Country Music but not THAT Country Music
When my brother and sister watched TV on weekday afternoons in the 70s, usually syndicated episodes of the Andy Griffith Show and Gomer Pyle, one of the primary advertisers was a company that specialized in greatest hits albums of country music stars. I must have watched 1,000 commercials trying to get me to order 8-tracks of Conway Twitty's classics. The three of us were found the music, distasteful, shall we say. Our parents were more into The Beatles and James Taylor. Country music was for our grandparent's generation and the member's of the family who still farmed.
While, I never did become a Conway Twitty fan, my attitude towards the music softened over the years as I opened my mind up and explored some of the classic albums. The capstone was my discovery of Uncle Tupelo and the whole alt-country movement, none of which would have been possible without the talented stars I disdained as a kid.
I still don't like the majority of what comes out of Nashville today. I don't like the way the industry as a while treated Little Nas X and Beyoncé. I don't like the fake country nostalgia and I certainly don't like the right-wing, flag waving of people like Lee Greenwood and Toby Keith.
What I do like are some classic albums, by talented people.
