Clay Walker Declares Traditional Country Music Dead
Not since Blake Shelton called traditional country fans Old Farts and Jackasses has a sitting country music star painted such a grim and disparaging picture for traditional country music as Clay Walker did in a recent interview with Taste of Country. The 44-year-old Curb-Asylum artist says that “Traditional country music died,” and that George Strait’s win for Entertainer of the Year was a “closing of the door” for traditional music in the country format.
Traditional country music died. I think that George Strait winning Entertainer of the Year at the CMAs was, to me, a symbolic and a real closing of the door. It was, to me, as if the industry was saying, “Thank you George for everything that you’ve meant to traditional country music.” I’m not saying George Strait won’t be played, but I’m saying I don’t think any new acts, including myself I’m not new, but ”¦ I think people are fooling themselves if they think for a second that the recording industry is going to accept any more traditional country music on the radio. I think that is the end of a world, the end of an era.
It’s kind of like Rome. Rome has fallen [laughs]. There’s a new world and a new era. I feel like I totally accepted that. Now I’m not saying that fans are not going to continue loving traditional country music and playing it and listening to it and maybe even downloading some of it. But I don’t think you’ll see this town record what we call ‘traditional’ country music ever again. I believe that era is completely over.
But is Clay Walker happy about this fall of Rome, or is he remorseful about it?
No. No remorse whatsoever. I think it’s the perfect evolution and it’s the way it should be. It’s time. It’s time for that change. And, albeit rough at the moment, it’s a beautiful rough. I don’t think that we’ll be heavy metal, as some of the bands are doing and calling it country. I don’t think that we’ll be rap. I just think that we’re trying to find where the absolute limitations are and then work within those limitations. I believe that right now we’re stretching the limitations out as far as they’ll go and the fans will bring them back in.
Clay also seems to feel like with this perception that traditional country music is dead, he can use this to his advantage in plotting his career path.
I feel like recognizing where music is, and it’s really cool to have this particular view that I have right now. I would call it more like a catbird seat because I can see what’s happening and I accept it.
Clay Walker made his country music debut in 1993 and considers himself in the class right after country’s big explosion of popularity that saw the rise of artists like Garth Brooks, George Strait, and others. However a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 1996, and the strange career track Curb Records has taken with many of its artists including Clay have kept his name out of the headlines as much as in them. Clay has only released two albums in the last decade, which is par-for-the-course with Curb, including his last one She Won’t Be Lonely Long in 2010 that Curb first issued as an EP with 3 singles from his previous album Fall before eventually releasing it as a full record.
Interestingly, Walker also hinted in the interview that Curb Records is no longer receiving star treatment from Nashville songwriters, and instead has to get what falls to them as far as potential songs, further speaking to the diminished power of Mike Curb in the wake of multiple controversies in how his label handles artists. “Record labels are smart business people and they know it’s all about the songs,” says Walker. “So they pretty much join up with the powerhouse publishing companies who have the powerhouse songwriters and those songs stay in those labels. At least, they have first shot at them. Every now and then, drippings for the poor will come off the table, but not very often.”
The declaration of death for traditional country and Clay’s excitement for ushering in a new era tells us what we can very likely expect coming up from him in the way of new music. Whether traditional country is completely dead on radio or the mainstream in general, it sounds like Clay Walker is willing to take a “If you can’t beat them, join them” attitude about it.
January 2, 2014 @ 4:29 pm
This is a bit disconcerting but not overly depressing, in my opinion. Regardless of whether it is Clay or his label’s fault, he isn’t exactly part of the top tier of country music artists at the moment. If George Strait or Willie Nelson had said this, it would be absolutely acidic. Let’s hope it never comes to that and only the non-traditional artists remain the ones that claim country is changing for the better.
July 28, 2015 @ 3:32 pm
Walker is right however, the demise began several years ago. There isn’t much Country anymore. It’s all Pop music. Taylor Swift was Country?? Give me a break. The labels want to be able to cross over with their songs/artists and serve two markets to maximize their investment. It’s business, unfortunately. I hate it. I think the best Country was the 90s. If Walker starts recording songs in the new format, I can’t say he’s “selling out,” he’s just trying to survive. Although, it IS disappointing…..
January 2, 2014 @ 4:32 pm
Mo-Ron…Lowest common denominator…he’s still trying to be relevant to 8th grade girls, at 44…
I’ll take Jake Hooker, Joey Allcorn, James Hand and JP Harris any day.
January 2, 2014 @ 4:46 pm
I feel he would sellout his music to still be played on “Country Radio” I can’t remember any of his songs.
January 2, 2014 @ 4:51 pm
As far as mainstream radio play and big major label pushes Clay Walker may be right. It certianly appears that way. I for one honestly do not care what nashvegas does and haven’t in years. I know for sure that tradtional country music will always be available live and for download on the internet and in some physical format to buy at shows from the artist. There will always be, at least in some area’s, support for the real thing. Go support independent music, go to shows, buy merch from artists directly, download from places were the artists get paid. Listen to internet and satelite radio and support the few independent stations left that play country music. Thats the answer. Nashvegas you can go to hell oh wait you already have !
January 2, 2014 @ 5:13 pm
Just remembers Dec 2000. Br549 was canceled as his opening act in Las Vegas (probibly not his personal decision) the last 2 nights of the run. We got into a corporate showcase the first night and went to the strip the 2nd night to see Gary Morse with the Doo Wah Riders (Dwight Yockam was off that week)
January 2, 2014 @ 5:15 pm
My ex was into this guy, I never liked him at all.
The thing I notice with so many of these guys who are defending the “evolution” of country music. They never really say: “Yeah, I love this music, this is the stuff I listen to all the time. This is the exact music that I have inside me that I want to be making.” Instead it’s always: “It’s time for an evolution”, “This is what the kids are buying now days”, “This is what radio plays”, etc. They sound like McDonalds workers being told they are going to start making fish sandwiches instead of Big Macs. Like they couldn’t care less what they are making as long as the units are being shifted.
January 2, 2014 @ 5:26 pm
Good point.
January 2, 2014 @ 5:16 pm
There are still a couple of newcomers playing traditional country, guys like Greg Bates and Easton Corbin. But in order for these guys to break through we might need for Garth Brooks to break the mold. Their is still hope.
January 3, 2014 @ 4:12 am
sounds like the same kind of pop country crap to me
January 2, 2014 @ 5:17 pm
Who the hell is Clay Walker?
January 4, 2014 @ 9:24 pm
Clay Walker is the guy whose music I trip over when I am digging through the Jerry Jeff bins at the local CD stores I patronize.
January 2, 2014 @ 5:23 pm
Pop, rap and bro country is dead. I don’t care if music is traditional, just keep it more country and classic rock than pop because (synthesized) pop and rap are as far from country as it gets.
“Record labels are smart business people and they know it”™s all about the songs,” says Walker. “So they pretty much join up with the powerhouse publishing companies who have the powerhouse songwriters and those songs stay in those labels. At least, they have first shot at them. Every now and then, drippings for the poor will come off the table, but not very often.”
Oh so that’s how we got all those bad songs along with a few good ones. Artists A-Z must use writers A, B, C, D, and E. We give artists creative freedom but you need these pop producers and writers!
January 2, 2014 @ 5:25 pm
Yup…and vinyl is dead too
January 2, 2014 @ 5:39 pm
I was a Clay Walker fan in the 1990s and actually saw him in concert last year. (I took someone as a present-they were a huge fan.) I always thought that he was better than the material he had. His show was fun and much more “country” than what was released to radio. I really appreciated his Tex Mex style of country, although it didn’t always come through. his comments in this article, though, disappoint me. A lot.
As for his quote “So they pretty much join up with the powerhouse publishing companies who have the powerhouse songwriters and those songs stay in those labels. At least, they have first shot at them. Every now and then, drippings for the poor will come off the table, but not very often.” Well, there IS a solution to that…learn to write your own songs and then push your label to let you record them (or find one that will). Not everyone is a great songwriter but that’s about the only way you can guarantee that you’re recording something you want and like.
January 2, 2014 @ 5:51 pm
In fairness, if you read the entire interview, he talks about writing songs and that there’s three songs on his upcoming album that he wrote or co-wrote. I totally agree with what you’re saying though, these artists shouldn’t rely on the politics of music for their material, and his story is a perfect reason why.
I’m now seeing you clarified this in your comments on Facebook.
January 2, 2014 @ 7:36 pm
As I was reading the article, I (too) was wondering why he thought being cut off from the premier Nashville song writers was such a big deal.
For example, if you look at Brooks & Dunn’s greatest hits album, the only song they didn’t write or co-write was “My Maria” and “Rock My World”. Give those boys a bar napkin and 10 minutes and you might get a hit.
Or, on the other end of the spectrum, you could say that (the great) Dwight Y oakum made a career off of singing cover songs. I’ve heard people in the main stream media refer to Mr. Dwight as a cover artist more than once. Although he wrote some really good original songs on his own as well.
Still traditional Country Music isn’t dead by a long shot. Main stream country is really only the tip of the country iceberg so to speak. When you can’t walk into a honky tonk, bar a dance hall and hear authentic new real country music, then maybe someone could say that real country music is dead.
January 2, 2014 @ 7:59 pm
The only place where traditional country music is dead is on mainstream terrestrial radio.
Thankfully, mainstream terrestrial radio is dying too.
January 19, 2023 @ 9:03 am
I agree. It just isn’t commercial. But, for him to say that no one is recording traditional country music in Nashville is really ignorant. The label artists are not, but I am. My friends are. The studio musicians that are 50 years old and older are. Legacy bands are. The artists Clay’s age and older are. Just no one gets to hear them because they don’t have enough promo, marketing or corporate support financially to compete. I just cut three songs last week that is about as traditional county as it gets. Will it go crazy on Tik Tok? Probably not. Will it get the attention of Music Row two miles down the road from me? No. But if this type of music does make a resurgence, you can bet that Music Row will start changing their tune.
January 2, 2014 @ 8:30 pm
He’s been irrelevant for so long. He’s always seemed like he wud sell his soul to the devil for a hit that would make him a buck. He’s always seemed like the little brother that wasn’t as good as the older siblings
January 2, 2014 @ 9:18 pm
I am so damned sick and tired of hearing these children trying to bury the spoon that feeds their one hit wonder acts! Hoss, you just don’t know how many REAL COUNTRY “ARTIST” are still here and have never and will never sell out like you punk cuntrie computer acts do! Strange how you try to like people who grab on to the coat tails of LEGENDS and as soon as you support them they are offered a pocket full of Nashville’s phony gold coins they stab you in the back!
WE ARE COUNTRY and we are here to stay. You are a turncoat, back stabber and will soon be ROCKIN with the others who step on the names of true talent to boost your sorry career up! We don’t need you, we don’t want you so please stop wearing the COUNTRY BRAND, you’re unworthy!
January 2, 2014 @ 10:12 pm
I have reputable sources on a lot of “popular” country music, and according to those sources, this guy is a real jackass. Not quite the jackass that Hal Ketchum is/was, but he’s apparently more than a bit of a prick.
So yeah, I don’t take Clay Walker very seriously. I hope others aren’t, too, because he was no champion for the genre, and his acting like it being “time” for any kind of music to end is an indication of what his music is about, I guess.
May 23, 2023 @ 9:13 pm
This comment aged well.
That is all.
January 3, 2014 @ 1:24 am
Oh whatever! I think they’ll be enough traditional country out there to keep us happy!
January 3, 2014 @ 2:15 am
Clay who?
January 3, 2014 @ 5:44 am
Key part of his statement is this: “I think people are fooling themselves if they think for a second that the recording industry is going to accept any more traditional country music on the radio.” I think he’s probably right there– radio is basically a dying medium for transmission of new music. It has been for a long, long time (seventies?). I can’t recall the last time I found good new music by listening to the radio. C’mon, how many of you are finding new stuff via radio? I personally found out about exactly zero new artists by listening to the radio this year. No Los Explosivos or Sturgill Simpson are to be found on the radio dial.
January 3, 2014 @ 5:54 am
I can think of a couple examples on country radio over the last 2 years. Back in the fall of 2012, I first heard “Merry Go Round” on the radio and thereby discovered Kacey Musgraves. I also learned about Ronnie Dunn’s stellar “Cost of Living” from my local country station.
Overall, though, country radio is a monotonic wasteland. Online music streaming is the wave of the future.
January 3, 2014 @ 6:16 am
I’ve got the same feelings as You, Mr. Triggerman. It’s like he totally gave up. It’s sad…
January 3, 2014 @ 6:26 am
there are thousands of new (old country) songs out there written by little known songwriters that will never be heard on radio. Too bad as many of them would have been top notch hits just a decade ago,.
January 3, 2014 @ 1:26 pm
Yeah, that’s the greatest pain of country music…
January 3, 2014 @ 8:04 am
I thought Clay Walker was dead?
January 3, 2014 @ 10:27 am
Obviously Clay does not spend much time in Fort Worth.
January 3, 2014 @ 11:01 am
Sigh. You know, it’s one thing to say traditional country music is dead, but it’s quite another to welcome it as the accepted “evolution” of the genre and call it “perfect” and “beautiful.” Why is it that when people talk about country music “evolving,” it’s always in the context of moving away from traditional country music?
And has anyone but me noticed it’s only the B-list stars from the ’90s (Walker and Tracy Lawrence) talking like this, as opposed to heavyweights like Strait and Jackson? I have to wonder why.
January 3, 2014 @ 3:22 pm
You could go the exact opposite direction and point out a couple of old has-beens that are completely degrading themselves to stay relevant.
Trace Adkins, Clint Blank and John Rich had to go on that horrid “Celebrity Apprentice Show”. And now we’ve got Trace Adkins perhaps doing the worst award show hosting performance of all time and degrading himself by putting on a Vegas show girl outfit (and an elf outfit the year before, although Blake Shelton has done that too).
At least Clay Walker is still respectable though. But to me he was always another “Luke Bryan” or “Billy Rae Cyrus” – not really a whole ton of substance as much as marketable good looks and sex appeal.
January 3, 2014 @ 4:20 pm
Get a subscription to SiriusXM and listen to the channel called Outlaw Country and Willie’s Roadhouse. Outlaw Country plays a ton of new music from up and coming traditional country music artists. Willie’s Roadhouse plays traditional country music from the Golden Age of the genre. Satellite radio is one of the best investments real music lovers can make. Not only do you have it on the device in your automobile, but you can pop the radio out and easily hook it up to your home stereo, as well as have the SiriusXM app on your smartphone.
November 14, 2014 @ 10:37 pm
Unfortunately, “Willie’s Roadhouse” seems to be a mere shadow of the “Willie’s Place” that it replaced a couple of years ago. It has more of a Nashville-nostalgic feel and doesn’t play many of the up-and-coming new traditionalists.
I would recommend a Texas radio station, KEQX-FM “Pure Country”. It streams a solid blend of old and new traditional-style artists in stereo. Pedal steels and fiddles in abundance! The only downside is that they don’t identify the performer, so you have to do a little detective work around the lyrics in order to find an unfamiliar (but great!) singer at Amazon.
By the way, I live in northern California where traditional country is virtually non-existent. We used to have an active club scene, but it faded away after the hippies showed up in the 60’s. Oh well, at least with the internet I don’t have to listen to Taylor Swift squeak “I’ve Got A Zit On My Butt And It’s Prom Night”.
January 3, 2014 @ 4:56 pm
Clay who????
January 3, 2014 @ 7:14 pm
I didn’t mind Clay Walker back in the mid 90’s but the truth is he was part of a long list of male singers that came along that had the George Strait look. But was never able to produce the hits and sellout venues that Strait did.
January 5, 2014 @ 3:11 pm
Since when is it his to declare dead or alive?
January 6, 2014 @ 7:11 pm
So does the evolution of country music also means abandoning the Grand Ole Opry? Have you seen this 2013 summary, Trig? The newest members, the “new” country artists, were disappointing with their lack of dedication to the Opry. Blake Shelton, Keith Urban, and Darius Rucker performed on a total of only 2 shows each in 2013. Yikes.
January 6, 2014 @ 7:12 pm
Sorry I forgot to add the link:
http://fayfare.blogspot.com/2014/01/2013-grand-ole-opry-year-in-review.html
January 6, 2014 @ 7:52 pm
I did see that. I may have some more to say about this coming up. Fayfare is the guy who called for Blake Shelton’s removal from the Grand Ole Opry for not honoring his commitments in the aftermath of the “Old Farts & Jackasses” brushup. This stimulated Shelton to make two weekend appearances. From what I understand, to keep your Opry membership, you must make regular appearances, but weekend appearances count more, and it doesn’t look like he’s accounting for that here. Nonetheless, funny that these brand new members are basically shirking their duties right out of the gate.
January 7, 2014 @ 11:51 am
From 1964 through 2000 an artist had to perform at 20 weekend shows a year to remain a member in good standing. In 2000 the number of appearances was reduced to 12. I don’t believe there is a minimum number of appearances today; artists are expected to perform often enough to prove their dedication to the Opry. As of a couple of years ago (acording to a blog I read at that time) only about 21 of the (then) 66 members performed as many as 20 times a year.
May 22, 2014 @ 7:47 pm
Of late i find myself turning off the local country station more and more often it seems all they play anymore is angry woman baby baby crap or the latest c-POP garbage
clays comments don’t surprize me in the least if you want to make money in a industry that has lost touch with its fan base and is chasing a different fan base you have to play what they want or cowboy up a bit and stand your ground i guese we know which way clay is going
January 31, 2017 @ 3:25 pm
If people who love Country Music would stop buying the records of the pop artist like Taylor Swift and Nashville can’t make money on it then they will stop producing it. There is strength in numbers you know. Support the more traditional Country Music artist and it will not die.
December 4, 2018 @ 6:00 am
As a country record producer for 40 years I need to explain something to everyone. In order to promote just one song properly in the United States so everyone can hear it within an hours time on their car in any state you need a minimum of $750,000.00 to 1 million dollars. That’s not production cost that’s just promotion cost. If there is anyone here willing to gamble a million dollars to see if they can bring back traditional country music I have several new traditional artist that have unbelievable talent. They play all the instruments, sing all the parts and write their own songs. Here is one that I recorded this week that did everything. I only did the audio engineering. It takes big money to drive a big business and considering the fact that the average record buying public never heard old country music it’s a huge crap shoot. Like someone else commented. Support what’s left of these artist by attending their shows and they will personally sell and autograph a record for you. The last known country artist I recorded was Ray Price and he didn’t even have a record deal. Hadn’t had one in 15 years but you could still see his shows and buy his records you’ll never hear on radio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-w5jQ7TY7I
January 22, 2019 @ 4:20 pm
I HATE THIS NEW COUNTRY MUSIC. IT’S NOT COUNTRY. I WASNT SOME NEW COUNTRY MUSIC SONGS BUT NOT THIS STUFF.
October 29, 2020 @ 5:08 pm
research what George Jones had to say about today’s country music ….’nuff said !!!