Willie Nelson in Texas

NASHVILLE - Last month, albums by Johnny Cash and George Jones were in Billboard magazine's Top 20 for country music and Willie Nelson had a Top 10 country single with a duet. None of this would be especially noteworthy — these country icons are hardly strangers to the top of the charts — except that Mr. Cash and Mr. Jones are 71 and Mr. Nelson is 70.

Country may be as eager to tap the youth market as any branch of popular music is, but it appears to be the only one in which septuagenarians are still a vital force.

"Country music has always been adult music sung by adults," said Bruce Hinton, the chairman emeritus of MCA Records Nashville. "Obviously this could never happen on the pop side, and I'm just glad there is still some recognition of these masters, even if it's not as frequent as we would all like."

Mainstream country radio rarely plays records by these elder statesmen, except those by Willie Nelson, whose hit single "Beer for My Horses" (DreamWorks) is sung with Toby Keith, a comparative young buck at 41. Getting even less air time are songs by older women who are stars, like Dolly Parton, 57, and Loretta Lynn, 69. Tammy Wynette, who died in 1998, had her last Top 10 radio hit in 1985.

But with fan bases that are both older and more loyal than those of other music, some singers continue working the road even into their 90's. With simple songs that never lose their appeal, country artists clearly have no mandatory retirement age. Neither do some of the more venerable stars of rock and folk music, like Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones, all in their 60's or approaching them but still active, as is the folk singer Pete Seeger, now in his 80's, and the bluesman B. B. King and the rock 'n' roll pioneer Chuck Berry, both in their 70's. But they are rarely on today's charts.

George Jones getting the crowd in Tennessee to help out with "I Don't Need No Rockin Chair."

"I believe it's simply because Johnny and Willie and myself and [Merle] Haggard have stayed with what I call honest music," Mr. Jones said in a telephone interview. "We've never tried to be much more than what we are. We're just open with our lives and the way we live, and that's what we sing." Mr. Nelson, whose recent duet partners also include Sheryl Crow, 40, and Norah Jones, 24, expects to play 200 dates this year.

Mr. Jones just completed a 30-day tour of Canada, where he played 17 shows, and his album "The Gospel Collection: George Jones Sings the Greatest Stories Ever Told," was most recently at No. 24 in Billboard's country album charts, a dip from No. 19 in early May.

"I'll tell you what, money could never buy that loyalty," Mr. Jones said of country fans. "My crowds are two-thirds older people and about one-third younger people. It's just wonderful to know you've got both."

Hazel Smith of Country Music magazine, the matriarch of Nashville's music journalists, said that "70-year-old Willie Nelson works his tail off doing 19 or 20 dates a month, like he's always done."

"Ditto Jones," she said, "who works mostly on weekends like he's always done. Recently, Cash has worked hard just to stay alive."

Mr. Cash, whose wife, June Carter Cash, died on May 15, sings about his own failing health in the haunting song and video "Hurt," from his album "American IV: The Man Comes Around." The song was originally recorded by the rock band Nine Inch Nails in 1994. The Cash video was played on VH1 and MTV2 and was No. 1 on Country Music Television.

"One reason for the staying power of males is their sheer number of hits over the years," said Mike O'Malley of Albright & O'Malley Country Radio Consultants in Milltown, N.J. "Every year we track the country radio audiences' favorite songs," he said, and two to three times as many songs in the Top 100 are from men as from women.

That is something of a paradox, since modern country radio is aimed mainly at women in their mid-30's and the audience is often considered to be 60 percent female, said Scott Lindy, program director of the country music station WPOC-FM in Baltimore. Young stars like Kenny Chesney and the Dixie Chicks attract millions of teenage fans. But for Mr. Jones and many lovers of traditional country music, mainstream country radio has lost touch with its roots.

Dolly Parton, 57, continues to win critical acclaim and Grammys.

Copyright © 2002 Global Action on Aging
Terms of Use  |  Privacy Policy  |  Contact Us