BuffettNews.com

Tiki Torches wrote:

StlBeachBum wrote:This kind of fits here...
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2011 ... 011/637861

I'd say the author is way off with this remark:

In return, Buffett got national airplay--something he's never really been able to do on his own, despite decades of touring and generations of devoted fans.

....and this one:

Problem is, country music is no place for tropical breezes. Sure, country singers often pander to their audience with false bravado and faux blue-collar bluster, but the blatant laziness of a permanent vacation just doesn't play the same way.

Country is a genre known for its gritty grasp of reality, not peddling escapism like an airbrushed Club Med ad.

Those two passage alone show two things 1) The author has no grasp whatsoever of Buffett's chart history and 2) He obviously has no idea about the history of country music either as Buffett, Chesney and Brown aren't the first musicians to mix country and island sounds and I doubt they'll be the last.

Back to the tropic at hand...

Gotta say that the writer is wrong for several reasons:
a) couldn't get national airplay on his own? kid probably wasn't born before 1980, so we can probably excuse him for missing the "first wave"; but everyone knows that inviting Alan Jackson to sing along on "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" was what got him back on the radio with current music...
b) for every "gritty reality song" in country, there are 10 $&#^-kickin', sheep-(#$*#, slack-jawed inbred-appealin' toe-tappers written with a hook to follow a formula. Even a lot of the "gritty" are just story-telling w/out the mention of trucks, horses, or the singer/writer's fondness for barnyard fowl.

piratenurse wrote:

Tiki Torches wrote:

surfpirate wrote:"Well I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison
And I went to pick her up in the rain
But before I could get to the station in my pickup truck
She got runned over by a dammed old train"

David Allan Coe was also projecting an image (and continues to). That was a perfectly fine song before he added his bit to it.

But this is the perfect country song! I still have fond memories of sitting in a bar with sticky floors while everyone sang along. I still sing along, adding the "let me, let me, let me", the country equivalent of "salt, salt, salt".

There was a reason Alan Jackson wrote "Murder On Music Row"; he and King George were established enough to get away with recording it. Artists have to record what the execs think will sell, period, if they want to have a chance of national exposure. Just like they require the artist to participate in music videos, regardless of how horrific they may be (sorry, ZB). Most of these artists have way, way better original material that the powers that be won't even let them play live because it doesn't fit the "formula".

Thank goodness we now have satellite radio and stations such as KGSR in Austin they will play country music that doesn't fit the "formula".

LIPH wrote:

Tiki Torches wrote:

surfpirate wrote:The exact same sentiments have been expressed about ZBB, Jimmy Buffett (latter day), trop rock et al etc. etc. and their beach, sun, tropical ways as well.

And I say "Who gives a rat's ass?".

I'll take the songwriting side of Buffett over the cheesey "trop rock" image some have of him any day of the week. That's probably a huge reason why I prefer artists such as Guy Clark, Lyle Lovett, Jerry Jeff Walker, John Prine, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, etc. over the Buffett imitators that are so popular among much of his fanbase.

To change the subject slightly, this is something I could never understand. Kenny Chesney does a "Buffett-type" song and people want to rip him a new blowhole because they think he's a Buffett wannabe. Yet, many of those same people get almost orgasmic talking about trop rock artists, who owe their careers to being Buffett wannabes. Not to mention Zac Brown, who does a couple of "Buffett-type" songs and people are talking about the guy like he's the greatest thing since chocolate milk. Things that make you go "hmmmmm".

We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.

Spot on Larry.


plus in the article he forgot the cliched support our troops/kill'em all songs. Those p*** me off not because they are about soldiers but because they are only singing them to make themselves rich and couldnt care less about the troops. they know army families will request the songs.

The Pop Matters site has another article about the current state of Country music that I think some here will find to be a very worthwhile read.

Is Country Music Treading Water in 2011?

Tiki Torches wrote:The Pop Matters site has another article about the current state of Country music that I think some here will find to be a very worthwhile read.

Is Country Music Treading Water in 2011?

They have been treading water for years. Most modern country bands are barely good enough to work as sidemen for the Eagles when they were in their country-rock phase 35 years ago. It's all image, and hooks, and jingoistic bs trying to come off as something worth spending money on. Two years ago, Taylor Swift (supposedly a country star, tho now she's spreading her wings to catch the last chance to be a tweener queen) was on the Grammys with Stevie Nicks. Steve had more road mileage put on her between January of that year and the Grammys than Taylor had in her life. Listening to the tweener queen try to keep up on "Rhiannon" was painful; so painful that if I ever need to feel good about embarrassing myself in public, I play that video and know that my personal stupid moment was only seen by 20-30, or about 1/3 of the Grammys viewing audience.

Here, Shooter Jennings calls out the very thing that is mentioned in Peter Cooper's article all while delivering the song in the same sort of cadence that much of today's country music is sung and as always, by namedropping his father. Not sure that I can get behind this song 100% but the sentiment is certainly there.

Great read here from the folks at The Huffington Post:

The New Sound of Nashville

Nice quote from B.J. Barham in this article from NewRaleigh.com in regards to the new American Aquarium album, Burn.Flicker.Die. By the way, I'm not even an American Aquarium fan but I agree with B.J.'s sentiment wholeheartedly.

“I’ve had opportunities to write for country radio. I could write ‘chicken fried.’ I could write a song about a dirt road. There’s a reason I haven’t moved to Nashville and written a song for Tim McGraw,” he says. “I can’t do it. I would not be able to sleep. I’d have a really nice bed to sleep in but I wouldn’t be able to sleep.”

Burn.Flicker.Die. is American Aquarium’s Proud Stand

American Aquarium performing at the Pour House in Raleigh, NC

I was inadvertently at a Tim McGraw concert a few weeks ago. He wore very tight, very white jeans. That would never wear out my calling card.

buffettbride wrote:I was inadvertently at a Tim McGraw concert a few weeks ago. He wore very tight, very white jeans. That would never wear out my calling card.

I noticed he taped an episode of Austin City Limits recently which is a sure sign of that program jumping the shark. They've managed to maintain such a high level of integrity over the years one has to wonder what the hell they were thinking.

ACL is into paying for their new facility and entertaining and keeping an audience on pbs.
Yes, their format has changed, but they still provide lots of great music.

Just like people in this thread have said all along...one man's sqawk is another man's sing

...this song always comes to mind


Hank Williams Said It Best by Guy Clark

One man’s hawk is another man’s dove,
one man’s hug is another man’s shove
One man’s rock is another man’s sand,
one man’s fist is another man’s hand
One man’s tool is another man’s toy,
one man grief is another man’s joy
One man’s squawk is another man’s sing,
one man’s crutch is another man’s wing

One man’s pride is another man’s humble,
one man’s step is another man’s stumble
One man’s pleasure is another man’s pain,
one man’s loss is another man’s gain
One man’s can is another man’s grail,
one man’s anchor is another man’s sail
One man’s right is another man’s wrong,
one man’s curse is another man’s song

Chorus

For every father’s daughter
For every mother’s son
The only thing the same
Is that is ain’t for everyone
Hank Williams said it best
He said it a long time ago
"Unless you have made no mistakes in your life
Be careful of stones that you throw"

One man’s deuce is another man’s ace,
one man’s back is another man’s face
One man’s reason is another man’s rhyme,
one man’s dollar is another man’s dime
One man’s tree is another man’s post,
one man’s angel is another man’s ghost
One man’s rain is another man’s drought,
one man’s hope is another man’s doubt

One man’s false is another man’s fair,
one man’s toup is another man’s hair
One man’s hand is another man’s stub,
one man’s feast is another man’s grub
One man’s dread is another man’s dream,
one man’s sigh is another man’s scream
One man’s water is another man’s wine,
one man’s daughter leave another man cryin’

Chorus

One man’s famine is another man’s feast,
one man’s pet is another man’s beast
One man’s bat is another man’s ball,
one man’s art is another man’s scrawl
One man’s friend is another man’s foe,
one man’s Joesph is another man’s Joe
One man’s hammer is another man’s nail,
one man’s freedom is another man’s jail

One man’s road is another man’s rut,
one man’s if is another man’s but
One man’s treasure is another man’s trash,
one man’s landin’ is another man’s crash
One man’s word is another man’s lie,
one man’s dirt is another man’s sky
One man’s skin is another man’s color,
one man’s killer is another man’s brother

surfpirate wrote:"Well I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison
And I went to pick her up in the rain
But before I could get to the station in my pickup truck
She got runned over by a dammed old train"

Same man who wrote that wrote City of New Orleans among others.
Man I miss Steve Goodman.

From a new interview Rolling Stone did with Tom Petty:

At the Beacon, you described some modern country music as "bad rock with fiddle."

Well, yeah I mean, I hate to generalize on a whole genre of music, but it does seem to be missing that magic element that it used to have. I'm sure there are people playing country that are doing it well, but they're just not getting the attention that the shittier stuff gets. But that's the way it always is, isn't it? But I hope that kind of swings around back to where it should be. But I don't really see a George Jones or a Buck Owens or any anything that fresh coming up. I'm sure there must be somebody doing it, but most of that music reminds me of rock in the middle Eighties where it became incredibly generic and relied on videos. I don't want to rail on about country because I don't really know much about it, but that's what it seems like to me.

piratenurse wrote:

Tiki Torches wrote:

surfpirate wrote:"Well I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison
And I went to pick her up in the rain
But before I could get to the station in my pickup truck
She got runned over by a dammed old train"

David Allan Coe was also projecting an image (and continues to). That was a perfectly fine song before he added his bit to it.

But this is the perfect country song! I still have fond memories of sitting in a bar with sticky floors while everyone sang along. I still sing along, adding the "let me, let me, let me", the country equivalent of "salt, salt, salt".

There was a reason Alan Jackson wrote "Murder On Music Row"; he and King George were established enough to get away with recording it. Artists have to record what the execs think will sell, period, if they want to have a chance of national exposure. Just like they require the artist to participate in music videos, regardless of how horrific they may be (sorry, ZB). Most of these artists have way, way better original material that the powers that be won't even let them play live because it doesn't fit the "formula".

Little known "Country Fact". John Prine actually co wrote "You Never Even Called Me By My Name" with Steve Goodman. Prine refused writing credit because he thought the song was dumb. I think Prine said he & Goodman wrote it really quick on a night they both had way too much to drink.

Rodney Crowell has also been speaking out lately:

Rodney Crowell: New Country Artists “Missing The Boat”
August 5, 2013 - By Trigger
Rodney Crowell at Cactus Music :

Of all the people you could have picked to become an outspoken dissenter to the direction of country music, Rodney Crowell would have been pretty far down the list. Not that he doesn’t have the skins on the wall to say such things and have them carry weight, or that he doesn’t practice what he preaches when it comes to his own approach to music. Rodney is in the direct lineage of legacy-caliber songwriters like Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt, and came up playing in Emmylou Harris’s “Hot Band.” He and Emmylou recently released a duet’s album together, but he always seemed to be more of a reserved soul when it came to such things as saying country music is headed in the wrong direction.

Well he’s not being very reserved at the moment, taking his second opportunity in the last month to decry the direction of country in a recent interview:

I watch these young country artists come in and burst onto the scene, and I always have to remind myself that these artists didn’t experience Hank Williams Sr. or Big Joe Turner or Kris Kristofferson, who was able to bring the bedroom and sensual poetry into country music. These artists came from a different set of archetypal images. If I took the old school curmudgeon approach, I would say these guys are really missing the boat.

A couple of weeks ago, Crowell made similar disparaging remarks about the direction of country, carefully worded, coy, and cunning in the way the words cut right to the heart of the problem, saying in part:

Ever since country music entered the back door of main stream commerciality—most noticeably in the early sixties—the debate over who possesses the more noble heart, the purists or the popular entertainers has never stopped. (Remember the credibility scare of the late 80′s.) Generally speaking, the purists make the more timeless music.

Pop culture is a disposable culture, therefore it stands to reason that those who want the big bucks and the power are inclined to produce slick and disposable music. I don’t see anything wrong with artists getting rich by pigging out at the trough of poor taste.

Rodney Crowell may be no Dale Watson when it comes to the temper he brings to his country music dissent, but the more voices speaking out and reaching different audiences, the better. By saying many of today’s pop country artists are “missing the boat,” Crowell is showing the leadership country music needs to help right the ship.

http://www.savingcountrymusic.com/rodne ... g-the-boat

Tiki Torches wrote:

buffettbride wrote:I was inadvertently at a Tim McGraw concert a few weeks ago. He wore very tight, very white jeans. That would never wear out my calling card.

I noticed he taped an episode of Austin City Limits recently which is a sure sign of that program jumping the shark. They've managed to maintain such a high level of integrity over the years one has to wonder what the hell they were thinking.

I was shocked a few years ago when ACL's had Brooks & Dunn on an episode.

News on Peter Cooper.

Peter Cooper has a new CD "Opening Day" coming out in September 2013. There will be a Release Show at the Station Inn in Nashville on Sept 13th.

Peter also co wrote a soon to be published book with Todd Snider. Set for release in Jan 2014.

a1aara wrote:Little known "Country Fact". John Prine actually co wrote "You Never Even Called Me By My Name" with Steve Goodman. Prine refused writing credit because he thought the song was dumb. I think Prine said he & Goodman wrote it really quick on a night they both had way too much to drink.

I don't think I ever knew about Prine's co-writing credit until I read the liner notes to Steve Goodman's No Big Surprise anthology. If memory serves, Prine's payment was a vintage Wurlitzer jukebox.

While I admire Petty and Crowell for speaking up, for as long as I can remember there has always been a lot of crap you've had to wade through on the radio to get to the good stuff and that's as true for country as it is for rock n' roll. Somewhere in the mid-90's is when I finally jumped ship when it came to commercial radio. For anyone that's been paying attention, it's only gotten worse since then. Thank goodness there are other alternatives whether it's satellite radio, Spotify, Pandora or the nearly endless amount of choices available to each of us on the internet. However, none of them have the power of reaching a mass audience as FM radio once did. Unfortunately, that doesn't look like it's going to change any time soon. I'm just thankful that I was exposed to the music of Prine, Buffett, Waylon, Willie, Earl Scruggs Revue, Emmylou, Goodman, Old and In the Way, Jerry Jeff, etc. early on. That music had such a profound effect on me as to inform my listening habits up until this very day when it comes to country, folk and bluegrass music and for that, I'm forever grateful. While it's frustrating that very worthwhile artists such as Guy Clark, James McMurtry, Rodney Crowell, Hayes Carll, etc. will never cut through the "bad rock with a fiddle" that seems to define mainstream country radio these days, I now have more ways than ever before to circumvent the mainstream in order to find music that suits my tastes. The thing that's missing is the human element on commercial radio that used to help us sift through the bad stuff to get to the good. Without that, getting through the nearly endless choices we have at our disposal can be very overwhelming.

A couple of weeks ago, a low power FM station in my area called Little Raleigh Radio held a fundraiser where they screened a movie called Corporate FM which gets to the very heart of why FM radio is in such p*** poor shape these days and exactly how it got that way. For anyone that's passionate about music, it is a must see. Once Little Raleigh Radio goes live you won't be able to pick it up outside of a 7 mile radius but anyone, anywhere with an internet connection will be able to listen to it online. Community oriented radio stations like Little Raleigh Radio won't have much, if any effect on corporate FM radio but they will help to restore the human element and to bring a local viewpoint to the airwaves again. As it stands now, the majority of stations on the FM dial all sound identical to one another and are mostly automated. For someone that grew up listening to the radio as a kid, it's been very disheartening to see radio go down the shitter over the years.

For anyone that may be interested, here's the trailer for Corporate FM. There's also ways of hosting screenings in your area, more info on that at this link.

Peter Cooper On Music: Tom Petty’s country criticism flawed

Posted on August 6, 2013 by Peter Cooper


Tom Petty should hang with me. He’s confused about music, and could use some help.

I’ve been his exact same kind of confused in the past. I’ve confused formats with genres and art forms, and these are very different things.

In late May, Petty - one of the absolute great rock ‘n’ roll songsmiths, and someone I’ve listened to for hundreds of happy hours - took a little shot at country music from the stage of the Beacon Theater in New York. He called today’s country “bad rock with a fiddle.” And in a published interview this month with “Rolling Stone,” he went on a bit about country music.

“I don’t really see a George Jones or a Buck Owens or anything that fresh coming up,” he said. “I’m sure there must be somebody doing it, but most of that music reminds me of rock in the middle ‘80s where it became incredibly generic and relied on videos.”

First off, Tom Petty - and I know, for sure, that you’re reading this - if country musicians relied on videos they would be in trouble. Turn on one prominent “country music” video channel this Saturday and you’ll see “Footloose,” “Bounty Hunters” and “Beverly Hills Cop.” If country musicians relied on videos, Eddie Murphy and Kevin Bacon would be in the Top 40.

Hey, I know what Petty is trying to say. He’s trying to say that much of what he hears on the country radio isn’t up to snuff with some of the geniuses who used to be on country radio. But his broad brush is making a mess of things.

If I wrote that when I listen to rock radio, “I don’t really see a Chuck Berry or a Beatles or anything that fresh coming up,” I would be pilloried for my dunderheaded obviousness. Now, I’m not calling Petty a dunderhead - in part because the best bridge in rock history might be the one he wrote for “Refugee” - but judging country music by what’s played on terrestrial commercial country radio is like proclaiming, “I don’t like rock because of Nickelback,” or “I don’t like Tom Petty’s music because I don’t like One Direction.”

(Note to young readers: I didn’t say I don’t like One Direction, I was just giving an example of flawed logic.)

A lot of my respected friends (or at least the Facebook version of these respected friends) have proffered a version of Petty’s opinion, as well. It’s the “Things aren’t what they used to be” deal. I’m not arguing that the latest hick-hop single that vainly attempts to rhyme “hottie” and “body” is equal to the best works of Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams or Kevin Bacon. I’m just saying that defining country music by whatever’s playing on the radio at the moment is both maddening and ridiculous.

There is life-changingly great country music being made today. It is heard every night in Nashville clubs, and it is distributed around the world, via this newfangled thing known as the Internet. It is often not on terrestrial radio, but what does that matter to us? Do we not have access to the Internet? If not, shouldn’t we see about gaining such access? In Nashville, can’t we go to The Station Inn, Douglas Corner, the Bluebird Cafe, The Stone Fox and dozens of other venues? If not, shouldn’t we check into getting transportation, money to pay a slight cover charge, fake IDs or whatever surmountable hurdle is in our way?

Why are we complaining about music we don’t like? Why aren’t we finding music we do like? Why on earth are we listening to anything that doesn’t float our boats? Just change the channel. Or rip the radio from the dashboard, and point the car toward a great country music show.

The Wrights are my favorite husband-wife country duo since George Jones and Tammy Wynette. Caitlin Rose is a stupendously talented young singer and songwriter. Jon Byrd is Gram Parsons reincarnate, with better pitch. Elizabeth Cook is honky-tonk royalty, whether or not anyone offers her a crown. And loads of Country Music Hall of Famers - including Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, George Strait, Bobby Bare and Vince Gill - remain active and relevant. Heck, Gill plays a club gig every Monday at 3rd & Lindsley.

Most of the above country musicians aren’t on terrestrial, FM contemporary country radio. Does that make country music any the lesser? No, it just makes country radio (even) less enjoyable (if that’s possible). Contemporary country radio is a format, not a genre. Country music is a genre, not a format. Great country music is an art form.

Country music doesn’t need country radio anymore. We country fans have $10 to spend at the door, and we have YouTube and iTunes and Ernest Tubb Record Shops and the sense to stop complaining about what we don’t have any reason to endure.

Don’t like what’s on the radio? Turn off the radio, turn on the world. It’s at our feet, and at our fingertips, and it sounds great.

I repeat, it sounds great. Just like Tom Petty, a guy I haven’t heard on contemporary rock radio in a long, long time. Because I don’t listen to much contemporary rock radio. Why should I, when I can listen to Tom Petty music?

Reach Peter Cooper at 615-259-8220 or pcooper@tennessean.com.

Cooper makes some good points, some of the very same ones I've made but on the calling out Petty front, I'd say Cooper has been just as critical (if not more so) than Petty when it comes to his critique of commercial country radio. Look no further than the post that starts this thread.