Was perusing Richard Carlin's "The Big Book of Country Music" (Penguin
Press, 1995) last night. Man, this book is chock full of provocative
judgments about country music and its past -- enough stuff to launch
hundreds of lengthy threads about such things as country vs. pop,
production, the relative merits of various artists, etc. On the latter
issue, Carlin more or less pronounces Steve Earle as a one-shot flash in
the pan, whose only work of any real merit (as of the early 90s) was "Guitar
Town"
(The segment on Earle begins: "Earle is a country-rocker who has never
really lived up to his potential after the release of his now-legendary
1986 album, 'Guitar Town,'" and concludes several hundred words later,
"After a 1990 tour with Bob Dylan, Earle has for the moment faded from
both the country and pop scenes."
On the Nashville Sound and the later Countrypolitan phase in country
music, Carlin is decidedly contemptuous, more or less mirroring some of
the stuff I've argued on this list. He goes too far, though, in laying
down value judgments without anything to back them up. Such as: "After the
pernicious effects of the Nashville Sound had rendered country music into
a bland reflection of middle-of-the-road pop, the seventies drove what
seemed to be the final nail in country music's coffin with the development
of country-politan, or crossover, country artists..."
Or:
"While countrypolitan and even seventies crossover country tried to
'modernize' country music by employing cushy choruses and sappy strings,
the country-rock crowd was showing that the real strength of country music
lay in its strong lyrical content and its stripped-down sound..."
Or, in reference to the Anita Kerr Singers, whom Chet Atkins used on some
of the records he produced (including Bobby Bare's): "(They) appeared on
countless Nashville sessions (in the late 50s and 60s), oohing and aahing
behind Jim Reeves, Red Foley, the Browns and countless others. As such,
they represent the worst excesses of the Nashville Sound, when plodding
pianos and sighing singers drowned legitimate country acts in dreadful
audio ooze... Anita Kerr deserves much of the credit for the success of
mainstream country recordings of the sixties. And for all who love ear
candy, there's nothing like an Anita Kerr LP to take you down memory lane.."
Well, there's a sampling. No pretense toward objectivity, plenty to rile
up just about anybody, and some factual errors that even I noticed. I
suspect that this book has been discussed here before, but since I lack
an encyclopaedic memory, forgive me if I don't recall it. -- Terry Smith
ps in the Bobby Bare entry, he cites "Detroit City" as a seventies hit by
Bare. Did Bare record this tune twice, or did Carlin get it wrong? I know
Bare recorded this tune in the sixties.
