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The words “country music” tend to elicit groans from a lot of folks of respectable taste (metalheads included), in the same vein as the words “bands signed to Victory Records” or “Liturgy” might. But that twinge in our guts is more a conditioned response to the squeaky clean Nashville pop-country scene; real-deal country artists–the Hanks, Waylons, and Merles of the world–deal with social inequality, desolate towns on the edge of life, and relationships gone to hell as well as anything out there.
This is something that Scott Kelly (Neurosis, Shrinebuilder) is well aware of, having frequently cited Hank Williams (the first) as a musical reference, and recently collaborating with Wino and Neurosis-bandmate Steve Von Till on a Townes Van Zandt cover album. Now partnered with The Road Home (Noah Landis and Greg Dale) for his latest solo record, Kelly brings a desolation and despair to his music that will resonate with Neurosis fans as much as country and folk aficionados.
To enter to win a copy of The Forgiven Ghost In Me, tell us your thoughts on country music in the comments below, and talk about some of your favorite artists of the genre. This contest will end on the release date of the album at midnight on Tuesday, August 14th. You must have a mailing address in the US or Canada to enter.
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KRIS KRISTOFFERSON — if it sounds country it’s cause it is ! it’s a country song. i not only love his music more than i can explain, i still tear up to almost every song on me & bobby mcgee, it’s one of the saddest albums ever recorded and if you don’t like it you cannot be my friend.
“Duvalier was a bitter man who cursed the morning sun
That brought a new betrayal every day”
Merle Haggard for sure. Saw him a decade+ ago for free at the Kentucky State fair, he was great, and I’ve been a fan ever since.
Special mention goes to Freakwater, one member of which hails from my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. Check out “Gravity”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQRtoHnBsIQ&feature=related
You can count on the fingers of one hand the number of metal bands that write lyrics as heavy as Freakwater’s.
I will go out on a limb, because I don’t know jack about country music, but one of my favorite albums of all-time is Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ soundtrack for “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”. The album fits the atmosphere of the film perfectly, but it is more a mix of country/Americana. I still listen to it often as it evokes such great feeling, even minus lyrics. It has made me actually investigate country/Americana music more-so, which is why Scott Kelly’s album appeals to me.
Similar is Nick Cave/Warren Ellis’ soundtrack for “The Proposition”.
Louvin Brothers are kvlter than most. They reaffirm that Satan is indeed real, and they even clutch invisible oranges on their infamous album cover of hellish morbid visions. Plus, Entombed has used “Satan Is Real” as their intro music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czLceBSD7Cc
Today’s country is few and far between. There area a few Hank 3, Shooter, etc. The majority comes from the prior gen. The others r just pop pretty much. If you want to be country, it must be n your soul to begin with.
I grew up in the South, country music was everywhere. It’s would be hard for me to not like it. I tend to like Honky Tonk and “Outlaw Country” – artists like Porter Wagoner, Hank Williams Sr., Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and George Jones…
There’s something about the Southern drawl that I just love.
*Don’t consider me an entrant in the contest. My review of the record is going up tomorrow, 8/8 at 7:30 AM central.*
Where I grew up, country music was everywhere, and that’s pretty much all there was. A couple pop stations that played the exact same garbage as each other, and a couple dozen country stations, plus public radio and (if the weather is right) the classic rock station out of Sioux City. Our country stations were just like our pop stations, though: Terrible.
Johnny Cash was my first country love. Now, I listen to quite a bit, relatively speaking, and (somewhat) regularly talk about it on my blog. My favorite is easily either Wovenhand or 16 Horsepower, both fronted by the amazing David Eugene Edwards. It is some seriously dark shit.
I can’t wait to see what everyone else has to say, though. I never know where to look to find good country music, but a forum full of metalheads is perfect.
Sorry, 7:00 AM, not 7:30.
I don’t really dig country music, but give me some old Delta blues and I’m a happy man.
Country music is not meant for arenas and casino showrooms. It is made for front porches and stairwells and wherever people are gathered. It can be one guy chording a guitar or a big foot stomping group with washboards and banjos and harmonicas. Country music is truly American. Chuck Ragan, Tim Barry, Ben Nichols, Cory Branan, frontier ruckus, Amy Millan, and Sarah Borges are some of my favorite current artists. To these ears though, No one sings it sweeter than ol Emmylou.
Country Music is just a label like Metal, or Heavy Metal if you like. Both encompasses so much, metal has developed the art of the Sub-Genre to such a degree that only String Theory can sort it out. Country as of late has too, in the need to differentiate itself from the Nashville scene (which a lot of the Stars of the Outlaw genre tried to get into first to be kicked out to become the “outlaws”). Americana, Roots music…. On and on. It is all good (well not all, that crisp Nashy stuff still sucks…. Kinda like Poison… Glam was perfected by the New York Dolls none else need apply )
Country has always been with, my first 7″ was Glen Campbell’s Rhinestone Cowboy in the 70’s… Good music will always mean hearing Cash sing Folsom Prison Blues on the radio in my Dad’s truck riding around South Texas, or seeing Fudge Tunnel and Napalm Death in Austin.
Heavy is a feeling evoked, Ralph Stanley is just as fucking heavy as Burning Witch (or insert your own, I am sure, awesome example of heavy).
Country music is best when stripped down to it’s core elements of a guy with a tortured soul and an acoustic guitar.
For me personally it is and always has been Dwight Yoakam, the country star from the other side of the tracks. Spurned by the mainstream in Nashville, he hammered out a legacy on the live front in LA, partially driven by the brilliant guitar work of Pete Anderson.
He always has had that metal attitude of “Fuck them, I am doing my own thing”. And he shagged Sharon Stone in her heyday
I think it goes with out saying that the man in black Johnny Cash is possibly the country singer most metalheads would relate to.
His tortured soul is much more realistic than most of the black metal guys out there!!
I really love this cover art. It comes off looking like a jazz fusion thing from ‘72 or thereabouts. I want this on vinyl.
That cover art is so good…done by Thomas Hooper, who also did the artwork for the Tombs Path of Totality LP. Getting tattooed by him in October, super excited for it.
The only country artist that comes to mind is Steve Earle. IMO i think was (well maybe) the last outlaw country artist, im sure there will be those who dispute but what ever lol… i mean in this day in age the only issues that are dealt with in country music are child seats in minivans and so forth… steve earle’s songs touched on many issues during its time such as capital punishment (Billy Austin), property foreclosures ( The Rain Came Down), and my fave moon shine runners (copper head road).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhMO9azmKNU
The album Copper head road is one of those albums any metal head should have in his/her collection,(growing up ive seen this album sitting amongst metallica and slayer albums). Also it was said in interviews during the recording of this album Steve Earle had heard Appetite for Destruction by Guns n Roses, and after that had a change of heart of how copperhead road was gonna sound. but like most country artist who walk that fine line between whats proper country and whats folk or rock, they are often over looked or not considered apart of the nashville community, much like the recordings that Johnny Cash had produced while on the American label(Rick Rubin).
so all the Hanks, Waylons, and the Merles, should make a little room for good ole steve earle.
also just wanted to add i think its pretty cool that Scott Kelly is dabbling in this genre, i think most music artist are growing an appreciation for folk or even the acoustic guitar, just heard the old man gloom song “Crescent” fuckin good shit right there…. also panopticon is doing some fine mashups as well “bodies under the falls” is steller.
Neurot has a handful of artists exploring similar territory, like Kelly’s Neurosis bandmate Steve Von Till, and USX mastermind Nate Hall. They haven’t released anything bad in that vein this year. (I have reviewed all three of their folk/country releases this year, and a handful of other stuff in similar styles. I’m really into this sound.) I would also really recommend Man’s Gin, although that’s more folk/rock than folk/country.
sounds like something worth investigating, thx for the heads up.
Steve Earle is fantastic!
Did you ever hear the Rolling Stones cover he did with the Supersuckers? It’s fantastic.
i first heard about that cover when he performed for both sides of the fence at the Oka crisis in Quebec
Being a southerner, country music was always around. However, it wasn’t until I was a teenager that I learned that there was good country music out there.
Even though he’s a godawful human being, I’ve always gotten a kick out of David Allen Coe. An outsider amongst outsiders his attitude seemed more punk or metal than a lot of hardcore and metal bands that I can think of. In his immortal words “don’t bite the dick.”
Scott Kelly did an amazing cover of Neil Young’s Cortez The Killer with Bruce Lamont in Chicago earlier this year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux6v5iIn5NA
I’m pretty sure that Johnny Cash will always be my favorite country artist. But we’ve heard about him ad nauseam so I’ll talk about others.
I’m a big fan of The Supersuckers. I was never into country music at all, so I was pretty reluctant to delve into their country album. After I finally did I fell deeply in love with that record (Must’ve Been High). It opened up doors into new worlds of music for me. It’s not exactly dark music. In fact it’s a rollicking good time, which is exactly what you’d expect from a Supersuckers record.
I’m just starting to look into the Swedish country scene. Of course I started with Lee Hazlewood’s Cowboy in Sweden. He’s a great songwriter. He’s got a backup female singer on a song called ‘Hey Cowboy’ who is not able to pronounce ‘cowboy’ yet she sings that line through the whole song. It sounds exactly like ‘Hey Chowdah’. Awesome!
16 Horsepower’s album, “Low Estate,” is one my all-time favorite non-metal albums. David Eugene Edward’s current band, Wovenhand, is also pretty incredible, although a bit less country than 16 Horsepower. In any case, I can’t recommend these two bands enough.
+ 1 billion
Wow! Thanks to you two, I just found a new band whose music I need to get immediately. I just spent the last few hours listening to a YouTube playlist of 16 Horsepower and love it!!! Now to figure out where to buy their cds from (yep, old school.)
I’m loving the recommendations from this post and glad to see the variance amongst the readers of this blog.
I grew up in Texas, where country reigns supreme over any other genre of music. It’s everywhere, radio stations, honky tonks, etc. Even some of my friends were in “Texas Country” bands. While I tried to get into most of the stuff you hear on the radio that my friends loved, it never really did anything for me.
And then I found Johnny Cash. He was the first artist I really could connect with through music (in any genre, this came before my metal obsession) I was especially drawn to the American Recordings, most of which were mostly cover songs, but he added his own atmosphere, sometimes a darker tone, which I loved. This kind of set me up for an interest in music that has a gloomy or darker mood, and then I started looking into metal, and “apocalyptic folk”. To this day his music still hits me on an emotional level, and I will forever be in his debt for making me explore music further.
Also, if you haven’t already, go check out Scott Kelly live. His solo stuff takes on a whole new dimension live. Last time he played he did a Shrinebuilder song acoustically. I think he should be touring the west coast sometime this year.
Do you have some suggestions for “apocalyptic folk”? I’m not sure I’ve heard that term before, but it sounds extremely intriguing.
“Apocalyptic folk” or “neofolk” is mostly pretty boring and uninteresting once you strip away the fascist aesthetics, in my opinion, except for Current 93 who are utterly spectacular and one of my favorite ever bands, both live and recorded. There’s a lot to take in there, but I would start with the album “Of Ruine or Some Blazing Starre”.
Yeah, I Googled the term and found it was associated with Death in June, which is pretty damn boring. Spotify thought I’d like Current 93, and it’s played a few of their songs for me, but I haven’t been too impressed yet.
The Father of Country Music,Jimmie Rodgers has been a part of life sense the beginning. My father would play his music in the car as we took long journeys.Listening to this mans music would and still makes me feel like I’m riding the rails. The music itself chugs along like a old Locomotive Bellowing down the line.
I grew up listening to country music, and my all time favorite was Patsy Cline. I’m also related to her, but I didn’t inherit any singing ability whatsoever. I also like the new country that is coming out now.
sellcrystal2atgmaildotcom
I’m a big fan of Alabama, with lyrics like “sweet potatoe pie and hush my mouth”, got to love those guys.
There are only a few country artists who I listen to, but they mean a great deal to me. Townes Van Zandt’s melancholy strikes a real chord with me. There is something about the “drinking yourself to death” quality of his music that is so incredibly resonate. Blaze Foley is an artist who I recently discovered and fell in love with. His song “Clay Pigeons” is just a perfect composition. I also enjoy Willie, Waylon, Hank, and Jerry Reed. There is something magical about the ultra-sincerity that permeates those Outlaw Country artists, it hits me at the core and at times can be totally emotionally shredding.
Grew up hearing my mother listening to country music, while I listened to mostly hair bands and heavy metal. I finally accepted that I liked listening to country music in my 20s, along with starting to listen to prog-rock and respecting more classic rock! I don’t like it all, but who likes all artists in a genre. Favorite country music artists are George Strait, Garth Brooks, and Zac Brown Band. Also really like Julie Robert’s debut album and Sara Evans’ 2nd & 3rd albums.
Country to me is acoustic instruments and songs of despair. Cash handles this. Ralph Stanley has tunes that are more terrifying than black metal.