Rolling Country 2023

As usual, let's roll out the barrel with Chuck Eddy's country picks:

He said I could do whatever I wanted to with these posts from his blog, so here's the intro to and comments on his singles picks(with link to whole thing)---he didn't do a sep list x comments for top albums, but I've boldfaced the ones he mentions in passing here:

from

40+ Best Country Singles of 2022

From what I’ve read, 2022 is supposed to be the year that neo-traditionalism (i.e., singers trying to sound like Travis and Strait and McEntire trying to sound like Haggard and Jones and Wynette) returned to country radio while everybody showed how much they missed to the ’90s (i.e., Twain and Brooks and Brooks & Dunn.)

I apparently wasn’t paying close enough attention to notice much of. the former, though I definitely caught glimpses of the latter, which you’ll find below. But seems like mostly what caught my ear were (sometimes blatantly ’90s styled, sometimes not) dance songs, as often as not by women without major label recording contracts, or maybe recording contracts at all — not nearly purist enough for “alt-country”; maybe not purist enough for commercial country. In fact a couple feel flat-out disco. But then again sometimes I think I live for category errors — When I told my wife that Anna Vaus’s “Didn’t Even Date” is my favorite country single of the year, she quickly replied “it doesn’t sound country!,” and I’m fine with that. Vaus brands herself as “honest girl pop country,” and Big Machine signed her to to a publishing (why not recording?) deal in August. So who am I to argue?

If Nashville Scene still sent out country critics poll ballots, my top 10 albums this year would have probably looked something like: Miranda Lambert, Ingrid Andress, Anna Vaus’s EP, Kimberly Kelly, Ashley McBryde, Breland, Lainey Wilson, Pillbox Patti, Willie Nelson, Brennan Leigh, or maybe Alela Diane if I decided she qualified. Either way, 80% women. Singles might be even more lopsided, gender-wise.

I didn’t number the songs below because it seemed most efficient to pair multiple singles by a few of the artists with each other instead of splitting them up, and numerically that would’ve just confused things. So let’s just say these are listed in roughly approximate order of how much I enjoyed them, with other songs I liked slightly less or didn’t have as much to say about affixed alphabetically at the end. There are…more or less 40. I keep losing count. Feel free to build a playlist.

Anna Vaus “Didn’t Even Date” and “Kinda Don’t Ever.” I liked this unjustly slept-on Southern California via Nashville hopeful’s evidently self-released (Epola Road Records) 2018 EP The California Kid and put “Day Job” on my Nashville Scene ballot that year, and I like her even more now, even if the ambiguity of feeling “some kind of way” will always get on my nerves and I’m not sure “we were golden with an ocean view” means anything at all, except maybe that she’s still got Pacific Coast connections. “Didn’t Even Date” is more blue-eyed r&b c&w with all sorts of vocal tricks built in (breathiness, chuckling, mini-melisma); “Kinda Don’t Ever” more old-school Taylor Swift. Not saying it’s better than anything on Midnights, but not saying it’s not.

Megan McKenna “Single” and “DNA.” The “English TV personality” (as her wiki page puts it) put out 14 singles in 2022; I liked two a lot. Both affirm the resilience of unpartnered women; both use what I’d call Europop-Mediterranean semi-flamenco guitar strums in a pop-country context. I also just learned that the “LBD” she says she slips on is a “little black dress.” Wrote more about her songs (and Anna Vaus) here.

Chris Lane feat. Lauren Alaina “Dancing in the Moonlight.” Seventeen years ago, I initiated a King Harvest vs. Starbuck thread on the I Love Music board, wondering which band’s proto-disco-country soft-rock moonlight smash was better — the former’s #13 ’72 “Dancing in the Moonlight” or the latter’s #3 ’76 “Moonlight Feels Right”? Still not sure which I’d pick, but at least for now, Nashville seems to have made a choice — not as a cover version, per sé; more like a rewrite hitching recognizable remnants of the original chorus to stuff about “heaven with your hands on me” and “boys passing something from Kentucky.” @KingHarvestMusic, on you tube: “No words to describe what an absolute pleasure it is to hear a country rewrite of our hit from 1973. Great vocals! Great production! Here’s hoping you guys take it all the way to the top.” Not only did it not climb to the top; it didn’t chart at all. Maybe all the ’70s (Lane’s pornstache) and non-’70s (Alaina’s flapper outfit) referents in the video confused people chronologically.

Kassi Ashton “Dates in Pickup Trucks.” She of the fullest and huskiest woman’s voice in current country also has the best pants; an episode of something called The Look has her taking us into her closet and telling us she personally handcut her dungarees’ fringe. Youtube viewers who claim to have no use for country say they love the song — which stayed on Billboard‘s country airplay chart for eight weeks but never got higher than #57 — regardless, and people make interesting comparisons. @toddritter5612: “Got a nice Amy Winehouse vibe to it.” @kimvann8246: “I’m ALL east coast, S. Philly and S. Jersey (yeah, Jersey shore and all. But real old school 80’s). I was broken hearted when we lost Lady T., plus I’m now in Cali. Then I hear this vibe under CM. [sic?] Wait, Backup, What’s this I’m hearing? Hallelujah! I’ve been rescued. Your voice is lovely so keep bringing the joy. Be blessed.” Somebody on WikiCelebs: “This is the reason she posts a photo in a bikini on social media and tagged the boy, who said that she had a flat-shaped figure like a pencil for taking revenge.” I’d also vouch for 2021’s “Heavyweight,” which earns its title amid bragging that Ashton’s “a full grown woman,” and her 2020 version of “Hard Candy Christmas.” And I hope not all her pickup truck dates involve having to watch her boyfriend’s bros wrestle in dirt. A possible red flag, maybe?

Melanie Dyer “Dumb Decisions” (with Caitlyn Shadbolt) and “Cheap Moscato.” Two upbeat and catchy songs about how poor momentary life choices involving alcohol can be worth it anyway, for the stories and memories they spawn. Dyer and Shadbolt are both Australian (Sydney and Gympie respectively), which seems to free country singers of the uptight ideological baggage that weighs down so many of their American counterparts. In “Dumb Decisions” girls get crazy and flirty when sipping on tequila or a “Buffy” (dark rum, passoã, lime and orange juice, simple syrup, passionfruit); in “Cheap Moscato” clothes and hopeless hearts wind up all over the floor. Furniture and interior decoration in the latter video seem decidedly high-end and kind of trendy, suggesting a down-under market for country less rural, younger and freer of quasi-populist class delusions than what we got here. (By the way, an entirely different Melanie Dyer put out a terrific avant-jazz-meets-African-American-fiddle-band album with her improvising sextet WeFree Strings in 2022. Check out them, too!)

Priscilla Block “My Bar.” Wednesday night regular at local watering hole ’cause she digs the band sends ex-boyfriend back to his side of town. An actual hit — #50 Hot Country Singles, #26 Country Airplay, which again hints that, no matter how unadventurous country radio is, country fans might be worse. In the video she divides time between said tavern, the stage, and for some incongruous reason a huge red tractor with a snowplow. Inspiring how Block has no qualms showing off her zaftig figure, even more overtly in 2021’s ”Thick Thighs“: “I can’t be the only one who likes extra fries over exercise….You can’t spell ‘diet’ without ‘die.'” She even twerks! Breland needs to work her into his song “Thick,” which already shouts out to Lizzo, Megan Trainor, Kelly Clarkson, Ashley McBryde (or Graham?) and Serena Williams.

Abby Anderson “Juicy.” More curvaceous body positivity: “full figure, full figure, you’re gonna need both your hands.” Spelling lesson: “Jay! You! I see why! You wanna squeeze me.” Till the juice runs down… In the tradition of Robert Johnson, Led Zeppelin, Mtume, Oaktown’s 357 and Notorious B.I.G., except more disco than any of them. Abby Anderson from the outskirts of Dallas sang some patriotic corn on Glenn Beck’s show as a 17-year-old in 2014 and wound up in the top 10 of Billboard‘s Christian chart; four years later, “Make Him Wait” just barely squeeeezed into country’s Airplay top 60. She claims K.T. Oslin and Freddy Fedder among her influences — about time somebody did! Later in 2022 she released “M.I.A.,” apparently from a “podcast musical” called Make It Up As We Go, and she recited its three-letter title in the same notes Stacey Q used to do the title of “Two of Hearts.”

Dozzi “Messy.” More optimistic un-neurotic Aussie sheilas praising cut-rate booze (“cheap champagne” in this case), sister trio (mandolin Andrea and guitar Jesse and keyboard Nina) with a Bo Diddley beat, like SheDaisy crossed with Westworld or identical Twains if that’s easier to grasp, tell some lucky bloke to “put your hands in my hair give me face to face.” Of all their outfits, I definitely prefer the sailor suits.

Blake Shelton “No Body.” According to Wide Open Country, “No Body” (was) part of a nostalgia-driven trend in 2022 that also brought us such ’90s homages as Lainey Wilson’s ‘Watermelon Moonshine,’ Kane Brown’s ‘Like I Love Country Music‘ and Cole Swindell’s ‘She Had Me at Heads Carolina‘; he even grew his mullet back to revive his early “hat act” look. WOC also points out that “No Body” (#34 Country Songs, #21 Country Airplay) isn’t part of the deluxe version of Body Language — which makes perfect sense, if you look at their titles! Anyway, it’s a total boot-scoot-throwback dance floor stomper.

Kimberly Kelly “Summers Like That” and “Blue Jean Country Queen” (featuring Steve Wariner.) Talk about ’90s homages. In “Summers Like That,” this former schoolteacher with a Master’s in Speech Pathology from Texas Woman’s University directly references Trisha Yearwood’s “Walkaway Joe,” Pam Tillis’s “Maybe It Was Memphis,” Brooks & Dunn’s “Neon Moon,” Tracy Byrd’s “The Keeper of the Stars” and especially (most prominently) Deana Carter’s great “Strawberry Wine,” all from ’91 to ’96, the last of which makes this nostalgia for nostalgia. Plenty of cassette tapes in the video too, and that Kelly remembers sitting on the hood of an “’02 model Mustang” is a bit confusing but the sound’s perfect. Actually I doubt in a blindfold test I’d guess ‘90s, but I get that all those bygone decades blur together for non-senior-citizens out there. Wonder what 1961-born Toby Keith, who put out Kelly’s album on his Show Dog label, thinks. Dancing queen in dance tune “Blue Jean Country Queen” has a “Farah Fawcett smile,” so “girls are all glarin’,” boys are all starin’, the 1970s called.” Why quibble?

Kate Underwood “Mascara.” Song about the love of one’s life winding up happily married to a different woman and how that makes one’s Maybelline streak, as classic sounding as anything by Kimberly Kelly — Absolutely could’ve been a hit for, say, Lynne Anderson or somebody a half-century ago. But googling not only the title but chunks of the lyrics turns up nothing, and searches for the singer’s name come up blank as well. Australia has a singer named Katie Underwood, but this is clearly not her. Carrie Underwood seems to have two sisters, both much older, and two sons, both much younger. The video has a grand total of one youtube thumbs-up, which for all I know could be Kate herself….But wait!!! If you hunt long enough you finally find a very sparsely posted-on Kate Underwood Music facebook page. And Kate Underwood Bowman’s personal page tells us “I was a songwriter in Nashville for over a decade and lately I am really missing it!” Turns out “Mascara” is an original number, produced by Lari White, the mid-level ’90s country hitmaker and self-proclaimed Green Eyed Soulster who also produced Toby Keith’s best album, White Tra$h With Money. Him again, wtf?

Much more of those here, with links and pix:
https://accidentalevolution.wordpress.com/2022/12/19/40-best-country-singles-of-2022/

Good to see some Pillbox Patti there but surprised he didn’t incl “Eat, Pray, Drugs”

I hadn't heard of that one, will check.
Also hadn't heard of Nashville Country Music Magazine, but here tis, with Mackenzie Phipps on cover:
Free PDF Of January 2023 Magazine Click on Cover to Download
https://preview.mailerlite.com/r2o8n5k3b8/2119183324881623576/z1p1/

from reputable email sources, so I guess it's okay.

These are the country and country-adjacent (*) albums and tracks that I nominated in the ILM poll:

ALBUMS
Kaitlin Butts - What Else Can She Do
Miranda Lambert - Palomino
Zach Bryan - American Heartbreak
Brennen Leigh - Obsessed with the West
Willie Nelson - A Beautiful Time
*Anais Mitchell - Anais Mitchell

TRACKS
Kaitlin Butts - Blood
Emily Scott Robinson - When It Don't Come Easy
Tyler Childers - Way of the Tribune God (Jubilee Version)
Anna Tivel - Heroes
Caitlin Rose - Only Lies
Maren Morris - Circles Around This Town
*Hurray for the Riff Raff - SAGA
*Joan Shelley - Amberlit Morning

Didn't have room but should have nominated this MUNA track, which is the best country song by a non-country artist I've heard in a long time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDOiWGAaT8E

Have spent more time with Adeem -- can't shake this feeling that a few of his tunes are straight Lori McKenna knock offs.

― Indexed, Sunday, January 1, 2023

what percentage of songwriters do you think would *love* to write a few songs good enough to be called Lori McKenna knock-offs?

Ha, so true! I don't know McKenna's work well enough to identify which songs but I hear it most clearly on the chorus of "Carolina" and on "Books & Records." My comment read as more pejorative than I meant it -- he traverses a lot of different territory, songwriting-wise, and it's actually rather impressive that it all works quite well.

Will do a bit of self-promotion and share the consensus picks from the panel at Country Universe for the Top 10 Albums and Top 20 Singles of 2022.

New Shania Twain single out this week immediately reminds me of how great Laura Bell Bundy was / presumably still is, and how her "Giddy On Up" was so ahead of it's time that, 12 years on, it's still a hell of a lot better than Shania's "Giddy Up."

At least a little bit intrigued by "Bets On Us" by Cheat Codes f Dolly Parton. It's in the same realm as those Avicii - Dan Tyminski collabs from several years back, but I'm not sure it does anything novel in that regard.

Thanks! I don't keep up with singles so well, but some intriguing picks there, also here: https://www.countryuniverse.net/2023/01/06/the-best-albums-of-2022/

Not seeing Lainey Wilson or Amanda Shires here

Both got a couple of stray votes but didn't make the consensus lists...

Surprising! Lainey Wilson is damn good again, ditto what I've heard of the Shires, thanks for reminder to check out whole thing.

(Also: Willie, Miranda, Ingrid Andress, Pillbox Patti, Billy Joe Shaver trib among the missing albs---good to see Kaitlin Butts and Akeem on there though)

I'll say I liked both of them well enough but didn't have either in contention for the 20 albums I voted for personally for our poll. Among the country / Americana circles I run in, the Shires album was pretty divisive, but Wilson has popped up on a lot of other year-end lists I've seen.

Good news about Wilson. Also good to see Sunny Sweeney on the CU Top Ten, though I haven't quite made up my mind about hers, or sev others.

ReallY?! Divisive? In my circles it's her best album; to my ears her other albums had strong intentions and weak songwriting.

xpost.

Yeah, I'd say it's a pretty even split among the writers I run with; either they agree with your take on it or find it to be her least successful. It hasn't gotten much love on a lot of other year-end lists I've read, either. Sampling biases play into all of that, for sure.

I am behind on my listening but I caught up on Hailey Whitters ‘Raised’ and dow, I think I def align with your earlier assesment re her triteness

Like, her songs are well phrased & hooky as hell but i can’t find any “there” there other than fishing & drinkin, highschool & hometown, raising hell and raising babies

like a corny uncreative two-dollar Maren idk

But I fucking LOVE Ashley Monroe’s Lindeyville, I have listened to that a few times now & it’s so good. Vivid characters & the worldbuilding is so well thought out, and of course the songs are so damn good. Love her!

oh and I am fully Margo Price pilled - we’re seeing her in SF in Feb

Oh cool! Her Perfectly Imperfect At The Ryman is a really good live album---the "imperfect" part to me is mostly when she's using Ike & Tina's arrangement of "Proud Mary," but otherwise ace.
You mean Ashley McBryde, not Monrow--wish she was on there too! Lots of Ashleys these days, and I have trouble with all the Lukes and Zachs nd Zaks.
Lindeville is so far seeming kinda uneven to me, but this is awes:
Ashley McBryde w Pillbox Patti: "The Girl in the Picture"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfe93xj6ly4

Also! McB's contribution to the John Anderson trib, "Straight Tequila Night"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgH09g7hVmw

The Sierra Ferrell track on that comp is fantastic

ugh yes Ashley McBride lol thx sorry

def too many ashleys & whatnot

Why do parents do that? To protect their children from ridicule for abnormal names maybe, so rooms full o' Heathers, Ashleys, Lukes, Zaks, Justins, Dylans, though some of those may be decade-markers?
Yeah I like most of the Anderson trib though Brent Cobb and Jamey Johnson aren't quite up to snuff (their bands try to get them there), & could live w/o The Brothers Osborne's cover of Anderson's cover of "You Can't Judge A Book etc.". And where's "Swingin'"?
But several people I don't usually give about one way or the other surely rise to the occasion, and yeah Ferrell and McBryde are among those who do better than that, keeping to their high standards---also cool to have a good prev. unreleased Prine that is not just a demo.

Thanks for the heads up on that Ashley McBride album... lots of Brandy Clark on there!

Haven't heard the new Margo Price but I've heard it's great. Honestly, though, I still have so much trouble with all the great artists with first or last or both names that with M. Margo Price, Maren Morris, Mickey Guyton, Morgan Wade, Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves, Ashley McBride, Ashley Monroe ...

Margo’s new album is great imo. This might sound kinda basic, like a lot of music is like this, but thing I love about her is that her songwriting is excellent & the musicianship is too, so with each song there’s so many layers of interest … and she expresses herself in creative uncliched ways & the sounds are not just the same old sounds idk idk

it’s good!

<taps sign>

The Margo Price c/d

xps Mike and the Moonpies!

Folks, so excited for our first #StatesofCountry show of the year at @sidgoldsreqroom Weds Jan 25 celebrating the music of Minnesota with some experts @liannesmithee @salmaas @MarcellusHall https://t.co/NSlKRMg12I see you there? You betcha! pic.twitter.com/PR9n0PfFvl

— Laura Cantrell (@LauraRCantrell) January 20, 2023

Laura Cantrell in NYC for first of a monthly series celebrating country music from different states. For some reason she’s starting with Minnesota

Sids is a fun room to do that in.

Once in a lifetime lineup: pic.twitter.com/sEODAhlWqc

— Andy Langer (@Andylanger) January 24, 2023

Whoa

cool

Does xgau's EOY list usually have this much country on it?

https://robertchristgau.substack.com/p/deans-list-2022

Delighted to see Willie's album as high as it is. It is a gem.

lol, top 84.

Yeah, he's pretty reliable for including country and country-adjacent stuff and has been for a good long while. Also delighted to see his high ranking for the Willie Nelson album. And, fwiw xp, he included Amanda Shires in his t20 but also didn't go for Lainey Wilson.

Yeah, he's been useful re country since early 70s (pro tip for Consumer Guide look-ups: they Merle Haggard *and* Merle Haggard and the Strangers: maybe duh, but took me a while). He's being pretty obtuse about Lainey, though.
I can see why your friends are divided on Shires: good songs, and I think I got basically the right idea before finally checking lyrics, but then I saw lots of important detail that weren't coming through. There are exceptions, esp. that one time she adds a little echo and then goes to double-tracking: THANK YOU JESUS. If she only would (more than could) deal with her vocal limits as well as she does everything else here.

He's okay on country; as usual he prefers sexually aggressive women. If they code as "genteel" for him, he's out the door.

Lee Ann Womack's recorded some of the best albums of the last 20 years by anybody but he doesn't care.

Oh yeah he's ridic on her.

deal with her vocal limits as well as she does everything else here. Well sometimes the weak link voice does seem like evidence of brave vulnerability, "Here I am..." But the most striking moments tend to pass, and she's still singing. On the other hand, I've listened to it more than any other album in 2022 or early '23---and not hate-listened, but it's----maddening at times.

most striking moments re vocals, that is; otherwise, the tracks can thrive. I'm learning, being taught, to listen around the voice, as with some ancient Tom Waits and Henry Rollins albums.

I mean sometimes it works anyway, or the voice even does its bit all the way through: one for my Singles/Tracks list will be "Empty Cups," referring to her hands. I picture them as red solo cups, and think also of the Toby Keith song.

Will prob put it in Honorable Mentions---the singing is the one thing that keeps me from full acceptance/enjoyment.

So it's got me in semi-detached art appreciation, like this year's Charley Crockett.

2022's Charley Crockett, that is.

xp Xgau

as usual he prefers sexually aggressive women. If they code as "genteel" for him, he's out the door.

Alfred's spot on here.

It's why, in addition to Womack, he completely missed the boat on the genre's mainstream women in the 90s and aughts. Rarely gave the time of day to anyone on the Yearwood/Loveless/Tillis/Wynonna/Rimes axis and ends up with massive blind spots because of it. Was weirdly dismissive of a lot of the women of the 90s alt-country boom other than Lucinda and Iris, too.

But hey, he quoted me by name in a review once for being over-the-top in my praise for Miranda Lambert in the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, so what do I know.

Speaking of Iris: Two new singles out in advance of her new album. Both are fantastic.

Can't wait

I don't usually post in the rolling country thread but wanted to alert yall of this new Esther Rose album https://www.brooklynvegan.com/esther-rose-announces-new-album-safe-to-run-for-new-west-shares-chet-baker/

Never heard of her before but a friend of mine hosted a camping trip a few months ago which had a bunch of different musicians playing etc. she ended up playing a set along the Rio Grande and it was probably the highlight of the whole thing for me. Completely blew me away. Nice to see her getting some recognition on BV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDXRedvaIK4

Thanks!
Willie won Grammys for A Beautiful Time and "Live Forever," title track of that good xpost Billy Joe Shaver trib----new album out next month:

Amongst the nearly 150 albums that Willie Nelson has released, he has a number of amazing full-album tributes to songwriters from Kris Kristofferson and George Gershwin to Ray Price and Cindy Walker. Adding to that list is a new studio album dedicated to songwriting legend Harlen Howard who has scores of country hits including a number that crossed over to pop and even R&B charts. A member of both the Country Music Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall Of Fame, Howard wrote hits for Ray Charles (“Busted”), Buck Owens (“I’ve Got A Tiger By The Tail”), Conway Twitty (the title track), Bobby Bare (“The Streets Of Baltimore”) and so many more. Produced by longtime collaborator Buddy Cannon and featuring a murderers’ row of crack Nashville musicians, I Don’t Know A Thing About Love is an amazing addition to Willie’s unparalleled catalog.

Featuring cover art by Micah Nelson (Willie's son), I Don't Know A Thing About Love was produced by longtime musical collaborator Buddy Cannon and debuts 10 studio performances. The band on the album includes Willie Nelson (Trigger, lead vocals), Larry Paxton (bass, tic tac bass), Lonnie Wilson (drums), Bobby Terry (acoustic guitar, electric guitar), James Mitchell (electric guitar), Mike Johnson (steel guitar), Mickey Raphael (harmonica), Jim "Moose" Brown (piano, synthesizer, B3 organ, Wurlitzer), Wyatt Beard (background vocals), and Melonie Cannon (background vocals).

I Don't Know A Thing About Love will be released March 3, 2023

I've been catching up with the 2022 digital debuts of quite a few Roger Miller albums, but I'll start the mentions with a prequel I just now listened to: the 2020 Early Recordings (1957-1962, where I was immediately struck by the early tracks' unabashedly twangy, forthrightly honky-tonk settings for the post-Hank blue verve of his ballad singing--and even sometimes interspersed with well-timed bit of Milleized(more falsetto, in little leaps) Jimmie Rodgers blue yodel---all of which is eventually followed by a few lint tufts of more discreet, post-Eddy Arnold sadness, which Miller has no particular knack for, as is proven again and again on some of the 2022 reissues (even when his ballad-writing is on point, with crisp "Invitation To The Blues" and "Tall Tall Trees," which was a Top Ten hit for Alan Jackson in the 90s---could def see AJ doing a good Miller tribute.)
(The Bear Family import edition of this collection adds a disc of covers, which I haven't heard, so could be that Miller's writing was already ahead of his singing, re drinkin' & cryin' vehicles on the slow side of life.)
There are also quite a few with rowdy Roger appeal, often Louisiana-flavored country with persistent Jerry Lee-type piano punctuation, leading through New Orleansian party favors at times--with a different kind of refreshment, even on a ballad, provided a few times by Roger and acoustic guitar, that's all. My current fave is a perky version of mountain classick "I Traced Her Little Footprints in the Snow." She left in summer with no footprints, but he found her by cracky, and "now she's playing in that angel band," where he hopes to join her someday--but what's really cool to him, sounds like, is that he traced her!

Back to 2022: Roger and Out(1964) and The Return of Roger Miller(1965), largely from the same sessions, are poptastic realness, calling on all creative resources to jitter and jolt and josh and clown himself through all manner of country and Roger sadness, anxiety, ritual guilt trips x pity parties, a lot of it just barely drive-by noticeable, but close enough. Also, for instance, "John Q.," with veteran Roger marching again through whut-whut, even gnarling over drums like pirate ancestor of the Pogues.
These one-two hitz-laden punchbowl punches are his most peaky and tweaky---as in olde term "tweaker," speed-enthusiast; he was taking regular doses of Vitamin A then---also with some from those same sessions, The Third Time Around(1965) and Words and Music(1966), especially, are not quite as good, but certainly have their keepers.
Then the title track of Walkin' In The Sunshine has a 1967 buzz of surprise, shows he's keeping up with the pop possibilities, as he turns out to have a Roger way with Jamacoid, Johnny Nash-in-Nashvile sing-along, bounce-along, not-too-cuteness, and most of the rest is okay, esp. in afterglow of the hit.
Waterhole # 3 (The Code of the West)(1967) is a skippable soundtrack he didn't write, and his singing lacks conviction at best.
A Tender Look At Love(1968) is as bad as you might suspect from title: all ballads, and all covers, I think (I don't want to think about it).
Roger Miller(1969) lets fly with the Sir Dougadelic "Shame Bird" (RM ain't one!)
Roger Miller 1970 sucks except for the Tommy James and The Shondells-worthy picnic vision ov "Crystal Day," wheee.
Ken Tucker really liked the long-lost commercial flop A Trip To The Country (1970), and you can hear why in his archived Fresh Air coverage, but I think it's mostly pretty boring (here is where Miller under-undersells "Invitation to the Blues").
Making A Name For Myself(1979) is appropriately, self-assuredly, expertly ambitious, kicking off with "The Hat," in which a Miller prime time street personage admires and would like to have your hat (for a start?), pass it over and he'll tell you why---ok? He's cheerful and serious.
Then, with input from some Steely associates, he makes himself at home in actually sexy (heretofore not a Roger-associated attribute, that I've noticed) mid-to-late 70s R&B lanes, like Aretha and Al Green might approve, but still sounding just like himself--then my favorite, "Pleasing The Crowd," I'd swear is an Allen Toussaint-Dr. John visit, though still Roger as hell, as the jaded old showman sez tough shit kid and then rallies whomever, including himself, judging by the ever-building reluctant intensity. (My favorite reissue, next to the '64 and '65 joints)
Roger Miller (1985) is most notable for openers and closers from his Huck Finn musical, Big River: real good, and I'll have to check out the Original Cast Recording for the whole thing, though he's not on it (he did perform in it live for several months after John Goodman split).

could def see AJ doing a good Miller tribute album, I meant.

A couple more things: even in the early 60s, scat-singing flipster Roger wants to make it even clearer that he isn't just for hipsters: he points out that it takes all kinds, including squares---several years before Merle's great line, "A place where even squares can have a ball!" Roger's talking about boring, necessary jobs, but with no push-back topicality---indeed, talking about what it takes to make the world go round leads him yet into another whirl.
Much later, a song about "Arkansas,", which sounds like it's gonna be rhymed with "Yee-haw!", but never quite does, is nonetheless a celebration of a place he ain't never been, but maybe he is about to, finally! Like his Granpaw always said they would. Relatable.

Oh yeah, the only way I've found The Return of Roger Miller is via this person's playlist http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLasAIHkjrlj_9FpkyGg1T7W8J_qtNqsmm Which is missing a couple of tracks on the reissue, but they can be rounded up on YouTube.

Oh wow, I didn’t know all those albums were streaming now. I only know Miller via comps so I’m happy to check out the albums. Will compare my notes against yours, dow

Yeah, and don't sleep on xpost Early Recordings (1957-1962); the aforementioned Bear Family edition, with the added disc of cover versions, is titled The Early Years 1957-1962, and lacks some good tracks on ER, but Amazon's got for $15.99 (haven't yet checked for streams), and dig the cover artists:

27 Love Love Love - Eddie Bond
28 Happy Child - Jimmy Dean
29 Tall, Tall Trees - George Jones
30 Half a Mind - Ernest Tubb*
31 Billy Bayou - Jim Reeves
32 Invitation to the Blues - Ray Price
33 Nothing Can Stop My Love - George Jones
34 Knock Knock Rattle - Rex Allen
35 That's the Way I Feel - Faron Young
36 When Your House Is Not a Home - Little Jimmy Dickens*
37 If Heartache Is the Fashion - Jim Reeves*
38 Home - Jim Reeves*
39 Last Night at a Party - Faron Young
40 Big Harlan Taylor - George Jones
41 Trouble on the Turnpike - Gordon Terry
42 A World I Can't Live in - Jan Howard
43 Where Your Arms Used to Be - Billy Strange
44 Wish I Hadn't Called Home - Dale Hawkins
45 My Ears Should Burn (When Fools Are Talked About) - Claude Gray
46 If You Want Me to - George Hamilton IV
47 Private John Q - Hank Cochran
48 Don't We All Have the Right (To Be Wrong) - James O'Gwynn and the Merry Melody Singers
49 You Know Me Much Too Well - Ray Peterson
50 When Two Worlds Collide - Margie Singleton and George Jones
51 The Moon Is High and So Am I - Johnnie and Jack*
52 The Swiss Maid - Del Shannon

Uh-oh---putting the finishing touches on my belated 2022 best-of & blog-bound comments---but just now saw this:

As noted throughout 2022, Bandcamp Daily’s Best of Country column prefers a big-tent definition of “country” that includes folk, bluegrass, Americana, roots rock, Western swing, and beyond. All of the above and more are represented in our list of the 12 best country (and country-adjacent) albums of 2022. Enjoy, and let’s do it again next year!

Real quick, last tweet: I’m giving Crownover the reigns and I’ll queue some posts up sometimes to promote stuff. Removed the app, no interest in participating here anymore.

The Bijou is a wonderful venue & have been good pals. The Tennessee Tourism board too- real friends.

— Adeem the Transist (@AdeemTheArtist) February 20, 2023

h/t to tipsy's Compass rundown on this

Akeem-related themes & appeal can be found on Willi Calisle's Peculiar, Missouri---title track, a long, sometimes mumble-y talkin' blues-to-monologue, seems overloaded so far, but that's a complete anomaly. Otherwise, he's a small combo country folkie who never cloys, got the intense, well-thought-out story-songs & check-ins, funny and other, aboard equally personalized trad & and maybe original tunes--if they're all trad, he's drawn quite selectively from a deep record shelf---also one entire cover I recognize, Utah Phillips' "Goodnight-Loving Trail, " which fits perfectly---hope he's got some more of the underexposed Utah on the three previous albums to have been Bandcamped so far: https://willicarlisle.bandcamp.com/album/peculiar-missouri

And they're touring together as we speak, I believe.

The Whittmore Sisters' Ghost Stories is not that Southern Gothicky, although they do float though and around non-hyped images of selves and others---as the Bandcamp copy says,

the loss of family, friends, ex-boyfriends and — on the title track — people who died by police violence...

do float *through*

So xpost Bandcamp Best of 2022 Country's Mariel Buckley take, though meant in a positive way, had me expecting depression, but was curious about actual sound (not mentioned), and then producer's credits on album's BC page incl. Arcade Fire, whom I've never gotten into, but also The National and The Weather Station, both seeming kinda good in my ltd. experience, so thinking Canadiana adjacent etc---but no: title track and a few others I so far associate with early Rosanne/Pretenders New Wave country, but most of it is slower, unafraid to build in note-by-note arcs, with internal dynamics, but staying pretty level-eyed even when singing about going around and around inside and out:A

In the town where I was born
Right across from that old church
Used to keep my eye on Mary
While she’d shine behind the birds

Now the moon is in her window
And the glow has hit you right
Like a cigarette stuck in my pocket
Waiting for a chance to light

When the lights come on
And the sun goes down
I’m gonna lay you down
In the backseat of whatever I’m driving
Driving around

Up ahead is the old skate park
Where i used to run around
Couldn’t ride for shit to save my life
I’d pretend if you were around

Now the dogs are getting called to
And the kids are running up the drive
Honey we got nowhere else to be
At least not for tonight
Call me old fashioned
But how did I never think of this until now
This house is all we’ve seen for days and days
Why don’t we go and drive around

Cause when the lights come on
As the sun goes down
I’m gonna lay you down
In the backseat of whatever we’re driving
Driving around

When I get to the gates of heaven
Is there a long list of sins and your name
Do I ride into hell on a horse named--nuthin
If I’m going down for my sins all the same

Going through pictures
Of coffee cups and couch cushion stains
I guess somehow, now we’re even
Or even to you, anyway

I’ve been keeping up late with your picture
Tore the back right off of the frame

Point I meant to make is that the slower stuff, which is most of it, is country as hell---ditto the faster, but the slower is pulling me in further, so far.

re: ILM Ballot Polls for 2020 and beyond -- the ordering, timing, "I would have voted if I'd known about it," etc

Would anyone here be interested in voting in this poll?

If someone can walk me through what the process bc I've not voted in one of those polls on here before, then definitely yes.

The first post in the thread will have instructions. Usually an email address or a google poll where you send your votes. Very easy!

i’m down! narrowing down my ballot will break me but i’m willing to give it a red hot go

yasss queen! congrats! cant wait to hear to hear what yall rhymed with nigger. 🥹🤩🥰💓 https://t.co/P4GS3nqIBQ

— adia victoria (@adiavictoria) February 28, 2023

From Relix:

Willie Nelson has announced the return of the Outlaw Music Festival Tour. The impending concert series will see the torchbearer welcome a star-studded lineup of musicians who will join him at select locations throughout the summer months.

On tour, Nelson’s will seek musical company from leading industry players such as Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, The Avett Brothers, John Fogerty, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Whiskey Myers, Gov’t Mule, and more, at select stops.

The “On The Road Again” singer will also welcome accompaniment from Marcus King, Margo Price, Trampled By Turtles, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, Kathleen Edwards, Flatland Cavalry, Kurt Vile and The Violators, Brittney Spencer and Particle Kid.

https://relix.com/news/detail/willie-nelsons-outlaw-music-festival-tour-to-return-with-robert-plant-alison-krauss-the-avett-brothers-and-more/

"Rock & Roll" closer to late night honky lounge in this case---good live Willie duet partner of yore:

NEW EDITION OF

LEON RUSSELL’S INTIMATE GREATEST HITS COLLECTION SIGNATURE SONGS

OUT NOW VIA DARK HORSE RECORDS

LONG OUT-OF-PRINT GREATEST HITS COLLECTION OF SOLO PIANO AND VOCAL RECORDINGS AVAILABLE ON CD, DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, AND FIRST-EVER VINYL PRESSING

HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE FAVORITE SONGS FROM ACROSS

THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAMER’S WIDE-RANGING CATALOG,

INCLUDING STRIPPED-DOWN VERSIONS OF “A SONG FOR YOU,” “TIGHT ROPE,” “STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND,” “THIS MASQUERADE,” “LADY BLUE,” AND MORE

Tracklist:

A Song for You

One More Love Song

Tight Rope

Stranger in a Strange Land

Hummingbird

Back to the Island

Out in the Woods

Lady Blue

Delta Lady

Magic Mirror

This Masquerade

# # #

FOR MORE INFORMATION

LEONRUSSELL.COM | FACEBOOK | YOUTUBE

DARKHORSERECORDS.COM

Press contact:
Jim Merlis, Big Hassle Media
jim at bighassle dot com

Since I live in Montana now, I tried listening to an "outlaw country" radio station today. I heard Montgomery Gentry's "She Couldn't Change Me" (I searched on YouTube later to find out what the song was and who performed it) and could feel the life draining out of me.

lol! idk i kinda like that one - i think the colors, maybe? painting the walls blue, buying pink chablis, dyed her blonde hair brown, her blue eyes turned green etc

she seems fun he’s a grump imp

i forgot that troy gentry died!

*imo

xxp where in Montana, un?

Speed listen on the Stones comp (meaning hop n skip rather than playing through everything). Thought "Honky Tonk Women" was the boringest choice Brooks & Dunn could've made, so haven't even taken in whether they do it well or not. Would've liked Ronnie Dunn to try his vox on "We Love You" or "Emotional Rescue." The three potential keepers so far are Brothers Osborne, War, Treaty "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll" a song from a couple of years after the Stones stopped infusing everything they did with uneasiness and subversion so the fact that it's just a solid groove for a country band doesn't lose anything, in fact that deep voice at the start (Mr. Osborne, perhaps? or Mr. War?) is a BIG uneasy. The vocals from there are respectable enough and though deep uneasiness never returns the thing grooves along reminding me that this is actually a good song – BUT what grabs me are the guitars, which about 3 minutes in make an effort to jump free and join a hair metal band. Not for long enough, but I like that solo. Never heard of either of these acts.

Another keeper is Elvie Shane's "Sympathy For The Devil." Never heard of him either, and who is anybody to think they could cover "Sympathy For The Devil," esp. this sincere-voiced normie? The band really kicks, while the vocals seem to think they're doing a sorrowful song, even when the voice is throwing its fist in the air (if voices can do that), Bob Seger-like, and then, falsetto seems actually maniacal. Kept my attention, anyway.

Eric Church "Gimme Shelter." Doesn't come close to achieving the eeriness of the Stones' version, but captures the doggedness of the Grand Funk version. Turns it into a grind-it-out pounder. Helps that it's a good song, of course, and they let the instruments mass together towards the end.

Not sure those are keepers after all, but I liked some of the adventure they attempted or stumbled into. Wouldn't mind them at a party. Or the next two:

Ashley McBryde on "Satisfaction" sounds like any good singer, Tina Turner or Bonnie Bramlett or someone, trying the song, and the original is inimitable and uncoverable (even by the Stones), so in a sense there's an immediate "who cares?" about any cover version that isn't Britney or Devo, but maybe I'll come back to it as itself, a good voice on a song that just happens to share words and melody with "Satisfaction."

Jimmie Allen has a nonemphatic voice, but his "Miss You" immediately made me smile. Not sure his soul embellishments and melisma work, but they make me smile too. So does the harmonica. Never heard of Jimmie Allen and I'm enjoying this like I enjoyed the Elvie Shane: who's this guy to think he can sing this song? And good for him.

Honorable mention: I groaned at the idea of someone doing "Wild Horses," but Little Big Town are good singers so this isn't bad. Was listening to "Little White Church" the other day. Wish LBT'd try Billy Idol's "White Wedding." White Wedding: country stars' tribute to the music of Billy Idol, Adam Ant, The Pet Shop Boys, and Kajagoogoo.

I mentioned her above. But this new one is really great. features Hurray for the Riff Raff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7R4B1mr-PQ

she seems fun he's a grump imp

I like the idea of Eddie Montgomery as a grumpy imp, "a small, mischievous devil or sprite." Kinda cuts the legs out from under his massive self-seriousness.

very enjoyable tune, thanks

The new Doug Paisley is wonderful, might be my favorite one of his yet.

Not only did Lainey Wilson sing “Heart Like a Truck” on the CMT Awards last night, but they showed 5 times a Ram truck commercial that uses the song , . I think she won an award too. I kinda like the song although her delivery is a bit too melodramatic for me.

Jelly Roll won a male country singer award. “He sang “Son of a Sinner “

Jelly Roll did “Need a Favor” I mean

The show started off with a somber tone as country singer and co-host Kelsea Ballerini read off the names of six victims of a school shooting killed Monday in Nashville, Tennessee. She noted how she shared their pain, explaining that in 2008 she witnessed a school shooting in her hometown high school cafeteria in Knoxville and prayed for “real action” that would protect children and families. Earlier in the evening, country artists wore black ribbons on the red carpet to honor victims of the shooting

https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/nation-world/cmt-music-awards-show/507-14d9bc53-6a89-421f-ba61-2af6b304ebfd

Maren Morris is pretty fearless. there are so many country musicians out there who are silent on politics, not wanting to make waves, but she’s a hero.

xpost so Kelsea Ballerini is putting her ass on the line here---professionally, in that her vanilla country pop aspirations don't auto-fit with perceived "anti=Second Amendment" tendencies, let alone eyewitness accounts of school shootings---personally in that she's a woman (which also doesn't help biz-wise), and how dare she, no doubt some are already going after her like they do Maren Morris (who is not vanilla, but gets a lot of shit and sounds kinda weary but traveling on through Humble Quest).

Maren and Kelsea appear to be the only courageous ones.

I doubt any Nashville country act will condemn legislature for kicking out 2 Black members and not doing anything about gun control

The Ballerini EP she released in April is by far her best work.

Haven't heard it all yet, but did catch a new one that sounded pretty decent---maybe that goes with the statements that aren't convenient for the kind of (not nec. bad but often very narrowly focused) music she's mostly made before: she's stepping past that kind of music as well, no longer hiding or sidelining so much of her brain and true range of experience.

I'm not against country pop at all, I just want more of it to be, to even try to be, as good as, while not aping, Lainey Wilson and Sunny Sweeney are currently (Lainey was just as good in 2021 as 2022, Sunny's '22 seemed her most consistent ever).

I will be deleting all Anheuser-Busch products from my tour hospitality rider. I know many other artists who are doing the same.

— Travis Tritt (@Travistritt) April 5, 2023

I mean no disrespect towards anyone specifically, I don’t even mind @Travistritt.
I just think insulting transgender people is completely wrong because we live in a country where we can all just be who we want to be
It’s a great day to be alive I thought

— Zach Bryan (@zachlanebryan) April 8, 2023

absolutely terrifying that saying ‘insulting others is wrong’ is reason enough for people to get so evil so quick

— Zach Bryan (@zachlanebryan) April 8, 2023

His record – his Moby-Dick really – has some okay songs and some gorgeous songs. I never got to it last year.

Caramanica in NY Times and on IG has been a big Zach Bryan supporter.

I kinda went bananas for it last year, as these RC 22 posts only hint at:

Also thanks to this thread, I just now listened to all of xxxxetcpost(s) Zach Bryan's American Heartbreak for the first time. 34 songs, 2 hours and 1 minute by Spotify's count, so I thought I might break it up into two (or more) sessions, but no prob. Detailed turns of words and music---sometimes plot twists, ripping the Band-Aid off---replenished and pulled me right through it all, like it does the semi-beautiful loser narrator---sometimes alarmingly, when I get the impression that he's throwing himself once again at and through (also at) a bright blue winter sky wall---with relationships like vines, and space heater electrification: country as hell, and with a musical valentine to closing time itself, "when the world gets close," looping through "a wild man's weary ways" to a spot of morning light when you're always/so far looking good and "The Road I Know" as his final reward (on the album).

― dow, Tuesday, December 13, 2022 4:24 PM (three months ago) bookmarkflaglink

And I 'ppreciate that he doesn't blame other people more than himself--it's much less about brooding on a barstool than keep a-goin', one hand on the wheel, the other holding a drink (phone on in holder, so can record life's demos on the fly).

― dow, Tuesday, December 13, 2022 4:28 PM

From Numero:

California You're Slippin"

Out Today: Joyce Street - Tied Down LP
A ’70s homemaker stuck between the studio and a getting dinner on the table, Joyce Street eked out an arresting countrypolitan discography in the margins of an otherwise traditional American life. With lyrics drawn from the pages of her diary, Street’s stirring Mississippi warble led her into the fly-by-night world of custom studios, cutting tracks for upstart country concerns like Reena, Sonobeat, Revelation, and Arc. Channeling the honky tonk angel energy of Bobbie Gentry, Loretta Lynn, and Jeannie C. Riley,Tied Down compiles a decade’s worth of melodies disguised as lottery tickets.
Track List
Joyce Street Life Ain't Worth Livin' (If I Can't Have You)
Joyce Street That Man Of Mine
Joyce Street Woman Do Something Nice
Joyce Street Mississippi Moonshine
Joyce Street Don't Make Me Cry
Joyce Street Tied Down
Joyce Street Music Soft and the Lights Down Low
Joyce Street California You're Slippin'
Joyce Street The Good Book Says It's Wrong
Joyce Street Back Streets Of Your City
Joyce Street Love In My Heart
Joyce Street When You Belong To Me
Joyce Street California You're Slippin' [Demo]
Joyce Street Lost Highway

Oh yeah: Miranda was on a talk show last night, plugging this---said it was more stories than recipes, so I'm kinda curious (Holly Gleason is co-author):

My new cookbook Y’ALL EAT YET? is here!!
My mom and her group of friends, that are basically like my aunts, started what we called a “Chopped Cook-Off” in 2020. We’d have our husbands pick an ingredient a week, so we’d have 5 ingredients to make a dish, and we couldn’t use google to help us. It got us started talking about all of the recipes that we’d made, and all of our memories around them. We thought it’d be cute to make a little Shutterfly book of all of those recipes, but that idea grew into creating a full cookbook to share with y'all. So here we are, 3 years later. with a real book with all of our favorite recipes and memories together. I hope you enjoy them as much as we have.

Welcome to the Pretty Bitchin’ Kitchen Y’all!

Cheers! –Miranda

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/arts/music/popcast-country-divorce-albums.html

NY Times popcast /podcast re country music and recent divorce albums by Kelsea Ballerini , Carly Pearce , and Kacey Musgraves

The only one of those I've heard all the way through (and several times) is Pearce's: pretty uneven, like the one before it, and I'm sure it's tough as hell to figure out how much you want to, should, and can disclose, this last being at least as much about the intellectual and emotional energy, also will power, to coalesce fairness, candor, clarity, vividness, even aside from any concerns about feuds, lawyers, tabloids, fan talk online, etc. etc.---but if you're gonna do it at all, better do it right. She seems unsure of what she's doing about half the time on there.
On the other hand, she was great at the Opry this Saturday night just past, as seen on digital antenna TV's The Circle "network"/channel.

(As for Musgraves, what the hell? Every Rushton Kelly song I've ever heard tells all who will listen, in a very sincere, abject way, whut a no-good, dadgum, sorry soggy sack of shit he is.)

Carly Pearce's first album Every Little Thing is still my favorite of hers, it was fun and loose in ways she seems to keep retreating from. (Not that the divorce album should be "fun", but her music keeps feeling more static to me.)

His record – his Moby-Dick really – has some okay songs and some gorgeous songs. I never got to it last year.

― the very juice and sperm of kindness. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, April 11, 2023 2:01 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Anyone who still hasn't listened to American Heartbreak is missing out. Put it on.

The songwriting isn't amazing and individual songs are unlikely to wow, but the sum is greater than its parts, and I consider it an incredible development that he's as popular as he is given the last two decades of male-driven country.

I listened to it once all the way through, which I admit is not enough, but my takeaway was that it felt like a sea of same-ness - same inflections, same melodic palette, same volumes, same vibes - with the occasional peak that made me go, "OK, this one sounds cool."

I don't really understand why he put out so many songs at once - is that a streaming stunt to game the country charts or something?

The sheer number of tracks makes it hard to wade in, for me.

I do think it's great that he has gotten so big.

looking back now, i think my takeaway is similar to Alfred's ... except maybe i couldn't seem to fish out the okay songs from the seemingly never-ending stream of similar sounds

I must credit Wallen's weirdo song-stuffed behemoth for helping to prepare me for Bryant's---Zach Bryant is our Morgan Wallen.
In other news, Amanda Shires and Bobbie Nelson have an album coming out June 23. Instrumentally should be fine, but yknow Bobbie didn't sing and I told yall about my probs with Amanda's voice on Take It Like A Man, except when it's double-tracked, so maybe she'll do some of that here.
Bobbie's Audiobiography is good, and she did several other albums credited to her and Willie; the only one I've heard is December Day, a trip. Her struggles referenced by Shires are candidly tracked in Me and Sister Bobbie, the joint memoir with Willie: alternating chapters, come hell and breakfast.
https://www.jambase.com/article/amanda-shires-bobbie-nelson-loving-you-album-summertime-cover
First single from the upcoming, guest sung by guess who:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aW1a4fM8X0

Looking forward to this!

https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/brennen-leigh-aint-through-honky-tonkin-yet.jpg

"Ain't Through Honky Tonkin' Yet" coming 6/16/2023

Awash in full-throttle fiddle, weeping steel guitar, a sprinkling of heavenly backing vocals, and anchored by her warm, expressive vocals, Leigh’s latest album is an emotion-packed revelation. Rooted in vintage country, Ain’t Through Honky Tonkin’ Yet is an unapologetically beer-and tear-soaked homage to an era when hard-country weepers burst forth from AM transistor radios.

“I’m in love with this idea of the real Nashville, " says Leigh. “The idyllic golden age, which, to me, is around 1967, 1968, because of the alchemy, the explosion that occurred, with the best country music songwriters ever, the best singers in country music.”

The album’s country roots run deep, with guests like Marty Stuart and Rodney Crowell and a lineup of top-flight musicians, yet each track soars with abandon. With thoughtful, incisive lyrics and vibrant melodies at the forefront, Leigh has successfully created a modern gem, while honoring country music’s enduring golden era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qMXxPAeA9U

her western swing album was terrific. this should be incredible.

Her tour hits some fun spots

https://brennen-leigh-home.squarespace.com/tour

“I’m in love with this idea of the real Nashville, " says Leigh. “The idyllic golden age, which, to me, is around 1967, 1968, because of the alchemy, the explosion that occurred, with the best country music songwriters ever, the best singers in country music.”

(After I noted news of a show featuring Carper, Kelly Willis, and Brennen Leigh, the one I hadn’t heard of)
Brennen Leigh did nice old school duets record w/Jessie Dayton back in the 2000s.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 16 September 2022 03:01

she also just made a good western swing album with Asleep at the Wheel: https://brennenleigh.bandcamp.com/album/obsessed-with-the-west
― alpine static, Friday, 16 September 2022 03:54

That Brennen Leigh & A@tW album is fantastic; she did a whole album of Lefty Frizzell covers a couple of years ago, too, and it was definitely worth checking out. And I've been a Willis fan since her major label run in the early 90s. She's long been one of the very best there is.
― jon_oh, Friday, 16 September 2022

Thanks for all that, yall! Starting w Obsessed..., and esp. 'preciate how she follows the more variegated turns, observant reflections, like the title track, with the faster realness of "Comin' In Hot"--also (let me count the ways) the generous, still hopeful "Same Dream" is almost clipped by bee-beep "Tell Him I'm Dead," trad-recalling twilight eerie realness (somewhat Sam Shephardesque?) "Coming Off Onto Sunset Boulevard" gets charged by the equally cogent content of "You're Doing It Wrong," and so on: with bippity-boppity standard Western Swing frameworks, but also more blunt(ly thought out, experience-based) complaints than Tommy Duncan etc. usually delivered. Reminding me of Susannah Clark's "I'll Be Your San Antone Rose" as answer song.
Other cool stuff too, like the way she trades lines, sung and spoken, with Emily Gimble, Johnny Gimble's granddaughter, yeah. Also plays with the Wheel (who are very good here, duh). will check her 2018 Certain Kinda as well)(and all of 2020 Prairie Love Letter is on Bandcamp)
― dow, Saturday, 10 December 2022 00:14

Miko Marks and Rissi Palmer are doing a free Kennedy Center in DC gig now that is being shared on Kennedy Center youtube location. They're sounding more Mavis Staples and Americana than old school country or country pop, but this is still the best thread for them I guess

Morgan Wallen discussion w/ references to other acts as well going on in Wallen thread

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/11/arts/music/bailey-zimmerman-religiously-the-album.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Caramanica on Bailey Zimmerman who has the top song on country radio, is opening on tour for Morgan Wallen, is influenced by Nickleback, & Luke Combs , and recently visited Kid Rock who invited him over.

Hmm

where the hell WERE you people in the Wallen thread?! Cowards!

I said what I had to say on RC 2022, with the one later thought posted up this thread a little ways, that listening to his shaggy song-stuffed slab got me in shape for that of Zac Bryant, who is "our Morgan Wallen," as a somewhut more accomplished artist (and poster of reasonable Tweets. even).

who has the top song on country radio, is opening on tour for Morgan Wallen, is influenced by Nickleback, & Luke Combs , and recently visited Kid Rock who invited him over.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/2023-acm-awards-review-dolly-parton-garth-brooks-1234734032/

Morgan Wallen won male vocalist of the year at ACM Awards but wasn’t there to accept due to his voice issues

More like frail vocalist of the year, right?

Ha. Yes

Lainey Wilson was the night’s standout artist with three wins, including album of the year

Cole Swindell "She had me at heads Carolina" won best single

https://www.acmcountry.com/noms

Muscadine Bloodline and their new album "Teenage Dixie"

what say ye, Rolling Country thread?

I haven’t listened to them yet. Saw a reference to “unapologetically southern” and “country and southern rock “ , but I can’t blame the duo for those cliches. Maybe that is or is not how they sound.

not crazy about the word "Dixie" in their album title

Haven't listened to this one yet either:

“Music Man is the feel-good album of the year, and it illustrates Martine’s gift for weaving ingenious, often humorous lyrics (Ray Stevens was Martine’s earliest supporter) and rollicking music that encourages listeners to roll back the rug and dance.”
-No Depression

Kill Rock Stars in collaboration with Bloodshot Records is proud to share Layng Martine Jr.'s Music Man is out today + to share the new video for his single "Little Bit Of Magic"!

Layng is a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and he's written songs for Elvis, The Pointer Sisters, Reba McEntire, Trisha Yearwood, and Jerry Lee Lewis (to name but a few). The songs on Music Man were hand-picked from his extensive catalog by his son, acclaimed producer, Tucker Martine (My Morning Jacket, Rosanne Cash, The Avett Brothers) and recorded at Tucker’s studio Flora. Notable among the players are Peter Buck, Bill Frisell, Laura Veirs, and KD Lang, as well as a wealth of other talented musicians.

Other new releases incl. Altitude, by Marty Stuart And His Fabulous Superlatives, Brandy Clark's s/t.

Haven't listened yet cont.: Was not expecting so many country & related artists here---

This week on Folk Alley, join Elena See to celebrate Bob Dylan’s birthday (on May 24) with new versions of Dylan classics from Leftover Salmon and Sunny Sweeney, Miko Marks, Rissi Palmer, and Tami Neilson; plus more from Valerie June, Punch Brothers, The Cactus Blossoms, Emma Swift, Cindy Cashdollar and Amy Helm, and Tony Rice.

In hour two, it’s new music from Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain & Edgar Meyer, Margo Cilker, Rhiannon Giddens, Special Consensus, Marketa Irglova, The Milk Carton Kids, Libby Rodenbough, Rufus Wainwright; plus favorites from Daniel Rodriguez, Western Centuries, Steve Martin & Steep Canyon Rangers, and more!

def too many ashleys & whatnot

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, January 15, 2023 5:09 PM (four months ago)

While not exactly an Ashley, there's Ashland Craft, whose "Mimosas in the Morning" is a solid analogue to the peppier tracks on Chuck's list atop this thread.

Haven't heard the new Margo Price but I've heard it's great. Honestly, though, I still have so much trouble with all the great artists with first or last or both names that with M. Margo Price, Maren Morris, Mickey Guyton, Morgan Wade, Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves, Ashley McBride, Ashley Monroe ...

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, January 21, 2023 10:04 AM (four months ago)

"Wilder Days" by Morgan Wade (whose songs are so good, she'll make you forget about the singer with a similar name) is more Austin than Nashville, bright-but-gritty in the production, but with enough pop leanings to get radio airplay. If you remember should-have-beens the Damnations TX, you'll totally get those vibes from several songs on her Reckless LP.

Hadn't thought to connect her with Damnations TX, whose CD I still have---one of them, Amy Boone, is still with the Delines, whose latest is disappointing, but the debut, Colfaz Avenue, was still a low-rent urban countryoid vision cruise last time I checked in, and made my list for the recent female country singers poll.
Morgan's Reckless Deluxe came out in Jan. '22; here are just some of the blogged comments pulled into my 2021 blog round-up---brace yerselves, if you try reading it at all:

...Getting "Reckless" again, is one of the things she considers, wishes for sometimes, as the music moves around her---alt rock as the younger sort of potentially tops-of-the-pops country, young enough to take the 90s and early 00s over older artists' fascination with Petty and F.Mac: it's an extension and reinforcement of Wade's own electrical tuning systems, under all those tats*, flexing, always ready to go, as far as she and the guy she's talking to or around will take things--yes, and frequently it's to the limit, one more time, as stimulating prospect, because usually they have a history, and she certainly does, with and without him, alluded to with a sense of wonder, like can she beleeeve she did and was all whut---at one point recalls, maybe from the night they met, "Ah spoke mah truth, and yew got so upset"(oh the voice keeps it country alright, like the weight of personal relationship history does: one tight-jawed syllable measuring itself out at a time).

Welp--he's gotta get over it if they do try again---may be the guy she's out on an actual date with, as the music sounds atypically sedate, dinner-y, in the opening track: she's on her best behavior, sweetly murmuring, while observing, describing, thinking, "Ah wish Ah'd known you in your wilder days." Probably, undertones of voice and lyrics and accompaniment soon suggest, she'd feel like they had more in common back then---but, having heard all the songs and coming back to this one, seems like nostalgia for what might have been, the yen for a safe yet hot fantasy, which is so Morgan now, ditto the way she leans into wondering what his secret is---gotta have one; he's so Normal he must be nuts too, maybe in a program like her---maybe she'll peel back a few layers---

Soon it's "Matches and Metaphors," down the line with this guy or another, a booty call: "It's raining at my house, is it raining at yores?" But then "To hell with metaphors," she requests the comfort of his body, wonders if it will help, thinks it might, mentions a letter he wrote her, starts writing out loud her response, her script for how it might all work out for them after all---then back to the body ask, that's what it all comes back to, 'til she finally starts over, like a recording replayed, low-key intense, not gonna stop (digital not tape won't brake or break, fade in, radiate).

Of the very solid and vibrant original ten set, number 9, "Northern Air," is just okay, in this context--could be a high point elsewhere---about somebody who's stuck down here, in sordid Southern boredom, while he's up there---but the closer, "Met You"--not "Meet You," o hail naw, gotta be a history---is that comparatively rare kind of sequel that improves: it's her Godfather 2

The Jan. 2022 Reckless---Deluxe Edition does more of that, takes it all deeper and darker, on a longer, more exciting chain-chain-chain, getting wrapped around and stretched. It's not all together doomie, or not in a depresso sense---also, even visions of flight are never too florid, because she is wised up, she has been down this lane before, in her head and elsewhere. But context shades details and tone of even the mellowest, "Through Your Eyes," which is where she wishes she could see: a child,, age three, has said, "I want to be like you," which doesn't spook her a bit (as it does me, knowing her now as I kinda do), but touches her and even makes her wonder "if I should pray to you," (or is it "like you"? That would normally seem more likely, for sure, but---) as she moves from physical grace of the child to possible spiritual grace, also conflating "innocence" with "wild thoughts."

Another one has has her on the road from Tombstone, "holdin' hands with the band, six feet under," and something about "like Johnny and June": dead and loving it? Anyway rolling along, at least until "When The Dirt All Settles"---meanwhile, there's also "The Night," when she's hoping "the pills will work better this time," like the doctor says he thinks they might---I usually draw back from this kind of song, but she draws me in---eventually, there's the sole cover, providing a second of relief--something from the outside world!--but it's "We're caught in a trap/I can't walk out"---yet, as in EP's original, still kind of a sense, in the verses, of feeling around, talking lower, see it feels like this, don't it, is it possible they could, like, work it or something out after all, one more shot---all surging along towards something, of course--so Morgan.

*under all those tats: can't unsee the videos, where she looks concerned, careful, with vines snakes skank jailhouse roadmaps crawling out of the fabrics, arms sometimes seeming to pulse with power and infection. But that's her truth, and I may just have been not around young people in too long (covid alibi in a not very vaxxed red state).

Frank Kogan initially wonders if these are recovery songs—could be, but also, I reply: I haven't caught any psychobabble, or therapyspeak per se---"The Night" is disarming because she's watchful of options and the present the past the future (re title of classic girl group song) as ever, also of self, but there's no sense, for once, of her also talking to a particular guy (as I assume she otherwise does, although of course means to be overheard, though in another song it's "the woman in me" that needs "the lover in you." not "the man," so maybe not always a guy, though always is in videos I've seen; maybe she just doesn't want him to get all, "Yes! The MAN in me!"), nor is it big boo-hoo save me x confessional: the words are just finding their way out, as she's shivering, trying to get enough out that she can sleep, "without going too deep." Overall, even with some plot lines re what we gon do, the past is mainly felt through weight and implications, not coy, but left to interpretations, and relatable to anybody of any age who is feeling it times wondering about futures. Not that she isn't a disturbing presence, but relating is one part of the Morgan Experience, fer shure. (later) She's always approaching, calling, watching. Amazing how much of the same process stays musically fresh, arresting, involving. I usually think, "Should I be paid to take notes on this?" kind of songwriting, which does seem to imply search for therapy in some cases, but here, I forget to complain...

Sorry, the Delines' debut is Colfax Avenue.

Y'all heard the new Whitney Rose?

Yeah. It's good!

I already get Caitlin and Caroline Rose mixed up ... another Rose might be a problem.

Am I ready to get strung out on Whitney Rose one more time??? It's very likely to happen, "ready" or not---

Mary Gauthier's Dark Enough To See The Stars is such a story that I worry about spoilers, but here goes: each song is present tense, incl. when she's saying "Remember When" to her long-time traveling companion, the one who at the very least helped her get her shit together, maybe saved her life, which MG is inclined to believe.
So they're still going along, though "Amsterdam," for instance, then the companion pulls way out ahead, and the previously mentioned old bad-times-rolling life's "Ghosts of the Vieux Carre" suddenly seems tragically ironic--almost, but the companion is not now exactly a ghost---"The Sisters of Charity/Really did a number on me" doesn't quite match "The preacher's words hang in the air,"because those words are most of all part of the shocked clarity of the funeral or whatever--she doesn't call it "a celebration of life" either, or anything: it's just with children running around, and "all the friends I never knew you had!" and other glimpses, all wtf, wtf, wtf, so she gets back on the road, and writes more song-letters, dispatches, chapters to the now missed, not exactly missing one.

Musically, she sometimes draws on customized suggestions of graceful 70s country-folk tunes of Young and Dylan (maybe from way down in The Witmark Demos too?), with a splash of Floyd Crameresque guitar here, steel guitar there, and a bracingly Williesque interstate waltz, "Truckers and Troubadours" ("No use in keepin' score), strong enough to be a good single, gains even more from context, incl. placement in sequence of songs.
Vocal x instrumental delivery such that I notice something more with every listen, also because Imagery is fluid and precise, never too much or little. Damn, she's good.

Maybe I'll check out her book about songwriting. She's probably still involved in that long-term project of writing with war vets too (she's not the only Nashville pro doing it, but think she may have founded it, or co-founded

Luke Combs cover of Tracy Chapman “Fast Cars” is pleant enough

Pleasant

such a good song, it's hard to screw it up ... and he doesn't.

https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/the-best-country-roots-albums-of-2023-so-far/

What's on your list?

Marty Stuart album is ok. Roots country plus Byrds influences

Listening to Lainey Wilson pop country from 2022 now . Some songs I like, some too bombastic and arena for me

https://mediacdn.aent-m.com/prod-img/500/77/4210977-2977863.jpg

Little Songs is the highly anticipated new album from Canadian singer-songwriter, Colter Wall. On Little Songs, fans of Wall’s will find the same hardscrabble voice they’ve loved over the years connecting the contemporary world to the values, hardships, and celebrations of rural life. The album is produced by Wall and Patrick Lyons, and features 8 new original songs, as well as two fan-favorite covers – Hoyt Axton’s “Evangelina” and Ian Tyson’s “The Coyote & The Cowboy.”

Little Songs is an upbeat, sometimes somber glimpse into the rural work and social life of the Canadian West, and, more so than with previous albums, opens emotional turns as mature and heartening as the resonant baritone voice writing and singing them.
1. Prairie Evening/Sagebrush Waltz
2. Standing Here
3. Corralling the Blues
4. The Coyote & The Cowboy
5. Honky Tonk Nighthawk
6. For a Long While
7. Cow/Calf Blue Yodel
8. Little Songs
9. Evangelina
10. The Last Loving Words

damn---7/14/23 (& mebbe download code w vinyl?)

Wakes up and realize her name is still Sunny Michaela Freakin Sweeney, 46, double-divorcee, time to go out down the highway a little further and introduce the rules one more time, to a new recruit: "You can tie me up, but you can't tie me down." Not to say there aren't flashbacks: title track of Married Alone is a shivering, crashing, spiraling waltz, with Vince Gill co-lifting the chorus---otherwise, she has to push herself out in front of the band and any other straight-ahead detours like this,

It's just one word shouldn't be that tough
But I finally realized enough is enough
Shouldn't linger in the air or echo down the hall
As soon as I'd say it, it would be done
Then both of us could finally move on
And get out from under the weight of it all

If goodbye were as easy as hello

marital stability, though this context suggests might take an army.

Morgan Wallen’s ‘Last Night’ Tops Billboard Hot 100 for 11th Week
Plus, Luke Combs' "Fast Car" rides to No. 3, making for two simultaneous top three country hits for the first time since 2000.

Loving the new Brennen Leigh album

The Amanda Shires & Bobbie Nelson collab album is fantastic. At the risk of picking a scab, I'll say I actually like it more than the Shires solo album from last year.

I adore Brandy Clark and thought the individual songs were all very good, but the whole of her album in its entirety was just a chore to listen to. The pairing with Carlile seemed to rob her of her wittiness. The second Carlile - Tanya Tucker album, though, is one of the best of the year so far.

do y'all have any label Bandcamps you keep an eye on for country releases? i know New West and Rounder are on there ... not sure about other stuff, either "bigger" than those or small labels that focus on country music.

I adore Brandy Clark and thought the individual songs were all very good, but the whole of her album in its entirety was just a chore to listen to.

Even the songs are a chore to listen to.

Haven't listened yet---I thought some of her earl tracks were overworkshopped, self-conscious, but really enjoyed Your Life Is A Record.

And the reason I haven't listened yet is that I'm still, believe it or not, doing a round-up of re-re-etc.-listening objects for a blogpost about the music of 2022. There are just a few sticking points left, with Lainey Wilson's Bell Bottom Country somewhut unexpectedly among same. It had taken several listens to reach a peak of enthusiasm---seemed too contrived, and also I belatedly discovered that increased volume revealed more conviction in tone and details---but I assumed that I had gotten it, and could come back to said peak several months later: no. Same process, same learning curve, all over again, even though it seemed reasonably loud at first---it's not all about the volume, this elusively problematic aspect, but for sure, if you want your sensitive arena rock country, you gotta be ready with the volume (to ride it back a little for the double-tracked armor or scar tissue, a signifying part of the looking back in candor in the finely written "Watermelon Moonshine,"but still a little too loud), ready, often enough, to throw your headphones into the maelstrom ov fun like she does her head on "This One's Gonna Cost Me," title and chorus of which become this album's thee most explicit expression of her exciting dynamic: persistent self-image of a good girl, raised right, looking for love and self-empowerment, who rat now wants to have a good good good time.
Here we have a recurring sort of Zep-hop beat at its heartiest, swaying that big horned head one more time, but now it also occurs to me that producer Jay Joyce also appreciates Led Z.'s mix of the heavy and brash with the fingerpicking side of life, and Wilson responds, going barefoot down a b-melody line to the ripples of Molly Tuttle's banjo, or for that matter under an intro of what sounds like some kind of mellotron-banjo.

(Joyce's only misfire: "Wildflowers and Wild Horses" starts with a mysterioso Lee Hazlewoodesque instrumental scrim, but then turns Lainey loose to gallop through big loud bravura rhetoric, losing Lee's control and tension.)
Beats vary, but clock gentle intensity in ballads, like when she credibly salutes "Daddy's Boots," with a bit of atypical toe-tapping added, then strips away the usual roots-view to "Momma's crazy and Daddy's mean," when it's down to "Me, You and Jesus" getting through: "Me" first, part of the candor again, "Jesus" the only mention, that's how young and desperate she is in this flashback, "You" can be anybody she trusts, trying to hold on to this isolated, shared undercurrent of faith and hope and getting by is the point, and not so loudly that Momma and Daddy will hear.
Followed immediately by "Hold My Halo," cause cuz she's paid her Dew Drop Inn dues, gonna ride that electric bull one more time tonight. See there always has to be a justification, which could get annoying in the uniquely narrowcast "Weak-End" (yes we know you're lookin' for love, but that's not all, not in them places), if not for distraction of the gently antsy beat), with need for alibi and recreational therapy at its funniest and near-rowdiest in "Smell Like Smoke" ("It's cause Ah been, through, Hellll.")
Wiki sez that one was "tacked on" to streams and downloads: too bad for CD and LP buyers, because it and the other tackee, "New Friends," are antipodal highlights. After the 4-Non-Blondes cover--where she conscientiously delivers teeming verbosity rushing to the accidental but still stupid comedy of anticlimatic "Whut's going on?"---Wilson returns to the vibrant twilight of "You, Me and Jesus," now resolving to find new friends, rather than just moping over that guy---atta girl, as she says in song of that title, also a gentle one, though given the louder ones, one might wonder just what kind of friends. TBA.

A retraction, and apology for my disgraceland display of effusion for xpost American Heartbreak: I now find myself unable to continue past track 10 or so, what with Zach B's abject drops of remorse and desire and insight and obsession with self and other continuously and monotonously sliding off the Mellenplate---the Mellentemplate leaned on by so many raspy bluejean-jacketed young and not so young men of country for the past 20 years, at least. Not that the Coug himself wouldn't do his damndest to build a listenable record around such inclinations. I mean, good luck with patching yourself back together, ZB, but if you want musicmaking as therapy, maybe get with Mary Gauthier, who has all that experience writing with war vets.

I mean that seriously, but there should be a good producer who can stand to this sort of thing some of the time.

Willie's First Fourth of July Picnic was 50 years ago today
Michael Corcoran

Just as magic mushrooms grow out of cow manure, the musical event that put Austin on the map on July 4, 1973 sprouted from a financial shitshow on the same Hurlbut Ranch. The three-day Dripping Springs Reunion in March 1972, dubbed “the Country Woodstock” by promoters, anticipated crowds of 60,000 a day for a mix of country legends- Buck Owens, Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, Roy Acuff, etc.- with hip, offbeat favorites Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Roger Miller, and Tom T. Hall. Projections were 160,000 short, as a total of only 20,000 came through the gates. The crowd for Friday’s bluegrass lineup, including Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs was a paltry 2,000. Biggest day was Sunday, with Willie, Kris, Rita Coolidge and Waylon playing to 12,000. It was “a successful failure,” according to Mike McFarland, one of the four promoters from Dallas who lost their asses.

No apologies necessary. An album as long as Bryan's will have more than enough okay things. Nevertheless, I like the album. You hear Mellencamp in your average country guy? Really? I wish! Those tropes can get them through a lot of bilge.

Have you read this: https://www.stereogum.com/2223439/zach-bryan-came-out-of-nowhere/reviews/concert-review/

https://daily.bandcamp.com/best-country/bandcamp-best-country-june-2023

Ben Salmon for Bandcamp likes Brennan Leigh, Fust, Tanya Tucker, the Kody Norris Show, Jenny Don’t & the Spurs, and Jason Isbell, Caitlyn Canty and a few more

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/07/24/country-musics-culture-wars-and-the-remaking-of-nashville?mbid=social_twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_brand=tny&utm_social-type=owned

Morris had recently had a few skirmishes online with right-wing influencers—notably, Brittany Aldean, the maga wife of the singer Jason Aldean. Morris had called her “Insurrection Barbie”; in response, Jason Aldean had encouraged a concert audience to boo Morris’s name. Both sides had sold merch off the clash. The Aldeans hawked Barbie shirts reading “don’t tread on our kids.” Morris fans could buy a shirt that read “lunatic country music person”—Tucker Carlson’s nickname for her—and another bearing the slogan “you have a seat at this table.” (She donated the proceeds to L.G.B.T.Q. charities.)

In country music, the city v rural= corrupt v moral binary has existed for a long, long time.

Let’s think about how Aldean’s latest anti-city song is part of a longer tradition in country music, rather than an outlier. pic.twitter.com/rWQP4bmJMd

— Amanda Marie Martinez (@Amammartinez) July 17, 2023

Good point

Jason Aldean shot this at the site where a white lynch mob strung Henry Choate up at the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tenn., after dragging his body through the streets with a car in 1927.

That's where Aldean chose to sing about murdering people who don't respect police. https://t.co/gBL7FlaBS2 pic.twitter.com/eGfmMc8HAI

— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) July 17, 2023

I prefer Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves, et al's takes on small town life as ceaselessly nosy, gossipy, and conniving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRdkrDk0BQ0

truer lols were never loled

xxpost Well duh, Aldean's song is so far beyondo Buck's---which is the xpost fussy small towner gone to Beeg Sheety, the funnier for seeming sincere enough, as Buck perhaps remembers his own first impressions----butt young Jason started out closer to Buck's and Miramda etc.'s view---as I mentioned in an early 00s discussion of rednecks vs. hillbillies (in songs and videos)"

Of course, irony brings a nice tang to the New Earthiness of recent country, which is a healthy countertrend to the anxieties of life during wartime. (And now floodtime, and so on.) So, with CMT cornpone-playa Jason Aldean bringing the sight of "the neighbor's butt crack, as he's nailin' up the shin-gles" to the New Earthy party on his hit video "Hicktown," sure, I'll salute it. But Aldean's music reminds me of driving a pickup truck over railroad ties and bad roads, just for the heck and the habit of it. Which can be fun, like the song. Yet even before the price of gas went up so much, it was kinda dumb to drive around like that just for the heck of it -- and obstinately so.
And that -- whether it's self-mocking or self-righteous or surrogate-seeking or mostly commercial -- is what representations of "redneckism" come down to, most of the time: that 'necks are dumb and obstinate.
Hillbillies, on the other hand, are more likely to be crazy and sexy. You might look perfectly normal, but if you have a recessive 'billy gene in there somewhere, one of these days you're just gonna jump out the window and go whoopin' 'round the mountain with Bugs Bunny and Dolly Parton.

aldean's song, incidentally, was struggling to rise much further than its debut position on the country airplay charts, and is now seeing a major sales/streaming boost as a result of this

the ppl from the morgan wallen thread who argued that his popularity was ascendant anyway and that his post-controversy gains had little to do w/ vindictiveness felt by fans (and non-fans engaged in the culture wars) should take note

i hate to be cynical, but both the lyrical content and video seem to be constructed to dogwhistle as loudly as possible while also also carefully making sure to remain (barely) within bounds of plausible deniability ('all the protesters in the video are white!' 'the lyrics don't even refer to race!' etc.) and i do not doubt that aldean & co. basically expected and aimed for this controversy to occur. this is the sweet spot that some among the meticulous pro songwriters and imagemakers of nashville aspire to hit nowadays. absolutely repugnant

it's been some years now since maga-wave right-wing grievance songs would semi-routinely sell rly well on itunes for a few days, maybe even scrape one week's billboard charts, then fall away. now here we are with a major country star trying to tap into that with his mainstream radio-promoted single. i doubt this will be the end of it. last year country radio had a hit with a lyric trying to sweetly normalize the popular framing for anti-abortion legislation (heartbeats/8 weeks/whatever). (or was it 2 years ago? i can't stomach actually listening to country radio anymore.) now here were are this year. what next?

i really really disliked that new yorker article about nashville. the writer admits in the piece to conceiving of it as a strawman battle between sexist racist nashville and the queer POC underground upstarts and frankly it never recovers from there. in particular i find it insane that someone could write that many words about contemporary challengers to mainstream country & not write a single word about zach bryan, who is easily the biggest threat to conventional nashville in decades & has spoken out to support trans people to boot. if you go see a show of his he is attracting the bro-est of the bros, while also being a bro himself, but bcuz of that his voice has the opportunity to matter more than anyone else in that piece, from marren morris & jason isbell on down. which isn't to say it should be a zach bryan article but to not even mention him once immediately called into question whether the writer really understands the subject she's writing about. and relatedly to that there is no actual writing about music in that piece, and how that is functioning w/in the changing landscape of nashville -- when you're writing about music culture, the music itself is pretty important. very little to no mentions of streaming and how that is changing things etc -- we get the tired example of morgan wallen vs the dixie chicks w/ no context about how the music industry has changed dramatically in the last 20 years. just really poor stuff & the new yorker's recent music issue was great so it was disappointing to see

the ppl from the morgan wallen thread who argued that his popularity was ascendant anyway and that his post-controversy gains had little to do w/ vindictiveness felt by fans (and non-fans engaged in the culture wars) should take note

i don't think we need to have this convo again but it was shown definitively in that thread that the "post-controversy gains" were confined to the first week, to the tune of +8 million streams, and after that he bled tens of millions of streams for months on end. which isn't to say that there aren't country music fans who are inspired by reactionary politics, bcuz of course that's true and there's examples of it all over the place transcendent of just country music, but on a factual level i would adjust this statement moving forward bcuz it sounds surface level true but if you have access to the data it just... isn't. in reality the data shows the opposite of what is claimed -- there was a small reactionary bump in the first week but a vast more number of people fled for the hills. in reality, it wasn't until "last night" (two full years) that his streaming numbers returned to what they were in the week before the video leaked.

which is all to say that i guess we'll see where this aldean thing goes. any artist in any genre who generates any sorta mainstream headline type controversy sees a minor increase in streams in the immediate week following (link), but i'm not sure that tells us anything about the world that we don't already know. it seems like there is institutional pushback against this but how much does that matter? i'm honestly not sure. it mattered more than people realize in the case of morgan wallen, but only for so long. the push-pull between institutional power and democratic power is one that defines american culture in general right now, and even w/in music, is quite similar to stuff that happens in rap, pop, etc. aldean has his supporters, but even w/in nashville he is a figure of division, not unification, and leaning into his own marginalization may mobilize his fanbase to buy/stream his music, but it will also isolate them. and that's pretty much the best that can be done in an economy where consumers can bypass institutional barriers and provide direct support via purchases or plays.

I've been enjoying Isbell trolling him, that's for sure.

Adeem with a response.

Alright I caved to my record label and did a cover of the new @jason_aldean song. Please share it around & enjoy! I love COUNTRY MUSIC! & how inclusive it is!! pic.twitter.com/RPCUyy1FiS

— Adeem the Opryist (@AdeemTheArtist) July 20, 2023

the Nate Silver of country racism

remember when tim mcgraw released "sundown heaven town"

Adeem The Artist was really good when I saw them play a month or so ago.

their album is excellent ... released at a terrible time (early December of last year) in terms of getting the attention it deserved.

Adeem is awesome, it's been great to watch them catch fire a bit this year.

I've been enjoying Isbell trolling him, that's for sure.

Some of his tweets have been good, and while it was interesting to learn that Aldean didn't write the song himself-- Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy, Kelley Lovelace and Neil Thrasher wrote "Try That in a Small Town," bashing Aldean for not writing the song himself seems kinda less effective as a troll dis as lots of singers use songwriters.

FWIW, I don't think Aldean has had a single writing credit since something like 2009, which is impressive. Even Morgan Wallen (who Isbell has also trolled for his team of writers) has several on his latest record.

I think one of Isbell's lines of attack was essentially that with no skin in the writing game, Aldean was in no position to defend the song.

Seriously how do you defend the content of a song you weren’t even in the room for? You just got it from your producer. If you’d been there when it was written, you’d be listed as a writer. We all know how this works. https://t.co/4trCw0S98k

— Jason Isbell (@JasonIsbell) July 20, 2023

Feels somewhat beside the point

For sure, which is why it's trolly. But it also sort of underscores the/a crux: Aldean has no personal stake in this song, it's purely cynical/mercenary, which is what makes it extra offensive. If he was more involved or more talented, he could have tried to make it better, or less offensive, or maybe even worse or more offensive, but as it stands, it's just laziness, because it represents zero effort or investment on his part.

Honestly, that's not unrelated to a lot of what's going on with the GOP these days: just a total, cynical lack of conviction. They parrot what they need to say to appeal to the fabled base without really giving a shit about anything, let alone consequences. It's about the sale, not what's being sold.

Has Aldean responded to any of his tweets?

I doubt it. A few others have on his behalf, though:

What really gets me about this is that it’s saying “if you don’t believe you can physically overpower me, you aren’t allowed to publicly disagree with me.” What does that say to the people in your life who aren’t big strong boys? They just have to shut up? https://t.co/MRL8trpgBl

— Jason Isbell (@JasonIsbell) July 20, 2023

Aldean and his MAGA supporting wife Brittany ( whom Maren Morris referred to as “Insurrection Barbie") are just in their Fox News right wing world and not aware of much beyond that, likely including the ugly history of where the video for the song was filmed.

Asked whether she believes Aldean had direct knowledge of the Maury County Courthouse's frightening history, Phillips points to interviews where Aldean has boasted, "I haven't read a book since high school." Regardless, Phillips describes a long legacy of white supremacy in Columbia and neighboring communities — including Pulaski, Tenn., where the Ku Klux Klan was founded — that should not have escaped the consideration of the robust music industry personnel behind the video.

That's from this NPR article about the long history of rural vs city theme, and the history of it in country music

https://www.npr.org/2023/07/22/1188908968/jason-aldean-small-town-vs-city

But it also sort of underscores the/a crux: Aldean has no personal stake in this song, it's purely cynical/mercenary, which is what makes it extra offensive.

see for me i've always found this particular line of criticism used by isbell to be a bit odd not just bcuz it's beside the crux of the issues that ppl have w/ wallen & aldean, but also because i've always understood country as a place where people didn't really care who wrote the song, as long as the song is good? like, the idea of the song -- the hit -- is so sacrosanct in nashville, even more so than in other genres including pop, that ppl (certainly w/in the industry including artists themselves) see the singer to be a vessel for some sort of greater power that has delivered to us this great Record. the message is more important than either the messenger or its author. ppl like george strait & reba who are some of the most commercially successful country artists of all time pretty much wrote barely if any of their songs. maybe country fans' attitudes towards authorship have waxed and waned over time, but the auteurist idea of the singer also being the songwriting & musical genius behind the music feels to me like it's been given far more weight in rap & pop than it ever has in country.

look, it's great marketing for isbell. he's preaching to his choir when he talks about authorship & places himself athwart modern mainstream country. i don't think *he* is being cynical but it's great brand work for him anyway. in general i think his voice is a very valuable one as a counterbalance to conventional industry wisdom & culture. but i don't buy the idea that aldean is selling something cynically bcuz he wasn't in the room when he wrote the song, or that it makes for "lesser" art (lmao, in this case) -- but this message board raised me to be a poptimist so that is how i see things. it almost gives aldean too much credit imo to position this as cynical marketing... of course he is intending to court/create controversy, but i think the guy is actually just an asshole w/ repugnant politics who is seeking to connect w/ likeminded people at the expense of common decency (this would be one major way in which he is different than wallen, who has dutifully re-conformed to societal norms while peddling his hugely successful album)

Yeah, I don't think Aldean has given much of anything a second of thought, which is the reactionary way (exacerbated by being an asshole dumbass). Whereas someone like Isbell gives everything a lot of thought in a Socratic effort to be less of an asshole dumbass. Two different approaches. Reading a bit more into it, plus taking his other posts into consideration, I get the impression Isbell finds it kind of a personal affront that someone wouldn't even make an effort to at least participate in the songwriting process. For sure Isbell is something of a poptimist himself, despite his own personal rockist inclinations. But I think that's because he considers himself a rock musician first and foremost and cedes authority to artists in other lanes. Certainly mainstream country straddles the line in a unique way. On one hand, it's often all about keeping it real, projecting authenticity, honesty, that sort of vibe, while at the same time embracing the tools and artifice of pop (session dudes, hired songwriters, chasing trends). Again, I think Isbell is largely trolling because he's a position to do so, knowing that most people can't write as well as he can, but at the same time is probably legit irked by the success of someone in his ostensible field who doesn't even try despite having the tools and means to do so.

I got into a fight on another blog when several writers said I was too clever by half by not thinking Isbell's response particularly witty or at best beside the point (it might've mattered a little if another non-writing country singer had called him out).

Another angle I am seeing on this is from folks who say that critics should have ignored the song and video because calling it out just gives it more attention and encourages more conservatives to embrace Aldean for a song that wasn't initially doing well. Not sure I buy that. I don't think ignoring a hateful song and video by a big star is a good approach and will make the song and the message disappear from the country music world. Ignoring it might have lessened the chance of crossover attention, but I think CMT only dropped the video because of the attention (and yeah I get that people can see video elsewhere and hear the song elsewhere).

Lefsetz in his email is pushing the line that the left should just ignore the hate -- Don't be knee-jerk, think about this. Stop amplifying heinous behavior. You're only emboldening believers. If you don't talk about it, it doesn't exist. Now people know more about Jason Aldean than they do about Biden and his economic policies, something the left has been trying to amplify for weeks under the label "Bidenomics." Once again, the left has lost the battle. Will it lose the war? Yes, if it continues to turn nothingburgers into conflagrations.

I will say it really speaks to something about the right wing for this guy to sing a track that has a key moment where it's anti-gun reform, a guy who probably just missed out on getting killed on stage in the worst gun massacre in US history. Still fighting for the rights of guys like St*ph*n P*dd*ck after all that.

I think Isbell is giving this chud way too much credit obv and probably attempting to debate him on deeper points is def beside the point.

Can't imagine Isbell giving much of a shit about sacred Nashville traditions, the old timers he associates himself with were songwriters.

Lefsetz is such a numbnuts

when does cmt even air videos? late night? (a quick perusal of the schedule online suggests they're aired between 4 and 9am...) from the billboard 'exclusive' article revealing it had been pulled: "It is unclear how many times CMT played the video before pulling it on Monday," i.e. they weren't actually monitoring video play on the network themselves + were likely tipped off to the removal by someone who cared enough to pay attention, which frankly was almost no one until the story broke

As someone who has lived many years in small towns, I notice that their cops do get shot by other local residents, hardly ever by people from cities, except occasionally those in the same metro area (not like all those sinister aliens on The Andy Griffith Show).

Although maybe somebody will now compare statistics (not me). Of course it's also about how to deal with with such an event. (My thoughts, the end)(dyl has covered most of them).

Regardless of statistics and debates on same, point of course is that Aldean presents a false dichotomy. Thank yew and good night.

FWIW, Aldean is from Macon, which is not a particularly small town. I guess he's just singing about the small town in all of our hearts. Well, maybe not all of us ...

The copy of Mellencamp's "Small Town" in all of our hearts.

Probably not Bronski Beat, that's for sure.

"Try That With A Small Town Boy"

Jason Isbell's point about "fight me!"-type bullies brought back some depressing memories.

As a former resident and activist in rural Kentucky, I regularly encountered these Tough Guys who build their entire identity around the attitude expressed by “Try That In A Small Town” or numerous other songs of a similar nature – with the obligatory decals on their trucks - and I naively thought I could convince a few of them into joining efforts towards defeating the corrupt elected officials that gave huge tax incentives to multinational conglomerates in exchange for a small number of dangerous, low-paying jobs; or at least trying to fight back against the wealth-hoarding executives that ignore worker-safety laws and pollute the environment, all while harassing anyone trying to unionize (before the inevitable departure for another locale with even worse worker-safety laws).

Of course, they were not interested.

Way to stand up for your townsfolk, Tough Guys. When someone actually does “Try That” in your small town, you weak-ass shitbags roll over and lick the boots of the oppressors. You’re totally fine with having to boil your water before you drink it, or re-electing the Republican rep that denied the Medicaid expansion that would finance your kids’ health care when they got too close to the toxic sludge near the creek, but God forbid someone accidentally brush past you at the local bar, or a person of the wrong race or accent drives through your town!

Ugh

Jason Aldean addresses racism controversy surrounding his song ‘Try That in a Small Town’ and pledges to continue performing it:

“I love our country, I want to see it restored to what it once was before all this bullshit started happening to us.” pic.twitter.com/CixDNBwret

— Pop Base (@PopBase) July 22, 2023

So he just wants to make American great again, or something like that?

https://variety.com/2023/music/news/jason-aldean-concert-defends-vigilante-song-try-that-small-town-1235677520/

But the only example that Aldean offered in his defense of the song at the Cincinnati concert was something that doesn’t come up in either the lyrics or the music video: mass shootings.

“I know a lot of you guys grew up like I did,” Aldean said. “You kind of have the same values, the same principles that I have, which is we want to take our kids to a movie and not worry about some asshole coming in there shooting up the theater.

Hate to break the guy's heart, but afaict mass shootings in small towns aren't typically perpetrated by outside agents coming in to cause trouble.

"Try That With A Small Town Boy"

lolol

Here's some music to blow the bad shit away:
Flaco, the current Flaco Jimenez studio album, has too much meh vocals overhead, but ends with a fine pair of instrumentals:

"Loa Amores Del Flaco"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNcww523gIA

"Hasta La Vista"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lx1Wm5HFiA

and omg whatever else this is, it's fun, w somewhat spacey live sound; he plays on most of it, I think, even does an accordion and voice duet w Raul---songs do not play in the order listed:

Flaco Jimenez Vs. The Mavericks---Greatest Hits 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K28b70-_YnI

Does Flaco ever sing? There's one track where an agile little voice matches the accordion, don't think it's Raul----this set might sound better on YouTubeMusic, but somehow I don't want it to, at least not yet.

I had no idea Flaco was still alive. The Mavericks ... underrated? At the least Raul Malo has always been a heck of a singer.

jfc this idiot bringing up mass shootings as if there wasn't just one pretty recently in a "small town" during which the cops famously sat on their hands terrified to go in while kids were being massacred

Hey, in our small town you don't tell our cops what to do.

the Mavericks are fantastic

In Time was a peak: RIYL Los Lobos and early The Band, in terms of drawing all or many of their roots and interests into the signature sound---and now they've got a 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, with bonus tracks (Blue Vinyl Ltd. has sold out, but there's digital, CD, maybe another LP at some point)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnaoZ64VeyQ

RIYL Los Lobos and early The Band

I'd also maybe add Chris Isaak, for obvious reasons.

Yeah, and I didn't mean that they ever, as far as I know, actually sounded like The Band, but, for In Time anyway, had more signs of that syncretic Big Pink process going on, drawing deeper from the well for more colors, more shades at least, not radically altering their style, but doing it in a way that seemed like a logical development and a refreshing, exciting one. Big Pink was kind of high strung, while the Mavericks and Los Lobos are usually cooler with it, taking a variety of roots etc. as a given (Exception: to me, The Mavericks En Espanol sounds like Mario Unchained, Mario practically busting a gut at a talent show, and being awesome! But I wanna hear more of The Mavericks.)

Also they sound like they probably like the Texas Tornadoes and some other bands and recording situations involving Flaco and Doug Sahm, who was never shy about musical variety, while always sounding unmistakably like himself (that voice, that weed)

And prob should have left out The Band, but yeah Isaak, so Orbison, and his Latin inspirations, whoever they were.

Official name: Texas Tornadoes (spellcheck making me look like Dan Quayle)

Now it's leaving out strikethrough! Too klever of me: sorry, Texas Tornados (as Flaco has noted,"Now there's just me and Augie, two tornados")(although Shawn Sahm pulled together at least one more album)

The Band

Yeah, I don't think the Mavericks sound like them at all, but at times Los Lobos sure has. Perhaps the only band I've ever heard really bring to mind the Band, intentionally. But of course, Los Lobos are pretty much capable of anything.

So I'm disappointed in most of Flaco's latest, but Eva Ybarra's La Reina Del Accordéon rules OK! (and then some): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3F7qrqwnZ0

And now I see that I misplaced the acute mark in the word misspelled: should be La Reina Del Acordeón.)

"Lake of Fire" was the highlight of a mostly disappointing Bruce Robison album several years ago. He misspelled the writer's name, Christy Hays, but I tracked down her River Swimmer, which was and is a trip, though I learned how to go with the flow, how to swim it, and there's a striking, somewhat countervailing version of "Lake" on her latest, the reductively-titledSad Songs For Lonely People: there's a playful, old school country feel, as she even gets the sometimes scary steel guitar to shuffle along in a sincerely horny way: the Lake of Fire is her heart, babe, "in the dark of the light," and now it occurs to me that this is a drinking song, a having-drunken song, in which such confidences make total sense, or enough of the right kind.

Another good version of this effect comes on one of her more mumblecore productions---she's already told somebody she knows she's hard to handle but still doesn't feel doing nothing else on this long-ass day, I just wanna ride around": that's "Ride Around"---and now, she's nailed by those "White Crosses," the little ones, with "fake flowers," by the side of the road, and she's taking them personally, that's clear enough, and seems like she might have been a killed or killing traveler, perhaps both, or at least relates re tendencies. Meanwhile, the steel guitar keeps floating around the curve, its degree of brightness never entirely predictable, while she's hunched over her acoustic.

Lots of atmospheric character studies here, with enough discernible detail, and even an intriguing personal-historical Western trilogy in the home stretch (she lives in Butte, Montana).

new Tyler Childers video/song is gorgeous despite the video's reliance on certain tropes, also love to see Silas House was involved

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II-L8Hq0_i4

Thanks---at first, discs 2 and 3 of Childers' opus were growing on me quite a bit, then receded---but glad he's still trying---and Silas House! I enjoy his interviews, should check his books, and maybe he'll try his hand at lyrics, if he hasn't already.

Also for further study: Sara Evans, who I didn't know could be this good.

She was in the back yard
Say it was a little past nine
When her prince pulled up
A white pick-up truck…

Speaking of so many country and adjacent acts with names that start with the letter "M," My Morning Jacket just played the Newport Folk Festival and was joined at various times by Maggie Rogers, Margo Price, and Animal (from the Muppets).

Pop-country alert: Stumbled on this because she's playing here in a few weeks as an opening act. I was initially charmed by the blatant pseudo-Swiftness of it, thinking about how many hundreds of Swiftian writers there are yet to come. But the chorus sold me. Interesting that she's keeping a country affiliation while absorbing a lot of the stuff Swift did only after she "left" country.

Also, it's not six minutes long, it's just the song looped twice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJKlxl4yJ0M

lol from YouTube it looks like Tana Matz has been making music for 10 years and sounding like Taylor Swift the whole time.

Taylor Slow

x-post re: Sara Evans

She's only rarely ever been that great; "Suds in the Bucket" is (one of?) her best singles, and it's because she leans hard into the more trad-country phrasings and her thick drawl. Evans has never seemed to know what her actual strengths are: She fancies herself more of a Faith Hill / Martina McBride type when she's better suited as a Lee Ann Womack / Patty Loveless.

The covers album she released a couple of years ago is honest-to-God one of the worst albums I've ever heard. There's a particular iteration of Hell that's just Sara Evans, bleating her way through "Come On, Eileen."

Suds in the Bucket is a certified hit, one of the best of that era for sure.

Also would like to read the think piece about how the balkanization of all other genres and musical fandom has led to a resurgence in the cultural significance of a few select (male) country stars. When was the last time 3 of the top 4 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 were male country acts?

Thanks for the xpost Evans warnings!

Finally saw this splendid 2022 work-out---get it while you can:

Terry Allen & The Panhandle Mystery Band
Season 47 Episode 4712 | 54m 6s
|

Enjoy an hour with maverick Texas singer/songwriter and artist Terry Allen and the Panhandle Mystery Band. The Guggenheim Fellowship winner performs songs from his lauded LP Just Like Moby Dick, as well as classics from his back catalog.

Aired: 01/29/22

Expires: 08/27/23

Rating: TV-G

Continuous Play Settings

oops, here's link:
https://www.pbs.org/video/terry-allen-sgfb6f/

Deep summer bonus track from The River and The Stream, later on a Jesse Winchester tribute album, Quiet About It:
Rosanne Cash, "Biloxi"---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDhV5SscEgc

Maybe a controversial opinion, but I think Ro. Cash's three album run from Black Cadillac to The List to The River & The Thread is as strong as anything she's ever done, and I'm someone who thinks she already had at least 3 canon-ready albums during her commercial heyday.

I remember being a bit distracted by what I heard as the arty (pastoral woodcuts vs. country) lyrics of The River & Thread, but liked some of it, if not as much as those first two.
Emily Nussbaum tries to come to grips with today's blue Nashville under assault from within and without, but I was mainly struck by her conversation with Adeem, starting about 20-25 minutes in:

Nussbaum also speaks with Adeem the Artist, a nonbinary country singer and songwriter based in East Tennessee, who has found success with audiences but has not broken through on mainstream country radio. “I think that it’s important that people walk into a music experience where they expect to feel comforted in their bigotry and they are instead challenged on it and made to imagine a world where different people exist,” Adeem says. “But, as a general rule, I try really hard to connect with people even if I’m making them uncomfortable.”

Also, Adeem plays "Books and Records" by request, at just the right point in the interview.

re: Sara Evans, pretty sure Suds in the Bucket is one of her two best songs, the other being the near-title track from her best album Real Fine Place ("A Real Fine Place To Start".) SITB is on a pretty decent album too, but RFP is the place to uh start.

Lori McKenna's new album is solid as ever. Seeing her in a couple of weeks so need to do a bit of a back catalog review.

Also, seeing Eric Church this weekend. Not sure what to expect. Anyone seen him live?

Church put on a solid show this weekend. Though his last couple of albums aren't very consistent, he played what would be considered his "greatest hits," much of Chief and Mr. Misunderstood especially, which I consider two of the best country albums of the 2010s. He blends outlaw, swamp, and southern country rock, liberally borrowing from R&B, gospel, and soul in the mold of CCR and the Stones. He did two covers, Little Feat's "Sailin Shoes" and a rousing "Ophelia" in tribute to Robbie Robertson, both bands that seem like the kind of antecedents he models himself after.

Content-wise, he likes to walk in two worlds, playing to his audience with ample songs about drinking and getting stoned--"Livin Part of Life," "Drink in My Hand," "Round Here Buzz," and "Smoke a Little Smoke" all made appearances--and unfurling a giant American flag to rousing applause late in the set. But the songs rarely if ever seem to be plainly patriotic or about the type of macho masculinity that Aldean and others traffic in. I was struck in particular by "Never Break Heart," in which he repeats "It's okay to cry" four or five times; maybe I'm misinterpreting, but he recited the line as if addressing his male fans directly.

One topic that he returns to again and again is music itself: "Mistress Named Music," "Country Music Jesus," "Pledge Allegiance to the Hag," and "Springsteen" were all played, the latter of which remains his best track, the rare understated song that became a fan favorite and a sing-along anthem. I like how often he name checks his heroes or nods to their work in his own songs: Merle Haggard, The Boss, Elvis, Stevie Wonder, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Elvis Costello, and Jeff Tweedy to name a few, whose "Misunderstood" he interpolated for the aforementioned "Mr. Misunderstood."

“Rich Men North of Richmond” is an archetypal example of right wing populist ideology—there’s a vague gesture against elites keeping working people down, but the alleged mechanism by which they are keeping them down is by giving their tax dollars to “undeserving” poor people

— Armand Domalewski 🍌 (@ArmandDoma) August 14, 2023

I still love Eric Church like he was an ex-boyfriend with whom I remain on good terms. I roll my eyes at his mistakes, forgive him.

Eric Church remains the only arena country show I've been to honestly, it was fantastic from what I remember

xp he seems like a bit of a dork, tbqh. At one point he switched up some of his lyrics off the cuff to reference Chicago, rhyming the city with "not wanting to go home," and then bashfully felt the need to explain to the audience mid-song that he "just made that up!" as though that wasn't obvious to everyone lol.

I love him because he's a dork!

Is that "Rich Men..." song that thing with the bearded dobro dude? I saw a muted recut on FB of that video where he was intercut with clips of Trump dancing and I don't think it came off like the creator intended.

Yah, or "Lucky Charms Mumford and Sons" as Tyler Mahan Coe dubbed him.

Ah. Every generation gets the "Welfare Cadillac" it deserves then.

Not one of my core interests, no more than a sunset is a dog's, but after 2 hours ofI’m Gonna Sing: The Mother’s Best Gospel Radio RecordingsI believe that there is balm in Hank, Audrey(!), and the Drifting Cowboys. Some of the words are otherwise too other, but they do fly and waltz and traipse and discreetly boom-chick by---and this SPOILER finale fits perfectly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3mY_xdjAG8

There's also an amazing bluesiness, layers, seams, veins of loss (often mentioned) and decay and struggle and surging and searching, also the sense of justice in judgement applied to self and others, the worn poise of witness, for a moment (these are mostly v. short), on the sunny, stormy road to death and Glory, hopefully (Hank requests a little cabin in the shade of the Tree of Life, where he can maybe "shake hands with Jesus") Then there's there the one where "Death comes down, an angel from Heaven," gathering flowers for the Master's bouquet: a lovely waltz.

New Jessi:

Edge of Forever, coming Oct. 27 on Appalachia Recording Co. The project was produced by Margo Price and mixed by Shooter Jennings, Colter’s son with the late Waylon Jennings. It includes never-before-heard songs written by Colter and Waylon in the 1970s, songs drawn from sheet music discovered in an old briefcase, newer compositions influenced by Colter’s gospel leanings, and collaborations with her daughter, Jenni Eddy Jennings, and Price.

Zach Bryan just dropped his new album

My 16-year-old daughter just asked me this morning if I had heard that album yet, and I'm trying to figure out why. I mean, I like him, but that would be like her asking me if I'd heard the new Jason Isbell.

idk how many 16-y/os listen to jason isbell

Zach Bryan is way more popular than Isbell.

bryan's duet with musgraves is on track to be the #1 song on the hot 100 next week.

haven't heard the song or album yet. ian cohen said something about how zach bryan shares some emo-adjacent properties (he mentioned conor oberst and dashboard confessional) that separates him from other country folks of today. then again, he *would* say that.

Well, both albums are in essence Drake-esque mix tapes.

(I may have said so to Ian on Twitter, I don't remember)

i've only listened to the song w/ musgraves so far. i'll give the album a go since it isn't 2 hours like his last one (which i did listen to and enjoy, but you know). anyway the song is... fine? beautifully produced, to be sure. but, like, the verses sound exactly like the verses to the majority of his songs from the last album. iirc he quips about 'real writing' or w/e at one point on the album and it's like... maybe you could stand to accept some pointers from some 'fake writers' about how not to rely on the same tricks/formula for 80% of your songs

to be sure it can be remarkably effective -- "something in the orange" was the first song i heard by him and it basically stopped me in my tracks -- but, idk, despite not disliking it exactly i'm still struggling to see why this musgraves duet in particular is resonating so much. hopefully there will be other stuff on the album that i'll prefer

Because once a singer (Musgraves) is crowned a pop queen or whatever then people pledge fealty for life(style).

Zach Bryan is way more popular than Isbell.

Yeah, I knew this; he's big enough that he plays arenas, and Isbell (one of his biggest inspirations, iirc) is opening for *him* on a couple of upcoming dates. I guess I had no idea how much pop crossover he has going for him, though I suppose that's a thing right now with country music. Better Zach Bryan than fucking Morgan Wallen.

bummed he's going again with Ticketmaster for his upcoming tour after making a fuss (righteously so) about not using them on his most recent tour

The Musgraves duet stood out because for once one of those guest appearances is appropriate to the song; she sounds like she belongs.

it's like... maybe you could stand to accept some pointers from some 'fake writers' about how not to rely on the same tricks/formula for 80% of your songs

idk this template works for me? The unfussy production or non-production fits these stories about damaged lives. Hell, the mariachi horn on "Overtime" came outta nowhere.

xpost Is he? I thought he was going through Stubhub or something. Maybe that is Ticketmaster?

I dunno I thought he was going through someone else because thankfully the presale codes aren't through Verified Fan (through his own website instead and some other third party) but then I got an email from the venue today with Ticketmaster links for the two shows he's doing here in Toronto

Bryan's rise has been meteoric and is another interesting data point in the larger moment country's having this year. To see Isbell and Turnpike Troubadours opening for him (by his own admission, his heroes), is quite the thing. There's absolutely a heart-on-the-sleeve "authenticity" to Bryan that appeals to younger audiences. fwiw, I've liked his previous work and was encouraged to see from the tracklist that he's introducing The War & Treaty and Sierra Ferrell to his fans. I'd leave it to smarter minds than me to draw associations and antecedents -- I see a bit of the Boss in him, myself. At the end of the day, the songs are consistently hooky and his.

From Variety:

The tour is being promoted by AEG Presents. Tickets for most of the shows will be available through Ticketmaster — unlike the 2023 tour, where Bryan made a point of only playing venues where Ticketmaster did not have to be used for ticketing. A look at Ticketmaster presale links shows that 42 of the Bryan shows next year will be on sale through that ticketing service, out of 54 dates on the itinerary. Tickets are also available on resale sites such as Stubhub, Vividseats and SeatGeek.

However, Ticketmaster is not handling the registration process or distributing codes for any of the shows — AEG Presents is handling those duties for all dates, including those ticketed by Ticketmaster

As with his just-completed tour, Bryan is expected to keep a tight lid on ticket resale possibilities. In advance of tickets going on sale, fans will need to pre-register here to sign up for a presale code. The presale begins Sept. 6, for those who are sent the code. The general on-sale date is Sept. 8.

Live Nation merged with Ticketmaster in 2010 and they control usage of most of the arenas in the US and make it hard to do shows without using Ticketmaster

i saw ZB a month ago and was not surprised to find myself surrounded by 35,000 people screaming along to every word, but still, it was something to see.

and most of them were 25 or younger.

he is, like, 5x Isbell, maybe? 10x? ... and Isbell is doing real good.

i think his songs are fine to good - some are great - but it's hard to figure out exactly what he is doing to command an A+ level fan base. he is likeable ... obviously good on social ... has the military connection ... still, football stadiums? multiple nights at basketball arenas? whatever it is, he should bottle it and sell it. that's where the real money is!

to your point: https://www.stereogum.com/2223439/zach-bryan-came-out-of-nowhere/reviews/concert-review/

I'm quite happy to hear Kacey on a country track again.

This may be a major stretch but reading the SG review Alfred posted had me thinking...is Bryan winning the demographic that was rabid about Dave Matthews in the late 90s/early 00s? Maybe more working class, perhaps, but there's an approachability/familiarity/simplicity to both artists' songwriting.

i don't know as much about emo as ian but i do agree that this album could've been on like saddle creek 30 years ago or secretly canadian 20 years ago etc. he leans into the twang in his voice & i think the songwriting codes as country but the arrangements feel as much like the americana end of indie as it does anything else to me

i love this album btw. for anyone who is having a hard time finding an entry point -- understandable given the scope of his last album -- i would recommend starting w/ the 'all my homies hate ticketmaster' live album from the beginning of the year. he really shines in the live setting imo even via recording -- you get a better sense of his personality, and the arrangements of some of the older records are flattered by the full band behind him. "god speed," "the good i'll do" & "oklahoma smokeshow" are my favs if anyone just wants to cherry pick (also all great in their recorded versions)

is Bryan winning the demographic that was rabid about Dave Matthews in the late 90s/early 00s?

i'm just going off what i saw when i went to one of the NYC shows this summer but i don't think his audience is the jam band crowd. it's gen z kids in the south/midwest who previously would've been fans of mainstream country but now have a wider menu of options to choose from. i mentioned this in the itunes/race thread but in talking to some kids in that demo about music, we're just seeing a generational shift in country where everything that was previously hot in the mainstream (sam hunt, thomas rhett, luke bryan, kane brown) is seen as corny millennial music. of course there's still corny millennials out there so those artists still have big audiences but i have gotten a prevailing sense that bryan is still capturing what is pretty wholly a country-centric fanbase, it's just a young audience growing into its purchasing power that looks at those other country artists as "yours" and zach bryan et al as "ours." obv i'm making some generalizations here but that's my read on it

i do agree that this album could've been on like saddle creek 30 years ago or secretly canadian 20 years ago etc.

opening couple tracks giving me big Okkervil River vibes

i think my favourite is "El Dorado"?

i think also the seeds of this were being planted for years. you have kids who were teenagers listening to stuff like jason isbell, tyler childers, whiskey myers. one of morgan wallen's biggest breakthrough record being a jason isbell song doesn't feel incidental to me when you're looking at the success of zach bryan et al. on the high end of this style of country we're talking about eric church & chris stapleton. those artists used to be seen as losing the battle for the soul of country, but i would look at the current landscape and say that they won the war. so anyway, i don't mean to imply that there was some switch flipped overnight regarding this generational stuff. 3-5 years ago gen z kids in the south, appalachia, midwest etc were coming into their own as music fans & making their own choices about what their music was & now we're seeing the full cultural manifestation of that shift in taste. again please note i'm talking in broad strokes here. but what we're seeing now has been in motion for some years the way we think of, like, the timeline of underground club music changing the sound of pop

the timeline of underground club music changing the sound of pop

and i mean this in a general sense too... sorry i should be more precise w/ my words. i don't want the post to read like i'm calling "underground club music" a concrete individual thing that changed pop music in one moment. but just the way we think of like... a scene grows in the clubs in some city across the world and then starts seeping into pop music before hitting a kinda cultural saturation via that subsumption. i'd think about this stuff in those terms except it's more of a national phenomenon in this case

good posts, jordan, all otm

i feel like the true roots of this movement have to go back 1. beyond Childers / Whiskey Myers (who are certainly major figures in it but feel just a tad too recent to be the forefront) and 2. to someone other than Isbell, who is also a major figure but a little too high-falutin' / progressive / small-time-in-2015 to have generated this kind of surge, especially with conservative kids from the south and midwest. (same for Sturgill, fwiw.)

Chris Stapleton, I think, is the real huge bridge from mainstream to what we're talking about here. Maybe not some revelation ... just thinking out loud. If there's someone that led to him, I'm not quite sure who it is.

anyway, i have decided that Childers is my favorite of this whole gang

i feel like the true roots of this movement have to go back 1. beyond Childers / Whiskey Myers (who are certainly major figures in it but feel just a tad too recent to be the forefront) and 2. to someone other than Isbell, who is also a major figure but a little too high-falutin' / progressive / small-time-in-2015 to have generated this kind of surge, especially with conservative kids from the south and midwest. (same for Sturgill, fwiw.)

i cede to your expertise! i need to listen to childers' music more

Good call on Stapleton, and this makes total sense to me, J0rdan:

a generational shift in country where everything that was previously hot in the mainstream (sam hunt, thomas rhett, luke bryan, kane brown) is seen as corny millennial music. of course there's still corny millennials out there so those artists still have big audiences but i have gotten a prevailing sense that bryan is still capturing what is pretty wholly a country-centric fanbase, it's just a young audience growing into its purchasing power that looks at those other country artists as "yours" and zach bryan et al as "ours."

Only add/caveat I have is that ZB seems to have captured both sides of the fence. Might be just an anecdote but I have two colleagues in their late 20s who love country music. One is a massive Stapleton and Childers fan, the other is a huge Morgan Wallen, Luke Bryan guy. Both love ZB.

Where does Sam Hunt fit? He seems to have since 2020.

I worry about Eric Church's next album.

one of morgan wallen's biggest breakthrough record being a jason isbell song doesn't feel incidental to me when you're looking at the success of zach bryan et al.

Wasn't one of Bryan's earliest youtube breakthroughs an Isbell cover, too? "Dress Blues"? That was back in 2018. I think there were a handful of youtube songs that went viral (whatever that means) a year or so before his first album even came out.

I feel like Bryan was one of the few people to successfully thread the political needle when he dissed Travis Tritt for being a dick, but then later found a way to reconcile off-camera (as it were). He came off pretty well, and I assume his background and disposition (he's stayed pretty mum on own personal politics, hasn't he?) seemingly allows him to straddle different worlds.

In the military, Bryan was an aviation ordnanceman stationed in Washington and Florida, and did tours in Bahrain and Djibouti. He assembled, repaired and loaded weapons, and in his downtime, recorded songs. He was a fan of the Oklahoma country band Turnpike Troubadours — especially the songwriting of its frontman, Evan Felker — as well as Radiohead, Bon Iver, Gregory Alan Isakov and assorted “weird indie music.”

In the current slotting of genres, Bryan falls perhaps closest to country, though it doesn’t feel like home to him. “I think people understand that I’m not that,” he said. “I want to be in that Springsteen, Kings of Leon, Ed Sheeran at-the-very-beginning space,” he said.

But some of the more partisan elements of the country audience can surface at his shows. In Indianapolis, before Bryan took the stage, parts of the crowd broke out in a vulgar chant about President Biden.

“I told people if I heard it, I would stop it immediately,” Bryan said. “Don’t come to my shows and start it. But they do it anyway.” (He describes himself as a “total libertarian.”)

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/22/arts/music/zach-bryan-american-heartbreak.html

"Total libertarian."

I effused about American Heartbreak way up this RC or maybe last year's: so long ago. in a lot of ways, like in a different lifetime, unmentionable by name, to semi-quote Dylan, considering how more recent listens made me recoil: so many, many songs, so many of them soon broken by writhing anxieties, memories barely referenced as they break in, racing by like speedy cold sweat, over whiney, groaning abuse of a Mellencamp manner, minus the pop sense delivery---I feel unqualified to listen, not being a psychiatric social worker (there are others like this, some of them who make better music, but I won't mention them here.)
Still, I kept listening, hoping to regain some faith in my first impression. Didn't happen, which affected some other things in my writing---went on to the live album, which sounded a lot happier, going from abject prolixity to self=amazed prolixity---still so many words, so little music beyond overly familiar vestiges---tried and tried, never got past track 12.
But! Emo country could be cool, with the theatrical flair of Garth Brooks well-studied, in emulative emo, yeah.
(Short of that: a duet album with Musgraves, whose nullity could balance ZB. like excitable Louis Prima with cool Keely Smith---ZB x KM wouldn't be as good, but an improvement on what they do now.)

Incredible -- "I Remember Everything" is #1. How'd it happen?

dow, we quite disagree with the quality of this album, and I hear plenty of hooks. I've had "El Dorado" and "Oklahoman Son" in my head the last five days. This is a better album than AH: (more) coherent, tight(er), its point of view more secure.

-I feel unqualified to listen, not being a psychiatric social worker

And this is a nasty little line. Seriously? It's like Christgau dismissing Kristen Hersh for being 'psychotic.'

I'm talking about American Heartbreak and All My Homies..., haven't heard anything since, hopefully I'll like something of his better/at all. Nasty but true; I wasn't trying to be funny or even judgmental---the more time I spent with him, which was considerable, the more irrelevant I felt, pushed beyond my skill set and capacity for empathy. Also beyond my skill set, and xgau's: labeling someone as psychotic.

I'll be honest as one of the vocal AH proponents here last year, the more time I spent with the album, the more rudimentary and thin the songwriting felt. On one-and-a-half listens, this sounds more ragged and unpolished, but the songwriting seems sturdier.

Sounded good to me when we listened to it in the car the other day. As my daughter said, the keyword seems to be "interstate." Can't go wrong with highway imagery.

xxxpost It's not like therapy, which he may have had, a 12-step program or something, can't provice a connection to effective music: Isbell's "It Gets Easier"("but never easier") is the only song I've ever heard about long-term sobriety, despite the millions of people who deal with it everyday. Lennon's "Mother" was supposedly the result of his experience with Arthur Janov's Scream Therapy (likewise, according to some writers, Tears For Fears' Songs From The Big Chair. Katie Crutchfield seems like she might have gotten some insights that way on St. Cloud---I can't quite follow some of it despite having a print-out lyrics and her track-by=track breakdown for Pitchfork, but she's got some amazing turns of phrase and the overall effect is excellent (even better with the 2021 edition's relevant bonus covers).

"It gets easier, but never *easy*"! Fucking point of the whole thing, sorry.

Mary Gauthier and other country lifers have had this long-term songwriting workshop with Afghanistan-Iraq Wars veterans: I saw a concert documentary in which the vets straight-up said the process had proved crucial to any peace of mind.

But all these people care enough about writing well, which---yeah, xxpost "thin" is a good way to put the way American Heartbreak stretches at such length, seeking sympathy (successfully; no doubt many of his fans, especially the younger ones, are saying, "Yeah, I been there." Me too but jeez)

Confession is good for the soul, let's hope.

first time listening to zach bryan with the new album and i'm impressed. songs like "east side of sorrow" are closer to manchester orchestra than the stuff i hear on country radio so the emo stuff checks out

A Hot 100, country and rock first: “I Remember Everything” concurrently opens at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs charts (as well as Hot Rock Songs), which use the same methodology as the Hot 100. It’s the first song to top the Hot 100, Hot Country Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs (dating to 2009, when the lattermost list began).

That’s the Zach Bryan & Kacey Musgraves song

No discussion on the excellent Ashley McBryde album? It makes up for last year's blah concept album even if the rawk guitars cause the strong tunes to shudder slight, as if confronted by halitosis.

I should give it a listen. This positive review on the saving country music website is a bit annoying, but he is a fan of Mcbryde

https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/album-review-ashley-mcbrydes-the-devil-i-know/

and I see xgau just awarded an A.

xp they always are

Not going to defend this dude or everything here but I also have to admit I kind of agree with a lot of it? Morris's "exit" seems like a bit of a marketing play, and the songs are still awfully country to my ears.

https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/on-the-maren-morris-exit-from-country-music/

Every time he comes up on here, I can't believe it's not in the worst music writing ever thread.

Both of the Morris songs are fantastic: Her sharpest writing and best vocals on record to date.

Lol @ the savingcountrymusic writer trying to do some high-minded writerly thing about how MM has "personal issues" that she's projecting onto a perfectly healthy country music industry, when his comments section is just 100 people calling her ugly.

Setting SCM aside -- I am no fan of his or his writing but do check it ~1x a month to see if I've missed anything important and appreciate the light he shines on under-covered artists...

"The Tree" is a major retread. Sounds identical to many of her other songs, the allusion is heavy-handed, and the multi-tracked vocals are unnecessary for a singer of her caliber. Agree the vocals are good -- she's an extraordinarily talented vocalist. Best to date? I don't hear it.

"Get the Hell Out of Here" is much better and a promising direction for her. The song itself reminds me a lot of Kasey Musgraves (in a good way), and I'm excited to see what Antonoff and her do together -- the strings and arrangement are really lovely and a more organic sound than I have heard from her. I'm intrigued to hear what the "jam band" and "prog" moments sound like.

The bigger issue I have is how this is being rolled out. She says in the LA Times interview, "I think I needed to purposely focus on just making good music and not so much on how we’ll market it," yet that seems to be the focus of the interview! If she wants to pivot to pop, that's fine -- make great music and let it speak for itself. I don't remember Taylor's Red-era interview with the LA Times announcing she was "walking away" from country.

Speaking of under-covered artists promoted by SCM, this new Margo Cilker record is superb.

Boy, I shouldn't have read a few of those SCM comments before lunch.

Solid profile: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/margo-cilker-new-album-interview-1234820795/

Can't read it (paywall) but really like Bernstein's writing, and he has never steered me wrong.

lol another Margo, another M.

From that profile detailing Margo Cilker history:

She traveled back and forth from northern Spain for a period of several years, at one point forming a Lucinda Williams tribute band called Drunken Angels in the Basque country city of Bilbao.

Really enjoying the Margo Cilker album too.

Anyone heard the new Lillie Mae? I liked her first two albums a lot.

Me too. Margo Cilker is the best musician name I've heard lately, will check her out---not that I'm prejudiced against names like Casadee Pope, or even the self-named Honey Harper,
who is now more than ever a dyad, as ATO Records heralds:

with Honey Harper co-founder and keyboardist Alana Pagnutti taking on a far greater role in the songwriting process alongside frontman William Fussell, adding a palpable new depth to their lyrical output.

The 12 song collection (Honey Harper and The Infinite Sky) also marks their first time recording with their stacked band, The Infinite Sky, featuring their longtime bassist and contributing writer Mick Mayer, pianist John Carroll Kirby (Solange, Steve Lacy), Spoon keyboardist Alex Fischel, guitarist Jackson MacIntosh (Drugdealer, Jessica Pratt), pedal-steel player Connor Gallaher (Black Lips, Calexico), and TOPS drummer Riley Fleck. The album was mixed at Wowcat Studios in Los Angeles by Joel Ford (yes/and, Ford & Lopatin).

How is the Buddy and Julie Miller record?

Oh wow, you're remynding me of my old CD store regular who heard Julie as the late 20th Century Emily Dickinson---

first time listening to zach bryan with the new album and i'm impressed. songs like "east side of sorrow" are closer to manchester orchestra than the stuff i hear on country radio so the emo stuff checks out

Maybe she *is* the latter-day Emily Dickinson! Now's the time to listen more than I ever have, though that isn't saying much in itself.

Margo Cilker album sounds great

how do you pronounce the name?

Adjacent news from New West Records: the NMAS albums that I've heard tend to be weak in the vocals, when they don't feature just the right guests---looks like it might not be a problem here, at least not all the way through:

Luther Dickinson of North Mississippi Allstars will release his new solo album, Magic Music For Family Folk on November 17. An all-star list of support showed up for the new record, including Yola, Allison Russell, Lillie Mae, Sharde Thomas, Sharisse Norman, as well as Dickinson’s Mother and Children.

The album features Dickinson’s rendition of favorite songs from his childhood by The Meters, Staple Singers, John Lee Hooker, Mississippi John Hurt, Doc Watson and more.

Dickinson delivers an album of songs from his community that run four generations deep. The 10-time GRAMMY Award-nominated producer, solo artist, and North Mississippi Allstars co-founder creates a record worthy of its own traditions.

A couple albums I've gone back to throughout the year that I haven't yet repped for -- neither will light your hair on fire but are rather lovely and worth a listen:

Amanda Fields - What, When and Without. Slow burning, patient country waltz that has a quiet beauty to it. Her singing is serviceable and familiar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13QOo3hpxJ4

Rachel Baiman - Common Nation of Sorrow. Rootsy Americana in the vein of Gillian Welch, impressively self-produced albeit with a strong supporting cast (Erin Rae, Miles Miller, Sean Sullivan). C
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7vOHRHvY4U

I don't know anything about country music but this guy is cool & he has a new live album out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU_qVO-aTTA

he's bigger than ya think if you haven't seen him live, and getting bigger fast.

his shows are a blast.

I have friends who are only into Real Country who are into that guy so I've kinda held it against him and ignored him but I probably shouldn't huh

Never listened to this dude before but this a good record

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S58avwJXG5M

late to the Morgan Wade party but goddamn i am all the way on board! she brings a real Joan Jett vibe w her raspy voice & attitude, such good songwriting too.

we just watched her set on ACL Fest & she killed it. great band too.

circling back to our Zach Bryan Is Popular discussion:

"See all new tour dates below, which include second stadium shows added in Atlanta, Denver, & Foxborough."

Morgan'sReckless Deluxe is a raspy rehab-to-romance-to-rolling country way of life, candles and tattoos and all: "Ah spoke mah truth, and yew got so upset," but so be it, it's a start.

apparently she’s embroiled in some irl Real Housewives tabloid drama now so uh good luck girl

I had no idea Wade had a new album out! Also, she's apparently getting a double mastectomy after learning she has that genetic mutation, so probably no live dates for a while.

O shit!
Be sure to get the Deluxe: bonus tracks are totally justified, and she may need the extra bucks more than ever.

oh man yeah, buying up the Deluxe for sure

(I didn't know about the new one either, still talking about Reckless Deluxe, from Jan. '22.)

Great to know there's a new one too.

Psychopath:
Meet Somebody
3:20
27 Club
3:44
Alanis
4:27
Want
3:33
Psychopath
3:29
Phantom Feelings
3:53
Outrun Me
3:47
Guns and Roses

Hopefully there are more tracks but computer's going out and can't shake this coughing fit

Maybe your computer has covid.

Psychopath tracklist:

1. “Domino”
2. “80’s Movie”
3. “Losers Look Like Me”
4. “Roman Candle”
5. “Guns and Roses”
6. “Alanis”
7. “Phantom Feelings”
8. “Psychopath”
9. “Outrun Me”
10. “Want”
11. “Fall In Love With Me”
12. “Meet Somebody”
13. “27 Club”

Had not heard about the new Laura Cantrell album

https://lauracantrell.bandcamp.com/album/just-like-a-rose-the-anniversary-sessions

After a 9-year hiatus, Laura Cantrell is back with a new studio album. Featuring her guests, Steve Earle, Buddy Miller, and Paul Burch. It was produced by Don Fleming (Sonic Youth, Teenage Fanclub), David Mansfield (Bob Dylan, T-Bone Burnett), Rosie Flores & Ed Stasium (Talking Heads, Ramones).

From New West---his originals are purty traditional, in that smokey Canadian Cowboy way, & can be appealing, though haven't heard this one yet:

Corb Lund
Our favorite Canadian songwriter is back with a full album of new original tracks. El Viejo will be released February 23 of next year. Check out the first video single, "Old Familiar Drunken Feeling" via Holler.

The 11 tracks on the album were produced by Corb, and recorded entirely in his living room in Lethbridge, AB with his band The Hurtin’ Albertans. Lund & Co. tapped into his most cherished musical influences of acoustic tone and lyrical aptitude — Marty Robbins, Kris Kristofferson, Bobbie Gentry, Jerry Reed. There is a common theme — possibly even a character thread — of the gambler, the outlaw who roams from place-to-place with no direction home.

El Viejo is Lund’s first album of original material since 2020’s critically acclaimed Agricultural Tragic, which was named an album of the year by the readers of No Depression.

xxpost had not heard about the new Cantrell either, thanks. I favored this one for Scene ballot re 2014 (when she ended a previous 9-year hiatus):

Laura Cantrell, No Way There From Here:
Pretty and spooky without being Southern Gothic, the current Cantrell vibe is "that's just how it is," cos love & music will only take you so far, no matter through what and for what (while incl. "Turn Down For What," cos this music's into pleasure too). Sounds like she knows she's on a roll, so why stop now, pick up some more sorrow and happiness on the way. Also sounds like she might be mildly surprised that I'm surprised at her unpretentious mastery and ambition (no dis on Brandy Clark, but those who think she's the best should hear the way Cantrell does less-is-more, vocally: "I'm gonna get these ol' clothes clean, do you know what I mean?")
Also, despite the shifting songwriting credits (which I haven't checked), it's seamless, without being too smooth. A touch of the old Hoboken denim lilt in there too, so one for us bravely ageing & still appealing Amy Rigby fans (first track even has a dBs feel).

i saw Corb live over the summer and he was amazing

Mount Mariah's H.C. McEntire released a new record in January that I completely missed:

https://hcmcentire.bandcamp.com/album/every-acre

Love this slow burn with S.G. Goodman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afS99vgbLus

*Moriah

Thanks Indexed---do you know SG's 2022 Teeth Marks? OMSGG:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQGxjdHaGW0

oh yeah I did hear H.C.'s 2020 release, as mentioned on ballot, soon after Goodman:

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 off, 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

(that SG link is to the whole album, not just the video, she's got some hellacious mountain gothic video though)

Another one I am better late than never on, Jess Williamson’s resplendent Time Ain’t Accidental sounding utterly magnificent this evening. A typically excellent write up from Laura Snapes:

They became Williamson’s fantastic fifth album, a mid-career arrival. The confident, breezy Time Ain’t Accidental sounds as wide and fresh as a dewy dawn horizon, pairing classic country choruses with strikingly spare production. Many songs feature the iPhone drum machine that Williamson demoed on, kept at the encouragement of Bon Iver producer Brad Cook, who also did Plains’ album. The lightning-strike artwork nods to Smog’s spooked Knock Knock and the Judds’ glorious River of Time, references that encapsulate the sound well; you might also imagine Taylor Swift’s take on Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/31/i-did-not-want-to-be-small-any-more-jess-williamson-on-fate-plains-and-her-breakout-fifth-album

Have not heard any of Williamson’s prior solo albums but liked a lot of her record with Waxahatchee under the name Plains a year or two ago.

I listened to several JW solo posts on Bandcamp after getting into Plains: really a vivid sound, although Snapes had me until Taylor Swift redoing Car Wheels, esp. because I've never made it through a whole Swift track, though no prob w Williamson herself so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BinH9aMYro4

Catching up on the CMA news...What to make of Lainey Wilson's big night? I'll need to give her catalog another listen -- "solid" is what I recall. Also, Tracy Chapman winning for Song of the Year is a pleasant surprise.

Agreed. I was kinda shocked they gave SOTY to a 40-year-old hit. But also glad ... it's obviously the best song of the bunch.

I loved Lainey Wilson's 2021 album enough to top ten it, last year's almost as strong. "Watermelon Moonshine" is one of the few songs by a female country act getting a lot of airplay.

She doesn't need my hype, but this is what I said way upthread: an musical journey through the unexpected (resistance, learning, getting into it---then the whole thing over again later, which may well say a lot more about the current-recent me than her, but overall it's both---no regerts, though)

'm still, believe it or not, doing a round-up of re-re-etc.-listening objects for a blogpost about the music of 2022. There are just a few sticking points left, with Lainey Wilson's Bell Bottom Country somewhut unexpectedly among same. It had taken several listens to reach a peak of enthusiasm---seemed too contrived, and also I belatedly discovered that increased volume revealed more conviction in tone and details---but I assumed that I had gotten it, and could come back to said peak several months later: no. Same process, same learning curve, all over again, even though it seemed reasonably loud at first---it's not all about the volume, this elusively problematic aspect, but for sure, if you want your sensitive arena rock country, you gotta be ready with the volume (to ride it back a little for the double-tracked armor or scar tissue, a signifying part of the looking back in candor in the finely written "Watermelon Moonshine,"but still a little too loud), ready, often enough, to throw your headphones into the maelstrom ov fun like she does her head on "This One's Gonna Cost Me," title and chorus of which become this album's thee most explicit expression of her exciting dynamic: persistent self-image of a good girl, raised right, looking for love and self-empowerment, who rat now wants to have a good good good time.
Here we have a recurring sort of Zep-hop beat at its heartiest, swaying that big horned head one more time, but now it also occurs to me that producer Jay Joyce also appreciates Led Z.'s mix of the heavy and brash with the fingerpicking side of life, and Wilson responds, going barefoot down a b-melody line to the ripples of Molly Tuttle's banjo, or for that matter under an intro of what sounds like some kind of mellotron-banjo.

― dow, Tuesday, June 27, 2023 1:57 PM (four months ago) bookmarkflaglink

(Jay Joyce's only misfire: "Wildflowers and Wild Horses" starts with a mysterioso Lee Hazlewoodesque instrumental scrim, but then turns Lainey loose to gallop through big loud bravura rhetoric, losing Lee's control and tension.)
Beats vary, but clock gentle intensity in ballads, like when she credibly salutes "Daddy's Boots," with a bit of atypical toe-tapping added, then strips away the usual roots-view to "Momma's crazy and Daddy's mean," when it's down to "Me, You and Jesus" getting through: "Me" first, part of the candor again, "Jesus" the only mention, that's how young and desperate she is in this flashback, "You" can be anybody she trusts, trying to hold on to this isolated, shared undercurrent of faith and hope and getting by is the point, and not so loudly that Momma and Daddy will hear.
Followed immediately by "Hold My Halo," cause cuz she's paid her Dew Drop Inn dues, gonna ride that electric bull one more time tonight. See there always has to be a justification, which could get annoying in the uniquely narrowcast "Weak-End" (yes we know you're lookin' for love, but that's not all, not in them places), if not for distraction of the gently antsy beat), with need for alibi and recreational therapy at its funniest and near-rowdiest in "Smell Like Smoke" ("It's cause Ah been, through, Hellll.")
Wiki sez that one was "tacked on" to streams and downloads: too bad for CD and LP buyers, because it and the other tackee, "New Friends," are antipodal highlights. After the 4-Non-Blondes cover--where she conscientiously delivers teeming verbosity rushing to the accidental but still stupid comedy of anticlimatic "Whut's going on?"---Wilson returns to the vibrant twilight of "You, Me and Jesus," now resolving to find new friends, rather than just moping over that guy---atta girl, as she says in song of that title, also a gentle one, though given the louder ones, one might wonder just what kind of friends. TBA.

― dow, Tuesday, June 27, 2023

always more rare or rarer

For those of you who like raggedy, ramshackle country rock, Florry's "The Holey Bible" is the ticket. riyl: Wednesday, Pinegrove, MJ Lenderman's Boat Songs, maybe Big Thief's Dragon New Warm Mountain, etc.

exact same description but for a different new album, Dusk's Glass Pastures:

https://countrydusk.bandcamp.com/album/glass-pastures

Indeedio, thanks! And speaking of MJ:

MJ Lenderman Announces New Live Album,
And The Wind (Live and Loose!), Out November 17th On ANTI-

...MJ Lenderman writes songs that are amorphous and elastic, rising to fill the venue they’re in, generous to accommodate the numbers of players on stage (an often unpredictable affair), less concerned with replicating the studio version than they are with meeting the crowd where they’re at. On his records, Lenderman handles most of the playing, but with And the Wind (Live and Loose!) it’s a multi-headed beast. With the help of guitarist Jon Samuels (Friendship, 2nd Grade), drummer Colin Miller, plus fellow Wednesday bandmates Xandy Chelmis (pedal steel) and Ethan Baechtold (bass), And the Wind (Live and Loose!) builds out a number of beloved MJ tracks into something else entirely.
MJ Lenderman And the Wind (Live and Loose!) is culled from sold-out summer 2023 shows on a brief headline run during what some might call a wild-ass couple of months. A nine-week international Wednesday tour, stints in studios with a number of other artists, and Lenderman’s own signing with storied indie label ANTI-. Taped live at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall and Los Angeles’ Lodge Room, And the Wind (Live and Loose!) captures a near-euphoric moment in time — dizzying and exhausting and, most of all, having some real true-blue fucking fun with your best friends.
nd the Wind (Live and Loose!) is also available for pre-order on a limited edition cassette from Dear Life Records. Pre-order here.

Pre-order And the Wind (Live and Loose!)

And the Wind (Live and Loose!) Tracklist
1. Hangover Game (Live)
2. Knockin (Live)
3. You Have Bought Yourself A Boat (Live)
4. TLC Cagematch (Live)
4. Rudolph (Live)
5. Toon Town (Live)
6. Dan Marino (Live)
7. Under Control (Live)
8. Dan Marino (Live)
9. SUV (Live)
10. Catholic Priest (Live)
11. Live Jack (Live)
12. Someone Get The Grill Out Of The Rain (Live)
13. You Are Every Girl To Me (Live)
14. Tastes Just Like It Costs (Live)
15. Long Black Veil (Live)

MJ Lenderman Tour Dates
Fri. Dec. 8 - Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon +
Sat. Dec. 9 - Ojai, CA @ Deer Lodge +
Sun. Dec. 10 - San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop +
Tue. Dec. 12 - Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios +
Wed. Dec. 13 - Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern +
Tue. Feb. 27, 2024 - Perth, AU @ Perth Festival *
Thu. Feb. 29, 2024 - Sydney, AU @ The Factory *
Sun. Mar. 10, 2024 - Meredith, AU @ Golden Plains Festival

+ Karly Hartzman & MJ Lenderman Solo Show w/ Dan Wriggins
* supporting Wednesday

Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter

For more information, contact:

jessica at pitchperfectpr.com, jacob at pitchperfectpr.com, 773-942-6573

New Vincent Neil Emerson album out today.

Yeah, he sez “There’s a few country-inspired songs on this one, a few stripped-down acoustic songs, and a few songs inspired by that 60s folk rock movement.”
Produced by Shooter Jennings, w input from Steve Earle and Rodney Crowell. For inst,

Emerson wrote “Man From Uvalde” after the horrific and tragic mass shooting in the city of Uvalde, Texas, and he was initially hesitant to include the track on The Golden Crystal Kingdom. “It's a daunting thing to try to dive into social issues in songwriting because I wasn’t sure how people would really take it,” Emerson says. “I recorded a rough demo version of the song, and I sent it to Steve [Earle]. I just wanted to get his thoughts on it and see if it was worth anything. He got back to me, and he said he really liked the song and thought it was great. He gave me a few ideas and ways to look at the subject differently, and it really helped me finish the song. That encouragement gave me the confidence to include it on the album.”

atch Vincent Neil Emerson On Tour:

NOV 10, 2023 - Elkton Music Hall - Elkton, MD

NOV 11, 2023 - Mercury Lounge - New York, NY

NOV 15, 2023 - World Cafe Live - Philadelphia, PA

NOV 16, 2023 - The Southern Café and Music Hall - Charlottesville, VA

NOV 17, 2023 - Motorco Music Hall - Durham, NC

NOV 18, 2023 - New Brookland Tavern - Columbia, SC

NOV 19, 2023 - Charleston Music Hall - Charleston, SC

NOV 21, 2023 - Eddie's Attic - Decatur, GA

DEC 9, 2023 - Antone's Nightclub - Austin, TX

For more information, please visit vincentneilemerson.com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHC9f5ICNJ0

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQVNLI9IFDk

That second one was supposed to be title song, try again:

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

enjoying Florry! happy if this thread has room for non purist country adjacent stuff

LA Times on Grammys nominations snubbing country music. NY Times also said similar

The Grammys had many paths to acknowledge country music’s outstanding year. Luke Combs had a massive crossover hit with a cover of Tracy Chapman’s beloved “Fast Car.” Zach Bryan topped the streaming and Billboard charts with a thoughtful, ferocious album that featured a hit duet with Grammy fave Kacey Musgraves. Lainey Wilson just cleaned up at the CMA Awards, a victory lap after a decade in the Nashville trenches. And Morgan Wallen sold out stadiums and easily outstreamed Swift and SZA, to name two powerhouses.

And yet country came up almost totally empty. Jelly Roll and the War and Treaty got nods for best new artist, but otherwise, the genre was shut out in the four general field categories. Overall, Combs has one nomination, Wilson has two, Bryan has three and Brandy Clark has six — almost all in country and adjacent genre categories. Voters might still be ignoring Wallen for his N-word indiscretion, but it’s now clear they don’t seem to care much for country as a whole, even in a banner year.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/arts/music/grammy-awards-snubs-surprises.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Did Brandy Clark get 6 noms for the milquetoast s/t?

given that wallen was snubbed at the CMAs & was generally treated like an ancillary figure throughout the proceedings, the lack of grammy nominations isn't very surprising. but i figured zach bryan would get looks in the major categories. and you'd think the grammys would love any opportunity to celebrate tracy chapman. it wouldn't surprise me at all if the grammy voter base was not really slanted towards engagement w/ country music esp if you tried to isolate the young, country focused voters among the academy. can't imagine that's a legion of any sort

Grammys rules also play a rule per Caramanica in NY Times link above:

If there were one song with the best chance of bridging contemporary country to the Grammys, it would be Combs’s cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” which went to No. 2 on the Hot 100 and earlier this week won song of the year at the CMA Awards, making Chapman the first Black winner in that category. But in part because of Grammy rules — it isn’t eligible for song of the year because Chapman was nominated for her original in 1989 — Combs’s version has been relegated to just a single nomination, in best country solo performance, a snub that feels unexpectedly pointed. JON CARAMANICA

The Billboard Music Awards had no qualms about giving Morgan Wallen a bunch of trophys

Top Male Artist &
🏆 Top Hot 100 Artist
🏆 Top Streaming Songs Artist
🏆 Top Country Artist
🏆 Top Country Male Artist
🏆 Top Country Touring Artist
🏆 Top Billboard 200 Album “One Thing At A Time”
🏆 Top Country Album “One…

Not saying it's good, just noting it

Last night they let the liquor talk

heard "watermelon moonshine" on the radio. it's nice but i can't help but note that it a lesser version of "strawberry wine" which is one of my favorite country songs ever

Had to school myself and look up your fave, but yeah you're right

Not saying it's good, just noting it

― curmudgeon, Monday, November 20, 2023 9:31 AM (five hours ago)bookmarkflaglink

you should do some research into how they choose the winners of that show

They use Billboard data, not surprising and yeah I know Wallen is popular

From NPR music newsletter:

Garth Brooks has a new album…for Bass Pro Shops customers

by Stephen Thompson, NPR Music

...there remains about Garth Brooks a little-known fact: On Nov. 7, he released a new album. Titled Time Traveler, the record came out with notably little fanfare — a TV appearance here, a Billboard profile there, and that’s about it. News articles about the record have begun to pop up as word has spread, most of which focus less on the music than on the method of distribution: The only way you can get Time Traveler is to buy it on CD, as part of a seven-disc box set sold exclusively at Bass Pro Shops.

You can’t stream Time Traveler — not even via Amazon, which has otherwise-exclusive rights to Brooks’ catalog. You can’t even buy it as a single disc, though fans who’ve lost track of Brooks’ recent work might be glad to catch up on the box set’s remaining contents: everything the singer has released since coming out of retirement in 2014. (That’d be 2014’s Man Against Machine, 2016’s Gunslinger, 2019’s three-disc live set Triple Live and 2020’s Fun.)

If you’re wondering how one of the biggest stars in the world wound up releasing an album via Bass Pro Shops outlets, consider another fact about Garth Brooks: The guy really, really hates streaming. And, since he’s amassed the fame and fortune to do (and not do) pretty much whatever he wants — and remember that this is a guy who, at the height of his power, released a 1999 album under the guise of a brooding, soul-patched pop-star alter ego named Chris Gaines — Garth Brooks has decided to release albums his way, leaving heaven-only-knows how much money on the table in the process.

So, you might ask, what about Time Traveler itself? Is it any good? In the spirit of reportorial intrepidness — not to mention 30-plus years of accumulated goodwill toward the singer and his work, plus a fondness for physical media — I plunked down $30 plus shipping and ordered a copy from Bass Pro Shops, no doubt to the great confusion of my search engine’s algorithms. (It’s worth noting here that $30 for a seven-disc box set, even a bare-bones one, is a good deal, especially if you haven’t heard Time Traveler’s recent predecessors.)

What I found was an album that’s pretty deeply uncompromising in its own way. It’s not a lavish production, but it nods in directions that place it well outside the mainstream of modern bro country. “Rodeo Man,” a duet with Ronnie Dunn — no stranger to duets with guys named Brooks — would’ve fit right in on Garth Brooks’ terrific early-’90s best-sellers. “The Ship and the Bottle” pairs the pop-curious country star with country-curious pop star Kelly Clarkson, culminating in a vibe that would have made Jimmy Buffett proud. Dispensed with maximum agreeability, “Only Country Music” celebrates the greatest loves of Brooks’ life. And “The Ride” covers a 1983 hit from a country star whose iconoclasm exceeds even Brooks’: David Allan Coe.

Time Traveler closes with a track called “We Belong to Each Other,” which calls for national unity while celebrating our shared humanity. And, though none of its sentiments should qualify as revolutionary — “We belong to each other / We are sister and brother / Born to love one another” — it’s a far cry from the seething revanchism of Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” or the omnidirectional resentment of Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond,” both of which topped country charts in 2023. It’s a reminder that we need more Garth Brooks in our lives and on our radios, and that there’s nothing wrong with venturing into Bass Pro Shops to get it.

Shared in the EOY list thread -- Holler's Top 25 of 2013. Have not yet heard about a third of these (including the #1) but like a lot of what I have. Cannot for the life of me make my way into the new Isbell record, and I've tried repeatedly. Ian Munsick is a huge headscratcher for me, too. But very happy to see Brit Taylor, Kelsea Ballerini, and Charles Wesley Godwin who all had excellent releases this year that I don't believe I've commented on here.

The link would help

https://holler.country/lists/hollers-albums-of-the-year-2023

The way a whole lot of people who ought to know better have bought into Megan Moroney is absolutely maddening to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JY5pC7a2Ew

Loving this, discovered via this list:
https://www.stereogum.com/2244742/the-10-best-country-albums-of-2023/lists/year-in-review/2023-in-review/

Nice song there - Jordyn Shellhart “Who are you mad at”

Rest of the album didn't do much for me, unfortunately. Kacey with the edges sanded way, way down.

Bandcamp's best country (and "country-ish") of 2023:

https://daily.bandcamp.com/best-of-2023/the-best-country-music-of-2023

That's an excellent list. Margo Cilker, Drayton Farley, Brennen Leigh, Nick Shoulders, and Bella White would all make my top ten.

like them all, but Bella might just land in my top 5 ... that album is entrancing.

The Nick Shoulders is a ton of fun. Hope to catch him when he comes through here next year.

Margot Cilker “Remember Carolina” is so frickin great. such a great song about travelling and being in a band

“How could I forget Texas, where everything says ‘Texas’”

Speaking of which---RIP one of the original Dixie Chicks:
https://variety.com/2023/music/news/laura-lynch-dead-dixie-chicks-1235850102/ Good article.

Observes that the "We're ashamed to be from Texas" blasphemy would not have happened if she were still the sole lead singer during Iraq War, because she and Bush were mutual admirers (and he used to catch Chicks shows), But since she evidently got dumped for not having Natalie's charisma, I suspect that they would not have been such huge, mega-Diamond-selling targets with Laura---more likely ignored by most of the media, as some other lower-profile dissenting country artists were.

such huge, mega-Diamond-selling targets with Laura-

I didn’t know the Chicks had that whole backstory, that’s interesting.

I thought had read somewhere that Laura had quit the group as she was worn out from touring , not that she was dumped by rest of group

Oops, I was wrong. She might have been tired of touring but it was a music decision by rest of group

In 1995, Lynch, then 37, was replaced by Maines, then 21. “We thought we needed to make a music decision now,” Maguire told the Dallas Morning News in November 1995, describing the change as “the passing of the baton.” “It can’t really be characterized as a resignation,” Lynch said then, acknowledging that age was a factor. She quit music and focused on raising her daughter.

The band went on to mainstream stardom with 1998’s “Wide Open Spaces,” which won best country album at the Grammy Awards.

Lynch told the Associated Press in 2003 that she didn’t regret missing out on the fame and that she had fond memories of leading the band through its hectic, hardscrabble early days.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/2023/12/24/laura-lynch-dixie-chicks-death/

And now Chicks toured with Maren Morris. This article is about Morris and her distaste for Nashville industry, and about her doing a tour with the Chicks

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/2023/12/21/chicks-maren-morris-country-music/

But while the Chicks’ fate has been successfully used as a fear tactic for years, it has also had the opposite effect: The band is an inspiration for a new class of outspoken country stars who don’t want to just shut up and sing. The timing of Morris’s “departure” from the genre — as well as her serving as an opening act for the Chicks on tour this summer — was a fitting, full-circle moment symbolizing how the treatment of the trio still looms over country music...She debuted “The Tree” live in concert when she opened for the Chicks in Ottawa on the day her Los Angeles Times interview published.

“Thinking about the last few shows we’ve had with the Chicks, the meaning behind this song, how I got to where I was when I wrote it, where you just burn the whole ... toxic thing down …” Morris trailed off as she introduced the song to the cheering arena. “I would not have been able to write this song or get to this place of peace if the Chicks had not been in my life to do it first.”

Luke Combs cover of Tracy Chapman “Fast Cars” is pleant enough

― curmudgeon, Sunday, June 11, 2023 3:44 AM (six months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Pleasant

― curmudgeon, Sunday, June 11, 2023 4:02 AM (six months ago) bookmarkflaglink

such a good song, it's hard to screw it up ... and he doesn't.

― alpine static, Sunday, June 11, 2023 7:31 AM (six months ago) bookmarkflaglink

late to this particular party, have to agree that this is a very decent cover and... weirdly, while it's objectively lesser in every way than the original, it's really hitting some emotional notes with me - as if the kind of... I'm looking for the word here... simplicity? that Combs brings actually elevates the song?

happy to be reminded of this masterpiece of songwriting anyway

deference, i think, is the word you're looking for. he just plays it as best he can w/o doing all sorts of shit to "make it his own" because, assuming we believe him, he just loves the song and it makes him think of his dad.

this is why it's good.

well, also because Tracy Chapman wrote an incredible song

yes! exactly

https://accidentalevolution.wordpress.com/2023/12/26/40-best-country-singles-of-2023/

Chuck Eddy's fave 2023 country songs

Long-running country blog That Nashville Sound's top albums and songs of 2023
https://thatnashvillesound.blogspot.com/2023/12/that-nashville-sounds-top-country-and_31.html
https://thatnashvillesound.blogspot.com/2023/12/that-nashville-sounds-top-country-and.html