For me, country was Bob Wills. He da man. But I like Hank (NOT II or III), Jimmie and bluegrass. Then there's rockabilly which IS country.

I hate the attempted mix of rap and country. Rap doesn't go good with anything much less country.

With exceptions as Asleep At The Wheel, Junior Brown, Ricky Skaggs and Willie, there's no good country anymore. It's all pop crap with a fiddle or a steel accompanying the vocal and--viola!--country music, everybody. Tom Waits did far better country stuff than artists that were labeled as strictly country.

But ultimately, country for me is western swing. I don't care about much else.

The other thing I loathe about country music is the audience. Not a more brain-dead group of slugs in existence outside the Bush administration (whose strongest support comes from "country music lovers" not surprisingly).