About Essie Country

Essie Country was created and is maintained by Gene Johns

I grew up listening to the music of my mother’s choice, which was “Country & Western” music. I’ve named this website Essie Country to honor my Mom and her undying loyalty to real country music.

I developed the blog and website because of the pop hip-hop hijacking of country music. Real country music has received less and less airtime on country music radio, as the pop and hip-hop influence has taken over the country music industry, ignoring the outstanding real country music talent that has become an underground industry.

I get it; pop and hip-hop sell better than real country music. That’s fine, but create a new genre for that type of music and return country music radio to real country music
artists!

In the future, I will continue to develop this website and promote real country music artists. Please return regularly for updates to this website and to discover new real country music artist worthy of being highlighted on
Essie Country.
~ Gene Johns

P.S. Since I wrote the above, my mom, Essie Johns, passed away on January 14, 2025. This blog and website are now a tribute to her.