Good Country West Coast Music?

Yeah, it doesn't have the right feel for west coast, at least to me, so it would probably feel forced. But I think you could make it work if you really wanted to.
 
You could explore Dwight Yoakam's catalog: that man's honky tonk Bakerfield sound just begs WCS dancers to hit the floor.

A tune from 2003's Population Me that I can't stop playing : I'd Avoid Me Too

 
Another new song that would be good to west coast to is Josh Turner's "Why Don't We Just Dance." It's my new favorite song in general... :)
 
Hey, ash, maybe I'll see you sometime at Bushwhackers.

I love Yoakam's stuff, both for two steppin' and WCS. Some of it is quite fast, though, and only the way better dancers can keep up with the music. I really enjoy trying to pick up on the phrasing in the songs.
 
One of my favorite country songs to west coast to is Rodeo Man by Ronna Reeves. It's faster, but it is lots of fun to dance to that way, has a great beat.
 
Here are some good ones:

Reba McEntire : Why Haven't I Heard From You? (111 bpm)

Mary Chapin Carpenter : I Feel Lucky (121 bpm)

Collin Raye : My Kind of Girl (115 bpm)

Kathy Mattea : 455 Rocket (122 bpm)
 
I can't provide any titles but I've found some hip hop types of music very good for WCS. We spend winters in Phoenix and the WCS scene there has a lot of hip hop music, and although we are very CW oriented in most cases we enjoy the hip hop style of music over blues for WCS, it is just more fun.

Sorry Steve; we won't be at Portland Dance Fest, but say hi to the Auburn Eagles Gang.
 
Yeah, last night at Bushwhackers someone said someone said that said I'd be there, and I'd completely forgotten about it because I just got back from Hawaii late last week, had a dental appointment, want to see the Lion King, saw Karate Kid....
I'd better look at the schedule and see if I can drop by there today or tomorrow.

Regarding doing WCS to blues...
I thought some of the stuff they played when I was in LA was (ok I'll just say it) pretty awful. Skippy told me that this is something (WCS to blues) that started in the 70s or 80s, although they reached back to "the 60s" find suitable music. She also referred to that style of blues as "dancers blues". With the exception of Bill Black's Combo "a basic shuffle beat, simple bluesy R&B riffs with smoky saxophone lines on top" "You know those honky tonk days, man? Well, that's the sound I want. I want some honky-tonk music, man.", and maybe Bill Haley in "Don't Knock the Rock"[ the first blues I found listed for WCS in print was in 1985.

I think most of the CW tunes we dance to beat the pants off of the now standard blues tunes they use for WCS for energy, phrasing, etc.
 
Your links didn't work for me, but I looked up "Poor Boy Blues" and "Here Comes My Baby" and listened to a few versions of those songs. All of the versions that I heard had the classic country 2-step beat, and they all had a tempo that was good for a medium to fast country 2-step dance. But they were all too fast for west coast swing.
 
You're right. I would automatically dance a two step to this, but...

Well my name is Stephen I drink cuervo by the gallon,
And I never back down and I love a good challenge.
What I do now is what I did then,
I like to get down with all my rowdy friends.

So, let's dance WCS to Poor Boy Blues.
Here's a link to a Chet Atkins version.
http://www.cmt.com/videos/chet-atkins/114705/poor-boy-blues.jhtml

Step, Step, StepCloseStep, StepCloseStep

Dance it in "your slot". If it looks like a duck, and slots like a duck...

You have to "slow it down" by dancing to, what? every other beat? It takes a while to rethink it. But it works! Even tried it with my parnter from years ago. I said, "It feels weird." She said, "I don't think it feels weird."

Lots of WCS teachers used to tell people to NOT equalize the "triples'.
Coincidently, "Two Step" was taught and danced as StepCloseStep, StepCloseStep as late as 1955. (Still haven't figured out when quickquick slow slow became the norm.)
 
The emphasis in the video on the down beats doesn't make me think of WCS regardless of speed. We could make it happen, but I agree that 2-Step seems like a more natural fit.
 
Steve Pastor said:
So, let's dance WCS to Poor Boy Blues.
Here's a link to a Chet Atkins version.
http://www.cmt.com/videos/chet-atkins/114705/poor-boy-blues.jhtml

Step, Step, StepCloseStep, StepCloseStep

Dance it in "your slot". If it looks like a duck, and slots like a duck...

You have to "slow it down" by dancing to, what? every other beat? It takes a while to rethink it. But it works! Even tried it with my parnter from years ago. I said, "It feels weird." She said, "I don't think it feels weird."
Click to expand...

First point in passing, don't forget to credit Mark Knopfler too.
The video won't play here but I have the album Neck and Neck anyway.

I'm interested you think it feels weird but I wish WCS DJs would play
music like this, so much more energy and interest than much they do.
And yes, dance the 1 2 to every other beat, the triples on the beat.
Easy peasy, must be my swing dance experience.

I've always had the thought that WCS might have first resulted
from people slowing down Lindy to half speed when the music
got too fast to dance to. The feel of Lindy sort of goes dead
but by introducing travel to fill the time and changing the shape,
WCS emerges.

And yes, I've certainly got WCSers reluctantly on the floor
when really fast music is played and surprised them
just how easy it is, possibly because the result is a dance
that's slower they're already used to. I'll only pick out music
that has a steady beat without over emphasis (I'm not a musician,
I hear it) or complication so the slower rhythm is easier to find.

Does rockabilly come to mind?
Might that explain the emergence of
WCS in the Country & Western scene?

A Western Swing band from the North of England
played locally at an outdoor venue one sunny Sunday
afternoon recently. A group of Lindyers sat out
the really fast ones. Shame there was no-one there
to WCS with, I'd have been dancing.
 
I wish WCS DJs would play music like this, so much more energy and interest than much they do
Click to expand...

I was bored to tears when I was in LA at two different WCS events where pretty much all they played was the same speed "dancer's blues".
Interesting that Two Stepable CW tunes are part of the "California Mix". (There really is such a thing, but it wasn't named that by Californians.)

Does rockabilly come to mind?
Might that explain the emergence of
WCS in the Country & Western scene?
Click to expand...
Hope you can see this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7leK7yitWeE
(My sound is on the fritz today!)
It's Gene Vincent before he affected his leather look and they are dancing.... The leather happened when he spent a bunch of time in England at the suggestion of a manager there. Early rockabillies actually dressed pretty conservatively. Elvis and Bill Haley wore sport coats, for instance!

I've always had the thought that WCS might have first resulted
from people slowing down Lindy to half speed when the music
got too fast to dance to.
Click to expand...

1961 “Western Swing (often referred to as Smooth Swing or Sophisticated Swing) is danced with ease to the “too slow for Foxtrot” tempo of 18-25 mpm, and half-time to the “too fast for Jive”-50-60 mpm. This corresponds to slow speeds of 72 - 100 bpm, and fast speeds of 200
- 240 bpm.

I became accustomed to listening to different parts of the music as an Argentine Tango dancer. Now I apply those lessons more freely to other dances. Learning about canter rhythm for waltz was also an interesting find for me. Still, sometimes I have to listen and figure out how something will fit when I'm used to dancing the more obvious rhythm.
 
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