Country Western Music - I need a little guidance

[Guest pirateflynn]

I want to get into some Country Western music but I really don't know where to start. Nothing new .... I want the older stuff. Thanks!

[Thundernotes]

That's a broad spectrum there. Any particular style? Hillbilly banjo stuff, or more in the "crossover" variety?

[unfun 75]

George Jones, George Strait, Hank Sr., Hank Jr., Merle, Willie, Waylon. Those will get you started.

Forgot Johnny Cash. Doh!

[kenjones]

Buck Owens & The Buckaroos!

I just recently bought one of the greatest hits CDs and love it.

[Hackubus]

Don't forget Dwight Yoakam, especially his first five records IMO. His lead guitarist Pete Anderson will knock you out.

[robbie]

Try some Bob Wills Pirate.

[harry65]

hank sr was an incredible songwriter and is my personal fave, willie has a voice i could listen to all day long, johny was da man, merle haggard,george strait, george jones also are the real deal, for new stuff i love brad paisley,he plays some sick guitar and all of his songs are funny....................

[Bruiser Brody]

Cash, Willie and David Allan Coe!

[Willie G. Moseley]

Quite frankly, one of those anthologies like they hawk on TV at times might be viable. Patsy Cline had an inimitable voice, for example. Early George Jones, early Haggard, early Buck Owens.

All of that stuff was "people's music", and there must've been legitimate reasons it was popular. Never too late to go back and research/discover why.

[Thundernotes]

As far as guitar players go:

Roy Clark

Vince Gill

Jerry Reed

Leroy Parnell (slide)

Glen Campbell

[hamerhead]

Don't listen to that stuff. It'll give ya brain damage.

[Guest pirateflynn]

Don't listen to that stuff. It'll give ya brain damage.

Oh, it's okay. I'm pre-disastered.

Yeah, that old school stuff is what I'm talking about. Thanks! My dad and his buddy's were really into Willie around the mid to late seventies. Those were some good times. I'll check out Waylon, Willie, Buck, etc. If you have the names of some albums feel free to let me know.

[JohnnyB]

Don't forget Dwight Yoakam, especially his first five records IMO. His lead guitarist Pete Anderson will knock you out.

And Dwight's latest release is a tribute to Buck Owens. Dwight and Buck became buddies and Dwight is a great admirer of Buck.

I used to think Dwight Yoakam was a punk-ass tater-chip-hat wearing poser. Then I listened to Guitars, Cadillacs, etc. etc. and it knocked me out. It's one of my favorite albums regardless of genre, and I have it on LP which sounds marvelous. I can particularly relate to the sensibility that informs much of Dwight's songwriting. I have married twice into families of displaced Appalachians who came north to make a living. Dwight was born and raised in Columbus, OH, but he's of Kentucky coal country (i.e., Appalachia) stock. His granddad worked the coal mines for 40 years. There are several songs on Guitars, Cadillacs... that address the angst of the displaced Appalachian, including the title track.

The real old-timers are guys like Roy Acuff, Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, Red Foley, Doc Watson, Merle Travis, Jimmy Martin, Oswald Kirby (Dobro), Ralph Stanley...

An album that collected most of these legends and recorded them on acoustic instruments is Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" It's a 3-LP extravaganza and was re-released on CD. In fact, it was so successful that they did vols. II and III. I have the first one on LP.

Then along came Eddie Arnold. I have a "Best of" and "Cattle Call" both on LP. He represents the beginning of the transition to country as a form of pop music. He was perhaps the first country artist to have serious crossover success, such as "Make the World Go Away." But what a voice! And what pitch control.

And you gotta get some Patsy Cline. She's another one that's so good she transcends the genre. I picked up the LP soundtrack to the film, "Sweet Dreams" about Patsy. The soundtrack is interesting, because to keep Patsy's real voice in the film but bring the recording quality up to snuff for the '90s, they got ahold of all the musicians on these recordings and re-recorded the accompanying tracks in the same studio where they'd originally done them 40 years before. Then they cleaned up Patsy's original vocal tracks and mixed them into the refreshed accompaniment.

[Willie G. Moseley]

The thing you may already be aware of differing facets of classic country---earlier Nashville area stuff has no drums, whereas stuff from Bakersfield does, there was the outlaw movement that went to Austin in response to Nashville's proprietary attitude, etc.

With that in mind, I think WILLIE AND FAMILY LIVE (recorded in 1980, IIRC) is a classic. All of his earlier hits (some in medleys) + songs he wrote for others, like "Crazy". Plus an abbreviated version of "Red-Hearted Stranger", one of the greatest extended narratives in American music history (in any genre), IMO.

[Punkavenger]

What no Townes Van Zandt? Townes Van Zandt I say ... "live at the old quarter, houston, texas"

[Steve Haynie]

Do you want to hear stuff from when you were a kid or do you want to really find the essence of country music?

Country music was called hillbilly music at one time. It got its name because people living in the country, as opposed to the city, were playing their rural folk music with instruments like mandolins, guitars, banjos, and fiddles. "City" music would have been orchestra and jazz music. Radio stations were playing music with live orchestras, but there were some programs popping up with the local string bands. That was country music.

Jimmie Rodgers was doing "white blues" with his simple yodeling style. His music is the starting point for what we call country music. If you want country roots music, Rodgers' music is the place to start. He influenced many people including Gene Autry and Ernest Tubb. Rodgers was also the first person inducted into the Country Music Hall Of Fame.

Western music was a genre of its own from the 20's through the 60's. The reason we have the phrase "country and western" is because sales of both were listed in the same charts. They were two different types of music, but to keep from having too many sales charts both types of music were listed together. Country singers also took on the look of the flashy cowboy singers, too.

Bluegrass developed in the 30's and took on its own genre, but it has been intertwined with country music from the start.

Like every style of music, country evolved and record companies started finding out what sounds they could market. The 1950's could be the peak for country music, and the influence of that time period carried on for many years. Many of the stars we heard in the 70's got their start in the 50's. Webb Pierce either held the record for the most # 1 hits or the most top ten hits from that decade. Faron Young may be one of the best examples of country music performers whose sound can be traced through performers who followed him. Willie Nelson was in his band and writing songs.

An extremely important person from the 50's was Lefty Frizzell. Though he was not the biggest star, he is named off as an influence by a large number of stars. Willie Nelson did a tribute to Frizzell after he died, and Merle Haggard has done at least two tribute albums. The first time you hear Lefty Frizzell you might swear you are hearing Merle Haggard. Haggard learned to sing like Frizzell in the same way Bob Dylan emulated Woodie Guthrie.

Like Willie G. Mosely said, there were no drums in country music back then. Something worse would happen in the early 60's. Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley were two Nashville music producers who created the "Nashville Sound" of the 60's to make country music sound more accessible to people outside of country's core fan group. They got rid of all the strings-- no banjos, fiddles, or mandolins with next to nothing in the way of guitars! They made those arrangements of piano, bass, and backing singers that you hear on Patsy Cline, Eddy Arnold, Jim Reeves, and Ray Price recordings of the time. Steel guitars got a pass for some reason. It was almost like hearing crooners from the big band and rock and roll era. Sales of country music went up, and there were crossover hits. Ray Charles was easily able to do country at this time. (He did more in the 80's.) Think of what grunge did to heavy metal in the 90's and you get the idea.

Buck Owens and the "Bakersfield sound" brought in the electric twang that Dwight Yoakam has recycled and made cool again. Merle Haggard was part of that, too. It was California's contribution to country music. Thank you, California!

Before the late 50's steel guitars were usually non-pedal. By the 60's the steel players were all pedalling and giving us the "crying in your beer" swells.

Listening to some of the 70's country music that I remember as being crap, it still is crap. Loretta Lynn really has country roots, but she was singing songs with contemporary subjects like "The Pill." Barbara Mandrell was singing whore anthems. Every song seemed like it was about adultery. Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson were doing their own different thing out of Texas, and that was good! Kenny Rogers made his conversion to country and the music changed, or expanded, a bit more. It strayed away from the 50's further.

In the 80's Alabama played country like a rock and roll band. After that coutnry ceased to be anything close to what it was. During that time k.d. lang and Lyle Lovett were marketed as country performers even though their music was not truly country.

If you want to hear the country music your parents would have heard when you were a kid you can go to WSM online. You can also find archived shows from the Grand Ole Opry.

[JGale]

Run away, run away!

[Feynman]

...Barbara Mandrell was singing whore anthems...

Normally I don't read posts this long, but I'm glad I did. I plan on throwing this cool little statement around alot now. :-)

[JohnnyB]

Western music was a genre of its own from the 20's through the 60's. The reason we have the phrase "country and western" is because sales of both were listed in the same charts. They were two different types of music, but to keep from having too many sales charts both types of music were listed together. Country singers also took on the look of the flashy cowboy singers, too.

That's right, and another casualty is the marginalization of Western music as its own genre. Country music, or hillbilly music, has its roots in the displaced Scots and Irish who left the highlands of the old country and settled in the Appalachians, continuing their habit of living on the side of a steep hill. If you look at early "hillbilly" or "mountain" music, it largely uses the same instruments (guitar, fiddle, mandolin, zither or autoharp), scales, and modes as Celtic music. When it arrived in America it picked up the banjo from the African Americans.

Western music represents the completely different tradition of the singing cowboy. Although it got gussied up with the fancy outfits of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, the singing cowboy is very much rooted in reality. Cattle do not sleep deeply and are skitterish. It was customary in the days of herding cattle, and especially on the long, open range cattle drives, to sing to the cattle at night to calm them and help prevent them from being spooked. Generally every cattle outfit had at least one guy who packed a guitar and could sing. I read in one history of the old West that at least one cattle outfit would not hire a cowboy unless he could carry a tune.

Cowboy songs have a different structure and song content than hillbilly music. They're often about loneliness, isolation, lack of a permanent home, migrant lifestyle, high mortality rate, and the cattle drive, such as "Good-bye, Old Paint," "Git Along Little Dogies," "Streets of Laredo," "Don't Fence Me In," "Skyball Paint," etc. The frequent use of the word "paint" refers to the pinto (Spanish for paint), which refers to the markings of a pinto mustang.

Although Eddie Arnold was a native Tennesseean and primarily a country singer, he did a true cowboy tribute album titled "Cattle Call." The title track became one of his signature songs. I have that album and his rendition of the opening track, "Streets of Laredo," is poignant to say the least.

[Brooks]

Cash, Willie and David Allan Coe!

yep. steve hip'd me to these, & redd volkaert (true telemaster).

also, some of steve earles 90's albums are cool, like

"feel alright" and "trancendental blues".

[BadgerDave]

For me, the one song that absolutely epitomises "real country" is:

Cold, Grey Tomb of Stone

by Hank Williams, performed here by Hank III.

I never listened to country until I got a gig as the bass player in a wedding band in the 80's. I had to learn a lot of then-popular music by Waylon, Willie David Allen Coe, Johnny Paycheck, etc. I remember listening to "Montgomery in the Rain" by Hank Jr. and being amazed by how great a song it was. From there, I started listening to some of the older stuff like Faron Young, Ernest Tubb, Buck Owens and Hank Snow. Seriously good music!

And if you ever get a chance to see Dwight Yoakam live - JUMP!

[harry65]

For me, the one song that absolutely epitomises "real country" is:

Cold, Grey Tomb of Stone

by Hank Williams, performed here by Hank III.

I never listened to country until I got a gig as the bass player in a wedding band in the 80's. I had to learn a lot of then-popular music by Waylon, Willie David Allen Coe, Johnny Paycheck, etc. I remember listening to "Montgomery in the Rain" by Hank Jr. and being amazed by how great a song it was. From there, I started listening to some of the older stuff like Faron Young, Ernest Tubb, Buck Owens and Hank Snow. Seriously good music!

And if you ever get a chance to see Dwight Yoakam live - JUMP!

to me hank sr is country music, i've seen hank III 4 times and he has one of the best bands i've ever seen, his shows are the absolute kickass best........................

[blackfbiv]

Jim Reeves

Nice to hear ol' Jim tossed in here...

He'll Have To Go

[SteveE9C6]

As a long time working pedal steeler, I'd echo the Buck Owens sugggestion.

I have an extensive music collection that includes many many country records. (Yes, Records)

My faves...

Buck

Ray Price ( I have the great honor of playing three gigs with him in the last ten years)

Merle Haggard

Faron Young

Gary Stewart

George Jones

Vern Gosdin

Charlie Pride (Played with him last year at Austin County fair)

Gene Watson

Johnny Bush

Mel Street

Newer artists I like....

Alan Jackson

George Strait

Daryl Singletary

Brad Paisley

Josh Turner

[Jimbilly]

I've got a www.pandora.com station based on Slim Whitman that has played quite a few of the above names, pandora is always a good place to go and branch off from.