As to whether Brown is a hack. Purely from the standpoint of musicianship, he is not. In fact, he displayed some good technique at times, even if his speed-picking sounds stiff and frantic. But at one point, and I can’t remember which song this was, he was playing solo, thumping his guitar for bass-drum sounding notes as he pulled off chords with his fretting hand after some hybrid-picked chords. That is not hack work.

James, you and your peers may dislike his songwriting, but he is clearly tapped into something that draws them by the hundreds of thousands (and the DMB of country comparison is probably apt). From an objective standpoint, though, his sidemen are anything but hacks — in fact, they are outstanding players and harmonizers, any of whom would have no problem finding steady band work if they were not part of Brown’s act.

As for the genre, Brown’s biggest hits are most definitely country songs, by the modern definition. Classic country it is not, though his fiddle player gets in more work in a night than any fiddle player I’ve seen in the valley’s sheds. Others have a light ska influence, some are more like harder-edged adult contemporary, and a couple are outright jazz-fusion numbers.

Now, you fellows behave yourselves.

Blog posts that contain … personal attacks on other commenters or individuals in the news will be rejected. … petty name-calling is never appropriate.

Gentlemen, I believe it’s possible for you both to make your points without calling each other stupid.

The 7 members of ZBB are all EXTREMELY talented at what they do. Any artist would admit that. In fact, many go out of their way to point out respect to ZBB. To be fair, ZBB doesn’t bill themselves as country James West…the media does because it’s the easiest peg.