Comments on: Album Review: Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell — Old Yellow Moon

By: Bruce

Bruce — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:42:10 +0000

You are correct. Listening to the music rather than reading about what it is.

By: Barry Mazor

Barry Mazor — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:42:24 +0000

My point was–and is–simple: NO one line definition of any musical genre or format will tell you all that much about what you really want and need to know to make any judgment about your response to it. ..

If you care enough to bother at all, what you do is go in and listen to a bunch of the performers the field is charting and otherwise featuring now–discussions, headlines–and you see if maybe it appeals to you–the sound and if you care, the sense of it. In the age of free short samples and YouTube, what could be easier and take LESS effort? If you’re intrigued, it’s easier to go further, to see what maybe people trusted in the field, or people who you trust who say they like the stuff, recommend. You listen some more. Maybe you even catch some live. It’s called “getting into the music.” That’s how you do it.

And no one sentence answer to “But what do they MEAN by “Serbo-Mayan Hip Hop Hula?’ will tell you as much. Besides, nobody plays the really authentic Serbo-Mayan Hip Hop Hula any more, just the diluted commercial crap. As every Serbo-Mayan Hip Hop Hula hipster knows.

By: Luckyoldsun

Luckyoldsun — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 14:31:35 +0000

Good point–But does the CMA offer a definition of country music–and is it any more precise?

By: Bruce

Bruce — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 14:12:06 +0000

The Americana Association website states, “Americana is contemporary music that incorporates elements of various American roots music styles, including country, roots-rock, folk, bluegrass, R&B and blues, resulting in a distinctive roots-oriented sound that lives in a world apart from the pure forms of the genres upon which it may draw. While acoustic instruments are often present and vital, Americana also often uses a full electric band.”

Seems like a pretty good description of a catch-all to me.

By: Barry Mazor

Barry Mazor — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:52:49 +0000

I was coming from the ame place as Leeann, Stephen–although I somewhat dispute the description of Americana as a catch-all. Not more than other genres that last, I’d say.

By: Leeann Ward

Leeann Ward — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 19:04:53 +0000

Stephen,
I, myself, was more questioning Matt’s comment.

By: Stephen Deusner

Stephen Deusner — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:31:47 +0000

My comment about Rodneylou having “gracefully made the transition to the Americana market” seems to have struck a nerve. I didn’t intend it as a criticism at all, more like a description of their career trajectory. Aging artists who might have been classified as “country” in the 1970s (which these two certainly were) have been pushed out of that category and into the catchall “Americana.” I don’t think it has anything to do with how they sound, but how the world has shifted around them. Does that help clarify?

By: Arlene

Arlene — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:21:40 +0000

I also don’t understand the problem with the “transition” to Americana. Moreover, if you listen to Emmylou Harris’s work in the late ’70s, most of her albums contained a mix of styles and songs– some traditional, some country and western, some rock, some folk, etc. A couple of years ago, when presenting Brian Ahern with the Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award for Producer/Engineeer, Emmylou commented that he had been producing Americana albums for her years ago, before the term ever existed.

By: Leeann Ward

Leeann Ward — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 17:24:22 +0000

And I don’t understand the biggest problem having to do with the transition to Americana, since this music doesn’t stray far from what each of them have been doing for years now. They just maximize it by working together here.

By: Leeann Ward

Leeann Ward — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 17:22:10 +0000

I think it’s my favorite album in years. I’ve already listened to it 6 times and like it even better each time I hear it.