A country song

Nice cover.
I'm a huge country music fan (and it is hard because I am constantly being made fun of because of that).
Also there is the problem that when you want to buy CDs in German shops in most cases they have....
- Johnny Cash
- Johnny Cash
- Willie Nelson
- Taylor Swift
- Johnny Cash
...have I mentioned lots of Johnny Cash?
or you find some awful CD collections where some guys covered good songs badly.

Don't get me wrong: I actually like Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson a lot, but often you can't find anything else.
I was really lucky when I found three CDs by Alan Jackson and Garth Brooks.
(Fun fact: Almost everyone in the USA knows Garth Brooks, but when somebody asks you in Germany what music you like and you say Garth Brooks all you get is a "What? Is that one of those indie guys? Never heard of him". And when you grab your guitar and play "If tomorrow never comes" by Garth Brooks all they say is: "That song is by Ronan Keating!" because that's the only version they know.)

I also have to admit that I prefer the old songs over most of the new ones. I don't want to diss Taylor Swift or Brad Paisley, for example, but for me they can't beat Ralph Stanley or Tony Rice. I miss the old country music sometimes. You know, without those modern guitars, without so much drums and such things. Today's country music often has too much rock in it for my taste.
I like Alan Jackson though, there a real country feeling in his music. Kenny Chesney (who is modern and quite popular on your continent I guess) is different. I don't like most of his songs. Maybe I'm too 'old school', I still listen to Hank Williams :D

btw: Here a few links to some of my favourite songs:
Tony Rice: "Nine pound hammer" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u964a0f38s
Ralph Stanley with Patty Loveless: "Pretty Polly" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XV7mxfIIr0
Tony Rice is the greatest, though. I love bluegrass and for me he is "Mr. bluegrass guitar"

Other country musicians I enjoy:
- The Kentucky Colonels
- Ricky Scaggs
- Earl Scruggs
- Alison Krauss
- Blake Shelton (not many songs though)
- Kris Kristofferson
- Waylon Jennings
- John Rich
I'm sure I missed a few. Feel free to suggest good country musicians here because it is really hard to go into a shop and listen country (in order to buy some) here in Germany.
 
Cool thread! I'm at work so I haven't listened to the song yet, but I will when I get home.

That's interesting about what's known in Germany. When I was a kid, living in France, my family would go on road trips to Germany... to see Kris Kristofferson play concerts there. My brother was a huge fan (he ran the Kris version of WCNews.com for years, but I think it's down now.)

I am also a big fan of country music--mostly of what I guess we call 'Texas Country' now. Townes van Zandt, Guy Clark, Robert Earl Keen, those guys.
 
Kris Kristofferson is a bit of a exception of the rule in Germany.
He is rather well-known because of his role in the 1978 film "Convoy" and a lot of truckers listen to his music. Germany has a lot of truckers so I guess that's why he and Dave Dudley and Charlie Pride are rather well-known in Germany. In fact 'Trucker Country' is the one which most Germans have heard of (except Johnny Cash of course).

More fun facts:
- I heard Spain is the European country with the most country concerts. A lot of Spaniards seem to love it.
- Johnny Cash had songs with German lyrics. They are hilarious.
 
Ahh, interesting--I always wondered why he was so popular in Germany. I assumed it was because he'd performed there when he was in the military in the 60s.

(I do know Convoy, though; a side effect of growing up with a Kris Kristofferson superfan is that I've seen a LOT of bad movies with Kris in them. There's one where he's a cyborg that fights kickboxers. :))
 
I assumed it was because he'd performed there when he was in the military in the 60s.
I think that isn't false either. He knew Germany and had some contacts there so that was a point to start from.

and...what? A Cyborg? Do you remember the movie's title?
The only ones of his movies I know are Convoy and Blade.

Btw: Another few really nice country musicians I forgot to mention:
- Lester Flatt
- Bill Monroe
- Charlie Monroe
- Daryl Singletary
- Travis Tritt
 
cool, I grew up on Classic Rock mostly but there was always Country floating around lol. A lot of Johnny Cash and Hank Snow, I definitely prefer the older country compared to what's released today. Here's a few more songs if you want to listen to them, including a couple of original ones:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6AAFm8eSyw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddahM5NtfCk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgoYbQSkaEI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6u1puTCEog

The cool thing is it's all him doing it, he's singing, playing bass and guitar at the same time.
 
Hank Snow really rules.
I love his finger pickings and he has a lot of slow sad songs.

Speaking of slow sad songs: I'm not really the biggest fan of George Jones but he is the king of sad slow songs I think. :D
 
Hi again!

Since this is about country music I want to use the opportunity to ask you a few questions about some lyrics of country songs I don't understand completely, because I lack some vocabulary or knowledge. Since there are quite a few Americans and Englishmen here I hope somebody knows what I want to know:

There's a bluegrass song called "Not far away" by the Yonder Mountain String Band which I like a lot but there is something I don't understand fully. The song seems to be about mining, I get that, but...

Here's the lyrics:
http://www.guitaretab.com/y/yonder-mountain-string-band/263379.html

Now look at the last verse, it goes:

Verse 3: There's a deep dark hole in the mountain That last shot was a bum Let's muck her out, boys, load'er up And blow her to kingdom come We'll blow her to kingdom come



So what do they do there? Can anybody help me with that?
According to something I read about prospectors the term "bum luck" means that you don't find anything valuable for some time.
So does this mean they didn't find anything so they carry away the gravel and use explosives to blow another adit (tunnel) into the mountain?
 
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