It’s amazing to me how modern country music has lost its differentiation from other forms of modern music, like it sold its soul to rock and roll. Today it all seems like just rock music with just a touch of country added, no doubt to stay more mainstream and modern.
What a breath of fresh air it was, then, for me to listen to WHO I AM from TJ Hernandez.
Immediately upon clicking on the first track in my player, I realized I wasn’t listening to mainstream country pop music. (Huzzah!) I was listening to old school country--in voice, lyrics and musicianship, this was country music as it was when it was known as Country and Western!
The songs are lyrical stories, with the first song, “Corporate Man,” being a well-constructed song. Just by reading the lyrics you would say, “This is a Country & Western song.” And with its pedal steel and twangy guitar, it completes the picture.