thanks man, coming from you that’s high praise indeed.

I almost pulled out the same Flippo quote you isolated – I’m especially fond of the “given the present cultural and social context” bit, which basically reeks of pop-country apologism. If you can’t say that country is no worse today than it was in the past without qualification, that’s a pretty good indication that something has gone wrong.

Chet Flippo pretty much out and out states why he sucks and is unqualified to be a critic with this whole “I have listened to country music for a long time and I think that — given the present cultural and social context — country is no better and no worse than it has ever been. There has always been crap that’s briefly popular, and there’s always been great music that hasn’t sold. It all evens out, eventually.”

First of all, there may have been briefly popular crap, and poor selling quality music, but he somehow forgets to list a third option – good country music that is popular. That’s the difference between past eras and today, all we have is the “popular” – more properly “ubiquitous” – crap, and quality underground music.

And then for him to pretend he doesn’t notice? Really Chet? Country has never been better? The era that gave us Buck Owens and George Jones, that wasn’t better? When Kris Kristofferson and Billy Joe Shaver were writing the hit songs, that wasn’t better? When Steve Earle and Lyle Lovett and Dwight Yoakam were getting radio airplay and big time press, that wasn’t better? Did you see the CMAs? Did you notice how the performers could barely sing in tune? Are you kidding me?

Man, Chet Flippo is really bad at his job.

Speaking of bad at their job, apparently Allison Bonaguro thinks that a music critic’s taste should range from “good” (a.k.a, material that informed professionals recognize as being quality) to “bad”, which I suppose is “vast” after a sort. Aside from the needlessly immature shot at Coal, my second favorite thing about her comment was when she asserts that “she is a very credible music critic” but that if we currently disagree with her taste we should stop reading when we see her byline. Awesome, nice to see that she’s supremely confident in her ability to change minds, because, of course, she must be so credible for a reason right?

As for that Brad Paisley quote, it makes me seriously question what he considers “art” to be. But he did get the self-indulgent part right.

as always, CMW, thanks for the quotes!

I’m not sure that counts as a “range”…that’s like me saying my sense of humor runs from sophomoric to bathroom.