Nashville As “Broadway South”

Nice article Ben. The thing that hit home with me was your point about Hank Williams not being ignorant of Frank Sinatra. That’s the best comeback to the “natural evolution” crowd that I’ve heard yet.

About the only thing between Seattle and Japan are the fish in the sea… I’m just joshin’.

In regards to the Hank William’s not being ignorant of Sinatra: he always used to get a kick out of pop artists covering his songs and would eventually get to the point where he would play their versions of his songs every time he put a quarter in the jukebox. Of course he preferred his version and kept on singing the way he did by choice, as Ben mentioned in the article.

As far as Nashville being the center for sophisticated popular music, it was “The Athens of The South” before Hank Williams ever went there because it was the place for hillbilly singers and songwriters to go. Though, if you consider to Nashville to be a euphemism for the country/hillbilly genre, then I agree with your final thoughts.

Okay – maybe not enough…

I had one more thought.

I think Nashville and Nashville songwriters are already thought of as great American songwriters. We’re never going to get back to the “golden age” of American composers, where Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Irving Berlin, the Gershwins, et al, stood more prominent than the artists themselves. And the songwriting dynamic has changed. We don’t even have those major songwriting teams, such as those mentioned above, or even Elton John/Bernie Taupin, Lennon & McCartney, or Hal David & Burt Bacharach, out there anymore. In Nashville the top writers write with other top writers, but there’s a much larger talent pool out there to co-write with. there is some consistency, but not the yin and yang we associate with some of the writing teams I mentioned above.

But I don’t think anyone feels Nashville isn’t thought of as a major home of American songwriting.

“And I can’t think of a male artist who’s made that crossover.”

Urban has charted a few times.

Nashville needs to keep it country, that’s why they’re called country fans. Not pop fans or 80’s rock fans, country fans.

Garth had it figured out – deliver real country music and put on a fun show.

My point was that only a few, select artists have been embraced outside of the Country format itself, and while Country radio has certainly embraced a more modern sound there are very few pop or adult contemporary crossovers coming from Country (although, notably, there are even fewer pop or adult contemporary artists crossing over to Country).

Ben seems to be criticizing formulaic songs more than he’s asking for homogeneity in the genre. That’s a legitimate gripe. But I think he misses the fact that Country, as a whole, has songs which express the complexities of life in more depth and with more humor than most other genres even attempt to deal with. Jazz might be a close second, but that musical expression is generally instrumental in nature or relies on well-worn American standard song repertoire. Country songwriters and artists deal with subject matters both mundane and epic. The fact that so many different Country sub-genres are still called Country speaks to how inclusive the music is, and why, even amidst formulaic hits there are more memorable gems produced in Country music than in many other genres combined.

On a completely unrelated note… HOW ABOUT MY WORLD CHAMPION NEW YORK GIANTS?!?!?! HOT DAMN!!!

Kelly, Chris Gaines was a fictional character for a movie. It wasn’t a Garth Brooks alias. I just kind of assumed everybody could figure that one out.

Don’t try to tell me being in movies isn’t acceptable for a true country artist, please refer to “Pure Country” with Strait and every Kristofferson movie ever made.

…By the way, “Pure Country”: Good Soundtrack, Crappy Movie.

Lucas, DUDE! I made a point to say that Garth blended less traditional country items WITH more traditional country sounds,obviously songs like “much too young”,”the dance” and “unanswered prayers” are country to their very core. Read my full comment before you go claiming that I am attempting to do anything, let alone being inaccurate. Also, Garth had plenty of rockin’ country songs that werent covers, including “aint goin’ down…”. My point is that Garth did much much more than “kept it country” as you originally claimed. Had he simply kept it that way, he wouldnt be the giant that he has become in the industry.

great comments guys, I certainly appreciate all the feedback.

Brady –
I am indeed using Nashville as a euphemism for the country genre. I realize that historically much of the best country music has come from outside Nashville (Bakersfield what what!), but I think its fair to say that in the long-term, as goes Nashville, so goes country music.

David T –
The “country music naturally fluxes between traditional and pop leanings” is historically true. But even when John Denver and Olivia Newton John were cleaning up at Country award shows, there were viable hit artists putting out uncompromising, traditional country music. I’d argue that this hasn’t been the case for sometime now, though I accept that I have a strict standard for what is uncompromising traditional country music.

Lucas –
oh Garth Brooks. The first real commenting I did here at the9513 was a disagreement with my esteemed associate Jim Malec on Garth’s legacy in country music. I argued that Garth was a clownshoes figure who will ultimately not make it into the country music cannon. Don’t get me wrong, I actually like Garth. Heck I even liked “More than a Memory”. And I seriously don’t want this thread to become a pro Garth vs. Anti Garth discussion, but Garth Brooks is a pop fan and an 80’s/70’s stadium rock fan, in a big big way. Garth Brooks is a fan of corporate rock in such a big way that he was jazzed to work with Huey Lewis. Garth Brooks is a big Kiss fan, and actually told people about it! All and all, I like Garth Brooks, I really do. I think he’s a great entertainer, I think he has a lot of great songs, and I think that he’s uniquely talented as an interpreter of songs, but I don’t think Garth “gets” what’s so incredible about Hank Williams. I don’t think Garth “gets” was so cool about country music. Garth “gets” James Taylor, Billy Joel, and Huey Lewis in a big way though.

Peter -
I’m not so worried that country artists are aiming for crossover AC chart hits as I am that Nashville is trying to position itself as the new AC.

I agree that Nashville is thought of as the home of American songwriting and that if one is a songwriter, than they go to Nashville because that’s where songwriters go. I’m just not sure that its a good thing.

As far as country music broadening out to incorporate other genres, I think that the problem with that becomes apparent rather quickly. If there is nothing out of country music’s realm, than country music becomes a meaningless designation, and more importantly, it ends an unbroken tradition that stretches back to the dawn of recorded music.

Songwriters whose childhood heroes are Sting and Fleetwood Mac, or Billy Joel and Elton John, or even Skynyrd and Marshall Tucker, aren’t going to be concerned about the country music tradition or about the fundamental values of country music songwriting.

I enjoyed the Trisha album. I think it’s an undeniably great record, which is precisely why we need to second-guess it as potential paradigm for country music. You can’t just say that a good record is a good record and that any good record should serve as the standard for every genre. I argued that the Yearwood record’s communication strategy is fundamentally different from the approach country music has historically taken, and that the divergence was the result of a conscience decision. If the genre as a whole continues to make the conscience decision to eschew tradition and to embrace the theatrical approach of conveying emotion and connecting with listeners, then we’ll have lost some of the very core of what distinguished country music in the first place.

Adam,

Thank you for your thoughtful response to my article.

My compliments were completely sincere. I think very highly of the Yearwood release. As I said in the article, I consider it “an admirable accomplishment” and I’ve personally recommended it to friends.

Trust me, I have no problem pointing out what I consider to be “melodramatic flare” and “overblown production” if I feel it’s present. Check out my review of the Josh Turner/Trisha Yearwood duet “Another Try” if you don’t believe me. If I thought the Yearwood release suffered from the same problems, I would have said as much.

I feel that I do embrace the variety that exists in country music, as well as the incorporation of outside genres. I’m thrilled that Bob Wills incorporated swing. I’m thrilled that Willie Nelson incorporated Jazz and R&B. I’m thrilled that Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman incorporated Rock and Roll. I’m thrilled that Freddy Fender incorporated Mexican music.

But, for all the reasons I stated in the article, I think that the Yearwood release made some fundamental decisions that distanced it from the country music tradition.

I never argued that it wasn’t a good record, or that there weren’t numerous worse records consistently distributed under the banner of “country music”.

But a great record, an appropriate paradigm does not make.

I set out, in this article, to examine precisely why I don’t think that “full-throttled” divas who employ the communication strategy I outlined, can sit happily alongside traditional country music. I think that the Yearwood record was fundamentally and intentionally different than Hank Williams’ records. Or Merle Haggard’s. Or Buck Owen’s. Or George Jones’. Or Dwight Yoakam’s. Or Hank III’s.

And if the entire industry decides to intentionally and fundamentally diverge from traditional country in order to capture a larger market, then what will be “country music” will not be what was once “country music”, and that would make me very sad.