Week 8: A Brief Hiatus

I really tried to pull something together for this week. I know it's early in a project like this, and that's an important time to set a rhythm, keep things moving.

On the 24th, Putin ordered an invasion and siege, with the intent of taking control of, Ukraine.

This is a labor of love, not a labor of me getting paid and keeping food on the table. So with extra things happening, I had to prioritize my paid work over this. And I really am sorry about that. I know that a lot of folks could probably use something a little lighter to focus on right now. But that's not me. You should probably have gotten the picture by now: my love for country music stems, in large part, from the dark, seedy underbelly of it. And nobody needs that.

I thought about doing protest songs, war songs, songs about peace...none of it felt right.

What does feel right? If you click HERE or on the sunflowers up above, you'll be taken to the donations page for Voices of Children, a Ukrainian charity devoted to providing children with emotional and psychological support during times of strife like this. You don't have to donate, and you don't have to donate to this if you have another charity you think would be better served by your money. But this is where my money is going.

I don't know if anything more needs to be said, but I stand with the Ukrainian people in as much as I'm capable to do so, an ocean away. I've told you all that I'm an unabashed leftist from day one on this project. I don't care for fascism. I don't like bullies. I don't support this Russian effort to take control of a free nation.

I will be making this post up at a later date. I'm not going to short this project on content.

But just this week? I think there might be something a little more important.

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Week 6: The Chicks

So this week was supposed to be about the Carolina Chocolate Drops and Rhiannon Giddens, and it was supposed to come out on Saturday. But I've been on deadline for a writing project and I just wasn't able to pull it off. I want to be able to do CCD their proper due, because they're amazing. So I'm dusting this one off. It was supposed to come a little later, on, but I already have it written up, so I'm not going to make this any later than it already is. So let's talk about The Chicks . And you can't talk about The Chicks without A: talking about how they dropped "Dixie" from their original name and B: talking about the Iraq War. Yeah. I know. I thought we could move past it too, but it's integral to The Chicks and any conversation about them, because they are one of the very select, very few actual victims of cancel culture. You can find much more detail about this from other places, but the short version is: The Chicks opposed the Iraq War,

Week 3: Reba McEntire

So last week, we talked about TomatoGate and women in country , and that wasn’t an accident. I did absolutely want to cover a sort of “foundational situation” in the country music industry as it exists today. But I also know myself, and I know that I like a lot of female country artists. Especially if folks are looking for something a bit more mainstream, women are usually the first names off my lips for folks looking for examples of good country. Miranda Lambert, The Chicks, Carrie Underwood, Brandi Motherfucking Carlile. If female country artists are the tomatoes, then let it be known: I love tomatoes. I mean, in country music. I’m gay as a drag queen sniffing poppers at White Party while lip syncing to Cher. But I love female-sung country, so I knew that I wanted to open up the gate rather quickly to me discussing female artists. And at least for me, there’s one who comes to mind before anyone else. Reba McEntire has been a staple of the country music industry since 1980, aft

Week 5: Charley Pride + The Black History of Country Music

Well, it’s Black History Month. A time to look at the history of Black people and Black culture in the United States, good, bad, and ugly. And I’ve been saying for a while that I was absolutely going to talk about the Black history of country music, so this seems like the perfect chance to do so. However, before you get all your education on this subject from some schlubby white dude, I strongly recommend that you take a look at actual Black people talking about this subject. Marcus K. Dowling over at The Boot has a great article detailing some of the major Black musicians vital to country music as we know it, and Queen Esther’s article for BlackHistory.com goes a lot more into some of the foundational influence of Black artists and Black culture on what we now know as country music. And Elamin Abdelmahmoud had an amazing piece in Rolling Stone in 2020 about life as a Black country music fan, which also showcases some of the history and a lot of the great Black country artists

The One Year Country Music Appreciation Guide

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