Why are you here?

Just finished watching the film "country Music" it's eight episodes long and each episode is about two hours. It starts at the beginning of how country music started and goes up to about 2013 or so. Very good watch if you like country music. It's a PBS production, but don't let that scare you away from it, lots of good interviews with performers and record label executives.

I thought it was dead too, untill I heard Cody Jinks. I'm becoming a big fan of his. Chris Knight is pretty good too.

Being edgy is his music, and he's a virtuoso.

Thanks! Hadn't heard of Cody Jinks and forgot about Chris Knight.

Pop, yes.  Calling it country seems to be a bit of a stretch though.

I've been hearing of music being "dead" as long as I can remember. Different types ands styles of music don't die, they just becomes less prevalent as the generations of people that listened to them pass on. For example, Big Band isn't dead, it just lost popularity when the WW2 generation of people aged and died, but there are still plenty of Big Band's performing and young people playing it. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole style music isn't dead as people like John Pizzarelli, Harry Connick Jr. and Michael Buble are still performing it, it's just that fewer people listen to it, so it's no longer mainstream.

And so it is with country music. The genre itself has evolved into many sub-genre's. I too detest the current country music and what they call Red Dirt, which, although it is for the most part country music, is quite uncreative with predictable keys, chord changes and lyrics.

The older, more traditional country music is not as popular as it once was, but is very much alive and well in Texas. Small record labels keep it going and surprisingly many young folks are recording it. Venues and dancehalls such as the Longhorn Saloon in the Fort Worth Stockyards, the Western Club in Navasota, and the Stampede in Big Spring, as well as Western Swing festivals around the state all offer traditional country music.

I've been performing traditional country music that leans towards Honky-Tonk and Western Swing for about 35 years now. For awhile it seemed that all the musicians I hired to play this style of music were 50+ years in age, but I'm now seeing a change in that. The guitar player that fills in for my regular guitar player is 25 years old and attending Texas Tech on a jazz guitar scholarship. He's a monster on, and loves to play, the older stuff. A few weeks ago I played a benefit and there was a very talented 16 year old kid playing fiddle and steel guitar. Another from the San Antonio is barely over 30 and is an up and coming steel player.

For years I haven't listened to music on the radio at all, rather I'd burn CD's to listen to on road trips. Now with Pandora, Spotify, et al, I can listen to whatever I want, whenever I want. I was returning from a job yesterday listening to Spotify and was amazed at all the younger artists performing Honky Tonk music, many of whom I had never heard.

Dave Alvin - Harlan County Line

Loud and heavy station on pandora is what you seek.
It'll be everything from jamie Johnson to tyler childers to waylon.
Cody jinks is who i like right now and childlers..
Matt mason is another one im warming up to.

Worse case just get ya a dose of hank3 and rebel son lol

Everything changes all of the time. One thing morphs into another. Country music is where Rock and Roll went to die.

Doing the same thing to Bluegrass.
Can't stand to listen to half of what is playing on Bluegrass Junction channel 62  sirius XM. "Newgrass"

Texas Red Dirt

The only recent (as in the last 15/20 years) "Country" I've bought is either George Strait or Dale Watson (Texas, or south Texas??).

Can't seem to find I'm too country for country, but here's another one.

Because “country” is produced by people from California who are Hollywood leftists...heavy population of purple haired gender confused decision makers who choose what gets played on the radio.

Modern country is leftist ridiculing country people and being paid for it.

Moe Pitney, but radio stations will not play him.

Steel guitar, fiddle, and some twang is not included in the stuff they call country today.

I got lectured on " boat music" while playing guitar at a family gathering.
To which i responded

" oh you mean all that shit that sounds just like kenny Chesney?  "

YEAH, IT'S GREAT....

Um ok.

Yep, its dead, but the culture from which it came is too, so there's no 'bringing it back'. I was playing in a 'blue-eyed soul' R&B band in Cincinnati in '68 (or so) when 'Stand By Your Man' (Tammy Wynette) came out. I remember several of us standing there in the club listening to it on the house system and just marveling at the song, her singing and the whole production of that record. To this day I'll play it on You Tube (has to be the very original, not any re-make, because no other versions have 'it') every so often and just marvel all over again at the 'country soul' on that record - and it'll never happen again.
Its like the old days of Nascar compared to what they're doing now. Gone with the wind.

I have zero proof or research backing this statement, but

I firmly believe that any chance Country Music had of recovering to what it should be, was killed by Trace Adkins' "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk"

Once I heard that song, I knew it was dead.

Dale Watson disagrees with OP and drives his big rig all over his argument.

There's plenty of great country music out there.  If you are listening to the Hollywood>Nashville Axis of country music and their venues, you're missing it.

I listen to classic country (Waylon, Johnny, etc)... but  Ido like some of the new stuff - like Darius Rucker

Cody Jinks, Chris Knight, Tyler Childers, Townes van Sant, Jaime Johnson and so many more.

Country is finally making a real comeback from all that pop crap.

If they plat it....
Ohhh ....
Look a song about drunk beach walking day drinking on a boat......
#1 on the charts lol.

He's my generations Jimmy Buffet. Seriously. We are approaching younger side of middle aged and they go out and relive their glory years while getting drunk and dressing like late 90s and early 00s frat boys and sorority girls.

Rucker is a jack of all trades.  He knows what makes songs work.

I bought a very lightly used Celestion F12X200 off of Phil Vandel on Facebook swap. Had no idea that he had a record contract at one time until I talked to him on the phone about the speaker. Heck of a nice guy and we ended up BSing about gear and music for about an hour and a half that day.

So, since he's cooped up in quarantine (he lives in St. Joseph, MO) and can't do any of his gigs, he's been doing stuff on Facebook live. It's usually him and an acoustic, but tonight he had a guy playing steel and both of their wives sang a little too. Mostly traditional stuff.

Left cold:
https://www.facebook.com/124761322244/posts/10156632129292245/

https://www.savingcountrymusic.com

Pretty good site with songs/album reviews. Goes on rants on   Main stream country artists from time to time. He follows the Texas/Red Dirt artists as well as Traditional and Classic artists.

I thought country was dead until I started reading this site.