During the past couple of years the country music industry has experienced of extreme highs and lows, as it merged with today's pop sound, creating an abundance of copycat acts and ordinary, unimaginative music. Welcome to the era of 'Cookie Cutter Country', with minimal signs of relief. 

Just when we manage to find something unique and refreshing, the country music industry's trend-o-matic meter sounds the alarm, and before we know it, a half a dozen clones are created, marketed to capitalize on the coattails of the initial success. Whenever a white knight comes riding in from stage left, we can be assured that it'll be quickly followed by an entry from stage right of at least a dozen hybrids looking for their own time in the spotlight.

Take for instance, Texas Country music. It's hot! Chances are that if you’ve heard of someone new on the country music scene, they hail from the Lonestar state They've established their own radio play chart and the record sales alone are astounding with sales up over 200% from the same time last year. Its enough to make any Texan proud, right? Well, maybe if you’re anyone but Charlie Robison. Known for not pulling any punches, Charlie doesn't mince words when he talks about the current music emerging out of his home state.

"Everybody and their dog has jumped on the bandwagon," he exasperates, "Its like everything else. I love Texas music, I love being a part of it, but its gotten to be like boy bands. There were all my heroes, guys who have been doing if for a long time, and now we see all these people. It’s just like everyone’s becoming another N’Sync down there. I think the music has really sort of suffered because of that."

"It sounds like a goddamn tourist commercial, as long as they say Austin, Gruene Hall, Lonestar Beer and floating down the Guadeloupe and all that kind of stuff, all these little catch phrases. Its crap. Texas has always been about intelligence of writing and really pushing the boundaries of music, these people are really homogenizing it, and its just as bad as the people who are homogenizing Nashville."

Charlie acknowledges that creating music around your life experiences and home turf is nothing new, and he points to a couple of his personal favorites when talking about the right way to do it. "You can be like Springsteen, he's one of my favorites and Tom Waits is a favorite. Waits would write about New York or LA, or Springsteen would write about New Jersey," he states "but it wasn’t like "Come on down to New Jersey, to Atlantic City, da, da, da, da" That’s just bullshit. It’s just somebody coming up with a way to make money."

Charlie views musical integrity as a personal responsibility. "There’s not really a machine, it’s the individuals that do it themselves. It’s just really such a shame about music and trends." he says. "When anyone sees something going well it doesn’t take long. Little Richard was singing Tutti-Frutti, and  it didn’t take long for somebody to find Pat Boone to sing it to appeal to the masses."  

And then there's Nashville

It isn't just current state of Texas country music that's the target of Robison's direct brand of disdain, Nashville also receives its fair share. "I get so mad right now, everyone in Nashville’s writing songs about diseases. There’s a song about Alzheimer’s, there’s a song about cancer, there’s a song about whatever, and it’s like ‘Man, you’re not writing these songs because you ‘care’, because you’re moved by something, you’re writing these songs because it’s a cheap way to get radio play. It’s just so sad to me that somebody would do that."

Working in an industry that epitomizes commerciality, Charlie seems to fight conformity every step of the way, preferring to stand out against the crowd, rather than blend in.  As a result, his Columbia/Lucky Dog release "Step Right Up" defies categorization. "Its giving commerciality a new definition, rather than you becoming commercial. Before Kurt Cobain ever started ‘grunge’ that was the anti-commercial thing and because it was so good, it became the touchstone, the earmark of what commercial became." He attributes to his wife's multi-platinum success with the Dixie Chicks' to their willingness to push the creative envelope. "If you’d said she'd be sitting up there singing, with a banjo as one of the main instruments, and that it was going to be the biggest thing in country music everybody would have laughed you off the face of the earth, and yet they redefined what commerciality was."

Fans have a lot to look forward to over the next little while. Charlie's getting set to release his next single, 'Right Man For The Job', after reworking it recently in the studio. "I quit smoking a year ago, and my voice has changed dramatically. I've gained a full step, my voice has gotten a lot higher since I quit smoking so I had to go back in and re-sing it."  

The much talked about duet with Natalie Maines, 'The Wedding Song' is currently scheduled to be the album's third single. Both singles will be released with videos. "We tried to do a video for the Wedding Song a long time ago, over Christmas time, but with her being so pregnant, it was just hard to get everything done together. We are definitely going to be doing a video for that song, we already have it all set out. Its going to be a beautiful video and can’t wait to see what it’s like to do it in a couple of months. We’re going to try to capture the whole experience, showing the sadness and the beauty of it. A wedding, it’s a death and a birth at the same time."

In addition, he's planning a duet project with his brother Bruce this year, as well as a live album. As far as the timing of his next studio project goes, it'll take care of itself. " I spend a lot of time right now, jotting down anecdotal things, and then I'll sit down look at all of these little notepads, these little subjects that I’ve found intriguing over the last year and a half on the road and then I'll write the record, if it takes longer than that then that’s okay, that’s just the way that I do it. I would much rather make a good record than make a record on time. I’m not going to wait 8 years or anything, but I don’t feel that every 365 days there needs to be a new record in the stores."

One things for certain, whatever Charlie does, it'll bear his own mark, and won't look or sound like anyone or anything else.