Mike,

Now THAT is another aspect of this that is very prevelant. With myself and many others of our respective generations, we didn;t leave rock music, rock music left us. For my own musical journey, there came a point around 1986 where the type of rock I was into fell out of favor. I was in the era of the power pop of 80's rock. Full guitar stacks, bass, big drums, technical keyboardist and me, the loud lead singer with a few high notes that made all the dogs run for cover. If you think Steve Perry of Journey, Mike Reno of Loverboy, Denis Dee Young of Styx, or Brad Delp of Boston, that was sort of the type of vocalist. Too many high notes and tight leather pants. LOL! The songs were mostly heavy pop power chords and general chasing girls and party lyrics.

In the latter part of the 80's first came the HEAVY METAL BAND OF THE WEEK. RATT, Poison, etc. lots and lots of Aqua net and spandex. That was not me. Then it started getting darker and darker with the advent of Nirvana and the Seattle "Let's slit our wrists" grunge music. THEN it started drifting to hip hop and rap, and none of those were me.

Country, with Exile, Alabama, and multiple singers and groups were where most of the rock elements that I enjoyed were going to. And Nashville, with it's solo guitar and voice approach fit me like a glove. I had morphed my own music into a smokey bluesy edgy country, much in the vein of Delbert McClinton and later Travis Tritt. I called it "In your Face Blue Eyed Soul." And was gaining a toe hold till this guy from Oklahoma named Garth Brooks brought in a more traditional attitude with rock energy and shifted the dynamic.

But it is true that a lot of the rockers found all of our ways to Nashville because of the changes in rock music. So like everything, it is never just one thing that causes artists and genres to redefine themselves. It is a lot of things. Good discussion.

MAB