"Rednecks, Racists and Reactionaries" is the title of the December playlist for David Byrne's online radio station. He writes:
Well, I probably could have filled up this playlist with just the recordings of any one of these artists, but the RIAA has recently issued me a warning, so I'm not going to tempt a shutdown, lawsuit or a hefty fine. (Link to rant on this subject)
I'm defining classic country as pre-hippie-country, pre-alt-country, pre-outlaw-country – before Graham Parsons, Bob Dylan, Emmylou, Willie, the Flatlanders and scores of others made the genre accessible to folks who usually associated country music solely with rednecks, racists and reactionaries (hey, that would have made a good album title!) Those changes began in the late 60s and early 70s, so most of this stuff was done before that. I haven't gone back to the real early rootsy stuff either, and there's lots of incredible stuff left out, but it's a pretty good sampling. (FYI, The best basic introductory sampler I've ever heard of this stuff is the Smithsonian's box set. Our government cut through the red tape and inter-record-label squabbling and did something right for a change. Their jazz survey is pretty good, too.)
Link (Thanks, Kevin Beck)
Previously:
