Yes Country and also Western are the heart and soul of Australia. It is only an aberration that they are completely deritive of American music down to dress, manner, words, values and (of course) accents.

I love yodelling marr-self, see http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=-7012424237896036764&q=yodelling

The only truely Australian performer I know is Slim Dusty:

Oh it's-a lonesome away from your kindred and all
By the campfire at night we'll hear the wild dingoes call
But there's-a nothing so lonesome, morbid or drear
Than to stand in the bar of a pub with no beer....

...And old Billy the blacksmith, the first time in his life
Why he's gone home cold sober to his darling wife
He walks in the kitchen, she says you're early Bill dear
But then he breaks down and tells her the pub's got no beer...

Its sad very sad.

Pete
http://spyingbadthings.blogspot.com/

Hmmm, "We have both kinds of music. Country AND Western."

Pete, That would be Folk Music! Back in the 80's wasn't there Bush Music? I thought that was more Australian than the imported American kink.

Titles of some of my favourite country music songs:

• You're The Ring Around My Bathtub, You're The Hangnail Of My Life
• You Done The Wrong Woman Wrong
• You Ain't Much Fun Since I Quit Drinkin'
• Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass?
• Walk Out Backwards Slowly So I'll Think You're Walking In
• They May Put Me In Prison, But They Can't Stop My Face From Breakin' Out
• She Got The Ring And I Got The Finger
• She Feels Like A New Man Tonight.
• Saddle Up the Stove Ma, I'm Riding the Range Tonight
• Redneck Martians Stole My Baby
• My Phone Ain't been Ringing, so I Guess it Wasn't You
• Last Night I Went to Bed with a "10" and Woke this Morning with a "2"
• I Would Kiss You Through the Screendoor but It'd Strain Our Love
• I've Been Flushed From The Bathroom Of Your Heart.

Rainer

Yip. Thayz is the most inneresting, but then tharz:

Drop Kick Me Jesus Through The Goalposts Of Life

Goes like:

Drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life
End over end neither left nor to right
Straight through the heart of them righteous uprights
Drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life.

Make me, oh make me, Lord more than I am
Make me a piece in your master game plan
Free from the earthly tempestion below
I’ve got the will, Lord if you’ve got the toe...

For listening pleasure: http://bertc.com/18Track18ah.mp3

Pete

Country music is mainly a male genre and it affords men the same relief that a good cry affords women. It is a good opportunity to whinge and moan and even look a bit less than blokeish for a time without being noticed to do so. Along with booze, it offers the illusion of escape from reality, helped by the simple repetitive lyrics. Although as some songs attest, the real world comes back eventually to bite one of the ‘ass’;

Even if one is a 'rolling stone who gathers no boss' one can feel a bit deprived when night comes. Singin' about it is easier than chatting up a sheila especially if you are a bit short on the social graces (and probably don't want her as a 'keeper' anyhow).

Then there is that eternal dependence on nature and weather. Oh bother!

It is telling that women and romance (maybe that is too strong a word) are seen as being as complex as the weather(!) as just as variable as the seasons.

However some country is optimistic, although most likely in a fatalistic way.

If we put a huge fibreglass ear in each country town with a built in continuous tape that said "There, there, it's not your fault, things will get better in time", there would be very little need for country music.

That leads me to my assessment that any political themes in country music are most likely there only as props for a jolly good old whinge and moan about life in general and the singer song writers as well as the consumers do not really mean much by it.

What I am saying is that country and western music is about emotional release, especially for lonely men. But women can 'enjoy' it too. I wouldn't worry about it becoming a political force, unlike protest music. After all it is about complaint, not protest and things that cannot be changed and therein lies a very big difference.

It is not my cup of tea either.

Interesting piece

One of the striking things about hansonism was how she was perceived to be a non-politician or even anti-poltician at the same time as she was pushing a blatently populish political agenda.

How true, too, that this form of populism defies "left-right" labelling. The creepy bush-fascist Macca that pollutes ABC airwaves on Sunday mornings probably thinks of himself as left-wing.