The things that come to those that wait may be the things left by those that got there first.— Steven Tyler
Rock and Country music have been getting closer to the same sound for over 30 years
Steven Tyler is an iconic image in the music world. Sometimes referred to as “everyone’s favorite grandmother” because of the striped hair and plethora of flowing scarves, the former Aerosmith frontman presents a character unlike any other in any music genre. I mean, come on, who else would be wandering around New York City in the middle of a blizzard with his daughter, and then take over a CNN live report? The dude may look like a lady from time to time, but he is so totally unique both in sight and in sound as to be instantly recognizable even if he were to try his hand at opera.
While the Met stage may not be currently within his sites, though, Steven Tyler has set his eyes firmly upon the country music market. He announced last year that his next album would be country, but his first single from that album, Love Is Your Name, failed to generate a tremendous amount of excitement. Perhaps the sound was too smooth. Perhaps country fans just weren’t interested. Whatever the reason, response was more of a bored yawn than what typically accompanies the rocker’s new releases.
If at first you don’t succeed, drop a second single, which is exactly what Tyler did this past week. The new single, Red, White & You, certainly sounds more country with a clear taste of fiddle and banjo in the band, but this is still Steven Tyler’s voice. He even starts the song with his signature whoop. So, while the lyrics go on about the Fourth of July and Tom Petty and all those other themes that seem standard in a contemporary country song, the sound one hears still resembles that which we’ve associated with Aerosmith and rock and roll for the past 40 years.
Country music fans are going to be divided, as they have been for quite a while. Traditional country fans more closely identify with what the Grammy’s categorize as “American Roots” music, that acoustic-driven, old-school, nasal-toned, boot-and-stetson-wearing sound of Willie, Waylon, and the boys. There’s is the sound defined by Hank Williams, Sr., Little Jimmy Dickens, and Roy Acuff. Yet, even there we’ve seen some crossover. One of the artists nominated for this year’s Grammy for best American Roots song is none other than the Eagles’ Don Henley singing with country legend Merle Haggard.
Contemporary country has been courting rock music for a while. Think back to Garth Brooks and the controversy his rock-driven sound created some thirty-plus years ago. This week’s Billboard country chart includes artists such as Luke Bryan, Sam Hunt, and LoCash whose heavily produced songs don’t sound all that different from 80s and early 90s rock. Even artists once considered staunchly country, such as Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift, have more of a pop sound now than anything that might have once been considered anywhere close to old-fashioned country.
Obviously, music genres don’t stay the same forever; they change and evolve just like everything else on the planet. If Steven Tyler wants to call his new album country music, why stop him? After all, Aerosmith fans have grown older; we don’t rock as hard as we did in the 70s and 80s. Country music may be more our speed. At the same time, however, there’s a lot of tradition in country music that could be lost if the genre continues to merge so closely with rock that one has difficulty telling the difference.
I’m not the one to make the final call. I’ll put the link below and let you listen for yourself. Just remember that when one blends Country and Rock, what you get is a Crock, as in: full of …
When The Fairy Tale Ends
Happiness is like those palaces in fairy tales whose gates are guarded by dragons: we must fight in order to conquer it.—Alexandre Dumas
Not every day is a good one, nor should we ever expect them to be.
One of my dear friends, Jane, whose birthday I missed yesterday and who writes a most wonderful blog, frequently reminds her students that the versions of fairy tales they see presented by Disney and the like are not true. When Hans Christian Anderson wrote The Little Mermaid, he justifiably kills his title character at the end; that’s right, the little mermaid dies. In the original telling of Cinderella, the evil stepsisters have their eyes plucked out. The tales penned by the brothers Grimm were bloody, vicious and violent. Why? Because such stories were meant to be cautionary tales, warnings against dangerous, self-centered, and inappropriate behavior. Life is not fair, the stories warn, and happily ever after is a myth.
This week has been a painful reminder of just how unhappy life can be. People we have admired, who have entertained us, who have sacrificed for us, who saved our lives, have passed on. Not just one or two people, as we are rather accustomed to hearing, but several people of some noteworthiness, have left us. Here’s a partial list, in case you weren’t paying attention:
All those people, gone in the span of seven days. There were more, of course. Many died whose names are not so familiar to us. On Friday, a terrorist attack on a Burkina Faso hotel left at least 28 dead, including an American missionary. All around the world, in every hospital in every city, families gathered as loved ones, some old and suffering, some never really having a chance at life, moved on.
So much for a fairy tale with happy endings. This week seems to have gone out of its way to show us that there is no “happily ever after.” Even the lives that seem the most wonderful and glamorous, those who appear to have everything in the world going their way, still die.
What, then, shall we do when the fairy tale is over? When we have run out of tears to cry and are weary from mourning, how do we face this incredibly cruel world? Any good reader should know the answer to that question. When one fairy tale ends, you start another. Tragedy is the platform upon which the foundation of comedy arises. The ending of one story, or one set of stories, prepares us for the beginning of the next.
Yes, it is true that even the next story likely ends with its main character’s demise, but every story is worth the telling. There are lessons to be learned even in the most heart-breaking situations. We do not stop here. We keep going.
I have been distantly following the continuing saga of Cory and Joey Feek, as have millions of others. I’m not going to sit here anre pretend that I was ever a fan. I’m not big into contemporary country music, and until their lives took a tragic turn I’d not even heard of them. Now, it appears that Joey’s story is nearing its end. When it does, headlines will focus on the love of a mother for her daughter, and a husband for his wife, and many will share in their grief. What’s important is that we realize that there is a story that goes onward. Their daughter, Indiana, is just beginning her story, even as her mother’s is ending.
While it is easy to become emeshed in the stories of others, however, we must remember that we are the ones writing our own stories. While our tales may be entertwined with those of others, we are ultimately the authors of our own fates. Even in circumstances where we might not have control of when or how our story ends, we still decide through the way we live and the decisions we make whether our fairy tale is tragic or happy.
2016 seems to be getting off to a very rough start, but perhaps this is this universe telling us that we need to focus more on the future, not the past; that we should focus less on the lives lost and more on those still living. Not that we don’t remember those who have died, but we realize that their passing is but the end of a chapter, not the whole book. The fairy tale is not over. There is so much more to be written and it is up to you to do the writing.
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