Proof that New Country is all the same

Jan 22, 2015 11:19:55 GMT -5 @endless said:

As country goes, I admit I like Kacie Musgrave. I like her trailer trash lyrics.

Is Jerry Jeff Walker country? Cuz I have been a fan of his for 45 years.

I'm a JJW fan, too, and of many of his contemporaries and followers.  Is Robert Earl Keen country? As country as Tobie Keith?*

Of course it's all subjective and "country" is as broad a category, with equally fuzzy borders, as "rock" that would include both  CSN&Y and AC/DC on the same list. 

But JJW is one of the good ones.  There's quality and depth to his music. What (I assume) you and I would call "New Country" compares to JJW the way Bachman Turner Overdrive compares to Derek and the Dominoes. And BTO can be fun; it's just that there's nothing to it.

The relatively new term "Americana" is in many respects a way to say "good country" or "better than bland boring folk" or stuff that straddles the borders.  We know it when we see it; we can't really define it (could an Irish band do Americana?)

Recall that JJW, as clearly seen in  "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother" represented the antithesis of C&W, as did most of his fans and those who followed similar music.  Then the "Outlaw Country" of Waylon Jennings moved country from the clean-cut conservative side to the hippy side, and ironically Merle Haggard went along with them, Okie Muskogee and all.

*Toby Keith's Bullets in the Gun" stole shamelessly from REK's Road Goes on Forever; REK wrote a song bashing TK.  Tobie, IMO, is the bad "new Country" or "hat act" that the video makes fun of while REK is real music.

,d.cWc