Staying with the theme of keeping it light, I am talking about country music today. One thing that turns me off today is the phenomenon that I call ‘Bro Country’. This is the kind of music that splits the country/popular line. If you ask me, the lyrics are kind of deep country but the delivery (and the singers are not).

My theory is that popular music (Top 40) left the main stream. It is now primarily Hip Hop, Rap and R&B. So naturally, something is going to fill the void. That is country has evolved from it’s traditional roots into popular music. Artist such as Shaboozy and Carrie Underwood live on both charts. Former country artists like Taylor Swift and Leanne Rhimes previously were on both sides.

Blake Shelton is one of those that fits into that category. I want to like the guy because the lyrics appeal to my redneck side. But there is something about the guy that I just cannot quite trust. Maybe it was his humiliation of Miranda Lambert into the arms of Gwen Stefani. It is like he literally left country to go pop. If you are not familiar with Shelton’s work, watch below.

I was introduced to Chris LeDoux in my mid teens. It was definitely his shout out and subsequent song with Garth Brooks that brought Chris into the spotlight. Chris was the real deal, 1979 NFR Bare Back champion. When he sung about Rodeo, you knew it from living it. Unfortunately, Chris died in 2003 from the same liver affliction that killed Walter Peyton, basically no warning.

Speaking of Garth Brooks, not every singer has been there and done that. I think that the difference is that they didn’t try to have an image that they had. Don’t get me wrong, I am not necessarily saying that the likes of Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton and Luke Combs are bad in their own right. But it seems like legitimacy is lacking.

Nepotism runs deep in country music. Go all the way back to Hank Williams Jr in the late 1970s. He of course has one of the seminal works of outlaw country, “Country Boy Can Survive”. But, largely his body of work were covers of his dad’s work. While he is still active in music he has largely been semi-retired since the early 1980s. He spends his time in Montana for the purposes of hunting and fishing. I would say that he hasn’t really been there, done that but he sure lives like a country boy.

Chris LeDoux’s son Ned has continued nearly immediately after Chris’s death. I seen both of them in concert and Ned sounds and looks like a spitting image. It looks like Ned is finally breaking out of his father’s shadow. Not that it is a bad one but I hate to see an artist’s entire schtick on the laurels of somebody else.

When I really started getting into country music, Bro Country really had not become a thing. While I love Alan Jackson, I think that he and Kenney Chesney started the transition with their Jimmy Buffet leaning island songs. While I regret that this happened, Chesney has some really good songs too. So we put up with it until it is too late and a new sound and topics had already been accepted. This of course rapidly spun new artists and groups and Bro Country began.

Not all is lost though. I was watching the ACM music awards with my wife the other night and I saw a new artist named Cody Johnson. While I watched him perform, he reminded me so much of Garth Brooks in his body movements. So, I looked him up and low and behold he was also a bull rider. As I was listening to this song while writing this, I was starting to get a little choked up. Music should connect with the soul.

End Your Programming Routine: I guess this is what is good about America. People can choose what they like. I largely stopped listening to the radio because I don’t like most of the music anymore. It’s not that I don’t like all the newer songs but some of them should have some steel guitar in them, thanks Cody Johnson.