BITTERSWEET, Ky. — I just finished looking over the current Billboard Top 50 Country chart. I noticed a couple of things.

 

First, out of the 50, four artists were women, one group of three included one female member and a duet included a woman.

The rest were male artists. Somehow, I’m surprised – but we’ve walked down this road before. I know the charts are a reflection of what is being listened to, but I still find the imbalance unfortunate because there are so many talented ladies out there who deserve a place on the chart.

Second, I saw several wellknown names like Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Blake Shelton, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Garth Brooks and Miranda Lambert. The remainder of the chart belongs to great artists – don’t doubt that –but so many of them are similar in looks and sounds. I get them confused, and often I can’t tell whether I’m listening to country or something else.

Chris Stapleton is probably one of the most unique artists on the chart in that his music really stands out as his own.

Chris can blur genre lines, too, but his sound is so distinct, he can sing the phone book and make it sound good. (Are there still phone books?)

I shouldn’t leave out Jason Aldean, who is as popular as it gets, and he has a distinction about him that is different than some of the others.

I guess I have said all of that to say this: I would love to see more classic country stations or more Top 50 stations spend a day with the stars of yesterday, because many of them are still performing and have laid the foundation for the house of country music.

I do have to give a shout-out to Scotty Mc- Creery who is in the Top 50 and has the voice of a time gone by but obviously still welcome. And I shouldn’t leave out Kenny Chesney, who has quite frankly given us some of my favorite songs. He’s a storyteller in the true sense of the word.

Oh, did I mention the Zac Brown Band? They’re one of my favorites. And Aaron Watson, another traditional artist I really like.

So, when I started this column, I was prepared to complain a bit about the state of country music today.

But now that I’ve talked my way through it, I think the state of country music is a pretty good place to live in right now.

There are things I would like to see change (hey, Billboard – we need to see more ladies on the chart), and it would be good to see ol’ Whisperin’ Bill Anderson show up more on the radio. But I guess all-in-all, life is pretty good in this country music home.

Hope it’s that way for you, too. Bluegrass Johnson comes from a long line of country music performers and enjoys a passion for the rhythm and melody. From the hills of Kentucky, he will offer his opinions on a variety of new country music each week. Readers with questions or comments may write to Johnson in care of this publication.