It’s been a particularly interesting week to live in
Nashville and be someone who writes about music. This week, a mashup of six top Country songs
went viral. The songs were virtually
identical besides not being very good. It was concrete proof of what many of us
know already that mainstream (so called) Country music is in a pitiful state.
So, maybe it is fitting that I ended my week at the legendary Exit/In for the
opening night of the Baddest of the Bad Tour which included the return of Dale
Watson to the same Music City that over 20 years ago told him he was "Too
Country for Country."
Different people do different things when confronted by such
a ridiculous pronouncement. (As Dale pointed out from the stage of the Exit/In,
no rock music act has ever been told by a Rock and Roll label that they are too
Rock for Rock music.) Some people,
conform to the demands of the powers that be, some people give up in
frustration, and some people, like Dale Watson go out and create their own
genre. Ameripolitan Music which
encompasses Honky Tonk, Western Swing, Outlaw Country, and Rockabilly music is
a refuge for those who love the roots of true Country music.
It had not been an easy path, but last night Dale Watson and
his superb band The Lonestars stood tall and proud for a very appreciative
Nashville audience that included designer to the stars, Manuel, and the
daughter of songwriting legend Harlan Howard.
And, they delivered the goods with a set which was at least partially decided
by requests from the audience. When
Watson asked for suggestions for his mandatory Merle Haggard cover, one
exuberant member of the crowd loudly and repeatedly requested, “Mama Tried” or
as he said it, “Mama F--king Tried”. Dale relented and said there was an
alternate universe where Merle Haggard was born in New Jersey and wrote a song
called, “Mama F--king Tried”. He even
added a chorus with that adaptation.
Near the end of the set, which ended too soon for me, Dale
Watson articulated what I had been thinking the whole time he had been on
stage. Introducing his two anti-Nashville establishment songs, “Nashville Rash”
and “Country My Ass” Watson told the story of his Nashville rejection and
pointed out how much worse things have gotten in the twenty plus years
since. “Back then, the worse things
about Country were Shania Twain and Garth Brooks, nowadays, Shania and Garth
seem like Conway and Loretta.”
The songs in the set ranged from Dale’s signature trucker
songs and Outlaw to Western Swing. Later
when Dale joined Reverend Horton Heat to perform a Johnny Cash song, he stated
the music you have been hearing is not Country music expounding on the
Ameripolitan sound that he created. It may not be Country, but it was a
powerful lesson in what Country should and could be.
It was oddly appropriate that the amazing Rosie Flores who
opened the evening backed by the Lonestars included The Sex Pistols “Pretty
Vacant” in her short but rousing set. Punk, like Ameripolitan, emerged as a
reaction to the bland inanity of the dominant music of the time, and although
the two genres of music may seem miles apart, there is a common element of
rebellion inherent in both styles.
Flores followed The Sex Pistols with “Long White Cadillac” a song
written by Dave Alvin and originally performed by his band, The Blasters – one
of the bands that helped to bridge the gap between Punk and Roots music back in
the early 80s.
As previously mentioned, Reverend Horton Heat closed the evening with
raucous set that ended with good old fashioned mosh pit the likes which Hank and Lefty could never have imagined. But that is a story for another
time.
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