I have given this alot of thought, in the last few months and I have come up with a few things that I think country music needs today. For example, I think that country music needs more of what is called "story" songs. Songs like Lefty Frizzell's "Saginaw, Michigan," Merle Haggard's "Legend of Bonnie and Clyde," or even Loretta Lynn's "Coal Miner's Daughter." The best example of a story song today has got to be John Michael Montgomery's "The Little Girl."

The second thing that I think country music needs more of today is the awesome sounds of a steel guitar and a fiddle. I can't explain the feeling that goes through me when I am listening to some the older country songs and I just hear "that sound." Thank goodness for what we are calling the new country traditionalists, like Alan Jackson and George Strait, and also for artists like Ricky Skaggs and Allison Krauss who have sparked a new interest in bluegrass music.

The third thing I think that country music needs today is for the people that are making it to "make up their minds" that they are either going to be country or they're not. I hate that so many artists today swear that they are totally country and claim to love the Grand Old Opry, and then the minute they have any type of success, switch directions and (it's the famous over used cliche today) "go pop."

Question Of The Week: (Feel free to email me your opinion)

"What (If Anything), Do You Think That Country Music Needs More Or Less Of These Days?"