re: When did country music /culture go to sh*t.

That is what they call a powerhouse vocalist, she is a better fit for pop music.

Cash was an old 50s rocker that didn't change his musical style much. Elvis, Cash, Perkins and Lewis were all bad boys of music. Something different and offended normalcy.

I would say that Cash during his rise in the 50s helped keep country music from going off the radio and filled some shoes once Hank senior died.

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The irony was that Charlie Rich was a Jazz artist by heart but was told that he had no shot unless he went country.

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Precisely. On his perch. Nothing country about a piano player. IT was the 70's though. As mentioned real Outlaw Country guys I am sure found some pushback. Thats why they went to Austin. Charlie Daniels was Bob Dylans guitar player for a while.... I think.

Folk bleeds into Bluegrass bleeds into Country. Folk also bleeds into rock.

60's Old school country gave way to the beginning of real Outlaw country.

70's was a hodge podge. Folk (Denver), California easy listening style (Ronstadt... put her in a box?), Outlaw country got perfected by the good ones and saturated with crappy ones. Then 79 Disco caused IMO country to get slick again King George starts.

80's George Strait dominates and people mimic him. Garth starts, Whitley, and about 10 more.

90's weird decade. Less singer/songwriters and more songwriters selling songs to toptier singers. Musicianship is lost. Session guys take over again like the 50's-60,s. But the writing IMO was still good.

2000's on. So few people write, the guitar is a prop more than a tool.


George Strait CAN be blamed. Just by his being handsome he ushered in Pretty Boy country. I'm sure that pissed off some old 70's outlaw fans. Even though his songs were solid. He selected great songs. But he made it OK to not ne a writer and OK to hold a guitar thats not in the mix. Alan Jackson does the same.

I've droned on long enough. Tell me what you think.

Folk has similar instruments to hill or aka country music. Jazz doesn't but I could be wrong. The only thing that Rich used was the Hawaiian pedal steel guitar and so that his music could blend in more.

Willie and Waylon went to Austin because they were tired of the lack of artistic freedom in Nashville. They lacked the smooth voices that would make them stars with the Nashville sound. Nashville has always wanted to compete with the likes of Sinatra and Dean Martin, they needed a sound that could get them a larger audience . They did just that with Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline for a short time. Twang and honky tonk music wasn't allowed. This gave Buck Owen's and Merle Haggard a different audience in California, a sound that was influenced by Rock music called the Bakersfield sound. This made the brass in Nashville angry.

70s country music was really good in the early part with Cash, Haggard, Jennings and a little later on Hank Jr. That is just a small sample and the late 70s the music started to decline. But in the early 80s, George Strait, Randy Travis and Ricky Skaggs began pushing the sound to be more traditional.

90s country had quite of bit of traditionalists such as George Strait and Alan Jackson. Unfortunately Garth Brooks was on the scene and should have went into Rock music. But commercially it was the most successful decade for country as it pleased all types of country fans.

The 2000s is when it began going towards a pop sound. Some artists like Mark Chestnut refused and went into decline.

George Strait was praised a lot more than criticized for getting back to a traditional sound. Which is strange considering he had a rock band in the past. Alan Jackson was a good songwriter and it it enough to put him over George Strait. A country artist is not just judged by the voice or the music but how well they write songs.

That was Cash favorite artist.

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They were like 15 years ago baw and pretty much the last ones I can remember. And they really weren’t traditional country.

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I actually think nowadays it’s more likely that a good/traditional/whatever you want to call it country song gets airplay if it’s a women.

Ashley McBride isn’t bad.

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Charlie Daniels

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I think he was one of the Nashville session players that Dylan hit it off with... might have started on Nashville Skyline

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