I don't like country music but you would think I did if you looked at some of the music I've been listening to these days. Unfortunately my computer speakers are broke (thinking about taking my computer in to get that checked out today), so I've been listening to music the old fashioned way...on a stereo. It's really hard to explain what I like and what I don't like when it comes to the country genre. I don't like people like Garth Brooks or Kenny Chesney, or anybody like that. I can tolerate the more poppy sort of country (Lee Ann Rimes sort of stuff), if it was on the radio I would listen to it...but I don't listen to pop music much anymore either. Here's where it gets tricky though, I love bluegrass and folk rock sort of music. I even like the old school country singers, Kenny Rogers and Willie Nelson were two of my favorites when I was really young. I grew up all old school rock and roll and I don't think you can appreciate rock and roll much unless you have an appreciation for its roots...country, folk, and blues mostly. When I recently visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame I watched a movie presentation on rock and roll and I remember Tom Petty saying about the same thing in the video. My favorite quote was when he said that, "rock and roll is the bastard child of music". It totally is, and that's really one of the reasons why I love it so much. I'm not exacly sure why bluegrass appeals to me but not the new school country music though. I think though, if you were to ask me if there is a purely American type of music, I would say that it's American folk and bluegrass. Even though Jazz and Rock are both born out of American tradition I don't think I could say either one of these are purely American. Anybody who's studied music, including Jazz, can easily see the European influence in that type of music, especially in the structure and harmony. Jazz is a combination of influence, just as rock is, and rock is even more so considering that jazz influenced it (as well as bluegrass and country). Bluegrass, on the other hand, was created in remote parts of country, where European musical influences were quite absent. That's my opinion though, I'm sure others might disagree. I appreciate a lot of different types of music, even if I don't listen to all of it though.
I did want to review what I'm listening to right now that falls into the "country" category...some of it is more bluegrass, but there are some pretty incredible albums out there right now.
The new Dixie Chicks album is awesome. The more I listened to this album, the more I loved it. I would often be listening to it while working and just stop and listen because the song that was on was just so incredible...that doesn't happen very often when I play CDs. It also doesn't happen for more than one song on an album either, at one point I just stopped working altogether and sat down to listen to the CD and do nothing else.
American V: A Hundred
Highways
I wasn't on the Johnny Cash bandwagon at all. I actully found an interesting article over at Slate.com about Johnny Cash's recent popularity called, Johnny Cash, CornballCan pop music be both great art and shameless kitsch? It got me thinking about all this popularity and artist/celebrity popularity in general. The article made a good point that now that he's dead, he seems more popular than ever:
"A best-of CD landed in the Billboard Top 10 last year, and a new album, American V: A Hundred Highways, arrived on July 4 and promptly hit No. 1. It's the first Cash album to top the pop charts since Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (1968)-proof positive that as much as we esteem our "living legends," we prefer them recently dead and deified in Hollywood biopics."
Well, I still wouldn't consider myself a Johnny Cash fan of any sort, but I do like this album. I became intrigued when I first heard the song on the radio...they kept putting up on a "battle of the bands" sort of contest on a local radio station where they put one song up against another, listeners vote, and the winner advances to the next day with a new song to compete against. So when I first heard the song, "God's Gonna Cut You Down", I was like, "that song is awesome...who is that?!" So I looked it up online and saw that it was Johnny Cash. Then I was like, "Johnny Cash? really? I didn't know this station played Johnny Cash". Since I'm not a fan, I actually thought this was an old song of some type, but I was interested enough to try and find it on a CD. I eventually found out it was from a new CD that wasn't released yet, stuff that he was working on before he died. Anyway, I think "God's Gonna Cut You Down" now holds the record for the most days on the radio contest as number one, something like over 30 some days...which is impressive to me. Here's why I don't think this is "kitschy" though...I think that despite his popularity with "Walk the Line" and the many books that are now out about it, there's a new generation of people who are now at least familiar with his music...a younger generation that might not have been otherwise. I don't see anything wrong with that, and at least it opened up my eyes to what a great artist he was. Also, his music falls in line with the type of music I generally like anyway...depressing music...you would think that should automatically qualifies me to like country music...
We Shall
Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
Bruce Springsteen recreates the spirit of folk music with this album. Basically he invited about a dozen folk musicians to his famrhouse to jam for three days, and this is the result of that. The music itself was inspired by old Pete Seeger albums in Springsteen's collection, now intrepreted again by some of the most talented modern musicians. I love the spirit and simplicity of this album, it's exactly what folk music is all about, and I love that one of the world's greatest rock and rollers of our time is able to translate that spirit for the rest of us.
I knew of this album, but when I was wandering around Barnes & Noble one day, it was playing. The song that was playing was "Erie Canal", I love those old standard folk tunes, like "Erie Canal" and "Shenandoah", I knew exactly what album it was and I knew I wanted to listen to the rest of it.
The next few albums I would put in the bluegrass catagory. My husband and I listen to "Prairie Home Companion" often (although not much lately) on the weekends. We both love Garrison Keillor, but I also love the music. Nickel Creek is a young bluegrass band that I heard on that show one time. From what I've heard, this album starts to shift away from their initial bluegrass roots, to something more unconventional, but I think that's quite alright. I've heard them in interviews (probably on NPR), they just like to make music, I think as they mature, so will their music. I actually don't like it when people criticize musicians who crossover into other genres, it's this type of musical innovation that produces such a rich diverseness of of music that there is in the world. It's also why music will also be a popular artistic outlet for most people.
Alison Krauss came up when I was looking for more music like Nickel Creek. Even though I like bluegrass, I don't listen to it often so I don't really know who's popular. This ablum is also worth checking out if you're interested in more bluegrass stuff.
This album is a few years old (the movie is good too), but I love it. When "Cold Mountain" came out I had heard that Jack White helped produce this album...I absolutely love the Whitestripes and I was intrigued by the fact that he had done a lot of work on this album. I also thought the music in "Cold Mountain" was incredible. Although, it took me a few years to finally get to listening to the album. The songs that Jack White sings are absolutely recognizable, but still wonderfully representative of bluegrass. It's easy to see how this type of music reflects his rock music though, and like I already mentioned, I have a great respect for artists that can innovate using existing sytles of music.
I think I'm done with my country/bluegrass kick for awhile. Most of the stuff I'm listening to now is rock, some classical here and there, but mostly back to rock.
