Put Some Country Back In Country

These days it seems that whenever you turn on the country radio, you hear pop songs endlessly sung by people faking a southern tone. Pretty-boys from the suburbs, with pristine hats and frosted hair, singing endless about their trucks, obligatory backroads, girls, and beer. They do sell a lot of records, and I won’t say they’re all awful, but even their bosses must admit their songs are pretty forgettable. I think perhaps we should all look back to what made country great. To steel guitars and cowboy songs, to tales of joy, but also pain. Bring back the grit, sorely missed, that spoke to lone men spurned. Give us more stories telling how everything in this life is earned. Sing us more songs of complication, more tales focused on adults. We have mainstream pop for the kids, they have their own stars to exalt. Find those who sing what they know, a few purists, some blues, some outlaws, who are willing to sing about the things that life sticks in their craws. Give us balladeers from the west and a stomping redneck, half insane. Get us a band that feels it in full, cause this pop stuff is getting lame. Put these folks up on the stage and don’t you dare second-bill ‘em, and now as Nashville law requires I’m name-checking Hank Williams.