COUNTRY

Rip It Up, Issue 201, 1 May 1994, Page 16

COUNTRY

THE REAL THING

If you think country music means a bunch of redneck hicks singing sentimental slush or worse, Garth Brooks, listen up. Real country is an exercise in honesty and simplicity. The great men of country lay their souls barer than a buzzard’s lunch and no-one states a woman’s standpoint plainer than the best female country singers. You won’t find a mess of mysterious metaphors or a mass of undue muscle flexing in country music. Just the truth, pure and painful, and melody, and words that you can hear so they have to mean something.

Country music is balm for a broken heart, and if you’re feeling lonely, it’s definitely your special friend. But it's also spunky, with witty word play and some of the best song titles ever (‘Don’t Come Home A-Drink-ing (With Lovin' On Your Mind’), ‘You Ain’t Woman Enough To Take My Man’, ‘She’s Acting Single (I’m Drinkin’ Doubles’)) and a slew of song genres which are pure Americana — prison, train and cowboy songs, outlaw songs, cheatin’ songs, sad songs and gospel songs, not to mention drinkin' songs (there’s a river of whiskey running through this music). Then there’s the whole mythology of country music, the dramatic, romantic or tragic lives of the stars themselves. Like Hank Williams, creator of some of the most harshly beautiful country ballads ever written. Naturally withdrawn and unstable, he turned to alcohol and painkillers to minimize the pain from Jr a spinal injury . He . died of a heart attack in a . car en Jfl route to a

gig in 1953, aged 29. Or Tammy Wynette, who left the beauty parlour in Alabama and struck out for Nashville at the age of 20, divorced with three children. Ten years later she was a superstar. Or Patsy Cline, killed in a plane crash at the height of her fame. But youthful suckerdom for fashion conspires against country music, which seems to be regarded with contempt by a lot of rock fans. Some alternos embrace rap because it’s the music of an oppressed minority but they scoff at country, traditionally the music of the poor white dispossessed. Then there’s the rock fans who won’t listen to things that aren’t officially in fashion or they hate anything their parents listened to.

Whatever the reason, country isn’t cool in New Zealand, as Dead Flowers proclaim in their song ‘Better Dead Than A Country Singer’. Ask lead singer Bryan Bell what he thinks of country music and he replies “Twangy rubbish. ” Ironic considering his band is named after one of the Rolling Stones most country songs. To be fair, this could just be a case of under-exposure to the right stuff. Bryan says he was put off after watching an hour long special of the American Country Music Awards, hardly an indication of the treasure troves of yore. If you want to know why people love country you have to go back in time. Listen to Hank Williams, Earnest Tubb, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson,Tammy Wynette, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, to name a few. (And don’t forget Elvis Presley’s Sun Sessions and Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline). As Options maga-

zine puts it, not knowing the difference between Garth Brooks and Merle Haggard is like not knowing the difference between Billy Joel and Lou Reed. Yet the biggest selling country artist in America today is “hat” act Garth Brooks. Mere mention of his name is enough to make Listener arts editor (and country fan) Chris Bourke shudder. . 7 >

“I cannot get through a record of his,” says Chris, “it’s just a cure for insomnia."/. • “What we’re talking about is country rock,” continues Chris, “which came about with Gram Parsons joining the Byrds and Dylan putting some country players on certain albums and the Rolling Stones dripping in country in the late 60s — Beggar’s Banquet and Let It Bleed. But every five years there’s a revival of country rock. In the mid 70s you had Commander Cody and Asleep at the Wheel and Amazing Rhythm Aces, bands with a good dose of rock and roll there too. In 75 Willie Nelson moved back to Nashville and {there appeared} all these so called “outlaw” singer/songwriters who were an alternative to the schlock coming out of Nashville — Guy Clark, Billy Joe Shaver, Townes Van Zandt. And then in the late 1980 s country was back with the Urban Cowboything and that lasted five minutes. Then, about 85, along came Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle and Randy Travis. But corny country has never gone away, it’s just that rock people don’t pay any attention to it. In other words, forget Nashville and the Grand Ole Opry. Do your research and you’ll be rewarded by discovering some of the most emotionally resonant music ever made. And fashion victims may like to know that <. . some of the trendiest rock people , , in America are getting hip to coun- try now. Head Lemon Head Evan Dando and Dinosaur Jr’s J. Mascis have both done Gram Parsons covers. Mudhoney have just recorded a single with Jimmy Dale Gilmore. And Al Jourgensen of Ministry (never one to fight shy of a trend) has been ranting to the press about his new country project, Buck Satan and the 666 Shooters and how they're “going straight to the roots, the Buck.Owens/Bakersfield sound”. Freakwater and Uncle Tupelo are the names of two young American bands who are getting attention for their country sound. If you want to hear the best new

C country artists as well as classics, tune in to Grant McAllum’s Border Radio Show ® on bFM every Sunday from two to four pm. <ii Chris Bourke rates it higher than any country V show he’s heard in America. Country FM, on the * other hand, is regarded as a wasted opportunity by some of the country fans I spoke to, especially since they announced their“country not western” policy. But Country FM announcer Jules Starr says that as she understands it, that was part of an attempt to lower the station’s demographic to the 1825 age group on the basis of the enormous popularity of country music amongst younger people in America, a move they have since retracted. Country FM have reverted back to their original 35-54 demographic and Jules says the station plays a mixture of country music. a fair percentage of cur- ' rent Nashville output as well as music from the 50s onwards. You don’t have to walk around in cowboy boots and a ten galt lon hat to be a \ country fan (alI though with the 1 wave of western movies coming \ out of Hollywood right now, western inspired fashion spreads

are popping up in high fashion glossies like Vogue.) John Segovia is one local musician who plays in rock bands (Greg Fleming and the Trains, Shaft, exAxel Grinders) and listens almost exclusively to (classic) country music. Why? “Why is a tree a tree? I dunno, it just sounds really great.”

Segovia's favourites include Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Earnest Tubb, early Carter Family, and Willie Nelson (“the greatest living genius of the genre, a really great singer, fantastic songwriter and, what everyone overlooks, he’s a stunning guitar player"). Marcus Lush, TVNZ’s cheeky Newsnightreporter, is another country fan. “It celebrates the mundane and the ordinary and it tells a tale,” opines Marcus, “and it’s not too complicated for us people with no musical ability to understand.” .

Grant McAllum says: “It’s articulating people’s emotions and fears directly and it’s not talking down to them. It’s that direct hit that gets you. I think you have to have experienced something in your life for it to connect.”

Exactly. When I listen to country I feel I’m listening to men and women who have lived, instead of boys and girls who have something to prove. But do you have to be older to appreciate country music? Greg Fleming, another rock musician who listens to a lot of country, thinks not. “No, not at all. You certainly have to have some kind of life experience because that’s what it’s about — heartbreak, drugs, drinking, losing — but in a weird way it’s kind of uplifting. Even a self-pitying drinking song like Gary Stewart does, it’s just done with such soul. In that sense it’s very close to the great soul music which is about broken hearts and stuff. It’s just the way it’s sung. If you hear Hank Williams doing ‘l’ll Never Get Out of Here Alive’ it’s one of the great moments of the 20th century.” Al Hunter (who performs a very moving tribute song to fallen hero Gary Stewart) sees two sides to country. "There’s the big macho thing and there’s also this thing where you pour your heart out and it’s cool to pour your heart out in a song, although mine are generally not all that emotional, they’re more story telling.”

Hunter has released two albums (Neon Cowboy for Sony and The Singer for Pagan) and for years he and his band had a residency at the Kings Arms. Now he runs a monthly singer/songwriter night in Al’s Bar at the Astor in Symond’s Street (also open on Thursday, Friday and Sunday). Does he feel his career has suffered from practising a marginalised form of music?

Al: "It’s definitely marginalised. You sort of accept it but it’s very frustrating, the fact that it’s so huge in America and yet such a struggle here to get an audience.” What are the defining qualities of country music for you? Al: “Telling a story from the heart. Country music is very lyrical and it’s a listening type of music.” Which might surprise people who think country means ‘Achy-Breaky Heart’ but as both Al Hunter and John Segovia point out, it’s impossible to line dance to 2/4 time, country music’s most common beat. Line-dancing to the 4/4 beat is just country music’s version of disco.

In discovering country music, beware that most of the great artists released a dud album or two in their time Just like rock bands do), so conduct some research before you part with the folding stuff. If you want to check out the live local scene, Ponsonby’s Java Jive have Sunday country jam sessions and you can see Al Hunter and band at Al’s Bar. In Christchurch, Bourbon Street is recommended. Otherwise, buy yourself a bottle of whiskey and a stack of CDs and retire to your room for some spiritual healing, country style.

DONNA YUZWALK