Country Rock Bands

[Spitfire]

Back in the 70's and early 80's there was that music phenominum known as country rock which was headlined by such bands as Poco, New Riders of the Purple Sage, The Marshal Tucker Band and Charlie Daniels.

At least locally there was a country swing revival which centered mainly around this brand of music and there were a couple of local bands that enjoyed a pretty good following during this time. I believe the dance studios were doing a pretty fair business with C&W dance. This is when and how I got my start in dancing.

So what artists of this particular genre - vintage country rock do/did you like? In addition to those mentioned above Pure Prarie League (I think Vince Gill was a member of this band) was also a fave.

 

[pygmalion]

It's funny, spitfire, but country music has only recently become something I dance to. Back in the day, I LISTENED to country music. (Tanya Tucker, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, The Oak Ridge Boys, you know, the wimpy stuff LOL)

Later, I got turned onto rock in college, when I was the only Black girl lab assistant in a large group of classic rockers. (I got outvoted on the radio station. I wanted R&B or classical. They wanted rock. They won. LOL) So I didn't realize how much "Southern Rock" I really like, until I did a google search and came up with this link.

http://w w w.thebestofwebsite.com/Bands/Categories/Southern_Rock.htm

Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers Band, ZZ Top, Georgia Satellites and a bunch more I found in my early "discovering rock" days. And, of course, Stevie Ray Vaughn, whom I discovered later. I'm not sure where he fit in. Blues? Rock? I don't know. I just know he was one of the greats. I saw SRV in concert on tour with Clapton the summer he died. Lord, have mercy, could he play!!!

Anyway, I digress. I guess my point is that I haven't danced to most of this stuff. I listened way back in the day, but I'm only now rediscovering the music and figuring out what's good to dance to and what's not.

Do you have any favorites for dancing?

 

[Vince A]

I watched (and listened) to the Country Muic Festival on tv last night . . . I've been away from C&W music too long. Last night, other than Keith Urban, everything sounded like rock and roll, rock, etc. C&W music has sure crossed over.

 

[pygmalion]

Yup. I was flipping past while Reba McEntire was performing, and I thought, "what the heck is that? " I couldn't figure out where to put her music, either category-wise (more like pop, I think) or dance wise.

There are some newer artists out there, like Kenny Chesney, IMO, who try to keep it real, most of the time. (Still can't figure out how he got to be a sex symbol, though. Blows my mind!! :roll: :lol: )

 

[pygmalion]

btw. I like Reba. Just observing that she seems to be doing some crossing over to the pop side.

 

[Vince A]

Yea, I agree . . . and that band (Ummmmm, names slips mu mind right now) . . . the one with the lead singer who had blond "Spikey" hair??? That was almost heavy metal.

 

[Spitfire]

Country music today is very rockish. Back when the country rock movement was gaining momentum it was not heard on C&W radio; I heard it usually on album oriented FM rock stations. I believe this helped win younger audiences over to the country sound and the dancing as well was affected.

There was a guy here known as "Dancing Dan" who taught C&W dancing out of one of the clubs known as the Stumble Inn which was one of the local country rock hotbeds and he did a thriving business with this and so did the studios.

Dancing Dan produced a booklet on C&W dancing; I have a copy of this and still like to refer to it now and then.