Rolling country 2007 thread

2007
Bomshel – Bomshel (Curb)
John Anderson – Easy Money (Warner Bros./Raybaw)
The Greencards – Viridian (Dualtone)
Daryle Singletary – Straight From The Heart (Shanachie)
John Waite – Downtown—Journey Of A Heart (No Brakes/Rounder)
Bill Kirchen – Hammer Of The Honky-Tonk Gods (Proper)

John Waite's CD counts as country since it's on Rounder and features an Alison Krauss duet. Also, I really like the following metal album from France, which somebody on the metal ILM sandbox thread said sounds country to them, though I'm not completely sure why they say that; maybe the claimant was from England and never heard country before, but I need to go back and listen to it in a country context. Sounded more like Noir Desir to me, so maybe they meant gothabilly (which could conceivably count as country, for its billy-goat part)?:

Phazm – Antebellum Death ‘N Roll (Osmose Productions)

Also, there's a new Travis Tritt Very Best Of comp on my shelf that looks good, but I haven't put it on yet. And also, last week in Houston I bought the following '90s CDs in a 20% off Half-Price Books sale:

Faith Hill Faith, 1998, $2.40: More mush than her three later albums (unless I missed one), but two great singles on it ("This Kiss," "The Secret Of Life"), and I also like "Better Days" on it a lot. The rest is sometimes okay, sometimes unbearable. You can hear her trying plenty of r&b melisma, which is kind of interesting when it's not boring. She also sings songs by Sherly Crow and Aldo Nova.

Little Texas, Kick A Little, 1994, $1.80: "Amy's Back In Austin" is still great, "Redneck Like Me" is semi-tough Southern rock," "I'd Hold On To Her" is half as good as an '80s .38 Special album track, the rest is kinda boring me so far, but who knows.

Little Texas, Big Time, 1993, $0.90: Didn't play this yet.

Ronnie Milsap, Greatest Hits, 1988, $1.80: Not really his greatest hits at all, but only nine songs, so relatively painless. Haven't noticed any great ones yet, but it's all okay. "Daydreams About Night Things" not as good as Loretta's version. Overall album not as good as the album of new stuff he put out in 2006.

Kim Richey, Bitter Sweet, 1997: $1.80: A keeper. Previously I only owned her best-of CD. "Lonesome Side Of Town" on now, and it sounds wonderful, though "I Know" with the Tom Petty-like guitar riff might be my favorite so far. She's easily one of my favorite alt-country/Americana singers -- way more listenable than Lucinda Wiliams. But I'm not sure that I can quite formulate why just yet.

Pam Tills, Greatest Hits, 1997: $1.80: Includes the three by her I really remember liking when they were new ("Shake The Sugar Tree," the proto-Ricky Martin ""My Vida Loca," the great Egyptian-walking "Cleopatra, Queen of Denial"), and only 11 tracks compared to the more unweildy 16 on her 2002 Country Legends, so maybe more user-friendly though I just noticed that the longer comp has a song called "Betty's Got a Bass Boat" that's not on the shorter one so I should go back and listen to that before I settle. (Longer one also has a track called "Mandolin Rain," so I'll listen to that too.)

Rick Trevino, Rick Trevino, 1994, $1.80. Damn he's baby-faced on the cover. All the okay English-language tracks on this one seem to show up on his later Super Hits which also has the far superior Mellencampish "Bobbie Ann Mason," so maybe the debut's not worth hanging on to. What makes it kinda intersting though is the two Spanish-language tejanos (which are prettily sung, though fairly generic) at the end. There was another Trevino album at Half Price from a year or two later with no Spanish tracks, so I'm wondering whether Columbia gave up quick on the idea of him crossing over to the regional Mexican charts. (Emilio was crossing the other way around the same time, right?) A subject for future research, maybe.

(Various), Country Dance Mixes, 1993, $1.80: Best find here, probably. Nine dancefloor (and often borderline disco-fied) remixes of Confederate Railroad, Ray Kennedy, and John Michael Montgomery tracks. The Railroad ones I had already, and they're great, but the rest are pretty awesome too, especially "All She Ever Wants Is More" by Kennedy and "Life's A Dance" by Montgomery, though I've never given either artist a moment of thought before. Apparently Kennedy and Brad Smith produced all the remixes here except the two Railroad ones. I wonder if they sold this at linedance clubs, or what. The liner notes also call it "really cool headphone music, man." Nifty.

and yeah that mextape is pretty good, my #10 album of 2006 but i listen to it a lot more than most of my higher pickxs

just got the two Farmer Jason CDs--that's Jason Ringenberg on the tractor on his farm west of Nashville. Good fun for the kids with Todd Snider guesting on a couple and Fats Kaplin guiding the proceedings. My favorite so far on the new one, "Rockin' in the Forest w/ Farmer J.," is "Opossum in a Pocket." Almost as good as his Scorchers stuff!

I'm a bit let down by the John Anderson record--some of that material is blehh. However, "Brown Liquor" is just about my favorite song of the moment by anyone, great stuttering a la Tillis (Mel).

And the Viridians' record is fine, but after the title track, which is just incredibly addictive, nothing quite matches it.

Don turned me onto the George Soulé record "Take a Ride," and it's country-soul, they say. Could've been fleshed out a bit more, and there are times when you wish George could've built a touch more drama into his vocals--and for my money, he sings better than 99% of all the people who are hailed as "country-soul" like Dan Penn, Eddie Hinton, et al; in fact, he's in a different league altogether--but it's good, and it says something that he does best with a song not his at all, on a record by a "neglected songwriter": Greg Cartwright's "Wait and See," a classic pop-gospel ballad in 6/8.

Tony Furtado's "Thirteen" is too mild for its own good, but he does a nice cover of "Won't Get Fooled Again," and it's pleasant enough as neo-folkie-bluegrass.

Southern Culture on the Skids show some brains in their covers on their new "Plays Countrypolitan Hits." Decent enough on "Muswell Hillbillies" and the Byrds' hoary "Have You Seen Her Face," but they don't bring much to anything, and they're a one-joke band, seems to me.

for an eloquent defense of Lucinda Williams, that doesn't totally convince me, Bill Friskics-Warren in the new No Depression. He thinks she's a great singer, I don't, but it's a good piece that made me, at least, re-think her. The Hal Willner production on her new one ought to be something...new. But I haven't heard it ("West") yet.

I've been enjoying "Heartbreaker's Hall Of Fame" (although I'm not absolutely sure about the placement of that apostrophe, surely the Hall of Fame would belong to more than just one heartbreaker?) by Sunny Sweeney, which is a CDbaby thing, and doesn't appear to have come out on any kind of label. Jim Lauderdale guests on one song and wrote a few others. SS herself has an oddly appealing voice, considering how piercing it is. I'm not making a very good job of selling this, am I? Anyway, I've been enjoying it.

I went back to Holland while ILx was down and returned with another haul of delightfully cheap country vinyl. I now have more Susan Raye records than:
(a) I ever thought I'd even see and
(b) any sane human could ever need.

Bless those Dutch and their ways.

xhuxk, is there a release date for the John Anderson? I was wondering if Raybaw had dropped him since nothing's been heard since "If Her Lovin' Don't Kill Me" (which flirted with my Nashville Scene ballot) sadly flopped.

And is the Tritt best-of a single or double?

thomas, the date I have is May 15. apparently there's also a big & rich book, "all access," set for around the same time.

Oh, that hurts. I've clearly gotta find my way on someone's promo list...

And since the 2006 thread died prematurely, anyone up for posting their '06 ballots, lists, etc. here?

Anyone heard a release date for the McGraw? For that matter, how's the single? I heard the video was supposed to premiere at 12:01am 1/1/07, but since stupid TimeWarner bumped CMT to the digital line-up, I missed it.

Chuck Eddy’s 2006 Nashville Scene Ballot

TOP 10 COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2006
1. Montgomery Gentry – Some People Change ( Columbia )
2. Toby Keith – White Trash With Money (Show Dog Nashville/Universal)
3, Victory Brothers – Kowboyz De Loz Angeleez (victorybrothers.net)
4. Dale Watson – Whiskey Or God (Palo Duro)
5. Rodney Atkins – If You’re Going Through Hell (Curb)
6. Eric Church – Sinners Like Me (EMI)
7. Trent Willmon – A Little More Livin’ ( Columbia )
8. Keith Urban – Love, Pain & The Whole Crazy Thing (EMI/Capitol)
9. (Various) – She Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool: A Tribute To Barbara Mandrell (Sony BMG/BNA)
10. Shooter Jennings – Electric Rodeo (Universal South)

TOP 10 COUNTRY SINGLES (OR TRACKS OR WHATEVER) OF 2006
1 Carrie Underwood – “Before He Cheats” (Arista)
2 Rodney Atkins – “Cleaning This Gun (Come On In Boy)” (Curb)
3. Trent Willmon – “Surprise” ( Columbia )
4. Samantha Jo – “Time For Summer” (samanthajomartin.com)
5 Shooter Jennings – “Hair of the Dog” (Universal South)
6. Ronnie Milsap – “Somewhere Dry” (RCA)
7. Bomshel – “Bomshel Stomp” (Curb)
8. Alan Jackson – “The Fire Fly's Song” (Arista Nashville )
9. Toby Keith – Get Drunk And Be Somebody” (Show Dog Nashville/Universal)
10, Redhill – “All Night Long” (redhillrocks.com)

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2006
1. The Kentucky Headhunters – Flying Under The Radar (CBUJ)
2. Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys – Legends Of Country Music (Columbia/Legacy)
3. Little Feat – The Best Of (Warner Bros./Rhino)
4. (Various) – Classic Country: Sweet Country Ballads (Time Life)
5. Dean Martin – Swingin’ Down Yonder (Collector’s Choice/EMI)

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2006
1. Toby Keith
2. Eddie Montgomery
3. Troy Gentry

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS OF 2006
1. Carrie Underwood
2. Natalie Maines
3. Shannon Brown

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST DUOS. TRIOS, OR GROUPS OF 2006
1. Montgomery Gentry
2. Victory Brothers
3. Bomshel

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2006
1. Victory Brothers
2. Bomshel
3. Eric Church

ALBUMS
1. Jessi Colter, Out of the Ashes (Shout Factory)
2. Casey Driessen, 3-D (Sugar Hill)
3. Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience, Across the Parish
Line (Aim)
4. Dixie Chicks, Taking the Long Way (Open Wide/Columbia)
5. Darrell Scott, The Invisible Man (Full Light)
6. Intocable, Crossroads: Cruce de Caminos (EMI Latin)
7. Chris Knight, Enough Rope (Drifter's Church)
8. Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives, Live at the Ryman
(Superlatone/Universal South)
9. Allison Moorer, Getting Somewhere (Sugar Hill)
10. Bruce Springsteen, The Seeger Sessions (Columbia)

SINGLES
1. Los Tigres del Norte, "Ingratitud"
2. Gary Allan, "Life Ain't Always Beautiful"
3. Carrie Underwood, "Before He Cheats"
4. The Wreckers, "Leave the Pieces"
5. Dixie Chicks, "Easy Silence"
6. Eric Church, "Two Pink Lines"
7. George Strait, "It Just Comes Natural"
8. Allison Moorer, "Fairweather"
9.Intocable, "Por Ella (Poco a Poco)"
10. Dixie Chicks, "Not Ready to Make Nice"

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2006:

1. Dixie Chicks - The Long Way Around - Sony
2. Johnny Cash - American V: A Hundred Highways - American
3. Rosanne Cash - Black Cadillac - Capitol
4. Solomon Burke - Nashville - Shout Factory!
5. The Hacienda Brothers - What's Wrong With Right - Palo Duro
6. Jessi Colter - Out of the Ashes - Shout Factory!
7. Vince Gill - These Days - MCA
8. Todd Snider - The Devil You Know - New Door
9. Various Artists – She Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool - Sony
10. The Wreckers - Stand Still Look Pretty - Maverick

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2006:

1. Dixie Chicks - I'm Not Ready To Make Nice
2. Rodney Akins - If You're Going through Hell
3. Dierks Bentley - Settle For a Slow Down
4. Amelia White - Black Doves
5. Bob Dylan - Working Man Blues #2
6. George Strait - Give It Away
7. Gary Allan - Life Ain't Always Beautiful
8. Marit Larsen - Only a Fool
9. Hacienda Brothers - What's Wrong With Right - Palo Duro
10. Ashley Monroe - Satisfied

1. Pat Green- Cannonball
2. Alan Jackson- Like Red From a Rose
3. Toby Keith- White Trash With Money
4. Todd Snider- The Devil You Know
5. Keith Urban- Love, Pain...
6. Dixie Chicks- Long Way Around
7. Montgomery Gentry- Some People Change
8. Sugarland- Enjoy the Ride
9. Vince Gill- These Days
10. Rodney Atkins- If You're Going Through Hell

Tracks

1. Keith Urban- Once In a Lifetime
2. Todd Snider- Looking For a Job
3. Pat Green- Wayback Texas
4. Montgomery Gentry- Hey Country
5. Wreckers- Leave the Pieces
6. Toby Keith- Get Drunk & Be Somebody
7. Alan Jackson- Like Red on a Rose
8. Sugarland- Settlin'
9. Carrie Underwood- Before He Cheats
10. Dixie Chicks- Not Ready to Make Nice

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2006:

1. Alan Jackson, Like Red on a Rose (Arista Nashville)
2. Various Artists, She Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool: A Tribute to Barbara Mandrell (BNA)
3. The Wreckers, The Wreckers (Maverick)
4. Jamey Johnson, The Dollar (BNA)
5. Hacienda Brothers, What’s Wrong with Right (Proper American)
6. Jessi Colter, Out of the Ashes (Shout! Factory)
7. Darryl Worley, Here and Now (903 Music)
8. Blaine Larsen, Rockin’ You Tonight (BNA/Giantslayer)
9. Keith Urban, Love, pain & the whole crazy thing (Capitol)
10. Montgomery Gentry, Some People Change (Columbia Nashville)

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2006:

1. Trent Willmon, "Surprise"
2. Jessi Colter, "Starman"
3. Dierks Bentley, "Every Mile a Memory"
4. Alan Jackson, "The Fire Fly's Song"
5. Keith Urban, "Once in a Lifetime"
6. Darryl Worley, "I Just Came Back from a War"
7. Marit Larsen, "Only a Fool"
8. Howard Tate, "Louisiana 1927"
9. Carrie Underwood, "Before He Cheats"
10. The Wreckers, "Leave the Pieces"

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2006:

1. Willie Nelson, The Complete Atlantic Sessions (Atlantic/Rhino)
2. Tony Joe White, Swamp Music: The Complete Monument Recordings (Rhino)
3. Terry Manning, Home Sweet Home (Sunbeam)
4. James Talley, Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, But We Sure Got A Lot Of Love: 30th Anniversary Edition (Cimarron)
5. Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, Legends of Country Music (Columbia/Legacy)

6. Tom T. Hall, The Definitive Collection (Hip-O)

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2006:

1. Marit Larsen "Only A Fool" (EMI)
2. Carrie Underwood "Before He Cheats" (Arista)
3. Taylor Swift "Tim McGraw" (Big Machine)
4. Eric Church "How 'Bout You" (Capitol)
5. Ashley Monroe "Satisfied" (Columbia)
6. Dierks Bentley "Settle For A Slowdown" (Capitol)
7. The Dixie Chicks "Not Ready To Make Nice" (Sony)
8. LeAnn Rimes "And It Feels Like" (Curb)
9. Toby Keith "A Little Too Late" (Show Dog/Universal)
10. Little Big Town "Good As Gone" (Equity)

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2006:

1. Taylor Swift - Taylor Swift (Big Machine)
2. Various Artists - Totally Country Vol. 5 (Sony BMG)
3. Eric Church - Sinners Like Me Capitol)
4. Alan Jackson - Like Red On A Rose (Arista Nashville)
5. Toby Keith - White Tra$h With Money (Show Dog/Universal)
6. The Wreckers - Stand Still, Look Pretty (Maverick)
7. Montgomery Gentry - Some People Change (Columbia)
8. Shooter Jennings - Electric Rodeo (Universal)
9. The Dixie Chicks - Taking The Long Way (Sony)
10. Jessi Colter - Out Of The Ashes (Shout! Factory)

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2006:

1. Various Artists - Classic Country: Sweet Country Ballads (Time Life)
2. Todd Snider - That Was Me: 1994 - 1998 (Hip-O/Universal)

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2006:

1. Alan Jackson
2. Toby Keith
3. Dierks Bentley

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS OF 2006:

1. Natalie Maines
2. Taylor Swift
3. Julie Roberts

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST SONGWRITERS OF 2006:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Liz Rose
3. Toby Keith

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST DUOS, TRIOS, OR GROUPS OF 2006:

1. Montgomery Gentry
2. The Dixie Chicks
3. The Wreckers

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST INSTRUMENTALISTS OF 2006:

1. Mark Wright
(Gonna keep voting for this guy until you add a producers category)

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2006:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Eric Church
3. Jace Everett

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST OVERALL ACTS OF 2006:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Eric Church
3. Alan Jackson

I'm fascinated by the question "What is country?" but at the same time it's not my question, since I've never thought for a moment that I myself am country. So my ballot is loose-limbed and ready to dance around the question, without caring about the answer. Germany's entry in the Eurovision contest was Texas Lightning's "No No Never," a country song, or more accurately a good little Europop tune dressed up in country hats. Is that country? It's the country of someone's imagination, would have made my list somewhere around 35 or 40, if I'd gone that long. My number one is by Marit Larsen, a playful, impish Norwegian ex-teenpopper, now a singer-songwriter who's bookish and explores the complexities of her own mind, the small self-torments that magnify and confuse. And for her one and only country song she knocks out this little hoedown that's light as angel food cake, but it's cake that's spiked with a bit of hard rum. And it's perfect and it's wonderful. Would the American country audience be interested if they heard it? Won't happen, but maybe Marit's what they're waiting for; because they've embraced the Wreckers, consisting of another two ex-teenpoppers, one of 'em, Michelle Branch, being the woman who sang modern teen confessional's first big hit in 2001. Despite her confessional sound, Michelle never had anything particularly interesting to confess-she's no secretly brilliant Ashlee-and on the page the Wreckers' lyrics are weepy and empty. But heard through the Wreckers' harmonies, the songs have the same beautiful teenpop ache as always, now welcomed in country. And girly teen Taylor Swift may be the genre's new master, creating scenes with perfect detail, sung with an unerring balance, not too heavy, not too light, but whipsmart.

[Reissues were limited to what I'd heard. I'm sure there were way more better than the Snider. Sent this with 30 seconds to spare before the deadline tolled, so didn't do right by Taylor Swift. Also, an argument over on my livejournal as to whether "Only A Fool" is Marit's only country song. Certainly there are country elements in other Marit tracks, but they only reach a critical mass in "Only A Fool."]

I have no idea where to post this and I'd do it on ILX if still up. But you mentioned somewhere about the possibility of Jewel being accepted into the country mainstream thanks to the new young artists being influenced by her. And, what do you know, just now I saw a commercial on TV for Nashville Star (the country version of American Idol), and what do you know, but who are the hosts this season? Cowboy Troy and Jewel. You don't have a TV, so you might not know that and I thought you might be interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C_bw3aDSOI

xp

For the record, my top 3 singles were Cash's "God's Gonna Cut You Down," Hank Jr.'s "That's How They Do It In Dixie," and Carrie's "Before He Cheats" - I wonder if the last might win the poll, but then remember that the Chicks are likely to sweep it, sadly. (I'm of the their-politics-got-in-their-music's-way camp.)

I'm surprised though that nobody else seems to like Rodney Atkins' "If You're Going Through Hell." It stomps near as hard as "Kerosene," his vocals--which usually annoy me to no end--get the laughing at disaster tone right, and has a mean hook on the chorus. And as support-the-troops-sublimations go, it's crafty. Then again, I neglected to mention it till now, oh well.

Single--at least on the advance promo I have. But 20 songs, which is probably twice as long as the stodgy old cuss deserves, unless the thing was a lot more well-chosen than this one seems to be. Let's see...I remember liking "Here's A Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)," "Country Club," and "Lord Have Mercy On The Working Man" in their day; if there are seven more approaching that level (and I don't LOVE any of those), I'll be surprised. Always kinda hated "T-R-O-U-B-L-E," but maybe that's just 'cause I was a grump back then. I feel like he's had minor hits I've liked more than these whose titles I don't see on here, but damned if I can remember their names.

TOP 10 COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2006
5. Rodney Atkins – If You’re Going Through Hell (Curb)

TOP 10 COUNTRY SINGLES (OR TRACKS OR WHATEVER) OF 2006
2 Rodney Atkins – “Cleaning This Gun (Come On In Boy)” (Curb)

"If You're Going Through Hell" is, at best, the album's fourth best song -- behind the one I voted for, "These Are My People," and "In The Middle." And while he's got his cloying moments ("Watching You," about his little boy learning to say naughty words and pray just like Daddy, gag), the words there not his voice are the culprit.

His debut album was good, too, though not quite as good as the followup (which for a while I was considering for my Pazz & Jop ballot, though it slipped a bit on my list in '06's waning weeks):

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0350,eddy,49290,22.html

http://koganbot.livejournal.com/11711.html

Bill Kirchen's album is more rock and soul and blues than anything I've heard by him before. Great title (and rocking title track): Hammer Of The Honky Tonk Gods. He does "Devil With A Blue Dress On" as a slow shuffle, closes with an Arthur Alexander song.

-- xhuxk (fakemai...) (webmail), November 17th, 2006 12:04 PM. (xheddy) (link)

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This is like Freaky Friday or something. Totally agree with xhuxk on the new Kirchen. Good song selection too.
-- Roy Kasten (rfkaste...) (webmail), November 17th, 2006 2:50 PM. (Roy Kasten) (link)

Well, actually...Freaky Friday must be over now because the Kirchen album's sounding a lot duller to me today than it was a couple days ago. Just kinda stodgy and slow and colorless, and the title track doesn't really kick all that hard after all, and why the hell would anybody want to slow down "Devil With a Blue Dress On," come to think of it? So right now, I'm on the fence, but maybe it'll kick back in, or maybe it won't.
-- xhuxk (fakemai...) (webmail), November 19th, 2006 12:53 AM. (xheddy) (link)

"One More Day" on the Kirchen album does have a nice Dock Boggs era white country blues feel to it, I guess. And I do like the Arthur Alexander cover. So I haven't written the thing off quite yet.
-- xhuxk (fakemai...) (webmail), November 19th, 2006 1:45 AM. (xheddy) (link)

"Working Man" and "Soul Cruisin'" very nice on the Kirchen album too. I should just shut my mouth and stop second-guessing everything.
-- xhuxk (fakemai...) (webmail), November 19th, 2006 2:25 AM. (xheddy) (link)

Kirchen's "Hammer of The Honky Tonk Gods" title cut kicks (or at least "signifies kicking") in a Junior Brown kind of way, I guess. There's something sorta deluded about it -- half of Nashville rocks harder; hell, Kellie Pickler might rock harder -- but it's not bad.

-- xhuxk (fakemai...) (webmail), November 19th, 2006 2:54 AM. (xheddy) (link)

---------------------------------------------------------------------
And my new maybe-favorite on Kirchen's CD is "Skid Row in My Mind."

-- xhuxk (fakemai...) (webmail), November 19th, 2006 3:19 PM. (xheddy) (link)

So yeah, in the end, I'd say the Kirchen album squeaks by more on its real good song selection than its better-than-competent performances (and singing). But it still bats at least .500 in my book. I even wound up liking the track called "Heart of Gold," which is not a "Heart of Gold" I've known before. (It's credited to one T. Johnson). Best original is "One More Day," which turns out to be more Bob Wills than Dock Boggs, more Western swing than white blues. Anybody know who Blackie Farrell, who wrote "Skid Row In My Mind," or J. New, who wrote "Soul Cruisin'," are? They're both really great. "Devil With A Blue Dress" is totally dreary in this version, though maybe I'd forgive it here if I didn't grow up on Mitch Ryder.
-- xhuxk (fakemai...) (webmail), November 19th, 2006 10:45 PM. (xheddy) (link)

great comp, on Time/Life: "Gloryland: 30 Bluegrass Gospel Classics." Don Reno/Red Smiley, Rhonda Vincent, Country Gentlemen, The Seldom Scene, two discs, mighty nice Sunday-morning music.

...namely their "Missing You 2007" remake, which is now at #43 on the country singles chart

Depends how you define country, but either no country finished in the album top 40, or five or so did (Dylan, Neko Case, Jenny Lewis, Band Of Horses, Dixie Chicks, Bruce Springsteen). Todd Snider came in 61st, Johnny Cash 68, Rosanne Cash 85, Drive-By Truckers 89, Calexico 110, Bonnie "Prince" Billy 135, Jerry Lee Lewis 162, Vince Gill 168.

Singles, Band of Horses was 19th (I'm not claiming they're country, but I think they're considered Americana-related or something, though I'm not sure about that, even), Dixie Chicks 23, Dixie Chicks (again) 56, tied w/ Jenny Lewis and a buncha others, Neko Case 72, Neko Case (again) 84, tied w/ Todd Snider and a buncha others, and I'm not going to go further since we're down to six votes, except that "Before He Cheats" got a measly three votes. Marit Larsen's "Only A Fool" got five (her "Don't Save Me" got seven).

http://www.idolator.com/jackinpop2006

(I was distressed at how few people wrote comments; the dearth of commentary was probably due to the rushed deadline. Unfortunately my comments therefore stand out. I'm rather embarrassed by the nastiness at the start of my ballot, though I like the analysis that follows. If anything, Idolator is worse than what I said, but I really should have found another way to say it. Also disappointed by no lists from Rob Sheffield and Joshua Clover and Edd S. Hurt and Greil Marcus, and by Xgau's only voting one single.)

I posted this in a couple other places already, and as far as I know it has nothing whatsoever to do with country, but what the heck:

(And I had no idea til I read Michaelangelo's essay that Destroyer are considered "trad." Also, I swear I never even heard of Peter, Bjorn & John or Justice or Rhythm & Sound or Midlake before today. I'm pretty sure I heard of Camera Obscura before, but I had no idea that anybody liked them.) (And, oh yeah, the biggest surprise to me in the album finishers is Belle & Sebastian at #10. I have nothing more against them than I ever did, but I kinda figured even their fans didn't care about them anymore.)

1) Marit Larsen - "Only A Fool"
2) Carrie Underwood - "Before He Cheats"
3) Texas Lightning - "No No Never"
4) Julie Roberts - "Men and Mascara"
5) LeAnn Rimes - "And It Feels Like " (questionable eligibility)
6) Sara Evans - "Coalmine"
7) LeAnn Rimes - "Some People"
8) Toby Keith - "A Little Too Late"
9) Ashley Monroe - "Satisfied"
10) Rodney Atkins - "If You're Going Through Hell (Before the Devil Even Knows)"

This is a pretty solid top 10, even though there is stuff I didn't hear, like I said. I, as always, have a huge soft spot for Sara Evans, though "You'll Always Be My Baby" was not good at all.

Just played Alan's Like Red On A Rose again this morning, first time I've put it on since I bumped it from by Nashville Scene ballot. Which was stupid -- if I had to do it over again, I'd have bumped the Mandrell compilation instead, and Alan probably would have more in the running for my Jackin' Pop as well. It really is a beautiful record. Jazz album of the year, easy! But one thing I figured out is that it sort of blands out in its second half, after the first six tracks or so. My bumping probably over-emphasized that.

I'd say the weakest album of Montgomery Gentry's career was their debut album, and probably rank Some People Change second or third best. Either way, there's been no more consistent musical act this decade, in any genre. I'm not even sure who would come close.

Well, not counting Toby Keith's jazz album, if that counts. But better than Kenny Garrett, Ben Riley's Monk Legacy Septet, or David Ware (all of which I found extremely listenable regardless) for sure.

In other news, Don Allred forwarded me this yesterday. Interesting!!

Club Connection Announces Top Ten Country Dance Hits Of 2006

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (January 8, 2006) -- For the third year, Marco Promotion's Club Connection surveyed over 200 country nightclubs and dance instructors nationwide to determine the most played and most requested dance titles of the past 12 months.

Steve Holy blasted into 2006 with this year's number one club track, "Brand New Girlfriend." The single, which also earned Holy his second #1 radio hit, was released in February with a remix sent exclusively to clubs and dance instructors in November.

Trace Adkins dominates this year's top ten by earning the number two and number six spots with "Swing" and current radio single "Ladies Love Country Boys" respectively. Both tracks are on his 2006 Album Dangerous Man.

The number three spot belongs to Rodney Atkins and his breakout single "If You're Going Through Hell," the title track from his sophomore album on Curb Records.

CMA Award Winners Rascal Flatts capture the number four spot for their Jeffery Steele, Tony Mullins, Jon Stone penned "Me And My Gang." Brad Paisley rounds out the top 5 with "The World."

Toby Keith made his third straight appearance on the top ten with his single "Get Drunk And Be Somebody," charting at number seven.

Country newcomers closed out the 2006 top ten. Pittsburgh, PA natives the Povertyneck Hillbillies chart at number eight with their debut single "Mr. Right Now." The number nine spot belongs to Curb Recording artist Tyler Dean with "Built For Blue Jeans," a track that was released exclusively to clubs and dance instructors. Completing this year's list is Eric Church's "Two Pink Lines," the second single from his debut album Sinners Like Me.

2005's number one dance hit, Trace Adkins' "Honkytonk Badonkadonk," continued its' momentum into 2006 earning the highest re-current rotation. Bomshel's "Bomshel Stomp," which earned the duo the number six spot in 2005, took the number two re-current position. Big and Rich's club mainstay "Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy," a single that topped the 2004 club hits list and appeared as 2005's number one re-current, earned the third highest re-current rotation in 2006.

Club Connection's Top Ten Dance Hits Of 2006 are:
1. Steve Holy "Brand New Girlfriend"
2. Trace Adkins "Swing"
3. Rodney Atkins "If You're Going Through Hell"
4. Rascal Flatts "Me And My Gang"
5. Brad Paisley "The World"
6. Trace Adkins "Ladies Love Country Boys"
7. Toby Keith "Get Drunk And Be Somebody"
8. PovertyNeck Hillbillies "Mr. Right Now"
9. Tyler Dean "Built For Blue Jeans"
10. Eric Church "Two Pink Lines"

Marco Promotion's Club Connection is a division of Nashville-based publicity and promotions company, AristoMedia Group. Capitalizing on the resurgent popularity of country dance clubs, Club Connection provides services that allow artists to impact larger audiences and increase product awareness. Club Connection has created successful promotion packages for artists including Trace Adkins, Dierks Bentley, Big & Rich, Montgomery Gentry, Toby Keith and Bomshel. For more information about Marco Promotions' Club Connection, please visit www.marcopromo.com or www.marcoclubconnection.com.

That's overstating things a bit, and I think the defining Garth-as-Garth has as much to do with his mega-image and arena shows, which he obviously couldn't do behind a debut. But "The Dance" is one of his biggest and most Garth songs; "Tomorrow Never Comes" and "Alabama Clay" are good too. He's always been an under-rated singer.

garth, hmm, the first one, '90, w/ "friends in low places," i always liked because it was a bit more relaxed, pre-mega-success. i guess i think "in pieces" is the best of all of them except the first greatest hits package. one of those guys i wish i could divorce the music from that silly-ass way he always cavorted around on stage and so forth. definitely some kind of genius of assimilationist nashville, oklahoma. give me john anderson any day, though, or even keith whitley.

jackson "jazz album of the year," eh? that's the rub, and what a lot of reviewers just seem to have missed. i was talking about charlie rich, and certainly jackson has affinities. rich always gave you a piece of himself, vocally, though, and jackson remains a bit of a cipher, but i guess i say the less "personality" in jazz-pop these days, perhaps the better. a really over-the-top singer might've ruined "like red."

xps

Here's my Scene stuff:

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2006:

1. Alan Jackson – Like Red on a Rose
2. Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins – Rabbit Fur Coat
3. Julie Roberts – Men and Mascara
4. The Wreckers – Stand Still, Look Pretty
5. Blaine Larsen – Rockin’ You Tonight
6. Rosanne Cash – Black Cadillac
7. Dixie Chicks – Taking the Long Way
8. Vince Gill – These Days
9. Toby Keith – White Trash with Money
10. Keith Urban – Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2006:

1. Faith Hill – “Stealing Kisses”
2. Sara Evans – “Cheatin’”
3. Carrie Underwood – “Before He Cheats”
4. Kenny Chesney – “Summertime”
5. The Wreckers – “Leave the Pieces”
6. Blaine Larsen – “I Don’t Know What She Said”
7. Toby Keith – “Get Drunk and Be Somebody”
8. Billy Currington – “Must Be Doin’ Somethin’ Right”
9. Dixie Chicks – “Not Ready to Make Nice”
10. Julie Roberts – “Men and Mascara”

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2006:

1. Alan Jackson
2. Toby Keith
3. Vince Gill

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS OF 2006:

1. Julie Roberts
2. Neko Case
3. Carrie Underwood

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST LIVE ACTS OF 2006:

1. Tim McGraw/Faith Hill
2. Dierks Bentley
3. Kenny Chesney

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST SONGWRITERS OF 2006:

1. Lori McKenna
2. Arlis Albritton
3. Robert Lee Castleman

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST DUOS, TRIOS OR GROUPS OF 2006:

1. The Wreckers
2. Dixie Chicks
3. Deadstring Bros.

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2006:

1. The Wreckers
2. Blaine Larsen
3. Jamey Johnson

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST OVERALL ACTS OF 2006:

1. Alan Jackson
2. Julie Roberts
3. Rosanne Cash

I'm sure you guys probably talked about this last year, but thoughts on "Brand New Girlfriend"? I think it's great: I love the unabashed heart-on-his-sleeve giddiness, but I can also see someone could find it annoying. None of you voted for it. A little surprised that Frank was the only one who voted for Taylor Swift's "Tim McGraw," too. Not surprised at all that we all seem to agree on the excellence of "Before He Cheats."

I'd like to hear more country this year. I didn't really hear anything until late 2005, and even last year I probably only heard about a dozen or so songs, not including the Dixie Chicks record, which I thought was just okay.

"bible song" is kinda brilliant, though.

so I gotta give a listen to Jason Michael Carroll's "Waitin' in the Country" promo. anyone heard it yet? beyond "Alyssa Lies"? he does a duet with our new Star, Jewel...

5 Country Albums I liked in 2006, in no particular order:

1. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
2. Alan Jackson - Like Red On a Rose
3. Rosanne Cash - Black Cadillac
4. Hannah Montana - Hannah Montana Soundtrack
5. Dixie Chicks - Taking the Long Way Around

Five in one year means it's a pretty good year for me for country music. Most years have one country permanent addition to my iPod, if any at all. Unclear if Hannah Montana will be a permanent fixture (though 'Best of Both Worlds' will likely be) or Rosanna Cash, though her album strikes me as beautiful at the moment. The other 3 are no doubt permanent additions.

Amazing moments from these five albums:
1. "John couldn't read it (John couldn't read it) / Get on repeat it / John couldn't read it / Holy, Holy to the Lord" - can you hear Johnny B. Goode?
2. "at the end of the road is another town where the people want to hear a man who sings the blues."
3. "it was a black cadillac that drove you away -- one of us gets to go to heaven, one has to stay in hell" -- can you hear this and not think of joni's yellow taxi?
4. "Living two lives is... a - little weerd!"
5. " And how in the world / Can the words that I said / Send somebody so over the edge / That they'd write me a letter / Saying that I better shut up and sing / Or my life will be over."

---

Actually, Frank gave me a reason why Hannah Montana isn't country, but I wonder if anyone can give me some reasons why she is? Or could be? I'm curious, outside of the television show (in which she's called a hillbilly regularly), why I'd think there was something countryish about her.

the one with jewel is totally bleh--"no good in goodbye." the best one is maybe "honky tonk friends," about a guy who hangs out with his suburban neighbors and his co-workers and even with his Godly Friends (steeple-people), but who only really loves his h.t. friends.

he gets that macho astringent deep baritone slide up to nasality quite well, and the title track, and especially "sleep when i'm dead" rock pretty good--the latter is, like, about 4 songs all jammed into one, with some amazing twists and turns and that great guitar lick. "anywhere u.s.a" was already done by jason aldean and many others--some of this is big & rich, too, he almost raps, it's a typically wordy nashville country album. not bad!

Come to think of it, Toby Keith comes close. (And I haven't even heard his early albums, so it's possible he even surpasses MG.) And Craig Finn might come close if you count Lifter Puller stuff I guess. Who else?? Pink has four CDs on my shelf, but I can't say I love any of them. Field Mob have three; third one not great. Um...
Actually, the Dixie Chicks would be up in top five or so, probably. (Oh wait...Lil Wayne! Trick Daddy! Brooks & Dunn, though I only even know three '00s albums by them -- guess I need to research backwards from Steers and Queers. Gore Gore Girls, though they only have two albums and an EP. Eminem's off the list by now... and I might be starting to lose track of Lil Wayne and Trick Daddy.)

I need to give Jason Michael Carrol another shot (and had planned to; was just procrastinating.) I'd taken him for something of a wuss on first listen. (Not that being a wuss is necessarily always bad.)

Saturday, May 5, 2007: George Strait, Alan Jackson, Sara Evans, Jason Aldean, Eric Church, Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, Neko Case, Robert Earl Keen, Richie Furay, Chris Hillman & Herb Pederson, David Serby, Earl Scruggs, Nickel Creek, Yonder Mountain String Band, The Grascals, The John Cowan Band, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Riders in the Sky, Red Steagall, Waddie Mitchell, Sons of the San Joaquin, Cowboy Nation.

Sunday, May 6, 2007: Kenny Chesney, Brooks & Dunn, Sugarland, Gary Allan, Pat Green, Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, Raul Malo, Junior Brown, Drive by Truckers, Alejandro Escovedo, Railbenders, Ricky Skaggs, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, Marty Stuart, The Del McCoury Band, Abigail Washburn with the Sparrow Quartet featuring Ben Sollee, Sasey Driessen and Bela Fleck, The Flatlanders (Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock), Garrison Keillor, Baxter Black, Cowboy Celtic, Don Edwards, and Katy Moffat.

Whoah.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/lastcallgirls

The border-jigging sounds pretty good; makes the music more rich than the Nancy solo album I heard last year. But the Mollys worked with a wider emotional range, though, I think. (I.e.--they could be pretty dark.) In all cases, though, I'm realizing that Nancy probably doesn't really have enough vocal presence for me -- She's a competent singer, but kind of dull. It would take a better singer than her for me to decide how good a songwriter she is. But she does seem to surround herself with fairly lively musician friends.

I'd say "Callin' Baton Rouge," "What She's Doing Now," "Papa Loved Mama," "Two Of A Kind Workin' On A Full House," and maybe "That Summer," and maybe "Ain't Goin' Down (Til The Sun Comes Up)"
(and probably one or two more) come pretty damn close though.

i also got a best of gene pitney for 6 bucks, which has been the exten t of my record buying this trip, havent listened to it fully, but planning on doing that tomorrow or monday (tonite being the super fancy bday dinner)

(though i did find a copy of carnival strippers, a relvetory, complicated, and proto2ndwavefemminist book of women hardned by love, the road, and male lust--there is a country opus, a hillbillu opera waiting to be written about it, and it made me wonder, what did carnival strippers listen to in 1972, on their circitous way around the country, what did they strip to?)

also outside the country vein, the last episode of studio 60. had the christian singer harriet being offered the role of anita pallenberg in a rolling stone movie, and her joking that tammy wynettr should have been offered, it says alot when tammy is a joke and anita pallenberg is the best role a woman can hope to play.

over the rhine -- matt cibula who loves them probably thinks i'm always trying hard not to like these americanists, but actually just the opposite is true. of course i want to like them: they come from cincinnatti or someplace like that and their name refers to germany i suppose and i've been obsessed with the german cincannatti thing ever since i saw a book that i assume was a history of the city when i was a kid called was du ever im zizinnatti or something like that (richard riegel, please to come here and correct my spelling). thing is, over the rhine have never grabbed me, not once, not even for a song. i kind of figured that their new best-of CD would play down their amorphousness, but sadly no such luck dudes.

royal trux - interesting. i have a prejudice against these people in part because they're one of those bands (like disco inferno -- who may or may not actually exist in real life -- and gary numan) who seemingly have an extremely rabid and obsessed and deluded cult of people i can't otherwise identify on ILM who think they're the greatest artists in the universe, which may or may not be amusing but is definitely way beyond ridiculous. the one album i got all the way through by them before struck me as a shitty version of black crowes, more or less. (it was one of their mid/late '90s "sellout" albums i guess; i think i tried listening to one of their early noisier records once and it seemed completely forgettable even as background sound, at least at the time. i'm willing to concede i may have underrated both of those records though.) anyway, the new one western extermintator has some okay blues guitar jam parts (in "rat will kill") and one song that sounds like hanoi rocks drowning in your bathtub ("balls to pass") and an opening dark gypsy waltz that you might like more than me if you like tom waits or nick cave more than me. so...some of it, at least, is not bad. but mostly the music tends to muffle and distance itself into lifelessness.

cloud cult -- as country as modest mouse if not ugly casanova, which means, well, a little bit country at least. i like this! at least so far! i just don't know how much! they are an indie band from minnesota and have actual songs with words that seem to make sense, and hooks and a good singer and decent beat, but mostly melodies melodies melodies. and there's intersting things going on musically in a modest mouse type way; one of these days i'll pinpoint why i kinda like those guys. so far "the girl underground" is my favorite song, then "2x2x2" and "alien christ," but i have only just begun.

the mooney suzuki - i liked their previous record, the mainstream hard rock one where they finally came to terms with their inner eddie money for an entire album. new album's lamer, and seemingly a deadhead hippie (= roots, sort of) move overall, though the jokey drug spiel "good ol' alchohol" is a decent commander cody type joke. if i had an ipod i'd probably put it on there and chuck the rest, though i'd be intersted if somebody hears something here i don't.

eddie money - covers of great '60s songs like "expressway to your heart" and "land of a thousand dances" and "good lovin'" and "jenny take a ride" and two by the foundations plus james brown, ray charles, sam & dave, etc. which by now means people who buy country records might end up buying this too. so far seems kind of watered down, but we'll see. better than mooney suzuki's CD probably. a cool photo of eddie at 15 in his garage band the grapes of wrath inside.

Water Ostanek ("Canada's Polka King and Three Time Grammy Winner" -- he does the odd numbered selections, which sometimes have slightly more intriguing song titles, likke "Hawaiian Polka" and "My Beautiful Slovenia Waltz") and Gaylord Kancnik ("Michigan Polka Hall of Fame inductee", who does the even numbered selections), Polkas United -- Consistently lively dance music behind consistently repressed singing that refuses to acknowledge that rock'n'roll, country, blues, jazz, etc, ever happened. Which might not be bad if said singing had a Polish or German accent (or if its pre-rock pop inflections had some distinction otherwise), but it doesn't.

http://paperthinwalls.com/singlefile/item?id=406

As for Over the Rhine, Chuck, that's a section of downtown Cincinnati that used to be a nice German part of the city and then after whiteflight days of the '50s and '60s turned into pretty much a horrible slum. It might be different now--I lived there in 2002-2003, what a weird place that was, beautiful and in many ways fascinating, a once-major city all sunk in on itself--so that area might be in the throes of urban renewal by now. The German elements in Zinzinnati weren't as obvious by the time I got there, but you could still feel it. Then there's a whole side of town that's settled by people from eastern Ky. and Tenn., the "west side," I think, the city is separated by a big ridge. Where King Records was is just a run-down slum, not much different from where Stax was in Memphis, except you ate "chili" instead of weird tamales and barbecue. Maybe they're changing all that, too. As the band Over the Rhine, never could figure out what the fuss was, boring.

as for almost-country-why-not, Ron Sexsmith. his new one I've tried to like, I mean I like it a little bit and I respect its obvious sincerity and craft, but he's just not much of a singer. He sounds a bit like Jackson Browne, which isn't too bad, and he also sounds uncannily like Ray Davies in spots. he hits the notes but he lacks drama. And the songs are good, but there's just an extra-X element lacking that could take any one of them from OK into really good. he does one about being bummed out by hearing Leadbelly as backdrop for a bookstore ambience kinda thing, and OK, but the obvious riposte is that *his* music does exactly the same thing, it sort of murmurs in that genteel way. Still, he obviously has something, but doesn't in my book deserve the praise he's gotten from lots of people, like, er, No Depression...guy there says his work "not only echoes but rivals that of the Kinks at their most exquisite," but I don't hear it. It's *not* exquisite, is the point, but rather workaday. Maybe I need to be in the right mood, like buying hundreds of dollars worth of books and magazines in Borders while eating a five-dollar muffin and drinking coffee. Plus the Kinks at their best were endearingly crass and Sexsmith doesn't seem to want to ever commit anything so energetic to disc.

I lived there from Kindergarten to 4th Grade, so I guess around 1965 to 1969 or so. Don't remember it much (just like everything else at that time in my life), but the one time I went back to the city in the mid '80s to drop in on Richard R., the greenness and hilliness of its vistas reminded me a lot of Germany around Mainz and Bad Kreuznach, where I'd been stationed in the Army. I should go back again sometime (to both places.) And I should track down that book.

http://www.biblio.com/books/8788803.html

http://www.amazon.com/Vas-Ever-Zinzinnati-Dick-Perry/dp/0517240564/sr=1-1/qid=1168715521/ref=sr_1_1/103-7550218-1307818?ie=UTF8&s=books

ohio is a great fucking record because karin is a great singer and songwriter. their followup drunkard's prayer was a conscious pullback away from karin being in charge of the band; it saved their relationship and linford's fragile ego, but at the cost of her truly being able to be free to cut loose. it was boring and i said so. i saw them on both tours and the last time (after they had supposedly gotten back on track with each other) there was a palpable tension between them onstage, no adoring looks, no chemistry, no nothing. it was really weird. so anyway.

it sounds a bit like the new teddy thompson but thompson is much more beautiful.

As slightly country-inflected indie rock goes, I'm liking Tigers & Monkeys' Loose Mouth more. Singer is Shonali Bhowmik, formerly of Atlanta-based-I-believe better-than-Breeders mid/late '90s Breeders-like art-pop-rock band Ultrababyfat, and she sings with a bit of a drawl these days. That's the country part, which is negligible but still undeniably there somewhere (and as I recall they list country as an influence) and Shonali also has a knack for repeating non-word syllables musically, in a way that sort of reminds me of Frank Blank from the Pixies a little albeit in a way I can actually stomach. But the songs that are hitting me on the album ("You Know," "Rave On," "Fire Escape" which Shonali sez is the only way out and hot hot hot, "The Ballad of the Smoking Gun" which is not a ballad) are more like if PJ Harvey (in blues-rock mode) was actually fun, and they have a decent push and bounce for indie rock, maybe even an okay one for non-indie rock. Most of the other tracks are less good though, but I haven't taken the album out of the CD changer yet. Here is their myspace if you want to judge for yerself:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=6078986

Or maybe he just needs a better band! Somebody else figure it out.

"The Ballad of The Smoking Gun" on Tigers & Monkeys' album has a very cool (and very blatant) Ricky Wilson type guitar twang making it dance. "From Where I Stood" is a nice alt-countryish slow one.

(and p.s: no, smashmouth really aren't very good in the first place.)

interesting: last night sharon and I were talking about the white stripes and their antecedents, and she dismissed jack and his rhythmically challenged wife/sister: "they didn't do anything the flat duo jets didn't do years before." I dunno about royal trux, but I do like royal crescent mob!

In unrelated news (though somewhat related to the Willowz' blooze-mama schtick maybe), I just listened to and couldn't stand the Amy Winehouse album (or the parts of it I could make it through before I gave up, anyway.) Strained-vocal "fine taste" "soul" malarkey from the UK; comes complete with obligatory Billie Holiday comparisons. Huge over there, apparently; could well hit here. Let's hope not.

So, back to "actual" country: I'm definitely liking Jason Michael Carrol's rockers ("Waitin in the Country," "I Can Sleep When I'm Dead," "Honky Tonk Friends", and especially the yeah slightly rap-like "Anywhere U.S.A.") over his ballads ("Alyssa Lies," "Love Won't Let Me," "Let It Rain.") Though maybe the latter just need more time.

So Edd, have you figured out what exactly Alyssa is lying about in "Allysa Lies"? It's growing on me now just 'cause I'm intrigued by the apparent mystery of it, but maybe I just haven't listened closedly enough. If she a victim of sexual abuse? Bulimia? Cutting? Or is she just a chronic liar? (Her and her wife, Morgan Fairchild?)

1. Blue
2. Allysa
3. closedly
4. If

Maybe when Alysa lies in the classroom she's lying down (as i taking a nap.) (Totally permitted if she's in Kindergarten!)

My goal this year is to stay up on current country, because I've been really loving this genre lately. But only for the last 1.5 years or so so I have a lot of "catching up" to do, hence the G. Brooks comments above.

OK the Greg Fanoe crash course in modern country is continuing now with Martina McBride. I was expecting to like her stuff a lot, based on the first few singles that I heard, but on first listen, none of her albums really struck me. "Independence Day", "This One's For The Girls", "When God Fearin' Women Get the Blues" I absolutely love though. I haven't liked her ballads enough because I think they rely on the strength of her voice too much, to the detriment of the songs tehmselves. "Learning to Fall" is good though.

If anybody has any suggestions at all for any essential country albums from the 90s and 00s (and nothing is too obvious/canonical that I would clearly be familiar with it, short of Dixie Chicks or Shania [both of which I love]), I'll check out any and all suggestions. Otherwise, I'll proceed in essentially random order. I think Vince Gill is up next, once I've had more time to process Martina and Garth.

I also think that Jason Michael Carroll should get his bleedin' hair cut, though I suppose that's his business.

Okay, so basically "Allysa Lies" is "Luka," until Allysa dies:

"Alyssa lies to the classroom,
Alyssa lies everyday at school,
Alyssa lies to the teachers
as she tries to cover every bruise"

What makes it hard to decipher is how Jason mumbles that "bruise" line.

And "Lookin' At You" is Jason's Kenny Chesney-via-"Sharks" by Jimmy Buffet summer-sun move. I like when he runs into the mailbox, I like the baseball line that (probably) inadvertently echoes "Brown Eyed Handsome Man", and I like the three of four seconds of melody that even more inadvertently echo Ryan Paris's Italodisc classic "Dolce Vita," but I'm still not sure it adds up to all that good a song.

And I totally agree about the dude's hair. He looks like he should making Shawn Mullins type music (though maybe he sometimes sorta is.)

http://countryuniverse.wordpress.com/tag/classic-albums/ )

I'm still really enjoying this Sunny Sweeney record, which it seems has been picked up by someone or other for proper release later this year: http://cdbaby.com/cd/sunnysweeney . Just as I was patting myself on the back for winkling out an obscure gem by scouring blog lists and so on, I read that she is on heavy rotation on the ultradull UK Radio 2 country show hosted by old beardo "Whispering" Bob Harris. BAH!

In that case you should check out this NYC band too (whose new album Born Too Late -- debut full-length after so many demo EPs and singles I lost count -- I also like) (caveat: no country here that I can discern; maybe they'd make more sense on the teenpop thread):

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=3425560

Martina McBride's got a decent Greatest Hits set from 2001 that's worth picking up, though yeah, that's before her great "This One's For the Girls," which is a shame. You already named her three best songs; I'd likely put "Love's the Only House" in fourth place.

Turns out the best tracks on Tigers and Monkeys' album ("Loose Mouth," "Rave On," "The Ballad of the Smoking Gun") are among their least alt-or-whatever country. "Stay Up" and "Sweet William" and "From Where I Stand" jangle a bit, though not very compellingly.

the song that made me fall in love with george strait (and, yeah, he has been spotty) is "amarillo by morning." i'm also quite in love with the soft, almost yacht-rocky "it just comes natural," the title cut of his 2006 album.

As for Shanachie, the label's clearly branching out. (They've got '90s r&b stars Silk now, too -- also doing mostly cover songs.)

I see that Kevin has rated Martina's Wild Angels at number 20 on this list, so maybe I should give that one a shot too. Even if his review does contain a completely unnecessary and unwarranted swipe at poor Mariah Carey.

Regarding Up vs. Come On Over, I rated the former higher for a couple of reasons. I thought the sheer scope of the project - the entire conceit of releasing three different versions of the same album - was wildly creative and pulled off very well. More importantly, I thought the songs were stronger and Twain's vocals were the best she's put down on record before or since. I love "You're Still the One" and "You've Got a Way", but I think "Forever and For Always" and "It Only Hurts When I'm Breathing" showcase her singing ability more.

I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority on that one, but I always seem to be on things like that.

As far as the Mariah swipe, maybe it's just me, but there was a stretch there where Mariah's songs were all sounding the same - 'Dreamlover', 'Fantasy', 'Heartbreaker' - and I think Martina's been doing the same thing. "Whatever You Say"="Where Would You Be"="How Far".

Since you're digging the Kim Richey, try to locate her self-titled debut and "Rise", which are both awesome.

Pam Tillis' studio albums are also worth seeking out, and you can usually find them cheap.

Being a star is difficult, being a star and being a housewife is even harder. As for Tim McGraw, I think that you are missing the earnestness, the ability to present some pretty radical ideas in really nice packaging (ie the pro choice ballad red rag top, or the small town ennui anthem drugs or jesus), he has a really interesting voice, smooth and rich, with no real difficulties, which is nice to hear some times (over and over again, with nelly is a really good example of two excellent well constructed voices playing against each other, like we never loved at all is so gloss, and that gloss covers so much pain, and is so ott, camp melodramatic, while still havnig somethnig at stake, that it might as well be dionne warwick or diana ross (though i dont know if you have any truck with either of those artists), and there is also something to be written about the politics of straight masculinity, how vulenrable he can be, and how raw his emotions can be about issues that men are allowed to be vulenrable about (esp fathers). He is also incredibly fuckable , esp in the Cowboy in Me video, the best bit of wankable starmaking appatarus in a v. long time.

In conclusion, etc...I think that Tim Mcgraw has one of the strongest voices today, smooth and strong, with just enough kick; that his desire towards a kind of laconic emotional rawness threads the needle b/w not saying anything and saying too much, that his politics are intriuging in the extreme, that he is allowed to say things that other country artists arent, express doubts that seem verboten in mainstream nashville, and i really want to fuck him.

Frank might be right, in that his ballad might not be country enough for the scene, and i think it hits other buttons than country, but I think that its operatic, florid, emotional bloodletting, is a masterpeice, and used both their voices to prime effect....i dont know who did production there, but it deserves a nod just for that...(the piano in the beginning, and the use of high hats, and then letting her have that first word, with pusing out the word you, and the use of city lights, marking its sheer urbanity as a radical departure---and the line "I'm still living with your goodbyes/and your just going on with your life" is so amusingly passive agressive, and then instead of combating each other on verses, which would make sense, they wrestle with the text, adn each other, its too close, claustrophically close, for that first verse, and then he plays catch up, Tim McGraw working as puncation and accent here, is egoless, or sublimates his ego to his wife, and makes the track much stronger)

thats me defending tim, what do you make?
ase

well you got it already I think Chuck, it's about child abuse, I guess by her (divorced) (one's meth-addicted) (lower-middle-class) parents.
and on j.m. carroll's "anywhere u.s.a," I don't hear any specific reference to what the boys and girls are listening to, beyond "beat-yo." a great piece of pop, better than anything cheap trick could come up with, a really good production and a perfected kind of quasi-rap fast-talkin' jamming those syllables in to show that country singers got their own way of taking care of business quick song, down to the way jmc repeats "talkin' about," just so very accomplished. I like this album more and more, except I guess I hate "alyssa," OK, she is dead and child abuse is terrible. he (carroll) has a nice vocal trick all mock-grave bending down into his baritone range, and he sounds like an average guy enjoying his plot of land out in the new rural suburbia. but no, don't hear a band--I guess there's a list of perfumes for both sexes in this song, I think that's what he's saying in the 2 verses? I do hear "chattanooga to l.a.," substitute jmc's n. carolina (western) to nashville by way of the mythic properties of california perfume, and you might have it. even "love won't let me" doesn't totally suck as a ballad, usually I don't like them, but this one even has a cool key change and I like the guitar figure.

above, someone asked about gary allan. even his first record, the one with his version of a faron young song, is prime, easily as good as anything yoakam did, the same kind of cooled-out california country, played for moderate drama. "smoke rings" is a great one, too. the best one after "tough all over" is "see if I care," I'd say, the most varied, and like all of his records, cooled-out and tough-minded.

xps

Have any of you promo-getting types heard Charlie L's forthcoming LP? Any thoughts?

I highly recommend "You Think You Know Somebody" on the Todd Snider retrospective; won't say anything more about it, since I thought I knew where it was going (sentimental lyrics about a longstanding friendship) and then it completely caught me by surprise, and I had to relisten, this time noticing the hints... However, would be better if Mellencamp or someone like that were singing, since Snider's just not a singer (I mean, he's in tune all right, just isn't able to project much character). But his songs are worth knowing, even when his liberalism is too self-congratulatory, which isn't always.

Not in regard to country: Mariah Carey's Emotions may be my favorite album of the '90s, even though she's not particularly my sensibility.* Delivers hot emotions (and rides some hot beats) while basically heaving her voice across the sky and making no attempt to be responsible to melodies or messages, which manage to come through anyway. (But her best track is the live version of "Can't Let Go" on MTV Unplugged.)

[*Er, at this point, "even though" might be changed to "naturally enough," given that I don't know if there's anyone with my sensibility making great music][whatever I mean by "my sensibility"][and actually Brie Larson and Skye Sweetnam have had a few great moments, and I'd bet they and I have lots in common]

grooving on Ira Louvin's 1965 solo recordings made shortly before his death in an automobile crash. best by far is "empty bottle and a broken heart," just superb, and they let him play mandolin on it, sounds like. some of the other stuff is way gooped up with chorales, but he was a great singer, maybe better than charlie.

There's damned near not a weak track to be found here - though granted, it's way too short at only 2 tracks, with 2 of 'em new. "Born to Boogie" and "All My Rowdy Friends" are genius, almost country-big band fusion (listen to those HORNS on "Boogie"! And this was a huge country hit!) - xhuxk, I'd imagine that these are RIGHT up your alley, am I right? "A Country Boy Can Survive" and "Country State of Mind" are superb odes to, well, country livin' - but they pull it off without coming off as supremely asshat. I mean, even though I'm an El Lay guy now, I was raised on a midwestern farm and I get 'em. And "Women I've Never Had" is practically Louisiana jazz, good God.

I've already put in a bid on his 2000 'Bocephus Box' (the one covering '79-'99) on eBay. I must have MORE! And he kinda invented country-rock as we now know it, didn't he? (Not to mention Kid Rock.)

heres a link to the album, and im TO now, but i will burn you the cd when i get home.(i actually have a cd burner, so people expect mixtapes)

And I just posted this on the rolling metal thread:

I finally heard the Gilby Clarke album from last year (not that I was especially looking forward to listening to it or anything -- it just basically showed up free and unnanounced at work, so I bit.) It's less bad than I expected; as post-sleaze-glam singer-songwriter stuff goes, I'd take it over, say, the new Jesse Malin album (which includes bad Springsteen cameos and a worse Replacements cover). But it still leans too much toward singer-songwriter, not enough toward sleaze-glam to my ears. Seems to improve slightly when it veers slightly toward country rock (i.e. in "Skin N Bones"), but even that just reminds me how much more fun Shooter Jennings makes such stuff.

Great song I'd never heard before on the new Travis Tritt best-of CD (on which I otherwise haven't found much to enjoy yet, including its dime-a-dozen Marty Stuart duet): "Where The Corn Don't Grow." (I still totally approve of "Lord Have Mercy On The Working Man"'s update of Blind Alfred Reed style depression country blues, though.)

New Yolanda Perez album Te Sigo Amando is her most straight banda record, with the least hippity-hoppy parts, and so far seems her dullest album so far. Sounds like a maturity move or something. She was already heading this direction on her previous album, in a way, but this time she seems to have jumped the shark. None of it sounds bad per say, but not a single song has jumped out and got me excited yet either. (As tubas go, I probably prefer "Keep On Coming" on the otherwise generally useless new Ying Yang Twins album, in which the tuba sounds may or may not be made by actual tubas. The rest of the CD is a good argument against marijuana use, though. Or collard green use, as the Ying Yangs are calling it now.)

fantastic song, originally done by waylon jennings (never heard waylon's version, though). and, apropos of all the bluegrass talk, it was also covered by the grascals on their 2005 self-titled debut. travis' version is way better than that one.

For whatever it's worth, the new album by longtime undie-rap bore El-P is called I'll Sleep When You're Dead, I just found out.

Yeah, I like that one too. And "Country Club" is fun, and the power ballad "Anymore" is well-sung at least. So there's enough on the Travis Tritt best-of to hang on to it, I guess. But just barely.

The Basement are Brits trying (their press release says, and you can kind of hear it in their attempt at doing a loose rollicking brothel shamble) a Band/Basement Tapes (press bio says Flying Burrito Brothers too, sure why not) kind of sound. Being Limeys, they have trouble rocking it like (even) the Deadly Snakes did on their (maybe only) good album Ode To Joy a few years ago. Singer isn't awful, but he's not-awful more in a second-tier Auteurs or Only Ones imitator kind of way than a third-tier Dylan imititator kind of way.

Taylor Swift album sounds great. Apparently Frank wasn't fibbing. So far my favorite is the song where she keeps a boy out past curfew.

Montgomery Gentry - Carrying On: I had heard most of the songs on this one through various means, but never all at once together. This is a truly great album, one of the best country albums I've heard. "Cold One Coming On" sounds even better on the album than it does as a single. Stellar.

Gary Allan - Tough All Over: Only listened to it once, so clearly no time to absorb it yet, but on first listen it was, in fact, as good as advertised. Well worth the investment.

I also purchased Sheryl Crow and The Globe Sessions, both by Sheryl Crow, on the basis of the singles. I never thought of her as country at all, but I once saw her listed on a CMT list of "Hottest Female Country Stars" or whatever (she was #4, behind Shania, Faith, and Sara Evans). To be sure, there are definitely some country songs on both of these (e.g. "Mississippi", "Redemption Day"), and they are mostly very good. I'm not sold that "has some country songs"="is a country artist", but whatever. In any event, they are both great albums, especially Sheryl Crow.

Between these four albums, and Emotions, which I also purchased (coincidentally right before Frank was talking about it above), I'm not sure there was a not-at least very good song I heard, though some of the tracks on The Globe Sessions that are definitely not as good as the others.

xp

"When you think 'Tim McGraw,' I hope you think my favorite song" (from "Tim McGraw")

"I grabbed a pen and an old napkin and I wrote down...'Our Song'"
(from "Our Song").

Is that a historical first?

"A Place in the World" is the most shemo-teenpop-sounding Swift song I've noticed so far, and also my least favorite (though it's fine, really, just not one of her best). "Should've Said No"/"Mary's Song (Oh My My My)"/"Our Song" at the end of the album totally kill.

Well, has this guy written an interesting song since '87? Genuine question, since I haven't followed him a whole lot since then. His blues alb from several years back was a dud. Fact that Sheryl Crow scored well throughout the '90s would seem to argue that there'd have been a reasonably strong market for Mellencamp if he'd been producing more engaging material.

"Our Country": Guess those of you with a TV have been hearing this for several months. Signifiers ("science," "religion," "Dixie," "poor and common man," "bigotry," "freedom") without any elaboration on what made these words signify in the first place, or why people who wield them sometimes square off. No ribbons of poetry here. Nice start w/ good sharp guitars, voice rumbling above them. His voice has gained a few pounds, to its detriment. Melody isn't bad, but it's not great either, and the arrangement (organ, touches of gospel in the background singing) is utterly predictable, doesn't help the track to breathe. Damn, I obviously wasn't going in anticipating greatness, but didn't expect it to be so dumb and dull.

I disagree about Trouble No More, which is decent enough for a rockabilly-blues cover album. I like the updating of the Woody Guthrie/Carter Family tune at the end. And I'll nitpick on the post '87 decline: Big Daddy (1989) has some good songs, even if it isn't as focused and lively as Lonesome Jubilee.

the Hollywood glitterati have taken over her dance card

Don't think I agree. On Wildflower, her latest album, Sheryl's mostly going for meadows and brooks and Hallmark Cards pastorale, albeit vaguely about relationships and feelings rather than about actual flowers. Occasionally achieves the misty beauty she's trying for, but not often. I miss the great codependent holes she used to dig herself into and then try to blast out of, "The Difficult Kind" and "My Favorite Mistake." I'm right now listening to her new track, "Try Not To Remember," for the first time, and it's one of the better things I've heard from her recently, also the most teenpop (sounds a bit like "Behind These Hazel Eyes" in the chorus, just like Chuck's least favorite song on the Taylor Swift), though it's arrangement is more womby-tweepop like Jewel or McLachlan, and it slowly bleeds to death at the end.

From Wikipedia: "At the 2006 CMA Awards, Sheryl performed the country hit Building Bridges with Brooks & Dunn and Vince Gill." "On the red carpet at the 2006 CMA Awards, Sheryl reported that she was working on a country music album, according to Entertainment Weekly."

Do wish the Taylor Swift rec had more loud guitars, especially "Should've Said No," which is just as shemo as "A Place In This World," but shemo of a different kind (screamo-shemo). Could imagine Evanescence doing it, though not as well. Kelly Clarkson would scorch tundras with it, though I don't know if she could put as much lilt and sadness in her hate as Taylor did.

I attribute the thematic similarities between "Tim McGraw" and "Our Song" to running out of ideas.

Best song that actually is about itself is the Buffalo Springfield's "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing," written by Neil Young but sung by Richie Furay. "Who should be sleepin', but is writing this song/Wishin' and a-hopin' he weren't so damned wrong." Neil was teeno-emo for his day, and Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere felt very high-school to me when I heard it (in high school). This much madness is too much sorrow. I should probably bring Neil up on the teenpop thread, to distress Lex.

I liked "Peaceful World"'s Nelly-song rewrite a lot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgwX9eVqVaU

Beyond that, well, uh, I think "Jackie Brown" was '88 or so. None of the '90s albums were anywhere near as good as their apologists claim, though; especially laughable is whenever people say they sound like "garage rock", which they never do (and which JCM through Scarecrow pretty much always did; a bunch of those pre-Scarecrow albums are rather flawless, but I've written about them on other threads.) As for his blues record, uh, it wasn't as sprightly as White Stripes, I guess. But it was as sprightly as Black Keys, I'm pretty sure. Seemed to me his best album since Lonesome Jubilee. I kept it, but it's in storage now. As for the new one, people (including the Cougstar himself in this morning's Times) say it sounds garage, so my hopes are not high, but who knows, I could still imagine being surprised by the guy. His live shows still pack a wallop (or at least the one I saw a couple years ago did). As for "Our Country," I own a TV but never watch it unless I'm watching Sopranos or Big Love or Northern Exposure episodes on Netflix, and I don't give a shit about football, so I haven't heard it. And everything everybody has said about it makes me want to hear it less. But someday I will.

Best song that actually is about itself is the Buffalo Springfield's "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing,"

Better than "You're So Vain," even?? (That's impossible, right?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovOjaPgqr7Q

followed a couple years later, of course, by "i'm singing this borrowed tune/i took from the rolling stones/alone in this empty room/too wasted to write my own."

listening to it for the first time now. if this is garage, then i'm ned raggett. it sounds 100 percent like every other mediocre album he's made in the past 15 or so years. i'm hearing a couple of songs i might actually like, in fact, but i'm not about to file this next to, say, the hombres.

Does he really sing "I'm from a midwest town"?????

most country tune on lily allen's CD is seemingly "alfie," a sweet slowish one with alpine polka oompah beat. right now it reminds me of abba (who had verging-on-country moments themselves, of course.)

Instead the poll belongs to insiders-turned-outsiders—the Dixie Chicks, Vince Gill, Rosanne Cash, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash—five acts who once ruled the charts but who haven’t had a Top 20 country single between them since 2002. The voters preferred those artists who demonstrated an ability to connect with a broad country audience but who are also determined to challenge that audience rather than pander to it.

BEST ALBUMS:
1. The Dixie Chicks: Taking the Long Way (Open Wide/Columbia)
2. Vince Gill: These Days (MCA Nashville)
3. Rosanne Cash: Black Cadillac (Capitol)
4. Alan Jackson: Like Red on a Rose (Arista)
5. Johnny Cash: American V: A Hundred Highways (American/Lost Highway)
6. Solomon Burke: Nashville (Shout Factory)
7. Willie Nelson: You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker (Lost Highway)
8. Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (Anti-)
9. Bob Dylan: Modern Times (Columbia)
10. Julie Roberts: Men & Mascara (Mercury)
11. The Wreckers: Stand Still—Look Pretty (Maverick)
12. Kris Kristofferson: This Old Road (New West)
13. Josh Turner: Your Man (MCA Nashville)
14. Dierks Bentley: Long Trip Alone (Capitol)
15. Alan Jackson: Precious Memories (Arista)
16. Keith Urban: Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing (Capitol)
17. (tie) Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris: All the Roadrunning (Warner Bros./ Nonesuch)/Willie Nelson: Songbird (Lost Highway)
19. Ray Wylie Hubbard: Snake Farm (Sustain/Universal)
20. Jessi Colter: Out of the Ashes (Shout Factory)

BEST SINGLES:
1. The Dixie Chicks: “Not Ready To Make Nice” (Open Wide/Columbia)
2. Alan Jackson: “Like Red on a Rose” (Arista)
3. The Wreckers: “Leave the Pieces” (Maverick)
4. Johnny Cash: “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” (American/Lost Highway)
5. Carrie Underwood: “Before He Cheats” (Arista)
6. Rosanne Cash: “House on the Lake” (Capitol)
7. Julie Roberts: “Men & Mascara” (Mercury)
8. Josh Turner: “Would You Go With Me” (MCA Nashville)
9. Gary Allan: “Life Ain’t Always Beautiful” (MCA)
10. Brad Paisley and Dolly Parton: “When I Get Where I’m Going” (Arista)
11. George Strait: “Give It Away” (MCA)
12. Dierks Bentley: “Every Mile a Memory” (Capitol)
13. Radney Foster: “Half of My Mistakes” (Dualtone)
14. Ray Wylie Hubbard: “Snake Farm” (Sustain/Universal)
15. Jack Ingram: “Love You” (Big Machine)
16. Rodney Atkins: “If You’re Going Through Hell” (Curb)
17. Brooks & Dunn: “Believe” (Arista)
18. Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris: “This Is Us” (Warner Bros./Nonesuch)
19. Old Crow Medicine Show: “Down Home Girl” (Nettwerk)
20. Tim McGraw: “When Stars Go Blue” (Curb)

BEST REISSUES:
1. Waylon Jennings: Nashville Rebel (RCA/Legacy)
2. Johnny Cash: Live at San Quentin (Columbia/Legacy)
3. Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys: Legends of Country Music (Columbia/Legacy)
4. Willie Nelson: The Complete Atlantic Sessions (Rhino/Atlantic)
5. Dwight Yoakam: Guitars, Cadillacs (Rhino/Reprise)
6. (tie) Johnny Cash: Personal File (Columbia/Legacy)/Gram Parsons: The Complete Reprise Sessions (Reprise/Rhino)
8. Tony Joe White: Swamp Music: The Complete Monument Recordings (Rhino Handmade)
9. The Byrds: There Is a Season (Columbia/Legacy)
10. James Talley: Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, But We Sure Got a Lot of Love (Cimarron)

Lots of dumber stuff in that poll (Himes's ridiculous "The voters preferred those artists who demonstrated an ability to connect with a broad country audience but who are also determined to challenge the audience rather than pander to it," as if Neko Case or Rossane Cash or her still dead dad or Kris Kristoferson Who Still Can't Fucking Sing etc etc do either these days; also, can somebody please explain to me what "mainstream production" is, anyway? Production that allows music to have hooks in it and lets singers actually be heard? Sorry, I don't get that at all. I heard tons of "mainsteam" Nashville albums last year, and most of them sounded very different than each other, and by the way the lyrics on them were certainly no more cliched than what I heard on Rosanne Cash's boring-assed record (which, as I said last year, given its theme, critics would have creamed their jeans about even if it had been shipped to them completely blank; they didn't even have to take the frigging shrink wrap off to rave about it -- just read the press release, since all most of the reviews did was rephrase the press release anyway). But I don't want to get my dander up (oops), so I'll shut up otherwise at least until somebody else here starts zeroing in pollwise on whatever it is they want to zero in on, jeez. Otherwise, biggest surprise of the poll was how high Julie Roberts's second album, which I honestly assumed everybody thought was a real letdown after her debut, finished; what did it have, maybe two good songs? (So, also dumbfounding: Himes's claim that Julie "has far better taste in songs" than Carrie Underwood. Not this year she didn't.) Also, who are the Zozo Sisters, who tied with the Duhks for #10 among "best groups and duos"? Never heard of them before, but they have a funny name, so I'm curious (and will probably hate them when I actually hear them, but what the heck.) I did like what Barry Mazor said in the comments about the return of Conway Twitty-style "easy, assured sexuality of grown men" to country music via songs by Josh Turner (who I still have yet to hear anything at all memorable by, but what the heck), Dierks, Blake Shelton, non-badonkadonk Trace Adkins, etc. Makes me think that I should actually investigate Twitty someday...

most country tune on lily allen's CD is seemingly "alfie,"

Unless the most country tune is "Knock 'Em Out," with its blatant Professor Longhair second-line Mardi Gras piano rolls at the start. (Has anybody pointed that out? It's really cool. And for that matter has anybody pointed out that the Lady Sovereign album has a track that sounds like classic Les Rita Mitsouko? I haven't been paying attention to the discussion, which always seems to devolve into dumb horseshit about how "real" such artists are. What about their music?)

(And oh yeah, fwiw, the Alan Jackson gospel album didn't finish top 10, as Himes says in his essay; it finished 15th. Not that I want to nitpick about details -- I know as much or more than anybody on the planet how hard putting polls like this together are, and I do respect Geoffrey for still pulling it off every year, even if the Village Voice and all those other useless New Times rags are his paper's "sister sites." And there's plenty of smart stuff in that poll section, too, much of it from Himes himself. So nothing against him! But wow does he come up with whopper cliches sometimes.)

As for the Chix and Gill--after kinda casually listening to the Chix over months, I like one song, "Bitter End." Gill is just this year's poster boy for retro, in my book. Basically, he's Glen Campbell with a Christian wife, only he's not as good as Glen Campbell. I think you'd have to be insane to sit thru 4 discs of his new one, just like you'd have to be crazy to want to listen to Kristofferson's new one more than once (I listened to it three times out of professional responsibility.)

Chuck, the Zozo Sisters are Ann Savoy and Linda Rondstat, who did a record for Vanguard this year, "Adieu False Heart," a collection of mostly slooow Louisiana/French stuff, with a cover of the Left Banke's "Walk Away Renee" that out-genteels the original. Pretty boring, I hate to report, since the great Sam Broussard, a friend of mine who lives down in Lafayette, plays guitar on it--Sam's the real thing, and, back in the day, played on many many sessions including those Michael Martin Murphy hits like "Wildfire" some of us might remember.

Finally, just Saturday morning catch-up: read and reviewed Bobby Braddock's autobiography, "Down in Orburndale," about growing up in Florida in the '50s pre his going to Nashville, joining Marty Robbins' band, and beginning his songwriting career. As a tale of New South, just superb, very smartly done. (And, he's apparently no longer producing Blake Shelton's records, from what I hear, a shame. Braddock had the distinction in 2001 of having two country #1 hits at the same time--Toby Keith's "Wanna Talk About Me," which BB wrote, and "Austin," Shelton's single, that he produced.

And, damn, got a copy of this amazing Buddy Emmons jazz/steel/country instrumental record from around '71, "Emmons Guitar Company," just great!

I can't, but overly miked, limited and mixed drums + ultra-compressed vocals might be characteristics (though naturally there are plenty of exceptions).

I guess the other thing that sort of bugs me about Himes's essay is that of course your betwixt-mainstream-and-alt types like the Chicks and the Cashes and Gill (and I guess Neko Case, who I just heard yesterday supposedly shifted 375,000 units, as they say at my current workplace, of her most recent album, which totally astounds me -- in fact, I'm skeptical that somebody may have misread the figure, so don't quote me on it or anything; also heard this week that she's gonna tour with Merle Haggard by the way) and those sorts of people finished high because, duh, both the critics who like Nashville and the alt-purists voted for them. It's just simple math; I doubt it implies as much about tastes as Himes wants to suggest.

In other news, God I love "Picture To Burn" by Taylor Swift so much. What a catchy, rocking song. It sounds a lot like some other bubble-country gal hit from the past couple years, but I can't place it: Jessica Andrews? Cyndi Thompson? Meredith Edwards? Or maybe Rebbeca Lynn Howard, "Pink Flamingo Kind of Love" or something? One of those people, I think. (Which reminds me, I keep meaning to research this: Did Alecia Elliott ever make a whole album, or just her great "I'm Diggin' It" single? I should just look it up, but I'm lazy today.)

But there are a couple good songs on the album; I just wish he'd get over flaunting/exploiting his ignorance.

Listening to the new Toby Keith (barely a week after I finally got his previous one), and holy shit it is sounding great. He split with DreamWorks, got Lari White (who put out her completely slept-on more-soul-than-country-and-it -said-so *Green Eyed Soul* on an indie label last year) (how many female producers are there in Nasvhille or anywhere else for that matter, especially producing macho men like Toby??), and she's filled it up with Dixieland horns and put *Dusty in Memphis*-style orchestrations here and there and she's emphasizing the laid-back *ease* Toby's always been capable of in his singing, and what you get is his most soul-music album ever, as far as far as I can tell. That laid-backedness might mean that some of the songs will detonate less on immediate impact the way his hits always have in the past, but they *sound* so good that they'll have no problem seeping in before long -- Toby's just a way more assured singer than Lari (or probably any other would-be Dusty this decade I could name), so this won't wind up just perty background music. "Note to Self" on now; sounds great. "Get Drunk and Be Somebody" is *less* laid-back, but almost in an old minstrel jazz kind of way; I can't place who it's reminding me of but I will -- one thing I *will* say though is that the way he says "BE somebody" makes me think he''s listened to Ol' Dirty Bastard at least once or twice. Damn, I'm going to be playing this a lot this summer. Could wind up being his best album, period, but I don't want to go out on limb. Right now, I'd say his best since *Unleashed* at least. (Though okay, I just noticed "Ain't No Right Way," partially written by Dean Dillon, which says ethics are black and white and seems to be anti-choice and anti-"people saying our kids aren't allowed to pray in school", what horseshit. So maybe I won''t wind up liking that one. Or maybe I will. With Toby you never know.) (And okay, "Brand New Bow" now, this is country jazz like Merle... what is that, a kazoo? Hoosier Hotshot revival in full force!) (Last song, about sex with an overweight girl, might also be iffy, but again, iffy in a country-jazzy way. Not sure if it's good-hearted yet.) (Last three songs are more of his "bus songs," I just noticed.)
-- xhuxk (xedd...) (webmail), April 4th, 2006 1:15 PM. (link)

Or uh (listening to Toby again), maybe the reason Kelefa didn't talk about the music being such a departure is because the music is NOT as much of a departure as I suggest above? I dunno. Now all the parts that *aren't* more soul or jazz than Toby's been before are jumping out at me (and, to be honest, it's not like even the jazziness, where it exists, is entirely new; he did that on *Shock n Y'all* some too, as I recall.) Still loving a lot of it, though "Ain't No Right Way" is offending me as much for the soggy-dish-rag-ness of its sound as the soggy-dish-rag-ness of its politics now. "Runnin' Block," the song about the chubby girl, is actually about playing the wing man for a buddy, still not sure what I think of it overall beyond its moral assholitude, but I actually really like the sound of its chorus, which reminds of something from the '70s and which always confuses me into thinking it's about football (which maybe it is, sort of). Something in its jazzy storytelling also somehow brings to mind Tom T Hall, and I think there are other moments on here when I think of Hall too. (He could be as jazzy as Merle, actually--and in a Dixieland minstrel way. Also as good natured as any songwriter ever; no wonder Jimmy Carter was his pal. Though his sense of ethics clearly put Toby's to shame.)
-- xhuxk (xedd...) (webmail), April 6th, 2006 3:37 PM. (link)

Toby Keith's *White Trash With Money,* which nobody else has much talked about, really holds up. Just played it this morning for the first time in over and month or two, and I'm now rating it as the year's best Nashville country album, hands down. Is "A Little Too Late" the new single (with the reportedly antifeminist dungeon six-feet-under video, which I still haven't seen)? If so, people should try to hear it apart from the video, because to my ears it's got some of Toby's most explicit soul phrasing ever. Also, I don't think I'd noticed before how good "Can't Buy You Money" is. Only real sore spot: the obligatory numbskull political statement "Ain't No Right Way," which sounds more lame ever time I hear it, and also naggingly sincere, hence way less fun than Tony's usual numbskull politics.
-- xhuxk (fakemai...) (webmail), June 28th, 2006 5:46 PM

i dont see anything wrong with working the star mechancism, and what elvis, jerry lee, etc did is viewed as a good or value neutral thing, when johnny cash did it, hes what selling out, hes smarter then to beleive that shit...

--and the last american recordings album and black cadilliac were pandering to the extreme...but im okay being pandered to, im okay being sold to, as long as it is done well.

and i think roseanne had a difficult job, someone was expecting an album as eulogy, it was de rigeour, and her daddy did the classic one for her mommy, she used her gifts and gave as much as she could, and well why shouldnt we reward that?

(biggest suprise: josh turner)

Because it was a lousy record, maybe? Because good intentions aren't enough? And because some of us don't really care at all about her personal life, and we're tired of people assuming we should? (Also, we wish she still had her new wave haircut and did powerpop songs.)

The line in "Picture To Burn" Anthony's referring to, which I hadn't noticed because I rarely read lyric sheets unless somebody is holding a pistol to my head (since it's cheating, see) (or I'm just lazy, same difference) and I was busu getting off on the great fast rhythmic rush of words in that first verse instead, is: "State the obvious, I didn't get my perfect fantasy/I realize you love yourself more than you could ever love me/So go and tell your friends that I'm obsessive and crazy/That's fine, I'll tell mine you're gay." Which is...interesting. And may well be libel (well, if he wasn't gay, that is) (sung it'd be slander, but we're talking about a lyric sheet here remember.) Yet I'm not entirely convinced it challenges his masculinity. Off the bat, it reminds me of Tony Basil's "Mickey" or Josie Cotton's "Johnny Are You Queer." I'll have to ponder it some more before I decide if I'm offended.

i pay too much attention to the lyrics, but since its about humilating an ex lover, how could one assume calling him gay was anything but impuging his masculinity

it sounds to me like a dead ringer for bruce springsteen circa "nebraska" ("open all night," say) and "born in the usa," or maybe huey lewis circa the same time.

i agree with the complaints about jmc's hair upthread -- he should get a haircut or join gov't mule -- but what fascinates me most about his looks is how that very adult baritone comes out of that baby face that looks like it couldn't grow a beard if it tried.

i'd say that that idea explains each of the top nine albums of the poll, dixie chicks through dylan. call it press-release country. this works in pretty much all genres. press-release rock and press-release hip-hop do quite well in critics' polls, too. some of 'em happen to be really good; i like the dixie chicks and alan jackson albums a lot. but to try to ascribe this to a new trend toward artists "who demonstrated an ability to connect with a broad country audience but who are also determined to challenge that audience rather than pander to it" is rather silly.

i'm also interested to know what exactly about the dixie chicks album (which, again, i liked a lot) is alleged to have "challenged" the country audience. onstage comments about george bush don't count, because last i checked, they weren't to be found anywhere on the album itself.

Er, so is pining for Johnny Cash. Even more so. But I'd rather nostalgically pine for something entertaining that added life to Rosanne's music than something "significant" that drained life from it.

We went over this aplenty last year, but "Not Ready to Make Nice" obviously challenges those in their audience (and there were a lot) who sent hate mail, boycotted their shows and smashed their CDs.

Pining for someone you love who died is not nostalgic. Jesus.

People were pining for Cash long before he died, and long after he'd stopped having hits. If that wasn't nostalgia, it was certainly a really good imitation. (I'm not talking about his daughter, who hasn't made a good album for two decades; I'm talking about critics. Hey, I miss my dad dead, too. I'm not saying that's not allowed.) And it's not like the sanctimoniousness of it all hasn't skyrocketed since Johnny Cash did die, either. With critics, it's usually just a way to avoid current music because, you know, popular country was so much better back when legends walked the earth. And it gets more irritating ever year it goes on with another comeback album that we're supposed to be reverent to no matter how stodgy and leaden it sounds. Usually it doesn't bug me much, to be honest. Usually I just ignore it, no matter how necrophilic it gets. But when people start complaining about how this stuff is better than what comes out of Nashville nowadays because what comes out of Nashville does nothing but pander to what people want to hear, the hypocrisy creeps me out. (If you pander to actual fans who tune into country radio, that's reprehensible. But pandering to folks who are above it all is okay.)

it obviously says "fuck you" to a certain segment of the audience, but that's not quite the same thing. it says fuck you to them in the context of a mainstream pop/rock song (and the country charts are full of mainstream pop/rock songs) that very much adheres to a core country value of staying true to yourself no matter what people say. it engages the country audience in an ongoing conversation. i imagine there's a challenge implied in simply not saying "we're sorry." but being country means never having to say you're sorry, doesn't it? (unless you're toby keith, who seemingly spends half his 2006 album apologizing for missed birthdays/anniversaries/etc., but that's a whole 'nother ball of wax.) (p.s. i was not around when this was being gone over aplenty last year, so if this is an argument that doesn't need to be had again, i'm happy not to have it!)

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=14816870

Roy is obviously right about Rosanne Cash voters voting for current music ("current music" being a rather broad category, for one thing, but yeah, I'm probably full of it to suggest none of them also voted for "Before He Cheats" or whatever; point well taken). I'm talking more the entire gist of the Johnny Cash Death Cult -- I mean, compare where his post-humous albums have finished in Pazz & Jop to, I dunno, Tim McGraw's or Faith Hill's or Kenny Chesney's or Joe Dee Messina's. But yeah, I probably did open a can of red herring there I should have avoided. And I wasn't too clear, either.

my guess is these posthumous Cash albums rarely get played. for that matter all his Rick Rubin produced albums are little too "death cult" for my tastes. I didn't even listen to Rosanne's latest cause I knew it would just remind me of my late parents and bum me out.

I've been digging some of the Jason Michael Carroll this evening, about which edd s. hurt wrote upthread "some of this is big & rich, too, he almost raps, it's a typically wordy nashville country album. not bad!"

I totally agree! His cadence on "Waitin' in the Country" rhymes across the barlines like Andre 3000, and apparently he doesn't mind "parkin' lot jumpin' cars thumpin' hard mixin' those rhymes," though he'd rather listen to country. "I Can Sleep When I'm Dead", "Anywhere USA," and "Honky Tonk Friends" are also pretty rockin'. "Lookin' At You" is pure craft and likable for it. The Jewel song sux. As do the ballads, though I seem to remember a nice one where he went into falsetto.

You totally don't expect that voice to go with his photo. I thought he'd be a Hanson brother.

Also, I have moral dilemmas about "Alyssa Lies," because it employs a cutesie country pun to describe a schoolgirl getting beaten to death. I'm trying to think of an analogy with a hypothetical 9/11 movie, but I can't come up with one.

Old 8x10 seems to be the one people swear by, that and maybe Storms of Life. I don't own any albums by the poor guy, have always been extremely skeptical (and voiced such on threads like this), but if I saw copies of those for a couple bucks I'd try them.

Is the new Dale Watson CD as dreary and dull as the couple cuts that have come up in my CD changer so far suggest? God, I hope not. Last album and other old songs I've heard have been rocking and funny....

Press release quotes for Gina Villalobos's CD liken her to Kathleen Edwards and Lucinda Williams, so I do not have high hopes. Then there's the John Morthland plug that compares her to "Honky Tonk Woman"-era Stones, which I predict is baloney on the level of when critics liken Shelby Lynne to music of that ilk, but we shall see.

I like Jason Michael Carrol, and I said so up above, but I still hear more Eddie Rabbit than Big N Rich in his rocking and rhyming.

just kidding. nah, whiskey or god was last year's, and i loved it (see my nashscene top 10 up above.) this year's is called from the cradle to the grave, and it seems less fun. though there does seem to be at least one good truckers song so far. which no doubt has the usual political problems. not that i'll mind.

Though the problem with Gina, just like with Shelby and Lucinda and Kathleen before her, is that her voice tends to fade into the throb, inasmuch as it exists, way more than Dale's does. She's just not in the forefront enough to really put the songs over. So I predict I may end up thinking his album is better in the long run. (Track #4 on his, the partially talked one about the hillbilly in Hollywood, actually has some humor and energy to it, though it still doesn't seem to be near the level of the best tracks on his previous album.)

I think the KE and LW comparisons are misplaced. The sound has crossover potential though she's too old and outside the machine for it too happen. As an homage to CE, here's what I wrote on RC06:

Has Gina Villalobos been mentioned yet? I just heard her new record "Miles Away," and a lot of it kicks, not unlike Miranda or Gretchen, but with a scratchy still wide-open voice. "Somebody Save Me" would sound great on country radio.

The Sara Evans show itself was very good, but a bit short. She's a great performer though, she was working the crowd very nicely. I was worried she'd be touring her latest, not-as-good album, but it was pretty much just a compendium of all of her hit singles. Which means no "Bible Song" :(. Huge crowd reactions: "Born To Fly" (whatever, not her best), "Real Fine Place to Start" (she brought Radney out to sing this with her), "Cheatin'" (Heh, for obvious reasons), and "Suds in the Bucket" (of course). The girl next to me started crying during "There's No Place That Far". Playing her newest singles in the context of her older ones kind of highlighted how much stronger albums Restless and Born to Fly were. From her first two albums she played only "There's No Place That Far"; the show focused heavily on her last 3 albums.

The show highlighted how great a singles artist Sara Evans has been (in my opinion at least), even if her albums aren't consistently great. Anyways, worth the money despite the brevity.

That is as willful, and skillful, a misreading of Johnny Cash as I've ever heard.

xp:

Or starting to not hate "You Always Get What You Always Got," at least. Partly because, as a Dad with sons, I kind of relate to it. And I wasn't typo-ing with those two "staid"'s. Dale's telling the kid to stop burning the candle at both ends because if the kid doesn't he's gonna get burned, and you sure get the idea the kid's living a more exciting life right now than Dale is. So who's the one stuck in place, Dale or his kid? And it's the stick-in-the-mudness of the album's sound that still stands in my way, and pisses me off.

(My favorite Cash moment, for whatever it's worth, is the part in "Wanted Man" where he goes the wrong way into Juarez with Juanita on his lap. Nothing staid or humorless about that at all, obviously!)

I used to listen to Cash a lot as a kid but that's because I liked funny songs and thought he was funny--"The One on the Left."

i think chuck has a point, that cash for american music, seems patriachal, a pater familias, and how people respond to that, seems to be how they respond to daddies in general.

on other things:

i havent bought anything new country wise this year yet, i went in yesterday to buy aliasdair roberts, and picked up bridget bardot instead

ive been listening to devandrah barnhardt from the library, three or four albums, and there is something that annoys me deeply at the same time as i want to keep listening. I think he has a v. pretty voice, but his arrangements seem to impart more eccentricity and depth then he is, there is a diference between visionary and deep vs crazy and cryptic, and hes not even crazy enough to be interesting, or droney, or folky, but maybe something there? is the whole freak folk movement rooted in any country sound at all?

i got tickets to josh ritter in two weeks, 17 days. im thrilled. 11 bucks, tiny venue, shitty sound, but i really like him, and cant imagine him working in a big venue at all.

listening to lyle lovett as well, and no irony there at all is there, for someone who is assumed to be a jaded, semi ironic hipster, he seems to sing what he actually belives. the country/jazz interpolations remind me of kdlang and chris isaak, two artists who i lvoe but dont seem to be well respected.

Joey Wright is a bluegrass jazz guy from Canada, his new record Jalopy doesn't have much wank on it, and his "Blues for Motown" is pretty fun.

But I kind of get the same thing from Diana Krall, and I don't think of her as "ironic" at all. hmmm...

He sounded better on a Sessions at West 54th in the late 90s with Allison Krauss singing backup.

(xp)

This is turning out to be one of the greatest threads ever! I definitely associate Cash (and a lot of country/country-folk music) with my father, above all else, Pete Seeger, who I would probably hate otherwise, but I can't bring myself to hate my father, so that tells you something about the depth and unresolvedness of my complex. It's interesting that xhuxk's favorite song is the one where Dale sings with his Haggard-voice, a bit higher, even throwing in falsetto at the end. But I don't hear the sound of this record as staid at all--there's too many twisted and to my ears semi-comic choices made, in the sound, which Cash, obviously, also did.

And Ramon OTM.

Los Staitjackets have, um, Mexican wrestler masks, right? I saw them once or twice in Philly, and didn't get it. Historically they've mainly just done instrumentals, right? And didn't even distort them like they understand Link Wray, wtf? The albums I've tried to like have been even more boring, but I haven't heard the new one that Matt is talking about, and he makes it sound promising. So who knows?

As for Johnny Cash, whatever I can say for my dad at least he did not name me Sue. So here's my question about JC and his sense o' humor: Are there Cash fans out there so humorless they think of "Boy Named Sue" (which I love by the way) as the moral equivalent of "My Dingaling," given its frivolity and commercial success? It seems there would be, somewhere, but I can't recall ever confronting them.

kd lang wasnt torch on angel...but was on smoke (as torch as anything)

you dont like low key "polite" jazzsing do you xhuxk?

I liked that Alan Jackson album last year! But he had warmth.

I always thought the whole post-1971 rock scene was more about dress-up than necessary, and Johnny monochromed 'em all, out-Marc Bolaned, David Johansened, 'em all, more on a Robert Mitchum, pot-bust level. The Man in Black, you have to admit that's good.

But I really think he's a sort of novelty artist from the gitgo, a conflicted pillhead novelty artist with a decent budget and presumably artistic control. "Chicken in Black" was his deal-breaker for CBS in the '80s--people forget how completely out of favor he was except with his hardcore fans. Or was he? At any rate, that song is about changing identities, expressed in pretty stupid terms, but I like the real thuggishness of its conceit, esp. when he mutters the line about "give me your watches and rings." Obviously, Nashville's coffers denied to him is the bank he robs, but as *someone else*. And the chicken just keeps on pumpin' out "Folsom Prison Blues"--a damnable, adaptable rooster (it would have to be, but "rooster" is too virile for Johnny, he's all washed up), a precursor to today's hat acts.

xps

("T.R.O.U.B.L.E." is playing now; a good solid Jerry Lee-style rocker; it's one I've heard before, of course.)

whats the new watson called, and where is it being released?

new album, From the Cradle to the Grave, comes out at the end of April on Hyena.

This was my failed pitch to review Drakkar Sauna for Paper Thin Walls. First line probably has to do with Chris claiming that Drakkar Sauna are S&G meet Dirty Projectors or something:

I've not met the Dirty Projectors myself, and I'm not hearing any Simon & Garfunkel (Drakkar Sauna's close harmonies have more to do with old-timey country), but I am grinning a lot at this. Only one track from the current alb is streamed anywhere I can find (the delicately understated "Mongrel Of A Halfman Slave Bitch") but lots are streamed from the past, and what I'm hearing is a duo that likes to come off like clowns while inserting deep gorgeousness in the harmonies (Big & Rich without funk, maybe, though Drakkar Sauna existed before there was a Big & Rich). And the accordion (if that's what it is) is a ha-ha-ha type instrument these days, but again works its way into gorgeousness. Sometimes the voices throw a lot of hurrah in your face, sometimes they seem offhand in a Hoagy Carmichael or Slim Harpo way, sometimes they seem offhand in a glam way (I hadn't realized until this second that glam has offhand tendencies, but now I'm recalling Ray Davies camping things up while simultaneously putting a sinister or angry detachment in his voice).

To what extent is the Grand Ole Opry still a centre of mainstream country music? Is it a primary motor, a big influence, a fond bit of nostalgia, a complete irrelevance, what?

Sounds like you started listening to the album toward the end, around the two-thirds or three-quarters mark, maybe. For whatever it's worth, the better songs on Tritt's best-of do tend to be front-loaded, at least on my advance copy; of 20 tracks total, I could definitely live without everything after track #12, though I'll concede "T.R.O.U.B.L.E."'s relative quasi-rockabilly vigor (and did upthread already). So I agree -- for such an apparent Nashville presence, and somebody who obviously shares certain affinities with a kind of blue-collar Southern rock I'm generally quite open to, the guy really does seem to have a dearth of decent hits. I've listened to a couple of his albums over the years, and don't hearing much better stuff on those, though it's been a while and I could be wrong. Kandia Crazy Horse Pazz&Jopped one album by him a couple years ago, as I recall, but I don't think I ever heard that one.

but yeah, it palls after a while. but i always dug some of these hits, even though travis kind of also looked stupid to me, because you knew how smart this country boy was. "where corn don't grow" is also great. his voice is like randy owen's, but the material is so much better than alabama's, and i hear tritt as pretty "authentic" on "where corn." and fuck, the even better than usually good six-second guitar lick.

far as the opry--the one out northeast of town, where all the gift shops are, and where you can still go see charlie louvin, and go to the midnite jamboree in the theatre next to the ernest tubb record shop out there--and its relevance, well, it's a sign of the times that the old downtown where the ryman sits is now tres hip indeed, and the midnite jamboree and all that out there is, like, the pre-Garth nashville and perceived as such, uh oh. (you can't git away from Garth here, even when the fat fucker's in edmond.)

xps

Well, the odd thing was that the order AOL listed the songs wasn't the order they streamed them, so I don't know where I was.

This week they're streaming Tracy Lawrence.

http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/statusainthood/archives/2007/02/live_conservati.php

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0349,eddy,49129,22.html

(actually its really well written and the jay z riff is kind of awesome)

the weird thing is that i cant keep underwood and lambert in check, and i keep realising that its underwood i am impressed with more than lambert...before he cheats is more violent and disruptive, the details are meaner, then Lambert's Kerosene, though Kerosene does more damage, neither have much twang and i dont think lamberts voice is v. thin...what was the desperate searching breakup ballad here? is there a single im missing?

Or to say: "I need to see more country bands."

Anyway, I like it even though her voice is kind of like a grandma voice at times.

what show are you talking about? I know Louvin's doing an instore record-release thing on feb. 24 in Nashville, and I'm trying to get more details on what that's gonna be, since I'm set to write it up for the Scene here. I called Charlie but he didn't seem to know, so I'm gonna talk to the guy at his label. (He is doing an extensive tour for his new record--there are dates in Philly and NYC, as far as I know.) As for his voice/flying to N-ville to see him, Roy is right--his voice is kinda, well, old. Not shot totally, but thick. (His new record works, in my estimation, because it's pretty craftily designed to work around his voice--but Charlie has made noises about how the producer went in "after hours" and tinkered with it, took out things and added others. Apparently, the record was waay too Branson-ed out originally, using some of CL's old cronies, like The Banjalist, Derwin Hinson, some of whose work survived the cut.) So it'd be cool to just go to Nashville and see him, but don't expect anything too transcendent. Charlie's 79 years old. Anyway, I should be there at that record-release party on Feb. 24 at Grimey's Records.

I flew to the States last year to see Lee Ann Womack and George Jones, and I had the greatest time, it wasn't crazy at all.

Mark Nevers produced the CL LP yes? I undestand he tinkers like crazy. given the opportunity.

Liking the new Elizabeth Cook album okay so far, which was more than I could say for her last one, which struck me as more tepid than its trappings promised, as I recall. This time she covers the Velvet Underground's "Sunday Morning" and it sounds very pretty, and ends with a song called "Always Tomorrow" that takes its chorus melody from the part in Hank Williams's "Honky Tonk Blues" (a song I've never totally loved, to be honest) where he says "lord I got 'em..."

Only got a few songs into the new Norah Jones, the new Rickie Jones, and the Baille from Baille and the Boys CDs last night before I wondered why I was wasting even that much time with them.

Am nearing that point with The Good, The Bad & The Queen, who are sounding more vaguely folky than I expected so far; for some reason I figured they'd be more dub or world-beat or something. They'd be more interesting if they were, probably.

Drakkar Sauna (who sent me three CDs, only one of which I've put into the CD changer so far) are sounding only slightly less vaguely folky so far; in fact, I'd probably be dismissing them as just more interchangeable anti-folk twits if Frank didn't express fondness for their alleged humor and harmonies upthread. So I will try to listen more. So far they seem more precious than funny. Ditto their song titles. But it's not like I've given them much of a chance yet.

Rhino reissue of Warren Zevon's The Envoy is sounding pretty (as in "ain't that pretty at all") good, though both "Looking For The Next Best Thing" and "Jesus Mentioned" are less lively and more boring than I'd remembered. (Rhino also sent Excitable Boy and Stand In The Fire reissues, both of which I expect to rock harder, though I may or may not like them more.)

The new album by Lucinda Williams, whose sound was no doubt instrumental in making it okay for country-oriented lady singers to cover Velvet Underground songs, has not been put on yet. I've been avoiding it. I never liked her all that much even when I liked her okay.(i.e., Car Wheels, the only album by her I've ever kept.)

Okay...Good Bad & Queen's "The Bunting Song" on now. Headline: Brit-Pop Still Sucks. Forget these twerps.

is that a repackaging of legacy's 2-disc feel like going home? a damn nice overview, that was. my all-time favorite male singer, probably.

what's interesting about that louvin record is how superficially cl and george jones do sound alike. but then you hear just how full jones' voice really is, even on those couple of cameos he does--he might've learned how to sing at least in part from the louvins, but jones far outclasses charlie louvin. it's a far better record than one might've thought. even with costello in there, and i have to admit that elvis sings better now than he used to, but i just basically find his voice annoying, you know?

new incredible stringdusters record "fork in the road" is excellent neo-grass; good songs in there, some they wrote, some they found, and then there's a really lame one (great idea: don't take pictures of landscapes, just remember it real well for your Beloved One; but basically lame in its final form) by john mayer. and they actually seem to halfway mean them. the instrumental stuff has its share of surprises. real listenable for this basic non-fan of bluegrass.

xp

I dunno. But damn, the thing kills. 36 songs, from "Lonely Weekends" and "Big Boss Man" and "Mohair Sam" to "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl" and beyond. My favorite in the past 15 minutes has probably been "River, Stay Away From My Door," either that or "When Something Is Wrong With My Baby." So far I love it all.

Elizabeth Cook is bugging me. Just too self-consciously retro, in a cloying way. Which I know is not a very coherent criticism. I do get the comparisons of her vocals to Dolly's. But it's a reigned-in, antiseptic version of a Dolly that hasn't existed for 30 years at least. So yeah, she still seems tepid to me. She means well, and she sings sweetly enough, but she'd be much more fun if her production wasn't stuck somewhere back in ancient history. The Dolly I like most was the Dolly that wasn't afraid to disco. So I don't get it.

In Warren Zevon's "The Envoy" (title track), Israel's attacking the Iraqis and Baghdad does whatever she please. Great, rocking song. And the ballad about Jesus and Graceland sounds better than this morning (though I still always prefer Warren drunk and kicking butt.)

* -- their tracks that sound like Black Crowes and Jet are okay, but it's the longer, heavier stomps like "Red River" I'm really liking.

the other Rich stuff I got includes "Big Boss Man: The Groove Sessions," '63 to '65, all done at RCA in Nashville. "Are You Still My Baby" kills. And then the Complete Smash Sessions, which includes the insane "Santa Claus' Daughter" and the amazing "Just a Little Bit of Time" and the even more amazing "Blowin' Town." And then I picked up the Koch reissues of "Set Me Free" and "Fabulous."

Sorta on the fence about Cook. Doesn't rock hard enough, and why not do "Lonesome Cowboy Bill" if you wanna do Lou Reed and shock the rubes? It is retro. Dunno, I guess I want to like it more than I do; I really liked it first time I played it, but then I got distracted. In fact, I'm gonna listen to it again this morning.

I always return to Behind Closed Doors thinking "this time I'll get it", and I never do. I haven't really investigated the post-Behind CLosed Doors stuff.

Except, that last LP he made - "Pictures and Paintings", something like that? - was surprisingly fine also. I love Charlie Rich.

my fave moments on the complete smash sessions are probably the upbeat, garage-rocky "just a little bit of time" and the slow, somewhat complicated "the best years."

do you have a cartoon face in mind

chuck
i dont wear socks

Waitin On A Train = old-timey bluegrassy strums played speedily but not especially tunefully or skilfully in any other discernible way. Boring singer with no special aptitute for power or beauty. From Pennyslvania, aparently. On The Left and George Brigman's label Bona Fide. Reputedly doing for bluegrass what the Pogues once did for Irish jigs. Not true. Basically remind me of Old Crow Medicine Show.

Album by Glenn Stewart in the mail today. His cdbaby page indicates that he used to be in an '80s band (rock, I assume) (actually, hair metal I assume even more) that had some success, but he doesn't name what the band was, and a quick google search didn't help, so maybe he's embarrassed. Nowadays he wears a cowboy hat. So far I heard one love ballad I didn't like on the album (not sure its name), one Southern rocker ("Dance Little Donna") I liked a lot, and one Bon Jovi solo style power ballad ("Love Comes Knockin'") that convinces me I was right about the hair metal part. (Also he has one track intriguingly titled "My So Called Life," but I've yet to hear it.)

i really like randy travis.

Black Angel (cdbaby Stones-rock, sufficently DFX2-like so far though the song now "American Wedding" is nicely drawled late '70s Stones-country quoting "crimson and clover over and over" in its lyrics).
...

Wow, Black Angel's "One Beer" on now, even better Stones-country Some Girls style; dude's singing about being a country boy down at the 7-11 on Desolation Row drinking a beer for the devil and in love with the queen of hip-hop soul. (Guess I should be posting this on the country thread instead; sorry folx.)

Anyway:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/bangel

Now they're mentioning George Jones in a song called "Country Symphony."

From Glenn Stewart's myspace page:

Influences 1- Part JoDee Messina, for all the inspiration she has given me through her music and her being. To the fact she made me think out side the box when it came to my song writing. Part Cinderella, for if you stripped the "hair band" title and the gargling with razorblade vocals, they provided, raw, meaning full southern rock influence with a great feel ( especially Long Cold Winter.

His album is so far seeming too ballady for its own good, but "Brand New Day" is powerchorded hair-metal for sure.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/glennstewart

let's just end with the song of the day for December 6, 2006, Taylor Swift's "Tim McGraw." The subject matter's been run into the ground (memories of first love, coming of age), but her words are exceptionally precise and evocative - no line in particular, just the way the details pile up: little black dress, box hidden under her bed, etc. "September saw a month of tears/And thanking God that you weren't here/To see me like that." Very skillful, makes not-quite-in-the-vernacular phrasing ("saw a month of tears") feel normal in context (ditto for "the moon like a spotlight on the lake"). She's canny in balancing wistfulness and self-assertion. She hopes that when the boy thinks of Tim McGraw he thinks of her favorite song. She leaves a letter on his doorstep to make sure he does.

let's just end with the song of the day for December 19, 2006, Taylor Swift's "Tim McGraw," which I already did a couple of weeks ago, but the song keeps getting richer and richer the more I hear it. She uses the word "bittersweet," and she's not kidding. The first time she sings the chorus, "When you think Tim McGraw, I hope you think my favorite song," it means "I hope you have warm memories of me," but by song's end it also means "I hope I haunt you, fucker, the way you haunted me. Sincerely, your discarded girlfriend, Taylor." It doesn't abandon the first meaning, just layers another one on top.

But this is what I wrote on a comments thread in my livejournal:

Best new lyrics I heard all year, I think. They balance so perfectly that anything I say probably overstates the mood one way or another; but in the first chorus when she goes "When you think Tim McGraw, I hope you think my favorite song" it's simply sweet, but by the third chorus those words carry hurt and bitterness and a whole expanse of sadness, and a hint of aggression, as well (as if to say, "may that song haunt you," though that overstates it) - while retaining the sweetness.

let's just end with the song of the day for December 16, 2006, the Wreckers' "Stand Still, Look Pretty." "You might think it's easy being me/Just stand still, look pretty," sing a couple of gorgeous exteenpoppers. With looks like that they don't know if they have a right to their distress, but they're falling apart anyway. Interesting premise, which they don't take anywhere, so the lyrics feel whiny and empty. But with a quiet rasp in the voice and with the melody hanging around an irresolute "mi" note, the sound delivers some of the sadness that the words aren't up to.

(You can find my MySpace blog here.)

Bay City Rollers quote in Glenn Stewart's otherwise Heartbreak Station-worthy "Freight Train--Here I Go": "Yes, no, maybe so, Oh no, I gotta go." Thanks to the new Sirens album for reminding me.