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This thread was first begun with the question; "Do you consider Woody Guthrie to be a country singer?" I simply provided my own answer...of what I (just one person) consider him to be. Personally, I would place Woody Guthrie into the musical genre "folk" rather than "country," and I provided a few reasons why I feel this way. Perhaps some of you are right that politics has no place in what defines a singer/musician, and perhaps others of you are right who claim that the real "salt of the earth" working-class listen to real country music...but the question was "What do I consider him to be?" I am certainly no authority on this or any topic, nor do I claim to be (I certainly didn't think I was portraying an "elitist" attitude whatsoever). Obviously one man can not assign a category to a musician who has touched so many. However, is it not conceivable that there are numerous Guthrie fans out there who would categorize him as folk rather than country based--at least in small part--on the political ideology he seemed to emulate? Perhaps a better way to get at this issue is to discuss what the differences (if any) between folk and country music are. Are there differences in playing style/technique, lyrical content, or audience makeup? How has the emergence of "political" folk musicians such as Bob Dylan affected the way we differentiate between country and folk? Doesn't Dylan's guitar style take after the Carter family too? Does music have to be "rural" in order to be classified as country? I know of many local singer/song-writers here in Knoxville who sing about growing up on farms, raising cattle, and what-not, yet people seem to consider them folk and not country. Maybe it's simply how the music is received by audiences that classifies it as one way or another. As a banjo player in a traditional bluegrass band, I just as often notice "hippy-types" as "blue-collar types" (forgive my stereotyping) at the bars equally enjoying the music we play. They never bother to ask me who I voted for, or what my stance is on our current foreign policy. As one participant in this discussion noted, Robert Earl Keen never addressed whether he was a folk singer or a country singer, he simply noted that he preferred audiences who considered him to be country...I agree; whiskey and meat are always better than wine and tofu! David Leventhal, MA student University of Tennessee, Knoxville
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