Nope Country

Round four in Patrick and Andrea's festive tournament features cynics and grinches finding the holiday spirit in some unlikely places. The films up this time are: The Nine Lives of Christmas (2014, Hallmark)Holiday in the Wild (2019, Netflix)Holidate (2020, Netflix)Operation Christmas Drop (2020, Netflix)

Round three in Patrick and Andrea's festive tournament features a holiday visit to the small towns of St. Martinville, Snow Falls, Idyllwild and Nelson Creek: Christmas on the Bayou (2013, Lifetime)The Christmas Inheritance (2017, Netflix)Naughty & Nice (2014, Hallmark)The Christmas Calendar (2017, Hallmark)Our theme music:Christmas Rap by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3505-christmas-rapLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Round two in Patrick and Andrea's festive tournament to pick a winner among 16 straight-to-TV holiday romance movies. The theme this time: time travel: 12 Dates of Christmas (2011, ABC Family)The Spirit of Christmas (2015, Lifetime)Correcting Christmas (2014, ION/MarVista)The Knight Before Christmas (2019, Netflix)Strongly recommended: Kevin Stroud's History of English Podcast.Our theme music:Christmas Rap by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3505-christmas-rapLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Patrick and Andrea are pitting 16 holiday romance films against each other in a festive tournament to determine which straight-to-TV release reigns supreme. First up, four films about royalty: "A Christmas Prince," "The Princess Switch," "Christmas With A Prince" and "A Christmas in Royal Fashion."Our theme music:Christmas Rap by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3505-christmas-rapLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

With help from our listeners, and with questionable success, we try to answer the most bedeviling question in country music: What makes an artist real country?Artists discussed in this episode include: Kenny Chesney, Dolly Parton, Keith Urban, Eric Church, Hank Williams, plus a brief reference — "mamas, trains, trucks and prison" — to David Allan Coe's "You Never Even Called Me By My Name."

We rank 20 Nashville stars according to their country-ness, and with help from a listener survey, we introduce some metrics to the age-old question of who is real country.

After enduring the 1980 film "Urban Cowboy," Andrea and Patrick try to understand the strange power it had over the nation upon its release, how it made country cool and remade Nashville in ways that endure today. Also, why you should skip the movie and watch a Midland music video instead.

Andrea and Patrick discuss a recent Dwight Yoakam show and Don McLeese's biography, "A Thousand Miles from Nowhere," on the way to discussing Dwight's signature brand of weirdness; his country sexpot persona; and why you had better run if you see him hatless (at least if you are Jodie Foster).

Andrea and Patrick take a quick tour through the hot country charts; we talk Sam Hunt, Kane Brown and the future of country; and we ask, in the wake of Charlottesville, who in Nashville is speaking up about racism?

Most of Nashville is treading lightly around politics in the Trump era, but it wasn't always this way. We discuss how country first embraced the GOP, riffing on J. Lester Feder's work on Nixon and Nashville. Then we consider political messaging from Brad Paisley and the Brothers Osborne. Also: "celebrity cornhole challenge."

On the weekend of Toby Keith’s all-male Riyadh revue, we consider country music as propaganda from the Depression to 9/11, against enemies without and within. Discussion includes an essay by Andrew Boulton, Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A.," Darryl Worley's "Have You Forgotten?" and Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue."

Our first episode tackles the most ubiquitous of bro country narratives: the country boy who woos a sophisticated lady away from the city with his down-home charm. Discussion includes an essay by Jocelyn R. Neal, Billy Currington's "Good Directions," Justin Moore's "Bait a Hook" and the Dixie Chicks' "Cowboy Take Me Away."