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10 hours ago, MDM said:

 

You don't have to be American to have heard of Jimmy Rodgers. Country music was huge in Ireland when I was growing up and it is still going strong although it has evolved somewhat since the 50s and 60s. Country, bluegrass and Americana in general have very strong roots in Ireland (and Scotland) imported by immigrants over the centuries and there is a definite two way connection.

 

It's not just Ireland either. Dolly Parton topped the bill hit and was a massive hit among young and old at a recent Glastonbury (England) festival which I think is probably the biggest music festival in Britain. It is certainly the most famous.

That’s very informative. I didn’t have a clue country was popular there. While I like pop music, some rock, hate heavy metal, my roots are country. That’s because Oklahoma is a farming, ranching and oil producing state.  Most wear blue jeans, a lot wear western boots, and most are hard-working and unpretentious. Designer labels, for most, cause people to scratch their heads when levis and Wranglers Do the job just fine.

While sitting in the stands watching Oklahoma University football, I often trained my binoculars on Toby Keith roaming the sidelines. (We gave up our season tickets after 10 years when the price kept climbing).

Oklahoma has produced quite a few country music stars.

Betty

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American culture has produced quite a few musical genres -- rock, jazz, swing, blues, zydeco, Tex-Mex and others including, gotta admit it, rap.

I wouldn't include Bluegrass in that list, though, because it owes too much to its Scots-Irish roots to be considered originally American.

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12 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

That’s very informative. I didn’t have a clue country was popular there. .... hate heavy metal, my roots are country. That’s because Oklahoma is a farming, ranching and oil producing state.  Most wear blue jeans, a lot wear western boots, and most are hard-working and unpretentious. Designer labels, for most, cause people to scratch their heads when levis and Wranglers Do the job just fine.

 

Oklahoma has produced quite a few country music stars.

Betty

 

I'm a  city boy with very strong country roots. 

 

I'm with you on heavy metal. Absolutely detest it.

 

Wranglers are my favourite jeans - been buying them since I was a teenager.

 

Also love blasting out Okie from Muskogee at high volume when driving although it's never been clear what Merle really meant - not sure what he meant himself it seems. Will avoid serious discussion here. Happy new year.

 

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10 hours ago, DDoug said:

American culture has produced quite a few musical genres -- rock, jazz, swing, blues, zydeco, Tex-Mex and others including, gotta admit it, rap.

I wouldn't include Bluegrass in that list, though, because it owes too much to its Scots-Irish roots to be considered originally American.

 

I have do disagree there. Surely American culture is a hybrid culture with roots in many different immigrant cultures which have gone on to evolve in their own way. Bluegrass certainly has roots in Scotland/Ireland but the banjo is of African slave origin. The singing styles of people like Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley are pretty uniquely American I think. I'm no musical expert but I have certainly never heard any traditional Irish singing that could be considered roots to that but many of the melodies definitely hark back to the old country. 

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2 hours ago, MDM said:

 

I'm a  city boy with very strong country roots. 

 

I'm with you on heavy metal. Absolutely detest it.

 

Wranglers are my favourite jeans - been buying them since I was a teenager.

 

Also love blasting out Okie from Muskogee at high volume when driving although it's never been clear what Merle really meant - not sure what he meant himself it seems. Will avoid serious discussion here. Happy new year.

 

No heavy discussion at all. He basically meant the values I spoke of in my previous post.   The song is heavy on good values and patriotism. He recorded that song, I believe (without checking) sometime during the hippie influence which only barely brushed up against Oklahoma.

We did see some long hair and an uptick in drugs with the under 20 kids, and I was the first one I ever saw who bought a pair of hip-hugger bell bottoms with stars and moons on a navy field! Boy, when I walked down Main Street in those did I ever get the stares. Just wasn’t done in Ponca City, Oklahoma. I always marched to a different drummer, though. That’s the sum total of my being influenced by hippie-ism.

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Merle Haggard was born in California but his father was from Oklahoma and the term "Okie" was used in California to denigrate people from Oklahoma so there is a tribute to his father there as well as picking up the insult and identifying with it. Like the "N word" is sometimes used today or "Queer". I love that old type of country music. "Walkin' on the Fightin" Side of Me" is one of Merle Haggard's patriotic songs. As Betty says, there was a reaction to the hippie times and a perceived disrespect of patriotism by the hippies.

 

Paulette

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3 hours ago, NYCat said:

Merle Haggard was born in California but his father was from Oklahoma and the term "Okie" was used in California to denigrate people from Oklahoma so there is a tribute to his father there as well as picking up the insult and identifying with it. Like the "N word" is sometimes used today or "Queer". I love that old type of country music. "Walkin' on the Fightin" Side of Me" is one of Merle Haggard's patriotic songs. As Betty says, there was a reaction to the hippie times and a perceived disrespect of patriotism by the hippies.

 

Paulette

 

It's the same in Ireland - Dublin City v everywhere else - stupid verbal discrimination from some Dubliners against anybody from the country. I understand the sentiment from that point of view and why Merle Haggard wrote the song in fact as I am from Dublin but my father was from a mountain farm.

 

But I don't relate to the politics. My love of country music is much more about the overall sound than the lyrics, most of which are not political in fact but about heart-rending emotional pain. If I was ever feeling bad, then I think listening to country would make me feel worse. 

 

And one thing I really love is the Bakersfield sound which I'm guessing you must like - Merle Haggard and Buck Owens - Those twangy guitars had a big influence on 60s pop rock, not least the Beatles. I have a lot of that old music on my phone as well as newer versions and tributes by people like Dwight Yoakam and Vince Gill. More polished modern sound but still very raw.

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It's nice to know you are enjoying our very American music over there. Personally, I have the Clancy Brothers on vinyl. I guess it was when I was in college that I got interested in that music. I do like music that is about the words as well as the music. If the words get lost I lose interest. The Irish sure know how to use words --whether written or performed.

 

Paulette

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Reba McEntire, Toby Keith, Vince Gill, Okies.

My only brush with weed was at a Waylon Jennings concert where you could get high breathing the air. Only time I ever smelled it. Hank Williams Jr. opened for Waylon. He might have been the one smoking! :D or is it called “toking”?

At least the Willie Nelson concert was in a football arena with fresh air.  We went to a Boots Randolph concert, too. Yakkity Sax, remember?

I’m with you, Paulette. The words are everything. George Jones, “He Stopped Lovin’ Her Today”. (We put a wreath upon his door, and soon they’ll carry him away, he stopped lovin’ her today.)

MDM, funny thing, but I’ve seen it that when people are going through emotionally tough times, they seem to gravitate toward sad music. Maybe it helps to think one is not hurting alone, others are, too. My son comes to mind...when he and his wife split. He played all those tear-jerkers.

Betty

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On the night of a serious blizzard in the late '50s, I agreed to play co-host to two Irish-born ladies who lived in the Bronx. The event was the Clancy Bothers and Tommy Makem at the Bottom Line. I was playing post bebop at the time, remember.

 

I'm Brooklyn Irish, but I was not familier with these guys or with Irish folk music. The  group had not yet gotten their matching sweaters, and they were all a bit drunk (Tom Clancy more than a bit). Then they started to sing. 

 

The music tweaked some Celtic wire in me somewhere, and a year or two later I was singing folk songs at the Gaslight Cafe on MacDougal Street.   "Jug of Punch" was one of my numbers. 

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9 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

On the night of a serious blizzard in the late '50s, I agreed to play co-host to two Irish-born ladies who lived in the Bronx. The event was the Clancy Bothers and Tommy Makem at the Bottom Line. I was playing post bebop at the time, remember.

 

I'm Brooklyn Irish, but I was not familier with these guys or with Irish folk music. The  group had not yet gotten their matching sweaters, and they were all a bit drunk (Tom Clancy more than a bit). Then they started to sing. 

 

The music tweaked some Celtic wire in me somewhere, and a year or two later I was singing folk songs at the Gaslight Cafe on MacDougal Street.   "Jug of Punch" was one of my numbers. 

Would have enjoyed hearing that.

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13 hours ago, NYCat said:

It's nice to know you are enjoying our very American music over there

 

Likewise, can't stand heavy metal, and I'm the one who put the 'C' into rap music

 

'Fraid I'm not a country music fan either - but I am a great fan of another genre with US origins - jazz.  All time favourites - in no particular order, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Oscar Peterson (yes I know he was a Canadian). Some time ago I discovered a wonderful internet jazz streaming service at www.jazz24.org. Based in Tacoma, Seattle and run as a community radio station, so no commercials, and not too many station announcements, just good quality music 24/7

 

 

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Oscar Peterson sometimes sang in his club appearances. Unfortunately, he sounded exactly like Nat 'King' Cole (another great jazz pianist). I know that West Coast jazz steaming service, and have it bookmarked, Richard.  But Jazz is just a part of the mix of music I enjoy these days. 

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18 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

Oscar Peterson sometimes sang in his club appearances. Unfortunately, he sounded exactly like Nat 'King' Cole (another great jazz pianist). I know that West Coast jazz steaming service, and have it bookmarked, Richard.  But Jazz is just a part of the mix of music I enjoy these days. 

 

He also had a great sense of humour. I remember hearing him interviewed on the radio once. At one point he described himself as "having Scottish blood in his veins". When asked to explain, he said that his great- great-grandfather had once eaten a Scottish missionary :D

 

Sadly no longer with us, and a very hard act to follow. However, I recently came across another Canadian pianist, John Sherwood, whose bio cites a heavy influence by Oscar, and you can certainly hear it in his playing,

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22 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

The music tweaked some Celtic wire in me somewhere, and a year or two later I was singing folk songs at the Gaslight Cafe on MacDougal Street.   "Jug of Punch" was one of my numbers. 

 

Hey Ed, I'd like to hear you sing "Johnny McEldoo" after you've had a jug of punch yourself.

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Johnny McElddo and McGee and me and a couple a two or three went on a spree one day . . . yes, that was a right twister. I used to know it, but never sang it for a live group. The only funny one I used to do was "Mick McGuire." In fact most of my folk repertoire was not Irish at all.  Ahhh, so long ago. I'll take the jug but skip the tune. 

 

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