Twang 101

Yesterday, for the third year running, I delivered a guest lecture on country music to Low-Rollin' Joe Nosek's summer ESL class at the UW. The seminar is on American music and is an adjunct to the students' language classes.

After three years, I'm finally beginning to develop a thesis: country music changes a lot. That's due partly to technological developments, partly to commercial realities, and partly to back-to-basics movements that for the last forty years have emerged every decade or so.

I love these lectures. The students ask great questions: Why are country songs so sad? What's the difference between folk and country? Is Willie Nelson an Indian?

Minus a few tunes I threw in to demonstrate what particular instruments sound like, here's yesterday's playlist:

The Carter Family (formed 1926), "When the Roses Bloom in Dixieland," 1929
Jimmie Rodgers (1897-1933), "Travellin� Blues," 1931
Ernest Tubb (1914-1984), "Walking the Floor Over You," 1941
Hank Williams (1923-1953), "Your Cheatin� Heart," 1952
Elvis Presley (1935-1977), "That's All Right Mama," 1953
George Jones (1931-), "White Lightning," 1958
Patsy Cline (1932-1963), "Faded Love," 1964
Waylon Jennings (1937-2002), "Good Hearted Woman," 1972
Kenny Rogers (1938-) and Dolly Parton (1946-), "Islands in the Stream," 1983
Dwight Yoakam (1956-), "Guitars, Cadillacs," 1986
Shania Twain (1965-), "That Don�t Impress Me Much," 1997
The Junkers (formed 1999), "I Always Cry at Divorces," 2003