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In the new issue, Rolling Stone’s Andy Greene reports on why mainstream artists like Bon Jovi and Jewel are going country, but what do country’s legends have to say about the trend? Rock Daily found out last night at the Country Music Hall of Fame/All For the Hall NY Benefit at Nokia Theatre in Times Square.
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“There wouldn’t be rock & roll if there wasn’t country,” host Billy Bob Thornton announced after a performance with his band The Boxmasters. “So any time you’re up there bumping your ass on the dance floor, remember that.”
Country luminaries Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill, Levon Helm, Jerry Douglas and Rodney Crowell were all in attendance, as well as Larry Campbell, who joined them for a haunting, two-hour guitar pull filled with impromptu collaborations of Harris’ “Tragedy,” Crowell’s “Still Learning How to Fly” and the Band’s epic “Evangeline.”
Before the show, 2008 CMHOF inductee Emmylou Harris took some time to address the country crossover that seems to be dominating the music industry. “I could have been considered an interloper myself, coming from the world of rock and folk with Gram Parsons,” she said. “But I don’t think anything should be closed off to anybody. People are influenced by a lot of different things, so everything is bleeding into everything else.”
Vince Gill, who serves as president of the Board of Officers and Trustees of the CMHOF, also embraced the crossover. “I always root for the lines to be blurry,” he said. “The Eagles were always country, but the records in 1975 weren’t country at all in comparison. Music is so much more important than the label you stick on it.”
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