The thing about today’s country is that so many artists and record labels seem to be aiming for the Adult Contemporary radio format as much as the Country format, without realizing that the Adult Contemporary audience either doesn’t care about country music, or cares very little about it. To me, this doesn’t sound like the way to keep country music healthy, by so focusing on an audience that may not care in the long run and shutting out an entire other segment that might actually like the genre for real.

And as a sidenote, Brad Paisley once explained the popularity of Country music in Austrailia by stating that if “Texas were an island, it would be Austrailia” or words to that effect. And even in America, “country” as a geographical designation, is not confined just to the South. Lord knows there’s plenty of it up here in New England as well, especially Maine and New Hampshire, Western Mass and CT, and Cape Cod and Cape Ann…Rhode Island? Not so much, ;) jk (there is even a rural New England accent up here, that while certainly not Southern, is every bit as country!)Seriously, every state and every country has it’s rural regions, and with them their indiginous folk music, their equivelents to American Country music. And I think country folks (from whatever state or nation) have similar sensibilities, and a similar down to earth character and outlook. And with this often comes a similar taste and appetite for good ole fashioned rootsy Country music.

As for Rock and Pop influences, personally I don’t usually have a problem with Rock influence on Country, after all, Rock had it’s origins in Country and Gospel music, as well as the Blues. Now, it’s gone full circle and is blending with Country once again, in some ways returning to it’s origins. Not referring to the new Punk or Heavy Metal stuff here, not the head banging stuff, but rather to classic Rock, Country rock and Southern Rock. The best of it survives in some of Today’s Country, folks like Brad Paisley, Brooks and Dunn, Montgomery Gentry, etc. and a lot of Patty’s music right up to and including her Dreamin’ My Dreams album has a rock edge to it. (Even Why Baby Why from SN). Trisha Yearwood’s recent albums as well.

I think Rock and Blues influence spices up Traditional Country music quite nicely, whereas excessive Pop flavor waters it down, and makes it quite bland.

Seriously, that was an excellent post, and views like yours so eloquently expressed give me hope as well.

It has a geographical center, Nashville, the Ryman etc, the “Mother Church of Country Music”, the Opry.

It has characteristic instrumentation, fiddle, mandolin, steel, banjo, dobro, guitar, in various combinations, but almost always, fiddle and steel.

Pure Country has a distinctive sound, long notes and high flying harmonies. It has traditionally embodied story telling lyrics, stories of the common man.

This is s chain of stength. Few other genres of music embody similar distinctive and identifiable characteristics, or have such a proud heritage. Traditon matters, and gives Country music it’s strong identity. There is room for expansion and creativity within the Traditions of Country, but care must be taken to retain at least some of the elements of Tradition.

I see a lot of lip service to Traditon these days, the occasional token cover performance of a Country classic at the Opry, for example, by singers who seem all too eager to ignore classic sounding Country in their arena concerts, or studio sessions. These folks are the musical equivilent of the Sunday saint who sins all week. Many of these same singers dominate the charts, radio airplay and awards shows sound much more Pop than Country. They say they revere Tradtion, but they do not let it’s nourishing elements actually influence their music. They are diluting Country’s identity, and hijacking the genre…redefining it by their very sucess at selling their insipid wares, and counterteiting real Country in the process. They sell nothing but watered down Nashville Pop, and unfortunatly people are buying it, and buying into it. Pop with a Southern drawl is still pop; vapid and amorphous, souless musical junk food and pretty much completely severed from the real, nourishing roots of Country.

But in adddition to these villians, there are some heroes, keepers of the flame who give us hope. Patty Loveless, for example, shows us how it’s done. I like Kevin’s description of her style as “progressive Traditionalist” deeply connected to the pure roots of Country, but creatively reinterpreting the classic sound in a manner that keeps it vital.

Also Jamey Johnson, I was delighted to see him perform at the George Strait tribute tonight, a bright light amoung a sea of mediocrity. And Alan Jackson seemed like a veritable reincarnation of Hank Williams, full of easy going Country charisma..equal in stature to the great George Stait himself.

And Joey and Rory,and other up and coming traditional sounding artists give us fans Pure Country reason for hope. There are many others, but I’ve rambled long enough.

If Traditon is a chain of restraint, give me a George Stait jacket right now!

As far as I’m concerned 90% of the relevant, radio-played “country” artists out there don’t pay one bit of attention to tradition more than what they have to as counseled by their marketeers to draw in specifically targeted demographics of fans. If any single parson can tell me with passion that Taylor Swift cares about the traditions of country music, I’ll eat my hat.

I think Garth Brooks might be the worst thing that ever happened to the country music genre, yet I think today they wouldn’t make it in “country.” He is too talented, and he did pay at least scant attention to tradition, which would’ve been a sign to today’s label execs that he may not want to “play the game.”

Country music isn’t just a genre of music, just like Judaism isn’t just a religion. It is also a heritage, a tradition, a lineage. Rock n’ Roll was built on breaking traditions, while country was built on preserving them. Without country’s links to the past, it would fall into the abyss. And if you ask me, at the moment the teeth of the chain cutters are fast against the link, and Taylor Swift, Toby Keith, Tim McGraw, and many more, are wrenching on the handles, trying to break through. It only takes one link, one space in time for the chain to break, and all to be lost, devaluing “country” from the proud music of America’s rural heart to just the default American music genre it seems to be becoming today. Country music has become the junk drawer of American music. If you don’t know what to call it, find a pretty face to sing it, put a fiddle in the corner, and you can call it “country.” Yee haw.

The Country Music Hall of Fame is built, literally, around a question: “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” This implies that the circle breaking is possible, and quietly hints to what the ramifications of that might be. That is why it is so important to hold on to the traditions of what made country music great, even when the CMA is snubbing the new Hall of Fame Inductees, and thus, losing audience with the Hall’s wisdom.

Sure, everyone has a right to make money and there’s always monetary concerns, but right now money is virtually the only concern. THIS is what is holding country back in regards to creativity and innovation, not tradition.

Am I being overdramatic? Maybe. But I am not the only one, and our ranks appear to be growing daily. The fans and REAL artists of country music need to storm the skyscrapers of Nashville and take their music back. Why? Because that is the tradition of country music. Willie and Waylon did it, and now we must too. That Circle that the Hall of Fame talks about has become an oval, pushed to the brink of potential bursting, or breaking, by a protracted cycle towards pop.

This threat is as REAL as the music of Waylon Jennings, and the music of other country artists you’ve never heard of, struggling in virtual obscurity while the spotlight is stolen by Taylor Swift playing with Def Leppard, and Kid Rock playing with Lil Wayne. That’s not country. The term “country” belongs to the people. It has been stolen from them and used as a marketing term.

Time is running short. The link is failing. The hairs are gray. But for some reason, I still have faith.

Ha! Try reloading the page. That happens to me from time to time. I’m not sure what it is.