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real country music by contemporary artists

I was really disappointed when XM merged with Sirius and X Country fell by the wayside. Sirius now features Outlaw Country which is still a far cry better than anything you will hear on broadcast radio. I love listening to Dallas Wayne and especially Mojo. However, it does not feature young contemporaries like X Country did.

There are some great young people who play real country music and never really get heard outside of a community like this. Some of my favorites are:

Paul Burch & The WPA Ballclub
Justin Townes Earle
Wayne The Train Hancock
Dale Watson

There are a ton more.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by willycoolahan on March 17, 2009 at 7:19am

"...add a bit more new music to the playlist." One of the frustrations I have with Outlaw Country is that they obviously have a playlist. They will play the occassional Paul Thorn or Band of Heathens, but it is always the same song. I don't know the technology behind satellite radio, but I would think that it should not be an either/or question. Why did they axe X Country instead of just adding it to the Sirius roster?

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Permalink Reply by Jersey Jack on March 18, 2009 at 11:37am

Sure, but you don't mean that there was no playlist on X-Country, right? I mean, it wasn't old fashioned free form FM radio.

But, again, I think we agree that there needs to be a mix of well-known artists and not-so-well-known artists, new music and old music. I personally think Outlaw Country comes closer to striking the right balance, but I don't think it's perfect.

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Sullivan on March 17, 2009 at 9:25am

Heather Myles and Amber Digby come to mind - check them out if you haven't already.

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Permalink Reply by Patti Stevenson on March 17, 2009 at 9:51am

Check out a band called Shotgun Party --- three young musicians out of Austin.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Terry on March 17, 2009 at 2:28pm

I too miss X country a bunch, and the OC playlist get's really old at times . I enjoy hearing Chalie Daniels do "Uneasy Rider" occasionally but 3 times in one day? PLEASE!! The live concert shows on X country were pretty cool at times too and I've yet to find anything similar on OC. I wonder what happened to all the folks who used to staff X country - probably joined the ranks of the unemployed. Sad......

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Permalink Reply by Big Bruce on March 21, 2009 at 8:17am

Yes...and I'll add Scotty Campbell to this list

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Permalink Reply by swt on May 15, 2009 at 11:45pm

I like a lot of the others that have been mentioned in this thread. Here's a few others

Cornell Hurd. (He's about my age, so that's "young")
Amber Digby
Mose McCormack (He's actually older than me ...)
Eilene Jewell
Kris Hollis Key
Miss Leslie

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Permalink Reply by Christene LeDoux on May 17, 2009 at 2:07am

One of my most dear friends in the world is an amazing overlooked real country singer-songwriter.

Her name is Brigitte London and she's not only a fantastic musician but beautiful soul as well.

She owns and runs Outlaw Country out of Nashville & Austin and runs with the Waylon pack (part of her band) Dale Watson etc...

Please look her up. She's the real deal. Lives & breathes good music in every which way & form. :)
warmest,
Christene

http://www.ChristeneLeDoux.com

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Permalink Reply by BillyBobJoe on May 27, 2009 at 8:08am

Yup. And Junior Brown. BR5-49. Both Dale Watson and Paul Burch played here in town on same night last week. Talk about a coin flip. Dale won.

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Permalink Reply by NT on September 25, 2010 at 7:47pm

Don't see Jim Lauderdale's name here. He may be older than some, but has been doing some great music on his own in addition to all his work backing others.

They have been mentionedd, but I would add that Gordy Quist of Band of Heathens has a great country voice. "Maple Tears," for instance.