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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

'Tis better to say what is NOT country than what is. And indeed the recent CMA awards show was NOT country.

Tom T.Hall also gave us his definition a few years ago . Remember "COUNTRY IS" ?????

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If it feels good. do it.
If it feels Country,
DO IT TWICE
JPP

An example of how rediculous the dogmatic approach to what is real or not is statements like this:

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I feel like todays country music is over produced, too perfect if you will..................................God Bless Billy Sherrill!

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I love Billy Sherrill's production but you gotta admit the guy layed it on pretty thick.

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So what elements make today's NCS radio sound 'country" to the audience's ears? I maintain that it's the vocals, the lyrics, the use of major keys, the bass lines, the acoustic guitars, and the mixing. Oh yeah, the fiddle and steel do the trick when other elements are missing.

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I think that about sums it up. Especially the vocals (as you said earlier, they're the loudest "instrument") and the lyrics. Even when the lyrics are "so-so", the vocals are still the primary element of the song.

I'm curious, though, about your comment on "major keys". I agree that almost all of country music is in a major key. But, what "modern" music can't be described in this way? I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just not familiar with any type of music that I'd describe otherwise.

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

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Traditionally, the use of relative minors was part of what distinguished pop from country. As country started to include relative minors more (in the 70's, I think), pop/rock started to leave the space of the key signature more often with chords like the b7 major and b3 major.

Pop also started to include sus4 and add9 chords more often, which are which are part of the major key. As country started to include those chords, the alternative rock folks moved even further from the key signature. The classic alt-rock sound is a 4-chord repetition where all 4 chords share one common note (often the high E of the guitar). The chords are largely unrelated except for the inclusion of that drone note, and the melody cannot be constructed from a traditional major scale.

On the softer side of pop, it's hard to find a song today where the verse and chorus are in the same key. Temporary modulations (one or two bars) are very common, and the use of minor chords has reached the point where the distinction between major and minor keys rests solely on the location of the V7 chord. (With no sharps or flats, the only real way to tell C major from A minor is to hear G7 or E7 as the V7.)

This is why I say that country "favors" the major keys. A country song in a minor key is seriously minor. It will have dark lyrics and a prominent b3 in the melody. You know it's minor!

Country can get very sad in major keys, where pop relies on major/minor ambiguity to expresses more subtle, less "heartfelt" emotions. Maybe that's why we love "pure country" so much. It expresses the extremes of joy and sorrow by distilling music to its simpler elements.

As much as I analyze it, I keep coming back to the vocals, though. The singer's ability to communicate is the cornerstone of country. When it loses that, I'm out of here!

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Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (E9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (F Diatonic)
Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6)

[This message was edited by Bobby Lee on 14 May 2001 at 12:15 PM.]

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Maybe that's why we love "pure country" so much. It expresses the extremes of joy and sorrow by distilling music to its simpler elements.

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Agreed. KISS applies well to country music.

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As much as I analyze it, I keep coming back to the vocals, though. The singer's ability to communicate is the cornerstone of country

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Agreed again.

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

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all House, Garage House, and Deep House music is in minor key.

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What a sheltered life I must lead. Never even heard of that music before.

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

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A country song in a minor key is seriously minor. It will have dark lyrics and a prominent b3 in the melody. You know it's minor!

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Would "Where've You Been?" by Kathy Mattea be a good example of that?

I love that song.

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

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If it feels good. do it.
If it feels Country,
DO IT TWICE
JPP

[*]Pick-up trucks
[*]Lost loves
[*]Bars'n'fights
[*]Growin' up on the farm
[*]Cheatin' hearts
[*]Other stuff like that

Right?

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Bill (steel player impersonator) | MSA Classic U12 | Email | Music | Steelers' birthday page

[This message was edited by Bill Llewellyn on 15 May 2001 at 12:53 PM.]

So, here goes. Take all the songs from James Taylor's Greatest Hits album.
click here

Let us know how your "service" rates them.

PS -- Track 12 (Steamroller) is on there as a test.

After you're done, we'll ask b0b to rate them using his patented system, described above.

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

[This message was edited by b0b on 16 May 2001 at 05:35 PM.]

And, if we say that fiddles and steels make it country, then what is Johnny Cash's music..."garage rock"?

And no, contrary to popular opinion, "Night Life" certainly isn't a country song. If it is, then Michael Bolton's a cowboy!

No, you see, all these problems started when we tried to widen the definition of what country music really was. I guess that was back when someone (I really don't know who) classified Bob Wills as "country" (any dang fool knows that couldn't be country with all them horns! ). Lotta people know it when they hear it, and a lotta people don't

What is country music? I hear people say "different things to different people". And I KNOW that there's someone out there that thinks DeBussy is country.

And, heck, I'd let them play some of JT's songs on country radio. Why not? It's good music. And it'd be even better once somebody added some nice steel licks to it, don't ya think?

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

The Diamond Ballroom, where I worked for awhile in the early 60s, had an eight-piece western-swing group for the house band, and they played with one eye on a BOB WILLS album, and the other eye on a HANK THOMPSON album. The Diamond also booked many of the Nashville artists who had once been "stars"but whose careers were fading and they no longer could afford to tour with their own band, so the house-band, a full blown western-swing group, served as the visiting "stars" back up band. (Some of you are beginning to smile already and are getting ahead of me).

Many of the guest artists had never been exposed to anything but the Nashville way of doing things. One of these artists, (I won't use his name without permission but he probably wouldn't mind), who was one of the nicest persons you would ever meet on the circuit, a real professional, had a typical experience with the Diamond band. There had been no rehearsal, only the one song that he had sung earlier on the TV show before he appeared at the club.