I have a mixed reaction to this - clearly the current backlash (which
I think has been accelerated by PazznJop and a couple of other
instances of high-profile folk like Christgau calling alt-country
"confining") is largely crap, and another case of Moronic Media Meme
syndrome. And Tweedy has shown, for a long time, a puzzling inability
to resist whining about how misunderstood he is.
*But* - I don't think P2 - at least the most active participants on P2
- are representative of the alt-country fan base in general, and I
don't think Tweedy is talking about P2. (He may see stuff from
Postcard and from AOL, but who the hell would be trawling through this
mountain of verbiage and pointing out to him things to be annoyed by?)
Don't take it too personally, but I think there is some truth to the
complaint that there is a reactionary twang audience out there.
Case in point: Last night I went to see a free gig in town by the V-Roys,
who I thought were a great bar band, though they were batting about .500 on
decent songs. But the crowd was a really roadhouse-country-rock-lovin'
bunch, who wanted their roots as loud and straight-up and danceable as
possible.
Nothing wrong with that, of course. Since we don't get much of the
V-Roys brand of twang this far north, I haven't seen a gathering like
that at most shows here, and it was fun. But I was very doubtful about
how eclectic that audience's tastes probably were. And if Tweedy feels
like there are people in such audiences who aren't open to different
directions, he may be more right than the braintrust at P2 (The
Official Home of The Alt-Whatchamacallit Intelligentsia, tm) would
like to assume. Until there are better demographic surveys of the
so-called No Depression market, all generalizations are suspect, and
all suspicions are general.
Carl W.
