Darius Rucker went from Hootie and the Blowfish to singing country music. Taylor Swift went from country to pop. Who was the greatest musician to change genres in their careers? And is there someone who peformed multiple genres like Elvis did?
What was the most dramatic switch ever? And remember who wrote "The Pusher" that was a hit by Steppenwolf? Hoyt Axton.

+++ Mark Knopler +++ has had a varied career.

He became well known as the songwriter, vocalist and lead guitarist of the rock group, Dire Straits.

He switched to singing and playing country music with the Nottingham Hillbillies and Grammy winning album recorded with Chet Atkins, "Neck and Neck".

Mark Knofler produced the Bob Dylan album, Infidels.

Mark Knofler wrote music scores for several films including Local Hero, The Princess Bride and Wag The Dog.

Mark Knopfler worked with +++ The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra +++ to develop a full symphonic orchestra score.

Mark Knopfler has received several honorary Doctorate of Music degrees even though he can not read music.

+++ Brian Setzer +++ first found fame in the rockabilly group +++ Stray Cats +++

After that he formed another group, +++ The Brian Setzer Orchestra +++ to play big band music.

Kid Rock was first a rapper. He then went to rock and now does country.

Hank III started out doing heavy metal and now does outlaw country.

Steven Tyler - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee announced the other day that he is hitting the road with Nashville's Loving Mary Band.

Garth Brooks did a stint as an alternative rock artist. He was Chris Gaines from Australia. I think he is maybe gonna star on SNL as Chris Gaines. I haven't ever heard his music as Chris Gaines. Of course Kenny Rodgers was a long haired rocker with an earring for awhile and later went country. He did good on the country side and won a few awards. Hank lll mixes it up from full blown country to metal country.

We all remember Hootie before he became Darius Rucker.

Long list of rockers dating back to the beginning of Rock.

Early rockers switching from rock to country -

Johnny Cash
Carl Perkins
Elvis
Rick Nelson aka - Garden Party
Conway Twitty

Gospel to pop
Amy Grant duet with Peter Cetera

Country Rockers

Jim messina was with Buffalo Springfield, then Poco and later a pop star again with kenny loggins - Loggins and messina

Chris Hillman was rock with the Byrds and country with the Desert Rose Band

Keith Knudsen - Doobie Brothers - Country - Southern Pacific

John McFee - Doobie Brothers - Country - Southern Pacific

Jerry Scheff - Doobie Brothers Country - Souther Pacific

Stu Cook - Creedence Clearwater Revival - Country - Southern Pacific

Kenny Rogers who went from playing Vegas as Kenny Rogers And The First Edition (What Condition Your Condition Was In) to...

Bob

He put out a "country" song the other year. It was bad. Brett Micheals did the same. They really should just stick to rock.

Talk about bad how about Rod Stewart singing jazz standards

Yeah, pretty sad indeed!

I would love to see him do another blues album with Jeff Beck, he has a great voice for that type of material. But, not too likely.

Just as song crossover..the Rollings Stones little tune 'The Girl with Faraway Eyes'. It has hillbilly overtones and pedal steel in it. Eagles crops the country boundary in several of there hits. In fact their rock music from the seventies is today's country. Remember the song' Don't Bogart that Joint"? It reminded me of Buck Owens. I don't recollect who sang it. Our old friend and rocker Tom Petty had country in his blood. He did the old Hank Williams song"Lost Highway".
Of course the song which was brought up on another thread"Down to Seeds and Stems". Another rocker country tune. When you think about fast picking which jams down more metal rock or blue grass?
C.Dan

Really digging some of the choices that have been listed here! So many good ones, and when you see artists shifting genres gradually you don't always recognize the change right away.

David Bowie comes to mind for me. He went from making rock classics, to releasing electronica albums in the 90's.

I'm not sure he ever did that. His singing is NO different. The music isn't much different either. I would say it was more that country changed than him. Even "Wagonwheel" felt much more H&BF.

I'm not sure THIS qaulifies for what you were speaking of, but it's definitely out of this performers element.

Only comment on your reaction. Don't say who it is or what they did. Leave the surprise for others. But honestly, did you see THIS coming?

You Can't Un-Hear It

The Mavericks used to genre switch a lot..
They would soft rock it with "The Air That I Breathe" (cover of the Hollies) ...Country down with songs like "There Goes My Heart"..or Raul's killer vocals with their cover of "Blue Moon"
To the Spanish side with "Ven Hacia Mi" and Volver Volver.
Rodger Creager Does it to going from Texas country songs like "Things Look Good Around Here" and "Having Fun All Wrong", to Tejano songs like "Celito Lindo" and "Rancho Grande.
C.Dan

Paul McCartney recorded Jr's Farm in Nashville - Sally G had a country flavor about it.

Many bands did the acoustical unplugged thing...I even heard of a Twisted Willie CD that came out but I have never listened to it.
Did AC/DC ever do an unplugged gig? The slowest song I ever heard by them was "Ride On"...Even Jakyl has a country type song called the "Secret of the Bottle" With some country pedal steel in it.
C.Dan

Kenny Rogers started out as a jazz bass player.

Then a Rock Star with his band The First Edition.

And followed that act as a Country Music star.

---

The Pointer Sister's first album was vocal jazz, then they discovered pop and made a fortune.

---

To many musicians, the lines between genres are blurred.

Paul McCartney fairly recently released his album "Kisses on the Bottom", which is definitely not his normal style.

1. I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter
2. Home (When Shadows Fall)
3. It's Only a Paper Moon
4. More I Cannot Wish You
5. The Glory of Love
6. We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)
7. Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive
8. My Valentine
9. Always
10. My Very Good Friend the Milkman
11. Bye Bye Blackbird
12. Get Yourself Another Fool
13. The Inch Worm
14. Only Our Hearts

The unique album title came from the first song:

I'm gonna sit right down and write myself a letter
And make believe it came from you
I'm gonna write words, oh, so sweet
They're gonna knock me off my feet
A lotta kisses on the bottom
I'll be glad I got 'em

Some really awesome suggestions in this thread - going to have to jot some down to check out later

Just curious if anyone has checked out the video I posted? It is EVERY kind of wrong.

I did and it is.

Jesse James Dupree uses a lot of country tones and riffs in some of the Jakyl songs. I think he is the best chainsaw player I have ever seen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ1Q7xydJPU (Lumberjack) and (Headed for Destruction) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scqFlnek0-0
C.Dan
I wonder if he could come to the studios and lay down some Chainsaw tracks for real tracks?

John Ford, actually I'm not surprised. Paul always seemed to have an affinity for 1930s-1940s style music writing songs like "When I'm Sixty-Four", "Martha My Dear" and a few others.

Another switcher:

Gerry Mulligan started as a jazz baritone saxophonist, then started writing serious orchestral music that was definitely not in the jazz genre, and then went back to jazz bari sax.

And another:

Andre Previn switched from jazz pianist to the conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.

One more:

Benny Goodman started as a Klezmer clarinetist and then turned into the 'King of Swing'.

Not exactly a switch, but John Lord from Deep Purple wrote a "Concerto For Group And Orchestra" (it's actually quite good) and Billy Joel as William Joel wrote a classical album called "Fantasies & Delusions" and hired classical pianist Richard Hyung-ki Joo to play it on the album.

I think many of us think of music as music and different genres more as different ways to express ourselves. I think the public worries more about genres because we as humans like to classify everything. But on our gigs we regularly play Rock mixed with Jazz mixed with Country mixed with Salsa mixed with Reggae and at least a half dozen other genres of music, and the audience doesn't seem to mind at all. I see Darius Rucker's "Wagon Wheel" and Rick Derringer's "Rock And Roll Hootchie Coo" more closely related than the audience probably does.

Insights and incites by Notes

I think of music as music. Sometimes I listen head-banging rock, other times classical, then instrumental pop, then country, the jazz, then soul, then blues, then novelty, etc.

I also don't feel the need to pigeon-hole an artist in a particular genre either. That's why I like it when someone like Paul McCartney does an album of standards or Billy Joel writes classical music (I have and enjoy the CD).

Granted, not everyone can pull it off, but enough have.

And there was the Osmonds who had a good career run. They did anything from barbershop quartet to disco. Mostly as a group they did bubblegum pop. The did some rock and later some disco. Marie Osmond did well in dabbling into country, She nailed a number 1 with "Paper Roses". And did well with her duet with Dan Seals "Meet me in Montana" which I like.
C.Dan

Music is music, and like you, genre lines are not important and sometimes even impossible.

Some people consider themselves "Rock Musicians", "Country Musicians", "Classical Musicians" or whatever. If someone asks me, I just say "Musician".

I've played Classical, Rock, Country, Jazz, Folk, Latin American, Afro-Caribbean, Pop and many other genres. And the more I do it, I see more in common with the genres than differences.

Often a successful musician plays the kind of music that puts bread on his/her table. When I was on the road to being almost-famous I got to meet a lot of famous musicians. The public would be surprised to find Country Musicians secretly loving jazz, Rock Musicians secretly loving Classical, or whatever.

Late in his life I got to meet Chet Atkins. He came into a restaurant/bar we were playing at, the waitress whispered "That's Chet Atkins" so I went over to introduce myself. He was nice, open, and we had a nice chat. At one point he said he secretly always wanted to be a jazz guitarist, but he knew which side of the bread his butter was on.

I play variety. If someone came to me and said "I could make you rich and famous but you would only be allowed to play one genre of music" to tell the truth, picking one would be a very difficult decision. (I'd like to be in that position though.)

Back on topic.

Joni Mitchell went from folk to rock to jazz but unfortunately when she recorded "Mingus" she lost most of her dedicated folk and rock fans (I liked it). She forgot which side of the bread her butter was on. But I guess she had enough money that it didn't matter and artistic expression was more important. That's OK too.

Insights and incites by Notes

There is only two types of music genres in my book; songs that I like and songs that I do not like. The same musician can appear in both. YMMV

Me.


I started out with folk..... 3 Strong winds, Blowing in the wind.....

Moved to pop: top 40 stuff in the 60's.... Association, Beatles, Hollies, Turtles, etc.

Hard rock in the 70's Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Zepplin, King Crimson, Uriah Heep.

to.... Country and even hard core country.... in the 80's and beyond. Haggard, George Jones, Conway, Coe, Jackson, Strait.....

my love for musical harmony was never absent from the early days. I reckon that was what finally drew me full tilt into country music and country rock.

I couldn't agree with that statement more, but our personal choices might or might not be the same.

Notes