Kendall,

I got a kick out of your song, even though my main exposure to older country music was at a Wyoming dude ranch in the early 1970's. I don't know where the lines get drawn these days, since I listen to music that identifies itself as "folk" & that's it's OWN can-o-worms. I can almost always tell the difference between a bluegrass and an old-timey musician, however; attitude as well as taste in songs makes that divide.

What I read as your frustration with how commercial and "cross-over pop" the mainstream called "country music" is, seems to tap a vein that goes back decades. Are you familiar with a band from Bloomington, Indiana back in the 80s called Ecclectricity ? They did a devastatingly witty dismissal of then contemporary country music called "Back to Beethoven" that used well known bits of classical music as the breaks between verses.

The chourus ran something like:

Country Music gives me heartburn
Charley Daniels turns my spleen (a different performer inserted each chorus)
And Crystal Gale makes my face pale
As any satin sheets you've seen.
I'm tired of singing about cheaters
Margaritas and driving trucks
I'm going back to Beethoven
cause country music sucks

I don't think the band exists anymore, and anything left would likely be on cassette or vinyl. Going through old posts, Charlie Noble seems to own the album & I've got the sheet music around somewhere. If yer at all interested, I can try digging it up before Old Songs.

Joanne in Cleveland