Zac Brown Rags on Country Music

[Vito Corleone]

*couldn't

[RoadRanger]

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guido61 wrote:

Nah, there's only one Hank.

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III all the way  :

[sventvkg]

I agree with him and so do many many others in this town. Where's the rest of the article?

[thewthrman]

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guido61 wrote:

Hank and Johnny were great. But we already have them. We don't need another of either, do we?

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In all honesty, I was just trying not to say that I thought Garth was a sissy.

[Potts]

 

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sventvkg wrote:

 

 

I agree with him and so do many many others in this town. Where's the rest of the article?

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https://www.google.com/search?q=zac+brown+disses+luke+bryan&oq=zac+brown+disses+luke+bryan&aqs=chrome..69i57.6892j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=zac+brown+disses+luke+bryan&tbm=nws

[Yer Blues]

This is like the guy from Warrant arguing with the guy from Motley Crue.... or that Drake guy arguing with that other guy.

[Potts]

Holy crap it get's worse. Don't let ZB hear this trash from Cowboy Troy. A friend of mine had his disc produced by him and advocates for him all over FB now.

The song is called "Drink, Drank, Drunk and I mean it when I say it is NOT anything close to anything that resembles even the worst country music.

 

 https://soundcloud.com/wmnashville/cowboy-troy-drink-drank-drunk

[Lee Knight]

Freddie was unparalleled. I did.the youtubing with the fan as well, the wife is a Brit and they all love Freddie. I'm watching and thinking, "this is live?!?!?". Just a hell of a wonderfully talented guy

[Tomm Williams]

Late to the party on this one but a topic that's been on my mind for awhile. Ever since the thread about Tom Petty's opinion about country, I've been paying much closer attention to "The Highway" on Sirius Radio.  Now I grew up in the 60's while listening to whatever the parents were playing. Lot's of Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Floyd Cramer (Kramer?) Chet Atkins, Marty Robbins, Patsy Cline, etc........... so for me when you say "Country Music", that's what pops in my head.

Given that, I have one hell of a time making a connection between that generation and the current artists's. There appears to be such a strong effort by so many of these latest performers to take country as far away from it's roots as possible. Is this just the evolution of a genre or selling out for greed ? I don't know, never will.

I watched a video today of Carrie Underwood singing "Paradise City" at the CMA's. She blew the roof off the place !!!!!! but could you imagine Loretta Lynn performing "Stairway To Heaven" during the 70's ? I think one of the primary reasons so many of these people are stretching the "country" genre into new waters is because they have no choice. What should they do; sound just like Willie and Walon and Merle ? it's already been done. If I wanted to listen to Willie, I'd buy his recordings. I don't want to listen to Luke Bryan rehash Willie Nelson.

However at the same time, how far can you take country before no one recognizes it? Carrie Underwood singing "Paradise City" was in NO WAY a country performance. Yeah people enjoyed it but so what, it's a rock song and always will be. ( and wow did she kill it)

Country needs to figure out what exactly it represents. It isn't the sole property of a 4 wheel driving, tobacco chewing, beer guzzling, American flag waiving, redneck who doesn't "Take no ****". In spite of what some may think, that is not a huge audience. Attempting to use rap-influenced country lyrics looks like an IED to me. Right now, it's a confused genre.

 

 

[Lee Knight]

Potts,

I respect you enough to never suggest you should be any different than the way you are right now. And frankly, I don't know you well enough to know if I think anything I have to say would be valid for you specifically.

Every Friday I host a thread over on the songwriting forum. It's called Friday Influences Thread. Or the FIT. The idea is that everybody gets to post a YouTube clip of something that has influenced their writing either as a child, as a developing teen or five minutes ago as they drove in early to work listening to the radio.

The initial inclination of everybody is to respond to the previous posts and say why they don't like a particular artist or tine cited. I found this to be very counterproductive. If someone finds a song inspiring to them, let it be.

I personally find inspiration in an early Neil Diamond hit, a pet shop boys club anthem, the latest Kelly Clarkson or Katy Perry, or something cool like an old Dylan gem. I found myself constantly trying to explain the one thing that I found inspirational about a particular crap tune. :-) I know and understand what is hip and acceptable amongst musos. But I don't and never have limited my scope to that world.

So I implemented the rule that there was no trash talking anybody's selection. Or even analytical reasons why it isn't very good.

Inspiration can be compartmentalized.

So, to spend energy figuring out and stating why something isn't very good blinds us from the one thing somebody picked up from that particular piece.

Just some food for thought. :-)

And by the way everyone, if you are a songwriter or are thinking about getting into it, please stop by and give your perspective on that thread. Everyone is encouraged and welcome.

[Lee Knight]

http://www.harmonycentral.com/t5/Songwriting-Workshop/Friday-Influences-Thread-09-20-13/m-p/35924455

Link to the FIT. You're fine to post on it any day of the week you might choose.

[Lee Knight]

The other point is, in Pat's case, it doesn't have to be, nor was it, permanent. Dylan played in a cheesy lounge band when he started. And he says he learned from it. Then he earned his chance to do what he wanted. Sometimes just getting the chance to play is reason enough. All the greats have done things they are a little embarrassed of.

I just got back from watching an old friend gig. He's a world renowned writer, singer, and guitarist. I could tell he was embarrassed playing guitar in a cover r&b horn band as a side guy. No need to be embarrassed. He needs the coin. He really didn't know how to relax with me because I knew. He has to do it. He toured the world for 20 years singing HIS songs.

And dude, I sit at a desk 5 days a week. We do what we can do. Soup and bread and shoes for your kid... Those things are high on the list.

I love Picasso's work , but he was an asshole. I don't begrudge guys doing what they can. And for the right reasons? He's sober, is faithful to his wife and kid...

We do what we can do. Isn't that what were all doing?

[Vito Corleone]

There's an old adage among professional musicians that a bad day playing music is still better than a good day doing most anything else.   And there's obviously truth to that.  With ANYTHING you love doing.

I totally get BlueStrat's story because when you're young and just getting started in the business there's a tendency to be willing to do anything just to move yourself up the ladder.   The idea is if you get yourself further along in the business THEN you'll be able to make more of your own choices about what you do.   And that's often true.

The only time I ever disliked what I was doing when playing music for money was a year I spent doing a duo-to-tracks thing in casinos.   Clearing $600 a week was very good money (for me) in the mid-90s, and I didn't mind playing to tracks because I had recorded them all myself.   So it always felt like "me".  But we were just background music for gamblers.  A lot of the venues didn't even have dancefloors or seating areas.   I was never sure why a lot of these places even wanted (semi) live music.

The irony there was this was probably the only gig in my life where we played nothing but songs WE wanted to hear.   There was virtually no concern for what the audiences wanted because there wasn't one a lot of the time.  Nobody cared about our songlist but us.   So we had a (what we thought anyway) great songlist of songs we both personally loved and cared about and really wanted to play and sing.    Man, that was a rough year.