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Scott Lawson's avatar

Did you consider when looking at where they were born, most people living in small towns weren’t born there? My home town had about a thousand people and no hospital. I was born in a nearby, larger town with a hospital. Whether we sing country or not there may be fewer than 30% of us who grew up in small towns actually born there.

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Nolan Eoghan (not a robot)'s avatar

Great stats. However I think the official definition of small town probably is a bit low. If a country singer is from a town of 10k is he closer culturally to a small town as defined in the census, or a city dweller? I don’t know where the boundary for this exactly is but it’s probably higher than 5k. To me, below 2,500 is village territory.

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Dia Lupo's avatar

So happy to have stumbled upon this! Absolutely fascinating. As someone from a small town (Danville, PA - population 4,200) who grew up listening to these artists, I think I always had some innate skepticism about whether they could actually relate to my experience. As I’ve gotten older and lived in Philly for years, though, my view of what defines a small town is less about population and more about lifestyle, culture/diversity, landscape, socioeconomics, etc. For example, my friend is from Altoona, PA which has a population of around 43k, and I still look at our upbringings as analogous. :) anyway... loved the piece!

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Malcolm J McKinney's avatar

I was born in 1945 in a 10k town in mid OH and can plow a straight furrow.

I write country, blues, folk, Liberal political, pop, etc and have my tenth or so recording of my song Don't Cry Blue coming out as a single. See YouTube.

Some part of my personality is always apparent in my lyrics. I guess that might qualify me as real country. My Substack is still a baby and has no paywall.

Thanks for the info, I am very interested in all aspects of music creativity.

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Chris Dalla Riva's avatar

Thanks for the share! Was great to collab

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