Play Something Country

It ain't always pretty

But it's real

It's the way we were made

Wouldn't have it any other way

-These Are My People (Rodney Atkins)

These days, it seems that country music has a stigma (no crap Brian!). It's hard to put a finger on one thing in particular, a specific point that gives it that stigma. And that point is proven by the fact that a hundred different reasons just raced through your head as to what that stigma is. Rednecks (I knew y'all wuld like em' that ther pithur), wife beaters, banjos, Nascar, dogs always dyin', cheatin' husbands, Deliverance, etc. But no matter, rest assured, if you ask enough people what type of music they enjoy listening to, at least half of them will say something to the effect of

"I like everything. Except for country, that is."

Why? Even people who enjoy, and like me, preach the qualities and pure artistry of country music, will put a disclaimer and qualifier when we speak up about country music. Almost solidifying the "stigma" or giving credence to it. Admitting the redneck factor, double wide, wife left me, got in a bar fight, truck broke down, and I kicked my dog (Vick style....eww, low blow) perception people have of country music.

"I'm not saying it's all good..."

"Hard to believe but..."

"It's not as twangy anymore..."

blah, blah, blah.

It's a large issue. The fact that people in our generation seem to automatically deny the quality or pleasurable benefit of country music and its offshoots. It is assumed this is largely in hopes of portraying the opposite element of hip-ness for the express purposes of impressing those around them. Granted, there are a number of artists who have been embraced as of late, especially by those in the Christian community -- by a "number of artists," it is meant "Johnny Cash."

Most of the people who are now claiming allegiance to the house of Cash never really listened to him before his death -- and even more telling, before his movie biopic. At least it means that there is some accounting for taste out there, not to mention that the less people we have listening to the latest fourth-generation Pearl Jam rip-off (and therefore, 3rd generation Nirvana rip-off...yes I said it...OVERRATED...said it again), the better; Cash's newly born hipster cred may be posthumous, but it's hipster cred nonetheless.

But if you really get down to it, country music is impossible to ignore. Truth be told, that particular industry sells records. A lot of them. If that is true (and it is), then for every person attempting to project instinctive coolness by denying country music, there is one who really doesn't mind appearing "countrified" (openly discussing their purchase of the latest Big & Rich album) and one who swears he "would never" but has and will. Hats off to the ones who are "keeping it real."

The great music journalist Chuck Klosterman, in his book: Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs writes:

"While rock and hip-hop constantly try to break through to a future consciousness -- and while alt country tries to replicate a lost consciousness from the 1930s -- modern country artists validate the experience of living right here, right now."

Hmmm....I though Van Halen was all about Right Here, Right Now? It means everything! It's that magic moment!

Riiiiiight......anyway.........

I think he is on to something. He's actually expressing 2 elements to why country music has remained so popular for so many years, and why it will continue to do so. The first is expressly written by him, country music is primarily concerned with the here and now. Secondly, and I think more subversive in his writing, that it does not try to push its ideas on anyone, but merely reflects what its fans already believe.

No pretensioness (is that word), no fakes, no frills. It isn't always pretty, but it is what it is and that is is Life.

"...Country music doesn’t have to be politically correct. We sing about God, because we believe in Him. We’re not tryin’ to offend anybody, but the evidence we have seen of Him in our small, little lives trumps your opinion about whether or not He exists.

We love country music because it touches us where we live. It’s about mamas and when they were hot and when they are unappreciated and when they were dying. It’s about daddies and the difficulties they have sometimes in tellin’ the people that they work so hard to protect and provide for, how they feel about’em.

Country music is about new love and it’s about old love. It’s about gettin’ drunk and it’s about getting’ sober. It’s about leavin’ and it’s about comin’ home.

It’s real music sung by real people for real people—the people that make up the backbone of this country. You can call us rednecks if you want, we’re not offended ‘cause we know what we’re all about. We get up and go to work. We get up and go to church. And, we get up and go to war when necessary. All we ask for is a few songs to carry us along the way...” - Jeff Foxworthy, 2007 CMA's

Click here to see the whole speech.