Engine

The question at hand is why you DO like Country so kindly take your sarcastic smiley and fuck off to a thread on which you might make a worthwhile reply.

Willie has rarely sounded bad.

I'm not real clear on the difference b/w Country and Honky Tonk but I always kinda liked Yoakam too. Even though he was placed in the same terrible mid-90s camp as, say, Garth Brooks, I usually found his style at least tolerable.

In response to this I have to say 1) I don't feel that gothic and alternative country is really Country and no offense to this thread but I really feel that it belongs in the Indie & Alternative forum where it would get much more attention which is well deserved because there's some great stuff in there. But it's not quite Country.

and 2) I feel that Country is one of the more misunderstood and pre-judged styles of music in existence and I can see why. Most people on Earth, myself included, were raised thinking of Country music as something that has nothing to do with them - made by and for backwards yokels from the Southern US.

Of course, that's true in some cases but it's also much more than that. Country musicians have often made music that has real soul, great musicianship, and well, steel guitars and banjos and fiddles often sound great.

I'll admit, the first time I paid proper attention to "watch-you-leave-through-the-screen-door" stuff is when I heard Ween's mid-90s country album which seems like a joke but is actually true Country music. They make fun of typical Country lyrical subject matter but, true to Ween style, the musicianship is excellent and the jokes are maybe kind of serious in their minds. Definitely the music on the album is serious. I saw them play twice when they toured for this album and the band they had with them live and on the album was seriously Country as shit including an amazing old guy on the steel guitar.

I particularly love this song right down thar and I highly recommend the album to anyone who wants to understand Country music but haven't been able to get past their pre-conceived notions of it. No guarantee you'll like it but this is one way I learned to:

Help Me Scrape the Mucus Off My Brain

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Howard the Duck

would alt-country fit in here?

Wilco's Being There is wonderful

as is Ryan Adams & The Cardinals' Cardinology

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Engine

I'm not the keeper of the Country, Folk, & World Music forum here on MB but no, I don't consider Wilco or Ryan Adams to be Country musicians.

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TheBig3

People say this when they like the music a country artist puts out, but thinks that country music, the people who make it, and the people who listen to it are inbred hicks who love jesus.

You can go back and find people (one-off posters) trying to say Johnny Cash is really a rock musician. Embrace the genre, release your prejudices.

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hip hop bunny hop

I got into Country right about the same time I got into lo-fi black metal; something about the lack of an overbearing rhythm section, the lack of wanking.

Country also has the quality of being good social music; you can put on Kristofferson and socialize and still enjoy the music. The fact that most of the vocalists were, to put it kindly, not formerly trained certainly adds to the fun factor.

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TheBig3

Yeah you know I think that adds a lot. Theres something about knowing someone is singing because they have the need to, and not because this was an appealing hobby.

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chad1988

I honestly don't know the reason, But country music is great to me. Just for some reason don't like any other music.

I'll try and think of the reason why I like it. And when I do come up with the reason. I'll post back.

Chad

Engine

I'm not sure you caught the points I've tried to make if you're actually calling me prejudiced against any of the musicians/genres we're talking about. I like Country music.
I also like Ryan Adams and I think Wilco are sometimes pretty okay. Alt-country just doesn't feel like Country music to me.

Also, I'm a poster who feels that Cash was more of a Rock musician than a Country one. His peers were Elvis, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis. I consider them all more Rock even if they were "from the country" and, similarly to Ryan Adams and Wilco, I like them but they aren't reasons why I like Country.

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TheBig3

Just to clarify your point, so that I can understand it, you're saying because he hung around people who'd be considered "Rock", he is therefore "rock."

Similarly, are we calling Bruno Mars rap because he guested on a few tracks? If so, I can finally understand why Ice Cube thinks he's an actor.

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Engine

Christ, I knew I should have left the Cash topic alone. Anyway, sure, I'll clarify but I really wish that you would have addressed at least some of my post that was on topic so that I can be assured that you'll actually take the necessary few seconds to understand me before responding.

So.. no, of course I'm not so short-sighted to think that Cash was Rock by association. I really do think that he, like Elvis, made Rock music. Examples: 'Get Rhythm' by Cash and 'Rip It Up' by Elvis. Both of these guys also hung around with Conway Twitty who was definitely Country. Got me?

Also your Bruno Mars/Ice Cube joke is not amusing at all and, before you ask, I mean absolutely nothing by that other than to say that you're not funny.

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