Country guys are hot. The crowd at the Miranda Lambert show provided plenty of people-watching opportunities, complete with lots of overdressed people and gigantic trucks that dwarved my poor little Toyota.

I'm about as far from the "country girl" image as one can get, but that doesn't change the fact that I want to date a cowboy someday.

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Dale Watson

Hank Williams III (Hank 3 to those in the know) says Dale Watson is one of his favorite artists -- a tried-and-true country artist -- and goes so far to shout him out to audiences at virtually every concert.

This appeal is easy to understand: Watson is a throwback to the early country days of Hank 3's granddaddy, Hank Williams Sr.

See also:

-Hank Williams III Rips the Rulebook to Shreds

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Hate is a strong word, but as a music critic, my musical beliefs and ideals have been forged over many years of writing about, reviewing, and listening to music. I know what I like, what I can tolerate, and what I'd just as soon leave behind forever.

Country artist Kenny Rogers is different. I can say I hate his music, and feel all right with that. Mostly, he's a non-entity for me; never comes to mind and I absent-mindedly switch him off on the rare moment a song of his comes up on the radio (in the rare moment I actually have a country channel playing). But lately, Kenny has been thrown in my face -- and I've had enough.

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William Westfall

Some bull-riding action at Country Thunder in Florence, not far from the spots on our 10 Best Country Bars in Metro Phoenix list.

Practically every Western film one can think of has at least one saloon scene, a place where the sound of honky-tonk piano creates the mood, where the town folk mix with the cowboys and ranchers, the gamblers and outlaws rub shoulders with the marshal and his deputies, and the mustachioed bartenders sling the whiskey shots and the draft beers. After all, a good saloon is the epicenter of a neighborhood, a small town or a big city, and the Valley -- a country town if there ever was one -- has a ton of good saloons to choose from when you want to get duded up in your Levi's, Tony Lama's, a Stetson, and pull up a bar stool for a longneck, kick up your heels for some boot-scootin,' or simply hang out, shoot some pool, and listen to a smokin' good country band.

Here are the 10 best country bars in the Valley, 10 rootin' tootin' spots where one might imagine John Wayne, if he weren't presently a ghost rider in the sky, dropping by for a brew after a day out on the range plugging the bad guys full of lead.

See also:

-Tucker Woodbury and Charlie Levy Bringing Country Joint The Western to Scottsdale

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Photo courtesy Edwin Bankston

Edwin Bankston in the cockpit, aboard the Navy aircraft carrier USS America.

In 1983, an unknown songwriter named Edwin Bankston decided that if no labels were interested in putting out his record -- a nine-song country-boogie album called Over There...and Over Here, credited to "The Red Rippers" -- he was going to put it out himself. Featuring stream-of-consciousness lyrics, psychedelic lead guitar, and a choogling backing band of Pensacola, Florida-based session players, the album's lyrics drew heavily on his time in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, chronicling the frustration, bitterness, and "psychic wackiness" of the war effort, and in turn, the American public's response to it.

Bankston pressed about 3,000 copies of the LP and packaged the vinyl in a stark red-and-black sleeve featuring his mustachioed face sporting a pair of aviators. He took out ads in military-minded periodicals like Soldier of Fortune, The Navy Times, and Stars and Stripes to sell the record, reading: "Combat Music? Yes." Not long thereafter, he gave up on music. But Over There . . . and Over There lived on, becoming a private-press treasure, valued by record collectors and selling for triple-digit sums on eBay. This month sees the first-ever reissue of the record, by North Carolina label Paradise of Bachelors.

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David Allan Coe

I have always been one of those metal heads that claims to listen to all musical genres--except for country. But in the past year, I've realized that classic country songs, with their imagery and energy, are pretty hard to dislike. Take David Allan Coe's "If That Ain't Country" for example. I was listening to this the other night and my first thought was, "Why the hell hasn't a metal band covered this song?"

"The old man was covered in tattoos and scars/some he got in prison and others in bars/ sometimes he'd get drunk and mean as a rattlesnake/and if that ain't country, I'll kiss your ass." Yes.

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Editor's note: Every couple weeks, Alan Scherstuhl, the film editor at our sister publication The Village Voice, will be taking a hard listen to the music in which millions of Americans soak. We're happy to share his findings.

By Alan Scherstuhl

Brad Paisley, Southern Comfort Zone
Current Billboard Country Singles Chart Position: 10
The Verdict: Holy shit, songs on the radio can still be important!

So, here, in a shimmering single whose title buzz markets a godawful no-whiskey whiskey liqueur, we have a black gospel choir belting "Dixie" while a Nashville star shreds his guitar and sings "I know what it's like to be in the minority." This is the future, people, and it's beautiful.

See also:

-The Five People You'll Meet at Country Thunder
-Big & Rich and Jake Owen at Country Thunder in Florence
-Darius Rucker: "Even If I Wasn't Playing It, I'd Be Listening to Country."

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See also: Q&A: Darius Rucker: "Even If I Wasn't Playing It, I'd Be Listening to Country."
See also: Seven of Music's Most Beautiful Mustaches to Inspire Your Mustache Movember Growth

[Editor's note: Country Time is a new biweekly column for our sister music blog in Seattle, celebrating that city's favorite musical genre: mainstream country.]

By Mike Seely

With the nation's major-party political conventions drawing to a close recently with a rousing reelection appeal from the nation's first black president, it seems fitting to cast a spotlight on an equally rare profession: the black country music artist. Or, rather, the former black pop star seeking to reinvigorate his career by moving to Nashville. Lionel Richie and Darius "Hootie" Rucker both fit this description. Fittingly, their performance of Richie's "Stuck On You" was just nominated for a Country Music Association award for duet of the year, quite certainly the first time two African-Americans have been nominated together in any category.

Will this mark an Obama-like moment in the genre's evolution? All signs point to yes.

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