Jim says:
> I don't think that Wahl was comparing radio play (other people have had #1
> records this past year, too, obviously) but was looking at in terms of
> *sales*, which is what most of the articles I've read have focused on as
> well; You have G*rth and Shania and then everyone else.
Ah, well, that's different. But in that case, it seems to me that a
comparison with sales in other genres today is relevant, too, i.e., do you
find the same kind of inverted pyramid with respect to sales, with a handful
of acts accounting for a hugely disproportionate percentage of units. I
will be surprised if the situation is radically different in pop or rock,
and if that's so, then it would suggest that a solution might not be
specific to country music either, and that one would want to look at least
as closely at the situation in other fields as at the situation in country
music 20 years ago. Still, it sounds worth checking out.
> And re: McCall on Chesnutt and the Damnations:
> I guess McCall thought there was some other point; maybe he thought that
> enthusiasm is a *starting* point for making good music, not the ending
> point. I wouldn't give the new Chesnutt 4 stars, but I wouldn't give the
> Damnations TX 3, either, not on a country music scale, anyhow
> (meaning both
> albums).
>
> Guessing don't count for much <g>. But I think this goes a long way to
> explaining why Jon doesn't "get" much of what most people refer to as
> alt.country, where enthusiasm is *only* the point of making good music.
No, I get it just fine. I just don't generally *like* music that features
enthusiasm sans skill. There are plenty of musicians who have both (IMO, of
course; enthusiasm is at least in part in the ear of the listener), so I
don't see much reason to settle for just the one. Obviously, there are
exceptions, but not many.
> Re: Country.com encyclopedia: Walser's in there, and so are Dale Watson,
> Kelly Willis, Townes Van Zandt, BR5-49, Julie & Buddy Miller, the
> Flatlanders and Foster & Lloyd, to take a few randomly-chosen (ha)
> instances.
>
> I don't have the disk to check, but I'm almost positive Walser is *not* in
> there.
That's interesting. If you don't mind checking, I'd appreciate it; I'm
curious as to whether there's much difference in content between the print
version and the CD-ROM one, and Walser is definitely in the former.
> The main problem I have with it is that it's almost exclusively
> Nashville country based and doesn't take into account non-Nashville acts.
Aw, baloney. It might not devote enough space to "non-Nashville acts,"
whatever that means (what's a Nashville act? One on the Nashville division
of a major label? recorded exclusively in Nashville? recorded sometimes in
Nashville? lives in Nashville? lived in Nashville for a while?), to suit
some folks, but I'll bet there's not a dozen pages out of the 600+ in the
print edition that doesn't have a "non-Nashville act" entry by any
reasonable definition of the term.
Maybe the CD-ROM's different...
Jon Weisberger Kenton County, KY [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://home.fuse.net/jonweisberger/
