Band: Dolly Parton
Album: Jolene
Best song: The title track is definitely a classic.
Worst song: “Lonely Comin’ Down”

It’s less of a thing now, but when I was growing up and hip hop was a younger art form, a lot of white people would answer questions about music taste with some variation of “I like everything, but rap and country.” Of course, this is almost always an absolutely ridiculous lie; most of these idiots were not listening to Dizzy Gillespie, Mozart, Bellini or Glenn Branca. Indeed, “everything” is a bad thing to describe one’s taste in anything.

This has changed some as hip hop has become the preeminent popular music format for my generation. But, the circles in which I run continue to devalue country music. It’s definitely been written — probably on Twitter, though who knows? — that the intelligentsia of American music thinking completely devalues country music with the notable exceptions of a few classic artists (Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, etc.) and the old notion of No Depression country music (for my generation, definitely). Continue reading →