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What country music do you like?

rousseau said:
Horatio Parker said:
It's complicated for me. Like rock, I like playing country, in moderation, but I don't often bother listening to it. When I visit Michigan and am driving, it's often the only choice besides pop on the radio, so I do get a bit in.

The thing I appreciate the most about country is that it's still about humans playing instruments. Also, country artists have absorbed a lot from other genres, the application of which sometimes sounds more soulful than contemporary r&b.
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My thing these days is that my fiance grew up in rural Ontario, and her parents and one of her brothers still have a farm a little outside the city we live in. Being Dutch, they're pretty far removed from the Conservative, god-fearing style in a lot of country-music, but the past few years are the first time I've had any type of connection to rural life. I even rode in a combine last season!

And so I'm starting to feel a bit of romanticism when I think about country life. Waking up at 5am, dusting off your boots, and watching the sun rise as you feed your animals and make your way through life. In that way (good, authentic) country music serves as a view into that way of life. For instance, Del Barber who I mentioned above wrote a whole album called 'Prairieography' with the explicit purpose of connecting urban audiences to rural life.
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My grandfather was a farmer, and as a child I spent a portion of every summer there, hoeing, picking corn, farmers market etc. My grandmother was a classically trained pianist. And they liked schlocky stuff like Ray Caniff(?) and Lawrence Welk. So I never associated country life or farming with country music.
 
Horatio Parker said:
It's complicated for me. Like rock, I like playing country, in moderation, but I don't often bother listening to it. When I visit Michigan and am driving, it's often the only choice besides pop on the radio, so I do get a bit in.

The thing I appreciate the most about country is that it's still about humans playing instruments. Also, country artists have absorbed a lot from other genres, the application of which sometimes sounds more soulful than contemporary r&b.
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I go by the song, not the genre.
 
Ford said:
Mainstream country is what it is because of mainstream audiences. Believe me, there's a lot of consternation in the industry at where things are going, but it is the music business, not the music hobby after all. I could go on, but suffice to say folks in radio and records wish things were different.

My current non-mainstream faves are Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, and Kacey Musgraves. Isbell's stuff was hit or miss (IMO) before he got sober, but his last two albums were just spectacular. Simpson is on his own weird journey and everything he does is a surprise. Kacey's "Same Trailer, Different Park" was uneven, but she really hit the ball out of the park with "Pageant Material."
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Agree with Simpson and Isbell. I also like Chris Stapleton.
 
Oh, speaking of Willie Nelson, his son is excellent. Don't know if White Buffalo is country or not, but awesome. Ryan Bingham is good.
 
And speaking of Willie...

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDCFjYVKAkY[/YOUTUBE]
 
I heard these guys on wkcr. Not strictly country, I see labels from "progressive bluegrass" to "pop roots" so YMMV. But they're good.

 
rousseau said:
In the last couple years I've been listening to a guy by the name of Del Barber quite a bit. He's based out of Manitoba and a pretty strong song-writer, but I guess it's hard to make a name for yourself as a country-singing cattle farmer living out in the prairies.

So now I'm curious to find other people like him who aren't too obvious, or mainstream/poppyish. Just good song-writers with a rural tinge.

So whaddaya like?
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This is nice. Soulful. So often country music artists seem to shoot for soulful and only manage to hit the outer ring of depressing.
 
TV and credit cards said:
rousseau said:
In the last couple years I've been listening to a guy by the name of Del Barber quite a bit. He's based out of Manitoba and a pretty strong song-writer, but I guess it's hard to make a name for yourself as a country-singing cattle farmer living out in the prairies.

So now I'm curious to find other people like him who aren't too obvious, or mainstream/poppyish. Just good song-writers with a rural tinge.

So whaddaya like?
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This is nice. Soulful. So often country music artists seem to shoot for soulful and only manage to hit the outer ring of depressing.
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Agreed. He's one of the odd-ball artists I've discovered that's virtually unknown, but who I've listened to more than almost anyone else.

This song's always stood out as one of my favourites:


And this one's great story-telling:
 
I like older country 1990's to early 2000. Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Collin Raye, Tracy Byrd, George Straight, Kathy Matea Dixie Chicks and a few others. I gave it up after 911 when Toby Keith went apeshit with his boot in your ass song and the DC's were boycotted for criticizing Jr. I'm glad Tim McGraw is not like that.
 
rousseau said:
People's entire careers have been based in the sound created by artists coming before them, so I can't fault him too much. I think Cohen wrote a song about this..
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Well, they can't very well base their sound on the artists that come after them.

It's true of all styles...but in the more commercial genres there's more emphasis on personality, marketing plays a larger role...the result is artists must be conceived of as springing fully formed from the brow of Jove, or you're somehow disloyal, or just not getting it.
 
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