New "Country"

There is something I've known for awhile but only recently have gotten pissed about. Country radio. I was reading something earlier and I see I am not the only one who feels the same way. Listen to rock, metal, alternative what ever the hell they call it these days. If you tune to our local rock station you will hear anything from the Beatles to the newest release from Daughtry. Back to back. No special time set aside for those "classic rock" moments. They are what our current music was built on and built from. They are honored by having their hits as well as their newest releases played on the radio, usually daily. When Ozzy comes out with something new you definetly know about it right away. Then there is this embarassment of a genre of country music. How can you ignore everything that helped you get where you are? Other than Country Chuck on Sundays here you will never hear anything older than the mid 90's on country radio. I feel so sorry for the newer country listeners. They have no idea what the music they are listening to was based on. They have probably never heard George Jones, Waylon Jennings or Buck Owens. What was the Bakersfield Sound? Jimmy Dean was not originally famous for sausages. Most artists, aside from George Strait and Alan Jackson, who have that old country sound are completely ignored. There are artists that I thought had fallen off the map, like Tracy Byrd and Vince Gill. They're still around...they went country. Don't get me wrong there are some excellent contemporary artists out there. Brad Paisley, Toby Keith (he actually got Willie Nelson on the radio!), Josh Turner and some others are doing a fine job. I'm sorry Keith Urban and Rascal Flatts are not country. The O' Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack sold over 6 million copies with no radio airplay. Peh. How could that have gone unnoticed? Right now I'm just frustrated to hear the same songs by the same handful of artists over and over again on the radio. While in the background living legends are completely ignored. The whole thing that started this is my local stations refusing to play the new Gary Allan single. Now that I know what's missing I wonder what else I've been missing? What other great songs are out there that I've missed because it was a square peg that didn't fall into the round hole country has become.