Yes, a few years ago we lost our wide spread radio presence, swept away by the Corporate Radio Giants that bought up control of most of the radio stations in the land, and the young program directors, who knew next to nothing about what country music is and where it came from, decided that no one wanted to hear "Grandpa's Music"so they stopped playing the records of wonderful artists who had come to the very peak of their performance capabilities. Ronnie Milsap, T G Sheppard, Waylon, The Statlers.....and all the artists that had gone over that magic line of "over 40 years old", they believed did not merit play on their radio stations. Music Row producers and record labels immediately bought into the belief that radio knew best...starting to drop these wonderful artists just at the time when they were able to sing their best.
Didn't stop the great artists...they continued having wonderful careers....drawing crowds...mingling with their fans who were also by now, friends. It didn't stop them because YOU, the classic country music fan, did not let them be stopped. You never left country music...country music left you, turning to a pale imitation of what some radio exec or record company exec thought was now country music.
But, here is the rub....they have created a weak and fickle young fan base for this modern country music of theirs that has an attention span of about a three minute video, they are not there for the long haul. These young artists come and go in the blink of a short dress or ball cap worn backwards, the fans loving them as the next best thing...then on to some other next best thing.
Blake Shelton, you have made a lot of money calling yourself country, your management has handled your placement well, you have married well and you even look country, in a kinda smooth urbane sort of way. You've set yourself up as a "go to" figure in modern country music. But, son, as far as a lot of us are concerned, you ain't up to the boot tops of a Bobby Bare, a Charley Pride, an Ernest Tubb or Red Foley....ok, let's go up to another generation...You couldn't wipe the sweat off of a Keith Whitley or Eddie Rabbitt forehead as they worked themselves into the hearts of their fans. You do not have the respect and loyalty of us "old farts" as you call us, because to classic country folk you have to earn that position and you ain't making it.
I've been doing this country music
thing now for 53 years and I have fans who became friends who have
followed my music all that time, yeah, we sure enough might be "old
singers of Grandpa's music", but we made that music from the very bottom
of our hearts, wore ourselves out with it, many of us sang til we
dropped and some didn't ever get up again. It is good music of America,
and we don't take kindly to you putting it down and being disrespectful
to the memories of those who made it.....so you could come along and
call yourself "country" all these years later. I'll tell you what kid, I seen a lot of em come and go, and the ones full of arrogance have a hard time coming back down....and we all have to come back down at some point.
Classic Country Music.....I guess you had to be there to understand. -Stan
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