Whenever Mark was over the subject of country music came up and we found that neither one of us were fans of it, I can take a *little* of some of the older or 'outlaw country' but not for too long of a period at a time ... Johnny Cash is plain cool, the newer stuff is just gawd-awful.

Seems like we don't hear of too much country around here so I wonder how many of you all listen to it?

Pfffffffftttt!

Hey I did say *you all*

Holy Crap! Yes, you did, didn't you?

Actually, I LIKE y'all.

Mark being raised in the south y'all is an expression I've heard and used all of my life but that woman Paula Dean is about to break me from it I believe, man I can't take that woman's "y'all" every other word for too long.

Jan used to say 'you'ens' or 'youse' ... maybe I'll work on it.

It takes some pretty non-traditional (or extremely traditional) country for me to like it. I like bluegrass (particularly anything Bela Fleck does, which makes it Newgrass, apparently...), Dixie Chicks (at least their later stuff--hey, it's pretty...), and a lot of stuff that Lyle Lovett does. I can't stand the mass produced pop pap Nashville's been turning out over the last decade or two--and I know that Dixie Chicks account for some of that.

Coutry music... as in national anthems??

I like some of the old school stuff like Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash and Conway Twitty. Can't really say I listen to any of the new country.

Johnny Cash goes without saying.

I enjoy good singer/songwriters, and there's plenty of them in the older country, non-poppy/glitzy "New Country" genre. Merle Haggard and Guy Clark are two of them. I also enjoy Lyle Lovett. I admit I don't really look for new music to listen to in the country genre...

I really like bluegrass, too. Alison Krauss + Union Station are excellent musicians. I used to listen to Bela Fleck a lot and kinda got burned out. I wouldn't call his style exactly bluegrass, though. Seldom Scene is a local bluegrass band that put out a Grammy award-winning album last year that my wife and I really enjoy (called Scenechronized).

I also listen to some Alt. Country: Ryan Adams, Ray LaMontagne, Avett Brothers, even recent Mark Knopfler falls in this category. One of my favorite recent CDs is a soundtrack collaboration btw. Benjamin Gibbard and Jay Farrar called One Fast Move of I'm Gone.

All I can think about when I see the name Conway Twitty is how Family Guy played a large portion of this video clip in an episode -- perhaps more than one episode.

You mean like this.
John Prine did some good stuff.

Country "music" = Yuck!

Just my opinion, as I know quite a few people that like it. I would just rather have someone hit a note spot on the first time and not "hunt" around for it while the geetar (yup, just like it looks, not guitar) twangs away with slinding notes of pure nastiness.

To me, just about anyone can "sing" country. Some people are better than others at just singing and I wish that they would leave the country music to the people that like the twang.

I know, there are all of these "cross-over" singers, and the "new stuff isn't like the old stuff" arguments, but I'll never like it. So if you enjoy it, that is awesome! At least is isn't (not that I have heard) about beating and killing people, qwearing every 2 seconds, and so forth like some of the cRAP music out there.

Oh no, a lot of people share that opinion.

Only two types of music I’ve found that I absolutely can’t listen to. Rap which makes me want to kill the people singing and listening to it and Country which makes me want to kill myself because it’s so whinny and depressing. Some other genres aren’t favorites but nothing’s as evil as those two.

Though I must admit on my first trip to Okinawa I nearly fell on the ground laughing when I heard Japanese country western music.

The closest I can get to country music would be artists like James Taylor or similar, probably considered to be "folk music", although in some ways Johnny Cash is pretty cool. I have found artists like Garth Brooks to be somewhat of a bad joke...many country artists(today), imo, seem to be trying to immitate rock musicians from yesteryear but use a slide guitar or fiddle here or there to justify it as country music. If you ever listen to Shania's music alongside certain Def Leppard songs, you'll hear a lot of similarities fiddles/slide guitar aside.

Agree with all negative comments on rap "music", throw pop music in there too!

Considering Mutt Lange did some producing for Def Leppard, that's not surprising!

I'm with you Grunt, the only Rap I ever listened to was some old school Boogie Boys and Run DMC back in my college days since my roomate who was on the track team liked them.

My wife likes some country, not the twangy crap. Some of the old stuff is pretty good, and we've been to Branson, MO a few times. We have seen Clint Black a few times, one of my wifes favorites.

Hank is ok also, all my rowdy Axiom buddies are getting drunkkkk tonightttttt...

My sister and I were just remembering some old country music videos from when we were younger. Our parents were really into country back then. My dad is still into country, but now he seems to prefer the old cowboy music. I'm pretty much burned out on most country, like a lot of people, but there are always going to be exceptions. The major turn-off for me is when the songs are about how great being simple-minded is.

As for rap, I do like some. It's not all about killing and getting jiggy, though I have no problem with catchy songs that are about that. Most rap doesn't interest me, but I do like some.

There are other more exotic genres that aren't represented in my music library (Dean has certainly shared links to some), but it would be hard to sidestep genres as broad as country or rap.

You mean Beastie Boys, right?

You've gotta fight, for your right, to parrrrrrrrrty...

Jurassic 5 comes to mind. Too bad they disbanded.

@pmbuko, I bet you would like De La Soul.

I'm another in the category of "My parents listened to country music, and therefore so did I as a child." I grew up in the '70s, and my parents belonged to 8-track tape clubs. I still like Willie, Waylon, Dolly, Kenny, Merle, and the Statler Brothers.

It wasn't until I got my own FM radio at age 14 (1982) that I even got into pop/rock music. I had a lot of catching up to do. I think that this is why new wave and '80s hits still are some of my favs.

I haven't listened to country music much at all since then, but I still appreciate good banjo and steel guitar. Especially the latter in the hands of David Gilmour.

Hmm, Thinking on it, some of the stuff that the band did fits into country rock and I like them quite a bit. The Eagles fit right in there too, at least the early stuff.

Do you have a favorite Bela Fleck? I was thinking about trying him out but wasn't sure what to start with. I like about 5 songs from the Dixie Chicks' Long Way Home CD but I doubt that I would get into any of their older stuff. Oh and by the way, I say y'all on a daily basis and there is no way that Paula Deen or anyone else could get me out of it. As Southern as I am, I despise most country music (Johnny Cash and Mary Chapin Carpenter being the exceptions).

Dwight Yoakam had a couple of bearable songs too.

But a silly, silly name.

You gotta like "Dwight" though! a good name for a town....

Or a funny character to play jokes on in the office.

The Dixie Chicks live album is really good; I think it's "Top of the World."

I only have one solo Bela Fleck album, and that's Drive. His Tales from the Acoustic Planet discs are good; I like the first the most (that's the classical one) and his latest (the Africa one) the least.

As far as the Flecktones albums go, Outbound is great, Cosmic Hippo is the classic one, and Left of Cool is a lot of fun. Little Worlds is a little odd, but still good. UFO Tofu is also good.

As a matter of fact, I think that if I owned a company in Dwight, I'd be so embarrassed that I would just give product away to anyone who called me on the name!

If it works, let me know Mark!


Uhh, of course if Ian gets upset with you, I don't know who you are...."Mark?....Mark who?"

Alison Krauss is certainly tolerable to listen to. (And to look at!)

Ah, NO.