June 27 2016
“Three-Dimensional Country” – There Really Is A
World Of It Out There!
*
The Philosophy behind “Paul Hazell’s World Of
Country” on
www.uckfieldfm.co.uk
“Three
Dimensional Country” may be a new term – but the
music is real and most of it is not “new” – we just
need to hear more of it! The show has been running
now since October 2010 and has built a reputation
for being musically entertaining: varied and
unpredictable. The show goes out fortnightly on
Sunday evenings from 9pm-midnight UK time – that is
Sunday afternoon in the USA and Canada and early
Monday morning in Australia and New Zealand. In this
short feature, presenter Paul Hazell explains the
thinking behind the show
© Hill Photographic
Frank Ifield and Paul Hazell
Back in 2010
when Uckfield FM gave me the opportunity to present
my own 3 hour show, the Programme Director took a
risk. The station already had a popular country show
that had been on the air since the station started,
so the only way they could justify another country
show was if that show would be different.
Like so many of us in Country Music, I make my
living doing something else, so my time invested in
country music – both writing and presenting - is
largely a labour of love – I do it because I love
the music and want to share it with others. As a
presenter, I don’t get paid by Uckfield FM but they
do give me freedom to play whatever I and my
listeners feel is relevant and that is the beauty of
the show.
It had long been an ambition of mine to present a
country music show that opened the door to all
genres and sub-genres of country music – past and
present. I have so often heard people say “all
country music sounds the same” and I find that
frustrating in the extreme – I would propose the
counter argument that country music is at least as
diverse as any other genre – possibly more so. When
one adds in those hybrid sounds where country merges
with blues, swing, jazz, folk and rhythm ‘n blues,
it becomes amazingly diverse. So when this
opportunity came along, I snapped it up and proposed
a show that really would show that diversity. The
term “Three-dimensional country” was coined and
“Paul Hazell’s World Of Country” was born. The
“three dimensions“are:
*
Any sub-genre or
hybrid, so long as it has a country connection. This
embraces honkytonk, country gospel, bluegrass,
western swing, dawg music, Cajun, zydeco, bush
ballads, yodelling, cowboy songs, rockabilly, etc.
So listeners have been treated to the country rock
sounds of Mick Jagger singing along with Jerry Lee
Lewis, followed by the frantic Cajun fiddling of
Doug Kershaw, a tear-jearking bush ballad from the
Australian King Slim Dusty and a beautiful version
of “Home On The Range” by a Taiwanese yodeller!
*
Through the
decades – there is a mind-blowingly rich mass of
material to draw from – many shows tend to focus on
recent recordings but country music has been the
subject of recordings since the 1920s. I regularly
delve into back catalogue for “World Of Country” and
will play Jimmie Rodgers, Carson Robison or the
Allen Brothers alongside Alan Jackson or The Time
Jumpers. I will even go back to vinyl – yes pops,
crackles and hiss from time to time!!
*
From anywhere in the world where country music is
recorded – this opens the opportunities still
further. Over recent shows I have played tracks by
artistes from USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, mainland
Europe, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Japan,
Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc. There is so much great
country music in countries like Canada, Australia
and New Zealand for instance – where the way of life
has many parallels with the more traditional source
of the USA. Listen to the plaintive bush ballads
(the bush is the name for the Australian equivalent
of the prairie) of Buddy Williams, the warm crooning
country sound of Johnny Heap or the crying steel
guitar of Kenny Kitching. Then when you add in all
the other countries too, you can take in the old
timey sounds of England’s Brian Golbey, the western
ballads of South Africa’s Charles Jacobie, the
bluegrass of New Zealand’s Hamilton County Bluegrass
Band and the traditional country of the USA’s
Lorraine Chavana or New Zealand’s Shavonne Aliphon
and you have a truly eclectic mix.
We also have a chat room which becomes very lively
when the show is on. Listeners from different
countries exchange information and opinions about
the music; artistes often join in the chat.
I hear a lot from people and from the media and
record companies telling me what is and is not
country and what the public do and do not like.
I
find that there is a lot of great country music
being recorded today, in many parts of the USA but
also in many other parts of the world too. Just like
all other industries, country music has gone global.
But my audience also loves to hear the songs of
yesteryear – be they the digitally remastered sounds
of a hitherto rare artiste like Canada’s Luke
Simmons who made his name in new Zealand or
Australia’s Reg Lindsay or a crackly old EP on an
obscure label by an excellent but unknown artiste!
One thing is for sure though; traditional country
music is certainly not dead – whilst I play a lot of
current releases, I receive lots of favourable
comments for playing traditional sounds – be they
from today’s young acts or from old LPs and Eps and
– guess who my most requested artiste is? None other
than the man with the silver tonsils, the great Slim
Whitman.
Please feel welcome to join us on a Sunday evening
for some Three-Dimensional Country on “Paul
Hazell’s World Of Country” – the show is
informal and I aim to make it informative without
being overly heavy on talk. The listeners seem to
like it that way and the show is gradually building
a following both in the UK and other countries.
PAUL HAZELL ©2016 Paul Hazell & Joyce Ramgatie
_____________________________________________________________
Contact Details:
* You can listen live on
www.uckfieldfm.co.uk, where
the chatroom can be found by clicking on the
“webcams and chat” option near the top right of the
screen
* you can see recent playlists and listen to a few
selected past editions of the show at
http://www.uckfieldfm.co.uk/shows/paul-hazells-world-of-country
* you can email me during the show using
studio@uckfieldfm.co.uk
* Personal email is
paul@pithon.co.uk
* If you are an artiste with music you feel would
fit in with this format, you can send CDs to:
Paul Hazell,
Royal Mail Building (Box 3),
Brambleside,
Bellbrook Industrial Estate,
Uckfield, East Sussex,
United Kingdom
TN22 1Xx
CDs are preferable to MP3’s as I work from CDs and
MP3 files have to be accumulated to be written to CD
before they are used.
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