The first round of Americanafest performers were announced today. There appears to be more of “my kind of stuff” this year than in recent years, including some top notch bluegrass bands.
The Nissan Stadium headliners at CMA Fest are disappointing. It’s short on legends and also short on the top current stars. This is supposed to be the top country industry event of the year, so one should expect a ton of star power. The undercard at CMA Fest has some good names mixed in, but they’re scattered all about. When I went to CMA Fest several years ago, there was more specialization for the different stages. For example, you could count on traditional country having a presence at the Forever Country Stage. I’m still looking forward to seeing the Fan Fair X lineups, because I often find a lot of quality lesser-known artists there.
I attended the New Braunfels Folk Fest last weekend. I’ve seen Candler Wilkinson IV several times before, but one of the highlights this time was his cover of “Indian Love Call” in the style of Slim Whitman. There aren’t a lot of people doing that in 2024! I was unfamiliar with singer-songwriter Nathan Kearney, but he also did a very nice job. I also saw a couple of acts from well-known families. HalleyAnna is Kent Finlay’s daughter and I’ve seen her a few times around San Marcos. New to me was Michael Huskey, the great nephew of Ferlin Husky. Michael said he has some collaborations coming up with Buck Owens’ son and Merle Haggard’s sons, so keep an eye open for that.
I attended the San Antonio Highland Games at the Helotes Cornyval grounds. I heard a good lot of fiddle music, Irish as much as Scottish. Seán Orr’s Celtic Texas is an interesting group, because Orr also fronts a Texas country band and a Cajun band, and has played in rock and polka bands and even at the Renaissance festival. Hugh Morrison is a Texas singer songwriter who grew up in Scotland. Aaron Tilt played the bagpipes, but also some of his Celtic and country original songs with a guitar.
I have nothing against the three people who were inducted into the CMHOF this year, all of whom I have seen in person, but the lack of recognition for the people who made the first country records is unacceptable. Fiddlin’ John Carson or Robertson and Gilliland or other early pioneers of country music are much more essential to the overall story of country music than the modern artists who get in every year.
I will also continue to beat the drum for Al Dexter, who was a clear standout on the first few years of Billboard country charts in the 1940s.
How often have we heard that “Nashville has always been the undisputed home of country music” and similar rhetoric? Those early Billboard charts do not reflect that. Nashville begins to dominate the charts at the end of the 1940s, right after Al Dexter’s reign. I also suggest looking at the sporadic Billboard lists of “Hillbilly Hits” from 1939-42. Since these were not weekly charts, most are unfamiliar with this era, but you won’t find much Nashville on there. You will find a lot of western music and more waltzes and polka than most would expect. Waltzes and polkas continued to impact country charts through the 1940s.
In general, the contributions of German-speaking people to country music have been largely overlooked. Listen to all of the yodeling, harmonica, autoharp, and accordion in early country and western music. To this day, Texas music is strongly influenced by a dance hall culture rooted in old buildings built by people of German and Czech heritage in central Texas before WWI.
A couple of weeks ago, I spent the day at Luckenbach. A classic country band called the Wagon Aces brought the fiddle and steel goodness to the evening show in dance hall. One interesting selection was the Blue Skirt Waltz, which I usually only hear from polka bands. The song was an adaptation of a Czech song that was popular during WWII. “Blue Skirt Waltz” was a #7 hit on the country chart in 1949 for Frankie Yankovic.
Stephanie Urbina Jones and the Honky Tonk Mariachi played a special afternoon show at Luckenbach. They’ve played the Grand Ole Opry before, but this was her home turf. She played several originals, as well as covers of country classics like “Ring of Fire,” “Jolene,” and “Rhinestone Cowgirl.” Since they had a big block of time, she let the mariachi musicians play a whole set of their own, which I enjoyed.
In between the afternoon and evening shows, Hayden Whittington hosted a picker’s circle, which he has done for many years at Luckenbach.
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