Poison At The Tony Awards

[Jahfin]

I think it's the country music that's heading more towards the rock music than vice versa. It seems to me that the genre is making a definate change to try to appeal to a cooler crowd...

A few years back Don Henley noticed the very same thing and then proceeded to take credit for it, citing the Eagles tribute album Common Thread in the process.

If people want to hear something that more closely approximates what I consider to be country music they're more likely to hear it from alt.country artists than on most commercial country music radio stations. Therein lies the paradox for me. I've never been a huge fan of commercial country music (then or now) but I've always loved the stuff that's considered progressive. In the 70s that was the so-called Outlaw movement that was headed up by Waylon, Willie, David Allan Coe, etc. and country-rock such as the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, Pure Prairie League, etc. In the 80s it was Jason and the Scorchers, Steve Earle, Lone Justice, the Long Ryders, etc. In the 90s to the present it's been Whiskeytown, Uncle Tupelo, Slobberbone, the Jayhawks, Son Volt, etc. With few exceptions none of those artists have received any sort of commercial airplay because they don't fit neatly into any one category.