"Is It Country?"
Bill Hyatt wrote:
Jack,
This has been bothering me for some time and I need to get it off my chest.
I don't know if I am getting intelligent in my old age
or if I am losing what sense had.
Back when "Bird Walk and Humphrey" were originally on the charts,
I, like a lot of country DJs, didn't like your songs because "you weren't country".
Now, I play the two CDs I have bought from you nearly every day.
So, tell me, what do you think?
Bill
* * *
Jack Blanchard responded:
Hi, Bill
There has always been a prejudice against anything new in Country Music.
We could never fit the mold,
or follow the rules of others.
We made our music the only way we could do it: honestly.
Some people in those days didn't like my long hair, either.
We opened the door for Waylon and Willie, and hundreds of others.
There are still a few "country snobs", but they're good folks.
Whatever makes them happy is OK with us.
Roger Miller said about Country Music:
"I don't like to put a fence around it."
One DJ won't play anything of ours that has strings in it,
but he plays our more traditional songs,
so we're happy.
Humans fear change,
but Country Music itself is a new version of music that came before...
a result of change.
Henry Ford thought all cars should be black.
Would they limit an artist to a certain number of colors for his painting?
Or restrict Mozart to an octave of notes?
Your friend,
Jack
Copyright © March 2, 2002 by Jack Blanchard. All rights reserved.
