CMT Blog: Archive

A trip back home to Ireland recently brought me face to face with my old CD collection and I remembered how much I used to love mainstream country music. I grabbed a few CDs for the trip back to Tennessee, and found a few albums that really formed the basis of my musical education as a teenager.

I remember my brother coming home one Saturday afternoon with an album by a guy in a cowboy hat looking out over a desert - Ocean Front Property by George Strait. After a few listens we were both hooked, and tracks like “All My Ex’s Live in Texas” and “Second Chances” have been burned into my musical hard drive. When I listen to those songs again, I’m transported back to London, specifically sitting in my Dad’s van as we drive to a gig on a dark evening.

Dwight Yoakam’s Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. was unashamedly hillbilly honky-tonk, and it’s only dated by the fact it probably wouldn’t work in today’s market. Listen to “Honky Tonk Man” and tell me it doesn’t make you do a Dwight dance across the kitchen floor! Meanwhile, “South of Cincinnati” is full of and remorse and longing - heartbreaking stuff. There’s also great fiddling on this record and of course outstanding guitar playing, providing an education for any country musician.

Country music evolves over time and speaks to a lot of people today, but rarely to me. In my early 30s, I feel a little rejected by the country mainstream, but I’m thankful that it did speak to me when I was younger. Maybe in years to come I’ll be talking about the 1980s as the golden era of country music in the same way some folks now talk about the ‘40s and ‘50s, and when I do I’ll pulling out these two albums as evidence.