If you were to ask any hard working country musician the difference they
would tell you its all about the sincerity of the performer. Any 99%
percent of these bands got no heart.
And this is the only part of the anonymous diatribe that I might disagree
with, or at least amend. It's not *all* about the sincerity. There are
also some awfully sincere alt-country bands that are just, well, awful.
No doubt that white-trash minstrel show shit rubs me the wrong way, but
I'm also not a fan of the painfully earnest ones who have nothin' else
goin' for 'em except their sincerity. Dull as dirt is not much better
than a superficial schtick. Anyway, it's too bad the person who wrote
that essay spent so much time with the cartoon crowd down there -- he/she
must've missed James Hand, Justin Trevino, Don Walser, Paul Burch, Dale
Watson and all the other hardcore traditionalists types that played this
year.--don
