These are two genres that i never really got a handle on, reggae because it all sounds the same and Country and Western because it just makes me think of men in dungarees and checkered shirts singing about pick up trucks and their dogs dying.
It was during a discussion with a violinist that we got around to the subject of Country & Western and he mentioned the 'Devil Went Down To Georgia' song which i agreed was probably the only half decent C&W song that wouldn't immediately be switched off if it came on the radio.
As the fiddle does seem to somehow have a place in Country and Western music along with Hawaiian guitars and washboards, he was well versed in the style and mentioned several tunes of the genre to try and reverse my decision that 'Devil Went Down To Georgia' was the sole decent effort from the tens of thousands played by people in snake skin boots and massive belt buckles.
After several minutes of my nose wrinkling and head shaking we stumbled onto Footloose by Kenny Loggins but we disagree whether the mid 80s song was covered by the genre Country & Western. I have listened to it several times since and can still not decide whether it has a C&W twang to it.
Wikipedia shows that it never made it into the Top 100 C&W songs but the 2011 remake by Blake Shelton did but that version was made to sound so country and western that if you hear it too many times you will want to change your name to Billy Bob and drink moonshine.
As it is a grey area and although i still don't consider Footloose to be C&W, i am charitable enough to say that in the history of Country & Western songs music there have only ever been 1 and possibly a half decent songs but the half can be withdrawn depending on mood.
No comments:
Post a Comment