Country Music

This is not an easy time for country music, and few things made that as clear as last night's broadcast of the Country Music Association awards.Five years ago, country music was seen as a real force in the pop world, an underdog finally ready to take its rightful place at the top of the charts. Somehow, though, country's conquest of the music world never quite took, and now Nashville finds itself on the outer reaches of popular music's suburbs, a place many listeners visit, but fewer and fewer want to call home.

COLLEGE PARK -- Ever wonder where a 19-year-old redshirt freshman quarterback goes on a Sunday afternoon to get away from the pressure of trying to lead a once-doormat football program back toward the top of the Atlantic Coast Conference?Maryland's Calvin McCall escapes to his dormitory room and cranks up his compact disc player to the sounds of Tim McGraw, Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, Clint Black and Bryan White.Yes, "Country Calvin" has come to the cosmopolitan Washington area, complete with 8-inch dreadlocks, a gold tooth and an intense desire to maintain his identity at all costs.

Because Mary Chapin Carpenter went from coffeehouse singer to country music star, there has been an ongoing debate over much of the last decade about what her success really means. Some say that Carpenter's success came because she adapted her singer/songwriter ideas to fit country music standards; others argue that Carpenter in fact subverted the Nashville process, and effectively changed country music from within.Carpenter, for her part, merely giggles."I just think it's so funny," she says, stifling a laugh.

An old zen koan observes that we can never cross the same river twice. Because while the geography around it is solid and unchanging, the river itself is forever in motion. It may look the same on the surface, but the water we passed over yesterday is today miles downstream, while the water beneath us now could have come from anywhere -- rainfall, run-off, even another river.It's worth keeping that model in mind when looking at how popular music evolved in the 1990s. Outwardly, things seemed fairly constant.

Few singers epitomize the new Nashville as completely as Pam Tillis. Sure, she has a lifelong attachment to the traditions of country music, having grown up the daughter of CMA winner Mel Tillis. But she's also a child of the times and understands how much the market has changed since her dad broke into the business.Maybe that's why her music seems such a perfect blend of contemporary attitude and down-home charm. At the moment, she's touring behind her "Greatest Hits" album, meaning that fans will get a real sense of her singing and songwriting skills when she and Collin Raye turn up in Annapolis tomorrow.

SHE MADE emotions and a woman's outlook dominant in country music. Her ability to sing while on the verge of tears brought to that genre what had previously been found in African-American blues and a few opera singers.One of the enduring stars of country music, Tammy Wynette was made famous outside its circles by an inept reference from Hillary Rodham Clinton.Ms. Wynette rose from poverty and knew pain in private life as a Billie Holiday or Bessie Smith or Maria Callas did.Her death from an apparent blood clot at 55 deprives millions of Americans of a voice that conveyed the human condition with clarity and had more songs to sing.

These days, when we see a guy in a cowboy hat with a guitar, we immediately think: country singer.But it wasn't always that way. There was a time when what we now think of as country music was divided between two camps.One belonged to the so-called "hillbilly" singers, artists like Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, and relied on old Appalachian tunes and what came to be known as "the white man's blues." The other was the province of cowboys, a sound that drew on camp songs, gold-rush ballads and the sweet, sad norteno sound of Texas and northern Mexico.

Helen Carter,70, who sang with the Carter Family, which added to the rich heritage of country music with their songs from Appalachia, died Tuesday at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., after a lengthy illness.She sang with sisters June, the wife of country star Johnny Cash, and Anita, and their mother, Maybelle Carter.Mother Maybelle Carter and her cousin Sara Carter and Sara's husband, A. P. Carter, helped launch the country music industry in the 1920s.Carter Family standards include country classics such as "The Wabash Cannonball" and "Wildwood Flower."

Few could pluck a guitar or banjo like John James Gerace. Few could make their instruments seem a part of themselves the way Jimmy Gerace did. Few could hold a note the way he did and really make country music swing.Mr. Gerace, 82, who died Monday of a ruptured aneurysm at Franklin Square Hospital, liked to sing and play old-style country music -- not the new tunes from the new artists who seemed bent on playing country rock."That wasn't what he liked at all," said his wife, the former Glenna Keith, whom he married in 1992.

Over the years, there have been some pretty unexpected things on the music awards shows. We've seen Slash from Guns N' Roses cursing on the American Music Awards, Marilyn Manson baring his bottom on the MTV Video Music Awards, and Mr. Soy Bomb confusing Bob Dylan during the Grammys.But none of that was quite as shocking as the sight of a mosh pit at the CMA Awards.Granted, the pit was pretty sedate, as such things go, consisting entirely of well-mannered young girls. (This was the Country Music Association, after all.)

The past seems ever-present in Brad Paisley's music. One of country music's biggest stars, Paisley has filled his songs with sentimental snapshots from times gone by. His first single, "Who Needs Pictures," opens with Paisley singing about an old Kodak camera in his closet. That was more than 10 years (and 14 No. 1 singles) ago. Paisley's new album, "American Saturday Night," finds the 36-year-old West Virginia native sharing his childhood love of water sports and playing Pac-Man down at the arcade.

The movies entertain us, enlighten us, challenge us - except when they're set in Tennessee. A look at some films depicting the two regions involved in Saturday's big game. TENNESSEE Coal Miner's Daughter Weepy tale about life of country star Loretta Lynn, starring Sissy Spacek. Hard times, cheating men, etc. Nashville Bizarre Robert Altman pic about country music biz intersecting with a political convention. The "Don't Rent" of the year. The Thing Called Love Newcomers to - what else?

Today we compare various tourist attractions in Nashville with those in Baltimore. Please. It's not even close. NASHVILLE Grand Ole Opry Over-hyped country music mecca responsible for steady rise in hearing damage throughout region. Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Ho-hum repository of guitars, rhinestone outfits, cowboys boots, etc., plus usual photos of Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, blah, blah, blah. Nashville Zoo Bleak 200 acres populated with freezing, desperate-looking animals.

L eon Kagarise was such a hoarder that when a country music treasure trove turned up 10 years ago in his overstuffed Towson house, only one person at a time could squeeze in there with him to have a look and listen. The team from the Country Music Foundation, the group from the Library of Congress Folklife Center, the Today Show crew, one by one, all took their turns. Now the rest of the world gets a peek. Just-published Pure Country: The Leon Kagarise Archives presents 140 color pictures of the biggest country and bluegrass stars of the 1950s, '60s and '70s.

PASADENA, Calif. - John Rich, half of the country music sensation Big & Rich, achieved stardom the old-fashioned way: He earned it. The Texas native, with pal Kenny Alphin, spent years playing jam sessions at Nashville bars and at fairs across the country before they landed a record deal. He didn't have a show like NBC's Nashville Star to give his career an instant boost. In five previous seasons on the USA Network, the American Idol-style competition show for country singers has launched the careers of Buddy Jewel, Miranda Lambert and Chris Young.

For the tens of thousands of people who descended on M&T Bank Stadium for Kenny Chesney's Poets and Pirates Tour, the highlight of the full day came when Chesney emerged from beneath the stage about 9 p.m., unleashing an uninhibited roar of cheers. In a sleeveless Bruce Springsteen Live 1975-85 T-shirt, Chesney channeled the Boss' renowned high energy for a roughly 100-minute set that ran through all his major hits and wrapped up with "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy." Slowing down only for the occasional ballad, Chesney held the crowd convincingly in his sway, some of whom had anticipated the moment for up to 12 hours.

Sarah Johns herself will tell you she's a "traditional kinda girl." For her debut CD, Big Love in a Small Town, the country-music newcomer didn't want too much pop polish applied to her sound. "Honey, I love Hank Williams, music like that - real country music," says the native Kentuckian. "If it was up to me, I would've put fiddles and steel all over [the album]. It would've been nothing but shuffles." In concert Sarah Johns and George Strait perform at 1st Mariner Arena, 201 W. Baltimore St., at 7:30 Friday night.

Jesse "Jim" Wilder, a retired barber who held Friday night country music jam sessions in his Sykesville shop, died of emphysema Feb. 17 at the Golden Living Center in Westminster. He was 69 and lived in Gaither in Carroll County. For several decades, Jim's Barbershop was a gathering place for men and boys who wanted an old-fashioned, non-unisex shop. For a time, there was plenty of county music, too. Mr. Wilder, a native of Rockville, drove an Army tank while in military service in Germany in the late 1950s.

;(lines=ql);(dclead=((bodlead)*(clines)) +(2*(bodlead)));(adjcl=dclead);(clines=( A-1));(bodadj=(bodpt)*25);(bodadj=bodadj /32);(psize=((bodlead)*(clines))+(bodadj ));(psize=psize*32);(dcptsize=psize/22); (adj=dcptsize/33);cf21,(dcptsize),(dclead);ec8,Q,capQ;ec7,1,cap2Leon R. Kagarise, a retired audio technician whose collection of photos and tapes of country and bluegrass musicians he began recording in the late 1950s caught the attention of the Library of Congress Folklife Center and the Country Music Foundation, died of congestive heart failure Saturday at his daughter's Perry Hall home.

George Strait's successful country music career has spanned more than three decades. The native Texan, who in 2006 was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, has more than 50 No. 1 hit singles and has won dozens of awards, including honors from the Country Music Association and the American Music Awards. Strait, a current Grammy nominee, performs Saturday at 1st Mariner Arena. Country music group Little Big Town will also perform. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $54.50-$64.