June 3, 2003

The Loyalty of Country Music Fans Knows No Age Limits

ASHVILLE, June 2 — Last month, albums by Johnny Cash and George Jones were in Billboard magazine's Top 20 for country music and Willie Nelson had a Top 10 country single with a duet. None of this would be especially noteworthy — these country icons are hardly strangers to the top of the charts — except that Mr. Cash and Mr. Jones are 71 and Mr. Nelson is 70.

Country may be as eager to tap the youth market as any branch of popular music is, but it appears to be the only one in which septuagenarians are still a vital force.

"Country music has always been adult music sung by adults," said Bruce Hinton, the chairman emeritus of MCA Records Nashville. "Obviously this could never happen on the pop side, and I'm just glad there is still some recognition of these masters, even if it's not as frequent as we would all like."

Mainstream country radio rarely plays records by these elder statesmen, except those by Willie Nelson, whose hit single "Beer for My Horses" (DreamWorks) is sung with Toby Keith, a comparative young buck at 41. Getting even less air time are songs by older women who are stars, like Dolly Parton, 57, and Loretta Lynn, 69. Tammy Wynette, who died in 1998, had her last Top 10 radio hit in 1985.

But with fan bases that are both older and more loyal than those of other music, some singers continue working the road even into their 90's. With simple songs that never lose their appeal, country artists clearly have no mandatory retirement age. Neither do some of the more venerable stars of rock and folk music, like Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones, all in their 60's or approaching them but still active, as is the folk singer Pete Seeger, now in his 80's, and the bluesman B. B. King and the rock 'n' roll pioneer Chuck Berry, both in their 70's. But they are rarely on today's charts.

"I believe it's simply because Johnny and Willie and myself and [Merle] Haggard have stayed with what I call honest music," Mr. Jones said in a telephone interview. "We've never tried to be much more than what we are. We're just open with our lives and the way we live, and that's what we sing." Mr. Nelson, whose recent duet partners also include Sheryl Crow, 40, and Norah Jones, 24, expects to play 200 dates this year.

Mr. Jones just completed a 30-day tour of Canada, where he played 17 shows, and his album "The Gospel Collection: George Jones Sings the Greatest Stories Ever Told," was most recently at No. 24 in Billboard's country album charts, a dip from No. 19 in early May.

"I'll tell you what, money could never buy that loyalty," Mr. Jones said of country fans. "My crowds are two-thirds older people and about one-third younger people. It's just wonderful to know you've got both."

Hazel Smith of Country Music magazine, the matriarch of Nashville's music journalists, said that "70-year-old Willie Nelson works his tail off doing 19 or 20 dates a month, like he's always done."

"Ditto Jones," she said, "who works mostly on weekends like he's always done. Recently, Cash has worked hard just to stay alive."

Mr. Cash, whose wife, June Carter Cash, died on May 15, sings about his own failing health in the haunting song and video "Hurt," from his album "American IV: The Man Comes Around." The song was originally recorded by the rock band Nine Inch Nails in 1994. The Cash video was played on VH1 and MTV2 and was No. 1 on Country Music Television.

"One reason for the staying power of males is their sheer number of hits over the years," said Mike O'Malley of Albright & O'Malley Country Radio Consultants in Milltown, N.J. "Every year we track the country radio audiences' favorite songs," he said, and two to three times as many songs in the Top 100 are from men as from women.

That is something of a paradox, since modern country radio is aimed mainly at women in their mid-30's and the audience is often considered to be 60 percent female, said Scott Lindy, program director of the country music station WPOC-FM in Baltimore. Young stars like Kenny Chesney and the Dixie Chicks attract millions of teenage fans. But for Mr. Jones and many lovers of traditional country music, mainstream country radio has lost touch with its roots.

"I don't listen to it," George Jones said. "A lot of us old-timers don't listen to radio anymore because it just don't mean that much to us. I love the good old heartbreaking songs. It makes me mad when the money people come in here and change country and make it something else and still call it country. Country's a religion to me."

Ms. Parton, whose albums continue to receive critical acclaim and win Grammys, said she, too, paid little attention to radio now. Indeed, young fans seem to be discovering the old-timer's music not on the radio but on the Internet.

Another reason country stars have longer careers than others is the Grand Ole Opry, the seminal weekly concert series and live radio broadcast that has been heard from Nashville every weekend since 1925. Many of country music's new stars rarely if ever play the Opry, and that has cost it young fans. But veteran artists routinely perform there, and a large part of the Opry's live audience is made up of senior citizens visiting Nashville on tour buses.

One Country Music Hall of Famer, Bill Carlisle, who died on March 17, played the Opry the weekend before his death at age 94.

"As long as the music is coming on strong, who cares about age?" said Hank Locklin, an Opry cast member since 1960. "When someone is listening to a powerful song like `Hurt,' I'm sure the last thing on his or her mind is the fact that Cash is in his 70's."

Mr. Lindy, of the Baltimore station, said there was a simple reason some artists are played on the radio and others are not. "It's about the song," Mr. Lindy said. He added: "Loretta Lynn put out an album a few years back, but it sounded pretty much like what she did in the 1970's. It's great stuff if you're a fan of that sound, but not a highly appealing sound for today's country stations. Willie Nelson is back on the air thanks to an album of duets that have high artist appeal and very high song appeal. The song took them further." (Country singles rankings are based on the number of times played on the radio; country album rankings are based on sales.)

The outspoken Ms. Lynn, whose 1975 hit "The Pill" was an early feminist classic, said in an e-mail interview: "My songs may have gotten banned one time or another, but the fans proved they wanted to hear about real life by still going out there and buying my records."

"I'm gonna be out on the road, performing over 60 dates this year. One thing's for sure, I ain't gonna stop yet."

Meanwhile Mr. Jones, whose albums and concert tickets continue to sell well without much air time, summed it up this way: "I'd rather carry a box to the bank and not worry about radio."