Rolling Country 2021

Ice Ice baby: https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/willie-nelson-karen-o-under-pressure/

Once again here's Chuck Eddy's Nashville Scene ballot---Chuck sez:

Maybe link to my wordpress blog, as well, since I suspect most ilxors are unaware of it?
https://accidentalevolution.wordpress.com/ Anyway, here's what my Scene ballot looked like; it's possible that, if I were to do it over again, I'd substitute Brett Eldredge and/or Joshua Ray Walker for the bottom album or two, but Monday-morning-quarterback hindsight is 20/20 even in 2020, right? Here goes, and thanks!

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2020:

1. RaeLynn Baytown (Round Here EP)
2. Mickey Guyton Bridges (Capitol Nashville EP)
3. Haley Georgia Lonestar Mixtape (Haley Georgia EP)
4. Kelsea Ballerini Kelsea (Black River Entertainment)
5. Caitlin Cannon TrashCannon (Caitlin Cannon)
6. Ashley McBryde Never Will (Warner Nashville)
7. Elizabeth Cook Aftermath (Agent Love)
8. Hailey Whitters The Dream (Pigasus/Big Loud/Songs & Daughters)
9. Corb Lund Agricultural Tragic (New West)
10. Phil VassarStripped Down (American Soul)

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2020:

1. Borock N Roll “Semesta Menyambut Gegap Gempita”
2. Luke Combs “Six Feet Apart”
3. Taylor Swift “Betty”
4. Parker McCollum “Pretty Heart”
5. Mark Chesnutt “I Found Another You (and She Hates Me Too)”
6. Diplo “Do Si Do”
7. Priscilla Block “PMS”
8. John Anderson “Years”
9. Orville Peck “Smalltown Boy”
10. Hot Country Knights “Moose Knuckle Shuffle”

TOP ONE COUNTRY REISSUE OF 2020:

1. Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers Anthology - The Deluxe Collection (Master Tape)

@LorettaLynn
I am very excited that my new album, "Still Woman Enough" is available to pre-order now! Available 3/19, 4 amazing women joined me on these new songs,
@Reba
, @CarrieUnderwoood,
@MargoPrice
,
@TanyaTucker
. Pre-order it today! #stillwomanenough #womenofcountry #forthegirls
Trailer--check the 'Tube if this doesn't show:

I am very excited that my new album, "Still Woman Enough" is available to pre-order now! Available 3/19, 4 amazing women joined me on these new songs, @Reba, @CarrieUnderwoood, @MargoPrice, @TanyaTucker. Pre-order it today! #stillwomanenough #womenofcountry #forthegirls pic.twitter.com/otlmiIjmCX

— Loretta Lynn (@LorettaLynn) January 4, 2021

cool news!

Really enjoying the new Steve Earle & the Dukes.

Didn't hear about the RaeLynn EP that's #1 on Chuck Eddy's list. Loved WildHorse in 2017 - perfect modern country pop in the vibe of Cam.

xpost do you mean the Justin tribute album, or The Ghosts of West Virginia? Ghosts is real good, kinda wondering about Steve's voice vs. Justin's on the trib, but, to benefit his daughter, it's at least a good reminder to fill the gaps in our JTE collections. And I'm sure Steve's take is worth hearing: he knows how to make an album, duh, and may be even more urgently motivated here than with Townes and Guy/ Not sparing himself with the immediacy of this response to the death.

I was talking about JT, but I like both tbh

Oh yeah, me too, will check out J.T. for sure.

Meanwhile, here's my Scene ballot:

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2020:
(just in the order they come to mind)
1. Elizabeth Cook: Aftermath
2. Ashley MacBryde: Never Will
3. Brandy Clark: Your Life Is A Record
4. Katie Pruitt:Expectations
5. Willie Nelson: First Rose of Spring
6. Waylon Payne: Blue Eyes, The Harlot, The Queer, The Pusher, & Me
7. Whitney Rose: We Still Go To Rodeos
8. Gretchen Peters: The Night You Wrote That Song: The Songs of Mickey Newbury
T9. Pam Tillis: Looking for a Feeling
10. Cam: The Otherside

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2020:
1, Gillian Welch: Boots No. 2: The Lost Songs Vols.1-3
2. Johnny Cash: Easy Rider: The Best of the Mercury Recordings
3. Doc Watson and Gaither Carlton: s/t
4.
5.

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST DUOS, TRIOS OR GROUPS OF 2020:

1. The Chicks
2. The Tender Things
3. Steve Earle & The Dukes

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2020:
1. Katie Pruitt
2. Caylee Hammack
3.
*************************************************************************************
IMAGINARY CATEGORIES:

SPECIAL CITATION: AUDIO-VIDEO ALBUM:
Chicks:Gaslighter

TOP NINE MORE BEST COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2020:
11. Caylee Hammack: If It Wasn’t For You
12. Marshall Chapman: Songs I Can’t Live Without
13. Lori McKenna: The Balladeer
14. Tender Things: How You Make A Fool
15. Margo Price: Perfectly Imperfect At The Ryman
16. Steve Earle/Dukes: Ghosts of West Virginia
17. Jake Blount: Spider Tales
18. Shelby Lynn: s/t
19. Swamp Dogg: Sorry You Couldn’t Make It

HON. MENTION/BUBBLING UNDER THE TOP 19:
Ashley Ray: Pauline
Clint Black: Out of Sane
Zephaniah Ohoro: Listening To The Music
Wynonna: Recollection EP
Mickey Guyton: Bridges EP

ABOUT HALF GOOD (60-45%):
Carly Pearce: s/t
John Anderson: Years
Chris Stapleton: Starting Over

LESS THAN HALF GOOD:
Margo Price: That’s How Rumors Get Started
Jamie Wyatt: Neon Cross
Hailey Whitters: The Dream

RELATED TOP ELEVEN:
1 Lucinda Williams: Good Souls, Better Angels
2. Jason Isbell/400 Unit:Reunions
3. Richard Thompson: Bloody Noses EP
4. Maria McKee: La Vita Nuova
5. Nancy McCallion: Go To Ground
6. Randall Bramblett: Pine Needle Fire
7. Chuck Prophet: The Land That Time Forgot
8. Dave Miller: s/t
9. Drive-By Truckers: The New OK
10. Drive-By Truckers: The Unraveling
11. Lydia Loveless: Daughter

RELATED HON MENTION/BUBBLING UNDER THE TOP ELEVEN
Becky Warren: The Sick Season
Kelsey Waldon: They’ll Never Keep Us Down EP
Orkesta Mendoza/Carrie Rodriguez: iAmericano!: The Musical

“Dylan Is His Own Category”(Frank Kogan):
.Bob Dylan:My Rough and Rowdy Ways

Good’uns Added After Ballot Deadline/Subjects For Further Study:
S. G. Goodman: Old Time Feeling
H. C. McEntire: Eno Axis
RaeLynn: Baywater EP

RELATED TOP FOUR REISSUES:
1 Grateful Dead: Workingman’s Dead (50th Anniversary Ed.)
2. Dave Alvin:From An Old Guitar: Rare and Unreleased Recordings
3. Leyla McCalla:Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute To Langston Hughes
4. Chris Smither: More from the Levee

“Little Richard’s Reissue Is Its Own Category” (me):
Little Richard: Southern Child

HON MENTON RELATED REISSUES
Dave Alvin: Live at Yep Roc 15
Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin: Live from Austin EP
Neil Young: Homegrown

ABOUT HALF GOOD RELATED REISSUES:
Randall Bramblett: The Meantime (10th Anniversary Ed.)
Take Me Back to the Range: Selections from Western Jubilee Recording Company

RELATED TO RELATED (kissin’ second cousins)
The Third Mind: s/t
Minute2Minute: Travelers, Transients, & Tourists
Bettye LaVette: Blackbirds

Ballot and comments posted here (although most of the comments were on RC 2020 and/or individual artist threads): https://thefreelancementalists.blogspot.com/2021/01/nscene-in-submeme-country-etc-ballot.html
Here's a few more comments for ones added after sending the ballot:

Good’uns Added After Ballot Deadline/Subjects For Further Study:
S. G. Goodman: Old Time Feeling---Appalachoid high lonesome--associated pitch and power rising bullseye from the persistent and fully occupied folds of fog-smog topography: like The Croz before him, on Joni Mitcherll’s debut, Goodman’s co-producer Jim James refrains from loading this launch with heavy big-name guests---just close mics That Voice and jumps back. Oh, it gets a bit of echo sometimes, and the swirl of low-reflective resonance also brushes by reverb-y guitar (which can come apart sideways when appropriate), pedal steel, bass, drums (she told Rolling Stone she was inspired by Link Wray’s ‘71 s/t, one of his chicken coop sets)---but mainly That Voice, which is youthful but also one of experience, like debut Joni, with plenty to remember and offload, seeking some relief, but not miserabilist nor wrecking ball, just personalised fragments, scenes, phrases coming toward the brink of clarity---somewhat like early Neko on Bloodshot, when she was covering and writing between Loretta Lynn and Scott Walker. Could imagine Goodman working with Brandi Carlile, the Highwomen, whomever, though for now is still Murray KY collegetown-based apparently. (Before this solo, worked as The Savage Radley with a collaborator who was also a drummer; she’s gotta have a drummer, as do my ears.)

H. C. McEntire: Eno Axis---title refers to North Carolina’s Eno River, though the Brian is also apt: as w Goodman, there’s a psych-country quality, here more horizontally spacious, a luminescent river plain, with those little changes all along that river boat pilots factor in---it’s earthy and fluid, watchful and ruminating and confident, like a bit more propulsive Cowboy Junkies effect, gathering around a strong voice with a lot to say, which will also take a while to sink in, but appealing sound right way, and
she doesn’t keep her players on too short a leash/does know when to shut up, always preacheated.https://hcmcentire.bandcamp.com/album/eno-axis"> https://hcmcentire.bandcamp.com/album/eno-axis

RaeLynn: Baywater EP---Party already started, pop goes the country in the middle of sumpin-sumpin “drinkin’ with the guys, dancin’ with the girls”--- which we can call sis-step, with no bro autotune or wearing of trucks and beercans on tattooed sleeve, but not like she takes the givenness for granted: “Chasin’ down their dreams….there must be some real girls hangin’ around/This Fake Girl Town.” Sounds a bit haunted. Also, if you were to ask “Me About Me,” she’ll tell you what she had to reach through to Choose Life---the good life, that is, and “Judgin’ To Jesus” is what she’ll leave. I better shut up, too many hook song titles, like “Bra Off,” which is another story.
Let’s see, what did I say here in 2017: RaeLynn’s Wildheart: She was shutdown in The Voice prelims, but that was 2012, and she’s the across-the-diner-table, lower case but never drab voice of experience now, nothing ponderous, just the light-enough blues and beauty of the world as reflected in flexing rootstronic-tending aerial shades: it’s morning in America one more time, whether or not you’ve been to bed yet.

"Judgin to Jesus" has a real Maren Morris vibe to it.

I nom'd "Space & Time" off the SG Goodman album in the ilm tracks poll - heard it on an EOY playlist and it stopped me cold. Didn't know Jim James worked on it, but that makes perfect sense given all the echo and reverb.

i wrote off Sam Hunt after "Body Like a Back Road" but, having found it among the best of 2020 tracks nominations, "Hard to Forget" is absolutely demanding painful repeat listening right now.

Yay for Tender Things :)

From RC 2020

Not sure how I missed this but Ingrid Andress had a cover of Charli XCX's "Boys" on the deluxe edition of Lady Like that's surprisingly good! I guess Andress was a cowriter of the song? Curious to know more about how she got looped in on that project if anyone knows more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCMMYXvWvpA

― Indexed, Tuesday, January 19, 2021 10:25 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

cool, thank you!

― sean gramophone, Tuesday, January 19, 2021 10:29 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Mandolin a surprisingly good replacement for the Super Mario Bros coin sound

― Indexed, Tuesday, January 19, 2021

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/716MCkDXU9L._SL1400_.jpg

Produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb, the record finds Gibb realizing his long-time dream of working with some of the country, bluegrass and americana artists he admires the most including collaborations with Alison Krauss, Brandi Carlile, Dolly Parton, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Jason Isbell, Jay Buchanan, Keith Urban, Little Big Town, Miranda Lambert, Olivia Newton-John, Sheryl Crow and Tommy Emmanuel.
Gibb continues to be widely celebrated surrounding the release, including features this week on NPR Morning Edition and CBS “Sunday Morning,” as well as a recent in-depth profile at The New York Times, who proclaims, “Gibb’s voice on ‘Words of a Fool’ is strong but also spectral…Nearly six decades after he first sang on a record, it remains one of the most otherworldly instruments in popular music.” Moreover, The Wall Street Journal praises the album, calling it “an endearing new salute to the songs of the pop-giant Bee Gees,” while Entertainment Weekly declares, “gorgeous, gospel-inflected, country-kissed.”
In addition to the new album, Gibb is the subject of an acclaimed new documentary, The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, directed by Frank Marshall. Out now on HBO Max, the Washington Post heralds, “magnificent…thorough and beautifully appreciative,” while The Hollywood Reporter calls it, “a warm blast of musical nostalgia.”
Trailers for alb and doc on YouTube (ilx is undependable at allowing my YouTube links)
GREENFIELDS: THE GIBB BROTHERS SONGBOOK, VOL. 1 TRACK LIST
1. “I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You” with Keith Urban
2. “Words of a Fool” with Jason Isbell
3. “Run to Me” with Brandi Carlile
4. “Too Much Heaven” with Alison Krauss
5. “Lonely Days” with Little Big Town
6. “Words” with Dolly Parton
7. “Jive Talkin’” with Miranda Lambert, Jay Buchanan
8. “How Deep Is Your Love” with Tommy Emanuel, Little Big Town
9. “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart” with Sheryl Crow
10. “To Love Somebody” with Jay Buchanan
11. “Rest Your Love On Me” with Olivia Newton-John
12. “Butterfly” with Gillian Welch, David Rawlings

Maybe "Islands In The Stream" and "New York Mining Disaster 1941" and "Charade" and "Stayin' Alive" will be on Vol.2 (Gotta get Garth and The Chicks in there---who else?)

Still making my way through the 2020 albums I missed. Elizabeth Cook's Aftermath is as much rock and roll as country, but the song that stopped me cold was acoustic closer "Mary, The Submissing Years," her response to John Prine's "Jesus, The Missing Years." Full of vivid imagery, wry storytelling, and sharp rhymes, it does John right. Love this line: "There's Barbie lovers and firecrackers, train trackers, Coca Cola makers, insurance takers, and a lotta hot preachers."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCvGO9rj1Zo

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

Thanks for the rec, btw, dow. Checked this out on account of your Scene ballot.

Glad you liked it! Here's the Scene poll results: https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/cover-story/article/21145508/21st-annual-country-music-critics-poll
Of the three they put on the front page, Guyton's EP is a bit too uneven for a Top Ten (of that length), no prob w MacBryde, though I personally would give Cook a slight edge, but then Stapledon may be in some respects Best Male Vocalist, but on Starting Over, he lets/makes his voice carry some very lazy-ass retred songwriting/arrangements too much of the time, although "Cold" and a few others are keepers. Some people have said this all along; I say it now. Oh well, I should read the whole thing.

Also, Stapleton's Songs From A Room really should have been cut down to a single (average LP-length) release. First solo album is still the strongest (before that, he was good w the Steeldrivers, closer to Bob Seger than an expected string band singer).

Stapleton sometimes seems too bar band formulaic to me, but will give him another shot

The new ACL episode that airs this week w/Ray Wylie Hubbard is quite good.

Somebody sent me a Kendalls track from YouTube, which reminded me of this Jeannie K. solo set (with two tracks featuring her Dad, who died backstage soon after---the album was supposed to be comeback or at least return of the Kendalls)---David Cantwell does a characteristically thoughtful profile of where things stood then with her, and backstory of the Kendalls, their lives in music--goes on for about four pages, credibly enough:
https://www.nodepression.com/jeannie-kendall-of-missing-persons/

Another friend responded with memory of a little club they had for a while in Gulf Shores, incl. "a country music museum of sorts", none of which lasted long--she said Dad Royce was already pretty depleted, but his demise apparently came as a shock to Jeannie (and he did insist on going back out on stage that one last time).

All I knew from The Kendalls was “The Pittsburgh Stealers,” but am curious to read that article.

Guess there is no “The” there,

Pony Bradshaw (yep) has made a good and fun album called Calico Jim. Coupla good ol' storytelling songs with fun rhythms and imaginative guitar work. Recommended

Whoa---just got a hard-charging, massive press release about this guy---will spare yall that, but here's his basic bio and links to much very favorable coverage:
https://www.ivpr.co/pony-bradshaw

(IVPR a "narrative-based" firm, check their clientele of venerables and risings, incl. some you might have been wondering about:
https://www.ivpr.co/music)

Very slick looking agency

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/us/ozarks-mcclurg-jam.html

In the Ozarks, the Pandemic Threatens a Fragile Musical Tradition

The older fiddlers and rhythm guitar players don’t rely on sheet music, so their weekly jam sessions — now on hiatus — are critical to passing their technique to the next generation

I like Luke Combs and Billy Strings, but the last thing I want to hear on the first day of Black History Month in the year 2021 is another "why can't we all just get over it and get along?" song from two white dudes. Just...stop.

— Charles L. Hughes (@CharlesLHughes2) February 1, 2021

The older fiddlers and rhythm guitar players don’t rely on sheet music, so

i'm not sure not that not relying on sheet music is unique to the old-timey musicians of the ozarks!

Good point

The article references that someone filmed some of the Ozarks jam sessions and has uploaded them to YouTube. The sessions are on hold for now but may resume in the spring in an open-air barn

Rodney Crowell and Friends:
Songs From Quarantine

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2871083772_10.jpg

Today Rodney is thrilled to share “Rodney Crowell and Friends: Songs From Quarantine” – a 13-song collection of rarities available for two weeks only on Bandcamp. All proceeds will benefit Music Health Alliance, who offers support to the music community nationwide, including critical mental health and COVID-19 resources in addition to access to healthcare, medicines, diagnostic tests, health-related debt relief and more. Every $1 raised equals $30 in Healthcare Resources to #HealTheMusic!

A very special thanks goes out to Ry Cooder, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Jeff Tweedy, Keith Urban, Taj Mahal, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Rosanne Cash, John Leventhal, The Milk Carton Kids, Joe Henry, John Hiatt, and Ronnie Dunn for offering their music for a great cause.
https://rodneycrowell.bandcamp.com/album/songs-from-quarantine"> https://rodneycrowell.bandcamp.com/album/songs-from-quarantine

Drag City's idea ov folk-pop-country, haven't heard it yet:

JURKEN ON IT

I Stand Corrected is the debut of a new talent AND a new label, Country Thyme. When a label's formed to release a record, you'll usually hear something crucial upon dropping the needle: in this instance, the sounds of an honest-to-god, old-school song cycle in best riches-to-rags style. Classically uneasy, this claustrophobic journey rises and falls on the songs of E.R. Jurken and his spectral tenor, haunted via multiple overdubs, making heart stopping orchestral pop with the orchestra mostly muted.

I Stand Corrected took some time to stand up. During the 20-teens, E.R. Jurken – known to friends 'n fams ('n us) as Ed – drifted through his thirty-somethings, doing not all that well. This directionless course came to a head in 2012 with a traumatic series of events that hung over subsequently like a mist. Ed sold his belongings and began a series of moves, leading back to his former home of Chicago, where, seeking to rally, he bought a guitar off a stranger and got a referral from an old friend to longtime Drag City factotum Rian Murphy, who was interested in the sound of what Ed had in mind. From wounds just beneath the surface of his skin for so long, songs poured forth, with Ed demoing one per week on his mobile phone, featuring guitar and extensive vocal arrangements. After a few months, it was clear the cycle was complete.


Sessions at The Loft with Murphy and Mark Greenberg (engineer/secret weapon of hundreds of sessions, including Wilco, Andrew Bird, Edith Frost, Mavis Staples, Eleventh Dream Day and Richard Thompson), slowly drew the album into full-fleshed form. The sound of I Stand Corrected is often just acoustic guitar, offset by Ed's tableau of vocal arrangements. Murphy and Greenberg added just a touch of rhythm in spots and Paul Mertens (Paul McCartney, Elton John, Stereolab, The Sea and Cake, Brian Wilson) provided several horn arrangements that exquisitely complement the play of Ed’s guitars, keyboards and vocals.

Throughout the process that made I Stand Corrected, Ed's sense of release from an "erroneous" state to a "corrected" one was a powerful energy pointed suddenly outwards as music, which can now be transferred to the listener through the magic of recording technology. In the field of freaky records made by sensitive folk, E.R. Jurken's I Stand Corrected stands to stand tall.
To Be Released 2021-04-23

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/17/arts/music/black-women-country-music.html

Thanks, will read that when get away from email. Considering how many country albums have applied the Mellentemplate of yore, before he started changing it up w various rootsier moves, guess this update is thread-relevant on both counts:

New York, NY (February 16, 2021) – Today, John Mellencamp announces he’s set to unveil his new live album and documentary titled: The Good Samaritan Tour this spring. The documentary, which will be narrated by Academy® Award winner Matthew McConaughey, chronicles Mellencamp’s historic free tour in 2000 when he performed on street corners and in public parks across the country.

In addition, Mellencamp will soon return to the studio to finish recording his 25th album. Prior to the onset of the Global Pandemic, he had already cut ten tracks and plans to record another 17 for the project. Teasing what’s to come, he shared a clip of one new tune, “I Always Lie To Strangers.” Listen to the new track here. Look out for more news on the release date and touring information soon.

The new music is just one of many new projects Mellencamp has been working on including original plays, paintings and more.

His documentary It’s About You is now available to be viewed in full at www.mellencamp.com. The documentary, which came out in 2012, highlights his 2009 No Better Than This tour with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson.

In addition to music and film, Mellencamp will resume production (Covid pending) for an untitled original play directed by Kathleen Marshall, produced by Scott Landis, and written by Naomi Wallace. Setting the stage, he dropped a video of Connor Antico and Morgan Pereira rehearsing virtually. Watch it HERE.

During the past year-and-a-half Mellencamp has continued to devote much of his time to painting.
Visit www.johnmellencampart.com to see his original artwork.

More release dates for all of the above coming soon!

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Taylor Vaughn
Taylor.Vaughn at umusic.com

thanx to forks for this tasty item on Brandy Clark 12 Stories thread:

n celebration of the one-year anniversary of her critically acclaimed album, Your Life is a Record, eight-time GRAMMY nominee Brandy Clark will release a special new deluxe edition, Your Life is a Record (Deluxe), on March 5 on Warner Records. In addition to all eleven songs from Your Life is a Record, the deluxe album will feature six bonus tracks including “Remember Me Beautiful,” a new song Clark wrote earlier this year as part of NPR’s Morning Edition Song Project. The album will also feature special collaborations with Brandi Carlile (“Like Mine” and “Same Devil”) and Lindsey Buckingham (“The Past is the Past”) as well as live renditions of two album tracks: “Pawn Shop” and “Who You Thought I Was."

Moreover, in honor of the album’s anniversary, Clark will perform her first ticketed Livestream concert Saturday, March 6 at 8/7 CT via Mandolin. Tickets for the show are available now with a selection of purchase options, including a limited number of VIP packages with signed merchandise and a virtual meet & greet. Fans will also have the option to add a digital download of the deluxe album to their Livestream ticket, to be delivered on release day. Full details can be found at https://boxoffice.mandolin.com/collections/brandy-clark.

i'm mostly curious about the live tracks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CH-ANhSFBA

New Ashley Monroe song “Drive “ from her upcoming album. I like the country- surf guitar and her breathy vocals are ok but the composition kinda feels unfinished

From Miranda Lambert's enewsletter:

Announcing The Marfa Tapes

A project by Jack Ingram, Jon Randall and me. Recorded in Marfa, TX. They’re raw. You can hear the wind blowing, the cows mooing... We wanted you to feel like you were right there with us, sitting around the campfire, escaping the world, disappearing into the music. The first song “In His Arms” is out now. Full album arrives May 7th. Song is streaming in the usual places.

Oh yeah, speaking again of SG Goodman, she's on the first new Mountain Stage show since Before Times, with Chuck Prophet, Kim Richey,and Sierra Ferrell. It started airing/streaming March 5, and if you miss that, the downloadable podcast (full show, w songs cut from broadcast for time, ditto full all-hands-on-deck finale) will soon be in their archive.

https://mcusercontent.com/b5194773f4906d9b6b906584a/images/e190197d-e103-4868-87d4-c34fb1a78b4b.png

Without Getting Killed or Caught: Rodney Crowell sez: I'm happy to have been a part of this documentary about my friends Guy and Susanna Clark. This early virtual screening will be the first public showing of the film after its SXSW Film debut. Join me for the film and for a post-show conversation between myself and the filmmaker. Presented by my friends Kessler Presents, the screening will air on March 23 at 7 Eastern, 6 Central.
Kessler sez:
Screenings will happen in real-time on a device of your choosing. Each will feature an introduction from the filmmaker, the full 90 minute film, and a post-show Q&A with artists near and dear to us.

I'd like to see the ones w Crowell and Steve Earle, since they were part of the Clarks' scene and circle, as shown in the sleeper milestone doc Highways and Heartaches

Screenings continue through April:
https://www.withoutgettingkilledorcaught.com/tickets

I'd never heard Mickey Guyton before, but my wife put on her latest stuff today and ... it's not even a little bit country? Like, it was fine, but I was surprised. More pop than anything else. Apparently she had a good performance last night?

Yeah, I appreciate what she's doing but it's not my cup of tea

The Guy & Susanna Clark documentary is premiering at SXSW. Anyone know if it will get a wider release or picked up by a streaming service?

https://americansongwriter.com/the-story-of-guy-and-susanna-clark-unfolds-in-new-documentary-without-getting-killed-or-caught-the-life-and-music-of-guy-clark/

Not yet available 24/7, but scroll up a little bit and see links for streaming-screening dates, this month and next. I heard that SXSW is going to be largely (maybe all?) virtual this time, so may be more opps to see it then.

lol, i should have read back a few days. i'll get tix to one of the screenings.

that american songwriter article is very good.

Can I just say that I’ve always liked that scene but really dislike Guy Clark. Am I alone here?

I know him mostly via xpost-xcept-I-bungled-the-title Heartworn Highways, 70s various-artists anthologies, an 80s Austin City Limits set, the awes all-star 2011 trib This One's For Him, and his last album of new material (released in his lifetime), My Favorite Picture of You, all of which I like very much.

You might like the tribute---Crowell sounds atypically stiff and self-conscious on the opener, but other scencesters of various generations do purty cool.

Brandi Carlile was on Fresh Air today: 42 minute interview (w good-audio music excerpts), and the part I heard was very engaging---whole thing is here, for streaming and downloading, and adds video of her and the twins in gorgeous three-part harmony that doesn't gloss over the point of the song. The interview references her new memoir, Broken Horses, which I'd like to read:
https://www.npr.org/2021/04/05/983815671/singer-brandi-carlile-talks-ambition-avoidance-and-finally-finding-her-place

new Rhiannon Giddens/Francesco Turrisi album "They're Calling Me Home" out today.. very nice.

anyone checked out Ashley Monroe's two new singles?

First of Erich Church's 3-part album Heart & Soul (1 Heart, 2 &, 3 Soul) is out.

This is surprisingly good

https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/post-malone-covers-sturgill-simpson-w-dwight-yoakams-band/

anyone checked out Ashley Monroe's two new singles?

(Seems pretty likely this is gonna be a disco country album)

Good idea!
First listens: maybe I'm overrating it in comparison w the listless Heart (which does have a few maybe-keepers), but am initially relieved and refreshed by E. Church's also-recent Soul, which is not the bourgie nostalgia I feared, but his own brand of poignant, well-focussed musicality (coulda done w/o last line of Lynyrd Skynyrd Jones," but can't kill the overall good impression).

omg Rose Gold is cosmic country electropop lit yall:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyMoM1unzKg

Whole alb is there (10 songs, about 30 minutes, all she needs)("Gold" is the least of it, but gives a taste) Oh sorry YouTube slipped some othr shit in there, listen elsewhere)
"The New Me" //www.youtube.com/watch?v=wva9nvii7ik&list=PLf1hrOwqId83LYpuM4QZWTb7yr35372LU&index=3

"See": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IPjdZs-QdY

"Silk": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aybIsyGTzc

I wish I were this enthusiastic.

May 14, 2021—Acclaimed singer, songwriter and musician Kalie Shorr’s new EP, 3x3, Vol 1: The Chicks, is out today on tmwrk records.
Produced by Eric Mallon and recorded in the midst of quarantine, the project features new versions of three songs from The Chicks’ 1999 album Fly: “Cowboy Take Me Away,” “Cold Day In July” and “Hole In My Head.” Today’s release is the first installment of a special three-part series celebrating albums that have greatly impacted Shorr’s life and career. Additional details to come.
Of the EP, Shorr reflects, “The forced solitude of quarantine led to a lot of self-discovery, and rediscovery. My records became my friends, and my living room became a concert hall. I fell back in love with the albums that made me want to be an artist. When the idea came to pay homage to them, I listened to my personal mantra: why the f*** not? The Chicks were the first country artists I ever heard. Fly was the only CD played in my sisters ‘98 Chevy Cavalier, and I remember spending hours reading the lyric booklet and falling in love with the stories they told. They were my first concert when I was 9 at Madison Square Garden. I swore then that I was going to play there one day, and I’ve been trying ever since.”
This in the wake of new single "Amy," for which the term "power-pop" is bandied about. Open Book stormed my Scene ballot, but didn't get memo about the Deluxe Edition 'til this latest news round-up.

Update re the aforementioned and awesom SGG:
Verve Forecast artists Madison Cunningham and S.G. Goodman will embark on a Fall tour with Cunningham as headliner and Goodman as support. The two singer-songwriters will each bring their own unique style and substance to the tour: California native Madison Cunningham is “poised and precise in her singing and ace guitar playing” (NPR Music) and Kentucky born-and-raised S.G. Goodman is an “untamed rock & roll truthteller” (Rolling Stone)
More cosmic country than rock & roll I say, but okay. Is Cunningham good?

Also: new Rhonda Vincent out 5/28---never heard one of her solo albums, though much liked the one w RIP Darryl Singletary.

And, according to Taste of Country: "The album came quicker than I thought," Carlile tells Good Morning America in a new interview. "It's done."

As she's previously mentioned, the process of writing her memoir also helped Carlile write new music. She describes her next record as "very dramatic." What a surprise. No date yer. Wanna read the book too.

My wife listened to the Carlile book as an audiobook - which includes covers and other songs in between chapters. She really enjoyed it.

Wow, hadn't seen it described that way, thanks! Will check it out.

love the idea that Carlile's new album makes her previous work seem *not* very dramatic

(not saying "oooh i'm excited" i'm saying "that's hilarious")

I've only recently begun listening to her music. (Is there really not a thread about her on ILM??) Actually thought the first track on her first album sounded like it could've been on The Bends.

Hey you're right, she doesn't seem to have her own thread! Seems wrong. I liked her singles and some radio-TV performances, but don't think I ever heard a whole album before this one, mentioned on Rolling Country 2015:

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 counts, 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---?)

― dow, Tuesday, December 22, 2015 9:12 PM (five years ago)

Also there was some talk of the next one on RC 2018---at one point I typed it as By The Way I Frogrive You, and got some Muppets responses, but this is the Rolling Stone mention I pasted in:

She's always sounded like she probably likes Elton John, David Bowie, Patsy Cline: "Americana"? OK!

Album: By the Way, I Forgive You
Release Date: February 16th
On her sixth studio album, Americana heroine Brandi Carlile ramps everything up a notch, working with Waylon Jennings' rebel-yell son Shooter, who co-produced with Dave Cobb. She takes deep dives into her family history ("Most of All") and offers up an anthem for the downtrodden ("The Joke," a chin-up call to arms for anyone feeling oppressed, was blasted out in a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!). While largely adhering to her unplugged, modern-Appalachian approach, Carlile also pushes a few musical envelopes: "Harder to Forgive" is swoony, luxurious pop, "Hold Out Your Hand" has a wall-of-drums wallop and "Party of One" wraps up with shivery orchestration. D.B.

She did some good stuff on the Highwomen album too, although overall it seemed uneven, considering all the talent and skill involved---too many cooks, maybe. Some people love the whole thing, and it's def worth checking out.

Carlile's ultra-earnest music has never been the kind of thing internet cool kids paid much attention to, but she flew right past 'em through sheer force of will and a lot of talent ... the Highwomen thing didn't hurt either, of course.

i know how much P4k has changed but even still i did a double-take when they published a review of By The Way, I Forgive You. would be interested to know if Alfred pitched her to them or if she was on their list or whatever.

Thanks for pasting all that. I’ve been listening in chronological order, so far have listened to the first four. All of them are like-not-love but admittedly have not done deep listens of any. The one I listened to today, “Bear Creek”, is the most country-leaning of the ones I’ve heard so far - which scratches the itch I’m most looking for right now. I don’t really know how people rate the overall discography.

You might like this too:
Brandi Carlile was on Fresh Air today: 42 minute interview (w good-audio music excerpts), and the part I heard was very engaging---whole thing is here, for streaming and downloading, and adds video of her and the twins in gorgeous three-part harmony that doesn't gloss over the point of the song. The interview references her new memoir, Broken Horses, which I'd like to read:
https://www.npr.org/2021/04/05/983815671/singer-brandi-carlile-talks-ambition-avoidance-and-finally-finding-her-place

― dow, Monday, April 5, 2021

Stumblin' in after breaking limbs in the hot sun (unexpected bonus session with a tornado tree), I'm especially appreciative of the restorative powers of xpost Ashley Monroe's Rosegold (not, as I'd thought, Rose Gold, which coulda been her emerging alternate identity, going w this new sound and the Prince association, which I'll mention again). It's not, as I impulsively said upthread, cosmic country electropop lit yall in the get-this-party-started sense: here, the candles are lit, all around the tub,, in the love spa, for relationship maintenance, or---if he's a no-show so far, at least, at most (this is crucial!) keeping yourself tuned up, no matter what else is down the road, in the "Groove," of the "Drive," and it's a total sonic experience, not just about the songs per se, which some reviewers are disappointed by---it's the risk of seductive philosophizing in which notes as sung and played) fill in what the words leave out---but again, risk: she never goes for the big extended bedazzlement between the lines, it's all careful dosage (like I said, 10 songs in about 30 minutes), brushing or swooping by, already gone, as the Eagles say. Yes, this is a kind of country, bits of Beatles (little maybe-mellotron here, little cello there) and Prince (Beatles student too, and the different ways conversational phrases go with the beats, which aren't big, but big enough)aside, she sounds like somebody who might have been swirling around behind or beside any number of male country singers from the mid-60s to early-80s, discreetly still, but now assertive enough (also some acoustic guitar picking)(also the breadcrumb brevity is classic country, from when records didn't cost much, and now streams don't have to cost anything, so shuddup and listen).
Anyway, so far, I find it refreshing, also the way she keeps changing it up, to suit where she's at, from The Blade to the somewhut mysterious Sparrow to this (although could do without "Gold" and the mumbklecore finale).

"mumblecore," that is.

And of course the guarded hopefulness of it seems country.

Ashley Monroe's Rosegold: On very first impression, as (Don's words) "modern art-pop country," it's at its best when sounding "art" and evading "pop" and "country," so stronger downplaying or avoiding hooks and refusing to resolve into pretty melody. Might've been better more austere though I don't know that (perhaps without prettiness gooping the thing up, the art'd be monotonous). I like "Siren" best, "Gold" was great when guttural but lost force rising to the upper register. "Til It Breaks," "I Mean It," and "See" are probably keepers, maybe "Drive" too. "Til It Breaks" works as a conventional song, the others'd probably be better uglier. Anyway, the thing's touching me most when I'm perceiving or imagining a low-pitch rumble and an unwillingness to get on with the tune.

I don't know much about American Aquarium, other than (A) they got their name from Wilco, and (B) I'd been under the impression they were kinda a cross between Isbell and a Red Dirt Party Band.

But I just got FB sponsored post for their latest, Slappers, Bangers, And Certified Twangers Vol. I, which-contrary to suggestions of the title-is not a compilation but 10 newly-recorded '90s Country covers.

The tracklisting is <immaculate>, so many pre-Shania era stone-cold classics given fine readings. Kudos also for resisting the urge to hambone their way through some of these (the opening cut is a tongue mostly removed from cheek version of Sammy Kershaw's "The Queen Of My Double-Wide Trailer"). Feels like a nice night out at the Honky Tonk.

Here's to a Vol II with "Small Town Saturday Night", "Wink", "Sacred Ground", "A Good Run Of Bad Luck" and "The Wrong Side of Memphis".

https://americanaquarium.bandcamp.com/album/slappers-bangers-certified-twangers-volume-one

The Pony Bradshaw album is so good.

Yeah that's an album that I like a lot!

Will check those thx

Legendary songwriter James McMurtry is set to release his new album, The Horses and The Hounds, on August 20.

This first collection in seven years spotlights a seasoned tunesmith in peak form as he turns toward reflection and revelation.

“There’s a definite Los Angeles vibe to this record,” McMurtry says. “The ghost of Warren Zevon seems to be stomping around among the guitar tracks. Don’t know how he got in there. He never signed on for work for hire.”

First track from it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPYWcdrQPxg

No surprises, but sounds pretty good on first listen.

Can anyone suggest some good websites for country music album reviews? I’m looking for something that covers all forms — from contemporary mainstream to alt-country to reissues of traditional, for example. I’m less interested in folk and Americana, though some of that would be okay too. I’m aware of No Depression, of course, but it leans too much toward “roots” music rather than true country music, at least for my tastes. It’s especially hard to find decent reviews of the bigger contemporary artists — most sites seem to thumb their nose at that stuff or review it ironically.

Good question---I don't keep up that well, but suspect you'll have to hop along from site to site, although Rolling Country is pretty well-rounded---you might check up through the middle of this decade; we really used to go to town w the reviews & discussions---also archives of villagevoice.com. But nowadays? I've occasionally looked at savingcountrymusic.com, and seen plausible coverage of for instance Garth's most recent offering by Trigger, who I think is the only poster (also going for center-right editorial comments re country issues on the news). Comments section gets pretty godawful. Taste of Country is mainly or all news, seems like---there must be more---well, Rolling Stone Country is fairly good, and Pitchfork is trying to get with the program too, some thoughtful reviews in the last couple of years--jump around those and No Dep and you'll get some range...

On this date in 1964, Connie Smith signs her first recording contract with RCA Victor. "The Cry of the Heart, her 54th album, comes out August 20th on @FatPossum Records. Pre-order yours here:https://t.co/LlkPaCWLTs pic.twitter.com/zpj4XKXpqw

— Connie Smith (@RealConnieSmith) June 24, 2021

Connie Smith has a new album out this August on Fat Possum.

I’m enjoying the new Vincent Neil Emerson. Just some plainspoken throwback kinda stuff but doesn’t feel like pastiche. Really liked his debut from a couple years back too - nothing on the new one is as instantly catchy as “Fly on the Wall” but I’m still enjoying it.

Yeah--"I'm like a bird caught in a store, lookin' for the door"--but it's not just catchy little phrases, he uses them to tell stories, convey a sense of sometimes complex situations and what he thinks and feels about them, in as few words as possible, for the sake of clarity and realness, with no added drama; he's lived, is living, through enough of that already.
The music has just enough variety to keep the songs distinctive, and suit whatever he's singing about--even a little bit of fluid modern jazz balladry at the beginning and end of "Learnin' To Drown," about his father and himself. A little bit of piano on that one, organ on another, mostly it's fingerpicking guitar, fiddle, bass, no need for drums. Maybe tin whistle and Irish-y fiddle on "White Horse Saloon," and why not, plenty of Irish people went West. A song about Indians getting screwed, also from his family's (on his mother's side) experience. Western swing on the closer, but not a vintage cover; it's another of his lived-in-sounding originals.

Some people online think the debut was better, for the most part, or entirely, so it must be pretty damn good. Will check it out too.

The debut is definitely great and mostly more upbeat than the new album.

I’m still just a few listens in on the new album but it’s growing on me. “Learning to Drown” is a stunner. So straightforward in its devastation. It’s disarming.

Never heard Emerson before. This new one is beautiful. Thanks for the tip. I gotta check out his debut too. Great stuff.

I wonder how he takes to being called just "Vince"

His parents named him for Vince Neil, according to the Internet. From what he's said and written about his father, seemms plausible--but I'm gonna stick to "Vincent" if I ever address him d'rectly.

Just now, upside ooh my head: Kalie Shorr's refreshing, somewhut startling country pop singles in 2021, "Amy" and "Love Child," both self-writ. Her xpost Dixie Chicks 3-song EP is prob okay too, but why beg comparisons. 2019's blazin' Open Book was Top Ten for me, haven't yet heard 2020's Unabridged edition of that. Meet her at the crossroads, braced: http://www.kalieshorr.com/

Checked out Bobby Dove's Hopeless Romantic yesterday and was very impressed.

Lead Single:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Mvfrnxdzs

Coverage from Country Queer:
https://countryqueer.com/reviews/song-review/hopelessly-in-love-with-bobby-doves-newest/

liking that Bobby Dove, thanks!

Yeah!
And here's the latest from the aforemenioned S.G. Goodman, with her purple state Kentucky jittery flair:
My Townes Van Zandt cover of "Lungs" is now available to stream everywhere!

I'm not normally one to do covers, they often scare me. I feel it's easier to do a cover poorly than to add to something that was already probably perfect. So when the good folks at Amazon Music offered for me to take part in their Amazon Music Origial series, I was honored, but at a loss for what to do, I chose Townes Van Zandt's "Lungs" because of the odd connection he has to where I live.

Like all small towns, we have our legendary stories, and one story from Murray, KY could be found in a little lemonade stand in the middle of town. You'd drive up to Mr. Jimmy Gingles, ask for a Ginger (Fresh squeezed Lemonade, Orange Juice, and Lime) and you would see a picture of Townes hanging over Jimmy's head while he made your drink. Mr. Jimmy and Townes were friends and running buddies. He's often tell you about all the times Townes visited him in Murray and how he'd passed out on that very floor in the lemonade stand. Townes also play a few times in a bar where I cut my teeth as performer. It was a thrill to record this with my band and Matt Ross-Spang at the legendary Fame Studios. Hopefully I added to the story of Townes and my home with this cover, but like I said, it's hard to put your spin on something you've always felt was perfect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ufqEsByELM

Nanci Griffith RIP. This goes over the top at first---comparing her to Elvis?---but then makes a lot of good points, like about her early international following, and emerging thusly for many:
As a teenager in Philadelphia and a college student in Chicago in the eighties, I did not yet know from Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Jeff Walker, or the Flatlanders (except for Joe Ely’s connection to the Clash). I had no idea what Houston’s Anderson Fair was, nor that I’d eventually be spending hundreds of nights of my life at a place called Hole in the Wall in Austin—venues where Griffith played. But long before the terms “alt-country” or “Americana” came along, eighties artists like Griffith, Lyle Lovett, and Steve Earle (as well non-Texans Dwight Yoakam, k.d. lang, and Rosanne Cash) weren’t that far from the post-punk I was listening to on college radio, starting with R.E.M. The same record store clerks who sold me jangly pop-inflected albums by Robyn Hitchcock, the Windbreakers, and Austin’s Zeitgeist (later the Reivers), also put a copy of Griffith’s 1987 MCA debut, Lone Star State of Mind, into my hands.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/nanci-griffith-more-loved-than-she-knew/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Web+Social&utm_campaign=NanciGriffithObit

In more mundane news Maren Morris guest hosted Jimmy Kimmel’s show last night and Willie Nelson was a guest

But yeah RIP Nanci .That farewell does nicely touch on who her songs appealed to

xpost Wish I'd seen that! Good?

I missed it. Got a pr email about it a day late.

Here's Maren talking to Willie

https://www.wideopencountry.com/maren-morris-jimmy-kimmel-live/

Thoughts on Sierra Ferrell?

Will check---meanwhile: RIP psych-folk-country pioneer Powell St. John! Very early TX colleague of Janis Joplin, later Boz Scaggs (both of whom later covered him), also wrote for 13th Floor Elevators. but I mostly know him in Mother Earth, with Tracy Nelson---this article incl link to one of their more thread-relevant tracks, "Then I'll Be Moving On" (& young:
https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/music/2021-08-23/powell-st-john-brought-us-the-message-1940-2021/?mc_cid=a929c1593a&mc_eid=d26b96d866

Sorry, meant to add that the article also includes a link to very pre-fame Janis singing "St. James Infirmary."

Anyone heard Charlie Marie's Ramble On? Classic honky tonk sound with modern stories. Really strong front to back listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1zRefWl86M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voXA7SjM_2w

Nice, maybe a little too yachty for me in this instance, but by the same token, got the solid Top 40 structure that goes with that pic. Will check alb whenever it's out.
xpost Indexed, thanks so much! I listened to the whole Ramble On and a bit more---she's the Queen of Subway Station Honky Tonk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chscjE1IQ2I

Should've issued a volume warning first, but dig the acoustics.

So she doesn't really need a studio, except commercially===here's one of my faves from there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H84vL-NlZqQ

Mebbe not one of her best songs, but good vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxFnjq9b5O4

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2021-09-10/walker-hayes-fancy-like-applebees-commercial

Walker Hayes “Fancy Like (Applebee’s)” taking off due to tik-tok. It’s pop-country with now standard hiphop aspects.

"Baby Shark" catchy, will check current EP (think that's what it is).

Join us on Wednesday, October 6 at 8pm EST on Sidedoor for a very special return of the Latent Lounge when we will be streaming a 70 minute pre-recorded acoustic concert featuring six brand new Cowboy Junkies songs. You can purchase tickets for the show here.https://sidedooraccess.com/shows/8LWXzL8Po02RhWlmUNLV

A couple of months ago, as Covid restrictions began to ease, a few of us who record for Latent decided to get together in a funky old converted barn, located about two hours north of Toronto, to share a few of the songs that we had been writing and developing over the past many months in isolation. Andy Maize (Skydiggers) and Michael Timmins performed a handful of songs from their Townies project; Jerry Leger and his longtime bass player Dan Mock performed five acoustic versions of songs off of Jerry's upcoming Nothing Pressing album; and Margo and Michael performed six brand new songs that they had been working on at The Barn over the previous few weeks. We brought along a couple of cameras and our recording gear and the result is the latest Latent Lounge, our third in the series. Mike, Andy and Jerry will be in attendance in the chat so please make sure to say hi!

We have intentionally kept the cost of the ticket for this event very low in hopes that many of you can donate a few more dollars to the "Legacy Of Hope Foundation". This is a Canadian Indigenous charitable organization with the mandate to educate and create awareness and understanding about the Residential School System. If you can afford it, please pay a little more for your ticket. All money collected by Latent Recordings over the $10 suggested ticket price will be donated to the Legacy of Hope Foundation. Alternatively, you can use the Donate link on the ticket site or go directly to the Legacy Of Hope website (https://legacyofhope.ca/).
trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWr9Qn1eMFo

Country music superstar Alan Jackson has revealed he is living with a degenerative nerve condition that is impacting his ability to tour and perform.

In an exclusive interview …on NBC’s Today, Jackson went public with the news that he has inherited a rare condition known as “CMT” (Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disorder).

ooof that hurts

From Miranda's newsletter:

https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/z1Geu8RYVgpTnOObKQvTk779dgOLsy1hKKWw7q7aD04cT41CVVEi7tVVoW9-uQ3Jp86pRqj5tHlRXIrE4ceU0XuXU2KD0y8F2lu80PM3MvCnge3-kVQrp4SOr3QtKVKghnaydrEIrx8-i1jI8n0=s0-d-e1-ft#https://email-assets.shimmer.io/guids/CABINET_a807453e993d878689c261f236db3b24/images/c.jpg

It’s gonna be a hell of a holiday, y’all! Pistol Annies’ first Christmas album will be out Oct. 22nd. The first song off the album, “Snow Globe,” is out now.https://pa.lnk.to/HOAH

Gotta get the T-shirt:
https://✧✧✧.shop✧✧✧.com/s/files/1/0432/4033/products/front_2d7160f2-a49b-4dfa-bb4a-4e2adbf1e2fb_1024x1✧✧✧@2✧.j✧✧?v=1632969771

Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram and Jon Randall’s The Marfa Tapes Austin City Limits episode premieres Oct. 2nd on most PBS stations! Check out your local listings to see when it airs in your town.

https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/uO-PsQDdWBuXTu4a6whZECqASNz-yv5sjwuKeXQbUJDLre4R5vI2IcK2sRjIHFlmAFUmp1LbjJgJRJtuvXYT5WxI-FwjcwOhSH1o5Zw7JY6mklUUC3_nn2U3Q__h9tcXpBJDC4GUrxsIf17RQek=s0-d-e1-ft#https://email-assets.shimmer.io/guids/CABINET_a807453e993d878689c261f236db3b24/images/l.jpg

T-shirt, music etc here
https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/--3thcAIcLKl7YyM_v9Bg-qzfkQDbZA1fOsoUE-rz7sufEpHHZ0OrFierar7y0iLYrwMPVHodvNykMC7SnOuFVrBPyjtAwDJUXBZ2WRJlSPn15wBgMxvUkpoYBCWh11QLnhp_5G2Min5epvZJz_944nVV8fS3Eji-6OMHhyIqmq96w=s0-d-e1-ft#https://email-assets.shimmer.io/guids/CABINET_a807453e993d878689c261f236db3b24/images/pahoahpreorder_eblast.gif

Ah hell, since I mentioned it: https://store.mirandalambert.com/collections/pistol-annies?utm_source=ml-news&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hoah-announce

Tracklist:

Hell of a Holiday
Snow Globe
Harlan County Coal
Come On Christmas Time
If we make it through December
Make You Blue
Leanin’ on Jesus
The Only Thing I wanted
Believing
Happy Birthday
Sleigh Ride
Joy
Auld Lang Syne

the shirt, hat and ornament look like promo items for a movie

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91HXGCUYC3L._SL1500_.jpg

late pass but Kalie Shorr's "Amy" is some primo fueled by cornpone mash up action

Word. ust now, upside ooh my head: Kalie Shorr's refreshing, somewhut startling country pop singles in 2021, "Amy" and "Love Child," both self-writ. Her xpost Dixie Chicks 3-song EP is prob okay too, but why beg comparisons. 2019's blazin' Open Book was Top Ten for me, haven't yet heard 2020's Unabridged edition of that. Meet her at the crossroads, braced: http://www.kalieshorr.com/

― dow, Tuesday, July 20, 2021
Ashley McBryde can be the xpost Nicholson figure (listen to Never Will and u will Know)

Thoughts on Sierra Ferrell?
Evan
Latest album, first of hers I've heard, is so good? Commen 'tater here immediately invokes Patsy Cline, otm to too on the nose a couple times maybe, as arrangements push the cuetness, but in a flirtatious way, and could happen w production of Cline. Singing and songs always right, and she's also mountain or post-mountain, incl. the closer, where yet another female country artist bids a bittersweet farewell-for-now to the old hometown-mindset etc.---never heard a guy singer do this----good of its kind, strong closer.
https://sierraferrell.bandcamp.com/album/long-time-coming

is so good*!* Ah meant to type.

is there a Stina Nordenstam thing going on here with Sierra Ferrell or is it just me?

It may or may not be just you, but sure ain't me, Hand.

i'm seeing Ferrell soon, live, and will report back, fellow Rolling Country-ers

omG yall (the Reader's Digest edition):

BRANDI CARLILE’S IN THESE SILENT DAYS
DEBUTS AT #1 ON BILLBOARD
AMERICANA/FOLK ALBUMS CHART, TOP
ROCK ALBUMS CHART AND TASTEMAKER
ALBUMS CHART, #3 ON TOP ALBUM SALES
CHART
“SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE” DEBUT CONFIRMED FOR OCTOBER 23

Recorded once again at Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A with producers Dave Cobb and Shooter Jennings, the album features Carlile (vocals, guitar, piano), Tim Hanseroth (vocals, bass), Phil Hanseroth (vocals, guitar), Cobb (guitar, percussion) and Jennings (piano, organ, synth) as well as Chris Powell (drums, percussion), Josh Neumann (strings) and special guests Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Lucius on backing vocals on the track “You And Me On The Rock.”
Reflecting on the album, Carlile shares, “Never before have the twins and I written an album during a time of such uncertainty and quiet solitude. I never imagined that I’d feel so exposed and weird as an artist without the armor of a costume, the thrill of an applause and the platform of the sacred stage. Despite all this, the songs flowed through—pure and unperformed, loud and proud, joyful and mournful. Written in my barn during a time of deep and personal reckoning.There’s plenty reflection…but mostly it’s a celebration. This album is what drama mixed with joy sounds like. It’s resistance and gratitude, righteous anger and radical forgiveness. It’s the sound of these silent days.”

photo credit: Neil Krug
Adding to yet another monumental year, Carlile will once again perform Joni Mitchell’s legendary album Blue in full at Carnegie Hall on November 6. Additionally, her wildly successful “Girls Just Wanna Weekend” will return February 1-5, 2022. The sold-out vacation destination event held at Mexico’s Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya will once again feature an all-female-fronted lineup including performances by Carlile, Sheryl Crow, Tanya Tucker, Indigo Girls, Lucius, Margo Price, Yola, KT Tunstall, Allison Russell, Amythyst Kiah and Katie Pruitt as well as special guests. See below for complete tour itinerary

IN THESE SILENT DAYS TRACKLIST
1. Right On Time
2. You And Me On The Rock
3. This Time Tomorrow
4. Broken Horses
5. Letter To The Past
6. Mama Werewolf
7. When You’re Wrong
8. Stay Gentle
9. Sinners Saints And Fools
10.Throwing Good After Bad
BRANDI CARLILE CONFIRMED TOUR DATES
November 6—New York, NY—Carnegie Hall (SOLD OUT)
February 1-5, 2022—Riviera Maya, Mexico—Girls Just Wanna Weekend (SOLD OUT)
April 29, 2022—Indio, CA—Stagecoach Music Festival

Listened to this the other day and wasn't crazy about it. She is always someone, for me, who walks right on the line of "not for me". Sometimes she is brilliant and sometimes she just steps right over that line. More the latter than the former on this particular album.

Good review of the new Natalie Hemby album from Alfred: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/natalie-hemby-pins-and-needles/

Haven't listened yet but Puxico would make my top 20 country albums of the 10's so quite excited to hear this.

Went back to Eric Church's Heart & Soul and was surprised how many of the melodies had stayed with me over the last six months. I think I wrote it off as gimmicky with the triple-album concept but there's a lot of vintage Church charm and writing (as well as schmaltz, but that's Church).

I didn’t know Natalie Hemby before, though I guess I knew her through the folks she writes for. Tried out both her albums - like ‘em both though I gravitated to the rootsier Puxico more

So far I find Billy Joe Shaver & Kinky Friedman Live From Down Under (Omnivore, 2021) refreshingly plain & vivid: very clear sound, w a couple of steel-string acoustics, lead & rhythm, some pienner; that's all they need. Shaver's songs & singin' do their sincere, slick, hooky thing, as expected, but also Friedman is surprisingly affecting---I'd previously mostly rated him for "Ride 'Em. Jewboy," which is here, and low-key but pointed and poignant, and "My Shit's Fucked Up," which is not here----maybe Zevon hadn't yet sent this, one of his last dispatches, and one of his strongest, funniest and scariest ever. Uh-oh: a degree of sincerity seems, as it always has, to extend to KF's own "Get Your Biscuits In The Oven and Your Buns in the Bed" ("Wimmen's LIberation has done gone to your head").
Shaver finished with a song he says he's written after the recent deaths of his wife and son (press sheet adds his mother, also his recent heart attack and surger, incl. refused follow-up).
Backstory and setlist:
Ladies and gentlemen, two Texas legends, Billy Joe Shaver and Kinky Friedman!” announced Jeff “Little Jewford” Shelby before the nightly coin toss to decide who in this dynamic double-bill, quadruple heart bypass contender Billy Joe or singing crime novelist Kinky would go first. The spotlight then passed back and forth between the duo, supported in Vaudevillian fashion by guitarist Jesse Taylor, Washington Ratso and of course Little Jewford.

Depending on how you look at it or who’s talking, the Live Down Under tour probably shouldn’t have happened or it was the best thing that could’ve happened. Either way, it was a minor miracle most would say and now a thing of myth and legend.

It started when Shaver, still recovering from the loss of his mother, wife and son was lured out of mourning in 2001 by the Kinkster to do their “Two For Texas” tour that ended with Billy Joe unexpectedly suffering a heart attack at Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas that August. Angioplasty was performed but Shaver, fearing the risks, was resisting medical advice to have quadruple heart by-pass surgery taking karmic instruction from Willie (Nelson) to get out and stay active. Soon commitments to bring the tour to Australia were made.

Kinky Friedman: “The doctors wanted him to have the surgery but he said no. And they didn’t want him going to Australia with Kinky. That it was the wrong thing to do. But Billy Joe was in a dark place; the recent family tragedies, the health concerns. Staying home with the curtains drawn and all its temptations seemed as risky as going. Willie and I both agreed, the best therapy he could have was to get out and have a good time.”

And it was.

Billy Joe performed every night like his life depended on it. And it did. And it pushed everyone to the same level of intensity. Featuring hits like ”Honky Tonk Heroes,” “You Asked Me To,” ”Get Your Biscuits In The Oven And Your Buns In The Bed,” “Sold American” and more, showcasing some of the best material from both writers’ storied careers, and delivered in a way that only these best friends and odd couple could. So put on Live Down Under, sit back, listen and perhaps come to appreciate these two unique artists in a way you hadn’t before. A one-of-a-kind experience.

CD / DIGITAL TRACK LIST:
INTRO COIN TOSS
GEORGIA ON A FAST TRAIN
WESTERN UNION WIRE
STAR IN MY HEART
RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA
OLD CHUNK OF COAL
SOLD AMERICAN
RIDE ME DOWN EASY
WILD MAN FROM BORNEO
WHEN THE FALLEN ANGELS FLY
MARILYN AND JOE
YOU ASKED ME TO
BEFORE ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE
HONKY TONK HEROES
GET YOUR BISCUITS IN THE OVEN AND YOUR BUNS IN THE BED
LIVE FOREVER
YOU WOULDN’T KNOW LOVE (IF YOU FELL IN IT)
RIDE ‘EM JEWBOY
OLD FIVE AND DIMERS LIKE ME
KEEP ON THE SUNNY SIDE
TRY AND TRY AGAIN
OUTRO THANKS AND GOOBYE!
Cat: OV-453

From Numero:

Driftless Dreamers
IN CUCA COUNTRY

ome to Cuca Records and hundreds of Nashville-fantasizing pluckers and singers, Wisconsin’s Driftless region was a hotbed of country music in the 1960s. Influenced by old-timey ethnic songs, Bakersfield outlaws, countrypolitan rainbows, and the lonesome twang of every rural route roadhouse, these 17 Driftless Dreamers washed up at Jim Kirchstein’s Sauk City record plant with little more than $100 and a longing. Collected here are the fruits of Cuca’s documentary approach to record making, capturing the voices and stories of a culture and glacier in abatement.
more details, trailer:
https://numerogroup.com/products/driftless-dreamers-in-cuca-country?mc_cid=92e2da2749&mc_eid=348950ba0d

"Influenced by old-timey ethnic songs, Bakersfield outlaws, countrypolitan rainbows, and the lonesome twang of every rural route roadhouse"

i'm sorry this clause is cringe af

written by an AI? a glaswegian?

Numero house style, but if I squint, seems like it might be promising; they compile better than they write ( & "countrypolitan rainbows" is fair)

old-timey ethnic songs looks weird but might be like Carolina Chocolate Drops' sources (other than their Blu Cantrell cover)

Which is great btw

the album itself looks interesting. kinda forksbait description tbh, cringe and all.

From Steve Earle's newsletter:

7th Annual John Henry's Friends Concert
Steve is excited to announce the 7th Annual John Henry's Friends Benefit Concert which will take place on December 13th at The Town Hall in New York City! Hosted by Steve Earle, the event will feature performances from Steve Earle & The Dukes, Bruce Springsteen, Rosanne Cash, The Mastersons*, Willie Nile, and Matt Savage.
All proceeds from this event, as has been the case with each of the previous John Henry’s Friends Benefit concerts, will be donated to The Keswell School, an educational program for children and young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Founded on the belief that children diagnosed with ASD can live full and productive lives as integrated members of their communities, The Keswell School provides educational, therapeutic, and supportive services for children diagnosed with ASD and their families. Steve’s son, John Henry, is a student of the school. His son w Alison Moorer.

Stay tuned for more details on general admission tickets. VIP expensive, but various options in that section, good cause: https://citywinery.com/newyork/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=NYC-Steve-Ear

*The Mastersons core: Chris Masterson and Eleanor Whitmore, in Earle's band for quite a while, have recorded some good music of their own, and may have full Matersons band here, I guess.

Also:
"Coal Country" Out Now on Audible
"Coal Country", the play written by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen with original music by Steve, is now available in the Audible Theatre’s virtual library. Dig deep into the lives and loss of the most deadly mining disaster in recent U.S. history.

Think this is where The Ghosts of West Viginia came from?

And another Audible Steve:
(The Moment in) 1965 (When Rock and Roll Becomes Art) is also available now on Audible as part of their Words + Music series. Recorded in 2021 at Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village, New York City, listen to Steve speak and sing from his beloved, adopted neighborhood - the birthplace of a musical revolution.

But wait, there's more! Special colored vinyl editions on New West.

Black Nashville Americana scene getting npr attention

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/29/1050322605/new-roots-black-musicians-and-advocates-are-forging-coalitions-outside-the-syste

I'm digging the fuck outta the Lainey Wilson album several months later.

Thanks, will check! Yall have turned me onto great stuff this year.
From Willie Nelson Family's s/t---fam vocals here work, I think, ditto Bobbie's keys, as always---somehow I've never heard the George Harrison original---it is his, right?---seems like his kind of strong-enough framework + reflection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95xfVmz4uy0

Ann Powers shared a playlist on Twitter earlier this week of various country/americana acts from 2021 which has turned me onto a few that are new to me:

--Lula Wiles, "Shame and Sedition": not exactly country or americana but very nice. Kinda similar to the Staves (whose album from this year I've been enjoying a lot this year), perhaps a skosh darker.

--Tre Burt, "You Yeah You": low-key, Dylan-esque songwriter which I'm enjoying a lot so far

--Kirby Brown, "Break into Blossom" is probably the most country of this batch though still on the folkier side of things.

Anyway, I bookmarked another 10-12 artists from this playlist to explore. Overall a pretty varied mix of mainstream/pop country, old-timey revivalists, and low-key songwriters. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3RwmljYV2GYBcMzxHdLO6o?si=230f422319b34ac7

Thanks. RC has led me to a lotta good stuff this year.
Hype of the day:
Imagine three blond, three-chord rocker fellers backing a hot brunette neo-Linda Ronstadt/Rosanne Cash lead singer, to tunes out of The Cars meet The Chicks. It’s been eight years since they began, yet odds are you’ve never heard them, nor of them, even close to their Nashville roots. But this is a band you should know about.

Listening to the RNB for the first time feels like they’re already inside your head, drawing on rockabilly, British rock, thrash, and outlaw country priors, with hard-driving, toe-tapping, smile-inducing originals. A good place to start is the Raelyn Nelson Band’s website, featuring the low-budget video for “Friend,” a kickass action-comedy accompanying her classic breakup song, punctuated with Raelyn’s refrain “I may be small, but I am pretty strong” summing up her infectious persona.

After a first addictive taste, the band’s album-length 2019 release, Don’t—with its cover art homage to the classic Clash London Calling album—is the way to go, either streaming or on CD. The collection includes wasted, brash, and woo-manly anthems like “Weed and Whiskey,” “Nothing On,” and “Rebel Girl.” Order a small-batch CD online and Raelyn mails it out personally, scrawling her autograph in red Pentel. She may add a free black and white sticker proclaiming, “I SMOKED WEED WITH WILLIE NELSON’S GRANDDAUGHTER.”
from https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/seen-future-willie-nelson-granddaughter-174355623.htm
Their music is self-released, with several videos online. He saus they're hot live, but so many dayjobs etc. only ten gigs a year---not bad for 2020, and maybe since.

Anybody heard the Emily Scott Robinson album? One of my most anticipated of the year.

BJ Thomas' Estate Auction Is Live & Online: Bid On His Coins, Hard Cover Books, and Antique China!

https://estatesales.org/estate-sales/tx/arlington/76012/estate-of-bj-gloria-thomas-1962113

Sunday afternoon readin': just came across a couple of previews I wrote for shows in Columbus, The Austin of Central Ohio---not strictly country, but related:
The Felice Brothers
Wednesday @ Rumba Café
On Yonder Is the Clock and Mix Tape, young Catskills-hatched Felice Brothers follow Dylan and the Band’s "rural" Basement Tapes route in reverse, back to the city of dinosaur dreams. Echoing through subway hayrides, they cheer trains bound for Heaven and everywhere else, while moodily and shamelessly waltzing around the “Ambulance Man.”. He’s patient, but the Felice Brothers know he doesn’t have all day. Equally vivid is “Boy From Lawrence County”, whom they know they could track (if they knew you’d pay), because “He’s a friend of mine.”

Lynn Miles
Saturday @ Maennerchor
Lynn Miles was recently spotted on YouTube, leafing through lyrics that list all the things she's tired of, ending with “singer-songwriters.” Ho-ho, she knows she’s in that game for life, as her steady voice gets deeper and darker, especially on full-bodied, country-tinged coffin-thumpers like “I Give Up.” On “Live At the Chapel”, Miles shifts into bruised cruise control for “Night Drive” and “You Don’t Love Me Anymore,” a wised-up kissin’ cousin to the Eagles’ best ballads. Meanwhile, “Black Flowers” bloom so beautifully, as coal dust settles on their petals.
These were in 2010---haven't kept up with either act, but recall thinking that Felices went downhill later.

The Emily Scott Robinson album is a love letter to Lori McKenna. All these poignant, beautiful mini narratives about people that feel like they're written by someone twice her age. She's just unparalleled at writing about the toughest subjects - "Hometown Hero" about an Afghanistan vet's suicide is the kind of thing that in the wrong person's hands would be a disaster but is very successful to my ears. "Lightning in a Bottle" might be my favorite, replete with vivid but relatable imagery:

The summer that I turned nineteen was a hundred shades of green
I just wanted to be seen
Heavy like the air before it rains, clean like grass and summer sage
I lost track of all the days
Warm like the sunshine on the pines, fresh tomatoes off the vine
Pickin’ peaches for the pie
Cold, like that first beer on my lips and those midnight skinny dips
Careful like your kiss

Thanks for the tip; I just now listed on bandcamp, and yeah several strikers-to-stunners right off (opener "Old Gods" my new theme song). I did have the impression that she keeps the lid on the musos a bit too often, like early Brandy Clark, and when/if she's really singing for "The Cheap Seats," better do it louder.
Also a couple of melodies seemed trite, though can't cite titles yet.
The only song that REALLY BOTHERED ME was "Hometown Hero": here, in the midst of all this focus on taking chances, breaking goo-goo rules (for boys as well as girls!), cos you gotta get real at some point---"Things You Learn The Hard Way"- owning up to and owning indeterminacy----this is way too predetermined, too on the nose. If he really did "have everybody fooled" (did he?), how do you know he lost "the war inside his head?" Which you could say about any suicide, yeah, but here he's the veteran etc. There's a certain mystery about suicide, even more than homicide, and who knows why one person commits either, at a certain time etc., and another, similar person in similar circumstances does not?
People want to wrap it up, put a bow on it, very understandably so---but, especially given Robinson's characteristic themes, it's frustrating that she doesn't, however gently, put a little distance between herself as writer and narrator---I hope she did, and I just missed it.
(Only song I've heard that comes close is Isbell's "Dress Blues," not about a suicide, but someone else who also served his country in battle---a shit or at lease baffling war, judging by the sound of the narrator, who's swaying, maybe drunk, maybe about to hurl, while surrounded by ceremonial palliatives.)
But other than these quibbles, helluva debut:
https://emilyscottrobinson.bandcamp.com/album/american-siren

So far, and right off, Mickey Guyton's Remember Her Name is bracing pop country, entering the mainstream with no lack of blackness in accessibility, musical or thematic: "What Are You Gonna Tell Her?" in part re preparing for The Talk about how to conduct oneself so as not to, for instance, not get shot, also rape culture tendencies of society, and basically, getting past the insularity of necessary protectiveness, tending to become a fear-baked facade, getting through that to reality principle, w/o mainly conveying the anxiety via your effort. Parenting central, and work to do on yourself.
Rich-to-florid music can be Romantic, straight-up fun, wry, scary, always lucid, even while stressed. It's life.

Also, in "WAYGTH," there is even something, though I haven't caught the exact lines yet, to the effect of comparing the man's possible grooming of your daughter for victimhood---to your own grooming her for victimhood, via inadequate preparation, telling her how to be on the look out, also just helping her to get her brain wrapped around the possibility, also yours (think the guy is referred to as family member, by marriage, maybe). It's concise.

The Mickey Guyton album is my my most disliked album of 2021. I hear overstatement, generalization, MSNBC special interest stories.

She sounded good on the American Music Awards last night. Not clear how any of her lyrical flaws are worse than any of a million other country singers . Doesn’t she get points for at least attempting topics few others are choosing. Should she just sing about pickup trucks instead?

To each his own, but sounds to me like a lot of it comes from personal experience, personalized experience too: what she's seen, heard and heard of, and not just via media---impression of overstatement might come from the fact that she's venting, incl fucking finally gets to make the album she always meant to make, or---given pop country proclivities---had to make, putting it all in there while she's got this opportunity, incl. whatever backing, along with what I called the "rich-to-florid" musical approach she's always seemed into, or that seems to suit her, I think, though some of the EP tracks were uneven: in part a result, perhaps of the direction and advice she's said she tried to follow, confusing and confused though it turned out to be: oh whut shall we do with a black woman who wants to be pop-country star, gettin too funky, while hickhop boyz bump along to the top again:that's one thing she's brought up.
I suppose she may eventually say screw it, just put tracks on bandcamp and go to the Americana circuit.

Doesn’t she get points for at least attempting topics few others are choosing. Should she just sing about pickup trucks instead?

The lyrics in her songs exist on a generalization level that makes me think she exists for award shows

and, curmudgeon, few of the women writing and singing in country write and sing about pickup trucks

She's got a good album in her, though, and I suspect she's in this for life.

xxpost (re bandcamp, Americana transplant)Which she could have done from the beginning, as other black female artists have, of course, but why should she have to, especially when it doesn't really suit her, is her point, I take it. Not so say Americana is nec. pop-exclusive, or at least: I knew from interviews that Allison Russell's Outside Child would at least reference in part some bad early experiences---but wasn't prepared for all the hooks, gen. catchiness too, w/o distracting from serious themes.

"Personal...personalized" comes through in way she sings, as well as what she sings (incl. detail that fits the musical approach).

Also that most recent Valerie June album, I think, though need to listen again.

re pop engagement in Americana-tagged albums.

https://genius.com/artists/Mickey-guyton

Here are some Guyton lyrics. Not sure they’re any more generic than most other women or men country singers but yeah each may have our own take.

Maybe we need some pickup truck songs from a female perspective! Or maybe they’re out there and I have missed them or forgotten them

Whitney Rose has written some, like the early one w "I locked my keys inside your truck, like I locked my days inside" our relationship, or something to that point. Later she's running away with another local in his truck, knowing it's wrong, trying to sedate herself w the miles and miles going by etc, most famous is "Trucker's Funeral," where two of the deceased's families meet--but he's a longhauler, def not a pickup guy, except maybe when he's at home(s).
Surely there are more? Could have "Slow Down, Nascar," Rough Rider," "He Ain't Worth The Gas," "Flatbed Moon." A cover of "Hotwire My Heart," since a lot of mainstream pop country is based on old rock anyway.

Agree that Guyton's stuff is paper thin.

Went back to The Marfa Tapes this weekend. Put it on while sitting outside with the sun going down and had a whole experience there for a bit. Special album. Will be listening to it for a long time.

I'm enjoying the debut from Margo Cilker, Pohorylle. Gives me classic Lucinda Williams vibes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx8A86D4Nns

https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/nashville-scene-abruptly-cancels-20-year-country-critics-poll/

“Following Geoffrey Himes’ Paste column on “Afro Americana” (which has since been heavily edited and redacted), we decided to part company with Himes on the CMCP, and told him he could take it elsewhere if he liked. The Scene will keep on championing quality country music.”

After receiving the email from Geoffrey Himes, Saving Country Music offered to run the poll in 2021, but with the complex weighted scale the poll uses and the sheer number of participants, it wouldn’t be possible to put it together properly for this year. “Knowing how much work is involved in the few remaining weeks, I’ve given up on doing a poll this year,” Himes replied.

huh

Did anyone follow the implicit controversy around this article? News to me.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/americanafest/nashville-americanafest-rhiannon-giddens-charley-c/

Editor’s Note: Due to a breakdown in our editorial process, a previous version of this piece contained racially insensitive language that fell short of Paste’s standards. We sincerely apologize for the oversight, and will retain the updated piece to serve as a reminder of our intent to recognize reader feedback and accept responsibility when we falter.

Here's a response Paste published:

https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/afro-americana/the-insidiousness-of-afro-americana/

Maybe we need some pickup truck songs from a female perspective! Or maybe they’re out there and I have missed them or forgotten them

― curmudgeon,

I wish you'd stop posting this crap.

Ouch. But you holding Guyton up as worse than anything else seems like an opinion that many might differ with.

You keep insisting on my defending truck songs vs Guyton when I've done no such thing.

The link: https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/afro-americana/the-insidiousness-of-afro-americana/

Weird. It's not working either. Try here:

I'll miss taking part in the Nashville Scene country poll (as I've done for several years) and reading its results (as I've done for much longer). But I made that decision months ago after Geoffrey Himes' outrageous essay. I doubt I'm the only one. The Scene made the right call.

— Charles L. Hughes (@CharlesLHughes2) December 2, 2021

Looks like Paste has taken down both links.

https://web.archive.org/web/20210922050157/https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/americanafest/nashville-americanafest-rhiannon-giddens-charley-c/

https://web.archive.org/web/20211011051918/https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/afro-americana/the-insidiousness-of-afro-americana/

Heh, was starting to wonder where the ballot was.
Oh well, I'll just post my Best Of on RC 2022, using the basic ballot format with my own categories added, as always. Yall do that too.

Dear Voters,

As you may have heard, the Nashville Scene has decided to discontinue the Country Music Critics Poll. This sudden, unilateral decision was made against my wishes—even without an opportunity for me to argue on the poll’s behalf. This is a sad development for arts criticism in general and for country music criticism in particular.

I would have sent out this note earlier, but I was hoping to find a new home for the poll. Alas, I haven’t succeeded, though I will try again next year. For 21 years, the poll was a terrific arena for thoughtful and emotional arguments about country music—thanks to your contributions. I hope it will have a second life, but its first life was pretty amazing. Geoffrey Himes
According to Indexed's pasted quote above, the way Saving Country Music tells it,
After receiving the email from Geoffrey Himes, Saving Country Music offered to run the poll in 2021, but with the complex weighted scale the poll uses and the sheer number of participants, it wouldn’t be possible to put it together properly for this year. “Knowing how much work is involved in the few remaining weeks, I’ve given up on doing a poll this year,” Himes replied.
Credible, but now he makes it sound like nobody wanted us.

Guess he means he didn't find a new place in time to do it.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/afro-americana/the-insidiousness-of-afro-americana/

This was a response to the Himes article.

That's a very measured & thoughtful response.

The Himes article was odd. He lumped a bunch of artists together as Afro-Americana (rather than just calling them Americana), took a shot at some attention he said they were getting, hailed a few and dissed many others strongly (Alison Russell) , and then added odd phrases about how some black artists need the opportunity to fail first before they can release good records (tone-deaf re what Black folks face in life)

Thing I don't get is why Himes is the only one who can conduct this poll. You'd think Nashville Scene -- after making the decision to end their partnership with Himes -- would just figure out how to do a poll. According to Saving Country Music, it's a much bigger lift than one might expect, but I don't really buy it. It doesn't have to come out on Nov. 28th. Just do it now and put it out when it's done?

Yep. He might have done the heavy lifting for the poll, but one would think a Nashville Scene editor could take the lead , and they get interns to help count the ballots and put the results out in January. But since it was his baby they decided to give it to him and he couldn’t find another site to handle it.

I started thinking about responses to the article, as it's described by curmudgeon---then remembered some of his year-end Scene Poll commentary, and realized that I might be over-thinking it...is this piece still available anywhere?

Indeed provided a web archive link to Himes' piece upthread.

INDEXED

Thanks! I'd tried the others, but overlooked the Web Archive save. He does a good (better than expected) vivid and carefully detailed description of the albums he likes, incl. the obvious observation about extended range of Giddens' latest---but to say that the albums he doesn't like are up for awards and how can such things be, must be inverse racism---is the most kneejerk-at-best default---it figures that Trigger/Saving Country Music jumped right in there, not that it isn't a good story, newswise. There are sites that would never say a bad word about any of these artists, but they wouldn't say a bad word about almost any other artist, not in reviews; more like, It is our sad duty to report that So and So has been charged with/arrested for this and that---at most.

I'm digging the fuck outta the Lainey Wilson album several months later.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, October 29, 2021

I fully expect the same to be true for me, now that I've finally checked out Sayin' What I'm Thinkin'. In the wake of that, Spotify is floating "Two Story House," which isn't on the album, but goes w many of its sufficiently poignant tunes, though not as much their usually rock-inclined guitars: the album's a primo example of how to do that in service of accessibly expressive pop mainstream country, with that voice, them tropes, and "Small Town, Girl" even goes toward psychedelic crossroads while making its point, "Straight Up Sideways" is truthfully titled, like all the rest, like romantic ballad "Dirty Looks"("good on you boy, good on you boy, good om you.") "WWDD" is Stonesy if not Ac/DC-y intro with rueful musical question, "What Would Dolly Do?"--followed by vibe-y, Dolly-worthy "Rolling Stone." Rec to fellow fanz of Maren and Miranda.
How the hell did I miss her previous? Also good?

The opener,"Neon Diamonds," so far seems clunky, but I always appreciate getting the duds out of the way right away(and it may grow on me).

Now I'm getting the memo on her duet w Cole Swindell, "Never Say Never": uneasy sex drama ballad w guitar shadow imperative, "I told my mama when it comes to you, 'Never agaiiin"--"Should say that none of this is inflationary;the album is 12 songs in 38 minutes and change.

Her music always conveys a sense of people singing while getting undressed and dressed, or at least getting ready to thinking about it (in "Sunday Best," by the sound of it), never dropping whatever tempo, can't afford that.

Speaking of wakes, I was wondering if I should audition Willie Nelson Family right after Lainie, and thinking I might just be relieved if it wasn't too marginal, but enjoyed it pretty much, in a calm December way. Religion-associated themes overall, but 7 out of 12 are very Willie originals, and the rest fit. Also wondering of offspring vocals might be too duffuse, but no they mostly lend good enough, unobtrusive support (ditto bass, drums, occasional harmonica) to Dad's vox & guitar, Bobbie's keys. Lukas sounds okay lead-singing "All Things Must Pass" (couldn't tell you how compares to orig. track, sorry George), also Keep On The Sunny Side," and, although not seeing his credit,think also "I Thought About You, Lord," which seems like Willie might be reworking the presumably secular shuffle of almost the same name (good Willie picking here and all over). Dad sounds just as hale on penultimate "Too Sick To Pray" as he does on the rest. although it's about no longer being like it says in the title, so now checking in (while he can, is the inevitable read-in at this late date, of course) Upfront, no tarrying (12 tracks, 31:55)
But I can't listen to the closer, "Why Me; Lord"; it really is too much of a tearjerker for me. and I was scarred at a tender age by KK's original vocal. Sorry, son Micah.

Always discover at least a few new gems on this list. Not a fan of his writing or his brand but his selections are often undeniable.

https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/saving-country-musics-2021-album-of-the-year-nominees/

Thanks! Not seeing Capps' I Love San Antone anywhere, incl. his site---???

It's on Spotify for me?

D'oh! I was looking for Grayson Capps---in my defense, they look alike and so do their albums. Anyway, I went on to Billy Strings, put a brake on that halfway through, went to Melissa Carper's Daddy's Country Gold--title in part re her sonic sense of humor about her retrophilia,I take it---music folds and flexes bits of western swing, freight train boogie, bluesy inflections, in what is, yes, still trad country gold: tight, but didn't know there were drums 'til saw credits--steel and pedal steel are most prominent, answered by fiddle---no banjo, no uke, no horns (though accordion and guitar can fill in for those, passing through), occasional piano and/or organ, moving right along, following the boss's cute, slightly worn little voice---some Texas dust in the pipes, Appalachian hardness at ends of lines, sometimes: it's a tad more simple-subtle than Sierra Ferrell, but one for her fans (and she contributes harmonies).
"Back Then" reads kinda bleak, but the person who recalls workin' and wishin' and hopin for one who accepted her marriage proposals "now and then" ain't sorry.
The exploiter and appreciator of "My Old Fashioned Gal" has no regerts either: "I do as I please" while MOFG writes a letter, and on paper, puts it in an envelope, puts a stamp on that. takes it to the mail---also makes violet jam, lots of other things: the song has so much calm fun with the prismatic detail of the classic early 20 Century styles--slightly undersold, just slipping in there, as always.

Yeah, I can see how the Capps gets played in the SCM office a lot: it moves right along in an agreeable way, not distracting, because singing and some of the songs are agreeably limited, though always detailed, thoughtful---modelling your approach this close to Doug Sahm, a miss is as good as a mile, because normie Doug still sounds more intense than this, and is gonna go somewhere else pretty soon---a good faith offering, though---I'll listen some more, but right off seems more Hon. Mention than Top Whutever. (Does make me want to visit San Antone, which Doug never did.)

The opener,"Neon Diamonds," so far seems clunky, but I always appreciate getting the duds out of the way right away(and it may grow on me).

― dow, Tuesday, December 7, 2021

It's the weakest song, yeah

Went back to The Marfa Tapes this weekend. Put it on while sitting outside with the sun going down and had a whole experience there for a bit. Special album. Will be listening to it for a long time.

― Indexed, Monday, November 29, 2021 9:26 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

been kinda dabbling more in country over the last handful of years and just dropping in to say i love the marfa tapes release. love how raw and unpolished the whole thing is.

yeah that's a really good album that i've revisited a lot throughout the year

here is a really good article about a song that i doubt anyone here likes and which will certainly not be getting written up in any of the year-end lists we're reading lately (i checked to see if anyone had posted it on rolling worst music 2021) but which nonetheless managed to be kind of an interesting phenomenon this year (walker hayes "fancy like" -- co-produced by shane mcanally if that matters to anyone)

i find the song a bit painful to listen to -- it really does sound like it was spawned from the ad, rather than the other way around. nevertheless hayes seems pretty self-aware and has a few surprisingly insightful quotes in there. it must indeed be odd to have toiled as a mid/low-tier artist for years and years waiting for that first 'real hit' to come, only to finally come across one whose success was so obvious and sudden that the so-called 'mainstream' (radio) gatekeepers weren't sure whether to trust its demonstrated appeal

I think we have a lot of people rooting for us because the norm is, you release a song that maybe isn’t your favorite song, but you think it plays the game well, so you put it out there. And you’re not surprised that the reaction is lackluster, but you agree that it’s safe and that it’s not polarizing. And then it hits radio and again, it’s vanilla — but no one changes the station, they just leave it on. Do they stream the song? Not really. And then you sit and you wait for 50 weeks and you get a No. 1 and everybody cheers, but you know what it took to get there. You know it was a political process and product. It wasn’t the public driving the train, responding to something great. You hit a bullseye, and the bullseye was the perfect level of mediocrity.

again i shudder at the implication of this song being 'great' (though it is certainly great in the way that industry hacks use the term) but his incredibly sad and unfortunate description of how music must very slowly gain favor w/ the upper echelon of broadcast gatekeepers nowadays, and be tailored for that process, is accurate -- and not just for country radio. the broadcast format landscape for current music in general is now so atomized/siloed/whatever that even outlets chasing the attention of a putatively 'mainstream' audience tends to be suspicious of a song's success if it seems to emerged from the wrong type of mainstream and/or comes too quickly. tbh the suspicion, i suspect, when a song cracks open on streaming or social media first is that the audience, while 'mainstream', is a little too young and possibly-not-white for programmers' comfort, b/c frankly the artists that have this 'problem' (to the extent that it is one -- radio is becoming more irrelevant when it comes to hitmaking every year) tend to be black artists vying for top 40's attention

As Miranda just now reminded me, with a tap on the shoulder and a brunchnog, this is tonight at 7 Central--might try to watch, if Fecebook doesn't harass me out of the building for not being a member:

Pistol Annies plans to go live.
December 13 at 6:53 PM ·
It’s gonna be a hell of a holiday...special! 📺 December 15th, Pistol Annies are performing songs off the 'Hell of a Holiday' album, sharing some memories and chatting with host Blair Garner.

Watch it right here on Facebook!

The special benefits an incredible organization that keeps the music community healthy, Music Health Alliance.Facebook dot com slash Pistol Annies

I thought this piece about the/a state of country (pegged to Isbell but about more than just him) was really good:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/elaminabdelmahmoud/jason-isbell-ryman-country-music-mickey-guyton

related:

wild how many people I’ve spoken to — music fans! — who flat-out do not know who Morgan Wallen is, let alone his controversy or the fact that he has by far the most popular album of the year — as in like 500k more than Olivia

— Joe Coscarelli (@joecoscarelli) December 17, 2021

December 16, 2021—“Music For Paradise: A Benefit For Western KY Tornado Relief,” a concert event supporting the Muhlenberg County Disaster Relief Fund and Team Western KY, will take place Saturday, January 1 at The Burl in Lexington, KY with a simultaneous livestream broadcast presented by Oh Boy Records. The fundraiser will support those affected by the devastating tornado that crossed the region last week and feature performances from artists with close ties to the area, including Abby Hamilton, Brit Taylor, Brother Smith, Cole Chaney, Eric Bolander, Grayson Jenkins, John R. Miller, Justin Wells, Kelsey Waldon, Leah Blevins, Logan Halstead, Magnolia Boulevard, Nicholas Jamerson, Scott T. Smith, Senora May, Wayne Graham and Wolfpen Branch.
Tickets for both the livestream and in-person concert go on-sale today at 2:00pm ET/1:00pm CT. Details for the livestream can be found HEREhttps://boxoffice.mandolin.com/products/music-for-paradise-livestream-ticket and the concert https://theburlky.com/event/music-for-paradise-a-benefit-for-western-ky-tornado-relief/.
Of the event, Oh Boy Records’ Jody Whelan shares, “We are heartbroken at the devastation that has hit Muhlenberg County and so much of Western Kentucky. It’s a place that the whole Prine and Oh Boy Records family holds dear to their heart. But it’s been incredible to see how many people have come together, so quickly, to help in any way they can. In particular, John’s fans have continually shown us how willing they are to honor him by their acts of generosity for those in need. ‘How lucky can one man get.’ The folks at The Burl have put a lot of work into putting this show together, and we’re really grateful to be able to help out in any way.”
In continued support of the community, Oh Boy is offering several additional ways to raise money for Kentucky Tornado Relief including new merchandise—such as Muhlenberg County and “Kentucky Is Pretty Good” t-shirts and “Paradise” prints—as well as a limited number of 7-inch vinyl bundles featuring John Prine signing with Kentucky’s own Tyler Childers and Kelsey Waldon, all of which have been signed by Childers and Waldon. Additionally, a raffle to win a limited-edition 7-inch vinyl of “The Kentucky Sessions,” signed by Prine and Waldon, is now live—full details here:https://go.rallyup.com/kentucky2021/Campaign/Details

Hope they add some better-known performers, though Kelsey Waldon may be enough for my livestream ticket.

Miranda also reminds me:
Don't Forget To Love A Shelter Pet!
Miranda surprised 3 lucky animal shelters in Nashville with donations from her MuttNation Fueled by Miranda Lambert pet collection at Tractor Supply!

If you’ve got a fur baby in your life, treat them to food, treats, toys or another product from the MuttNation collection! Proceeds from the line benefit MuttNation Foundation.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/brand/MuttNation+Fueled+by+Miranda+Lambert

If you’ve volunteered, fostered, or adopted a dog this year, you could get a $1,000 grant for your local shelter from MuttNation Foundation!
https://muttnation.com/sharethelove/

I liked every song on the Hayes EP more than "Fancy Like."

I bought Wallen's album before the news broke; still think it's the freshest beer-bro album in ages. The first six or seven songs bury the genre as far as I'm concerned.

Did anyone read the original Himes piece on "Afro-Americana" in Paste? The first one, before it got edited after it blew up?

A couple of thoughts on the Himes-Nashville Scene contretemps.
I can't speak for the Scene. But I would think they simply don't have the staff to do their own poll.
The paper has been angling to coverage of country that basically advocates in favor of more diversity in country. It hasn't covered mainstream country, except negatively, for a while. Basically, the paper writes about Americana.
I think Jake Blount's reply to the Himes piece says a lot about what's going on in country-Americana and provides a clue to why the Scene cut ties with Himes. Obviously, the paper had to think practically about the situation. Even if you think the reac

Ah, sorry. My post continues.

Even if you think the reaction to Himes' piece was out of proportion to its actual tone or import, it seems like the paper had to make the call as they did. This isn't the climate in which you can make a stand that would prove so unpopular.

As to Blount. How he takes Himes to task is by citing a book from the 1960s that says Black music uses disconnected verbal material, and that the artists Himes critiques do the same thing.

It's as if Blount somehow believes theory from 60 years ago is relevant to a discussion of a commercial art form. I attended an Allison Russell show in Nashville. The audience was 99 percent white. They were there to see a hyped, rising star. They may have known about the theories of a long-ago writer on Black music. However, I doubt it.

The essential fact about both country and Americana is commerciality--pop. The Scene doesn't cover country because it's considered disposable pop music. The Scene does cover Americana because they think, like Blount, that it's the necessary antidote to country itself. The real outrage the detractors of Himes feel arises from their dislike of pop. Yet Russell functions as a pop star. As usual, the earnest, outraged proponents of Americana get to have it both ways: popularity and meaningfulness. Russell deserves her popularity, but she's also a hype--her white audience (I'm sure she has a Black audience too, but I didn't see it in Nashville, a city where young well-heeled folk are marginalizing its Black citizens day by day via help from the people who run a real-estate bonanza) wasn't at Third Man's Blue Room.

Ah, correctly, I'm saying her white audience was who was at the Blue Room. My apologies for the typo.

Hi Edd, Indexed posted this link after Paste removed the original post from their site:
https://web.archive.org/web/20211011051918/https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/afro-americana/the-insidiousness-of-afro-americana/
Some responses upthread:
The Himes article was odd. He lumped a bunch of artists together as Afro-Americana (rather than just calling them Americana), took a shot at some attention he said they were getting, hailed a few and dissed many others strongly (Alison Russell) , and then added odd phrases about how some black artists need the opportunity to fail first before they can release good records (tone-deaf re what Black folks face in life)

― curmudgeon, Friday, December 3
He does a good (better than expected) vivid and carefully detailed description of the albums he likes, incl. the obvious observation about extended range of Giddens' latest---but to say that the albums he doesn't like are up for awards and how can such things be, must be inverse racism---is the most kneejerk-at-best default---it figures that Trigger/Saving Country Music jumped right in there, not that it isn't a good story, newswise. There are sites that would never say a bad word about any of these artists, but they wouldn't say a bad word about almost any other artist, not in reviews; more like, It is our sad duty to report that So and So has been charged with/arrested for this and that---at most.

― dow, Friday, December 3, 2021

Also, since you brought it up again:
What if Himes had said that, or something equally stupid and amateur, in his essay for the Scene Poll? Even if he hadn't, this Paste piece would have been a major distraction, and there would have been others like Charles Hughes, quoted upthread who wouldn't have participated, and said why, and the Scene, regardless of whether they cover non-Americana or not, would have looked almost as foolish as Paste (whose "editorial" uh-so seems to have been not looking at it before it was posted, or---not closely enough--a couple of snips would have fixed it---and he could have ended the "She sucks" part by saying she's up for awards, period: the perfect, wry punchline. But also please spare us the Bill Cosby Black People Must Be Allowed To Fail Tough Love, Himesy.

uh-oh, not uh-so.

Yeah, Himes wrote a tone-deaf piece and Paste didn't have the editing to smooth it out. The response to it was out of proportion to its actual badness as opposed to clumsiness. As usual, any hint of actual dissent from the party line of how-wonderful, and the dissent was a bit pompous, evokes s response like the one we see here.

Accusing other people of inverse racism because they like something you don't like is more than tone-deaf(it was also the last straw for JazzTimes, re Stanley Crouch)---now, accusing other people of/muttering dark insinuations about having ulterior motives for claiming to like/voting for something you don't like/may never have heard but just know it's shit--is something that happens on ilx every year about this time (at least)---but going as far as he did (don't recall ilxors actually coming right out w that), and as professional critic (rewarded at least w professional's platform space), with some responsibility to your colleagues and readers to at least seem like you might have turned the critical lens on yourself/have thought about what you're saying for more than 30 seconds---that's the big fail here.
I do wonder, though, if the published, edited piece had been like, "In sum, she sucks---and is up for awards," which would be a reasonable anti-party line dissent (though I wouldn't agree, since I agree with you that her record is good, got hooks even)---would that have gotten a big pushback, do you think---?? Maybe so, but seems like it wouldn't have killed the Poll--

Accusing other people of inverse racism because they like something you don't like is more than tone-deaf, unless you provide verifiable supporting evidence, of course, like quotes that could be checked.

Although even then, would be hard to make a convincing case w/o a significant number of quotes, and what would that be.

Oops got that opening aside wrong: Crouch accused other people of straight-up racism, not "inverse"(for praising Dave Douglas so much etc).

Russell was good at the show I saw. Her cello-violin thing was interesting and often inspired. I'd already written a brief preview of the show and had figured out she was going to be big. But the praise she's getting is as out of proportion as what Margo and Jason and the War and Treaty and Sierra Ferrell have gotten. I've written about Ferrell and said she's retro, but I guess my take on the gig I got covering Americana is that there's no point in belaboring that point, since it's all more or less retro. I'd still like to see what Himes wrote originally. It's a tough genre to write about intelligently. With Ferrell, you can say she has a style and the music has integrity, and it's the same with Russell, who might break thru aesthetically in time. I think the fault of the Blount reply is that he simply gives her a pass for her subject matter-- and I think it's an honest album. For Blount there isn't an aesthetic at work I see other than Folkie, and I think the big issue with Americana is overproduction and a whole lot of things that are just very similar. How can you make informed calls? I have trouble with this and may not be so consistently good at it. It's like trying to differentiate between Tom Rush and Ralph McTell, in the olden days, or Joni and Judee Sill? What are you *hearing* as opposed to *what do you wish the world was like*?

I think if Himes had canned, or the editors had, "Afro-Americana" itself, and as dow says tweaked the take on Russell--she is a developing artist who does has something to say, and her success speaks to the aspirations of the genre--maybe the response would have been different. But note Blount says he already doesn't like writers on music. I wrote the show review of Russell and noted the mostly white audience and talked about the class and race issues surrounding the genre. That got cut and I figured it might. Fair enough, but those are really the issues re country and Americana right now.

I'd still like to see what Himes wrote originally.
Sorry! I meant to paste the Web Archive capture of Himes' original, not Blount's response---here's Himes--
"Afro-Americana: The Good, the Bad and the Transcendent
A Curmudgeon Column"
By Geoffrey Himes | September 21, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20211004191432/https://web.archive.org/web/20210922050157/https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/americanafest/nashville-americanafest-rhiannon-giddens-charley-c/

Now, if Himes had said it like you do,
she is a developing artist who does has something to say, and her success speaks to the aspirations of the genre-, that would have been fair, and if he then said something like, "But it doesn't speak to me; let me count the ways," and ended with "Yet she's up for awards," and maybe listed those too, would have been a cooler exit, if still, like he says in front, somewhat curmudgeonly, and could still have been objectionable to some, but not as objectionable to more, the way he did do it.
I wrote the show review of Russell and noted the mostly white audience and talked about the class and race issues surrounding the genre. That got cut and I figured it might. Fair enough, but those are really the issues re country and Americana right now.
I'd like to read the uncut version! If you'd like to post it here, or, if you'd rather, could send it to me personally.

Actually, as I said before, he did start off fairly carefully, but---just kept going.
Anyway, um, https://www.nodepression.com/no-depression-reviewers-and-writers-favorite-roots-music-albums-of-2021

I bought Wallen's album before the news broke; still think it's the freshest beer-bro album in ages. The first six or seven songs bury the genre as far as I'm concerned.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, December 18, 2021 2:04 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

Morgan Wade > Morgan Wallen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABxFciR980o

Dow, I'll see if I can pull up my original Russell review. I think it was flawed because I tried to put too much into the thing. I'm having trouble retrieving it in the e-mail thread.

I wrote this on Loney Fred Hutchins' demos, recorded at House of Cash in the '70s. Despite the subtitle, Buried Loot isn't outlaw country so much. It is straight country in a mode that was already maybe a little dated in 1974, but Hutchins had a feel for the pathos of big-city life as experienced by all the country women and men who left home for the bright lights. Hutchins worked for Cash in the '70s, and he's still out there doing the occasional show, and writing songs.

Here's one from this summer, on alt? trad? country? singer-songwriter with country leanings? Jon Byrd, who's been around in Nashville for 20 years. His EP replicates his live show, and Byrd plays guitar in a sort of post-Willie, somewhat eccentric mode that works when it works.

And here's a piece on Shannon McNally's Waylon Jennings album.

My take on the (pretty darned good) Emily Scott Robinson record.
[NOTHING FANCY]
Emily Scott Robinson
There’s nothing fancy about the spare, folkish music on Emily Scott Robinson’s new album American Siren, and her songs make a virtue of the kind of simplicity that you don’t often find on mainstream country albums. In fact, Robinson—a North Carolina native who lives in Colorado—isn’t exactly a mainstream country artist, but American Siren embodies one aspect of country music in a very confused era. Signed to the prestigious label Oh Boy Records, Robinson sings like she grew up listening to mainstream folk music and country music, so you hear echoes of Joni Mitchell and Patty Griffin in her phrasing. Robinson floats up to her high notes, and she doesn’t take star turns or belt her lyrics to the rafters. American Siren often sounds homemade, as on the piano accompaniment for “Let ‘Em Burn,” which sounds like it was recorded in her living room. Still, it’s a crafty, surprising record, and the eccentric guitar obbligato that runs throughout “Old Gods” is just as effective as the simulation of a standard country band that Robinson uses on “Cheap Seat.” In the end, what’s most impressive about American Siren is Robinson’s sense of discovery: She makes standard themes of sin, redemption and piety seem fresh. It’ll be interesting to see how far Robinson ventures into the messy mainstream of country on her next record. 8 p.m. at The High Watt, 1 Cannery Row EDD HURT

That's good. We were talking about her upthread---I had probs w a few tracks, but overall, wotta debut (has she done EPs, singles of songs not on this?)
Just listened to xpost Loney Hutchins' Buried Loot: don't care about "Pinball King" or some of the other first segment tracks, but soon enough, he's got this self-deprecating realness/fatalism times limberness, vivid succintness---making me think of pre-bearded, 60s Only Daddy That'll Walk The Line-era Waylon---I wouldn't be surprised if Hutchins, or Waylon, wrote the Jennings vinyl track "Nashville Bum," about consuming ketchup soup in conference at coffee shop---"You can change a word or two and I'll give half of it to you"--then he goes to a mix of modesty and flair, passing through some very dark places, like Gary Stewart in his hellish heyday---would Stewart dare to record "Whiskey Lady," the forensic romance. an barstool cowboy's inner infant rock-a-bye serenade of his deadly muse? I think he would, and maybe he did.
(Hutchins' voice seems ideal for demos(these tracks are so well-played and recorded I would have assumed they were finished product): it's transparent,light but never lite. never imitating anybody I can think of, so never overselling, a little distanced, like these might be character studies, and/or just stuff he's lived through along the way, or in some cases still hopes to live through, not being above wistful love songs, maybe another pipe dream or two--
building to the matter-of-fact masterpiece here, "Committed To Parkview," (covered by Cash in the 80s. could have fit The Man Comes Around and other 2000s sets): quite a levelling playfield-rest-academy, another Nashville institution, along with Tootsie's and the Ryman, though you don't have to actually be in the biz to land here, and none of these songs are too biz-referential, incl familiar tropes that aren't belabored very often.
This is on Spotify; he's got a 2009 release on Bandcamp, along with the McNally and Byrd albums you covered (also, I see on there that Byrd has another 2021 album, Byrd's Auto Parts).

Hutchins' "Four Good Reasons" would be good for all the other song stylists I mentioned above, and Doug Sahm too. Can't quite hear any of those four singing "Reedy Creek" as well as the writer does, though. (Stewart might have the upper range, but even his suppressed craziness might be subliminally distracting--or revelatory?! Not like any of Hutchins' better songs really have to be taken as all that normie, which is one of his sneaky strengths.)

Hadn't heard this version of Adele's "Easy on Me" from the Target Deluxe version of 30 feat. Chris Stapleton. Not on Spotify that I can find, unfortunately.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhBP18CqAZ0

Always look forward to this blog's top Songs and Albums of the year lists (fair warning: selections can lean toward saccharine and I've noticed a trend of picking 'insider' tracks about songwriting/Nashville/the biz).

https://thatnashvillesound.blogspot.com/2021/12/that-nashville-sounds-top-country.html

Saving Country Music picks its album of the year:

"But one way you can spy an album that perhaps will be graced with the kind of longevity it takes to be considered the best of a given year is how it grows on you, keeps getting better the more you listen, reveals little details and unlocks bits of wisdom and knowledge with subsequent spins, until it beckons to be heard again and again, and refuses to be ignored or worn out.

How The Mighty Fall by Charles Wesley Godwin has been that kind of record in 2021, where the complexity of songcraft means you don’t tire of listening, where the diversity of sound and subject matter make for a fulfilling experience that satiates most all of your musical appetites, and where the honesty graces the work with authenticity. That is why in an incredible year for country music, and among a murderer’s row of fellow Album of the Year nominees, How The Mighty Fall bests them all."

It's actually not a bad record. "Lyin' Low" I'd suggest to Richard Thompson, maybe. Good tune. Godwin sounds like a more country Gordon Lightfoot...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoqAqcefQng

Not sure if anyone's talked about Elvie Shane's Backslider. I think it takes the lumber and hauls it up to the house, and its cliches go somewhere unexpected, musically and thematically. It's all really good, but this is the one I love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMAo8sOekIg

I thought this piece one of the smarter ones reckoning with Wallen:

http://trismccall.net/poll-31-end-note-part-1-misrecognitions/

The real reason why the Morgan Wallen album keeps selling is because of the state-of-the-art craftsmanship it contains, that, and the sincerity and strange purity of its sentiment. A shocking number of the 32 (!) songs on the set are keepers; they’re undeniable, even when they’re unpleasant. Dangerous, which is appropriately titled, reveals Wallen to be a messed-up person — one conscious of every sneer directed at the sticks, suspicious of the condescension of outsiders, and defensive of his way of life; i.e., “country-ass shit.” Not since Jamey Johnson’s Guitar Song has a mainstream artist expressed such tacit contempt for coastal city slickers. But while Johnson was convinced that California would soon burn, and only those who’d gotten back to Macon (love allll night) would survive the meltdown of the liberal order, Morgan Wallen grudgingly accepts that none of his vengeance fantasies are going to be realized. The girl at the beach bar isn’t going to follow him back to the Eastern Tennessee hills, beer isn’t really colder or tastier in the mountains, a “little ride around the farm” won’t pry anybody away from the metropolis, and all of these realizations magnify Wallen’s insecurity and bitterness. If there’s one thing we’ve all learned over the past decade, it’s that Wallen is speaking for an awful lot of Americans here — maybe not Americans who you want anything to do with, but your neighbors nevertheless, determined to impose an ill will on a country that they share with you. We ignore them, and shame them into silence, at some peril.

This isn’t to excuse Morgan Wallen’s (or Elvis Costello’s) stupidity. Hitmakers have big platforms, and when the sensitivity and openness that the job requires turns them into a channel for ugly stuff, they ought to be called out on it. Most good artists recognize that they’re vessels for volcanic forces, and when they’re pulled back from the edge, they tend to be grateful to those who do the yanking. Elvis Costello has spent decades apologizing to Ray Charles in various ways; Morgan Wallen was quick with contrition, agreed with his critics, and dropped off his summer ’21 tour to work on himself, which, given the context surrounding the incident, probably mean some kind of detox. And I can’t help but think of another legend who loved to make the normies uncomfortable — David Bowie, who claimed to have no recollection of his mid-‘70s praise of Hitler and fascism, and his bizarre fascination with Nazi memorabilia and iconography. Convenient, yes, but I doubt that was a case of selective amnesia. During the Thin White Duke period, Bowie was zonked out of his mind on every pill and powder in Eurasia. Costello, too, was drunk and high when he went on his tirade; ’79 was probably the apex of his speed ride. Morgan Wallen’s n-bombs were dropped near the bleary end of a three-day bender. Intoxicants don’t just make people stupid. They corrode morals, too. Give a nonstop supply of whiskey and coke to St. Peter, turn the digital recorder on and roll the camera, and it’s dead certain you’ll catch him saying, or doing, something regrettable, and maybe even cancellable.

Yeah, Tris McCall gets it, I think. I think Wallen's record might make a lotta people uncomfortable, even taking into account his missteps. It's a really good country album, and I think what makes it work is his voice, which is on the edge of what you'd call civilized. It's a voice I recognize very well, having grown up in Tennessee and seen the way certain country people, or disaffected semi-urban country people, look at you if they think you're spouting off about Biden or the Covid or whatever it is they believe you're acting superior about. His voice is that look. The vocal filtering I hear on on for example "865" is to the point, as well--great production. And unsettling.

And "Warning" uses trappy production, with also finger snaps, as savvily as any hip-hop-country I've heard lately...

"Warning" is a motherfucker of a song.

that tris mccall piece is fantastic. thanks for sharing, ALS.

Did Jamey Johnson really say all that on The Guitar Song?? Guess I was just listening to the music. *If* Wallen knows that his revenge fantasies are only that (musical evidence?), then he's in better shape than a lot of the people he's said here to speak for---speaking of whom, I'm surrounded by 'em, like Edd, so maybe musical representation, even IF self-aware, seems close to redundant---and McCall is making me think of The Case For Eminem, Art Appreciation lectures back in the day--but maybe I'll give some of the album another shot---nothing I've heard from it makes me want to attempt 32 tracks jeeeeez

(I liked hip-hop a lot more than bro country, also at least Eminem had a sense of humor, but---I'll try again.)

Although a lot of musical representation comes off as redundant anyway.

Yeah, McCall might not be aware that the folks we're surrounded by in thu South might not think their fantasies are fantasies. As Xgau said recently in a piece about country, the representations are hard to escape because the representations *create* the country environment. At least that's what I think he's saying.

Intoxicants don’t just make people stupid. They corrode morals, too. Give a nonstop supply of whiskey and coke to St. Peter, turn the digital recorder on and roll the camera, and it’s dead certain you’ll catch him saying, or doing, something regrettable, and maybe even cancellable.

Citation needed, I think… I’ve never known/believed that drinks & drugs make ppl racist, antisemitic, or whatever else if they’re not like that already. It just loosens their inhibitions. (But maybe I’m wrong.)

You're not

I know there will be a separate lobbying thread, but I'd be interested if this niche group has any passionate must-vote-for country tracks (or albums) in the ilm poll this year. This is my country SOTY and will be high on my ballot. Only other thing I feel super strongly about is The Marfa Tapes, which I expect to place based on the responses in the Lambert thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5KKh5gFock

My favorite country / country-adjacent albums this year:

Margo Cilker: Pohorylle
Ingram/Lambert/Randall: The Marta Tapes
Gary Louris: Jump for Joy
Charley Crockett: Music City USA
Vincent Neil Emerson: Vincent Neil Emerson
Ashley Monroe: Rosegold
Alexa Rose: Headwaters

Oh yeah, some excellent picks there, though I still need to check several---keep hearing about Charley Crockett---
Meanwhile, I just listened to an artist Edd covered in the Scene, as linked upthread: Jon Byrd, whose Me and Paul features good originals (co-writes and solo), well-chosen covers, good singing, self-accompaniment on that little nylon-string guitar Edd praises, but what really makes it outstanding is all of the above times the pedal steel guitar of Paul Niehaus, def. a subject for further study----same name as a Swiss surgeon, appropriately enough---this gleaming, unstoppable sound keeps coming around Byrd, a big breath-like cycle--and that's it, just two instruments, one voice in between. The damndest thing. "Cash on the Barrelhead" doesn't quite fit, but doesn't disturb the overall vibe. https://jonbyrd1.bandcamp.com/album/me-paul
More conventional, as most country albums would be, is Byrd's Auto Parts. Full combos, maybe from different sessions, and I like it best when the steel player gets plenty of room---is he Niehaus? Who is the effective female duet partner on one track? Who wrote the two songs that sound perfect for Willie Nelson, the one that would be ditto for Gram Parsons? Who else did what? No notes on this one's bandcamp page, or on Byrd's Web site. "Reputation" sounds like one he might have done in his jangle days w Tim Lee and The Windbreakers, but is also a good, neurotic subject for country--and a good little jolt when the narrator suddenly turns and says. "She wants me to tell you---"
Sahm's "Be Real" is another excellent cover, with an arrangement close to the original, but how often do you hear that, and as Dave Van Ronk said, sometimes you can do it the way it was done first, or you can do it the wrong way.The cover of Lennon McCartney's "Don't Let Me Down" starts well, gets a little boring. But I do like most tracks quite a bit.
https://jonbyrd1.bandcamp.com/album/byrds-auto-parts

Had been meaning to check out Pohorylle. Solid - thanks!

Discovered some true gems from the EOY list cycle. From No Depression's top 5, hadn't heard Adia Victoria's A Southern Gothic or Allison Russell's Outside Child - both exceptional works. Also loved the Sierra Ferrell album Long Time Coming (thanks SCM).

It was nice to see Jason Eady's "French Summer Sun" recognized on a few EOY lists. He has been a favorite for many years - a truly gifted songwriter who knows how to say a lot without much, often about subjects already covered ad nauseum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1skXt4Q980

Dow, the Jon Byrd "Byrd's Auto Parts" is from 2007. Live these days, he's good if a bit mannered. Another Nashville club regular who isn't very interested in record-making. Much like Davis Raines. Check out Raines' fairly recent song "Dallas" on YouTube. Pretty damn good and the approach is lowkey, much like Byrd's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aGY3dHL2rY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aGY3dHL2rY

Cool, thx. We've got this now btw lxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=112512 Starts w Chuck Eddy's 2021 ballot and link also incl. his ballots for all previous/actual Scene polls.

oops, sorry---here tis, hopefully: Rolling Country 2022