24 Hours, Vancouver
November 6, 2008
By R.C. Joseph

Listen to me

Most music fans claim to hate country music. But they also qualify this hatred by making it clear they still love good music, regardless of what genre it is. The result is comments like, “I hate country music, but I love Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline.”

This is nothing more than genre-ism. We put down country, but make it clear we don’t clump artists such as Cash, Cline, Willie Nelson, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, etc., in with those artists that we hate. But we don’t do that with Rock.

Yes, new country is horrible and the Gretchen Wilsons and Clint Blacks of the world should be taken out back of their shiny barns and shot, but is there really that many more despicable country artists than there are equally untalented, overrated rockers? No one ever says, “I hate rock, but I love Led Zeppelin and U2.”

But, by the same logic, shouldn’t we be saying just that? Just as there are a lot more Big & Richs out there than Dixie Chicks, there are certainly a lot more Nicklebacks than Nirvanas, so why all the hate music fans?

Instead of suggesting the country artists we love are actually better than the genre itself why can’t we just agree there is good and bad country music? I think this would make things so much clearer. And I am going to get the ball rolling by talking about Shiloh Lindsey, a country artist that, while incredibly talented, is certainly not better than the genre itself ­ but only because as of this moment on, no one is.

Born in Alberta (aren’t all great Canadian country artists? This Vancouver-based singer/songwriter has been wowing the local scene since the release of, quite frankly, one of the best debut albums I have ever heard ­ For My Smoke.

Ripe with honesty and soul, Lindsey’s songs delve fathoms deeper than mere hook and fluff that has garnered so-called new country such an unfavorable image. Her grittier numbers are delivered with the candor and power of a Lucinda Williams or Carla Bozulich, while her softer moments conjure up images of a whiskey-soaked Natalie Merchant backed by Neil Young’s Stray Gators.

Couple this moving songwriting with a gorgeous voice and entrancing stage presence, and you have yourself one of the biggest mysteries in Canadian music today: Why isn’t this woman famous yet? The only reason I can think is that we have all so ignorantly been practicing genre-ism, thereby leaving deserving artists such as Lindsey to fight that much harder for recognition. Meanwhile, we all lose out. So from now on, all music fans need to admit they like country music. Feel free to still hate bad country music, but don’t punish the whole genre for it. Just like rock, there’s the good, the bad, and the great. Shiloh Lindsey definitely falls into that last category.

Shiloh Lindsey performs this Sunday at The Penthouse and next Saturday, Nov. 15 at The Railway Club as part of the Nearly Famous Music Festival.