“That ain’t Country”

“That ain’t country” is one of my favorite phrases. I wonder where we, as a collective group of music lovers get the “cred” to determine what genre music falls into. Recently, I was asked if I thought country music was returning to its “roots” with artists like Ashley Monroe, Luke Combs, Cody Jinks, and Midland — I replied, “I guess” but if you listen to country radio you can hear the Backstreet Boys, and a new artist named Walker Hayes, who is nothing like Clay Walker!

As I was thinking about how to answer that same question for This is Country Magazine, a Luke Bryan song popped up on my iTunes playlist. Luke is pretty and polished and one of the guys that gets beat up a lot for not being “country” but Luke IS a country artist — yes, someone polished him up and made him a superstar but why wouldn’t he want to appeal to the masses — he’s pretty, and I would task anyone with finding a song more country than “Country Man.”

I first met Luke when he was on tour opening outside of venues for Taylor Swift. A little known Ray fact is he played his first Chicago mini concert on the tailgate of my truck but I digress. The song that came up on my iTunes playlist was Fast. As a dad watching his kids grow up, that song hit me in the heart; it is everything a country song should be. Fast takes us from boy meets girl to boy and girls son playing under those Friday night lights and then Luke exclaims “60 seconds now feels more like 30, sand in a glass sure falls in a hurry.” As I listened I thought wow, this guy just told the story of the life I’m living right now.

My advice, don’t get caught up in the “beat” or the “snaps” of what we hear as country music, listen to the words that weave a story. It’s what Nashville does best. Stop worrying about who’s getting played on your dad’s country station because it’s a waste of time that goes too fast.

RR