After two-stepping at Midnight Rodeo, spending all my money at Antone’s Record Shop, greeting 8-foot tall Willie Nelson, and watching the glamorous motion picture “Country Strong”, I have come to realize country music is a different experience for everyone. Country has a variety of meanings.
https://storify.com/samanthagodfrey/samantha-godfrey-s-not-what-she-expected-country-e
Filed under Austin, Class work, Classic Country, Country Pop, Dancing, Movies and TV, New Traditionalism, Storify
My four chosen experiences
1. Watch Nashville
2. Watch ACM Awards
3. Go two-stepping
4. Explore some classic country records
This semester I have had quite the experience with country music. I have done things I wouldn’t normally do as well as things that I have been doing for forever. When this class started I was a casual consumer of country music. I knew the hits and the classics, but not much about the culture. It wasn’t my go-to radio station of choice and I rarely wore my cowboy boots besides on game days. Now that it is May, I don’t necessarily think my music taste has completely shifted but I do think I have a greater appreciation for the culture and history of country music.
My journey with country music this semester.
https://storify.com/jujstaine/country-music-experiences-reflection
I am a huge fan of Nashville, the television show, solely because Connie Britton is the star and Friday Night Lights is my favorite TV show of all time, but tuning in and paying closer attention to the country music elements was actually really fun. I loved paying closer attention to the set when they played at the Grand Ole Opry and just noticing how sounding “pop” is not a good thing. The elements we studied in class were actually coming to life on my TV.
My favorite thing I did for this project though wasn’t watching Nashville, it was going to look at records. I went to my favorite record store on South 1st, End of an Ear. I actually ended up going on Record Store Day and it was packed. While I ended up leaving with a Beach Boys album (sorry!!!) I did look in the country section and was pleased to see a bunch of names I now recognized from Loretta Lynn to Johnny Cash, I felt way more knowledgable of country music and was proud to know more about music in general. There’s something awesome about looking at actual records instead of just downloading music to my phone that makes me truly appreciate the history of the music so this was my favorite experience of the semester!
My other two experiences were two-stepping and watching the ACM Awards. Unfortunately I don’t have a photo to commemorate my two-steppping efforts because my phone died that night, but I went to Midnight Rodeo with a bunch of my friends. We aren’t the best at that type of dancing and we didn’t go with any boys so it might not have been our favorite experience but I am glad I got to check it off my bucket list (and got a chance to chance to bust out my cowboy boots.) And the ACM Awards were fun to watch this year, especially since they were in Dallas! I actually had a few friends who ended up getting tickets somehow. I always love country award shows for the celebrity watching- especially my favorites Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert so I had a great time watching it. Since it was the 50th anniversary of the show, there was a particular emphasis on the history of country music that seemed very relevant to me because of this class, too!
All in all, I have really enjoyed my country music experience this semester. As a fan of music I am glad to say that I know more about one of the most unique genres that exists!
Filed under Austin, Class work, Reflection, Storify
This class has really taught me a whole lot about country music that I didn’t know before. Through experiences such as two-stepping at Midnight Rodeo, seeing the Willie Nelson statue in downtown Austin, reading about Billy Bob’s in the Texas Music Magazine and watching the ACM Awards, I have earned a great deal of respect for the entire country music scene and view country music in a whole new light.
https://storify.com/k_schlueter/experiences-of-country-music
Throughout this semester I have learned so much about country music and the whole country music scene in general We have covered everything from the roots of country music, to the greats like George Strait, to good ol’ Texas country, brand new country and beyond. I felt like I knew a lot about country music coming into this class, especially being from Cowtown, or Fort Worth, Texas. I could have never imagined just how much about county music I have learned from this class. Doing the experiences for this class have also really helped me to appreciate just how much country music has had an impact not just on me, but on the entire music community.
One of the best experiences I have had with country music, not just this semester, but in general, was two-stepping at a few dance halls in Austin and Fort Worth. I think one of the most important things about country music is that you are able to two-step to it. Not only was learning how to two step fun for me, I also enjoyed just watching people dance around the floor. Anytime a “classic” song came on, there was a whole mix of young and old people who seemed to appear out of nowhere, singing the words and dancing along, it was a really nice experience to see.
Speaking of dance halls, the article I read over Billy Bob’s was actually a really great article. It’s always a bit nostalgic to read anything pertaining to Fort Worth. As I mentioned earlier, I was born and raised just outside of Fort Worth, so I’ve spent a lot of time in the Stockyards and been to the Rodeo and Billy Bob’s a good number of times. I felt like I was an expert of everything to do with Fort Worth coming into the class. However, on one of the very first weeks of class, we read a chapter from “Honky Tonk Debutante” that was all about Fort Worth, and I learned a whole bunch of stuff about the history of Fort Worth that I never knew about, so that was something really cool to me, and it made me really appreciate this class.
Another thing I did this semester was actually sit down and watch the ACM awards. I used to watch that every year with my grandparents, but hadn’t watched in a few years when the whole “Bro-country” music scene started to take over. Even still, I sat down and watched it this year, and was actually pleasantly surprised by the show. Now, that doesn’t mean I agree with everyone that won some of the awards, but I think that happens with any awards show I watch, but still, I felt like the ACM show had a really good mix of old and new country. They even kicked off the show with one of my favorites, the King of Country, George Strait. I watched this year with a more open mind to some of the newer artist that performed, and actually found myself enjoying their performances as well as those of my favorites like Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson.
Overall, this class has taught me so much about the history and the meaning behind a lot of things relating to country music. We learned about everything from themes that frequently appear, to the lyrics used, to the structure of the songs. Now, every time I listen to country music I find myself actually trying to find the meaning of the song, instead of just listening for the fun of it. I have a whole new sense of appreciation for country music thanks to this class, and I find myself enjoying every little experience I have with it. From country standards like two-stepping, to something as simple as seeing the statue of Willie Nelson in the middle of busy downtown Austin, this class has opened my eyes to a whole new world of country music and I know that this newfound sense of appreciation will stick with me for a long time.
Filed under Austin, Awards, Class work, Classic Country, Country Pop, Dancing, Reflection, Storify
My country music experiences were unexpected, but so worth it. I devoured chicken fried steak at Threadgill’s in Austin, watched my favorite artists rock the stage at the ACMs, was blown away by Jason Aldean’s electric concert, and was stunned by Carrie Underwood in “The Sound of Music.”
My country music experiences were unexpected, but so worth it. I devoured chicken fried steak at Threadgill’s in Austin, watched my favorite artists rock the stage at the ACMs, was blown away by Jason Aldean’s electric concert, and was stunned by Carrie Underwood in “The Sound of Music.”
My country music experiences were unexpected, but so worth it. I devoured chicken fried steak at Threadgill’s in Austin, watched my favorite artists rock the stage at the ACMs, was blown away by Jason Aldean’s electric concert, and was stunned by Carrie Underwood in “The Sound of Music.”
https://storify.com/sconine/country-music-experiences
Filed under Austin, Class work, Reflection, Storify
For my project the four things that I focused on was going to Billy Bob’s and attending a concert, going to Nutty Brown and attending a concert, taking a picture at the Willie Nelson statue, and then watching some of the American Country Music Awards. It was great getting to explore some of the most iconic country music places in Texas, while being able to keep up with country music on a more national level. Through this project I was able to explore new places, listen to great music, learn about country music history, and watch artists make history.
Billy Bob’s and the whole Fort Worth experience
https://storify.com/Katieoneil/cowtown
https://storify.com/Katieoneil/exploring-a-new-city-while-exploring-new-things
https://storify.com/Katieoneil/sara-evans
https://storify.com/Katieoneil/doing-austin-y-things
https://storify.com/Katieoneil/willie-nelson-live-on-jimmy-kimmel
https://storify.com/Katieoneil/nutty-brown-and-josh-abbott
https://storify.com/Katieoneil/check-out-this-live-preformance-from-nutty-brown
https://storify.com/Katieoneil/prediction-of-acm-s
https://storify.com/Katieoneil/winners
https://storify.com/Katieoneil/recap-just-in-case-you-missed-out
https://storify.com/Katieoneil/worst-and-best
Nutty Brown is a local Austin treasure. On top of it being a famous venue, I also got to see one of Texas Country’s most famous bands. At Nutty Brown, I got to see the Josh Abbott Band perform. This was probably one of the most fun concerts I have been too. The venue creates this wonderful atmosphere that just makes you want to dance. It is an out door venue where people can stand close to the stage or sit back and relax at some picnic tables. In addition to the venue, the band was fantastic. They played all of my favorite songs and they put on an amazing live show. Another iconic Texas place that I went to was Billy Bob’s. This was quite the experience for me. Not being from Texas I had not clue that dance halls like Billy Bob’s existed. The place was huge and had everything, even containing a bull-riding arena. The performer that night was Sara Evans. She was fantastic and the place was packed for her. I wrote about my experience going to Billy Bob’s for one of my blog posts. In addition, one of my favorite things about going to both these concerts was being able to see a band that embodies Texas Country while the other one has made her success in Nashville. I was able to experience two country concerts through this project that have two totally different backgrounds. Moving on, I went and took a picture with the Willie Nelson Statue. I never realized how famous this statue was until this class. I went this past weekend to take a picture and had to wait in a line, granted it wasn’t a long line, but still there were other people wanting to get their picture with Willie. It is very neat to see how the Austin community honors Willie, with not only the statue but also naming a street after him and building the new Willie Nelson exhibit in football stadium. Since I stayed mostly local doing this project I decided to watch the ACMs. I had already written a blog post about the major performances that would be happening so I wanted to watch the show to see how those turned out. My favorite part of award shows is watching the performances anyways so it was a win win for me. According the article written by Billboard the two worst performances of the night were the cross genre duets. This is surprising and funny because this was the main focus of my blog article due to the amount of hype that was being created for these performances. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this project because I don’t believe I would have actually experienced these things, which would have been a shame.
Filed under Austin, Awards, Class work, Country Symbols, Dancing, Live Music, Movies and TV, Music Videos, Reflection, Reviews, Storify, Texas, USA
