Rethinking my "anything but Country" views

There was a time when someone would ask me what kind of music I listened to my answer would be, “anything but Country.” That’s not the case anymore. The answer these days is, “good music.” It turns out that a little twang ain’t necessarily a bad thang.

The reality is that there are good Country artists and songs and there are bad Country artists and songs. It’s true of other genres as well. Maybe not in the same percentages, but there are good and bad examples of Rock ’n Roll, Blues, Soul and Pop.

Bad Country is pretty easy to spot. Mostly you just have to listen to Country radio. It has lots of names, “Corporate Country” is probably the best and most accurate. And it can usually be identified by the really awful lyrics. In fact, the internet is filled with listed of some of the worst poetry you’ll ever read. Just google “bad Country lyrics.” There’s more out there than most of us realized. For example:

“Shake it for the birds, shake it for the bees

Shake it for the catfish swimming down deep in the creek

For the crickets and the critters and the squirrels”

Luke Bryan “Country Girl (Shake It for Me)”

Wow, that’s pretty bad, but this might be even worse.

"You lie like a priceless Persian rug on a rich man's floor

and you lie like a coon dog basking in the sunshine on my porch

Well you lie like a penny in a parking lot at the grocery store"

The Band Perry “You Lie”

I could do this all day, but you get the idea.

The guy that first got me questioning the mental block against Country music was Lyle Lovett. Thirty years ago, I thought he was the single exception to the rule. My dad listened to Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and the other Outlaws, so I’d never really given them a chance. What self-respecting twenty-something want to listen to the same music as his dad? Even though my dad was considerably younger then than I am now, that would not have been “cool.”

But then Lovett’s second album, Pontiac, came out and began to break down the barrier. “If I Had a Boat,” “She’s No Lady” and “M-O-N-E-Y” were not traditional Country songs and, even though I kind of liked the rest of the album, that, I figured, was an anomaly.

If I’d really thought about it, my mental ban on Country music was not exactly a line in the sand. I liked the Eagles and the Allman Brothers and the Doobie Brothers and that one Marshall Tucker Band song. All those bands and others I deemed “Rock ’n Roll flirted with — if not straight out crossed — the line. Southern Rock was not the same as country, I told myself.

Lovett’s next album, Lyle Lovett and His Large Band, actually helped reinforce the barrier a little. He’d moved from playing undeniably Country music with a couple of “cross-over” songs to playing with what amounted to a R&B band with horns and back-up singers. While Pontiac was a certainly a country album with a couple of catchy Pop songs, Large Band was just the opposite. “I Married Her Just Because She Looks Like You” and “Which Way Does That Old Pony Run” were Country songs, but most of the rest of the album was really Soul.

The next album, Joshua Judges Ruth, moved further from traditional Country music, and I got to keep telling myself that I hated Country. To make a long story short (I know, too late), Lovett had started to knock down the wall, but it was really only in the last 10 years or so that I really began to question the “I hate Country” mantra.

Don’t get me wrong, you could line Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Brad Paisley and Luke Bryan up and I wouldn’t be able to tell you which one is which. (It would also probably make me consider shaving my goatee.) I’m also pretty sure Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood are the same person. But there is good Country music out there. You just have to look for it.

The literal poster boys for this appear in the picture at the top of the page. Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson have been deemed the saviors of Country music. I’m not sure about that. First off, I don’t see any evidence that Country music is looking to be saved. The public doesn’t seem to be tiring of Pop-Country either.

The good stuff is making progress, but it’s been slow. I talk to people about music about music all the time, and I explain the idea behind this website. When they ask what my current favorites are I almost always mention Isbell. Ninety-five percent have never heard of him. The other 5 percent practically screams “I LOVE Jason Isbell.” Let’s see if we can get that to about 70/30. More than that and those of us who’ve known of him since the DBT days can’t feel superior.

There is good music out there if you look for it. If you’re searching for something with a little twang to it, Stapleton, Isbell and Simpson are not bad places to start. But there’s a lot more. Ryan Bingham is another name I’d recommend.

There are people out there that that call Stapleton, Isbell and Simpson ( list them in this order only because that's how they're standing in the picture) "Alternative Country." I'm not sure what's it's an alternative to ... sucking?

On this page, there’s a Spotify playlist with 30 songs, two each from 15 artists. They range from pretty much straight-ahead Rock ’n Roll with a just a touch of back-woods influence (“Where the Devil Don’t Stay” by Drive-by Truckers) to an undeniably country song like “Lone Pine Hill” by Justin Townes Earle.

There’s a lot in between — the Cash-meets-Clash country of the Waco Brothers to the somewhat haunting voice of Lindi Ortega. (Listen to “Ashes” and try not to add it to your list of current favorites.) Find one you like and branch off from. Or you could just start by listening to PONTIAC by Lyle Lovett

And then check back here at newmusicforoldfolks.com for more info and profiles. I think the Turnpike Troubadours are probably next up.