Farmer's Daughter (Cover) - Needing Accent Help

Chris82

So this is the most country sounding song (in terms of a southern US accent) I've ever attempted. I've been told my accent doesn't sound authentic so what are some exercises I can work on to develop a more authentic sounding country accent?

doc_ramadani

Hi Chris,

I love this southern accent - but since I am German and have a lot of issues with my own accent I think I can not offer you help. But, man, strong voice. Sounds great.

May I ask where you are from.

Doc

Chris82

I live in Denver, Colorado.

doc_ramadani

Chris,

I live near Ulm, a city in the south of Germany.

Please forgive me, I always thought that you people in Colorado are using this southern accent.

To my ears you sound very, very Country.

I guess you know the film "The Blues Brothers". I love that film. Do you remember the scene in which John Belushi and Dan Akroyd enter this country club and are asked what kind of music they play. They answer: "We play everything, Country AND Western."

Doc

Chris82

Yeah Doc, this accent is from the south eastern part of the United States. I have lived there on and off but never really developed the accent but have been exposed to it plenty. The problem with country music is it is normally listened to by people with this accent so if you don't nail it 100% they are going to notice and you're going to sound like a fake.

I love that movie by the way!

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HuduVudu

Please forgive me, I always thought that you people in Colorado are using this southern accent.

Can't stop laughing at this

HuduVudu

I agree with @blondiewales, the accent sounds good but you are over accentuating it. This is super insulting because it is like you are making fun of it as in a caricature. I know that is not your intent, but it won't be received well for that reason.

So I live in the South. I have only been here about ten years and came from the NorthWest. There are two key things to understand about the South and subsequently the music that comes from here. First it is hot and humid as shit. Heavy emphasis on humid. That means that for a better part of the year things don't move fast. The lazy hazy days of summer. Before AC you had to deal with the heat and it slowed down how quickly you could react so there is a physical dimension the accent. Second Southerners in general accept that you have a lot in life. That causes them to be in less of a rush, because why. Those two things bring about the "Slow Southern Style". When you are singing country you need to adopt this approach. If you can get your head around it mentally you will be able to easily replicate the feel and the accent of country music without it sounding like you are making fun of the South.

I think this song embodies what I am talking about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT4d1LQy4es

Chris82

@HuduVudu Thank you so much for the detailed response! This is super helpful for me. I forgot about the stereotypes surrounding the accent (mainly because I hate stereotyping). I will work on getting my mind wrapped around this so that I accentuate the accent far less in my singing. I think with my trying to stay bright in my singing has caused the accent to over accentuate so I'll need to discover a way to mentally compensate for this somehow.

I'm at a point in my singing where I've discovered how to resonate and to an extent mix my voice. This is awesome I think but I have a lot more volume now so I'm finding that i need to back off a lot of things that I used to push harder on in my past (improper singing) days. Accent is one of those things I would always push harder when I wasn't resonating well but now that I'm pinging it's far far more noticeable (everything is).

Half my family lives in Georgia and they're the ones who informed me I needed to work on it lol. Once again thank you again for the advice and +50 points for some Alannah Myles!

Mysti

Hi, Chris. Just ran across this. I recommend you don’t try for a southern accent if it is not natural. As mentioned above, it can sound insulting. Singing country is more about life, love, family, and sometimes beer or whiskey, than it is about an accent. You will find the best country music is sung from the heart.

Someone you may want to listen to and try and emulate is John Denver. He was born in California and lived many places before winding up where you are in Colorado. His accent has a slight southern influence, but nothing sounds forced. Here is a good example of him singing a country song.

https://youtu.be/QRuCPS_-_IA

Chris82

Being one who doesn't give up easily I've continued to work on my country sound and accent. So I decided to try again. Same artist, different song:

https://vocaroo.com/iQskeuaaZSr

Sorry the original recording in this post got taken down for copyright reasons but I could probably dig it up again if anyone wanted to hear it again.

Wigs

This would've fooled me, then again I'm Australian 😜 really good feeling you put in and just the right amount of grit on some of the phrases.

doc_ramadani

Wow, Chris, @Chris82

that was strong. Very cool vibe and, I agree to Chris, very nice grit. Very good to hear that you are now really use contiguous phrase singing. Man, you made impressive progress. Kudos, mate.

Doc

bradsmith007

@Chris82, I just found this! Wow! Freakin awesome dude!