might have been a good start)Maybe taking this one step farther, every generation has it’s share of horrible country music. The great Chet Atkins was infamous for producing albums that were actually features on the Doctor Demento Show. The early 60’s had songs flowing from Nashville that sounded like they had the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for back-up singers. Dare I even mention the late mid and late 70’s? It just seems like some eras just have a little more poor, soulless country than others.
A short while back when my 24 year old and I were in the truck going fishing, we began our ritual fighting over the iPod, each running down the other’s taste in country. We were driving through some pretty hill country and our poles and tackle back in the bed were shimmering in the early morning sun. Then it dawned on me, my boy and shared exactly the same feeling when we each listened to our respective country music on glorious weekends…whether it was about honky-to king or sitting on the bed of a pick-up truck with a beer, the music released us both from the daily grind and brought us a little closer to a simpler way and the land.
For what Ron Spear’s said: https://www.facebook.com/ronald.spears.96/posts/10205911564415631?fref=nf&pnref=story
