There is a saying about what is old being new again. Trends seem to make a comeback like that now and then. It's a welcome phenomenon in fashion, music, cinema, and other cultural realms. What is passe today can be popular again tomorrow. That happens in country music too. Something goes out of style, then comes roaring back again when the time is right and conditions warrant. Hearkening back to earlier days is just human and natural. Reviving something old and reinvigorating it is fun and helps to preserve, promote, and refresh the genre. So let's take a peek into the country music archive and check out what is relatively bygone that is being made beautiful and shiny again.
Videos by Wide Open Country
Traditional Country Music
You could believably argue that traditional country music never really went away. Proponents like the brilliant George Strait have kept it going strong. If you are a country music devotee, you know what I mean by traditional. It's the antithesis of slick, packaged, overly commercialized music. It doesn't feel like a commodity. And traditional country music isn't excessively pop-inflected either. It's pure and true and old-fashioned in the best sense of those words.
In fact, the Grammys have just announced a fresh new category for next year's awards ceremony - Traditional Country Album. And there are some dynamic country stars who are making sure that the traditional sound stays front and center. Think of artists like Zach Top, for example.
Outlaw Country Music
There were a few genuine trailblazers in this category, which constituted a mainly 1970s pushback against the might and influence of the Nashville establishment. These men comprised their own band, The Highwaymen. Its members were Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings. All but Nelson are gone now. You could also count Jessi Colter (she was married to Jennings), Jerry Jeff Walker, and David Allan Coe in this group as well. But never fear, the outlaw spirit is alive and kicking today, thanks to people like Sturgill Simpson and Jamey Johnson.
1990s Country Music
There was a torrent of good stuff happening in country music in the 1990s. The release of Shania Twain's blockbuster LP, Come On Over was one highlight. Plus singers like Garth "Friends in Low Places" Brooks and Billy Ray Cyrus with "Achy Breaky Heart" were just two more of the era's notable personalities. Per opry.com, "The 1990s was a golden era for country music. The genre trickled into the mainstream, female powerhouses dominated airwaves, and some of the best storytellers and musicians of all time emerged in Nashville and across the nation." According to American Songwriter, young artists such as Silverada, Joshua Hedley, and Randall King are making music in a 1990s vein. Not cookie-cutter carbon-copying, but staying true to that great 90s ethos and resurrecting it for a modern, appreciative audience.
