Where do I start with country music?

It’s my chosen genre-to-explore this Autumn.

I don’t know, I’ve listened to bits and bobs for years.

I know there’s musicmap.

Country’s about stories, right?

the mute button.
Hate the stuff – whay do you want to just out of interest?

Conway Twitty. Peter seems to like him and that’s good enough for me.

Junkyard +1

Truly truly shocking stuff.

Cash, Kristofferson, Marty Robbyns, Neil Young does some stuff alarmingly close to country. Don’t know much about the Western bit…

Used to love country music in my very early teens and have sort of returned to it in later life but far prefer bluegrass and folk.

With a different genre. I believe the sound of horses urinating on a tin roof compares favourably to country music.

This bloke’s fantastic:

And Hank Williams, obviously.

Good and bad in all genres of music.
Don’t let snobbishness and prejudice blind you to the good stuff.

Looking for lyrical gold.

I have the same prejudice as everyone, was just listening to James Taylor thinking “where’s the history”.

Johnny Cash would be a good start – he’s sort of the link to it all. He’s Country royalty via June Carter and hence the classic Nashville Grand Ol Opry sound. He painted himself as an outsider to this when he was younger but really it’s two sides of the same coin.
Later in his career he branched out massively and worked with people who would be at the lo-fi, indie-sort of country sound like Will Oldham (Bonnie Prince Billy). This is then a gateway to a lot of similar artists like Bon Iver, Son Volt, Wilco etc.

It’s a broad church – I think to get to grips with it you have to get involved with the trad Nashville sound as well as the more contemporary stuff.

Try these:

1 – Drop Kick Me, Jesus, Through The Goalposts Of Life

2 – Get Your Biscuits In The Oven And Your Buns In The Bed

3 – Get Your Tongue Outta My Mouth ‘Cause I’m Kissing You Goodbye

4 – Her Teeth Were Stained, But Her Heart Was Pure

5 – How Can I Miss You If You Won’t Go Away?

6 – How Can You Believe Me When I Say I Love You When You Know I’ve Been A Liar All My Life?

7 – I Been Roped And Thrown By Jesus In The Holy Ghost Corral

8 – I Changed Her Oil, She Changed My Life

9 – I Don’t Know Whether To Kill Myself Or Go Bowling

10 – I Fell In A Pile Of You And Got Love All Over Me

11 – I Flushed You From The Toilets Of My Heart.

12 – I Keep Forgettin’ I Forgot About You

13 – I Wanna Whip Your Cow

14 – I Would Have Writ You A Letter, But I Couldn’t Spell Yuck!

15 – I Wouldn’t Take Her To A Dawg Fight, Cause I’m Afraid She’d Win

16 – I’d Rather Have A Bottle In Front Of Me Than A Frontal Lobotomy

17 – I’m Just A Bug On The Windshield Of Life

18 – I’m The Only Hell Mama Ever Raised

19 – I’ve Been Flushed From The Bathroom Of Your Heart

20 – I’ve Got The Hungries For Your Love And I’m Waiting In Your Welfare Line

21 – If I Can’t Be Number One In Your Life, Then Number Two On You

22 – If Love Were Oil, I’d Be A Quart Low

23 – If My Nose Were Full Of Nickels, I’d Blow It All On You

24 – If You Don’t Leave Me Alone, I’ll Go And Find Someone Else Who Will

25 – If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?

26 – Mama Get The Hammer (There’s A Fly On Papa’s Head)

27 – My Every Day Silver Is Plastic

28 – My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink, And I Don’t Love Jesus

29 – My John Deere Was Breaking Your Field, While Your Dear John Was Breaking My Heart

30 – My Wife Ran Off With My Best Friend, And I Sure Do Miss Him

What Rusty just did. That.

cheers crikey.

Townes van Zandt.

Dark, gravel voiced, alcoholic genius.

FWIW i did wake up to Crystal Castles & rode home to The Clash so we’re in eclectica.

Early
Hank Williams – any compilation
Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger – First Rays of Protest

Classic
Johnny Cash – Live at San Quentin, Live at Folsom Prison

Alt/Americana
Neko Case and her Boyfriends – furnace room lullaby
Steve Earle – The Low road

This lot, can really play! 😉

They’ve got country…………*and* western.

Willie Nelson can be pretty amazing (and awful). Red Headed Stranger is a great album.

More recently, although not really country, I’m enjoying Tired Pony quite a lot.

Start with the off button.

There were 103 of them, but I thought you’d want to get into the shallow end and splash about…

Less obviously shite would be Nanci Griffith greatest hits, Steve Earle, and Half Man Half Biscuit for UK based Country Folk parody stuff.

…Although that charming intro from Nanci is what she does at every gig, every time she plays that song..

Bubba Sparxx..
All the rest of it, as has already been mentioned, is a load of bilious tosh.

Big n Rich – Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy

Gretschen Wilson – Redneck Woman

yunki.

that missy elliot ‘ting?

*googles*

Well, if you liked the Guy Clark, try these:

Carrie Underwood.

I would

Start there. 😯

Edit: of all the below songs, Black Tin Rocket is my current fave…

For modern country, perhaps try Lucinda Williams’ album ‘Car Wheels on a Gravel Road’, Emmylou Harris’ ‘Red Dirt Girl’ or Lyle Lovett’s ‘Pontiac’.

There’s also ‘Americana’ to consider, slightly edgier, perhaps. I like teh Transmissionary Six and Uncle Tupelo, amongst others.

If you want to begin at the beginning, at least the recorded beginning, then Harry Smith’s Anthology is the place to start IMO:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthology_of_American_Folk_Music

Have a listen to Bob Harris Country on Radio 2, for good country and roots. His late show at the weekend has more Americana type stuff on it. He’s on twitter too. Encyclopaedic knowledge of the genres.

Recommend Iris Dement, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings,Wilco,Steve Earle , Hank Williams, Dwight Yoakam and for western music Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys

Boxcar Willie!

Seriously, I think he’s great and I’m a metal head through and through. Don’t know much other country stuff but I stumbled on Boxcar through my Dad’s country collection.

Try also the Nitty gritty dirt band for some more upbeat and catchy songs. Not proper country though, really.

this is what it should sound like 😉

Country and Western is all rhinestones and fringed jackets with Stetsons, country, on the other hand, is basically American folk music, and an awful lot of it can clearly track it’s roots back to the English, Scottish and Irish folk music that settlers took with them, especially in the Appalachians and Blue Ridge Mountains.
I would suggest Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, Gram Parsons, Patsy Cline, Alison Krauss, Gretchen Wilson, Gillian Welch, Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, Glen Campbell…
You can include The Band, who’re very country influenced, Little Feat, even The Grateful Dead have strong country influences in much of their stuff.
Start looking into Alt.Country, and Americana, and you get into more bluegrass and folk/roots stuff, but still recognisably ‘country’.
I like country music, but absolutely draw the line at the big name Nashville ‘Hat-acts’!
[Edit] Damn, forgot Iris Dement! And of course, Steve Earle is very country, and his sister, Stacey Earle, has strong country influences in her work, but is more folky story-telling.
There’s loads out there, without getting Nashville showbiz.

Townes doing a bit of classic Richards / Jagger.

Patsy Cline. Any best of album of hers is one brilliant song after another and her singing is perfect.

I’m not a big country fan but its influence is undeniable, you can even hear it in P-funk!

Or how about the Duct Tape Messiah?

I quite like this guy on occasion.

Ooops, that last one didn’t work too well.

Try this:

What have i done…..thanks all.