I’m not sure that I know how to define a redneck, but redneck behavior is everywhere and is as likely to be left-wing politically (read the DailyKos if you don’t believe me) as to be right-wing.

“Have You Forgotten?”, on the other hand, just feels willfully ill-informed and manipulative.

That said, I agree that 9/11 made a lot of the right wing, family values, religious ass kissing that country music does these days okay. Country music is the new rock n roll in terms of people relating to it on a pretty grand scale and I think (or rather I KNOW) a lot of this kind of stuff is what turns people off to it, which is a shame because it could be a lot more than it is, and on its own terms. It’s sad that Nashville used a tragedy like 9/11 as an excuse to peddle garbage like “Courtesy…” and “Have You Forgotten.” Granted it wasn’t the first time, but that doesn’t make it okay.

In a way, being beholden to these sorts of things makes country music less honest because it doesn’t present both sides of the argument, and rather, tries to assume what some theoretical consumer might think instead of just putting the songs out there and letting them make their own minds up.

All that being said, I have to say, that as much as I disagree with Toby Keith’s politics (not all of it, but most), I gotta give him props for standing up for what he believes in. It doesn’t seem like any other artist is really willing to stand up and have an honest opinion that wasn’t cleared with their “people.”

But I do believe, without question, that Toby Keith (with “Courtesy”) and Darryl Worley (“Have You Forgtten?”) were engaged in some none-too-subtle finger-pointing at those who honorably, or even slightly, disagreed with their view of America. One can make the case that they were being patriotic as they saw it. But to call any protesters of the Iraq war or the Bush Administration somehow “un-American” was not the least bit patriotic of them, as far as I’m concerned.

In our current time, if you opposed Bush’s wars, you were a terrorist sympathizer. Or at least that’s how Toby Keith, Darryl Worley, and their bunch saw it. But what was true in the 60s is as true today, that when the level of jingoism in song goes up, the quality of the music always seems to go down; and I feel that’s what has happened to mainstream country music. Anyone remember Clint Black’s “Iraq And I Roll”, one of the worst examples of post-9/11 country jingoism?

And I’d just as soon not say any more about what what was done to the Dixie Chicks, except to say that it was disgusting. Music Row shot itself in the foot there.

If there was a bright spot for country music in post-9/11 America, then I think it happened in that little fringe known as the Americana sector. Certainly there was plenty of anti-war sentiment to go around there, but there was also a nuanced form of patriotism in at least one song of note–”Bird Of Freedom”, by Tift Merritt, off of her 2002 debut album Bramble Rose. In fact, I feel that Tift has been the single best female vocalist to come along in any musical genre since 9/11, so maybe there’s hope.

I don’t know about SheDaisy, but I thought a big reason for LAW’s Something Worth Leaving Behind not doing well was the perception — aided by lack of airplay — of the title track as her trying to repeat the success of “I Hope You Dance” with a similar formula and people letting that assessment color their opinion of the rest of the album.

(For the record I didn’t get SWLB, but I heard that beyond the title track it was more or less classic Womack.)

Jackson’s song was written by a man who grew up in the 9/10 world. Up to that day, most people didn’t need or want to know anything more than they already did about the Middle East. In truth, I suspect that many Americans still fail to make any distinctions or understand that part of the world but a lot of more of us have come to appreciate that there are differences, and that those differences matter.

Regarding the proliferation of female artists, Paul W. Dennis is right to say that the pop-country trend was destined to yield to something anyway. The problem–and it’s not with Mr. Dennis, but with Nashville–is the notion that women who perform country music must perform pop-country. It appears instead that Music Row is simply more comfortable with female artists if they can be presented as an alternative to female pop artists, rather than as counterparts to male country artists.

Think to the 70s, when you had Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette; they were country artists. Few people hear their names and associate them with anything else (except, you know, Dolly). For the last 20 years, though, nearly every female country artist has been styled to resemble pop artists; sexually-charged music videos to get the attention of males, but sanitized for the approval of soccer moms. Even those who didn’t start out that way (Sara Evans, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, LeAnn Rimes, Shania Twain) eventually revamped their images to stay competitive.

I’m not knocking their artistic explorations, mind you. Evans didn’t completely engage me until Born to Fly, and while we can debate how country and how pop The Woman in Me is, Come on Over was clearly a pop-country album and it was terrific. But it smacks of a clueless gender bias in Nashville that has little confidence that a female country artist can be just that.

The only female country artist I can think offhand who started out country and has stayed that way is Gretchen Wilson. But it appears Sony was only really interested in using her to help plug the hole in their roster and sales left by the fall of the Dixie Chicks; they pushed her “Redneck Woman” persona, but seemed unable or unwilling to really support her beyond that. It’s a shame, too, because when she steps away from the jingoistic anthems, she’s cut some strong stuff; “When I Think About Cheating” should be considered an overlooked gem of the last decade when we look back.