Frontpage Magazine has published another article of mine: "A Return to Country."
Comments on the article criticize my view that the bands I cite are real country musicians - but they still don't deny that the ZBB is country, only country they don't like. The funny thing is that a sub-theme of the whole movie Crazy Heart is about the reconciliation of the old with the new. Old-time legend Bad Blake ultimately agrees that newcomer Nashville singer Tommy Sweet is the real deal. Bad is still the teacher and the expert songwriter. Tommy is simply picking up what Bad gives, or passes on, to him.
But, my real point for writing the article is that many film critics stay stuck on the film - he's a good actor; she isn't; the story had funny twists. Etc. I was trying to tie together the theme of the story with society at large. How, for example, country music is influenced by...country (or land, or place). Unlike that awful movie Up in the Air, where nothing, including Clooney's relationships, is authentic.
Yes, Hollywood does dilute things, but one has to admit it when it hits gold. I think it did so with Crazy Heart.
