Anyone who makes jokes about country music just sounds ignorant in my book. I used to manage a music shop and we used to have loads of discussions about which music was good and which was crap. The consencus was always “people like different things, just listen to what you like, not what other people say you should like”. I learnt to like all sorts of music as I was intrigued by album covers in the store, so used to play them over the store system.
I learnt to enjoy particular sub-genres of Jazz/Big Band/Country/Classical/Metal etc etc but the only ones I still dont like are most World Music and reggae, but that’s ok of course.
Country music I’ve gotten into a lot more, there are some great established acts mentioned above and a LOT more appearing nowadays with all different styles. I like the fact that they arent afraid to sing about any subject, it tends to be direct and from the heart, and they sing about stuff that matters to them but that many others can relate to.
I like Brad paisley, great mix of songs and amazing guitarist. Try “Mud on the Tyres” or This is Country Music” which are my favourites of his. I just bought the Eric Church live album “Caught in the Act” after seeing him on a Country at the BBC programme, his live stuff is amazing. I also like Tim McGraw too.
There was a popup R2 country station on recently when the Country to Country festival was on a few weeks ago – there were some great programmes on there going through all types of the music. I especially loved the Country in the UK programme, some great artists coming from the UK putting a UK style on the tradiotional country style, not folk but something new and really good.
I still listen to hardcore punk/Dire Straits/Pink floyd and loads of other vastly different music – theres so much good stuff out there!
