Go home, Texas Music: you're drunk

Today's mainstream Country music is far from Johnny Cash. It's not even Johnny Paycheck.

It's no secret by now that there was a "Murder on Music Row," but who's at fault is the subject of much debate. You see, what happened is that Country music experienced a parting of ways sometime in the mid-1990s, when the music drifted toward a more market-driven sound, and several artists said adios to the big Nashville recording companies.

Whether its Roots, Americana, Texas Music, Red Dirt, any number of retro or throwback genres -- or perhaps even the more satirical Cowpunk and Psychobilly -- Country is an increasingly divided family these days. Promoters of these Alternative Country genres routinely criticize the "Bro-Country" or "Hick-Hop" sound of today's mainstream Country (see video mashup above) as a departure from the heydays of Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, and even up to the neo-sincerity of the Judds, Randy Travis, and Garth Brooks. You get the idea, and not much more needs to be said about that.

But what ought to be expanded on is that the Alt-Country world is not immune from similar critiques about its departure from its roots. Consider the Texas Music scene, where a reliance on bars and clubs to pay singers and promote the art-form (without the financial backing of major record labels and corporate radio networks) has resulted in songwriting themes that are more hedonistic and drunk-sounding than what is traditional in Country (when a little godly sorrow and work ethic was once thrown into the mix -- subjects practically absent in Texas Music). But Texas Music (and Red Dirt north of the Red River) is nonetheless drawing in loyal crowds -- namely, Gen-X and Gen-Y audiences around the Lone Star State who like to party and float the Comal.

Music tastes are always changing, and Country is not immune from this effect as it exists as an art. But Austin-based attorney Mark Pulliam suggests the themes in today's Texas Music scene may be the proverbial canary in the coal mine when it comes to our decaying cultural values.

Pulliam writes in the Library of Law and Liberty blog:

... Another [Texas Music] song, “Wasn’t That Drunk,” describes what passes for modern courtship: Two people meet in a bar, get drunk, close the bar down, and end up “sharin’ a cab back to your house.”  (I guess Uber didn’t rhyme.)  

The next morning, the female reflects, without regret, that “last night it happened so fast/I’d do it over, I wouldn’t think twice/Cause lying here sober/It still feels right.”  

What are we to make of this? The lyrics are not up to Bob Dylan standards, obviously.  The rhymes are banal and the content is puerile.  While the lyrics do not contain the violent imagery and misogyny evident in many rap songs, and are comparable to the salacious fare produced by pop stars such as Miley Cyrus and Rihanna, we understandably expect more from country music popular in the heartland. ... 

Read the article at: http://www.libertylawsite.org/2015/11/25/millennial-country-music-bodes-ill-for-civic-virtue/#more-19680

Judge for yourself: for some musical examples of today's Country music dichotomy and alleged moral breakdown, we present (and forgive any profanity) ...

Bro Country (Exhibit A):

Texas Music (Exhibit B):

Amicus brief: An Alt-Country counter-punch by Austin's own Dale Watson (he calls his retro-meets-urban-sophisticate Country sub-genre "Ameripolitan," by the way):

(Written with apologies to those readers who don't particularly care for Country. But this is Austin, Texas, y'all. Long live the Armadillo.)