Texas...I love it (and Country Music)

------------------
John Paul Jones

GFI U-12
Evans FET500 amp
ART T2 effects
HM-4 harmony machine

I don't have any alternatives !! So that would make this: "My Alternative Country..."

Beats not playing and sitting at home waiting for that Halloween Guy with the big sythe (an old Country device used to cut grain for harvest.).

Jeff's point was that it is a fact that ALT-COUNTRY, to the radio programming industry, means George Jones, and all the others we consider Country.

Equally ironic is that "Country" means (to these industry-types) acts that most of us refer to as "New Country".

Most everyone I know thinks "Alt-Country" refers to the current day "outlaws", (the type of bands refered to in Adrian Wulff's above post).

That's not true, according to Jeff, the radio industry has defined "Alt-Country" to be what I call "Classic Country".

Jeff's main point was the irony of this.

This is the first time I've realized that this new "Alt-Country" definition might just be a good thing, as far as marketing traditional country to a younger audience.

Like it or not, this young audience has grown up thinking "Country" means the hit Hat-Acts of the 90s.

[This message was edited by Joey Ace on 12 November 2001 at 10:38 AM.]

------------------
Steve Stallings
Bremond, Texas

A different name for Classic Country would perhaps be more suitable, but yet the name has to sound "today". It has to appeal!! How about.....

In the early 1980s there were a series of bands that mixed punk and country and R&B, I suppose you might call that the original Cowpunk scene, Jason & The Scorchers is probably the most famous outfit in that style, while the early Southern culture on The Skids and latter period CDs by the Supersuckers are probably the most current and notable of the crop.

Then there were the 'space-country' or the rain parade era of bands, there was a whole series of 1980s groups that seemed to want to mix the sounds of the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and Neil Young, although not incrediably country, this was a big scene in L.A. for a while there and the general style did spawn some interesting outfits, Rain Parade, The Triffids (Australian), The Long Ryders and others.
Some later groups in this style include the now defunct Mazzy Star and the Cowboy Junkies,who are still going.

I suppose one of the most influential 1980s groups would have to be Uncle Tupelo, the name of one of their albums coined the term 'No Depression' and when the group split in the 1990s it produced Son Volt and the much more famous Wilco.

Another groundbreaking alt-country act was the Jayhawks, their still around in one form or another,their debut was in the late 1980s and they formed out of various guys who were sick of the punk scene and wanted to play something more along the lines of the Flying Burrito Brothers, but there were heaps of 1980s roots rockers, from Boston, New York, L.A., Miineapolis, etc.

Then you've got acts like Big Sandy, the Derailers, the Mavericks (moreso the early albums), the late great Desert Rose Band, Dale Watson, Wayne Hancock, Patty Booker, etc who draw on earlier popular styles of country music for their style and sound, whereas the alterna-country crowd seems to draw more influence from the country-rock era.

------------------
Steve Stallings
Bremond, Texas

Something that'll stick....For example, I know of a recording studio near my home called..Are you ready?...."EXTRA FISH".

Yea, a recording studio. I went over to visit the guy who runs it and asked him why call a recording studio "Extra Fish"??? He plainly said, "So people will remember it". I remembered it for sure. That doesn't have much to do with the names we're putting on the old music, but it's just additional food for thought (pun intended). I think I'll go work on my "scales", now. Sorry.

Then again there is a method to that madness. They put catchy words in advertising.... A new name for an old item is how things sell.

I just turned fifty. Ilike Led Zep, ZZ Top,Beatles,Mountain,Third Eye Blind, Three Doors Down,James Taylor,Nat King Cole, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Moody Blues,Cole Porter,Swing Bands, Tom Morrell, Byrds, Eagles, Frank Zappa, Yellowjackets, George Benson, Greatfull Dead,Bach, Three Tenors.......

I don't understand folks who limit their musical palate to a narrow diet constantly. All music is a joyous noise....

------------------
Steve Stallings
Bremond, Texas

------------------
Steve Stallings
Bremond, Texas

------------------
Jim Smith jimsmith94@home.com
-=Dekley D-12 10&12=-
-=Fessenden Ext. E9/U-13 8&8=-

------------------
Steeling is still legal in Arizona

[This message was edited by Ray Jenkins on 16 November 2001 at 11:55 AM.]

quote:

---

they are FOLK plain pure and Simple.

---

That would be simply no... I'm not really interested in arguing the point, but I don't think that Gram's two albums with the FBBs or his solo albums are folk by any stretch, I'd say the Byrd's Sweetheart album has folkish leanings, and I admit that Gram's stint with the Byrds still had some folkie overtones; especially when compared his work with the Flying Burrito Brothers the following year.

But if we want to talk the roots of alterna-country.. I was actually intentionally avoiding mentioning Gram at first, but his contemporaries include:
Great Speckled Bird, Bob Dylan, the Band, Linda Ronstadt, The Corvettes, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, New Riders of The Purple Sage, Poco, Neil Young, Michael Nesmith & the First National Band, Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band, The Everly Brothers, etc.

[This message was edited by Jason Odd on 17 November 2001 at 08:43 AM.]

The Byrds & Dylan probably were/are the most
influential aspects of my approach to music.

I just had to jump in here. FWIW.