Rolling Country 2008 Thread

My '08 c&w list so far (I wrote about some of these toward the bottom of Rolling Country '07; the '07 albums below are ones I connected with after sending in my '07 Idolator/Pazz&Jop/Nashville scene ballots, which hereby makes them eligible for the new year):

Mechanical Bull – A Million Yesterdays (Woodstock Musicworks ‘07)
Amanda Shaw – Pretty Runs Out (Rounder)
Finn and the Sharks – Breakfast Special (UpSouth reissue)
Horror Pops – Kiss Kiss Kill Kill (Hellcat)
Chris Cagle – This Is Chris Cagle (Capitol promo ’07)
Drive-By Truckers – Brighter Than Creation’s Dark (New West)
Kim Richey – Chinese Boxes (Vanguard ’07)
Terri Clark - My Next Life (BNA unreleased promo '07)
Chuck Wicks – Starting Now (RCA)

Of those, Horror Pops -- who call themselves a psychobilly band -- stretch the "country" definition the most.

Terri Clark's album took me forever to get around to, partly because it starts out really slow and kind of meh (even despite an okay opener where Terri says that in her next life she'll do some things different, for instance she'll leave her shirt on at Mardi Gras.) But it picks up by the fourth or fifth track. Favorite songs are "Dirty Girl" (self-explanatory), "Nashville Girls" with Sara Evans, Martina McBride, and Reba McEntire (which claims there's a reason Nashville girls have big hair -- apparently because it doesn't go out of style or something), and "Live From America (It's Saturday Night)" (which sounds like a cross between Zevon/ Rondstadt's "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" and Kenny Loggins's "Whenever I Call You Friend," and which contains a reference to the title of Chris Cagle's "Wal-Mart Parking Lot.") Also like "Happy Yet" (post-breakup song where she's not going to call her ex back until she's not happy anymore, with a cool '80s AOR-pop synth beat percolating beneath) and "Gypsy Boots" (hard kinda funky blues); best slow one is probably "The Only Time You Call" (is when you're drunk). Doesn't seem any less consistent than several albums Nashville put out last year; not sure why it was shelved, except that Nashville really likes shelving stuff (Bomshel, Phil Vassar, Ahsley Monroe) and sending it back to the drawing board, often indefinitely, these days. (Maybe that's not a new development; just weird how often labels send advance promos out then change their minds.)

I'm still batting around 2007, as always won't send my Nashville Scene ballot in and until the last second. Albums are a quandary, not as good at the top but way deeper than my list last year, singles almost as good at the top but not nearly as deep, possibly having nothing to do with the year but just that I waited until the last second to go searching out the heaps and heaps of singles I hadn't listened to earlier in the year. But also the record companies and I diverged even further than usual on the subject of what album track deserved to be a single.

So, I decided to disqualify Ashley Monroe since her album still hasn't been released and she was mainly on my list to prevent it from being shitty. And eliminated 2007's Bettye LaVette on account of the album being mostly a gigantic bore. Good soulful voice doing standard soulful things, most interesting fact about it was the admirable insertion of psychobabble that hadn't previously made its way into classic soul. A few tracks started off gripping but lasted long enough to lose their grip. One or two that I'll describe as "minor-key blues" (which is a wrong description, I know, since the blues are neither major nor minor, but these feel minor-key for finding their way to the doleful side of the chords) (or something) hung on for me, so I'll return sometime.

Anyhow, my 6 through 10 slots are wide open with about 14 contenders, but I'll eliminate the Sarah Buxton EP, which has one great track (her version of "Stupid Boy"), one quirkily good ("That Kind Of Day"), a couple more not bad, and one that I haven't heard. Also eliminating Richard Thompson, though his album was way better than I was expecting. I described him over on poptimists as the man with the deep gargly masculine manly voice, with a dramatic delivery that always seems slightly comic (or maybe that's my projecting the idea that such drama should be comic). In the past I've had trouble hearing the deep gargly voice as all that musical, which is why I liked him best with Sandy Denny singing lead or harmony. I still have that block against the those rocks in his throat, but he came up with a load of nice melodies, and his voice connects to them fairly well. Van Zant's My Kind Of Country puts a great ringing guitar sheen on Southern rock going Cougar-Springsteen, and I'm mostly willing to put aside my antipathy to the dull and boring and uninteresting and tedious and tiring and dull and boring audience pandering of their lyrics, but the singing's not quite good enough. John Waite, high-voiced Babys pop 'n' all, was way more penetrating in a blues-soul way than Bettye, not enough good songs. The Carrie Underwood has more good songs than I thought at first but her big brassy voice is actually too much for a lot of them. I kept wishing that Ashley Monroe were singing (I read somewhere that Monroe co-wrote the album opener on Carnival Ride, but I never checked).

So that leaves Little Big Town, Jack Ingram, Toby Keith, Black Angel, Schultze Gets The Blues, Taylor Swift (for her Xmas EP), Blake Shelton, and John Anderson all scrapping for the final five spots. (I arbitrarily decided that the Kid Rock alb wasn't country enough, though I just as easily could've said the same about Black Angel, but I'd spent more time on the latter so kept them in the running.) So which three will get voted off the island? Stay tuned.

I'm still puzzled that Chris couldn't hear Miley Cyrus's "See You Again" as rockabilly. Maybe "rockabilly" is the wrong word, since I'm not referring to the "Mystery Train" blues-based styles but more the heavily reverbed, menacing half-ballads that I associate with someone like Johnny Cash. Except I'm not that well-listened in Johnny Cash, and the style doesn't come from Cash alone, by any means. The song I keep citing is Jace Everett's "Bad Things" from last year, but when I heard that song I felt there were hundreds of previous songs like it. (Could someone here point me to one of them?) Whether it's called "rockabilly," it's somewhere from the old intersection c. 1960 of rock 'n' roll and country. But as for "See You Again" (second song down on her MySpace), the reverb, the biting guitar, the melody, the chords, the delivery all place it here in "rockabilly" (or whatever you want to call it). I mean, it practically jumps up and screams WE ARE PLAYING ROCKABILLY GUITAR, USING ROCKABILLY REVERB. Maybe someone who knows music theory better than I do can help me explain what I'm hearing in the chords that make them "rockabilly." The key is A minor, with F a crucial chord, F being the subdominant of C, which is A minor's relative major. Having just said that, I have no idea if it's significant or not. I know some music "theory," but not in a way that I can put to any useful critical use. The F-E-Am progression when she sings "I can't wait to see you again" seems most emblematic.

I wouldn't say that Miley's singing is menacing at all, or that the song is menacing, but that reverbed guitar automatically puts foreboding into the atmosphere. Which is interesting, since the song's lyrics are optimistic - she's figured out that he can't wait to see her again, and she's sure that next time she's not going to go all stammering and short of breath, but...

Meta post:

The Little Big Town alb has the handicap that I only got it recently, and the Jack Ingram that I only just now started paying much attention; Black Angel might benefit from my having first heard it last week, since I might decide in the long-run that the sketchiness of J.C. Martin's voice cripples everything, whereas at the moment my reaction is that it's a swamp-shaking rocker with a sketch of a voice on top. It (O' Santa Barbara; I haven't yet heard the Xhuxk-preferred O' California) is an alb that benefits from my All-Albums-Are-EPs Rule; so does Schultze Gets The Blues; whereas the Taylor Swift Xmas EP, being an EP, suffers from the role - as a three-song single it's ace, however. Still, three ace songs from a wonderfully fetching, slight, vengeful voice certainly works in its favor, as does its not having eight or so superfluous songs' worth of noodling around like the Black Angel (though of course I can use the memory button to erase those eight from the historical record, so to speak).

suffers from the role = suffers from the rule

(She actually does quite well in the role; note to Taylor Swift suitors: if you love her and leave her you will end up in a song.)

When Black Angel get their whole wheezing, murked-up apparatus pumping in its groove the record is fine, the niggling-scratching guitar lines working like Cezanne, strokes-in-motion, teeming with mites and grubs. Are like James Williamson-era Stooges piss 'n' pulse tracks ("Penetration" and "Death Trip"), though not as good, of course. Problem is the slow tracks that go songish, the stuff that makes it most country, actually, that takes after Stones twanged and yowled yuk-yuks like "Dear Doctor" and "Sweet Virginia" and "Dead Flowers" and "Country Honk," which were my least favorite tracks from the '68-'72 Stones anyway. If I jigger my rationalizations to get this album on my list, it'll be by reasoning that the Exile swamp groove makes it country-by-association (w/ Brooks & Dunn), as do the country yuks, even if actually the Stooges-like piss throwers are what get it my ranking. Standout track: "I Never Get Over You."

Also, despite Martin's vocal limitations, he should forbid "Audrey Turner" and Lois Mahalia from doing anything but singing in the background, as their Tina Turner tropes get in the way when they take center stage. Is why the three Stones covers don't come off.

BIRD REPORT: While compiling my country's singles list yesterday, I heard three bird flips in one day. Sarah Johns flips a bird ("The One In The Middle," duh), Sarah Buxton gets the bird flipped on her ("That Kind Of Day"), and so does Craig Morgan ("International Harvester").

Blake Shelton Pure BS. Strong, state-of-the-art, likable, intelligent guy; doesn't have the prettiest or most distinctive voice (not a John Anderson or a Gary Allan), so he puts out. I don't know why most of this doesn't connect for me. The tracks that do are the weepers: "I Have Been Lonely," the sort of rock 'n' roll lament that Gary Allan was doing well a couple of albums ago. I wish there were some like it on the new Gary Allan, but I also wish it were Gary Allan singing this. "Back There Again" I wrote about last year; it still touches me, quiet sadness then gets loud and expressive without losing its feeling of loneliness. There's something sophisticated in the chord pattern that one of you will have to explain better than I can - reminds me of the sort of ambitious pop that someone like Charlie Rich could pull off. Blake strains a bit on it, but he does well.

I like the intent of the rockers on here, they just don't manage to kick through the door.

Someone on livejournal suggested Duane Eddy in relation to the Miley song, which I can definitely hear in the guitar tone and also the way the guitar curls at the end of verses in "Shazam" being similar to Miley's voice on "I can't wait to see you again." (Also like how much the bass player looks like George Sanders.)

Frank Kogan's Country Music Critics ballot

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2007:

1. Miranda Lambert Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Columbia Nashville)
2. Travis Tritt The Storm (Category 5)
3. Gretchen Wilson One Of The Boys (Columbia Nashville)
4. LeAnn Rimes Family (Curb)
5. Brooks & Dunn Cowboy Town (Arista Nashville)
6. Various Artists Schultze Gets The Blues soundtrack (Normal Release)
7. Black Angel O' Santa Barbara (Outsiders)
8. John Anderson Easy Money (Raybaw/Warner Bros.)
9. Toby Keith Big Dog Daddy (Show Dog Nashville)
10. Taylor Swift Sounds Of The Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection (Big Machine)

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2007:

1. Miley Cyrus "See You Again" (Walt Disney)
2. LeAnn Rimes "Nothin' Better To Do" (Curb)
3. Taylor Swift "Teardrops On My Guitar" (Big Machine)
4. Miranda Lambert "Gunpowder And Lead" (Columbia Nashville)
5. Reba McEntire f. Kelly Clarkson "Because Of You" (MCA Nashville)
6. Gretchen Wilson "You Don't Have To Go Home" (Columbia Nashville)
7. Sarah Johns "The One In The Middle" (BNA)
8. Toby Keith "High Maintenance Woman" (Show Dog Nashville)
9. Gretchen Wilson "One Of The Boys" (Columbia Nashville)
10. Tim McGraw "Last Dollar (Fly Away)" (Curb)

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2007:

1. Neil Young Live At Massey Hall 1971 (Reprise)
2. The Stanley Brothers The Definitive Collection (Time Life)
3. -
4. -
5. -

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2007:

1. Toby Keith
2. John Anderson
3. Travis Tritt

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS OF 2007:

1. Taylor Swift
2. LeAnn Rimes
3. Miranda Lambert

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST LIVE ACTS OF 2007:

-

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST SONGWRITERS OF 2007:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Miranda Lambert
3. Rivers Rutherford

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST DUOS, TRIOS OR GROUPS OF 2007:

1. Brooks & Dunn
2. Black Angel
3. Little Big Town

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2007:

1. Ashley Monroe
2. Sarah Johns
3. Rissi Palmer

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST OVERALL ACTS OF 2007:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Miranda Lambert
3. Travis Tritt

COMMENTS:

Sorry Geoffrey, I waited until the last minute and have no real time for comments. "See You Again" qualifies as country not 'cause of Miley Cyrus's last name or her Tennessee heritage but because of the reverbed rockabilly guitar and the way her raw throat takes on a menacing half-ballad melody worthy of Johnny Cash. And she makes my number one because of the way she brings her goofy sweetness to this, with lyrics that are essentially about shyness - exuberantly about shyness!

Happy New Year.

I've been listening to the Wink Keziah record, and I really like it. He truly ain't much of a singer but his songs are good, basic and somewhat terror-stricken yet resilient essays into that hammer-coming-down feeling when you know you're gonna walk in your door into some shit with your woman, a song about traveling in Texas at high speeds, and songs about being in a bar.

I see Frank voted for Miranda Lambert at #1. Hmm. I didn't, and here's my best albums/singles/reissues from my ballot:

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2007:

1. John Anderson, Easy Money (Raybaw/Warner Bros.)
2. Charlie Louvin, Charlie Louvin (Tompkins Square)
3. The Greencards, Viridian (Dualtone)
4. Billy Burnette and Shawn Camp, The Bluegrass Elvises Vol. 1 (American Roots Publishing)
5. Johnny Bush, Kashmere Gardens Mud: A Tribute to Houston’s Country Soul (Icehouse)
6. Cole Deggs & the Lonesome, Cole Deggs & the Lonesome (Sony/BMG Nashville)
7. Travis Tritt, The Storm (Category 5)
8. The Hackensaw Boys, Look Out! (Nettwerk)
9. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Raising Sand (Rounder)
10. Sarah Johns, Big Love in a Small Town (BNA)

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2007:

1. Keith Urban, "Stupid Boy"
2. Gary Allan, "Watching Airplanes"
3. Sarah Johns, "The One in the Middle"
4. Elizabeth Cook, "Sometimes It Takes Balls to Be a Woman"
5. Sara Evans, "As If"
6. Miranda Lambert, "Famous in a Small Town"
7. Kenny Chesney, "Shiftwork"
8. Toby Keith, "High Maintenance Woman"
9. Jason Michael Carroll, "Livin’ Our Love Song"
10. Taylor Swift, "Tim McGraw"

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2007:

1. John Anderson, 2 (American Beat)
2. The Stanley Brothers, The Definitive Collection: 1947-1966 (Time-Life)
3. Moby Grape, Moby Grape (Sundazed)
4. Dolly Parton, Coat of Many Colors (Sony)
5. Gene Clark, With the Gosdin Brothers (Sundazed)

Okay, I was waiting for somebody else to go first. Here's mine (I left Taylor Swift off my album list and the Trikont Records: Dirty Laundry: Soul of Black Country compilation -- technically released in 2004 in Germany! -- off my reissue list even though I'd voted for them in P&J/Idolator because Geoff's letter seemed way more strict about release dates, but worrying about release dates for singles that impacted this year seeemed pointless):

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2007:
1. Little Big Town – A Place To Land (Equity Music Group)
2. (Various Artists) – Motel Lovers: Southern Soul From the Chitlin Circuit (Trikont)
3. Flynnville Train – Flynnville Train (Show Dog)
4. Miranda Lambert – Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Columbia)
5. Kid Rock – Rock n Roll Jesus (Atlantic)
6. Jack Ingram – This Is It (Big Machine)
7. The Bellamy Brothers – Jesus Is Coming (Curb)
8. Blake Shelton – Pure B.S. (Warner Bros.)
9. Toby Keith – Big Dog Daddy (Show Dog)
10. (Various Artists) – Shultze Gets The Blues (Normal/Filmkombinat)

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2007:
1. Tim McGraw “Suspicions” (Curb)
2. Toby Keith – “High Maintenance Woman” (Show Dog)
3. Taylor Swift – “Our Song” (Big Machine)
4. Pat Green - "Way Back Texas" (BNA)
5. Rissi Palmer - "Country Girl" (1720 Entertainment)
6. Dierks Bentley - "Free And Easy (Down the Road I Go)" (Capitol)
7. Miranda Lambert – “Famous In A Small Town” (Columbia)
8. Keith Urban – “Stupid Boy” (Capitol)
9. Sarah Johns - "The One In The Middle" (BNA)
10. Black Angel – “One Beer” (Outsiders Record Company)

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2007:
1. Charlie Rich – The Essential (Epic/Legacy)
2. . (Various Artists) – Goodbye Nashville Hello Camden Town: A Pub Rock Anthology (Castle)
3. .(Various Artists) – Art of Field Recording: Volume 1 (Diesel + Dust)
4. John Anderson – John Anderson 2 (American Beat)
5. Dr. Hook – Greatest Hooks (Capitol)

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2007:
1. Toby Keith
2. John Anderson
3. Travis Tritt

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS OF 2007:
1. Taylor Swift
2. Miranda Lambert
3. Gretchen Wilson


COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST DUOS, TRIOS OR GROUPS OF 2007:
1. Little Big Town
2. Flynnville Train
3. Black Angel

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2007:
1. Flynnville Train
2. Cole Deggs & the Lonesome
3. Sarah Johns

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST OVERALL ACTS OF 2007:
1. Little Big Town
2. Taylor Swift
3. Miranda Lambert

(Diesel + Dust)

Probably the tenth time I've got that wrong; I don't know what my problem is. Should be Dust-to-Digital! I've also been liking that label's Black Mirror: Reflections In Global Musics CD, by the way.

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2007:
1. Toby Keith
2. John Anderson
3. Travis Tritt

Frank and I voted exactly the same in this category! I voted for the best vocalist categories more on the basis of singing per se' than I have in the past, so Anderson and Tritt got my votes (as did Gretchen Wilson in the female category) even though I found their albums (all of which had some songs I liked a lot on them) too spotty to give votes to.

I'd have voted "Stupid Boy" for sure except I was counting it as last year (when I should have voted it but listed it about 18th). And "Tim McGraw" I did vote last year.

Here are my 11 through 20: (11) Eric Church "Sinners Like Me" (Capitol Nashville), (12) Rissi Palmer "Country Girl" (1720 Entertainment), (13) Carrie Underwood "So Small" (19 Recordings/Arista Nashville), (14) Faith Hill "Lost" (Warner Bros.), (15) Sarah Buxton "That Kind Of Day" (Lyric Street), (16) Big & Rich "Between Raising Hell And Amazing Grace" (Warner Bros.), (17) Alan Jackson "Small Town Southern Man" (Arista), (18) Tim McGraw "Suspicions" (Curb), (19) Rodney Atkins "Cleaning My Gun" (Curb), (20) Billy Currington "Tangled Up" (Mercury Nashville)

Anthony's ballot and commentary here.

Here's mine:

xxx

I didn't do one. Thanks for sending me a ballot anyway, Frank. It woulda been all Mexicans and Chicanos anyway, plus maybe Adrienne Young and Eilen Jewell and Gary Allan. Oh well, country music, it's been fun re-discovering you, but you're not doing anything for me anymore, and I've found someone new.

the Taylor Swift Xmas EP, being an EP, suffers from the role - as a three-song single it's ace

But Frank, which three songs?? Don't leave us hanging!

"Christmases When You Were Mine," "Santa Baby," "Silent Night," and "Last Christmas," in that order, and that's four not three. And the other two aren't bad either.

hmm, here's my almost-the-same-as-Chuck's-and-Frank's best male vocalists:

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2007:

1. John Anderson
2. Toby Keith
3. Trace Adkins

I once got a mocking letter-to-the-editor at the Voice for saying that Rodney Atkins had more of a higher register than Trace Adkins did.

"See You Again" up to 48 on the Hot 100, but still nowhere on country radio, which prefers the boring duet with dad.

Been listening to the first two Black Angel albums, from before they started naming all their albums O'Someplace. The first one, 13 Stories, is a compilation of stuff recorded between 1991 and 2000, when they were apparently technically called the Black Angel Girls, and indeed all the songs are sung by women doing the Tina Turner thing and vaguely gospelish stuff (Lois Minato, Andrea Buchanan, and Shawn Larsen get vocal credits), and the album doesn't have memorable tunes and the songs lack momentum and it's basically a washout, though songs sounds might improve if J.C. Martin sang them. It does initiate one trend which is carried to rather absurd extremes on the much better (if annoying named) second album Real Music For Real People from 2003 -- namely, songs about breasts, frequently naked ones. Actually there may be only one line to that effect on 13 Songs (namely a song where one of the singers says you'll never get to touch them), but several more, and not always clever or funny or sexy ones unfortunately, on the followup. I am amused by "I'm a Fool (for a Selfish Girl With a Good Pair of Breasts)," though. Still, RMFRP is a good record, if nowhere near the level of O'Whatever albums. Good country-Stones swamp-honkers include "Broke Dick Dog" and "Drive, She Said" and especially "Inglewood Jail" (unlike Frank, apparently, I can usually get sucked into these kind of Black Angel songs on the basis of the pretty melodies alone); "Rock'n'Roll Chick (With a Bad Attitude)" and "Rock Star" (which has more energetic hooks than the Nickelback one though maybe not words as good, who knows) and the goofy "Yummy Friend" are pushier, harder rocking Stone rips; "I Never Got Over You" has the sort of riff that I expect Frank would say verges into Raw Power Stooges territory; "I've Got My Eyes On You, Baby" is a great vamp with not much of a song attached; "Stoned in Los Angeles" is almost mid/late '70s art-punk new wave (sort of sounds like it could have come from Cleveland around then) that turns into a irritatingly obvious list of famous people (Cobain, Belushi, Joplin, Jim Morrison, Keith Richards so obviously not all dead ones) who "were stoned." Songs I like least are probably the blatant funk attempt "I Just Wanna Funk Ya" and the blatant mush attempt "Blonde Adventure" (where the singer begs that said blond adventure also be his "topless dancer"). So yeah, just like the Holy Modal Rounders, Black Angel apparently like boobs a lot.

some songs might improve, I meant.

and an irritatingly obvious list (obviously).

I also relistened to the Jason Michael Carrol album from last year on New Year's Eve, for some reason, and I want to say that "Lookin' At You," the song that had briefly reminded me melody-wise of Ryan Paris's '80s Italo-disco classic "Dolce Vita" last year (see January 15, 2007 rolling country thread post) still does. Said song also contains a line about driving cars into mailboxes, just like "Chicks Dig It" by Chris Cagle. So maybe that's a new trend.

I have driven a car into a mailbox, several mailboxes.

Did we talk about Further Down, the Jonesboro, Ark. Southern rock band featuring two cousins of grey eminences in Southern rock and classic rock--Tommy Shaw and Jim "Dandy" Mangrum? I can't remember. Anyway, they're playing Nashville and sent me their debut 7 Years Hard Luck which appears to have come out in '06. Man, some of this made me really happy, great churning Motor City-style overload on some songs and some nice fat hooks on almost all of it. Sounds great too, recorded at Ardent in Memphis. My favorite song on a record full of quotable lines is the one called "Power of Revelation" which isn't about what you might think but rather kind of about what you might think--the guy wants this girl and to convince her he says that Jesus would have used the exact same pickup lines as he is using! "I know that your Savior said the things I said," and the girl is a barfly with bad cigarette cough and so forth, so the advice he gives her, to unburden herself of everything including underwear, is perhaps merited. "Maiden, she takes off her Sunday dress/Oh, my maiden, when she gives me Sunday's best" are amazing lines. The opener is called "Black & Bleach" and it's a vengeance song about how he's coming down off the mountain to burn down this other woman's town, but first he tells her, god-dammit: "So come back down [ed.note: off the mountain] and bring me cash/And tell me what you want me to get/Because the dark side of your life is where I live." Did we talk about this one already?

Real Music For Real People

This title is familiar! Perhaps I heard the album. Or perhaps the phrase's familiarity is due to its being a familiar phrase.

Someone on livejournal suggested Duane Eddy in relation to the Miley song, which I can definitely hear in the guitar tone

Yeah, that's pretty blatant, now that you mention it. I forget if Frank had burned me "See You Again" on one of his mix CDs or not; if so, it somehow didn't jump out at me from them. But it definitely jumped out at me while I was listening to Z-100 in the kitchen today, and yeah, the rockabilly in Miley's vocal inflections wasn't hard to hear, either. What hell, maybe it will make my 2008 top ten singles list, since it will have more impact this year anyway. So...naive, uninformed question that I could easily research myself: Is "See You Again" off the Hannah Montana album from this year, or what? And what about "GNO Girls Night Out" (which Frank definitely did burn, and which I also like, though probably not as much)? Are they on the same album, or just spare tracks from somewhere, or what? I've got the first Hannah Montana album, which has nothing as good as these two songs on it, I don't think, but that's it. I am so out of it. (Among the other stuff I liked, very belatedly, on Z-100 today was Britney's "Pieces of Me," Fergie's "Clumsy," Rihanna's "Shut Up And Drive," Taylor Swift's "Teardrops On My Guitar" {on top 40 radio! In New York Fucking City! How weird is that? Okay, maybe not so weird after a year of "Before He Cheats"...} and some other girl-song I couldn't place, though I assume it's obvious and my ignorance is going to inspire guffaws and chortles from people who have been paying closer attention to pop radio than me in recent months: It sounded vaguely Pink-like, but definitely Pink in rocker -- maybe even slightly rockabilly too? -- mode, and I feel like it had one part that went something like "now I've got you where I want you." Any ideas, anybody?)

Okay, yeah, just checked Amazon; both songs are on Disc 2 of Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus, which also has "East Northumberland High," which has a great title and which I've heard good things about but not to my knowledge actually heard per se'. Anybody have any opinions about how good the double-disc is? Or is Disc 2 available separately in any big-box establishment exclusive? (Should I bother?)

I spent the afternoon at the PBR bull riding championships at Madison Square Garden, and I don't think I heard a single country song over the loudspeakers the whole time. It was all Def Leppard, Metallica, ZZ Top, and whatever that hip-hop song from this year with the steel drum sample is. The national anthem was sung by the lead vocalist from Long Island-based Lilith-fair-headliners-if-it-still-existed Antigone Rising.

Weird! And I'm jealous; that sport is really to watch on TV. This PBR soundtrack from seven years ago was almost all country (well, country-rock, including Montgomery Gentry covering Bon Jovi), but maybe that's changed in recent years:

http://www.amazon.com/Dancin-Thunder-Official-Professional-Riders/dp/B00005O68X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1199658059&sr=8-3

By the way, I just re-posted my Miley questions on the rolling bubblegum thread, where they are more applicable; answers might make more sense there, too.

Latest entertaining addition to the girl-rockabilly-singer-with-lounge tendencies sweepstakes (see also: Devil Doll, Sarah Borges And the Broken Singles) is Fingerprints by Britt Savage & Twang Deluxe, who says on her cdbaby page that you will like her if you like Blondie, Amy Winehouse, and Nancy Sinatra, and wears mini-skirts with mod patterns to match. Real strong singer, capable of pop stuff (which she's apparently done in the past) as much as country, which helps her -- Ballads like "Broken" (belted almost Laura Branigan style) and "Truce" are preferably to most of the competition's ballads (though "This Town Can't Keep A Secret" is too much reverent kitsch), but the faster Carlene Carter style pub-rockabilly cuts (especially "Last Flight To Vegas" and "Fearless" so far) are preferable to the ballads, and she does what's probably the best version of "Secret Agent Man" I've heard since Devo's in the early '80s. Also like how "I Found Love" progresses from rockabilly guitars to gospel backup choruses. Very professional, non-anorexic production for a self-released record, too; she evidently has some connections in non-low places:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/brittsavage

http://www.myspace.com/brittsavage

oops: that sport is really fun to watch on TV

The only other Real Music For Real People album I found in a quick look online was a compilation by DJ Language (whoever he is); there is also Real Music For Real People From Kankakee To Malibu, which was compiled by Doug Rapier, James Riordan, George Lord, and Thomas & Nancie Evoniuk. Then there's a whole series of "spectrum" records: ____ Spectrum: Real ____ For Real People, e.g., Jazz Spectrum: Real Jazz for Real People, and ones for Disco, Latin, and Funk. Then there's Real Music For Abstract People, which is a house and techno compilation.

Other notable hits while searching Amazon included a book entitled Real People Working In Mechanics, Installation, And Repair and (35th listing in Amazon) The Accidental Evolution Of Rock 'N' Roll: A Misguided Tour Through Popular Music by Chuck Eddy, with this sentence fragment highlighted from p. 61: "In contrast to 'real people's music' like blues, rock was ersatz..."

Haven't heard the full Hannah/Miley double disc; both Greg and Dave - two strong fans of "See You Again" - feel mixed about it over all. Xhuxk, I included "See You Again" on The Girls Are Here And We The Swingflies in September (along with Miley's "Start All Over," which Disney actually is promoting on Radio Disney while insanely refusing to play "See You Again"). "East Northumberland High" is good as well. "You're my type of guy I guess if I were stuck for the rest of my life in East Northumberland High for the rest of my life, but people change, thank God I did. Just because I liked you back then, doesn't mean I like you now," sung by someone who's probably only just now starting high school. All three of those tracks are on the "Miley" rather the "Hannah" disk. Co-writers (with Miley) on "See You Again" and (without Miley) on "East Northumberland High" are Antonina Armato and Tim James, the producers and writers of most of Hoku's album back in 2000 and producers and sometimes co-writers of Aly & A.J.'s Insomniatic and also of Aly & A.J.'s "Not This Year" and "Chemicals React." Miley isn't in the credits of "Start All Over," but Fefe Dobson is. I think "G.N.O. (Girls Night Out)" is as good or better a song as "See You Again" but her voice on that one just seems to be barely showing up. (She co-wrote that one too along with Tamara Dunn and Matthew Wilder, whom I don't know anything about.) She's got an interesting tone in general, though: it's got more strain than prettiness, and she uses the strain well, gets a raw feistiness out of it. Most of what I've seen from her "live" performances on YouTube seems to be lip synched. Maybe keeping a consistent voice is hard for her.

Of the few I've heard from the "Hannah" half of the release, I like "Nobody's Perfect," despite its being written by the dreaded Gerrard and Nevil. Dave doesn't particularly like "G.N.O." or "Nobody's Perfect," so maybe he's wrong about the album.

(I had one too many "for the rest of my life"s in those lyrics. She didn't want to be stuck in East Northumberland High in a previous life, either.)

BIG twanging rock boogie guitar sound worthy of top-tier Nashville productions on "Lonely Town" on Britt Savage's album, which song would not be out of place on a Gretchen Wilson album, tossing of the kitchen sink into the truck and all. "Fearless" is frantic, funny rockabilly, with a lyric that starts out with Britt being afraid of spiders and snakes, then progresses through the rest of The Pop Up Book Of Phobias. Title opener "Fingerprints" is an instrumental, Duane Eddy at the Space Age Bachelor Pad...so yeah, that explains the Tarantino namedrop on her cdbaby page. Her ballads gain gravity, in general, by sounding countrypolitan. Real nice album.

Xhuxk, "Teardrops On My Guitar" is number eleven in the country in CHR-Pop airplay, where it's been for a while, so there's no surprise its getting on Z-100. What's really interesting is that Miley's "See You Again" (number 33 in CHR-Pop airplay) is number 3 over the last seven days on Z-100, in a virtual dead heat at top with Alicia Keys and Rihanna.

Listening to Britt Savage's MySpace. I like her voice, and I'll want to hear more, though there's a precious '60s retro-ness to her - the era of Emma Peel and Secret Agent Man, the first a MySpace friend, the second a cover song - that makes the music more emotionally distanced than it ought to be. But I've always loved the "Secret Agent Man" theme song. Don't think Johnny Rivers can be beat, however.

"I Never Got Over You" has the sort of riff that I expect Frank would say verges into Raw Power Stooges territory

In fact, I said this very thing in an email to Tom et al. yesterday. I've got the version of "I Never Got Over You" on O' Santa Barbara, on which it's the best thing. In fact I like it more than "One Beer," though the latter is an exception to the Black Angel Suck When They Get Slow And Ungrooveful Rule.

there's a precious '60s retro-ness to her

Well, like a lot of this stuff (from Amy Winehouse on down), there's a precious '60s retro-ness to her trappings (i.e., that mini-skirt, the Nancy Sinatra and Tarantino references), but, in general (with the exceptions I named above -- and I actually like the instrumental despite its space-age-bachelor-padness), I'm not sure how that hurts her music (less than it hurts Winehouse's, Devil Doll's, Sarah Borges's, and maybe even Mechanical Bull's, though I do prefer the latter's album to the rest.) In fact, in the case of Savage, Devil Doll, and Borges (and Finn and the Sharks for that matter), the '50s/'60-retro-ness actually adds energy to their music, during their more rocking rockabilly songs at least. I can think of plenty of un-retro albums that might be helped by more rockabilly; it provides a bounce that even plenty of the country-rock out of Nashville these days tends to lack. And Savage's production, at least, doesn't feel retro to me; it's way too bright and poppy for that.

But yeah, I can understand how trappings like hers might make even the less blatantly schticky tracks seem like music between quotemarks, which might cut into the emotional effectiveness. I see that in theory, anyway; I'm less sure that it actually happens. I've never bought the idea that current styles are more emotionally affecting by definition, just because they're current. And I like mini-skirts. It's not like they suddently turned stodgy.

Yeah, have made my way to the Britt Savage CDBaby page. Wish there were more pictures, given that Billy Block of Western Beat Entertainment says "Britt Savage is a totally captivating talent of enormous proportion," and I'd like to see some of those proportions. Track Four, "Last Flight To Vegas," is the first song that's really hitting me, also the first thing that sounds like it might be commercially viable on a current country station. But I do think it needs stronger production, someone like John Rich - and, honestly, think it needs a louder singer: is the sort of thing Sarah Johns could drive home.

I like "Fearless" as a song but the band is too heavyset and not swinging enough, though I like 'em in the break, where they're not getting in her way. I understand what you're saying about the band's retro-ness actually adding energy by way of aggressive guitar and organ. Not pulled together all that well on this song (better on "Vegas"). "Broken" a good song, but again, I think it needs a bigger voice, larger proportions. I'm hearing promise in this, but actually more in the songwriting than the performance (I'm assuming that everything but "Secret Agent Man" is original, but I could be all wrong about that). "This Town Can't Keep A Secret," with that distanced lounge kitsch, is good songwriting, if she'd only done it straighter. I wonder what Elizabeth McQueen would do with it?

Ah, "Lonely Town" may be the other partial exception to that complaint (along with "Last Flight to Vegas"); would like to hear LeAnn Rimes do it, though (whose album would probably have replaced Gretchen's on my Pazz & Jop if I were voting today). "I Found Love" is strong in a gospel-style with twang-guitar included, though it's middling as song.

(Remember, I do tend to underrate things on first hearing, but so far I'm only finding two keepers - in these versions, that is. As I said, I might hire these people on as songwriters.)

xp By the way, since I only mentioned Mechanical Bull on the '07 rolling country thread a couple days before it ended, and since I'm going to be listening to it a lot more this year, I shall now revive that post; heck, I'll revivie HorrorPops while I'm at it, too, since that's actually an '08 album. Not Drive By Truckers, though; they don't need my help here:

Mentioned Mechanical Bull a few paces upthread; like them even more now. Advance CD sleeve shows a young hipster looking guy (apparently Adam Widoff on guitar/bass/ drums/B3/clavinet/shaker) and young hipster looking girl (apparently Avalon Peacock -- great name, or annoying one, take your pick) from Woodstock, NY; so maybe they're considered a duo, but the cover credits also list six more musicians (on mandolin, pedal steel/dobro, guitar, guitar/vocals, dums, banjo/sax), plus John Medeski (jazz/fusion/jam band guy from Medeski Martin and Wood who I've never really listened to, right?) playing B3 on the song "Luke Warm Coffee," which is one of the ones Avalon sings, or rather purrs, and is an attempt at a seedy sort of smokey-lounge torch ambience ("lukewarm coffee and a filter cigarette" -- I don't smoke, but doesn't that just mean one you didn't roll yourself?), and therefore cornball by definition, and one of my least favorite songs on the album, but that said I still like it okay; it does the ambience as well as, I dunno, Amy Winehouse or Devil Doll or Sarah Borges do, maybe better.) But on this album, it is also, fortunately, atypical. And Annette (who does ethereal to the male singer's earthy -- good match) only sings a few of the songs (incluing "Desert Air," where she manages a good Grace Slick quiver amid some ominous spaghetti western psychedelia and the chants turn almost Gregorian by the end, so yeah, they get a good desert sound indeed); the rest are sung by a guy, who I had been assuming was Adam until right this second but I just noticed that "vocals" are not among his credits, so maybe it's Chase Pierson? Need to check, I guess. Whatever; whoever it is has a good deep voice with plenty of gravity -- reminds me of Cooley in the Drive By Truckers (yes, I am finally able to tell the DBTs' voices apart; sorry it took me so long.) And Southern Rock guitar jams like "Crazy Lady" would doubtlessly appeal to Truckers fans, too, but the other act the male voice and songs keep bringing to mind are much less authentic Brit techno-country collective A3 (at least on their late '90s-ish debut album that had the Sopranos theme on it), except without the techno. (The hipster boy/girl duo acting rustic thing might also put Mechanical Bull in the White Stripes/Kills/ Raveonettes genre, whatever that's called these days, but I don't really hear sonic similarities to any of those acts.) Anyway, songs I like I a lot (1) "Debts" ("...that no honest man can pay" -- that's a cover, isn't it? Though here, like most of the other songs, it's credited to guitarist-vocalist Chase Pierson, who okay, if he writes the songs, I wouldn't be surprised if he sings them too, and maybe that's even him not Adam in the photo, which is really confusing seeing how Adam's name and all his multitudinous credits are right under the photo); (2) "The End" (existential country -- I just made that probably meaningless subgenre name up; it also includes certain early Joe Ely songs like "Bhagavad Decree" and "I Think I'm Gonna Go Downtown" and yeah some A3 too, okay? -- about how you're good at starting things but not finishing them); (3) "Find A Home" (more existentialism about how "I don't look for trouble/trouble finds me on its own," very Cooley actually and the guy ain't got no home); (4) "Biggest Nerd In The Class" (closest thing to a blatant novelty joke here, except it's not, really; concerns the eternal high school popularity contest and the kid who gets picked last for kickball and carries the big bookbag falls in love with the girl who doesn't pay attention to what anybody thinks of her and they both wind up attactive people; very Revenge of the Nerds obviously and maybe Nada Surf's "Popular" too I'm not sure and okay there's probably some connection to White Stripes' walk-to-school songs on their first couple albums too come to think of it); (5) "Left Turn in Jersey" (= nearly impossible just like understanding the girl the singer is singing to: great metaphor, and "you've got your barbs in me like a porcupine" is a great line; anyway, this two-step is the second most blatantly "funny" song on the album and it's funny to me anyway and by the way did I say that these mostly all have really good melodies? well, they mostly all have really good melodies -- with hooks and energy and plenty of prettiness attached); (6) "Million Yesterdays" (good wistful memory drone with more Gregorian sighing in it; Avalon is watching the children in the park going round and round on their merrygoround while she herself goes round and round on the windmills of her mind and voices in her head as tears go by -- too bad Lee Hazlewood died; he would have liked this song I think); (7) "Goodbye Woodstock" (nice summers but harsh winters there and every year is the same so where will they move now? -- reminds me a little of that song on the new Vampire Weekend debut album, only song I like on there really, where they leave Cape Cod, but this song is better). So anyway, those are my notes, and sorry there are so many of them. Good album. Their myspace page, again:

http://www.myspace.com/mechanicalbullpen

-- xhuxk, Sunday, 30 December 2007 14:24

(Actually, those two songs I call Joe Ely songs are quite possibly actually Butch Hancock songs, but Ely's versions are the ones I know, assuming Hancock ever actually sang them. Also, with the Bhagavad one -- assuming I even spelled it right -- I realize that conflating Eastern religion with existentialism may well be a contradition in terms, but so be it. It still feels existential to me, somehow.)

-- xhuxk, Sunday, December 30, 2007 3:04 PM

And okay, Mechanical Bull's myspace page (which for some reason also only shows two people in its photo) says the lead male singer is definitely Pierson:

Band Members CHASE PIERSON-Lead Vocals/Guitar CHRIS ZALOOM-Steel Guitar/Electric Guitar ADAM WIDOFF-Electric Guitar/Bass/Drums DAVID MALACHOWSKI-Electric Guitar GEORGE QUINN-Electric Bass JBIRD BOWMAN - Drums/Vocals AVALON PEACOCK-Vocals

Influences: Dysfunctional marriages, alcoholism and the american dream

-- xhuxk, Sunday, December 30, 2007 3:19 PM (

And I've also been wanted to proclaim my love, or at least like, here for the upcoming early '08 album by the Horror Pops, lady-led Eurogothskasurfabillies on Hellcat; as with labelmates Tiger Army earlier this year, they'd never hit me before but somehow seem to have finally come into their own. Good glam-rumble bottom underneath, and the singer (sorry, don't have her name in front of me) does a good Lene Lovich hiccup on top, and she likes exciting movies (as evidenced by the excellently surf-guitared "Thelma and Louise" and the somewhat torch-kitsched but still real good big ballad "Hitchcock Starlet" as in "tonight I'll die in black and white like a Hitchock starlet") and other tales of girls living or at least driving fast and dying young ("Highway 55," probably my favorite), and "Missfit" has cool Madness "Our House" quotes and "Boot To Boot" has cool oi! shouts and "Horrorbeach Part 2" has cool Link Wray style guitars and "Kiss Kiss Kill Kill" has a cute '80s modern-rock melody, and the schtick dates way back to the Cramps at least but all told I sure don't recall No Doubt ever being this much fun. (Qualifies for thge country thread thanks of course to the rockabilly element, which No Doubt lacked.)

-- xhuxk, Sunday, December 30, 2007 8:04 PM

Apparently the singer's name is Patricia Day; HorrorPops is only one word; they are from Denmark but currently based in L.A.; and have Warp Toured:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=6058446

-- xhuxk, Sunday, December 30, 2007

Also, there is the idea that, thanks to Miley Cyrus and HorrorPops et. al., rockabilly suddenly may be starting to feel current again. Which seems to happen every 20 or 30 years or so, I guess.

Remember, I do tend to underrate things on first hearing

And I tend to do the reverse, which means we'll probably end up liking the album exactly the same.

here's another entertaining addition to the girl-rockabilly-singer-with-lounge tendencies sweepstakes as Xhuxk sez and speaking of all this countrypolitan madness.

Jesse Dayton & Brennen Leigh's Holdin' Our Own and Other Country Gold Duets, on Stag Records, and I think it's just out now. On the cover, he looks like Conway Twitty and Brennen looks like the best-looking extra in Hee Haw, in other words real country and kinda sultry. But there's not exactly rockabilly on this one except maybe "Long Legged Guitar Pickin' Man" which isn't really rockabilly. They sound tense in a way, these two duet partners, but not in the rockabilly fashion. A pretty well-done rip on '60s -politan duets with a George and Tammy cover. "Let's Run Away" chugs along in that familiar Texas Sir Douglas mode, a bit of drollery with just enough organ. He sings a lot like George Jones on most of this, Leigh sounds very country, since she apparently has been a bluegrass performer for a while. "Two-Step Program" is nice, "Somethin' to Brag About" is like weird mid-'60s Nashville stuff like Henson Cargill and does the hapless-guy-redeemed-by-love song well. He gets his suits from Penney's, she wears a minidress on her job as waitress and has "17 pages of Top Value stamps." I think it's passable, they do that duet think mostly without shtick. Still, this is kinda alt-country's view of what this music should be, and that's not a totally bad thing except I think the "accuracy" of what are basically pastiches (and some covers) is the selling point, and the best thing on the record is the most impure, a nice 3/4 white-soul-gospel thing with slightly altered chords that to my ears are idiomatic--of, like, a late-'60s Parsons song or something more calculated by a rocker going country, or maybe like a Leon Russell song, where it's a basic format but it's those little alterations that make it pop. Pop gospel, and pretty good, mentions church-funded marriage counseling.

Listening to the Dayton and Leigh "We Hung The Moon" on the Jesse Dayton MySpace, and I agree with you about it's sounding alt, though if someone disagreed I'm not sure what I'd say to them. And I agree that it doesn't sound particularly "accurate" either; seems patchwork, the thrift-store version of music, or maybe just impoverished. Anyway, it's deliberately off, as if the style were irrevocably a foreign language that they could appropriate bits of but they could never feel it was quite theirs. So, whether it's their intent or not, there's a feeling of alienation, of having to create a world out of parts that are given to you, but not having the models at hand to do so, so you try this one, then that one. (I guess this is different from what you're saying.) But part of what's going on is that Jesse's willing to make his voice strain and miss. Or, OK, maybe he's just not that technically good. Anyway, I'm not really liking it, though I don't hate listening to it. This isn't to say that this kind of alt/alienation can't be good. It's what the White Stripes trade in, basically sometimes successfully, sometimes not. Not that the White Stripes are alt-country. But like this duo, the White Stripes are willing to throw themselves in the direction of a style without particularly worrying about hitting the bullseye (or even hitting anywhere near the target).

Now listening to "Let's Run Away," and I hear the Sir Douglas organ, but still not feeling enough from the vocals. I like Dayton's solo tracks more ("I'm home getting hammered while she's gettin' nailed"), especially his countrified cover of the Cars' "Just What I Needed." But a slicker voice would actually be better. Maybe I'm spoiled by modern production values. But I don't think he's getting anything particularly expressive out of his missed notes.

But anyway, what's on my mind, for the column I'm going to write tomorrow morning, is that mainstream country thinks it has a sense of an overarching balance and rightness in God's universe. But am I right? You guys know the genre better than I do. I'm listening to Dayton's version of "Pancho and Lefty" - not a bad version, and from the picture that MySpace posts with it, it looks as if Johnny Bush is the guy duetting with Dayton. The song maybe doesn't quite assume a "rightness" to the universe - hard for "outlaw" to quite take that position. Yet somehow it's comfortable in its world. It knows its world (even if it's a world of myth and legend). (Am I making sense?)

Anyway, for my column I'm trying to rationalize why I think that Kelly Clarkson's "Because Of You" is outside this assumption that mainstream country makes, that there's an overarching rightness, or at least sense, to the universe. My question is why do I include, say, "Gunpowder and Lead" and "Independence Day" in this overarching rightness/sense, but not "Because Of You"? "I watched you die I heard you cry every night in your sleep/I was so young, you should have known better than to lean on me/You never thought of anyone else, you just saw your pain/And now I cry in the middle of the night for that same damn thing/Because of you I never stray too far from the sidewalk/Because of you I learned to play on the safe side so I don't get hurt/Because of you I try my hardest just to forget everything/Because of you I don't know how to let anyone else in/Because of you I'm ashamed of my life because it's empty/Because of you I am afraid." I would say that "Because Of You" seems to cross a barrier, except I don't think anyone in country particularly felt the song was controversial or notice it crossing a barrier. Maybe the song does assume an order to the universe, the order of modern-day psychotherapy or something. But it seems pretty despairing to me. My argument I guess is that "Gunpowder and Lead" and "Independence Day" still have an overall perspective, even if the perspective is outside the song. Whereas "Because Of You" has no outside. There's nowhere to find perspective. (Maybe you can tell me what I'm trying to say.)

By the way, what do you guys think of the White Stripes' version of "Conquest"? White utterly mauls the song, but I think he expresses something, simultaneously desperate and exuberant.

Anyway, I'm thinking of the country music theme of "continuity," the daughter in "Wide Open Spaces" splitting for "Wide Open Spaces" and the mother remembering when she too yearned for "Wide Open Spaces." Or Trisha Yearwood's "She's In Love With The Boy" (her dad says that when it comes to brains her boyfriend got the short end of the stick, and mom interjects and tells him that that's what her dad said about him when they were dating). Or a funnier continuity, like in "Cleaning My Gun," where the kid was terrorized by the dad of the girl he was dating and now that he's grown up he's going to terrorize the young man dating his daughter. Or more complexly we've got "Sinners Like Me" where the guy drinks and messes up just like Grandpa, but Jesus will hold his hand in the end anyway. Or the Montgomery Gentry and the Jack Ingram songs where the stubborn kid and the stubborn dad tear the relationship apart and then a decade later repair it (often at a time of distress or death). Tropes of continuity, often a phrase (Ingram's "Measure of a man") that seemed relevant to the rebel circumstance and now is relevant to the reconciliation.

Anyway, those are continuity songs, and you guys know a lot more of them than I do, probably. So my point is that "because of you I am afraid" is a very different kind of continuity.

Okay, for one thing, I would say what I always think, which is that Frank listens to lyrics way more closely than I do -- more closely than they usually tend to warrant. What my gut would have told me up to this point is that that main thing that sets "Because of You" apart from most of the country songs he's naming is that "Because of You" is just way more vague; I'd think that Frank is cutting it slack for what it's missing -- namely, specifics in its lyrics. I'll listen to it more closely, eventually, but up to this point I guess I'd just thought of it as "another Diane Warren type power ballad" (for all I know, she wrote it, though she probably didn't -- Kelly must at least get a co-writing credit, right? Too lazy to check right now, though.) The one line that has stuck with me goes something like "because of you I've never strayed to far from the sidewalk"; maybe I have it wrong? Guess I always assumed that it was directed to an ex, though I suppose that particular lyric, assuming I have it right, might make more sense being directed toward a parent. (Which is what the lyrics which Frank quotes a couple posts above, which I'd never paid attention to before -- I would say because the music or singing never drew me into paying attention to them as lots of the country songs he names do -- suggest.) Which would put it in the great line of I've-got-psychological-problems-my-parents-are-to-blame songs, from the Supremes and Panics and Eminem and Hank Williams Jr and people like that. (I've got a chapter about those in my second book. I'm pretty sure Frank has said that some of the teenpop shemo gals -- he didn't use "shemo," but that's what they are -- like Pink have done similar songs, but those songs have never particularly hit me, at least none that come immediately to mind have.) Anyway, why that theme would be relevant here, of course, is that "Sinners Like Me" by Eric Church and some of the other songs Frank names fall in the same family-tradition tradition. And I guess what Frank is saying is that the country songs, um...Frank, what are you saying again? I guess that Eric Church says his family tradition has messed him up and that's normal, but Kelly is saying her family tradition has messed her up and that's not normal? I suppose that distinction makes sense -- though I have idea whether you clould generalize that one stance happens more in country and one doesn't; I need to ponder that question more. (This is an old Frank argument -- way back in Radio On more than a decade and a half ago, he argued that Garth Brooks's "Thunder Rolls" and Skid Row's "18 and Life" are very similar songs-- they even sound alike -- but Skid Row acknowledge that the world is fucked up outside the house the kid in the song gets kicked out of, whereas Garth pretends the world outside is normal but only what's happening in the house is fucked up. Though actually I doubt Garth actually mentions the world outside -- which means it's not fucked up? Frank, let me know if I got that wrong, but I think that's your basic gist, right?) Anyway, the main thing I'm noticing is that all this stuff still suggests that "Because of You" is more thematically similar to "Sinners Like Me" than thematically different. And I don't know if pop and rock songs are more likely to let parents off the hook than country songs are -- and even if they do, if that by definition would make them better, especially if figuring out what they're saying is so much more work. (Not that it always is, of course, but I do think that country songs gain something from their specificity and proper nouns and place names and so on; "Because of You" still hits me as generic, somehow, and interchangeable with lots of other songs in its ilk, in a way several of the country songs that Frank names do not. Though, of course, now I'll start thinking about "Because of You" more, and it will never sound generic to me again. Though that may well be more Frank's doing than Kelly's, really.) Finally, just real quick (look ma no paragraph breaks!), does something like "Stays in Mexico" by Toby Keith (to pick one random example) really assume a moral or perspective or continuity or rightness-with-the-world? (Beyond loose lips sink marriages, I mean? Sort of like "Deny Everything" by mid '90s all-girl punks Fluffy -- hey Frank, ever heard them? You'd like them!) I dunno, maybe it does.

As for the White Stripes' version of "Conquest," I actually re-listened to it last week, and sure, I like it. Mariachi bullfighter music move; "Hunter Gets Captured By the Game" type lyric -- what's not to like? Well, the precious frantic old-Western-showtune over-emoting, maybe, but that doesn't really bug me. The turning the tables on genders thing is swell. But I honestly don't know that I've ever heard the original version, and when I'd first noticed it was by somebody named "Robbins," I'd assumed it must be a song I'd never heard before by Marty Robbins -- who defintely had his over-emoted mariachi bullfight moments, much to his credit -- but nope, it's a different Robbins. To me, that's what's surprised most about it so far.

As for White "utterly mauling" the song, I don't especially hear it that way, though maybe that's because I don't know the original -- I'm not sure what Frank means, really (he wrote this in one of his Vegas columns a couple months ago) about White Stripes being one of the last bands to get doing-music-wrong right; they get music pretty right, as far as I can see. They're part of an old enough tradition (as Frank acknowledges) that it seems kind of weird to set them up against, say, a mainstream pop-rock tradition of singing and guitaring that's got nothing at all to do with them, especially when their own old weird tradition has constituted a different part of the mainstream for so long itself. I'm a fan (with reservations) of White Stripes, and I gather that Frank is too, but I just don't get the yardstick. For what they do, they don't sound "wrong" in any way that jumps out at me (and they do it way better than most other bands in the indie/alt/bohemian/whatever world. Not that that would, say, get them onto country radio. But I'd rather country radio bend to them than the reverse.) (Or would I? I dunno. At this point -- now that they've made basically the same album several times in a row, and I know what I'm getting from them and that I'll like it but there's no way it's going to excite me -- it might be fun to see them bend. And yeah, Meg still isn't much of a drummer, obviously. Though that's never hurt their music much, really.)

I also, obviously, don't hear the shortfalls in (for instance) Britt Savage's singing that Frank does. I'm extremely cynical about lifeless alt-country voices and rhythm sections, obviously, but I in her case, I hear plenty of life in both -- and where self-released records often sound way too small to me, I'm not hearing that in Britt's case, either. (Both Frank and I are probably spoiled by modern production techniques, but Frank is probably more spoiled than I am. Or, at any rate, I don't hear "missed notes" anywhere near as often as he does, because I'm not usually musically astute enough to get how the notes would have sounded if they hadn't been "missed." I'm looking more for energy and tunefulness, I guess, than for singers singing "on key" all the time, maybe I'm saying.)

Which reminds me, Frank, that you should check out that Mechanical Bull myspace, since you're now in the myspace-checking habit. Curious what you'd think.

I also realized that two of the albums I voted for in Pazz & Jop and Idolator in 2007 -- the ones by Gore Gore Girls and Sirens, both of which bands Frank has a fondness for, at least -- use a retro schtick that helps their rock'n'roll more than it hurts. So maybe retro schticks just aren't bugging me so much these days. (And I also don't hear the Sirens as inept players like Frank does, at all. I mean, I realize Slade were probably a great band, but how much of a virtuoso do you have to be to play glam rock? To me, it sounds like they can play! But then, I'm not a musician myself. Though George is, and he likes the Sirens album even more than I do.)

Country song of the day: "Sweet Jeremiah," bonus track on CD reissue which came out a couple years ago of the first (1976) Starz album; excellent Skynyrd rip. Not sure when it was recorded, though; it was a demo, apparently, but doesn't feel like one. (I only have CD-Rs, with colored Xerox covers.)

two of the albums I voted for... use a retro schtick that helps their rock'n'roll more than it hurts

Or four albums I voted for, if you count Flynnville Train and Kid Rock (though they're maybe slightly less kitschy about it in their trappings than the Sirens or Gore Gores are. Or maybe not, if dressing up as a '70s Southern rocker counts. It is notable, also, that three of these albums come from Detroit.)

I have idea whether you clould generalize

= I have no idea whether you could generalize

It should also probably be noted here that I just realized this week that the Starz' song "It's A Riot" (from their 1978 Colliseum Rock album, most recently heard by me on their 2006 Live in Cleveland CD) is sort of answer song to Rodney Atkins's "Cleaning This Gun," almost three decades before the fact, seeing as how the singer stands up to the dated daughter's shotgun-wielding dad and all.

(And White Stripes' "Conquest" is of course doused in retro kitsch schtick as well -- which oddly, is probably more what I find irritating, inasmuch as anything does, about the song than any performance mauling. Jack really sounds like he's acting on this one. But I am probably contradicting myself.)

And nobody will believe this, maybe, but I actually called the song "bullfighter" music here before looking at its video (even though no bulls are actually mentioned in the lyrics, to my knowledge.) Until now, I'd only listened to it on the album. (Also, there may not be any actual mariachi per se' in it. But it's still in that general neighborhood.)

Sirens rock like mothers (and better than the Mothers), so there's a sense in which they always can play, very very well, but whether everything else goes kerblooey varies from song to song; and when stuff does go kerblooey, which seems to be deeper than just singing or playing out of tune, though maybe that's it (but I'm not that hyper-sensitive to out-of-tune; the Shirelles weren't always in tune, James Chance was almost always out-of-tune (those are just two examples), don't think it hurt the former's music at all, did hurt the latter, but not critically), the force of the music is weakened considerably too. "Rock 'N' Roll Preacher" seems the most together in pitch (and least demanding) and is the one that rocks the hardest.

But yeah, I am being inconsistent and need to invoke the Boney Joan Rule (i.e., escape clause), I suppose.

My original sense of the White Stripes "doing it wrong" probably had more to do with Meg than with Jack, actually. And you're right there's a tradition of that within rock which (at least on and off) makes it a tradition within pop, too.

I do think that the White Stripes are getting worse, and that I'm also getting tired of them, but it isn't like they've fundamentally changed.

Original version of "Conquest" is Patti Page, who's not the most galvanizing singer in the history of music. I'd assumed there were scads of other versions, since the song sounded very familiar the second I heard the White Stripes version, and I'm not exactly a Patti Page aficionado, but allmusic.com only lists the Page and the White Stripes versions as being by Cory Robbins. (When I saw "Robbins" in the credits I though Marty too, since he plausibly could have written it.)

Anyway, I like the White Stripes version; there is one spot where Jack's not just a little off, he tries to rise with the melody and misses by a note or more, it sounds like a car running into the opposite lane. Obv. he could have corrected this by resinging, and chose not to.

The Patti Page version

Interesting that Xhuxk is kind of recapitulating my own discovery of "Because Of You," my starting off thinking the track was fairly standard (I way underrated it) in both its romantic you-left-me-broken theme and its mainstream balladry. Anthony and I talked about this a bit on Rolling Country in December 2005-January 2006. Anthony'd said that he'd been watching Kelly Clarkson on MTV, "the video that looked like some lost melodrama, all blonde on black, with heartbreak and a sort of undersung sadness/meloncholy... i dont remember the song, but how it was sung was more country and less girl singer, more lambert and less lohan..." He'd meant "Because Of You," which I claimed could easily be country with or even without a few tweaks, and Anthony said, "the best proof of its country tendencies is its obsessive seeking of solution wrt domestic melodrama."

But then I actually listened to the words and went "Oh." Except my "oh"s are lengthier than other people's, this being just an excerpt:

I think it is out of bounds for country. Which is to say that though I can imagine Faith singing in this style she probably wouldn't go for this melody or these words; and though I can imagine LeAnn going for both the melody and these words and totally nailing it in performance, she'd probably decide that it would be bad for her country career at this point to release it.

First the words: it isn't just that they're unremittingly despairing, since you could say the same about country classics like "He Stopped Loving Her Today" and "The End of the World." But those don't feel like despair, or they take a different approach to despair, or something. (I've always considered "End of the World" a beautiful, sweet delight.) In general, country's "life falls apart" story belongs to its standard romance cycle: "My heart is broken, now I'm drunk, now I'm going to fuck up again and again," is mined for a lot of rue and a lot of comedy. It's something country is comfortable with. Whereas "the relationship was fundamentally pathological and has left me unfit to live" is not standard for country, even if it's fine on Oprah and adult contemporary and Radio Disney...

Note in 2008: So what about that John Conlee song where he ends up in a mental institution? Well, those lyrics are just "He Stopped Loving Her Today" set in the booby hatch. OK, but isn't "He Stopped Loving Her Today" kind of pathological too? Er, um, no, well yes, of course, but country music doesn't seem to know this, and what took John to the nuthouse wasn't that he obsessively continued to love for the rest of his life, which apparently is quite sane (cf. Conlee's "Miss Emily's Picture") but that he was suffering from sorrow-induced amnesia, where he was forgetting that he still loved her or that he even knew her. Oh, and I'm hearing a question from the peanut gallery. "How is the relationship in 'Gunpowder and Lead' or the one in 'Independence Day' not fundamentally pathological, leaving the characters unfit to live, in fact leaving some of them dead?" Er, that's just being abused and, you know, killing people and stuff. Sorta not getting over something.

Look, I'm making a generalization, and no generalization is perfect, OK?

Further down that thread I talked about "Independence Day" and said, "Its despair and vengeance seem within country's ken (and aren't divorced from murder-ballad conventions, though the song is certainly something different). Not that it's a simple song. It doesn't pretend to answer the questions it raises." Maybe if I'd said why its despair and vengeance seem within country's ken I wouldn't still be puzzling about it now. If I knew why. Anyway, I think I'm right about the despair in "Because Of You" being different from the despair of "Independence Day." I just don't know why I'm right. I mean, I feel that I'm right, damn it! But the whole point here is to talk about legacy, which "Independence Day" hints at by having the song being narrated by the daughter of the abused mom and abusing dad's but then avoids by not saying what eventually happens to the little girl, except that she's shuttled off to the county home. I think that "Independence Day" implies, like a lot of country, oh, this is what some people are like, but it adds, maybe fairly new for country at the time of its release, that it's not necessarily all right or the permanent state of things.

And Xhuxk, you actually mentioned Hank Jr. back then, too, and I said to myself, "You know, I really need to go back and listen to a lot of Hank Jr." So, I really need to go back and listen to a lot of Hank Jr. Someone mentioned Dolly as well, and I'm almost as ignorant there. My guess is that even if the legacies in their songs are horrific - are they? - they still take place within an overarching sense of right and wrong, or this is what our world is like, or some such. And I'm not saying that "Because Of You" refutes that overarching sense, just that it lacks an overarching sense itself. (I'm just repeating myself now.) (Now?)

(Of course, as I said above, if "Because Of You" crossed some country boundary, then you'd think someone'd have made a big deal of this, which no one has, as far as I know.)

I do think there's something more haunting in the melody to "Because Of You" than a Diane Warren would usually go for. Apparently, the initial version of the song was written by Kelly at something like age 16, then at the time of Breakaway she brought it to the two ex-Evanescence guys to rework (one of whom she now would never wish bad things but she does not wish him well, and she hopes the ring he gave his wife turns her finger green, etc.), who maybe added that slight air of ghostliness.

By the way, what's Roy Kasten doing these days? (I was reminded, looking back at those old posts, that I haven't seen him here lately.)

According to the ever reliable world-wide-web, the original version of "Conquest" was performed by Corky Robbins & Johnny Bosworth.

From Billboard

Country, Pop Stars Set For Livestock Show

January 07, 2008, 11:00 AM ET

Ray Waddell, Nashville

Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus and Rascal Flatts are among the 21 artists slated to play the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo at Reliant Park from March 3-22.

The Rodeo has long been one of the premier live country music events in the country and has increasingly broadened into more diverse entertainment offerings. In addition to Cyrus, John Fogerty, John Legend and Fergie represent non-country acts booked into the Rodeo for 2008.

The complete talent lineup is McGraw (3), Hill (4), Kevin Fowler (5), Alan Jackson (6), Legend (7), Martina McBride (8), Montana/Cyrus (9), Sugarland (10), Rascal Flatts (11), Fogerty (12), Toby Keith (13), Clay Walker (14), Brad Paisley (15), Duelo/Los Horoscopos de Durango (16), Miranda Lambert (17), Big & Rich (18), Fergie (19), Dierks Bentley (20), Pat Green (21) and Brooks & Dunn (22).

Btw, have there been recent (or even not-so-recent) instances of pop songs crossing over to country radio rather than (as with "Because Of You") getting there on a cover version? What I mean here isn't something like the Bon Jovi/Jennifer Nettles duet, or material we think of as being pop, but of a track that hit first in pop and then went country? My feeling is that country radio isn't too strict about the sound of something but is very strict about the performer being a country performer - or accompanied by a country performer, or doing a country album. Which is to say I'm not at all shocked that country stations aren't playing "See You Again."

(Elvis may have had songs that went pop then country, or went both simultaneously. And maybe Bobby Bare had a few things that were released pop even before they were released country. I don't know.)

Los Lonely Boys' "Heaven" crossed over to #46 on the country charts, after going pop, a couple years ago. (I know it because I just researched it over the weekend for a long article I've been working on.) But #46 isn't all that high, obviously. And off hand I don't know if Mellencamp has gone higher than that. (Does the Waite/Krauss "Missing You" count? But that was never actually a pop hit, was it?)

Because of you I never stray too far from the sidewalk/Because of you I learned to play on the safe side so I don't get hurt/Because of you I try my hardest just to forget everything/Because of you I don't know how to let anyone else in/Because of you I'm ashamed of my life because it's empty/Because of you I am afraid."

Actually, I suppose this could be sung about a fucked-up romantic relationship as much as a fucked-up parent-and-child relationship, come to think of it. And one could easily be "so young" in either.

I have no idea if Tom T Hall's "Pay No Attention to Alice" is fundamentally pathological enough for Frank or not, but I'll quote its lyrics here anyway:

Pay no attention to Alice, she's drunk all the time,hooked on that wine,bunches of it, And it ruined her mind.
Pay no attention to Alice, they say she's a sot, sane she is not, but she loves it, And it's all she's got.

She made that apple pie from a memory, Made them biscuits from a recollection that she had.
She cooked that chicken too long but she don't know that, Oh what the hell, it ain't too bad.

(CHORUS)

Don't talk about the war, I was a coward,
Talk about fishing and all the good times raisin' hell.
Empty that one down, we'll get another one,
It's getting late, you might as well.

Though we ram your car into a ditch, man don't sweat it,
I know Ben down at the shell station and he'll get it out.
Alice, put your ashes in that ashtray, I swear woman,
you're gonna burn down the house.

Re up thread, in the last week of the year I finally caught up with the Gore Gore Girls and thought it was a good to great album. Way too late to even consider doing anything with though. Garage band that comes down on the good side of execution and production. Most of that genre wears me out after two listens. It has traces of revved up honky tonk in it.

Concerning glam, the mold was set in large part by production and arrangement choices. Mike Leander for Gary Glitter, Chapman and Chinn for Sweet, and Chas Chandler with Slade. Those choices emphasized the pop song, the block chording, the rhythmic puncuation -- handclaps and so on. Dynamics where the band doubles its energy in various parts of the song to give you that surge of excitement even in a bold delivery.

Sweet didn't like it, wanted to write more and more of their own material and show they were musicians. Except when they were musicians they were less captivating. Didn't help that the singer got in a fight in which someone punched his throat, ruining some of his ability for the rest of their duration. So while I like their hard rock/metal album -- the one with the big tonearm on the cover, it's not the same ...

With Slade, even when Chas Chandler wasn't producing, they didn't get away from the idea that their tunes ought to explode, as opposed to telegraphing how clever and sophisticated musicians they were. Which they were, or at least Jimmy Lea on bass was, and that's pretty much proved on In Flame, the soundtrack album to their movie. Nobody's Fools, their last in American on their first run, also spans a gamut of Americana that most American bands of the time chose not to play. (Brit music hall, too.) On In Flame they also showed quite an ability to get at some of the essence of late period Beatles. Plus they were able to turn the Hokey Pokey -- a wedding staple that triggers the gag reflex -- into a real good short rock tune. The Sirens ought to cover it some day.

And I didn't have any trouble with the execution and performances on the Sirens' More is More. The record's an improvement from their first, which wasn't bad either.

Pathology and morbidity have always been a big part of country music, in a lotta ways (also forensic examinations of relationships etc. As far back as what Rodney Crowell calls the "dead baby and bad tooth" ballads of his Appalachia-to-Arkansas-to-Port-Huston heritage Poverty (what was that book, One Third Of A Nation), and when there are more jobs, the travelling, work-drink cycle, and maybe you get past that a bit, but still both those phases have some lasting, passed-along effect (and not like they don't co-exist, like title-pawn and other "money stores" around here, among the trasnplanted auto industry-related offshoots) So concerns with normalcy can get a bit obsessive, even in Burbtown, vs. the hungry hordes (anxiety over/dependence on los illegales just a recent part of that)(not too mention sweatshops just over the border and further afield, and those who know how much we depend on Chinese buying US Gov debt, just another part of the debt market, economy of debt on every level, speaking of effects passed along, whatever the awareness/acknoledgement of morphology). Braddock's "He Stopped Loving Her Today" described by Music Row mainstay Alice Randall as exemplary "dramatic stasis"(and everyday Southern Gothic, pathological yeah)Sorry of all this is too obvious; I'll read the prev posts more carefully when I have more time. Some interesting folkie stuff on PTW today, incl me on The Battle of Land and Sea, incl discussion of their take on "Harden My Heart," although that's not the featured/download/stream here:
http://www.paperthinwalls.com/singlefile/item?id=1294

Just heard Jewel's country track "Stronger Woman," and it's terribly boring. The voice - weak and girly, sort of - could be a bubblecountry good thing if she had the verve of Alecia Elliott, which she most certainly doesn't on this track. The words are platitudes about her being her own best friend, believing in herself. An OK line about wanting to be the woman she'd want her daughter to be, but in general the lyrics are crap and the music is mediocre.

Don, I think that Battle Of Land And Sea woman could be OK if the music didn't add all that "weird" insecure indie echo mysteriousness and she didn't sing with that Feist passive-aggressive delicacy. At first, hearing the tune, I was wondering why you rated it so low (7); then I wondered why you were rating it so high, so 7 is probably right.

No, just listened to that Battle Of Land And Sea track again, and 7 is too high, as by the end of the song I wanted to strangle the woman to put her out of her misery and to end my own.

So, here's my column on "Because Of You" (a lot of which was cut and pasted from this thread):

The Rules Of The Game #26: Because Of You I Am Afraid

Weird thing is that if you see the video of the Reba and Kelly version you can't really make sense of what's happening if you don't know the backstory provided by the original Kelly video; so you have to figure out that in the Reba version Kelly is playing Reba's mother, whom the grown-up Reba is going into the past to observe in her travails. (And in the Reba video there's no domestic violence for a child to observe.)

I also realized that two of the albums I voted for in Pazz & Jop and Idolator in 2007 -- the ones by Gore Gore Girls and Sirens, both of which bands Frank has a fondness for, at least -- use a retro schtick that helps their rock'n'roll more than it hurts.

I've never even heard the latest Gore Gore Girls. They've made my Pazz & Jop twice in the past. I thought the original lineup* was the one to put the most motion into the music. And actually the retroness may put a limitation on them, which is that there's something safely in the past and nonvirulent in the whole horror movie/old rock 'n' roll "wildness." Not that I can even imagine a way for rock to be anything but nonvirulent at this point (maybe some L.A.-style sleazesters can pull it off), and since I basically like the Gore Gore Girls, I wouldn't know if an alternative approach would work - something that drew as much on the girl groups and the Stooges but with less, I don't know, reliance on the old signifiers, maybe? I would have liked to hear "All Grown Up," an old Greenwich-Barry number that's one of my favorite tracks on a previous Gore-Gore EP (and I gather it's on the latest album too), with updated words that a modern teenager could sing, rather than a past's portrayal of a past teen life; of course, updated lyrics might make 'em seem emo.

*The lineup on their first album Strange Girls, anyway.

Battle of Land and Sea is all about battles, seeds of self-destruction and over-taxed will, the baad gene of endurance (and yeah art-damage) like I said about Bettye's character--maybe this wasn't the best track to pick, out of context(which in terms of recombinant identites, insomniac imagizm, in conflict, reminds me of Lynch's Mulholland Drive), but like I say in the review, I get the power vs. authority hidden battle in there--the song knows more than the voice does--but you don't like that kind of vocal approach anyway

Although not *all* about liking, o course: I don't like Flannery O'Connor worth a shit, because she seems to like to stick pins in her characters, in the name of Jesus of course, but I know she's first-rate and I'll read her complete works if she doesn't stick too many pins in me first. And I might get sick of The Battle of Land and Sea a lot sooner, but not so far (though I keep my distance from the persona, she's trouble)

I would have liked to hear "All Grown Up"...with updated words that a modern teenager could sing

Well, seeing as how who the Gore Gore Girls' great version mainly made me think of was my daughter, who is 18 this year rather than 40 or 50 years ago (and who likes the Gore Gore Girls, though not as much as she likes, say, the Shangri-Las or Chuck Berry last time I checked, but definitely more than she likes Hannah Montana), I have no idea why Frank thinks the song couldn't be sung by a "modern teenager." I'm not saying that said teenager would necessarily be Aly or AJ or Miley or Skye or Taylor, but they're hardly the only teenagers out there. And actually, I can imagine Skye or Miley or Taylor singing the song, with conviction -- and with humor, which is part of what the song's ponytails and high hair and high heels give you. And I'm not sure whether, with teen-pop artists in general, they wouldn't necessarily improve if they sang it. They'd certainly rock harder, and quite possibly catchier than they do now, though maybe there are teen-pop bands who rock as hard as the Gore Gores do. If so, I want to hear them! (That said, I ranked Taylor's and Aly & AJ's and Miranda Lambert's albums higher than the Gore Gores in my top ten -- not saying the latter are perfect, either; I agree, their earlier lineup had more swing, and their '07 album could possibly have had even more kick if they'd had the budget for more professional production, which I'm not so sure Amy Surdu would opt for even if some major label gave the chance to do so, so, right, the Gore Gores' aesthetic can be limiting -- and I'm not saying the Gore Gores couldn't necessarily "update" the song somehow. Just not sure really sure what they'd gain from it.)

Speaking of Detroit, I respect the 3-song EP by this dude Billybob (who compares himself to Hank Jr and Eric Church on his cdbaby page), though I like the fact that he calls himself "heavy metal country" more than I like his music, which I wish had more heavy metal in it. But it does have good keyboard parts in it -- best in the third song, where the piano has more Jerry Lee boogie woogie, and which features an unfriendly woman like all his songs seem to. And I wish his Kentucky woman song was as good as Neil Diamond's, though I do like the (maybe unintentional!) pun in the line (which I may not quote exactly right) "Kentucky woman makes whiskey in the hills/Kentucky woman I'm jealous of her still." Has anybody ever written a song about being jealous of a whiskey still before? Also, when he sings about going slow through the snow, I think of Gordon Lightfoot for some reason. (Gordon makes me think of "snow", though I'm not sure whether he ever actually sang about it, despite November's bitter winds on Lake Gitche Gumee). The third song, which involves entering a bar and ordering a gin and soda and being jumped, which results in a shooting of some sort, is his still best though. And still not that good -- the singing is just way too rigid; the production nonexistent. So, a demo, but an okay one.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/billybob

Er...actually, wait, I meant "Hollywood" is the best song: Listed first on the myspace page, though it's third on the actual CD; "Wichita Snow" leads off the CD. Not as good as Jack White's Wichita song, much less Glen Campbell's. And "Hollywood" (listening to it now) still sounds kind of clunky and cardboard, somehow. Though I bet Eric Church could pull it off.

Also, Billybob is not from Detroit, duh. Not sure what gave me the idea he was -- Probably I got him confused with some other recent cdbaby country guy.

Meanwhile. Most country songs on Dust-to-Digital Records's Black Mirror: Reflections In Global Musics (1918-1955) compilation: Pipe Major Forsyth's "Mallorca" (from Northumbria-England -- East Northumbria High, maybe??) and Patrick J. Touhey's "Drowsy Maggie" (from Ireland), both of which are excellent. Other, less country, favorites of mine include Thewaprasit Ensemble's "Phleeng Khuk Phaat, Part 2" (from Thailand, just a weird repetitive Gamelan-like drone); Gong Belaaloewana Bali's "Kebyar Ding, I" (from Bali, very minimalist, and probably even more Gamelan-like, being from Bali and all); Paul Penjda Ensemble's "Ngo Mebou Melane" (from Cameroun, and super catchy); Hutzl Ukrananian Ensemble's "Welsini Meloydi" (from Hutsul-Ukraine, which may or may not be where Gogol Bordello's Eugene Hutz's ancestors came from, but this one partakes in an eerie use of space nonetheless); M. Nguyen Van Minh-Con's "Nam Nhi-tu" (from Vietnam with cool plinking sounds); Edwin Fisher's "Handel's Chaconne, Teil I" (from Switzerland/Germany, and all the Handel I need to own probably or maybe not); Sathoukhru Lukkhamkeow's "Nakhone Prayer" (from Laos, great vocal drone); and Sinkou & Kouran Kin's "Songs in Grief" (from Japan, and highly reminscent of "Don't Kyoko Mummy's Only Looking For Her Hand in the Snow" by Yoko Ono, I swear to God.)

I probably spelled lots of those words wrong.

Most country song on Chingo Bling's 2007 They Can't Deport Us All is "Do the Lasso" (rhymes with El Paso, don't be an asshole, let your ass show, do it like the winner of my last show), which is not as good as his previous hillbilly music parody "Pop Tailgate...Wooooooooo!" But my favorite track on his current CD is "They Can't Deport Us All" itself, "Werk That (Funky Manosa)" (for the Manu Dibango influence), probably followed in some order by the partly screw-chopped "Still Goin Down" featuring Fat Pat, "In Case They Forget" featuring Latasha, "Lil' Marvin", the Cheech Y Chong worthy skitlet "Ese Lil Choco Strikes Again," and "Tirra Te Patrazz" featuring Ice. At least according to my notes. On the cover Chingo is wearing a cowboy hat, and jumping over a concertina fence with his pet chicken. An immigration officer is on his trail.

(I meant my favorite tracks are the title cut and the Dibango rhythmed one, if that wasn't clear.)

(Also, in my Gore Gore post a couple posts up, delete both times I say "necessarily" in your head, since the word confuses what I was trying to say):

I'm not sure whether, with teen-pop artists in general, they wouldn't improve if they sang it.

and

I'm not saying the Gore Gores couldn't "update" the song somehow.

>>and I'm not saying the Gore Gores couldn't necessarily "update" the >>song somehow

Production choices, guitar amps, guest stars-of-the-moment brought in for the sake of the name, auto-tune on the vocal, producer, use of ringers to play parts not deemed executed radio/TV friendly pro enough. Way more 21st century compression until it blares out of the player at you, everything as loud as everything else. It's mostly a money and influence thing, what you would get if your Top Tenners chose to cover the tunes.

Because of this, it's one of the reasons I can only listen to modern country records for so long, even the ones I like, before I have to take a time-out with something 70's-80's or poverty case lo-fi.

I suspect one of the reasons the Gore Gore Girls are liked here, perhaps subconsciously, is precisely because their latest record -does not- have all that aural super-folderol on it while still managing to get a bit beyond the usual poverty-case garage rock delivery.

Yeah, I'm probably somewhere between where George and Frank stand on the big-budget production issue (and less articulate than either of them about the specifics of it). I mean, I can think of many instances (especially in country's case) where a studio budget seems to give the music more energy; and I do think there was something muffled about last year's Gore Gore Girls album, as much as I liked it -- even compared to their first two albums. But I do agree with George that, if major label sparkle is all I got, that wouldn't be nearly enough. (Just played the Clorox Girls album from last year, and have the Times New Viking album on now, and I can't honestly say that either would be improved if they were "cleaned up". Auto-tune wouldn't make them more tuneful, either.)

I also want to mention to Frank that, right, "go on a date" (one of the quaint old-style lines in "All Grown Up") is probablyu not how most teenagers today talk. At least not in every day conversation, with no irony meant in the phrase. But since when did (1) teeangers talk with no irony and (2) music have to mirror every day conversation? The Gore Gore Girls are playing dress up, sure. So do lots of teens! And that's a song about dressing up in the first place! It's part of rock'n'roll, or whatever you want to call it. There's a lot more than "direct emotion" at stake here; reducing it to that would bore me stiff.

"go on a date"...is probably not how most teenagers today talk

Unless they do talk that way (and I bet plenty do, whether they see humor in the phrase or not.)

Actually, I have a fantasy where I'm the impresario of a club show where Amy Surdu (Gore Gores) and James Williamson (best version of the Stooges) are the guitar players in the house band that accompanies all the performers in a Pop Revue that features Blog 27, Lindsay Lohan, Ashlee Simpson, and Britney Spears in a one-off gig. (Part of the fantasy is that I get Britney and Lindsay to do a duet on "Stars Vomit Coffee Shop." They are the only two singers in the world I would want to do it.) Wouldn't mind hearing those singers accompanied by guitars that are clawing their way through several walls of concrete.

Or if Amy is unavailable, I could get J.C. Martin of Black Angel.

TMI Frank

How so?

I have no idea what "TMI" even stands for.

Robbie Fulks tries to rap, about people who died in 2007; not as funky or funny as Jim Carrol or Adam Sandler -- what does Xgau see in this guy again?

http://cdbaby.com/cd/fulksrobbie

PAUL THORN - Not hating this guy; may even catch him live when he plays in New York this week. But his kinda deep white soul strain (aiming for Van Morrison via John Hiatt maybe? Unless I'm missing somebody obvious en route) (er... late Springsteen?) is stodgy by definition. The words about Holiday Inns and flat tires (outside of Tupelo, but just his luck, at the first door he knocks for help there's a pretty and willing young lady there) are no special surprise, at least inasmuch as they draw me in; maybe there's more interesting stuff I'm not picking up on. Sometimes the groove recalls Jackson Browne circa Running on Empty (without melodies or singing to match unfortunately), and "A Long Way To Tupelo" actually builds to some healthy guitars (though Hiatt at his new-wave-era best had more boogie in his sound, as I recall, and Thorn rarely heats up so much). Anyway, the guy has potential, I guess, and if somebody claims I'm missing something, I'll go back and listen more to see what, exactly:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=34636681

Thorn's 2006 album was okay, nothing to write home about.

Frank I'm just kiddin' ya.

Oh wait...Too Much Information, duh! (I still don't get it.)

My Amanda Shaw review from Billboard, fwiw:

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/content_display/reviews/albums/e3i5d4ee6c1f9636327b152d68a94061ee1

Brandi Shearer covers this old Jeannie C. Reilly song, "Oh, Singer" and it's good. "I want to know how people lived before the big corporations," she sings to a perfectly not-really-country but country backing. Close to Dark is probably as good as the retro-jazz-loungeapolitan genre has ever gotten, beating the hell outta k.d. lang or any of those Madeleine Pie-rouge kind of things. Larry Klein produced this and it's got plenty of fuzzed-out and just-arcane-enough guitar for that fusiod sheen on stuff like "Swampland," which also beats Tom Waits or, Amy LaVere. In fact in retrospect this is the kind of record Amy LaVere would make if she sang like Shearer, who is impressively floating-contralto and superbly full-bodied yet ironic, sorta like Sarah Vaughan meets k.d. lang in Norah Jones' liquor cabinet with a picture of Bobbie Gentry on the wall in there somewhere. "Congratulations" is all about a phone call Brandi makes to someone in the small town she has left, and compared to most retro-Americana-diva-country it's miles ahead. The arrangements are really varied and the songs, mostly by BS, are really about how Brandi is a "city girl now" and cannot go home. She's got a big voice that built-in martini-noir ache and she knows how to use it, which one can't blame her for, but the overall vibe is one of forebearance, thoughtfulness, sexy asceticism. The people who made this record really knew what they were doing and Brandi fits in with no sweat.

Don forwarded me this yesterday -- Interesting; guess I need to check out that Josh Turner song:

(Nashville, Tenn. - January 14th, 2008) For the fourth consecutive year, Marco Promotions' Club Connection surveyed over 200 country nightclubs and dance instructors nationwide to determine the most played and most requested club and dance titles of the past 12 months.

The fight for the number-one spot on Club Connection's 2007 Top Club and Dance Songs chart was a close battle between two songs that ran away from the rest of the pack. In the end, Josh Turner's "Firecracker" narrowly beat LeAnn Rimes' "Nothin' Better To Do," finishing the year first and second respectively. Both songs are current singles.

Three songs that were seemingly made for the club scene claim the third, fourth and fifth places on Club Connection's chart. In third place, Blake Shelton is raising glasses with "The More I Drink." Trace Adkins is giving club-goers confidence in their pick-up lines and dating techniques with "I Got My Game On," ranking fourth. Rounding out the top five is Cowboy Troy in his effort to get all the ladies on the dance floor, "Hick Chicks."

Current CMA Male Vocalist of the Year Brad Paisley landed at Club Connection's number six with his number-one hit "Ticks." In spite of doing repair jobs and selling turnips off the back of a truck for a living, relationship-challenged guys head to the club to find hope and reassurance in the seventh and eighth spots on the Club Connection chart. Toby Keith's "High Maintenance Woman" charts at number seven, and Billy Currington's number-one song "Good Directions" lands at number eight.

Country newcomers round out Club Connection's top ten for 2007. Luke Bryan's debut single "All My Friends Say" from his album "I'll Stay Me" takes the number nine position. Finishing up the top ten is Rissi Palmer's "Country Girl," which entered the club scene late in the year, but still managed a top-ten spot on the club chart.

Steve Holy's "Brand New Girlfriend," the number one club song for 2006, continued its popularity in 2007 to take the number one re-current position. Rodney Atkins's 2006 number one song "If You're Going Through Hell" earned the second highest re-current rotation for 2007.

Club Connection's Top Ten Club And Dance Hits Of 2007 are:

1. Josh Turner, "Firecracker"
2. LeAnn Rimes, "Nothin' Better To Do"
3. Blake Shelton, "The More I Drink"
4. Trace Adkins, "I Got My Game On"
5. Cowboy Troy, "Hick Chicks"
6. Brad Paisley, "Ticks"
7. Toby Keith, "High Maintenance Woman"
8. Billy Currington, "Good Directions"
9. Luke Bryan, "All My Friends Say"
10. Rissi Palmer, "Country Girl"

I really like Rissi.

Bob Frank's Red Neck, Blue Collar's backing doesn't do a lot for me, altho it features some great Memphis musicians. But he's a good storyteller and "Judas Iscariot" is a pretty cool talking blues featuring Jesus, who tells Judas to "pass that pipe, I've had too much wine," and the song turns out Jesus got crucified just because Judas I. made a bet with the Romans. So Jesus gets back to his party before it's too late, and then the song has a trick ending. Some of this is sort of Red Sovine for potheads, but I like Frank's voice. And Jim Dickinson's liner notes are typically funny: "Bob went to Vietnam and Nashville. I don't know which was worse." Real working-class music, as on the excellent "Monroe, Louisiana Pipeliner's Brawl" on which he travels around and can't take his wife with him.

Look, if you had one shot, one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted, one moment,would you capture it or just let it slip?

It touched my heart so much. It's such a relatable song that a lot of people can relate to. I just started cryin', and she looked at me - oh! - and she had to come over and hug my neck 'cause I was cryin'. ("Because Of You" on Oprah.)

who is ashton shepherd? just heard her not-bad late-'07 kiss-off single "takin' off this pain," and noticed she has a debut album coming out in march, but mostly couldn't get over the incredible resemblance between the chorus melody of the single and the verse melody of "sweet child o' mine."

Those Taylor Swift doing Eminem clips are a trip and a half.

Shelby Lynne doing Dusty Springfield, however, is a snoozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzze and a half. ("Anyone Who Had a Heart" was not awful, though, admittedly; doubt I'll get all the way through the rest.)

New Chris Cagle album (the real one, out next month, as distinguised from the press-only promo sampler that came out late last year or didn't come out as the case may be) starts strong (first three songs) then has trouble keeping up, but that's better than if it was the other way around, I guess.

Canadian band the Road Hammers have their first U.S. fit, finally -- sort of, since "I Don't Know When To Quit" (which I haven't heard) is at #60 on the Country singles chart in Billboard this week.

Danielle Peck (whose album from last year I finally heard) sounds way too genteel and prissy, way too much like early '90s Lorrie Morgan than a pretty young country girl should in 2008. And she doesn't have a "Something In Red," I don't think. The not-so-prissily titled "Sucks To Be You" and "Kiss You On The Mouth" (as opposed to, um, where??) are probably better (and less Lorrie Morgan like) than some of the rest, though; I need to listen more.

And I sadly have no idea who Ashton Shepherd is.

Guess I need to check out that Josh Turner song

Uh, it's nothing all that interesting--even for Josh Turner. Certainly nowhere near as good as the Leann Rimes single it beat.

Okay, so Shelby is okay, I guess, on "Look of Love" and maybe "Breakfast in Bed"; just wish she hadn't drunk all that codiene cough syrup before hitting the recording studio. ("I Only Want To Be With You," an apparent attempt to get "jazzy," has been done better by at least 300 different people, I predict.)

Speaking of snoozzzz, I also want to register the fact here that I attempted to listen to this new Philly (I think) phreak pholk album by Ex Reverie, who are as sleepy as Shelby but without the tunes that Shelby set out so ably do de-energize, even. Though I guess "Days Away" might have a certain Kate Bush over marching drums appeal, big frigging whoop.

And okay okay, Shelby's "Willie and Laura Mae Jones" sounds quite ominous -- could wind up being my favorite cut, and the fact that I don't think I've ever heard the original probably doesn't hurt. Album may even be a keeper, despite my misgivings, hmmmm.

Nah, never mind, on third thought -- Defintely not a keeper. Just way too reverent and de-energized and who-cares. Only has 10 songs (a good number), but the tempos are so sluggish it still lasts way longer than it should. An okay use of space from Phil Ramone, but nothing transcendant. She does better with the two Bacharach/David songs (especially "Anyone Who Had a Heart," not like the world especially needs another version of "Anyone Who Had a Heart") than most of the rest; "Willie and Laura Mae Jones" (apparently a Tony Joe White song), on subsequent listens, sounds like a way-too-drowsy version of what's probably been a real good song in others' hands, even if I've not heard it. The old fallacy: Make the music "intense" by draining it of life. A shame -- Shelby's a good singer. Always has been. Just not sure she's ever made a good album.

PAUL THORN - Not hating this guy; may even catch him live when he plays in New York

I did, and he's actually a surprisingly funny fella, talking between songs (about, like, his boxing match with Roberto Duran in the late '80s where Duran kicked his butt but they wound up in the same amb-yoo-lants, and how many people can say that?); too bad the humor isn't really dedectible on his album (at least the new one). Also wasn't aware that he had written "Mission Temple Fireworks Stand" (which he closed the show with a fairly rousing version of) that Sawyer Brown had a hit with; also, Tony Keith covered Thorn's "Double Wide Paradise" on Dream Walkin' 11 years ago. Anyway, an entertaining show, though I doubt I'll investigate his CDs more.

Another sort of stodgy alt-countryish singer-songwriter type guy who showed some promise in his heavy folk gun waltzes and jiggy train songs, might ultimately didn't cut it for me: Randy Thompson.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=130484228

"...BUT ultimately didn't..."

Shelby's a good singer. Always has been. Just not sure she's ever made a good album.

My friend Mark Fenster once told me that the best Shelby albums are the first ones, before she broke free of "country."

Listening on her MySpace, I had the same reaction that you did to her new Dusty stuff. I'm not sure the problem is reverence though. I don't know what the problem is, actually; I don't think the lifeless-behind-glass-feel is deliberate. But somehow her voice isn't creating enough flow of emphases and de-emphases for me to really get any kind of engagement with a voice trying to say something. Something's putting me at a distance, anyway. I don't think the distance is deliberate. Maybe she chokes a lot.

Why does Taylor Swift always wear dresses? I think she looks great in them - really fetching, and the way she moves within the dresses, with her tall thinness, gives her a sense of rippling motion. But she might well look just as great in jeans and cowgirl blouses. So what do you think she's going for by wearing dresses? How's she trying to look? What's she trying to symbolize?

And how would you characterize the dresses? Here she's glitzed up but in a way that's not upscale "elegance," but not inelegant, either.

While here she's in a summer dress, 'cause it is summer (or late spring So Cal), but I think she tends to go for a "summer dress" look in general, wherever and whenever, her movements making her dresses move as if in a breeze.

Here's a sample of a bunch of her looks.

(Actually, I just google mapped Turlock, and it's not in Southern California but due east of San Jose in the Central Valley, between Stockton and Fresno. Gets real hot there in the summer, but this is still spring, obviously a shirt-sleeve day.)

let me look at Taylor's fashion statement in a minute, Frank. in the meantime, I got a few tracks into Alan Jackson's new Good Time and I dunno...who is this guy? He wrote all 17 songs on this one himself and you get the idea he just hummed them into his digital recorder on the way to the session after listening to some Chuck Berry remakes by Chuck Berry himself, I had one of those records once where Chuck cut some stuff he cut earlier, these were new recut versions that artists sometimes do for the oldies market only Chuck probably wasn't that old when he did 'em for the money. Title track is pretty much like a syllabically jammed Berry tune and pretty rockin', actually, and I had hopes for one called "1976" but it's pretty boring, about how life was simpler then and Alan had to get out of town to be a success, just like Jimmy Carter. It's like he's there but not there--he definitely can sing and he's a real country singer, and I suppose he's a lot smarter and more energetic than he's letting on. And I mean the single, "Small Town Southern Man," is all right. So maybe this is his or his label's version of a no-sweat followup to a record that was a stretch, conceptually Like Red on a Rose, which I think really went somewhere and really gave his lack of affect a context (of nostalgia, dolefulness, something) that this music simply lacks, for all its skill.

Ross Johnson's new comp on Goner, Make It Stop! The Most Of Ross Johnson, collects Memphis singles the former Panther Burns drummer cut down there starting in the late '70s and on into today, basically. A Brother Dave Gardner for an era already over (indie Southern shit in the Clinton go-go years) in which he bemoans middle age and fights it on spoken-word-with-rockabilly-mutant-free-jazzoid-Sonny Sharrock-shred-Brit Invasion-fife-and-drum-drum-parade-drumming, and that's not the half of it. Some of the mutant jazzoid whatevers like "Wet Bar" with a big slobbering overstated 6/8 bronto-billy riff and a tale of divorce because of alcohol abuse and leading to same, and "Nudist Camp" which beats R. L. Burnside, Jon Spencer, Jad Fair or any of them in pure unfettered skronk (with accordion), are choice, and he's funny on marriage ("What about starting a second family while you're still hitched?" he asks on the last song, which is about being a drunk and 50 and with kids that you're afraid you get too drunk to father, so it's real comedy--serious shit played for laffs. "It Never Happened" lays those big parade drums under some equally crazed shit--rockabilly for real, all agitated and macho and insane--about how Elvis didn't actually die and how Elvis' eyes were like "two pissholes in the snow," while the other great cut, "Nudist Camp," details a visit by the 11-year-old Ross to two sexually precocious twins, Donna and Dora. "Twelve years old, and she was a woman. Do you take my meaning? Do you take my meaning," he asks. On "Mr. Blue (Cut Your Head on X-mas)," Ross visits a pet cemetary and runs into a guy drinking out of a broken Olde English quart bottle, mourning the death of his poodle, and they reminisce about beloved dogs and racism, stuff like that. Comedy record of the year.

So the one halfway memorable song from Danielle Peck's debut last year, only one that really ever jumps out at me, is "I Don't," the chorus of which notably goes "Jesus loves you, I don't." Beyond that, meh: I get the idea she's got a big, deep, sturdy, steadfast very Lorrie Mogan-like singing voice (not what you'd expect to look at her), but needs better songwriting, production, whatever.

New Chris Cagle album, as I said, starts out strong: rocker parsing the many shades of the adjective "gone" (his current hit); partially talked rocker about a guy Chris meets at the bar who wants to hear any kinds of songs (from Chris or anybody else) except love songs; funky country rocker with words working as rhythm (as the sort of do in "No Love Songs" too actually), sounding like it could be from Big N Rich's second album: "Guess who's back in town/Back in my old stomping ground." Most of the rest is okay -- a bunch of power ballads, "I Don't Live" and "My Heart Move On" (hey, isn't that almost a Celine Dion song title) somewhat rousing in their buildups. In "Keep Me From Loving You," Chris gets C's and D's in school and connects with a girl who gets A's and B's. Catchiest song outside of the first three is "Little Sundress, where Chris gets excited about some girl's skirt (see also: "Outfit" by Starz, which I was listening to last week) and her "golden Tropicana tan," which makes it sound like she looks like an orange juice can (doesn't sound like all that natural a tan to me), but hey, whatever suits his fancy. Also, he likes how she dances to reggae. Songs I like least are the final two -- "My Life is a Country Song" (title cut), where he does the usual pandering schtick of dropping names of Older Country Songs You Will Know, none remotely surprising, and "Change Me," sensitive male new-age mush for the laydeez, yucko. Decent album, though -- maybe better than his sampler CD.

(The one song should be "I Don't Wanna Live," actually. And "My Heart Move On" is weird syntax, but that's what it's called on my advance CD -- could be a mistake. And one thing I didn't mention is that "No Love Songs" is actually pretty funnny.) (Also "Keep Me From Loving You" is nowhere near as good as song about school grades as Soulja Boy's new single, or the end of its video anyway, where he gets all F's on his report card then tells the teacher to "throw some D's on that bitch," then ends the video with a disclaimer telling the kids in the audience he really gets all A's, so stay in school.)

Mando Saenz's Bucket is hi-definition rockin' country. "Pocket of Red" proves my long-held point that the Gin Blossoms are a huge and under-reported influence on modern country. Big almost glammy Bowie drag drums, various percussions and those big epic chord changes. Kind of like Freedy Johnston or something--who put out one recently that was all covers and was somewhat under-produced. I hear it as good commercial alt-country, Western Mythos Division. Actually, of course, cut in Nashville with R.S. Field, who also did Justin Earle's new one--which I have yet to hear, he's called Justin Townes Earle now. Anyway, Saenz is really fucking produced, like alt-program music, and tastee indeed. Not sure yet if he's just another sensitive dude mildy rocking into endless space, sounds pretty drugstore cowboy to me.
"I left New England and a sundress was talking begging me for more" he sings in "PIttsburgh," which just sounds like the fucking House of David to me (studio where he made this sappy shit). So I dunno, the songs really are pretty nondescript to my ears--schmaltz-country.

Great cut: Karen Dalton's "It Hurts Me Too" on Cotton Eyed Joe: The Loop Tapes--Live in Boulder 1962.

So the one halfway memorable song from Danielle Peck's debut last year, only one that really ever jumps out at me, is "I Don't," the chorus of which notably goes "Jesus loves you, I don't."

i like danielle's debut a lot more than xhuxk does, despite the fact that she broke my man josh beckett's heart. i really dig her voice. but what was most notable to me about "i don't" was its similarity to lyle lovett's much better "god will," which notably went "god does but i don't / and god will but i won't / and that's the difference between god and me." also notably, it came out around the same time as eric church's great "before she does," which addressed the same relationship from the other side: "i believe the bible is cold hard fact / and i believe jesus is coming back / before she does."

(actually danielle may not have actually broken josh beckett's heart. good info on sports coupling tends to be harder to come by than pop and hollywood coupling.)

"My friend Mark Fenster once told me that the best Shelby albums are the first ones, before she broke free of "country.""

I wish I could say the same thing, but, alas, after I became enamored of I AM SHELBY LYNNE, I found one of her earlier big-hair country CD's in a cutout bin. The only good thing about that disc is her voice, but if it ain't got the good songs to back it up, why fuck with it? I sold that one later on...

Taylor Swift's got a live version of "Umbrella" available on iTunes, though I way prefer her on this other version of "Umbrella," on YouTube, despite its pitch problems.

In this YouTube one Taylor makes the song sound sad and fragile and slightly desperate, as if she's the one caught in the rain, and she needs the guy to come to her as much as he needs her protection.* And Taylor sounding sad, fragile, and desperate still has some sort of... not sure what the word is, "aggression" being too aggressive and "moxie" too plucky. Anyway, some sort of energy, so she's not remotely self-pitying even in her sad songs; there's assertion and even spite in "Christmases When You Were Mine," for instance, and in "Tim McGraw" she's not just wondering plaintively whether she left a mark on the boy, but rather, to make sure she'll leave a mark, she's sending him that letter she wrote three years ago - the letter presumably contains the same combination of bitter and sweet that the song does. (And we know from "Should've Said No" that she's someone who'll dump you in a flash if she thinks you've wronged her.)

Other covers by Taylor that you can find on YouTube: Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable," John Waite's "Missing You," Avril Lavigne's "Anything But Ordinary."

*But then, Rihanna's delivery of the original also has a sadness so that the invitation "come into me" doesn't forget the rain that was used as the pretext for the invitation in the first place.

Kinda digging this Jake Owen tune, "Starting With Me." He needs a makeover to un-Billy Ray himself pronto though

I think Alan Jackson sings beautifully on "Small Town Southern Man," but the lyrics pander to the insecurity of the audience, "And he bowed his head to Jesus/And he stood for Uncle Sam/And he only loved one woman/Was always proud of what he had." The problem here isn't that he doesn't believe exactly what I believe, but that he's content to simply heave the same old signifiers for a predetermined effect. I don't believe in Carrie Underwood's "Jesus Take The Wheel," either, but that song puts out, delivers, explains itself, earns its sentiment.

Speaking of Rihanna, and Chuck Berry, among the ten or twenty things Rihanna's doing on "Lemme Get That" (my second-favorite track on Good Girl Gone Bad) is to insert these half-speaking parts that follow Chuck Berry vocal cadences, so you almost think she's about to break into "Too Much Monkey Business."

I barely remember Panther Burns (they were neorockabilly gone "crazed" and pumped-up and blood-spattered, right? rather than the cowpunk coming out at the same time by Rank And File?), but you've intrigued me with your description of the Ross Johnson alb: "spoken-word-with-rockabilly-mutant-free-jazzoid-Sonny Sharrock-shred-Brit Invasion-fife-and-drum-drum-parade-drumming."

Yeah, that description makes me interested, too!

I had a Shelby Lynne Best of the Epic Years compilation for a while a few years ago, and on balance, I did't think it was markedly better or worse than her more critic-approved later stuff -- livelier, maybe, but also somehow more generic. She had at least a tentative Western Swing thing going on, but I'm not sure how deep she went into the jazz or r&B mixing -- a perusal at AMG shows shows her covering Ellington and Charlie Rich, at least. There was one video she did, off of the Temptation album I think, that I really liked at the time; had her on a riverboat sipping mint juleps, maybe. Good song, too. I wrote about it some fanzine, running down songs on a mix tape I'd made for myself. (The zine was dedicated to mixtapes, back when those were actual mixes you made on tape.) But I'm blanking out on the song title, and youtube's not helping.

Ha, found it! "Slow Me Down" -- off Restless ('95), not Temptation ('93). My description was not exactly right above, either. But definitely has an energy that most of her later "to heck with the Nashville I make my own rules" stuff lacks:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FbmLU6r6PX0

xpost (as many of my posts are)

A couple years ago I heard some of Karen Dalton's early '70s alb, In My Own Time; varied from harsh and haunting to almost unlistenable. I like "Katie Cruel" (first track up on the MySpace for In My Own Time). I may be misremembering, since I don't own the book, but I think Bob Dylan in Chronicles mentions being really taken by her singing back in the early '60s.

And the MySpace for Cotton Eyed Joe streams "It's Alright" from 1962. Voice is more flexible than on "Katie Cruel," and has more nuance and less shtick than, say, Amy Winehouse, but also less oomph. Sings with the same floating Billie rhythms that Amy would later use. (I think Amy's been underrated in these parts - last year's rolling country and rolling teenpop - but of course has been overrated elsewhere. If "Rehab" had defeated "Umbrella" in Idolator/P&J I'd have considered seceding from the universe.)

Fanzine was called Tapeworm, right? Or am I misremembering? In any event I wrote for it too.

And I definitely like "Slow Me Down," but even on that one there's something self-contained, perhaps (still not sure what), about Shelby's voice that makes it good but not all that immediately engaging. Track works well, but I think the background singers are what really give it warmth. Maybe she's going for authority more than warmth.

Okay, this is weird. I just noticed that, in a review of John Anderson's album 10 that I wrote for the Voice in 1988, I quote a song called "I Hope Things Aren't Like That Tomorrow" as going "I don't wanna hear how times are hard/I've gotta pull the weeds from my own backyard." Aren't those the same lyrics as in his song "Weeds," from last year? I wonder if he just changed the title...

"I had a Shelby Lynne Best of the Epic Years compilation for a while a few years ago, and on balance, I did't think it was markedly better or worse than her more critic-approved later stuff -- livelier, maybe, but also somehow more generic."

GENERIC = bingo!

As far as being more "livelier," well lively wasn't the point with I AM SHELBY LYNNE, so that don't hardly make any difference.

"She had at least a tentative Western Swing thing going on, but I'm not sure how deep she went into the jazz or r&B mixing -- a perusal at AMG shows shows her covering Ellington and Charlie Rich, at least."

It was probably always in the back of her mind, though. I seem to remember reading something in Pulse magazine, back when she was still a generic Nashville vocalist, that her tastes and influences ran deeper than whatever country radio was playing at that moment. I could sorta tell, even then, that she was gonna flip out and make a Rebellious Alt-Country Record one of these days.

same lyrics, Chuck, and "Weeds" written by JA and Lionel Delmore, long-time collaborator on many of Anderson's classics (passed away, I believe), so could be an old idea reworked. Great song, very much like the '81 "I Just Came Home to Count the Memories."

far as Shelby Lynne goes--I have yet to receive my copy. So reserving judgement, with the admitted prejuidice that says you can't beat Dusty Springfield, and the question: what did the people who made this record think they were actually doing? Because anyone can interpret anything, as Dusty did, and seems to me we've entered an age where the referent is more alive than the, blah blah blah, you get my point. Dusty in Memphis works because its singing is insanely subtle and perfectionist and because the backing is so spare and insanely subtle. Apparently, the Shelby record is pretty spare, too. I guess jazz singers do it all the time, interpret material in the same way that some mythical jazz singer from the past has done, so a sophisticated audience would hear the new versions with the old ones in mind. I dunno, I guess I need to hear it.

After an afternoon of concerted Web searching I have learned this about why Taylor Swift wears dresses.

"Dresses are my weakness, seriously."

She loves Forever 21 and BCBG. From this I surmise that she's not going for a goth look.

Also, she told CMT that she'd love to perform with Jay-Z, that if she had one record to take on a drive cross-country it would be Def Leppard's Pyromania, and that if she could tour with all women and could choose any genres, she would go on the road with Rihanna and Brandi Carlile. "You say 'random,' I say 'interesting.'"

(I'd never listened to Brandi Carlile until fifteen minutes ago, when I went to her MySpace, but this has me worried. Not awful, but sounds like KT Tunstall and Tashbed singer-songwriter respectability, without Tunstall's dexterity and wit or Tashbed's goofball tendencies. Of course, the wit and the goofiness might be there for me to find if I look, and she's not devoid of passion, but right now she's singing about staring into a starry sky.)

And I won't pretend to have an idea of how such dresses would play in teen life in Nashville and 'burbs; obviously not playing to the sk8ers and the emos, nor to the kids who are scene (if those are relevant terms there), but I'd think dresses and nothing but dresses are too idiosyncratic to necessarily code as "prep." My guess is that even if Taylor felt like an outsider or an oddball some of the time (I remember an interview where she said something of the sort, in regard to "A Place In This World"), she was in the prep sphere of influence. Not only because of the dresses but because she talks of wanting to be a good role model and not disappoint the ten-year-old girl and the girl's mom whom she saw at a recent concert of hers. (Hey, what if the girl grows up and is disappointed that Taylor hasn't turned into a Jean Harlow or a Grace Slick or a Paris Hilton?) And Taylor regrets that her career basically precludes her going to college. (She's home schooling her senior year because touring and stuff make it impossible for her to do high school. But she'll get a diploma.)

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/5784/taylorswiftbellaasgt7.jpg
Bella as Taylor Swift

http://www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/Cover_Story/2008/01/24/The_Eighth_Annual_Country_Music_/

1979 new wave rockabilly!

Bands in the "Rockabilly/R&B/Rock'n'Roll" chapter of the 1980 new wave guide I just bought for http://ilx.wh3rd.net/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=46178#unread off a seemingly homeless guy set up on the sidewalk of St Marks Street

Oops, sorry about that diversion. Nashville Scene critic's poll '07 winners, for easy reference later; iin general, poppier than I would have predicted:

Albums:
1. Miranda Lambert: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Sony/BMG Nashville)
2. Robert Plant/Alison Krauss: Raising Sand (Rounder)
3. Brad Paisley: 5th Gear (Arista Nashville)
4. Porter Wagoner: Wagonmaster (Anti-)
5. Patty Griffin: Children Running Through (ATO)
6. Lori McKenna: Unglamorous (Warner Bros.)
7. Lucinda Williams: West (Lost Highway)
8. Dwight Yoakam: Dwight Sings Buck (New West)
9. Steve Earle: Washington Square Serenade (New West)
10. Trisha Yearwood: Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love (Big Machine)
11. Levon Helm: Dirt Farmer (Vanguard)
12. The Avett Brothers: Emotionalism (Ramseur)
13. Little Big Town: A Place To Land (Equity)
14. Joe Nichols: Real Things (Universal South)
15. Lyle Lovett: It’s Not Big, It’s Large (Lost Highway)
16. Elizabeth Cook: Balls (31 Tigers)
17. Pam Tillis: Rhinestoned (Stellar Cat)
18. Kelly Willis: Translated from Love (Rykodisc)
19. Teddy Thompson: Up Front and Down Low (Verve Forecast)
20. Mary Gauthier: Between Daylight and Dark (Lost Highway)
21. Carrie Underwood: Carnival Ride (Arista Nashville)
22. Ryan Adams: Easy Tiger (Lost Highway)
23. (tie) Merle Haggard: The Bluegrass Sessions (McCoury Music)
23. (tie) Willie Nelson/Merle Haggard/Ray Price: Last of the Breed (Lost Highway)
25. (tie) Amy LaVere: Anchors and Anvils (Archer)
25. (tie) Reba: Duets (MCA Nashville)
27. Tim McGraw: Let It Go (Curb)
28. Gretchen Wilson: One of the Boys (Sony/BMG Nashville)
29. Sarah Borges: Diamonds in the Dark (Sugar Hill)
30. Robbie Fulks: Revenge! (Yep Roc)

Singles:
1. Miranda Lambert: “Famous in a Small Town”
2. Brad Paisley: “Ticks”
3. Dierks Bentley: “Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)”
4. Gary Allan: “Watching Airplanes”
5. Keith Urban: “Stupid Boy”
6. Sugarland: “Stay”
7. Robert Plant/Alison Krauss: “Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)”
8. LeAnn Rimes: “Nothin’ Better To Do”
9. Trisha Yearwood: “Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love”
10. Josh Turner: “Firecracker”
11. Brad Paisley: “Online”
12. Miranda Lambert: “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”
13. Carrie Underwood: “Before He Cheats”
14. Taylor Swift: “Teardrops on My Guitar”
15. Miranda Lambert: “Gunpowder & Lead”

Reissues:
1. Emmylou Harris: Songbird: Rare Tracks and Forgotten Gems (Rhino)
2. Gram Parsons with the Flying Burrito Bros: Archives Vol. One: Live at the Avalon Ballroom 1969 (Amoeba)
3. The Stanley Brothers: The Definitive Collection (1947-1966) (Time-Life)
4. Merle Haggard: Legends of American Music: The Original Outlaw (Time-Life)
5. Alison Krauss: A Hundred Miles or More (Rounder)
6. Garth Brooks: The Ultimate Hits (Pearl)
7. George Strait: 22 More Hits (MCA Nashville )
8. Bobby Bare: Bobby Bare Sings Lullabys, Legends and Lies (RCA Nashville/Legacy)
9. Neil Young: Live at Massey Hall 1971 (Reprise)
10. Arthur Alexander: Lonely Just Like Me—The Final Chapter (Hacktone)

Himes's essay; I am having trouble finding the comments section...

http://www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/Cover_Story/2008/01/24/Blonde_Ambition/index.shtml

This is meaningless and self-aggrandizing, I think; Himes patting the critics on the back for having such daring tastes, for insisting on challenging themselves in a way that regular old country fans refuse to do -- which, sorry, I just don't buy (also not sure what being a virtuoso has to do with it):

Do we want reassurance from art, a confirmation that everything they already believe is true? Or do we want to have our assumptions challenged, to hear something we don’t already know? Do we want virtuosic performances that meet a platonic ideal we can stand back and admire? Or do we want idiosyncratic delivery that marks an artist as one of a kind?

It’s no news that a majority of consumers prefer reassurance and virtuosity. That’s the way it’s always been and the way it always will. But there has also always been a sizeable minority that prefers new challenges to further confirmation. And if you’re going to listen to country music every day and write about it for a living, you’re more likely to be in the second camp than the first. Thus this poll’s critics have flocked to Lambert for the same reasons they flocked to the Dixie Chicks, Rodney Crowell, Alison Krauss, Steve Earle, Patty Loveless and the Soggy Mountain Boys in the past.

His Lambert:Haggard :: Underwood:Bill Anderson dichotomy seems interesting, though (maybe because I know absolutely nothing about Bill Anderson myself.

And I don't really buy this (the Eagles and Benatar and Journey were better than he thinks -- I'll take Benatar over Raitt, actually -- and I don't think I've heard an '00s country hit that rocks as hard as "Flirtin With Disaster" or "Rock and Roll All Night" though I'd sure like to) (well, I can hear "Beth" I guess), but it's an intruiguing theory, too; country could definitely use more Cheap Trick, I'm not going to argue with that one. (Though if I think hard enough, I bet it already has some.)

Country radio’s problem is not that it sounds like ’70s rock but that it sounds like bad ’70s rock—more like Molly Hatchet than Lynyrd Skynyrd, more like Journey than Cheap Trick, more like Firefall than Fleetwood Mac, more like Kiss than Led Zeppelin, more like Pat Benatar than Bonnie Raitt, more like The Eagles than The Byrds.

And I like what he says about Brad Paisley at the end, but I still don't think Brad's as bland as Vince Gill. (He's less humorless, for one thing.)

(Well, I don't know, maybe certain hits by Montgomery Gentry or somebody "rock as hard" as "Flirtin With Disaster" -- they definitely have some hits I like more than "Flirtin Wtih Disaster," though that's probably as much to do with being more nuanced and cutting deeper emotionally. But I still wouldn't say they sound like Molly Hatchet. Who, again, were better than "bad".)

Also seems a little odd to call mostly-'80s Benatar and mostly-'60s Byrds "'70s rock" at all, but that's just me being pedantic. (And I do believe that Benatar's best album -- which I'll take over any Bonnie Raitt album I ever heard -- came out in 1979.)

I'll also take Montgomery Gentry over Journey, for whatever that's worth. (But yeah, not over Skynyrd or Led Zeppelin or Cheap Trick.) (Up against the Eagles or Kiss or Byrds, it would be a hard call. Off the top of my head, Montgomery Gentry strike me as more consistently great album artists than any of those, but it's not like I've ever made a point of hearing every Byrds album. And Montgomery Gentry have never done anything as great as the Byrds' or Eagles' or Kiss's greatest singles, I don't think.)

As for the poll rankings go, I'll probably have more thoughts later, but first I just want to say that I don't think I had any idea there was a new Lucinda Williams album in 2007...Or, even if I was aware momentarily, that anybody actually liked the thing. I'm guessing that's a total resting-on-her-laurels vote, just like P.J. Harvey placing in Pazz&Jop for an album barely anybody mentioned when it came out.

I don't know that I've ever heard Firefall, though maybe I'm hearing a lot of country artists that sound like Firefall. Haven't read the essay. Which ones does he say sound like Firefall? Like Journey? Like Benatar? I don't know. No one on the country charts sounds much like Rocket From The Tombs or the Sex Pistols or the Contortions or Richard Hell & The Voidoids or The Adverts or the Dolls, either. Must not be very good, therefore. (Not enough sound like Donna Summer.)

Which ones does he say sound like Firefall? Like Journey? Like Benatar?

He doesn't.

There are probably some acts on the country chart who sound like Poison sometimes, and Poison could sound like Pistols or Dolls sometimes, for whatever that's worth. But yeah, his logic doesn't wash.

Firefall greatest hits:

"Just Remember I Love You"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=trvtMSoW7dM

"Strange Way"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=j6GXZBHJlYc

"You Are The Woman"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=s7M597TgMwU

The first two sound better than I'd remembered!

I guess it would have been in poor taste for Geoff to mention Dan Fogelberg.

apparently Firefall have a new one out, where they do...the Beatles. they sounded good on the radio.

as for the comment about the Byrds and '" '70s rock," I don't think it's pedantic to say that he's just wrong. The Byrds were a '60s group--they did all their significant work by 1969. and as far as '70s country-rock goes, the Byrds certainly helped pave the way, but the Eagles and Poco and all them didn't really sound much like the Byrds. His comments about bad old '70s rock just sound humorless to me.

as for the winners--I simply fail to understand how the records by Cook, Tillis, Willie, LaVere, Lucinda and Dwight were all that fucking good. Cook's had maybe two really good songs; Tillis made an honorable record that I haven't played once since it came out; LaVere don't cut it; Lucinda, I dunno, I mean go ahead and turn into Joni Mitchell for Austinites or whatever. Dwight's Buck album wasn't any better than the Derailers' Buck album. And I am just baffled at the lack of John Anderson in these results--if he's not the greatest country singer alive at the moment, he's close, and I thought Easy Money was a great modernization of his sound. Maybe it was the participation of John Rich? And shit, OK, Anderson's second record was reissued last year--the 5 Collectors' Choice reissues technically hit early this month. But come on. Wagonmaster was a good record, I guess; and we all miss Porter (and Dan Fogelberg, too, I suppose), but it wasn't really all that good. I'm in the minority for thinking Charlie Louvin's record was kind of great--it was as good as Porter's, easy. I mean I'm one of those people who love the Byrds, but they're one of the greatest harbingers of Americana and alt-country; what do they have to do with mainstream country as we know it right now? Zilch, because they were an experimental, '60s group; and last I looked on Music Row, they weren't doing a hell of a lot of that. Weird.

But the big story was the contrast between Lambert and Underwood, who could only manage the No. 21 album (Carnival Ride), the No. 13 single ("Before He Cheats") and the No. 10 slot as artist of the year.

Writing stuff like this is simple dishonesty, given that "Before He Cheats" was voted number 5 last year, and if Himes were following P&J rules would probably, therefore, be in the top 3 or so this year. If he wants to say that this year's Carrie didn't score so high, well that's true, but it doesn't serve to highlight the supposed dichotomy between Underwood and Lambert, does it? (Fwiw, I like "So Small" more than "Famous In A Small Town," though like a lot on the Lambert and some on the Underwood more than either of those.)

xp And come to think of it, it does seem like a stretch to say that modern Nashville has more Benatar than Raitt in its sound. With that one, I'd love him to name names (not that I can name names, off hand, of Nashville singers who are Raitt-influenced, I admit. But maybe if I listened to Raitt more often I could.)

And this is simple stupidity:

When Underwood describes her broken heart on "Flat on the Floor," she channels Heart's Ann Wilson as she wallows in self-pity: "You can't knock me off my feet when I'm already on my knees." Lambert refuses to give in to her broken heart on "Getting Ready."

Yes, and Carrie refuses to give in to a broken heart on "Before He Cheats." And so what? Since when does doing a song in which you don't give in to a broken heart take you outside of conventionality?

Or how are Montgomery Gentry and Brooks & Dunn (etc.) more influenced by Hatchett than by Skynyrd? (I don't know enough about Hatchett, so maybe he's right.)

and that should be Kelly Willis, not Willie (whose new record's out next week). Many of my colleagues cite Translated from Love as a really good record, but apart from her Stooges cover I simply don't hear it. She sings well enough, but the attempted pop of that record--by producer Chuck Prophet, whose latest record belongs in the winners' list if Lucinda's does--didn't cut it, in my book. and right, Frank--by any measure, seems to me, Carrie was far more in the public eye this year than Miranda, whose record I liked but which seems like product as much as Carrie's does, and I don't mean that in a pejorative way. and, as far as being influenced by Hatchet as opposed to Skynyrd--this is hair-splitting. If you talked to Eddie Montgomery or Troy Gentry they'd say they were just into Southern rock, period; and whatever, "Flirtin' with Disaster" is a stoopid song, but so what? These musicians are not guys who sit around and make distinctions between marginally differentiated Southern rock! They're just trying to make a buck playing what they know, and what they know--MG, at least--is the same thing I knew growing up, where Wet Willie, Marshall Tucker, the Allmans, Skynyrd, Molly Hatchet and .38 Special were part and parcel of the same thing. As for Raitt's influence, there are plenty of vaguely bluesy alt-country mamas plying their trade in Nashville--Jewly Hight, Amanda White. but they're not gonna get on the radio.

Haha I have been buying Firefall LPs (pre-'80), like they're going out of fashion, which is ironic since they went out of fashion a long time ago. (A couple of those Rick Roberts Burrito Brothers LPs > that second Burritos record wiv Gram on it, and > changes to >>>>>>>>>>> if you take "Wild Horses" out of the equation).

Last time I watched CMT, which was a few months back, it occurred to me that the then-current Little Big Town single, whatever that was, sounded like Firefall. Or at least sounded like the platonic ideal of a Firefall, which is to say a c0ke-sheeny smooth country rock. But the only other person I mentioned this to looked at me as sceptically as you would be right now, if you could see me. So, uh.

and, I can't find the poll's comments anywhere online, but I'll try again today. I'll get a hard copy of the paper and maybe we'll see, then.

Comments are only online*, I think.

*If even that.

(Is it against the law for Toby to chart on these polls these days?)

Firefall's "Cinderella" is the bleakest breakup song ever made: a soul-crushing eff-you to a woman pregnant after a one-night stand. The fact that this got played on the radio when I was a kid is just mind-blowing.

"Strange Way" is also a woman-hating blowoff song, fascinating but not quite as bleak. Also a great flute solo.

As for 2008, I have two theories about Cat Power: a) her new one is basically an alt.country record, and b) she is actually a ghost singing from beyond the grave. Anyone?

double xpost

OK, listening to Firefall right now, and I really like the arrangements and tunes! White quiet storm! But the lead vocals don't cut it (maybe that's a bit unfair, since YouTube rips are often inferior). And I actually don't think I've heard these before.

(Yeah, I was noticing the lack of Toby. Do voters really think that Joe Nichols and Josh Turner sing better than Toby? Of course they could simply be preferring the material that those people sing.)

of vaguely bluesy alt-country mamas plying their trade in Nashville

Weirdly, a few years ago (like, mid/late '90s, when I don't believe the country charts were anywhere near as good as they are now, oddly enough), plenty of vaguely bluesy non-alt country mamas were getting played on CMT and, I assume, country radio -- Patty Loveless, Wynona, even Reba had bluesy hits, like one where she played a judge in the video I think. (K.T. Oslin/Terri Gibbs/Lacy Jay Dalton were earlier and better; Joe Dee Messina was later and better, but Joe Dee hasn't had a real hit for a while.) I feel there were other ones too. But my question here is not about distinctions of quality, but something that just occurred to me -- have female country hitmakers become less bluesy over, say, the past 10 years? Or are some names slipping my mind? (Again, you'd think that would make things worse, but I don't think it has. Was Patty Loveless actually ever interesting? I mainly associate her with that song "Jealous Bone," which was tolerable, I guess, but always seemed really pro forma to me.) (But wait, didn't Trisha Yearwood have some middling hit last year with a gospel chorus in it? And uh, what about Leann Rimes? Are they supposed to sound more like Pat Benatar than Bonnie Raitt, too?)

(Is it against the law for Toby to chart on these polls these days?)

Wasn't it always?

xpost: "Cinderella" acoustic, recently: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RPoMAhfxDg

(Actually, I have heard "You Are The Woman." Don't like it nearly as much as the others.)

Rissi Palmer's "Country Girl" is pretty bluesy. (Most bluesy thing on the album, I think.)

Xhuxk, maybe everyone decided to sound more like Pat Benatar than Bonnie Raitt.

how are Montgomery Gentry and Brooks & Dunn (etc.) more influenced by Hatchett than by Skynyrd?

Hatchett generally sounded more metal to me than Skynyrd (or MG or B&D), for one thing. So yeah, I'm not really sure how he would support this.

"Nothin' Better To Do" isn't all that unbluesy either (and did a lot better in this poll than it did on the charts).

Maybe what Geoffrey's really trying to say is that a lot of country sounds like '70s rock but not done very well (e.g., sounds like mediocre attempts to be Skynryd etc.). He'd still be wrong, but he'd make more sense.

It’s no news that a majority of consumers prefer reassurance and virtuosity. That’s the way it’s always been and the way it always will. But there has also always been a sizeable minority that prefers new challenges to further confirmation.

This is the line that bothers me the most. You don't think that most Dixie Chicks fans were getting reassurance of their previously held beliefs from "Not Ready to Make Nice"? If they are so willing to take on new challenges, do the liberals and non-Southerners really love to listen to songs glorifying southern lifestyles and Republican viewpoints? [I'm not saying that all the people who polled Dixie Chicks last year are liberals/anti-Bush, but I bet most of them were.] And why does he assume that the fans of mainstream country are merely getting confirmation from the songs they listen to? That's a pretty broad stroke.

Lastly, I'm not even sure what he's referring to as "challenging" in Lambert's lyrics. She likes booze and expresses strong feminist pride and doesn't take breakups. There are hundreds, if not thousands of other country songs with those same themes.

xhuxk: you're probably right, I've only been paying attention for the past few years (previously my assumption had been that past 1980 there wasn't much for me in country). I thought I had seen "Honkytonk U" crop up on some critics year-end but I am probably mis-remembering. OR thinking of sales charts. OR weblogs. Or something.

If they are so willing to take on new challenges, do the liberals and non-Southerners really love to listen to songs glorifying southern lifestyles and Republican viewpoints?

See also: Toby's showing in these polls. (Montgomery Gentry have done slightly better, I guess, but only slightly.) (Not that either Toby or MG are uncomplicated enough to be pegged as merely "Republican," but right -- it's silly to think that the Dixie Chicks' political stance is more "challenging" to voters who seem largely liberal.)

MG did finish #10 this year (when they released no album) and #6 last year among "best groups," fwiw.

And obviously, voters might be ignoring Toby (and MG, to an apparently less extent) for reasons other than their politics, though I'm not sure off hand what those reasons would be.

(It's possible Toby has placed once or twice on the charts in the past, Tim, but I believe that, even if he has, it's just been a very isolated blip or two.)

To be self-centered, here's where I coincided with the those who made the Scene lists (not nearly as many as last year).

Albums: Miranda's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Gretchen's One Of The Boys (But I only heard six of the albums I didn't vote for, so maybe I'd have voted for some others if I hadn't heard them, though I'm not betting on it. Would really like to hear the Teddy Thompson, given his version of "Psycho." I notice that he placed whereas his mom and dad didn't.)

Singles: LeAnn's "Nothin' Better To Do," Taylor's "Teardops On My Guitar," Miranda's "Gunpowder & Lead"; I would have voted for Keith Urban's "Stupid Boy" but I considered it 2006, and I should have voted it then. (I heard all the tracks that made it.)

Reissues: Stanley Brothers The Definitive Collection and Neil Young's Live At Massey Hall 1971 (which were probably the only two "reissues" I heard last year)

Male vocalists: zilch (and I'm amazed that John Anderson got shut out altogether, given how neotraditionalist stodgeroos like Strait and Paisley did so well)(OK, unfair to call Paisley a stodgeroo, given his tendency to score novelty hits)

Female vocalists: Yeah, all three of mine made it: Miranda, LeAnn, and Taylor (though that's the reverse order I voted them)

Duos and larger aggregations: Two out of my three: Little Big Town and Brooks & Dunn

Songwriters: Two out of my three: Miranda and Taylor. (I had to look up Jeffrey Steele in Wikipedia. He was once in a band called Boy Howdy and has written a Cascada song.)

New Acts: Sarah Johns (and I voted Taylor last time)

Overall Acts: Miranda

maybe I'd have voted for some others if I HAD heard them. (I have a strict policy of only voting for music I've heard.)

xp

voters who seem largely liberal

And on the other hand, I suppose I could be wrong about this, though I don't think I am. It's an alt-weekly poll, after all. And "music criticism" does somehow strike me as a profession that lures in liberals. Though I wouldn't be totally shocked if the Nashville Scene poll pulls in at least a slightly larger percentage of registered Republicans than the Pazz & Jop poll traditionally has.

amazed that John Anderson got shut out altogether, given how neotraditionalist stodgeroos like Strait...

Really -- and this goes way beyond this poll -- what the fuck is the deal with this? They started out right around the same time, and for a quarter-century, Anderson has been the more interesting artist. That's never even been a contest, as far as I can tell. But somehow, Strait (and you could throw in Randy Travis here too, and Alan Jackson too) got pegged as a hall-of-famer forever ago, and Anderson is, like, this weird footnote or something, if he's noticed at all. Is there anybody in Nashville who can explain that? Is it that Anderson (with his long hair and beard) was never considered clean-cut enough or (with his rock moves, from way early on) wasn't purist enough, even though he was clearly one of the guys who invented what used to be called "neo-traditionalism"? It makes no sense at all to me. And I have nothing particularly against Strait or Travis or Jackson; they're fine, occasionally even great. They just seem like teacher's pets, born with personalities, in comparison. Maybe that's the point?

And oh yeah, on vocals alone, Anderson has always been ten times the singer that Strait or Travis or Jackson are, too. So I'm stumped.

Not to disparge those guys singing skills; they're all clearly classic, in their way. But Jawn's drawl has a sense of humor and flesh that they all seem way too goody-goody for. He just sounds so much more rich. And vocally, he's lost none of that. (Now I'm starting to wish I'd voted for his album!)

And of course I meant:

They just seem like teacher's pets, born without personalities

My Taylor Swift piece in the Las Vegas Weekly

(Note that, in the Taylor Swift picture that the <i>Nashville Scene</i> prints with the poll results, Taylor's wearing the black gloves and playing the glitter guitar that the little girl in my piece wants for Christmas.)

"amazed that John Anderson got shut out altogether, given how neotraditionalist stodgeroos like Strait...

Really -- and this goes way beyond this poll -- what the fuck is the deal with this? They started out right around the same time, and for a quarter-century, Anderson has been the more interesting artist. That's never even been a contest, as far as I can tell. But somehow, Strait (and you could throw in Randy Travis here too, and Alan Jackson too) got pegged as a hall-of-famer forever ago, and Anderson is, like, this weird footnote or something, if he's noticed at all. Is there anybody in Nashville who can explain that? Is it that Anderson (with his long hair and beard) was never considered clean-cut enough or (with his rock moves, from way early on) wasn't purist enough, even though he was clearly one of the guys who invented what used to be called "neo-traditionalism"? It makes no sense at all to me. And I have nothing particularly against Strait or Travis or Jackson; they're fine, occasionally even great. They just seem like teacher's pets, born with personalities, in comparison. Maybe that's the point?"

Strangely enough, I've had this same conversation with a couple of people recently, mainly spurred on by the fact that Collector's Choice just rereleased a grip of Anderson's albums. I think the teacher's pet thing kinda nails it, as well as Anderson's physical appearance. Me and a friend were talking about why Anderson kept disappearing and reappearing on different labels while Strait's had so many hit singles in a row without ever having to make a comeback. (Really, who else was in Billboard's country charts in '83 who still has hit singles?)

Anderson's not afraid to play the fool every now and then, which is something Strait or Travis will NOT do. Could you see either man posing for an album cover, wearing a ten-gallon hat and a kimono? And calling it Tokyo, Oklahoma? (Maybe Alan Jackson, but not Strait or Travis.)

amazed that John Anderson got shut out altogether, given how neotraditionalist stodgeroos like Strait...

Really -- and this goes way beyond this poll -- what the fuck is the deal with this? They started out right around the same time, and for a quarter-century, Anderson has been the more interesting artist. That's never even been a contest, as far as I can tell. But somehow, Strait (and you could throw in Randy Travis here too, and Alan Jackson too) got pegged as a hall-of-famer forever ago, and Anderson is, like, this weird footnote or something, if he's noticed at all. Is there anybody in Nashville who can explain that? Is it that Anderson (with his long hair and beard) was never considered clean-cut enough or (with his rock moves, from way early on) wasn't purist enough, even though he was clearly one of the guys who invented what used to be called "neo-traditionalism"? It makes no sense at all to me. And I have nothing particularly against Strait or Travis or Jackson; they're fine, occasionally even great. They just seem like teacher's pets, born with personalities, in comparison. Maybe that's the point?

Strangely enough, I've had this same conversation with a couple of people recently, mainly spurred on by the fact that Collector's Choice just rereleased a grip of Anderson's albums. I think the teacher's pet thing kinda nails it, as well as Anderson's physical appearance. Me and a friend were talking about why Anderson kept disappearing and reappearing on different labels while Strait's had so many hit singles in a row without ever having to make a comeback. (Really, who else was in Billboard's country charts in '83 who still has hit singles?)

Anderson's not afraid to play the fool every now and then, which is something Strait or Travis will NOT do. Could you see either man posing for an album cover, wearing a ten-gallon hat and a kimono? And calling it Tokyo, Oklahoma? (Maybe Alan Jackson, but not Strait or Travis.)

sorry for the double post

Well, John Anderson was--is--a great fucking r&b singer as well as being a country singer. He's also very short; I was up close to him once at a club here. But he's probably better-looking than, er, John Conlee. Or Garth. I think he's amazing, sui generis, endlessly listenable. Here I am writing about the Collectors' Choice reissues of five of his '80s records

That's a good piece, Edd. (I actually read it on actual newsprint while walking down the street last week.) Bizarrely enough, though, I actually reviewed Eye of the Hurricane in the Voice the first time it came out -- one of my very first published pieces for money, September 4, 1984. Wish I had the technology to scan it in here! I was pretty iffy about the album, though I had loved his previous All The People Are Talkin'. And this line, which starts out talking about that '83 album, is directly relevant to a discussion we were having earlier today on this thread: "The three singles were the three hardest things on the album, and each successive single rocked harder than its predecessor; by the time the anti-DWI 'Let Somebody Else Drive' came on the radio, it seemed as if Ronnie Van Zant had found a way to rise from the grave and squeeze his way onto country stations in between Barbara Mandrell and Eddie Rabbit. At that rate, Eye of the Hurricane should have sounded like the Sex Pistols. It doesn't."

yeah, that's right--it could have been an even better record. I hear it as his pressures-of-fame record--John Anderson's Eye of a Hurricane, that is. I go back and forth between All the People Are Talkin' and Tokyo, Oklahoma as the best of those records. For days, I simply couldn't get the chorus of "Eye" out of my head, though--real Florida soul.

"Well, John Anderson was--is--a great fucking r&b singer as well as being a country singer."

Dave Alvin once said he met the late Wilbert Harrison (R&B singer of "Kansas City" fame) on an airplane back in the '80s. Said Harrison was thinking of suing Anderson for "Swingin'" because his voice was so similar to Harrison's...

Is "She Sure Got Away With My Heart" on Eye Of The Hurricane? I always thought that song sounded like some lost Carolina beach music classic...

"He's also very short; I was up close to him once at a club here. But he's probably better-looking than, er, John Conlee. Or Garth. I think he's amazing, sui generis, endlessly listenable. Here I am writing about the Collectors' Choice reissues of five of his '80s records"

When I first got into country music in 1990, Anderson was one of the first artists whose albums I bought, mainly because his LP's were always in the cutout bins (and I'd always loved "Swingin'", even when I hated country). Two of my bargain-bin purchases wound up in Collector's Choice's reissus series.

-- whisperineddhurt, Thursday, January 24, 2008 11:26 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

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That's a good piece, Edd. (I actually read it on actual newsprint while walking down the street last week.) Bizarrely enough, though, I actually reviewed Eye of the Hurricane in the Voice the first time it came out -- one of my very first published pieces for money, September 4, 1984. Wish I had the technology to scan it in here! I was pretty iffy about the album, though I had loved his previous All The People Are Talkin'. And this line, which starts out talking about that '83 album, is directly relevant to a discussion we were having earlier today on this thread: "The three singles were the three hardest things on the album, and each successive single rocked harder than its predecessor; by the time the anti-DWI 'Let Somebody Else Drive' came on the radio, it seemed as if Ronnie Van Zant had found a way to rise from the grave and squeeze his way onto country stations in between Barbara Mandrell and Eddie Rabbit. At that rate, Eye of the Hurricane should have sounded like the Sex Pistols. It doesn't."

-- xhuxk, Thursday, January 24, 2008 11:43 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

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yeah, that's right--it could have been an even better record. I hear it as his pressures-of-fame record--John Anderson's Eye of a Hurricane, that is. I go back and forth between All the People Are Talkin' and Tokyo, Oklahoma as the best of those records. For days, I simply couldn't get the chorus of "Eye" out of my head, though--real Florida soul.

-- whisperineddhurt, Friday, January 25, 2008

Damn, forgot to edit! Sorry for the confusion. My last sentence in my last post is the one about how my bargain-bin purchases ended up being reissued - everything after that is a reprint.

Indelible high school memory: Coach Hackworth taping my knee before a home football game singing "Swingin'" at the top of his lungs, yelling "Don't ya just LOOOOOOVE that song, Cibula?" Although I was pretty much anti-country in those days (due to being surrounded by country music and its country fans), I had to admit that yes, I loved the hell out of that song.

Nashville Scene Poll Comments went up several hours after everything else.

Xgau says that "conceptually," Miranda ruled. Doesn't say what the concept is, though (or maybe he does and Geoffrey decided not to print it, but I doubt that).

I do think Edd's been kind of tough on Miranda. On the title song, "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," Miranda is making it clear to us that she's playing (with) a stereotype, and I feel that she's having fun with it.

I probably need to listen to Connie Francis, now that Anthony's compared Taylor to her. (But when Taylor's album came out she was a sixteen-year-old singing about how sad it is to be sixteen.)

Man, I hope Little Big Town don't read Will Hermes
s comment hoping they discover Tusk. That would suck. (Though "Tusk" -- the single -- might be OK.)

Two more questions:

1) Does Preston Jones, who appears to be a total nincompoop and who apparently neglected to read Taylor Swift's songwriting credits, really believe that puffed-up/glammed-out personalities and songwriting-by-committee are something that were never part of Nasvhille before Underwood, Swift, and Sugarland came along and decided to threaten the genre? If so, I'm in awe.

2) And Will Hermes can't really believe Robert Plant is only just now turning into a true "artist" now that he's dueted with Alison Krauss, can he? Nah, Will's too smart for that -- must be some mistake.

Also, man, critics really hate Sugarland, don't they? I had no idea.

Don't see what's so puffed-up or glammed-out about Sugarland anyway. I didn't click with their first album (the only one I've heard) but more for the reason I don't click with Terri Clark, felt like adequate countryish rocking out.

I think that Taylor Swift digs deeper than Miranda, though I don't mean that as a criticism of Miranda, just that Taylor's working out the nuances of being a not-always-happy sixteen, while Miranda's having a blast shooting holes and setting off bombs.

Is Will Hermes smart? Always struck me as merely adequate rockish criticking out.

I like Miranda's record fine, Frank. Do feel it slows down a mite after first three-four songs. The concept is alt- meets bad ol' Row--professionally done! but, don't hear Himes' '70s tropes so much in Crazy Ex---seems more detailed somehow, or perhaps even shall we say more punked out in its energy, listen again to the songs and the way they rock (and the record definitely does rock in its way). Than, that is, the supposed matchup Himes posits betwixt Carrie and Miranda in his essay in Scene. I almost think Carrie's professional update of any number of glossy '70s tropes works as well as Miranda's, myself.

New Wililie Nelson Moment of Forever finds him singing real well, grabbing a pothead blues from Guy Clark, doing up Newman's "Louisiana 1927" not all that well but doing the hell outta Big Kenny's "The Bob Song," which really does recall the Randy Newman of Bad Love (Newman's most "country" record ever in my opinion)--bumptious sousaphone and lyrics that seem to be about Bush or someone equally dumb who made it to the top and says spend, Willie, spend all you want. The IRS won't mind. Elsewhere he writes a great one called "I Guess I'm Not Funny Anymore" about how he wants to tell a joke about a dirty whore...but wait, right, you said I wasn't funny any more. Big impressionistic production from Kenny...Chesney and Buddy Cannon--Eno couldn't have done better nor Newman on some of this wistful accordion/cello/gauzy guitar stuff. Never woulda thought something this glossy Willie would grab me but it does.

Edd, I'm still not sure you mean by Miranda's concept being alt-country meets Nashville. What is the "alt" part, exactly? Just the fact that she sings vengeful murder songs (which doesn't strike me as especially more alt than Nash anyway, to be honest)? If anything, her album ups the Nashville-country energy and rock quotient; seems to me that if it was an alt hybrid, it would go exactly in the other direction. It's not like alt-country has had much punk in its sound since, when, Rank and File days? (I guess she does cover a Gillian Welch song, though, and Welch is clearly alt; but nobody calls Tim McGraw's albums alt meets Nashville when he covers Ryan Adams, I don't think. I've also heard people say before that she sounds like Steve Earle, which might be possible, though I don't hear it myself -- for one thing, Miranda Lambert can sing.) (I also get the idea that what you've been saying, Edd, is that its hybrid strikes you as too compromised -- that maybe it sounds too professional for an alt-meet-Nash attempt, which suggests you think it should be more alt? Or maybe I'm misreading you. But if so, I still don't get what you think it would gain from more altness.)

Here's what I wrote about Willie's new album toward the end of the '07 rolling country thread. I should maybe listen again to "I Guess I'm Not Funny Anymore," though; somebody else said I might like it:

WILLIE NELSON -- Tracked through his new one, which is produced by Kenny Chesney of all people. I like his cover of Big & Rich's (mostly Big Kenny's, I assume) "The Bob Song" (from B&R's unjustly ignored Super Galactic Fan Pack EP from a few years ago) -- song's kinda dorkey, about how we're all eccentric monkeys in our way; I can see Jimmy Buffet fans who fancy themselves being free-thinkers when they're on vacation from their investment banking jobs enjoying it, but it makes me chuckle anyway (and I don't even like margaritas). Willie also covers Randy Newman's flood song "Louisiana" and Dylan's born-again song "Gotta Serve Somebody" -- competently, I guess. They're both good songs; he's a good singer even if he does sing almost every song exactly the same (which is one reason I never connect with his albums, probably.) But I said almost: He actually employs his rare low register when interpreting the Dave Matthews Band's "Gravedigger" (which tracks from their gravestones the birth and death years of three apparently unrelated individuals who died in the 20th Century, and they all ask to be buried in shallow graves so they can feel the rain, and then there's a ring-around-the-rosey-pocket-full-of-posies plague part); Willie probably improves the song, but I haven't heard DMB's version in years (and only once or twice then), so I'm not really sure. It's okay, I guess; interesting words. (I've always assumed Matthews is a smart guy; he's just never made me care about his smartness.) Beyond that, not much on the Willie album drew me in -- there's one sort of jazzily sung and instrumented cut in the middle (maybe "Keep Me From Blowing Away"?) that had some jauntiness to it, and "When I Was Young and Grandma Wasn't Old" is a halfway decent memory song....but beyond that, shrug. Given all the covers, I'm wondering whether this a Johnny Cash style critical respectability for the country legend move. If it is, I guess it's not an awful one. But I can't imagine I'll be playing it again.WILLIE NELSON -- Tracked through his new one, which is produced by Kenny Chesney of all people. I like his cover of Big & Rich's (mostly Big Kenny's, I assume) "The Bob Song" (from B&R's unjustly ignored Super Galactic Fan Pack EP from a few years ago) -- song's kinda dorkey, about how we're all eccentric monkeys in our way; I can see Jimmy Buffet fans who fancy themselves being free-thinkers when they're on vacation from their investment banking jobs enjoying it, but it makes me chuckle anyway (and I don't even like margaritas). Willie also covers Randy Newman's flood song "Louisiana" and Dylan's born-again song "Gotta Serve Somebody" -- competently, I guess. They're both good songs; he's a good singer even if he does sing almost every song exactly the same (which is one reason I never connect with his albums, probably.) But I said almost: He actually employs his rare low register when interpreting the Dave Matthews Band's "Gravedigger" (which tracks from their gravestones the birth and death years of three apparently unrelated individuals who died in the 20th Century, and they all ask to be buried in shallow graves so they can feel the rain, and then there's a ring-around-the-rosey-pocket-full-of-posies plague part); Willie probably improves the song, but I haven't heard DMB's version in years (and only once or twice then), so I'm not really sure. It's okay, I guess; interesting words. (I've always assumed Matthews is a smart guy; he's just never made me care about his smartness.) Beyond that, not much on the Willie album drew me in -- there's one sort of jazzily sung and instrumented cut in the middle (maybe "Keep Me From Blowing Away"?) that had some jauntiness to it, and "When I Was Young and Grandma Wasn't Old" is a halfway decent memory song....but beyond that, shrug. Given all the covers, I'm wondering whether this a Johnny Cash style critical respectability for the country legend move. If it is, I guess it's not an awful one. But I can't imagine I'll be playing it again.

-- xhuxk, Thursday, 27 December 2007 13:53 (1 month ago) Link

Oops, sorry about that double cut-and-paste. (Readers of this thread are going to start thinking they're crosseyed if this keeps happening more.)

Otherwise, I've been liking a lot of songs on the new Hayes Carrl album, a few on the new Zane Lewis album, and maybe a couple on the new Chris Hicks album. Whoever they are. Will explain more sometime.

I guess what I'm asking, Edd, is why you think "perfectly serviceable mainstream country, complete with sound effects" would be less interesting than something that would have "married bad old Nashville to good old alt-country in any meaningful way". I'm not even sure what the latter could mean -- it sounds about as interesting as, I don't know "marrying metal to grunge" or something: A hybrid of two related subgenres that share a ton in the first place, so what would be the big deal?

the whole No Depression ethos is by folks who discovered punk (or post-punk) and crazy ol' country music at the same time. Miranda's record is for those people, it seems to me; and as I might've related here, I heard a guy who lives fully in that world tell me that Miranda's record meant "we won!!" (his words). As in, the people who discovered punk and old-time country at the same time and thought that was the thang. They won, alt-country won, on that record. They didn't win shit in my opinion. I hear it as an overly professional, right, simulation of the offhandedness of several basically alt-insurgent-whatever-country modes--musically, mainly, but sure, also lyrically. I think that there would be a way to marry alt- whatever to bad old Nashville in a truly meaningful way, but I don't think you can do it in Nashville. Because no matter what, thangs is just too fucking professional there, as far as the mainstream shit goes--just listen to Justin Earle's new record, it does the same thing except it's not on Columbia but on Bloodshot. In other words, I think it's a good record but that stuff's being read into it that amounts to wishful thinking; and the "concept" that Xgau refers to (and which I refer to in my original review of the record where I call it "a conceptual wonder") is exactly that--alt- meets the Row and has a big old time. We won.

I mean, I'm attempting to work out why I think critics might just have overrated Miranda's record a bit. One thing that hit me in Himes' Scene essay is how he says both Miranda and Carrie use a " '70s arena-rock template that rules Music Row these days." Huh? How is Crazy Ex-Girlfriend arena-rock? The whole idea is in the drum attack, which ain't Music Row arena-rock big-hair standard but a rockin' indie punk thwokking. The spareness of the whole thing--and the way those sound effects creep in there creating the illusion of spontaneity they were after--isn't arena-rock. As for Carrie's record, I hear it as a '90s pop/rock template, in my notes for it I know I heard the inevitable '90s powerpop pastiche (sounds like Jellyfish, and studio dudes in Nashville are all about music like that, just ask Ray Kennedy). So I think the whole comparison breaks down, but that's Geoff's take, there are other things in that essay I agree with.

But yeah, I think Christgau got it right--Miranda is the year's concept. So OK, I hear that as alt- meets the Row. For ex., Elizabeth Cook: produced by Rodney Crowell (heir at one time to ol' Gram hisself and with impeccable outlaw cred having worked w/ Emmylou herself, had his songs cut by Gary Stewart). Me, I coulda used a ton more guitar from Cook's husband Tim Carroll on that record--I dig his playing. And she covered Lou Reed, whose third VU record has to be at this point an Outlaw Country Folk touchstone. Punk. Where Cook's record sorta let me down--love that single and like her singing--was that it didn't go far enough in its spareness, and it sounded underpowered. Pam Tillis' record did the same thing but it really was Nashville '70s folk-country in supposed High Semipopular mode (Tillis as interpreter, cf. Bonnie Raitt). Kelly Willis was some kind of attempted mannerist pop record. I'm just picking examples of the records that made the critics' list. The above records, and a record that didn't seem to make the list but tht I found very very indicative of the mindset of Nashville (because I want to try to understand that and interpret that), Song of America, featured all indie or alt- figures--Cook, Banhart, Suzy Bogguss (who's a Nashville Eclectic, jazzy American Songbook division, and banters with Garrison Keillor on his fucking show), Grascals, etc. No big country stars at all. I guess what I'm trying to get at is what passes for Quality and Innovation in Music City--I think it comes down to the alt/punk thing I've already talked about. Virtuous. This is the concept, and Lambert's record the major-label stab at that, everybody's doing it. I think "Dry Town" and "Famous in a Small Town" are great; the rest of it I like fine.

should be above, the records I cite all featured a combination of indie-alt people and the usual A-listers.

Edd, I don't think "alt" is a concept or a sound; it's a demographic. But as for how Angry Ex-Girlfriend sounds, maybe it's something that an alt-person would approve of, but it doesn't sound to me like it's something that an alt-person would make. It rocks too hard, and Miranda sings with too strong an emphasis. But then you listen with far greater concentration than I do, and while I've heard songs here and there by all those other people you mention, I haven't heard any of their latest albums. But as for what I like about e.g. the song "Gunpowder and Lead," it seems a lot closer to LeAnn Rimes' "Family" and Carrie Underwood's "Flat On The Floor" (to name those artists' respective album openers) than to anything I've heard from alt-country ever: acoustic opening played with concentrated intensity, followed by blistering hard rock. I don't know. Maybe Jason & The Scorchers went for something like that back in the day, but I don't remember them having the chops to pull it off. Of course, how the Rimes and Underwood rock out may be a "conceptual" block to an alt-country aficionado, in that LeAnn's still throwing around unashamed big-voiced divaisms and Carrie's got some big-bubble Leppard tunefulness on her track (but then I think Leppard's got at least as much claim to "punk" heritage as alt-country does, but then maybe the claim that any of these have to such a heritage zero). Also don't think the Carrie track quite jells, but the problem isn't conceptual. I'd love to hear it sung by co-writer Ashley Monroe. By the way, the guitar at the end of "Gunpowder and Lead" is very much from "Sympathy For The Devil" (which means it could find its way onto a Brooks & Dunn album), but what I'm not hearing in that song is any of the pale miniaturism that afflicts alt-country. And I (therefore?) don't get what's so different between the instruments on "Family" and the instruments on "Gunpowder and Lead," not to mention the instrumental approach to Brooks & Dunn's great triple play "Tequila," "Drop In The Bucket," and "Drunk On Love." The latter three are a bit different in being even more maniacally groove-oriented than the rockers on the Rimes and the Brooks & Dunn (and on the Tritt and the Anderson and the...). But none of those sounds, Miranda's or anyone else's, are shy about filling the room.

But rather than speculate as to why Mr. Alt Person likes Miranda but won't get close to LeAnn or Brooks & Dunn (my theory is that one reason Mr. Alt Person isn't singing the praises of "Tequila," which is practically Sam The Sham And The Pharaohs, or "Family," or "Easy Money," or "Should've Listened," is that he hasn't heard them; those aren't the songs or styles of those artists that are getting radio emphasis, and the fellow probably isn't listening for the album tracks).

None of which explains why Miranda topped my list. More and better rock songs, with more and better hooks and good seering singing. Thought she flubbed her nonrockers, but fortunately there weren't many of them. But the Tritt, Wilson, Rimes, and Brooks & Dunn albums were only a song or two from matching it.

The latter three are a bit different in being even more maniacally groove-oriented than the rockers on the Rimes and the Brooks & Dunn (and on the Tritt and the Anderson and the...)

Er, those three are on the Brooks & Dunn, but they're even more maniacally groove-oriented than the rockers on the Rimes and the Lambert (and on etc.)...

I guess even if "alt meets the Row" is the concept, it's too weak to register with me as much of a concept. I'd say that the concept is "angry ex-girlfriend," passions and vengeance twisted beyond health, while rocking hard, OR "'Kerosene' was the best song on my last album so let's do it some more" OR "'Before He Cheats' really kicks butt even if Carrie Underwood has big hair" OR "'The Mindy McCready Story w/ Miranda Lambert in the starring role," except the reason it's conceptual is that fortunately she's not leading Mindy McCready's life, and the whole point is that Miranda's having a heel-clicking, hair-throwing, headbanging good time playing these roles, pretending she's stepped out of an episode of Cops or out of the files of her dad's detective agency or something. Anyway, it's role-playing, dressup, which works for her, but it actually does feel a bit more distanced than I'd like. (Not that Gretchen and the rest aren't also role playing, but they're not so much "Watch Me Play This Role.")

By the way, Mindy McCready was released from jail about four weeks ago.

And of course the concept (and the song title) is CRAZY Ex-Girlfriend. Frank Kogan, Man Of Typos And Flubs.

How is Crazy Ex-Girlfriend arena-rock? The whole idea is in the drum attack, which ain't Music Row arena-rock big-hair standard but a rockin' indie punk thwokking. The spareness of the whole thing--and the way those sound effects creep in there creating the illusion of spontaneity they were after--isn't arena-rock.

Have to agree with Edd. Didn't hear any arena in it. And I'm usually fine with that, anyway. Tried to like it, even past the role-playing, and it just wouldn't stick.

But Geoff's Scene esssay did recall the time back when I was twenty and hearing a radio documentary on the career of Bob Dylan, and the narrator said that Dylan "attacked those leading empty and shallow conformist lives," and my friend Steve jumped up and shouted, "Yes, and you, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE, you empty and shallow conformists." At that point I got the inspiration to start the BDFWHBDF (Bob Dylan Fans Who Hate Bob Dylan Fans), but I never followed through, since this was 1974 so I was no longer that much of a Bob Dylan fan. But certainly we can start the MLFWHMLF (Miranda Lambert Fans Who Hate Miranda Lambert Fans).

George, what did you think of "Kerosene" back on Miranda's first album? I'm hoping that you'll find something in Miranda for you to be a fan of, so that you can join our little club.

Or print a T-shirt that says, "Look, just because I voted for Miranda Lambert in the Nashville Scene poll doesn't mean I'm an imbecile."

as for how Angry Ex-Girlfriend sounds, maybe it's something that an alt-person would approve of, but it doesn't sound to me like it's something that an alt-person would make. It rocks too hard, and Miranda sings with too strong an emphasis...I don't know. Maybe Jason & The Scorchers went for something like that back in the day,

Yeah, this is exactly what I was trying to say this morning; Frank just said it more coherently. I'm not aware of any alt-country that sounds like the Miranda Lambert album. Edd seems to think that what prevents Miranda from pulling off a proper alt/Nash fusion is that Nashville is too professional. I don't buy that. What prevents Miranda from pulling off a proper alt/Nash fusion is that alt (inasmuch as "alt" is a sound) is too piddly and timid, and Miranda's not willing to be piddly or timid enough.

(I'm pretty sure I said this somewhere on Rolling Country '07 too, though I have no idea how I'd search it -- Alt-country might claim Miranda as its own, but her rock is way closer to Nashville's rock than to alt's idea of rock. And good for her.)

Also agree with Frank about the arena-vs-punk thing. Much of the arena rock that Nashville loves sounds a lot closer to punk rock than most alt-country does. (I guess there may be alt exceptions -- Dale Watson now and then? Cactus Brothers? But I think they're rare.) Just because alt-country bands pay lip service to punk doesn't mean it's in their music.

(Pat Benatar had more punk in her music than Bonnie Raitt did, too. And Benatar and Def Lep got their punk from the same place -- namely, '70s glam rock.)

By the way, been trying to listen to Steve Earle's kid's album today, but so far, it's drawing a blank.

Btw, the unison pounding at the start of Miranda Lambert's "Kerosene" reminds me of nothing so much as John Entwistle's big pounding bass stomp at the start of "My Generation." And the Who pretty much invented arena rock. Of course, I don't think Miranda's ever matched "Kerosene," but the difference in arena's might be '60s rather than '70s (as opposed to arena's vs. non). Also, I think I know what you mean by "spare" in relation to punk, but I think "spare" is the wrong word. I'd never call the Dolls or the Stooges or the Sex Pistol's or Black Flag "spare." Maybe what it is, is that they weren't afraid to let their music get imbalanced, or something. They didn't pad their sound, perhaps? (Not sure what I mean.)

um, don't know what that apostrophe is doing in "arenas." Damn, I've got to learn to read before I hit "Submit."

I think I know what you mean by "spare" in relation to punk

You being Edd, not Xhuxk.

xp (Not saying Lambert sounds especially arena-rock to me, though. For some reason the band her music has always reminded me of more than any other -- at least in her more rocking moments -- is Screaming Blue Messiahs.* But that's been well documented.)

Justin Earle just sounds like a folkie dullard to me; not hearing Nashville in his sound at all. At least his dad's unlistenability is kinda distinctive.

But I am enjoying these raunchy lo-fi blues-stomp duo guys right now, at the moment (though they might make more sense on the hard rock thread, especially since George already wrote about Black Keys there.):

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=25297276

* -- Who may well have owed a lot to the Who, now that Frank mentions them, though that had never occurred to me before.

yeah, the only song I've connected with on Justin Earle's record is the very first 'un, where he does cool stuff with a kind of '20s parlor-blues musical framework. but I think the voice might be too thin to carry it, eh?

xpost

I did like one song quite a bit on the Lambert CD -- "Dry Town." Enough to list it in a year end list, anyway. Not entirely sure why it was a repeat play for me. The dry, snappy rhythm's probably what did it.

(I've probably run this subject into the ground by now, but I wonder how representative Geoff Himes and Preston Jones actually are of the poll's Miranda voters, if those voters are rationalizing their votes in the way that Himes and Jones do. I mean, even someone who predominangly likes alt might pause at claiming that Miranda challenges assumptions and lets us hear something we don't alreay know. I clicked on a bunch of the Miranda voters in P&J (who may or may not be representative of the country critics voters), until I got bored, to see if I could get a feel of what else they were voting for. A lot of 'em voted for the indie usual, and for stuff within some range of alt country like Lucinda Williams or Patty Griffin, but almost always with some pop mixed in, Lily Allen or Soulja Boy Tellem or Britney Spears or Aly & AJ or Rihanna. It's hard to imagine someone who votes for Mika or Lloyd or Heidi Montag as well as for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend then turning around and saying that the latter challenges assumptions and gives us something we don't already hear in contrast to the puffball country pop. I hope Preston Jones reads Jon Caramanica's ballot, seeing as how Caramanica not only voted for Miranda, he voted for Sugarland and Taylor too. (Preston Jones own ballot included stuff by Patty Griffin and Arcade Fire and Teddy Thompson and Bruce Springsteen, but he also voted for a Duran Duran single!))

Actually, speaking of Steve Earle, I just saw him in an episode of The Wire last night (final episode of the 4th season -- I'm living on Netflix time), and he was pretty good, I guess, but his part didn't last long. (Method Man was listed in the end credits, too, actually, but I must've missed him.)

I was also puzzled by Himes' assertion that the reason voters chose the Burritos' Avalon '69 set in reissues in the Scene poll was that it included two ex-Byrds. I think it's because of Gram Parsons. And I'll note that Parson's reputation seems actually to have suffered reversals lately, even from the No Depression reviewer, who said something like "he was great, but was he any good?" I know smart people who maintain that the Dillard and Clark records from right around the same time as the first Burrito Brothers record really "started country-rock." I don't know about that, and I think Gilded Palace is sui generis myself, and watching a Parsons documentary recently I definitely think Parsons was a fuckup. I am fascinated by the relationship Nashville had with the '60s, anyway, and I've often mused that Porter Wagoner was the only country artist to really take on the craziness of the decade head-on; check out the Wagoner comp The Rubber Room. And Parsons captured that '60s lysergic shiver on Gilded so well.

xpost

there are other things in that essay I agree with

I was astonished at how breathtakingly irrational and inarticulate and lacking in self-awareness it was. Which doesn't mean there's nothing interesting in it or no statements I agree with. (E.g., I agree that Paisley is versatile without actually shining in any one aspect; I disagree that Paisley's the most talented country artist of his generation.) Actually, Geoff's irrationality, inarticulateness, and self-delusion are interesting in themselves, in that when someone reasonably intelligent (I mean, I don't think the man holds world records in brilliance, but he hadn't previously come across as an imbecile, and - for instance - his essay on Springsteen in Paste's top 100 songwriters issue was really smart) makes assertions that can't survive even 20 seconds of reflection, there's something interesting at work: some mental block or social imperative that's getting in the way of normal thought processes. I haven't gone into the irrationality etc. here, since I assume it's all obvious to every one of you, but for those who merely skimmed the essay or didn't read it, Geoff's claiming that Miranda Lambert challenges assumptions but he doesn't say what assumptions she's challenging, he doesn't seem to notice that the existence of Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" challenges his own claims about her (that she's reinforcing the role of the sweet, beautiful, All-American girl and that she doesn't do all that well in his polls), he also says in effect that Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams and George Jones and Merle Haggard (and Elvis and Dylan and the Beatles and Beethoven and anyone in any time or place who's massively successful with consumers) provides their audience with reassurance and virtuosity, and he doesn't realize that pointing out how long it took Merle Haggard to became a big star (three whole years) doesn't remotely exempt Haggard from his contention, he also seems to be saying that the relationship between fans and Carrie Underwood, as well as between fans and any other popular performers (including my list above from Rodgers to Beethoven, right?), is that the fans are standing back and admiring "virtuosic performances that meet a platonic ideal" (cue to shots of American Idol as fans stand back and platonically admire Carrie Underwood), and, as a bunch of us pointed out above, Himes doesn't make anything of the fact that his poll appears in an alt-weekly and that the people voting in his poll tend to write for alt-weeklies or the online equivalents, which is to say that we're generally not writing for or to the mainstream country audience and that what reassures or challenges us probably isn't what reassures or challenges the mainstream country audience. Anyway, I doubt that I have much to say about this that you guys won't already agree with, and my only insight here is the old one that what a significant part of the country audience and a significant part of the alternative audience seem to have in common is an underlying feeling of phoniness and that Geoff is representative of the "alt" side of this, seeking reassurance that he and we as critics are perpetually searching for new challenges - that we're critics not conformists. So both the insecurity and the habit of lauding oneself for challenging oneself have overridden his mind in this instance, and overrides a lot of people's minds in the same way. Except as I said in my last post, I wonder how representative he is of the people who voted in his poll, whether his rationalizations for Miranda really do match our reasons, since it seems that every one of us on this thread voted or would have voted for at least something by Miranda, yet none of us are buying Geoff's line. I'm hoping that Geoff's the outlier here, and that we're more representative. Not that most voters vote our way - they lean towards alt-country quality that a lot of us find stodgy or are indifferent too - but I'm hoping that some of these other voters tripped over Geoff's illogic in the same way we did.

By the way, has any mainstream country album (as opposed to alt stuff by Wilco or oddball matchups like Van Lear Rose or prestige items by no-longer-charting icons like Johnny Cash) ever scored as high on Pazz & Jop as Crazy Ex-Girlfriend?

I doubt it. Willie Nelson's Stardust finished #19 in 1978; that's not even all that close. I don't think Dwight Yoakam (who is as much alt as Nash) has ever even finished in the top 30, though I might be wrong. (On the other hand, John Cougar Mellencamp's Scarecrow, which would certainly count as mainstream country if it came out now, did finish #3 in 1985. But it sure didn't count as country then.)

1975 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll

15. Willie Nelson: Red Headed Stranger (Columbia)
26. Waylon Jennings: Dreamin' My Dreams (RCA)

But 1975 was before I started paying attention!

Lyle Lovett and/or k.d. Lang may have had a top 20 album once, but they were even more borderline than Dwight (at least by the time they scored, I think.)

1974, if she counts:

11. Linda Rondstadt: Heart Like a Wheel (Capitol)

And another album, from 1979, that sounds like 2007 mainstream country:

8. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers: Damn the Torpedoes (Backstreet/MCA)

yeah ya know the Pazz and Jop winner in '76 was I believe Michael Hurley et. al's Have Moicy! (a superb record). wasn't it? To my ears, this is the kind of record that presaged all the Hackensaws/Jones Street Boys/Avett Brothers/Red Stick Ramblers and various bluegrassed potheads that are a part of country music today--and I saw Hurley himself at the worst club in Nashville, the Springwater (a great place within pissin' distance of the Parthenon replica in Centennial Park but it's frankly a toilet and that's all right, I've spent many a night there and have actually on occasion seen some great shit, just don't use the bathroom if you can help it) just a month ago.

and how high did Lucinda's Car Wheels score in 2000?

I really have no problem with Miranda's record winning. Obviously she's got a concept that goes beyond my alt-Row matchup. She's cool with fame. But so is Carrie Underwood, and Carrie is obviously going to be a big vulgar force of nature for a while. I don't get much identity pouring out of Underwood, but her records are undeniably powerful. I'd argue as much calculation went into Miranda's, just a different kind of calculation. Buddy Miller sings backup on it, and while I normally shy away from vaguely futuristic honky-acid Bible blues of the sort he does, I think he makes some powerful records. So my question would be I guess, if Miranda said to Sony/BMG, "Hey, I wanna go over to Buddy Miller's house--been tradin' bean soup recipes with Julie, she's so cool and they both spent a lotta time down in Texas, just like me. I figger Blake, if that sumbitch don't get on my nerves and I have to withhold the pussy from 'im, why hell I will, but anyway, he kin drop me off there and we just do it at his house. I mean hell I know I'm better-lookin' than Solomon Burke, I hung out over there when he was cuttin' with Buddy and the dude tried to sell me a fuckin' ham sandwich! Wanted $5 for it! I got a few Jimmy Driftwood songs I've been wantin' to do, and a Townes Van Zandt of course, and maybe an old soul classic or semi-classic, somethin' by Ann Peebles or Laura Lee--mebbe 'Women's Love Rights'. I figure we could really just go ahead and cross over and rock it out. Sure we could do some overdubs later in a real studio. Sure I'd use the same musicians--the guitar player has got a nice ass! Shot 'im with my BB gun in the studio, and all them fuckers could do was laugh! So what! And hell, I'd pose naked or half-naked on the back or front, it don't matter, or you could get a shot of me duckin' under water in Jamaica or down at Corpus Christi! It'll work--and it'll be cheap so long as we don't go overboard on the postproduction. So, whaddya think?"

You think they'd let her do it?

Have Moicy topped the Dean's list in '76 but didn't make the P&J top 30. Album poll was won by Songs In The Key Of Life. Car Wheels won in '98, and it's relevant (just as Wilco is) but I'm not counting it as mainstream country. I'm mainly concerned with whether I can say in my column that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is the highest-charting mainstream country album ever on P&J. Past P&J results are here. I just asked the question 'cause I wanted you guys to do my work for me.

If you're going to talk proto-alt-country (which I guess Have Moicy! is, though again, I've yet to hear any alt-country that approaches its weirdness and energy and humor, ever), there are also these:

1974
12. Gram Parsons: Grievous Angel (Reprise)

1975
21. James Talley: Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, But We Sure Got a Lot of Love (Capitol)

But yeah, those are hardly mainstream, though.

BUT BUT BUT -- This guy had actual HITS, right??

1975
18. Gary Stewart: Out Of Hand (RCA)

But that still doesn't equal Miranda's #15 finish...

a few more interesting finishes:

1982
22. Rank and File: Sundown (Slash)

1985
22. Jason and the Nashville Scorchers: Lost and Found (EMI America) 212 (23)
23. Meat Puppets: Up on the Sun (SST) 186 (20)
24. Lone Justice: Lone Justice (Geffen) 186 (17)
26. The Mekons: Fear and Whiskey (Sin import)

1986
3. The Robert Cray Band: Strong Persuader (Mercury) 592 (57)
13. Steve Earle: Guitar Town (MCA) 330 (33)
15. Mekons: The Edge of the World (Sin import)

1987
5. John Hiatt: Bring the Family (A&M) 694 (59)
7. John Cougar Mellencamp: The Lonesome Jubilee (Mercury) 462 (44)
23. Rosanne Cash: King's Record Shop (Columbia)

The one of these that most counters Frank's argument, I think, is Steve Earle. That was actually a hit radio on country stations, wasn't it?

And has Rosanne Cash done better, with a mainstream hit album? I'm not sure, but it's possible, now that I remember she existed.

I put Cray up there because I have no idea whether he crossed over country at all, though he may have.

John Hiatt DID briefly cross over country, I think -- but not with that album, I don't think. And even when he crossed over, calling him a "mainstream country artist" would probably have been a stretch.

a HIT on country RADIO stations (= Earle), I meant.

Wow (though not significant, in either case):

1983
7. Jimmie Dale Gilmore: Spinning Around the Sun (Elektra) 427 (39)
22. Willie Nelson: Across the Borderline (Columbia)

Earle again, but by this time he's alt for sure:

1999
18. Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band: The Mountain (E Squared)
2000
13. Steve Earle: Transcendental Blues (E-Squared/Artemis)

#1 country album, no airplay (also lower than #15):

2001
19. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Mercury)

OK, to dot my i's and cross my t's, here is Himes:

When Underwood describes her broken heart on "Flat on the Floor," she channels Heart's Ann Wilson as she wallows in self-pity: "You can't knock me off my feet when I'm already on my knees." Lambert refuses to give in to her broken heart on "Getting Ready." Channeling Bonnie Raitt, she wrestles with her self-pity as if it were a worthy opponent: "I’m getting ready to let you go / My hands are shakin' / My heart’s unsteady."

Well, first off, I don't see why wallowing in self-pity in a song isn't as valid as wrestling with self-pity is; and Taylor Swift (for instance) has songs where she wallows, songs where she wrestles, and songs where she leaves the self-pity behind. In fact, most any country or pop singer is likely to have all three, because country and pop singers tend to cover all parts of the romance cylce. But anyway, Himes isn't simply trying to argue that Lambert is better (though I don't see how his example shows that) but that Lambert is challenging me and giving me new information by wrestling with self-pity rather than wallowing in it, and that I like Lambert because I seek such challenges. And this is what I don't understand at all. As far as I can tell, Geoff's thesis and his examples have nothing to do with each other. Like, is it less challenging and informative for me to listen to a new country band of the quality of Molly Hatchet than it is to listen to a new country band of the quality of Lynryd Skynyrd?

xp (And those Gilmore #7 -- how the hell did he finish so high? Did Joe Ely ever even place Top 40??? -- and Nelson #22 albums should be 1993, not 1983).

And yeah, I missed this, 1990. But like Earle in 1999-2000, I don't think she was really "mainstream" anymore, in terms of actual country airplay:

8. Rosanne Cash: Interiors (Columbia)

Country album chart is based on sales, not airplay, but still, here's Steve Earle:

1986 Guitar Town Top Country Albums 1
1999 The Mountain Top Country Albums 19
2000 Transcendental Blues Top Country Albums 5

A better gauge for mainstreamness, all his country singles placements:

1983 Nothin' But You Country Singles 70
1986 Guitar Town Hot Country Singles & Tracks 7
1986 Hillbilly Highway Hot Country Singles & Tracks 37
1986 Someday Hot Country Singles & Tracks 28
1987 Goodbye's All We've Got Left Hot Country Singles & Tracks 8
1987 Nowhere Road Hot Country Singles & Tracks 20
1987 Sweet Little '66 Hot Country Singles & Tracks 37
1988 Six Days on the Road Hot Country Singles & Tracks

"Six Days on the Road" went #37. But those numbers pretty much affirm that he was mainstream in '86.

Rosanne Cash:

1987 King's Record Shop Top Country Albums 6
1990 Interiors Top Country Albums 23
2006 Black Cadillac* Top Country Albums 18

* An overrated #27 in Pazz & Jop, so no big whoop.

singles, from the apparently mainstream-as-hell Kings Record Shop and later:

1987 Tennessee Flat Top Box Hot Country Singles & Tracks 1
1987 The Way We Make a Broken Heart Hot Country Singles & Tracks 1
1988 If You Change Your Mind Hot Country Singles & Tracks 1
1988 Runaway Train Hot Country Singles & Tracks 1
1989 Black and White Hot Country Singles & Tracks 37
1989 I Don't Want to Spoil the Party Hot Country Singles & Tracks 1
1990 What We Really Want Hot Country Singles & Tracks 39
1991 On the Surface Hot Country Singles & Tracks 69

Gary Stewart's Pazz & Jop moment, chartwise:

Album:
1975 Out Of Hand Country Albums 6

His late '70s top 20 singles:

1974 Drinkin' Thing Country Singles 10
1975 Flat Natural Born Good-Timin' Man Country Singles 20
1975 Out Of Hand Country Singles 4
1975 She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles) Country Singles 1
1976 In Some Room Above The Street Country Singles 15
1977 Ten Years Of This Country Singles 16
1977 Your Place Or Mine Country Singles 11
1978 Whiskey Trip Country Singles 16

Also, fwiw, AMG shows no country singles chart placements for either Robert Cray or John Hiatt, ever.

And I think '70s Ronstadt counts as mainstream country too, Frank; sorry if this fucks up your thesis:

1974 Silver Threads And Golden Needles Country Singles 20
1975 I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You) Country Singles 2
1975 It Doesn't Matter Anymore Country Singles 54
1975 Love Is A Rose Country Singles 5
1975 When Will I Be Loved Country Singles 1
1976 That'll Be The Day Country Singles 27
1976 Tracks Of My Tears Country Singles 11
1976 The Sweetest Gift Country Singles 12
1977 Crazy Country Singles 6
1977 It's So Easy Country Singles 81
1978 Back In The U.S.A. Country Singles 41

xpost

You're right about Guitar Town, which actually topped the country charts at one point, and produced two country top ten singles (the title song and "Goodbye's All We've Got Left"). I have no idea what it sounds like (or what most of those guys you listed sounded like). I'm kind of shocked to learn how alienated from (or indifferent to)(or too busy or broke to explore) P&J I must have been. Well, 1986 was a special case, in that I'd moved away from New York and hadn't yet hooked up with writing for the Voice. I really had no idea that Steve Earle existed.

Good question about Rosanne; Interiors did get on the country album charts, but scored no singles, and I wonder sometimes about how Billboard scores country album sales(like when the Coyotes soundtrack (is that the name?) was considered number one, was it really selling to the country market, or was most of its sales in places like Wal-Mart, where I assume that Billboard is having to guess something about the nature of who's doing the shopping; I don't know a thing about that). So I'm only counting the albums that produced songs on the singles charts.

(Yeah, I know that albums are based on sales, but are albums on the country chart based on overall sales of an album that is being considered country no matter where the album was purchased, or is it taken from country stores only (if there is such a thing), or from educated guesses as to which consumers were likely to be buying what at which outlet. The thing about Coyotes and O Brother Where Art Though is that they sold a whole lot, but it's hard to think that it was the mainstream country consituency that was doing the buying.

But anyway, Steve Earle seems to be our winner.

Not sure that I'd count Ronstadt, but she's interesting to think about in relation to my Miley question (has there ever been a singer after Elvis who was hitting pop whose songs crossed over big to the country charts from the pop charts, rather than crossing the other way from country to pop; I'd count Ronstadt there). (But also the real shock in relation to Ronstadt is that she did so well on Pazz & Jop, since I never thought of her as a critics' fave.)

xp The way it's been explained to me is that there are certain stores that report for the country album charts, r&b/hip-hop album charts, etc.; right, those charts are not based on reports for all stores. (Though I'm not sure exactly how genre-specific the stores have to be; I'm guessing some stores can report for more than one chart.) (Still, you can definitely have an album that actually finishes higher than another album in the r&b/hip-hop tally but lower than the same album in the Top 200 tally; this actually happens fairly often.) I don't really understand the granular math of it beyond that point. But either way, it's pretty clear to me that, if O Brother or Interiors are both getting minimal country airplay and producing no country single hits, it would probably be a stretch to call them "mainstream country."

But anyway, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is the highest mainstream country P&J charter in 21 years.

(Man, looking at my posts, my spelling is getting really bad. O Brother, Where Art Though!? O Brother, Where Art However!? O Brother, Where Art But!?)

OK, a crazy ex-girlfriend is a stock figure in the culture, but how much is she (or he, as in crazy ex-boyfriend; or crazy current girl or boyfriend) in country music as a hero or antihero or gleeful protagonist? I really don't know. The way I'm defining it, crazy(ex)bf/gf is someone who takes relish in the fucked-up destructive things he or she is doing in the relationship or after the relationship. The relish doesn't necessarily mean the fucked-up destructiveness is being presented as a right thing - it has to be presented as potentially over the edge, or very over the edge - but it has to be presented as an exuberant thing, an alive thing. So "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" and "Gunpowder and Lead" and "Kerosene" and "Before He Cheats" would count, and so would Shooter Jennings' "Aviators," where Shooter's pretending to apologize for all the destructive things he did to her and her family, but of course he really thinks they're hilariously cool. Dwight Yoakam's "Intentional Heartache" probably three-quarters counts (it's the crazy ex-girlfriend all right, but it's narrated in the third person pretty much, except the chorus is given over to his saying what she says: "I'm gonna give you an intentional heartache"; but the song seems to be with the girl, not necessarily in its sympathies but its sense that she's the life of the song). "Goodbye Earl" doesn't count, despite the relish of the delivery, since the murder isn't portrayed as crazy at all but as self-preservation. And all those old murder ballads don't count, since they're basically recounted unemotionally, almost like news stories, even when the narrator is the killer himself. I'll bet that there are a lot of old blues that veer towards this (I seem to recall a male-female duet from the twenties where the man and the woman are happily explaining to each other just exactly how they intend to cut each other up; and Elijah Wald makes the case for Robert Johnson's stuff about beating his woman in "Me and the Devil Blues" being taken as funny in its time). But is this going on a lot in country? I barely know the work of David Allen Coe or Charlie Daniels. Would this be a place to look? Hank Jr.?

Or were "Kerosene" and "Before He Cheats" new things for the genre, when they came around?

I've often mused that Porter Wagoner was the only country artist to really take on the craziness of the decade head-on; check out the Wagoner comp The Rubber Room.

I'd put Johnny Cash in the same category, but like I said in my Porter Wagoner obit a while back, the weirdness was a lot more shocking coming from Wagoner than Cash. Look at the stats: J. Cash wore straight black when everybody else was wearing colorful outfits you could see from across the street on a cloudy day; was mistaken for a rock artist during his Sun years; was pen pals with Bob Dylan; recorded two of his biggest-selling albums in jailhouses; frowned all the timwe. He was already half an outsider as it was, so if he got a little freaky, it just seemed par for the course.

Porter Wagoner, on the other hand, always had a deranged grin on his mug, did TV commercials for an obscure towel company, and wore suits so loud they should have come equipped with a volume control. Mr. Mainstream, right? So when he did deranged concept albums like The Cold Hard Facts Of Life, or devoted half an LP to songs about mental illness (What Ain't To Be Just Might Happen, with "Rubber Room"), it was the last thing you expected.

Just the other night I was listening to "Country Bo-Bo" (from The Farmer) - it's about some lanky hayseed who knows how to dance. The song itself is straight country, yet all the dances Wagoner mentions are contemporary black dances like the Breakdown and the Robot. For 1973, these were shockingly hip references for a middle-aged country crooner. And he wrote it himself, too, this wasn't somebody else's copyright. Did Wagoner while away his free Saturdays looking at Soul Train? (And yes, I know that he later brought James Brown on the Grand Ole Opry and produced Joe Simon in the '80s...)

AMG shows no country singles chart placements for Robert Cray

Why would it?

Just 'cause he's admitted to a country influence doesn't necessarily mean he has a country sound (even by today's standards).

Well, like I said, I thought it's possible he may have crossed over.

(Honestly, I've never listened to Robert Cray much, or liked what I've heard -- it occurred to me he may have incorporated contemporary country into his sound once or twice, and Nashville may have embraced him for it. But if it didn't happen, that's fine!)

I've always liked Robert Cray, even when he gets a bit slick. Great guitarist and seems to me he really does embody the super-cool I like so much in soul music (he's a soul artiste as much as he is a blues 'un). As for Earle, I was living here when "Copperhead Road" hit and it was everywhere, a big big deal at the time in terms of here was a guy who was truly crossing over--who did what Jason and the Scorchers kinda tried to do.

I don't think there's any question about Lambert being a milestone. I guess maybe I'd venture that the vengeful narrator in country has mainly felt a little more guilty about than Miranda does--or maybe her guilt comes out in the songs that examine her relationship with fame (same thing for Carrie except it seems to me to be a given that her fans don't begrudge her her fame, she revels in it; whereas Miranda's thing is based more on the ol' authenticity/non-authenticity divide, hence her appearance on the cover of No Depression and our discussing her here?). I dunno. I've listened to the thing a few times since we revived discussion and it really does fall off, for me, after about track 5. there's definitely one track I hear as a new-wave sorta pastiche that has zilch to do with country music. I also wonder if the folks who made the record were consciously trying to bridge the Austin-Nashville gap, which I believe to be real important in country's psyche these days.

Listened to Tim O'Brien's Chameleon, where the former Hot Rize hotshot plays 16 originals in a garage with just bouzouki, fiddle, Gibson J-45 guitar and mandolin. He's got a warm and slightly self-mocking voice of the bluegrassy kind, sings quite well, and plays the shit out of some guitar and mandolin and bouzouki (a kind of mandolin that tunes in octaves, near as I can figure out). Nice stuff for a spring Saturday morning, maybe, and not without content--he mentions global warming, cell phones that vibrate and has something to say about American Imperialism on "This World Was Made for Everyone." Nice stuff, hot licks, record goes on maybe a song or two too long but I enjoyed it.

Just musing here on a slightly icy, snowy morn, that you could make a case for the new Willie Nelson as evidence that mainstream country can really do interesting things, sonically and conceptually, I feel. I think the record really works, apart from the version of "Louisiana 1927" where Willie can't come out and say "poor cracker's land" and changes the "little fat man" from a reporter to a member of Bush's inner circle--I like to think of Karl Rove dangling from a fucking helicopter over the Ninth Ward with toxic-waste gators snapping at him as this song progresses. But I've never heard anybody do a version of it that comes close to Newman's in delivery or finesse of arrangement. And I'd say that the arrangements here, and the gauzy but to my ears appropriate production, approach the kind of pop Newman excells at--it's slightly cinematic and at first I thought Willie's voice was all wrong for the approach, but he seems inspirited by it, somehow. I've often found him boring, but I think this is one of his best records ever, and a tour de force of well-chosen material. Even the duet with Chesney is great, but the masterpiece has to be "The Bob Song," which was blowing away everybody in the record store the other day, played loud. Of all the old fucks who made records last year or so--Louvin, Wagoner, Bush, Hag, Gene Watson made one I think--I think he did the best.

...I think this is one of his best records ever, and a tour de force of well-chosen material.

I usually lurk on here, enjoying the spirited conversation without posting. But I must say how glad I was to read this, because I agree completely. Edd's earlier use of the word "impressionistic", and use of "gauzy...but appropriate" today to describe the production, seem especially right to me. If I hadn't turned in my own review of the album last week, I would have been tempted to steal those words...I found myself reaching for the best way to describe the production and not quite getting there. I settled on the notion that it sounds spare even though it's not, serene and simple even though there's plenty of musicians playing plenty of things. But I think Edd's words are more accurate, and more in line with what I hear than any of the reviews I read (I googled a bunch yesterday and was struck by how nobody seemed to share my enthusiasm about the album, and by how many of the reviews began with shock/outrage that Willie would ever do an album with Kenny Chesney...ok, maybe that should be less surprising since they were mostly in 'rock' publications).

if I hadn't turned in my own review of the album last week, I would have been tempted to steal those words

where's yr review gonna show up? I dunno, I really like the record. one thing I meant to say is that I obviously regard Randy Newman as a kind of half-hidden patron saint of current country, or perhaps I think the direction he kinda went in is kinda the direction good liberal-leaning Row productions might go, the Americana thing. I hear "The Bob Song" as Newman on Born Again or Bad Love, sorta. I wrote a review myself and was gonna say something about those Gilberto Gil records that are overproduced but sort of cool, from the late '80s, shit like The Eternal God of Change. Now there's a pairing that would be welcome: Willie 'n Gil. But the comparison is arcane, of course.

shock/outrage that Willie would ever do an album with Kenny Chesney

it's Kenny and Buddy Cannon--and Cannon's name is first in the credits. Cannon's been around a long long time, just like Willie.

Man, maybe I should go back and listen to it, but I'm not expecting it to sink in -- just seemed like another hall-of-famer-doing-some-great-songs-you'll-know-and-a-few-okay-new-songs-too project. More marketing concept -- a common and frequently successsful one these days -- than music. The choice of material definitely seemed to have some thought put into it; maybe it will actually sell, and if so, good for Willie. He deserves a hit if anybody does. But there was nothing, not even "Bob" (yeah, possibly the most engaging cut) I had any interest in returning to. And almost all of it, Willie seemed to be singing in that eternal user-friendly but emotionally blank default mode of his. Not half as good as the last few Kenny Chesney albums, near as I can tell. (Which were already evidence enough that "mainstream country can really do interesting things, sonically and conceptually," as are plenty of other mainstream country records lately, so I'm not sure why we'd need Willie to teach us that, really. Not that I have anything against the guy.) (But the Chris Cagle and Chuck Wicks and especially Hayes Carrl albums I heard this year all have more songs I actually care about, too.) (As for oldsters recording in the last year, I'd take Tom T. Hall.)

Meanwhile, Willie and Gil already have made a really good record! -- 1990 Pet Shop Boys-style 12-inch on Profile called "Time"; indebted to classic "time" hits by Culture Club, Zombies, and Andy Gibb:

http://www.discogs.com/release/86035

where's yr review gonna show up?

It'll be up on PopMatters.com next week. I'm only half-happy with the review cause I rushed through it to get it in and now keep thinking of things to say that might have been more interesting, but that's how it goes...

Cannon's been around a long long time, just like Willie.

Yeah, and the song Cannon wrote on Moment of Truth, "When I Was Young and Grandma Wasn't Old", is on some days one of my favorites. The subject of it should be familiar enough to be boring, or even sickening really, with the nostalgia about sitting on grandma's front porch and getting worldly advice from her, etc. But there's something really simple and sweet about the song that I like.

I actually kind thought "When I Was Young and Grandma Wasn't Old" was likeable, for what it's worth.

Can't stay 'cause I need to be finishing my column, but...

Robert Cray: I barely know anything except the "Strong Persuader" single, but I actually can hear in that the sort of blues-gone-to-Quiet Storm that I love when Toby Keith does it. Which isn't to say that anyone would mistake Toby for Cray or vice versa. (And of course the final track on Travis Tritt's recent album is more hard blues than "Strong Persuader" is: kind of like a Delmark records soul blues c. 1970 from someone like Magic Sam or Jimmy Dawkins.)

My CD player, which is quite old now, has trouble with my promo copy of the Willie Nelson: plays the first five cuts all right, then balks; you can get to the others, but you have to go back to track five and then hold the forward button as it runs through all the songs until you get to the track you want, then when it's done the player stops dead, you have to go back to track five and re-forward, etc. So I've only listened once. But what I got from it was that the first three songs had minimalist art music arrangements that worked surprisingly well on "Over You Again" and "The Bob Song" and terribly on "Moment Of Forever," then the rest of the alb went more standard laidback with so-so results, but my wrestling with the glitches might have something to do with my not opening up to the thing. Maybe I'll see if it'll let me rip it to the computer, and I'll listen there.

Here's my latest piece for the Las Vegas Weekly, about Amy Winehouse, Taylor Swift, Miranda vs. Carrie, and the Voice and Scene year-end polls.

good take on Winehouse, Frank--Remedial Billie at its most commercial, I guess.

Malcolm Holcombe's Gamblin' House seems a really strange example of folk-country songwriting and when he gets sentimental about his wife he seems pretty uninteresting. But the backing--occasional slide and acoustic guitar that works against the beat rather than with it--and song structures that do odd tricks with meter (first song sticks in a two-beat measure in a 4/4 song and then further confounds by having the vocal lines come in in the middle of the measure), that are really slangy, make this a really interesting record. Holcombe sings like the usual old drunkard who got to go to Echo Mountain Studios in Asheville, N.C. and make a record wtih Steve Earle producer Ray Kennedy--which means he huffs and puffs and sounds, I guess, "crazy" and "outsider." Judging from what I've read about the guy, Nashville drove him crazy (used to wash dishes at the Bluebird Cafe and was known as a wildman with these "amazing songs"), or he was already crazy.

Red Hot Entertainment's "Junior Spesh" is rather far from country but you need to watch it anyway because (1) it is about Southern Fried Chicken and (2) it is hilarious - deadpan, all grim and grimey, the sound making no acknowlegement that what's under discussion here is, indeed, the price of Southern Fried Chicken.

I used to pull back from Cray, because his voice seemed too tight, I think, even though I admired the crazy songs, or songs about crazy, on Strong Persuader (which xgau gave an A Plus, I think). His producer wrote most of those, but on Live From Across The Pond(my Number One last year), he advances them, with his own reveries--you can't help what you think---key line, after testing his notions: "Whether the right or the wrong, at least the mystery's gone." But his guitar thinks otherwise, whether its dialing numbers found in a phone booth (you'd think finding a phone booth would be freaky enough these days), or signing him up for another tour in Iraq, despite what happened already (even the guitar says it in Classified), or following somebody out of the shower and down the hall (it's cool, Robert, she's just going to get ice, that's why she took her purse). Lyrical, never far from corkscrews though; why do I keep thinking of late 60s/early 70s F.Mac in this (when he was in Eric Clapton's band, that was the most inspired I ever heard Clapton {risking his gearhead cred in that kind of cutting contest, without messing up the better songs, yet stealing the scene from the lesser ones)but then his son died, and he didn't get that kind of spirit and ambition for a long time; he got some of it back by From The Cradle; dig the title...) But Cray's got it now (and his band opened on Clapton's tour last year, so EC's ready to try for RC's standard again (he ain't got the same kind of songs, but he's got some).

But as far as a country connection? Guitar's got that fluid, combustible, lyrical thing---makes me think of summer night beerdrops in a quonset hut, but also makes me think of okay Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, John Martyn (guitar, now, not vocals), Clapton sometimes--and Freddie King, Albert King, Albert Collins, John Lee Hooker insofar as RC knew how to merge his sound with Hooker's, rather than take the old fellow for a ride, like so many of his famous "friends"--but then they have that thinking-out-loud, purposeful wandering thing in common--so does Willie--and the thoughts slipping through deeds, and vice versa, with things as they are looking over your shoulder, into your drink, your screen, whatever you got there--so again, the blues-to-country connection, to some extent (hadn't thought of Frank's Toby Keith connection; intriguing) (oh yeah, if any of yall hate live albums, I keep forgetting Live From Across The Pond is live, not because it isn't dynamic, but it lacks live album cliches)

Willie's Gravedigger video.

A Robert Cray video from 1991, "Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark." I think a lot of country guys would be happy to sing something like this, though would probably be an album track, not a single. Obviously someone like T. Graham Brown, who's basically a soul singer, and Travis Tritt, of course, but then I can imagine LeAnn Rimes pulling this off with ease, and Toby, though he'd use fewer leads in the arrangement, more lushness. Willie could do it in a snap (the rhythm's not too far from "Gotta Serve Somebody," which he just covered). None of which means that Cray is crossover country, but if he were looking for a concept to make his next album move extra units, and could get a few high-profile country people in guest spots...

And three tracks from Live From Across The Pond are on Cray's MySpace.

Cray's influences as he lists them on his MySpace: Beatles, Albert Collins, Jimi Hendrix, Albert King, B.B. King, Magic Sam, Otis Redding, O.V. Wright, Muddy Waters.

Rimes! OMG yall, remember I took a walk on the Rimes side, youtubeverse-wise, on Rolling 2007. Guess I'll have to go back, and also check Robert there and on Myspace (I def need to revisit his studio work)Wow, so I was right about the Alberts! Hadn't thought of Hendrix, but now I remember Junior Brown telling an interviewer that Hendrix and a lot of other leading lights of Jimi's and Junior's generation got a lot of ideas from Albert King, but nobody wanted to credit him, cos he was so ill-- was he even worse than James Brown, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Stan Getz, Bob Dylan (in younger days, anyway), John Lennon (in younger days, but he told a lot of stories on himself later, like Miles),and Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole in New York, but in Spain, si--yet they all got cred--oh well (I hear some Buddy Guy in Cray and Hendrix, and Buddy Guy agrees about the latter, loudly)(and Buddy and Albert Collins got that speedy "ice-picking," as Collims called it). One thing Albert King had, which Hendrix took a lot further, was that bounce and stomp and acrobatic turn between and sometimes in notes (the feel of it's sometimes in songwriting too, like if you hear Howard Tate's pre-Joplin version of Jerry Ragovoy's "Piece Of My Heart," he brings it out, and takes it to some other material--just as, on Blue Cheer's recent What Doesn't Kill You..., they get at least the bounce and stomp, as I noted in review, from King's "Born Under A Bad Sign," and even though their version of that isn't so great, they take the feel and use it more sucessfully on some of their own songs, although, as with Tate, they must have had ears for that feel, thus already felt it some, to be attracted to the songs they were influenced by, and to bring out, try to serve up, the bounce and stomp, rather than just bouncing or, more likely, just stomping--not that just doing one or the other can't work great, but doing both is very satisfying)(the "acrobatic" developement of this is prob what had me thinking Peter Green--Carlos got more from him than "Black Magic Woman," and I'm pretty sure early Steely Dan has something from late 60s/early 70s (thus Green/post-Green) F.Mac)Thanks Frank!

Hey Don and Edd, you guys weather the storms OK?

Any word from Don or Edd yet? Hey guys, let us know how you're doing when you have a chance, ok?

Edd, I got the Johnny Bush CD-R you sent...thanks! Don't know how long it will take me to get through all 29 songs; at this point, I'm generally hearing songwriting (in "When Daddy Lived in Houston" for instance) way more interesting than the singing, which isn't quite grabbing me; there's something really bleh about the guy, and I wish there were actual tunes or hooks to go with the words. He seems sincere (and sad) enough; that's obviously not the problem. In fact, the problem may well be owed to some block I have with a certain old kind of country music, not so much with Bush himself. And I do like when he speeds up into Western swinging Texas dancehall music -- in "From Tennesse To Texas," for instance. So maybe the slower stuff will just take a lot longer to sink in; we will see. And obviously, I've only just begun to absord it all.

Otherwise, I am just way the hell behind on posting on this thread, but that doesn't mean I'm not listening to stuff. Partly it's probably just that, now that I'm back to writing actual record reviews for money again, rolling thread posting is being pushed to the back burner. But I'll try to catch up, though these comments may be sketchier than usual:

ROSS JOHNSON -- Edd mentioned this upthread, and yeah, the guy's a laugh riot, and shuffling drunken standup routines with '60s soul-garage-punk and rockabilly is a smart mix. 24 cuts, so again, it will take a while to make sense of it -- I just got the thing. I do really like the last cut, though, where the (live, I guess) spiel about cheating on his two girlfriends with his wife and being drunk around his kids transforms into an uncredited quasi-cover of Dave and Ansil Collin's 1971 ska hit "Double Barrel." (Edd, how much of this stuff was previously released? The liner notes look, uh, really long, though I'll get to them eventually. Just wondering whether this counts as a reissue, or what. I pretty much always ignored Panther Burns, though I think I actually saw them in Missouri once.)

Rediscovering Lonnie Johnson on Range Records out of Ardmore, PA (the Main Line!), with liner notes by Francis Davis -- don't think I ever listened to him before. I gather that most of these sessions happened in the '20s, but the sleeve for some reason doesn't list years along with each song, so hopefully they're in the notes somewhere. Anyway, apparently along with being a New Orleans blues guy Johnson played with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, and on initial listen it's neat (unheard of?) how this stuff splits the difference between blues, jazz, Memphis Jug Band style stuff (i.e., in "I'm Not Rough," which really shifts into high energy halfway through), and crooning that borders on county ("Carless Love") and sepia Sinatra proto-soul ("Tomorrow Night.")...Well actually, I may be way off, but that's how this is hitting me so far.

CHRIS HICKS Dog Eat Dog World -- Guitar guy from Marshall Tucker Band and Outlaws. Mostly pretty stodgy -- so Van Morrison wannabee midtempos, some Los Lonely Boys wannabed midtempos, etc. But "You Can't Hide" funks halfway hard, and the best cuts are the white Southern soul ones like "Chokin' Kind" and "Share Your Love With Me." But honestly, they're fewer and farther between than I would have liked.

http://www.friendsofchrishicks.com/

ZANE LEWIS -- Dallas country rock guy. One great cut, with lots of detail: "Becky Brown's Daddy." The rest is okay, though he panders even more than most such guys -- "Southland" namedrops Jeff Gordon for NASCAR fans and Wal-Mart parking lots for Chris Cagle fans; "She's Got It Goin On" sounds like Trace Adkins in beefcake mode covering "Achy Breaky Heart" but changing the words; "Bad Ass Country Band" tries a Skynyrd riff but still doesn't sound as badass as it thinks it does; "Leavin" is passable soft Cali rock. But actually, most of the rest makes me shrug.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=66241622

Rarities From the Bob Hite Vaults -- Boogiefied '40s and '50s 78s from the Canned Heat guy's collection. I think I'd like this more if the six at the end (out of 19) didn't come from Elmore James (who I have nothing against; I just like variety I guess, and in fact James's "Country Boogie" is a pretty crazed sax instrumental.) Could take or leave the Etta James daddy rock me with one ready steady roll type stuff too. But what really kills is "Wiggle Tail" by Googie Rene, whoever that is, and what really really really kills, which I never would have guessed, is "Birth of the Boogie" (title forecasting Jimmy Castor's "Bertha Butt Boogie"?) by Bill Haley, of all people. Talk about somebody I'd never paid attention too -- I guess I just figured he was an old spitcurled hack jumping on the rock'n'roll bandwagon, which maybe he was, but still: Did he do a lot of good country boogie stuff before selling out to the teenagers?? (Though this one is 1955, not that early I guess.) Suddenly I'm curious (and while I'm on the subject, I'm also still waiting for somebody to answer the question about the Big Bopper's non-"Chantilly Lace" stuff that I asked here last year.) Also good on the Bob Hite mix CD: Chuck Higgins's proto-"Green Onions"/"Pink Panther Theme" "The Itch" from 1956.

But mostly this comp's more a mixed bag than it should be. (Nowhere near as good as DJ AT's Crazy Record Hop Presents Foot Tappin' & Dance At The Screamin' Festival Vol. 1 on El Toro Records out of Spain, which I won't go into detail about here since somebody is paying me to review it, but suffice it say that on its surface, it's mainly a travel brochure to get aging Teddy Boys and Girls to take a vacation to this resort where they can wear drapes and dance to oldies, but the 27-song, mostly obscure selection (from the '40s and '50s) is really amazing: basically, proof that western swing and jump blues and even big band swing were rock'n'roll before rock'n'roll existed -- and the way it makes this case, accidentally or on purpose, is by mixing up the actual pre-rock'n'roll stuff with the actual rock'n'roll stuff, and it all sounds of a piece. (Most of it I'd never heard before -- amazing Jerry Lee Lewis and Jackie Wilson wannabe no-name acts, for instance, and a Pat Boone song I actually like almost as much as "Speedy Gonzales," which I just wrote about as part of this long book chapter I wrote last month about country songs about Mexico So I'll ask it about Boone, too: Is he better than I've assumed? The song on the comp is "Bingo," which didn't chart; "Speedy Gonzales" went to #6 in 1962.)

These two comps also hit me, btw, as sort of the oldies equivalent of hip-hop mixtapes (which, long before Funkmaster Flex or DJ Kay Slay -- in the days of Alan Freed and Dr. Demento and Wolfman Jack and Murray the K -- is what the first DJ compilations were, anyway, according to Joel Whitburn books.)

LEFT LANE CRUISER -- Mentioned this Fort Wayne, Indiana blues-sludge-stomp duo upthread and linked to their myspace page. Anyway, I'd say I like Bring Yo' Ass To The Table better than most any Black Keys album I've heard (just seems to have more personality and actual songs that seem like songs not just riffs), though I don't know if actual guitar players will agree with me. Also seems better than anything I ever heard by Railroad Jerk, if not the Gibson Bros (the mid '80s Don Howland blues-punk ones not the late '70s Euro Caribbean disco ones). Anyway, funky enough with a good thick Billy Gibbons style tone and convincing ZZ haw-haw-haws at points, I'd say, and my favorite songs are the ones where they talk about pork'n'beans and mashed potatoes and the one where Amy's in the kitchen (which has the closest thing to a memorable melody, plus a good Dr. John style grumble in the voice.) Actually, there are mashed potatoes in "Big Mama," too, so I guess they like food. Also like the one where they drive to Wisconsin to meet Mr. Johnson. Good record, though probably a bit too monochromatic in its vamps to listen to it all the way through, from beginning to end. An EP could have sufficed, but that's fine.

SWAMP CABBAGE -- Swamp choogle jam fusion fonk from Florida, with some virtuoso cow-milking bassline parts, some fake gospel, etc. I guess I like it in theory, but I couldn't take it for very long: a missing link between Dixie Dregs, Little Feat, and Primus, maybe? Hell if I know. Maybe Don can explain it to me. I do like the pig on the CD cover, however.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=29146770

HAYES CARLL -- I remember liking and keeping his previous album, but it's not on my shelf anymore; must have relegated to the storage area when I ran out of room in the "C"'s. Anyway, new one is one of the better country albums I've heard so far in 2008, though still, admittedly, uneven -- the boy-girl one about Katie who likes ketchup (or whatever) is kind of too sickly sweet, and "Willing to Love Again" is even ickier than its title, as is "Don't Let Me Fall." But those are exceptions. "Drunken Poets Dream" (okay...maybe that one's a little sluggish) and "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart" and the rockabilly-guitared "Wild As A Turkey" more or less live up to their alcoholic titles; "A Lover Like You" is a serviceable early-Dylan-vocal-rhythm imitation; "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" is probably worthy of Paul Westerberg before he sucked; "She Left Me For Jesus" is pretty darn funny the first few times through -- Jesus takes her away from him so he threatens to kick Jesus's ass for being a commie and and "even worse, a Jew" (though I'm not really sure he can get away with that line like, say, Kinky Friedman could.) Favorite songs are probably "Beaumont" and "Faulkner Street" on their melodies alone, unless I missed one (14 is a lot to keep track of)...Okay, it's even more uneven than I thought. But if Carll doesn't sing good enough for Nashville, he also sings too good for mere alt-country demo-land, which counts for something.

Also, finally, I'm reviewing all of the following albums together for the Voice: Shelby Lynne, Allison Moorer, Tift Merritt, Sheryl Crow, Kathleen Edwards, and (if she fits, which I think she's not going to) maybe Carlene Carter. Kathleen Edwards is my favorite, which I would not have expected. Best song on Carlene's album (which isn't bad) is "I'm So Cool," which she originally recorded back in 1980.

xpost, believe it or not.

I think I like Hayes Carll a lot less than Xhuxk does: I'd type Hayes as a folkie, though that doesn't put quite the limits on his style as it might have a few years ago, especially when he's willing to rock. When his voice is Dylan-related I have trouble suspending my disbelief, whereas when he goes all Cougar-Bruce-Petty on "Bad Liver And A Broken Heart" he totally nails it, even if I gag on the insecure self-congratulation of lines such as "Doesn't anybody care about truth anymore?/Maybe that's what songs are for." More than gag, I recoil. "Her love's like tornado weather" compensates, somewhat, and is accidentally topical. Maybe that's what tornadoes are for. To wreck lives and give you something to sing about. An act like Brooks & Dunn could do an amazing Stones-swamp groove on such a song. I also like "Drunken Poets Dream," which celebrates its stumble without losing its feet. Most of the rest is too precious for me, at least so far, so I can't say what I think overall, though a couple of good things can compensate for a whole bunch of bad.

"I Don't Wanna Grow Up" is a Tom Waits song that the Ramones and probably other people have covered; Hayes does get into its anger but he should have steered clear of giving it a little-boy voice. One of the ones I'd play again.

Hayes Carll myspace:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=14090502

Kathleen Edwards:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=15660190

El Toro's Screamin' Festival and compilation:

http://www.screaminfestival.com/indexeng.html

http://www.eltororecords.com/english/index.html

Bob Hite Rarities comp:

http://www.emusic.com/album/Various-Rarities-From-The-Bob-Hite-Vaults-MP3-Download/11132588.html

Lonnie Johnson's myspace page!!

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=199367243

Any thoughts about how Willie Nelson pulls it off (assuming you think he does sometimes pull it off)? I mean, his singing. It almost verges on talking, in its rhythm and his tendency to put so little juice into his voice that he seems to be barely making a sketch of the melody. Yet he does get enough of the melody to make his tracks insanely beautiful, some of them. This is inconsistent (or maybe his material is inconsistent, or worse than inconsistent a lot of the time), but "The Bob Song" is one of the great songs so far this year. I went back to listen to the Big & Rich version, which I'd entirely forgotten about (hadn't recognized Willie's track as a cover): too much Big and not enough Rich on that one, which means that w/ Big Kenny dominating the vocals, the B&R's close-harmony is subdued and the song's prettiness is dampened, and all those shaggy dog stories he throws in aren't funny enough to make up for taking us a way from the tune. Yet Willie's version has less harmony than the Big & Rich (some harmony shows up, I <i>think</i> Willie harmonizing with himself, though it could be Rich, who definitely appears in the background at one point)(unless it's Big Kenny, but I'm pretty sure it's Rich).

I also find "Gravedigger" beautiful, though maybe too comfortable in its beauty. Lyrics are interesting, more the story of disparate lives and how a death and a grave shouldn't be a barrier to what that life was, or anyway that's how interpret it. (I've paid almost no attention to Dave Matthews, though this song makes me think I should. Just as "Should've Listened" made me think I should pay attention to Nickelback, though when I actually found Nickelback's original version on YouTube it was as clogged and clotted as Nickelback too often sounds.)

Haven't yet read Edd's Voice review of Moment Of Forever; maybe my question is answered there. I'd rate the album as "inconsistent" rather than "masterpiece," but it's got enough beauty for me to go back and see if Willie squeezes more beauty out of the songs than I've so far realized.

xp

Ross Johnson's myspace, while I'm at it:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=275644278

I used to have a couple of Lonnie Johnson albums that didn't make the trip to Denver when I cut my record collection in half right before moving here in 1999. One was fairly early in his career, half the tracks were his and half were Eddie Lang's, guitar playing, lots of leads but it's hard for me to pay attention to acoustic leads. I think that Alberta Hunter sang lead on one of the tracks. Lonnie Johnson is on "Hotter Than That," a Louis Armstrong track I've got from 1927. But I'm not going to listen to it right now, since, opposite to Xhuxk, I'm less likely rather than more likely to write here about something I'm not reviewing, and I'm not reviewing Lonnie Johnson. (Though I could if I wanted to, if I had a Lonnie Johnson record to review.)

The other Lonnie Johnson I had was from his King Records period in the '50s, when he scored a hit with "Tomorrow Night," one of my absolute favorite soft blues. (Would it be characterized as a blues song or a pop song? Def'n of "blues" is actually something I'm unsure of, but I certainly think the blues goes well beyond what's in 12-bar format. Anyway, the phrasing and tones on "Tomorrow Night" are deep into blues tonality (which of course preceded the blues) even if the bars aren't 12, but it's definitely going for a gentle mood rather than for deep grit.) The rest of the album was like "Tomorrow Night" but not nearly as good, as I recall. I've still got "Tomorrow Night" on an Old King Gold anthology, so I'll listen, but not until I finish my column, this afternoon I hope.

I'm also still waiting for somebody to answer the question about the Big Bopper's non-"Chantilly Lace" stuff that I asked here last year

Here's your answer: EXCELLENT.

Like Sam the Sham, the Big Bopper was a fine bluesy performer who is unfortunately remembered as a limited novelty artist. The album I have is an '80s reissue of the original Chantilly Lace Starring The Big Bopper, and if you take the leering jokes away, the album is the perfect bridge between twangy rockabilly ("Walking Through My Dreams," "White Lightning") and Louisiana slow-grind R&B ("The Clock"). On the ballads his voice goes WAAAY offkey, but it still works in spite of itself.

The other Lonnie Johnson I had was from his King Records period in the '50s, when he scored a hit with "Tomorrow Night," one of my absolute favorite soft blues. Would it be characterized as a blues song or a pop song?

Johnson was known for having a lot of straight pop tunes in his repertoire, similar to Charles Brown. I was listening to a various-artists blues comp the other day when a grip of his songs came up - half blues, half pop. Even though he did make a mild comeback in the sixties with a series of albums on Prestige/Bluesville, I get the impression that he probably would have confused the blues revival crowd; the pop ballads probably would have thrown them off.

Ever hear the version of "Tomorrow Night" where King Records overdubbed a rhythm section and a white-sounding chorus? I kinda like it, as cheesy as it is...

Rarities From the Bob Hite Vaults -- Boogiefied '40s and '50s 78s from the Canned Heat guy's collection. I think I'd like this more if the six at the end (out of 19) didn't come from Elmore James (who I have nothing against; I just like variety I guess, and in fact James's "Country Boogie" is a pretty crazed sax instrumental.)

I saw this in a store not long ago. Looks like a good anthology, although for a guy with a record collection that deep and massive, I was expecting something a lot more obscure than what they used, like on some kind of Joe Bussard/Harry Smith steez. And yeah, why did they OD on the Elmo James? Other than this...from the looks of things, can't go wrong with it. Wonder where and when that pic of Bob trudging through the snow with a small stack of records in hand (with his wife?) comes from...

Miranda Lambert singing Jessi Colter's "Storms Never Last."

hi guys, the storms 'round here in NW Middle Tenn. were pretty fierce, lotta wind, straight-line winds. but no damage, everything OK. west and east of here got hammered, as I'm sure you saw. I've been writing about Ray Davies' new record, done in town with Ray Kennedy, who also produced the Malcolm Holcombe record. Kennedy was a great guy to talk to. He produced that Reckless Kelly record I've always had a soft spot for and of course Earle and Lucinda.

Funny about Willie, I've been listening to this LP I bought of his demos from 1961 with Pete Wade and Ray Edenton playing guitar. What's funny is that at times he sounds like Faron Young. Great stuff. Not nearly as over-the-top as Johnny Bush, but they come from exactly the same place.

As for Ross Johnson, a lot of that stuff had been previously issued, Chuck. I own the "It Never Happened" / "Nudist Camp" single on Sugar Ditch. Cut your head on Christmas!

New Trent Willmon is actually pretty damned good, speaking of Texas shuffle. I think it's sharper than his last Sony record, and it's out-and-out a Cowboy Movie and Trent's a sharpie from way back, very 'umble indeed.

I love Lonnie Johnson--he shows up in these great DVDs of American Folk Blues TV shows that originated in Germany. In his day, he was a big star, very influential, and right, a victim of the '60s blooze wars that said Lonnie and his ilk were mere hokum. Dunno if Bob Hite would've said that--probably not.

Btw, I now think it's more likely Big Kenny rather than John Rich who's singing harmony on Willie's version of "The Bob Song." But I don't know, since I have trouble telling them apart in the higher register. Does anyone have info? (The song was written by Big Kenny alone.)

I've actually not made time to listen to the Johnny Bush c. Way Back When that you made for me, except I listened once, and I loved the voice.

Tell me about Faron Young?

One of those hardcore honkytonk Brylcreem balladeers, like Webb Pierce, who left behind when the Cool Geezer train (including Merle and the middle-aged "Outlaws") left the station. But Willie's duets albums with each are or were available on one twofer, seems like (see robertchristgau.com, mah ass is too tahred). Speaking of Bill Haley and Mexico, Los Straitjackets told "Fresh Air" 's (and Francis Davis's) Terry Gross that the Fifties version of Rock En Espanol got a big boost when Haley moved there (not sure of the circumstances; he was pretty volatile, I've heard elsewhere--when he died, his son told Rolling Stone he'd kept windows painted black and floodlights on--but that POV might've kept things jumping in Mexico). You can prob still download the podcast of Los Straitjackets' interview from the "Fresh Air" site (and/or actually LISTEN TO THE ALBUM on their own site, which I don't think anybody on here last year did, 'cept for Dimension 5ive and me). I finally got my country ballot posted--moved Schultze Gets The Blues to Reissues cos it was recorded at least five years ago (movie was released in 2003, rat?) If that's wrong, nevermind: I really did it to make more room on the Top Ten (which has links to reviews, like some entries in other categories, and I may add some more) Comments (over 5,000 words, but in a five-car post train)incl. updates on Ashley Monroe, Hope Partlow (thanks, Frank), also starring Charlie Daniels,all his rowdy and wimpy friends, the Staples Singers,Sugarland, Billie Holiday, Pam Tillis, Michelle Shocked, my Aunt Betty Sue, Paul Newman, Piper Laurie, and many others(some entries orig from Rolling 2007, but usually tweaked, at least).
http://thefreelancementalists.blogspot.com

"One of those hardcore honkytonk Brylcreem balladeers who *got* left behind...", that is.

Here's my latest column: I talk about "The Bob Song" and about Miranda Lambert again.

So, for whatever it's worth, I decided that I generally like Lonnie Johnson's more jazz-sounding ("I'm Not Rough" for instance) and pop-sounding ("Tomorrow Nihgt" for instance) and country (guitar and otherwise)-sounding stuff on Rediscovering ("6/88 Glide" and "Swing Out Rhythm" for instance) way more than his more blues-sounding stuff ("He's a Jelly Roy Baker" and "Broken Levee Blues" for instance), the latter of which hits me kind of could-be-anybody and just way more drab, though maybe there's something about it I'm missing. (And oh yeah, though I claimed above he does a song called "Carless Love", really it's "Careless Love." Somebody should do a song called "Carless Love" though.) (Well, actually, All Music Guide claims a few people have, but I'm not buying it):

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=17:231228

And Frank was right about Hayes Carrl's album being not as good as I had suggested it was (the Dylan imitation song and kick-Jesus's-ass song started to bug me more after a few listens), though Frank's also right that I like the album more than he does. He's also right about "Bad Liver and Broken Heart" nailing the Bruce/Cougar/Petty thing, which I really hadn't noticed before; really, it sounds to me like one of the more hard-rockabilly-style stomps on Springsteen's The River, and it pretty much kills until it slows down (which is when the line that annoyed Frank, the one about truth being what songs are for, comes in -- my guess is that Hayes might be one of those who'd be better if he didn't worry about trying to say meaningful stuff.) Still not really sure what it is I like about "Beaumont" or "Faulkner Street" (the latter of which definitely has a real roll to it, and at least in part concerns boys from some county and smoking marijuana and staring up at the stars); the melodies aren't that great, though they're probably better than most of the other melodies on the album, and there are geographic specifics and characters in the lyrics that definitely seem to help (though I'm not really sure where in the nation either one takes place -- Beaumont is probably Texas, since it seems to be within driving distance of Houston; seems like the guy got jilted or something, but that's not entirely clear to me: "All the way to Beaumont/With a white rose in my hand/I could not wait for ever baby/I hope you understand.") Anyway, I like both songs; wound up liking "Drunken Poets Dream" (which I think involves reading Louis L'Amour, though having never read Louis L'Amour I'm not really sure why) more, too. And "Knockin' Over Whiskeys" always grabs me at least in part because it sounds a lot like "Wanted Man" by Johnny Cash, though "Wild As A Turkey" never quite grabs me despite sounding somewhat like "Don't Think Twice It's Alright" by Dylan (though at least Carrl doesn't do his Dylan vocal schtick in that one. The one where he does do it, namely "A Lover Like You," my daughter Cordelia said she found affected right away. But then she also says she always finds it affected when Dylan does it.)

boys from some county

Though not Boys from the County Hell, who show up in good song on the first Pogues album. Hayes's boys are from Mason County, or something. I didn't write it down. I'm pretty sure they're drunk, but I bet the Boys from the County Hell would win in a fight.

Dylan wrote "Wanted Man" for Johnny Cash; never heard his original, which I guess is on a boot somewhere. I've got a radio tape of a live Hayes Carll set somewhere, and it's pretty relaxed, funny and poignant enough, though he def doesn't sound like he's worried about meaning (no need to worry, everything means something somewhere). Too bad about Shelby singing Dusty, everybody seems disappointed (she did some Dusty and Tony Joe songs pretty well on Austin City Limits years ago, from "an album I'm workin' on," mebbe she overworked it). But yall should hear Jukebox, by none other than Cat Power, whom I never cared about before. Cat Power is a true band here: Chan Marshall's dry-ice smoke rings, guided by the shining spine of historee (she moves over the connections between and within the songs of Hank Williams, James Brown, Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, oh yeah and Cat Power), rounded by brilliantly simple tempo-adjustments of "Blue" and "New York New York" of all thangs), also guided by the Dirty Dozen Blues Band, which is actually a small combo, I'd say itself guided by Jim White--not the Luaka Bop eminence,whose new album I'm not feelin (or feelin too much to feel: disempowered in a small town is a redundant theme for me, but also he could say a lot more about it). No, this is the drummer from the Dirty Three; earlier in '07 he did a duo album with Nina Natashia, awesome tracks from that on Myspace, and maybe Chan was inspired by that. I gotta check some of hers I haven't heard, like The Greatest, also covers, right? Still romantique, of course, but no longer playing the waif card too hard. This girl is a woman now!

yeah, Jim White's Luaka record has its moments, but I smell a hype, as Don puts it--Village-Atheist stuff.

as for Faron Young--he's always been my favorite of all the '60s country guys, for his mystique, his voice and his ability to make countrypolitan tropes (on Mercury Records) like "Unmitigated Gall" and "Occasional Wife" and "If I Ever Fall in Love with a Honky-tonk Girl" and my fave, "Wine Me Up," sound...sick. Like Jerry Lee Lewis, he was part of Mercury and A&R/VP of country division Jerry Kennedy's post-politan stable, so, strings, horns, backup chicks, and all that. "Wine Me Up" is as good a California-wine song as the Stones' "Sweet Virginia." His biggest hit during this era was, I believe, "It's Four in the Morning," a Jerry Chesnut song Faron took to country #1 in early '72. On Capitol, earlier in the '50s and very early '60s, Young did "Hello Walls" (a Wille Nelson song) on a single b/w Bill Anderson's genius song "Congratulations." Surely one of the finest country singles in history. Young showed little interest in adapting to changing currents in country--he started out as a honky-tonkin' Hank/Lefty singer, quite good at it, and then went commercial with Kennedy. He did a nice concept record in '63 for Mercury on which he covered Frankie Miller's great "Black Land Farmer." But by the late '70s he was done--and he had business interests in Nashville, and loved the bottle, so that was it. He was a hell-raiser supreme, too, truly larger than life, giving away cars and sawbucks Elvis-like one minute and turning into the Drunk from Hell the next, and when he got debilitated by years of smoking, and by other problems, he killed himself in Nashville in Dec. 1996.

Nomination for worst country song of the year so far (or at least the one that pisses me off the most and doesn't sound remotely interesting or anything more than merely competent enough to justify the off-pissing): Alan Jackson's "If Jesus Walked the Word Today" (he'd be a hillbilly, and drive a Chevy, and preach at a little country church, not in the city.)

TS: Alan Jackson "Sissy's Song" vs Ross Johnson "A Southern Sissy."

By the way, Ross Johnson's Make It Stop! The Most Of is my album of the year so far, and I've decided (at least until I change my mind, if I do) that 10 2007 copyrights and four more 2004 or 2005 copyrights out of 24 definitely makes it an "album," not a "reissue." Maybe I'll go into more detail someday about why it's so great, maybe I won't, but suffice it to say that his acknowledgement of a hundred strains of '50-'70s pop and rock (Hasil Adkins rips, ZZ Top via Slim Harpo riff vamps, "Mr. Blue," "When The Saints Go Marching In"/"Dixie" [okay, that's pre '50s I guess] "Keep On Dancing" by Gentrys," "Pretty Flamingo," "Farmer John," "Double Barrel" as mentioned above) as wild dance music is pretty much the way I see things, and the hilarious inebriated shaggy-dog spiels and more than a few really gorgeous guitar workouts ("Last Date," "Theme From a Summer Place," "Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying," "Senior Stroll") are free lunches full of gravy. I'm not even an Alex Chilton fan, never really have been (though maybe I should investigate his new wave era solo stuff more? Is that when he did "Bangkok," which I've always loved the Nomads version of?) But I totally love this thing. And the jokes about starting a new family before you've even finished with the first one you started are great.

(Favorite cut may or may not be the "Keep On Dancing" cover, with the talkover where the sockhop DJ voice starts asking the audience whether they've ever been beaten up, and that he has, and they might be, so they should keep on dancing but keep on looking over their shoulder. Then again, I always like songs where fights break out on dancefloors.)

Good stuff about Ross looking at nudie mags when he was a kid, too, and about how a nude party might be happening somewhere near you right now. Guy has a very funny dirty mind. And his medley of "Saints"/"Dixie" rocks like Chuck Berry's "30 Days."

(By the way, there is stuff I do like on the Alan Jackson album. "I Still Like Bologna" is on now, and so far, seems worthy of Tom T. Hall to me.)

Like "1976" a lot, too (that Jimmy Carter line gives me hope for the Democrats' Southern strategy or lack thereof); really don't see what people think is so special about "Small Town Southern Man," though; if it was by someone a few star-levels below Alan, I can't imagine anybody would care. (Theme of "I Still Like Bologna" is that all these newfangled digital innovations like big-screen TVs and music downloading and cellphones, of which Alan says he finally got one but never turns it on, make life easier but simple things like bologna on white bread still do too.) (For my own part, I still don't own a cellphone myself, and I haven't eaten bologna -- or baloney for that matter, with catsup or ketchup -- on white bread for years, but that's fine.) (Oh yeah, in "If Jesus Walked The Word Today," the apparent black gospel choir at the end seems just gratuitous to me. Though I guess it at least implies that, if Jesus stays out of cities, it's not because he doesn't like black people.) ("Sissy's Song" is about some girl who died; maudlin but stomachable, at least on first hearing. We'll see what happens.)

on Johnson's Make It Stop! there are 6 songs previously unreleased. "Wet Bar" came out on a '90s comp. I bought the "Nudist Camp" single in '93 at Shangri-La in Memphis. "Baron of Love Pt. II" led off the original Peabody LP of Chilton's Like Flies on Sherbert, '79. the thing about Chilton's new wave stuff is that there's not really very much of it. "Bangkok"/"Can't Seem to Make You Mine" single, a live set (impossible to find now) on Japanese LP and I think CD of a CBGB set that's pretty good in spots, a few weird odds and ends like "The Walking Dead" and three or four dozen versions of "Take Me Home and Make Me Like It" and then that awful Jon Tiven- produced '75 set where Chilton is obviously just fucking around to piss off Tiven. Not much. I've always regarded Sherbert as a masterpiece, I mean fuck if the Mekons are great then this record, with its Ernest Tubb and K.C. and the Sunshine Band covers, surely is.

But I digress, as Johnson might say. I'd count it as a reissue, Chuck, since 18 of 24 tracks were previously available...in Memphis. The world wasn't ready for it... And yeah, I think the '60s instrumentals are often kinda beautiful, really. Is it too late to say I'm sorry...for everything...?

and god, the Alan Jackson CD is a lotta music, as much as that Drive-By Truckers record! I like "1976" and I like the way the title track rocks and rolls. some of it is kinda awful, like Jackson wrote these songs in 10 minutes on the way to to the studio.

http://www.myspace.com/faronyoung

(mostly early stuff)

New Dolly and new Allison Moorer; haven't listened to Dolly yet, gave Moorer a partial background listening: tends to be too slow on the rhythm but can be affecting.

Dolly covers Fine Young Cannibals.

Ross Johnson MySpace

"I'm weak and afraid; it's a lifestyle that's working for me."

(This is from Johnson's "Theme From A Summer Place"; not as good as Los Umbrellos' version, but I bet that Johnson and the Los Umbrellos guy aren't altogether dissimilar in their tastes and demeanor.)

(Oh, Xhuxk already linked Johnson's MySpace.)

(Except the Ross Johnson MySpace you linked to is Faron Young's, Frank!)

Edd, I'll take your word for it on the new-vs-old ratio on the Ross Johnson album; you know way more about it than I do, obviously. I never even heard of the guy before you posted about him here (part of why the album still feels more like a "new album" than a "reissue" to me, no matter when most of the material dates from). But if what you say is true, those copyrights in his CD booklet are really confusing! (Actually, they're confusing anyway, since I'd think most of those songs would have been copyrighted by their actual writers in the '50s and '60s. But maybe he's just copyrighting the jokes he recites on top of them, or something.) Also, which songs are the Ernest Tubb and (!!) KC and the Sunshine Band covers?? The Tubb I'm not surprised I missed, but I know enough about KC & Band that I'm shocked I would've missed a song by them on here!

Edd's also right about the Alan Jackson album being way way way too long. And I get the idea he likes "Good Time" (which to me just seems marginally sprightly but forgettably rote, like the Carrie Underwood duet "Never Loved Before") more than I do. I guess my big problem with Jackson, just like my big problem with lots of alt-country (and maybe Travis, and Strait, and certain old school country classics people seem to love more than me) is that I don't hear enough music in his music -- he acts like the singing and tunes and lyrics will carry the songs on their own, and they're almost never interesting enough. (Obviously, with Jackson at least, there have been exceptions -- most notably his entire previous album. But they're pretty rare, I think.) On his new album, there's one cut, "Long Long Way," where he tries to be a Bob Wills type bandleader, directing his band in a sort of vageuly bluegrass or quasi-Western Swing jam, and good for him for trying, I guess, but it comes out really stiff, and the jam never comes close to drawing me in. I do hope that "1976" and "I Still Like Bologna" get to be singles before the cycle is over, though. (Oh yeah, there's another cut, a vaguely beachy Buffett/Chesney one though even duller than that sounds, called "Laid Back n' Low Key," which I keep hearing as "Laid Back n' Roll Deep," which would possibly make it an accidental UK grime reference. Though of course it doesn't sound grimey enough.)

(And oh yeah, that reminds me of the fried-chicken UK grime track that Frank linked to up above, a week or two ago. Video was entertaining, but I'll be damned how a mere American is supposed to understand they're talking about chicken just be listening.)

Speaking of singles, these are all songs that have been on the country singles chart in Billboard in early 2008 that I think I might have liked on their albums. I should find time to figure out how much:

Kenny Chesney - "Shiftwork"
Cole Deggs and the Lonesome - "Girl Next Door"
Gretchen Wilson - "You Don't Have to Go Home"
Blake Shelton - "Home"
Terri Clark - "In My Next Life"
Luke Bryan - "We Rode In Trucks"
Dierks Bentley - "Trying To Stop Your Leaving"
Brooks & Dunn - "Cowboy Town"
Big & Rich - "Loud"
Sarah Johns - "He Hates Me"

Singles-chart acts I haven't heard, but I'm curious about, judging from their names: Lady Antebellum, Star De Azlan, JYPSI (I'm pretty sure that stands for something, but that's how Billboard is listing them -- three young girls and a young hippie guy, if the photo is to be believed), Whiskey Falls, Crossin Dixon. Still have also yet to hear the Road Hammers' sort-of-hit song, Garth Brooks's Huey Lewis cover, or the duet by Mica Roberts featuring Toby Keith.

Finally, I like some of the rockabilly stuff ("Midlife Crisis, Midnight Flight" -- amusing song), guitar jam stuff ("Stop Drinking," eight minutes, possibly about going on the wagon), soul-ish stuff ("Must Be Karma") and stuff where the guitars groove like "Midnight Rider" by the Allman Brothers ("Troubled Dreams") on this Alligator Records blues album Blood Brothers by Smokin' Joe Kubek and Bnois King. Much of the rest of the album just sounds like stodgy old Alligator Records blues, who cares. But it might have enough cuts I like to pass.

No new-album songs on myspace yet, but still:

http://www.myspace.com/SmokinJoeKubekMusic

Another oh yeah: "Conquista," a Spanish language version of the White Stripes' bullfighty "Conquest," was released as a single last week. To my ears, it doesn't have much of a chance of crossing over to the Regional Mexican charts. Though some old fans of early Cafe Tacuba or Maldita Vecindad might like it.

a vaguely beachy Buffett/Chesney one

This reminds me -- I really wish, when country goes the relaxing-on-the-beach route (which it does on approximately one song per each album by every male solo performer in Nashville these days) it would draw more on actual clam-baking-and-shag-dancing beach soul music; like, say, "Cowboys to Girls" by the Intruders or "Backfield in Motion" by Mel & Tim or whatever. Doesn't seem like it'd be that big a stretch; a perfect fit, really. Though I suppose it could just all wind up sounding like Uncle Kracker. (Toby or Tim or somebody may have actually done this, and I'm just not thinking of the songs off the top of my head. Also, didn't Alabama have a country hit about shag-dancing in the early '90s? I'm not finding it on youtube, though, if they did.)

Grammy winners here (didn't remember there were so many categories like norteno, banda, etc--bloddy Jimmy Sturr always wins for Best Polka!)
http://entertainment.msn.com/news/article.aspx?news=300142

Vince Gill won best country. That was the best thing Himes said in his Scene essay--Paisley's the new Gill. I actually liked Amy Winehouse's performance.
Yeah Chuck I do like "Good Time" on new Alan Jackson, but I mean this is the Zen of diminished expectations. I hear this record as a conscious move to "realness" after his best record ever, Red Rose Speedway. No, that's not it. I hear 10 pretty good songs.
All that Ross Johnson stuff was out in Memphis when I lived there, I lived down the street from hipster central in Midtown, Shangri-La, where Grifters and various Oblivians gathered, great selection of all things Memphisania. I knew when I heard "Nudist Camp" that Ross had realized his talents, and I love the rhythms on Make It Stop!. "Wetter and Hotter" is great--about how er his woman is getting or pretending to be the title but that don't pay the bills. Great soul guitar, just like Ross' buddy's Alex Chilton's pretty good "All I Really Want Is Money" on the 1970 record (where he also covers sorta good "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and hilariously "Sugar Sugar" and James Brown's "I Got the Feelin'." I saw Ross play with the original Panther Burns in Nashville in 1981--it was one of the best and craziest things I'd ever seen, with Chilton on guitar. Almost punk rock, out of tune, Johnson's tongue lolling out as he played good rockabilly drums, various covers. Chilton could have easily had a career as one of those rockabily revivalist people. The value of that music lies in the stuff they did that sounds a lot like "Nudist Camp"--that North Mississippi Hill Country fife-and-drum parade-beat stuff. The Panthern Burns' experiments with putting old-tyme rockabilly over that kind of music worked, at times.

Arlen Roth and whoever Lexie Roth is--his daughter?--can't sing too good, but there is one great track on this elaborate Toolin' Around Woodstock featuring Roth playin' his axe with, often, Levon Helm on drums and sometimes singing. And Bill Kirchen, who powers "Gas Station Frustration," which really does suggest the Band--or the Hawks--taking liberties with a basic rock tune, going nuts. I like it. But the rest of it's Chuck Berry covers and Dylan and Carl Perkins, just a relaxed sit-down. Sonny Landreth sits in on the other worthwhile (to these ears) cut, Berry's "Deep Feeling," in its original form one of the greatest of all rock 'n' roll instrumentals.

And, Ray Davies' Nashville record (with Ray Kennedy of Steve and Lucinda fame), Working Man's Café, is what? What is this? Roadhouse Americana? the usual dissatisfaction from the songwriter, but on "Morphine Song" and "Angola" he sings about getting shot in New Orleans, so he earned his angst this time. Kennedy keeps it all real tightened up, never wastes a second, and the record sounds more like Texas than Nashville or New Orleans to me. Couple of better-than-average songs and some cool arrangements. As a satirist, Davies has never impressed me, but there are times here when the lyricism takes holt of the reportage, or something like that.

Been also listening to the new Trent Willmon and to his 2 major-label records. Far as I can figure this is as good if not better than those--the themes are frankly escapist but the music has a lot of kick and passing strange in it. I have a piece where I talk to Willmon about leaving Sony, coming out in the Scene in a couple weeks.

Faron Young: there's a decent Millenium Collection of his Mercury years. the original Mercury LPs I used to have--I think they're fascinating countrypolitan compromises myself--a wildass drunk on his enormous riding mower, with money falling from the trees and him too wasted to pick it up, so turns his windfall into mulch. Young deserves re-evaluation for his post-'65 work, I think.

I actually liked Amy Winehouse's performance

I still haven't seen this; went to bed too early. Of what I saw, what I liked most were Kid Rock with Keely Smith (he'd clearly done his homework and knew who Sam Butera was, though she was actually funnier, and more extroverted, than he was) and the minute or so (in the middle of a gospel medley) by apparent "brass gospel" band the Madison Bumblebees. Never heard of them before -- and I'm not even sure I knew "brass gospel" existed -- but it was cool how they were jumping around while playing horns.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh8lFT4Vr_Y

Somebody on youtube calls them a "trombone shout" band -- never heard of that, either, but apparently there is a compilation on Smithsonian from 1999:

http://www.amazon.com/Saints-Paradise-Trombone-Shout-Bands/dp/B00000JKGN

They do not seem to have a myspace page, though.

Kid Rock and Keely:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pAyIRN03VS4

Haven't heard the new Willmon; definitely want to. Anything as good as "Surprise" on the new one, Edd?

(I mean, I suppose, looking at that performance a second time, that Kanye/Daft Punk or Tina/Beyonce or Rihanna/Time were "better" than Madison Bumblebees. But the Bees are the ones who made me smile more while on my TV, at least partly by catching me off guard, and teaching me something I didn't already know, and making me curious about hearing more.)

(Paisley's "Ticks" was kind of dull, I thought. Could have used more guitar playing, and it just sounded too quiet overall, somehow. The more I hear that song, I realize it's not really all that great -- cute punchline, but the rest is just kinda there.)

(Underwood's proto-industrial Stomp collaboration on "Before He Cheats," with her dressed up as Nancy Sinatra with boots made for walking, seemed to be an attempt to initiate an "urban" crossover, as far as I could tell, with a bit of melisma at the end and everything. As such, "interesting, I guess. And also ridiculous. Good song, though. Could've been worse.)

Btw, I now think it's more likely Big Kenny rather than John Rich who's singing harmony on Willie's version of "The Bob Song." But I don't know, since I have trouble telling them apart in the higher register. Does anyone have info? (The song was written by Big Kenny alone.)

Responding to this question that Frank asked on Friday...the album credits list the backing vocalists on that song as Big Kenny and Wyatt Beard (keyboardist in Chesney's band, google says).

"Paisley is the new Gill"?! That's really insulting to Paisley, who really is Time Well Wasted (well, often enough) while Gill is terminally bland (as a vocalist, in sound and usual choice of song, although they're both good guitarists, and Paisley won a Grammy for an instrumental). Edd, don't you like Davies' "Peace In Our Time"? Hubby as Neville, wifey as Adolph, whatta hoot, also vocal relish, in place of vocal sawdust hot dog, usually applied to airheaded "social commentary." Yeah, "Morphine" is good too, and anti-superstion"Voodoo Walk" kind of works on the demo bonus.

actually, Don, I don't like "Peace in Our Time" that much but recognize it's a clever conceit re globalism and the olde Empire and the rotting new One Davies got shot in. I do like "In a Moment" and the one where he sees his reflection in the mirror at Preservation Hall and freaks out. And I like "Angola" too. I mostly like the production--it's a bit airless at times, seems to me.

Chuck, there's nothing in the same raunchy vein as "Surprise" or "Sometimes I Miss Ya" (2 best cuts on Trent Willmon's best record to date A Little More Livin' and nothing maybe as great, but there is one pretty great song on Broken In, written by coproducer Rodney Clawson. "That's the Way I Remember It" is an intense sorta heartland-rockin' song with a very very unusual chord change about halfway thru I've never heard in another country song in my life, and really pretty literary kinda lyrics about, print the myth except that the song pulls at it, questions it. Kinda like some of the dramatic numbers on that first Bobby Pinson CD--there's an urgency to the song that I like and it actually says something about loss, nostalgia, leaving home and that pretty young thing, that the entire record kinda skirts. "My life slipped away like a California hillside," good line. I also like "Cold Beer & a Fishing Pole" w/ Framptonesque talkbox intro and funky blues lick and harmonica and a truck fulla buddies and one special friend for later, around the campfire. And "Dry County" is nice, another one about getting the hell outta town, so you can hang out with waitresses along a stretch of Interstate 35. I hear Joe South, Jimmy Webb in some of this, especially Webb in the other big dry-town moment here, "Tumbleweed Town," about a town where "nobody wants to settle" because "There's no damn water," altho they try windmills but everyone still leaves as soon as they can afford a Greyhound ticket. Not as strong as the second one, as I originally thought, but good. And possibly the most Godawful intention-by-design God song ever! "Plant a seed and see what comes out of the ground/Find the heartbeat on your baby's ultrasound/In a few years, hear him laughing/Don't it sound just like a song?" Yeah it does Trent, so make sure to keep your digital recorder handy for when he does come through with the hook you know he's got in him...

Ridiculously brilliant time waster crawling like virus through livejournal.

Print issue of Nash Scene with countty poll showed up; also has Edd's "Critic's Pick" re Terri Clark. He rightly singles out her best single, "Girls Lie Too" which really epitomizes the tomboy who's taking tall-in-the-saddle, giddyup straight-talk back to and for the gals. Although I usually have to get used to the arena-boom, of the synchronized drums, especially, all over again ("usually" means whenever she uses it, which is not always) Last album was pretty uneven; wish she'd give up on what's left of the Nashmill imperative (enough to get diffrent kinds of production, sharper song mechanics)

as I guess everyone's heard by now, No Depression is closing its doors after the May-June issue.

been listening to the new Chris Cagle, and so far, all right--the permutations-of-the-word-"gone" leadoff track is fun. Not getting a ton of vocal personality out of it, though. Paul Thorn's record is a surprisingly good white-soul record. New reissue of Dallas Frazier's two '60s Capitol r&b albums on Raven, The R&B Years, is nice indeed. He wrote "Elvira" that the Oak Ridge Boys did later and also the epochal "Mohair Sam" for Charlie Rich. Good stuff, a bit like Joe Tex.

Alan Jackson's latest is one weird record--the only Nashville product I know of that has featured a drum and a bass solo in a song. Prolix musically and laconic verbally--a real sneak-fuck with its best songs about screwing and watching television, or perhaps watching television to get in the mood, ain't he heard of Cialis? Probably the best single song is "When the Love Factor's High" or maybe it is the rather simple-minded "1976" on which he shouts out to Wonder Woman, the Bionic Man and Jimmy Carter.

Hadn't heard that about No Depression. I'd rarely paid much attention to the magazine, but this seems like bad news anyway. Bad for writers. Were they struggling financially, or did the main guys just decide to do something else? Is there similar coverage in other mags or online that competes with No Depression? (I find Paste to be terminally stodgy, and Harp not much better, though I haven't read much of Harp to really know.)

Frank, in the separate No D thread it said that the magazine's ad revenue dropped (they relied on record company ads and never got many lifestyle non-musc ads) while their circulation sales figures stayed the same. Plus the postal service raised rates for small publishers despite protests. I agree with you regarding Paste and Harp.

Sad news:

R.I.P. Calvin Owens, Houston-based bandleader/trumpeter for B.B. King for a few years in the '50s and later('79 to 84). Owens also worked with Chitlin circuit soul artists, and country musician Johnny Bush and he and Bush recorded a cd with Willie Nelson that's coming out this summer according to Andrew Dansby's Houston Chronicle article I've attached.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/5556752.html

Carrie Underwood was on Saturday Night Live's return show after the writers strike last night. She was ok.

Listening to Chris Cagle on the AOL listening station. Hate to say this, since it's a cliché that's often very wrong, but the mainstream arrangements undercut the bite of the guitar and the force of the singing (which doesn't have that much force to begin with). The first two songs are dull enough anyway, even with the wordplay on "Gone," but the third track, "It's Good To Be Back," is a good little rocker that ends up plopping rather than bouncing, or anyway not bouncing enough. Now I'm track four, "I Don't Wanna Live," coulda been an okay sad power ballad, but the potential beauty of the melody gets neutralized by the sounds that surround it. "Never Ever Gone" has good forced rhythm right at the start, fills out the sound too quickly without building the drama it could have. (Nice brief professional guitar solo in the middle, though.) Gary Allen would have done a good job on this. The track after that isn't bad, actually finds its balance nice, since it's nothing but a middling pop-country tune. "If It Isn't One Thing." I don't know what this is doing that the others aren't, actually, it's just as crowded and arranged, but doesn't lose everything in its overall jangle. But then, I agree with Edd on Chris's voice, just kind of a voice...

Anyway, I'm abandoning ship on this one, as I still have to make time to listen to the new Parton and the new Breeders. The only track I really liked on the last Cagle was "Wanted Dead Or Alive." I do think with the right arrangement, more low key, this guy could do Gary Allan Lite, might not be bad.

Just posted the below list on a best-of-'08 so far thread; I've been writing about a lot of these records elsewhere, which partly explains why I've been writing about them less on ILM. After reading Edd above and Kelefah in today's Times, I guess I need to go back and listen to that new Alan Jackson album more and pay attention to the tracks I didn't notice. Otherwise, I'm not sure I entirely agree that Nashville production is what's been hurting Terri Clark (I'd pick a lack of material, though her new album is okay, at least in the premature advance version that went out last year), and I definitely don't like that Paul Thorn album as much as Edd does; thought is was dull and stody -- though, as I think I said upthread, I did enjoy his live show.

Anyway, for what it's worth (since there are definitely at least a few country albums below that I haven't mentioned here until now):

very tentative top 10 so far, incl. late '07 releases that nobody I know heard last year (i.e., excluding Rihanna and Ryan Shaw, both of which I like but I figure I was just really late getting to):

1. Dolly Parton – Backwoods Barbie (Dolly)
2. Ross Johnson – Make It Stop! The Most Of Ross Johnson (Goner)
3. Frozen Bears – Hey, That’s a Good Looking Sportcoat! (myspace.com/frozenbears EP ’07)
4. James McMurtry – Just Us Kids (Lighting Rod)
5. Mechanical Bull – A Million Yesterdays (Woodstock Musicworks ‘07)
6. The Tonic Rays – The Tonic Rays (thetonicrays.com ’07)
7. Final Solutions – Songs By Solutions (Goner ’07)
8. Amanda Shaw – Pretty Runs Out (Rounder)
9. Sioux City Pete & The Beggars (Steel Cage)
10. Trent Willmon – Broken In (Compadre)

Next few official actual non-CD-R 2008 releases would probably be Alestorm, HorrorPops, Hayes Carll, Drive-By Truckers, Chris Cagle, Vampire Weekend, Left Lane Cruiser, Ayreon, Night Wounds, Chuck Wicks, Earth, and Kathleen Edwards, more or less in that order.

Thorn = dull and stodgy, not "stody"

I like Chris Cagle's voice fine, myself, fwiw; not remarkable, I suppose, but doesn't need to be. Also think the first three songs on his CD have plenty of bounce. The rest, not so much, though the only tracks I actively dislike are the last two. (Wicks and Willman albums seem to save their lamest, most maudlin crap for the end, too. Must be a new trend.)

Not convinced Cagle would sound better without Nashville production behind him, either, but it's worth noting (especially in the week that No Depression folded) that my tentative '08 top 10 so far has more alt- than Nash- on it. (And even Parton and Willmon are released on indies, for whatever that's worth. In fact, Compadre, Willmon's label, put out the previous James McMurtry album.)

Sioux City Pete & the Beggars (coed blooze-noize pigfuckers from Iowa via Seattle)'s album (with Charley Patton's photo on the back) is called Necro Blues, btw. Here's their myspace page:

http://www.myspace.com/siouxcitypeteandthebeggars

my tentative '08 top 10 so far has more alt- than Nash-

As does my tentative runnerups so far list (Carrl, DBTs, Left Lane Cruiser, Edwards vs. Cagle and Wicks). I'm guessing this has something to do with blurring of lines, and that stuff that gets classified as alt- is opening up more to hooks and energy and songcraft and non-wallflower singing, and hence increasingly placing itself less in opposition to Nashville per se'. That definitely seems to be part of what's happening on that new McMurtry album, which is really surprising me by how much I like it. Or maybe I'm just hearing things differently of late.

Wicks and Willman albums seem to save their lamest, most maudlin crap for the end, too. Must be a new trend.

A trend that needs encouraging.

stuff that gets classified as alt- is opening up more to hooks and energy and songcraft and non-wallflower singing, and hence increasingly placing itself less in opposition to Nashville per se'.

On the other hand, I wouldn't say that any of the "alt" albums I'm liking sound especially like Nashville records. McMurtry's is more a certain kind of early '80s adult AOR, if anything. (And classifying, say, Left Lane Cruiser--or even more so Sioux City Pete & the Beggars or Ross Johnson-- as "alt-country" is a stretch. Though I can imagine alt-country folks liking them -- at least ones who also like Black Keys or White Stripes or whoever.)

I've heard none of the albums that Xhuxk lists except the Carll, though obv. I've heard tracks from some of them, and his number one is waiting in my wings.

Most of the labels that were servicing me (all indies, except somehow Reba's alb made it to my P.O. box last year) have wised up and decided to stop wasting their postage.

Of the albums I've heard in full this year, the three I haven't tossed in my discard box are, in order of preference:

Willie Nelson Moment Of Time
Allison Moorer Mockingbird
Hayes Carll Trouble In Mind

None of 'em will make my Idolator/P&J unless I'm really not finding my way to hearing many albums, but I'd say the Willie has a shot at my country music critics ballot, and if I come to terms with the slowness of the Moorer, maybe she could sneak in; not that at the moment I think she'd got more good tracks than the Carll, just that where she is good, she's warmer and stronger. I have some of the same problem with her I have with her sister: she covers a range, but in a lot of it I'm not getting anything out of the voice other than "good voice, competent singing, so what?" and then something will hit me. (All these thoughts after only one not very attentive hearing.)

And Carll's "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart" is definitely a keeper.

(My guess is that even if everything that has yet to leak from the Ashlee and Cassie albums is total dreck, that those'll beat the three I've listed. And even though I voted the Robyn album in P&J in 2005, I might count it for my Idolator ballot, and the U.S. release'll be somewhat different from the original Swedish, and may be better, if it contains "Cobrastyle." (Though I prefer the original singer-songwriter "Bum Like You" to the dance mix, so I hope she sticks with the former on the U.S. release.)(Hmmm, listening to the Breeders a bit. There's something little-girl infantile in the singing, as if Kim's going freak folk, though since I basically only ever really knew one song by them, maybe that's what she's always sounded like. So, some of what I've heard is irritating, some has sudden moments of great beauty.)

Hey xxhuxx, I *said* material as well as "Nashville production" (I called for better choice of song mechanics) overall was that she shouldn't hew to *all* the 90s-early 00s strictures and shibboleths that no longer provide a hitmaking template (she doesn't need to go "Look at me I am now beyond that pop stuff," but needs to study how others are adapting), that's what I meant to say. (I've heard several Paul Thorn live sets, and he's gotten better, both in songs and anecdotes; haven't heard any studio)(Terri should mebbe do a live album?)

A duo called the Love Willows, unsigned, describe themselves as "pop/country/southern rock," though in the tracks on their MySpace I hear show and girl group and old black pop more than country or southern rock. Oh yeah, I really like the lead singer, have for a while: Hope Partlow.

Roy Kasten on the demise of No Depression

Moving post, but I'm not really sure how Roy could defend this comment below; how did No Depression cover a wider range of music than even, say, Rolling Stone or Billboard (much less the music section of any random alt-weekly, even in this alt-weeklies-totally-suck age?) Sorry, I just don't get that. No Depression undoubtedly had its good points, but to me, it still seems like it was defined by its limitations (i.e., what it wouldn't cover -- especially within the range of country alone) more than its open-mindedness about different kinds of music. But I'd still really be interested in hearing arguments to the contrary):

ND did attempt to cover a broader range of American music than any single music magazine on the racks.

On the other hand, I'm sure the argument could be made that No Depression was open to a wider range of music than country radio, maybe even CMT. (The music it chose to cover generally tended to reign itself in more than more Nashville music does, at least to my ears. But that's different.)

And I'm not saying, by the way, that it was wrong for No Depression to have its own aesthetic; I just never thought the aesthetic made much sense.

In my mind, it always had a lot to do with the fallacy Kelefa Sanneh wrote about in his Times piece on Alan Jackson that ran today. Seems to me that, explictly or implicitly (i.e., by the music it left out) ND was always one of the main guardians of this line of thinking. And it's no news I feel that way, but I think Sanneh said it well:

Mainstream country singers like him are routinely written off or ignored by listeners and critics who claim to champion the real thing. No profile of a quirky singer-songwriter or an aging pioneer is complete without a lazy swipe at the supposed intolerance of the Nashville plutocracy or the cravenness of country-radio programmers.

The truth is that country remains one of America’s most vital commercial radio formats, driven by a singularly weird mix of teenagers and parents of teenagers, pop melodrama and old-school stoicism. (The loyalty of older, nondownloading listeners may help explain country’s relatively healthy sales figures.) And the genre’s obsession with tradition clashes in unexpected and interesting ways with its need for glamour and novelty.

A link to that piece:

http://www.articlesmodern.com/%20/music/a-country-music-veteran-proves-he%E2%80%99s-no-mere-hat-act/

(Though I do get the idea that No Depression softened what I'd always perceived as its anti-Nashville stance somewhat in the past year or three; Miranda Lambert made the cover last year, right? Not sure how much they liked Alan Jackson, either. But I do get the idea that it might have been too little, too late. Still hard not to hear the news of the magazine's folding as more bad news for music criticism, though; at least No Depression had a stance, which is more than you can say about most the music magazines left standing, as far as I can tell. And there are definitely worse sins out there, especially these days, than being skeptical about stuff the music biz shovels at you.)

(I also do get the idea that I probably say "I do ge the idea" too much, though I never noticed 'til now.)

I'm not really sure how Roy could defend this comment below; how did No Depression cover a wider range of music than even, say, Rolling Stone or Billboard

Actually, he did offer specific evidence to support his claim, in his main post, duh. And he also wrote this (so while I don't agree with said claim, I'm really not quibbling with him):

I often disagreed with ND’s editorial policy, its reluctance to expand or alter borders (in a classic cranky fit, co-editor Grant Alden once said he’d surrender “country” from the magazine’s masthead when someone pried it from his cold, dead hands; the word was gone two years later; Grant’s still with us), its anachronistic aesthetic

save their lamest, most maudlin crap for the end, too. Must be a new trend.
...A trend that needs encouraging.

Actually, toss in the noxiously aforementioned "If Jesus Walked the World Today" (not entirely sure if that's the absolute worst track on the album, but it's definitely up there in the competition), and the new Alan Jackson album fits into this trend, too.

Alan Jackson's latest is one weird record--the only Nashville product I know of that has featured a drum and a bass solo in a song.

You must mean in "Long Long Way," which I mentioned above as well -- and if so, yeah, I noticed that too. I just wish there was something actually compelling about said bass and drum solo to make it worth more than a pat on Alan's back for effort, or the idea, or whatever. (Maybe there is, though, and I just haven't noticed yet. At this point, it just hits me as cinicial quasi-bluegrass wank. I actually prefer the song itself to the "jam" at its end.)

the Carrie Underwood duet "Never Loved Before")

Er, this (also on Alan's album) is actually a Martina McBride duet, not a Carrie one. Still mildly catchy but entirely perfunctory, to my ears, with nothing in it that makes me care if I hear it again -- a category Jackson has always been addicted to.

I enjoyed the NYT piece on Jackson. It's a pretty discursive record and Jackson in Bandleader mode, just one of the boys. it features a Vocoder just like Trent Willmon's record does. As a fond remembrance of skirts chased and so forth Good Time works OK and it's also a good record about how television can be an essential accessory to a married couple's sex life. It's like really good filler, down to the fake-grass track which isn't all that great and his dismissal of "standard island beach-resort cliché" in "Laid Back n' Low Key (Cay)." I like to hear it as the banal first thoughts of an average guy, like he does one song about this "old hardwood tree" (what, Alan, hickory? ash? what kinda trees you got down there in Franklin) that just won't go away and seems to be reading his thoughts, another that mentions "sexy, skimpy lace" ["Nothing Left to Do," one of the songs that are mainly about television], and then Martina McBride tells him as they begin to neck on the couch, "I like your quirky, sneaky sense of humor"]). And then in "1976" he mainly remembers Wonder Woman and The Bionic Man and copping feels at the Dairy-Quik. "Yeah, bologna, a woman's love and a good cellphone, why the hell not," as he ends "I Still Like Bologna." The prosody is Basic American throughout and so artless as to be kind of fascinating, like "that bottle by your shoulder and some quarters for these dollars," how in the fuck did that just roll out of his psyche? The readymades by the band are pretty ace in their way, I actively can listen to the title track and "Love Factor's High" and a couple others, and his Jesus song is no more silly than Billy Joe Shaver's, on that last record Shaver did. If you really pay attention he sings quite well, actually, but apart from a past master's chuckle as he eyes yet another fine young thing, I get nothing out of his singing whatsoever. A cipher, an ordinary guy.

I was gonna say too that Good Time is his big Tony Soprano moment after he got therapized by Alison Krauss last time and now he has the courage to go out on his own, and that tree he keeps eyeing on his Estate is like Tony's pond, without or with ducks in it. So Alan's speaking for my generation here, it can be done, it's easy, no sweat at all.

A few more cuts are kicking in for me: "When The Love Factor's High" (though I'm not sure if I like it as much as Edd does), "I Wish I Could Back Up" (very spare, pretty ballad, though I still haven't listened close enough to notice the accordion in it that Kelefa noticed), and especially "Nothing Left To Do," which has a good, bawdy barrelhouse throb to it, and -- at least if I'm hearing the words right -- is both funny and sexy, always a rare combination to pull off. (Also, right, about marriage: After Alan and wife drive around then watch TV then "do it," there's nothing left to do, Alan tells us. Seems there's a detailed story attached; I need to give it closer attention. Leaning toward it being my favorite song on the album, though. Still like the baloney one and 1976 one, too. And still hate the Jesus one -- just seems real ignorant and arrogant to me, this conceipt that Jesus would be a hillbilly who avoids cities [I'm an agnostic, so I'm not sure why it bugs me so much, but it does] -- though I'm pretty sure "Sissy's Song," apparently about a girl who died by some cause or other, gets the Maudlin Award. And most of the rest just makes me shrug.)

(Actually, Alan says "There ain't nothin left to do now that we've done it." He changes his underwear, waits for her on the porch, she puts on something skimpy, they go out to dinner, drive back home, watch an old movie, drink a half a bottle of rum, then they turn off the TV and "get right down to it", and there ain't nothin left to do now that etc. etc. Those are pretty much exact quotes, by the way.)(I think there's also an afternoon delight verse.)

Honky tonk beer-drainer "If You Want To Make Me Happy" (play me sad songs and buy me drinks) is also not bad, though it could pretty much be anybody.

hooks and energy and songcraft and non-wallflower singing, and hence increasingly placing itself less in opposition to Nashville per se'. That definitely seems to be part of what's happening on that new McMurtry album, which is really surprising me by how much I like it

does seem (McMurtry's) to rock quite effectively with hooks, right, and narratives seem pretty non-bullshit and felt.

have I mentioned Dallas Frazier's The R&B Years here? Reissue on Raven of 2 '60s Capitol LPs on which he does his own "Mohair Sam," "Elvira" and "Alley Oop"? Novelty white soul/r&b; Frazier often sounds just like Joe Tex (a good thing), and otherwise reminds me of some lost New Orleans artist--one great song in that Chris Kenner "Sick and Tired" vein about a woman who will just not get up and do anything, except that Dallas, being from Oklahoma, calls the repo man on her lazy ass.

and thought I'd mention that I recently made the trek out to see Jack Clement at the Midnite Jamboree--the best thing you can do in Nashville for free. Clement was superb--the last song-and-dance man, and did hits he wrote for Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. Just really charming and sweet, one of the best things I've seen in a while. And he really did dance, with the beautiful announcer of the Midnite Jamboree, Jennifer Herron, who got a little flushed.

finally, I'd say that ND covered country music about as well as anyone in the country, given their inevitable anti-Nashville stance (which wasn't across the board). I think the magazine did a pretty good job of covering local scenes, too, in the "Town and Country" section of the mag--up-and-coming bands and singers, like Amanda Shaw, Chuck (in the Jan./Feb. issue).

Man, this thread has sort of withered away. Not that I have a ton to contribute right now myself.

Well okay: Can somebody please explain Ashton Shepherd to me? I like those pool table pictures and have no problem with her somewhat overstated drawl, but her album is just hitting me as consistently.... okay, I guess. Are any songs actually worth getting excited about? If so, I haven't noticed them yet.

And oh yeah, here's my emusic review of Dolly's new album:

http://www.emusic.com/album/Dolly-Parton-Backwoods-Barbie-MP3-Download/11141340.html

This thread is a good read.

I don't know much about country yet. I have been listening to KKGO-FM Go Country 105.1 on terrestrial radio in LA.

It's been on a year. Apparently LA had no commercial FM country station from August 2006 to February 2007.

That seem so weird to me. As a new country listener, I find it striking how often sing about L.A. and Hollywood as the "big city."

Go plays a mix of new and old. I absolutely adore "Letter to Me" by Brad Paisley.

Sasha Frere-Jones New Yorker blog posting
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sashafrerejones

February 29, 2008

Did Not Get “Country Artist” Memo
Taylor Swift continues to refuse to play only country songs. In addition to Rihanna’s “Umbrella” and Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable,” Swift is also covering Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.” (See below.) I think this has less to do with Swift trying to become some sort of hybrid and more to do with how the classic American song—clever lyric, clear melody, distinct verse-chorus-bridge narrative—is migrating between genres and can be found anywhere now.

I am curious about his use of the word "now" at the very end of this blog posting. Hasn't "classic American song—clever lyric, clear melody, distinct verse-chorus-bridge narrative" been found (and migrated back and forth and around) in many genres for quite awhile?

And yea, I think someone (Frank Kogan)posted here about Taylor Swift's covers awhile back.

He shoulda said "*this* classic" or "classic songs like this"--that's what he seems to be getting at, or the way I take it cos Nashville hitmakers always wait a while on trends (as did Madonna, when she was himaking fulltime, and for the same reason; make sure us Burbvillians are ready, or familiar enough not to go crazee and forget to buy those records, or whatever kids do now--Taylor's been cited as the first of what's left of mainstream country to ride the downloads, and now she may be surfing right out of country, except those Eminem songs are old enough and good enough to be new "American Classics," and not nearly as old as Southern Rock and other heretofore more typical recent mainstream country resources).

Oh and xhuxx and Gorge, especially, might enjoy Further Down, prev mentioned by Edd: fun, somewhut updated James Gang/.38 Special, kind of.

Yeah, Further Down's record is indeed funny--not quite as good as it could be but still worth hearing, kind of '80s metal meets Southern rock, more like, maybe Don? I like the song where the guy tries to get into this girl's pants by telling her that Jesus would've used the same pickup line.

Getting ready to tackle record by Lady Antebellum. Need to look back on the thread for stuff about Eric Church's 2006 album. He's got a new Capitol out in July or August and a new single...seems like that was one I listened to, his debut, and missed...

so far, Lady Antebellum isn't killing me with the songs--one about how a girl is "Long Gone" is OK, mentions Superman's cape. spare arrangements with plenty of organ. "Things People Say," the guy's at the Greyhound station wondering about his girlfriend who's got more ambition. "Slow Down Sister" starts with record-player noise and is vapid pop with one of those poignant breaks as the chorus kicks in. cowbell or something creeps in. too bad, what a great name! if there's any personality here--like, the antebellum lady actually had an animus against the Yankees or something, or even some fake gentility--I don't hear it.

Me on Carlene Carter, Sheryl Crow, Shelby Lynne, Allison Moerer, Tift Merritt, and Kathleen Edwards:

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0810,351018,351018,22.html

Wow, back in the Voice (or maybe you have been for awhile). And I see you like the Dolly Parton album better than all of the folks you reviewed.

Yeah, my emusic review of that one is a few posts up...

(That was my first Voice since the summer before last, when I did features on Oneida and Lordz of Brooklyn. But what's with the Voice copy editors changing all my other punctuation marks to colons, by the way? They like colons so much that they put two in one sentence, which makes no sense. Weird.)

had forgotten how strong Eric Church's debut is. seeing him tonite as part of CRS festivities, supposedly doing new material. we'll see how he connects with the Rascal Flatts fans...

nice on the ladies, Chuck.

here's me on
Trent Willmon's Broken In

What I wrote for Billboard on Trent (may have been edited after I sent it; can't find the link now):

TRENT WILLMON
Broken In
Producers: Trent Willmon, Rodney Clawson, Dan Frizsell
Compadre
Release Date: Feb 26

Amarillo-born Willmon opens his third album with a pop-rocker that churns like ‘80s Bryan Adams, about how his hat, truck, and self may be rusting but they’re still holding up. From there he plays a world-weary wrangler with a heart of gold. In the hard-drinking honky-tonk waltz “The Good Ol’ Days Are Gone,” he recalls changing his major to ethanol, getting expelled, and starting a band; now, in “Dry County” and “Tumbleweed Town,” he’s finding life in dying destinations in the middle of nowhere. “Cold Beer And A Fishin’ Pole” is hooked to talkbox vocals that suggest Peter Frampton was the original T-Pain; “How A Cowboy Lives” climaxes with a gorgeous guitar solo; “Little Set Of Horns” concerns a tattooed date dancing to AC/DC. The album ends too sober: “There is A God” doesn’t prove a thing. But albumwide, Willmon’s wanderlust and wit still convince you he’d be great to grab a beer with. (C.E.)

yeah, he sounds like he'd be great to have a cold Shiner Bock (lately my beer of choice) with. nice guy whose only discernable flaw is that Texas penchant for beef brisket over pork barbecue, but no one's perfect. (Willmon has done catering over the years around town, he told me.)

What's up with Mindy Smith? I'm listening to her first (?) album to learn some tunes for a band, and it's pretty great. Don't know anything about her.

Xhuxx Eddy, Demon Barber Of Moony Street. And Edd on new Alan, plausible also. Thanx for apprising us of all that mush (better yall than me)(speaking of me, the crucial last sentence of my Die! Die! Die! was restored; he'd meant for them to barber something else on that page). Plausible, given differences in taste and practice (having worked too many years in music retail to ever, ever voluntarily load up one those random play CD carousels from hell)(might make an interesting podcast though). Shelby Lynne recently gave a plausible quote: "I had to drink a lot of whiskey to finish that album...(trying to cover)Dusty SPRINGFIELD!? Eeeeeediot--!" Too bad if Tift's new one is bad too; she used to be pretty good, with her longtime band and material closer to home (sort of better Rondstadt, better/femmer Tom Petty/good sub for Maria Mckee til Maria started releasing albums again)If you're taking requests xhuxx please bring some of your CDBaby discoveries into the Voice, and Edd mebbe Further Down?

I wrote a Nash Scene brief on Further Down but then they cancelled their show.

new Chris Cagle, My Life's Been a Country Song, er, some fine third-hand songwriting on there but he just sounds too callow for me. But "Keep Me from Loving You" is an ace sorta Mott the Hoople slow one and "Little Sundress" catchy too. He's an underachiever who knows he kin make good, and good for him.

Caught Eric Church's act the other nite in front of a jabbering crowd of radio folk drunk on Bud Lite in downtown Nashville. Church's performing skills in no way match up to his songwriting ability, which I think is considerable. But he did, lessee, "Fat Bottom Girls" and "I Fought the Law" in between the hits and a couple new ones, one which he referenced by saying "I've been listening to a lot of Maroon 5 lately..." Good stuff, maybe he realized putting out for that crowd was useless, so he came across like the best bar band in Charlotte, not much vocal range or finesse--he does sound better on record, plus I don't get these performers who don't at least try to be frontmen. Which I suppose means he's really a singer-songwriter with a good producer.

oh, and for that Americana glaze done right and far more effectively than I first thought, Mando Saenz's Bucket is a real listenable example of not exactly self-pity, real good stuff if that's your thing, and I kind of enjoy it myself. really even tone, and actually kinda romantic if that's your thing again...

Jordan, Mindy Smith stood out even on a pretty otstanding tribute album to Dolly (blanking on the title, but you'll find it) Also realy liked the no-anesthetic slide on "Jesus Is Waiting, " though the didn't get into most of her first album; she's got another coming out, I think--?

So, I probably wrecked all my Drive-By Truckers credibility late last year when I said I didn't always know whose song was whose (mainly because the singers are nowhere near as distinctive as their fans pretend, but okay, let's not go there again okay?), but man...did I totally overrate the new album when I first heard it, or what? I've pulled it back out in the past couple days, and I swear -- beyond a few good songs, which is mostly to say an occasional halfway decent Stones or Neil Young rip here and there, the damn thing feels dead on its feet -- especially those last few lethargic and interminable snoozers it ends with. And I gotta say this: All the people (like Rob Harvilla in the Voice piece from a few weeks ago linked to below) who've been complaining that "Bob" is, like, the DBTs worst song ever, are either certifiably nuts or come from an entirely different universe than me. It's one of only songs on the album that has a fucking hook, and one of the few where you can tell what it's about without straining way harder the music merits. Do Drive By Truckers really hate catchiness so much? If so, that explains a lot.

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0808,302393,302393,22.html

Meanwhile, so far, Lady Antebellum are making me shrug my shoulders as much as Ashton Sheppard is. I guess it's "interesting" that Antebellum's "All We'd Ever Need" is basically a mushy adult r&b duet as much as a c&w duet, but I don't think I like it, and beyond that they're pretty much drawing a blank. And all of Ashton Shepherd's album seems to be stuff that sounds pretty good when it's on and leaves no impression when the album's over; I can take or leave pretty much every song. What am I missing? Jane Dark had this to say on his blog about the opening song, his #26 single last year, fwiw:

26) Takin' Off This Pain, Ashton Shepherd. You know what’s fascinating about “Jackie Blue,” by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils? Like many songs, it has two parts, A and B. A comes first, of course, and is all minor-seventhy and unresolved; B shifts to a major key, with an incredibly satisfying resolve to the tonic. Except that B has different lyrics every time, while A has a repeating lyric when it comes around. The structure of the words tells our brain that A is the chorus, B the verse; the music and our expectations of song structure tell us the exact opposite. And this is never mentioned, or settled. This is why the song is so tremendously haunting. “Takin’ Off This Pain” just starts with the chorus, which is smart enough, because the first line kills.

In other news, James McMurty's new one is sounding a little more dull and stodgy and unjustifiably full of himself on subsequent listens (though I still like it); Trent Willman is pretty much holding up (I like the husband dealing with stuff he shouldn't have said in a marriage squabble lyrics in "Doesn't Mean I Didn't Love You," and even the lyrically retarded "There Is A God" sounds okay); Ross Johnson is still rocking through his one-liners; and Dolly Parton just keeps sounding better. So many great, beautiful, funny songs on that thing, with so much verve to them. Still my album of the year (and again, I've never been a huge Dolly fan before.)

Do Drive By Truckers really hate catchiness so much?

Or maybe they just hate jokes? One or the other. (Not that "Bob" is totally hilarious, but it's funny enough -- I'm still not sure what's supposed to be so horrible about the lines Harvilla quotes; like I believe Edd said above -- well, he said something like this -- it's an emphathetic portrait of a Good Old Bay who loves his mom and his dog. And it's nice to see these sad sacks lighten up for once. I mean, it's wonderful they do a song about being an opening band, but it would be way more compelling if they gave it a fraction of the energy that Creedence gave "Lodi." And what pisses me off is that I know they're capable of that level of energy. So are they bored, or tired, or just lazy, or what?)

Actually what I meant is Do Drive By Truckers FANS really hate catchiness (and jokes) so much? (Though 90 % of the time, the other way works, too.)

Oh yeah, also -- Amanda Shaw's album is totally holding up too; that would be way up there on my '08 list, just a notch below Dolly and Ross Johnson.

Mechanical Bull I probably overrated somewhat (it's thinner and more precious than I gave it credit for, not that anybody else listened to it), but it sounded at least as good as McMurtry, if not Willmon.

Album I've overrated the most so far this year: Times New Viking, piddly lo-fi indie kids from Ohio. Really wanted to like them, but they're kinda meh.

Also not country, but Frank mentioned it upthread: I have indeed heard the newly imminent American version of Robyn's album, and I'm kind of stumped about what's supposed to be so great or distinctive about it, beyond "Konichiwa Bitches" and "Crash and Burn." Most of it just hits me as run-of-the-mill, r&b-inflected pop, not even especically catchy in an Annie sort of way. It could afford to sound a lot more Europop, and her voice mostly doesn't grab me. ("Cobrastyle" is on the record, but it didn't jump out at me in any way, either; guess I'll re-listen.)

Also:

... emphathetic portrait of a Good Old BOY (not Bay) who loves his mom and his dog.

Abolutely finger lickin' grits and chicken country music girl bands Lantana and Bomshel:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2008/03/absolutely-fing.html

"Bob" works for me just 'cause it's so simple.

uh, here's a link to
Alan Jackson's publicist's latest contest

COUNTRY STAR TAYLOR SWIFT FOR TOY LICENSE

Malibu, CA – March 10, 2008 -- JAKKS Pacific, Inc. (Nasdaq: JAKK) announced today that it has signed a worldwide licensing agreement through Creative Artists Agency, the entertainment and sports agency, to develop and market toys and related products based on the award-winning and double-platinum American country music singer-songwriter, Taylor Swift.

Under the agreement, JAKKS plans to launch a line of fashion dolls wearing Swift's most memorable fashions, role-play toys (including Swift's signature crystal guitar), accessories, and craft and activity sets that encompass the world of the pop culture mega-star. JAKKS expects to ship its Taylor Swift line to retail for Fall 2008.

"Tweens have developed a great connection with Taylor Swift, resulting in an aspirational following that not only enables girls to emulate this beautiful young country star, but encourages them to believe in themselves," said Jennifer Richmond, Senior Vice-President of Licensing and Media, JAKKS Pacific, Inc. "We will work to ensure that the products embody the uniqueness and freshness of Taylor Swift."

"When I was a little girl, I dreamed of becoming a country music star and having my very own fashion doll line," said Taylor Swift. "Now it's come true! I can't wait to see little girls play with my doll and rock out with my crystal guitar!"

Taylor Alison Swift is an American country music singer-songwriter who signed to the independent Big Machine Records label in 2006. Her self-titled debut album was released in late 2006 and has since been certified double-platinum by the RIAA the United States. To date, it has produced three Top Ten singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs, including the Number One single "Our Song." All three of her singles have also reached the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album was re-issued in late 2007 with a set of bonus tracks.

Taylor Swift has won the CMT Music Breakthrough Video Award and the Country Music Association’s Horizon Award, and she has been nominated in multiple categories for the Academy of Country Music Awards, American Music
Awards, and most recently for the Grammy Awards.

(Steve, two of my Las Vegas Weekly pieces are about - among other things - Taylor's cover songs. Links are upthread.)

Mindy Smith has had three albums on Vanguard, the third being a Christmas album. I've only heard the second, Long Island Shores: adult contemporary that's going for nonemphatic instrumentation (which means it can pass for "folk"); and the quiet singing has something in it that feels like pain or insight, and I like the melodies too (haven't made my way to the words); but the softness is too soft: the same songs with more bass and drums might reach me more. She needs to study Taylor Swift, or Fleetwood Mac. Song to look for is "Little Devil."

Thanks. I've only heard "Train Song" and her Jolene cover, both are nice. The rhythm section sounds a little jazzish. I checked out a couple clips from the same album and yeah, it seems like she goes softer from there unfort.

The Truckers used to flaunt a good (often dark)dark sense of humor, good that they're getting back to that, somewhut (seemed to have left after SRO, for the most part, aside from the affectionately humorous "Outfit," though hopefully there were more examples than I recall just now)they could be affectionately humorous plus other too, like a town's reaction to "The Night G G Alin Came To Town, " which is also an offhanded parody of "The Night The Drove Old Dixie Down"; then there was the trampoline oompah band of "The President's Penis Is Missing," not so affctionate)More on Cat Power's Jukebox, which I swooned over upthread (this is still basically swoony, but tries to focus on detail):
http://thefreelancementalists.blogspot.com

I've only listened to McMurtry's new one a couple times, but so far it's sounding great to me--talk about empathetic portraits of Southerners in various stages of dissolution. Musically it hits home, too--I suppose it's like Zevon or one of them guys, but it seems real detailed, and spare, and far as I can tell McMurtry doesn't oversing in his undersinging, if you get my drift. I like it a lot. Willmon's I haven't gone back to and I probably will just opt out of saying anything about Dolly's record; I find "Better Get to Livin'" inane but do like "Only Dreaming" quite well.

Got Carlene Carter's today and going to spin it right now after I get off a here.

If any of y'all wanna try to make $100 see that Alan Jackson link I posted above...

That link is hilarious, Edd.

Zevon or one of them guys

= Cockburn, Knopfler, T-Bone, David & David (not to mention Mr. Timbuk 3, a guest). (THEM guys.) But I was hearing them all more first time out than last week, when McMurtry was sounding like his old wooden self again. They're probably in there somewhere.

I find "Better Get to Livin'" inane

I find the explicit message of its chorus inane, I suppose, but the way Dolly delivers it is hardly straightforward; it's twisted a little (and takes itself far less seriously than James McMurtry or Drive-By Truckers), and she tosses Dalai Lama jokes in there. Oprah-country, cool, with a jaunty bounce to its basslines-or-whatever, and I like when she talks about her whiney friend and says "if I had a violin I'd play," and the stuff about underpaid underappreciated overweight gals later is very "9 to 5". But my favorite track is almost definitely the title cut. And yeah, "Only Dreamin'"'s mid-Eastern psychedelic Byrdsgrass or whatever is gorgeous.

Favorite songs on Ashton Shepherd's album (which is slowly but surely growing on me despite itself) are, wouldn't you know it, the faster ones: "Takin' Off This Pain" (which yeah, has a great first line: "I got a cold beer in my right hand, in my left I got my wedding band"), "The Pickin' Shed" (about a place where jam sessions occur), maybe "The Bigger The Heart." Least favorite is probably the token tragic weeper about a dead girl, "How Big Are Angel Wings."

Ashton doesn't quite pull off "Whiskey Won the Battle," I don't think, but I like its attempt at soaring Southern rock honky-tonky stuff. Not sure what's missing in it -- needs more blues, maybe.

What I will say in the Ashton Shepherd album's favor, though, is that its lack of startling peaks is somewhat made up for by the ease in which it came be played from beginning to end, which I've done many times already. It all sounds good.

In fact, the NAME of the album (I swear I didn't take note of this til now) is Sounds So Good!

(And oh yeah, Frank was right about "Cobrastyle" by Robyn. For some reason I was confusing that one with "Crash and Burn Girl", which I also like though not nearly as much; don't ask me why, since there's nothing particularly similar about them. But yeah, the "bom ditty bom de bom de bom ditty ditty" one with the dancehall-or-is=it reggaeton riddim beneath is the one I love. And though I can still take or leave most of Robyn's more r&b-pop-hack tracks, the album's undoubtedly better than I implied before.)

Also, fwiw, David & David-like one-time one-hit singer-songster AOR wonder whose new album I didn't hate (though I also didn't have the energy to sit through the entire thing, even once): Shawn Mullins.

(Stupidest song I noticed on Mullins's album was the one called "Mr. Homeless Man" or something like that. Best one was probably the one about his dad working in coal mines or corn fields or Coppertone factories or something.) (Hey, I never said I listened very close. But that song did sound nice.)

If any of y'all wanna try to make $100 see that Alan Jackson link I posted above...

I'm not a resident of Tenn. or Kentucky, but I ran Edd's text through Google translator a few times (no English to 'real folks English' option for some reason though) and got this:

"What at first sounds like watches, as a pious fantasy Zen countrypolitan to fuck your door and check the name Bruce waltz - Jesus, and Dan kix "white bread and Bologna.

Uninflected Jackson's songs as simple to not only identify, even if it appeared to be hate speech on inertia sly detumescence great success Imagine this service to disable him, not art."

What I wrote about Dolly's "Drives Me Crazy" over in Poptimists:

Oh, I love the original, love the strangeness of Roland's marbles-filled gargle, I love giving this to Dolly, who's got a totally different but just as strange strangeness, all warble upon warble, but... this isn't working. What I'm liking is the song, not the version, which hasn't got the drive I want. 5 (out of 10)

I like "Drives Me Crazy" a lot - I like the country-hoedown thing going on at the very end, where she throws in stuff like 'I'm gonna love you til the cows come home'. There's something kind of ridiculous about her covering that song, but it never fails to win me over, especially with the fiddle parts throughout and then that ending.

I think I prefer it to the original (which I always found fairly irritating.)

More on the Dolly Parton album...xhuxk said his favorite song was the title track. I like that one a lot too, but right now my favorite might be "Cologne". She takes a simple little soap-opera anecdote about cheating and just repeats it again and again and again, but I find that simplicity and repetition appealing for some reason. I don't get why it's "cologne" and not "perfume" (I always thought of those as gendered terms, maybe I'm wrong), but I think that might make me like the song more, too.

Oh actually I just googled 'cologne' and wikipedia tells me this:
"Colognes are generally unisex and sometimes confused with Aftershaves as a percentage of men use them."

Tracks 6 through 12 of new McMurtry (comes out 4/29, I think) are indeed good when not great (first five tracks: sludge). Listening to Jordan Zevon's debut right now: okayish power-pop, better with self-deprecating humor, the better to get into or closer to your pants (Nilsson namedropped on press sheet I think; I try not to look at those too closely before or during listening). That (underemployed)slyness undercuts or adds flavor to hearty smoothness, which otherwise seems pretty bland so far (though I've got some notion this might have some appeal to 19-year-old gurls of '08 as well as '72, as well as those who would like to be 19-year-old gurls o course)

Yeah actually might be a pretty darned decent (or at least plain decent) EP among these ten tracks, if you can buy 'em download-by-download (when it comes out 4/15), and if you're (quite) a fan of this approach. Although I'd check out Chuck Prophet's Soap And Water tracks first, especially "Freckles," which I can *not* get out of my head; kind of a brilliant gloss of Romeo Void's "Never Say Never," seems like, but/and how often does that happen, really?

Jordan, please post some of your band's versions of Mindy Smith songs, like on YouTube or something; I do think *some* of the tracks she under-performs have potential.

will do, once we get it together!

"Takin' Off This Pain" (which yeah, has a great first line: "I got a cold beer in my right hand, in my left I got my wedding band")

which, as i may have said somewhere upthread, is sung more or less to the melody of "sweet child o' mine." great single.

new Kathy Mattea, Coal, I finally got around to listening to yesterday. Way better than the Shelby Lynne, which I finally got and which I have to say might just be the single most overrated record of the year so far. Certainly one of them. Anyway, Mattea doesn't do anything too special except sing her songs about coal miners, but she can really sing and I find it not too precious or arty, overall. What's wrong, seems to me, with Lynne is first, the backing is just too minimal and second, she sings, to my ears, weirdly and not confidently. Her phrasing flattens the material out far too much for my taste; she doesn't retain the drama that Dusty Springfield was able to give it, much less the magical breathiness and control of In Memphis. I think it could also be partly just me: I'm quite a fan of Dusty's stuff, especially that record, and I hear the ghosts of backup singers and horns and strings throughout. She does do all right with "How Can I Be Sure," the Rascals tune, and I suppose she's credible on the Southern-fried Tony Joe White tune "Willie and Laura Mae Jones." But it doesn't go anywhere, and she sounds confused and not with it. I think she's a good singer who occasionally convinces me of that, but mostly she just sounds dull. I'd rank this as a Misbegotten Idea from square one; I've heard torch-twang shit this year that's far better.

Also liking the new Carlene Carter. The music is really lively and it simulates the olde pub-rockery far better than anything her ex has done lately.

New Eric Church single out in a few weeks; called "His Kind of Money (My Kind of Love." So Don, what song on the new McMurtry (the songs you say you like at the end) hits you the most? I dunno, I think it's a fine record indeed.

New record by the Brakes, a Philly pop group, has its moments and fits here because of the twin-guitar stuff they do and a general air of agreeableness and pretty good songcraft they cultivate reminds me of John Hall's '70s group, Orleans, or maybe the Amazing Rhythm Aces crossed with the Sanford-Townshend Band. Very mild-mannered, but their singer gets me--I think he's good, sort of in the mold of Nick Lowe or maybe Todd Rundgren when Todd was good--and the first 3-4 songs rock a little harder than the rest of the record, which is, right, too mild maybe at times. But they sound tight without being anal about it, and they have potential.

So Don, what song on the new McMurtry (the songs you say you like at the end) hits you the most?

You didn't axe me, but I'd say: “Ruins Of The Realm,” “Just Us Kids,” “Fireline Road” (in that order, probably.)

No, "Just Us Kids" really grates, so far, but yeah, "Fireline Road" hit me the hardest, like his old man's toughest stuff, to say the least, but I like most of 'em (to say the least).Just the first five seeming ponderous, but some of those might grow on me. I should save it for the Voice review I'm writing, though. I like Coal too, though it wouldn't have hurt to include a party song or two or three; would make the others even more poignant (I do think Billy Edd Wheeler's songs are a mite mushy, in this context). Still haven't heard the whole Shelby, but judging by the quote I posted upthread, she'd prob agree with you, Edd. Although--xgau gave it the only more-favorable-than-unfavorable review from a reliable source that I've seen---not that he's always right, but makes me wonder...

xpost re Carlene's ex: xgau clobbered the shit out of *his* latest offering heh, and rightfully so, judging from the tracks I've heard.

Definitely prefer Carlene to Shelby, though both are pretty iffy. Can you post a link to Xgau's thang?

(Oh wait, Carlene's EX...yeah, he deserved it.)

Don't know if any of you are paying attention to American Idol, but here are a couple of relevant clips:

Ramiele Malubay doing Dusty (has conviction and chops but never brings the feeling)

Train wreck of epic proportions (OK, maybe not that bad, but still a total mess, Kristy Lee Cook doing a countrified version of "Eight Days A Week" that just does not work.)

Brooke White, hasn't done a country song yet but I think she'd be an absolute natural for the genre; remembers to go quiet in her singing in a way that makes her feel intimate and conversational even with all the held notes and melisma. Makes dull old warhorse "Let It Be" sound like something she want us to care about. And here's her version of "Love Is A Battlefield," doesn't inhabit it quite as well but still does very nicely, doesn't try to out-ache Benatar but just lays her predicament in front of us.

here's Christgau on Lowe (this is depressing--I've always loved Nick Lowe, and it's also depressing to think that Elvis C. might be a better example of aging...geezus...):

At My Age [Yep Roc, 2007]
That would be 58, since he brought it up. Geezer's seven months to the good side of Robert Plant, who you'd never know was showing more savoir faire from the way bloggerati who weren't alive when "Marie Prevost" was written fawn over this labour of louche. Reborn as a crooner because he can't rev up the rock anymore, he can't rev up the croon either. Wit: Shot. Insouciance: Shot. Romantic prospects: On this evidence, shot. If you're worried about aging gracefully, maybe it's back to Elvis C. after all. C

As for Lynne, I've played that record several times, and it just sounds like someone with zero feel for that music attempting to justify her lack of savvy by making it all fucking "minimal" and so forth. OK, maybe it is indeed not the '60s any more, but wouldn't a little camp or repressed glamour help out this project? I read a Phil Ramone quote to the effect that he consciously avoided the "campy" elements of the '60s and Dusty's work on this, which seems a weird misreading of what Dusty did and what the decade was all about? Am I wrong here?

I always feel like I'm interrupting conversation when I enter this thread, but...

the Kathleen Edwards is a real good 'un. The hot licks help.

Well, Dusty went for an intimate approach, but it was more like me and you alone together in the crowd, when there were a lot if instruments making their presence known, or me and you alone together in the quieter circumstances, if the instruments were more discreet and it was all about distilled atmosphere (you and me alone in a drop that is about to fall, o baby, in "The Look Of Love"). Minimal mainly insofar as her own approach to recording her vocals: one syllable at a time, according to Neil Tennant and other colleagues (dunno about Dusty In Memphis sessions specifically, but she'd always do that, if allowed to). So more ship-in-bottle than "minimalist"! Of course, she didn't always do the oh-s-ethereal bit; remember "Silver Threads And Golden Needles" with the Springfields etc. though that was before she had as much control as the cult stuff. Gotta say, past high school, don't know that I was so in awe of her, or kept up so well, though enjoyed Dusty In Memphis, Pet Shop Boys collabs, etc (how's the stuff with Roy Thomas Baker) Maybe Shelby should have delved further into the overall Dusty catalogue, or do more of those late-60s, vibe-y pop-country/southern-associated songs, like "Kentucky Rain," "Spooky," or "Stormy," "Summer Rain," "Poor Side of Town," "Baby The Rain Must Fall," etc.

or better yet, Don, why not do what Dusty herself did--seek out new cool material by all the songwriters writin' away out there. instead of trying to do songs that have already kinda been done to death, or re-create something the people involved probably have no business attempting. but yeah, not saying that Dusty was minimal or minimalist but rather that Ramone and Co. made a minimal record that just sounds unfinished to me. Dusty was indeed "ship in a bottle." I think Dusty peaked in the early '70s as an interpreter, altho she could always sing great.

I totally agree. if she's not getting the songpitchers, like if she's scared 'em away, she should at least be on MySpace and CD Baby like white on rice, checking out material. xpost xgau, Elvis C. sang pretty well on the album with Burt Bacharach! Seemed like some kind of emotional breatkthrough in middle age, very inspiring at the time. But it was enough, I guess; I haven't kept up since. (Xgau, back in E.C.'s prime, and despite giving good grades: "..suffers from Jackson Browne Syndrome:He's a little boring.")

So Don and Edd, you guys do realize that "What You Say" and "One Night Stand Up" and "Get Your Rocks Off" on that Further Down album basically sound like the more rocking side of Nickelback or Hinder or one of those bands, don't you? At that, I'm not disliking them; they just sound way more consitpated fake-grunge than Southern Rock to my ears, so far.

So so far, at least, I'm liking Mother Truckers and I See Hawks in L.A. and (with more reservations than the other two) Cory Morrow more than Further Down, as country rock goes. Not sure about Daniela Cotton yet -- she seems to go through the right soul-country-rock (i.e.: press release compares her music to Let It Bleed) motions, but emotionally and creatively, I'm not hearing it. Though maybe I will.

Still want to see Xgau's review of the new Shelby(unless I was misunderstanding Don's post, again.)

(The Shelby thing should be on his site by now, I guess: it was in a recent Consumer Guide)Alfred, haven't heard the new Kathleen, but was impressed by some earlier tracks; good influence of Lucinda, seemed like, and sometimes the derivative artist will do something that the original won't or can't. Right now, a talent contest for twentysomething singers on Prairie Home Companion, so far, mostly forthright and fetching female voices (the one guy was boring), incl none other than Ashley Monroe, and Allison or Alison Gilbert of Jackson, TN (heard her, Edd? Sounds pretty professional) Will be re-run tomorrow on many stations o course.

No CGs on Xgau's site after Jan 08, as far as I can see. (Is there a link for the new CGs as they come out? I should know this, but I can never find them.)

http://robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/index.php

Daniella Cotton seems to sound the stodgiest of all all of the artists I named in the above post -- and still, as black-woman hard-rock goes, passable, I guess; first track has some oomph to it, though it's still no Nona Hendryx or Betty Davis (which is faint praise; they weren't all they were cracked up to be.) Bet Kandia Crazy Horse is down with her, though.

Mother Truckers do by far the best Stones of the bands I listed (though Further Down seem to have moments, and may grow on me as I get accustomed.)

I've liked Kathleen Edwards more than Lucinda in the past, and the new album confirms for me that I was probably right. Still have mixed feelings about her new one, though, as my VV thing I hope made clear. (And was mixed about her old ones, too -- So mixed, in fact, that I didn't even keep my copies.)

(it's on
http://music.msn.com/consumerguide/honorablemention
though I may have messed that up)Uh-oh, I'd forgotten how brief these Honorable Mentions are: "She sings these Dusty Springfield covers so torchy and tasteful, you'd think they were on Dusty In Memphis to begin with('Just A Little Lovin'', 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me')." Back on radio: another good'un by Alison or Allison Gilbert! Sort of like a deeper-voiced Natalie Maines or Sunny Sweeney. The Honeydew Drops shouldn't have encored with "Long Black Veil," though; they're too or differently pop for that.

xp (Though strangely, I still do have my copy of Car Wheels On A Gravel Road -- more out of a feeling of rock-crit obligation than anything else, probably. Haven't played the damn thing in years, but I did happen to hear the title track in a bar or somewhere this week, and I was as stumped as ever about why it's supposed to be such a big deal. It was okay, though, I guess.)

http://music.com/music/consumerguide/honorablemention that is. Also Hons to a a Bob Frank album and one he does with somebody else and the new Willie.

Still didn't work, Don...(Maybe just link to the CG itself, instead of just the honorable mentions?)

http://music.msn.com/music/consumerguide/honorablemention

Bingo!

yeah, that Bob Frank album is cool.
and I do realize that the Further Down record contains that fake-grunge kinda '90s angst, something very generically fucked-up about the thing. I just love that song where the guy tells the girl that her Savior Jesus woulda used the same pickup lines as he, so give in...
whatever else, the song on the McMurtry record that kills me is "Ruby and Carlos," fine ear for that halfway success that's really just failure that so many of us Americans strive for. A country music tale, since the guy ends up in the road band, not the studio band, of some Music Row star, and on Nevada Street--there's a Nevada Ave. in Nashville so probably not there--drinking himself into a stupor. "Down below the Mason-Dumbass Line." I also like the lines in "Hurricane Party" about how no part-time pirate gets respect, so "sit your drunk ass down." And far as I'm concerned "Freeway View" is a pretty good piece of rock 'n' roll, that fabled 1-10 music, stop-start structure and Jerry Lee piano.

Xgau gave the Sirens an honorable mention!

Yep. Also Joy of Cooking. And Willie Nelson. + pick hits from Kid Rock ("So Hott") and Little Big Town ("Evangeline.") And the Foos got their just desserts (or just deserts, as the case may be. You decide.)

Also Mary Gauthier, Jason Isbell, and B Plus for Britney, A Pluses for Gogol Bordello and M.I.A. (Lucinda ended up rannking high on his Dean's List too, despite his seeming kinda disappointed by West in Stone review). They're rerun the Prairie Home Companion People In Their Twenties Contest mentioned above: six finalists culled from 1,000 entries, and the one I was most struck by, other than Ashley Monroe, was Alyson Gibert, former Miss Crookston of Crookston, Minnesote, now of Jackson, Tennessee; she's trying to sing some more for mer on her site, butI'm on the dial-up today, so I'll have to check broadband later, but here she is http://www.alysongilbert.com She ended up getting third place; Ashley got bupkiss! Dang--but she got to do several songs. Also getting no placement but well-deserved exposure: femme duo Pinky Lee, of Petoskey, Michigan. and secong place runners-up were Mattie Speece and Patrick Villiers, a bit like a Cajun-brushed Trailer Bride, vocally. First were the aforementioned Honey Dewdrops, boy & girl, both a little too ingenue for this mountain melancholy bit, but unpretentious, kind of church basement coffee house with professional potential (on some level, they must have sensed they were basically light-but-not-lite when they chose their name). (Only male lead voice was Andrew Ryan of Boise, kind of David Gates or Jack Johnson-he got fourth place, though.)

So I wound up liking Further Down (whose thick guitar sound is much more likeable and more boogiefied than their constipated vocals, and whose "One Night Stand Up" turns out to be an even better Thin Lizzy rip than the first song on the 3-song advance CD of the new Whitesnake album that I got in the mail last week, and whose "Get Your Rocks Off" is a pretty darn rocking fusion of Montgomery Gentry music with scrunge gutbust vocals) more and Cory Morrow (whose CD basically stopped working in my changer for more than one song at a time, so eventually I said fuck it) less. Really really like I See Hawks in L.A.'s often otherwordly existential psychedelic Gordon Lightfoot vocals with Blonde and Blonde or Tex-Mex rhythms and lyrics about paleontology and about nostalgia for being in the ecology club in high school etc., though. And as for the new Old 97s, I like three songs (first one, last one, and one in the middle), but I shan't specify why here because I'm writing a review elsewhere.

And oh yeah, I have a "blog" now, fwiw:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/chuck_it_all_in/index.html

Actually, who Further Down kept reminding me of, for some reason, was Drivin N Cryin -- but the latter didn't really have grunge vocals, did they? Nor riffs that hefty, usually. Maybe it's just the idea of updating Southern boogie for the Now Generation.

southern boogie for the new generation indeed. I always heard Drivin' N Cryin' as sorta more roots shit? wondering myself about this Cory Morrow Vagrants and Kings, it stopped working for me after "Love Finds Everyone" followed 3 equally sententious songs. I shall try agin; meanwhile, I must find out what are the "serious mistakes" alluded to in the presskit, for which Cory apparently got himself cuffed and tagged back in 2005 and hence, this (Christian-rock?) album. Not as good as Billy Joe's Christian-rock, post-trauma album Everybody's Brother, which had some real Tennessee rockabillying on it.

so I'll add that Alan Jackson had some sort of uncool things to say about the Village Voice and its readers and country music, in Beverly Keel's Tennessean column last Thursday, in which someone translated my supposedly cryptic review of Good Time into Google-English, what it looked like to me. Apparently, Alan doesn't go out to the grocery store because of his fame, is what Keel says in a profile of the man, which makes me more of a Common Man than he, I know the homely cashiers at the local Food Lion grocery by name and current poverty/relationship glitch. Anyway, I'm a good sport but really, Jackson saying that he can't conceive of a Voice reader getting into country or country fans hauling out their dictionaries perhaps to look up "prolix" and "detumescent" (in his spare time, looks like he might don his reading specs for a troll through the wonders of the English vocabulary, he's a songwriter for Chrissake--the American Heritage has good pictures and is sensibly prescriptive these days I guess) seems like a narrowing of market share right there, but what the fuck do I know.

The Voice has pretty often sported good country coverage, I think, no matter who was editor; Xgau's 70s Guide is full of juicy leads and takes, and several other leading Voicers of them days, like Bangs, Meltzer, Tosches, Hickey were all big on country; even Weisbard was big on Garth and early versions of Drive-By Truckers, etc. And Tom Smucker's vision of Merle is still in the archive, prob'ly. Wonder what Alan would think of what's said about him here:
http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0244,172281,39494,22.html

Yeah, the Voice has had good country coverage but if this is what
Jackson said...

<I>Jackson saying that he can't conceive of a Voice reader getting into country or country fans hauling out their dictionaries perhaps to look up "prolix" and "detumescent"</i>

...I can see his point.

It's like this. I'm from Pine Grove, Pennsy, a redneck 2000+ town of largely uneducated white people. Some of them occasionally discover my blog in soCal because they Google Pine Grove-y things like Professor Schnitzel Pennsy Dutch comedy records, or some other local band I wrote about, or coal country culture and politics. And then some write e-mails asking how to get Professor Schnitzel records or about some other aspect of old Pine Grove and they don't get, at all, 99.9 percent of what I write on the page. Even though we grew up together and we have the same color of blood and genetic code. We radically diverged at some point back in the mists of time.

And that's what guys like Alan Jackson are getting at. I can't see any of the hosts on the cable country music video channels getting at all what the Voice has chosen to write about country. Altie weeklies in the big big city, what audiences they have, are divergent from his audience and if you draw two circles, one for the Voice audience and one for Jackson's country, you could overlap them a little where there will be some shared members. But the great majority of the area inside the two circles will be devoted to two sets, neither of which have much of anything in common.

Dunno the statistics, but I do know "Voice readers who have gotten into country" largely because of the Voice, or that's what they've told me (and I wouldn't have gotten into a lot of areas of country otherwise, myself) Not that they didn't some interest to start with; otherwise it would be like saying the Voice "turned somebody gay" (oh wait)

Also of course, would AJ have been so dismissive if he'd gotten what he considered to be a positive review that didn't contain any of them words his fans supposedly jest cain't unnnerstan (like they're supposed to identify with "Ah don't know Iraq from Iran")?

yeah, I'm from a small town in Middle Tenn. that's mainly agricultural (tobacco) and divided decisively along racial lines. there are 2 Super Wal-Marts here, or maybe even 3. NASCAR country.

probably the audiences don't overlap a whole lot. but I bet New York's a pretty big market for Arista Nashville products. still, Jackson knows which side his bread is buttered on, for sure.

Yes--but I read some features around the time of the Krauss production, in which he and his scribes implied that he'd had so many hits he could afford to take a chance, and also that he felt the need to take it, cos his side of the bread was getting toward stale--as country once again demonstrates its usefulness as a leading economic indicator, like the construction industry--not a good time to be taken for granted, thogh you can't piss off the loyalists either, so better not be seen as hobnobbing with dainty press types, even though Krauss is Starbucksy as hell (then again, Burbville's got the Starbucks now, buddeh, and the Voice, although it's always a week late, cos we-'uns ain't in no hurry)(I'm still in Middle AL so I know these thangs)

exactly, Don, hence my "sly detumescence" after he and Krauss lit up a doobie in the studio and listened to their Little Feat remasters, and did a little consensual foreplay artist-producer style.

good: Shawn Mullins' Honeydew, kinda down-and-out McMurtry-vignette-lite.

I always get the vignette-lite at Subway. Forthcoming Old 97s is fun, more often than not (shoulda been 10 instead of 14 tracks, but shouldn't they all)

new Old 97s as good and songful as Fight Songs, Don?

I'll have to dig that one up; got a couple from that era (this one's sort of "not" country rock, but homepokes know better)

Not that they're trying to hide anything, just keeping it clubland-adaptable, since you gotta make the money on the road now more than ever, or as much as ever, far as most bands have ever gone.

My ten favorite country albums of the year, as of today:

1. Dolly Parton – Backwoods Barbie (Dolly)
2. Amanda Shaw – Pretty Runs Out (Rounder)
3. Phil Vassar – Prayer Of A Common Man (Universal)
4. The Mother Truckers – Let’s All Go To Bed (Funzao)
5. Mechanical Bull – A Million Yesterdays(Woodstock)
6. Keith Anderson – C’Mon (Columbia)
7. I See Hawks In L.A. – Hallowed Ground (Big Book)
8. James McMurtry – Just Us Kids (Lightning Rod)
9. George Strait – Troubador (MCA Nashville)
10. Hayes Carll – Trouble In Mind (Lost Highway)

Didn't count as country, though they all have intermittent country-ish elements: Ross Johnson, Tonic Rays, New Bloods

Possibly underrating because they both have so much boring stuff to balance out the great stuff: Alan Jackson, Drive-By Truckers

Other runner-ups: Left Lane Cruiser, Ashton Sheppard, Terri Clark (assuming the advance CD that went out last year is the same as her new album) Chris Cagle, Old 97s, Chuck Wicks, Kathleen Edwards

Eh, actually I should probably count Further Down as a runner-up too (higher than most ones I listed.)

George Strait is a surprise, by the way! I expected to be bored by all of it, and was actually only bored by less than half of it. Favorites are probably the hippie-rock sounding Detroit diesel trucker song "Brothers of the Highway" and the boringly titled "When You're in Love," about visiting a Bed & Breakfast but not in the summer months when it's too hot. Lots of other good stuff, though (honky tonk, Western Swing, rocking "House of Cash" which is apparently about Johnny's house burning down according to Pareles in the Times a couple days ago.) And as goody-goody and bland as I've always said George is, he really does have a great voice, doesn't he? (Much better than, say, Keith Anderson's, whose album I prefer regardless.)

Phil Vassar's album is basically the same one for which an advance was sent out last year, but with two songs changed to better songs, including his current big hit wedding-day song (as in Nick Lowe, Chuck Berry, Gogol Bordello) "Love is a Beautiful Thing," which I like a lot despite its boring title. I liked the advance when I got it last year, wrote about it on Rolling Country last year, and shelved it; relistening to the advance of the new version, I'm amazed by how much I still love a lot of it.

And shoot! Inadvertently left this album (which I think I like more than Mechanical Bull but less than Mother Truckers) off that top-ten(tative) list:

Trent Willmon – Broken In (Compadre)

Also, see the new youtube links and comments I posted toward the bottom of this thread, if you're interested; I'm curious if anybody here (if anybody is still around here, that is) (seeing how I'm rarely around here myself these days) has any thoughts on the questions I'm posing there:

(vintage) country-disco

the Anderson record is really cool texturally; basically a rock album. I guess he does something nice with Foster & Lloyd and even that godawful Big & Rich wedding song "Lost in This Moment." I don't hear much real personality in his voice, myself, but do get a rush from the arrangements.

Companion Song to Drive-By Truckers' "Bob," which I described elsewhere as just one of those real specific Southern portraits: Donnie Fritts' "She's Got a Crush on Me," from his brand-new One Foot in the Groove. Fritts is an undistinguished singer but on this one he often sounds like Levon Helm, and although he's best on the uptempo shit (backing provided by the Muscle Shoals band the Decoys, who are the missing link between the Stax house band and, like, Stones or the Ohio Players) like "Chicken Drippins" and so forth, "She's Got a Crush on Me" is real Southern-rehab-specific, with lines about how this particular (likely 50-ish, homely, and lonely) woman lives in the "Sweetwater trailer park, lot number 3" and smokes Camel Lights and goes to the local Church of Christ, leaves notes on Donnie's windshield and, yep, has a crush on him. Somebody who could really sing could do it up just great, and I do think it's a great song to put next to the Truckers' "Bob" (David Hood, Patterson's dad, plays bass on the Fritts record). Elsewhere he says goodbye to New Orleans, gets Jesus in his life, and represents himself in the sad case of his best friend and his wife. Down but not out.

Finished doing a few things for, sadly, the last No Depression, including a piece on this Carolina trio the Carolina Chocolate Drops, who do the old-tyme folkie thing on songs by Dan Emmett and Sidney Bechet. Twenty-somethings who, you know, don't like rock 'n' roll, but they do their old stuff up with a lot of energy, which really counts for something.

Like I said, the country-disco I really like is that Tony Joe White stuff from around '80, and George Jones' awesome "I Ain't Got No Business Doing Business Today" takes disco's energy and dissipates it, so the Possum lies around all day watching TV, perhaps taking a restorative snort, with the various women who provide the vocal backup on the song.

I have not seen the Carll come thru, nor the Strait. As far as new stuff comin' up, I bet the new Eric Church is gonna be good. I did a profile of him that'll run in May. And heard that Montgomery Gentry recorded their new 'un down in Memphis at Ardent Studios, home of ZZ Top, Led Zep's III and of course various nutso efforts from Big Star and Jim Dickinson and them guys. No bear hunting in the streets of the Bluff City, but I hope they got them some dry ribs from the BBQ Shop down the street and got properly greasy...

Couldn't get with Lady Antebellum at all, altho I sure love that name. Ditto Chuck Wicks, I mean "Stealing Cinderella" makes me want to hear a song about how some guy goes to pick up the Farmer's Daughter and gets his ass shot off and the dad breaks into his own goddam song. And, apparently, Dolly is down to 80 lbs. while Oprah is up to 246, if the tabloids in the checkout line the other day are accurate. Who's eatin' whom?

The Cinderella song is one of my least favorites on the Wicks album. Here's the review I wrote for Billboard a couple months back, when it came out:

CHUCK WICKS
Starting Now
Producer: Monty Powell, Dann Huff
RCA
Release Date: Jan. 22

As a strong but not especially distinct new country voice who knows his way around both road-ready pop-rock and big aching ballads, Chuck Wicks is to early 2008 what Jason Michael Carroll was to early 2007. His debut’s most upbeat stuff grabs you first: “Good Time Comin' On,” where a couple get to know other on a summer car trip, is a genuinely sexy; in "She's Gonna Hurt Somebody", there's gonna be a heartache tonight and it hurts so good. Midtempo cuts have subtle charms, too: a warmly swaying semi-calypso about coming home to an empty house after a breakup; a vague let’s-all-get-along protest with the feel of great Brooks & Dunn ballad; some lovely blue-eyed soul. But the big hit so far is the tearjerker where Wicks asks Cinderella’s dad for her hand, and don’t be surprised if the one where the kid washes dishes for his single mom hits even bigger. (C.E.)

Agree there's nothing especially special about Keith Anderson's perfectly serviceable and competent voice, and that C'Mon! is basically a rock album; fortunately, I like rock music. (This applies to both Chris Cagle's and Chuck Wicks's albums, too, to a certain extent, but Keith out-rocks them both.)

Still drawing a total blank with Lady Antebellum myself, though I'm gonna give them one more chance. Hard to imagine why three young and somewhat hip-looking kids would choose to sound so frigging bleh.

Anybody ever hear of a four-gal country band called Evangeline who put out an album on MCA (well, MCA's apparently Jimmy Buffet-connected Margarittaville imprint) in 1992? I never heard of them before either, but I bought the CD in Princeton for $3 a couple weeks ago, and it's pretty good. Though their acapella cover of Boney M's "By the Rivers of Bablyon" was a major dissapointment, I have to admit.

And the Foster & Lloyd song is one of the lesser tracks on Anderson's album to my ears, by the way, but then I've never really got what people hear in Foster & Lloyd's music in the first place. Keith's version of "Lost in the Moment," is surprisingly stomachable, and maybe obligatory since he helped write it, but still weirdly pointless given how huge a hit B&R had with the song. Seems like he front-loads the rockers, just like Cagle did -- "C'Mon!," the title cut and opening track, totally kills. Also like "Sunday Morning in America" (welcome if morally corrupt exurban specifics in the lyrics about Winnebagos and cheerleaders on big-screen TVs and taking the Lord's name in vain whilst looking for a parking spot at the megachurch) and "Adaline" (about an uncle's tattoo he got in 1963 of a naked lady who he wouldn't end up with, and with a melody partially taken from Bob Seger's "Still The Same") and "Break My Heart" (another early rocker, about all the fun stuff Keith's got planned after the breakup.) And "I Still Miss You," the current single, sounds to me like a decently spare attempt at a Gary Allan ballad.

Hayes Carll opens for James McMurtry and the Heartless Bastards at the Bowery Ballroom, Mayday yall. I'd like to see that; two good live acts with some songs that can use live, though I ended up enjoying most and journeyman-appreciating almost all of the new James, to various degrees (further comments on that in and after my Voice 'view). Did Bony M do a good "Rivers of Babylon"? The best I heard was the original version(or was it?), on The Harder They Come soundtrack. Forget who that was, though, maybe Toots And The Maytals? A little thinner than their usual sound, if so. Xgau confirms he's gone from Stone, dam. Edd, tellum about that Ardent anthology you clued me to.

"Rivers Of Babylon" was the Melodians, an untoppable version, one of my favorite pieces of music, but the Boney M is quite likable.

(Speaking of gone, all the online "blogs" and columns at LVW were put on hold, so it was nothing specific to me. Nonetheless, it's hard to think they'll keep me, given that they got rid of both the people I worked under because they want a new direction.)

Not that it's country, but I'm up to track three of the new Black Mountain: gave their first alb a reasonably favorable review in the Voice and ended up selling the thing three months later. New one so far seems worst when it's trying to be metal (the first track) and metal and goth (parts of the third) but very good being all Neil Youngish and quavery (the second track and other parts of the third). Already I think McBean is giving the thing more presence and authority than he gave to the previous Black/Pink Mountains.

Dolly Parton night on American Idol was pretty dreadful, and my babe Brooke White gave "Jolene" a hurried and cluttered arrangement that sabotaged a lot of her basic emotiveness, though she's still the only one in this year's contest I'm likely to ever pay money on. I wrote about the night here. (And here's a new link of Brooke being real good several weeks ago on "Love Is A Battlefield," since YouTube was forced to kill the previous link.)

(Er, up to track five on the Black Mountain, and now it's high and wavering in a godawful recessive indie manner.)

"Rivers Of Babylon" was the Melodians, an untoppable version, one of my favorite pieces of music, but the Boney M is quite likable

I agree, of course! I was joking by calling it a Boney M cover, even though it's their only U.S. hit; I assume Evangeline had heard the lovely Melodians version, which is on The Harder They Come.

Chuck, what's your take on Ashton Shepherd's "Takin' Off This Pain"? Is the break-up song bitterness factor ratcheting up?

Dolly on American Idol doing "Jesus and Gravity." My second or third least favorite song on the album, and she was pitchy and her voice was too worn to really dominate the big gospel arrangement.

Ha, Jesus and Gravity -- your girl has successfully defied one, workin' on the other.

Briania, my take on "Takin' Off This Pain" is probably not that much of a take, but here it is:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2008/03/it-didnt-really.html

No, that's quite a take (and quite a photo). Hadn't made the "Sweet Child" connection, but dang if it isn't in there. The "Middle One" connection did occur to me -- it's one of the examples of that break-up bitterness thing. I probably look to the country charts more than other pop formats as a bellweather of sexual politics. Seems more balanced, somehow.

Yeah, though I'm doing a piece on Toby Keith for the Voice now (he's got a 2-CD hits collection coming out), and supposedly when he was first going to recprd his superstar breakthrough hit "How Do Ya Like Me Now," he claims the record company thought it might turn listeners off, since only women in country are supposed to do vicious and celebratory breakup songs. I've never noticed the scales especially tipped in women's favor in that regard myself, but who knows. Though if, say, Keith Anderson's "Break My Heart" (among other recent songs) is any indication, the imbalance changed long ago.

And actually, as I say in that post, the "Sweet Child" comparison isn't really mine -- it comes from fact checking cuz (upthread), who I would have quoted by name if I'd known what his actual name is!

"Slow Down Sister" by Lady Antebellum on now, and suprisingly, I like it -- It rocks pretty hard.

Their "Home Is Where The Heart Is" is sounding good, too: Okay, I'm warming to these youngsters, maybe.

yeah, I like rock music too, and I get off on the various textures and shit on Keith Anderson's record. Bill Lloyd is a guy I know well enough to exchange chit-chat with when I run into him these days, and you know, Foster & Lloyd had their lite-pop-country moments I guess.

As for Black Mountain, I like it when they get Ladies-from-Canyon Sandy Dennying on In the Future and could sit still for the freakouts, but content is the same ol' attractive paranoia.

and hell, I like Aaron Watson's Angels & Outlaws, on which he does Wayne Carson Thompson's "Tulsa" (don't let the sun set on you there, boy) and writes some of his own. My fave so far might be the trucker's song (complete with tricky guitar intro) "Breaker Breaker One Nine." Not bad at all, for ostentatious Austin-itis in an alt-country world.

as Don mentioned, there's a two-disc Big Beat (UK) thing called Thank You Friends: The Ardent Records Story, with all those folks who recorded down there in Memphis in their attempt to bring the Beatles to the banks of Mississippi River for a re-baptism. Chilton, Tommy Hoehn, Terry Manning, Hot Dogs, Cargoe--I have heard a lot of this stuff before, but liners say the vaults were scoured for alternate takes and so forth.

mentioned T. Graham Brown in reference to country-disco, but he's really the higher soul-country shlock, kinda the same thing Ronnie Milsap has been good at. saw Brown the other night, and he can still sing, and he's a funny guy onstage. "I Tell It Like It Used to Be" and "Water into Wine" had the audience rocking back and forth--that old rock 'n' roll triplet feel in evidence. Good stuff, guess I need to get me a Greatest Hits one of these days.

Judging by whatever tracks were on MySpace and YouTube a few months ago (and a more recent late night appearance on Leno or Conan or something), The Black Mountain female vocalist has the most distinctive delayed quavah evah. "Mmwah.(rest)(rest)Uhhhhhh." Thee sound of doomah. huhhh. Rest of the band treads on, commendably unfazed(Moe Tucker on Nico: "We have a statue in our band"). Und dig that sexy little butt-twitch their riffage grows sometimes, flicking off the tse-tse flies. I only get press releases about Lady Antebellum, but sounds like a brand of-- something I'd rather not imagine.

I somewhat discuss Sugarland/Little Big Town/Jake Owen's new hit Dream Academy cover plus newly charting Native Canadian singer Crystal Shawanda (among other less country things) here:

http://idolator.com/376030/beelzebub-beaters-healthy-hip+hop-ignition-starters-familiar-faces-canadian-country-and-some-not+yet+extinct-dodos

I linked Texas Lightning over on the Country Disco thread and I'll do so here, as I'm distressed there's been only one mention of them on these threads:

"No No Never"

"Waterloo"

"Like A Virgin"

"Consin Sorrow"

"C'est La Vie"

Pure country music, and the admission was even free; numbers as wild as a galloping horse

Oops, I gave you two Waterloos and no No No Nevers.

"No No Never"

I'll have to check xxhuxx's science on a better computer tomorrow; Idolator keeps blowing this one out (at least I think it said "out"). Meanwhile, I just posted "Why Do You Bob Your Hair, Boys?"(on A Tribute To Blind Alfred Reed and reissues of Ed Sanders' Beer Cans On The Moon and Sanders' Truck Stop)
http://thefreelancementalists.blogspot.com

And now that I've already called yall's attention to it, of course I belatedly spot some potholes, just filled (any others?)

Beer Cans on the Moon wasn't a keeper, altho I kinda liked the idea behind the Dolly Parton-robot song. But I did like Sanders Truckstop and its hippybilly boy stuff.

from late last year and probably not mentioned here: Romantica's America is the Wilco country-rock album Wilco don't wanna make any more, complete with 2 songs about the Mississippi River, one about how the singer wants to move to New Orleans and live next door to a "colored family" and other stuff like that. Tempos moderate, pedal steel and organ in the background, murmured waking dreams about America, Belfast and all that stuff. Nice and easy.

Speaking of the Ardent Records story I mentioned above, I recently heard Cargoe's Live in Memphis (they were another Memphis Ardent group, but I think they were originally from Oklahoma), where they sound like the Marshall Tucker Band with a slightly different kick to 'em or maybe like a less musically adept Atlanta Rhythm Section, but also just like the Great Generic '70s Boogie Band. Well, maybe not that great but certainly engaging, and nothing like Big Star at all.

actually, my buddy Dave Duncan says Cargoe reminds him of Phish or one of those jam-bands, and the drumming is kinda lite on its feet. Caucasian hippie boogie.

My Bedbugs commentary on Amanda Shaw:

Amanda Shaw, Pretty Runs Out. "Roots-based" fiddler on Rounder w/ tendencies towards metal and Go-Gos pop. Nice husky voice though songs fall short. Worth checking out.

Not sure why Frank doesn't hear songs in Amanda's music, since she's got plenty (at least five of which, from her new album, I could hum now if you asked me.) Anyway, here's what I wrote after seeing her live (and talking to her and her band) last week:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2008/04/so-i-caught-17.html

Meanwhile, I tried listening to the new Fred Eaglesmith album, and wow -- it was sheer torture, but then I also have an extremely low tolerance for Tom Waits, so what do I know? Is he always that hard to listen to? (I loved Toby Keith's version of his abandoned one-horse town gas station song "White Rose" last year, but I like Toby covering Paul Thorn a lot more than I like Paul Thorn singing his own lyrics, too. Christgau is an Eaglesmith fan; told me once that he thought Fred does what Montgomery Gentry do, only better. Not sure if I've tried to listen to him before, but judging from this new album Tinderbox, I don't understand the MG comparison at all. Do people think he's a rocker?)

Fred Eaglesmith? I always thought he was just another Nashville songwriter who occasionally made a record. A rocker, no, I never would've thought that. I mean I can barely listen to Waits, either, so...

Like the first 2 songs on Jeff Bates a lot--"Can't Have Nothin' Nice" describes how Jeff met a girl at the marina with whom he "talked bait" and before long, she got his new house, and "some adolescent in a Trans Am" runs into his truck, thus fucking up his chick scene. "Lonesome" takes up where that one leaves off, after the marina woman has cut bait and gone. Music's really detailed and smart, seems to me, and he sounds self-aware, and really country--sings like George Jones on "Lonesome." Kinda like Gary Allan, maybe, but the tunes wear down about halfway thru.

Scott Kempner's Saving Grace is a big slice o' Americana and in a few places he just can't sing over the riffage, but then the last four songs are really nice, like "The Secret Everybody Knows," and he sounds maybe a bit ghoulish regarding his own prospects, and thus sorta makes it, but just barely. And then I tried to listen to this East Nashville folk-rock from Brooke Ludwick--When the Circus Leaves Town (song titles: "If It Rains," "Crazy Go Away," "Clementine" and of course, "Wings" and "Circus Leaves Town" itself. Big emotions, nostalgia, big jangly Byrdsian arrangements, yet just kinda pallid.

What about jypsi, if that's how you spell it? Four young sibs, three girls and a boy; they were raised in a wandering trailer, and "the Wal-Mart parking lot was our home...we had to play to eat--if we said, "Daddy, we don't want peanut butter, we want a pizza," he'd say, "Well, you gotta play." They eventually got a steady gig at Layla's in Nashville, but still rove and play, in colorful garb, cos their Grandma Mindy made the girls wear religious neck-to-toe dress 9which she sewed herself). Not gypsy garb per se, but like one of the girls looks like a cross between Posh Spice and Edie Sedgewick, in shades, furs, pearls, short feathery hair (actually closer to Edie, but brownette in stead of blonde)

Haven't heard 'em, just saw a little thing on CMT Insider.

Listening to the first disc of Toby's 35 Biggest Hits this morning; went back and read Metal Mike and Don on Toby Keith back before he became TOBY. KEITH. Damn. Music writinig in the Village Voice was pretty good in those days, wasn't it?

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/9920,216037,5998,22.html

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0221,169966,35150,22.html

Metal Mike's piece also makes me wonder what ever became of Claudia Church, Shane McNally (neither of whom I have any opinion about, though I should hunt for their old CDs in used bins) and Lila McCann. (I know what happened to Lari White -- she put out a good album called Green Eyed Soul, and wound up producing Toby Keith's best album. Chely Wright's output has been really spotty since "Single White Female," as far as as I can tell, but Metal Mike is absolutely on-point about how great that song was.)

Haven't heard Jypsi yet, Don, though I've been curious. Hope they're better than Lady Antebellum (who really aren't all that bad, I swear -- the idea of a country band whose main male vocal influence seems to be Rob Thomas just takes some getting used to, but it kinda makes perfect sense.)

Also, Don, got your email about how so many CMT videos this spring are dads singing about their verge-of-adulthood daughters, and yeah, I might well relate. Too bad I can't afford cable these days...

Anuhthuh one: Don on CMT, 2001 -- I still don't think I was paying attention to country yet, much:

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0128,165463,26451,22.html

Indian Rodeo's "Radio" made me laugh. Here's the guy, Josh Newcom (?), singing about how he was insulted by the record company exec insisting country ought to be more rock. So he told that guy, for sure, and "Radio's" so much his own man's thing, sounding just like late period Bad Company when the only people in the band were Boz and Simon, or first album Raging Slab on the directly southern Indian wounded man tunes. I forgot if the video had him wearing a fringe jacket.

And who's the guy doing the sound about watching the airplanes take off?
Gary Allan, right. Sheez. Is it in the IS00 9000 code of good practice that every video in the genre have staged concert footage with the wistufl looking girls staring tearily into the camera with at least one of 'em on someone's shoulders and wearing a jog bra?

And this all has to be reviewed in time for it to be published the week before it hits department stores now? We must all hang our heads in shame if that's the truth.

Played the Chuck Wicks in the background and it never pushed to the foreground, did the same with the first half of the Chris Cagle and surprisingly it did. Obviously I'll listen again to both.

Amanda has songs all right, I just don't think she has great songs. (And despite my liking her voice, my favorite track was one of the fiddle raveups, sans vocals.)

Is Metal Mike still into country? Lari White also sang "Stinky Socks," one of the higher highlights of the muy highlit Kid Pan Alley:Nashville,which is an album sporting the results of A-List Nashville Cats writing with schoolkids (there was a prev KPA album from another city, haven't heard that one, but it's an ongoing traveling workshop project, last I heard)The song and album made my Nash Scene ballot too, and yall can still stream her track (and read about the whole thing) here:
http://www.paperthinwalls.com/singlefile/item?id=299

Listening to Fred Eaglesmith's "Alcohol & Pills" on his MySpace (which describes itself as a tribute site, though I assume it has Fred's blessing). Kinda like how Fred sounds, the portentous ache in his voice, even if from the evidence of these lyrics he's never had an original insight in his life. Also, on the basis of this song and "Wilder Than Her" I have no clue where Xgau sees a similiarity to Montgomery Gentry. I'm completely baffled. Certainly doesn't try to rock like MG. Something in the lyrics? "Wilder Than Her" compares his male wildness to a female's not-quite-as wildness, but doesn't root itself in the self-conflicted pro and antidomesticity that bedevils MG, though perhaps Eaglesmith does on some of the other songs. Does imply she's a good influence, which MG will sometimes do as well, except when they do the opposite. "She's a summer storm, I'm a hurricane/One just blows through town, one blows the town away." Nice couplet, even if the idea is as old as the oceans. (Well, I exaggerate. Earth had oceans for billions of years before it had ideas.) And now I'm starting to get tired of his slow and strained vocal shtick, which doesn't vary from song to song, and was far more touching on "Alcohol & Pills" than on the the other three; but I can imagine this guy churning out a great song now and then. (I liked "White Rose" a lot.) "Wilder Than Her" isn't bad. Wonder how it would sound with more swing and with less strain underlining its pain.

A-ha:

Fred Eaglesmith
Ralph's Last Show [Signature Sounds, 2001]

In the studio, musicianship renders this Canadian singer-songwriter one more rough-hewn troubadour with his heart pinned firmly to his hollow-body. On this live double, his need to shout over bar talk and penetrate the sloppy strum-and-thrum of his drumless good-enough-for-folk-rock band combines happily with the best-of effect, resulting in a raucous celebration of male chauvinism Montgomery Gentry should only envy--for its powers of observation, class solidarity, and laugh lines. The fast hard ones are all great, and they outnumber the medium-tempo corny ones, which bottom out at tolerable and memorably honor migrant workers and a good dog. Not counting the song that goes, "When exactly did we become white trash," my three favorite fast ones are all about souped-up gas guzzlers, the finest of which drives up to an old-age home. Never again do I expect to enjoy an album that begins and ends with songs about trains. Then again, I never expected to enjoy this one. A-

Bump this up.

Is Metal Mike still into country?

BOC and VOM appreciation plus putting tween-to-twentysomething knobs in their place on MySpace and asking me what kit to buy to get a raging late Sixties/early Seventies Detroit guitar sound onstage.

Whether you wanna deal with this or not, mainstream country exposure is six to eighteen months beyond the content here. So you think there's some bonus in spraying out opine on stuff published next Tuesday? C'mon guys, they're still digging into songs on Jack Ingram and Paisley's 2007 LPs in top rotation. And how 'bout Alan Jackson, playin' the catchy fool as usual, his song about being an old timey American bowing the head to Jesus and raising the hand for Uncle Sam. Wow, look at all the young people signing up!

If I gave someone a twenty dollar bill, or a case of beer, would they throw a dart or two at the annoying phony? Two cases for darts at Bucky Covington and the glorification of motocross. Motocross rules! Three cases for Jason Aldean. What's that guy's shtick, other than looking slightly fierce with a heroic IQ of 70 in Eisenhower-America-transplanted-to-the-Nineties?

Whether you wanna deal with this or not, mainstream country exposure is six to eighteen months beyond the content here

OOF! And that's my typo. Being 6 to 18 months BEHIND. Its progress sort like the advance of soap opera or glaciers.

best thing on the two-disc Thank You Friends: The Ardent Records Story is either Cargoe's great single "Feel Alright," more pop and catchy than anything Big Star did except maybe "When My Baby's Beside Me" or the Hot Dogs' great version of "I Walk the Line," which dovetails nicely with Terry Manning's attack on Jack Clement's "Guess Things Happen This Way," also included.

My two cents on McMurtry's latest:
http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0816,small-reviews-3,411853,22.html

My notes on current country hits, after a week in Texas:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2008/04/country-in-the.html#more

(Actually, re-watching that Montgomery Gentry vid, the snobs look more '00s gentry-fied than I thought. The one who seems anachronistic in a '60s TV way to me is the rich leading lady who flirts a lot.)

(Also, I should maybe add that the Houston country station definitely didn't play stuff like Robert Earl Keen. But as we got west of Austin, toward Johnston City and Fredericksburg, we found country stations that specialized in what they called "Texas music." My spouse's favorite song, and one of mine, was one we couldn't even identify -- a lovely Tex-Mex-rhythmed post-Buck Owens-style honky-tonker sung seemingly from the point of view of a Mexican who'd wound up settling in Texas because life was easier for him on this side of the border. Could maybe be Dwight Yoakam or the Mavericks, but I'm not sure what the song would be-- more likely neither those. But if it rings a bell for anybody, please say so.)

Hey, watch it now, you've stumbled into what I cracked on about upstream. CMT's been playing the same brace of vids for about 12-18 months, with only a bare handful of relatively new things. It's deep into Swift's album. Being as GAC is another cable channel, also seemingly owned by CMT, it too plays the same videos, sometimes only minutes apart. Fundamentally, it's Taylor Swift TV on both channels, followed by, at best, a dozen other heavyweights in slightly less heavy rotation. And they're still playing Keith Urban and Jack Ingram from the last albums. You can literally skip it for a couple weeks and not miss anything.

So this still don't explain why anyone has to review records the week before they come out -- or die. It would appear the listening and viewing audience, not many of whom read music reviews, could care less if a good tune's a year or so old and aren't so concerned about gettin' stuff still bleeding and hot from the womb.

Except that country's not doing so hot commericially now/once again--and not just because it's a leading economic indicator (fewer bucks from constuction jobs,*even* fewer CDs bought than usual), but the traditional time-lag release-wise (Taylor's been cited as one of the very first country artists to sell lots of downloads, so she's a godsend to the new stuff-deprived video channels)(but GAC and CMT at leastused to be rivals, when the former lured Grand Ol Opry away from the latter, dang me, I don't get no GAC! Though Viacom owns CMT/VH-1/MTV etc and may own GAC now)

Of course, Taylor's success via download is still success, and may also used to justify the slowww milking of ancient releases (so even Dierks can have a Greatest Hits, after three albums in five years, cos it seems so much effing longer, esp as his stuff gets overexposed and more boring even before it's overexposed)

I actually like the Dierks best-of a lot, though yeah, after just 3 albums (especially ones worth owning in their own right) it seems awfully soon. Given the five live tracks tacked on at the end, I'm guessing the purpose of the release might be to expand his fanbase -- to say, rock fans, seeing how he's actually on the Lollapalooza roster this summer.

I guess so (I shouldn't put it down, since haven't heard the whole thing, esp. not the live tracks, which may well be good; orig known as a reliable roaddawg, and I always liked him best as front man for a *band*). He put the package together based on feedback from fans; they voted on songs, art, title, etc. If editors weren't such release-date wusses, I'd prob pitch Ronnie Hawkins' Mojo Man/Arkansas Rockpile, on Collectors' Choice (4/29). The Hawks, eventually incl all members AKA The Band, rock pretty good, for the most part (a few mere runthoughs, but not every track is annotated, so the few duds may not be those guys at all). Only thing, Levon is credited with lead vocal on one (good) track that blends in with the singing on all other tracks, so which ones does Ronnie sing? Whutever, the vocal sound is at home on country and doowoop-variant ballads as on Bo Diddley etc, sweet n sssassy (and a couple of country tracks feature Harold Bradley on guitar and splish-splash honkytonk piano of Floyd Cramer)( and King Curtis shows up too)Wonder if thatRonnie album, think it was Rock & Roll Resurrection, feat Duane Allman and other Muscle Shoalsers, is in print--?

Country-(at least somewhat)-relevant cannibalization from rolling vinyl thread, a couple days ago:

Vinyl I bought in Texas this week:

dave & sugar - that's the way love should be LP - 75
cents
dave & sugar - stay with me/golden tears LP - $1
lee dorsey - night people LP - $1
dr. feelgood - sneakin' suspicion LP - $2
funky kings - funky kings LP - $1
head east - gettin' lucky LP - $2
long ryders - state of our union LP - $1
night - night LP - $1
henry paul band - grey ghost LP - $1
bj thomas - everybody's out of town LP - 75 cents (various0 - cruisin' 1960 LP - 75 cent

-- xhuxk, Sunday, April 27, 2008 12:45 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

"henry paul band - grey ghost LP - $1"

YOU WILL LOVE THIS

-- scott seward, Sunday, April 27, 2008 3:26 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

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"funky kings - funky kings LP - $1"

NOT SO FUNKY REALLY

-- scott seward, Sunday, April 27, 2008 3:27 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

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"dr. feelgood - sneakin' suspicion LP - $2"

YEAH!

-- scott seward, Sunday, April 27, 2008 3:27 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

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dave & sugar - that's the way love should be LP - 75
cents
dave & sugar - stay with me/golden tears LP - $1

YOU GOT BURNED!

(Actually, see "Country/Disco" thread)

-- briania, Sunday, April 27, 2008 4:15 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

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Briana, your country-and-disco thread comments about Dave & Sugar (who I don't think I've ever heard) are exactly what convinced me to buy those two albums!

-- xhuxk, Sunday, April 27, 2008 4:38 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

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"funky kings - funky kings LP - $1"

NOT SO FUNKY REALLY

THAT'S WHAT I FIGURED! MORE IMPORTANT QUESTION: DO THEY SOUND AT ALL LIKE JULES AND THE POLAR BEARS (WHOSE FIRST TWO ALBUMS WERE ACTUALLY PRETTY GOOD)?

-- xhuxk, Sunday, April 27, 2008 4:55 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

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i don't remember the funky kings record being very good at all, but i'll play it again soon just to make sure. i might have only played the first side.

-- scott seward, Sunday, April 27, 2008 12:38 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

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funky kings LP isn't bad; sort of endearing wannabe early springsteen meets wannabe early eagles stuff. seems to contain the original version of "swayin' to the music (slow dancing)," though i'd never realized til now that johnny river's hit version was a cover. favorite track so far is also the most ridiculous one, about dumpster-diving a used mattress, putting it on one's roof, and getting lots of sex use out of it up there. not a jules shear number, oddly enough. (he has 3, which don't sound polar-bears-like to me.)

the bj thomas album has a bacharach-david number called "send my picture to scranton, PA"! best song, though, is the title track, about gentrification. cool LP cover. he covers nillson and simon and garfunkel and soul songs, and bacharach/david also produced it. better than the used raindrops keep fallin' on my head i bought by him last year.

lee dorsey album sounds way less new orleans r&b than i'd remembered. title track is the most disco cut, and totally great; the rest reminds me of disco era (c. belle) al green, almost.

nothing on the night album is as great as "hot summer nights," which makes me think i should have bought the used $1 walter egan album i saw this week, too (since he wrote that particular song). the other cut i really like, though, is "ain't pretty enough," which could totally pass for a mid-tempo babe ruth cut in a blindfold test, thanks mostly to stevie lange's vocal similarity to jennie haan.

wondering why i never bought any of those "cruisin'" compilations before. the 1960 one seems really cool -- "alley oop," "you talk too much," "finger poppin time," "tears on my pillow," "because they're young," etc., and i really like the pop-art drive-in comic-book packaging. the series came out in 1970, apparently, on chess-distributed increase records, and each volume (one for each year, 1955 to 1962) is picked and annotated by an apparently famous top 40 dj. the 1960 one is curated by dick biondi from wkbw buffalo; 1956 (which i don't have -- in fact, i don't have any others) by robin seymour for wkmh detroit; 1962 by russ "weird beard" knight of klif dallas, etc. i've seen these in used record stores for decades, but never gave any thought to them, for some reason, and don't remember reading much about them anywhere else. seems to be a more hip version of the oldies but goodies concept, but i'm not sure how popular or widely distributed they were.

-- xhuxk, Sunday, April 27, 2008 7:40 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

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best song, though, is the title track, about gentrification

or maybe about moving to the suburbs? i dunno; need to listen to it more to be sure.

the mattress the funky kings swipe, by the way, is carried home on the back of their studebaker. the song comes off as a really goofy, over-the-top springsteen parody, though i'm guessing it probably wasn't intended that way. (pat feeney, who runs main street music in manayunk, philly, tells me it's one of his 30 favorite albums of all time, as is the first polar bears record. he said he even paid $80 for a CD version of the funky kings album a few years ago, which apprarently only came out in japan.)

-- xhuxk, Sunday, April 27, 2008 7:47 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

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yo xhuxk, where did you go in texas?

-- Romeo Jones, Sunday, April 27, 2008 7:57 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

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houston ---> various german/czech hill country towns ---> wimberly --- > austin ----> johnson city --- > fredericksburg --- > houston

-- xhuxk, Sunday, April 27, 2008 7:59 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

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and off-topic, but fwiw, at houston's half price books I also bought copies of the following CDs, all $1 each except in the one case noted: t. graham brown lives! ($2), joe dee messina jo dee messina, jamie o'neal shiver, chely wright let me in.

-- xhuxk, Sunday, April 27, 2008 9:39 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

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"seems to be a more hip version of the oldies but goodies concept"

the series on Roulette? or i guess there were lots of series like that. the early 60's roulette series of 50's stuff is beyond great. not that i have them all, but they have track-listings on the backs of each one. i just found a pristine copy of volume 10 in the Roulette series last week. God, is it ever incredible.

oops, my bad, the Roulette series was called Golden Goodies. I couldn't stop playing the one i bought last week. tune weavers, spaniels, chantels, etc. all of it amazing.

I got a couple of volumes of United Artist's The Very Best Of Oldies series a while back. Those are good too, but more obvious. The usual suspects like Thurston Harris, and Phil Upchurch, Garnet Mimms, etc.

My big revelation of the last few weeks: where has Tom T. Hall been all my life! Got his greatest hits, and now I need more.

-- scott seward, Sunday, April 27, 2008 10:18 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

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xp You should look around for The Essential Tom T. Hall: Twentieth Anniversary Collection -- 2-LP set from 1988. That's the one I swear by, Scott. Best single album is In Search of a Song. Both of them rank with my favorite county LPs ever.

As for Cruisin', what I wrote above was just me going by the track list and liner notes. I didn't realize the albums were actual DJ air checks, but that's what they seem to be according to these links:

http://www.dailyvault.com/toc.php5?review=3203

http://www.epinions.com/content_370728799876

http://leemichaelwithers.tripod.com/cruisin.htm

(I guess the 1963 to 1970 editions came out later, like maybe when the series was re-released on CD?)

-- xhuxk, Sunday, April 27, 2008 10:37 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

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i loved those cruisin' covers when they came out.

-- scott seward, Sunday, April 27, 2008 10:41 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

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xp Or okay, maybe not actual actual DJ air checks, but a remarkable facsimile thereof:

The series not only includes the original songs by the original artists from a particular year but also includes a Disk Jockey (D. J.) from a particular radio station all across North America. Included with the music is original radio advertisements (commercials), some public service announcements, radio station jingles, D. J. banter and numerous other goings on to make the record sound like it was recorded right from a live studio broadcast.

-- xhuxk, Sunday, April 27, 2008 10:51 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

Now I think BJ Thomas's "Everybody's Out Of Town" is neither about gentrification nor suburbanization, but more about everybody leaving the city for the weekend, like a long holiday weekend in the summer. Still a good song, though. And the Scranton, PA, song is sung from the point of view of somebody who grew up an outcast there and wants everybody back home to know he's made it big elsewhere. They really should play it on The Office sometime I think.

Have made it through one side of one of those Dave & Sugar LPs so far; pretty bad, but maybe bad in an interesting way -- like, at least as much half-assed post-Abba Europop as half-assed countrypolitan, maybe more. Not all that "disco" beyond a lilt or two, but I definitely hear some Abba in there, both in the beat and in the blonde blank lady harmonies. I need to check and find out how big they were sometime; I still have no memory at all of ever even hearing of them, until recently. David Cantwell and Bill Friskics-Warren mention them a couple times in passing in Heartaches By The Number: Country Music's 500 Greatest Singles, and they seem to really think they're the nadir of lame crossover; but then again, they also hate Kenny Rogers, who definitely had a few great (and a couple slightly disco-leaning) moments. Either way, Dave & Sugar look pretty creepy in a cocainey way on those LP covers -- one sleazeball and two bubbleheads. Weird.

They were big enough to be on Heehaw more than once, & maybe the Mandrells' show as well. Yeah, they're totally creepy -- "Sugar", for the blissfully ignorant, is plural, like "Dawn" -- and Dave's persona was unctuous and pimpish. He's probably still active in Branson with some degraded, downscale "Sugar" young enough to be his granddaughters.

GAC was alleged to be an alternative to CMT at one point. If there's a difference now it's one that's not cost effective. I've literally been able to switch between the two and see the same videos within a couple to fifteen minutes of each other on many occasions. The synchrony is often so close I get confused about whether I have one or the other on.

<i>Taylor's been cited as one of the very first country artists to sell lots of downloads, so she's a godsend to the new stuff-deprived video channels</i>

Why would that be? Taylor cable TV looks like overkill to me. There's nothing fresh about something that's played all the time for weeks on end. The endcap displays change faster at BestBuy.

it's "interesting" that Antebellum's "All We'd Ever Need" is basically a mushy adult r&b duet as much as a c&w duet, but I don't think I like it, and beyond that they're pretty much drawing a blank

Listened to tracks one through five and "All We'd Ever Need" is the only one I do like. "Mushy adult r&b duet" is about right except I'm not hearing r&b so much as '80s MOR/AOR power balladry that is either hurt or helped by its new-country restraint. Guy singer'd be a manly man type baritone except that he's not actually a baritone and at times reminds me of Neil Diamond, though that's probably only because I'm girding for various Idols to wreck Diamond's oeuvre tonight. (Actually, I bet "Solitary Man" is a track that David Cook could muscle through nicely, would do a better job than Finnish rock bawlers H.I.M. did recently. Um, I'm off-topic, aren't I, but in any event, Brooke White's been sabotaging herself with stage fright the last several weeks but still is the only Idol I'm going to care about post-elimination. Her indie album from several years ago is really mediocre, however; I forget if I mentioned that here, not that it's relevant.) Back to Lady Antebellum, I don't get what's either Bellum or Pre-Bellum in their sound, or what's particularly "Lady" about them either even if one of their singers has ovaries, "Lady" having raw hip-hop connotations these days. Problem with tracks 1, 2, 4, and 5 and a reason that listening to 6 through 11 is a nonpriority is the poor songwriting, rather than there being anything wrong in principle with their MOR soft-rock hearts. In fact, I like the implicit Fleetwood Mackishness of their approach, even if their sound isn't all that Fleetwood Mac and even if they can't hold a candle to Little Big Town (much less to Fleetwood Mac, much less to a shitload of MOR country and noncountry pros from the last 30 years that you guys will know far more about than I do).

Not that the H.I.M. version is all that bad, actually (wouldn't have linked it if I'd thought it wasn't worth hearing), and surprisingly it's not all that different from Neil's, except not nearly as good.

Speaking of Little Big Town, they've now jumped from Equity to Capitol, so no longer eligible for the independent charts. Iirc, Capitol-EMI is taking over the distribution for <i>A Place To Land</i>.

Btw, was country paying much attention to Dave Loggins and Jim Croce back when they were scoring pop hits? Wiki has Loggins writing for various country guys, so I guess the answer is "yes" for him (or "yes, belatedly," or something; I don't really know). Pleasant singer-songwriter fellows. And I think David Allen Coe recorded "Please Come To Boston" at one point.

And what about Neil Diamond, since I just mentioned him, and Gene Pitney, guys from the Northeast whom nonetheless I'd expect the country audience might have warmed to, something prole-but-on-the-make-but-knowing-defeat in their manner. Did "western" ballad "Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" ever get c&w attention? I once put Pitney's "I'm Afraid To Go Home" on a WMS blindfold test, a proto-"Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" lament that could have been aimed at a Southern audience. (Xhuxk, Don, and I liked it but it got mauled by the other voters including Southerner Renée Crist.)

Strangely, the Lady Antebellum album wound up really growing on me -- partly as a sub-Little Big Town type affair. I actually think now that it's a pretty decent record. Will explain why before long, maybe, though I'm not sure how convincing I'll be about it.

was country paying much attention to Dave Loggins and Jim Croce back when they were scoring pop hits?...And what about Neil Diamond, since I just mentioned him, and Gene Pitney

Not sure, though didn't Dave Loggins only really have one pop hit, even? (Yeah, just checked -- beyond "Please Come To Boston," his only other Hot 100 hit was "Someday," which went # 57 in 1974. He also only had one album that scored in the Top 200.)

On the subject of pop singers crossing over country, though (as we were also discussing in reference to Ronstadt and potentially Miley a few months ago), Cantrell and Friskics-Warren list the following "reverse crossover" names in their intro: Bobby Goldsboro, John Denver, Anne Murray, Olivia Newton-John, "all of whom scored major country hits," though it doesn't say how big, or how many.

Is Metal Mike still into country?

Wasn't sure either; then got this mass-sendout email from him last week:

on monday night's televised CMT Awards, partway through their dumping the whole truckful of awards to Taylor (they did everything but give her a t-shirt that said SHANIA'S M.I.A., GO SELL US A BILLION RECORDS)

it went right by me until i re-played my tape later (of the mylie/billy ray sketches or standup routines, and taylor's live performance), where she accepted an award and went speechless/dumfounded (it must have been Video Of The Year, after they'd already given her Female Video Of The Year) and said something kinda like --

"i....i don't even have a fan club. i want to thank all my friends on MySpace!"

i needed to add her page anyway, so when i did last night, i back-punched to the blog section's earliest date (it searches forward like a car radio function), and sure enough the very first (medium length) "blog" was right during the start of the recording sessions for the debut album.

wiith exactly three comments on that page. ha.

these days when she posts one up (like after the CMT awards), there's anywhere between 200 to 400 comments (onto the blog page, all visible of course) of any length from 2 words to 2 whole pages

ahhhh the fact that i bought green day's first album 40 whole weeks after its release date. which made me one of the first 2,000 persons in the world to ever buy a green day album.

annd when i bought the taylor swift album friday night, new $13.99, it'd been out just 77 weeks on the charts. which made me (barely) one of the first uh, 3 million persons in the world to buy a taylor swift album.

From today's email:

International Country Music Conference Announces Book and Journalism Award Recipients

(Nashville, TN - April 29, 2008) - The 25th annual International Country Music Conference (ICMC) is a premier event for country music scholars and enthusiasts. ICMC is pleased to recognize the work of authors and journalists and their contributions in the study of country music by presenting the following awards during the event.

The Belmont Book Award is presented annually to the committee's choice as the overall best book on country music. This year's recipient is Public Cowboy No. 1: The Life and Times of Gene Autry written by Holly George-Warren and published by Oxford University Press.

"It's a great honor to receive this award for my biography of a man who did so much to advance the popularity of country music around the world," remarked Holly George-Warren. "Gene Autry inspired numerous legendary artists--from Johnny Cash to Solomon Burke to Bob Dylan. (True? I really just know "Rudolph The Rednosed Reindeer," which he reportedly can be heard about, on bootlegs of the session, cos he knew it would be a monster hit he'd have to sing forever. He was also a media mogul, the Golden West Network or something like that, but mainly what I remember of his old cowboy movies on TV, is just being vaguely creeped out by his pudding-faced sneer) The rest of it:

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes a long-term commitment to linking books with country music. This year, the award will be presented to the Country Music Hall of Fame Foundation and Library.

"This is the first time we've ever given the Lifetime Achievement Award to an institution," said Don Cusic, chair of the awards committee. "In the past, we have always recognized an individual with this award. However, it was clear to us that the Country Music Hall of Fame Foundation and Library deserves this honor."

The Charlie Lamb Awards are given to outstanding country music journalists. The 2008 honors will be awarded to Beverly Keel of The Tennessean in the contemporary category and entertainment industry veteran Barry McCloud in the lifetime category.

The winner of the Belmont Book Award receives a check for $1,000, funded by the Mike Curb Family Foundation. Each of the recipients in the journalist category receives a check for $500, funded by Gary and Peggy Walker, owners of The Great Escape, in honor of legendary country music journalist Charlie Lamb.(by today's rates, not bad!)

Mirrored from Rolling Hard Rock:
===========
Mudcrutch s/t TP indicated in recent bookend articles in the NY Times/LA Times (hey, lessee how much we can make our articles look like they're joined at the hip from press junket!) that Mudcrutch songs were written real fast. Sometimes in an afternoon. And while that's sometimes OK, in this case it sounds it.

"This is a Good Street" -- 1:34 of TP and pals singin' how it's a good street. (Eyes roll.) Coulda been "This is a Good Sandwich" except two syllables make it hard to fit into the metre.

A lot of it sounds like an old Outlaws record which is OK, too, except no "Green Grass & High Tides." "Crystal River" doesn't really qualify.

"Six Days on the Road" is lightweight Georgia Satellites or bad Faces depending on your age and POV.

Much of this doesn't rock nearly as hard as you would have expected a bar band in Florida to have rocked in the early Seventies. "Lover of the Bayou" works at it a bit.

Major problem is TP phoning it in even when he doesn't realize he's phoning it in. Being as it has Mike Campbell and some other Heartbreaker aces on it, the sounds are ace but the lyrics -- tripe. How many times has Tom done his "I Won't Back Down" shtick? On this it's for "Scare Easy" cuz Tom's "a loser at the top of his game" and y'know, he won't scare easy. One wishes he would break into "y'know it don't come easy" and a cheerful song by Ringo Starr but it's just not gonna happen.

It's all very amiable and laidback summertime, so maybe "Shady Grove" -- which sounds like the Outlaws from their second or third albums -- will be the hit that guarantees he'll do another couple of these. Naturally, it's recorded very classic and gorgeous and no one born doesn't like Mike Campbell on guitar.

"Bootleg Flyer" is the most Heartbreakers-like from the vintage era of the band.

"Ahh, ladies give a drunkard a chance," sings Tom on the last song on the CD. Nope, nope, nope, no girls partying in Florida these days are gonna do that, especially listening to this.

Why, oh why, did I buy this?

PS -- It's not really that awful. It just isn't anything except TP and buds being hayseeds which they probably were definitely determined not to be back when they actually were Mudcrutch. If you liked Pure Prairie League or Asleep at the Wheel records in the 70s-80s, maybe you'd really like Mudcrutch. If you like Shooter Jennings on his most recent, I suppose this is same kind of stuff without the Dire Straits cover.

-- Gorge, Tuesday, 29 April 2008 21:28 (Yesterday) Link
========

All too plausible. Has anyone heard the original Mudcrutch recordings? I think only a couple of singles were released (and they broke up during the sessions), but the whole thing must be around somewhere.

The New York Times has been running a songwriters blog that I'd been ignoring, but I realize it might be of at least tangential relation to this thread, since the songwriters include Suzanne Vega (folkie), Rosanne Cash (singer-songwriter w/ country pedigree and folk and pop leanings), Andrew Bird (don't know who he is except that he's won a Plug award for indie something-or-other and that, among other people and places, he's working with Mark Nevers in Nashville), and Darrell Brown (also unknown to me, has done writing for LeAnn Rimes, Keith Urban, and Neil Young).

So anyway, I followed the Rosanne Cash links a couple of days ago; she's detailing a collaboration with Joe Henry, starting with some lyrics she jotted down and sent to Joe for him to revise, then the two working together and coming up with music for it. Result is fascinating but also stupefying, as the germs of what could be some moving lyrics are made progressively more opaque and pretentious.

Bits of news that come with these posts: Rosanne had brain surgery last November (she doesn't say what for, but I tend to think "tumor" when someone says "brain surgery"); and John Stewart died recently, which I hadn't known. Stewart had been a musical presence for me when I was nine and ten, having sung lead on the Kingston Trio's "Ballad Of The Thresher."

The original Mudcrutch A-side is in the Playback box set. You wouldn't go out of your way to listen to it. It never made any impression on my other than as filler.

Yeah, I've never been that crazy about TP& The Heartbreakers, so prob wouldn't care about Mudcrutch (obviously TP&TH have some poprock smarts, but his voice tips the scales, usually). Andrew Bird has poprock smarts like Edgar Allen Poe, only catchier (if you had a TV, Frank, you could hear bits of AB's "Imitosis" in commercials--it's sort of like a Cure song with a violin hook; he plays a lotta good violin, though mainly for hooks). You can hear a lot at
http://www.andrewbird.net though I'd start with the live performances linked from there. You were wondering about Gene Pitney etc.--that was before I listened to country radio, but did always seem that he and Johnny Rivers and several others were intended by marketing to lure country listeners. Wonder what ever happened to Gary Puckett and the Union Gap? I really thought about ol' Gary (and some of Neil D's arrangements) when covering Shearwater's Rook (June 3 release, but PaperThinWalls will post the review and almost-title-track soon). Offshoot of Okkervil(sp?) River, and I guess there's some early Scott Walker in there, with some eco-gothic symbolism--but I wasn't expecting Top 40 in his arty. His vocal style can bust a mood, but overall seems to fit/not bust (and sometimes he does other stuff)

Decided I prefer the (more countrypolitan) 1977 Dave & Sugar album where Dave is wearing an Elmer Fudd shirt on the cover to the (more Europoppish) 1979 album where he isn't, though I doubt I'll return to either of them again. Best song is the one where their house is falling apart and the faucet is broke and so are they but it's a beautiful morning with her anyway. They look sleazier on the later album. On the earlier album, one of the Sugar bimbos actually looks as old as Dave on the back cover; maybe she used less makeup. Countryuniverse.net (see below) thinks Sugar were much better than Dave, who had apparently been a sideman in Charlie Pride's band earlier -- interesting, since on the album cover his picture make me wonder whether he might actually have some black or Hispanic blood (similar to how most pictures of Neal McCoy used to); not saying the Charlie Pride connection increases that possibility, but I still wonder what the answer is.

(I don't think this link takes you directly to the Sugar writeup, but they're #99 on the list of the 100 greatest country women ever; easy to find):

http://countryuniverse.net/

Speaking of black country singers, Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish now has a rising country hit, though I've yet to hear it. And Rissi Palmer just briefly charted with a second single, too.

Also, I guess I should have listed Ray Goodman and Brown II from 1980 as one of the somewhat country-related LPs I bought for $1 in Texas two weeks ago, since they actually do a really likeable and blatantly country song (albeit with soul/doo-wop chorus parts) on it called "Sweet Sexy Woman. (Before changing their name, they were the Moments, of "Love on a Two Way Street" 1970 falsetto soul classic fame.)

That album by Night I bought (produced by Richard Perry) has some Quarterflash-parts, too, to go with its Babe Ruth-like parts, but the Quarterflash parts are more Marv than Rindy Ross; i.e., they happen more when the guy (Chris Thompson) sings, for instance "Cold Wind Across My Heart." But not when he sings his hard-rocking begging-for-groupie-nookie number that starts out "Headin down to Cleveland/ Lookin for a lady tonite/Forty days in a constant haze/Workin up an appetite." I also like when Stevie Lance sings in her Babe Ruth-like "You Ain't Pretty Enough" her lines about "my tight black pants are crawling up my legs/My 6-inch spikes do a number on your head." Also, they cover "Ain't That Peculiar" and another song, copyright 1961, credited to Rudy Clark, called "If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody."

Mudcrutch totally drawing a blank for me in my CD changer right now. Much prefer the new Skafish reissue I've been listening to, and the new A's best-of and new Helix album which George both recomended (none of which have anything to do with country.)

What I wrote about the new Phil Vassar album (which I like a lot, by the way):

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2008/05/phil-vassar-mig.html#more

In other news, I decided the Mother Truckers and I See Hawks In L.A. are both spottier and less great than I imply upthread, though I still like them (and am writing reviews of them to that effect for emusic.) Got the new Montgomery Gentry album in the mail, and it's consistently good but rarely (if ever) great; favorite tracks are probably "Long Line of Losers," "One Trip," and "It Ain't About Easy," then maybe the Toby Keith duet "I Pick My Parties." Honestly, my hunch right now is that it's my least favorite album by them, though time will tell if that opinion holds up. I'll be interested to hear what Edd and Frank think, when they hear it. The single, "Back When I Knew It All," sounds at least somewhat like "Growin' Up" off Springsteen's debut album to my ears, but it still doesn't kill me; oddly, though it's supposed to be one of their fastest rising singles ever, I didn't hear it on Texas radio or CMT when I was down there -- as if to confirm George's theory about country listeners not caring about hearing new songs, both the TV and radio were still playing "What Do You Think About That," from an album that came out back in 2006.

"the world is a mess" on that phil vassar album falls somewhere between jellyfish, billy joel and harry nilsson (who xhuxk namechecks in his rhapsody piece). country power-pop! bizarro. and kinda good.

...and it's followed by the album-ending "crazy life," which is a total billy joel piano ballad album-closer.

I'm also really liking Willie Nelson's imminent jazz standards album with Wynton Marsalis on Blue Note, Two Men With The Blues -- more for Wynton, surprisingly, than for Willie, who frequently sounds bored in workaday Willie manner, though occasionally (the two opening cuts "Bright Lights, Big City" and "Night Life," then "Ain't Nobody's Business" later) he sounds downright smooth, and great. I like it a lot more than Willie's big-deal album from earlier this year (though "The Bob Song" eventually did sink in with me, once Frank put it on one of his mix CDs, and I wound liking "You Don't Think I'm Funny Anymore" once I saw its video.) (On the other hand, when I say "more for Wynton than for Willie," what I really mean is "more for the music than for the singing," and obviously a lot of the music -- some great guitar parts, e.g. -- come from Willie.)

It's not really a matter of country listeners not caring about new songs, or not all country listeners, more like (the old progammers' rationale when I was briefly/marginally involved in radio, but being lengthly lectured on it, in comm classes and elsewhere) most people just tune in briefly(either literally or attention-wise), and when they do they wanna hear something they know, something reassuring, esp. when they work shit jobs, as many country fans do, even in plush times, as these no longer are (and of course good and/or lucrative jobs get harder and/or harder to come by). Or it just bacomes background music.Plus, that kind of rationale becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, as you drive away any who would listen longer/more often if you kept their attention (there's supposedly a more recent idea that you should just play the stuff that doesn't elict too strong a reaction, pos or neg, so that listeners can settle into cruise-control apathy, and not get burned out by being too engaged--uh, isn't this the idea of background music? And Muzak, which may not exist any more in its orignal form, was sold to employers as the music that wasn't meant to be listened to, deliberately soothing and boring, so listeners could indeed settle in, to a docile state of efficiency, cocooned from distractions like lively music--I guess it might have worked if the rest of your working environment was SO STRESSFUL that Muzak's womb of strings just brought you down to normal setting on the dial...?)

Hmm, you missed a bit of a point. I believe xhuxk has mentioned it more than once, at least. The current practice of music journalism -- which is to either jump release dates or synchronize with them -- isn't supported by empirical reality. It's just a way in which a form of journalism whispers rationalizations to itself about its imagined hip, newsworthy and timely quality as it hustles toward oblivion.

Boy, gotta get those Mudcrutch features in on Sunday at both the NYTimes and the LATimes. The reporters from each newspaper probably passed each other in the hall on the way to and from their slots, obedient-to-the-schedule functionaries.

One can appreciate timeliness in a few aspects of reporting. After show hot wash-ups of those slogging through local venues (At the LATimes it's the annual enthusiastically pro forma coverage of the Coachella and Stagecoach fests from a feel good perspective other than an alternative view, which is both as an exercise in enduring traffic jams in soCal on very hot days in a very hot part of the state.) Repeating the statistics from the charts one day a week right after the wheels have ground out an update. Sort of like sports coverage of athletic events, only not as good. But you have a really hard case to make trying to
convince someone with any sense that there's much value in jumping the gun on something like the Mudcrutch record.

supposedly a more recent idea that you should just play the stuff that doesn't elict too strong a reaction, pos or neg, so that listeners can settle into cruise-control apathy, and not get burned out by being too engaged--uh, isn't this the idea of background music

This was Lee Abrams' thing. And now he works as a director of innovation for Tribune, a newspaper company, where's he been successful at convincing many there's something gone wrong in his head.

GAC and CMT at leastused to be rivals, when the former lured Grand Ol Opry away from the latter, dang me, I don't get no GAC! Though Viacom owns CMT/VH-1/MTV etc and may own GAC now

viacom most definitely does not own GAC. CMT and GAC are very much rivals.

CMT and GAC are very much rivals

Coulda fooled me. I watch 'em regularly. They're as different as two brands of catsup in plastic squeeze bottles.

xhuxk's review on Phil Vassar killed me on a spec buy. I like the video single but quoting those phoned-in lyrics for the common man, sounding like rhymed slogans.

xxhuxx's passing phrase above was just the pretext for my caffeinated typing, and certainly his not taking country release dates too seriously was good for Voice country coverage. Oh yeah, re my prev mention of how Shearwater reminded me of earlier Scott Walker meeting Gary Puckett and the Union Gap (also re that discussion of Richard Harris x Jimmy Webb on last year's or 06's Rolling Country, here's my Shearwater review (though the spotlight track isn't them at their strongest, but that's the one we were allowed to post)
http://www.paperthinwalls.com/singlefile/item?id=1532

(x-post) who says rivals have to be different? my beloved WCBS 880 am radio and 1010 WINS compete fiercely on the new york dial by doing the exact same thing often at the exact same time. or, ya know, coke and pepsi. that's how competition often goes.