one of my hot button issues for years has been the fact that classic country artists have been looked upon as red haired step children, at a japanese family reunion. this is nothing new. go back to the even the 80's, and most major market reporting stations were trying desperatly to severe the link to the george jones, merle haggards, loretta lynns. sure they played one or two token hit songs here and there, but rarely rotated the new stuff, or back catalog of hits of these veterans. by the late 80's, major maeket radio had these veteran acts graveyard dead on their playlists. so congrats to you alan mccall, for programming your country correctly. country should never forget its roots. this can be accomplished by custom music clocking, and dayparting, and special weekend oldie shows as well. unfortunately, at this point in time, most country radio listeners under 40, are completely void of a musical education on all the greats from the 80's, and 70's and earlier. eventhough, cash, and willie, and waylon are as popular as ever. hmm? even hard core rappers from the inner city have respect for the man in black. major market country music radio has been programmed like one big music infomercial for big business, with little regard for the great American musical legacy thats been part of our lives for generations.
re: lee ann womack. i knew some wise ass would throw 'i hope you dance' my way. i think shes gone on public record saying she will never record that kind of stuff again. her hit song "a little past little rock" was one great pure country recording a few years back(now long gone from any radio play list). to all those AC pop listeners that got into her via that 'hope you dance', pop hit. i hope a small percentage actually dug deeper into her catalog, and took a loving to that pure country stuff. maybe even for the first time. and maybe a few of those eventually, also discovered tammy wynette,dolly parton,loretta lynn, and leonna williams as well. at that point now you get it!
re: lee ann womack. i knew some wise ass would throw 'i hope you dance' my way. i think shes gone on public record saying she will never record that kind of stuff again. her hit song "a little past little rock" was one great pure country recording a few years back(now long gone from any radio play list). to all those AC pop listeners that got into her via that 'hope you dance', pop hit. i hope a small percentage actually dug deeper into her catalog, and took a loving to that pure country stuff. maybe even for the first time. and maybe a few of those eventually, also discovered tammy wynette,dolly parton,loretta lynn, and leonna williams as well. at that point now you get it!