...that would be Kristian Bush of Sugarland...
...There are only so many thirtysomethings who'll emotionally connect to style over substance, which a lot of [modern] Appalachian stuff is. I'm a huge Gillian Welch fan, but she's from Malibu, California. I'm from Dolly Parton's hometown Sevierville, Tennessee...Appalachian music (and by extension, alt-country and Texas-red dirt country) is about style over substance? Big words coming from a member of a band the bulk of whose radio catalog isn't really that much more than the bubblegum fluff that's sadly all-too-typical of what's coming out of Nashville these days. And as for this mention of hometowns...what the hell does that have to do with anything? Considering the band Lonestar is from Texas and Jerry Jeff Walker's hometown is Oneonta, New York, that seems to me to be an incredibly thin reed to hang an argument on. And taking his example of "Jeff Tweedy singing about being lonely and poor and dumped, all these things which he is not..." well, he might not be now, but he very well might have been at some point in his life. I can't say for sure because I don't know anything about Tweedy's personal life, but the fact is some people can pull off that authenticity without having lived a lot of what they sing about. Just as an example off the top of my head, I'd have never guessed Marc Cohn was not a native of the city he sings about in his signature song "Walking in Memphis," let alone that he'd never even been to the city before he wrote the song. One wonders what Mr. Bush thinks of an artist like Jamey Johnson, who (as far as I know) never got caught with a hooker in some seedy motel with a mirror and a line of blow on the bedside table.
But it's ok really, because if you go back up a little piece, you'll see that insecure little sourpuss Kristian Bush is at heart, REALLY come out:
Most days, I feel like I'm about to be vetted, and they'll find out I'm not real," Bush concedes. "I keep thinking: 'They're going to ask me a question about George Jones I don't know the answer to.' But those exclusive cultural identities don't exist the way they did. You can have a Sugarland sticker on your car next to Metallica, and nobody is offended."Huh. One would think the way he mouths off he really wouldn't care about not knowing the answer to that question, precisely because of those now-defunct cultural identities. I don't know...you know, I don't really mind Sugarland's music, there ARE a couple of their songs I really do like, and I'll readily admit Jennifer Nettles has a great voice — but Kristian Bush's attitude just really turns me off, to the point that I'm tempted to unleash teh snark about how I wouldn't defile the good name of Metallica (or my own reputation) by putting a Sugarland sticker next to a Metallica sticker. Honestly, if I wanted to boast varied musical tastes, I'd be putting a George Strait sticker next to that Metallica sticker, or maybe plugging the iPod into my stereo and putting on shuffle where one of those will very likely be followed by the other.
As for country radio programmers becoming more liberal...well, I can't argue with that, as they're as complicit in the watering-down of country music as the suits in Nashville are. He obviously thinks this is a good thing, but considering the fact that he comes off as not having any particular allegiance to the genre, I'm tempted to ask why anyone would give a damn what he thinks.
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