What comes to mind when you think of country music?

I’ll rattle off a few things that come to mine: trucker hats, sleeveless flannels, romantic relationships with your tractor, a fat lip full of Skoal, grizzly middle aged white dudes with two first names and southern accents, gun-loving radical conservatives still wearing cowboy hats even though they’re a long way from the rodeo or the wild west, a good ol’ boy drinking a damn cold American Budweiser in his American-made truck. Wagon wheels. Hootie. Yee-haw.

Now everybody relax—I’m not trying to offend. The sad truth, however, is that these are the tropes and cliches that pop into the minds of a good amount of the music-loving population. The reality is, they’re wrong.

Country music has such a rich history—one that is perhaps unrivaled by that of any other American genre of music. Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline—these are some of the pioneers of not only country, but all American music that set the standard for what was to come.

To pigeonhole a genre that has come so far into this stereotypical subculture would be nothing short of an injustice. Where is the diversity and innovation in contemporary country music on which the genre itself was founded?

We’ve found it—in Nashville, at the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Music Fest at the Hall. From now through June 14, there will be no shortage of performances, interviews, and other events in which we’ll be searching for the diversity and innovation in today’s country music. From what we’ve seen so far—it’s a whole lot more than what many of you would expect.

Stay tuned as we bring you all of the updates on the continually evolving world of country music culture.

Giddy up!

By Joseph Afton