Paedantic Basterd

I'd like to like country. Not necessarily the watch-you-leave-through-the-screen-door stuff, but I'm interested in gothic and alternative country at least.

Engine

The question at hand is why you DO like Country so kindly take your sarcastic smiley and fuck off to a thread on which you might make a worthwhile reply.

Willie has rarely sounded bad.

I'm not real clear on the difference b/w Country and Honky Tonk but I always kinda liked Yoakam too. Even though he was placed in the same terrible mid-90s camp as, say, Garth Brooks, I usually found his style at least tolerable.

In response to this I have to say 1) I don't feel that gothic and alternative country is really Country and no offense to this thread but I really feel that it belongs in the Indie & Alternative forum where it would get much more attention which is well deserved because there's some great stuff in there. But it's not quite Country.

and 2) I feel that Country is one of the more misunderstood and pre-judged styles of music in existence and I can see why. Most people on Earth, myself included, were raised thinking of Country music as something that has nothing to do with them - made by and for backwards yokels from the Southern US.

Of course, that's true in some cases but it's also much more than that. Country musicians have often made music that has real soul, great musicianship, and well, steel guitars and banjos and fiddles often sound great.

I'll admit, the first time I paid proper attention to "watch-you-leave-through-the-screen-door" stuff is when I heard Ween's mid-90s country album which seems like a joke but is actually true Country music. They make fun of typical Country lyrical subject matter but, true to Ween style, the musicianship is excellent and the jokes are maybe kind of serious in their minds. Definitely the music on the album is serious. I saw them play twice when they toured for this album and the band they had with them live and on the album was seriously Country as shit including an amazing old guy on the steel guitar.

I particularly love this song right down thar and I highly recommend the album to anyone who wants to understand Country music but haven't been able to get past their pre-conceived notions of it. No guarantee you'll like it but this is one way I learned to:

Help Me Scrape the Mucus Off My Brain

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