Rants and lots of 'em!
KILLER SHOW ALERT! SEE BOTTOM OF PAGE
as i was flipping channels the other night, i was once again reminded of why i hate country music these days.
i should preface this by saying that i am a HUGE fan of old school country like hank williams, johnny cash, flatt & scruggs, etc. some of my favorite stuff actually. which makes my hatred of the new stuff run even deeper.
anyway, i was flipping channels and i run across a rerun of a 60 minutes interview (i think) with loretta lynn, talking about her life, and about her latest release, "van lear rose". (great record, if you do not have it, get it). they showed old footage, she told old stories, they interviewed jack white, good stuff. as i believe i have mentioned before, i am a sucker for a documentary, so this was right down my alley. unfortunately, i missed the first third of it (bad, bad, tivo!) so i was just getting into a zone when it came to an abrupt end. this is where it gets frustrating.
by the time i realized that i had in my hand the one hitter instead of the t.v. remote, a rerun of some new country music awards show pops on. "ladies and gentlemen, KENNY CHESNEY!" "nooooooooooo!" i say to myself, but it was too late. i watched it like one might watch a car wreck, with impending horror and disgust, yet could not turn away.
now, i don''t know mr.chesney personally, and i am sure he is a nice guy, but this shit ain''t country, not even bad country. hell, it''s not even bad pop. well, come to think of it, he sang bad country, and his band played bad pop, but we are splitting hairs here. i realize that garth brooks made the whole industry a fortune with the tight jeans, wireless guitars, ego ramps on which to walk into the audience, drummers with 47 drums and 125 cymbals formula, but must they convert an entire genre of music to only that shit? boy bands sell a lot of records too, but at least the powers that be give us a break from them every 5 years or so. but nashville keeps pumping out this drivel, year after year, and at the same time ignoring, or even running out of town, the likes of loretta lynn, johnny cash (r.i.p.), and any new up and coming talent who is simply "too country". the sad thing is both johnny and loretta had to make new records with out of town rock producers, to great critical acclaim, only to have the "country music industry" turn a blind eye.
so anyway, these two shows, back to back, reminded me how good things were, and how bad things have become here in nashville. i know your thinking "wow, i just wasted five minutes of my life reading this, and all you are doing is rambling on" and you would be correct. i just had to get it off my chest. thank you for your patience.
your angry southern boy,
j.b.
P.S.
the only "new country" mega-artist that gets a pass is shania, and for a few reasons.
1. she is hot
2. she is married to mutt lange
3. mutt lange produced highway to hell
4. i think it is kind of neat the way mutt takes the basic tracks to classic def leppard songs, erases the vocals, adds some fiddle, gets his old lady to sing some country lyrics over the top and, BINGO! instant country hit
|
