Is it just me or has country music gone in the crapper over the last several decades?  Whatever happened to concepts like melody, harmony, rhythm and plain old good song writing.  Most of the stuff they play on the Top 40 country stations is just plain unlistenable to me.  The last time I tuned in for a few seconds while flipping through the stations there was some song on about some dude's buttcrack showing while he was shingling his roof!  If Hank Williams Sr heard songwriting like that he would turn over in his grave.  It seems like lately if you can fit yourself into a tight pair of jeans and you look good in a cowboy hat you're in as a country singer regardless of your talent.  I know there are a few exceptions but most of the stuff they play might as well be Brittany Spears in a cowboy hat and you'd get the same result.

I've heard people say that old-time country music is too twangy.  If twangy is an actual chord strummed on an actual acoustic guitar then I'll take twangy any day.  Like Emmylou Harris said on one of her recordings "the living room has gone out of the music".  I'd love to go back in the days before radio when familes used to gather around in their living  room or front porch and pull out the instruments just for the sake of entertaining themselves and making good music.  Give me family harmonies and a few acoustic instruments anyday over the garbage coming over the airwaves today.  Before I make a bunch of people mad at me  I'll say again there are some exceptions but they're few and far between.

I feel fortunate that I'm able to get together with friends and play and sing the old traditional music and do our part to keep that music alive.  If you don't know what I'm talking about go to a bluegrass (acoustic) music festival sometime and listen in on the impromptu jams that go on.  Those people understand what making good music is all about.  A couple that I recommend are the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas in September and the Evart Funfest in Evart, Michigan in July.  There are others but those are two that I attend regularly.  That's all for now.  Thanks for reading through my first attempt at a blog.  Until next time I'll be doing my part to keep the twang alive.