"Sometimes I am two people. Johnny is the nice one. Cash causes all the trouble. They fight." — Johnny Cash The year was 1961. I was about six years old. We were living in a small house in Amherstburg, ONT., near the mouth of the Detroit River in Essex County. It was best known for Fort Malden, that dates to the 1812 Defence of Canada.I still remember the day my Dad brought home a record player — it was one of those big suitcase record players. He also had a brand new Johnny Cash record album and it was with great excitement for me and my brother Jim, when it was placed on the turntable and the needle went down.The song I remember, of course, is I Walk The Line, which was Johnny's first No. 1 hit... a song which he had also written.I can't tell you how much joy and laughter that song produced. It was like nothing we had heard before. And that was the day I fell in love with what they call country music.Johnny Cash was a great talent and a great man. He had his troubles and he fought through them and we were all glad when he conquered his demons and emerged a better person.And there's no question that he drew his music from his experiences and he was driven to always stand up for the downtrodden. Some say that's why Johnny always wore black.Fast forward to last week. Pop star Beyonce launched her latest effort, a country-inspired album called, Cowboy Carter.The US pop star's eighth studio album was given four out of five stars by Guardian critic Alexis Petridis, who said it shows she is "impressively capable of doing whatever she wants." The latter might well be true. In doing so, it is fair to say her shameless self-aggrandizement does nothing to help the downtrodden.It's all about what Larry Olivier called, 'Look at me, look at me, look at me.'And I admit, this album is interesting in what it explores. But this is not country and it never will be.I spent the better part of the week trying to avoid the tsunami of mainstream media hype being churned out on an hourly basis.Every news show, every talk show, everybody and their dog, was touting the album and blowing it all out of proportion.Our local Calgary news programs also followed the lead, like the soulless copy-cat talking heads they truly are..There was also much talk about how Beyonce reclaimed country music's roots for African Americans.That's where I drew the line.Though country is primarily rooted in various forms of American and African-American folk music, such as old-time music and Appalachian music, many other traditions, including: Mexican, Irish and Hawaiian music, have also had a formative influence on the genre.At best, and to be fair, it can be said it is convoluted. A complicated subject.Yes, the melodies of some early country hits were also lifted from hymns performed by black ministers in the South.Black artists such as guitarists Lesley Riddle and Rufus 'Tee Tot' Payne influenced the music of the Carter family and Hank Williams, respectively.That can't be disputed, it's real and it is part of country's unique history.And the country stars who brought that music to the masses also deserve credit and respect.What I'm saying, is let's leave woke out of it.Nobody deserves more credit than any other when it comes to this great genre of music.So don't give me this crap about how Beyonce established this or that.Another thing, the country artists of the past didn't have to shake their asses and use nudity to sell their music.Pop stars do that, and that's fine, but don't try to say Beyonce is not using her sexy pop star image to sell records.It's not an ass-shaking contest or sexy photo spreads, it's "Three chords and the truth," as songwriter Harland Howard once said.Anything that doesn't reflect that is not country music.And it makes no difference who is performing that music, whether they are black, brown, white or come from Mars.Country music will always be country music.You know it when you hear it. You don't have to read it off a news show teleprompter script.I've listened to some of the songs on Beyonce's album, as many as I could take. And then I retreated to the real country music, the music my father inspired me to listen to.The music that reaches out to me and touches my soul.Not music on a shelf that will have a life of a month or so.Music that is lasting and meaningful.Thank God for Allison Brock's Wide Cut Country on CKUA.Perhaps Ken Burns, in his documentary, Country Music, said it best."In any given era, country music has always wanted to push its own boundaries, always wanted to try something else, always wanted to swallow whole this new thing or that, always wanted to move away from its roots," said Burns. "And then, just as forcibly, it has always wanted to move back to an earlier era, to embrace all the old traditions, all the old ghosts and ancient tones, whether they be centuries or just decades old."I'm sorry, but Beyonce's album, while interesting in what it has accomplished, is just not country music.And it should not be claimed as such.
