Sunday, November 20, 2005

New York City, imagine that

I've been struggling with a cold for ages, so I took the opportunity to have a nice quiet weekend, no going out. Obviously, I was checking football scores...grrr.

Last night the Vol-in-Law and I watched the Country Music Awards on BBC2. It's an edited broadcast, they show only the performances and skip the awards - which is probably just as well, since I don't know who half these people are. London, a city of 7 million people and probably over 70,000 Americans no longer has a country music radio station (there used to be a fairly good one) so I'm not really up on the latest names.

I have to say that despite my doubts about the CMA in NYC, it was pretty good. Better than last year's which I found absolutely unwatchable. What is it with trying to mix rap and country? Dreadful. I won't even go into the "mainstream country music has no soul, no respect" rant. There's no point, so many others have done it so much better. And anyway, I'm grateful for the small amount of C&W I do get - so what if it's more like the musical version of Skoal Bandits, when it should be that tar black twist of tobacco that my great grandfather used to chew.

Anyway, I was glad to see that George Strait was in good form, Willie is still alive and Kris Kristofferson looks better than he did last year.

Dolly's maybe looking a little rough. And the Vol-in-Law nearly spit out his drink when he heard Dolly singing Imagine. "When did Dolly Parton become a tool for International Communism?"

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

They sound tired but they don't sound Haggard; they got money but they don't have Cash...

California expat here (Oklahoman underneath). I too miss the country station. It taught English to my neighbor's children, every morning when we carpooled to school. Those little Finns now speak perfect Garth Brooks.

Great blog.

Vol Abroad said...

You can blame it all on their roots - they grew up in boots: Finnish Nokian rubber boots!

Anonymous said...

You've got to be tough when consumed by desire
'Cause it's not enough just to stand outside Ikea...