OK...a couple things.

So you to rant and rave in the magazine about politics. Hell, it's your magazine, and 99% of the time, I agree with you. I'm getting sick of seeing it, but what the hell.

But politics is one things.

Now you're going to whine and moan because people sing about getting drunk? Never mind that people have been recorded singing about getting drunk (not to mention fifteen cents for the morphine) going on ninety plus years.

If the song sucks, well then it sucks. But hell, now we have to listen to you preach about morality because it reminds you of our asshole president? Give it a rest...and let people be, huh?

I cannot remember the last time I wrote about politics in the magazine; here, yes. In print? Not much and not often, really.

There's drunk and there's drunk.

And then there's just dumb.

Dumb will always piss me off.

You're right, I just think of you and Peter as two limbs from the same trunk. And I will always agree with you about dumb...but dumb isn't worth getting pissed off about. It's better to ignore.

Cheers.

I'll agree with your basic premise regarding there being two kinds of music, but your implication that music out of Texas means stupid, knuckle-headed, lacking craft, etc. ignores the fact that there is a lot of music coming from there that (IMO, anyways) is very good. Sunny Sweeney, Dale Watson, Kelly Willis, Asleep at the Wheel, Elana James, Bobby Flores, and James Hand all come to mind.

I'll agree that in ill temper I wrote rashly, but there is a genre marketed as "Texas music" which is discrete from all things Texas. And if there's another term of art which describes what Cory Morrow and Kevin Fowler and Pat Green are about, I'm open to it.

But they make bad art. Dumb art.

Didn't you just have Miranda Lambert on your cover a few months ago? You know that Miranda Lambert is #1 on the Texas Music Chart right? And when you had Miranda on, didn't your editorial have something to the effect of "this may seem like selling out, but it will get people to read our magazine, and she at least makes an effort, so that's cool"

Also, you guys are one of the foremost magazines devoted to roots/americana/country/whatever, is it really very responsible to write off a whole movement in said music by saying "Apparently there are now three kinds of music: Good, bad, and Texas....No, still two kinds of music. Just another brand to avoid."?

To be clear, its not as if I'm some Red Dirt super fan, and I totally agree that a lot of the content goes for cheap pops (I was feelin bad, but then I started gettin drunk, down by the brazos river!!!!) over substantive art. However, to write off all Texas music (by which you seem to mean Red Dirt), is pretty, well, stupid.

The Texas Music movement is in many ways the house that Pat Green, Jack Ingram, and Kevin Fowler built (none of whom I am a fan of), but by providing an infrastructure of an audience (a passionate, devoted audience who are willing to spend money), radio stations with charts (which allow artists to track and focus their radio efforts), and dedicated press, the Texas music scene is not only a place where artists can actually make a decent living playing music (unlike, yaknow, the rest of the country), but where new independent artists have a chance to break.

I think Adam Hood is a great example. He's from Alabama, but has plugged into the Texas music scene and is doing pretty well. His music is interesting and quality, his cd sounds great (Pete Anderson produced it) and he plays Texas all the time and has single on the Texas chart. If not for Texas, he would probably be just another cd and artist in the unfocused and disorganized world of "americana", with no central place to get a fanbase, and no way to properly track radio success (not to mention no airplay on major market radio stations).

So, I would argue, that though your points are valid criticism of some Texas Music, the Texas Music scene is one of the best things that independent country music has going for it right now. Why turn up your nose and poo poo at the one scene in the whole country where a new independent artist can actually have a chance of getting serious radio play/getting a good sponsorship/be featured on the cover of magazines/play for thousands of people/sell thousands of records?

It's especially tough to claim that you're too good for Texas Music, when the darling of the movement was on the cover of your magazine like 5 seconds ago.

Actually, it's part of my, uh, charm, that I have no idea who's atop any chart, and I prefer to keep it that way.

If I contradict myself, then I contradict myself.

But I think we agree, mostly.

I'll take Red Dirt for the name of the evil I lashed out against. I'd have thought my opening paragraph made clear my admiration for a great number of musicians from Texas.

I agree with parts of all the above comments. However, I agree with Grant on the ability of the "Red Dirt" genre to produce as much formulaic and trite mush as many polished and overly produced Nashville labels. In fact, Eli Young, Max Stalling, Brian Burns, No Justice and Darren Kozelsky (among others) represent the "I'm gonna just love Texas, sing about shiner bock, and sound like someone else (which usually means Gary P. Nunn, or even Pat Green) faction of Texas Music. Bashing Nashville is passe and extremely misguided. I am glad that we Texans have a "scene" to be a part of and thus good gigs to go to are in great supply, but the natural byproduct of such a "scene" (charts, increasing appearance fees, festivals every weekend) is that we have to listen to Eli Young moan about "when it rains" or No Justice spew cliche on "words to live by".

The term of art I use to describe this currently popular genre of country music that originates from many places besides Texas is "redneck interpretation country" in which people who can't sing (and, even some who can, but don't) fake themselves a twang to lyrics that capitalize on a fanbase that's apparently hungry for songs about being drunk, stupid or uneducated and totally proud of it.

Well said Grant. I didn't understand the humor in that song Wiggles and Ritalin by Reckless Kelly mainly because I didn't think it was funny. When the so-called alternative music is just as un-intelligent as what comes out of Music Row, I feel like those artists are motivated by the same greed as Nashville artists. Maybe not, but you can't help but wonder why you feel like you are being pandered to by the drinking and drugs messages. Go check out Darkness on the Playground on the Desert Rose Band's 1990 album Pages of Life. I was a teenager when that came out, and Chris Hillman really hit the nail on the head.
-Stephanie

I don't believe "Wiggles and Ritalin" is supposed to be funny. On the surface it may appear to be humorous to the socially ignorant, but it is actually a very sad commentary on our society. The drug use in the song is not celebrated, but derided as the inevitable consequence of using chemicals to quash behaviors which were once quashed by Dad's hand.