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Seeing as we've got a couple of music threads going……I think I may be the only country fan on here but Beyonce has a country album out which newspaper critics are wetting themselves over. The Times had a little list of essential country records which surprise, surprise, would not appeal to real country fans. Anyone heard her album? I expect I'll find it on youtube eventually.
My daughter played the Beyonce 'Jolene' track to me yesterday. The words have been altered and I expected to dislike it but I was pleasantly surprised. I can't tell you anything about the rest of the album but will look out for more with some interest.
My parents were and still are big country music fans and go to festivals all over the UK and they're in the 80's! Growing up Don Williams was always on the record deck and I remember my foot used to tap along to this one.
On the Beyonce album she has covered 'Blackbird', by The Beatles. It's not bad, but I think it's more to do with the symbolism of a black woman, with black female country singers, singing that song than any great reinterpretation of it.
The closest I get to listening to modern country is when my 14 year old daughters plays Taylor Swift........ again.
Love a bit of Drive by truckers - and lots of Jason Isbell solo stuff is brilliant. Not sure it qualifies as country in the main.
Country music is a genre where I'm not always 100% that artists are Country artists, folk artists, Americana or the like I'll admit.
Love the Highwomen music - Belinda Carlisle and Amanda Shires are amazing musicians and songwriters. Lifelong fan of the late, great John Prine who ruled Nashville and last saw him live at the Palladium with Shires supporting on fiddle. An incredible evening that was.
Sorry Beyoncé doing country is right up there with Karen Carpenter doing death metal. Being born north of the Mason Dixon line, country was never included within my musical sphere. This guy is one of the few exceptions, he never got the credit he deserved, but I think he never craved it. Short but sweet to the extreme;
This thread just can't go on any longer without a mention of Johnny Cash. I grew up living blues and rock, Rory Gallagher, Thin Lizzy, Graham Parker etc. I didn't really like country (& western) but I always liked Johnny Cash. Then cames the American Records Series. The stripped down sound of Cash country produced by Rick Rubin and featuring such classics as 'Hurt' and 'The Beast in Me'. All of a sudden I was learning and listening to more country. I discovered the amazing Rodney Crowell, John Hiatt, Whiskeytown, Son Volt, Uncle Tupelo, Calexico, Albert Lee and many more. Among radio shows I now listen too is Ralph McClean Country from Northern Ireland and available on BBC sounds. He plays some great music. I still don't like big hats and hyped up hoo ha ha or whatever, but when the artist is a little different like Margo Cilker or Iris de Ment it's up there with the best in blues and rock for me.
I still listen to a lot of country music, along with Bluegrass, Cajun and Americana folk. There's no such thing, essentially, as bad music just music you don't like. I love listening to Dolly Parton just as much as I love listening to Pink Floyd, The Who, Infected Mushroom, System Of A Down or Wu Tang Clan. I am currently sat at my PC listening to Ozric Tentacles but may feel in the mood for some KLF later in the day or Ani DiFranco. IMO, limiting your musical experience to a favourite genre greatly reduces your chances of stumbling across something you wouldn't normally listen to but discover that you love it. Recent stuff for me would be Destroy Boys, Pierce The Veil and Christine and the Queens. A lot of what Punter posts here is not to my taste but even then I still enjoy odd tunes from Apache Indian and General Levy... if you like it, you like it.
Cleopatra (queen of denial) Look what the dog drug in Lefty was Right after all While I was raisin' corn in Kansas (she was raisin' hell in Tennessee) Gonna drive myself to drink Take this job and shove it I'm the king of barstool mountain
How could you have missed such gems as Kick Me Jesus, Through The Goalposts Of Life, You're The Reason Our Kids Are Ugly and Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off. There is another one about a guy advertising for a wife but mentions she must have a truck and a fishing boat and I can't remember the name of it for my life.
Another fan of alt country here. It seems a fairly broad genre, but I absolutely love this kinda thang (saw Lucinda live last year at the Barbican, love her)
Wow, I've just seen my lyrical antithesis... that's awesome! You're definitely not alone though Colin.
There used to be a great alt. country show called "Acid Country" on PBS (Melb) that opened with a comedy/country song of the same name. Summed up the attitude and always made me smile. The best line was "Excuse me while I kiss the sky/I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die."
"a diseased bunch of mofos if there ever was one, their beauty is so awesome that listening to them at their best is like being in some vast dream cathedral decorated with a thousand gleaming American pop culture icons."
- Lester Bangs on The Beach Boys
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