Standard Country music progressions?

KP,

no, that's blues, man.

Standard country progression:

First guitar - first gig - first barfight - first recording - first new pickup truck - first Grand Ole Opry appearance - first DUI conviction....

:)

What, no doublewide (first home ... or possibly GF or BF)?

I thought about that, Greg... but for every country star that grew up in a doublewide, there's another from a cabin. And for every one that married a 13 year old cousin, there's one that stayed single.

So I think the only real essentials are truck-criminal history-Opry. The others are just the electives :)

There seems to be just a wee bit of "scorn & derision" in this thread, about us country music types....Good-natured digs are pretty funny stuff :lol: :lol:

That's OK...our lyrics still stay corny, but our Jim Beam is cheaper than the heroin favored by the rockers, :oops: and we never advocate shooting police officers like the rappers... :shock:

'New Country' to me, means being unable to tell one singer or one band from another...they are basically all sound-alike generics.

In my 'formative' years, country had a "Big Six", that was NOT centered around the Opry...Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard,George Jones, Buck Owens, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson....each singer and his band had totally different trademark sounds, completely different from everyone else, and easily recognizable. :D

That "Big Six" hardly ever appeared on, or identified with, the WGN-Nashville Opry circle...that was the the domain of more "traditional" country artists like Porter Wagoner, Loretta Lynn, Faron Young, etc.

I have been digging further back. Spade Cooley is awesome.
he's in fine company with Tex Ritter, Tex Williams, Johnny Bond, etc....

Just to "revert back" to the origin of the thread...
"Country songs" are often dismissed as "easy", or "simple", or "one-four-fivers" when it comes to chords....and yes they can be. However, most songs have "color" that is sung, but frequently not played, and is hardly ever indicated in music books.
An example (really old...too old for many here, perhaps), is Hank Williams' classic "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" from 1949, (re-released by B.J.Thomas in '66).

"Hear that lone-some whip-poor-will" is written in most books as all straight C chord. In fact it is a four chord progression, if one follows the vocal, and the bass line:
C, C/B, Am7, Am7/G
"He sounds too blue to fly [beat] ", in the books, stays in C, then moves to C7 on the last beat.
However, this line is sung, (and sounds better played) using the chords
C, Em, Gm7, C7
"The mid-night train is whin-ing low" should be played as F, Fm, C, Am....not just F & C.
Finally, "I'm So Lone-some I Could Cry"
ends with G, C, G7, C (the only line that's the same as most books show).
Anyway...the lyrics may be a bit corny, but there's no need for a plain old I-IV-V chord treatment. :wink:
regards
Mike