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Brando's avatar

I love Linda Martell's version of "Color Him Father" (also a great soul version was done by the Winstons, not sure which was recorded first) and if you listen to it without a tear in your eye you may be a robot.

Anyway, the thing about country--or any musical genre--is you really don't have to be of a certain race, class or background to be able to appreciate and create it--yes, Beyonce is a southerner and country music has way more in common with "black" musical forms (like soul and R&B) than most people realize, but even if that wasn't the case there's no reason she couldn't make an authentic country song. No one questioned whether Taylor Swift was "country" when she started out, and she was from an upper class household in PA (I think her dad was a lawyer or something?). John Schneider hails from Mt. Kisco, NY (a town I lived in in my childhood, which was definitely NOT country!) and for his Dukes of Hazard audition had to lie about being from Georgia (which, again, is fine--actors are supposed to play parts, not play themselves!). Kayne West doesn't have the 50 Cent bona fides of prison time or Jay-Z background in the Brooklyn projects, his parents were professors, but he still could apparently rap before he discovered hating Jews. And the Stones were just one of several British acts that adored and copied Mississippi Delta Blues music, which might be as far from foggy old London as you could get--but the point was that working class kids in post-war Britain could relate to the blues singers because the human experience is about understanding one another.

The issue should never have been "who can make country music" (answer--anyone) but "is this song a country song".

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Edith Prickly's avatar

Texas Hold ‘Em is a JAM.

That’s all.

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