If you haven’t heard yet, Josh of Country Perspective announced yesterday via Twitter that the blog’s hiatus would probably be permanent. I acknowledged it on Twitter, but it wasn’t nearly all I wanted to say.
Country Perspective, and Josh and Derek, helped make this possible for me. When I was all but converted to a pop fan in late 2014 and early 2015, I found that blog and started hearing names like Jason Eady, Courtney Patton, Lindi Ortega…I could go on, but they are part of the reason I came back to country in the first place. When I grew passionate about doing this myself and started this blog in June 2015, they encouraged me. Josh and I didn’t always agree, but that was fine; when I posted a piece about genre lines in response and somewhat rebuttal to one of his, he posted it on Twitter, of all things. He was good like that, encouraging discussion and differences of opinion. Even if we differed somewhat in opinion, he was good at fostering that, and that’s something that not all blogs and writers strive for. He inspired me in a lot of ways, but that one has affected me the most.
Josh and Derek still continued to introduce me to music even after I started writing, indeed right up to the hiatus of Country Perspective. In addition to the artists I mentioned, I have them to thank for Kasey chambers, Sam Outlaw, and probably others I’m forgetting. They were both passionate about music and writing, and Josh, I can understand how that passion didn’t translate into running a blog. But thank you for sharing that passion with all of us.
Lastly, I want to thank Josh in particular, and this is a bit of a personal thing. He cared so much about his readers, and for me, that meant even more than it probably did to most. I remember asking on occasion what pictures or iTunes reviews said on his posts because my screen reader couldn’t read them. I remember him describing them; it got to where commenters would do that too, but it started with Josh. at one time, he had a podcast and said he would consider putting it on iTunes if that were more accessible than SoundCloud. I was one of his readers; yes, he may have, and probably did have, other blind readers, but because of one he listened. That’s not something you find everywhere, particularly with someone who has so many readers and commenters, and I am grateful for that.
So it makes me sad to say this, but for now, this is farewell to Country Perspective. Thanks for what you did for all of us. You will be missed.
I never really commented on Country Perspective, but I have to agree. The site was a great resource for finding new music. They were all great writers, too. I will miss it.
In a perfect, that horrific blog would’ve just stayed dormant. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world, and that abomination of a blog returned a couple months ago . Say what you will about Country Exclusive, Country Universe, or Farce the Music, but their criticism of horrible music is warranted and usually well thought-out. On the other hand, Josh Schott (the knucklehead who runs Country Perspective) spends a small chunk of his posts actually criticizing the song, yet focuses on making stupid sarcastic statements which make him sound just as douchey as the bro-country singers he’s criticizing. I myself hate sarcasm, and Josh only makes me hate it even more. He virtually bashes every mainstream country artist (save for Eric Church and Chris Stapleton), and it’s like he tries to find every single flaw they have, no matter how trivial it is, and magnifies it to the extreme. I’ve seen him bash Luke Combs and Jon Pardi multiple times already, despite the music that they released being actually decent (i.e., Luke Combs’ recent COVID-19 themed song “Six Feet Apart”). Josh Schott from Country Perspective should simply give up. I’d pay good money to see Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett beat up that blubbering sarcastic moron Josh Schott.