One clarification to my post on this thread yesterday:
That is, in response to Todd's question, "What are people trying to say
*today* when they contrast HNC or ND to 'real' country?," I was only
trying to get at that contemporary usage of "real" country.
I was not trying to define country, period, in other words, but rather
that ideal of "real" country, "stone"' country, "hard" country that is in
the vocabulary these days, usually as the right-thinking alternative to
various unsatisfactory mixtures of country with rock and pop, etc....
I was thinking of the last I saw Dale Watson, when, after a song, he
looked around and said, "Now ain't that *real* country??" That's the
sort of usage I was thinking of...
and so forth <g>,
--junior
