>>I figuer a guy who thinks George Strait is great, isn't going to be into Monk or Trane or Pettiford.
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>Country music is much closer to jazz than rock or blues.
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>Listen to Willie Nelson's early stuff, from the 50's and 60's, and he's playing licks all over the place that would pass for jazz.
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>I figure a guy who is into Miles Davis or Charlie Parker, purely for the music, is going to be into Merle Travis or Johnny Cash, purely for the music.

Well, I'm not sure I see any real similarity between the sort of licks Travis plays (and I do agree the guy really knows his way around a guitar) and the kind of music that Parker or Davis creates.

If you're a fan of one type of jazz - you are really into say, Lee Morgan, for instance, there is no good reason I know of to naturally expect that you must also be a fan of say, Ben Webster. I am, but the reality is that many people have a fairly narrow scope in what they like.

>I get the sense that any fan of jazz who detests country is probably a closet Michael Bolton fan, who has taken too many insults for listening to crap, and now attempts to align their music preferences with what they preceive as elite.

As I said, I don't detest country, I just get bored easily with it. I have no problem listening to country, but I don't buy the albums because after hearing an album once, I just lose the desire to hear it again. I find that's not the case with Parker or Davis, or Morgan, or even the Condon Chicagoans. I find I have to work harder to try to understand what Morgan is doing than I do with Travis, and that fact is what keeps me listening for what I missed last time around.