The closest you can get to ‘Real’ country music these days is guys like Ryan Bingham or Chris Knight. However, both are considered a part of the Texas Country crowd, so maybe that tells you something.ReplyCancel

Check out some of what Texas country has to offer, it may be a little on the red dirt side (Red dirt is its own Genre with cross canadian ragweed, etc) in some cases but look at Dale Watson, Cody Johnson, Jason Boland, Aaron Watson, and Jon Wolfe. all of Jason Boland’s albums are fantastic and Aaron Watsons first one shutupanddance has a very traditional sound as well that I am sure you would like. Aaron is more like George Strait country and Jasons is more like Waylon and Willie outlaw style. Dale Watson is very traditional and I am sure that he is the one you would like the most. Jon Wolfe and Cody Johnson are both very new and only have two albums each but their sound is fantastic.

But yes everything played in Nashville is pretty much pop country and not even the lyrics come close to the ones 20 years ago. Its about dipping and mudding now.ReplyCancel

I was bowled over when I heard George Strait perform “Amarillo By Morning” live in an Austin dance hall before it hit the radio. He was real throwback. Unfortunately, I think he later helped draw the line you speak of.

His first couple of albums were swing and honkey tonk. By the third album, he was doing slow, goopy love song crap — and selling a lot of records. Garth and the other “hat” guys followed him chasing the same cash.

Today, these mainstream guys usually use more pop-rock guitars and less fiddle and steel in their songs. It’s heavily diluted Marshall Tucker and a two-step away from elevator music.

But there are “Americana” players who rely on the old instruments, but use them in somewhat different ways. Plus. their lyrics cover different territories. Hayes Carll’s “My Wife Left Me For Jesus” is the perfect example.

Also, there’s the singer songwriters such as Guy Clark (who has a new album out). They tilt folk, but they too incorporate steel guitars and fiddles.

All of this is to say I never listen to country radio anymore because it ain’t country anymore.ReplyCancel

Depends on who you listen to, if you stick to Aaron Lewis, then that is country, Craig Morgan, that’s honkytonk country mostly, some of Kenny Chesney is true country, Toby Keith is also true country so Aaron Lewis and Craig Morgan some of Kenny Chesney, and Toby Keith is true country. Stuff like Hank, and David Allan Coe is Outlaw country, which is true countryReplyCancel

In the words of Hank III, in reference to Kid Rock: “Yeah its true he’s a yank, he ain’t no son of Hank”. Most of the stuff on CMT/GAC is junk, with the exception of Jamey Johnson & Eric Church. The King of “Real” County has to be Kris Kristofferson, the guy is the Bob Dylan of country (As in, he wrote all the good songs). Texas country has been getting the majority of my attention lately, guys like Ray Wylie Hubbard, Guy Clark, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Robert Earl Keen have been hitting the spot.ReplyCancel

JRS – “real” country music to me comes down to emotional investment. When I hear a singer and/or songwriter belt it out, to me it’s more about how much I perceive them to be wrapped up in the song than the cacaphony around them. Real country music has its roots in the blues and I would roughly equate the genesis with Robert Johnson, on to Hank Sr, Elvis, and a broad divergence through Conway Twitty, Otis Redding, The Rolling Stones, and more.

It has nothing to do with sad songs, drinking songs, or train songs, although many a good country song have been written on those themes. So has many a bad country song.

Some prominent artists have songs that strike me as “real” country and a large catalog of inauthentic, processed, made for radio bullshit. George Strait and Kenny Chesney are great examples of this. Strait songs like “I Can Still Make Cheyenne,” “You Look So Good In Love, “Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind,” and “The Man In Love With You” belong in the annals of great country music. “Check Yes Or No,”I Hate Everything,” and “She Let Herself Go” make me shake my head at Strait’s song selection. Likewise for Chesney, “Tequila Loves Me,” “You and Tequila,” and “Anything But Mine” ring true but “There Goes My Life,” “When The Sun Goes Down,” and “There Goes My Life” strike me as pathetic radio airplay grabs.

What’s the best “real” country music being made today? There’s a lot of good stuff out there: Drive-By Truckers, Hank 3, Lucero, Dwight Yoakam, Ray Wylie Hubbard, James McMurtry, Robert Earl Keen, Lyle Lovett, Randy Rogers Band, Jason Isbell, Reckless Kelly, Justin Townes Earle, Asleep at the Wheel, and on and on…

Check out Hank 3’s “Five Shots of Whiskey” for what might be the most perfect country music song ever written – even better than “Pancho & Lefty.”

There’s not much better than good country music, and there’s not much worse than bad country music.ReplyCancel

I’m going to have to disagree. I think the Nashville establishment has been watering down real country and putting out over produced crap for as long as there has been a Nashville establishment. Pegging Garth as a turning point probably just means you were not paying enough attention to mainstream country (or not old enough) pre-Garth to be aware of how non-traditional (and bad) most country was. Consider this–Kenny Rodgers is one of the best selling artist of all time. That should tell you something.

For instance, you have a pic of Buck in the article. He made straighforward country in the 60s and it was labled as its own sub-genre (“Bakersfield” country) and widely considered a reaction to the prevailing trends of the time. Same thing with Willie and all of the others labled as “Outlaw” country.ReplyCancel

My rule of thumb with country music now boils down to two things. If it is played on the popular country music station in whatever town you live in then it is not “real” country music. However if you have Sirius/XM and it is played on Outlaw Country then it most likely is “real” country music.

Not to sound like a paid advertiser for them, which I’m not, if you dislike the country station in your town get satellite radio. It’s well worth the money.

Kenny Chesney is not real country music by the way and no one can convince me otherwise.ReplyCancel

In order to be real country, you have to be a songwriter first and foremost. George Strait has never written a song and is just a pretty boy in Wranglers trying to sell records, which he does at a riduculous rate. Dwight, Randy, Willie, Merle, Waylon, Hank, and a host of lesser known guys fit this bill. This biggest travesty is the lack of respect that Travis Tritt always got at the hands of guy like George Strait. Today, the only real country left is played in Red Dirt country.ReplyCancel

I’ve known for too long that country music is no longer country. While the music is still catchy it seems to only appeal to flocks of crazed women or the stereotypical, try-hard redneck. Country music was always about personal experience, struggle, or faith; todays “country” music mixes pop, rock, and in the worst cases hip hop for a toxic musical cocktail. If we can get the artists back into the tune of David Allan Coe, Marty Robbins, and Loretta Lynn things will be alright again.ReplyCancel

I think that I may be part of the problem. It’s not that I want to be; I just don’t know any better.

First, I was not yet seven years old when “No Fences” came out. Growing up, I thought that Garth Brooks WAS country music, but my very limited experience should not have been used as anyone’s staff against which country music was measured. In high school and college I collected mp3s of a few more modern country staples, and bunch of Johnny Cash. To me country evolved from some exotic music that people on the other side of the lake listened to into the descendant of a new favorite of mine: bluegrass. After “O, Brother Where Art Thou” came out, blue grass became more accessible, and I became a bluegrass snob.

Later, my experience with country grew when I moved to Baton Rouge (Starting with, of course, “Callin’ Baton Rouge” at every football game in Tiger Stadium – i.e., more Garth Brooks) for graduate school, but when I moved back to New Orleans, I left country there. After living back in New Orleans for several years, I got fed up with the Top 40 mix station and talk radio. I turned on the single local country station (which is pop country of course). It was better than any of my other options, and it’s been on my presets since, but it certainly hasn’t been my favorite. There are certain country artists and songs I like(Zac Brown, Kacey Musgraves, Wagon Wheel (the OCMS version more than Darius Rucker), and, of course, Johnny Cash), and certain ones I don’t like (Jason Aldean, Hunter Hayes, and the country songs quoted at the end of this list: http://totalfratmove.com/why-country-music-is-almost-as-bad-as-bieber/), but I listen to the pop country station because I don’t know any better. I’m sorry, help me be a better human being.

And for the record, I’ve always liked Southern Rock, but never considered it to be country.ReplyCancel