Lee Ann Womack, Randy Travis, Rodney Atkins and other country stars say what country music is to them
Lee Ann Womack
A version of this feature appears in Sunday’s Life section of The Oklahoman.
Gone country?
With the Academy of Country Music Awards airing at 7 tonight, country music stars weigh in on the question “What is country music in 2010?”
Lee Ann Womack:
“I’m not the country music police or anything. (laughs) But sometimes I want to be. You know, it’s story-songs. Real country music, to me, is fiddles and steel guitars. That doesn’t mean that all good music has fiddles and steel guitars, but that’s what it is to me. …
“I’m not saying that music has to be traditional country to be good. I’m just saying that I do know what it is, and I do appreciate it, I love it, I have a passion for it, I have a passion to carry it on. It’s just too hard to try to define for everyone else what it is. … “There’s a place in the world for any good music; that’s for sure. …
“It’s American, and it’s something that we can lay claim to artistically. And I think it’s important that somebody carries those traditions on.”
Randy Travis:
“Country music is music about what people live through in everyday life. To me, it’s stories about life … and songs about people who tell these stories. This is what I loved about … George (Jones), (Merle) Haggard, Hank (Williams), Lefty (Frizzell), these people sang great, great songs. In Hag and Hank’s case, they were really about their lives in particular; they were writing about themselves. A lot of it was about their love life, good, bad, indifferent — you get the good, the bad, the ugly. (laughs)
“But it’s about those kinds of stories, and to me, it’s from a singer that sings it and tells that story in a way that you hear it and think they lived every word of it. When you hear George Jones sing ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today,’ it sounds pretty believable, doesn’t it? To me, that’s what country music is about. It’s akin to the blues.”
Rodney Atkins:
“It’s a tough thing because what is country, the boundaries are gonna be a lot broader for other folks. To me, it’s just relatable music, it’s music that’s relatable to you whether you’re 6 or 16 or 60 or 600. (laughs) … The really good country music, it can make you laugh, it can make you cry. It does something very real to you.”
Mark Chesnutt:
“Country music just needs to have a good riff, a great story, and a solid voice. It needs to touch folks. It doesn’t matter if it’s new or old country, as long as it’s got a good twang and reaches the soul.”
Jim Heath of the Reverend Horton Heath:
“All these modern country bands, they have a token steel guitar player who doesn’t really ever get to play except for one little whiny thing in the third verse of a song. … They feel obligated to have a steel player. They don’t really want one. ..
“But if you’re gonna have a real country band, you’ve pretty much gotta have a fiddle or a steel or both. And then you can tell by the songwriting a lot, too. To me, when I put on a modern country station, 90 percent of it to me is a pop song, a power-ballad type of a thing or something. You see Taylor Swift’s band, and you know, they’re rock ‘n’ roll guys, they’re not country players.”
Rachel Reinert of Gloriana:
“I think that country music in 2010 is definitely going to be a good year for groups. I feel like for a long time that solo artists were kind of just really running things, and all the sudden, you’re really just starting to see a lot of groups just kind of emerging. …
“I absolutely believe there’s room for everyone, and I love all genres and all types of music and all types of country music. You know, it’s not like there’s only a certain amount of slots and we’re just wiggling our way in or anything like that. There’s people out there who enjoy our music, and we’re so thankful for that.”
— BAM
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