Not pertinent to anything, but I don't have any other proper outlets to write this.
I've been making a conscious effort to listen to my entire record collection lately - rough estimate, I own somewhere around 100 to 120 records, most of which were purchased over the years at thrift shops for $20 or less (my favorite era was the 2010-2020 era when records were as cheap as 3 or 4 for $1). I've got them arranged alphabetically by artist, then title (or simply title in case of a compilation/anthology or soundtrack), and marked with a sticky note in the corner to show which ones have been played: I'll remove the little sticky note flag when I play one. As vinyl has had a recent resurgence, I have maybe a dozen new purchases from merch tables at my Year Of Concerts, or online from various podcasts about music.
I started buying records right around 2013 or 2014, searching thrift shops for specific titles which I'd cut into guitar pickguards, as seen in this Etsy post. I've cut up George Jones records, Waylon Jennings records, one from the Beach Boys, and I have a pickguard template traced onto Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and The Who (which I never got around to cutting up). I had a rule: I must listen to the record before I cut it up. It added an element of "absorbing" the mojo before I cut it up and added it to a guitar, or otherwise appreciating the music before I sacrificed the record.
2017 rolled around, and the Cocaine & Rhinestones podcast came across my feed. Written, produced, recorded, and published by Tyler Mahan Coe (son of country legend, David Allen Coe), C&R promised to be an exhaustive history of 20th century country music. Tyler's roughly my age, and grew up on tour buses with his father, which exposed him to a lifetime's worth of old timers bullshitting about the "good ol' days," and myths, legends, and tall tales of this music and the people who made it. I was immediately drawn in to the well-researched, expertly presented content! I've made efforts to re-listen to the whole series many times over...in fact, I'm in the middle of a re-listen right now (literally, as I'm typing, I'm listening to this episode).
I realized that the records I had been searching for, in an effort to cut up and destroy, were the ones cited in C&R as being some of the most iconic or influential country albums of all time. This was a pivotal moment for me, as it opened my eyes to the spiderweb of connections around the music I grew up listening to.
BUT - I grew up under a rock, musically speaking. My mom listened to contemporary Christian music, my dad listened to country. Not necessarily even contemporary country, but he sought out "country gold" or "classic country" stations on the radio. I mean, if the only thing available on the radio was contemporary country, that's what we listened to, but he often erred toward the stuff that wasn't exactly current. The rough approximation of my musical experience was If it's not country, it must be rap and if it's on the radio, it must be good. The sequestration of music into country or rap and good or bad led to a lot of really shitty attitudes toward music in general. Not only did I miss out on years of awesome alt-rock and heavy metal (if it wasn't country, it must be rap), but even if I liked a B side or album cut from my favorite country artists, I dismissed it as "not as good" as the radio single(s) from that album.
Even when cracks began to form in that ideology, I still dismissed a LOT of good music as hipstery, douchey, or just plain shitty. My first concert ever was Hank III, at the Intersection in Grand Rapids in 2006. I was getting into artists like him (grandson of Hank Williams) and Shooter Jennings (Waylon Jennings' son) during the same time frame, and I was exposed to southern metal by way of Rebel Meets Rebel, which was when David Allen Coe teamed up with Pantera to record an album. But, I still had a shitty attitude towards the pop-folk and indie scenes that were blossoming around the same time - bands like Mumford & Son, Trampled By Turtles, or Wilco were just hipster drek to me...despite, in hindsight, being right up my alley. I eschewed the modern bluegrass bands as just a bunch of sheltered suburban white kids and not worthy of my time, as though I were *not* a sheltered suburban white kid, and as though I had more in common with Bill Monroe than I did Greensky Bluegrass. Through all of my own biases, I missed out on a lot of cool things in the 2000s and 2010s.
Now, regarding radio music, "if it's on the radio, it must be good," I attended the B-93 Birthday Bash festival from 2011 through 2014, and saw the outdoor Rock The Rapids series in 2012. Set lists are shared on Setlist,fm for each festival: 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. I'd already been on board with dismissing "bro country" as pablum but, for instance, I still celebrated early works from Jason Aldean or Luke Bryan. It wasn't until we were walking out of the Birthday Bash in 2014 that I realized that modern pop country wasn't "for me" anymore. All the acts blurred together, I couldn't mentally distinguish who I'd seen that day because every song seemed to hit the oft-lampooned formula of "girl, short shorts, creekbed, pickup truck." This was before I'd discovered Cocaine & Rhinestones, and ostensibly is a modern interpretation of the "spiderweb of connections," but I was not alone in feeling like every damn song was the same - see the 4 videos linked above, and dozens more on Youtube about why industrialization killed country music in the 2010s by engineering each and every song to have the specific number of beats, syllables per measure, and word repetition in each bridge and chorus to make each song as catchy as possible (seriously, listen to any post 2010 country song and see how many words or phrases are repeated 3 times in a row).
One cool thing for me was on my honeymoon in 2013. My wife and I stayed for a few nights in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, then went to Nashville for a few more nights. We were able to hit the Country Music Hall Of Fame, a few bars on Broadway, and then the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday night, where we saw a few acts that we had seen in the HOF earlier that day...this was the inciting incident for me to start searching for vinyl records in thrift stores to cut up into guitar pickguards. This, much like our 2025 trip to Nashville, gave me hope. It was a spark; it was inspiration to listen to what I wanted to listen to. Who cares if modern/bro country wasn't *for* me? The smug attitude of Brantley Gilbert being astonished that "Country must be country wide," was water off my back...screw that guy, I'll listen to whatever I want to.
The concept of "sincerity" or "authenticity" rings true in country music even today. I do believe that Brantley Gilbert was wholly sincere when he recorded "Country Must Be Country Wide," given the sheltered, under-a-rock upbringing I had...who's to say that there wasn't an element of "Hey, they can't listen to southern music in Michigan!" in his background, similar to my "it's either country or it's rap" upbringing? One thing I love about 90s country is the "regular guy" aspect of things; Mark Chesnutt thinks it's too hot for golf, Rick Trevino didn't mention crush's shorts, Sammy Kershaw bought his date a sloe gin fizz and didn't make a big scene about his girl not being able to shoot whiskey. These types of songs resonated with me because they didn't feel performative. These felt "sincere" to me. I can picture the story in this song happening at my uncle's house, and a bunch of the scenes in this Robert Earl Keene song happened at my grandma's house at various times. But, when Blake Shelton calls people who don't like him "Old farts and/or jackasses," that feels phony and forced, kinda like when he pretended to ignore his wife's entire damn musical career...You don't have a musical career spanning decades like Blake Shelton has, and *not* know that Gwen Stefani was the lead singer of a ska band, unless you're being deliberately obtuse and putting up a front for your audience. There was clearly some line of demarcation between 90s Country and 2010s Country where "sincerity" began taking a backseat...and that's the quagmire I'm still struggling with.
Country, for me, had been a security blanket. I'm a weird guy, I was weird growing up, and I was picked on relentlessly for liking country music all through elementary school, junior high, and high school. Between "it's either country or it's rap" at home, and "you're weird because you like country" bullying at school, my calluses built up and closed off any new suggestions. My strong reaction to Mumford & Son et. al. was rooted in the idea that the kids who had made fun of me for years for my musical preferences, were suddenly recommending their music to me. I instinctively pushed their recommendations away because I felt like I had been hurt before. Conversely, when I left the various Birthday Bashes thinking that all the modern acts I'd seen had blurred together, realizing that I was no longer the target audience for modern radio country, that felt like a slap in the face too...my security blanket was being weaponized against me.
What's a fella to do here?
I'm glad I was able to find musical content that scratches my itches. I'm blessed enough to be able to afford several (too many for my skill level) guitars, and I'm blessed to have the wherewithal to be able to service them myself (if not, I've got a good friend right here in Holland who can help). Music, after all, is about expression, and I'm slowly learning that. My musical tastes haven't stopped evolving, but there are still common roots in the vinyl records I seek out at thrift stores (and listen to in my spare time). I aspire to master a few of these country gold songs someday, and not just bash through 'em like I'm able to do currently...it's just a matter of discipline at this point. I value my downtime after work, but that easily turns into bed rotting, doom scrolling, or visiting the ol' dopamine casino by way of the Instagram app or whatever for hours on end. I'm working through it all, still feeling creatively stifled, though typing this entry out has felt cathartic and freeing.
Comments
Post a Comment