I've noticed recently at bluegrass
festivals hearing bands say something like, “Does anyone want to
hear a REAL country song?” which is always greeted with applause,
even cheers. The songs, often covers of George Jones or Hank
Williams, but including many other so-called Classic Country singers
and songwriters, are very well received. I've begun to think that a
major portion of the bluegrass audience is composed of country music
fans who go to hear bluegrass because it's the next best thing
available. Bands seem aware of this tendency and are including
increasing numbers of country songs in their shows. This has got me
thinking.....
I made a quick Google search “Country
Music Isn't Country Any More” and got fifty-four million hits, so
this doesn't appear to be an obscure topic in people's minds. Larry
Cordle wrote a great hit when he claimed “Murder Was Committed Down
on Music Row,” earning him the 2000 IBMA Song of the Year award.
The song was later recorded by George Strait and Alan Jackson,
reaching 38 on the country charts, although it was never separately
released. David Peterson wrote about 1946 being part of “the best
years of our lives,” although this nod to the 1946 William Wyler
film, which won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and is
still one of the highest grossing films (adjusted for inflation) of
all times, is a deeply ironic title, since the film deals with the
difficulty three soldiers returning from World War II experienced in
adjusting to peace. We live in a world where nostalgia for a past
that never quite existed dominates our imagination, leading us to
construct memories we don't really have.
Country music, music actually made on
the front porches with guitars and fiddles, and parlor music have
long existed. A.P. Carter collected many songs in the twenties and
thirties, creating a family band which took advantage of the unique
guitar style of his sister-in-law Maybelle to transition from truly
folk music into the more commercial music that became known as
country. Their music influenced all forms of country and gospel.
Bluegrass emerged out of what became known as the great southern
diaspora as rural Americans moved towards the industrial cities where
the jobs were, taking their music with them, yet longing for home.
Bill Monroe fashioned a fast-paced string band music which captured
the yearning for a simpler time of dignified poverty (an oxymoron?)
on the farm and in the church. His band consisted of what he could
afford to travel with in a car, and he created a brand that became
known as bluegrass, becoming a member of the Grand Old Opry in 1939,
although his music truly emerged when Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt
created a sound revolution after they joined the band in 1945.
Monroe's career reflects that of a
professional musician seeking a sound unique enough to allow his
music to stand out and earn him living. His “true” story songs
captured his views of an era already in the pre-war past. Much of his
genius lay in his image making and self-promotion as much as in his
music. The images still appeal, even though none is part of the
shared experience of most contemporary Americans. But who will write
with nostalgia about banks of solar collectors and the beauty of wind
farms? How can they compare to the warmth of a crackling fire? How
can ranks of huge combines crossing gigantic fields of grain provide
beauty comparing to a lone farmer guiding a plow behind a horse? But
who in suburban and urban America has this image in their mind as
direct experience? What experiences fashion the imagination of
today's budding song writers?
Gaining a Perspective: I
made a brief search for a precise definition of Classic Country. It
appears to me to be a classification for a collection of singers
played frequently on certain small, rural radio stations which
self-label their playlist as “Classic Country.” It includes
performers from Hank Williams through Johnny Cash to outlaws like
Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings and extends to George Strait and
Garth Brooks, whose comeback single concert in Chicago quickly
expanded to ten dates in order to meet ticket demands. Tammy Wynette,
Dolly Parton, Reba McIntyre and Emmylou Harris should also be
included in the list. But...and here's the important realization, a
majority of the recorded and performed material of each era is
derivative, imitative, bland, and unworthy of being remembered,
regardless of whether the work ever reached the charts, or was, for a
brief period, wildly popular. Most of the people who recorded in
country and bluegrass music, as well as all other genres, is truly
better forgotten. But it often takes a generation or more for us to
realize this.
One possible
reason for the supposed reduction in the quality of music is the
enormous demand for content made by the digital revolution. The
Internet has made billions of people into massive consumers of
content, including music. You Tube alone grows by 100 hours of video
every minute, and is accessed six billion times a month. For the
most part quality filters have been removed. Anyone can upload a
music video or a book. There are no longer significant editors of
written material or producers of music to make choices about what get
published. By osmosis, a Gresham's Law of music and literature is in
effect, that is bad music and writing drive out the good. Anyone can
put out a CD and the remaining publishers are desperate to get out
material that makes money. Of course, even in the heyday of the
recording industry, there were many more failures than successes.
Similarly,
in bluegrass, we all recognize, and most of us revere, the seminal
pioneer bands. Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, the Stanley
Brothers, J.D. Crowe & the New South pioneered musical styles,
while the Bluegrass Album Band and the Johnson Mountain Boys came
along at just the right time to revive these “classic” sounds
just as they were fading from memory. Meanwhile, the New Grass
Revival, The Country Gentlemen, and The Seldom Scene pioneered
significant changes in the music, taking it in new creative
directions. However, again, it must be remembered that more bands
were unmemorable, better forgotten than played, and some of the
Country Gentlemen, for instance the song about Bruce, seems trivial, dated, and in bad taste when
considered as among their other great work. They did, and should, fade from memory.
In every era of music, there have been creative geniuses who forged
the way, along with imitators and copiers. Who knows which, in any
particular era, will emerge and be remembered?
Who knows whether
The Gibson Brothers, Balsam Range, The Infamous Stringdusters, The
Punch Brothers or some other band will still be played and revered in
a generation? Who knows what band, now seen as on the fringe, far
away from the mainstream, will emerge in history as a trend setter, a
new and creative voice influencing the next generation of musicians,
and derided as “not bluegrass” or “not Real country?”
Predictions can only be speculative, and most likely they are far off
base. Much of the story will be told, and retold, after most of us
are gone. Only time will tell.....
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