Puttin’ the ‘K’ in Canada.
I’ve spent entirely too much time in my life dismissing country. Then dismissing everything but Patsy Cline. Then excepting folk rock that sounded country. Then southern rock that only sounds country to a certain Canadian who likes 80’s prog rock. But then I spent an entire week ‘accidently’ listening to country and changed my bias against only pop country. You’re not fooling anybody, Shania Twain!!
But it’s hard to dismiss an entire genre when there are absolute gems like The Trailer Park Troubadours running amock. And you can’t quote me on it, but I like Big & Rich. Reminds me of when I was teaching horseback riding in the north Georgia mountains and you don’t get anything but country on the radio up there. Back then I blamed my liking the music on getting acclimated to it, and now I blame it on nostalgia. Whatever.
Old 97s – Won’t Be Home [buy ‘Drag It Up’ from the artists or from Amazon.com]
Picked this up from another musicblog and adore it. The album’s going on my amazon wish list for buying later, because it’s just so good… and yes, I might actually put it out on my display case and not shoved into a box under the TV like my Monkees albums. It’s not straight country, but then very little is. If I hadn’t given in and admitted I liked the genre, I’d be calling this, what, americana rock? Who really knows what that means? This is why I like musicblogging, you can actually hear the song and not need the genre description at all.
And just for fun, won’t someone tell my husband this is Southern Classic Rock, not Country?? Otherwise I’m going to have to tell him XTC is electronica or something. I still haven’t convinced him that bluegrass isn’t the same thing as country. Look at what I have to do to overcome years of Canadian music education!Pure Prairie League – Amie [Buy ‘Bustin’ Out’ from Amazon.com]
Next update: Big Band SNES!
gettin’ into the ‘country’? check out ‘strangers almanac’ by whiskeytown.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000002RBZ/002-2596981-7437665?v=glance
I’ve always thought of bluegrass as being the true country. A lot of stuff after it that called itself country seemed to take elements of bluegrass and the pop music of its day. I like what my history of rock ‘n roll professor said about country; he said that it’s always been about a decade or two behind rock ‘n roll. If you listen to Garth Brooks from the nineties it sounds a lot like the Eagles from the 70’s at times.
I’m writing a piece on a new album of country artists doing southern rock songs, including “Amie.” The new “country” version sounds precisely like the original, so I’d say you’re both right. What could they have been done to the arrangement to make it sound more like country than it already does?
However, bluegrass is definitely not the same thing as country.