What is Country? By Michael Kosser
Trying to define it is a bit like trying to hold on to
a handful of mercury. There are so many different
sounds that are recognized today as real country but
sparked controversy in their infancy. I have no doubt
that when the old string band players first heard Bill
Monroe and his Blue Grass boys, they let out a moan
and declared, “That’s country?!”
Likewise, when World War II came along and Ernest Tubb
and others started singing the cheatin’ drinkin’ songs
that eventually became the meat and potatoes of
country music, the old country singers who sang their
story songs of death and religion and lost love
probably thought their world was coming to an end. To
add insult to injury, Ernest Tubb’s band began to
feature an electric guitar. You can imagine the
wailing that inspired!
By the late fifties country recording had pretty much
settled in Nashville and the two men who ruled music
row were Owen Bradley and Chet Atkins.
Owen produced Patsy Cline, Kitty Wells, and a host
of other artists that ranged from the Osborne Brothers
to Brenda Lee.
Chet oversaw the recordings of Jim Reeves, early
Willie Nelson, Floyd Cramer, Hank Snow, Jerry Reed
and, oh yes, Perry Como. Owen Bradley was the leader
of a big band and Chet Atkins was a country guitar
picker whose music eventually got far above his roots.
Both men, when they were producing country records,
moved far beyond recognized country boundaries. And
some folks didn’t like it.
Then there was Ray Price. During the late fifties
and early sixties, that grim post-Hank Williams era
when country almost died, Ray was the best thing
country music had to offer with his succession of
irresistible honky tonk shuffles. But when country
began to gain wide acceptance, Price used his
magnificent voice in the service of middle-of-the-road
ballads backed by acres and acres of violins — not
fiddles.
In the late sixties, a young man from
North Alabama named Billy Sherrill began a production
career that included the greatest records of Tammy
Wynette, George Jones, Charlie Rich, Johnny Paycheck,
Tanya Tucker and many others. Most of Billy’s hit
recordings featured the country sounds of Hargus “Pig” Robbins
on piano and Pete Drake on steel but Billy insisted on
sweetening these records with string arrangements. He
took a lot of flack for that, especially from northern
elitist magazines like Rolling Stone, who wouldn’t
dare tell R & B acts that their music was not rootsy
enough but felt free to tell Nashville when its music
was not country enough to suit them.
Funny, out of those string laden Sherrill sessions
came the universally recognized “greatest country
song,” “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” Remember? That
George Jones classic had violins all over it! And one
of its writers, Bobby Braddock, who has given us many
of our greatest song moments of the past 35 years
(“D-I-V-O-R-C-E,” “Time Marches On,” “I Wanna Talk
About Me”), insists that when he first heard the cut,
before the strings were added, “It just seemed to lay
there. The strings really made it come alive.”
Now, you’re probably thinking that my point is, nobody
really knows what makes a country song, or a country
record. But that’s not what I’m saying at all. Just
the opposite. You know what a country record is, all
right. You may not be able to say why it’s a country
record, but you know it when you hear it, even if it
doesn’t have a fiddle and a steel guitar. And you
know that very little of what you hear on mainstream
country radio is country.
Well, I think you’re right. I think that big time
radio doesn’t care about you because they think if
you’re not a 35-year-old soccer mom, you don’t fit
their target audience.
Tell you what. The devil with big time country radio!
I suggest you delve into the lists of Catalog Music
Co. and other companies that specialize in the music
you and I have always loved. Most of these records,
repackaged as CDs, have been cleaned up so you can
hear that great old music more clearly than the day it
first hit the record store on a 78, 45, or LP. And
these CDs will last you a lifetime, no matter how many
times you play ‘em.
But wait, there’s more! Catalog Music is preparing to
carry a series of new. current country acts, called
the “New Masters” series, great country voices singing
great country songs, most of whom you can’t hear on
big time country radio, because they’re too country
and don’t conform to the preconceptions of frightened
radio music directors. Company President Martin Davis
is searching diligently for artists that’ll be a
perfect fit.
So now you have a choice. You can turn on the radio,
tune in your strongest country signal, and drive
around town and country like a zombie using the
station as background music featuring artists whose
names you’ll never learn. Or you can join us,
and listen to some genuine great country artists whose
music will give you pleasure you haven’t experienced
since the bosses of the radio and record industries
decided to dumb down country music. When you hear
something you especially like, call up a
country-loving friend and tell him or her that country
ain’t dead yet. These country acts will be your own
personal discoveries. You’ll love them because you
love them, not because some radio station shoved them
down your throat until you thought you kind of liked
them.
This morning I turned on my radio, and started
pressing buttons. I’d heard rumors along Nashville’s Music Row
that a new breeze was stirring on country radio and
roots music was coming back. The rumor kept
mentioning “Man Of Constant Sorrow,” “Riding With
Private Malone,” and a few others. But when I started
pressing the buttons, none of the stations sounded
very country. Like you, I wouldn’t know how to define
it, but like you, I know it when I hear it.
Michael Kosser is a songwriter and novelist. His
songs have been recorded by The Kendalls, Ray Price,
Tammy Wynette, Marty Robbins, Conway Twitty, Barbara
Mandrell, George Jones, Del Reeves, Kitty Wells, Tommy
Overstreet, Charlie Rich, Jim and Jesse, Skeeter
Davis, Blake Shelton and many others. His column,
Country Side, appears regularly on the pages
of Pure Country magazine*.
*Thanks to the folks at purecountrymusic.com for the use of this material.
It is not to be reused by anyone without the consent of purecountrymusic.com.
