Disappointed In Today's Country Music

[Earnest Bovine]

The thing that bothers me most about the music on country radio are the pointless, vapid lyrics.

We need Flamand and Olivier v 2.0 to tell us which is worse, music or lyrics.

[Joachim Kettner]

Now I can't get "Low Places" out of my head, and this is not very pleasant.

[John Booth]

And the "meaningful" lyrics coming out of Nashville like these from Trace Adkins:

"That honky tonk badonkadonk, Keepin' perfect rhythm make ya wanna swing along
Got it goin' on like Donkey Kong And whoo-wee Shut my mouth, slap your grandma
There outta be a law Get the Sheriff on the phone, Lord have mercy, how's she even get them britches on?"

Or these words of wisdom from Sugarland:

"They'll promise fancy cars and diamond rings and all sorts of shiny things,
but girl, you'll remember what your knees are for."

And of course, this classic tome from Kellie Picker:

"I feel a little bloated, I think I'm fixing to start, That movie was good except for the violent parts,
Brad Pitt is sexy, Why did he change his hair, I knew him and Jenny never had a prayer,
These curtains clash with the carpet, The color scheme is a crime, Things that never cross a man's mind"

[Antolina]

Good gawd!!

[Charlie McDonald]

It's not exactly like Willie Nelson, half those words,
a couple of verses and a chorus, and it sticks.

[Mike Perlowin]

The thing that bothers me most about the music on country radio are the pointless, vapid lyrics. What makes country music great is the storytelling

"I was drunk when my mama got out of prison

And I went to pick her up in the rain

But before I got to the station in my pickup truck

She got run over by a damn old train."

[Josh Killian]

"I was drunk when my mama got out of prison

And I went to pick her up in the rain

But before I got to the station in my pickup truck

She got run over by a damn old train."

Now c'mon Mike, that is a great story! Like the song says, it has it all....Mama, prison, trucks and trains. Seriously, a kitschy song here or there is fine, but....

[Jack Aldrich]

Disappointed, hell! I'm downright repulsed by it!

[Damir Besic]

I played more real country music back in Europe, than I ever did here in US, sad, and I Ieft my family and everything, just to come to Nashville and enjoy the "real thing".... what a mistake that was...

[Henry Matthews]

What Damir said:
Country music is alive and well across the big pond. Those people love and appreciate good country music.
There are few places in Nashville that still play country music but very few. Correct, the Gaylord's have ruined our kind of country music but it is all about the money and what business isn't?

Some said that today's country music don't play the melody, that's because today's country has no melody. It's just a conglomeration of chords that really make no sense. Believe me, we play some of them on our Opry on Satuday nights and they are hard to learn and remember. I have to have chord charts and sometimes then we get the beat or whatever wrong.

What really makes me angry is some of the bands around here call themselves a country band and have two distorted guitars, bass and drums. They do play country songs if you can recognize them.

[Kenny Davis]

OK, Looks like I need to tell you guys about a friend of mine that should satisfy your craving due to the lack of good Country Music -

Jamie Richards is a "Real Deal" artist who has had 17 singles and 12 "top 10" cuts on the Texas Music Chart. He writes almost all of his material and loves Pedal Steel Guitar. Over the course of 5 cd's he's had Dan Dugmore, Bruce Bouton, Gary Thorson, Junior Knight, Tommy Detamore, Ron Stafford, Milo Deering, and Jim "Haystack" Novak contribute generously. Like steel on almost every cut!

I played with Jamie in the 80's when he was barely old enough to get into a club. I knew he would make a great singer if he stayed with it. What I didn't know, was his ability to write great songs. After leaving Oklahoma, he eventually signed as a writer with Curb. A few years ago, he got his record deal. He stays pretty busy, mostly in Texas and does over 150 dates a year. I've been lucky to play with him a few times in the last few years. Every once in a while he'll feel sorry for me and let me pick with him.

Us at the Top Rail in Dallas a few years ago


Check his stuff out at CD Baby http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jamierichards1 or iTunes (iTunes has the two latest releases)and http://jamierichardsband.com. Did I mention he loves Pedal Steel?

[Alan Tanner]

We discuss this over and over but I guess it's because it is important to a majority of players. Like it or not, steel guitar is/was the backbone of classic country and more. We can all point to the three or four pickers who use it for other styles, but the rest play country. Our country. Our generation's music and maybe a couple more. My nieces and nephews don't know a steel guitar from a kazoo, and can name not one single steel picker or guitarist or fiddler. They CAN, however, show you how to get your computer going, fix your cell phone, who is making the best tattoos in town (now known as "tats", and where to get economy body piercing done. I do not listen to "country" radio. I do not buy their CD's nor do I attend the "concerts". I can't see paying 80 bux more or less to listen to folks scream the whole night while standing on their chairs while the "entertainer", dressed in his finest clothes procured from the dumpster behind the Goodwill and wearing a plastic cowboy hat, lip sinks to his latest computer enhanced music. Part of the demise I feel is also that folks are getting older and the cemetery's are filling up. Older folks don't go out much and can't see late at night and insist on being fed. I know, some places doing OK, but those of us that remember when there was a band in almost every honkytonk large or small including the corner tavern, know better. The best show on TV for years was Tru Country, but it's demise was a lack of sponsors. Why?? I feel that when the last of our generation of pickers is finally gone to meet his/her desserts, true traditional country music, that was a true American iconic traditional style, will also finally be laid to rest too.

[Graham]

Mike Perlowin wrote:


"I was drunk when my mama got out of prison

And I went to pick her up in the rain

But before I got to the station in my pickup truck

She got run over by a damn old train."

Consider the artist - David Allan Coe - better known for his stint on death row before being pardoned in 1967 and his song writing for other people. He didn't write this song, just recorded it. The original, as written, did not have these lyrics until Coe wrote this letter to the song writer:

SPOKEN:
WELL, A FRIEND OF MINE NAMED STEVE GOODMAN WROTE THAT SONG AND
HE TOLD ME IT WAS THE PERFECT COUNTRY & WESTERN SONG. I WROTE
HIM BACK A LETTER AND I TOLD HIM IT WAS NOT THE PERFECT COUNTRY
& WESTERN SONG BECAUSE HE HADN'T SAID ANYTHING AT ALL ABOUT MAMA,
OR TRAINS, OR TRUCKS, OR PRISON, OR GETTIN' DRUNK. WELL HE SAT
DOWN AND WROTE ANOTHER VERSE TO THE SONG AND HE SENT IT TO ME,
AND AFTER READING IT, I REALIZED THAT MY FRIEND HAD WRITTEN THE
PERFECT COUNTRY & WESTERN SONG. AND I FELT OBLIGED TO INCLUDE IT
ON THIS ALBUM. THE LAST VERSE GOES LIKE THIS HERE:


From his biography - Coe appears incapable of separating the good from the ridiculous and his albums are erratic.

[Graham]

The original song as first written:

You Never Even Called Me By My Name

Well it was all that I could do to keep from crying
Sometimes it seems so useless to remain
But you don't have to call me darlin', darlin'
You never even called me by my name

You don't have to call me Waylon Jennings
And you don't have to call me Charlie Pride
And you don't have to call me Merle Haggard anymore
Or even though you're on my fightin' side

And I'll hang around as long as you will let me
And I never minded standin' in the rain
But you don't have to call me darlin', darlin'
You never even called me by my name

Well I've heard my name a few times in your phone book
(Hello, hello)
And I've seen it on signs where I've played
But the only time I know I'll hear David Allan Coe
Is when Jesus has his final Judgment Day

So, I'll hang around as long as you will let me
And I never minded standin' in the rain
But you don't have to call me darlin', darlin'
You never even called me by my name

and yes, there is a story in there.

[Charlie McDonald]

Coe appears incapable of separating the good from the ridiculous and his albums are erratic.

Art imitates life.

With Goodman's last verse, it IS the perfect c/w song, it has Waylon, Haggard, and Pride and his fightin' side, cryin' and standin' in the rain, waitin' at the station, to remain, setting up the whole song for momma and the damned old train..
He even gets in his own name, the perfect self-conscious narrator, lampooning the state of the art in country song and his place in it.
It's perfect.

Here's my country song. I am so inspired by the other lyrics I've read here that surely I can make it big.

(THE GUITARS OF NEPTUNE ARE) GONE--music by P. Petre

In this galaxy, of music worldly and celes-
tial there's one guitar that stands above the rest;
It was so heavenly, but not too heavy,
but now they're made in China.

And all the stars come out at night to all the bars with all their cars
the chrome on their Fenders shining 'neath the moon.
They're made in Japan, and your other Asian lands
But no matter what, they won't stay in tune.

And all the guitars that come from Mars are going under,
Though they been around a long long time,
They can't compare with the guitar that's mine,
don't it make you wonder.

The Guitars from Neptune are gone,
Uranus is stealing our song.
It ended all too soon, left me howlin' at the moon,
and pretty soon the moon too will be gone.

And I hope that they all come back real soon, ya hear?

[Joachim Kettner]

Charlie, I get a virus warning after I click on your link!

[Roger Francis]

Thank god for pandora and gene watson radio, now i dont have to listen to the radio in my vehicles or at home.

[John Billings]

My oldest friend is an audio engineer in Nashville. Well, he just retired, but he was at TNN from before it went on the air until it's demise, along with the closing of Opryland. Then he went independent. If you've see a lot of video interviews with performers, you've heard his work. He told me several years ago that all his work orders for CMT, etc., were all coming from New York City.
As far as always playing the melody? That's not my style. Never played stuff the same twice. Would be awfully boring to me to do that.

[Charlie McDonald]

Woah! Thanks, Jaochim
I repaired the post.

[chris ivey]

And the "meaningful" lyrics coming out of Nashville ..
words of wisdom from Sugarland:

"They'll promise fancy cars and diamond rings and all sorts of shiny things,
but girl, you'll remember what your knees are for."

all i can say is, this may be what jennifer nettles thinks, but i wouldn't visit it on any other woman.

[Robert Parent]

I deleted all the country radio stations from from the quick select buttons a couple years back and have not tuned into a country station since then. I have done the same for the big three in television as well (ABC,CBS,NBC) none of it is really worth listening or watching in my opinion.

Robert

[Billy McCombs]

I get my country Music and News from XM Radio. Check it out.

[Justin Emmert]

And the "meaningful" lyrics coming out of Nashville like these from Trace Adkins:

"That honky tonk badonkadonk, Keepin' perfect rhythm make ya wanna swing along
Got it goin' on like Donkey Kong And whoo-wee Shut my mouth, slap your grandma
There outta be a law Get the Sheriff on the phone, Lord have mercy, how's she even get them britches on?"

Jamey Johnson co-wrote this song. I think he's a great song writer and yes this song was stupid, but I bet it paid the bills. And I've played it a lot.......never complained once cause it got the women on the dance floor....and on the bar....and on the speakers....and tables!!!

[Marty Forrer]

There's a saying... I'm not sure who it's attributed to ....
The most outlaw thing you can do in Nashville now is to play country music!

[Jack Aldrich]

I get my country Music and News from XM Radio. Check it out.

Me, too! Willie's Place and Outlaw Country.