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Joe Diffie Research Paper

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Joe Diffie entered a crowded field of talented, good-looking male country vocalists in early 1990; despite the competition, the clever lyricist with what People called a “booming tenor and wide-open vocal range” achieved stardom in a very short time, racking up an unprecedented series of chart successes. His appeal was due in great part to his ability to cross the boundary separating traditional country vocal styles from the pop and rock-influenced sound that has increasingly come to dominate Nashville’s musical output. Diffie is also versatile, a quality developed over years of diligent apprenticeship in several areas of the music business.

Born in Duncan, Oklahoma, in 1958, Diffie had musical ambitions from a tender age. He has an early memory of his father listening to a record by country music giant George Jones and saying that nobody else could sing like that. “And I thought, ’I can,‘” Diffie recalled. “When I got a little older, I was one of those guys who knew every dad-gum song on the radio and would run people crazy singing them all,” he told Bob Allen …show more content…

Country Music’s Rich Kienzle felt the album took Diffie “further into that idiom where he shows the gutsiness that many younger singers never quite catch. It’s New Traditionalism without compromise, but music that fans of certain more modern-sounding singers can enjoy as well.” Attitude sported up-tempo numbers worthy of lively line dances, “a modern take on hillbilly boogie of the 1940s and 50s,” and “sensitive, evocative and totally believable” ballads and “story songs.” Kienzle praised Diffie’s wit and sharp imagery throughout his critique and concluded, “Diffie’s found a focus and a strength here .... and if this is the direction he chooses to go in the future, it’s easy to anticipate more albums as good as this

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