[MakoMako]

I've got a slight bit of a delima. I'll explain why I posted here though first. Well, all the music I've been listening to lately (older Dave Matthews, Johnny Cash, older Clapton, Jack Johnson's older stuff, and just alot more older music) has gotten me into an odd fascination with older country music. All of it I've listened to is done Acoustically and intrigued me, which is why I thought it would be fine to post it here.

Anyway, the thing that just sort of frightens me a bit is, for my whole life, I've been dishing out insult and hate after hate towards the country music I heard. But all the country I'd ever heard had been the newer stuff of the time, when country was taking on its "new sound" as a friend of mine told me. I listen to Johnny Cash, who did a bit of country and rock to my understanding, but I like ALL of it. I went so far to swipe of a few of my dads old country tapes to listen to them. I don't know the artists names, but I kinda liked the music, it's weird.

I listen to the older country and I can stand to listen to it, and I actually like it, then I hear most country songs within the past five years, and I wannt stab my ears with a rusty butter knife. If ANYONE could give a possible explaination behind this, I'd be more than welcome to hear it, because I don't entirly know why.

Also, if it means anything, I'm a huge fan of Bluegrass music, mostly instrumental, but I enjoy some of the lyrics, they make me grin alot of times. Thanks in advance.

[mantra]

Heh, been dishing out hate against country? Small minded of you, wasn't it? Don't let it frighten you, if it sounds good to you, why not embrace it? I agree with you though, I like some of the older country music stuff but the "new" pop country doesn't appeal to me. To me what's happening on the scene is what happened to the old rap from the 80's. To me, there's something honest, down to earth, about the older country music, the stories, the music. It *meant* something else, other than to get famous.

[TheJosh]

country went pop for the money factor

old-time country is the greatest- you should buy the "anthology of american folk music" for some great country. google it.

[matt_theripper]

I'm in a similar situation. I hated on country music for a long time, then I started listening to The String Cheese Incident and Leftover Salmon. They got me into bluegrass by extension. I attended a bluegrass festival last year and fell in love with Jerry Douglas, Tim O'Brien, Sam Bush, Peter Rowan, Allison Krauss, etc.

The best way I can describe it is that old country and new country have different sounds. Old country is more folk-esque and new country is really twangy. Granted there are new artists that sound more old time.

[dadfad]

I've got a slight bit of a delima. I'll explain why I posted here though first. Well, all the music I've been listening to lately (older Dave Matthews, Johnny Cash, older Clapton, Jack Johnson's older stuff, and just alot more older music) has gotten me into an odd fascination with older country music. All of it I've listened to is done Acoustically and intrigued me, which is why I thought it would be fine to post it here.

Anyway, the thing that just sort of frightens me a bit is, for my whole life, I've been dishing out insult and hate after hate towards the country music I heard. But all the country I'd ever heard had been the newer stuff of the time, when country was taking on its "new sound" as a friend of mine told me. I listen to Johnny Cash, who did a bit of country and rock to my understanding, but I like ALL of it. I went so far to swipe of a few of my dads old country tapes to listen to them. I don't know the artists names, but I kinda liked the music, it's weird.

I listen to the older country and I can stand to listen to it, and I actually like it, then I hear most country songs within the past five years, and I wannt stab my ears with a rusty butter knife. If ANYONE could give a possible explaination behind this, I'd be more than welcome to hear it, because I don't entirly know why.

Also, if it means anything, I'm a huge fan of Bluegrass music, mostly instrumental, but I enjoy some of the lyrics, they make me grin alot of times. Thanks in advance.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Look at it this way. Most of the country you'd been exposed to before was pop-country crap. The BS with the posing crooners fake-strumming their guitars with new cowboy-hats bent up and cocked at just the "right" angle wearing their poser "bad-boy" clothes, or women from upstate New York with boob-jobs and fake twangs and the appropriate "quiver" in their voices, or sons and daughters of REAL country-music greats putting out stuff that never would have been played outside of some 3rd-rate tourist-bar in Nashville or Brampton is it wasn't for their last name. That's like someone who's never heard Hendrix, Beck, Clapton, Zep, Beatles, Stones, Chuck Berry, or Joe Walsh, etc being exposed only to Britney, Blink 182, Backstreet Boys, Nirvana, etc, etc... pop-chart stuff... and then asking them how they like Rock.

So don't feel bad. I used to think in a similar way myself, maybe not quite as strongly as you because country hadn't gotten THAT bad yet (just like rock hadn't). But as I got into old country-blues, it exposed me to other older traditional styles, great stuff like old-time Appalachian and early-bluegrass. As one old bluesman I knew put it when referring to it said "All o' us common-folk sang about the same things and played the same way from the same hearts, white or black. Just on different sides of the tracks."

Myself, I've found that in country music, as I found in blues, the older and closer to the roots I got, the more I loved the music. You'll probably find the same thing. There are some great modern country artists out there too, but you rarely hear of them unless you're into the music, because they aren't "pop-chart material." Who play in more old-time styles. And that'll take you into the true old-time masters like Tommy Jarrel or Roscoe Holcomb or Jimmy Rogers. The guys who were to country music what Son House, Robert Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy or John Jackson were to the blues and discovered by way of back-tracking through Cream, Stones and Led Zepplin covers. From the simple but tremendous tunes of Hank Williams (the REAL one) or Cash, to the fingerstyle wizardry of Merle Travis to the forlorn mountain sadness of Roscoe Holcomb, there's a tremendous amount of great music in the Country tradition, and exploring it is nothing to be ashamed of.

[Grizzly Adams]

I'm in the same boat exactly. I've always hated country music that I heard other people listening to. But getting into folk music has brought me dangerously close to some country artists , then I realized some of it wasn't bad. The old stuff that is. I started off with Cash, then Roscoe Holcomb. And now as I'm typing this I'm listening to Hank Williams, as long as nooone else is home. Hank Williams lyrics are definatley a far cry from the worthless country dribble they put out nowadays. Some of his songs I can't dig too much because of the country band backing him, but I think if there were more songs of just him with an acoustic I could stomach it a lot easier.

I also was always under the impression for some reason that Jimmie Rodgers would be an old acoustic strumming, more harsh singing style. But most of the songs I've gotten off the net he's backed by a pretty sophisticated sounding band. Doing songs like "The Wizard" and whatnot, sometimes even sounding like rock and roll. Although good songs, did he also do acoustic crooning?

[dadfad]

I'm in the same boat exactly. I've always hated country music that I heard other people listening to. But getting into folk music has brought me dangerously close to some country artists , then I realized some of it wasn't bad. The old stuff that is. I started off with Cash, then Roscoe Holcomb. And now as I'm typing this I'm listening to Hank Williams, as long as nooone else is home. Hank Williams lyrics are definatley a far cry from the worthless country dribble they put out nowadays. Some of his songs I can't dig too much because of the country band backing him, but I think if there were more songs of just him with an acoustic I could stomach it a lot easier.

I also was always under the impression for some reason that Jimmie Rodgers would be an old acoustic strumming, more harsh singing style. But most of the songs I've gotten off the net he's backed by a pretty sophisticated sounding band. Doing songs like "The Wizard" and whatnot, sometimes even sounding like rock and roll. Although good songs, did he also do acoustic crooning?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was lucky enough to have collected over the years quite a few copies of studio out-takes, for-the-band practice-demos, informal recordings, etc of Hank Williams playing and singing solo with an acoustic guitar. His guitar-work on them was not fancy, but he sings a white-man's blues like no one else. "I Can't Help It If I'm Still In Love With You" and "Alabama Waltz" are probably my favorites by him.

Yes, Jimmy did some pretty nice solo-fingerstyle stuff. As he got more famous and popular, his tunes began to include studio-bands. He was big enough so that he had enough power to insist on using some Black blues musicians for studio-work, which was toatally unheard of back in that day. Jimmy did several brief "talkie-shorts" which were shown in movie-houses back then, similar to say how cartoons or newsreels were/are shown prior to the "feature film." I have several of those which I've now copied from 8mm onto VHS. There have also been, more recently, commercially released copies on VHS (and probably by now DVD) by companies like Shenachie and others.

A lot of good stuff from back then.

[MakoMako]

It makes me more comfortable with this whole thing knowing I'm not that only that is/has gone through this. I think I'm going to start looking into some of the artists mentioned here. Although, I did get a few songs, the artist was unlisted saddly, but they did sound alot more folk/bluegrass and I could hardly tell they were even the same thing that is played today. It actually makes me sort of relieved. I can now expand my music library comfortably and with some knowledge now.

Thanks to everyone that took the time to respond.

[matt_theripper]

Here's a quick list of some of my favorite acoustic type musicians:

Nickel Creek. Definatly check these guys out if you are into good folk. They are three young kids (around 23 ish or so) that are insanely talented. I actually own all of their albums, something that I have only done with 1 other band.

Allison Krauss - she's awesome, good stuff

Emmylou Harris - again, she is kind of a staple of acoustic music.

Gillian Welch - kind of hit or miss for most people. I like her. Other's dont, worth checking out.

Jerry Douglas - anything he has ever done.



If you like intrumental music try "Strength in Numbers"

[matt_theripper]

Oh, and I almost forgot about one of my favorites:

Tim O'Brien - started with the band Hot Rize kinda in the wake of Newgrass Revival (I think at least) and now branches out into old timey music and other great stuff.

[matt_theripper]

btw, Gav, that Pandora site was awesome!

[okiejohn]

Country music, if ya wanna listen to some good stuff from way back, try some Bob Wills...folks called it western swing, but man did it have some jazz in it.

Now there's some boys here in okieland that are doing some stuff we call Red Dirt that has its roots in good playing and honest lyrics.

There's several Red Dirt acts around now in Oklahoma and Texas, a couple are Red Dirt Rangers, and Cross Canadian Ragweed...check them out, if ya like red dirt let me know and I'll name some others.

[matt_theripper]

Country music, if ya wanna listen to some good stuff from way back, try some Bob Wills...folks called it western swing, but man did it have some jazz in it.

Now there's some boys here in okieland that are doing some stuff we call Red Dirt that has its roots in good playing and honest lyrics.

There's several Red Dirt acts around now in Oklahoma and Texas, a couple are Red Dirt Rangers, and Cross Canadian Ragweed...check them out, if ya like red dirt let me know and I'll name some others.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I really love the local type music, usually anyway. There are a couple of good local bluegrass/country acts near me that pretty much rock.

[sixgunsound]

I recommend John Prine for anyone who wants to love country. It's sort of folky at the same time, a lot like Cash was.

[pimp_vince]

my childhood was country hell.... think of a cold version of what nashville has become (musically). that was it.

but lynyrd skynyrd, the allman brothers, james taylor, the rolling stones, SRV and the tragically hip have all helped rehabilitate me to country-esque music.

[Standing8]

I believe that learning to appreciate country after disliking it for so long is a sign of personal and musical maturity....as is grasping the beauty of any music with heart and timelessness.

When I was in elementary school, Urban Cowboy came out. I like that and a handful of a few others but never really liked country. I still hate young country.

I dated a girl in high school that got me into Hank Sr. and Jr. but didn't really begin to love classic country and good newer stuff made by artists with their heart in classic country.

It was alt/country that helped me to really learn to appreciate it. Bands like, Blue Mountain, The Jayhawks, Sonvolt, Uncle Tupelo, Slobberbone, older Wilco stuff, Steve Earle (before he went crazy and began supporting terrorism) and great country artists like Hank III, Shooter Jenkins, Ramblin Jack Elliot, Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, etc.

PS - If you like Blue Grass, get the 'Bad Livers' CD - 'Hogs On The Highway'

[dadfad]

Welcome to GTU, Standing8. Yes, most of us battled the initial "un-coolness" of country at first and, then, like you said, matured enough to see the beauty of what laid beneath the surface of country-pop... classic-country, Appalachian, old-time and the rest. Anyway, welcome to GTU.

[-=FreeBird=-]

You can learn some cool licks from country that can be applied to rock.