in the good ole U.S.A Country Music reigns Supreme and never lets up however i'm wondering what is the take on it abroad and is it seen as only an American thing?

Garth Brooks was huge here, however i didn't quite hear the same fanfare overseas.

mistermaxxx R.Kelly, Michael Jackson,Stevie wonder,Rick James,Marvin Gaye,El Debarge, Barry WHite Lionel RIchie,Isleys EWF,Lady T.,Kid creole and coconuts,the crusaders,kc sunshine band,bee gees,jW,sd,NE,JB

Miami Heat, New York Yankees,buffalo bills

from what i understand, country music is pretty popular in england.

for the last several months, i have been listening a lot to the local bluegrass radio station, and one of its syndicated shows is from australia, hosted by a new zealander. not only is country and bluegrass music popular there to listen to, but they have their own artists and music scenes, much of it i hear on the show. pretty fascinating. http://atalkingdog.com/

between the AUS/NZ bands and some canadian bluegrass musicians i hear during any number of shows on the station, it's usually impossible (for me anyway) to tell u.s. country and bluegrass music from that made in other nations. so i guess it's like a lot of music, we might have started or crystalized it, but it's spread all over, which is beautiful.

>from what i understand, country music is pretty popular in
>england.

which I only came to understand when the Chieftains began working with first Nanci Griffith, then more mainstream Nashville musicians, in the early 1990s. Don't have any exact source material handy, but recall hearing both the Chieftains and their collaborators discuss how popular the collaborators' music is in Ireland.


>between the AUS/NZ bands and some canadian bluegrass musicians
>i hear during any number of shows on the station, it's usually
>impossible (for me anyway) to tell u.s. country and bluegrass
>music from that made in other nations.

I've found almost as much old-time on Soundcloud from the UK and Australia as from the US. (Doesn't mean there's more of it, and might mean that with a smaller community, they're more driven to virtual outlets than someone who can go to a monthly jam might be, like I could if I didn't have a family).

>so i guess it's like a
>lot of music, we might have started or crystalized it, but
>it's spread all over, which is beautiful.

"Crystallized" is perhaps better since country owes most of its DNA (though far from all) to British Isles traditions of a few centuries ago.

-------
so I'm in a band now:
album ---> http://greenwoodburns.bandcamp.com/releases
Soundcloud ---> http://soundcloud.com/greenwood-burns

my own stuff -->http://soundcloud.com/lonesomedstringband

avy by buckshot_defunct

i can believe it because there is some really interesting overlap regularly on http://thistleradio.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=572&Itemid=109 as well


>"Crystallized" is perhaps better since country owes most of
>its DNA (though far from all) to British Isles traditions of a
>few centuries ago.

i included it just for you buddy boy

http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2011/09/01/140120452/reggae-loves-country-a-50-year-romance

-------
so I'm in a band now:
album ---> http://greenwoodburns.bandcamp.com/releases
Soundcloud ---> http://soundcloud.com/greenwood-burns

my own stuff -->http://soundcloud.com/lonesomedstringband

avy by buckshot_defunct

“So back we go to these questions — friendship, character… ethics.”

of Japan, specifically at the universities in and close to Kyoto.

I was a little surprised to come on a picking session during 'club day' at the university where I was studying (in between Osaka and Kyoto) in 1992. All those guys were completely rote players but some of them were way better than me (esp. way back then) and more up-to-date with current bluegrass than I was - I specifically remember that being the first time I heard 'Maggie Won't You Go' by Killbilly, which was new that summer. Too bad I didn't have my tub bass.

I didn't join the club, but knowledge of this scene actually tied into my later life twice that make me think it's beyond conicidence:
-when I went back to Japan to work, I was way up in northern Honshu, but my neighbor Hiroshi had gone to college in Kyoto and picked up banjo there. He had a beautiful banjo made by Vega or someone (EDIT: I'm positive on reflection that it was a Gibson of somewhat recent vintage) that wound up on semi-permanent loan to me for a year or so.
-first job I interviewed with back home was with a US division of Mitsubishi. One of the guys that interviewed me was a Japanese expat (from Kyoto) who came to the US because he loves bluegrass so much. During the interview we talked about my hobbies and interests and he offered to drive me around town since I'd be moving. He took me to his house and broke out a guitar and mandolin and we played a couple tunes. Unfortunately he turned out to be an asshole, but I aced the interview.

-------
so I'm in a band now:
album ---> http://greenwoodburns.bandcamp.com/releases
Soundcloud ---> http://soundcloud.com/greenwood-burns

my own stuff -->http://soundcloud.com/lonesomedstringband

avy by buckshot_defunct

if not for some of the music you've played in the last couple years, i probably would not have guessed that it was popular there

I don't think it's popular like that here, I would swear Rock/R&b/Funk/Disco (from the US) are way more popular but Im kind of biased most of my friends comes from africa and west indies : not really the type of people who would listen to country ...

Outside the urban areas....it's probably the most popular of all foreign music there. In fact, there's probly an argument that country is more popular in Jamaica than any other country in the world with the exception of the US.

I'm actually very (very) surprised at the pop currency that piece of shit still maintains. I dunno, maybe it's not such a piece of shit... listening now. Still pretty bad.




and interestingly, two years before that came out the Chieftains got a Grammy nomination for the same song in the 'best country vocal collaboration' category.


(Michelle Shocked version better, though.)

-------
so I'm in a band now:
album ---> http://greenwoodburns.bandcamp.com/releases
Soundcloud ---> http://soundcloud.com/greenwood-burns

my own stuff -->http://soundcloud.com/lonesomedstringband

avy by buckshot_defunct

If there's ever one song that embarass me about being swedish, it's that shit. Roxette are the Stooges and Byrds combined compared with that. Fucking Midi, Maxi&Efti (Bad bad boys come with me, come with me) are the Shaggs. That song and band is the absolute nadir of swedish pop...

but it's worth reminding that one of current mainstream country music's biggest stars, keith urban, is australian

he does have a particularly CMT sound, though.

THE HOME OF BOOK-NESS:
http://www.thisisbooksmusic.com/
http://twitter.com/thisisjohnbook
http://www.facebook.com/book1


http://i32.tinypic.com/kbewp4.gif
http://i50.tinypic.com/hvqi4w.jpg

blah blah...

I got a friend who just moved here from Zambia two years ago but was mostly raised in South Africa. Dude's only 23 years old and knows alot more about country than me. He said his father and his uncles listen to it back home all the time. Kinda surprised me.

I think people have a tendncy to exoticize people from africa's taste. Like when I go to my local pub, the old gambian dude there's favorite band EVER is deep purple. By that stage, I was so jaded that the only thing shocking was that he prefered Deep Purple over Sabbath or Zeppelin which I thought was some ''old guy in sweden''-only bizarro world thing... (and I like DP but still...)

We were drunkenly playing pool in a bar when John Denver's 'Country Road' came on the jukebox. He started belting that shit out like it was his favorite song ever. Went back to my apartment and he was familiar with every country record I had. For him it's more like sentimental memories from his childhood cause he doesn't really seek it out for himself nowadays.