Friday Afternoon Time Waster – Musical Palate Cleanser: Callin’ Baton Rouge, or If That Ain’t Country…

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First, WTF is happening in Baton Rouge?

You just spent the state’s per capita GDP for three years to bring this guy in, and he’s making excuses that he won’t win a ring in year one? Add to it that they just hired back a guy they fired after a literal FBI investigation to be their head coach in basketball again.

and

I’ve asked this before…where is all the money coming from?

Anyway, for today’s associated Musical Palate Cleanser/Friday Afternoon Time Waster, here’s Garth Brooks.

Is Garth country? Honestly, is anybody from the 80s forward country? Let’s discuss. I personally can’t stand him but only included him here because of the subject in the post.

I’m kind of old school, Willie, Waylon, George Strait (not that old but I grew up listening to him as Gen Xer and Cheyenne is my all time favorite), and Dolly, but I recognize there are some great modern artists. One of the folks I’ve taken a shine to recently was Charley Crockett.

And Almost Home by Craig Morgan brings tears to my eyes and great memories every time I hear it. Maybe it’s not an era, but a spirit.

This can be a passionate subject for many of us, so…

What is real country? What makes a good country song? Is it like David said…momma, trains, trucks, prison, and gettin’ drunk? And who’s your favorite country music artist?

Can’t wait to read the comments…keep at it through the weekend…and the haaaard times.

27 thoughts on “Friday Afternoon Time Waster – Musical Palate Cleanser: Callin’ Baton Rouge, or If That Ain’t Country…”

  1. I go with old style country. George’s “ He stopped loving her today is the greatest of all time David Allen Coe about the trains, mama etc is the Perfect country song. Gene Watson, Gary Stewart are also some of my favs. I agree, Garth Brooks & Tim MaGraw are worst of the worst of new country music!!

  2. Louisiana is the most crooked state in the union.

    Garth brooks is the Taylor swift of “new country “.

  5. Gotta give Billy Joe Shaver some love.

    Modern “Bro” Country just ain’t my thing. I like the outlaw, old school country because it’s dude’s that could kick my ass while drinking me under the table (that includes Patsy Cline and Tanya Tucker). Modern performers I like – Colton Wall and maybe Gretchen Wilson (she pops up in my algorithm sometimes) to include a female but that’s about it. It’s really stunning to me that with the craziness of the last 25 years, that country music has faded away. GWOT, ’08 financial crisis, COVID and Trumpmania should have produced great songs but it just hasn’t. I mean I guess Drive By Truckers and Jason Isbell try to be voices but they just ain’t quite there when I can pull up Waylon or Merle (so I’ll just sit here and draink).

    • And with the lack of originality in Hollyweird today, how is Robert Earl Keen’s “Party Never Ends” not turned into a mini-series or something?

    • When the word was Thunderbird

      Live Forever

      Hill Country Love Song

      “Got a good Christian raisin’ and an 8th grade education, ain’t no need in y’all treating me this way.”

      Another Texan to check out is Townes Van Zandt. This is about as good as it can be done:

      https://youtu.be/bX94bmYL9Ks?si=-nZu_RDpdJCMYn0-

      Sturgill just released a protest album btw.

    • I read once (might have been Norm McDonald) that Chris Gaines was proof that even Garth Brooks was sick of Garth Brooks. 😬🤣🤣

  7. Cody Jinks, Jamey Johnson, and Sturgill Simpson have all put out some damn good country tracks in the last decade or so. Outside of them, there are a few others. But I think they all sound like they could have been around in the 70s.

    • And I totally whiffed on what makes a great country song. I think if you can incorporate a steel guitar and/or a fiddle along with some good writing. That’s a good foundation. Jinks’ song David is a great example. Jamey’s song In Color is an all time great. As for Sturgill, I really like I Don’t Mind.

      One last artist I really like is Jason Boland. Somewhere Down in Texas is great.

  8. Off topic, I love that the loudmouth, in your face coon asses are being tamped down for another 6-6/Texas Bowl year. Hell Lane, tell’em to make their reservations in Bossier City just after Christmas! Nothing better than a crying ass Cajun. When they win, they’re over the top. When they lose, crickets! And their baseball sux too now that they’ve tanked the last three weeks! Can’t wait to get their ass in Athens in early May. We could “sink the dagger”.

  9. First … LSU’s hiring of Will Wade should be an example of why Tuberville’s proposed regulation to “fix” college sports by limiting transfers and eligibility of athletes is ridiculous. The “leaders” of college athletics are cannot help themselves so they want a law to do it for them to the detriment of the talent.

    Second … Louisiana is hopelessly corrupt but I do love a visit to New Orleans.

    Third … your question about what is country music is a good one. “Country” music itself has been having this debate for decades. Is country music a “sound”? Is it a programming style for radio stations/streaming channels? Is it a vibe? Is is dependent on the drawl/twang of artists speaking voice or their place of birth? Does it depend on the who wrote the music and lyrics?

    Current Bro-Country is more akin to “luxurious” commerce driven rap/hip-hop in terms of name checking brands, themes and at times rhythm patterns etc.

    But there was this style of debate about The Nashville Sound (Ray Price et al) style of artists whose music moved away from the honky style to include orchestras and back up singers more akin to pop standards like Sinatra, Martin, Bennett and Andy Williams.

    Does it depend on the artist? Glen Campbell was a “Beach Boy” until he wasn’t and was country artist. Was Gram Parsons country? Rock?

    Certainly most of Johnny Cash’s catalog would be considered country but does “Hurt” qualify? Cash’s attitude and style and music influenced millions of punks like Joe Strummer and Mike Ness.

    Kenny Rogers was one of the biggest pop stars on the planet in 70’s and 80’s but to me he achieved while maintaining country credibility.

    Willie Nelson is the outlaw country all the way, right? What about the Stardust record which is all pop and jazz standards which came about while Nelson lived in Malibu, CA and his neighbor Booker T Jones (of Booker T & the MG’s) produced it. Is Malibu country? One of the songs is Moonlight Vermont (can Vermont be country?).

    Look at Sturgill’s latest Johnny Blue Skies record? Is that country?

    Dan Wilson of Semisonic (Closing Time) has produced & written a lot of “country” artists like The Chicks and Chris Stapleton. He also wrote “Someone Like You” for Adele (which makes that song even creepier if it was a male voice) – where does that put him or his work?

    “Don’t … Rockville” by REM is a country song. Personally, I think “Ball and Chain” by Social Distortion is a country song masquerading as punky rock one.

    I can stream of consciousness this for hours.

    Oh well – it would be great to have a conversation like this in audio/podcast form

    -30-

  10. Most radio country is terrible. Morgan Wallen…sucks, Luke Bryan…sucks, it there are some good modern artists out there.

    Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers, Zach Bryan, Chris Stapleton, Red Clay Strays, Stephen Wilson Jr., Billy Strings are all good and Ella Langley for the female side is putting some good songs out there. About the only artist I like from that 80’s and 90’s era is Dwight Yoakam.

  11. I think good country is closely akin to good blues & soul. The emotion feels (and often is) unvarnished. The songs are mostly by and about poor folks who face real challenges, like keeping a roof over their heads, and enjoy “simple” pleasures, like beer and a good roll in the hay. And no matter where you are on the socioeconomic ladder, those kinds of songs are probably going to appeal to you a lot more than songs about office politics and avocado toast.

    I think country music peaked from the late 60s through late 70s. I like a lot of the performers from that period but am most partial to Waylon singing Billy Joe Shaver.

  12. Y’all make good points but there is only one true test for country music- will it play on the juke box at the no name bar in Willachoochee?

    • I admit I’ve never been to Willacoochee, but if they wouldn’t play it on the jukebox at the 5th Quarter in 1976, it ain’t country. 🙂

  13. I’ve never been much of a country listener but when I hear Alan Jackson I don’t mind. I get that it’s not the sketchy studio production sound from the 70’s but I think his stuff feels right somehow.

  14. I’m not astute enough to repost it but my daughter sent me a screenshot of a tweet with a guy asking for a group name for Wade, Kiffin, and Mulkey. The best response was “The Lyin’, the bitch, and the wardrobe.

  15. Not a Garth Brooks fan but I gotta give credit where due that song is amazingly awful.

    Balancing budgets is hard especially when the states governor inserts himself in the spending, hiring and firing. Honest question is anyone person in charge of spending there. It sure seems like everyone is authorized to spend the school’s money at a state school. This after the governor rants about overspending at LSU.

    Cignetti was gifted an extra soft cupcake schedule by the b10/16 to start. The SEC will do Laner the opposite he’s burnt every bridge he ever crossed. He better win big and fast the media will flame him every chance they get. I’m rooting for an epically bad crash landing. He was king of a small quiet school he could have stayed for life. He’s now in just the opposite king of the white hot wacko land of crazy drunken fans that will micro analyze everything every day.

    As for country I’ll stay with the classics Waylon, George Jones, Tammy, Dolly and of course DAC just to name a few. I’ve got tickets for 6/2 a Hank Jr show. It’s been 30 years since I last saw him live. Hopefully he sticks to his classics.

    • Kiffin went to LSU because it never occurred to him how bad it will get, and how quickly, if he doesn’t win big out of the gate. Whether that turns out to be confidence or just hubris, remains to be seen. But, he hasn’t ever won anything, has he?

  16. Going literary rather than musical. Time to dust off Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men, or go research Huey Long. Corruption in government and excessive spending ain’t nothing new in Louisiana.

  17. Nashville ain’t country anymore. It’s pop music with a southern drawl. Can’t listen to any of it anymore.

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