"if you don't turn the radio up, it aint country enough"

'Ere, that's TC's exit line... pip pip.

skeets was that me you were prepared to fight for? i'm all yours bebby. esp as alex is a girl (am i allowed to reveal that? erm i just did. stop having conversations with yourself. okay. no STOP it.)

Outed. Darn it.

She's always been a girl in my mind - it was indisputable!

Marchy how could you Skeets is at least 60.

is that you being moody and jealous? by lying? tsk tsk. (is he really?) sorry Alex. i will pretend your boy if you like. not in real life though...that might be wierd.

very good article on the dixie chicks in the guardian today.... flip side of the american dream and all that...how that have been harrassed and threatened since the anti-bush sentiment at a gig in london a few months ago..

Oh, is she? A girl. Thats alright then. I bet shes very sweet really. And March, dont listen to Flash, he's being disingenuous. He knows Im younger than him, by ages. Ner. And I dont care if you're named after a boat, I like boats. I've had some nice rides in boats. Who's Shania anyway?

Artist/Band: Bates Jeff Song: Country Enough Album: Rainbow Man I'm not a C&W fan honest.

You just cut and paste all the time.

Haven't you got work to do? I don't know how to cut and paste.

I confess... there's a special place in my heart, and my cd collection, for Johnny Cash, Emmylou et al. Steel guitars do something funny to me.

Johnny Cash at San Quentin is marvy!

Haven't I got work to do? Haven't YOU got work to do? Haven't wE ALL GOt work to do?

like Gram Parsons

I don't like Tony Parsons.

My dads collection of cowboy songs from Frankie Lane, Marty Robins etc. "Down in the west Texas town of El Paso I fell in love with a mexican girl" or "As I walked out in the streets of Loredo. As I walked out in Loredo one day. I saw a young cowboy all dressed in white linen, dressed in white linen as cold as the day" "....Dan can you see that big green tree where the water's running free and its waiting there for me and you oooooo.. Water, cool, clear water (water)" ahhhh, corny and very old fashioned but I get tingles every time.

Chill Stuey, i'm off work with a bad back. So i don't have work to do. Put on your stetson and pink cowboy boots lie back and relax, enjoy this C&W tread.

thread even

you boys... i found out i like a band called Fellow Travellers whilst i was away in Norfolk. not that they come from Norfolk or anything. not sure where they come from actually. it was my friend's tape. other than that i hate the stuff. must be that droning American accent.

crap country & western/pop singer

C & W is the nadir of popular music and every right thinking person should hate it's very bones. Except 'He Thinks He'll Keep Her' by Mary Chapin Carpenter and 'The Devil Went Down To Georgia' by the Charlie Daniels Band. Everything else is shite. Oh, and 'Guitars, Cadilacs' by Dwight Youkam. And that's it.

*gets out his bango* *come on boy, squeal like a pig*

What's a Bango i've heard of Banjo or even Banquobut not a Bango. Dave Edmunds is he C of E i mean C&A er...C&W if he is i like. "Girlstalk" and "Playing with the Queen of hearts" Dwight Yoakham "Things we said today" Bruce Springsteen "Tougher than the rest" Johnny Cash,Patsy Cline and The Mavericks are ace. Guy Mitchell " She wears red ribbons and a hool hooly skirt"

banjo banjo banjo......

... A Boy Named Sue, obviously ...

Gram parsons oh yes not even so secretly, and Evan Dando from the lemon heads does some stuff that is treading on the toes of country. REM are essentially a country band trying not to admit it. As for secretly....I confess I do pretty mean impression of Dolly doing "Once in a very blue moon," and I love Willie Nelson "fire and rain" and nancy grifith "Love at the five and Dime". Oh lordy partner don't tell anyone i know! Just thank god you can't hear me singing this thread

The Cowboy Junkies are very very good....

What about Ryan Adams & Whiskeytown, what about the Handome Family, what about Son Volt and Wilco and Uncle Tupelo - Country is fine, y'all. You just gotta stop being uptight is all *clicks spurs, rides off into the sunset* Yee'hah!!!!

I will state for the record I HATE C & W

I think there are 2 kinds: there's the achey-breaky Garth Brooks (sorry Liana) Kenny Rogers side of country and then there's the bands that employ acoustic guitars and pedal steel to - create great music. From Gram through the aforementioned Evan to REM and all the others - country is fine . . . Really . . .

for me lucinda williams is queen of new country music and i have recently purchased albums by ryan adams, jeff finlin , steve earle ,and the dixie chicks (partly cos the yanks were burning them and it turned out to be a pretty good album)

Yeah, I'm with you - the Lucinda Wlliams album is a beauty. As is the new Jayhawks CD. There's lots of beautiful soulful music out there . . . You just have to get over the C&W hurdle . . .

But why is it that country seems to be the most socially unacceptable music to listen to? It's fantastic, all that death and heartbreak, those beautiful harmonies...why does the room go silent when you say you just bought Merle Haggard's latest album?

because all the people that sing it are ugly.

Country music isn't just 'C&W', it's a whole variety of differing styles. C&W is normally considered to be the 'cowboy' style epitomised by the likes of Hank Snow and his ilk, but other popular performers such as Cash, Nelson, Jones and Williams are usually referred to as just plain 'country'. The differences between some of these sub-genres are sometimes very subtle (which is probably why stuart has got it all wrong yet again). Texas country music is totally different to say, Nashville country, and west coast country is different yet again. What is good and what isn't is obviously a subjective thing, so for anybody (here or anywhere else) to slag individual performers as being crap is rubbish, and tells you volumes about the slagger. What they should say is, 'I like...' but, 'I don't like...' Personally I think Guy Clark is brilliant but others will disagree. I also thoroughly enjoy Willie Nelson, Roger Miller (not his comedy stuff), Hank Williams and several others. It's worth pointing out that rock'n'roll started life as a hybrid country/blues idiom. All Presleys early stuff was one or the other.

presley was originally a country singer wasn't he, i think i heard one of his first singles recently, can't remember what it was called tho....missi?

whatever. they are still all UGLY.

Not true. Have you seen Howe Gelb from Giant Sand? He's a fine looking chap. And Lucinda Williams for the boys, she's very well-preserved. Though she's not a patch on Sade.

Whatever happened to Holly Vallance?

Didn't John Wayne shoot him in a Western. Marchy, Linda Ronstandt and Martina McBride are not ugly. There are loads of good looking C&W Honey's

Linda Ronstandt??? you got to be joking.

Have you ever seen anybody eat a muffin with a knife and fork?

Well 20 yrs ago she was gorgeous.

Flashy you got to stop livin in the past. stuart what do you know about Linda's muffin?

No but you have, i hope you didn't stare and make the lady feel uncomfortable. What about Shaniaiaiaiaiaiai Twin she's gorgeous.

Shania is not on fire. she is bad bad bad news and i'm really worried about you now. i'm going home now alas can't continue with my abuse of Cr*p C&W singers. My sum total of work today has involved applying for a new job. Hurrah! o and alex is it looking like there's no point me trying to take your old one? congrats on poetry job btw.

Man, I've been busy today.

Blue Moon of Kentucky was one of the earliest Martin, but practically all of the Sun Records stuff was country.

Alex. I hope you're not having thoughts about my woman.