Rolling Country 2015

Happy new year, everyone. Starting this thing up. I did not vote in Himes' Nashville Scene country poll this year, but will put together my own list of notable stuff here in the next couple. For now, I think that Sturgill Simpson, Brandy Clark, A. Presley and Miranda will top the poll, with various other Americana-country outliers in the mix. Meanwhile, Claire Dodson at the Scene writes about Eric Church in this week's issue. He's a rebel.

Bassist Henry Strzelecki died in Nashville Dec. 30. Played on George Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her" and many others, country and elsewhere. Piece here.

And now---the amazing, fantaztic six-song bro country mash-up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY8SwIvxj8o

420Patriot1776 1 day ago

Redditor and country music enthusiast here!

I just wanted to say that even though I'm 14 years old I only listen to Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, and Conway Twitty because modern country music sux!

I'm really sorry my generation ruined country music.

420Patriot1776, moderator of r/CountryMusicAwards
Reply · 83

Some of these descriptions incl. unappealing phrases, but info-wise fairly promising (def looking fwd to new Mavericks album, after 2013's In Time: can't reasonably expect two albums in a row to be that amazing, but sure didn't expect the first one, and it happened anyway, so expect or don't, self)
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/2015-country-music-preview-20-reasons-to-love-this-year-20150109/country-goes-back-to-basics-all-year-20150109

Wynonna with one of her "sheroes. I am humbled by their excellence." Right on.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B7BoSvyCUAAu60g.jpg

did y'all know that Shovels & Rope are not actually their real last names? I'm in shock.

haha

Pr email I received: Lee Ann Womack will perform on "The View" on January 19.

The Way I'm Livin' ended up as my #1. May not have been the most innovative or important album of 2014, but it was the one that left the deepest impression on me. A flawless and sophisticated listen.

While there were some impressive releases from newcomers in 2014, the year will go down for me as the year of the veteran. Besides Womack: D'Angelo, Spoon, Aphex Twin, Sun Kil Moon, Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, Kelis--hell, at this point, I'd call Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift seasoned. All of them made some of the finest music of their respective careers.

Think she'll do okay in Nashville Scene round-up, to be posted 1-22/
Thirty Tigers ‏@ThirtyTigers 7m7 minutes ago
Now @leeannwomack is up singing with the @mccrarysisters and absolutely killing it! #RockMySoul #Nashville @npt8 Nashville PBS fundraising special, starring the Fairfield Four (one of 'em is the amazing McCrary Sisters' Dad).

Sunny Sweeney (@GettinSweenered) helps military veteran reunite with lost ring, by @SashaFB http://fxn.ws/1xxaZhn"> http://fxn.ws/1xxaZhn

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B7fVIZzCIAE4nmk.jpg:large

Speaking of Shovels and Rope, they'll be appearing in the forthcoming Heartworn Highways Revisited documentary film--the followup to the 1976 doc that featured Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Larry Jon Wilson, et al. Clark and David Allan Coe appear in the new one, which also sports appearances by Bobby Bare Jr., Langhorne Slim, Johnny (Corndog) Fritz, and others. Today's outlaw-Nashville fringe.

I wrote a Nashville Scene obituary for Dixie Hall, the wife of Tom T. Hall and a songwriter and mover in her own right. Once worked for Starday in Nashville and learned canasta and autoharp from Maybelle Carter before co-writing such hits as Dave Dudley's "Truck Drivin' Son-of-a-Gun." By coincidence, I caught one of Miss Dixie's collaborators, bluegrass singer Jeanette Williams, over last weekend, at the (rapidly declining Nashville country radio show and institution) the Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree, where she sang with a good trad bluegrass quartet, the Farm Hands, and was able to chat with Jeanette about Dixie Hall and the Halls' contributions to bluegrass music, which are considerable.

Results of the Nashville Scene Country Music Critics Poll are up. Which seem to have been posted with relatively little fanfare.

Unsurprised that Sturgill Simpson edged Miranda Lambert for Best Album based upon the Pazz & Jop results.

The triumph of Sturgill Simpson's Metamodern Sounds in Country Music as the Best Album in the Scene's 15th annual Country Music Critics Poll is significant for several reasons. For one, it was the narrowest victory in the poll's history. If just one voter had added Miranda Lambert's Platinum as the ninth-best album, she would have won. As it was, she won the Best Artist category by a comfortable margin over runner-up Simpson.

I didn't vote for Simpson.

What I voted for (categories I didn't merely punt on only; and actually, since I barely heard any, I did kind of punt on reissues):

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2014:
Miranda Lambert – Platinum (RCA Nashville)
Bubba Sparxxx – Made On McCosh Mill Road (eOne)
A Pony Named Olga – The Land Of Milk And Pony (Saustex)
Sunny Sweeney - Provoked (Aunt Daddy)
Angaleena Presley – American Middle Class (Three Tigers)
Little Big Town -- Painkiller (Capitol)
Corb Lund – Counterfeit Blues (New West)
Frankie Ballard – Sunshine & Whiskey (Warner Bros.)
Sam Hunt – Montevallo (MCA Nashville)
Over The Rhine – Blood Oranges In The Snow (Great Speckled Dog)

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2014:
Brantley Gilbert – Bottoms Up
Millie Jackson – Black B_tch Crazy
Kira Isabella – Quarterback
Big Jay Cummings – Can We Ever Go Home Again
Sunny Sweeney – Bad Girl Phase
Kacey Musgraves – The Trailer Song
Eli Young Band – Dust
Jamie O’Neal – Wide Awake
Toby Keith – Drunk Americans
Rascal Flatts – Rewind

TOP (THREE) COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2014:
Millie Jackson – On The Soul Country Side (Ace)
(Various) – Country Funk II: 1967-1974 (Light In The Attic)
Carrie Underwood – Greatest Hits: Decade #1 (Arista Nashville/19)

Also, for what it's worth (partly since I've barely posted here at all in the past year), if I'd been asked to do a top 20 album list instead, my next 10 probably would've looked something like this:

11. Lee Ann Womack – The Way I’m Livin’ (Sugar Hill)
12. Willie Nelson – Band Of Brothers (Legacy)
13. Kenny Chesney – The Big Revival (Blue Chair/Columbia)
14. Lady Antebellum – 747 (EMI Nashville)
15. David Nail – I’m A Fire (MCA Nashville)
16. Eli Young Band – 10,000 Towns (Republic Nashville)
17. Brantley Gilbert – Just As I Am (The Valory Music Co.)
18. Eric Church – The Outsiders (EMI Nashvile)
19. Jon Pardi – Write You A Song (Capitol)
20. Sturgill Simpson – Metamodern Sounds In Country Music (High Top Mountain)

Have never heard of A Pony Named Olga. Will have to google sometime

Metamodern sounds and Facebook country

from the Nashville Scene header

Here's my Nashville Scene ballot, with a few parentheticals, mainly re choices in my new category, Countryoid. Old faithful made-ups Hon. Mention, About Half Good also offer a few asides; Most Pathetic's at the end, but too pathetic and sad for comments, so far.
Many more comments, some tweaked from RC 2014, blogged w ballot, as "Thru The Polled, Rain & Snow," via The Freelance Mentalists: http://thefreelancementalists.blogspot.com/2015_01_01_archive.html

Best Albums:
Miranda Lambert: Platinum
Carlene Carter: Carter Girl
The Delines: Colfax
Lee Ann Womack: The Way I’m Livin’
Lucinda Williams: Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone
Minton Sparks: Gold Digger
Laura Cantrell: No Way There From Here
Nikki Lane: All Or Nothin’
Mary Gauthier: Trouble and Love
Amy LaVere: Runaway’s Diary

Hon. Mentions:
Rodney Crowell: Tarpaper Sky, Willie Nelson & Sister Bobbie: December Day, Terri Clark: Some Songs, Sturgill Simpson: Metamodern Sounds In Country Music, Eric Church: The Outsiders, Billy Joe Shaver: Long In The Tooth, Angaleena Presley: American Middle Class, Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison: Our Year, Alice Gerrard: Follow The Music, Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives: Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, Parker Millsap: s/t, Jerry David DeCicca: Understanding Land, Common Ground: Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin Play and Sing the Songs of Big Bill Broonzy, Elise Davis, Life, Shovels & Rope: Swimmin’ Time, Sunny Sweeney: Provoked (either here or Other [About Half Good], but the good ‘uns are mostly real good)(ditto--->) Caroline Peyton: Homeseeker’s Paradise

Best Reissues:
Jerry Lee Lewis: The Knox Phillips Sessions: The Unreleased Recordings
Shelby Lynn: I Am Shelby Lynne (Deluxe Edition)
Hank Williams: The Garden Spot Programs, 1950

Countryoid:
Bob Dylan & The Band: The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 (Deluxe Edition) (old school country & folk, old school rock-pop, classic American neurotica, incl in original Americana classics, beyondo, & busy being born)
Lydia Loveless: Somewhere Else (country punk, tombstone soul, heavy jangle, noise-baptized, necessary psychodrama, ritualizm crisis, weatherman-tortured Central OH Southern Gothic, roamin’ romance, your dive 2night
(Some prefer the Tweet:
Lydia Loveless, Somewhere Else: country punk, tombstone soul, noise-baptized, necessary psychodrama, maybe ballads, yr dive 2night)
Lone Justice: This Is Lone Justice: The Vaught Tapes 1983 (cowpunk, Hollywoodbilly, sandblast sagas)
Countryoid cont.:
Rosanne Cash: The River and The Thread (Deluxe Edition) (post-country, singer-songwriter, arty, artisanal, artful, art-country, art-country-novelty, sometimes all at once)
Jerry Lee Lewis: Rock & Roll Time (old school rock, piano country boogie)
John Fullbright: Songs (metamodern singer-songwriter insights, neo-retro pop ballad manipulations)
(various artists) Country Funk 2 (often very stoned, mainly too consistently happy (& sometimes self-congratz 4 bing funkee) to be more country than countryoid---Isn’t Western Swing often damn happy? Yes, but it’s Western)
Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers: Get In Union (older than old school Bible songs, work songs, play songs, home songs, going away songs, adult and children’s, several levels at all times, sounds like)
Jerry David DeCicca: Understanding Land (With Urban Ohio having been replanted fairly deeply in Texoidcana, he murmurs, raises glimpses, puts ‘em back, from here to the screen door horizon, between female compass notes, educated yet un-picky picking)
Common Ground: Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin Play and Sing the Songs of Big Bill Broonzy, (settin’ on the tracks, windmill billin’, brothers no bros, in tune for now)

Other (about half good)(40-60%)(not listed in order of percentage)
Jason Eady: Daylight & Dark, Willie Nelson: Band of Brothers, Tim McGraw: Sundown Heaven Town (Deluxe Edition), Dolly Parton: Blue Smoke, Jesse Winchester: A Reasonable Amount of Trouble, Sam Hunt: Montevallo, Justin Townes Earle: Single Mothers, Don Williams, Reflections

Best New Artists:
Elise Davis
Parker Millsap

Best Vocalist, Male:
Willie Nelson
Jerry Lee Lewis
Rodney Crowell

Best Vocalist, Female:
Lee Ann Womack
Amy Boone (Delines)
Nikki Lane

Duo, Trio, Group:
Duo:
Willie Nelson & Bobbie Nelson
Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison
Trio:
Lady Antebellum
The Band Perry
Band:
Eric Church’s band (more them than him)

Best instrumentalists:
Willie Nelson, guitar
Jerry Lee Lewis, piano
Bobbie Nelson, piano

Most Pathetic:
Big & Rich: Gravity

Oh and thanks for the links to RIP Henry and Dixie, Edd; didn't realize they had done so much. Subjects for further study, esp. Dixie.

Yep, some albums made Country's Hon. Mentions and Countryoid as well, the ones I was of two minds about. Next year I'll be firmer/pickier, or maybe drop the whole (Countryoid) thing.

I just now took out the Hon. Mentions duplicated in Countryoid; obv. they were more at home in the latter category. Also, since it needed to be done, added Marty Stuart And His Fabulous Superlatives to Bands.

Have never heard of A Pony Named Olga. Will have to google sometime

Crazed German psychobilly trio released here this year on a punkish indie label out of San Antonio and featuring at least one Duke Ellington cover (sort of), though apparently the album I voted for had come out a couple years earlier in Europe, and they've put out a newer one I haven't heard since then. Either way, I was obviously stretching the definition of "country" to the breaking point with them, probably even more than I did with Bubba Sparxxx (though probably not as much as if I'd voted for Taylor Swift, who I considered grandmothering in before deciding not to -- wonder if anybody else did) - A Pony Named Olga are about as country as the Legendary Shack Shakers or for that matter Link Wray or somebody, maybe. But hey, it seemed like a thin year to me for country albums (despite my managing to list 10 also-rans as well.)

Will check that out, since I enjoyed some of Th (think the is a dif band? They both may be currently inactive) Legendary Shack Shakers and sometimes love Link Wray. Yr description of Olga looks like something tasty for for my Countryoid category. will have to check Lavender Country as well, seeing advocacy in Scene comments. Speaking of which, Himes understandably stuck to the original draft of my comments, rather than the corrections-bombs, but here's what I ended up saying and blogging re Angaleena (the whole section is pretty much track-by-track, but this edit replaces the parts Himes published):

Early notes on Angeleena Presley’s American MIddle Class:
she's kinda the George Harrison of Pistol Annies: religious, though non-charismatic, then again vocals are also n-c... though both (she and he) have seen some shit and have senses of humor--but "Dry County Blues" and "Pain Pills" could sound so much better on Pistol Annies (or Womack, or Loveless, or) albums; here, with slightly generic vocals, kinda like Justified outtakes (or episode recaps, or ye olde US News & World Report clippings: schematic). Still, these, and "Life of the Party," and several others may well grown on me; can't dismiss her.
(later:)
Listened to Angeleena Presley's American Middle Class again, giving it the added advantage of contrast with arty artisanal artful Rosanne. It does grow on me, but still got mixed responses...."Surrender" is even better with the candor again, though not quite spelling out what she's surrendering too, except it's not a sense of (ultimate) defeat, just "I can't do it alone," which I hope means she's realizing she can't rely too much on vocal power/distinction, and that she will also be a Pistol Annie as long as that works.

"(she and he)": Angaleena and George.

Oops, I meant Th', dow. I think. (Actually, of the 2 Legendarily Shack Shaking CDs on my shelf, one uses Th' and the other -- an advance, which might be the reason -- uses no article whatsoever. If indeed Th' and The signified 2 different bands -- assuming they both even actually exist(ed) -- that is news to me.)

Here's what I ended up voting for this year. I like my albums list well enough, but coming up with a good 20 - 25 singles that I even seriously considered was a chore.

Albums
01. Platinum, Miranda Lambert
02. Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, Sturgill Simpson
03. Dynamite!, Tami Nielson
04. Riser, Dierks Bentley
05. The River & The Thread, Rosanne Cash
06. Remedy, Old Crow Medicine Show
07. Daylight and Dark, Jason Eady
08. The Way I’m Livin’, Lee Ann Womack
09. Tarpaper Sky, Rodney Crowell
10. Our Year, Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison

Singles
01. “Blue Blue Day,” Mandy Barnett f Alison Krauss
02. “Walk (Back to Your Arms),” Tami Neilson
03. “The Way I’m Livin’,” Lee Ann Womack
04. “Drive-In Movies,” Ray LaMontagne
05. “Quarterback,” Kira Isabella
06. “Say You Do,” Dierks Bentley
07. “Pain Pills,” Angaleena Presley
08. “Brushy Mountain Conjugal Trailer,” Old Crow Medicine Show
09. “Hayloft,” Nickel Creek
10. “Let’s Get Drunk and Get it On,” Old 97s

Reissues
1. Lucinda Williams (Deluxe Edition), Lucinda Williams
2. Hitchhike to Rhome, Old 97s,
3. Alpha Mike Foxtrot: Rare Tracks 1994 – 2014, Wilco
4. Okie from Muskogee: 45th Anniversary Special, Merle Haggard
5. This is Lone Justice: The Vaught Tapes, Lone Justice

Male Vocalists
1. Sturgill Simpson
2. Dierks Bentley
3. Don Williams

Female Vocalists
1. Miranda Lambert
2. Tami Neilson
3. Lee Ann Womack

Live Acts
1. Drive-By Truckers
2. Old Crow Medicine Show
3. Miranda Lambert

Songwriters
1. Lucinda Williams
2. Sturgill Simpson
3. Miranda Lambert

Duos / Trios / Groups
1. Old Crow Medicine Show
2. Nickel Creek
3. Old 97s

New Acts
1. Maddie & Tae
2. Parker Millsap
3. …

Overall Acts
1. Miranda Lambert
2. Sturgill Simpson
3. Lee Ann Womack

Per usual, I didn't submit any comments. Still think Platinum is only Miranda's second or third best album, but that's still good enough that I didn't consider anything else for my #1. For whatever reason, I didn't consider Holler Annie a new artist, or I would have thrown another vote her way in that category.

@ xhuxk

Millie Jackson – Black B_tch Crazy

I searched and searched for any indication that this was a "proper" single-- which is a semantics point that I'll admit I still get far too hung-up on when voting in polls like this-- because I absolutely would have included it, as well. It's a pretty fascinating and tricky cover.

Rhapsody had (and apparently still has) it streaming as a standalone single apart from the Ace compilation or any other album, which is generally good enough for me, singles-definition-wise (and which I'm guessing means other streaming sites do, too.)

http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/millie-jackson/album/black-btch-crazy

Not seeing the other one now, but seems like last-decade skims used to turn up another Legendary Shack Shakers, though JD Wilkes' crew (prev. Th and also The for a while, now without an article), founded 20 years ago, may well have claimed firsties(and are now working on a crowdsourced comeback album).
Tami Nielson! Rings a bell, faintly. How is her album??

Millie Jackson dropped a country album? Holy whoa.

Think it's a round-up of country-related things she's done over the years, based heavily around her 1981 LP "Just A Lil Bit Country". Not sure if there is anything new aside from BBC.

got it, been listening to it in spotify and you're right.

Yep -- Hence why I voted for it as a reissue, and only the new track as a single. It's good, though!

I was only familiar with about half of the tracks on the Jackson comp and really enjoyed the remainder. It's definitely worth checking out. Very glad to see that some other folks are digging it, as well.

Re: Tami Neilson.

She's from New Zealand, where she's evidently fairly well-known. Dynamite! is admittedly the first of her albums I've heard, but I think she's pretty fantastic. I think the last time I was as immediately taken by someone's voice was with Neko Case's debut, and she has a diverse set of influences that give her a throwback vibe without being at all stuffy or overly beholden to traditionalism. "Walk (Back to Your Arms)" and "Cry Over You" are the official singles and both are great, but the album is absolutely worth a listen.

dow and jon_oh, thanks for posting your NS ballots. Bunch of stuff I need to check out. Had no idea Lone Justice's "The Vaught Tapes." Haven't heard of any of these:

Singles
01. “Blue Blue Day,” Mandy Barnett f Alison Krauss
02. “Walk (Back to Your Arms),” Tami Neilson

Best Albums:
The Delines: Colfax
Minton Sparks: Gold Digger
Amy LaVere: Runaway’s Diary

Yeah, sure glad to learn about Tami Nielson, and I hadn't spotted the Mandy/Alison single either.

Here's the original press release about LJ's Vaught Tapes:

THIS IS LONE JUSTICE: THE VAUGHT TAPES, 1983
PROVIDES EARLY GLIMPSE
OF PIONEERING ALT-COUNTRY ROCKERS

Twelve tracks, including nine unissued performances,
set for release on CD, red vinyl and digital.
Liner notes include testimonial from Dolly Parton, a fan of the band.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — It can be difficult to capture the live power of band in a studio recording. Luckily for us, Lone Justice (Maria McKee, Ryan Hedgecock, Marvin Etzioni, and Don Heffington), forerunners of the alt-country movement, went to Suite 16 Studios in December of 1983 and laid down much of the set list with which they were packing Los Angeles area clubs.

Recorded direct to two-track tape by engineer David Vaught and with no overdubs, those 12 tracks can finally be heard in their entirety as This Is Lone Justice: The Vaught Tapes, 1983, out January 14, 2014 on Omnivore Recordings. As Los Angeles music journalist Chris Morris writes in his liner notes, the release “offers the best representation of the band in its infancy — hot, full of piss and vinegar, and ready to take on the world.”

Nine of the tracks are previously unissued, and include originals (such as “Soap, Soup and Salvation,” which would appear on their Geffen debut two years later) as well as the covers they made their own in concert (Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash’s “Jackson” and “Nothing Can Stop My Loving You,” written by George Jones and Roger Miller).

Available on CD, LP (the first pressing is on translucent red vinyl) and digitally, the package includes, in addition to Morris’ liners an essay from the band’s Ryan Hedgecock, as well as a remembrance of David Vaught from Marvin Etzioni — even a loving endorsement from Dolly Parton, who writes, “I have loved Lone Justice and Maria McKee since they first started out as a group. I remember going to see them at the Music Machine in Los Angeles in 1983; I was so impressed. I especially love this album. It has some of my favorite old songs on it and some new favorites that I've never heard. Hope you enjoy Lone Justice, everybody! I know I will.”

With unseen photos and memorabilia (including images from the band’s personal archive), this collection is what Lone Justice fans have been waiting for. This Is Lone Justice: The Vaught Tapes, 1983 takes us back to a time when music had an energy that was hard to contain.

Thanks to that studio in Van Nuys, Calif., and this release, Justice has been served!

Track Listing
1. Nothing Can Stop My Loving You
2. Jackson
3. Soap, Soul and Salvation
4. The Grapes of Wrath
5. Dustbowl Depression Time
6. Rattlesnake Mama
7. Vigilante
8. Working Man’s Blues
9. Cactus Rose
10. When Love Comes Home to Stay
11. Cottonbelt
12. This World is Not My Home

All tracks previously unissued except # 6, 8 & 12

Refreshing to see people who aren't me talking about Tami Neilson.

Yep yep, I gotta try to catch up with her. Meanwhile, speaking of Minton Sparks, here's my blogged ballot comments:

Minton Sparks, Gold Digger: As live, the music of her spoken word x JJ's guitar (with a bit of studio support, since they happen to be in a studio for this gig). Down home truths, itchy empathy, unspoken and unsung 'til now: "Every line is written on the body," and how.
Expanded for later exploitation:
Minton Sparks is a story-telling poet with an ear for the music in spoken words. She's often held forth with guitarist John Jackson, who toured with Dylan long enough to be prepared at all times, so Live At Station Inn is a good place to start.
Studio arrangements ride along nicely too, and she's sure got a way with a beat. This fall's Gold Digger delivers more down home truths in itchy empathy: "Every line is written on the body," and how. (If had to pick one for a comp, might possibly be "Tennessee Prison For Women," which is like a slice of Orange Is The New Black, although seems even more like based on her teaching there, or is that just a illusion of her deft realness)(could check the bio to see if she actually taught in such a place---it's not unusual---but the music's the thing.

steve earle discovers taylor swift:

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/steve-earle-winery-terraplane-quinn-tsan-interview/Content?oid=16275924

I saw Taylor do "Mean" that night at the Grammys, and I went "Oh!" She's writing about herself, and every teenage girl in the world can relate to it because they've experienced that too. That's the job, man. And I've kind of been a fan ever since.

xxxpost Also, the aforementioned Mme. LaVere:

Amy LaVere, Runaway's Diary: her signature soft soprano sounds really young here, conveying "I can't believe I'm doing this," also "I'm doing this, wow!" and always observant, drawing back a little more whenever things get too gnarly--nevertheless, scary ol street dude Townes Van Zandt drops science in her face, via song, not personal appearance(good selection and sequencing of originals and covers).

Wonder if Taylor Swift's heard that album? Think she might dig.

And finally, since Indexed was wondering and I didn't post anything about them on RC 2014, the Delines:

The Delines, Colfax: Starts with a proposal to skip work, just cruise right past it with that warm electric piano, still clinking like a drink last night, ready to pick the steel guitar on yonder corner, just a few turns away. Not hung over, maybe building up a tolerance, with percentages of desperation and/or desolation as fuel, mileage, habit, neighborhood---anyway, craving something more. Amy Boone proposed to her boss, blues novelist/lifercore Richmond Fontaine leader Willy Vlautin, that he write songs for her to sing lead on, and he did, intrigued by the possibilities and emerging results. So the downchild's possible side-trips get subliminal excitement added to the blend: not a tiger in your tank, but a certain sense of discovery, plain enough to see. The seats are lived-in; the springs are still good.
(Take-away associations also incl. bright gray light passing through the window of a diner, where Piper Laurie and Paul Newman, pretty as lucky pennies, are young and not young, talking and settling in a booth, getting closer to Kentucky all the time [The Hustler].)
Meanwhile, back in the Colfax tracks, another guy can't be satisfied, has to keep picking up in the sticks and moving on, to find another place to argue with his wife, and maybe blame her for. In the near-title song, a woman wakes up to another very late-early call; she has to leave her husband and kids to fend for themselves in the coming day's whatever, as she goes looking for her brother once again, up and down Colfax Avenue, among the aftershocks of war, triggered again by who knows what, or if they ever really stop. That one ends a little too abruptly for me, with the built-in riskiness of an approach (vs. "closure") also favored by Drive-By Truckers, also with mixed results (Delines debut shares DBT's equally unlikely, late-blooming first-listen's-the-charm of their 2010 The Big To-Do, and now English Oceans finds even more of its own self in momentum)(but also now: too rock 'n' roll even for Countryoid, so they've been moved to the Pazz & Jop Top Ten, like Lydia Loveless, despite all y'all's voices and POVs).
Delines don't decline, except for certain invitations (def incl. imitations), while cruising sweetened entrophy right to the end of this thing, gliding, currently fretless, by the signage and other helpful marks, on another smog-enhanced, if not beautifully polluted morning in the city, when the weather still seems good enough, ditto the parking place, not too far from their designated destination…. (there's your ellipsis for the quarter).

Thanks dow.

Really digging this throwback Tami Neilson honky tonk record. Man does she do Patsy Cline to a T or what ("Texas" especially)? Love the guitar sounds too.

Think she'll do okay in Nashville Scene round-up, to be posted 1-22/
Thirty Tigers ‏@ThirtyTigers 7m7 minutes ago
Now @leeannwomack is up singing with the @mccrarysisters and absolutely killing it! #RockMySoul #Nashville @npt8 Nashville PBS fundraising special, starring the Fairfield Four (one of 'em is the amazing McCrary Sisters' Dad).

i missed this: I grew up around Reverend McCrary. Amazing man, 40's/50's Fairfield were an amazing group and they set an absolutely ruinously high standard for live performance in my preteen mind.

Also here's a first skim: http://open.spotify.com/user/forksclovetofu/playlist/0UovNZH0gkGMeUyADHp9PU

Maybe it will be shown again, or is online---PBS is pretty good about preserving shows, esp. related to fundraising. Yeah, the Fairfield Four have been pretty amazing every time I've heard 'em. Check the Music City Roots archives too.

Enjoying Tami Neilson's "The Kitchen Table Sessions Volume II" as well. The a cappella cover of "Sweet Dreams" is a stunner. Thanks again for the recommendation, guys.

Didn't vote in Himes' poll, but here are my album picks for 2014. For what it's worth, the Cantrell album was something I didn't expect to like so much, but she inhabits her subject and sings and arranges cannily. I liked Marty Stuart's double record, but in the end, he just isn't much of a singer, so the persona didn't come thru, though the music was pretty special, mainly a matter of electric guitars and songwriting that split the diff between pastiche and originality.

1. Little Big Town--Pain Killer
2. Angaleena Presley--American Middle Class
3. Lee Ann Womack--The Way I'm Livin'
4. Dierks Bentley--Riser
5. Carlene Carter--Carter Girl
6. Frankie Ballard--Sunshine & Whiskey
7. Sam Hunt--Montevallo
8. Laura Cantrell-No Place There from Here
9. Don Williams-Reflections
10. Miranda Lambert--Platinum

Didn't much care for Sturgill's record, btw. I think he sounds repressed, myself.

Enjoying Tami Neilson's "The Kitchen Table Sessions Volume II" as well. The a cappella cover of "Sweet Dreams" is a stunner. Thanks again for the recommendation, guys.

Seconded

Just heard a touring muso on the radio mention being "in the moment" (vs. playing exactly the same show wherever you go, like a big ol' touring disc). Couldn't resist listening to Willie & Bobbie's xpost December Day one more time. The flow of all this*, while Willia and a few other guys stand around Bobbie's piano, still sounds much more in the moment than seamlessly edited... Still streaming here, minus the commercials of free Spotify---just scroll down past the new Robert Earl Keen, Ryan Bingham, and others I'll get to d'rectly (or not):
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/arts/music/pressplay.html?state=-1

*1. Alexander's Ragtime Band 2:42
2. Permanently Lonely 4:21
3. What'll I Do 3:30 $
4. Summer of Roses / December Day 3:11
5. Nuages 3:22
6. Mona Lisa 3:30
7. I Don't Know Where I Am Today 2:25
8. Amnesia 2:31
9. Who'll Buy My Memories? 2:46
10. The Anniversary Song 2:12
11. Laws of Nature 5:39
12. Walkin' 3:40
13. Always 2:39
14. I Let My Mind Wander 3:09
15. Is the Better Part Over 2:41
16. My Own Peculiar Way 4:11
17. Sad Songs and Waltzes 2:44
18. Ou Es-Tu Mon Amour / I Never Cared for You 5:23

@barelywashed AKA Barry Walsh tweets that time my son tried on Waylon's hat:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B9HiuhoIUAEpOlQ.jpg:large

Finally starting to catch up to xpost Tami Neilsen: from her Spotify stash, so far I've listened to the latest, 2014's Dynamite! and yep The Kitchen Sessions Vol.2, which is, speaking of "in the moment," def takes me through each note and syllable--like Raitt at her best, though actual sound is more like Ronstadt's voice at times, or yeah Cline's: the deeper, richer stirring of the tones, though she's got a good, unshowy higher range too.
Despite the title, it's as produced as it needs to be, jangly country-folk-rock in a late-60s/dawn of the 70s way, though the "kitchen table" thing does apply re sittin' and thinkin', confidentially direct address. Though it's actually about leaving home (following a guy pretty far, in some songs), she finds that home hasn't left her in "This Town": if she gets off the bus and you're there, you suck. You're a citizen, a resident, "standin' still while I crashed and burned," like the guy in the last town, and the first town, where prying eyes, incl. sympathetic ones, were and always will be too much. "The first thing I'll do when I get to this town/Is leave." Even more effective for following the sweetest, yet maybe most complex song,"Great Day," where she seems totally and happily at home, though in a way that doesn't necessarily bode well "The boy who stole a kiss and never gave it back/Still it's alright he makes me laugh," even before "This Town," she's reveling in "a great day to be loved"--by who? By that boy? By everybody in this hometown, sounds like--yet the way she holds certain notes and lets them change, there's a calling, a yearning for more, even/especially while she's luxuriating in love and the sounds she can make, feeling her young powers a-buddin.'
Ph yeah, and in between those two songs, there's the persistent pursuit of "One Thing," not too fast, but she's growing vocal (and a few other) overdubs without missing a beat, in a way I don't think I've ever heard anybody else do.

Not that every track has the impact of those three, but still (The Kitchen Table Sessions Vol.2 is the one I'm talking about).

More antipodalacana,via Australia's Cyndi Boste: the following excerpt from "Alias In Wonderland" (Voice round-up of cosmic cowgirls, also incl. Maria McKee, Mary McCaslin, and others)goes wayyy back, but Home Truths was a breakthrough, and still sounds good on Spotify. Sounds kinda like Neilsen, but with def. more of a rough edge, and the Aussie accent at times, but not too nasal or lockjawed:

...Further West, Cyndi Boste has been called "the Lucinda Williams of Australia." And both artists do bear down, on what could otherwise easily remain mere backwatery blues-mindedness. But Car Wheels on a Gravel Road usually works best when Lucinda looks up from her road maps, and lets the music unwind, even snake around some. On Home Truths, Cyndi keeps playing her cards (hungry textures, tiny solos, rationed hooks) close to the vest, but her game's always gaining momentum. Meanwhile, she's gathering scattered impressions, impulses, hoarding insights and courage.

Then she cuts out, through the day's apparently endless scrutiny of things-as-they-are, into the desert night, where "new" things start to move around differently—she wanted it, she's got it. No time left, even after "Daddy Comes Home," for the world to end, or begin. The deep rich voice intensifies its clipped delivery of key phrases. These click on by, like slide shows, empty chambers, telephone poles. Hello Operator, she's making a lonnnggg distance call.

Austin City Limits retweeted
The Boot ‏@thebootdotcom 15h15 hours ago
@EmmylouSongbird and @WillieNelson did a BEAUTIFUL version of #Crazy on @ACLTV! WATCH:
http://theboot.com/emmylou-harris-willie-nelson-crazy-austin-city-limits/

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-EGdWACIAAJRC1.jpg

Waymore & Buddeh

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-pVIzZUIAEAccp.jpg

Tonight's Music City Roots incl. Jamey Johnson, James House, Jonell Mosser, Lisa Oliver Gray, Tommy Womack.
Starts 7 Central, 'til a hair past 9:30-ish, probably. You'll see the livestream vid link staring you in the chin; audio-only is bottom right:
http://musiccityroots.com/events/wednesday-february-25th/
It'll be archived, if they're still doing that (haven't checked lately, but seems likely, unless the new deal with PBS says otherwise).

Jeez sorry, forgot how tricky it can be to get the radio stream; if you have trouble, try this: Streamdb4web.securenetsystems.net/v5/WHPYFM Or just stream the video direct from musiccoturoots.com

May only work on firefox, if at all, sorry.

Actually just go hear and click on Listen Live: http://www.hippieradio945.com/

Instead of staying for Jamey Johnson's set, I switched to Nashville the immortal series, thinking I'd catch him on the download, but it's messed up (so is last week's). Maybe I'll try the video, but did hear Janelle Mosser, who's worn several hats, and now as co-writer, demo singer, sometime headliner, switches styles from song to song (writing and arrangement-wise. but her voice provides continuity), making it seem easy. Which is maybe why she isn't a star, no heart-on-sleeve, although she doesn't seem insincere.
James House's vocal approach, on the other hand, brings a solemn soap opry sinkful 'o' suds, though not in a fun way, to original and co-written material for the stars.
Tommy Womack has a clever, vernacular, busking, medicine show way with words, seemingly loose, but never getting asymmetrical about it. He's a bit too Tom Sawyer slick sometimes, but keeps me listening.

First newsletter from Rodney Crowell in quite a while:
February, 2015

I have an unhealthy disrespect for ice. Approaching patches of it like a Dutch speed skater in orange crocs has been my downfall. I’m presently sporting a sore backside and neck-bone as proof. You’d think I’d learn.

The month of February 2015 started in Glasgow, Scotland. The Trans-Atlantic-Sessions. As one of five singers and a cast of wonderfully crazy Celtic and American musicians, some of the best I’ve ever worked with, I spent a fortnight pooling talent and belly laughing at the absurdities of life on the British motorways. It could go down as one of the more memorable times in my professional life.

Briefly before the show in London, I was introduced to a famous guitar player and was surprised how dry mouthed it left me. Which set me to thinking about whether it was this person's fame or greatness that made me nervous. It was, of course, his greatness. My ex-father-in-law was a world famous performer. We once spoke at length in the early eighties about achieving greatness. He said one of the downsides of his success was how little time it left him to devote to becoming a better artist, and wasn’t sure if it was in the cards to ever find it again. To which I blurted out, “Man if you’re still having doubts, I’m screwed.”

"We’re all screwed,” he said, with a laugh, “self-doubt comes with the territory.”

Interestingly, his recording of the song “Hurt,” which was his very last, is, I believe, the best performance of his entire career.

Nowadays I don’t feel the pressure to prove myself as much as I did back then. (Which isn’t to say that creating museum quality art isn’t still the goal. It is.) The obsession to make a name for myself has more or less given way to an exquisite longing to experience the feeling of knowing I’ve created something, be it large or small, that will outlive me. Meeting the famous guitar player simply reminded me how far I still have to go. Perhaps the dry mouth was the result of a resounding gulp.

All that said, I reckon it’s obvious that I’m back in the business of hollering at you once a month. When toward the end of last year it filtered through to me that an old friend had accused me of being full-of-shit and not caring about the little people, I had to take a look at what I was doing in order to decide if there was any truth in the accusation. Probably some. But I honestly don’t know anyone I’d call little. And whether I’m full of shit or not is irrelevant. I love an audience.

And I’ve got something to say. Which is this: I recently heard an album of ten Ben Bullington songs recorded by Darrell Scott. It is a masterwork. Get hold of this record as soon as it comes out. It’ll be released in late spring---as will the new Emmylou and Rodney album. Which is also pretty darned good.---Rodney

Mavericks sporting new alb, streaming soaring live set (archive sounding great so far) on this week's Beale Street Caravan (also: saxman Jim Spake on great honkers, wailers) http://bit.ly/1BrKfG2

Speaking of Mavericks, Mono is very catchy (get it?), for the most part, with some equally distinctive ballads, though a couple of mid-to-slower tempo tracks could use lyrical turns. Lyrics are no prob on, for inst, the Latin ska numbers, and the closer, "Nitty Gritty," turns out to be, just like I hoped, an excellent cover of the bouncy Sir Doug song, with Augie Meyers guesting, I think.

Charles EstenVerified account ‏@CharlesEsten
So honored to sing the beautiful "The Rivers Between Us Are Deep" by our friend, Hall of Fame songwriter @JDSouther & Erik Kaz. #ThanksWatty
Watty, Souther's character, was Rayna's mom's secret musical lover, may have gotten her killed by jealous dad or "dad," since on Nashville the immortal series, musical biologicals are not uncommon. Case in point of course, Esten's character, guitarist-singer-songwriter (in that professional order, usually) Deacon Clayborn, the formerly hard-livin', now liver-needin' musical lover of Rayna (Connie Britton). He's also the biological father of her older daughter---but this impromptu reunion duet on the stage of the Opry brings back a little chill, the musical charisma that made them believable as a country-legendary couple, way back at the beginning of this thing, and central to it---got me hooked on a sometimes torturous soaper, which nowadays tends to use song-fragments as reviving rations, just enough to keep me going. But this song, this singing, holy moly. Oh, whut next.

x-post
Mono is very catchy (get it?),

Looking forward to your next stand-up comedy gig

http://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20150306/8e/eb/c2/f0/e8ff1d1eb94ea8519e11d33f_439x440.jpg

Lee Ann Womack’s Trouble In Mind
Limited 3-Song Vinyl w Richard Bennett for Record Store Day April 18
(Nashville, Tenn.) — March 6, 2015 — Lee Ann Womack wanted to do something special for Record Store Day, something that would strip the music down to its essence. Talking with husband/producer Frank Liddell, they decided to use one voice/one instrument. They called on Mark Knopfler/Steve Earle vet Richard Bennett, who brought several of his vintage guitars. The pair recorded several songs in an afternoon – and picked the best three for Trouble In Mind, a limited edition 12” vinyl.
“I think independent record stores are so important,” Womack says. “It’s the last temple of music you can take home... A place where people come looking for the rare, for the special or even just the record they have to buy one more time. But I love the idea of people selling records, talking about what’s on them, getting turned on to cool music."
“I wanted to be part of Record Store Day last year, but we couldn’t get it together in time. So this year, we started early. I got to have Richard Bennett, who is one of those musicians who can get so much heart and tone out of his guitars, come to the house. It was just the two of us, and it was awesome!”
The three songs are the blues classic “Trouble in Mind,” Roger Miller’s semi-obscure “Where Have All The Average People Gone?” and Ralph Stanley’s bluegrass gospel “I’ve Just Seen The Rock of Ages.” Engineered by Grammy-nominated Chuck Ainlay and mastered by Paul Hamann at Suma Recording Studio, Trouble In Mind is Lee Ann Womack unadorned.
“I love the idea of mixing things up, but stripping them back,” says the woman whose first album in seven years, The Way I’m Livin’, was nominated for Best Country Album at the 2015 Grammy Awards. “When you make things that basic, you can hear all the commonalities between, say, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Ralph Stanley... When you make those connections, I think that’s when it gets interesting.”
Womack has spent the last year exploring new territory. Co-hosting the International Bluegrass Music Awards with Jerry Douglas, taking part in PBS’ “Rock My Soul” fundraising special with the Fairfield Four and the McCrary Sisters, Amos Lee, Buddy Miller and Lucinda Williams, taping a CMT “Crossroads” with John Legend, and recording with Ralph Stanley, the 6-time Country Music Association Award winner followed her heart and her muse.
Writing in the essay for the Nashville Scene’s Country Critics Poll, Geoff Himes said Livin’s “...a terrific album rooted in traditional country’s willingness to confront the realities of addiction, adultery, bad romantic choices and small-town blues.” With Trouble In Mind, the vocalist continues to explore the tortured, the saved and the in-between.
###
For more information:
Sugar Hill Records

can I sit next to her w/a martini

this impromptu reunion duet on the stage of the Opry brings back a little chill, the musical charisma that made them believable as a country-legendary couple, way back at the beginning of this thing, and central to it---got me hooked on a sometimes torturous soaper, which nowadays tends to use song-fragments as reviving rations, just enough to keep me going. But this song, this singing, holy moly. Oh, whut next.

whut next, dammit, is that after a winter run of exactly five episodes, "nashville," whose scheduling has always seemed a bit seat-of-the-pants, is going back on hiatus. grrr. looks like they're coming back sometime in april, though the lack of an "upcoming on nashville" segment after this week's episode made me wonder if they've filmed anything yet. i really liked that rayna/deacon duet, and i kinda liked the rocking love song that the totally annoying scarlett, somewhat annoying gunnar and i-actually-like-him avery did in their opening set for rascal flatts. but the tune that really floored me this mini-season was the one that somewhat annoying gunnar and formerly-annoying-but-now-sympathetic luke wrote a couple weeks ago ("i can't help my heart"?) after luke finally admitted he's still pining for reyna. i'm still in love with the music on this terrible show that i can't stop watching.

wait, i'm wrong about one thing, gunnar isn't somewhat annoying. he's totally annoying.

via alfred, new ashley monroe
http://tasteofcountry.com/ashley-monroe-on-to-something-good/

went to the country 2 country festival in london last night: brandy clark, lee ann womack, florida georgia line, luke bryan. it was like going to one of the best shows ever followed by one of the worst; i know as a britisher i'm insulated from bro-country so while i knew it was bad i really didn't realise just how incredible terrible it is.

otoh womack is such a magnetic performer and clark's diffidence still serves the songs well live; her new stuff sounded just as brilliant, and she did an amazing, stripped-down version of "better dig two"

This is slightly off topic, but this post from Tami Neilson just tugged at my heart.

http://i.imgur.com/9Duu49Q.png

Yeah, looking fwd to that. Mavis did a concert in Montgomery the night before Obama came for the 50th Anniversary march in Selma, with the Staples' original "I'll Take You There" echoing across the bridge.
Speaking of Nashville:

Lennon and MaisyVerified account ‏@lennonandmaisy

"Ew.. They're both so desperate" Maisy's take on Jeff and Layla haha @aubreypeeples @theoliverhudson

also speaking of "nashville," i have since discovered that "i can't help my heart," which i mentioned a few posts ago, is a sarah buxton song. she seems to be one of their go-to's, and good for her (and good for the show). only version of hers i could find on youtube is live, just her and a guitarist. luke wheeler's version is better.

http://www.wonderingsound.com/feature/millie-jackson-interview
Call back to up top: millie jackson discusses country music

I did Kenny Rogers’s “Sweet Music Man,” you know. I went to see him. They invited me to Carnegie Hall to see him, his manager did. And when it was over, I went backstage and [Kenny] said, “If I had known you was in the audience, I would not have sang ‘Sweet Music Man.’” I thought that was one of the biggest compliments I’ve ever gotten…And he sent me a checkbook holder for canceled checks with a gold check on the top of it. You take the top off and you put the canceled checks inside, then the lid has this gold check from Kenny Rogers to me for a million dollars.

have just discovered the wonderful nikki lane album from last year, love it

Amen. Some Nikki love on RC '14, and she made my Nash Scene Top Ten. Keeping thinking if she could get just one reviewer-bait semi-hit, perhaps with a Timely Theme...?

Xpost

It's a really terrific album, one my favourite from last year, her persona is enthralling.

'Sleep With A Stranger' is a personal highlight.

SXSW yeeeha

Smithsonian MagazineVerified account ‏@SmithsonianMag

Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin is home to one of the largest urban bat colonies in the world http://smithmag.co/qOnUlP

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CAkjFCKWQAAGLsK.jpg

Tonight's Music City Roots live stream (7 Central, http://www.musiccityroots.com) has added Asleep At The Wheel to the bill, which already incl. Hot Rize, Drivin' 'n' Crying, the Valentines, and Daphne and the Mystery Machines. Think I'll either skip this video and listen on http://www.hippieradio945.com/---click on the Listen Live! thingie toward the top---or uh watch "Nashville" tonight and download from the archive (see audio tab at the bottom of the musiccityroots homepage) tomorrow (that's wrong, but that's prob what I'll do).

I am listening to it after all, on hippieradio: interviewing Kevin Kinney before Drivin' & Cryin' perform.

Oh *now* Drivin 'N' Crying are on (after Asleep At The Wheel, Hot Rize, and some nerfos). They've got Warren Hodges of Jason and The Scorchers playing lead. So far so good.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2015/03/25/why-stations-are-pulling-little-big-towns-girl-crush-from-the-airwaves-and-what-that-says-about-country-radio-today/

Alana Lynn, a morning co-host on country music station 104.3 FM in Boise, Idaho, was excited to play Little Big Town’s latest single for her listeners. “Girl Crush,” a powerful ballad about a woman envious of her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend, seemed destined to be a hit.

“I want to taste her lips, yeah cause they taste like you / I want to drown myself in a bottle of her perfume,” vocalist Karen Fairchild sings. “I want her long blond hair, I want her magic touch / Yeah cause maybe then, you’d want me just as much. . . I got a girl crush.”

Sure, it’s a provocative way to describe jealousy. But when Lynn played the song on the air, she didn’t anticipate that she would get furious phone calls and e-mails accusing “Girl Crush” of “promoting the gay agenda” and threats to boycott the station. The last time she heard this much outrage from listeners? “The Dixie Chicks’ President Bush comments,” Lynn recalls, referring to when the trio’s career imploded in 2003 after making critical statements about the president.

Girl Crush is a good song btw

In fact, Fairchild jokes, “Maybe the real controversy is that a 6/8 ballad is on country radio.”

i love "girl crush"

it's actually been charting pretty well despite its inability to amass much airplay whatsoever

This is a quick, quarterly reminder that all available tracks mentioned on this thread (and a few album selections) are being posted as updated to a thread-specific Spotify playlist that I'm maintaining. I just did a quick sweep prior to posting this message and updated as of today with everything that's been added on Spotify since it was first mentioned.

That playlist is currently a bit more than three hours of music and is clickable below.
Give it a spin and subscribe if you want to listen along through the year.

Rolling Country 2015 Thread Spotify Playlist

THANK YOU BASED FORKS

i have really been enjoying grady smith's regular country columns in the guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/mar/31/country-music-image-problem-bro-country-sexist

http://www.npr.org/2015/04/05/396881299/first-listen-dwight-yoakam-second-hand-heart

x-post -Was worrying Grady Smith was just one of those folks into only alt-country, but I see some popular country singers meet his standard

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/feb/17/eight-great-country-songs-2015

Will have to check Grady.
Dwight Yoakam's Second Hand Heartout 2/14) didn't immediately flip me into the back of a pickup truck, not like 3 Pears, but it sure does build. First three tracks seem a tad studious, which shouldn't be necessary after 14 previous albums drawing on mid-60s Buck Owens/Beatles crosstalk, and what they both drew on from the Everlys x various Southwestern crossover artists. But then he starts stretching and flexing the Sunbelt accents, adding Alabama-style syllables to a droll drawl over a "She's About A Mover"-type riff, dropping in some Jordanaires-type vocal encouragement, just for a second ( like some other fleet touches, on this and other tracks: acoustic guitar back here, steel over thar), and the arc of the set really takes off, doesn't let go. For instance, "Man of Constant Sorrow," with a vocal not that far from old timey versions, maybe a little faster---or that's just an illusion created by the slamming electric rhythm tracks, which fit perfectly, without jiving up the high lonesome vibe---they just respond, in a plugged-in, open-flap tent revival way: "Tell us how lost we all are, Brother, that's the first step to bein' found!" (Or maybe just, "Rave on, let it bleed, I'm with ya.")
Yoakam continues to crank up his rock and country connections while passing through, getting cooler and hotter at the same time, eventually ending with a ballad, but one with a beat; sounds like he's been listening to New Morningthe way Dylan was maybe listening to Van Morrison around then.
(And I'll prob get into that first subset more when I listen again, now that I know how he slides up the excitement level.)

Streaming here 'til the 14th, most likely:
http://www.npr.org/2015/04/05/396881299/first-listen-dwight-yoakam-second-hand-heart

"A tad studied," I probably should have said.

Starting to get antsy re new country releases--guess I should check Ryans Culwell & Bingham, eh? Any others?

Did just now try Allison Moorer's Down To Believing for the first time. Haven't gotten all the words yet, but not so much a Goodbye Earle "breakup album" in the usual sense---right away, she's running the potholes with pressing uncertainties all around; the rear view mirror is to used only when necessary (got that, Self?). First three tracks go like that, and more about overall effect, but it's her voice that pulls me in closer, when she slows down a little on the title track. That's the one that grabbed me on the radio, before I knew who was singing---she's not a distinctive stylist, but sometimes the moment in the ongoing situation takes a turn---other standouts so far incl. "Wish I" and "Mama Let The Wolf In," speaking of taking a turn: rec to fans of The Band Perry's hillbilly gothic pop, although it goes from atypical raunch to something more contextually consistent, as the tough adult lets a little of the dread out: "I shot him with a silver bullet, now I pray, pray, pray..."
Continues kicking it through the tumultuous phone message of "I'm Doin' Fine," and a strong version of "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?"

I'm stuck listening to the new Dwight Yoakam on Spotify until next weekend - I want to get the Target edition 'cause it comes with three bonus tracks, and I only go to Target every two weeks.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2015/04/19/academy-of-country-music-acm-awards/26048879/

The telecast began with Eric Church and Keith Urban performing Church's Pledge Allegiance to the Hag, a salute to the ACMs first entertainer of the year, Merle Haggard.

Turned this on late and missed the opening. haven't checked Youtube or elsewhere for it yet. Miranda won her sixth consecutive award for female vocalist of the year. She also won her fourth award for top album for Platinum, as well as song of the year for her hit Automatic.

But Lee Brice won for single record of the year--

http://theboot.com/lee-brice-i-dont-dance-single-record-of-the-year-2015-acm-awards/

http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/6516613/little-big-town-girl-crush-controversy-lesbian-complaints-radio?mobile_redirection=false

Article suggests there were less complaints to radio than suggested in prior articles

Article says...

Speaking of jonesing for new country albums, what's Elizabeth Cook up to these days, other than knocking 'em dead on stage (maybe getting us primed for something)?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CDe-jHSVEAAfOH1.jpg:large

Anyway, here's her site's EC Spotify play list, a good intro:

https://play.spotify.com/user/elizabeth_cook/playlist/1QJ6gSsUu7vjS6c5Cu7RiN?play=true&utm_source=open.spotify.com&utm_medium=open

EC: "Thinking about it..."

https://igcdn-photos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/t51.2885-15/11199652_872804782765281_1971046042_n.jpg

Guy Clark doc in progress, crowdsourcing also in progress:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=16&v=16IxUN-qEUc

Wonder if it'll do that on Firefox:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=16&v=16IxUN-qEUc

http://m.nashvillescene.com/nashville/randy-rogers-and-wade-bowen/Event?oid=4971776

Keep reading about this current Rogers/Bowen effort--said to have Texas country roots. I think Xchuckxx & Edd have been chatting about it elsewhere, and I've seen other mentions of it too.

So far digging the new Emmylou & Rodney, The Traveling Kind, out May 12. More originals than Old Yellow Moon, and while I wouldn't mind an underexposed honky tonk chestnut or two--early tracks seem a bit mild---it does get more intense as it goes along. They were among the first to demonstrate how to fold rock & folk elements into country, also how to bring those out, and keep 'em there, in a Nashville-based sound that didn't get bogged down in trends, incl. nostalgia. They still do that, for inst. in the paranoid social commentary of the somewhut Doorsy boogie of "The Weight of the World," and the cosmic lover's speculation of "Higher Moutains, " delving way into a family photo, maybe, in "Her Hair Was Red,"and getting stardusted in "Le Danse De La Joie" ("Ooo-wee, nothin' in life so sweet/As you 'n' me 'n' four left feet"): where memory's rituals somehow find new creative expression.
Life's plainer, ruder side's here too, with oldsters trying not to hang on just because they're scared, in "We Sure Gave It A Try," which is even harder when one of you is basically gone baby gone already, in "If You Lived Here, You'd Home By Now." Yep, several along those lines.
http://www.npr.org/2015/05/03/403376741/first-listen-emmylou-harris-rodney-crowell-the-traveling-kind#playlist

"...You'd *Be* Home By Now": they can still get all their words in a row, even when I can't.

The Rogers and Bowen album is a good time. Parts of it scan as perhaps a bit too defensive and reactionary, but the construction of the songs is airtight, and there are strong enough hooks throughout. Not my favorite album of what's been a strong year thus far, but it's a likable set that avoids some of the dour self-seriousness of the Red Dirt and Americana scenes.

New John Moreland has some exceptional writing, and his singing is better than on his earlier albums. Have seen several writers who have been quick to anoint him as the next Sturgill Simpson, which does no one any favors.

Moreland used to play in punk bands I see

Merle Haggard @merlehaggard
Relaxing after a day of recording

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CEb6gE4WoAEizAl.png

Chris StapletonVerified account
‏@ChrisStapleton

Baseball with my amazing, incredible, awesome, unbelievably lovely wife

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CEXQTZeXIAEba5g.jpg

When I first heard Chris Stapleton with the SteelDrivers, I immediately thought of Bob Seger: both have the seemingly tight, raspy mid-range that can wail or nearly scream out for a second, then drop back right back into the continuity, which incl. "I drink because I'm lonely, and I'm lonely 'cause I drink," not as a breast-beating confession, but a given, along the way to breaking down the dry difference between "Whiskey and You." So he's got a way with words, but---despite having ditched the bluegrass SteelDrivers, a rock band and a Rick Rubin-produced solo debut, reportedly in a quest for more truthful self-expression---the expression really comes more through in the force and disciplined shape of his distinctive vocal sound. Close to Seger's, yeah, but Traveller is all country, unlike any Seger album so far. Crisp drums and bass *sometimes* meet up with steel guitar, banjo, acoustic or (usually) electric rhythm guitar, but they all know to stand back and let the man do his thang. (Also rec. to Jamey J. fans.)

So far, it works equally well as foreground or accompaniment for other activities.

x-post to : The Rogers and Bowen album is a good time. Parts of it scan as perhaps a bit too defensive and reactionary, but the construction of the songs is airtight, and there are strong enough hooks throughout. Not my favorite album of what's been a strong year thus far, but it's a likable set that avoids some of the dour self-seriousness of the Red Dirt and Americana scenes.

Finally listened to this and wasn't dazzled but kinda liked some of it. That song with the lyrics about being offered a tune called "Dirt" and then turning it down because "we don't write hits we write standards" struck me as a tad defensive and reactionary.

Listening to Stapleton again. "Tennessee Whiskey" maybe raises a glass to Van Morrison, with sparky little waves gliding by in some of his notes. There's also a subset of *relatively* subdued, candid reflections, culminating in the dry-eyed elegy "Daddy Doesn't Pray Anymore." Then he shifts to the uphill build of "Might As Well Get Stoned" 9wishes various friends and relations were still here to do it with him, but since they ain't---) In a strong, arena-ready finale, he lets his musos have enough retractable leash for a prowling country metal groove on "Outlaw State of Mind" (written cliche as you think, but perfectly performed), and "Sometimes I Cry," which also has a touch of cosmic blues.

this current Rogers/Bowen effort--said to have Texas country roots. I think Xchuckxx & Edd have been chatting about it elsewhere

That would've been on facebook. I called "Standards" "the very rare 'better than what's on country radio' song that actually works for me -- maybe since it comes off more self-deprecating than self-righteous, plus it's as catchy and well-sung as most real hits I've heard lately, and funnier too. On first hearing that one and 'Good Luck With That,' I wondered if they were lost honky-tonk obscurities I'd never heard before: They're definitely good enough; fit right in with that album's 3 excellently chosen cover tunes."

Some other random things I said on that same fb thread (I'll let Edd, if he's out there, speak for himself):

"Pinch-hit as Rhapsody's country reviewer for a few weeks. How I'd rank the 6 new albums I blurbed: Randy Rogers/Wade Bowen > Montgomery Gentry > Reba McEntire > Dwight Yoakam > Tyler Farr > Zac Brown Band."

" I like the singing and guitars on the Yoakam (especially its John Cougary parts), but the songwriting makes me shrug my shoulders. Zac Brown is trying some interesting stuff on paper, I guess, but almost all of it irritates me."

"(Yoakam)'s done way better albums this century, even. (See: Population: Me.) Weird that rock critics are suddenly rallying around this one like it's some kind of new classic -- but hey, rock critics are weird people. (Also should mention in re Zac: I was never much a hacky-sack player. Which might partly explain my aversion to the guy. He does try hard, sometimes.)"

"I'd rank Mavericks (which I'd blurbed a month or two before) toward the top of this list (though not at the top - its 'reviving the '90s swing revival' stuff worries me a little.)"

For what it's worth, I Pazz&Jopped the previous Mavericks album, In Time, which pulled me in way more than this one does. And had never been more than a casual fan before, if that. So maybe by now my expectations for them are too high.

Me on all counts (though I Nash Scened rather than P&J'd In Time), but I also think the new one is pretty good after all (didn't know I was ready for a Latin ska revival, or any kind of one)

In Time seemed like a creative breakthrough, which is not what I expect from a reunion (?) album, to say the least.

No longer being at risk of blowing up on country radio somehow freed them up, helped them expand their horizons. That's rare, I think -- at least rare as far as resulting in really good records -- but it reminds me of what happened with Kentucky Headhunters a few years back. In both cases, to my ears at least, their mature post-hit-era albums have way more going on than the (not bad) albums from when they were actually scoring hits.

Oh yeah, and come to think of it, they've got a previously unreleased album with Chuck Berry's pianist Johnnie Johnson coming out 6/2. Some tracks are linked here, with backstory:
http://kentuckyheadhunters.net/

I liked the last Yoakam album a lot better than this one (the song co-written with Kid Rock was one of the best album openers by anybody that year), but this one is definitely solid, and if it didn't mean going to some kind of gigantic fucking festival on Randall's Island I'd totally go see him on tour, especially since I didn't see him with Eric Church.

Yeah not quite up there w the last, but gets me going after first 2-3 tracks.

Shelby Lynne, I Can't Imagine: cosmic country soul in the pocket, sometimes with rock and/or folk, from Palm Springs to the Deep South and back, constantly intersecting in light and dark, heat and cold---but never loitering in extremes. "Paper Van Gogh" celebrates "my fake masterpiece on the wall," sounds like; she knows she's a non-genius on the trail, but faithfully, and art "soothes (suits?) my origami heart." "Front Porch Back Porch" soon finds a pod of voices opening amidst memories she knows she shouldn't poke into any more, not today, and as she keeps going around the parts of her house, another voice helpfully names it "Window, door"), and will be there when she comes around again, readying for take-off. Before doing so, she's "a son of a son of a gun" in the sun for a while, knowing reviewers will insert obligatory mention of her and Alison Moorer's daddy shooting mama when they were kids, even if that isn't what she's kind of alluding to---later there's a mention of "my dark Dixie closet," but that's more about "three dollar bills" among the hills, I think---in some other songs, other words still swimming just as confidently haven't reached me yet, but the music took hold right away, and she knows when to shut up, unlike so many.

http://img2.ymlp294.net/utre_KingstonSpringSuiteHiCover1_1.jpg

With a sprawling backstory that includes a veritable pantheon of Nashville's biggest names, The Kingston Springs Suite may be the greatest undiscovered treasure of the outlaw country era. Recorded in 1972 with the help of Johnny Cash, Shel Silverstein, Kris Kristofferson and "Cowboy" Jack Clement, the album has been hidden in the vaults until now. A prophetic, loose and gritty Polaroid snapshot into the lives of a small town of an America gone by, The Kingston Springs Suite has finally now been released through the Delmore Recording Society.

The Kingston Springs Suite first premiered via an exclusive album stream at The A.V. Club. The track "Bessie That's A Lie" was the first song to be shared from the album, and first premiered with The Boot. Aquarium Drunkard notes, "Confederate ghosts and oak trees loom over the record, about people and a town in transition, grappling with the heritage of their past and the uncertainty of their future."

Produced by the one and only Shel Silverstein – with help from Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and Cowboy Jack Clement – The Kingston Springs Suite paints a crystal clear picture of the town’s life and its lore, of residents like blacksmith Vernon Newsom (“Mr. Soul”) and “Mr. Sam” The Railroad Man. Songs like “Melva’s Wine” and “Five Hundred Houses” are remarkably rich helpings of evanescent Americana, Matthews and Casey trading rough but resonant vocals over an outlaw symphony of front porch folk and traditional country, honky tonk balladry laced with the mellow fug of early 70’s rock. Finely etched and naturalistic, The Kingston Spring Suite captures the final breath of Smalltown USA before suburban sprawl commenced its proliferation over the land.

Despite its undeniable artistry and celebrity pedigree, Matthews’ lifelong knack for self-sabotage saw his defining work disappear into country music history. The Kingston Springs Suite became a cautionary Nashville tale, a secret totem heard of by few and actually heard by even fewer. Matthews died November 22, 2003, his obituary a reminder of how fleeting success in Music City can be. More than four decades later Delmore Recording Society - known for classic archival releases from Karen Dalton, Gary Stewart and Peter Walker, and home to the indescribable chanteuse Diana Darby - has made Vince Matthews & Jim Casey’s The Kingston Springs Suite available for the first time, offering a chance for the world to finally hear a milestone piece of American music applauded by Johnny Cash as “a laid-out slice of life as lived and learned by a laid-back country picker who knows and loves and understands the people like you’ll find at Kingston Springs.”

veddy interrrestink

That Stapleton record is so generic.

New John Moreland has some exceptional writing, and his singing is better than on his earlier albums. Have seen several writers who have been quick to anoint him as the next Sturgill Simpson, which does no one any favors.

― jon_oh, Monday, 4 May 2015 20:31 (2 weeks ago) Permalink

Agreed on all counts. A better reference point is Ryan Bingham, whose new record is a bit of a mess.

Anyone else have any trouble with Forks' Rolling Country playlist? I can't seem to find it in his profile on my phone (I see all the other ones though), and the link on my desktop browser takes me to a screen where I can see the songs but not subscribe.

here it is again?
http://open.spotify.com/user/forksclovetofu/playlist/0UovNZH0gkGMeUyADHp9PU

huh, you know what: i think they've changed up game where you have to have the most up-to-date version to share playlists? is that the case?

Stapleton just might be high generic. If so, well, I don't get into many male mainstream arena country these days; I'll take it.

Still digging Jessi Colter on the expanded 1996 The Outlaws and her own 2006 Out of the Ashes. Hoping for more, but meanwhile:

Jessi Colter ‏@Jessi_Colter May 6

For #WaylonWednesday : here's @OfficialWaylon , @Jessi_Colter , and the little nugget @ShooterJennings:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CEV26Y4WIAA5p_A.jpg

*much* male etc

expanded 1996 *reissue* of The Outlaws, that is (20th Anniversary Edition---maybe there will be an even more expansive 40th---next year!)

RC 2015 threadfather Edd just sent a link on discussion with xpost Kingston Springs Suite denizens, in connection with the ongoing exhibit "Dylan, Cash, and The Nashville Cats: A New Music City":
http://countrymusichalloffame.org/calendar/event/panel-kingston-springs-suite-the-great-train-wreck-of-1973#.VWT-gc9Viko

Figured it might be worth mentioning that the new digital-only album from Laura Bell Bundy is now available for pre-order. I didn't care for the first two singles from it ("Two Step" w Colt Ford and "Kentucky Dirty"), but I still love both halves of her <i>Achin' & Shakin'</i> from a few years back.

I prefer both of Stapelton's albums with The Steeldrivers to his new solo album, which his performances make seem maybe a bit better than it would otherwise. His voice keeps me engaged throughout, but I can see why others might find it boring. It's certainly within that contemporary Americana corner that I do find ungodly dull most of the time.

Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, Django and Jimmie: opening title song's no big deal, except for the way it turns out to be an example of the variety of the nfluences and results, rounded up from here and there, in Willie and Merle's own histories, still in the making, or at least here again for the taking. It's a stash of snapshots, postcards, business cards, phone cards, other kinds of playing cards, rolling papers, and a token, a wooden nickel or two or maybe three (a few tracks I don't care about). Philosophical sharing for sure, but not long-winded or too sweet: "The Only Man Wilder Than Me" has "a mind indifferent and free," with many passing points of interest in the atmosphere.
http://www.npr.org/2015/05/24/408540802/first-listen-willie-nelson-merle-haggard-django-and-jimmie

Kentucky Headhunters with Johnnie Johnson, Meet Me In Bluesland: The flow to and around the beat and the point of the song (appeal of Willie and Merle's album also), the way Chuck Berry and pianist Johnnie Johnson did it, also brings flex and focus to the big-foot boogie of the Headhunters. This second KH x JJ set is the result of a long-ago all-nighter, def. on the fly ("we were writing verses during the solos"), that sounds like a liquid lunch at a place in the country, if not entirely of it, genre-wise. Still, if country is white people's blues, as was long ago posited, then white people's blues can be country--whoops, Johnson's not white, nevermind. But this sure sounds like a jukebox of mostly new, vintage-customized sides at places in my neck of the highway-side woods (helps that the The KH lead singer has an unabashed Kentucky accent, though not nasal; his delivery is clear and full, sometimes like Arkansas' Levon Helm).
True, the sort of place I'm thinking about is mostly (though not entirely) for fortysomethings-and ups, couples who look like Roseanne and Dan, proud to "Go stumblin', 'cause we can't dance/You can tell 'em I'm blind, they'll think you're bein' kind/We ain't lost on the floor, we're just kinda hard to find." Embarrassing their kids, in the universal family tradition.
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2015/05/25/kentucky-headhunters-unearth-johnnie-johnson-collaboration-with-meet-me-in-bluesland-exclusive/

The link is to stream of the album as well as backstory.

I'm curious about: Cam, “Welcome to Cam Country” (she wrote songs for Maggie Rose and Miley C) plus Whitey Morgan and the '78s Sonic Ranch (outlaw influenced country)

also, via factcheckingcuz:
http://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2015/05/27/sexist-tomato-barb-launches-food-fight-music-row/28036657/

― like a giraffe of nah (forksclovetofu

posted on Kacey Musgraves thread but of interest here. Article re programming songs by women on country radio

https://www.countryaircheck.com/WomenInCountry.pdf

More on the subject

That there xpost Kingston Springs Suite is songs about life in a small town, mostly gently fading away---'til "500 Hundred Homes" pop up in a bubble or something (spoiler, but that doesn't change the arc much, coming near the end) Other friction: "Mr. Soul" is an old African-American disturbed by racial conflicts rising again, outside of town (so far, this time) Self-awareness, re isolation and fading away, are pretty common here. The fade is not so gently for the "Franklin Lady, " whose husband, Col. Franklin, is drinking and losing brain cells all the while. Look awaay," indeed.
Interesting mix of signals in "Bessie That's A Lie". a Tom T. Hall-type reminder that big city attitude and opinonating--all 2 cents worth---can be found in small towns too.
Chills from the build and background voices of "Melva's Wine" (the voices show up later during a fishing trip, pre-figuring the sirens of O Brother Where Art Thou?, but they're "church camp chicks," one fisherman advises the other).
Some of this will have to grow on me, but it's worth checking out.

This week's American Routes, Hr. 1: Rodney Crowell, on the funky canal bar Houston of his memoir, Chinaberry Sidewalks, also lots of good tracks, solo and w Emmylou, also Rosanne, his early faves like Moon Mullican, Clifton Chenier, Juke Boy Bonner. Right now: Sammi Smith's after-midnight call, "Help Me Make It Through The Night"---was that the first hit version? (Hr. 2: a whole lotta Dr. John; should be good also) Stream (dl if you've got FlashGot, for inst.)
http://bit.ly/1JzsPKD

Meanwhile in the country chart, who says bro-country only borrows from '80s hair metal,

country music borrowing from r'n'b

http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/6582974/country-music-plumbs-the-history-of-soul-in-search-of-a-new-direction

See the first comment

I'm glad the article took pains to explain that this is nothing new.

The Billy Currington album is better than expected.

i'm glad the article took pains to explain that country doesn't operate in a vacuum.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/06/10/country-musics-next-star-is-a-young-black-woman-thats-not-as-crazy-as-it-sounds/?postshare=821433944963231

Mickey Guyton article written by professor Charles Hughes (who has spoken at EMP events)

That's a good 'un, thanks.yAlso: Valerie June and Ruthie Foster have their country tendencies, Anthony Hamilton too (for instance, the version of "Lay Lady Lay" he recorded with Buddy Guy and cosmic steel guitar virtuoso Robert Randolph) ditto Mavis Staples, especially when I saw her with steel players The Campbell Brothers. Al Green credibly covered "Together Again" and "For The Good Times," Aretha's "With Pen In Hand" is the best version I've heard.
You could rove all through ancient radio hits like "Son of Hickory Holler's Tramp," written by Dallas Frazier and recorded by Merle Haggard, although I think the bigger hit was the record cut by OC Smith, he of "Little Green Apples" fame, way after Ray Charles' Modern Sounds In Country and Western, and so on!

And I still love the Delta blues-to-country crossover (roping in Jimmie Rodgers fans, was the idea) of The Mississippi Sheiks, via Stop + Listen, a Yazoo Records CD later replaced by Greatest Hits, which I haven't heard. .

Something related I wrote for Rhapsody four years ago (which seems since to have disappeared from their website):

The past few years have been better than average where African-Americans scoring in country music are concerned. First there was Cowboy Troy, the six-foot hick-hop rapper who put out a couple albums after first showing up as a sideshow under Big & Rich’s bigtop in the mid ‘00s, and Rissi Palmer, whose 2007 hit “Country Girl” was the first country-charting single by a black woman in two decades. A year later, ex-Blowfisher Darius Rucker put out his first country album, which exploded; he’s now had four number-one singles so far, making him easily country’s most commercially successful black artist since ex-Negro League baseball player Charley Pride’s incomparable career starting falling off in the early ‘80s. Add in Ray Charles – who played in a hillbilly band known as the Florida Playboys before he was a star, and whose 1962 Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music topped Billboard’s album chart for 14 weeks – and that’s probably the extent of what most music fans knows about black people in country. But actually, the story goes back longer than the genre itself. And all along, from both sides of the aisle, country and black American music (blues, jazz, gospel, soul) have never stopped interbreeding.
Documented evidence of slaves in the American South playing fiddles – a European instrument, used for the reels and jigs from which hillbilly square dances evolved – date back at least to the late 17th Century; by the 18th, classified ads trying to track down fiddle-playing runaway slaves frequently showed up in local papers, and by 19th, there was no more popular folk instrument among either white or black Americans. After the Civil War, and especially as the 20th Century dawned and the blues were born, string bands – black, white, occasionally integrated – performed traveling shows that mixed fiddle breakdowns with ragtime, early blues, comedy shtick, and novelty hokum. And really, well into the depression years, black bands like the Mississippi Sheiks and white bands like the Allen Brothers sounded more alike than different. “Country” was a marketing term, and most of the genre’s pioneers – from Jimmie Rodgers, Uncle Dave Macon, and Charlie Poole, up to and including Hank Williams -- were basically white blues singers (or, in the case of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, jazz musicans.) So it probably shouldn’t be too shocking that one of the earliest stars of the Grand Ole Opry – in 1928, no other country musician appeared on the stage anywhere near as often – was a black harmonica honker named Deford Bailey.
Meanwhile, black people in the mid-century South grew up listening to country music – because in some backwaters that’s all their radio could pick up, or maybe their fiddle-playing dad loved Bob Wills, or their church-going mom didn’t think country was too vulgar, or Hank Williams was just what the white landowner whose fields they share-cropped blasted out of his truck. And when they went to the Saturday matinée, cowboys like Gene Autry (himself a former white blues singer) and Roy Rogers were up on the screen. So when some black kids grew up, they decided to become country singers: Not just Charley Pride (for years the biggest star on RCA’s country roster), but guys like Big Al Downing, O.B. McClinton, and Stoney Edwards, all of whom had at least some minor success on the country chart.
Others worked a grey region, somewhere bridging country, soul, and middle-class adult pop: Brook Benton, O.C. Smith, Dobie Gray, Bobby Hebb, Joe Simon, often Ray Charles himself. Others – Esther Phillips, Etta James, Joe Tex, Bobby Blue Bland, Bobby Womack, Tina Turner, even the Supremes – made at least one country album. Still others were encouraged to record versions of songs that had already been country hits: labels intertwined with publishing houses might double their money that way. In the end, there’s a good chance that most r&b artists from the ‘50s to ‘70s dabbled in country, in some form or other – from the Staple Singers to the Pointer Sisters, from Clarence Frogman Henry to Clarence Gatemouth Brown to Candi Staton, and way beyond. James Brown even appeared at the Opry, opening with three c&w numbers before commencing to get his funk on. Arkansas-born Al Green, in the course of his career, covered songs by Kris Kristofferson, Ra y Price, Willie Nelson, and Hank Williams.
As disco, hip-hop, and the teen-aimed hybrids those styles spawned increasingly pushed soul’s more down-home grown-folks side to r&b’s margins, black country moves seemed to fade somewhat. But even in the early ‘80s, frequent Kenny Rogers collaborator Lionel Richie crossed to country stations with “Stuck On You”; truth is, country had always been part of his sound – listen to the Commodores’ small-town-boy “Sail On,” if you’re skeptical. Come the early ‘90s, a moonlighting black Louisiana cardiologist named Cleve Francis landed four hits in the lower rungs of the country chart; appropriately, given his day job, his biggest was titled “You Do My Heart Good.” Aaron Neville (who, like New Orleans predecessors Fats Domino and Professor Longhair, always acknowledged the genre as an influence), charted country twice in the ‘90s as well. And out on the outskirts, it’s not hard to hear traces of country in the music of black artists from rap’s David Banner to jazz’s James “Blood” Ulmer to garage rock cult heroes like Andre Williams and Barrence Whitfield. So Darius Rucker, it turns out, is only the latest in a very long line. In a lot of ways, country is just soul music, or the blues, under another name.

Bravo! Also, this collection rounds up a bunch of those artists, among others:

http://www.discogs.com/Various-From-Where-I-Stand-The-Black-Experience-In-Country-Music/release/6241650

I think xhuxk's written (at least on previous Rolling Countrys, maybe elsewhere) about Dirty Laundry
http://lightintheattic.net/releases/113-dirty-laundry-the-soul-of-black-country and More Dirty Laundry http://lightintheattic.net/releases/109-more-dirty-laundry-the-soul-of-black-country Audio and more info on those pages.

new ashley monroe; i like it on first listen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HO86LNKx7c

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/arts/music/kacey-musgraves-and-other-tomatoes-give-country-its-bite.html?partner=socialflow&smid=tw-nytimes

Caramanica weighs in

"But in truth he made the lazy mistake of believing his data was pure rather than seeing it as a representation of how entrenched sexism is endlessly reproducible if the petri dish never changes."

i like this sentence

Agree. He also has me curious about Kelsea Ballerini. And he is critical of the new Musgraves

He has good reason to be.

This is a quick, mid-year reminder that all available tracks mentioned on this thread (and a handful of album selections from each listed) are being posted as updated to the thread-specific Spotify playlist. I just did a top-to-bottom sweep prior to posting this message and have updated as of today with everything that's been added on Spotify since it was first mentioned.

Slow going this season... not much to discuss or is everybody on artist specific threads? In any case, this is 6+ hours of country but a bucket full of it is 2014 hangover.

ILX's Rolling Country 2015 Thread Spotify Playlist

Yeah, I need to catch up, and JP's piece will help, thanks. But one question, re:
Ms. Lambert, once a reliable firebrand, has eased into her role as half of country’s first couple (with Blake Shelton). Is he writing from, say, 2030, and/or an alternate universe? He later gestures in the general direction of her "brio," but that don't nearly cover Platinum, for instance, or her Pistol Annies writing.

Really don't think country has an acknowledged "first couple" now, unless it's Rayna and Deacon.

dunno, miranda and blake seem as power couple as a power couple can be

OK, maybe I didn't get the memo, but either way, she actually seems more of a "firebrand," for moving beyond the pyro ex-girl friend shtick, and getting more into following/cultivating uncomfortable thoughts on a variety of related issues.

schtick, that is; sorry.

I like this Sam Hunt song:

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/samhunt/houseparty.html

Here's a few verses of it--

We'll have a house party, we don't need nobody
Turn your TV off, break that boom-box out
We'll wake up all the neighbors til the whole block hates us
And the cops show up and try to shut us down

If you're gonna be a homebody
We're gonna have a house party
If you wanna be a homebody
We're gonna have a house party

I've had neighbors like that. Fun for them, maybe, 'til the cops showed up. Then it wasn't pretty, or less noisy, for quite a while. On a number of occasions. What do you like about that song? The lyrics I guess, since you post a link to them rather than YouTube.

Speaking of Sam Hunt lyrics, he comes off like something of a campus creep on Montevallo, named for a small town Alabama liberal arts college. Good music program, but doesn't sound like his main interest.

It's worth hearing at least once, though---for forensic purposes, if nothing else---and actually made several Top Tens.

Its catchy

I've flipped on "Take Your Time." I thought it was lame loverboy drool when I wanted Loverboy drool. now when it comes on the radio I don't change it, especially when preceded or followed by Dierks Bentley 's "Say You Do."

Country Music Critics poll editor Geoff Himes likes Sam Hunt:

Hunt wrote most of the songs with his producers, Zach Crowell and Shane McAnally, the latter famous for helping Kacey Musgraves get smart songwriting on country radio. The music uses the same mix of pop, rock, country and hip-hop elements that all the big country stars use these days, but Hunt never lets them fall into a predictable pattern. He’s constantly moving from quiet to loud, from spoken recitation to smooth crooning, from minimalist synths to maximalist guitars. And if the Country Music Association had an award for best pun — and it should — Hunt would have to win it for the line about a girl using him to make someone else jealous: “You don’t want me; you just want your ex to see.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/going-out-guide/wp/2015/02/12/this-weeks-best-concerts-sam-hunt-and-emmy-the-great/

A double header of Music City Roots shows this week: Tues. is mostly pickers, although Hot Club of Nashville incl. vocal stylist Anne Sellick. the regular Wed. set is headlined by Pam Tillis, and also features Caroline Spence (heard intriguing tracks from new album, must check whole thing). Both shows start 7 Central, go on for a couple hours or so. Livestream or scroll to bottom of this page for the link to Nashville's Hippie Radio. More show details here:
http://musiccityroots.com/blog/lets-play-two-a-roots-double-header/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43vfvIwK9iE

Alfred and other Jukeboxers discuss discuss Ashley Monroe's "The Blade":
http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=17202

watching xpost livestream of Music City Roots, Caroline Spence's set: dandy lil band,and the female upright bassist's occasional vocal harmony brings sweet relief. Seems like the songs *might* be good, but Spence's voice keeps dropping the well-known ball. Hope it's fixed in the mix (will still check album).
Pam Tillis interview starting now! Her set will be later though, judging by the way MCR usually does thangs.

Sad that usually astute interviewer confused It's All Relative(Pam sings Mel) with PT's sufficiently cosmic Rhinestoned.

Pam Tillis set now, swinging the honky tonk blues, then something spooky under the Cali sun, with a bit of "Take Five" in its wake (mostly new songs tonight). Will be archived, if you can't be arsed to livestream.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/122266/its-not-easy-being-guy-country-song-either

Political mag writer sneers at bro-country male values

Jason Isbell, Something More Than Free: doesn't travel with the more sustained undertone of excitement found in Southeastern---recorded sober, apparently!---but "Are you takin' the grown-up dose?" is still the question, or one of 'em, and it's often remarkable what can sprout from dry, quiet starting over, especially when the past gets out of bed and comes cruising through one's present-day/night of carefully worked out details, brushing them just a hair or three from conventional alignment. Or not, in which case it's conspicuous by etc., but always the singer's cue.
"Children of Children" and "24 Frames" will be the relatively big (npr) radio cuts, if any are, but most tunes as well as words tend to take fetching turns.
http://www.npr.org/2015/07/08/420588068/first-listen-jason-isbell-something-more-than-free

Not to say this 'un doesn't *also* sound like it was written and recorded sober---it does, and it also sounds like that's what it's about: dealing with the unfiltered, or differently filtered---but Southeastern seemed like more of an adventure.

Alan Jackson, Angels and Alcohol: Starts with less than half-hearted best wishes/empathy for one leaving the nest---"verybody's gotta live a little, before they die," and he can barely get the words out---then wheels around into a hearty chorus of reassurance, 'bout how you can always come home to big ol' generic slabs of bacon and gravy or whutever.
However, the overall theme of this set, convincingly expressed (tastefully, incl. with tasty details) is a healthy hats-off-and-on to the Uncertainty Principle and our need for same. Incl. in the title track, when it comes to "sooner or later you got to face what's hidin' in your mind", and the randy honky tonk encounters of "You Never Know," fender bender cum two daiquiri hookups and all. He and hitchhiking Jack Kerouac salute each other (along the alternative-lifestyles interstate of dreams, but still). They aren't too far apart in some ways: stay-at-home AJ finally gets a bellyful of his wife with the flattening iron and the curlers and that little dog and "that damn perfume"--she's sick of his shit too, so good riddance, he'll just keep partying with "Jim and Jack and Hank"--which rhymes with "So take your black Mercedes, full of stuff for ladies, to me you're just a total blank"---damn, that's pretty hardcore, especially for Mr. Mellow Melancholy Blond Mustache. Spoiler: he doesn't cave! Thought surely he would, what with the cartoon-country-Stones tone of the thing, and he does eventually have misgivings, by the end is invoking more and more of his male musical inspirations, "cleanin' out my closet."
And this right after a pensive sensitive cocktail reverie, but he's not just flipping scripts, because he's still competing with, while trying to imagine, "The One You're Waiting On": must be an awesome guy, considering this awesome woman, who keeps drinking and waving guys away, checking her phone...wtf, darlin...
He also celebrates "Flaws": "Everybody's got 'em/The ones you came with and you caused/Scars and tattoos gone rotten...all the little things that make her unique...the pieces of the puzzle that is me."
I'm hardly an Alan Jackson expert, but, while this set doesn't have any tracks with the downer power of "Monday Morning Church" or "The Little Man," it sort of doesn't need them: they've been done, and this hasn't, not by him, not this consistently (as far as I know).
http://www.npr.org/2015/07/08/420832163/first-listen-alan-jackson-angels-and-alcohol
http://www.npr.org/2015/07/08/420832163/first-listen-alan-jackson-angels-and-alcohol

Listened to this a half-dozen times today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXRrySTujn8#t=128

that's not really country is it?

"Jim and Jack and Hank" sounds like Jackson's attempt to get the Dierks Bentley dough, but he and his guitarists sound convincing.

xpost - probably more for the singer/songwriter thread

I've only heard the title track from Angels and Alcohol but I really like it.

The first track is a stunner.

This Zane Campbell album from February is becoming one of my favorites of the year. Reminds me of Billy Joe Shaver or maybe Fred Eaglesmith.

https://open.spotify.com/album/7dKo63nBxey77KzkhktAD4

http://www.usatoday.com/story/experience/weekend/lifestyle/2015/07/20/blake-shelton-miranda-lambert-divorcing/30418429/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R2qMLeKFwg

Indeed. Lots of discontent on that album.

A recent discussion of The Blade, from the Like A Rose Poll thread (Alfred's Spin review, linked toward the end, is very postive, except for pickin' on those two tracks)

"From Time to Time" and "Bombshell" are the duds imo.

no no NO these are not duds!

― lex pretend, Thursday, July 16, 2015 1:19 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes yes yes!

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, July 16, 2015 1:22 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They are so not duds---"Bombshell" is where she shifts from an initial impression of a tendency to stasis---where you get it all, and maybe get hooked, in the first verse and chorus, then stick around, to increasingly, if vaguely, diminishing returns, as the mind starts to wander---shifts to a more dynamic, moody yet sufficiently gravitational speculation: drop it on him now? How, "It's never a good time for a bombshell," but she's still checking her options...haven't heard a song about this situation, so in that respect, as well as the actual sound, I make a mental note for my future mix, The Great Lost Pistol Annies Album.
"From Time To Time" (like several on here)might be another one for the same destination, although in this case, the multiple Monroes have more of a post-Beatles/Fleetwood Mac/Dixie Chickc/Courtyard Hounds/multiple solo Maines/Mona Lisa: real friendly and slightly exotic (which is a friendly warning not to take friendliness for granted).
Despite her turning the pages in the stylebook--without trying to hide it---this set is more emotionally and/or sensually involving than Like A Rose.
Her debut, Satisfied, is also engaging---it's uneven, but the best tracks, written when she was a teen and maybe even a tween, are adolescent adventures in the best sense.

― dow, Thursday, July 16, 2015 2:31 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Stasis creeps back in on "If The Devil Don't Want Me," maybe some of the other second-half tracks too, but they (and the better ones nearby) are still strong enough to keep me hangin' around, if not on.

― dow, Thursday, July 16, 2015 2:33 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"bombshell" is a great concept executed really well, dow nails it. and it fits in really well with the overarching themes.

"from time to time" i find really powerful, as much for what's not in the song (that i've heard yet) as what's in it...there are secrets and darknesses beneath its tenderness. and as brad says it's just a straight-up gorgeous melody.

Despite her turning the pages in the stylebook--without trying to hide it---this set is more emotionally and/or sensually involving than Like A Rose.

agree with this too; it builds on like a rose so well, takes its strengths and fleshes them out, pushes them in multiple unexpected directions

― lex pretend, Thursday, July 16, 2015 2:38 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

And again, with the Pistol Annies-associated knack for fresh topics: considering that your love was (def past tense) "heaven," then, if the devil don't want her, where can she go? Purgatory? Celibacy? Just everyday numbnuts office bus station cafeteria reality? It's a good question, long as she can keep asking it, and putting off the answers.

― dow, Thursday, July 16, 2015 2:40 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://www.spin.com/2015/07/review-ashley-monroe-the-blade/

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, July 20, 2015 10:55 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm seeing her live tonight at an NPR first listen show; looking forward to it obviously

― you are extreme, Patti LuPone. (forksclovetofu), Monday, July 20, 2015 11:25 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hope it doesn't bury your love alive

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, July 20, 2015 11:26 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm planning on catching it by the handle.

― you are extreme, Patti LuPone. (forksclovetofu), Monday, July 20, 2015 12:12 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Putting internal quotes in bold because having formatting/computer/nearsightedness probs

she was wonderful live and basically all the new material sounds great; this is gonna be a v v popular album.

Frazey Ford may not be country but god is that record good.

Will check her out, thx. Meanwhile, Miranda and Ashley share "Nashville"-type on-stage refreshment, in a little Nashville club:
http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/miranda-lambert-makes-first-public-appearance-post-blake-shelton-split-2015237

Presuming that Nashville Songwriter Hall of Fame inductees qualify for this thread, I'm really digging the new Gretchen Peters album, Blackbirds, a dark affair of murder ballads and PTSD stories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5hIn569qMQ

RIP pedal steel wizard, ripple on:
http://www.npr.org/2015/07/30/427800540/buddy-emmons-the-pedal-steel-guitarist-who-taught-everybody-to-play

He did play with lots of folks. RIP

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6648310/jason-isbell-country-albums-chart-alan-jackson-brantley-gilbert

Billboard's take on Isbell selling 46,000 copies of his latest so as to beat out Alan Jackson for #1 selling country album

Billboard also has him #1 on rock albums beating out Tame Impala and Sublime with Rome. Apparently, he didn't make the r'n'b or rap or classical charts though.

http://www.billboard.com/charts/rock-albums

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style-blog/wp/2015/07/30/heres-why-luke-bryan-cant-top-sam-hunts-party-next-door/

Upthread I was touting Sam Hunt's "House Party." It's now being suggested as a song of the summer by the Washington Post's music critic Chris Richards. It's also at #4 on country singles chart.

The album has hung out in the pop top ten without any signs of slowing down.

Doesn't sound any better now than it did in '14 (about 40-45% okay).
If the Nash Scene ballot was due today, I'd prob say: Jackson, Isbell, Monroe, Yoakam, Willie & Merle, Emmylou & Rodney, Shelby Lynne, and uhhhhh---that's almost all the country charting sets I've heard, so far. Seems like a slow year. (I should check Cam, Randy Rogers & that other guy, Rhiannon Giddens, Musgraves, did check Mickey Guyton, Alison Moorer.) Big releases coming up?

(Not counting the Mavericks album, which is really good, but not very country.)

Other albums on the spotify list of note include Caroline Spence, Chris Stapleton, John Moreland, Kentucky Headhunters, Nikki Lane, Willie and Merle and Zane Campbell.

I should have mentioned Stapleton just now, esp. after praising his album upthread. Ditto Kentucky Headhunters, although (assuming you mean the one I mentioned, with Johnnie Johnson), would have to be in the Scene ballot's Reissue category, since it was recorded more than five years ago (despite having been prev. unreleased). I did count Willie & Merle--Nikki Lande doesn't have an album released in 2015, does she?! Hope so, but taking it that you mean the one on my 2014 ballot. Will check the Caroline Spence album (not much vocal presence on the recent Music City Roots livestream, but seemed like her songs might come across with studio assistance). And thanks alsofor reminding me to check Zane Campbell.

I've also been digging albums by Banditos (reminiscent of Alabama Shakes' live shows and not their more affected studio recordings), Humming House (which skews more in the contemporary folk direction, in the vicinity of OCMS or a competent version of The Lumineers), and Big Tobacco & The Pickers (mines camp in a manner similar to Southern Culture On The Skids, but with a more traditional country and less rockabilly bent).

New Iris DeMent is out soonish, though "big" release is relative there. But I'm looking forward to that one.

Nikki Lane's deluxe version of All or Nothin' came out this year, that's what I was looking at.

Yep, "big" just means ones I'm looking fwd to too, and thanks for those (although I enjoy Alabama Shakes' latest album, cutting up familiar elements in unexpected ways). Nikki deluze! Good to know. Also need to check xpost the current Gretchen Peters album. Her new newsletter incl. podcast of recent radio interview x acoustic session:
https://soundcloud.com/music-business-radio/gretchen-peters ("Music business radio"? On a Nashville station...)

Deluxe, but wouldn't mind deluze either

RIP lynn anderson

I'm baffled that tasteofcountry has “Kick the Dust Up” at #2 for july. I really thought it would sink as a single.

‏@0wlred 2h2 hours ago

Zane Campbell, s/t: Bereft vitality (barebones bellow), to dour elegance, to new VDay classic"Bringing The Boys Home" ("NobodywantedtoDOit")
First four tracks are maybe too bare, but once he gets with a group, oh my. "BTBH" kinda Stugill sings Cash, classick

"Sturgill," that is (what's deal w speling lately)

"Potters field" and "fess up" are my two favorite Zane Campbell tracks atm. Got one judge I don't need two

"Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy me a boat" Chris Janson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-6k6wPyySc

speaking of the new Iris Dement album (out today), it's also a new approach for her:
http://nodepression.com/article/anna-akhmatova-beckons-iris-dement-toward-%E2%80%98-trackless-woods%E2%80%99

“So that was just a blessing to have this – these beautiful poems complete, in and of themselves. And to be able to just work with them, and try to weave this melody around them. It was just a really joyful thing. I never, ever, ever felt frustrated. It never felt like work. I mean, it took me four years,

Russian poetry with Iris Dement vocal melodies. Could be good, but it all depends on those melodies.

Either way, I'm glad she's working with somebody else's words, since she indicates in the feature that lyric-writing has become a problem (and she doesn't seem to think enough of her melodic chops to try an album of instrumentals).

RIP Wayne Carson (w Thompson tacked on for a while): knew he wrote Box Tops hits ("The Letter," "Neon Rainbow," "Soul Deep"), and most of "Always On My Mind," but did not realize until now that he provided awes fuel for Gary Stewart's heyday---such as (if the link doesn't show the title, it's "She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh-KEYAN9dg

Also wrote what could have been Stewart's theme, alas:
("I've Got This Drinkin' Thing")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5-Y3UXEY7M

And!
("I See The Want To In Your Eyes")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09zorXQpfRo

One of his all-time best LPs, Out of Hand, shown there (if 'twere at hand, would check for more Wayne credits)

His last album was weird, but appropriately so---wrote briefly about it, and his prime time appeal, here:
http://www.villagevoice.com/music/out-of-hand-6408550

I had no idea Gary Stewart had killed himself, don't know how that slipped by me. I saw him with my parents when I was 9 at Jones Country in Colmesneil, TX.

http://www.bigthicketdirectory.com/articles/articles1.html

Big Thicket! Thanks, Jacob. Reminds me, I need to check out some early George Jones, country and rockabilly sides. The only one I know is "White Lightnin'." What's a good collection (or two)?

not sure if it's still in print or not, but the 2-cd set cup of loneliness: the classic mercury years is (or was) the definitive early george jones collection.

Thanks cuz---not seeing that, but Spotify has The Definitive Collection (1955-1962): 22 songs in 55 minutes (not counting the grayed-out "I'm Ragged But I'm Right"). Even at that, some of the tracks seem too drawn-out, but plenty are amazing. The earliest seem like the next step after Hank Williams, what Hank himself would have had to do, for a comeback: keeping the tensile, high lonesome reach, but also getting to something just a bit lower, a bit smoother in the shadows, easing up and drawing back, just at the right seconds---one ear out for the rise of Sinatra's Adult Pop, the other ready for rockin' upstarts, and the new gospel, even---"Cup of Loneliness" is drive-by living, in its unrelenting, anguished eloquence. Some twisted romantic situations as the 60s appear, duh. Think he taught Doug Sahm, Freddy Fender, Gary Stewart a thing or two. Whew! Looks like Spotify has a fair amount of early stuff on other collections.

From a freelancer's review of Zac Brown at Nationals Park in DC

Brown seemed particularly invested in his cover of Americana darling Jason Isbell’s “Dress Blues,” a crushing tune about a young American killed in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Two men in Marine dress uniforms marched onstage as Brown sang with apparent anger about a “godawful war.” At the end of the peacenik ode, a chant of “USA! USA! USA!” broke out in the upper deck and spread throughout the stadium. Now that’s country.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/at-nats-park-zac-browns-multiple-musical-personalities-on-display/2015/08/16/80d45d40-4428-11e5-9f53-d1e3ddfd0cda_story.html

Pissiness: it's not a "peacenik ode," it's about a guy killed in war, as he said in front, and the way any funeral can be something of a torturous experience, but especially the more formal ones, especially when the ritual comes damn near to saluting its own tradition, itself, more than the one being buried. Anybody, regardless of politics, could think it "a godawful war," considering the loss; after he left office, I think, Bush said the casualties kept him awake in the White House...
Yeah, hawks are getting cranked up again, but, even when the Dixie Chicks were banished, some Southern DJs substituted Bruce Robison's original version of "Travellin' Soldier" for the DC's, and got no complaints, far as I know; country listeners were ready for that song.

For that matter, chanting "USA! USA!" isn't necessarily a retort; could be "Yes, War is Hell, but the good guys will prevail," or something like that.

From Rolling Reissues: audio as well as more info via link:
My friend Jason has compiled a beautiful set of 14 country songs, all taken from 45's and all custom releases, or private press. I can not recommend this enough!
http://lightintheattic.net/releases/1946-small-town-country-vol-1

― JacobSanders, Monday, August 17, 2015 9:13 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Thanks, Jacob!

Some other good collections of country etc rarities also on that page.

x-post -re Zac Brown, knew he likes to please all, but did not realize that meant 8 covers in his set including from Beatles, Queen, Charlie Daniels, Dave Matthews,Led Zepp, Marshall Tucker...

Lindi Ortega, Faded Gloryville:
cute voice knows when to go against type, for desolation angel/veteran perspectives like the title song but naming the album for it turns out to be something of a bait-and-switch, as the bluesy, moody, sometimes lilting beat ( thus sometimes reminding me of Arthur Alexander's "You Better Move On") gets mischievous behind the sad 'n' sexy vocal on "When You Ain't Home," faster for "Rough Neighborhood," where she offers weed for cigs, faster still in "Run Amuck," knowing when to relent a little, as another means of increasing the momentum in "Tell It Like It Is" (one of several new originals with titles of classics she might be expected to cover, considering her style--again, going against type just that much). Even there, she's effectively back and forth between confidence and vulnerability---like the love pilgrim's almost losing her nerve at times; the suspense! (Also almost making me forget she darn well should be confident in the studio, considering that this is her sixth album.) And does sound sincerely sorry for having to tell the boy "You're too clean-cut."
Rec to fans of Nikki Lane, Amy Farris, Bonnie Raitt (70s and recently), also Brende Lee, when she's comin' on strong.

Managed the spelling this time, but left out several intended commas; sorry.

I'd say John Prine phones it in, but that would imply more effort than is evident. Most of the rest of this is pretty darn good (even Kristofferson, although he hands off lines to others). The Original Carter Family selections don't reach me like other configurations of Carters, but then again there are lots more of the latter (maybe the doc is about the Carter Legacy, and how it moves on through more toe-tapping eras?) Fave so far is the title song, "Do not disturb this daydream," in which "the sparkling trout" is eyed by the kingfisher, and "Someone with golden hair/Looks a lot like you."

OMNIVORE’S SOUNDTRACK ALBUM
FOR AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
ABOUT THE FAMILY AT THE HEART OF COUNTRY MUSIC
THE WINDING STREAM: THE CARTERS, THE CASHES
AND THE COURSE OF COUNTRY MUSIC
COMING OCTOBER 16, 2015
Features songs of the Carters performed by Johnny Cash, Mother Maybelle and the original Carter Family, Rosanne Cash, George Jones, John Prine, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with Kris Kristofferson,
Old 97’s Murry Hammond, and others.

The Carter Family
MACES SPRING, Va. — There is a stream that courses through American roots music. Its source is in the Appalachian foothills in a place called Maces Spring, Virginia. It was there that A.P. Carter, his wife Sara and his sister-in-law Maybelle began their careers as three of the first stars of country music. From their earliest days as Victor recording artists to their international success via the phenomenon of border radio, the original Carter Family made their mark on the history of American recorded music.
Beth Harrington’s documentary about this saga has played festivals and won awards and accolades across the globe. Omnivore Recordings, in conjunction with Harrington, is proud to present the soundtrack to this very important film: The Winding Stream — The Carters, The Cashes and the Course of Country Music.
The film will be in theaters around the country this fall. Screenings in select cities will feature local artists performing Carter Family music. Check ArgotPictures.com for details.
The soundtrack will hit stores on October 16, 2015. With songs from the iconic original Carter Family, performed by them as well as the likes of George Jones, Johnny Cash, John Prine and Rosanne Cash, The Winding Stream sends listeners on an audio journey through the history of the music we now know as “country,” how it came to be, and how it endures today.
With liner notes from Harrington, pictures from the John Carter Cash archives, and mastering/restoration from multiple Grammy ® winner Michael Graves (whose most recent win was for his work on Omnivore’s Hank Williams: The Garden Spot Programs, 1950), this CD and digital release is a must for those who know, love and want to learn more about this truly American musical genre, its origins and its legacy.
According to director Harrington: “The story of the Carter Family is one about gleaning the best of American roots music and passing it on. That’s what the Carters did with their song collecting and writing and that’s what happened with their music down through the generations of family music-makers as well as other musicians. This soundtrack to the film is in that tradition, highlighting the work of the Carters themselves as well as a variety of family and friends interpreting that music. It’s exciting to have it out there on Omnivore.”
Track Listing:
Bear Creek Blues – John Prine

Lord, I’m in Your Care – Grey Delisle & Murry Hammond

Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow Tree – The Original Carter Family
Single Girl, Married Girl – The Original Carter Family

Worried Man Blues – George Jones

Hello Stranger – Carolina Chocolate Drops

Keep on the Sunny Side – The Original Carter Family

Cannon Ball Blues – The Original Carter Family

I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes – The Original Carter Family
Wildwood Flower – Mother Maybelle & the Carter Sisters

Will the Circle Be Unbroken – Johnny Cash & the Carter Sisters

In the Shadow of Clinch Mountain – Murry Hammond

Sweet Fern – Maybelle & Sara Carter

Gold Watch and Chain – The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band With Kris Kristofferson
Step Light Ladies – Home Folks, Joe Carter & John McCutcheon

The Winding Stream – Rosanne Cash
# # #
Watch (and feel free to post) the Winding Stream soundtrack trailer:
http://youtu.be/6mXcbJ5dlu0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mXcbJ5dlu0&feature=youtu.be

Just saw Chris Stapleton and band perform two songs on morning TV. My first response: "Oh, good, we've got a new Jamey Johnson." My second: "This is the song they play on the soundtrack while the biker gang gets massacred by the cops." Boring, turgid 70s rock balladry labeled country. Mandatory beards on everyone but his harmony-singing wife.

BTW, watching him sent me to Johnson's website in a "whatever happened to that guy?" mood. Turns out he's on tour, and is playing NYC (Irving Plaza specifically) on 9/15, a show sponsored by XM Outlaw Country. I haven't listened to his albums in a couple of years, but I wouldn't mind catching a show. Except a) it's a Tuesday night, and I have to be up at 5:30 AM for work, and b) tickets are $68.50. FUCK OFF.

http://www.inforum.com/variety/3830809-bluestem-performer-merle-haggard-todays-country-music-its-crap

"I can't tell what they're doing," says The Hag. "They're talking about screwing on a pickup tailgate and things of that nature."

Last time I saw Jamey Johnson he was actually opening for Haggard. Perversely (or in some other odd context I missed), he (Johnson) played a set of almost all ballads and slow songs.

if I were going to judge xpost Stapleton by two songs, it would be the first described, not the second; nothing on the solo debut reminds me of Scott Stapp and his ilk. I hadn't thought of Jamey Johnson, but okay, ditto Seger, whom I had thought of, from the first time I heard him with the bluegrass Steeldrivers. Not like there's a flood of Johnson or Seger product these years, so CS is welcome to fill the gap (with original material even---no having to wait for Seger's occasional country covers, like "Blame It On The Moon").
Saw Johnson and band on a festival stream several years ago: continous slow groove, playing their way in and out of most of The Guitar Song, with an intimate vibe I don't expect from a festival (audience seemed into it).

I don't know where I heard this, but Steven Tyler is recording a country record? Has anything come of this? No idea why I'm asking.

1 song released, album still to come...http://tasteofcountry.com/steven-tyler-love-is-your-name-video/

i heard this on the radio yesterday and was sort of taken aback that today's country radio programmers are giving it a shot

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

Tyler showed up during Hayden Juliette Barnes' live-enough version of "Crazy"---promoting her fictitious Patsy biopic on Nashville---and did no harm, possibly in part because he didn't sing that much, but when he did, sounded okay. Still need to check Cam, thanx for reminder
Don Henley's guest-star-ladenCass County turned out to be surprisingly painless, enjoyable, even. Starts with one of four well-chosen covers (all present on this deluxe edition, that is): Tift Merritt's "Bramble Rose," which he starts in surprisingly good voice---not just lack of the strain I remember; he actually seems to have a feel for the phrasing and pace---then hands it off to Miranda Lambert, who passes a verse to Mick Jagger---also good, even though he plays it straight. "Cost of Living" meets Merle Haggard, Martina McBride's good on "Old Flame," although the story gets cut short, probably because it's based on a real-life episode, according to him. Dolly Parton is excellent, duh, on the Louvin Brothers' "When I Stop Dreaming," but she doesn't obliterate Henley vocal, so give points to both vox.
Some other voices are more in the background, like "two out of three Dixie Chicks," Vince Gill, Lucinda---though NPR streams aren't always as good as they should be, and my headphones are certainly not for audiophiles, but I like the way he melds near-subliminal yet unmistakable Lee Ann Womack to a chorus that would otherwise probably get monotonous.
Even at least one cratedigger's catnip find, at least for me: "She Sang Hymns Out of Tune," with a low-key, sneaky surrealism that surely suggested some Gram Parsons originals, and had me thinking that this presentation surely is the mature, generous Henley, since Parsons reportedly loathed the Eagles--but apparently it was written by one Jesse Lee Kincaid, and recorded by Nilsson, on his Pandemonium Shadow Show (also by the Dillards on Wheatstraw Suite);
Speaking of the Eagles, I never was a big fan, but the overall sense of radio-ready structures here even extends to up- and downtempo tracks that would improve several of their albums.
Catchiness etc. also gets past most editorial moments, so more points for not playing the old man card too much (trepidation of atmospheric "Train In The Distance" could be felt by anyone, most likely).
Here's the dee-luxe:
http://www.npr.org/2015/09/17/440361538/first-listen-don-henley-cass-county

Hayden *Panettiere*, duh.

Vol. 1 was purty cool, with that Buck stuff that the Beatles were evidently listening to (and covering "Act Naturally"). Also we wouldn't have Dwight Yoakam as we know him on albums like Three Pears, if not for Buck x Beatles. This one takes him into the post-Beatles 70s:

http://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20150924/f4/eb/4f/aa/b6fd35659e7a5c27a954aea7_280x280.jpg

OMNIVORE’S BUCK ’EM! VOLUME 2 (1967-1975)
TELLS THE NEXT CHAPTER OF BUCK OWENS’ STORY
Fifty-song, 2-CD set features album tracks, rarities,
seven previously unissued tracks,
and liner notes from Buck Owens and biographer Randy Poe.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — After the unprecedented success of Buck ’Em! The Music of Buck Owens (1955-1967), Omnivore Recordings is prepared to take the country icon’s story to the next stage with Buck ’Em! Volume 2: The Music of Buck Owens (1967-1975). Street date for the new two-CD set is November 13, 2015. Volume 1 remains available.
If Volume 1 started the story, Buck ’Em! Volume 2 continues it, tracing the influential music of Bakersfield’s hero via an impressive 50 tracks.
From #1 singles like “Who’s Gonna Mow Your Grass,” “Johnny B. Goode,” and “Tall Dark Stranger,” to favorites including “Ain’t It Amazing, Gracie” and the original version of “Streets of Bakersfield,” Buck ’Em: Volume 2 continues the journey of Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr. [Buck] throughout his run into the 1970s and into the homes of America on Hee Haw.
Featuring notes culled from the best-selling book, Buck ’Em! The Autobiography of Buck Owens by the artist with Randy Poe, and featuring photos and ephemera, the legend of Buck reigns supreme with this capper to the first volume. With mastering from Michael Graves, whose work on Hank Williams’ The Garden Spot Programs, 1950 earned him a Grammy, the listener is not only reliving history, but hearing it better than it’s ever sounded.
Buck ’Em! Volume 2: The Music of Buck Owens (1967-1975) is not just a sequel to an impressive and successful release, it is the continuation of the appreciation of a true American legend.
Disc 1:
1. Happy Times Are Here Again
2. Sweet Rosie Jones

3. Your Mother’s Prayer
4. You’ll Never Miss the Water (Till The Well Runs Dry)
5. If I Had Three Wishes

6. Let the World Keep on a Turnin’ — Buck Owens and Buddy Alan

7. Things I Saw Happening at the Fountain on the Plaza When I Was Visiting Rome or Amore

8. Darlin’, You Can Depend on Me (alternate version)
9. I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail (live at the White House)
10. Who’s Gonna Mow Your Grass
11. We’re Gonna Get Together — Buck Owens and Susan Raye
12. I’ve Got You on My Mind Again (live in London)
13. Johnny B. Goode (live in London)
14. Today I Started Loving You Again — Buck Owens and Bettye Swann (outtake)

15. Big in Vegas (live in Las Vegas)
16. Las Vegas Lament (live in Las Vegas)
17. The Kansas City Song
18. Down in New Orleans (early version)
19. Tall Dark Stranger (live in Scandinavia)
20. I Wouldn’t Live in New York City (If They Gave Me the Whole Dang Town)
21. Bridge Over Troubled Water
22. (I’m Goin’) Home

23. Ruby (Are You Mad)

24. Corn Likker
25. I’ll Still Be Waiting for You (live in Reno)

Disc 2:
1. Arms Full of Empty

2. Ain’t It Amazing, Gracie

3. You Ain’t Gonna Have Ol’ Buck to Kick Around No More

4. I Love You So Much It Hurts

5. Something’s Wrong

6. In the Palm of Your Hand

7. Streets of Bakersfield

8. The Good Old Days (Are Here Again) —
9. I Won’t Be Needing You
10. It Never Will Be Over for Me
11. Big Game Hunter

12. (It’s a) Monster’s Holiday
13. Stony Mountain West Virginia
14. Holdin’ On

15. On the Cover of the Music City News (live in Japan)

16. Made In Japan (live in Japan)

17. Somewhere Between You and Me — Buck Owens and Susan Raye (live in New Zealand)
18. Rollin’ in My Sweet Baby’s Arms (live in Australia)
19. Great Expectations

20. 41st Street Lonely Hearts’ Club
21. Weekend Daddy

22. He Ain’t Been Out Bowling With the Boys (outtake)

23. A Different Kind of Sad (outtake)
24. The Battle of New Orleans

25. Country Singer’s Prayer

re 9/20 Music City roots webcasts

For The Benefit Of Mr. Womack
Show Preview by Peter Cooper

“I worry often,” Tommy Womack once sang. “I live in terror of what life may have in store.”

Tommy—who has long been among Nashville’s most inventive, idiosyncratic and essential roots musicians—was right to worry. In June, he was driving to a gig when, suddenly, he wasn’t driving anymore. Instead, he was being rushed by ambulance to a Kentucky hospital. The verdict: cracked pelvis, cracked vertebrae, cracked sacral bone and cracked bank account.

So, here’s what we’re going to do about it at Music City Roots: On Wednesday, September 28, at 7 p.m. we’re throwing the greatest rock ‘n’ roll party of 2015. And you’re invited, but you’re going to have to pay some dough to get in. Not a lot of dough, but enough so that if enough folks pay it, it’ll help Tommy, his wife Beth and his son Nathan through a difficult time.

But, friends, this will not be a night of somber reflections on the frailty of life. This is a night of celebration, of redemption, of victory. Tommy Womack is carrying on, like a cockroach after the bomb. And even if you’ve never heard Tommy’s amazing, amusing, acerbic music… or read his genius memoir, The Cheese Chronicles… or read his monthly column in The East Nashvillian… or seen his weekly Monday Morning Cup of Coffee video blog… or heard his Friday Happiness Hour on East Nashville Radio… or heard Jimmy Buffett or Todd Snider or Jason and the Scorchers or Government Cheese or Daddy or The Bis-quits play his songs… this show is going to be epic.

How epic? Lots epic. Why epic? Because so many of Nashville’s city-shaping rock ‘n’ rollers love Tommy Womack, and they’re coming out to give to him by playing for us.

Jason and the Scorchers invented country-punk and became Music City’s first important rock band. They’ve toured with Bob Dylan, played the Kennedy Center and won the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement in Performance award. They haven’t played Nashville in years. They’re playing this show and offering a set that will likely include the searing “Self Sabotage,” which Scorchers’ frontman Jason Ringenberg wrote with Tommy.
Rough and tumble guy Webb Wilder and his Beatnecks band arrive on our stage just days after the release of Webb’s brand new album, Mississippi Moderne. In 1986, Webb trumpeted Tennessee’s rock readiness with a sparkling debut album called It Came From Nashville. In the years since then, he has maintained his hybrid vigor and demonstrated his mastery of what he calls both kinds of music: rock and roll.

Also with a brand new album – one called Get Loud! – is Dan Baird, with a band that thrives on the guitar weaving of Baird and Scorchers’ guitarist Warner Hodges, and on songs that are often co-written by one Tommy Womack. Half of Dan’s regular band, Homemade Sin, is already overseas, readying for a major tour, but Dan and Warner stuck around to play one last stateside show, for their fractured friend. Dan came to worldwide attention in the 1980s as the wild-eyed guitarist/singer for the ferocious Georgia Satellites.

At this Tommy-fest edition of Music City Roots, we’ll also hear from one of Tommy Womack’s dearest friends and most frequent collaborators, Will Kimbrough. Joining Will is Nashville’s godfather of pop, Bill Lloyd, who shares Bowling Green roots and an elevated musical sensibility with Tommy. Then there’s long, strong, and tall Marshall Chapman, a singing, songwriting Nashville fixture since the Outlaw era. Marshall’s songs have been recorded by Emmylou Harris, Joe Cocker, Irma Thomas, Jimmy Buffett, and many more, and American Songwriter magazine called her most recent song-set, Blaze of Glory, “One of the year’s finest singer-songwriter albums.” Oh, and also joining will are his bandmates from the roots rock collective, Daddy. That’s all of his bandmates. Including a fellow named Tommy Womack.

I first became aware of Tommy in the 1990s, while visiting Nashville from my home in South Carolina. I was riding in Jason Ringenberg’s truck, listening to the Scorchers’ not-yet-released Clear Impetuous Morning album.

“I wrote this with Tommy Womack,” Jason said.

“Who?” I said.

“You don’t know who Tommy Womack is?” Jason asked.

“No.”

Then Jason took a hard, fast left turn into the parking lot at Bookstar on West End Ave., said, “Wait here,” and jogged inside. He emerged with a just-purchased copy of Cheese Chronicles, handed it over and said, “Read this. Love it, and buy it for somebody else someday. Everybody needs to know Tommy Womack.”

I’ve bought more than twenty copies of Cheese Chronicles, and given all but one of them away.

We at Music City Roots are pleased to present this one-of-a-kind evening, in support and celebration of an artist who is an important part of our tribe. Tommy Womack graced our stage in June, just two days before his accident, appearing with his Government Cheese bandmates. His music exemplifies the spirit, the honesty, the edge and the humor that are at the core of what we do.

Watch The Music City Roots Web Stream
Can't make it to the show? We've got you covered! Each show is streamed for free on our web site. Tune in
Wednesday at 7pm-9pm CT.
Live on Hippie 94.5 FM or worldwide at www.musiccityroots.com (radio stream link on here too)

this is the 9/30 show, not 9/20! Sorry.

the Thomas Rhett isn't bad at all. I'm taken with "Die a Happy Man" and "Anthem."

All shows are archived as well.

the Thomas Rhett isn't bad at all. I'm taken with "Die a Happy Man" and "Anthem."

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, September 29, 2015 9:07 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agreed, I think I still like Crash & Burn most of all, but Anthem is really great, considering how awesome most of his singles have been I think of him as just a singles guy, he makes better albums than I expect.

That xpost Buck 'Em! Volume 2 turned out to be a suitably moody, dependable companion to a long-ass gray day, mostly spent waiting for an appointment that will not have been so exciting (probably, hopefully).
Like most boxes these days, it starts with 4-5 duds, incl. oh-so-serious ones that make me think he's only good at the drollery, often wry, which I mostly know him for---wrong. There are good rueful ballads later on, with bracing music vs. depression, rather than overselling the tearjerking (more like "well, hell") lyrics. And even those can take some apt gray day turns, into a door between us without a key, or waitin' for a train you know has gone, and there are the classics like "Streets of Bakersfield, "I didn't want to be Some-body, I just wanted to be me....You don't know me, but you don't like me." Can see how he was a favorite of Gram Parsons. Some of the lesser, later tracks (after he became a fixture on Hee Haw) rely too much on the classic Bakersfield Sound, the template of it, that is, and can't really conceal mediocre material, though seems like he's not really trying to con us, just honestly, "That's all I got."
Some of the funny stuff is like that too, but plenty of it isn't----like the City Girl---"I like to watch Johnny Carson"---meets the Country Boy---"Let's go see the Martian." Just my taste, but also dig the country-psych pop of "Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass?", with fuzz guitar, harpsichord, shifty Southern suburban rhythms and scrambling drums. "Tiger By The Tail, several songs with cities in the names, mostly celebratory, maybe all, if you include the deadpan put-down of New York which cites some stuff/describes it in terms that are innerestin'.

Jason Boland and the Stragglers, Squelch: social commentary, which can seem self-righteous and lazy in its way, especially since he's always reliant on basic Waylon-to-Sturgill templates, but sometimes it really works, the more personal-is-political he gets (and not nec. "political" in the usual sense; like there's one about finally making it out of a small-minded smalltown, to New Orleans, which is "buzzin' like a sign," and it doesn't go at all like I thought it would).
So it's uneven, but def worth checking out:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/08/05/arts/music/press-play.html?_r=0

thomas rhett's voice on "crash and burn" bugs me so much

Yeah, I still need to check that guy. Good name too.
Barry Mazor, occasional Rolling Country guest of yore, recently provided WSJ readers with an appealing description of Tennessee Ernie Ford's new Bear Family box, which I hope will be on Spotify, like a pretty good number and variety of other boxes.

‘Tennessee Ernie Ford: Portrait of an American Singer’ Review
A look at Tennessee Ernie Ford, a performer who spanned pop, country, rock, gospel, R&B, and even comedy
By Barry Mazor
Sept. 30, 2015 5:55 p.m. ET

A handsome country-music vocalist came along in the 1950s with a strong, winning personality and rugged physical presence, admired by men but especially attractive to women. Starting “down home,” he soon reached audiences across region and class lines, and his impressive versatility led to well over 150 tracks of rocking boogie, hard country, R&B, near operatic pop tunes and a genre he especially treasured—polished gospel singing. His career trajectory took him from Tennessee, where his career started, to Hollywood—and to massive success on both the country and pop singles charts, and some 90 million albums sold. He was also a gifted comedian, able to hold his own with Lucille Ball and Minnie Pearl on the small screen, so this was not Elvis. This was Tennessee Ernie Ford (1919-1991), recalled by many today only for his indelible, finger-snapping, roots-pop hit “Sixteen Tons.”
Tennessee Ernie Ford ENLARGE
Tennessee Ernie Ford Photo: Courtesy of Jeffrey Buckner Ford and Murphy Ford

Ford’s adventurous 1949-1960 secular recordings for Capitol Records are the focus of a new, enormously entertaining 154-track boxed set, “Tennessee Ernie Ford: Portrait of an American Singer” (Bear Family Records). Music historian Ted Olson’s detailed notes track this “stellar singer who refused to let arbitrary genre rules dictate how he should interpret a song.” The records themselves, though, as they evolve in production and performance, ultimately tell the rich story.

Recording at Capitol’s famed Los Angeles studios that were home to both country and pop stars (Jimmy Wakely; Nat King Cole), Ford ably filled the space between those fields, and overlapped both. The diverse women who occasionally joined him for duets—Helen O’Connell, Kay Starr, Ella Mae Morse, Molly Bee—match the varieties of his own stylistic range.

Back-up musicians on the early sides include such top country instrumentalists as Speedy West and Moon Mullican, but they give way to a wide array of West Coast pop and jazz players as producer Jack Fascinato comes to work with Ford on pop follow-ups to the 1955 “Sixteen Tons” smash phenomenon.

Many of “hillbilly sophisticate” Ford’s early-’50s hits, such as “The Shotgun Boogie,” were in a rhythmic mode more slamming than the country boogie of the 1940s, presaging the rockabilly soon to come, and those sides hold up very well. By contrast, such showy vocal melodramas as “The Cry of the Wild Goose”—all-too-apparently designed to milk the wordy, operetta-like genre built on songs like the “Soliloquy” from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Carousel”—now come off as overwrought and kitschy.

In the wide space between those extremes, though, lie most of the interest, excitement and surprises in this collection. Ford’s smart phrasing and diverse musical choices lead to fresh ways to pull traditional country toward pop, and pop toward roots music. “You Don’t Have to Be a Baby to Cry,” originally a simple cry-in-your-beer honky-tonk number recorded by Ernest Tubb and Moon Mullican, becomes a bluesy, knowing pop number in Ford’s rendition. The 1920s country ballad “Left My Gal in the Mountains” is given a smooth R&B treatment reminiscent of Ivory Joe Hunter’s “I Almost Lost My Mind,” and it works. He takes modernizing country songs from Hank Williams or Merle Travis and updates them further, in elegantly simple ways, making them accessible to more urbane tastes. And his clean, moving pop versions of songs considered commercial folk—“Barbara Allen,” “In the Pines,” even “My Grandfather’s Clock”—breathe fresh air into each. This important set convincingly makes the case for Ford’s strong roots-pop legacy.

Mr. Mazor, author of “Ralph Peer and the Making of Popular Roots Music” (Chicago Review Press), writes about country and roots music for the Journal.

More Tennessee Ernie box details covered, in a piece jpegged and tweeted by Conqueroo's Cary Baker:

https://twitter.com/Conqueroo1

I'd paste in the jpeg, but prob too small to read here, judging by prev attempts

Patty Griffin, Servant of Love---Despite the title, nothing submissive about this 'un. Sometimes a dry martini prowl, sometimes more of a search party vibe, or burnished thickets of guitar, over the waves---then again, she's come to think of love as "waves chipping at the rocks, 'til they turn to sand/I would have told you, but you never asked me." Umm, okay, maybe just as well...call it Americana (nocturnal psychedelic treatments of tradition-associated frameworks, somewhat like Robert Plant's Band of Joy, which she sang in), though country enough at times for songs that would be great for Dixie Chicks (or Courtyard Hounds, Natalie Maines); she wrote some of their best tracks ever, you know. Also some of it seems pretty well suited for the latter-day voice of Plant, her ex. Maybe more than her own voice, actually; lots to take in here, anyway.

This is a quick, third-quarter reminder that all available tracks mentioned on this thread (and/or an album selection from each listed) are being updated to the thread-specific Spotify playlist as posted. I just did another (painfully meticulous, three day) top-to-bottom sweep prior to posting this message and have revised as of today with everything that's been added since first mentioned. This thread leans heavily into late / best of 2014 so there's a fair amount of that mixed in. Subscribe if you're into it and let me know if I've missed a track that's available in the US.

Link is below; it's 168 tracks and ten hours.

Rolling Country 2015 Thread Spotify Playlist

Thanks, forks, will check.
Spent most of my lunch break w Oh My Goodness, by Donnie Fritts, mostly known as a songwriter and Kristofferson's long-time keybooard player (saw him with KK in Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid, so yeah goes back pretty far). Not a good place to soak up the good vocal influences, so maybe that's why it took me a few tracks to get into this. Not that he sounds like his boss, but at times just a bit like a sub-Levon, sub-Bobby Charles, even---he knows how to phrase, but thin pipes can make him a little bit too Mr. Pitiful. Still, musical smarts win out, and he gets aboard the studio bus, which never seems crowded, despite having members of the Swampers, Alabama Shakes, St. Paul And The Broken Bones, John Paul White, even John Prine at one point. It's actually an intimate, mostly late night, sometimes slightly surreal setting, with Spooner Oldham's (and maybe Fritts', and even Will Oldham's) elegant keys, especially, suggesting early Randy Newman (or, you know, vice versa; Spooner's been around a long time too). "Lay It Down" is even a Sir Doug-worthy, anguished call (to self and other) for no-bullshit face-to-face. "Choo Choo Train" could even be a Newman---or Loaded-era VU---track. I think. It is a down home geezer album, but rec to those who like any of the musical associations mentioned, without being dependent on them.

streaming here longer than usual, dunno how much longer:
http://www.npr.org/2015/09/30/444185211/first-listen-donnie-fritts-oh-my-goodness

http://www.npr.org/2015/09/30/444185211/first-listen-donnie-fritts-oh-my-goodness

Despite years of trades with Edd Hurt, he still comes up with some post-Dylan Nashville outcats (mixing country, pop, rock, funk, etc etc) I hadn't heard of, plus youtubes re all 50 albums:http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/archives/2015/10/14/blonde-on-blonde-and-beyond-50-classic-albums-of-nashvilles-post-dylan-era-part-i-1966-72

cool i'm adding all the available singles from that to the spotify list because why not

Here's part 2 of my post-Dylan outcats list, that Don refers to. Out of this list, my take on it is that the Cavaleers, Earl Richards, Dee Mullins and maybe Larry Hosford aren't that well known; the Beau Brummels, Moby Grape, Skip Spence Nashville records have been recognized, I think. The Mother Earth record I picked is probably not as well known as the "Tracy Nelson Sings" Mother Earth album, the Gary Burton record is not as well known as it should be, "Moldy Goldies" has been out of print for decades, and the disco records I picked--Scooter Lee and Joe Simon--aren't in any kind of canon, though Scooter apparently has a small cult.

http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/archives/2015/10/15/blonde-on-blonde-and-beyond-50-classic-albums-of-nashvilles-post-dylan-era-part-ii-1973-2008

adding all that in, i happened upon a new album, 'Momentarily Yours', from Larry Hosford that is worth a peek.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_dgywH-Xo4

Larry Hosford apparently is still at it, still has a cult of followers. Portions of both Cross Words and a.k.a. Lorenzo were done in Mt. Juliet at Bradley's Barn. I think the former is actually the stronger record.

Dow, I'm curious which records out of that list you didn't know.

Oh man! Quite a few from your Part 1 list that I'd heard of, but hadn't heard: Col. Jubilation B. Johnston's album (think Marcus mentioned this in the first, early 70s edition of Mystery Train), The Beau Brummels' Bradley's Barn, Moby Grape's Truly Fine Citizen. John Stewart's California Bloodlines, about half of Gary Burton's Tennessee Firebird (found some of it online); think I've heard some things by Dee Mullins and Dianne Davidson (heard all the others I just mentioned elsewhere as well [incl. the Col.'s crew, going by their other names). Still need to check yr. Pt. 2.

OK, from Post-Dylan Nashville Part 2, had not heard these particular tracks, from artists I was otherwise somewhut familiar with---ones listed by: Earl Richards, Paul Kelly. Jack Nitzche, Larry Jon Wilson, Mac Gayden, Cowboy Jack Clement, Swamp Dogg, Joe Simon, White Animals.

Oh yeah, and I def need to give xpost Hosford another shot. I long ago tracked down this LP, after reading what xgau wrote in his 70s Record Guide, currently archived on his site:

Larry Hosford: Cross Words [Shelter, 1976]
A funny country singer-songwriter with complicated emotions and an elusive, strangely ageless vocal persona--mellowed-out Homer and/or Jethro, perhaps, or comic-relief L.A. cowboy gone crackerbarrel, or crackers. His wife calls him Daddy, calls his bluff, and then just calls a cab, but don't worry--here's a man who don't worry--here's a man who knows that love gets easier when you own a blanket with a switch on it. B+

Uh-oh, didn't sound like I somehow thought it would--too soft, mebbe? Don't really remember, but I'm sure I didn't give it a chance to grow on me.

about 30 of those 50 were on spotify; should leaven that country playlist quite a bit

enjoyed Kacey Musgrave and band live last night in DC. Mentioned it on her thread, including the covers she did.

recently heard this brothers osborne song for the first time and am quite enjoying it: http://youtu.be/zY6cMMtLCcQ

A-List Nashville studio & stage cats, "oldfangled" but also backing younger stars like Lambert and Musgraves---didn't know 'til I read this that they have couple of their own albums---anybody heard 'em?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/23/arts/music/the-time-jumpers-country-swing-standard-bearers-thrive-in-nashville.html?ref=music

o forks, please be sure to add Whitney Rose, Heartbreaker of the Year to RC Spotify list thanks. As with xpost Lindi Ortega, it's rec to those pining for the late great Amy Farris, also for Roy Orbison and good David Lynch movies. Cool intensity, no spookier than true romance, and not too reliant on atmosphere: some architecture in there (love the mini-bridge of "Only Just A Dream," also the guitars there and elsewhere, reg'lar and steel, hovering, prowling, serenading, warning, also various uses of drums and, occasionally, keys, organ and piano (the latter somewhut Floyd Crameresque on the rocks in "The Last Party, " but it's not a lift of his "Last Date"). "Be My Baby" is an on-the-nose choice in this context, but it works esp. with producer Raul Malo's non-showboat, non-wallflower vocal turn.
Still, despite the breathing room, 10 tracks and 37 minutes seem like a little too much of a good thing, like a bottle of wine at one sitting, 'til the finale, a metamorphic reworking of "A Tear In My Beer" adds just enough variety.
Also intrigued by another Spotify offering, Cam's Welcome To Cam CountryEP---debut album out Dec. 11.

Ortega and Nikki Lane are a bit more down-to-earth, or down-to-firescape. Rose isn't pretentious, but stays closer to her Senior Prom dress, o yes. A princess who knows how to get past the guards.

x-post -- have not heard Time Jumpers albums. Recall I think Roseanne Cash mentioning them when I saw her with Vince Gill (most recent and famous member of that project).

Speaking of Vince, when I saw Ashley Monroe perform last night, she said she liked to go over to Vince's house and just sit there until he said, hey lets work on a song and would pick up his guitar.

Still haven't made up my mind re Chris Stapleton. I see he's gonna be on the CMA Awards Wednesday night the 4th

Chris Stapleton will be joined by award-winning musician and actor Justin Timberlake for a special performance on “The 49th Annual CMA Awards.”

Celebrating his first artist nominations, Stapleton is a contender in three CMA Awards categories: “Album of the Year” for his acclaimed debut album, Traveller, which he co-produced with Dave Cobb, “Male Vocalist of the Year” and “New Artist of the Year

the one stapleton song i heard sounded like a led zep 'levee breaks' homage iirc.

yep

i'm just getting into the carrie underwood album and it's really good! i hadn't really been into her as an albums artist before but this is probably her best yet. "church bells" and "choctaw county affair" are particularly great, she really suits those bolshy/gothic narratives

I haven't listened to it (yet). Jon Caramanica was very negative in the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/arts/music/review-carrie-underwoods-storyteller-values-power-over-finesse.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FUnderwood%2C%20Carrie&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection&_r=0

“Storyteller” is her fifth album, and even though a decade has passed since her debut, Ms. Underwood is still preoccupied with power, not texture or finesse. She largely picks songs that serve as launch platforms for her ballistic-missile voice, but they don’t cohere into a whole identity. Her voice is pure, lean, potent — it doesn’t have multiple settings. By tone alone, it can be difficult to divine when she’s ecstatic, or aggrieved, or wretched.

That means Ms. Underwood sings with equal intensity on the insipid “Heartbeat” and “The Girl You Think I Am,” an unrelentingly treacly song about being daddy’s little girl, as on the breathy, sly “Relapse,” about falling back into old habits. She calls her lover, in quick succession, “time that I’m wasting,” “some wine that I’m tasting” and “a high that I’m chasing,” in a voice that recalls Lita Ford more than any country singer.

psssh Caramanica, never put stock in his opinions

Maura, Jewly Hight and S. Erlewine all reviewed it well

it can be difficult to divine when she's ecstatic, or aggrieved, or wretched: maybe, but that's what cues are for, pop-settings-wise. Never heard a whole Underwood album albums, will try to listen without prejudice.

Also without typos, unusually enough.

As though sounding like Lita Ford is a bad thing...

Interesting; Eric Church just physically mailed a new album, Mr. Misunderstood, to select fans.

Maybe I'm overrating this, after being bored shitless by several albums in a row, but at the moment totes infatuated w Ryan Culwell's Flatlands: immediately takes the rein with nervous energy willed into focus (minus strain or excess melodrama)on tensile Texastenial tunes. He's young, he's spooked, but he's determined to "find my mountains in the flatlands, hallelujah!"--followed immediately by "I Think I'll Be Their God." Where he sounds like he's acquainted with the megaphone tape legacy of the Rev. Jim Jones. Yes, he's wary of hope, even self-mocking at times---"Ah am just a young man, with piss down in mah bones"---but he's tasted more than the grape Koolaid, tracks different flavors of hope and hopelessness. I'm also influenced by first hearing this while first reading Winesburg, Ohio: both consider the flavors of twisted roots, with spare but never bare presentation (12 songs, 40 minutes here, and, as in the book, weaker or slighter tracks are carried by the overall momentum). Especially like when sustain and a little bit of distortion appear on the horizon behind battered acoustic rhythm, and there's the occasional desert siren (of the female persuasion).
Rec also to selective fans of Townes Van Zandt, esp. "Red River" ("She's cleaning the red dirt off the life he give her...he ain't my uncle no more") and "Horses" ("Sometimes tough ain't enough/Bow down the head that Jesus raised"---addressed to a woman, not a horse, I think).

"Texastential," of course!

Eric Church is gonna be on that country awards program tonight too. With Hank Williams Jr ....

"Mr Misunderstood" sounds good.

Little Big Town just won CMA single of the year for "Girl Crush"....Plus host Brad Paisley said "cray" cray" and Carrie Underwood did the "nae nae"....The fun will be continuing for a few more hours.

Kacey Musgraves is playing her hokey, obvious song.

eric church's new song sounded fantastic. kacey musgraves sounded not only hokey, but really ... off. ashley monroe got three or four seconds of airtime in the audience early in the show. chris stapleton seemed truly unaware that he was going to keep winning. brad paisley played acoustic guitar without a strap. keith urban played bass. very very happy for little big town.

the crazy sparkly chris stapleton t-shirt that miranda wore while accepting her female vocalist award was kind of fantastic.

CMAs sending message to bros, I guess.

So do I need to hear Chris Stapleton's album?

You might like it? Rorschach test album -- some hear impressive rocking country while others hear barband cliches

The AMG review makes him sound like Jamey Johnson without the showy moroseness, and I could go for that.

I didn't like it, and last night's performance with Boy Wonder was still leaden.

that little big town album is great imo, though most of the album tracks are better than the singles.

this npr tiny desk concert is my favorite chris stapleton thing.

Well, I tried Traveller on Spotify, and the first four songs I clicked on were boring dirges, so I'm done.

About a mnute too long but it sounds fine, a non-soppy "American Pie":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOuF3k_-asA

A mildly interesting Awl piece on Keith Urban and Toby Keith and country music masculinity as drag.

Anyone already listened Mr Misunderstood? I mostly liked it, it's a real departure from The Outsiders and I think I prefer this one. The first half holds it up better than the second one but it didn't seem to drag. "Knives of New Orleans" sounds like a highlight.

The Outsiders was a sodden mess but whose singles were delights on the radio or in isolation.

Yeah, I can't really pinpoint where "The Outsiders" exactly goes wrong, I like songs individually but there's something about the pacing of that album that's really weird. I feel this one's turning out to be better in that aspect.

I did a brief obit on '70s proto-bro singer (and conceptual master) Tommy Overstreet, whose hits were masterminded by a team comprising Ricci Mareno, Charlie Black and Jerry Gillespie.

Thanks! Speaking of bro, if anything, yall may have underpraised xpost Thomas Rhett's Tangled Up. Really like the horns x beats behind his swaggering presentation of "South Side," the suggestions of Van Morrison (maybe "Crazy Love" in particular, but not too close) in the guitar etc. of "Die A Happy Man," the Pink ("Get This Party Started") in "Vacation," the cold bones country in "The Day You Stop Lookin' Back," also there in (but getting warmed up by)"Playing With Fire," the duet with Jordan Sparks, the modern sounds all around but never oversold, although lyrics of "I Listen To The Radio," have the r. telling him things he never ever thought of before, like he should go and kiss that girl.

Old Dominion's Meat and Candy is okay as office/traffic music, mainly because it's not very distracting. The drunk dialing one did grab my attention though, because that's an extreme example of their consideration of women (previous track gently submits for approval the idea of rollin' with you like a beercan in the back of a truck). Drunk Dialer says you should go with him, thus breaking up with the other guy implicitly, instantly, just "rip the Band-Aid off---you know I'm right, or you woulda hung up by now." He still sounds more hopeful than bold, as ever.

Also "Said Nobody," with Weekend Update punchline chorus.

"adding all that in, i happened upon a new album, 'Momentarily Yours', from Larry Hosford that is worth a peek."

yes this is a fun little album!

I didn't know Keith Urban was Australian.

Rolling Country regulars, should I watch the 1980 film Urban Cowboy starring John Travolta?

really love "record year" off the new eric church

Never saw xpost Urban Cowboy, but, despite a few duds, the soundtrack still seemed pretty decent the last time I heard it (not recently). Think they got all the songs in there; most soundtracks leave some off, for financial reasons, I guess. But this double-LP had several radio hits, and may have been a hit its own self.

Gretchen Peters, Blackbirds[:
Maybe especially this time of year, some days are just naturally darker than others, and this album can help them slide in there a little darker still, without overdoing it. Although the title track comes a little close, with violence getting more physical "I stink of kerosene" etc---in a way the other songs don't seem to bother with (although it's more about the immediate overall effect, so who knows yet), as they usually track bad (self- and other) love through the woods, and "that green suburban plain" at least one citizen is zoning on. Not country- or folk-rock, although there's usually an electric guitar and/or drums among the otherwise acoustic combo, usually with medium-to-brisk tempos, not much decoration, and steady rhythms building nicely, like on "Black Ribbons," co-written and background sung by Matraca Berg and Suzy Bogguss, her fellow members of Wine Women & Song.
Ballad-wise, sounds like she's been listening to Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson, but not too much; for instance, I've never heard anything quite like the beautiful death spiral skywriting of "Pretty Things"---heard the musical pattern before, maybe, occasionally, but not with this kind of storyline.
Good duet with Jimmy LaFave, too, and the only cover, "Nashville"--as written and performed, a cogent swirl of memory, anticipation and apprehension---makes me want to check out the writer, David Mead, and has me thinking even more that several of these would fit Nashville, as did Season 2's "How You Learn To Live Alone," the one she wrote with Mary Gauthier.

I guess there's a *bit* of folk- and/or country rock in there sometimes, when the electric guitar takes a solo.

thanks for that recommendation, sounds good

Rolling Country regulars, should I watch the 1980 film Urban Cowboy starring John Travolta?

― welltris (crüt),

Sure, but it's not that good.

holy shit that gretchen peters record is incredible and intense

Glad yall liked it. This isn't "wild-eyed" etc like the live set Jerry Wexler happened upon, but he's got an amiable delivery---crisp, little rough, confident, never overselling--and the band's tight, even got some gouging guitar at times (and note James Booker on keys!) Not a terribly distinctive approach, even in the early 70s (they def like Waylon, also Willie, Hank, etc), but some good, maybe original lines), and Outlaw was still fresh.
Jimmy Rabbitt & Renegade
The Texas Album
St. Roch Av. Recordings
24 June 2015
Jimmy Rabbitt was an outlaw before being an outlaw was cool.

Beginning as a deejay in the '60s, Rabbitt has spun records from coast to coast and all points in-between, kickin' ass and taking names not only over the airwaves but also in every roadhouse and backroom dive from Dallas to The Apple and, of course, El Lay with the equally dangerous backing band Renegade.

These were the guys your mama warned you about.

Fate would have it that on one particular evening in 1972 while returning home from a concert, Jerry Wexler stopped to get a slice at a Pizza Parlor in Saugus, California. Jimmy Rabbitt & Renegade were playing their barn-burning, wild-eyed & country-fried outlaw music in the next room and were offered a recording contract with Atlantic Records on the spot. The master tapes collected dust for over 40 years, unreleased until now.

Recorded at Sound City Studios, 1973
Produced by Jerry Wexler
Engineered by Keith Olsen
Mixed by John Porter and featuring James Booker on keyboards
Half-Speed lacquer mastered by Stan Ricker.

This release contains all material from the recording session. Full album Download card with 5 additional songs included.

These guys were promoted as a fun alternative to ineptly trendy mainstream and stilted alt-country (or at least that's the way I took the pitches), but somehow they went in one ear, out the other, in my sad case. Like most bands, they were said to be better live, so maybe:

BR5-49 DELIVERS ONE LONG SATURDAY NIGHT
OF RED-HOT COUNTRY MUSIC FUN
ON THIS ARCHIVAL CONCERT CD/DVD
FROM BEAR FAMILY RECORDS,
OUT IN U.S. NOVEMBER 20th
This 1996 German TV show recording
contains several songs that never appeared on a BR5-49 album

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Country-music renegades BR5-49 made their name as a live band in the mid-’90s, when their high-spirited shows at Robert’s Western Wear, a boot shop and sometime bar in the Nashville’s then-still dicey Lower Broadway district, turned them into the talk of Music City. Performing there several nights a week for tips, the band would do four- or five-hour sets loaded with country classics, rockabilly gems and their modern traditionalist originals.
After the group — bassist Smilin’ Jay McDowell, drummer “Hawk” Shaw Wilson, multi-instrumentalist Don Herron and pair of singer/songwriter/guitarists: Chuck Mead and Gary Bennett — signed with Arista Records in 1996, the label released a live EP, Live at Robert’s. This six-song recording, however, only gives a glimpse of the band’s on-stage magic. The new Bear Family CD/DVD BR5-49: One Long Saturday Night, provides a broader picture of why they created such excitement on Lower Broadway. U.S. street date is set for November 20, 2015.
BR5-49: One Long Saturday Night captures the young band at peak form. Shortly after their self-titled studio debut, they toured in Europe, where their authentic brand of American roots music had already developed a following. In October 1996, they appeared on the German TV program Ohne Filter, which let bands play live in the studio. Chuck Mead states that this performance “really captured us at the top of our game and I look back on that time as an experience of a lifetime.”
For nearly an hour, BR5-49 tore through a spirited set where they mixed rejuvenated classic country hits like Johnny Horton’s “Ole Slewfoot,” Moon Mulligan’s “Cherokee Boogie,” Webb Pierce’s “I Ain’t Never” and even Gram Parsons’ “Big Mouth Blues” with their own timeless-sounding tunes, from Mead’s honky-tonkin’ “My Name Is Mudd” to’s country boogie number “Even If It’s Wrong.” The guys’ fun-loving sense of humor cuts loose on their punk-rock-girl-gone-country ditty “Little Ramona (Gone Hillbilly Nuts)” and “Bettie, Bettie,” their ode to a certain pin-up icon.
“We saw it as our duty to bring the spirit of Robert's Western World to every place we went,” explains Mead. “When I see and hear this DVD and CD set, it feels like we actually did that.” One Long Saturday Night, in fact, features several songs that were Robert’s show staples but never made a proper BR5-49 album. Hank Williams’ “Lone Gone Lonesome Blues,” Ray Price’s “Heartache by the Numbers,” Carl Perkins’ “Gone, Gone, Gone,” Carl Smith’s “Go Boy Go,” Hawkshaw Hawkins’s “Lonesome 7-7203” and a two tunes Bob Wills popularized — “Right or Wrong” and “Take Me Back to Tulsa.” There is even a previously unreleased Chuck Mead song, “Hometown Boogie.”
The DVD and CD both contain all 19 songs BR5-49 played on Ohne Filter, and the CD adds four soundboard recordings taken from a concert the band played in Japan one week after their German TV show appearance. These bonus tracks include three standards that were regulars in the BR5-49’s concerts — “Knoxville Girl,” “Settin’ the Woods on Fire” and “Sweet Georgia Brown” (the latter two are on a BR5-49 album for the first time) — along with Gary Bennett’s “Hillbilly Thang.”
BR5-49’s own “Hillbilly Thang” began after Bennett met Mead at Nashville’s Bluebird Café. While Bennett hailed from Washington state and Mead from Kansas, they found themselves to be musical compatriots. The two started playing at Robert’s Western Wear with a loose ensemble of musicians that formalized as BR5-49 with Mead’s old bandmate, drummer “Hawk” Shaw Wilson, Bennett’s roommate, multi-instrumentalist Don Herron, and “Smilin’” Jay McDowell, a buddy of Mead’s, on standup bass.
BR5-49 (their name taken from an old Hee-Haw sketch) made two studio albums and a live one for Arista before moving on to Sony/Epic’s Lucky Dog Records. After one album there, where they went by BR549, Bennett and McDowell left the band. Mead led the group through a couple more CDs before they went on hiatus, although they have had periodic reunions.
One Long Saturday Night offers a chance to why they were such a breath of fresh air in the country music scene when they appeared in the mid-’90s, and how they helped blaze the trail for the Americana music movement.

I remember the hype re them, more than I remember what they sounded like, too

they were super solid live, couldn't name a single song.

Listening to Old Dominion's Meat and Candy and I'm not sure what to make of it. Mostly I dislike it, but I think like their single, it will worm it's way in me and I'll love/hate it.

Yeah like I said upthread, really liked the drunk-dialing one, "Said Nobody" and 1-2 others, but doesn't really hold my attention overall, might grow on me though.
Ditto, I hope xpost Eric Church's Mr. Misunderstood I do like about 5/12 tracks so far (somewhere in the middle, "Mistress Called Music" goes from prematurely celebratory to reflective, which seems more convincing). But jeez, there's only 10 total, so not that much more potential. However, I'll keep listening. No problem to do that, although the intermittent country mellensteen moves are annoying; his voice isn't (even) good enough to pull 'em off, nor are the words. His band can do anything, but are kept on a short leash here; if you're gonna be that kind of corny, go all the way and then some, like on The Outsiders.
Still, "Chattanooga Lucy" is my fave so far, because it builds musically, as the reach-out lyrics call for. And all the best songs here draw on personal-cultural history for reaffirmation, refueling for the present and future, hopefully, in different situations.
(re the 'steen, if you want bemused ol' twangboys prowlin' the mean streets with time, blood and/or grease etc. on hands, try the Deluxe Edition of Tim McGraw's Sundown Heaven Town---it's uneven too, but lots more good songs, in part because lots more songs).

"Chatanooga Lucy" disturbingly reminds me of Yello's "The race"

Uh-oh, good thing I was gonna listen again. He does sound more at home here, for better and worse, than on some of The Outsiders. No surprise to see him quoted as wondering if producer didn't push him too far, "Oh Nashville, you great Babylonian bitch" or whutever, and his reservations/resistance made his voice/vocal approach seem even more limited that it does otherwise.

Not that he can't be effective with more intimate material.

Or maybe less intimate/more tasteful but also less-BS away (hard to balance those last two at once)

found a cheap copy of the new lindi ortega album "Faded Gloryville" and i've been listening to it a lot. found the chris stapleton for the same price and am enjoying with some reservations, but it's not bad at all.

New York Magazine headline: Is Eric Church the First Modern Country Star to Truly Get Rock ’n’ Roll Culture?

Striking Matches, Nothing But The Silence: songwriting duo, contributors to Nashville, and even though they're sonically easier to take for a whole album than Gunnar/Sam and Scarlett/Claire probably would be, still a bit too thin and earnest for my taste, especially when the words are too, and need stronger/less ingenue vox to put 'em over the top---and that's despite the bass and drums, always stepping up, never showboating (ditto electric rhythm guitar, given the chance). Still, it all works out sometimes---the in-too-deep, wanna go deeper "Make A Liar Out of Me" is my fave, and def. hoping for several cogent covers.

i saw them opening for ashley monroe about two years ago; they are polished and talented and crazy enthusiastic and yes thin and earnest but it wouldn't surprise me if they got rascal flatts big

that Church record sounds pretty good!

can't figure out
1) what that NYMag headline means
2) if it's a good headline
3) if I should read yet another piece on the cultural politics of genres (THINKING NO)

my office likes the Church record, nice

too many acoustic numbers on the Church, but, boy, he can sing

can't figure out
1) what that NYMag headline means
2) if it's a good headline
3) if I should read yet another piece on the cultural politics of genres (THINKING NO)

I read the piece, and as near as I can figure, Eric Church "gets" rock 'n' roll culture because he released his new album on vinyl.

It's not a bad article when it concentrates on the music, but I'm struck over and over again by how surprised writers are when country uses rock as if it never has.

If you don't pretend the thing you're writing about is wild and unprecedented, you've got no pitch.

(Of course, there's also a strong possibility the writer is too young to have any concept of history.)

Don't want to read that, even though he didn't write the headline, but let me guess: he's struck by title track, EC whining about being persecuted in high school for liking Elvis Costello and omg ***Jeff Tweedy***

Also: EC knows about black people, black music!

Edd interviews Kinky, likes new album, guess I'll check it out:
http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/archives/2015/11/10/kinky-friedman-the-second-cream-interview

eric church truly gets rock 'n' roll culture in that he realizes it's mostly a tryhard image-driven act

not like country

Bob Dylan's Shadows In The Night tracks a worn but sometimes surprisingly poised, limber, white-bluesy growl---in effect like the later Sinatra's shrewd conservation and investment of remaining resources (look for the 1980s cable concert from Wolf Trap, for inst) through the moonlight, with acoustic bass and steel guitar navigating, Cap'n D always at the wheel. The romantic ritualism could just seem like the "elaborate sentimentality" tag that young Nik Cohn applied in passing, but this is the sound of conviction, beyond excuses for getting wasted: the opener, "I'm a Fool To Want You" is spooked realization--this time is like the first time, and now he can't shake the chil. Dittono matter how many times those "Autumn Leaves" have drifted by, and how mellow the sadness they can bring, he dreads the the sign of their coming once more(oops, spoiler, but I never noticed the dramatic climax written in before, maybe because I never listened to the end before, so give the grizzled tones more points for that).
And love songs can be like work songs here---another old-school country association---nevertheless, somehow he gets into a drift that gradually spins him around, in his spacey, autumn leafy way---"I go away for the weekend, and leave my keys in the door"---which leads to a happier realization, "I've always been your clown"---happier because, hey "Why try to change me now." He enjoys the quest, the cruise, the growlin' prowl in the blue moonlight (and shadows, yes)! So the second half reflects this, at least 'til "That Lucky Ol' Sun" flips the light on: more work ahead, but he sounds ready for it, even if complaining and jealous of the Sun (can't get too happy, or it wouldn't be country).

Nice

Are those reviews in print?

As we move into December, I'd like to drop a quick note to encourage any readers / lurkers / ilxors to post their favorite as-yet-unmentioned pop country and bluegrass tracks from this year to the thread so that I can hoover them into the ongoing spotify playlist. Last chance for any accessible stragglers that may not already be in the lexicon.

Traveller, by Chris Stapleton just got nominated for album of the year by the Grammys. Maybe I will give it another listen and see if it can finally win me over.

Was listening to Eric Church' latest this weekend. Some good tunes there, but yes, don't get that "Jeff Tweedy" line

chris stapleton's album is the sort that doesn't need to be any good to be appreciated by the grammy people

the cam album!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/12/07/cam-untamed-stream-listen?hootPostID=6371636dbc30f05d3c88251e2c6b96fb

i like the ep quite a lot.

Oh sweet, thanks for the stream! Yeah, EP got me.
xxpost thanks niels, but I missed the boat on covering Dylan's Great American Songbook album; didn't think he could pull it off (o me of little faith, once again).
This playlist is uncredited, but I highly suspect it's the work of Rolling Country alum and longtime Rhapsody blogger Chuck Eddy, who probably created that venerable ILM country-disco thread. This isn't country-*disco* only, and while the intro cites all kinds of worthy precedents, the tracks listed and linked here are at least relatively recent, some current(haven't had time to check functionality of all so far, but I'm sure forks will hook us up if nec., thanks again forks)
http://www.rhapsody.com/blog/post/country-gets-its-groove-on

Cam album is really great. Dixie Chicks-esque with a lot of swagger. Production team of Jeff Bhasker (most famously cowrote most of Kanye's 808s) and Tyler Johnson (anyone familiar with him?) did a great job--the whole album bounces with life and rhythm. Tracks like "Want It All" seem destined for the Billboard charts...if there's any justice in this world.

Favorite track is "Half Broke Heart," which has a cowrite from the seemingly untouchable Luke Laird.

Leaving aside outsiders like Kacey Musgraves, the most promising debut from a female country artist since Kerosene?

"half broke heart" quietly overtook "burning house" as my favourite on the ep in recent months, the chorus works so well

always quite odd hearing an album when so much of it is familiar but yeah, very strong release

x-post re Tyler Johnson, co-producer

A Grammy nominee two years in a row in the “Album of The Year” category, Johnson’s credits include Taylor Swift’s Red and Ed Sheeran’s X. He moved to Los Angeles from Steamboat Springs, CO to pursue his passion for music,

http://pulserecordings.com/news/tyler-johnson-signs-publishing-deal-with-pulse-creative-nation/

Johnson left for school in Los Angeles in 2004 to study philosophy and political science, but that passion for music never left him. After graduating, he started working as an assistant for Grammy-winning producer Jeff Bhasker, who has worked with the likes of Beyonce, Taylor Swift, The Rolling Stones, Bruno Mars, P!NK, Kanye West, Rihanna and Jay Z.

#About four years ago, Johnson met Cam in Los Angeles, and the two began working together, selling their songs.

http://www.steamboattoday.com/news/2013/dec/19/rising-country-music-star-backed-steamboat-locals/

Struck by the thoughtful, sometimes wry or rueful turns and shading in with the high spirits and sheer vitality; production supports and mirrors her balancing act as young voice of experience, coming out of at least one bad relationship, as she's acknowledged. Could be risky, starting off with a post-breakup album, but no enigmatic personal references etc (although that can work too, with the right production---really like the way Torres' undertow is countered and polished by the Portishead dude etc., though wouldn't work without just the right songs, ditto Cam).
Struck by "Runaway Train"'s bit about after after she's transformed herself into an effectiveinstrument of revenge, maybe she'll feel human again (and the way she sings it---never over the top sounds on top of flamboyant lyrics, like somebody else might do it).

Interesting to see the Taylor Swift connections. A sign of things to come?

Undecided on order, but my top 4 country albums of the year right now are Stapleton, Eric Church, Cam, and Musgraves.

Catching up, I seem to be higher on Church than ILM. Being There is an all-time personal favorite of mine, so the nod to "Misunderstood" charmed from the outset. The transition of "Round Here Buzz" > "Kill A Word" is the best moment of the album; those are melodies that few could carry so effectively today. The former is the same small town country song that's been written a thousand times, but there are very sweet, affecting personal touchpoints that make it work for me. The bite of the latter is more original, but then there's still that sweetness to his delivery. Tough to say if it tops Chief, but it's close. Shame that it kind of got lost in Stapleton's coming out party. Mr. Misunderstood works better than Traveller for me as a front-to-back album, as Traveller seems to get bogged down in 5 and 6-minute tracks in its closing run.

xxp, since you asked nicely:
Country Gets Its Groove On Spotify Playlist

happy to see Ashley Monroe get a grammy nom for best country album

Cam's "Hungover on Heartbreak" has been stuck in my head for two days. Love: the way the guitar switches from finger picking to strumming when the drums kick in; the phrasing of "I get sick when you mention her name"; the warmness of the synth that the second verse is built on; how rhythmic the thing is--has such a great feel of life and momentum, as does the whole album.

That Nashville Sound has their AOTY list up, and as usual, there's lots of stuff I need to explore. Totally slept on that Will Hoge release.

http://thatnashvillesound.blogspot.com/2015/12/that-nashville-sounds-top-40-albums-of.html

1. Chris Stapleton - Traveller
2. Will Hoge - Small Town Dreams
3. Courtney Patton - So This Is Life
4. Pat Green- Home
5. Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen - Hold My Beer Vol. 1
6 Whitey Morgan and the 78's - Sonic Ranch
7. Ashley Monroe- The Blade
8. Logan Brill – Shuteye
9. Statesboro Revue - Jukehouse Revival
10.Eric Church – Mr. Misunderstood
11. Cody Jinks - Adobe Sessions
12. Chris Roberts- Way Out West
13. Daryle Singletary – There’s Still A Little Country Left
14. Jason Isbell – Something More Than Free
15. Lindi Ortega- Faded Gloryville
16. Haley Whitters- Black Sheep
17. George Strait – Cold Beer Conversations
18. Don Henley – Cass County
19. Mavericks – Mono
20. SteelDrivers - The Muscle Shoals Recordings
21. Ray Wylie Hubbard - The Ruffians Misfortune
22. John Anderson - Gold Mine
23. Kacey Musgraves - Pageant Material
24. Elenowen - Pulling Back the Veil
25. Emily Hearn – Hourglass
26. Jamie Lin Wilson - Holidays & Wedding Rings
27. Aaron Watson - The Underdog
28. Alan Jackson – Angels and Alcohol
29. Darrell Scott - 10 - Songs of Ben Bullington
30. Levi Lowrey - My Crazy Head
31. T. Graham Brown - Forever Changed
32. Wade Hayes - Go Live Your Life
33. Maddie and Tae- Start Here
34. Carrie Underwood - Storyteller
35. Corb Lund – Things That Can’t Be Undone
36. Reba McEntire - Love Somebody
37. Stoney LaRue – Us Time
38. Zac Brown Band - Jekyll and Hyde
39. Dwight Yoakam - Second Hand Heart
40. Special mention- Emily West- All For You

Listening to the Stapleton again. Eh, some cuts are ok, but others are too 70s bar band southern rock for me.

the cam album doesn't disappoint, i think the strongest cuts were on the EP but "country ain't never been pretty" and "mayday" are quite something

Production team of Jeff Bhasker (most famously cowrote most of Kanye's 808s)

you can really tell it's bhasker bc of the drum tone. it's really cloudy but insistent. (he produced taylor's "holy ground" and that vibe is kinda there in "hungover on heartache")

my list of best/worst country singles of the year: http://narrowcast.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-20-best-country-radio-hits-of-2015.html

my list of best/worst country singles of the year: http://narrowcast.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-20-best-country-radio-hits-of-2015.html

― Shkreli, Martin & Wu (some dude), Friday, December 11, 2015 6:57 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I had heard that Brother's Osborne track a couple times on the radio with no word on who it was or the song's name. Gotta say thanks for filling in the blanks it is truly great. Interesting that its Jay Joyce, it is the song I wish Eric Church was releasing right now.

Great list, I love the two Thomas Rhett songs, Burning House, House Party, Buy Me a Boat, Smoke Break & Lose My Mind (would love a Brett Eldredge/K Michelle song as an aside). I love/hate Fly.

Completely agree that Take Your Time is the worst song of the year, its the only song I instantly change the station for right now. Its a shame he insists on doing the talking/singing thing, he has an interesting signing voice, I would like to hear it more. Also, I would be interested to hear why you don't like Kick the Dust Up, I keep hearing negative things about it but I don't understand why, its a great party track, reminds me of Something 'Bout A Truck. Great for awkward country wedding dances.

"Kick The Dust Up" probably isn't that bad, i just tend to hate almost anything Luke Bryan does

I can't explain it but I hate Kick the Dust Up with a passion, but I enjoy Strip It Down. Cody Jinks is good too. But the new Eric Church is the best album I've heard in awhile. I love that he finally has a record that I don't skip certain songs. Looking forward to hearing the Cam full length. That Dibs song keeps getting stuck in my head in the worse way.

Also looking forward to what william michael morgan releases after hearing I met a girl. Lyrically the song isn't much to talk about much the way he sings it and the melody is nice.

i'm on board with your top 3 hip hop singles al

"stay a little longer" has become my favorite country single this year by far since i first heard it

Break Up In A Small Town is my favorite song in a while. The country station here plays an acoustic version that I like more than the regular one. His talking thing reminds me of the Billy Bragg/Johnny Marr version of Walk Away Renee.

I'm listening to the original version now and it's a lot crappier, actually. To bad...

Iris DeMent, The Trackless Woods: Good name for it, because, though quicky engaged, I did have to learn to follow the way she (and alert friends) follow Anna Akhmatova's bitter, insatiable quests, all around and right through the zero (kind of like Elena Ferrante's charismatic outlier in the heart of the old neighborhood, Lina/Lila Cerullo). But damn if DeMent, confirmed Southern Californinan as her old boss Merle Haggard, doesn't find and release the rolling country soul of these uncompromised lines---who knew? Of course the lines also find a release for the vocal and piano melodies of an artist who became seldom seen, at least in part because she's become seldom satisfied with her own lyrics. Release and def points of departure, somewhere under the forest canopy, but with sufficient glints, and sometimes right in the heart. Often enough, and we fans at least get the rousing sound, a bracing dose of old patent medicine DeMentia.

god i would buy a country album based on lila cerullo in a heartbeat

The CD's worth getting for the printed lyrics (also if you're getting tired of backing up back-ups of your back-ups of your back-ups). Not all of 'em come through the singing, not initially, although the way those bits gradually emerge can be quite an experience---and some of it, enough, I guess, I got right off. The combination of sensibilities isn't like Lina/Lila times her great friend and rival for life, Elena/Lenu Greco, because DeMent's persona is something else (but come to think of it, Anna A. can seem like both the Ferrante frenemies at once, scornful and dismissive and anxious and romantic, arguing, fighting with herself to toughen up for the next fool to come passing along, someday, beyond mere possibility)

Not to say that there might not be a lot more to Akhmatova than the way she (so far) comes across to me, based on this selection of translated poems, and the way they sound here.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_music_club/features/2015/music_club_2015/country_radio_s_focus_on_bro_country_has_sidelined_more_than_just_women.html

From Slate's critics discussion for 2015, critc Jewly Hight weighs in on bro country, tomatoes, and more --

country singers like Thomas Rhett and Brett Eldredge had already gone into suave, soul-pop loverman mode on their latest albums. Just this week I saw Eldredge play up his smooth crooning chops at a Sinatra-styled industry soirée. I’ve also been noticing an uptick in country slow jams, from Eric Church’s “Like a Wrecking Ball,” a track from The Outsiders that wasn’t released as a single until this year, to Luke Bryan’s “Strip It Down” and Carrie Underwood’s “Heartbeat.”

Part of what’s going on, I think, is an expansion into more uptown or intentionally adult-sounding modes of expression, perhaps even some implicit pushback against the perception that contemporary country seduction is boorish and juvenile. There’s certainly a classist layer to those readings, as Carl noted earlier this year. It’s also worth considering how these musical moves are re-enacting the cycle by which country ups its sonic progressiveness through borrowing from soul and R&B traditions, a fraught history of racial-musical exchange that Charles Hughes masterfully unpacks in this year’s Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South.

more from jewly hight:

the rise of the country-music super producer

I haven't been able to like Kelsea Ballerini like lots of peers -- she sounds false to me. I love "Crash and Burn" and haven't gotten tired of Dierks Bentley's "Say You Do."

sad.

xp to that article

if Rhett is bro, he's pitching and setting a very appealing example/standard: frisky, but not boorish (or bland). Also, he's good for a whole album, unlike most designated bros. I try to keep an open ear and mind; only Florida-Georgia seem hopeless, but maybe only because I can't stand to listen long enough to get to the good stuff.

Tim McGraw, Damn Country Music: Still young enough to be restless and hopeful, even when lyrics sugest this might also be his version of midlife crisis (or even on the more excitingly uneven Deluxe Edition of Sundown Heaven Town's title track, middle-aged crazy). Always smart enough to be grateful for whatever he can get---and lose, but hey it's another experience. Life, incl. music, keeps him on his toes, though sometimes promising starts nudge me toward alleged hooks via too-slick surfaces, too quickly and repetitively, always on the verge of getting it on. Well, that's life too, especially for us longterm fans. Still, the best tracks combine a supple way with close studies, though not discernibly direct lifts from 80s poptronic radio hits----maybe the Police, Billy Ocean, Springsteen---also r&b, early-Tim Hat Country widescreen contemplation--- and especially all of the above on "Want You Back," which is also, what? Chromatic? Caribbean? With steel guitars and something chipping away at the edge of my headphones too---Oh yeah, he's even implicitly if grudgingly grateful to "damn country music," judging by the degree to which he withholds vociferation, while acknowledging, candidly but not tearfully, that he pulled up "roots," broke his mama's and "an angel's heart, on the way outta town"---all in a day's work when you're ready for the Big Time, "bleedin' Yes and hearin' no," finding that your best just seems "so-so." Yet he doesn't deny that he's made it, and keeps on earning his keep. Good enough.
So I shouldn't have been surprised that even "Humble and Kind," which starts with atypically up-front ick, soon goes for the gusto, with no undue jolts, just the dues.

I haven't liked any McGraw single since "Meanwhile Back at Mama's."

Another one for us diehards: Toby Keith, 35 mph Town, predictable as you'd suspect, incl. the novelty reviewer-bait lead-off, "Drunk Americans," which sways in a semi-Irish manner, "We all sing it wrong, but we all sing along," "we" incl. "mudflaps and bourbons, ballcaps and turbans....CEOs, GEDs...FBI....we don't give a rat's ass, if you are a/Democrat or a/Republican, we're just all Drunk Americans." The title track immediately does an about-face---of sorts though for once his diction seems odd on some of it: ever'body's "peeing?" and "suing," pretty sure that's right, when they should be getting the Bible out, because it says Christians don't sue, or so some Christians have told me (can't find that bit in it, but okay). Like the music alright, especially something like a slow virtual windmill, so guess he's okay with alternative resources.

"Good Gets Here" yodels some lyrics like Yoakam, but the music is faster, leaner (than Hagar, anyway, who made at least one solo album with horns that this somehow brings to mind). The other rockin' one, with more of a Hagaresque attitude, is "10 Foot Pole," and it's not that he wouldn't touch his ex-fiancee with one, but he "couldn't," because her momma and daddy would never let him get that close, not no more. "You shoulda seen us all at the mall!"

His power-crooner voice is still splendid on three ballads, at least one of which would be prom-bait 20-odd years ago.

Couple Buffet songs or clones thereof, because such a shortage.

He also delivers good vox on "Drunk Americans" and all the others I can stand to listen to, which is 7 out of 10, but some of the good 'uns are half-good/-assed in terms of keeping me interested, even for 33 minutes (and remember I'm a diehard). Brevity is the soul of wit, but he's more of a wag, and so very very very proud of it. Oh well, I'm used to it. Uncle Tobe, home for the holidays. Doesn't really drink, but it's a good subject, he finds.

One much fresher, only in part because she's much younger: Brandi Carlile, The Firewatcher's Daughter. Nominated for an Americana Grammy; keep thinking she did a CMT Crossroads session with Elton John, but (she and EJ did something else, right?) but no, CMT was Eltie and Ryan Adams. Same idea, though: catchy drama in denim--this is maybe mostly acoustic, but pushy and electric where it counte, especially on "Mainstream Kid< which burns its way through to the floating, observant, recuperative "Beginning To Feel The Years," and "Blood Muscle Skin and Bone," which somehow natcherly follows the pioneer workbreak of "Wilder (We're Chained"---"and when everything else is gone, our love will still remain"--with something like The Band Perry mixing their glam handclaps, and maybe some cowbell, with post-punk rhythm guitar durr-durr-durr, little train chugging by (not too far from the "Petticoat Junction" theme, come to think of it)
It's all hard-won wisdom, philosophical, sometimes rationalizing, sometimes declaiming, clawed back from the brink, while chasing love, and still capable of extravagant (brandy-rich, costly) moves. Rueful and even twangy enough, occasionally, to qualify as young Americana, if not quite young country, as much (but if CMT ever does another Crossroads, I wouldn't be surprised to see her on there---with---?)

Crystal Leww on 2k15 bro-country:

http://crystalleww.tumblr.com/post/135715784972/the-evolution-of-bro-country-in-2015

hiya! Here are my picks:

https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2015/12/23/best-country-songs-of-2015/

http://www.savingcountrymusic.com/dave-cobbs-upcoming-the-southern-family-concept-album-includes-incredible-list-of-talent

Record producer Dave Cobb is sitting on top of the world at the moment after being involved in nearly every major upsurging project in country and roots music for the last two consecutive years, and without any sign of letting up anytime soon. From Chris Stapleton’s Traveller, to Jason Isbell’s Southeastern and Something More Than Free, to Sturgill Simpson’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music and so many more, Dave Cobb’s name is glowing hot at the moment, and anything he touches deserves extra attention from listeners.

But it’s not just listeners who are taking notice of Dave Cobb’s talent. In April, he signed a deal with Elektra Records out of New York to launch and A&R-style partnership with the Warner Music imprint. The deal allows Cobb to sign artists and develop talent as part of his producing duties. One of the first artists Cobb worked with under the new arrangement was Anderson East.

But there’s something much interesting brewing that’s bigger than any one artist at the moment—an expansive concept record dealing with artists’ experiences growing up in the South. The project was first hinted at in April when the new Elektra deal was signed, and since then there’s been murmurings about Cobb’s concept record here and there, but now we’re finally beginning to piece together the details.

Called Southern Family, the album will involve contributions from:

• Morgane Stapleton (with Chris Stapleton) Holly Williams • Jamey Johnson • Miranda Lambert • Rich Robinson (The Black Crowes) • Zac Brown • Jason Isbell • Shooter Jennings • Brandy Clark • John Paul White (The Civil Wars) • Anderson East • Brent Cobb

Most of these artists have worked with Cobb before. He’s currently working on a record with Holly Williams that is expected in 2016. Brent Cobb is a songwriter who also happens to be a cousin of Dave. And there may be more names yet to be announced. The record was briefly touched on in a new interview with Cobb on NPR.

The album is partly inspired by the 1978 Civil War concept album White Mansions, which featured Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, guitar playing by Eric Clapton, and followed the story of four main characters as they narrated their perspective on the Civil War from a Southern’s perspective.

It will be released March 18th.

TRACK LIST:

southern-familyJohn Paul White – “Simple Song”
Jason Isbell – “God Is A Working Man”
Brent Cobb – “Down Home”
Miranda Lambert – “Sweet By and By”
Morgane Stapleton (with Chris Stapleton) – “You Are My Sunshine”
Zac Brown – “Grandma’s Garden”
Jamey Johnson – “Mama’s Table”
Anderson East – “Learning”
Holly Williams – “Settle Down”
Brandy Clark – “I Cried”
Shooter Jennings – “Can You Come Over?”
Rich Robinson – “The Way Home”

I'd rather hear about the experiences of a country fan growing up outside the South---in the backside of the semi-ex-Soviet Union, Beverly Hills, a mining colony on a moon of Saturn---but will try to keep an open mind. Hopefully Shooter will keep thangs lively with one of his Tea Party/Alex Jones-type scenarios.

Kacey Musgraves, Pagent Material: presents herself here as so down-to-earn and wholesome and normal and been-around-just-enough-to-have-uncommon-common-sense, that she only has two problems: one is that her previously noticeable unreliable ear for classic country-worthy cliches now leads her very far into friendly righteous triteness most suitable for bumper stickers, home schooling, 69 cent greeting cards, and Facebook; the other problem is that she "can't smile when I don't feel it inside," or words to that effect.
The first prob is chronic in the bad sense, even though she may still be okay with reefer, judging by one of the few tracks I like, "Die Fun" (also reasonably okay with most of the opener, "High Time," and certainly the penultimate "Fine"---ones where she trusts the melodies, more than Deep Thoughts, to look around and guide the listener, also her). It's so chronic that it creates a distracting context for the unlisted closer, "Are You Sure," a Willie Nelson rarity, rescued for this sufficiently poignant duet with the man himself. Fortunately there's a video going around, rescuing the track from this album.
Oh, yeah, and not smiling when she don't feel it could is at least potentially a major problem, very promising re song material, but unrealized here.
I know, I hope, that musical magicians such as Womack and Rimes may glimpse other potential here, presently unavailable to mere me, but meanwhile, much of it is almost unbearably painful to listen to---in this case, because of triteness, but that does make it country, in its own peculiar way.

"distracting context" because it underlines the degree of righteousness in the lyrics, distracts from the counselling (poignant)voice of experience.

I found Pagent Material unbearable too.

Still exploring a few year-end lists, but my favorite country albums of 2015, in no particular order:

Eric Church - Mr Misunderstood
Chris Stapleton - Traveller
Maren Morris - s/t EP
The Turnpike Troubadours - s/t
Kacey Musgraves - Pageant Material
Maddie & Tae - Start Here
Cam - Untamed

Honorable Mentions
Whitey Morgan & the 78s - Sonic Ranch
Ashley Monroe - The Blade
Shovels & Rope - Busted Jukebox, Vol 1
Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell - The Traveling Kind

Looking back over this year's RC, I was reminded that several of y'all turned me on to Tami Neilson, thanks. Her 2015 album, Don't Be Afraid (all original material from the Neilsons and friends, I think),seems somewhat Ronstadtian, with (somewhat) mixed results: blues-gospeloid belting I find distractingly generic, but when she eases back just a hair, we get some fine ballads (and occasional upper tempos): country-bluesy-soulful, sometimes w jazz potential and Latin turns (could imagine Freddy Fender doing a couple of these). Her Bandcamp is a little balky tonight, but well-worth the effort:
http://tamineilson.bandcamp.com/

I'm wrapping this thread up for the year. If I missed something or if a track comes available sometime in the future, bump here to let me know and I'll add.

Rolling Country 2015 Thread Spotify Playlist

Had to take a break before the rest of that, but speaking of St. Vincent, "Born Again Teen" is like her x Motown: ah, those youthful mood swings, maybe especially on acid. But/and the mirror sisters of Lucious eventually rock their way to higher ground, for another smoke break anyway: "It's all a manual that we've been writing, a future instructional guide / if we skipped ahead to our pre-fulfilled dreams, we'd be lost without our own advice." Ha, dood one.

Wrong thread, sorry! That was about Good Grief, new album by Lucius (not country, but not bad)