country, an intro
There’s something completely existential about country music. It is a stream that has fed pop, rock, and folk for years and has been fed by them. As my collection has expanded over the years I’ve come to realize how diverse the music really is. I myself am another erstwhile songwriter, and when listening to a song I’m usually listening for outstanding lyric craft or a unique blend of music. But its very rare that you get both together. In fact most of the time you’re not listening for a song with both. So that’s why when you hear a song crafting both well it just makes your heart jump.
Hard country music as with any other art form requires a modicum of apperception to understand what is really happening in the music. This is not what I’d originally been led to believe. Country has a serious stereotype attached to it: hayseed and hillbilly music. The uninitiated response to a “foot stompin number” is “Yeeeeee Haw.”
Believe it or not, country is a very inclusive form of music. To peer through the ‘History of the Grand Ole Opry’ for instance is to become acquainted with a most eclectic blend of human songcrafting. Its easy to see country as white hats, starched shirts and line dancing. Whats harder to picture is the impact of Charley Pride (country’s premier African American artist), former felons David Alan Coe and Merle Haggard, the man in black Johnny Cash, and on the bluegrass side Bela Fleck, Jerry Garcia, and David ‘Dawg’ Grisman. Its actually easier to talk about what is accepted within country than what isn’t or hasn’t been. Because country is so inclusive the tendency is for critics and fan clubs to try to represent “True Country” based on their tastes, calling it Classic Country, Americana, Alt. Country, etc. So it really boils down to personal taste. With the rise of internet culture buying habits among music shoppers have become much more personal. Its now possible for even the poorest music collectors to find classic recordings on cd for affordable prices.
One way to get into country is through the themes. Love, rejection, returning, leaving, freedom, bondage, sin and salvation. Personally I listen for love songs that explore love, the earthly and the spiritual, the dirt and the glory, faith in the real world. Country provides a unique atmosphere for songs about social problems and injustice, giving up and starting over, failure and forgiveness, faith and confidence, and thankfulness and security. When you’ve really heard your share of country and I’d like to use the bluegrass genre as an example (because it’s the most familiar), it becomes clear that the music is, if anything, all about reading the heart and exploring its inner activity. Many of the songs are no more than “Dear John Letters” and when you think about it that is very unique today and out of place, except maybe in the Blues. That theme, heard ad nauseum within the music is not one aptly explored anymore. These are the days of music filled with overwhelming emotion about nothing in particular. Songs are so nebulous that they can mean anything to anyone but nothing in particular.. The music itself has lost the need for character because the voices now are overdubbed over synthed music made on computers. Bluegrass on the other hand emphasizes the natural skilled work of each musician in its four to five piece band along with the ability to harmonize in variation.
