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What country music do you like?

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rousseau

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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?
 
I find most mainstream country music today to be nothing but pop with a twang. It's dreck.
 
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."
 
If you're into vintage Jewish country & western, you might want to check out Kinky Friedman.
 
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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Interesting perspective.

I gotta wonder if the industry's direction is a bit of a feedback loop. Only radio friendly music makes it to radio, then listeners get more attuned to radio friendly music, which makes it more important that radio play music like that, and so on. Eventually the range of sounds people will accept gets narrower and narrower.

Mostly, though, I just think it's a human nature thing. Most people don't want to think about music, they just want pretty sounds. And I don't mean that as a criticism, it just seems to be the brunt of how people interact with the medium. The same probably goes for the visual, and written arts as well.

Thanks for the recommendations btw. Listening to Isbell this morning, Southeastern is gorgeous and ended up adding one of it's songs to our 'potential wedding songs' playlist.
 
Horatio Parker said:
Obscure movie quote: "It's show business, baby. No business, no show."
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All the best music seems to be those who can tread both lines: artistic integrity with financial success. The 'we're actually talented' business model.

Although, more and more the financial success part seems hard because people are getting crowded out of the public's view. On the bright side, tickets to see great musicians perform are pretty cheap these days.
 
rousseau said:
I gotta wonder if the industry's direction is a bit of a feedback loop. Only radio friendly music makes it to radio, then listeners get more attuned to radio friendly music, which makes it more important that radio play music like that, and so on. Eventually the range of sounds people will accept gets narrower and narrower.
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Somewhat. The listeners like what they like, and it is surprisingly hard to sway their tastes. Take "bro country," for example. Listeners love that shit, and so the labels jumped on the bandwagon and put out more acts that fit that sound. Next thing you know it is all bro country, all day. Just a couple weeks ago I was in a meeting where the new Chris Stapleton record was brought up. Everyone agreed it was great. He's a great, refreshingly different artist. But the song is problematic because it is so very different. What do we do with this?

Or there are other times when you've got something that looks exactly like what the listeners seem to want. I remember this one singer. Tremendous voice. Beautiful girl (think if Jennifer Aniston grew up in Iowa) and nice, too. Her husband was one of the biggest video producers in Nashville. The record was produced by a guy who (at the time) had the "hot hand." We put two singles on the air and...nothing. Went over like a wet bottle rocket. One song went onto be a single for Jason Aldean a few years later, but that was it.


That happens a lot. Talent, looks, songwriting, etc. are all things that walk through our door on a regular basis. The ones who "make it" seem to be selected at random by the listeners. We have a performance space for the artists, and when they come through each one signs the wall and autographs their 8x10 publicity photo to hang up there. A few weeks ago this new group (Levon - awesome harmonies) came by and after their performance one of the guys was looking at the wall. He said it was intimidating. He didn't elaborate, but I knew what he meant. It isn't filled with huge stars. The wall is covered with photos of acts that didn't go anywhere, peppered by a very few that did.
 
Ford said:
rousseau said:
I gotta wonder if the industry's direction is a bit of a feedback loop. Only radio friendly music makes it to radio, then listeners get more attuned to radio friendly music, which makes it more important that radio play music like that, and so on. Eventually the range of sounds people will accept gets narrower and narrower.
Click to expand...


Somewhat. The listeners like what they like, and it is surprisingly hard to sway their tastes. Take "bro country," for example. Listeners love that shit, and so the labels jumped on the bandwagon and put out more acts that fit that sound. Next thing you know it is all bro country, all day. Just a couple weeks ago I was in a meeting where the new Chris Stapleton record was brought up. Everyone agreed it was great. He's a great, refreshingly different artist. But the song is problematic because it is so very different. What do we do with this?

Or there are other times when you've got something that looks exactly like what the listeners seem to want. I remember this one singer. Tremendous voice. Beautiful girl (think if Jennifer Aniston grew up in Iowa) and nice, too. Her husband was one of the biggest video producers in Nashville. The record was produced by a guy who (at the time) had the "hot hand." We put two singles on the air and...nothing. Went over like a wet bottle rocket. One song went onto be a single for Jason Aldean a few years later, but that was it.


That happens a lot. Talent, looks, songwriting, etc. are all things that walk through our door on a regular basis. The ones who "make it" seem to be selected at random by the listeners. We have a performance space for the artists, and when they come through each one signs the wall and autographs their 8x10 publicity photo to hang up there. A few weeks ago this new group (Levon - awesome harmonies) came by and after their performance one of the guys was looking at the wall. He said it was intimidating. He didn't elaborate, but I knew what he meant. It isn't filled with huge stars. The wall is covered with photos of acts that didn't go anywhere, peppered by a very few that did.
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Doesn't surprise me, this seems to be a bad time to enter the music industry.

Learning how to play and record music is becoming pervasively easy, and as the breadth of recorded music grows year after year new artists are competing in a space that just keeps getting more crowded. At this point it's not too different from trying to become a successful author or visual artist. A lot of people can write, and write well, or paint, and paint well, so for the most part there's just not enough money to go around.

It might be the case that a lot of artists regard the industry as something special, and distinct from business, but the supply/demand curve is still there, and music just seems to be getting more and more devalued.
 
rousseau said:
Horatio Parker said:
Obscure movie quote: "It's show business, baby. No business, no show."
Click to expand...

All the best music seems to be those who can tread both lines: artistic integrity with financial success. The 'we're actually talented' business model.

Although, more and more the financial success part seems hard because people are getting crowded out of the public's view. On the bright side, tickets to see great musicians perform are pretty cheap these days.
Click to expand...

I dunno. Artistic integrity is a range IMO. Everyone is influenced by what's going on, even if it's negative.

Financial success is hard because music is so ubiquitous and so cheap, and the wealth so concentrated.
 
None.

Country and Western "music" is an advanced torture technique developed by the CIA during the My Lai incident. And don't give me any of that shit about country and western predating the My Lai incident. We all know that the CIA has a time machine.

- - - Updated - - -

If I had to choose between listening to country and western "music" or gargling a frothing bucket of warm pus, I would have a very difficult time making that decision.
 
Another vote here for Kacey Musgraves. Also really loving Brandy Clark, and most of Gary Allan's stuff.
 
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.
 
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.
Click to expand...

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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