Who could restore country music?

[Ken Berner]

If you had to pick worthy country music artists to restore "country music" to what in once was, what names would you add to this list:

Don Williams
Alan Jackson
George Jones
Clint Black
Tom T. Hall
Mel Tillis
Dolly Parton
George Strait
Loretta Lynn
Vince Gill

[EggerRidgeBoy]

Well it depends upon what period "once" refers to - I'm sure that to many older fans in the 1950's "once" meant the 20's and 30's, and acts like the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, the Blue Sky Boys, etc., acts that had been replaced by those young, new, loud singers like Hank and Lefty and Webb. #

But I know what you mean, and to your list I would add Dale Watson and Susannah Van Tassel. They'll never sell enough CDs or get enough airplay to acutally have much of an effect on the industry, but that's what country music would sound like if I were in charge.

[Richard Francis]

Ricky Skaggs
Merle Haggard

[EggerRidgeBoy]

Marty Stuart
Jim Lauderdale

[Joel Glassman]

I don't understand "restoring country music to what in once was"
What was it? Better music? There has been good and bad country
music in every era. I like the traditional stuff, but it doesn't sell.
IMO the good songwriting in Nashville today is on the fringes, it doesn't
make the charts.

[Jim MacDaniel]

Hank III

[Ken Berner]

I became a listener of country music radio in '47 and I guess I was thinking along the lines of the '50s era of country music. Marty Robbins, Ray Price, Carl Smith, Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams, Johnny & Jack, Kitty Wells, Grandpa Jones, Stringbean, Brother Oswald, Roy Acuff, Webb Pierce and others were the artists I was listening to. Kindly tell me some names of that era that were providing "bad country music".

[bones12]

Gid Tanner, Riley Puckett, Earl Johnson, John Dilleshaw, Ted Hawkins...........

Doug in Vermont

[MrSunshine]

In my opinion, it's not only the sound that makes a great 'era' for a musical style but also the integrity of the artists producing that music...that's what today's country 'artists' (using that term rather loosely) are lacking - integrity.

You know who's the decision maker in most musical forms today? George Washington!

[Leevon DeCourley]

Dwight Yoakum

[newbreedbrian]

Fred Eaglesmith, Hank III, Wayne Hancock.....

[Big Joe]

I certainly don't want country music from today's genre in my CD player! I'm tired of poor song writing with poor melodies and monotonous rhythms. At least ole Hank Sr. and Johnny Cash brought something new and musical to the plate. And, they were less concerned about radio than they were the song. It was like poetry in motion.

[mandolirius]

<restore "country music" to what in once was>

Without making any judgement, I really do find this baffling. How would you "restore" a genre of music. and why? music is made by people living in societies, which have this habit of not remaining the same. music has to continue to move forward, not back. it's more a matter of what road it's taking, wouldn't you think?

[John Flynn]

IMHO, the so-called "country" genre is unsavable. I think once the money gets really huge in any artistic medium, the quality goes away. People get motivated more by the money than the music. Also the "star-maker machinery" kicks in and artists, songs and arrangements get manufactured, packaged and force fed to the public. Yes, there are a few good singer-songwriters left in country, just like there are in rock, but they just get drowned out by the bad.

I like the saying, "There's tens of dollars to be made in old-time music." It is the real country music, and always has been.

[Chris Biorkman]

Rascal Flatts and Emerson Drive. Just kidding.

[AlanN]

I love that look, the low cowboy hat and mic-around-the-head, I just love it. Kind of like Mick Jagger meets The Midnight Cowboy.

[JeffD]

I don't know about this "love or money" thing. We could argue that all day. But it seems to me a large part of the problem is that the gate keepers / decision makers in country music don't have a feel for the music, and are focused on a certain sound that many would agree has strayed a bit from what made country music great.

I would hope with all the new ways to get music out to people, that the gatekeepers will become more and more irrelevant.

[lgc]

With an increasingly urban population and a generally homoginized society there is little in the way of a social framework to supprt traditional country. Musical movements reflect the culture that creates them. The best that one can hope for is to preserve country music because it is not a given that the values and aesthetics that created country will ever be hold a prominent place in American society again. We don't value three chords or the truth.

[Gutbucket]

With the dismal state that it's in, how bout Rob Zombie? Some of these so called Country bands are only a small step away.

[AlanN]

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

- The old homeplace is too expensive to buy
- If I murder my girlfriend, O.J.'s lawyer will get me off
- Banjos and mandolins don't sell Chevy trucks

[Dan Margolis]

We now accept huge, mass-market music as the norm--why? Add the Derailers and the Spurs to the names of great regional country bands with a national (possibly international) presence. You won't hear them at huge auditoriums, but you might hear them in a cool club or small theater. By the way, even "back in the day" our heroes sometimes recorded cruddy songs.

[mandopete]

Don't worry, American Idol has it covered!

[Peter Hackman]

Isn't it enough to just play your own music as well as you can?

[hoffmannia2k7]

I sort of like SOME of the new country stuff, country still tells a story that the common guy can relate to and also can go out and drink down some troubles with. You definitely can't argue with the flashiness in country music, its not like that wasn't ever there before even when the carters donned their sunday best to record and when all those nudie suits were around. So now the look is no shirt, tight jeans and a low riding cap. It is actually less flashy! Also, Country begat rock and roll and now people complain that country has too much rock and roll in it. discuss. Hank Thompson and Porter wagoner died in the last week. music changes over time. If you don't like something don't listen to it. That is why I only polka for one hour on sunday when it is on the radio.

[claytonstewart]

Steve Earle, or maybe if BlackHawk was still together, they could help...