Wow! Lots of strong opinions on this. I was just watching an interview with Big & Rich and John Rich answered this criticism about their music. He basically said that he hated the fact that there were people out there making all the rules about what you can and can't do in country music and he said it was his goal to change that by the time his career ended. During the interview, he relates a conversation he had with Eddie Arnold who told him that back when he first began, the establishment told him that he was a pop singer, not a country singer, yet Mr. Arnold went on to have hits in seven different decades.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO7OEgc_nN8

I agree with jimichic 100%. Whether we like it or not, things changes and often they get redefined in the process. I prefer being progressive over being conservative because conservative takes colors out of the artist's paint tray. Progressive allows you to use all the colors and even invent more. This is why music artists hate the labels people put on their music, because it leads to criticism from critics and fans every time an artist tries to be innovative. Robert Plant once said that he hates talking about 'Stairway' because he's been there and done that already. Interestingly enough though, when Stairway first came out, it took a while for the fans to warm up to it because they were expecting the sequel to 'Whole Lotta Love'.

Fans tend to define you based on your last album and frequently get unhappy if the that album is too stylistically different that the prior album. To me this is the border that separates the artist/songwriter from the performer/hit-maker. Artists always grow and change; hit-makers only change when they aren't getting hits anymore.

I really LOVE this duo, and with all due respect to Bob, I think 'Save a Horse' is an amazing song for a number of reasons. It seamlessly incorporates a number of different genres (e.g., hard rock with the guitars, country with the lyrical content and banjo/fiddle, and hip hop with the bridge) and makes them work quite well together. I LOVE the way the country instruments blend with the rock instruments on this song. I also love the unique vocal harmony style and phrasing. There are prosodic hooks everywhere and the lyrics have attitude and fit the music perfectly.

I would pay to see these guys live, which is a compliment coming from a AC/DC -head from the north. BTW, John Rich's favorite rock album is Back In Black by AC/DC.



Fisherman hook fish; songwriters fish for hooks

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