Sez Martin Gibson:

    Gee Arne

    And you don't know mine, either. . . .

Didn't claim to, pardner.

                            . . . Or any of the first hand
    knowledge I may really have.

Hasn't seemed to slow you down. But you're certainly not
helping rectify that.

    I don't think Toby Keith is Hank Williams, but I never said he was.

Never said you did. I asked.

    Your knowledge seems limited to Top 40 country music. . . .

To be honest, I couldn't tell you what was popular on top 40,
outside of Toby Keith and the Chicks fighting it out on top. I
play what I like and I like what I play. And sometimes that's
country, whether _you_ deign to designate it as such or not.
I'd note that many of the bands I listen to are generally
starving or living hand-to-mouth, and that includes a
couple that have made their way to country. Some have done
a little better there, though.

FWIW, the best thing that's happened to "country" in a long
time is that some real musicians have made it there, and
have gotten it away from the "my wife left me, my dog died,
I lost my job, and the pickup stopped running" stuff.
The "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou" scene introduced a lot of the
"country" fans to some real talents, and there are other
artists that have also done "country" much more good than
"country" had ever done them. Which is a good thing, I guess.
There will always be your Lee Greenwoods and Toby Keiths, but
country is (and always has been) much more than just them.

    . . . But it's pretty good for a foreigner.

You know, of course, what they used to say about
about Hank Williams. . . .

Cheers,

                              -- Arne Langsetmo