You Call That Country Music?

Hello Country Music Fans:

If you are like many thousands of country music fans, you do not care for what is being aired today on country radio. What happened to original country music? You know, the stuff that made the Grand Ole Opry famous world-wide! The sounds of original country music as defined by Willie Nelson, Hank Williams, Webb Pierce, Carl Smith, Hank Snow, Kitty Wells and Dottie West, are foreign to radio stations across America. DJs and other industry wizards refuse to recognize these legendary artists. These are pioneers who exposed country music world-wide. However, so called "Hot Country" is dominating today's radio.

I'm sure you don't have anything against current country singers and neither do I. They're just not COUNTRY! They don't sound like country! Sure, there is a place for these artist somewhere in the entertainment circle. At the same time why should so called industry experts turn their back on Country Music Legends?

If you prefer original country music and live within a 60 mile radius of Lafayette, LA, this music is available to you. I do a program made up exclusively of original country music every Saturday from 12:00 pm until 5:00pm. You can find us by tuning in to AM 960 on your dial. This is an all request and dedication program and we receive calls as far away as Galveston, Texas.

Ladies and gentlemen, country radio doesn't have to be like it is today. We, the listener can change the Nashville mindset. If you want to hear original country music on your station, then please email us and tell us that you do and we will force a change. There is a huge following of fans who perfer Original Country Music, the real stuff! I dedicate 6 hours every saturday to satisfy their desire and I refuse to follow the industry trend. I play what the hell I want to play and when the heck I want to play it. Merle, Willie, Ray, Webb, Connie and Conway are a few of the greats you'll hear for 6 hours.

This page is new and still under construction. We will have more to say later about original country music. Meanwhile, let me hear your thoughts on this subject. Please email your comments or suggestions.

Thank you,

Rich Bell

Feedback

I hope I am responding to the right thing. This was the email address at the end of the article. I agree. We need more pure country on the air. "Everything has not gone country." People have been forced to listen to a lot of country rock that they claim to be country. Give me a break. I remember riding in the back of my granpa's pick-up truck in the late forties and singing "The Lovesick Blues". That was a different world. Y2K was a lifetime away, and life was good, and country music was good.

Jim Thompson
Balsam, NC
January 30, 1999

Yes, I'm tired of 'Country' Radio! I've grown weary of the same songs played 3 times a day. The songs all seem to meld into one sound that is hurting my ears! I have nothing against the new singers as they are. It's all part of the natural progression of things,but please....! I live in Knoxville,Iowa so I won't be able to get your station. There is a good station in Fort Dodge that does the same thing that you do on Saturday mornings. Please play a Hank for me! Thanks. Scott

Scott Hunt
Knoxville, Iowa
March 24, 1999

Too bad you are way down south and on an AM frequency too. With all the country fans in your neighborhood, I'm surprised you only get a mere 6 hours a week to play the "REAL" thing. Sounds like your "music director?" is not a gambler. Selling advertising rules, by the sound of it!

I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, home of a lot of great things .....Maple Leaf Hockey, Blues Jays Baseball, safe environs and such, BUT, also no Real Country music. Our soft rock, middle of the road type FM stations play the very talented Shania Twain as well as some of the other "country legends" of today, just where they should be! God help us all if Garth or his alter ego are where it's at in country music today.

I fell across your site quite by accident today, looking for sheet music of a couple of "gems" so my 50's - 60's recycled band we call Second Time Around can perform them at a "rural" venue on New Years' Eve. The songs in question are I Overlooked An Orchid and Crystal Chandeliers. Ever hear these played anymore? You probably play them from time to time but not up here.

Keep on hounding your "director" we "boomers" still spend a shit house full on all kinds of products and services. Get your hotshot sales staff to ferret those advertisers out. They will in turn find that old farts are not the only target market for "Classic Traditional Country." Good luck.

Bill Shorley, Cold, but "Country" !! October 11, 1999

The country music ledger
is filled with many names
of stars we've heard
down through the years
and titles they have claimed
One thing remains a mystery
in country music history
It seems we've failed to recognize
one of the greatest in my eyes

His many songs were
top hit tunes
Like "Hey Joe" and "Mr. Moon"
"Who'll Buy My Heartaches" made us stop
and think of marriage on-the-rocks
"I Overlooked an Orchid" and
"This Orchid Means Good-bye"
Brought "Satisfaction Guaranteed"
when records we would buy

"The Little Girl in My Hometown"
a sweet love story tells
And then there's "Are You Teasing Me?"
a question time would tell
"If Teardrops Were Pennies"
made the juke-box play
Along with hits like "Let Old
Mother Nature Have Her Way"

Heart-song singers come and go
on disc and stage alike
They sing before a sell-out crowd
almost every night
But when we list the greatest
and call them all by name
Why don't we hear "Carl Smith"
In the Country Hall of Fame?

Kenneth Richard

Crowley, LA

back Revised: 10/11/1999 | Thanks for visiting!