In the never ending network arms race...

[Black Diamond Vol]

...to see who can get the bigger country star to perform their CFB opening theme song, CBS has landed Garth Brooks.  

Game.  Set.  Match.

Unless ESPN can somehow sign the Ghost of Johnny Cash.

[BanditVol]

George Straight??

[Black Diamond Vol]

George Straight??

I dunno.  I'm not a huge country fan, so maybe someone who is can correct me.  But from the outside looking in, I don't think you can get any bigger than Garth among living country artists.

[Creek Walker]

Garth is king. By a long shot. No one else even comes close. From a personal perspective, if I'm going to sit down with a guitar to play and sing, I'll take George Strait any day of the week. But if I'm going to a concert to be entertained, it's Garth -- hands down. But, yeah, from a pop culture perspective, that's a major coup by CBS.

[73Volgrad]

Garth does NOT (I repeat) does Not play or record country music. He does Top 40 country rock and roll. I know he gets played on country radio stations, but Garth stopped doing country when he went to record in Nashville. If you are female, you have to be a pretty, thin blonde singing Top 40. How anyone can claim Garth is country is beyond me. Country morphed into soft rock in the 1980s. If you do not have an electric, high pitched stage show with blinding lights, you cannot be a new age country star. JMHO.

[HerbTarlekVol]

Garth does NOT (I repeat) does Not play or record country music. He does Top 40 country rock and roll. I know he gets played on country radio stations, but Garth stopped doing country when he went to record in Nashville. If you are female, you have to be a pretty, thin blonde singing Top 40. How anyone can claim Garth is country is beyond me. Country morphed into soft rock in the 1980s. If you do not have an electric, high pitched stage show with blinding lights, you cannot be a new age country star. JMHO.

Agree 100% and then some. 

I can't stand the polished pop country crap that comes out of Nashville these days. 

Dirks Bentley?  Florida Georgia Line?  Luke Bryan?

Give me a frickin' break. 

The real country music these days is the red dirt country music coming primarily out of the Austin studios. 

[Tnphil]

I still have my OLD country albums from the 50's 60's 70's. Haven't purchased a country album in 20 plus years.

[Creek Walker]

Garth Brooks isn't even close to being on the same level as Dierks, FGL or Luke Bryan (the latter of which I especially despise). He may not be country ENOUGH to please some, but it's very much a matter of taste. In my mind, country's best era was the '80s and early '90s -- which is when Garth was king. Yes, GB began the trend of pop and rock elements in country music, but that wasn't a bad thing. It broadened country music's reach, which in the long run increased the number of radio stations playing exclusively country music. Country music has continued to evolve until it's no longer something I will listen to much, but music is always evolving, regardless of genre. The country music the outlaws were playing in the '70s was altogether different from the country music that the honky-tonk heroes like Hank and Lefty were singing in the '40s and '50s, and it was almost unrecognizable compared to The Carter Family in the '30s. Not coincidentally, those who cut their teeth on Jimmie Rodgers and the Carters insisted that Hank wasn't recording real country music, and Hank fans claimed that the Outlaws weren't recording real country music.

The truth is that the lines have always been blurred. Old-timers who had grown up on the bluegrass boys and then reluctantly accepted -- then embraced -- Hank Williams absolutely detested the integration of the Bakersfield influence into country music. Yet one of the most notable disciples of the Bakersfield sound went on to become one of the most notable singers of the outlaw movement, Merle Haggard. Garth Brooks was mainly a rock guy until he heard a George Strait song, and that caused him to change gears. Thirty years from now, today's 20-somethings will be insisting that whatever is being played on radio isn't "real" country music, and they'll wax nostalgically about the good ol' days of country music when Luke Bryan was shaking his butt in his skinny jeans.

Incidentally, Garth Brooks' electric stage show was influenced 100% by Chris Ledoux, and Ledoux was as traditional as you can get, albeit much more on the western side of Country & Western. Among current hit artists, there's probably no one more true to country music as most of us grew up on it than Brad Paisley, and Paisley probably puts on the most electric stage show of anyone.

[Tnphil]

I'm from the cry in your beer country era.....When you play the album in reverse your dog didn't die.....the bank gave you back your pickup truck....you stopped drinking heavily....and your wife leaving you for your best friend was just a bad dream.

[VinnieVOL]

In my mind, country's best era was the '80s and early '90s.

Agreed, this is the only country music I listen to.

[volsboy]

Garth Brooks isn't even close to being on the same level as Dierks, FGL or Luke Bryan (the latter of which I especially despise). He may not be country ENOUGH to please some, but it's very much a matter of taste. In my mind, country's best era was the '80s and early '90s -- which is when Garth was king. Yes, GB began the trend of pop and rock elements in country music, but that wasn't a bad thing. It broadened country music's reach, which in the long run increased the number of radio stations playing exclusively country music. Country music has continued to evolve until it's no longer something I will listen to much, but music is always evolving, regardless of genre. The country music the outlaws were playing in the '70s was altogether different from the country music that the honky-tonk heroes like Hank and Lefty were singing in the '40s and '50s, and it was almost unrecognizable compared to The Carter Family in the '30s. Not coincidentally, those who cut their teeth on Jimmie Rodgers and the Carters insisted that Hank wasn't recording real country music, and Hank fans claimed that the Outlaws weren't recording real country music.

The truth is that the lines have always been blurred. Old-timers who had grown up on the bluegrass boys and then reluctantly accepted -- then embraced -- Hank Williams absolutely detested the integration of the Bakersfield influence into country music. Yet one of the most notable disciples of the Bakersfield sound went on to become one of the most notable singers of the outlaw movement, Merle Haggard. Garth Brooks was mainly a rock guy until he heard a George Strait song, and that caused him to change gears. Thirty years from now, today's 20-somethings will be insisting that whatever is being played on radio isn't "real" country music, and they'll wax nostalgically about the good ol' days of country music when Luke Bryan was shaking his butt in his skinny jeans.

Incidentally, Garth Brooks' electric stage show was influenced 100% by Chris Ledoux, and Ledoux was as traditional as you can get, albeit much more on the western side of Country & Western. Among current hit artists, there's probably no one more true to country music as most of us grew up on it than Brad Paisley, and Paisley probably puts on the most electric stage show of anyone.

When Taylor Swift can be considered country, then country is no more than pop. As for Garth starting the electric stage shows, he just copied what rock bands had been doing 20 years earlier. Rock concerts still blow away these wannabe's shows. All of the new stars just don't look the part. They are more metro-sexual pretty boy cowboys. Lame. That does not mean I can't listen to it and enjoy it. Most country now is just southern rock lite. On a gee whiz note, I saw Dustin Evans at the county fair here in Rapid City. He opened up for Jake Owen. Dustin Evans drummer is Chris Ledoux's son. He let Ledoux's son sing a song he wrote himself. Then he sung his dad's song This Old Hat, and the crowd went wild. Neat huh?