Hi All,
To me Country Music is Hank Williams, Webb Pierce, Ray Price, Faron Young, etc. A lot of people today still want to hear music in that vein. Much of what you hear on the radio today is at best a watered down version of those long gone days. It has been charged in recent years that Radio is dictating to the Record Labels what they will Air. A lot of Artists today are writing their own material because the labels want it that way because they don't have to pay full writer's royalities but use the composition clause that only pays 75 percent in the Artists Contract. While a lot of the Artists can deliver good music they are also told what to record and they comply to get that record deal. Most of the results are less than stellar, even terrible. Record sales reflect that today. When Willie and Waylon went back to Texas and then recorded that Album the way they wanted to, the title escapes me, and was the first album to sell a million records, it said something about what the fans wanted to hear. What the fans want to hear hasn't changed but with radio calling the shots the good music will be scarce. A lot of Artists that aren't really country but are trying to do country and getting airplay doesn't help either. Who listen's to country radio anymore?

Ray E. Strode