Country Counterculture
As Nashville became "Music City" and the center of popular country music in the second half of the twentieth century, it became clear that hardcore twangers, rockers, honky-tonkers, folk singers, traditionalists and other roots-oriented musicians and audiences were not particularly happy about this suburban turn of events. To the horror of many country artists and fans, pop singers like Ann Murray, John Denver, and Olivia Newton-John were actually winning country music awards in the 70s. Perhaps you even thought that our listening example of "Grandpa" was a little too schmaltzy.
In the 1960s and 70s, musicians like rockers Gram Parsons, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt; and groups like the Byrds and The Band; along with outlaws (literally and figuratively) like Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings in Texas, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens in California; and other roots rockers responded to the Nashville sounds with more hardcore honky-tonk, outlaw, and rock sounds and attitudes that attracted younger listeners back to the roots of country and the notion that country should thumb its nose at the establishment, not join it. Merle Haggard took the roots notion so seriously that he made two classic albums featuring the music of pre-Nashville stars, Jimmie Rodgers and Bob Wills.
