"Look At The Bright Side....So Far, The Kardashians Haven't Been Offered A Record Deal..."

Old saying.

"That ain't country".

Still holds true.

But not for the reason you might assume.

In the course of producing a weekly country music program ("16th Avenue" available for listen/download at www.myproductioncompany.biz) while having done a fun twenty five-ish years of morning and afternoon shows on country radio, I've spent, and continue to spend, a lot of time reviewing contemporary country music.

Add to that thirty plus years, give or take, of writing, performing and producing country music, including twenty or so of those years spent living and working right in the heart of Music Row and I can make a pretty good case that when it comes to country music, I know a little.

And, of late, I read and hear a lot of grousing about how country music has changed, been re-invented and, to many, been totally disrespected.

Not the least grouse being this piece that I came across on Facebook earlier this week from a blogsite called AllThingsSal.



Ten Reasons Why Country Sucks

1. There’s this plug in called the Ultramaximizer. It allows you to make everything way louder. Unfortunately, it also removes all semblance of dynamics from the music. It is commonly overused now and it makes the music unlistenable. Even the most quiet passages are loud and in your face.
2. The guitar is no longer the central musical driver of the music. Now, it is the bass and drums, which are massive.
3. The music itself has nothing to do with traditional country music. “Evolution?” Sorry, its mostly pop hooks for the American Idol audience, who listen with their eyes
4. Fake accents make the music sound even more phony. Even in the deep South, humans do not have such a degree of phony drawl.
5. Song topics have become a pantheon of country clichés—4 wheel drives, Jack Daniels,  Daisy Dukes,  fried chicken, barns, beer, farms, tractors and endless BS about what is country, sung by city boys who’ve never brought in a crop, tamed a bronc,  of even sniffed a fresh-turned acre of land.
6. Which leaves Nashville with the knotty problem, addressing the dilemma: what do we do with country music when nobody lives in the country anymore?
7. 7. The “answer” is that “we fake it.” Attach corny country laced lyrics to generic pop grooves and melodies, squash the shit out of them with plug-ins, and sell the swill as the “new” country music.
8. To add insult to injury, they will take a techno beat and throw fiddle, steel guitar and banjo over it to try and convince the slow minded that they are really listening to country music.
9. And, I’m sorry, but if you are gonna rap in country, you better have a damn good story to tell. Charlie Daniels did it. Toby Keith? Not so much.
10.  It is mostly fake get drunk, get laid, drive a truck horse manure. Music needs a bit of substance lyrically and something original to back it up. Today, it is not happening. It is un-listenable and totally undesirable. When I was in high school, I couldn’t stand the get drunk on the weekend crowd, the shallow party mentality or the womanizers. Gee, guess where they all went! It begins with an N and ends in “Ville”.

I don't honestly have a lot to dispute here because my take, give or take a little of this guy's venom, is pretty much in line with what he has to say.

I've written, and broadcast, my two cents on the matter fairly often.

But, for me, it goes off the rail when the time comes to pin blame for what long time, old fashioned country music fans regard as the violation of their sacred cow.

Or the horse they save by riding a cowboy.

What has obviously changed in the past few years is, of course, the style of presentation.

What has not changed in sixty years or so is the primary goal.

The country music business is, was and ever shall be a business.

And successful businesses make money.

A lot of people are buying concert tickets, downloading songs and paying hard earned bucks for albums filled with nothing more, or less, than the music that, for better or worse, tomato tohmahto, is defined, in this day and time, as country music.

A lot of people being defined, put simply, as folks like you and me.

So, feel free to lament the loss of traditional Grand Ole Opry-esque sounds if you will, grimace, grit and grind at the morphing of your favorite, plain spoken, slightly off key singing Nashville troubadour and/or troubadress into a flashy, show biz savvy, AutoTuned perfect pitched celebrity suitable for all occasions, from the Ryman to Letterman to The Voice.

But, in the interest of fairness, if blame you must, then put the blame where it belongs.

Not on those who are merely filling the need that the marketplace indicates it wishes filled.

In terms of what was, it can be rightly said that, today...

That ain't country.

But, the fault lies not with our current country stars....

...but with ourselves, dear Brutus.

Or Billy Bob, as the case may be.