german line marching
if you have ever attended a regular country music show in germany, you will know the type: middle aged to older people, with the occasional son or daughter interspersed, members of a "country and western club". they wear tacky and tasteless clothes with large eagles, shiny, glittery applets of boots or roses, paintbrushed indian faces and other motifs they regard as "country". lots of hats with fox tails, feathers, turquois things ("adobe style"), and they display german flags in the errant conviction that this shows their countryness.
they will clap like at oktoberfest, as if someone promised them a nice spot in heaven if they manage to never ever in their life clap offbeat but always - like good german soldiers - on 1 and 3. most characteristically, they will line dance to every song. it doesnt matter if its slow or up beat, if its sad or happy. they will imitate the moves that they have been shown by some half wit instructor and rote memorized with all their limited cognitive capacity. they will dance fiercly and highly concentrated - facing the remaining audience, and you can read their concentration and fear of "doing something differently from what we have practiced last tuesday night from 6 to 8" in their eyes and tense faces. it is like someone took it from the great encyclopedia of stereotypes: the germans don't dance as much as they march. german line marching is the preferred dance to country music in germany.
in short: these people are vestimentarily, rhythmically, and culturally challenged. while they cannot give country music a bad name, as country music is so big that it simply won't be afflicted by these german "cowboys" in the slightest, they are an unfortunate nuisance at country music shows in germany. the occasions to see some real country are lamentably rare already.
but its a good thing that artists like, for example, kim carson whom i had a repeat pleasure of watching perform with the great mighty enablers at hechingen on the swabian alb are simply too great to actually spoil the experience overall.
lets go to the video tape.
to say it in the words of the beloved mary shannon:
in order to remind us of just how great country music is, here goes kim carson once more, with out the line marching:
