Posted on 02/02/2020 10:28:04 AM PST by nickcarraway
Loretta Lynn voiced her displeasure with current country music during a recent podcast, and she didn’t hold back.
The 87-year-old country music pioneer told Martina McBride that she thinks country music is “dead.”
“I think it’s a shame,” she said on the ‘Vocal Point with Martina McBride’ podcast, according to WhiskeyRiff.com. “I think it’s a shame to let a type of music die. I don’t care what any kind of music it is. Rock, country, whatever. I think it’s a shame to let it die, and I’m here to start feeding it.”
She later told McBride, who is also a country singer most famous for her work in the 1990s and 2000s, that it’s “a sad situation because we should never let country music die.”
She continued: “I’m getting mad about it. I am. Because it’s ridiculous,” as reported by PEOPLE Magazine.
The full podcast with Lynn is available at luminarypodcasts.com.
Lynn, who rose to fame in the 1960s and remains one of the most popular artists of her genre, later took to Facebook to follow up on her comments to McBride.
The Kentucky native said she loves country music and is proud of its heritage, but feels the “hard push to crossover” is ruining the genre. Many current country acts are incorporating pop or rap into their songs.
“I like it country — pure and simple and real,” she said on Facebook. “I am so proud of all the artists out there, especially the younger ones, who know what I mean and are still keeping it country. When you love something, you can’t just stand by quietly if you think it’s in danger.”
It’s not the first time Lynn sounded off on the country music genre. In 2010 she wrote in the introduction to her biography about the blurred lines between country and pop.
“Some of these country singers aren’t really country ... I think some of them should be singing pop music and leave country alone,” she wrote, according to TheBoot.com.
Lynn suffered a stroke in 2017 and broke her hip a year later. She made her first public appearance in nearly two years last April for an all-star tribute birthday concert in her honor. Music legends from every generation were in attendance for the event.
Earlier this week, Lynn may have just won the viral “Dolly Parton Challenge.” In her social media post, she wrote “Y’all wish” for where a Tinder photo would have gone.
Listen to Real Roots Radio - WBZI 1500 - on line. Real Country Music. Saturday afternoon Chubby Howard is still going at age 94 with his weekly show.
I grew up in the Town That Buck Owens Owned and where Merle Haggard lost his wife to a river (which most would call a creek).
It’s where The Bakersfield Sound was started because, well, it was Bakersfield and it was a sound.
I did not like country or country/western while growing up. At. All.
But now days I really enjoy a lot of Blues Saraceno, Nick Ammar and Nick Nolan type music.
But I doubt that qualifies as “country” or “country/western”.
Examples:
Nick Ammar - The Burning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPK8UaggDOY
Nick Nolan - Shackles Ropes and Chains
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX3t7dLUxY8
Blues Saraceno - The River
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncic96eYXRE
If you want to know what happened to country music, the story about Mike Huckabee getting kicked off a Nashville board because a powerful country music exec and his “husband” were offended by Mike’s politics should explain a lot.
Try Colter Wall. Different style, but come from the heart.
My father used to listen to C&W music and I tried to change the channel one time and got I got chastised by my father.
**************
LOL! I can relate.
Unfortunately, for me, I was a thoroughly modern American kid which meant I was in full blown, irrational and unthinking rebellion against *everything* the “oldsters” liked.
So it was Pink Floyd and Led Zep for me. With some Nazareth thrown in for when we were gathering up to go downtown to find a fight.
Lately, I’ve rediscovered the singer/songwriter,Townes Van Zant...including country singers who cover his GREAT songs.
She must have been talking about real country, not trite, formula-driven, plastic crap country.
LOL. So true.
Some of the newer stuff is OK but there are no equals to Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Jim Reeves, Johnny Horton and Marty Robbins.
“Thunder Rolls” is OK and I liked “16th Ave” by Lacy Dalton but most of it is awful.
The same concept applies to rock and roll too, doesn’t it?
The rock music from the 50s was different from the rock music of the 60s, which then shifted again in the 70s and 80s.
Isn’t music always evolving, or changing, in all genres not just country?
I would like to hear what David Allan Coe has to say about this ....
I grew up in Motown.
Grew up listening to Motown and rock.
Spent 3 1/2 years in Texas when I was in the Army in the 70’s.
Still listened to rock, soft rock and pop.
Loved the 80s music.
But in the late 80s the rock stations started playing rap.
TOTALLY sucked!
Switched to the new country artists like Garth - to me they sounded like the early rock stuff of the 50s.
Country was GREAT thru the early 90s, but by the mid 90’s it started moving to pop.... not nearly as good.
Garth’s first 2-3 albums were great, then they started sliding. Since he came out of retirement - Ugh.
Now... rap? In a “county” song? Are you kidding me?
The last several years I’ve gone to Bob Wills Days for the music festival - Western Swing at it’s finest. Guys like Jody Nix and Jake Hooker.
It all is based on good musicianship, good vocals, and a good story that you can relate to - and that the artist believes in.
I won’t post it here, but look up Waylon Jennings’s quote about Garth Brooks and pantyhose. Hilarious
Oh, and I saw Ned LeDoux last fall.
Saw his dad at Cheyenne in 1993 - the first time he performed there as a musician.
That’s cowboy rock kinda music.
It's even worse than that. It's the bean counters who dictate to the producers what they want. "Hat singers are hot right now. Turn him into a hat singer". "Trios are selling. Make him a trio".
We had a fabulous kid with real talent that they turned into a "trio" and produced the life out of his music. Full disclosure.... we and 2 other guys produced the demo on him. The label needed their producer on it ('cause then they'll push it don'tchaknow ) and the bean counters said trio. That's when we bailed. Two highly mediocre albums and the kid went home to Kentucky.
don’t ya know they come back if ya play it backwards
Yes. Produced formulaicly. Nothing organic or spontaneous.
Gone (from the radio waves) are the real woman country singers like:
OTOH, I've found that "blue grass" seems to have held steady...
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