Hi Wil,

Either the writer is a bit confused or I am - or we both are! If the text is from Spain, the only "country music" we speak about is the style born in the Southern U.S. back in the 1920's (according to Wikipedia).

My take on this is that he wants to point out that it's the "good ol' stuff" and not your modern over-produced-music-industry type of country music. The fact that he states "not American", when country music is one of the most American styles of popular music is quite strange.

Let's see what others think of it.

Good luck!

Álvaro :O) :O)

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Note added at 29 mins (2007-09-13 10:46:47 GMT)
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Hi Wil,

Surprise, surprise! I've just done a bit more reading on this on Wikipedia. At the foot of the Spanish entry for country there's a list:
Variantes del Country

**Americana ***
Bluegrass
Country contemporáneo
Country neo-tradicional o Nuevo tradicionalismo.
Country folk
Country rock
Country pop
Cowboy
Cowpunk
Honky tonk
New Western Swing
Old time o Appalachian folk o Hillbilly
Outlaw country
Rock sureño
Sonido Bakersfield
Tex Mex
Urban Cowboy
Western Swing

If you link to Americana, you'll find the following:
Americana (género musical)
De Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre

El Americana es un género musical basado en la música tradicional de Estados Unidos, y fusionado con elementos o puntos de vista más actuales y/o "alternativos". Toma prestados elementos del folk, rock, country blues, bluegrass, country alternativo o rockabilly. El género es una especie de cajón de sastre en el que se introducen los grupos y músicos que, en la actualidad, tocan variantes de la música de raíces estadounidense; suelen tener en común el aportar una dosis de "misticismo", una mística de los espacios abiertos; en general se considera como pionero del género a Gram Parsons, músico que cambió la concepción del country en los 60 y 70, dándole ese toque místico.

Uno de los máximos exponentes del sonido americana es la revista bi-mensual No Depression. El nombre de la revista se obtuvo del álbum homónimo del grupo Uncle Tupelo, uno de los grupos que puso el americana en el centro del panorama musical, tanto estadounidense como mundial.

El término Americana, muchas veces se emplea como sinónimo de ***Country alternativo***.

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From there you can follow the link to the equivalent English entry:

Americana (music)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Have questions? Find out how to ask questions and get answers. •Jump to: navigation, search
Americana is a loose subset of American roots music, that is perhaps best defined as "classic American music" — ranging in style from folk, country blues, bluegrass, alternative country, rockabilly, neotraditional and roots rock. Americana music is one of the focuses of the bi-monthly U.S. magazine No Depression.

In recent years, the genre can be seen as being typified by artists such as The Be Good Tanyas, Dave Alvin, The Band, Susan Cowsill, The Creekdippers, the Derailers, Bob Dylan, Steve Earle, Rosie Flores, Emmylou Harris, The Jayhawks, Jim Lauderdale, Will Oldham (a.k.a. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy), Otis Johnson Band, Tom Russell, Michelle Shocked, Son Volt, Uncle Tupelo, Lucinda Williams, Victoria Williams, Neil Young, and Martin Zellar, each of whom incorporate themes of cultural Americana in their songwriting (although it should be noted that not all of these bands are American - e.g. Neil Young and Robbie Robertson, founding member of "The Band", are both Canadian).

Americana music is more likely to be played on Triple-A, Internet radio or noncommercial college radio stations than on commercial country radio.

More and more people are tuning into alternative country, roots and folk, which all fit into Americana. In addition to the the above mentioned artists there are many more newer and older artists who can be classified as Americana John Prine, Todd Snider, Jeff Finlin, Telegraph Canyon, Shelby Lynne, Johnny Cash, Rodney Crowell, Hayes Carll, Adam Caroll, Sara Petite, Graham Weber, Wrinkle Neck Mules, Marty Stuart, Kris Kristofferson, Jim Lauderdale, Sunny Sweeney, Carrie Rodriguez, Eve Selis, Loretta Lynn, Iris Dement, Jim White, Gillian Welch, Mary Gauthier, Darrell Scott and more....





[edit] Gothic Americana
Today a growing collective of musicians from across the country are taking a darker, more rustic approach to the genre, creating a subculture commonly referred to as "Gothic-Americana". Many credit this style's origins to the artists that came from the Denver scene in the mid to late 90's, such as the Denver Gentlemen and 16 Horsepower. Today's gothic americana musicians blend traditional folk, gypsy, blues, bluegrass, and country with a much darker side, focused on songs of tragedy and murder. Pushed along by bands such as Slim Cessna's Auto Club and Jay Munly, Strawfoot, Gravemist, Reverend Glasseye, Curtis Eller, the Monads, Creech Holler, William Elliott Whitmore and many others, fans are growing in large numbers around the world, breathing new life into the Americana sound.

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Therefore, the first part "americano no" could be translated as "not the Americana type" or "not the wishy-washy stuff but..."

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Hope that clears it up.

Luck!

:O) :O)

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Note added at 23 hrs (2007-09-14 09:28:53 GMT) Post-grading
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Thanks for the link Wil. Not a great country fan as you may have guessed from the amount of research I needed to get to the bottom of this, but I'll have a listen!

Cheers.

:O) :O)