A lot of money is flowing in country music these days. Even artists who aren’t on the radio charts are selling out large venues and making obscene amounts of money. Reigning CMA entertainer of the year Lainey Wilson has a new song entitled “Country Is Cool Again.” Indeed. Of course, we old folks remember Barbara Mandrell’s 1981 hit “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool.”
The good part is that there is more music available to the public now than at any time in history. You can pull up pretty much anything from any era in the history of recorded music, plus new music is flowing out from every streaming service at a rapid rate.
One negative is that ticket costs are skyrocketing. Fans who were there when times were thin have a harder time seeing many of their favorite artists now. The new crowds flooding the huge venues are often “there for the party” and some of them are more into shouting loud conversations over the music than the music itself.
Another is that opportunistic artists from other genres who don’t like or respect country music or country people are suddenly “going country” and leveraging their names in pop music to skip in line ahead of the country artists. Think of it another way. Farmers bought land, studied best practices, tilled the land, endured setbacks and hardships, and after decades of work, they are finally ready to harvest their hard-earned bumper crop. Then, snobby urbanites who hate farms and country people show up demanding to get first pick of the harvest “ahead of all of those backwards country people” in the name of “equity,” barking false claims that they “invented” farming, etc.
In other news, I’ve been very busy going to shows lately. I went to the vinyl release show for The Outlaw Firm at Gruene Hall and can recommend checking out that group. I went to the inaugural Bastrop, Texas Mardi Gras. They brought in three legitimate Cajun bands. I saw Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfe Tones from Ireland. Of course , Irish music has numerous ties to country music. Fiddlin’ John Carson was the first to sing country music on radio and arguably the first to sing on a country record, and his fiddle was originally from Ireland and passed down for generations. I saw Tessy Lou and the Shotgun Stars at Poodies Hilltop Roadhouse.
I attended several Ameripolitan showcases in Austin. This was my third year to attend Ameripolitan and this year’s event seemed a bit larger than the other years. My biggest takeaway from Ameripolitan was Steel Radio, an internet radio station dedicated to the steel guitar. They sponsored the Ameripolitan steel guitar showcase and have ambitious plans to sponsor more steel guitar events in Austin and beyond. The annual Texas Steel Guitar Association Jamboree is in early March, so there’s another opportunity to dive deep into this delightful and complex instrument.
If you’re looking for fiddle contests, I recommend Aarun Carter’s “Fiddle Contest Calendar.” There are many, many fiddle events across the country. Fiddle contests factor into country music history. The commonly accepted “first country music records” were fiddle instrumentals, so that’s as close to the roots of country music as it gets.
Robert's Country Blog 