WHAT’S GOING ON: Garth Brooks Coming, Country Music Taking Over
News that MacEwan University has launched “Distinguished Visiting Artist in Country Music” workshops within its music program, and that Brett Kissel will be the honorary campaign chair, has been met with some arched eyebrows among some MacEwan music alumni nerds – like me.
Having attended (but not graduated due to going on the road with various bad bar bands) for two years in the early 1980s, there wasn’t a whiff of country in the curriculum. It was all about jazz. Country folk were ridiculed, shunned and shamed. Actually, there weren’t any country folk. And now … well, shucks, here we are.
Full disclosure: I am not fond of country music, especially the slick shit on commercial radio that all sounds like what was hip in mainstream rock 20 years previously, in songs about trucks or women or drinking, with barely a twang to distinguish it from Nickelback, or Katy Perry as the case may be. Oh sure, give me Johnny Cash singing Nine Inch Nails, or maybe something by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, but are those artists aired on CISN? They are not.
Couple this with the infiltration of Shania Twain songs on local top-40 radio; the fact that CISN is No. 1 in the latest local radio ratings; that Cook County Saloon is running live shows again (after a long hiatus that the pandemic was only a part of) and it’s clear what’s going on here: Country music is taking over. It’s making a comeback. It’s what’s hip. No use fighting it any longer.
So let’s celebrate the return of the biggest male star in country music, Sir Garth Brooks, playing Saturday, June 25 at Commonwealth Stadium. Tickets go on sale May 6.
Last time Garth came to town was in 2017 – when he booked an astounding NINE shows in a row at Rogers Place. Here’s a concert review, in which it was reported that he came to “raise some hell.” Don’t we have enough hell up here already?
In other country news, Chris Stapleton brings his All American Roadshow to Rogers Place on Wednesday, May 11 – but it’s the opening act I’m excited about: Elle King, daughter of actor Rob Schneider and singer of the runaway alternative-slash-folk hit Exes and Ohs. She killed at the 2015 Interstellar Rodeo (which is sadly no more), and has a ton of new music.
If you judge a headliner by the sort of support they pick, this might not be too bad – for country music.
READ MORE: A very long essay on the state of country music in Edmonton in 2011.
