Country Music Project

by Caitie Labay | November 29, 2015 · 7:00 am

Taking my Country Education Outside the Classroom

It was the spring of 2015, and I along with thousands of other sophomores-to-be were logged on to our computers for that fateful day that was registration. In the seconds leading up to my assigned registration period I was clicking refresh over and over so as to have a fighting chance to secure myself a spot in the best classes for fall of 2015. It ended up being my worst registration period to date. I was waitlisted in half of my classes and the other half were with teachers I didn’t want. However, I did have one successful endeavor: I got into Rhetoric of Country Music. I have always been a country fan, but this class pushed me to explore the genre even more. Here are just a few fun activities I was able to do this semester, all inspired by my rhetoric class!

1. Free Brad Paisley Concert!

What’s better than kicking of the school year with a country concert? Kicking it off with a free country concert. And what’s better than a free country concert? A free Brad Paisley concert! I have always been a big Brad Paisley fan, so going to a school that can bring him to perform just across the street from campus is amazing. Attending that event certainly started the year off right, got me excited for my new rhetoric class, and reminded me just how much fun country music can be! (Check out my second blog post for more fun details and pictures from the event).

2. Watching the Country Music Association’s 49^th Annual Awards Show

chris-stapleton The 49^th CMA Awards was certainly an event for the history books! This year the Academy decided that they were going to try out a new strategy to attract fans by scheduling several unique duo performances. These included Justin Timberlake with country newcomer Chris Stapleton, Fall Out Boy with Thomas Rhett, and Hank Williams Jr. with Eric Church. My favorite duo of the night though was Brooks and Dunn with Reba; the combination of these two classic artists was unparalleled. The biggest surprise of the night, however, was the success of the underdog Chris Stapleton. I’m sure half of the country world, like myself, had no idea who he was before that night, but they certainly knew him afterward. He managed to win Album of the Year, along with BOTH New Artist of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year, something I would have thought nearly impossible before this year. There is no doubt that Stapleton produced shock and awe all over the country that night, and I’m glad he did because he is now one of my favorite artists across all genres!

3. Visiting the Willie Nelson Statue

After watching the CMA’s and seeing so many new artists gaining success in the country music industry, I decided that it was high time I learned about some of the classic country artists that made the genre what it is today. So, like any good starving college student, I mooched a ride off of one of my friends with a car and headed on down to the Moody Theater to visit the great Willie Nelson’s likeness cast in bronze. A native Texan, Nelson has had a huge impact on the state and the country as a successful outlaw county singer. It is said that his performance in 1972 at the Armadillo World Headquarters was the beginning of the famous Austin music scene as we know it, which is why it is only fitting that he be given a statue at ACL Live at the corner of Lavaca and 2^nd street, which was renamed Willie Nelson Blvd. in his honor. Now, as future generations walk through the doors of that infamous theater, they will be reminded of where it all started.

I had an absolute blast exploring country music this semester throughout Austin and beyond, and the lesson that stuck with me the most is that country music is ever evolving. From the early hillbilly sound to today’s bro country and everywhere in between, country artists have remained creative and inspired over the past century, and I can’t wait to find out where they will take us next!

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Filed under Austin, Blog Post 5, Reflection

by Hannah Evans | November 28, 2015 · 7:00 am

A Whole New World of Country

Four months ago, I was one of those girls that “true” country music fans hate. Most of my favorite country songs fell into the “bro-country” genre, and were from the likes of Luke Bryan, Chris Young, and Blake Shelton. I’m happy to say that the Rhetoric of Country Music class has opened my eyes to a whole new world of country music. This course has not only taught me extensively about the history of the genre, but has allowed me to better experience the country music scene here in Austin and beyond. Three of my favorite experiences are listed below:

1. Texas Music Magazine

I read the November 2014 issue of Texas Music Magazine to get a flashback to what was happening in the country music world a year ago. This issue features a variety of interesting, well-written content including: a discussion of Miranda Lambert at the CMA’s, a review of Glen Cambell’s documentary I’ll Be Me, an interview with James McMurty, a Q&A with Steve Young, and more! I was expecting to see a greater representation of genres, but the content in this issue makes it quite clear that country dominates the Texas music scene (yay!).

2. Sturgill Simpson @ ACL Weekend 1

In a sea of alternative and rap artists, I found the time to catch Sturgill Simpson’s show on Saturday, October 3rd at the Austin City Limits music festival. My country-music-loving friend tagged along with me, and despite not knowing much of Sturgill Simpson’s music, we still had a great time listening and (making an attempt at) dancing. My favorite song he played was Railroad of Sin; all of the guitar solos were so much fun! Overall, it was definitely an older crowd and the atmosphere was a lot more calm than most of the other shows I went too. I didn’t get a chance to see Dwight Yoakam so I’m glad Sturgill Simpson was there to provide me with my country music fix!

3. Dallas (2012)

giphy (11) Despite being a radio-television-film major, I’m not a big television-watcher. In order to broaden my horizons a little bit, I decided to check out a few episodes of the show Dallas on Netflix. Unfortunately, this show reminded me exactly why I don’t enjoy TV dramas and soap operas (sorry Dallas fans!)–I found it to be painfully overdramatic and ridiculously corny. For those who haven’t seen the show or it’s 1978 CBS predecessor, Dallas follows a family who strike it rich drilling oil in the great state of Texas. Despite my distaste of the plot and acting, the first few episodes did include some great country songs–one of my personal favorites being Josh Turner’s “Your Man”. From what I gathered, the series provides a decent mix of country songs from different sub-genres and time periods. It also included many songs from different genres (alternative, rock, etc.).

Coming into this class this past fall, I was a little worried about not being as knowledgeable about the older artists and the history of the genre as some of my peers. Although this worry turned out to be true (I embarrassingly didn’t know who Merle Haggard, Conway Twitty, and Alan Jackson were four months ago…), I am so thankful to have gotten the opportunity to expand my country music horizons.

Whether it be through reading a magazine, seeing a live show, or watching a television series, this class has helped me enjoy the genre in a whole new way. I have gained a deeper understanding of country music’s progression throughout time, and grown to appreciate the genre and its impact. Listening to country will truly never be the same!

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Filed under Blog Post 5, Reflection

by Adam Keyrouze | November 27, 2015 · 7:00 am

Austin= Country?

Here in Austin, country music is alive and well in so many different ways. Staying connected to your country roots and traditions I easily attainable. Whether you want to go out and enjoy live concerts, enjoy a nice meal at an authentic, southern-family style restaurant, or just stay inside your apartment/house and watch an awards ceremony. Austin is known for being weird but isn’t always thought of being country, instead being thought of more “hipster” due to the various celebrities and other events being held in the city.

The first experience I took advantage of was ACL, as I previously noted on one of my past blog posts, and I was able to attend Sturgill Simpson’s performance on Saturday of the first weekend of this music festival, as well as Dwight Yoakam’s performance.

Sturgill Simpson was outstanding and was one of my favorite performances of the weekend (and that’s saying a lot because I am also a huge fan of Drake and The Weeknd). While I didn’t see every second of most of the artists I was very pleased with my first time. It was a great way to see new country artists I wasn’t too familiar with as well as seeing other genres of music. It was so enjoyable it’s impossible to sum it up into such few words, so the video below is a small attempt just for you to get a sense of how great just ONE day was!

The next experience I chose to participate in was eating at an authentic historic site. I ate at the restaurant known as Threadgill’s. My family was in town for the weekend so we were looking for a place to eat right before they headed back to Dallas. I had the chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and the broccoli rice casserole and it was fantastic. The chicken fried steak i was told was the best in Austin so I had to try it and so far it has been the best in Austin!

The atmosphere was great, the service was great, and the food was great. The music was enjoyable while at the same time, you could still have a conversation with your family. Next time I go, I want to try their Sunday brunch special. My brother went that route which included an all you can eat breakfast. For the special they had a “salad bar” like station set up with all kinds of fruit and breakfast foods which looked delicious!

The last experience I have enjoyed here in Austin is actually quite simple and most people say “You can do that anywhere though”. While it is true that you can watch the CMA awards anywhere, I enjoyed it more here than in previous years because this was the first time I heard about people getting together and having a “watch party”. While the biggest headline this year was that Justin Timberlake stole the show with Chris Stapleton, what I remember about that night was enjoying with some close friends and enjoying the country artists be recognized for a great year in country music.

When I first moved to Austin, I never thought the country industry would influence my life this much due to the many country events held or viewed here. That has been a pleasant surprise this Fall semester and I only hope that I will be able to continue enjoying more experiences like these!

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Filed under Blog Post 5, Reflection, Texas

by Ginny Montalbano | November 26, 2015 · 7:00 am

Country Music Experiences & Reflection

This year I am living in my sorority house, and rooming with one of my good friends, Emma. Emma took this class last spring and she is the reason I decided to take the class, based off of her high recommendation. She loves country music as much as I do and we actually got to go to the iHeart Country Music Festival last May!

It was an unspoken agreement that she and I would be watching the CMAs on November 4^th. Of course, as you know, my sisters back home love all things country. The past couple years we have face-timed and texted to share our thoughts about the show and the different moments and performances. I promise we like and respect plenty more country artists than just Luke Bryan, but as I followed the various Twitter feeds during the show, I couldn’t help but send them a couple of my favorite pictures of him that were popping up, such a comical moment between Justin Timberlake helping Luke Bryan fix his tie on the red carpet.

I’ll admit, I didn’t know much about Chris Stapleton besides the fact that he wrote and sang on Luke’s “Drink A Beer”, but after quickly catching up on his biography and songs, it was wonderful to see that someone as talented as he is was being recognized, a sentiment that Luke Bryan later echoed during his Entertainer of the Year acceptance speech. Kenny Chesney is another artist that I really enjoy. His career is consistent and successful, and it is nice to see that he is still very active and performing on these award shows.

Nashville is not a show that I would normally watch, but I have recently had a good reason to watch a couple of episodes. My godfather and cousin, Louis Gusemano, is an actor and he landed the role of the detective this past season. Naturally, I watched his episode with some friends when it aired last spring, but I have occasionally kept up with it during the current season.

Overall it is not my favorite show, but the interpretations and depictions of life within the country music industry are fascinating. I recently found an article on Saving Country Music’s website that correlated the various characters with their real-life country star counterparts. I also appreciate that the show depicts aspects of country music that are unique to the genre, such as the overall closeness and openness of the artists as a whole.

As I discussed in my Blog Post #4, my sisters and I got to see Luke Bryan on his Kick the Dust Up tour in October. In this post however, I want to focus more on his opening acts, which were so solid and exciting that I truly felt like we got to experience three different concerts during one night.

Randy Houser and Dustin Lynch both have naturally good voices, and seemed genuinely excited to be performing for such a big crowd. They also had longer sets than I anticipated- which was a great development! Their camaraderie with Luke later on during his set (Moscow Mules and George Strait!) raised the bar for any future concerts! Randy Houser’s vocals during “Like A Cowboy” were outstanding. I highly recommend finding a video on YouTube of him performing the song live- you won’t be disappointed!

To understand the current trends and direction of country music, it is important to understand the past, as with any historical movement. In fact, Trisha Yearwood recently told reporters that based on her experience and knowledge of country music; she foresees a somewhat inevitable decline in “bro-country”, and a rise in more traditional “grassroots” and singer-songwriter artists. Chris Stapleton’s rise definitely supports her prediction.

Rhetoric of Country Music and these experiences have expanded my knowledge on the history of country music more so than I thought possible and made me start thinking more analytically about country music and the direction it is headed. I have also been introduced to certain performers from the past or who are up and coming that I might not have ever noticed before.

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Filed under Blog Post 5, Reflection

by Kelby Floerke | November 25, 2015 · 7:00 am

Chris Stapleton Is Killing The Country Music Scene

One of my favorite performances performed at the CMA Awards this year, which almost all would agree, was Chris Stapleton’s “Tennessee Whiskey”. Written by Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove, this song was originally sung by one the most famous country music outlaws, David Allan Coe.

In the early 80s, George Jones also released a version of “Tennessee Whiskey”, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. His version was made popular from what most considered him to have had a very distinct voice. Compared to Coe, Jones voice is much more soft, conveying a sense of compassion and more personable than Coe.

But my favorite version of “Tennessee Whiskey”, performed by male vocalist of the year and new artist of the year, Chris Stapleton. His blues-ey sound gives this song just what it needs to make its listeners turn this song on full blast while listening to it. The harmonization between Stapleton, Justin Timberlake and Chris Stapleton’s wife, Morgane Stapleton gives it that blues feeling, not to mention the saxophone and trumpets in the background. This performance is one that will go down in country music history. I should also mention that Justin Timberlake’s, “Drink You Away” was followed by, “Tennessee Whiskey”, which also brought the audience to their feet. It was truly a performance of a lifetime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H37P7nzOMko

Although Stapleton is just starting to gain recognition as a solo artist, Chris Stapleton has actually written many famous songs most of us have heard, “Love’s Gonna Make It Alright” sung by George Strait and “Come Back Song”, sung by Darius Rucker. He has proven himself as a great song writer and now we have seen his capacity as a performer which has catapulted him into the country music world. His album “Traveller, was awarded album of the year at the CMA’s this year, something his listeners should have expected nothing less because of his talents and great singing career.

So many people are claiming that Chris Stapleton is doing one heck of a job in putting country music back in country music and I could not agree more. I am tired of hearing this “rapping country music” on the radio – sorry Sam Hunt. So, Chris Stapleton – we applaud you and thank you for bringing back and incorporating country music’s roots into your songs. I look forward to learning more of your songs and cannot wait for another album.