in the beginning this calendar month , country legend Merle Haggard snuff it on his 79th birthday . He go out behind 47 solo albums fill up with songs about hard living , countless anecdotes like how heescaped from prison house 17 times , and at least onephotoof him wearing an " I ♥ hater " sweatshirt . He was the living embodiment of the term " outlaw country , " and it ’s light to recall country medicine lost an essential , hater - loving part of its history when he room the big tour bus in the sky .
If you worship at the dude - centric altar of Haggard , Waylon Jennings , and Willie Nelson , it might be disorienting to survey the complex , billion - dollar industry of modernistic land . There are so many options and sub - genre : bro - land , yokel - hop , alt - land , state alloy , and Ryan Adams singing Taylor Swift - core . Out of exhaustion , you might even be tempted to throw up your manpower , burn up yourJohnny Cash - giving - the - fingerposter , and declare the genre " deadened . "
But country – whether you prefer " alt - land " or the the more pop stuff – is far from dead . In fact , thanks to some emerging creative person and reliably fantabulous oldtimer , the musical style is just as vibrant , strange , and substantive as ever . There ’s even a place for haters .
Reto Sterchi/Courtesy of Atlantic Records
There are still plenty of outlaw country singers
Last Friday , Kentucky - born singer Sturgill Simpson releasedA Sailor ’s Guide to Earth , the anticipated follow - up to his 2014 albumMetamodern Sounds in Country Music . WhileMetamodernwas an now and again wonky , mete psychedelic assemblage of Waylon Jennings - influence ballads and cosmic shit - kickers that earned Simpson critical praise and a major - label sight with Atlantic , the fresh book is an even riskier leap into the unsung . It ’s the work of a maverick , but not necessarily in the ways you ’d expect .
Producing the whole album himself , Simpson positions his thick voice in a churning tempest of saddle horn arrangements , string quartet , and honest-to-god - school day studio wizardry . On songs like the sneakily political " Sea Stories " or the stomping " Brace for Impact ( Live a Little ) , " he does old - fashioned area with a touch of ' 60s soul . or else of reinventing the genre , he ’s gloss brilliantly inside the lines .
Simpson is part of a long tradition of country music innovators label as " outlaws " by a music press always on the sentinel for a " real country " savior to issue and keep the genre from crass commercialization . AsGQpointed outearlier this year , Simpson , along with cult hero Jason Isbell and chart - topping Grammy success Chris Stapleton , could be considered part of a moving ridge of " body politic badasses . " If you believe the headlines , these " badasses " are like the A - Team of country .
And thankfully, it’s not just dudes!
Not all of land ’s impostor - saviors are 30 - something man with stubble and a few button miss on their shirt . Last month , Jack White ’s Third Man Records give up its first full - fledged land phonograph record , Margo Price’sMidwest Farmer ’s Daughter , and the Nashville - based singer followed that up with akiller performanceonSNL , only the second commonwealth artist to appear on the show this time of year . Tellingly , the other was Chris Stapleton of the badass brethren .
Like Stapleton and Simpson , Price arrives at a time when a spotlight is clamber on tough - given , convention - flipping singer - songwriters like Cam , Kacey Musgraves , Ashley Monroe , Caitlin Rose , and the dependably excellent Miranda Lambert . Last year , the duo Maddie & Tae topped the country singles chart with their piercing - eyed"Girl in a Country Song,“a track that lampoon the beer - and - baseball game detonating machine aesthetic that ’s dominated land radio .
Some of these artists might have a bit more mainstream crossover potential than others – Price is more in the Emmylou Harris mold than the more quick , pappa - inflected Cam – but they each offer examples of just how elastic state music can be . Like any musical genre , it ’s grow room for both crook and do - gooders . Your PBRs and your microbrews . Your whiskey and your chardonnay grape . Your bong and your vaporizer .
Atlantic/YouTube
The mainstream stuff isn’t bad either
For the last few years , many would say the most baneful course in country medicine has been the ascendence of " bro - country . " The terminus , firstcoined by critic Jody Rosenin 2011 , concern to the employment of artists like Luke Bryan , Jason Aldean , Jake Owen , and Florida Georgia Line . guess an Ashton Kutcher - look stud with an acoustic guitar and one of those Backstreet Boys microphone headsets .
But here ’s the thing about bro - land : some of it is actually really fun !
Also , the authentic - vs.-inauthentic binary that gets used to marketplace rural area music and construct belabor press narratives does a ill turn to the factual music being pump out of Nashville . As many have pointed out , perceived arbiter of authenticity Chris Stapleton has written call for " bro state " artist like Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean . These distinctions are fun to make , but the actual artists are more complex than the musical style labels critics trap to them .
If Sturgill Simpson wants to make an Elvis - influence soulfulness strain ? Go for it . If Kacey Musgraves wants to recorda reggae record or a surf - rock record album ? Make it happen . If Kiefer Sutherlandwants to make a country book ? Wait , that last one actually sounds pretty lousy , but , hey , live your right life , Jack Bauer .
Genre lines are blurring – and that’s a good thing
One of the most poignant moments on the raw Sturgill Simpson record album arrives on running five . At first the strain voice like a peaceful sundown cookout vocal murmur over a soft lantern slide guitar , but when the Greek chorus sound off in , you quickly take in , " Hey , this is a Nirvana song . " It ’s " In Bloom , " theNevermindstandout with the Ed Sullivanparody TV . It ’s a grunge classic . And yet here it is , twirl into a Memphis - fried , string - and - automobile horn - filled , honky - tonk ballad .
With all the exciting country euphony being made , there ’s never been a dumber prison term to be the type of soul who listen to " everything except rap and country " or " only take heed to actual country . " There ’s so much joy to be detect in tearing down those genre distinctions and preconceptions – escape from the prison house of musical style snobbery . That ’s what a material malefactor would do . signalise up herefor our day-to-day Thrillist electronic mail , and get your repair of the near in food for thought / drunkenness / play .
Dan Jacksonis a staff writer at Thrillist Entertainment and has escaped from prison house zero times . He ’s on Twitter:@danielvjackson .
Angelina Castillo/Courtesy of Third Man Records
Flickr/Ronald Woan
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