Saving Country Music

“I don’t like country music, but I don’t mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means ‘put down’.” – Bob Newhart

In spite of Mr. Newhart, Country Music is more popular than ever.

I never liked country music, or I thought I didn’t. Eventually I came to the realization that I had been listening to country music all my life. Much of the music I liked was derivative of the music I thought I hated, or rock and roll covers of straight country songs. The Beatles, for example, recorded several Buck Owens and Carl Perkins songs. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees the Everly Brothers’ roots were deep in country. Elvis Presley combined country with gospel and country blues to initiate the rock-and-roll frenzy. Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family and Bob Wills are among the many whose songs have been interpreted by rock and pop artists.

Today’s so-called country music is easy to hate. The formulaic schlock coming out of Nashville is making a lot of money for a lot of people, but is reviled by a growing number of devotees to “real country.” A nascent resistance to country pop had beginnings in the late 1970s with “The Outlaws,” Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson who eschewed recording with Nashville session musicians. In 2000 the Coen Brothers released their movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” a retelling of “The Odyssey,” but set in Depression-era Mississippi. Woven into the story were songs from that time and place. The soundtrack, produced by T-Bone Burnett was a bestseller and sparked a renaissance of “Americana” or “roots” music.

Looking ahead, Ken Burns current project, a sixteen-hour, eight-part overview of country music is tentatively scheduled to screen on PBS in September 2019.

In the meantime, the promotion and proselytizing of “real” country music is the purpose of savingcountrymusic.com. Its stated mission:

…is to preserve and pay forward the roots of country and roots music and its people, to fight for purity of the genre … for an insistence of emphasizing talent, for creating appeal for talent through education, and for establishing the freedom of the individual artist.

Or, as

[/caption]Or, as reformed country artist Aaron Lewis puts it, “I think there’s enough beer on the beach, partying on the tailgate, driving around in a pickup truck, moonshine songs.”