Country Music

[GhostMachine]

Anyone else a fan? If so, do you prefer old school twangy, classic country, modern which is more poppy crossover, country rap (ie, Colt Ford, The Lacs), or enjoy a mix?

I personally like a lot of it, but there are a few artists I can't stand. Mainly due to being forced to listen to a LOT of it as a kid and it leaving a lasting sour taste in my mouth. Conway Twitty, Buck Owens, or Randy Travis? NO THANK YOU. However, I've come to respect Roy Clark (watched a lot of Hee Haw) as a musician a lot more.

 

[Schlitzbrille]

Not active country listener but I will from time to time. Most modern my tastes go is what you'd find on SiriusXM's Y2Kountry and Prime Country, but the bulk of my tastes are sourced from before my birth, primarily around prime Johnny Cash era.

 

Ironically have been getting sort of into Randy Travis.

[Draevyn]

Did you just bash Conway Twitty and Randy Travis? How dare you!

I've listened to country music most of my life. It really wasn't until I was like 14 that I started listening to anything outside of country music, and honestly now that I'm older I'm kind of back in that box. I still appreciate other types of music but country is basically like home to me when it comes to music.

[GhostMachine]

37 minutes ago, Draevyn said:

Did you just bash Conway Twitty and Randy Travis? How dare you!

I've listened to country music most of my life. It really wasn't until I was like 14 that I started listening to anything outside of country music, and honestly now that I'm older I'm kind of back in that box. I still appreciate other types of music but country is basically like home to me when it comes to music.

My aunt picked me up from middle school, and all she ever played was Alabama and Randy Travis. EVERY. FUCKING. DAY! I still twitch when hearing a couple of Alabama songs, but like a lot of their stuff. Randy Travis, however, I just plain do not like.

I actually hated most country music until I was in my 20s. Listened to Hank (Sr AND Jr), Kenny Rogers, Ronnie Milsap and Johnny Cash, but that was about it.

Hank Williams Sr is, along with Willie Nelson, one of the finest song writers this country has ever had. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry is as perfect as it gets. Willie wrote Patsy Cline's "Crazy", which would qualify him as a Hall of Famer even if he had stayed just a song writer.

Edited July 26, 2023 by GhostMachine

[JasonM]

As a Euro, my experiences with country is extremely limited. But I love me some Highwaymen (and it's constituent parts) and Jerry Reed.

[Schlitzbrille]

Pretty alright considering it's a side project from a man not singing his first language

[Pooker]

I would consider myself a big country music fan. It's probably 70% of the music I listen to. Favorites are George Strait, Miranda Lambert, and Johnny Cash. I mainly stick with the 90s and older, going back to Hank Williams and the like. Not a big fan of the modern pop country sound, but do enjoy some of it, when the mood is right.

My dad grew up in the 50s, and was a giant Hank Williams fan. After he passed, one of the few things I got from him was a box set of all of Hank's recordings, that I love to pull out at least once a year.

[Draevyn]

17 minutes ago, JasonM said:

As a Euro, my experiences with country is extremely limited. But I love me some Highwaymen (and it's constituent parts) and Jerry Reed.

Oh hell yes. Jerry Reed is great. She got the Goldmine (and I got the shaft) is so great.

[GhostMachine]

40 minutes ago, Draevyn said:

Oh hell yes. Jerry Reed is great. She got the Goldmine (and I got the shaft) is so great.

Amos Moses and When You're Hot You're Hot. 

[Draevyn]

1 minute ago, GhostMachine said:

Amos Moses and When You're Hot You're Hot. 

Basically give me anything with a story and I'm in.

Coming from a trucking family, I was always a huge fan of Red Sovine as well though a lot of his stuff could be considered "Talky Country" but I loved it.

[GhostMachine]

33 minutes ago, Draevyn said:

Basically give me anything with a story and I'm in.

Coming from a trucking family, I was always a huge fan of Red Sovine as well though a lot of his stuff could be considered "Talky Country" but I loved it.

Red Sovine and C.W. McCall.

[Hobo]

I grew up in rural Ireland and my dad is a farmer who came of age when rock n roll and country influenced music was the big thing for Irish youths.

There was always country music in my house. My dad had tapes of Patsy Cline, Kenny Rogers, Marty Robbins and Charly Pride that lived in our family cars.

My brother had Randy Travis and Garth Brooks albums. Garth Brooks was immensely popular here. Im more of a Chris Gaines man myself.

So there was quite a bit of US country in my house and some of the Irish variety (which is... a thing ...and its horrible)

As a teen I was big into Johnny Cash. I really only like Johnny Cash's American Recordings. That said I can't get into the earlier stuff as much. There is a lot of Johnny Cash and a lot of it is kinda samey, kinda over produced and thats a great swathe of his career tbh

One of my first gigs ever was seeing Willie Nelson live. I can take a lot of Willie's overall oeuvre than I can Cash. He's really just a lot more interesting as a songwriter and the outlaw style that he helped spearhead was just more interesting. 

I enjoy Kris Kristofferson too. He made a lot of  albums that no ine listened to probably. The man wrote songs about supporting the Sandinsitas, anti gulf war and iraq war songs and just got political in a left of center way that you don't get in county music.

Speaking of lefty musicians in the country sphere. I became a pretty big Steve Earle  fan for a while too. His mid 90s to early 2000s are all really great.

Steve Earle led me to Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark (who I also managed to see live once). I had Justin Townes Earles first EP and his first couple of albums but never kept up with it. Whether you could really call those guys country probably depends on your definition.

Ive also got that Chicks album where they responded to all the hate they got for their anti Iraq comments and the Toby Keith album with Courtesy of the Red White and Blue on it.

The only reason i have it is it had a duet with Willie Nelson on it. Willie is also the only reason i have anything with Kid Rock on it in my music collection because they did a duet.

[GhostMachine]

Country music and Irish music do have a lot in common. Probably because a lot of Irish settled in the south.

(I've been listening to some Irish and Scottish music, but really have no idea what I should listen to.)

[Draevyn]

5 minutes ago, Hobo said:

I grew up in rural Ireland and my dad is a farmer who came of age when rock n roll and country influenced music was the big thing for Irish youths.

There was always country music in my house. My dad had tapes of Patsy Cline, Kenny Rogers, Marty Robbins and Charly Pride that lived in our family cars.

My brother had Randy Travis and Garth Brooks albums. Garth Brooks was immensely popular here. Im more of a Chris Gaines man myself.

So there was quite a bit of US country in my house and some of the Irish variety (which is... a thing ...and its horrible)

As a teen I was big into Johnny Cash. I really only like Johnny Cash's American Recordings. That said I can't get into the earlier stuff as much. There is a lot of Johnny Cash and a lot of it is kinda samey, kinda over produced and thats a great swathe of his career tbh

One of my first gigs ever was seeing Willie Nelson live. I can take a lot of Willie's overall oeuvre than I can Cash. He's really just a lot more interesting as a songwriter and the outlaw style that he helped spearhead was just more interesting. 

I enjoy Kris Kristofferson too. He made a lot of  albums that no ine listened to probably. The man wrote songs about supporting the Sandinsitas, anti gulf war and iraq war songs and just got political in a left of center way that you don't get in county music.

Speaking of lefty musicians in the country sphere. I became a pretty big Steve Earle  fan for a while too. His mid 90s to early 2000s are all really great.

Steve Earle led me to Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark (who I also managed to see live once). I had Justin Townes Earles first EP and his first couple of albums but never kept up with it. Whether you could really call those guys country probably depends on your definition.

Ive also got that Chicks album where they responded to all the hate they got for their anti Iraq comments and the Toby Keith album with Courtesy of the Red White and Blue on it.

The only reason i have it is it had a duet with Willie Nelson on it. Willie is also the only reason i have anything with Kid Rock on it in my music collection because they did a duet.

I sadly did not discover Justin Townes Earle until after he'd passed and felt like I missed someone truly special when I listened to him. He's probably more bluesy than typical country but it kind of reminded me of Hank Williams Sr but better. I've never been a fan of Hank Sr. I find he sound way to whiny in all that he sings. Same with Patsy Cline.

[GhostMachine]

Kris Kristofferson is a Rhodes Scholar. He actually started writing while in England.

Speaking of Steve Earle, Copperhead Road is the first cassette single (yes, I am that old) that I ever bought. 

 I need to listen to more of Townes Van Zandt. Didn't know until recently that Pancho & Lefty was originally done by him, not Willie and Merle.

Have also been listening to a lot of country rap lately. Colt Ford and Moonshine Bandits mostly, but also some Demun Jones, Lacs and others. Moonshine Bandits do some crossover stuff. They'd have Corey Taylor, David Allan Coe and Buckcherry on some of their songs. Colt Ford and some singer I've never heard of did a cover of Linkin Park's In The End, which  I seriously recommend. 

 

[Hobo]

16 minutes ago, GhostMachine said:

Country music and Irish music do have a lot in common. Probably because a lot of Irish settled in the south.

(I've been listening to some Irish and Scottish music, but really have no idea what I should listen to.)

The genre of Country and Irish music is really more Irish people aping American country style with  often quite cheesy production. Maybe you get a bit of Irish trad mixed in.

 

17 minutes ago, Draevyn said:

I sadly did not discover Justin Townes Earle until after he'd passed and felt like I missed someone truly special when I listened to him. He's probably more bluesy than typical country but it kind of reminded me of Hank Williams Sr but better. I've never been a fan of Hank Sr. I find he sound way to whiny in all that he sings. Same with Patsy Cline.

I definitely reccomend finding JTEs debut ep Yuma. I never really listened to anything after his second album. His dads tribute album is pretty good although the fact it exists is pretty sad.

[King Ellis]

...sort of? Being from the UK it's not quite as ubiquitous as I'm sure it is in certain parts of America but it's still got a presence, like Radio 2 has a weekly program about it and there's the Country 2 Country festival that they cover. It's on Radio 2 that I heard stuff like The Shires and Ward Thomas, Ward Thomas I absolutely adore (saw them live a few years back) and I like The Shires but I've always found them a bit...commercial I guess would be the word. They come across to me like they're always trying too hard to market themselves towards being accepted in America by making references to certain cities or cultural aspects which always seemed weird to me. 

Boys Like Girls as well had this weird pivot into being a country-pop sound in their third album which made for a very niche thing that appealed to me, this mix of country-pop and pop-punk. They had a collab with a very early fame Taylor Swift on their second album as well. 

I guess I don't actively go out looking for new music from the genre, but then again I don't really do that for any genre. But I'm not going to judge a song just based on it's genre, if I like it then I like it. There's other random songs that I've taken a shine to, like I had that Blake Shelton/Gwen Stefani song 'Go Ahead and Break My Heart' come on my playlist today, 'Lost in the Middle' by Catherine McGrath or, speaking of Taylor, I should listen to more of her early stuff because I like 'Mean' and 'Love Story'.

 

[GhostMachine]

16 minutes ago, Hobo said:

The genre of Country and Irish music is really more Irish people aping American country style with  often quite cheesy production. Maybe you get a bit of Irish trad mixed in.

 

I was talking about more traditional Irish music, like the Chieftains. 

 

9 minutes ago, King Ellis said:

I guess I don't actively go out looking for new music from the genre, but then again I don't really do that for any genre. But I'm not going to judge a song just based on it's genre, if I like it then I like it. There's other random songs that I've taken a shine to, like I had that Blake Shelton/Gwen Stefani song 'Go Ahead and Break My Heart' come on my playlist today, 'Lost in the Middle' by Catherine McGrath or, speaking of Taylor, I should listen to more of her early stuff because I like 'Mean' and 'Love Story'.

 

You need more Blake Shelton. I recommend you check out Ol Red, Sangria, Austin, Sure Be Cool If You Did, and two songs he did with Trace Adkins, Hillbilly Bone and Hell Right. 

Taylor did an episode of CMT Crossroads, where she performed with my favorite 80's band (and still one of my favorites) Def Leppard. Love Story actually made a quite good duet. But Taylor trying to do Pour Some Sugar On Me, was....weird. |"The do you take sugar? One lump or two?!" part which is supposed to be loud sounded normal range.

My 22 year old stepson, who listens mainly to hip-hop, really likes Luke Combs. I've caught him singing to Beautiful Crazy. His grandmother and sister took him to a Luke Bryan concert several years ago.

Edited July 26, 2023 by GhostMachine

[Hobo]

5 minutes ago, GhostMachine said:

I was talking about more traditional Irish music, like the the Chieftains

Ccounty and Irish is more like this

[METALMAN]

I like that one about driving around in a pickup truck.