Nashville: The Great American Sellout

I have mixed emotions about Nashville. Nashville is a town of hope for so many. Dreams are realized there everyday, and dreams are crushed as well. In a way it's our Hollywood.

I love Country Music, the roots of the American soul. In a lot of ways Country Music goes as the country goes. It's the backbone of so many people's story, but in so many ways it's so unbelievable that it's borderline brutal to hear.

Today, on any of the "Mainstream" Country Music channels you'll be hard pressed to hear real country. Music Row sold out years ago and what you have now is nothing more than watered down Rock n' Roll. Somewhere, mixed in with all of that watered down lite rock junk is the remains of a dying sound.....pedal steel, fiddle, etc.

I have a love/hate affair with Nashville. The town calls me on occassion. The dream to realize musical fortitude appeals but at what cost? In the nooks and crannies, in the alley ways, side roads and living rooms all around Nashville country lives on, yet goes unnoticed. The guys in the suits say it's "too country." It's too real and it's got too much soul. Music Row does not want soul, Music Row wants guys like Billy Currington.....a guy who looks more like a model than a musician and whose music is anything but country. Putrid seems like a better description.

Out in Austin and all over Texas, Oklahoma and the rest of Americana the true sound and soul of Country Music lives on. However, unless you can stream Radio Free Texas or serve beer at Gruene Hall you may never hear it. It's still there in Nashville. It's just that you won't find it on the radio or on Music Row. By the time it gets to the front office it's so watered down that the soul and the heart of it was ripped out long ago.

Nashville is historic, it's haunted and it has all the ingredients to truly be great (and as a city and culture it is great). However, the rest of America won't buy the truth so the good goes unnoticed while the bad gets to play the game and pretend like they are something they aren't.

Some say the soul of Nashville died the day the Opry kicked out Hank Sr.. Who knows....maybe it did. Personally, I think it just took to the shadows and has been hiding there ever since. You can still walk down the alley in between the Blue Bird Cafe and the Ryman and feel that cold chill. They're always there in the shadows.....away from the street lights, but never far from the neon lights, the smokey old bars and the smell of whiskey.

One day, maybe Country will wear it's hat and boots again. In the meantime, we'll keep searching for the true sound and the true soul of Country Music. In the meantime you get Lite Rock.