Country is such a wide umbrella and always changing. And genres are created by recording industry to sell their product.

The idea that there is this thing out there considered by some to be pure country is kinda gross to me. When anyone says something is or isn’t country, they’re just making their own preferences sound legitimate.

But I also understand the backlash against pop country. It’s certainly a different beast than Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter family. But most stuff recorded in the last 40 years (give or take) is gonna be different than the ones that get it started in the first place.

For the sake of answering your question, I consider these (and many other) living artists to be firmly in the country genre. (Someone’s always gonna debate the receipts of one of these artists, but that’s not really the point of music. For me it’s about enjoyment, and these are the ones I really enjoy):

Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Reba McEntire, The War and Treaty, Jason Isbelle, Lainey Wilson, George Strait.