Country Mike Blog

Country Weekend

Mike Sudhalter  |  July 16, 2007

I had a great time this weekend, attending the wedding of one of best friends' weddings. Everybody enjoyed themselves and I even joked with my friends about country music.

The couple that got married are definitely not country fans, but the DJ played three country songs at the wedding - "You Had Me From Hello" by Kenny Chesney, "Man, I Feel Like A Woman" by Shania Twain and "Memories of Us" by Keith Urban.

Now, the groom didn't even realize it was country, probably due to the lack of fiddles and steel guitar. Two of the songs were slow songs, and the DJ later noted that people will slow dance to country.

But here's the question: Is country accepted in the mainstream because it's played at weddings where little or no guests listen to that type of music? Or is country so watered down that it's more suitable for formal events in California than honky-tonk bars.

I think some artists have strayed towards pop, but that might be OK because maybe someone will hear one of these songs and get a deeper appreciation for country.

Not likely though. Chesney is a country music artist, albeit on the pop-side of the genre. The honky-tonk credentials of Twain and Urban are suspect, at best.

Let's just say some songs were played by artists who "identify" themselves as country. All we were missing was a little Rascal Flatts.

On Sunday, I went to the store where Tower Records used to be. It's now called Rasputin Records, a chain of record stores from the Bay Area. You may remember my story about when overpriced Tower was closing, I bought 20 country albums for $20.

This was almost as good. There was a big sale at Rasputin, and I purchased 12 country albums for $21, with artists like the Dixie Chicks, Trent Tomlinson, Sugarland, Jimmy C. Newman, Chris Cagle, Chad Brock and others.

Looking forward to next Monday when ABC airs the CMA Music Festival special. I'll get a better chance to see the LP Field shows than I did when I was actually there!