With the Late Late Show donning its chaps and spurs for a Country Music Special tomorrow, Country Time producer and host, Brian Lally, ponders the gallop of pop stars toward the country fold.
So are we all over the Cowboy Carter thing by now? I hope so, because it seems the world and its wife are making Country albums. Post Malone is one of the latest to hitch his career to the Country bandwagon.
Now, while it's good for musicians – the A-listers that guest on these releases are wonders – but here’s the thing. I wonder what’s it doing for the music. Is it adding to the canon, and will we play these songs in 50 years, as we do the best Johnny / Dolly / George / Merle? I’m not sure we will. I’m not sure the songs have the longevity of the greats from Bobby Braddock and Harlan Howard and the rest of the Nashville immortals. In fact I’m sure they don’t.
Níl an athchúirt agus an t-athchruthú ceoil seo nua, fiú. Cuimhnigh nuair a thaifead Elvis Costello Almost Blue i 1981? Níorbh ann ach nod don éagsúlacht dá thalann ach bhain sé geit as daoine. Ní raibh cur amach agam ar Good Year for the Roses go dtí an cheirnín sin ach d'oscail sé doras agus is mór an spraoi dul siar in am toisc a chuala mé ar an giota sin d'iontacht Billy Sherill. Agus tharla sé ceithre- nó cúig-bhliain déag roimhe sin freisin - nuair a bhog Bob Dylan go Tennessee agus gur thost na folkies agus na BobCats leictrigh maraon lena ghlór úr agus amhráin níos grámhara, druga-mhaolaithe.
And it is pretty simple music – Hank Williams’ "You Win Again" has 8 lines in a verse and just 4 syllables per line. And it’s one of the great songs. Hear it once, and it’s in your head. He Stopped Loving Her Today works because you don’t find out why, until late in the lyric. And put Marty Robbins and the "blacker than night" eyes of Felina in the El Paso cantina with Grady Martin on guitar and it’s a movie in 4 minutes.
I’m not a Country didact – indeed I’m a music polymath, as likely to have Jazz as Jerry Lee spinning – but I’m always struck by Country’s ability to say more than is on the page – take the verse in Seven Spanish Angels –
'And she knew the gun was empty
And she knew she couldn't win
But her final prayer was answered
When the rifle fired again’
Poetry in Emotion! Often belittled and maligned – sometimes rightly and generally the mawkish end of it – but at its best, the great ones are up there with the mightiest residents in the Tower of Song.
I’m just not sure if Texas Hold’em and much of today’s country songs will be around as long as The Tennessee Waltz and hundreds of Yesterday’s.
Late Late Country Music Special Dé hAoine 9.30i.n ar RTÉ 1.
