Country composition.....calling Nashville songwriter types

Dominic

I want to write Country Music ....Obviously I'm aware of the typical 1,4,5 type modified Major blues type thing but I want to get a bit more clever /dig deeper.....I realise you can mess about with the 5 chord and the pattern but there must be more to it.
If you're clever I'm sure you could put a country spin on most things but I particularly want to get hold of that Brad Paisley , Alan Jackson ,Midland type vibe of modern Nashville ( not the 'pop' country that has emerged and not the Johnny Cash old school thing )
 How did it get from Cash / Merle to where it is ?
Are there other favourite cliche type progressions or formulae ?

Stuckfast

One thing I hear a lot in country music is the use of the II chord as a secondary dominant. So a chord sequence might run I - IV - I - II - V for example.

There are also a lot of temporary modulations to the subdominant or dominant keys, where for instance the first half of the verse is in C and the second half in F.

Rocker

Country songs by Garth Brooks are worth a close study if old school Country is not your thing. 

BillDL

It's a hell of a hard thing to analyse why country music sounds like country music.  Dispensing meantime with modern "bro-country" (an abomination to my ears but nevertheless a recogniseable genre in its own right), it's not so much the chords used or the order they are used, but the way they lead into each other.  The transition between chords in country music is often outlined by another instrument, but in a solo acoustic guitar and singer situation the voice and vocal inflections often carry one chord through to another in a particular way that gives it the identifiable "country" feel.  Often you will hear the chord transitioning briefly to the 7th just before the chord change, similar to blues music, but different in emphasis and duration.  If you took the vocals out of a one singer one guitar country song where the guitar was being played in the "Bakersfield" style with alternating thumb-picked bass notes it would still be immediately identifiable as country, but for more modern country songs it would be a lot harder to identify the style as country unless the often used   I  II  V7   ending was being used.  I definitely think that the voice has a huge amount to do wit the sound.  If you listen to Shania Twain performing ACDC's All Night Long it definitely has a country flavour largely due to the instrumentation, but her vocal cadence definitely outlines the song as more country than rock.

thomasross20

Can't add much except to say... I love country!

Dominic

Me too
I've just discovered Midland ( bit late to the party ) ......heard them on Bob Harris 
they played 'give a little ' which sums up what I love about modern country

Danny1969

Modern Nashville country is generally very close to modern pop music in the sense it tends to take a simple progression like a 6m, 4, 1 and 5 and builds a whole song around it without much variation chord-ally but falls and builds with other instruments coming in and out and extra harmonies 

Dominic

cool Danny and Bill ......some good insight ,thanks

Dominic

Rocker said:

Country songs by Garth Brooks are worth a close study if old school Country is not your thing. 

Yup......I THINK he was one of the first to break the mould of the old two step......
'Aint goin down til the sun comes up ' was around 2002 ........great tune

dangriffiths

For me Sturgill Simpson (Metamodern Sounds in Country Music album in particular) and Jason Isbell (The Nashville Sound album) are great to listen to if you haven't before. Simple but beautiful writing and great staple country guitar playing esp on Sturgill - Loar Joamets is the player on that album.

Stuckfast

Loar Joamets is unbelievably good.

LordBucketHead

I read this post the other day and decided to have a look at some of the musicians mentioned. I probably should have, but I hadn't heard of Brad Paisley. Well I have now. I love the guitar playing of this guy. Thanks for the heads up !

guitarjack66

I pretty much hate the modern country sound. It sounds too forced and polished,unlike the older stuff.