I am no different. I have a love for most musical genres as long as there is a musical value to the strum of the guitar or the beat of the drum. Certain styles are not my fancy but I do not discredit them, I only subscribe to their most popular versions; the Nirvanas of Grunge, the Will Smith of Rap, the Abba of 70’s dance hall, well you get my point.
My love, however, is the country music genre and the singer/songwriter set. Whether it be the solid gold country styles of Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, or “The Gentle Giant” Don Williams or the more modern “countrypolitian” styles of today, my musical appreciation has most always leaned more in the direction of the cowboy than that of the concreted suburbanite. Songs like the Fighting Side of Me, Luckenbach, Texas, and Tulsa Time take me back to my childhood like that of a country road winding through the Blue Ridge mountains in West Virginia.
While today’s country music has changed a little, it has remained strong with its core audience of Middle America by appealing to working class values and strong family images. Even though the songs are a little more up tempo and the guitars a little more electric, the music still resonates with me and I presume that of the majority of America…I know this because Hootie is singing country music.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Hootie, his real name is Darius Rucker and his fame is from his run with the mid-90s band, Hootie and the Blowfish of which I own two copies of the initial CD offering. (I inherited one when my wife and I married). Hootie was huge in his day crooning songs of relationships with a solid and soulful voice from the south. The South Carolina band seemed unstoppable but inevitably, in the pop music genre, released a sophomore album and fell into little known obscurity by albums three and four. Pop music can be so fickle. I often wondered why Hootie wore a Radney Foster shirt during his concerts and in 2008, I now understand. Hootie was a closet country music lover and now a current country music performer.
If Hootie can sing country music successfully, I wonder who else has joined the fray. A little research on my part reveals other closet country music lovers who have been unable to make their original genres stick.
The most laughable, once popular, hair band singer turned country music singer is Bret Michaels. Remember Poison? Yep, ole Bret has turned in his hair extensions and eye shadow to jam about cow fields and loyal dogs. Every rose has its thorn and the proverbial thorn in the side of country music has to include Mr. Michaels.
From this
To this
And who says country music isn’t tolerable.
The remaining list of today’s country music crooners speak to the loyalty of the country listener and the frailty and fickleness of other musical varieties. Consider the careers of Kid Rock, Jessica Simpson, Phil Stacey, and Julianne Hough to name a short list of singers flocking to the country genre due to their understanding of the value of the country music listener. American Idol understands, seemingly having their biggest successes to date with singers choosing the country music genre.
I can’t help but smile when I see people turning back to their roots, perhaps in a self-serving manner, yet still in an effort to openly acknowledge their willingness to support strong “Americana” values through music and jump on the country music bandwagon. Maybe I am overselling this trend but nevertheless going country seems to be all the rage this summer.
Welcome to the party Kid, we got you All Summer Long
Just a thought.
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