Down by the Ol’ Mainstream: Lady Antebellum

I caught a video on CMT the other day, I noticed there was a hot chick singing with 2 dudes. Lo and behold, I genuinely enjoyed the song, but there was a large question mark hanging over my head (larger than normal).  The question I had was, “I like this, but is it actually country?”

The band in question is Nashville based Lady Antebellum, the video in question is for the song ”Love Don’t Live Here Anymore.”  I often ask myself (aloud even, sometimes) the question of whether a song is genuinely “country,” but it is generally reserved for sucky songs by suckier bands (Rascall Flatts, Kenny Cheesy, etc…).  In this case I happen to like the song, and dig their overall sound, even as polished and sleek as it seems to be.  After a listen to their songs on their myspace site, I appreciated the stripped down tone to the live acoustic songs, yet still feel the weight of the question mark lurking above me ever so menacingly.  Critics have pointed to various qualities in their material that display sounds of soul, pop and even 70′s singer-songwriter type stuff, and I can see those traits to a point, however, which part of that is country?  I enjoy diversity in my stock portfolio (not really, I am not sure if that even applies here) and in my country, however, does a bit of acoustic guitar and some plain spoken, simplistic (not a bad thing in this case) lyrics equal country? I understand that Dale Watson’s Honky-Tonkin’ standards and Brook’s & Dunn’s sappy ballads can both reside in the land we call “Country,” but that variety doesn’t automatically grant access to anyone who simply desires to put their discs in the smallest section of CD’s at Barnes & Noble. Many people will call it “Contemporary Country,” and maybe that’s it and I just haven’t recognized it, as I detest most of what is blindly and ignorantly labeled as such.  Perhaps this band is a fine example of “Contemporary Country“.  Regardless, I like it, and I imagine that I’ll enjoy the entire album, should the unheard tracks provide me with a similarly fresh and vibrant sound….Discuss amongst yourselves.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuKegmEyv-A]