'Young Country', a Revolution of the Banal

Perhaps no revolution in recent history has succeeded as completely as the one we have experienced within the genre of Country music. 'New' or 'Young' Country, led by the inflated ego and visage of Garth Brooks and followed by one commercial flash in the pan after another, has resulted in 'New' Country capturing an ever larger share of the market, while traditional Country music has been all but squeezed from the airways. Of course you still hear older Country standards, but even artists as legendary as Willie Nelson have had difficulty getting their new works played on stations saturated by today's 'revolutionary' crossover Country/Rock sound. If Willie can't get air time what hope is there for upcoming artists who do not fit the 'Young' Country marketing mold? Little, except on independent labels and community radio. In fact, developing groups that reject the mannered sounds and sentimental content of 'Young' Country and instead draw upon the rich and varied sound of traditional Country, Western, Folk, and Bluegrass, have been pushed so far into the margins as to be unrecognizable as 'country' at all. From necessity this has resulted in the creation of the relatively new musical genre of 'Americana'. This Young Country coup, has demonstrated the simple truth that a revolution is not inherently "good".

The Dixie Chicks.......need I say more? If you would like to hear the original version of " Wide Open Spaces" by the artists who actually wrote and first performed, it check out The Groobees. Or better yet meet me in Houston at The Mucky Duck on August 24th and lets hear them ' Shut This Place Down'.

By any commercial measure The Dixie Chicks are without doubt the most successful Country act of the last two years racking up award after award including the Best Country Album and Best Country Vocal grammys for 1999 and 2000. Their 1998 debut 'Wide Open Spaces' is reported to have sold 8 million copies and counting , making it multi-platinum and scoring for Sony Nashville the highest overall Billboard rating for a Country album in 17 years, peaking at number 5. So who can argue with that, right? 8 million fans can't all be wrong.

Well, admittedly, my tastes range far from those of the milk-toast-fed homogenized masses but for my money I'll take Lucinda Williams' long anticipated 1998 release 'Car Wheels on a Gravel Road' over 'Wide Open Spaces' anyday. In music as in life quality always trumps quantity. While virtually unheard by the masses and unheard on commercial radio ' Car Wheels on a Gravel Road' topped almost every major critical poll in 1998 eliciting descriptions that ranged from 'masterpiece' to 'subtly lethal'. I find in these songs, from their elegantly simple arrangements to Lucinda's earnest, pain-laden vocals, a genuine vision of what it means to have lived life and to have fallen short of its expectations, but in doing so to have found a way to exist in grace. Lucinda tells me things that I believe, she trusts me with her pain and in doing so she touches mine. Like most things that are truly beautiful, these songs open for me a window to our collective consciousness that allows me a rare moment of comprehension. In a modern life, where hardly anything actually gets communicated, from my most intimate feelings, to what I want on my hamburger with fries and a coke,these songs are a rarity that I horde with pleasure.