CD, you are a man after my own heart... I like "real" country artists like Randy Travis, Lionel Cartwright and Patty Loveless, too.
Modern "country music" is just mediocre pop and rock with a little rap mixed in... none of the current "country" artists are "real" country artists like we had prior to 2000... without steel guitars and fiddles and good, natural country twangs, "country" music just ain't Country anymore... we have lost "real country music" forever now... there was murder on music row in 2000... but it will live in the "real country music" of the 1940s through the year 2000... from Ernest Tubb to George Strait... yep, that is country.
Sorry, these post-2000 singers are not "real country" singers:
Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Taylor Swift, Rascal Flatts, Darius Rucker, Carrie Underwood, Kane Brown, Eric Church, Thomas Rhett, Dierks Bentley, The Band Perry, Little Big Town, Maren Morris, Lady Antebellum, Dan + Shay and all of the wimpy modern-day "country" singers are not "real country" singers... it a shame how these singers have ruined "real country" music.
Here are two "real" country singers, George Strait and Alan Jackson telling the story of what killed real country music.
Here is "Murder on Music Row"... modern-day phony "country" radio stations didn't play this song when it was released... but I guarantee "real" country music fans wanted to hear it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94gLc6o_TVI