Merle Haggard: Today's CountryMania Artist

The Hag...one look at that face and you know he has lived a life truly worthy of some of the greatest country music made. To our mind, Haggard for some reason is given the short shrift when compared to contemporaries like Willie Nelson, George Jones & Johnny Cash.

The question we have is why? He is a better singer than Nelson, he has been far more prolific than Jones, and much more versatile than any of the aforementioned trinity of Country Music.

Merle gets his props here...for never getting in a rut creatively and simply being one of the greats of ALL TIME. God Bless Merle...

Today's CountryMania Artist: Willie Nelson

We are beginning a series of regular artist spotlights, and who better to begin with than Willie Nelson!

Willie started his legenday career as a songwriter with such classics as "Crazy", after the Nashville music machine tried to cast him in their traditional mode, he broke out in the 70's leading the Outlaw movement that changed Nashville forever.

The answer comes from the sky

So, I made it clear in my last post that I am really sick and tired of what passes for country music these days...however, I have found a great place to hear great classic music!

Since my last post, I have come upon a great answer for those who are missing their "fix"...satelite radio...I listen to Sirius' Radio's "Roadhouse 62" channel. BTW, it is also great so because I am also a fan of rock, jazz, bluegrass, blues and talk radio!

And for those of you who like "Today's Country" there are channels dedicated to the watered down stuff, too.

I Didn't Leave Country Music, Country Music Left Me

As I was watching a recent awards program, I came to an epiphany. There is no denying it. I have a confession to make, I can't stand 90% of what passes for Country Music today! I am in my mid-30s, so I still consider myself fairly young but I can't stand this dreck! As I had mentioned before in this blog, I had started CountryMania.com in 2000 because I had a lifelong love affair with Country Music. Although I grew up a city boy, my parents were from West Virginia and raised me on Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins and the real legends of country.

Over the years, I kept listening to "country", but something changed...it suddenly bore no resemblance whatsoever to the music I grew up with and loved. If I want to listen to rock, I want the real thing (Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, etc) not some watered down pretty boy pretenders with a slick video and the faintest of steel guitar added for "the country radio mix".

Nevertheless, when I started the original version of the site I featured stars old and new because I wanted to appeal to everyone. But now I have made an executive decision. This blog is to be dedicated to real Country Music. Steel guitars and twin fiddles...Ray Price, Dwight Yoakam and not the latest heartthrob "group".

Yes, there are some real country musicians still around: Alan Jackson, George Strait, Brad Paisley, Junior Brown, Patty Loveless and others I have neglected to mention -- but I am not optimistic. The Nashville music industry is strictly business -- quite frankly they would package the sounds of mouthwash gargling (as long as there was no accompanying twang) if it would sell and made for a sexy video. I'm guessing that the corporate honchos that drive who gets signed and what gets released wouldn't know Chet Atkins from Chet Huntley.

Thank God for the great recordings we have to treasure and the few musicians out there still keeping the light alive. We'll do the best to keep that light alive at CountryMania.com!

She Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool

Kenny Chesney, Terri Clark, Dierks Bentley and a host of other Country Music stars are joining together on a Barbara Mandrell tribute album to be released in October.

Link to story

Let's Hear It For The Girls

For many years, women in Country Music were given the short shrift and had to take a back seat to men. Slowly but surely that changed with artists like Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Barbara Mandrell and Reba McIntire. Today, women take a back seat to no one and, in fact, they are up front and center!

In salute to Mother's Day, here are links to some of the lovely ladies who have made their mark on Country Music.

Patsy Cline's Wikipedia Entry
LorettaLynn.com
Barbara Mandrell's Official Site
Reba.com
Shania The Official Site
Gretchen Wilson's Official Site

Great Chris Isaak Story

Although he is not considered a country music artist per se, anybody who has listened to Chris Isaak can hear the Nashville influence. CMT.com has a great story about Chris and his country music heroes.

Link To CMT story

Also, Chris has a new CD/DVD out in stores...you can learn more at his site:

ChrisIsaak.com

Buck Owens

It has been a couple months since his passing, but I wanted to blog a bit about Buck Owens. Being in my mid-30s, some of my first memories of country music were sitting with the family on Saturday evenings and watching the hijinx of Buck, Roy and the "whole Hee-Haw gang".

Only later as I started to really get into the music, did I really understand that Buck Owens was more than the sort of goofy guy he portrayed on television. He was a honest to God country music pioneer!

From his awesome harmony vocals to his significant business interests there was a whole lot more to "'ol Buck" than met the eye...and despite a highly successful career I don't think he ever got the full credit he deserved...mainly because Hee Haw overshadowed everything else. Here's hoping that Buck is somewhere up there harmonizing again with Don Rich. As they used to say in Kornfield Kounty...salute!

Here are some sites about Buck:

BuckOwens.com
Wikipedia's Buck Owens Page
Salon.com 1999 article on Buck