Maverick 100.9 in college station is one of the few independents left that I am aware of.

The Ranch in Fort Worth plays only Texas country. I think it's 95.9. One of the Waco stations plays a lot more Texas country than most others too. 96.7 maybe?

KHYI 95.3 The Range plays good stuff in Dallas.

KOKE in Austin is one of the best. The owner/morning show host, Bob Cole, was the morning show host on KVET. 3 or 4 years ago, KVET sold out to Clear Channel, and they kicked out all the old timers and brought in their lackeys. Bob went out and bought KOKE, which was a Christian station at the time, and converted to a Texas Country Station.

Bob got his start on KOKE in the late 70s/early 80s. Back then, KOKE was the outlaw country station that played willie and waylon and helped fuel the outlaw movement.

Also, 105.3 out of hempstead is a Texas Country Station.

KOKE FM like TexasAggie says is nails.

Shayne Hollinger from 95.9 kept that place on track IMO. They almost got rid of him, but the backlash was massive.

Shayne Hollinger from 95.9 kept that place on track IMO. They almost got rid of him, but the backlash was massive.

http://consequenceofsound.net/2015/05/the-lyrics-of-recent-no-1-singles-average-at-a-third-grade-reading-level/

Country averages at a 3.3 grade reading level, but is the highest genre. Looks like all music is sucking right now.

Bumping this thread to post this Jason Isbell quote from twitter:

"Hate to break it to y'all, but Nashville didn't "ruin" country music. Lotta good burgers in this town; nobody forcing you to eat McDonald's."

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Bumping this thread to post this Jason Isbell quote from twitter:

"Hate to break it to y'all, but Nashville didn't "ruin" country music. Lotta good burgers in this town; nobody forcing you to eat McDonald's."

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nah, he's wrong. Nashville ruined country music. The internet and the massively expanded avenues to hear new music saved a portion of it.

No, he's pretty much spot on. I elaborated at length on another post, if you want to bother with it - page 7 of the thread.


http://texags.com/forums/13/topics/2638336/replies/43941569

I blame Alabama with their stupid looking jeans and white tennis shoes

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No, he's pretty much spot on. I elaborated at length on another post, if you want to bother with it - page 7 of the thread.


http://texags.com/forums/13/topics/2638336/replies/43941569

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Good write up...I went to the Houston Rodeo this year when Brett Ellridge (sp?) was playing (we were interested in the rodeo and in Max Stalling at the Hideout). We stayed for 2 songs before leaving...it was so terrible. The music was terrible, the presentation was terrible, the songs were terrible, and his voice was terrible. I hate being this negative, but I'm pretty passionate about country music.

I saw some guy on tv the other night singing a song about "the power of positive drinking".

Good lord it was bad. It's just unconscionable what passes for songwriting in Nashville country these days. I would be ashamed to write something that bad.

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I saw some guy on tv the other night singing a song about "the power of positive drinking".

Good lord it was bad. It's just unconscionable what passes for songwriting in Nashville country these days. I would be ashamed to write something that bad.

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It's not a great time to be here. Songwriting has become cut-and-pasting of tired, over used cliches and redneck mantra. Those of us who have been at it a long time are sickened by the whole de-evolution of writing, seeing it get to where if you actually write a truly great song you're told it isn't "commercially viable" because it isn't a party anthem.

Having said that, it's very easy to say "I would be ashamed to write something that bad", but much harder to refuse to do so when songwriting is your profession, and your family depends on your ability to get cuts and make money to keep the roof over your heads. The collision of art and commerce is rarely pretty, and it arguably has never been worse than it is in 2016 Nashville.

Are you a song writer?

Totally understand, I can't begrudge the guy who wrote that, he knows what people want and he gives it to them. I imagine it might actually be kind of tough to sit down and try to write one of these anthem songs; how do you know when the common denominator has gotten too common? I mean, if I thought of "power of positive drinking" I feel like I might cringe a little at a bad pun, toss that one in the waste basket and move on. It seems like it might be hard to crank out on of these songs with a straight face and not be afraid you would lose your reputation as being a good songwriter.

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Are you a song writer?

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Rbtexan is. I am not (not professionally I do like writing songs as a hobby though). So rb's point about doing what's wanted to make a paycheck is well taken. I just thought it might be hard for a pro songwriter in Nashville to know when he finally underestimated what the public would consume.

More directly to the point: RB (if you're willing to answer), as a professional songwriter, do you ever find it hard to write a song that you wouldn't personally want to listen to?

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Are you a song writer?

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Rbtexan is. I am not (not professionally I do like writing songs as a hobby though). So rb's point about doing what's wanted to make a paycheck is well taken. I just thought it might be hard for a pro songwriter in Nashville to know when he finally underestimated what the public would consume.

More directly to the point: RB (if you're willing to answer), as a professional songwriter, do you ever find it hard to write a song that you wouldn't personally want to listen to?

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I've been fortunate in that I haven't had any cut that make me cringe. Every writer occasionally writes stinkers, and I have my share. I absolutely find it hard to write something I hate from the start, I find it hard to take the idea seriously if it's really dumb. That's probably why the bulk of my cuts came in the 90s though - I struggle with trying to write that Luke Bryan type crap.

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I find it hard to take the idea seriously if it's really dumb.

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This is what's really interesting to me. Do you think the guys who sat down and wrote "Honkytonk Badonkadonk" had the same standard as you? I wonder if guys like that are stupid or unscrupulous?

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I find it hard to take the idea seriously if it's really dumb.

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This is what's really interesting to me. Do you think the guys who sat down and wrote "Honkytonk Badonkadonk" had the same standard as you? I wonder if guys like that are stupid or unscrupulous?

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Jamey Johnson was one of the guys who wrote that and he's clearly a very capable writer. Some things you just do for the money.

Also, in historical context, that song was one of, if not the first of, that type of song in country music. They very well may have thought of it as a harmless novelty song and never dreamed it would lead to all this.

Good stuff. Interesting to hear your perspective in this! I think it'd be pretty neat to have a song that you wrote climb the charts!

Do you think we'll ever see a reversal of this current trend of country pop/hip hop? I'm sorry, guys like Sam Hunt being nominated for best country artist really bothers me.

The urbanization of country music is something that I've personally really struggled with. The songs of my childhood and youth had more rural roots ("...Trying to grow corn and cotton on ground so poor that grass won't grow"). That was a time when there were far more people being raised outside of urban settings than there are now. The sad and simple truth is that more and more "country" singers and songwriters are growing up in the city or suburbs, and they just can't relate to songs that are steeped more in what we would call "traditional" values and topics. Kids today aren't growing up listening to primarily or exclusively country music, or even country and rock. They have music on their phones as diverse as George Strait and Fetty Wap.

I'm afraid that the urban influences are here to stay, at least to some degree. My personal preference would be that those influences would be more from a production side (loops, effects, tunings, etc.). I could actually be comfortable with that, if only the lyrical content could get back close to the quality that used to exist. The current model of focusing on the groove and track, with lyric as a mundane afterthought, is what drives me completely crazy.

What's a Fetty Wap?

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The urbanization of country music is something that I've personally really struggled with. The songs of my childhood and youth had more rural roots ("...Trying to grow corn and cotton on ground so poor that grass won't grow"). That was a time when there were far more people being raised outside of urban settings than there are now. The sad and simple truth is that more and more "country" singers and songwriters are growing up in the city or suburbs, and they just can't relate to songs that are steeped more in what we would call "traditional" values and topics. Kids today aren't growing up listening to primarily or exclusively country music, or even country and rock. They have music on their phones as diverse as George Strait and Fetty Wap.

I'm afraid that the urban influences are here to stay, at least to some degree. My personal preference would be that those influences would be more from a production side (loops, effects, tunings, etc.). I could actually be comfortable with that, if only the lyrical content could get back close to the quality that used to exist. The current model of focusing on the groove and track, with lyric as a mundane afterthought, is what drives me completely crazy.

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No doubt. It's this trend I see of jacked up pickups that spend most of their time parked in a downtown parking garage and rarely ever see actual dirt roads.

I like getting your perspective rb.

While it's certainly true what Jason says; Nashville hasn't ruined country music, you can't deny that he Nashville machine has built this mindless droning on of crap. No doubt that there's still good stuff coming out of there, but you sure have to look pretty hard to find it. And I don't begrudge a person for making a living. It's clearly the consumer that demands this garbage.

Resurrecting this thread because I didn't want to start a new one. Never been big into country, mainly b/c i never liked the redneck party pandering and was never really into the Texas scene either when I was i school.

That being said, I recently started sampling stuff on Amazon Prime came across Isbell's Southeastern and even some other stuff like Old 97s and really enjoyed it. Also a big fan of blue grassy type stuff like Trampled By Turtles. What/whom else should I give a try?

Some of my favorite
Hayes Carll
Early Ryan Bingham stuff
Sturgil Simpson
Margo Price
Steve Earle
Willie Nelson
Robert Earl Keen
Turnpike Troubadors

You might try:
Corb Lund
Red Stick Ramblers

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"Got on my smell good.
Got a bottle of feel good.
Shined up my wheels good.
You're looking real good."

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They rhyme real good

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"Got on my smell good.
Got a bottle of feel good.
Shined up my wheels good.
You're looking real good."

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They rhyme real good

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That's the kind of crap that drives me crazy.

I feel like this modern country crap that we hear now is mostly about people who peaked in high school and still wear their letterman jackets even though they're 30 years old

I feel like the crappy country music we hear now is mainly about people who peaked in high school

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I feel like the crappy country music we hear now is mainly about people who peaked in high school

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It is, and that's pretty much who it's being written by.

Here's the thing, though, and there's really no way around this. Luke Bryan (puke) is outselling just about every other "country" act. Record labels look at that and say "well, if that's what the public wants, that's what we'll give to them". Radio stations don't give a damn, they would rather every song be uptempo because that's what their so-called marketing experts say people want. Writers have to write the type of songs that the marketplace demands, and unfortunately the crap you hear now is what the marketplace has demanded.

Until fans stop buying this crap, and going in droves to concerts with no talent hacks like Florida-Georgia Line, and stop listening to and/or supporting radio stations that play mindless bro-country garbage, it's not going to change. Trust me when I tell you, the fact that Chris Stapleton has gone platinum without a major radio hit has not gone unnoticed at the major labels. They'd love nothing better than to see acts like him succeed with more frequency. But for that to happen, consumers have to vote with their wallets. You get what you are willing to settle for.

http://www.vevo.com/watch/thomas-rhett/vacation-(instant-grat-video)/USLXJ1507309

Oh damn, I just heard this song. It has...

FOURTEEN songwriters.

Of course 8 of those are the band War because this song sounds exactly like Low Rider, even though it didn't actually sample it, which they should have, because as it is it just sounds like a portly produced remake.

I think what bothers me even more than this having no resemblance to country music, is that despite being written by all these hiphop/r&b/pop guys, it's a TERRIBLE example of that kind of music too! I think I would have a hard time hating one of these bro country songs if it was actually just a well made catchy pop tune. But they even fail at that.

I can admit there are a couple of fun, catchy Jason Derulo songs. But what is happening now, is guys like Thomas Rhett are hiring Jason Derulo's songwriters, and they are getting Jason Derulo leftovers. That's not good.

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I feel like the crappy country music we hear now is mainly about people who peaked in high school

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It is, and that's pretty much who it's being written by.

Here's the thing, though, and there's really no way around this. Luke Bryan (puke) is outselling just about every other "country" act. Record labels look at that and say "well, if that's what the public wants, that's what we'll give to them". Radio stations don't give a damn, they would rather every song be uptempo because that's what their so-called marketing experts say people want. Writers have to write the type of songs that the marketplace demands, and unfortunately the crap you hear now is what the marketplace has demanded.

Until fans stop buying this crap, and going in droves to concerts with no talent hacks like Florida-Georgia Line, and stop listening to and/or supporting radio stations that play mindless bro-country garbage, it's not going to change. Trust me when I tell you, the fact that Chris Stapleton has gone platinum without a major radio hit has not gone unnoticed at the major labels. They'd love nothing better than to see acts like him succeed with more frequency. But for that to happen, consumers have to vote with their wallets. You get what you are willing to settle for.

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I agree with you to an extent. However, I do believe with regards to country music there is a bit of a tail wagging the dog. I do think country music fans (the kind your reference) are 100% malleable. If the country stations feed it to them, they will gobble it up. And the same can be said for pop, but not to the same extent. I really do believe country radio is the major factor in driving this into the ditch.

You may disagree, and frankly, you certainly know more about 'the business' than I do, but I think the malleablness (did I make up a word?) of the average country music fan is a big factor.