There's country and there's Hank
I can't help it if I still love his songs
Must be a language barrier. Something is just not getting through. Not to me, anyhow. Yeah, I know that there’s an enormous country music market out there. There are plenty of radio stations that won’t play anything else. It’s country or nothing.
The rock and rollers are mostly gone or on their way. Bob Dylan, still touring, is 85. Pete Townshend is 81. Jimmy Page is 82. Even all of U2, who started as teenagers, are in their mid-sixties. So who’s going to take over the airwaves? Country music, I bet.
Artists like Kenny Chesney, Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan, Luke Combs and Jelly Roll, tattoos and all, are acts that sell out stadiums, pound the airwaves with all their new songs, have devoted fan bases but their songs don’t do a thing for me. Nothing. Nada. No dice. No shoes, no shirt, no service.
I’m sorry if that offends. I do like that Eric Church song “Springsteen” and I guess that’s classified as country music. But the rest of it - and I’ll confess that I haven’t really given any of this stuff a serious listen - but I’ve certainly heard it. You can’t avoid it. And sorry but my impression is, it’s just too plastic, too nipped-and-tucked, too predictable, too “I-know-where-this-is-going” too, “I got my pickup and my six-pack and my dawg…”
Now I’m sure there are folks who love that sort of “well, I can count on this” music. It’s not going to offend anybody, upset anybody, rile anybody. And yeah, I have to admit Bruce Springsteen has a lot of songs with cars in them, true. That’s predictable, too. I agree.
But with Springsteen, there’s an idealism, a stubborn set of worth-fighting-for values bubbling under the surface in his music, as evidenced by his recent politically-driven “Hope And Dreams” tour.
Other than trying to come up with clever ways of rewriting the same five scenarios to sell some more records, to me, this current brand of country music mostly sounds like watered-down, castrated yacht rock, usually delivered with a Southern accent for “authenticity.”
The country music I genuinely love comes from one guy, the “Hillbilly Shakespeare”- Hank Williams. “Hey, Good Lookin.’” “Jambalaya,” “Setting The Woods On Fire,” “Cold, Cold Heart,” “Why Don’t You Love Me?.” “Your Cheatin’ Heart” “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” “Lovesick Blues” and that’s Side One. Kidding.
Yeah, the guy was a drunk, so bad they kicked him off The Grand Ole Opry, dropped out of high school at 16 and died in the back of a car somewhere in West Virginia going to a New Year’s Eve gig. He was just 29. How much more great music, how many more classic songs did the guy have in him?
The record I was listening to this morning - “Hank Williams: Live At The Grand Ole Opry” - sounds like it was taken off the radio - but his on-stage patter, even jokes with Minnie Pearl (remember her hat with the price tag?) are corny but fun. And the guy is just a master. He knew how to command a stage. It comes across.
On this record, you get a bunch of folksy Red Foley introductions and a brief chat, Hank showin’ off that ‘Bama accent, then he’ll crank out another classic. He might have been a hick - he sure sounded it - but the guy could write and sing like nobody’s business. Look at the list of his hit songs!
Sadly, his turbulent private life - which he didn’t seem to mind turning into song - seemed just to give him more fuel and writin’ material - “I Can’t Help It If I’m Still In Love With You,” or “You’re A Gonna Change Or I’m Gonna Leave” or “You Win Again” and so on. If he was a troubled soul, which seems to be the general consensus of the biographers I’ve read, he was able to express himself brilliantly with song lyrics of just ringing clarity. You just can’t beat them.
Sorry, folks. I know there’s an awful lot of country music out there and maybe I’m missing something. But I doubt it. When it comes to country music, make mine Hank.
Author John Nogowski, who discovered that Hank Williams’ songs are generally pretty easy to play on guitar, too, has written several books, including two on music: “Bob Dylan: A Descriptive, Critical Discography and Filmography” and a similar volume on Neil Young, due later this year, two books on baseball “Diamond Duels” and “Last Time Out” and a book on his experiences teaching Mark Twain’s “Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn” at a struggling minority high school in Florida. He’s written a Substack, going on three years now and is a regular contributor to the Op-Ed Pages of the Hartford Courant. He’s currently at work on a book about Bruce Springsteen.
Don't forget Patsy Cline, my favorite.
Yeah, mainstream country music is kind of in its hair metal era rn. but beneath the surface theres a whole host of fantastic art taking place. Usually when I try and introduce someone to country, I try and make suggestions based on their other genre taste. I just discovered this stack so I don't have a guess of your taste yet, but ill do some reading and pop back here with some recs.