That's generally a decent piece, but this:
>In American commercial music, the big money has always been in pop. So,
>once every two decades or so, hoping to cash in, the country industry in
>Nashville tries to kill its inner hillbilly. It bans banjos and fiddles...
>
>In the past decade, the inner hillbilly has been under siege like never
>before, with stars like Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks...
is, if taken at all literally (the banjos and fiddles part, not the kill
part <g>), simply self-contradictory, while this:
>Radio calls the music "Americana," a category that includes virtually
>anything with fiddles, banjos, pedal steel guitars, or mandolins
>that mainstream country stations refuse to play–like Earle's new
>bluegrass opus, The Mountain; Kelly Willis's Austin roots-rock What
>I Deserve...
isn't especially accurate either, as there's not a trace of banjo on my copy
of What I Deserve, and a lot less fiddle, pedal steel guitar and mandolin
than on many, if not most, inner-hillbilly-killing mainstream country
albums, which probably accounts at least in small part for its popularity
among certain critics - they can use it to attack country music without
actually having to listen to something that's really too country for country
(and whatever the virtues, of Willis' album, that's not an accurate
description thereof).
And yes, I realize these are points peripheral to the article's main focus;
like I said, it's generally a decent piece, but...
Jon Weisberger Kenton County, KY [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://home.fuse.net/jonweisberger/
