If I hear another Bro Country song about a six pack, a lake, a pickup truck on a gravel road and girls who can’t get enough of all that goofy shit, my head may just implode. Not that I have anything against any of those topics, because I love to get off the hard road and have a good time myself. But when a genre of music hits the kind of corporate-induced, stereotypical rut as modern Country music has in recent years, it feels like it just spits out the same tired stuff over and over again.
I’m not a complete snob — a good song is a good song — and so as long as you call it Nashville Pop, I’m cool with it. But Country music it is decidedly not, especially when it’s sung by suburban artists who wouldn’t have the first idea on how to use a fillet knife or read the bubbles in a jar of shine.
Thankfully, there are still cats who throw down authentic Rockabilly and Country music, and one of them is Texas music great Dale Watson. Listening to Watson’s music is like going back in time to when Honky Tonk meant a fun groove and the story-songs were about true life blues and not all silly. Watson, Austin’s King of Country Music, is a true believer, and his music is the real deal.
Watson’s Cincinnati stop is a part of Fountain Square’s free, every-Tuesday “American Roots” music series.
This article appears in Jul 1-7, 2015.
