Country Music Without Boundaries

What is it with country music? Especially country radio? Everyone tries to fragment the music into sub-genres, when the beauty of country music is the combination of sound and history.

Turn on your radio and you’ll hear “hot country” — Toby Keith, Sugarland, Keith Urban and the rest. But no Clint Black or Randy Travis, never mind Hank Williams. You might catch a passing reference to Johnny Cash, and a token playing of “I Walk the Line” every now and then.

If you’re lucky, you might have a “classic country” station, but even these seem to fragment the music. Some consider “classic” to be post-outlaw — Waylon, Willie, the Oak Ridge Boys, Barbara Mandrell. Others consider “classic” to be pre-outlaw — Hank and Lefty, Bill Anderson, Buck Owens (but not Jimmie Rodgers or Floyd Tillman). There’s very little cross-over between the two versions of “classic.”

So I’ll ask again — What is it with country music? Country music is a tapestry, not a few random threads. It’s Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams and Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings and Garth Brooks and — gulp — even Carrie Underwood. And if you follow the branches of country music away from the main trunk, you’ll find the Eagles and the Byrds and — continuing further out — Jackson Browne and Bruce Springsteen.

That’s the purpose of Goodtime Country Radio — to present the full tapestry. We like Lucinda Williams and Hank Thompson and Bob Dylan and George Strait. We’ll explore more of this in the days and weeks to come. Listen — it’s all country!