> Excerpts from internet.listserv.postcard2: 31-Jan-99 RE: HNC by "Jon
> Weisberger"@fuse.ne
>> I said that mainstream country acts got 'em and/or
>> fiddlers, and alt.country acts don't, and followed that with a
>> qualifier - to wit, that there are exceptions, which y'all are busy
>> listing as though it's some kind of refutation. It ain't, especially
>> if the same couple of bands and steel players keep turning up.
>
> 1) Most of these "exceptions" are the folks who get talked about
> extensively here, and whose records appear at or near the top of p2's
> year end polls. If these artists are expections, I need a clear
> definition of what is alt.country.
Ha, you're not going to get me to play that game; far better minds than mine
have been ruined by attempting the exercise <g>. Whether they appear at the
top of P2's year end polls or the bottom matters little in terms of looking
at the numbers, and as far as I know, the majority of the acts appearing on
P2's year end polls or reviewed in ND don't tour with a pedal steel guitar
player; if you want to take issue with that, go down the lists, weed out the
bluegrassers <g> and then see how many of them carry a steel guitar. As far
as I know, the majority of those acts derided as HNC do. The point being
not that this makes the alt.country acts bad, but that, suggestions to the
contrary notwithstanding, the absence of the instrument, or of the fiddle,
is not a reliable marker for HNC, and especially ought not to be used as a
point of derision by alt.country fans.
And yes, Paul Franklin gets a lot of studio work, but 1) so do a decent
number of other folks - Sonny Garrish, Bruce Bouton, Robbie Turner, to name
a few - 2) virtually every album coming out of Nashville's got steel guitar
and/or fiddle on it (the most notable exceptions being the band acts like
Diamond Rio) and 3) most importantly, behind the A-list of studio guys
there's a whole bunch of B-list guys who go out on the road to play behind
the mainstream acts, and there isn't in the alt.country field.
Jon Weisberger Kenton County, KY [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://home.fuse.net/jonweisberger/
