NO HOLDS BARRED

Sometimes this grimy town makes me want to call in a bunch of cowboys to civilize these city folks by sensitizing them to the humanity underlying much of country music. That admirable quality has long since departed from much of urban culture, no matter how much melanin you might have in your skin. The new Aretha Franklin is Gretchen Wilson, the new Chuck Berry is John Rich, and Billy Joe Shaver was always newer than Bob Dylan.

While all sorts of people who talk with the cadence of a jackhammer or a clothes dryer pontificate about what happened and why during our three-day transit strike (except, of course, the Trinidadian Roger Toussaint, who mellifluously managed to infuriate over two-thirds of the New York metropolitan area anyway), I kept thinking about a different place in the present time – somewhere, for instance, where there is a major country music radio station. New York and San Francisco are the only two major markets in the U.S. without one. How liberal and open-minded.

The Internet, of course, holds a cure for many prejudices, and you can bet your biscuits and gravy that it can help you go country before you know it.

The various Internet media companies are trying to entice us to pay for their services by offering selected free video and audio features. This is our escape route, and much cheaper than a plane ticket to Amarillo.

Real.com has just posted some free videos of Cowboy Troy, the Black country rapper from Dallas, Texas, who is part of the MusikMafia. He calls his style Hick Hop.

The what, you ask?

John Rich called helping get his act going and Troy’s selling over a quarter of a million albums, without being played on country radio, one of the major accomplishments of 2005. So just listen, learn, and enjoy.

PS -- I almost forgot to reiterate that Troy is a big fan of the martial arts and combat sports. I guess it all goes hand-in-hand, eh?