I’m really annoyed by the wave of country music that’s just a list of stuff. It almost sounds like L.A. people writing country music, because it’s just a list of stuff: ‘My pickup truck and my cowboy boots and my Levi’s jeans and my girlfriend with the short shorts.’ It’s so boring!
What we don’t need in country music is divisiveness, public criticism of each other, and some arbitrary judgement of what belongs and what doesn’t.
For me there are two types of country: There’s the shoot-yourself-in-the-head country, and then there’s really good country music.
I’ve seen country music go uptown, like we say, and I’m proud I was there when it happened.
I tend to support and get behind issues instead of candidates, because of the whole ‘Super Bowl’ generalization of our world – You’re on this side, I’m on that side; you’re a Republican, I’m a Democrat; you’re country music, I’m rock music.
The artists in country music who stopped having hits are the ones who were led into something that wasn’t them.
I think the first thing you should know is that nobody in country music ‘made it’ the same way. It’s all different. There’s no blueprint for success, and sometimes you just have to work at it.
Now that I have better producer chops, a country album is something I want to do one day. I don’t know who’s going to put it out. But when I do, I don’t think people will call it ‘country music.’ They’ll probably call it ‘neo-soul.’
Country music, to me, is what I grew up on.
I was sort of in denial about doing country for awhile but I sort of grew up and realized who I was, what I wanted to say. I think country music is the best music in the world and I’m glad to be doing a country album. I hope people will love it as much as I loved making it.
Listening to country music as a kid allowed my imagination to run wild.
I think it’s pretty stupid to write off an entire genre of anything. It’s one thing to say ‘I don’t like country music.’ But it’s pretty narrow minded to say ‘All country music sucks.’ Of course, that being said, all short-form improv sucks.
Dylan’s relationship with Johnny Cash was the biggest influence on Nashville in my lifetime – they opened up country music.
I believe that if writers want their readers to care about a character, they have to care themselves. I have to root for a detective who screws up as much as Thorne does, who shares my birthday, my North London stomping ground, and my love of country music, both alt and cheesy.
My love, growing up on the Prairies, was country music.
I don’t care what’s happening in the mainstream of country music. I haven’t in a long time.
If I’m writing songs for a country-Western picture, I have to know about country music.
I love traditional country music, and I feel like there’s a need for it and a want for it. But I enjoy everybody in country music.
People would say, ‘Why are you guys in country music? You look like you’re in the Backstreet Boys.’ We took so much heat. We always said, ‘It’s not about hats and Wrangler Jeans. It’s about a state of mind. Country is in our souls.’
Until MTV, television had not been a huge influence on music. To compete with MTV, the country music moguls felt they had to appeal to the same young audience and do it the way MTV did.
I’m always looking to find things that are different in country music.
I’ll tell you, Nashville ruined country music.
My wife grew up loving country music, so I always run songs by her whether I wrote it or if somebody pitched it to me.
I write some country music. There’s a song called ‘I Hope You Dance.’ Incredible. I was going to write that poem; somebody beat me to it.
I want to reach the point where people hear my name and immediately think of real country music.
I got to where I couldn’t listen to country radio. Country music is supposed to have steel and fiddle. When I hear country music, it should be country.
Country music is the song that speaks to the American condition. It’s middle America. Eight out of 10 people. Maybe it’s not the No. 1 choice, but they listen to country.
My grandmother loved country music, and she’s the one who really got me into country music. She had George Strait tapes, a bunch of them. I remember listening to tapes, taking them out, the covers and the back.
When your dad is a country music fan and you take long car trips, you become one too.
I think it took me a while to convince Nashville that what I do is genuine and my heart’s in the right place, and I love country music.
When I hear bluegrass today, I hear so many new sounds in it. It’s almost like country music in a way.
Country music is one of those places where we support each other and prop each other up.
I love country music because it’s honest – and I’m a terrible liar.
I love country music, blues, and punk, and one day I might make those kinds of records.
There’s a new hit rock group or singer every five minutes, but with country music, you have one hit and those people love you forever.
I would never do anything that makes the perception of country music worse.
Part of the great thing of looking back on how I went from the cattle ranch to the White House was, I was a country music DJ. I saw Garth Brooks perform for free in 1992 at the Colorado State Fair where I met this person who knew about this graduate school program.
Country music is who I really, really am deeply.
I didn’t want kabobs, Afghan music, and rules that required girls to be carefully monitored. I wanted mac and cheese, country music, and independence.
One reason people are turning to country music is because of that non-music called rap.
I felt like it was the space that I could be the most authentic of anywhere because of how I grew up. Even though some of the songs and some of the texture wasn’t what I like, I felt like country music was more authentic, in general, than anywhere else.
I’ve always liked women singers and appreciate a good story being told. That’s what country music used to do on the radio.
The tastes of country music fans are not limited to the narrow range defined by consultants and programmers and record company moguls.
When I moved to New York, I fell head over heels back into country music and probably ’cause I missed something about Texas.
Me and my dad, we’d go to the dirt bike races every year. I mean we’d go probably too much every year. And he would make me listen to all country music.
And obviously, when I started out, I had a little bit more curiosity than some, and went seeking out the original artists, or in some cases searching up country music.
Country music has changed tremendously, so what now is considered country was not considered country at that time. We were doing stuff that probably could have been called country music today, but would certainly have not have fit in at that time.
I hope that country music embraces me because I grew up on it and have a love for the music.
I discovered in college that country music could be fun adding some swing to it.
I’ve never been one for doing remixes. Then I’ve gotta decide which version am I gonna be tonight: country Carrie or pop Carrie? I’d rather just make country music that anybody can get into no matter what they listen to.
Years ago, when I first fell in love with country music, part of the reason was that it was so much from the heart. It was so simple, lyrically, everything. It was just the simplicity.
I like garish things: I like the 1970s and 1960s, and country music – that big-hair look. I don’t go for nudes or beiges. My hair’s naturally black – I bleach it. I don’t go for subtleties.
Well, more than me saying to the rest of the country music industry there is not enough traditional country music – that is not necessarily the statement in truth. I think more so that I, me, missed it more than anything else.
What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man.
I’ve liked country music for forever. And Buck Owens is just one of many country guitarists I like. I think Buck’s Sixties records are really progressive.
I’ve definitely grown a new respect for Country music and have more of an understanding of what this music means to fans and what the relationship between the fans and the artist is.
I never listened to country music growing up.
The truth is, I think country music… there’s a lot of great people, and just being raised the way a lot of country boys and girls are, hopefully there’s just a lot of respect.
When youre talking about the genre country music, it used to be called Country & Western music. It plays a pretty big role in that pantheon of country music. Thats the whole reason why those guys in Nashville started wearing cowboy hats and boots back in the day. That didnt come from the South, that came from the West.
My father was a country music singer and a motion picture actor, Tex Ritter, and I sort of had a normal upbringing, except dad would come down in full regalia with the boots and the guns and the hats, and the horse would eat with us. But other than that, it was pretty normal.
We’re trying to do the thing you don’t expect out of country music. Which is to say, ‘Go see the world.’
My dad was a huge country music fan, but he also had a band and he sang. So he’d listen to a lot of music and the songs that he’d learn for the band were more from the male artists. So my earliest country memories were Waylon Jennings, Conway Twitty, George Jones, Johnny Paycheck even.
