Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny cash, Dolly Parton…I don’t like “country music” but can enjoy all of these artists. Country music has been bastardized by clearchannel, along with almost all other types of music. Fuck clearchannel (now rebranded as “I heart radio” which is…such a stupid fucking name)
There's so much great music everywhere, and I truly enjoy nearly all music. But if you listen to FM radio it's a damn shame that almost all of it is just the stale, overplayed, corporate safe stuff. THAT is the country most people dislike
Newer bands I can think of with an old school country feel are First Aid Kit, Gregory Alan Isakov, Secret Sisters etc. And the new Hunger Games movie soundtrack is a great sampler of slow and fast folk/bluegrass vibes
The recent corporate stuff. There is still indie country and some of it is pretty good. Not something I actively listen to or anything, but I've heard good things before.
I'm the opposite side of the same coin: if I like it, I don't consider it country music.
Lots of stuff without twang I'd just call folk music (add other terms if needed, American, western etc).
Also I'm glad the same thing didn't happen to rock. Like there is a certain mostly-post-grunge vocal style popular in the 2000s that'd be really annoying if it was part of most rock music.
Seems like you could since you're still talking about this. But it also seems like you know that the answer is that it isn't "Texican yeehaw mumblecore" and you'd have to say "okay, I guess I was wrong about that" or something of the like and admitting you're wrong in the internet is not something that can be allowed.