What is country music? ACM entertainer of the year nominees illustrate genre’s diversity
Checotah native and 2005 “American Idol” winner Carrie Underwood is trying to defend her Academy of Country Music entertainer title and become the first woman to twice capture the academy’s top award at tonight’s ACM Awards. (Associated Press file and publicity photos)
A version of this story appears in Sunday’s Life section of The Oklahoman.
Country music’s best includes vast array
When the Academy of Country Music announces its entertainer of the year tonight, the fan-voted winner will have emerged from an octet of superstars that represents the genre’s current state of diversity.
Checotah native and 2005 “American Idol” winner Carrie Underwood is trying to defend her ACM entertainer title and become the first woman to twice capture the academy’s top award. Young superstar Taylor Swift would undoubtedly like to nab the trophy and to go make a matched set with her Country Music Association entertainer title.
Representing the guys are Norman rabble-rouser Toby Keith (pictured left), traditionalist royalty George Strait, Aussie standout Keith Urban, island-loving hitmaker Kenny Chesney and singer/songwriter/guitarist triple-threat Brad Paisley. Continuing the trend of bands breaking country ground, Georgia country-rockers Zac Brown Band round out the expanded field of eight entertainer nominees.
Like so many aspects of entertainment, country music is increasingly splintered. Contemporary pop- and rock-influenced country dominates radio, but traditionalists like King George, Alan Jackson and newcomer Easton Corbin get their share of play. too. The red dirt/Texas music scene keeps drawing crowds with its blend of country, folk and rock. and fans of Southern rock, outlaw country and old-school honky-tonk can all find bands playing their song.
“Right now in country music is a great time for a lot of different kinds of country music,” Underwood said last fall before her Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame induction. “If you turn on the radio you can find something you like, whether you like things that are more kind of contemporary country or … things that are traditional country or more kind of rock-influenced.”
Not all country fans share such warm-fuzzy feelings toward genre diversity. If Swift notches big wins tonight, as she did at November’s CMAs and January’s Grammys, my BAM’s Blog live blog is sure to be peppered with protests of “She’s not country!” from country purists.
And fans aren’t the only ones complaining: Last fall, George Jones (pictured right) said country-pop stars like 
Swift and Underwood “have stolen our identity.”
“They had to use something that was established already, and that’s traditional country music. So what they need to do really, I think, is find their own title, because they’re definitely not traditional country music,” he told the Associated Press.
“It’s good to know that we still do traditional country music. Alan Jackson still does it, so does George Strait. We still have it, and there’s quite a few of us that are going to hope that it comes back one of these days.”
Some take an even harsher view of mainstream country.
“It sucks. It’s horrific, horrible crap. I mean, it’s awful,” said modern-day Texas outlaw Jackson Taylor (pictured left) at last summer’s Country Fever in Pryor. “I don’t even like people to call us country anymore. We’re honky-tonk.”
But dissent about what constitutes country is nothing new, and acceptance of a controversial artist often comes with the passage of time. Now widely revered, as a country mega-star, Oklahoman Garth Brooks was viewed by many as too rock when he blasted on the scene in the ‘90s. with his bombastic arena shows. Faith Hill and Tim McGraw are now country’s power couple, but last decade, Hill drew traditionalist ire with her glossy pop crossover hits. And McGraw, like Swift, recently collaborated with Brit rockers Def Leppard.
The practice of country artists dabbling on the rock side of genre lines is as old as rock ‘n’ roll itself. After Elvis Presley popularized rockabilly, fellow country-rooted crooners such as Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Oklahoman Wanda Jackson applied their pipes to the early rock sound. Though Cash retained his core identity as a country legend, he won acclaim in 2003 with his cover of industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt.”
“I’ve read books of Hank Williams’ sessions where … guitar players were playing things and then asking if that was too country. So I think that’s always been going on,” said Gary Allan (pictured left), who counts Cash, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings among his early influences, in a phone interview.
“To me, country music, it’s songs about life. It’s Monday through Friday. Rock ‘n’ roll’s usually about what happens on the weekends.”
Jim Heath, frontman of Dallas psychobilly trio Reverend Horton Heat, said roots country guys like him harbor “disdain for the slick, produced, big country artists of modern times.” who take more musical cues from AC/DC than Jimmy Bryant.
“Country music is about heritage. … It’s about family, it’s about how your granddad used to play 
fiddle. It’s about how you learned to play licks from the local country guy and then you morphed those,” said Heath (pictured right) by phone. “Innovation is always good, but the out and out throwing aside of the heritage is I think what a lot of the modern country is.”
Though Lee Ann Womack is best known for her crossover smash “I Hope You Dance,” the Texan favors a traditional country sound.
“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,” she said. “There’s a place in the world for any good music; that’s for sure.”
Rachel Reinert (pictured left) of ACM top new artist-nominated quartet Gloriana, touring with Swift, believes the country music world is wide enough for an array of artists and fans.
“Whether you enjoy outlaw or traditional or bluegrass or contemporary or whatever, there’s people out there who actually enjoy it. There’s room for everyone, so I don’t understand why people would want to be ugly about it, because there’s just no reason to be. If you don’t like, then don’t listen to it,” she said.
More ACM coverage
The 45th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, hosted by Reba McEntire, will air live from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas from 7 to 10 tonight on CBS. Follow along with my live blog of the show here at BAM’s Blog.
-BAM
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