Real Country Music

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Billy Dean

I was flipping channels last night and caught the end of the Billy Dean special on GAC. I think he's one of the most overlooked guys from the 90s country scene. He was pretty upfront and honest with his music...no cute little puns (except for maybe "Billie the Kid") or talking about tractors. Looking at roughstock.com, it seems like he didn't write much of his own stuff, but you have to give him credit for selecting good songs.

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?

I've always thought it's kind of funny that a lot of my favorite singers/songwriters that I consider "real country" were guys who fought tooth and nail to break free of what was traditional in their time. Waylon Jennings is a prime example, especially with "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way."

I love this song for so many reasons. First, it's not the traditional three chord country song, and the structure doesn't follow the traditional format either. It's just two chords, repeated over and over. It also has no bridge, or discernable chorus. Instead it uses the refrain "Are sure Hank done it," "Did ole Hank really do it," "I don't think Hank done 'em this way."

The main reason it's great is because in one sense Hank really did do it that way--he did it his own way. Hank would probably have loved Waylon. "Singing my songs, some of his now and then."

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Initial Post

Figured this is just as good a time as any to post about one of my favorite subjects, about which I have SEVERAL opinions--country music. I'm not talking about the crap played on the radio these days...I'm talking about REAL country music--the music I grew up listeneing to.