Remember when country was a thing of integrity, roots, genuine feeling for people, love, loss, and the land? I do. My name is Waylon, partially because of, well, Waylon.

But now, as a recent Reddit post put it, “I don’t know if this is a hot take or not but I believe country music used to be a good genre of music. You had artists like Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Marty Robbins and many more. They made good music that made you feel something, now what do we have. We have absolute dog shit, country was never my favorite genre of music but I still appreciated it. The new country literally fits the stereotype of what country music is, they sing about being red necks drinking beer and fucking hookers it’s absolute dog shit. Idk I just think it’s disappointing.”

Or, more positively, ’cause nostalgia will only get you so far in life, here’s a partial list of exceptions to the BS Modern Country rule: again, from Reddit:

“A lot of great country music being made these days, you just won’t hear it on country radio or CMT:

Jason Isbell

Sturgill Simpson

Tyler Childers

Arlo McKinley

Benjamin Tod

Steve Earle

Dwight Yoakam

Brandi Carlile

Amanda Shires

Colter Wall

And the list goes on and on….

Edit: added Colter Wall

2nd edit: someone let me know that in a previous post like this some kind soul made a Spotify playlist, so check that out. It is called Reddit Country Revival.”

Add your faves, old or new, in comments! I’ll reply.

Here’s one of mine: