You say Bobbie herself courted the country market, (if so why did she say that her country image came mainly from the U.K.), because she co-hosted the 1967 C.M.A’s with Sonny James. It may, however, simply be that as a new up-and-coming artist hungry for fame and fortune she saw this as another opportunity to (a) further her popularity on a high profile TV show, (b) no doubt earn herself a good fee into the bargain, (being an astute business woman it’s unlikely she agreed to this gig for nothing) and, (c) it couldn’t possibly hurt to get seen by the country audience, even though she didn’t regard herself a country singer. Undoubtedly, for their part the C.M.A. thought the presence of this new star that everyone was talking about, and who looked great on camera, would draw a much bigger audience for the show. What more could they ask for in a co-host?

Sure, country music is a large tent, (covering mainstream country, honky tonk, bluegrass, old time country, cajun, western swing, cowboy and western poetry and songs, folk-country and country-rock, etc.), but, as with any genre of any art, there has to be parameters that mean something otherwise there’s no point in having genres in the first place. If you don’t have parameters then you may as well only have one genre and one chart, ‘pop’ music, to cover everything.

Here in the United Kingdom, despite her saying that her image as a country artist arose mainly in the U.K., she was seen as a pop/rock artist. We didn’t even have a country music chart here back in 1967, only a pop music chart. All her records that were hits here were seen as pop records and charted in the pop music charts. The teenage record-buyers of the 60s regarded country music as being for ‘squares,’ for parents, old people, so promoting a record as country would be, more than likely, the cause of its failure on the pop chart. This was the era of flower power and hippies, the era of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks and hundreds of other extremely successful British rock acts, as well as U.S. acts like the Beach Boys, the Byrds, Bob Dylan, etc. No self-respecting British teenager was going to admit to liking country music even though the majority of them had no idea what real country music was as they only had so-called country artists like Glen Campbell to base their judgement on.

‘Opry’ was the only U.K. country music journal that existed at that time, and it only existed from mid-1968 to the end of 1969 before becoming, in February 1970, the highly respected and still existing ‘Country Music People’ magazine. ‘Opry’ only ever reviewed one of Bobbie’s U.K. single releases and one U.K. album release and regarded both as pop music. This is what it said about them:

Opry – February 1969, review of “Bobbie Gentry And Glen Campbell” duets album:
‘This is a beautifully produced set that should sell massively within pop circles but will hold no interest for country music fans…’

Opry – July 1969, review of “Touch ‘Em With Love/Casket Vignette” single:
‘This is more pop than anything else – in fact it is pop…’

None of Bobbie’s later releases were ever reviewed by ‘Country Music People’ magazine, surely indicating that they didn’t regard her as country either.

So although Bobbie had the notion that her being regarded as a country artist came from the U.K. that really wasn’t the case. At the time of the release of “Ode To Billie Joe” all the programs she guested on were ‘pop/rock’ shows, where she would be introduced as a new American singer with an interesting new sound. To introduce her on such shows as a country singer would probably have consigned her to oblivion.

I believe she was more popular here, in Europe and Australia because she was marketed simply as a ‘pop/rock’ artist. This is why “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” did so well in these areas. It’s why her BBC TV shows were also very popular in such places. There was none of the ‘scattergun’ approach to her music and, in reality it was only in the U.S. where she was marketed as a country singer – some of the time. I also believe this U.S. ‘scattergun’ approach was the biggest mistake her record label and/or she made. She should have been marketed as what she was, a pop/rock artist. Okay, so “Ode” topped the country charts in the U.S., but does that necessarily make it a country record? Back in 1956 Carl Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes,” topped the country charts, the R & B charts and the pop charts in the U.S., however, that record was neither country nor R & B, it was a rock ‘n’ roll record, a 1950’s pop record. In 1977 Elvis’ single “Way Down/”Pledging My Love” reached #2 on the Billboard 100 top country singles, despite being a pure pop/rock record. Quite a few of Elvis’ earlier singles had hit the country charts over the years despite being pop/rock records. So, as with being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, etc., hitting the country charts doesn’t, therefore, necessarily make a record or an artist country.

I fully agree with you that Bobbie was very talented and had a fully loaded arsenal with a breathtaking range, and I believe us fans were sadly robbed of even better things to come when she decided to quit show business. I also think she had the ability to produce some terrific real country songs, (two or three songs on “Patchwork” showed a trend in that direction), and she had a great voice that would have suited that kind of music too. But, unfortunately, it wasn’t to be.

To summarise, I still maintain that, while she may have been on the periphery of country music, she wasn’t really, (by her own admission), a country singer, and so should not be regarded as one of the 100 greatest women in country music. She should, however, be somewhere near the top, or even at the top, of the 100 greatest women in pop/rock music.

I’m sure my arguments still won’t make any difference to the view you take, so I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree on this point. I know, however, that we will always agree in our high esteem for Bobbie as a singer, songwriter, entertainer and all around nice person regardless of any labels attached to her. Thanks for this, as usual when I engage in such with you, interesting and informative discussion.

It may also be true that her name appears in every country music book in your collection, she appears in all the country music books that I have as well, but that still doesn’t mean she was really a country singer. Elvis appears in most such books as does Roy Orbison but neither was ever a country singer nor ever promoted as such. Many country singers have recorded Chuck Berry and Bob Dylan songs but that doesn’t make either of them country singers any more than Reba recording “Fancy” makes Bobbie a country artist.

As for the Mississippi Musicians’ Hall of Fame, she was inducted as a country singer simply because that’s what she was marketed as for 40 years. If she’d been marketed as a pop/rock singer for all those years then, no doubt, that’s what she’d have been inducted as. Once titles are applied they tend to have a habit of sticking even though they are not really representative of the person they’ve been given to. Hence Glen Campbell was, against his wishes, tagged as a country artist even though he obviously didn’t want to be tagged as one. And I still believe that tagging Bobbie as a country artist was completely wrong and detrimental to her career.

I accept, and said as much myself in my previous posting, that country music has changed over the decades, but despite losing it’s identity a few times it has always returned to its roots and re-generated itself.

Country music started out in the 20s principally as string band (or hillbilly) music then along came “The Mississippi Brakeman,” Jimmie Rodgers and The Original Carter Family with two different country styles. Shortly after came the western swing of Milton Brown and Bob Wills. About the same time Gene Autry and Ernest Tubb appeared on the scene first as Jimmie Rodgers soundalikes but then produced hybrid sounds. Tubb introduced the world to Texas honky tonk music, an amalgam of string band, Jimmie Rodgers and western swing and Gene Autry gave us a West Coast style of country music often with a cowboy theme. Autry’s style was similar to Tubb’s but without much of the western swing influence. Also at the same time string band music had evolved, through Bill and Charlie Monroe, and then Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, into bluegrass music. Throughout the 40s and early 50s honky tonk and straight country music flourished with artists such as Webb Pierce, Hank Williams senior, George Jones, Roy Rogers & The Sons of The Pioneers, Tex Ritter, Kitty Wells, Johnny Horton, Hank Thompson, Patsy Montana, Jean Shepard and many others. Bluegrass also added many new performers to its roster like The Stanley Brothers, Jim & Jesse McReynolds, Reno & Smiley.

Western swing, like its big band swing counterpart, started to Incorporate boogie into its sound via people like Moon Mullican and by the early 50s boogie was also finding its way into mainstream country music. But for all these changes country music still retained its connections to its roots and maintained its identity.

Then came the fusion of country boogie and rhythm & blues first into rockabilly and then with the addition of pop music into the more commercial form known as rock ‘n’ roll. Although some early rockabilly still retained much of its country associations including use of steel guitar and sometimes even fiddle it stepped across the boundary from country to pop music with the commercialisation into rock ‘n’ roll, and as the latter gained in popularity with teenagers the sales of country in all its forms, including rockabilly, plummeted.

From this turmoil in the world of country music was born, in the early 60s, the “Nashville Sound,” a smoother form of country designed to compete in the more commercial world now dominated by the soft rock/pop of people like Bobby Vee, Bobbie Vinton, and post-army Elvis, but even this modern country still retained its link to the older country sounds pre rock ‘n’ roll. As the 60s progressed, however, the creators of the Nashville Sound saw the wealth being earned from pop music and wanted a slice of that action so decided that the further commercialisation of country was required. So fiddles were dropped and more and more lush strings were added to tracks by the likes of Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty, Charley Pride, Faron Young, Marty Robbins and even Johnny Cash and George Jones, etc., (the popularity of people Loretta Lynn, Charley Pride, Faron Young, Marty Robbins and Johnny Cash took a nosedive at this time showing that this treatment wasn’t popular with country fans, though Conway Twitty and George Jones managed to survive it to a large extent), until eventually country had again crossed the boundary into pop music, and people like Glen Campbell and Charlie Rich sounded little different from their popular music counterparts like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, etc., and that’s why I think they were never really country artists at all but should have been classed as what they were, pop singers. A backlash to this syrupy Nashville Sound was the creation of the “Outlaw” movement of Waylon Jennings, Johnny Paycheck, etc., which then led to another more commercial creation, that of country-rock, designed to compete with the rock music of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and hundreds of other 60s and 70s modern rock bands. It wasn’t long, however, before country-rock also crossed the boundary and could no longer be identified as country and was little different to its modern rock counterpart. Country music had again lost its identity, more so even than it had in the late 50s.

Now, in the mid 70s came another counter-revolution in country, Moe Bandy, Gene Watson and others took country back to its Texas honky tonk roots. This new sound was an amalgam of the honky tonk music of the 50s but with the smoother Nashville Sound of the 60s before the added string sections. Fiddles and steel guitars were back in fashion and fans, starved of the real country, were once again being catered for. After a few years, however, the Nashville machine tried adding strings to the music. Moe Bandy and to a lesser extent Gene Watson suffered from this syndrome, and the careers of both took a corresponding nosedive, especially that of Moe Bandy. Fortunately, this attempt to commercialise country again didn’t last too long before the New Traditionalists returned the music to its 50s roots, John Anderson and Randy Travis took it back to its Texas honky tonk roots, George Strait back to its honky tonk and western swing roots, Ricky Skaggs back to its bluegrass roots, Dwight Yoakam back to the West Coast Bakersfield sound of Buck Owens sometimes with a hint of rockabilly. The Judds and The O’Kanes went back to a more basic acoustic led country sound. Again, real country music was back in favour.

But again, before too long Nashville tried to commercialise this new traditional sound when Warner Brothers started adding strings to John Anderson’s music, only for him to suddenly fall out of favour with country record buyers for several years until he signed with BNA Records and returned with a more basic country sound although sometimes with a rockier edge. George Strait meanwhile had carried on with his basic honky tonk/western swing sound and remained very much in favour although occasionally his tracks had become a little more boring and marred by the addition of strings, while Randy Travis had carried on with his honky tonk sound but had added a more rockier edge to some of his later material. Ricky Skaggs, after a string of more and more commercial recordings, had gone almost entirely back to his bluegrass roots. Alan Jackson had arrived with his great basic country sound which payed homage to several greats of country music like Hank Williams and George Jones.

Overshadowing all of these great artists, however, was Garth Brooks,.who had managed to do what nobody had really managed to do before, he had made country music acceptable to the teenage record buyers WITHOUT forgoing his true country audience and identity. He had added a little rock and the occasional strings to some of his music without going overboard with either, but still retained great steel guitar and fiddle as well. On top of all this he had a great live act that was probably better then most pop acts of the time. This is probably why people like Randy Travis had developed a more rocky edge to their music, and that of other newer singers like Doug Stone, John Michael Montgomery, Craig Morgan, Brad Paisley, Matt King, Ken Mellons and Chris LeDoux definitely had a rockier edge to the faster songs. Fortunately, none of these acts have yet fallen into the syrupy strings trap yet or gone overboard with the rock sound, although Brad Paisley has come close on a couple of tracks lately, however, other acts have definitely crossed the line into pop/rock again. Shania Twain was not, despite being marketed as so, country by any stretch of the imagination, neither is Keith Urban, these and several others have more in common with modern rock/pop than country and in reality that’s what they are. Even the wonderful Dixie Chicks are in danger of crossing the line into rock/pop if their last album is anything to go by.

So, yes, country music has evolved over the decades, but not always for the better or to its advantage. Sometimes it has been positively detrimental, and every time it has been there has been a backlash that has returned the music to an updated version of its earlier roots. Throughout these decades, however, there has always been artists who have refused to compromise their traditional country sound, people such as Vernon Oxford, Norman Wade, Ernest Tubb, Hank Thompson, Roy Acuff, Gene Watson, Becky Hobbs, Alan Jackson, David Ball, etc., and there are hundreds of fantastic, newer and up-and-coming country artists who will never make the big time because they stick to more traditional country styles. This group includes people like Dale Watson, Wayne Hancock, Chris Wall, Tom Armstrong, Andy Wilkinson, James Hand, Don Edwards, Sons Of The San Joaquin, Dan Roberts, Tim Holcomb, Damon Gray, Ken Overcast, Royal Wade Kimes, Brenn Hill, Kimberly M’Carver, Tanya Savory, Roger Wallace, Billy Yates, and many others.

Nashville has now become synonymous with a bland, boring, commercial, form of music barely recognisable as country at all, while the majority of interesting newer artists producing recognisable real country music are from Texas and elsewhere. So, yes, as you say, the commercial sounds coming from today’s corporate Nashville studios (which are now largely only interested in making lots of wealth from the short-term careers of throwaway acts), barely have any connection with country music’s roots and are largely no longer country at all and most should not be categorised as such. Luckily, however, real country with recognisable connections to all its roots does still exists elsewhere in the U.S.A.