Rolling Country 2009 Thread

Link to 2008 thread:

Rolling Country 2008 Thread

On deck:

January 2009

* Various Artists - Undone: A MusicFest Tribute to Robert Earl Keen [Live) 05 January
* Alecia Nugent - Hillbilly Goddess 15 January
* Pat Green - What I'm For 27 January
* Various Artists - Johnny Cash Remixed 27 January

February 2009

* Dierks Bentley - Feel That Fire 03 February
* Wynonna - Sing 03 February
* Michael Martin Murphey - Buckaroo Blue Grass 10 February
* Jake Owen - Easy Does It 24 February

March 2009

* Raul Malo - Lucky One 03 March
* Alison Brown - The Company You Keep 03 March
* Dailey & Vincent - Brothers from Different Mothers 31 March

April 2009

* Emerson Drive - Believe 07 April

http://redneckerson.blogspot.com/

I'd like to call attention to this excellent Full album MP3 blog-- Red Neckerson's Radio Roundup. Mostly featuring albums from the 50s-70s.

Maybe the moderators should fix the spelling of this thread, but anyway...

From '08 thread:

Speaking of the future, not to jump the gun or anything, these are my favorite country albums of 2009 so far:

Megan Munroe – One More Broken String (Diamond)
Chuck Mead – Journeyman’s Wager [label tk]
Dierks Bentley – Feel The Fire (Capitol)

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 30 December 2008 22:47 (2 days ago) Permalink

Bentley album, after a few listens, seems to have one great song ("I Can't Forget Her," gorgeously spooky and smokey use of spaghetti western spaces from the desert with sand blowing around), a couple good ones at the beginning ("Life On The Run"'s hard fugitive Southern rock boogie, "Sideways"' blatant dancefloor-filler for the ladies), and way too much mere competence).

Robert Keen Undone tribute: Two sprawling dics, material that often seems promisng but it is rarely sung in a captivating way. Gets wearing sooner than it should.

Raul Malo: ex-Maverick sings consistently mediocre material in consistently excellent voice; dabbles in unfashionable genres.

This link should be up here too, obviously:

Rolling Country 2008 Thread

Calling most of the tracks on the new Dierks Bentley "mere competence" is probably more critical than I mean it to be. What I mean is that most of them just sound like more Dierks songs, just not as good or distinctive as the best ones on his first three albums (or last year's best-of CD.) Most of them are fine; a couple, if they become hits, will probably wind up standing out more than they seem to now.

Listened this morning to Ronnie McDowell's Personally (Epic, 1983), which I found for free on a sidewalk in Manhattan last month as part of a pile of other LPs, and suddenly I'm more curious about the guy. He's clearly another unacknowledged soul-music-as-country-pop singer, and a good one; apparently got his big break with an Elvis tribute single right after Elvis died in 1977, then relied a lot on his ability to sing a lot like Elvis (which I assume is where the r&b comes from, and I doubt he was alone in that as far as '70s/'80s country guys go -- Billy "Crash" Craddock comes to mind.) Apparently he's also done entire albums of soul covers, and did one in '93 (which I've never heard) called Country Dances. Also seems to have an obsession with older women -- had a cheesy early '80s hit of that name (which I think I have on a compilation somewhere), and does one on Personally called "38 Special" about a woman who is both special and, um, 38. I like that one a lot, and on the second side, the first couple melodies sound like they could be played back to back with the Skatt Brothers' disco-country classic "Midnight Companion" almost -- even the one where he talks about him and his baby listening to bluegrass out in the country, which I don't buy for a minute. Best song is probably "You're Gonna Ruin My Bad Reputation." Also, he doesn't look country at all -- Just looks like your usual facial-haired suburban '70s swingtown sleazeball. It's a good look! If anybody has any thoughts about the guy, by all means post them here.

(Oops, hadn't noticed that Prez Keyes had already posted that link, sorry.)

that robert earl keen tribute somehow manages to exclude most of my favorite r.e.k. songs. of, course, "material that often seems promising but" is not a bad summation of r.e.k. overall.

xp Actually, come to think of it, Eddie Rabbit had pretty much the same facial hair in the early '80s -- not to mention a similar relationship to Elvis (he'd written "Kentucky Rain") and rockabilly in general. (Though at least McDowell came from Tennessee, rather than Brooklyn.)

Even more announced 2009 releases:

Adam Gregory Adam Gregory Big Machine/NSA/Midas March 17
Back to Tennessee Billy Ray Cyrus Lyric Street January 13
Buckaroo Blue Grass Michael Martin Murphey Rural Rhythm Records February 10
Carolina Eric Church Capitol Nashville March 24
The Company You Keep Alison Brown Compass March 3
Everything Comes and Goes Michelle Branch Warner Bros. February 10
For the Sake of the Song BlackHawk Airline TBA
The Future is Now Lonestar Lonestar/CO5 TBA
I Got Your Country Right Here Gretchen Wilson Columbia TBA
I Walk Alone Lorrie Morgan Stroudavarious TBA
I'm About to Come Alive David Nail MCA Nashville TBA
If I Had My Way James House Friday TBA
In Overdrive Aaron Tippin Country Crossing TBA
Lonesome Town Tanya Tucker Saguaro Road TBA
Martina McBride Martina McBride RCA Nashville March 31
Notes to the Coroner Chely Wright Vanguard TBA
Right Road Now Whitney Duncan Warner Bros. TBA
Son of a Preacher Man John Rich Warner Bros. Nashville April 7
Sounds Like Life Darryl Worley Stroudavarious TBA
Unmistakable Jo Dee Messina Curb TBA
Voices Chris Young RCA TBA

I think the Eric Church and Chris Young were pushed back from 08.

I Got Your Country Right Here Gretchen Wilson Columbia TBA

I wonder if she'll try anything different this time out.

Anybody interested in more corner cowboys singing r&b, could check what I wrote about Dallas Frazier on RC 2008 (m'mm-m'mm: New Year's Day, with no hoppin' john or hawg jowl, but pork chops, turnip greens, blackeyed peas, cornbread suffice nice)

Raul Malo: ex-Maverick sings consistently mediocre material in consistently excellent voice; dabbles in unfashionable genres.

My advance copy of Lucky One his first cd of new self-penned material in years is not great despite his fine voice. But live I think he is still worth seeing as I like the covers, the old Mavericks songs he does, and his between song chatter is always entertaining.

Here it is--the infamous No Depression critic's poll top 40

1. Alejandro Escovedo, Real Animal (Back Porch/Manhattan) -- 88 -- 14
2. Hayes Carll, Trouble In Mind (Lost Highway) -- 44 -- 6
3. Drive-By Truckers, Brighter Than Creation's Dark (New West) -- 43.5 -- 8
4. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges (ATO) -- 39 -- 5
5. Ben Sollee, Learning To Bend (self) -- 37.5 -- 5
6. Lucinda Williams, Little Honey (Lost Highway) -- 37 -- 7
7. Shelby Lynne, Just A Little Lovin' (Lost Highway) -- 37 -- 6
8. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! (Anti-) -- 37 -- 6
9. Randy Newman, Harps And Angels (Nonesuch) -- 36 -- 6
10. Kathleen Edwards, Asking For Flowers (Zoe/Rounder) -- 35 -- 6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar) -- 33 -- 5
12. Santogold, self-titled (Downtown) -- 33 -- 5
13. SteelDrivers, self-titled (Rounder) -- 29 -- 5
14. Hold Steady, Stay Positive (Vagrant) -- 28.5 -- 7
15. Glen Campbell, Meet Glen Campbell (Capitol) -- 28 -- 5
16. Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet, self-titled (Nettwerk) -- 28 -- 4
17. Jamey Johnson, That Lonesome Song (Mercury Nashville) -- 27 -- 4
18. Old 97's, Blame It On Gravity (New West) -- 27 -- 4
19. Bob Dylan, Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 (Columbia) -- 26 -- 3
20. Basia Bulat, Oh, My Darling (Rough Trade) -- 25 -- 3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21. Fleet Foxes, self-titled (Sub Pop) -- 24 -- 3
22. Calexico, Carried To Dust (Quarterstick) -- 23 -- 3
23. Various, Como Now: The Voices Of Panola Co., Miss. (Daptone) -- 22 -- 3
24. R.E.M., Accelerate (Warner Bros.) -- 21 -- 4
25. Justin Townes Earle, The Good Life (Bloodshot) -- 21 -- 3
26. Tift Merritt, Another Country (Fantasy) -- 20 -- 3
27. Teddy Thompson, A Piece Of What You Need (Verve Forecast) -- 18.5 -- 3
28. Gary Louris, Vagabonds (Ryko) -- 17 -- 3
29. Caroline Herring, Lantana (Signature Sounds) -- 16.5 -- 2
30. TV On The Radio, Dear Science (DGC/Interscope) -- 16 -- 3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
31. Raconteurs, Consolers Of The Lonely (Warner Bros.) -- 16 -- 4
32. Felice Brothers, self-titled (Team Love) -- 16 -- 3
33. Ani DiFranco, Red Letter Year (Righteous Babe) -- 16 -- 2
34. Buika, Nina De Fuego (Warner International) -- 15 -- 2
35. B.B. King, One Kind Favor (Geffen) -- 14 -- 3
36. Jolie Holland, The Living And The Dead (Anti-) -- 14 -- 2
37. She & Him, Volume One (Merge) -- 13 -- 4
38. Michael Franti & Spearhead, All Rebel Rockers (Anti-) -- 13 -- 3
39. Giant Sand, Provisions (Yep Roc) -- 13 -- 2
40. Raphael Saadiq, Sure Hope You Mean It (Columbia) -- 12 -- 4

Looks...pretty much like a shuffled version of every other critics' poll I've seen, especially once you get past that rootsy Top 10. Except with Ani Difranco instead of Lil Wayne, I guess. (Okay, there are some things I never heard of before on there -- Buika, for instance. And Glen Campbell's disappointing comeback album did way better than I would have predicted. But really, this isn't all that far from, say, the poll at Paste or somewhere like that, right? And a lot of it just supports my longstanding alt-country = indie-rock theory.)

xp I like Malo's version of Charlie Rich's "Life Has Its Little Ups and Downs" on that (otherwise fairly useless) Don Imus compilation last year. So maybe the biggest problem with the new album is that he's just better off not doing his own material? (How much did he write with the Mavericks? I should check my best-of CD, I guess. And how good were his last couple covers albums, which I never heard?) Given all the good songwriters in country who are mediocre singers, it shouldn't be hard for an (apparently) mediocre songwriter who's a good singer to find songs, I wouldn't think. If Gary Allen can cover Todd Snider, or Toby Keith (actually a really good songwriter himself, but still) can cover Fred Eaglesmith and Paul Thorn, a lack of memorable material really shouldn't be Malo's problem.

Another listen to that '83 Ronnie McDowell album this morning; turns out two of the less fun songs remind me of Kenny Rogers's '79 "You Decorated My Life" (partly in how Ronnie stretches out his "yooouuuuu"'s.) Again, probably not a surprise, since Rogers's singing style probably had a certain light r&b-ballad influence of its own (as I expect Lionel Richie, for one, would agree.)

Wait, looking again at that No Depression list, I have a BIG question -- Where the fuck is James McMurtry?? Didn't he, like win the poll a couple years ago? That's really strange; is there a backlash I didn't know about, maybe because he sold out by going '80s AOR or something? (Also strange that Chris Knight and Old Crow Medicine Show don't seem to making any of these alt-country-leaning lists. What's up with that? I wouold think they'd fit right in, and they both made better albums that Hayes Carrl's to my ears.) (Alejando Esovedo's perch atop that ND list is cute too; it's not a bad record, but it's a lot cornier and spottier than people seem to give it credit for. But he was ND's artist of the '90s, right? Nobody can say the people there aren't loyal.) (Well, except in McMurty's case, anyway. And to be fair, that one this year was the best Escovedo album I've ever heard.)

Also nice to see Jamey Johnson as the token Nashville pick, obviously.

By the way, while we're still speaking of '08 lists, Curmudgeon, did you see my explanation on the '08 thread about why Toby's best-of didn't make my Top 10? Did that make sense, or do you think my rationale is full of baloney? Curious...

And speaking of alt-country, I should mention here that, though they've never grabbed me at all before (maybe because I never really tried), I don't hate all of the new (out Jan 5) album by the Gourds, Haymaker. They seem okay when they pick up the tempo and beat a little, like in "Tex-Mex Mile" and the sort of rockabilly "Fossil Contender." But mostly I just can't take the flat singing and lack of energy, even if there are hints of smart songwriting, like for instance in "Valentine," which seems to be trying to be some kind of slow '50s sock-hop stroll, maybe.

Also. Here is me almost exactly a year ago, on Rolling Country '08:

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.

― xhuxk, Monday, 7 January 2008 01:27

Didn't take me long to decide that was a foolish prediction, at least in part because the (not really all [that rockabilly anyway) HorrorPops album didn't really hold up for me. But then I saw this this morning, on another thread about acts who the British press is predicting might become hot new pop stars there this year:

Let's start with the Mail. Why? Well, they would appear to have only tipped the one artist (and you have to dig about on their website a lot to find this out), which means we can knock them off the quickest.

And that tip is... IMELDA MAY! She's a rockabilly artist from Dublin who's already been on Later, where Jeff Beck said he liked her. Songs on her MySpace include "Johnny Got A Boom Boom", "Big Bad Handsome Man", "Don't Do Me No Wrong", "Cry For Me Baby" and "Falling In Love With You Again":

Best of all, she's signed to UCJ, the same label as The Priests, The Fron Male Voice Choir and Thingy Out Of G4. So she'll be in the album chart at some point early this year, say number seven-ish, then proceed to hang about til June or so.

― William Bloody Swygart, Friday, 2 January 2009

Imelda May's Myspace claims that Kirsty MacColl was a fan, which considering she's been dead nearly a decade, would perhaps imply that May's lying about her age.

― Keep Carmody and Carry On (The stickman from the hilarious 'xkcd' comics), Friday, 2 January 2009 10:59

Rolling UK Pop/Chart/"Few people would dispute that Elbow have given us the album of the year" Thread 2009

A pretty decent amount of decent-and-better stuff on that No Dep Top 40, although (except for the track I tagged as disco Eagles) no way is Evil Urges countryoid at all! But it's decent, and occasionally better. Good to see they agreed with me about Truckers, Steeldrivers, Jamey Johnson, and (if I'd ever heard more than the uneven but sometimes inspired live broadcast) I might well agree with them about Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet, especially the stuff she learned while living in China, and applied to her (and their)Armericana. I dunno about Malo, being a country singer starting out in Miami might've made him bold in some ways, too cautious in others...?

Oh yeah,and Felice Brothers made in there too!

Xgau CG (this link will only last a month, but I'm not sure how else to do it now): Taylor Swift A-; Darius Rucker, Randy Travis, Ashton Shepherd honorable mentions; Sugarland, Kellie Pickler (!) choice cuts; Jamey Johnson, Blake Shelton, George Strait duds. (Plus lotsa blues, looks like):

http://music.msn.com/music/consumerguide/

A pretty decent amount of decent-and-better stuff on that No Dep Top 40, although (except for the track I tagged as disco Eagles) no way is Evil Urges countryoid at all!

I like Evil Urges a lot, it's one of my favorite albums of 2008, and I can't even begin to imagine it as country music. It's their least country album, and they've never been very country.

fwiw, No Depression finishers I never even heard of til now (though Don mentioned two of them a couple posts ago). (How country are these?)

5. Ben Sollee, Learning To Bend (self) -- 37.5 -- 5
16. Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet, self-titled (Nettwerk) -- 28 -- 4
20. Basia Bulat, Oh, My Darling (Rough Trade) -- 25 -- 3
23. Various, Como Now: The Voices Of Panola Co., Miss. (Daptone) -- 22 -- 3
28. Gary Louris, Vagabonds (Ryko) -- 17 -- 3
29. Caroline Herring, Lantana (Signature Sounds) -- 16.5 -- 2
32. Felice Brothers, self-titled (Team Love) -- 16 -- 3
34. Buika, Nina De Fuego (Warner International) -- 15 -- 2

I assume the Daptone comp is retro-soul, right? No idea about the others.

By the way, while we're still speaking of '08 lists, Curmudgeon, did you see my explanation on the '08 thread about why Toby's best-of didn't make my Top 10? Did that make sense, or do you think my rationale is full of baloney? Curious...

― xhuxk, Friday, January 2, 2009 10:02 PM (Yesterday)

The explanation made sense in some way for you personally, but if someone did not have any Toby Keith or any Rick Springfield cds, and they only had the money to buy 1 cd, are you saying you'd recommend that they get the '08 new Springfield over the '08 new Toby best-of?

Also as someone else said, I'm not sure how you can discern slight differences among 150 cds as you do. How is number 144 better than 148 and worse than 139?

Buika is of Equatorial Guinea descent but grew up in Spain among gypsies. Her cd was popular with European world music fans and djs. She sounds like Nina Simone singing Spanish ballads inspired by Brazilan bossa nova and Portuguese fado. I like her but others might dismiss her as too staid.

As for Malo, I think he co-wrote a lot with the Mavericks. I like the songs online I've heard from his various covers cd, but his first solo cd seems the most varied (and more latin-sounding). That's my quick opinion based on online listening, I don't have all the solo efforts. He seems to have gotten in a rut when left alone to either write songs himself or select songs by others himself--he's got his supper club ballads, his certain old genres of country, etc. With the Mavericks he seemed (possibly with the help of his cowriters) to have more of a pop aspect. When I see him live I manage to just go with the flow and appreciate his singing, and his enjoyable between song chatter. Plus while he does a long show, its varied enough among all his genres to provide balance.

28. Gary Louris, Vagabonds (Ryko) -- 17 -- 3

Gary Louris was in the Jayhawks. I only heard this solo album once but i wasnt too impressed, him trying to sing beyond the limits of his voice. Not very country, more in a sheryl crow/tom petty direction, but maybe not even that. Produced by the dude from the black crowes i believe.

20. Basia Bulat, Oh, My Darling (Rough Trade) -- 25 -- 3

Basia Bulat is a Canadian indie-pop/folk singer with a pretty voice, lightweight songs. Not country at all as I remember it.

That No Depression list is kind of puzzling: TV on the Radio, Fleet Foxes and the Hold Steady? I heard plenty of stuff this year that would make perfect sense on that list: D. Charles Speer, psychedelic country rock; Black Twig Pickers, Appalachian folk/old time; Jack Rose, instrumental country-folk/ragtime; Moondoggies, roots/country rock; Coydogs, power pop with a dash of Crazy Horse twang; Charlie Parr, country folk/blues...

made sense in some way for you personally, but if someone did not have any Toby Keith or any Rick Springfield cds, and they only had the money to buy 1 cd, are you saying you'd recommend that they get the '08 new Springfield over the '08 new Toby best-of?

Um...Sure, if the Springfield CD interests them more. There's tons of information available, Curmudgeon (including my own reviews I linked to); I seriously doubt that anybody out there is just starting at the top of my list, and buying each album from 1 to 150 when they have enough money saved up. If they are, they're obviously nuts. But I'm not really sure anyody should be using my lists as a buying guide to begin with, to be honest -- One of my favorite reviews of Stairway To Hell called it "one of the best and most useless record guides ever written" or something like that, which is totally fine with me. And I seriously doubt that anybody would argue that a repackaged Beatles or Elvis collection with all the hits in a whole new order should finish first in Pazz & Jop in every year such an album is released, just because there's people out there who might not own any Beatles or Elvis records. As for my explanation making sense "personally," I've never seen a Top 10 list that wasn't personal. Not that I can remember.

as someone else said, I'm not sure how you can discern slight differences among 150 cds as you do. How is number 144 better than 148 and worse than 139?

How is anybody's number 3 better than their number 7? Basically, at the moment I was making the list, given the choice, after months of in-depth research, #139 (Zac Brown Band) seemed more likely to be a rewarding listen than #144 (Cool Kids), which in turn seemed more likely to be a rewarding listen than #148 (Left Lane Cruiser.) (Last year, when sending my top 150 into Idolator, I added "the caveat that I will totally disagree with this list five minutes after I send it." But this year, the metric was made significantly more subjective and precise, and my job was made far easier, by a fine-tuned which-album-is-better calibrating device I got for Christmas. I'm pretty sure it's still classified Top Secret.) Honestly, though, I know some people think making a list this long is "perverse" (I'd just say it's "fun," but they're entitled to their opinion), but I'm just acting in the tradition of Xgau's Dean's Lists and the year-by-year lists at the back of Dave Marsh's Book of Rock Lists and the year-end 100-plus list Thurston Moore did in the middle of his fanzine Killer once in the mid '80s. And I really don't get why more critics don't make lists this long. The main fact of music in the '90s is that there's lots and lots and lots of it, which by definition means lots of it is good, and finding the good stuff makes like worthwhile. And if it takes a 150-album list for somebody out there to hear out about Mechanical Bull or the Reds or Frozen Bears or Killola or Prima J -- and consider that they might actually be more worth checking out than say TV on The Fucking Radio, which they all are -- that seems to me like a good thing.

(Oh wait, it's the '00s now, not the '90s, isn't it? Oops. Well, never mind.)

By the way, I checked my Mavericks best-of CD, and it didn't seem to have songwriting credits. Though I suspect they're out there somewhere.

(And I meant "significantly more precise and objective", obviously.) (Except I didn't really.) (And all that good music helps make life worthwhile. Or at least halfway bearable at times.)

That No Depression list also skimps on the bluegrass. Many quality releases this year, including Chatham County Line IV. Plus, banjoist Ralph White, formerly of the Bad Livers, released a great vinyl-only title on the Spirit of Orr imprint. Now that's pretty darn alternative.

That No Depression list is kind of puzzling: TV on the Radio, Fleet Foxes and the Hold Steady?

Yeah--a few years ago they had Kanye West on their list, but this year seems very indie rock weighted. And they don't stick to just American music either. (Though I guess Nick Cave's stuff has at times been Americana.) Like Chuck said, there's a lot of overlap with Paste's list. I guess the voters are just submitting their generic top 10s rather than their Alt-Country/Americana top 10s. Though I guess that folky, singer/songwritery stuff like Bon Iver and She & Him is close enough. In the past, I would have expected to see stuff like Charlie Louvin's new CD (maybe too recent) on the list.

Quite a few of those blog favorites-- Kasey Chambers, Lee Ann Womack, Joey + Rory-- didn't make their list either. I'm also surprised John Hiatt didn't make it.

Has the staff (and/or electorate) (or coverage, for that matter) changed significantly since ND went web-only? I haven't been watching closely myself, but if so, maybe that's where the differences come from...

concha buika's alright, took a date to see her at gwu a couple of years back, i don't regularly listen though. i think she might be making it in the latin american markets as well now if she hasn't been already, she was on some big award show recently.

Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet, especially the stuff she learned while living in China

i started an abigail washburn thread last year, which obv. went nowhere. i like the album pretty well. i'm not a big bela fleck fan, so this is at least my favorite thing he's been involved in. like i said there, "seems like it might appeal to art-folkies, joanna newsom fans, i don't know." to answer the "how country" question, in other words, not very.

Has the staff (and/or electorate) (or coverage, for that matter) changed significantly since ND went web-only?

not really. and it's not actually web-only; they're doing two book-like publications a year, in partnership with the university of texas. (i have a thing on dock boggs' banjo in the next one.) but as for the oddities of the ND list, it's not like no depression ever has had very firm lines about what is or isn't ND material. otoh, i have never submitted a ballot in the poll despite writing for them for years, because my favorite 10 things of any given year are just mostly so far outside the purview that it would seem silly, and i rarely have 10 things i like enough within the purview to justify a ballot. (i did vote in the "best records of the last 10 years" thing, because i only had to come up with 20 things from 10 years, which was easy.)

(but the video clip i linked there in the abigail washburn thread is worth a look, it's pretty cool.)

Re: upthread discussion of describing a country singer as a traditionalist and wondering what that means-

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postrock/2008/12/best_of_2008_ashton_shepherd.html#more
Ashton Shepherd Wash. Post blog interview by J. F. Dulac

Was there ever any question that you'd make a traditional-sounding album? That's not exactly the easiest sell these days.

It was always just gonna be what it is. I remember when we first started, me and [producer Buddy Cannon] were starting to get to know each other. I remember talkin' to him one day and I was telling him the different music that I love. I said, "Buddy, I love John Anderson's music. I love that sound, with the fiddles driving a lot of his songs." And I gave a couple of other examples of real country music that I like.

I was a little afraid then because I didn't really know Buddy. I knew a little of his history of course and just how legendary he is. But I didn't know what he was going to want to do with my songs. Producin', that's not what I do. I'm just a singer-songwriter. I forget how he said it exactly, but he said: "Ashton, you're country, and I am too. And that's the record we're gonna make." When I got off the phone, I felt like: Gosh, he gets it. He gets what I do. He was sayin': "We're both fans of real country music, and that's what we're going to go in the studio to make."

I haven't listened to the record in a long time. I've kept away from it so I could start to listen through it again at the end of this year and start to think about a third single for radio and everythin'. I forget how traditional it sounds in so many ways. It's still kind of contemporary compared to old country music. But when you listen to it after listenin' to the radio a lot, you go: Wow, this is pretty country! (Laughs.)

You know, I've always been a huge country music fan. In school, I went a little south or whatever you want to call it and listened to a little rap and a little rock because all of my friends did it. They weren't really country music fans. When I was in high school and grade school, whoever Hannah Montana was back then, that's who everybody loved. But I was listening to Clint Black and Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson and Patty Loveless on country music radio.

In school, I went a little south or whatever you want to call it and listened to a little rap and a little rock because all of my friends did it.

Ha ha:

There was a lot of pre-release hype about her being the return of Trad Country has been waiting for--based mostly on her debut at the GO Opry where some old timer was quoted saying "This girl has never heard a pop song in her life" (Yeah right.)

― President Keyes, Monday, 22 December 2008

Jane Dark, in his

http://janedark.com/2009/01/top_40_coundown_2008.html

Meant to copy this, from Jane/Joshua:

mutations within hip-hop proper are massive and astonishing and nothing compared to the mutations within r’n’b, soul, rock, teenpop et al to adapt themselves so they could breathe in hip-hop’s atmosphere. What mostly retained its own genealogy was, clearly enough, country, which continued somehow not to be “pop music” (perhaps for this very reason). As a result, much of what had come to characterize rock had no choice but to flee into country, not the least of which would be the guitar solo, the long melody line, the sing along chorus, ripped jeans, and the narrative of starting a band. Country hasn’t become rock, as some like to say by way of explaining to themselves why they are willing to discuss country now; it has absorbed that part of rock that hip-hop didn’t.

I'm not sure what "some" he's referring too in that least sentence, though.

Criticisms of recent Jane/Joshua postings here

rolling 2009 thread for when critics write something that makes you go o_O

More thoughtful and coherent and less mean-spirited criticisms of recent Jane/Joshua postings (uh, not to mention "Is it really possibly to love 150 albums that came out in a single year?") here:

http://blissout.blogspot.com/2009/01/lists-lists-lists-so-many-lists.html

Except, of course, I never claimed to "love" 150 albums. Like, more like. With increasing reservations as the list progresses, obviously. (And who knows, 30 years ago, this year's #1 Jamey Johnson may well not have made my top 50. But I haven't done that math yet.) Still curious which albums on my list Simon thinks are "Nu-Nu-Country" (okay, lots of them, probably) or "Oughties Oi" (Rose Tattoo? Eddy Current Suppression Ring? Jay Reatard? Thing is, a couple years ago, a real Oughites Oi album by Hard Skin made my Top 10, and I didn't hear any like that this year) or "Post-Neo-Freestyle" (Prima J, I guess?) Not to mention which groups he thought I made up. Which would be funny.

QuantumNoise, I haven't heard Chatham County Line IV--they're back with Stamey? The second album produced by him seemed to choke a little, but the first was great, so this one is too, eh? I'll def have to check it out. I'd like to thing anybody could dig them as a song band, aside from any bluegrass interest (ditto this year's Steeldrivers debut).Here's my take on them, in '06:
http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/both_sides_of_the_line/content?oid=40857
Tipsy, the Washburn and Sparrow broadcast I heard can prob still be found in the Woodsongs archive (and they always have Webcast video of each show as well) Xhux, here's what I mentioned about Felice Bros, in the Scene ballot posted on RC 2008:

Felice Brothers suggest baggy-pants carnies trailing Wild & Innocent-era Springsteen and backroads-backing-band to-stardom The Band, only at the other end of the Album Era. The tide’s gone out, mebbe never to return, so, in the classic manner, they treat records as promotional devices and calling cards, as 20th Century labels strongly urged most artists to do. On the merry-go-round, going to get their ashes hauled. Too darn cute for me sometimes, but it’s not me they’re looking for, babe (though if I buy a ticket they’ll punch it). The men might know, but the little girls understand.

Hilarious Wikipeida entry for an Uncle Dave Macon song I came across while searching a piece on music from the Great Depression a few weeks ago. (Second graph, unfortunately, has since been removed.)

The "Wreck of the Tennessee Gravy Train" is a folk song about politicians and bank failures. It is based on a true incident in Tennessee in 1930. After a scandal involving awarding contracts without bids, Henry Horton was re-elected governor of Tennessee. The Caldwell Company Bank collapsed soon afterward, leaving the state 6 million dollars in debt. An impeachment attempt against Horton was unsuccessful, but he did not run for an additional term. The affair also ruined the career of Senator Luke Lea

The train wreck of the gravy train was a historical event. All of the gravy flew on the residents in tennessee. They sued the gravy train because gravy was stuck in their hair and they couldn't wash it out for a long time. The gravy train never ran again. There still is a mess in tennessee and you can see where gravy spread on the houses of the residents. This historical event happened on December 12, 1998. twelve million people died because of this mess and twenty two people were injured badly by the gravy. Firemen were attacked too by the angered residents.

"twelve million people died because of this mess"? yo Wiki!

Yeah, that was great -- 12,000,000 dead; 22 badly injured.

Just found out that these are viewable on line (though you have to click on them to make them large enough to read) -- Some "Essentials" columns I've written in recent months for *Spin* (8 albums each):

Outlaw Country

http://digital.spin.com/spin/200812/?pg=108

Boogie Rock

http://digital.spin.com/spin/200811/?pg=106

Yacht Rock

http://digital.spin.com/spin/200901/?pg=92

I'll check those out, when I get time again on the good computer (with broadband). Speaking of Stamey, as I did above, this thing he's doing with Holsapple is for a good cause, and some collectors of 45s have told me this seems like a good series, so far.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Pop/Rock Legends Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey to Give Free Concert at Euclid Records As Part of 45 RPM Charity Series

ST. LOUIS: Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey, two founding members of the much beloved 80s pop/rock band the dB's, will be making their first St. Louis appearance together since 1991 at 1 pm Sunday, Feb. 1. What better way to kick off Super Bowl Sunday than a live performance by the masterminds behind such should-have-been monster smash hits as "Ask For Jill," "Amplifier," "Living a Lie" and "I Want to Break Your Heart"?
Stamey and Holsapple formed the dB's in the late 1970s, and released two classic albums, "Stands For Decibels" and "Repercussion" with the original line-up before Stamey left the band behind for a solo career. Holsapple soldiered on for two more dB's albums. In 1991, the pair reunited for an album, "Mavericks," which led to their one and only St. Louis appearance together at Mississippi Nights. In the 90s, Holsapple was a member of the acclaimed Continental Drifters, and in recent years, the dB's have been working on a reunion album in between other gigs. Holsapple also writes his own blog, "Does This Band Make Me Look Fat" (www.halfpearblog.blogspot.com) and contributes to the New York Times exceptional music blog, "Measure For Measure." Stamey has released several solo albums, and produced work by Whiskeytown and Alejandro Escovedo among others.
This will be the fourth in a series of live in-store performances to be followed up by the release of limited-edition 45 rpm singles recorded in the store. Each release will be strictly limited to 300 copies, and $1 for each one pressed will be donated to the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund (NOMRF) to benefit musicians displaced or suffering loss of equipment in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The performance will be recorded live, and Holsapple and Stamey will choose one or two songs to be released on the 7" single.
Euclid Records has just launched a website devoted to the series:
www.euclidsessions.com. Here you can find out about upcoming in-store events, read up on past events, subscribe to the series or order/pre-order upcoming 45's.
Each release will be in a special package with the back sleeve designed by Firecracker Press, a terrific graphic and letterpress printshop here in St. Louis. Each front cover will be a unique 7 x 7" print, signed and numbered by various graphic artists such as Gary Houston, Guy Burwell, and more, suitable for framing or keeping as a front cover to each single.
The 45s will be sold exclusively through the websites of Euclid Records (www.euclidrecords.com) and NOMRF (www.nomrf.org). Pricing will vary, as individual packages will each contain unique elements such as colored vinyl, etched vinyl, or other possibilities.
Euclid Records
St. Louis,MO
www.euclidrecords.com

9513's (well, somebody named Brady Vercher's) overlooked country albums of 2008. I liked a couple songs on the Steve Azar one and the (tragic) Hacienda Brothers one; don't know any of the rest:

http://www.the9513.com/overlooked-albums-of-2008/

Been listening to the new (due 1-27) Pat Green CD -- just ten songs (which is probably enough), produced by Dan Huff. Seems...okay so far. A couple songs have real possibilities, notably a semi-rocker called "Lucky," which is confusing since Green's 2004 album was called Lucky Ones. One clue for what they're going for might be in the AP quote on the top of the press release: "Heartland rock leanings, with strains of Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and John Mellencamp." The only time the word "country" is even mentioned on the press bio is in the title of the "tongue-and-cheek" (sic) song "Country Star." Not sure whether that means they're going for a different audience now, or not.

Also, album title is What I'm For, so I hope subsequent listens will give me an idea of what Pat is for. Maybe even what he's against. Though I'm not really counting on either being especially interesting, even in Springsteen/Mellencamp way.

So, a day later, and a couple more listens into What I'm For and especially its title track, here are a few things that Pat Green says he is for: Laid-off factory workers (though presumably not them being laid off), giving ex-cons a second chance, inner-city teachers who don't give up, the wisdom of old men, getting out of debt, beat-up pawn shop guitars, crackers in his chili. Not exactly going out on many major limbs there, obviously, but I still like the list, and am gratified that he saw fit to acknowledge urban America in a positive way. And it's a postivity song, in general: If you know what he's for, he says, you don't have to ask what he's against. A sign of the post-election times, I'm guessing, and a bid to fill the Born In the USA/Scarecrow recession-rock void (though I bet Bruce's imminent album will go for the gold in that department as well.) The parts where he lists good people with good jobs also remind me a lot of Alabama's "40 Hour Week (For a Livin')", populist Cougaresque country from 1985 (early Farm Aid era.)

And then Pat goes immediately into a song called "Feeling Good Tonight"; haven't paid attention to the words, but the guitars start pretty blatantly at "What's So Funny (Bout Peace Love and Understanding)" (Costello cover of Brinsley Schwarz), then switch toward Mellencamp's "Small Town" for most of the rest of the song (and tracing the sound way back, there's probably some McGuinn and some Townshend in there.) Rest of the album seems to have a decent portion of expansive, nuanced rock on it, sometimes moody. Sounds real good so far.

Wanted to like the new album by Saffire The Uppity Blues Women (who always look like cool biracial lesbian golden girls with grandma-punk haircuts on their CD covers) more than the new album by the Nighthawks, but nope, the latter has two okay Dylan covers and an okay Chuck Berry rip ("Jana Lea") (plus a pointless cover of the theme from The Wire, but what the heck) whereas the latter has 20+ songs that are real hard to sit through plus the usual blandification production that, I swear, has pulled down just about every blues CD I've heard on Alligator Records for the past few years. So Nighthawks win. Not that I'm recommending their album or anything. (Apparently they have about 20. I've never heard one I wanted to keep, but I haven't heard that many, so I wouldn't put it past them. Wouldn't put it past Saffire the Uppities either)

(I mean the former -- Saffire -- has 20+ etc.)

Eight best songs on Jamie O'Neal's Shiver (Mercury, 2000), which I bought for $1.00 last year:

1. "There Is No Arizona" -- the hit!
2. "Frantic" -- bluegassy bubble-rap!
3. "No More Protecting My Heart" -- super boppy pop!
13. "To Be With You" -- hot spacey Spanish-guitar sex fantasy!
8. "The Only Thing Wrong" -- suburban working-woman blues!
9. "I'm Still Waiting" -- big booming AC ballad!
11. "Sanctuary"
1. "When I Think About Angels"

(Oops, I swtiched from numbers-of-preference to CD track numbers three songs in. Should be 1 through 8! Also, I probably should have stopped at five or six.)

Five best songs on Joe Dee Messina's self-titled album (Curb, 1996), which also cost me $1 last year:

1. "Heads California, Tails Carolina"
2. "You're Not In Kansas Anymore"
3. "Walk To The Light"
4. "He'd Never Seen July Cry"
5. Lots of songs tied for fifth place

(Oops, heads and tails were the other way around for those two "C" states. And the coin was a quarter. And the Kansas song might be even better - It's close, and they're both totally great.)

Also, judging from both of those albums, I really like country women who sing songs about states.

(FIVE states among the three best songs, total, if you count both North and South Carolina separately.)

Chely Wright Let Me In (MCA, 1997), also $1 last year I think, not as good as aforementioned O'Neal or Messina albums, plus there's no track nearly as excellent as Chely's '99 "Single White Female" on it, so marginal overall, but I kind of like "Shut Up And Drive" (Drifters rhythm under girl talking to self, maybe or maybe not as good as Rhianna's song of the same name); "Emma Jean's Guitar" (a '50 Gibson which Pat Green would like since it came from a pawn shop); "Feelin Single And Seein' Double" (cover of rockabilly tune that I know as being George Jones's, though apparently Emmylou has done it too, not sure whose is more famous.)

9513's ridiculous list of the top 50 best country songs of 2008:

http://www.the9513.com/the-best-country-songs-of-2008/

I'm sorry, you can't have the Groundhogs' James Road thing and NOT at least one album or collection by Savoy Brown. And where's Ten Years After? "I'm Going Home" is the sword in the stone of the genre. Now, technically, Foghat was Savoy Brown minus Kim Simmonds and Chris Youlden, but SB's most successful US boogie record was Street Corner Talkin' which came right after Foghat was replaced by a new band.

Here's Edd Hurt's list from that No Dep poll. (I post it not only 'cause I respect his writing but 'cause I'd wondered, after he stopped posting here in September and his email address only got bounces, if he were still alive. Presumably this is proof that he is. Either that, or he's got a lot of sway with the postal service up in heaven.)(Also has been getting published in various Nashville papers, another possible sign of being not dead.)

Jamey Johnson, That Lonesome Song – 10
Chuck Prophet, Dreaming Waylon's Dreams – 9
Randy Newman, Harps And Angels – 8
Ross Johnson, Make It Stop – 7
Various, Thank You Friends: The Ardent Records Story – 6
Linda Perhacs, Parallelograms – 5
Walter Becker, Circus Money – 4
Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs, /Dirt Don't Hurt – 3
Como Now: The Voices of Panola Co., Mississippi – 2
Raphael Saadiq, The Way I See It – 1

Hadn't heard of the Perhacs. A Google search reveals this to be the second reissue of a gentle psychedelic album from 1970 by a Topanga Canyon dental hygienist/folkie. In an interview with Andy Beta she says she was depressed when she heard the album because the sound compression got rid of the highs and lows and made it sound dead. Don't know if that was rectified in the reissue (the writeup on her MySpace implies that it is but isn't altogether clear on the subject.) My Web browser is being a pain about loading the songs from her MySpace, so I haven't listened yet.

Nice to know Edd's alive and well (and also that he voted for the same two Johnsons that I did!)

George, you are probably right about Savoy Brown and/or Ten Years After belonging on that Spin boogie-rock list. What can I say? Limiting those Essentials things to eight albums is tough. And the Groundhogs are such an entity unto themselves that I wanted to include them. (Anyway, you should cut me a break despite my neglect, since I finally got around to listening obsessively this week to that pub-rocky Big Balls And The Great White Idiot CD-R you sent me last year. It was definitely worth drinking a few beers to.)

Edd's been real busy, for inst writing notes for a couple of worthy Caroline Peyton reissues. He turned me on to Thank You Friend, which I would have listed, but not quite country enough even for my ballot (I don't go afield on purpose, just slim pickins in mainstream--the flashing rise and mebbe peak of Chicks! Keith! Wilson! Big & Rich! Lambert! Etc!-seems like a dream now). Also turned me on to that Chuck Prophet, which almost seemed a little too VU Loaded for country, but too good for the list to resist. I turned him on to der Perhacs, and yeah its sonics are much improved, track list much lengthened, and she writes a lot of pleased, icky-positive notes, almost the whole thing is is icky-positive, with her proudly genteel folkie voice very centerstage (you can tell she thinks she's the sultry cosmic handmaiden). I do like a couple tracks not so voice-centric, but guess that's why they're outtakes.

(Although he and Peyton and everybody else whose opinion I'm aware of loves it.)

Marty update!
"THE MARTY STUART SHOW"
CONTINUES TO CELEBRATE
TRADITIONAL COUNTRY MUSIC IN 2009
NASHVILLE, TENN - Jan. 12, 2009 - Country music icon Marty Stuart continues to pay tribute to traditional music this year as he begins
taping The
Marty Stuart Show with episodes airing every Saturday at 8pm on RFD-TV. Performers set to appear include John Rich, Dierks
Bentley, Gretchen Wilson, The SteelDrivers, Mel Tillis, Buck Trent,
The Oak Ridge Boys, Chris Scruggs and Chuck Mead, Del
McCoury, Connie
Smith and The Sundowners, Wanda Jackson, Duane Eddy, Kathy Mattea,
Quebe Sisters and more.
"I love this show," said Stuart. "It's everything that country music was designed to be and it is such a joy to be a part of. As I
suspected, there
is a world of people out there waiting on this kind of entertainment and the response has been off the charts."

Stuart's other ventures include his renowned private country music memorabilia
collection entitled "Sparkle and Twang: Marty Stuart's American
Odyssey" on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio through March 1, his recently-released second photography book titled
Country
Music: The Masters, and his weekly XM Radio show titled "Marty Stuart's American Odyssey" that explores music unique to the United States.
To watch clips from the show, visit www.youtube.com/user/MartyStuartVideos.

Surprisingly good: Connor Christian & Southern Gothic, 90 Proof Lullabies -- with that title and band name I was expecting drab alt-country, but it's got hooks and he's got a radio-friendly (not necessarily "great" but certainly not indie) voice. Southern Gothic is a pretty hot band, nothing fancy but some sting in 'em nonetheless. Bad idea to cover "One Toke Over the Line" (always a snooze to me) but forgiven for good songs like "Sunday Suit" and "Let Ya Slide."

Lots of discussion of the rural/country end of late '70s German schlager pop in the past couple days here:

I Have Never Heard Entire Albums By These Bands Who Have Excellent Songs On Late '70s/Early '80s European K-Tel-Style Compilations

For instance, posted by me this morning:

Super 20 Hitparade (Ariola West Germany, 1977)

WENCKE MYHRE "Lass Mein Knie, Joe" (Deutsch cover of Bonnie Tyler's great "It's a Heartache," not sung in a ravished Rod Stewart-like voice but still good. Pretty sure I liked a 45 by Wencke on that Metal Mike thread. And pre-heart-eclipse years of Bonnie Tyler herself are another topic for future research. She was from Wales; probably in the Abba-country ballpark.)
ROLAND KAISER "Sieben Fasser Wein" (oompah fur bier trinken)
BENNY "Skateboard" (Awesome. Seemingly takes its "ooh-ah-ah" hook from David Seville's "Witch Doctor," one of my favorite songs of my grade school years, which as far as I know has never influenced any other music in the half century since its existence. Also, this is a song about skateboards!)
MARTIN MANN "Strohblumen" (Catchy guitared and whistled country-pop tune)
GUNTER GABRIEL "Komm Charly Fang Mich Charly" (Dark-melodied talk-rhythm country with girlie-girl backup singing; possible Johnny Cash influence?)
ROBERTO BLANCO "Wer Trinkt Schon Gern Den Wein Allein" (another ale-hoister for the Hofbrauhaus, as its title makes clear, but this one with Mexican-music-like "ay yi yi" interjections, especially interesting given Blanco's possibly Spanish surname and the fact that, in his picture, he seems to be a black man. Which doesn't add up to Mexican, obviously, but what the hell do Germans know? Also makes me wonder about the connection between German music and regional Mexican music, which is also frequently based on polka rhythms, and has its own internal urban pop-vs.-rural trad culture division.)

All in all, probably the most "country" Schlager comp I've heard. There's also a German cover of Kenny Rogers's "Lucille" by MICHAEL HOLM, plus two more songs that seem to be trying to combine Latin or Caribbean rhythms with German ones -- one by LENA VALATIS that starts out quasi-Latin, goes oompah, then comes back, and one actually called "Tanze Samba Mit Mir (Liebelei)" by REX GILDO. Maybe there was a Latin fad in Germany then or something.

Also, if anybody's interested, I got in a cranky pissing contest about current country with the 9513 blog guy in the comments section here last Friday:

http://idolator.com/5127490/the-9513-works-hard-to-prove-country-music-still-has-a-pulse

Limiting those Essentials things to eight albums is tough. And the Groundhogs are such an entity unto themselves that I wanted to include them.

Granted. Next time suggest to design they limit the pic/art to less rather than hog a third to half of the space on the page. Anyway, the James Road comp is an oddball. I liked it but it's definitely from the less traveled part of the Groundhogs catalog -- the time after McPhee had broken up the original band, then found out he couldn't draw as much under his own name, and brought back the name and concept for a more mannered and traditional sound. Of all Groundhogs material, it's probably the most rustic.

Nashville Scene poll results are up:

http://www.nashvillescene.com/2009-01-15/news/the-ninth-annual-nashville-scene-country-music-critics-poll-jamey-johnson-captured-the-critics-taylor-swift-topped-the-charts-and-sugarland-conquered-them-both/

"Never before has a newcomer dominated the Country Music Critics Poll the way Jamey Johnson has this year's edition."

Here's the actual results, they've got some funny link issues going on:

http://www.nashvillescene.com/2009-01-15/news/the-ninth-annual-nashville-scene-country-music-critics-poll-the-results/

Albums
1. Jamey Johnson: That Lonesome Song (Mercury)
2. Hayes Carll: Trouble in Mind (Lost Highway)
3. Lee Ann Womack: Call Me Crazy (MCA Nashville)
4. Sugarland: Love on the Inside (Mercury)
5. Patty Loveless: Sleepless Nights (Saguaro Road) 2
6. Lucinda Williams: Little Honey (Lost Highway)
7. Taylor Swift: Fearless (Big Machine)
8. George Strait: Troubadour (MCA Nashville)
9. Alan Jackson: Good Time (Arista Nashville)
10. Kathy Mattea: Coal (Captain Potato)
11. Rodney Crowell: Sex & Gasoline (Work Song/Yep Roc)
12. Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson: Rattlin' Bones (Sugar Hill)
13. Brad Paisley: Play: The Guitar Album (Arista Nashville)
14. The SteelDrivers: The SteelDrivers (Rounder)
15. Randy Travis: Around the Bend (Warner Bros.)
16. James McMurtry: Just Us Kids (Lightning Rod)
17. Emmylou Harris: All I Intended To Be (Nonesuch)
18. Dolly Parton: Backwoods Barbie (Dolly)
19. Ashton Shepherd: Sounds So Good (MCA Nashville)
20. Charlie Haden Family & Friends: Rambling Boy (Decca)
21. Willie Nelson: Moment of Forever (Lost Highway)
22. Glen Campbell: Meet Glen Campbell (Capitol)
23. Shelby Lynne: Just a Little Lovin' (Lost Highway)
24. Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis: Two Men With the Blues (Blue Note)
25. Carlene Carter: Stronger (Yep Roc)
26. The Drive-By Truckers: Brighter Than Creation's Dark (New West)
27. Mudcrutch: Mudcrutch (Reprise)
28. Darius Rucker: Learn to Live (Capitol Nashville)
29. Robert Plant/Alison Krauss: Raising Sand (Rounder)
30. Justin Townes Earle: The Good Life (Bloodshot)

Singles
1. Jamey Johnson: "In Color"
2. Lee Ann Womack: "Last Call"
3. Miranda Lambert: "Gunpowder and Lead"
4. Hayes Carll: "She Left Me for Jesus"
5. George Strait: "Troubadour"
6. Trisha Yearwood: "This is Me You're Talking To"
7. Carrie Underwood: "Just a Dream"
8. Darius Rucker: "Don't Think I Don't Think About It"
9. Ashton Shepherd: "Sounds So Good"
10. Randy Travis: "Dig Two Graves"
11. Trace Adkins: "You're Gonna Miss This"
12. Kid Rock: "All Summer Long"
13. James Otto: "Just Started Loving You"
14. The SteelDrivers: "Blue Side of the Mountain"
15. Little Big Town: "Fine Line"

Reissues
1. Hank Williams: The Unreleased Recordings (Time-Life)
2. Johnny Cash: At Folsom Prison: Legacy Edition (Legacy/Columbia)
3. Willie Nelson: One Hell of a Ride (Legacy)
4. Roy Orbison: The Soul of Rock and Roll (Monument/Orbison/Legacy)
5. Bob Dylan: Tell Tale Signs (Columbia/Legacy)
6. Toby Keith: 35 Biggest Hits (Show Dog)
7. Reba McEntire: 50 Greatest Hits (MCA Nashville)
8. Ernest V. Stoneman: Ernest V. Stoneman: The Unsung Father of Country Music 1925-1934 (5 String)
9. George Jones: Burn Your Playhouse Down: The Unreleased Duets (Bandit)
10. Various artists: More Dirty Laundry: The Soul of Black Country (Trikont)

Male Vocalists:
1. Jamey Johnson
2. Alan Jackson
3. Brad Paisley
4. George Strait
5. Randy Travis
6. Trace Adkins
7. Hayes Carll
8. Keith Urban
9. Willie Nelson
10. Toby Keith

Female Vocalists:
1. Lee Ann Womack
2. Patty Loveless
3. Miranda Lambert
4. Alison Krauss
5. Trisha Yearwood
6. Taylor Swift
7. Emmylou Harris
8. Jennifer Nettles
9. Kathy Mattea
10. Lucinda Williams

Live Acts:
1. Robert Plant/Alison Krauss
2. Brad Paisley
3. Miranda Lambert
4. Sugarland
5. Keith Urban
6. Kenny Chesney
7. Lyle Lovett
8. Willie Nelson
9. Cherryholmes
10. Little Big Town

Duos and Groups:
1. Sugarland
2. Robert Plant/Alison Krauss
3. The SteelDrivers
4. Little Big Town
5. Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson
6. Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis
7. Lady Antebellum
8. Montgomery Gentry
9. Dailey & Vincent
10. Joey & Rory

Songwriters:
1. Jamey Johnson
2. Hayes Carll
3. Rodney Crowell
4. James McMurtry
5. Brad Paisley
6. Taylor Swift
7. Dolly Parton
8. Bruce Robison
9. Miranda Lambert
10. Alan Jackson

New Acts:
1. Ashton Shepherd
2. Lady Antebellum
3. The SteelDrivers
4. Jamey Johnson
5. Darius Rucker
6. The Zac Brown Band
7. Justin Townes Earle
8. Hayes Carll
9. Randy Houser
10. Joey & Rory

Artists of the Year:
1. Jamey Johnson
2. Sugarland
3. Robert Plant/Alison Krauss
4. Brad Paisley<
5. Alan Jackson
6. Taylor Swift
7. Lee Ann Womack
8. George Strait
9. Miranda Lambert
10. Kenny Chesney

Actually think the comments this year are generally pretty good (and the results aren't bad either -- has commercial Nashville stuff ever done so well in that poll? I guess 9513 is alt-country's last gasp.)

Surprised to see Ashton's "Sounds So Good" score on the singles list, rather than "Takin' Off This Pain." Was really under the impression that the latter was her signature song; am I wrong, or do people just have short memories? Figured her album would do better, to (though I didn't vote for it.)

What did Deep Purple do at CMA Awards? (Maybe some band started playing "Smoke On The Water" as an intro or something? First I've heard of that.)

Ernest V. Stoneman: The Unsung Father of Country Music 1925-1934 (5 String) sounds cool! I'd never heard of that reissue before. Really like my old thrift-store vinyl copy of Ernest V. Stoneman and His Dixie Mounataineers 1927-1928 (on Historical), and compilation tracks I've heard.

Also, what do the SteelDrivers sound like -- bluegrass, Southern rock, what? Never heard them.

Still not getting what people hear in that Darius Rucker song. (I know, he's a black guy, which is wonderful, but I swear I hear more soul music in Toby Keith. I may have heard more in Hootie and the Blowfish, too, to be honest. Didn't hate the Rucker album, though; it was pleasant, and he's a competent enough singer. If it actually had an interesting song or two, it might not even have bored me.)

Joke of the poll: Mudcrutch.

Btw, also from that reissue list, not as good as it sounds (I had hopes, which were dashed): George Jones: Burn Your Playhouse Down: The Unreleased Duets (Bandit)

From a different list universe, a email Don forwarded me the other day:

Club (Nashville, TN - Jan. 14, 2009) Marco Club Connection has announced its list of the ten most requested and played country dance club songs of 2008.

For the fifth consecutive year, a panel of more than 215 nightclubs and dance instructors throughout the country were surveyed during the last four weeks of 2008 to compile the data.

#1 - Alan Jackson "Good Time" - Jackson's G-O-O-D T-I-M-E was the runaway favorite for 2008, garnering up to three spins a night during the peak of the song's popularity in the summer last year.
#2 - The Zac Brown Band "Chicken Fried" - Interest in this song grew from its initial support in the Southern clubs and spread nationwide within weeks of its release.
#3 - Kid Rock "All Summer Long" - This mash-up of Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London" and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" was an instant success on country dance floors.
#4 - Matt Stillwell "Shine" - Stillwell's debut single has remained on club playlists for more than six months as interest in this newcomer continues to grow.
#5 - Toby Keith "She's a Hottie" - Clubs were ecstatic to have a new up-tempo Toby Keith song last spring. The success of this single reserved Keith a spot in the Top Ten Country Dance Songs for the fifth year in a row.
#6 - Lady Antebellum "Love Don't Live Here" - This fresh new act exploded on the dance club scene last February with their unique fusion of country and rock.
#7 - Sugarland "All I Wanna Do" - Jennifer Nettles' catchy vocal hook and pop appeal made this song destined for success in the clubs.
#8 - James Otto "Just Got Started Lovin' You" - Otto struck a chord in club patrons across the country with this soulful breakout hit.
#9 - Adam Gregory "Crazy Days" - Gregory's dance remix of his first U.S. single, "Crazy Days," was used in clubs for a classic line dance called "walk the line."
#10 - Craig Morgan "International Harvester" - Morgan chugged into the #10 spot with this heartland hit.

So who are Matt Stillwell and Adam Gregory? And does "International Harvester" have a "tractor dance" that goes with it? That'd be cool, if it does.

What did Deep Purple do at CMA Awards? (Maybe some band started playing "Smoke On The Water" as an intro or something? First I've heard of that.)

Yeah, Brad Paisley and Keith Urban threw part of "Smoke on the Water" into their "Start a Band" thing at the start of the show. Part of "Layla" too I think.

Pat Green "What I'm For" title track...reminds me a lot of Alabama's "40 Hour Week (For a Livin')"

Bizarrely, another song it's been reminding me of is "Manifesto" by Roxy Music ("I am for a life around the corner/That takes you by surprise...I am for a life at time by numbers/Blastin' fast and low"), but a way mushier version -- like, if Dan Fogelberg covered it or something. Album is hitting me as mooshier in general, in fact. Definitely has some okay Mellencampy parts here and there, though.

One upcoming album I've been liking more, for what it's worth, is The Man of Somebody's Dreams, a tribute to the Hacienda Brothers' late Chris Gaffney due in March on Yep Roc, with renditions of his songs by lots of notable names: Joe Ely, Boz Scaggs, Los Lobos, Dave Alvin, James McMurtry, Freddie Fender (recorded a few years ago I assume), Alejandro Escovedo, John Doe, etc. So far, I prefer it to any of the Haciendas' albums I've heard, though I'm not sure which tracks are my favorites yet. On first couple listens, oddly, one that jumped out at me was "Get Off My Back Lucy" done by the Iguanas, who I've paid no attention to at all before.

You know, 74 voters isn't a lot for a national poll, so some of the lower-rated results might not be all that meaningful (there were 41 voters in the Poptimists poll, and two high votes for "Duri Duri" were enough to get it into the top twenty).

Geoff's not being altogether stupid when he's saying that Taylor isn't country, since what he means by "country" is pretty ancient (context must be rural, neck must be red or collar blue, or at least you must be speaking on behalf of those collars or necks7), but he's still very wrong, and you have to decide not to count Tim McGraw, Deana Carter, the Dixie Chicks, Jamie O'Neal, Garth Brooks, and scads of others that you guys could probably list more readily than I could. Taylor's eighteen and she's already done two retrospective songs about what it was like to be a teenager, "Tim McGraw" being the fiftieth or five hundredth variation on Deana Carter's "Strawberry Wine" (and McGraw himself had sung a couple of those variants, "Red Ragtop" and "Something Like That"). And teen heartbreak in country wasn't exactly unknown to Skeeter Davis and Brenda Lee way back when. I doubt that Taylor'd be scoring so high on the country charts if she was getting not only the teen girls but also the suburban housewives and the small-town, divorced, blue-collar wastrels who Geoff thinks need country as their very own genre and whose experience of love I'd wager isn't too far from Taylor's, actually. In fact, the difference between Jamey and Taylor may have less to do with a difference in experience than with Jamey writing more of the behavior and the outer details in order to evoke what's going on inside while Taylor writes more of the emotions and inner monologue. In other words, he's the strong silent type on a weep, while she's, you know, a girl. But it's not like Jamey doesn't do the inside and Taylor doesn't do the outer, and "I start a fight because I need to feel something" is a line that could have come from either.

I think that country is getting more singer-songwriterly in its lyrics, and this is hardly strange.

My good friend Leslie says that I'm just being Miley is a huge George Strait fan who travels down to New Mexico or wherever she can to hear Strait in concert, and she saw Taylor Swift opening for Strait a couple of years ago and has become a Taylor Swift fan too - she's a structural engineer and her boyfriend is a rugged man's man who's lived something of a Jamey Johnson life and I don't think it has occurred to her to think that Strait and Swift don't belong in the same genre. She's from the Michigan 'burbs and now lives in the a working-class 'burb north of Denver, but she's in business for herself, so I don't know whether or not she counts as the stereotypical country fan, but just who do we think listens to and buys the stuff? The 'burbs and the cities are where people live, and the 'burbs are where the consumers of country live, by and large.

I doubt that Taylor'd be scoring so high on the country charts if she was getting not only the teen girls but also the suburban housewives and the small-town, divorced, blue-collar wastrels who Geoff thinks need country as their very own genre and whose experience of love I'd wager isn't too far from Taylor's, actually.

Sentence is long and complex and I think I left out a "not" or something: I doubt that Taylor'd be scoring so high on the country charts if she wasn't getting not only the teen girls but also the suburban housewives and the small-town, divorced, blue-collar wastrels etc.

And the Scene just has its head up its ass when it runs a little chart that shows that Miranda Lambert and Jamey Johnson got critical but not commercial success.

(But they're like this every year.)

Hadn't realized that the Raconteurs did a version of "Old Enough" with Ashley Monroe and Ricky Scaggs. I'm still frustrated that no Ashley Monroe album was ever released.

Stephen Deusner comparing Jessica Lea Mayfield to Taylor Swift inspired me to go to Mayfield's MySpace, where her album is streamed. I'm four tracks in and don't know if I'll stick much longer. I don't hate it, but she's got a Lucinda Williams drawl-of-tragedy voice recorded in a Mazzy Starr clinical-depression soundscape, and my eyelids and earlobes are drooping.

and you have to decide not to count Tim McGraw, Deana Carter, the Dixie Chicks, Jamie O'Neal, Garth Brooks, and scads of others that you guys could probably list more readily than I could

I mean Geoff has to decide not to count these people in order to make his argument, which means he's discounting a whole hunk of trends in country since, oh, you all can tell me better but I'd say since 1954, if not 1914.

Haven't looked at Reynolds' post (yet?) owing to my getting ever-more-irritated at his tendency to project ideas onto people that they don't actually hold, but as for what Xhuxk said about having more-and-more reservations about the albums on his list as he goes further down, my reservations about the albums on my list start with the album I listed at number one (Danity Kane Welcome To The Dollhouse). There are rarely good albums that I don't have reservations about, given that most good albums (and most mediocre albums and most bad albums) are made by people with sensibilities very different from mine. Also, I love some albums lower on my list more than I love the Danity Kane (Scooter's Jumping All Over The World and CSS's Donkey, for instance), since I took the poll to be about what albums I thought were best, not what albums I loved the most. "Best" and "love" are different concepts.

xp Yeah, and this whole platitudinous idea that country is suddenly being listened to by suburban moms (see also my debate with that 9513 fellow) is really specious, given that the U.S. population has drifting toward suburbia ever since the end of World War II if not earlier, and the fact that country has been incorporating suburban-style pop just as long. How long has it been since, say, farming was the dominant subject of country songs? (Was it ever? If anything, Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers sang more about moving on to new places, as I recall.)

Also, I'd be surprised if, say, Lucinda Williams's audience doesn't lean at least as much toward so-called soccer moms as Faith Hill's audience does.

A possibly dire prediction for '09 country, from Ken Tucker (the Billboard one) in Billboard's Best Bets issue, which came out Friday: "With fewer opportunities at radio due to cutbacks on the on-air and programming side, country music, which relies heavily on radio for exposure, will not produce a new breakthrough act -- one that sells more than 300,000 units, for the sake of argument. Already spread thin, programmers will have less time to listen to new music, resulting in safer choices. And with more time slots being syndicated, listeners will hear more recent chart-toppers and greatest-hits standards on their local stations."

The issue does mention a new Tim McGraw album due out later this year, though, with possible collaborations from Chris Brown and T-Pain. That could be interesting.

Btw, if it sounds like I'm setting up a strawman (or straw-woman) by arguing with claims about soccer moms, it's because those claims don't come from Geoffrey Himes but from Jim Malec at 9513. Agree with Frank, though, that Himes's implication that Taylor Swift's audience is all suburban girls and no blue-collar divorcee's is quite a leap of faith. You don't do Taylor Swift sales numbers from just teenage girls, especially not these days.

Also, still don't get Himes's identification of Lee Ann Womack as primarily a traditional artist, "clearly most at home in the hard-country milieu that her East Texas DJ daddy raised her in," who has simply made occasional popwise detours now and then. Still don't see how anybody who ever heard her first two, clearly crossovery, albums can make that assertion without being completely willful or amnesiac about it. (And I still don't understand how her last couple sound all that honky-tonky, either.)

Anyway, beyond all that, my basic understanding is that "country music" has been a commercial marketing concept pretty much since the beginning -- at least back to early '20s Opry star Vernon Dalhart, the slumming opera singer whose 78 of "Wreck of the Old 97" supposedly sold 6 million copies. As for since then, here are David Cantwell and Bill Friskics-Warren in Heartaches By The Number: Country's 500 Greatest Singles: "As much as any form of popular music, country tends to its fences. The genre is constantly building and shoring them up, mending and diverting them, and there are always those fans quick to declare this new record or that new sound to far afield, 'not country.' Even so, those criticisms have rarely, if ever, stopped most country fans from eventually warming to those 'not country' styles, whether in the form of Jimmie Rodgers recording with Louis Armstrong, a Tin Pan Alley ballad from Gene Autry, the dappled variations of producer Owen Bradley worked on the Nashville Sound, or down-home equivalents of Motown and Philly Soul that auteur Billy Sherrill crafted in the countrypolitan area." Why Taylor Swift would not fit into this tradition is something I just don't get.

Also, I just checked: Hard Times Come Again No More: Early American Rural Songs of Hard Times and Hardships: Classic Recordings of the 1920s and 30s (a Yazoo compilation I've been listening to lately) does contain a handful of songs about farming on it (usually sharecropping on tenant farms and owing your soul to the company store) -- "Down On Penny's Farm," "Price Of Cotton Blues," "Got The Farm Land Blues," "Boll Weevil," etc. But even on that album, they're not in the majority. And on '20s/'30s country compilations I've got that are less explicitly geared toward Great Depression songs (the Charlie Poole box set for instance), I'm barely finding farming songs at all, for what that's worth.

re: Soccer Moms

I've heard this diss on radio country before (it's certainly not original to Jim Malec) and it does have some grounding--programmers targeting suburban/exurban listeners (not just women) who live outside the South, playing songs about little kids/how the glow you get from seeing your kid smile is worth all the crap you have to put up with at work. But Country has long been the format that acknowledged that people's lives tend to stretch past the age of 25 and that they end up having families and illnesses--so it's not all that strange that adults in the suburbs might respond to it.

It's also (and this was my point) not remotely new that adults in the suburbs might respond to it, since adults in the suburbs have been responding to country music's grown-up themes as long as any of us (and Milec and Himes too, I'm sure) have been alive.

Beyond suburbia and into urban bohemia, I have been trying to listen to the upcoming album by rustic-sounding Oakland indie band Winfred E. Eye. and I've been consistently liking one song -- "Lil Peck," apparently about moving away from your parents' home and drinking a lot. Or something like that. (Actually, the press release claims it's a family reunion.) But the rest of the album so far has been making me as sleepy as the band appears to be.

HEY XHUXX: if'n your fanger ain't broke kindly consult my posts about the Steeldrivers on RC 2008, if you sincerely xpost wonder that is (also can burn em for you)

Also, if you sincerely wonder about polkas in Tex-Mex music kindly consult that list you posted and the CDs from it you prob have of Tex-Kraut and Tex-Czech (whole circuits and generations of that stuff, incl the inevitable should we Youth use these samples or not and how etc) and the soundtrack of Schultze Gets The Blues we both top-rated last year [wonder if that's on DVD playable Over Here?)Germans didn't stop with the border, including the ones invited/recruited by the Emperor before the Mexican Revolution, and others uninvited.

Will definitely go back and check those Steeldrivers posts, Don; should have paid more attention the frist time, obviously. But as for the Kraut/Mex connection, I wasn't so much talking about the centuries-old history, which I'm fairly familiar with and, as you say, I've even written about (Germans bringing accordions and polkas to Texas etc) as uncanny but seemingly coincidental parallels between recent German and Mexican pop. (It's the recent German stuff I know very little about. For instance: though countryish schlager songs are all over those '70s comps that I write about on that other thread, is such music still being made now?)

(Well, I don't doubt it's still being made on some level. But is it still being widely recorded, and reaching any kind of significant audience? Did it ever wind up incorporating country from later than the Kenny Rogers era? Or did its perfomers and audience all pass their sell-by date years ago?)

Also interested in possible influences in the other direction: Mexican pop influencing the German kind.

Don on the Steeldrivers, from Rolling Country '08:

the Steeldrivers, anybody heard their album? Some pretty good (though brief) live sets on radio, but the lead Steeldriver guy's voice is so thick and meaty, like if Hood had Cooley's lungs, and they don't seem to go in for lengthy solos--all in all, I don't see how they fit into bluegrass, but apparently they do. (Sort of like a rougher Chatham County Line, who are also more about the songs than picking)

(mines and mountains, but really more of a stringband than bluegrass, though they're new stars on the circuit): self-titled debut of the Steeldrivers--sort of like if Seger were to make an album backed by the Del McCoury Band, like Earle did--only even less trad(making wise use of P.Domain for copyrights, however) yet non'trad in in a subtle enough way(not counting the nongrass vocals, which aren't subtle, just unaffected)yet not newgrass ect (re today's country as retro rock, something like "Heaven Sent" evokes one of Dickie Betts' higher-flying solos, but it doesn't even have electric instruments, much less solos--the whole album is pretty much unplugged, but moves right along, unhurriedly, yet 10 songs in 36 minutes )Gets better as it goes along, too. The second half kicks in quicer than the first. It's on Rounder

I should probably check them out.

Indeedio, although we hear a lotta stuff diferrently, so I hope you're not too disappointed (think you'll like *some* of it, though may have to grow on you). Yes, as I meant to indicate above, there are Tex-Deutsch or and Tex-Czech bands of diff generations, keeping a circuit alive out West, or so I've read (somewhere on the Web). Don't know about in Germany, but probably, though the Amerikan quality might well be a big part of its appeal by now ( there are German Civil War re-enactors and pilgrims to the South, I've met them, and they were big fans of Karl May, the Zane Grey of Germany[wanna say Tom but I think it's Karl]. These guys were on their way to to meet some of their countrymen by the Alamo)

Hadn't realized that the Raconteurs did a version of "Old Enough" with Ashley Monroe and Ricky Scaggs.

Happened to see a video of this version on CMT. Very nice.

x-post I recently heard an interview with Trent Willmon where he said that the guy from the Steeldrivers is the best singer in Nashville.

Also, still don't get Himes's identification of Lee Ann Womack as primarily a traditional artist, "clearly most at home in the hard-country milieu that her East Texas DJ daddy raised her in," who has simply made occasional popwise detours now and then. Still don't see how anybody who ever heard her first two, clearly crossovery, albums can make that assertion without being completely willful or amnesiac about it. (And I still don't understand how her last couple sound all that honky-tonky, either.)

I agree. In particular I've read many references to "Last Call" being "traditional", which I don't understand, and finally decided it only comes off that way, if it does, because she's singing about being in a bar (though she's not the one in the bar, and the song sounds more like soft-pop you'd be listening to at home than the stereotypical saloon music). There's songs on the album where I understand the 'traditional notion' a little bit more, but only a couple - "Solitary Thinking" maybe, or "King of Broken Hearts", but even on these it's an arguable thing. And not an argument worth having, except that writers do keep describing her music as traditional...

Oh, and on that note of country musicians pulling in other genres...this morning on Philly's country radio station I heard John Rich do an interview and play songs off his new CD. The song I heard was one he described as Hank Williams meets Frank Sinatra, a big-band thing about building a truck with a bar in it so you can drive yourself to drink, or something like that. I didnt get the chance to listen too closely, but I didnt hear much Hank in it, it was very silly, very lounge-singer-esque.

Frank on Poptimists, on that Winfred E. Eye album I mentioned a few posts up:

Winfred E. Eye Til I Prune: Just got it. On their first album they got a good effect by taking a dark bluesy growl and giving it dreamy drifting accompaniment. On this one they go for even more of the dreamy drift, and it's beautiful an' all but I haven't decided yet if the dreaminess is too much; maybe I'll decide it's just right and I'll stop holding against the album that it fits in with modern indie's uncommitted soundscaping. (The first album took several months to really penetrate.)

Also, on the same thread (about good 2009 music so far), Frank mentioned that I mentioned three albums somewhere in this thread, and I answered him thusly:

I actually probably slightly prefer the Dierks Bentley (which has one great song, and a couple more I really like, amid lots of tolerable-or-better mere competence) to the Chuck Mead (which has pub-rock energy and often amusing songwriting with a good schooling in Chuck Berry and Nike Lowe but your usual merely adequate alt-country so-what of a voice; he's a BR-459 almunus, if that means anything to anybody -- it really doesn't mean that much to me, as I never paid much attention to BR-459) As for Megan Munroe, I like her album way more than those other two, but its first half seems to blow away its second half (which may well make her this year's Ashlee Simpson, who knows.)

Some country-(ish) finishers in the Pazz & Jop poll:

27 Drive-By Truckers, Brighter Than Creation's Dark
New West Points: 304
Mentions: 28
36 Alejandro Escovedo, Real Animal
Back Porch Points: 243
Mentions: 23
42 Blitzen Trapper, Furr
Sub Pop Points: 219
Mentions: 25
52 Lucinda Williams, Little Honey
Lost Highway Points: 202
Mentions: 22
56 Jamey Johnson, That Lonesome Song
Mercury Points: 170
Mentions: 18
58 Taylor Swift, Fearless
Big Machine Points: 167
Mentions: 18
60 Hayes Carll, Trouble in Mind
Lost Highway Points: 157
Mentions: 17
61 James McMurtry, Just Us Kids
Lightning Rod Points: 155
65 Kathleen Edwards, Asking for Flowers
Zoe Records Points: 147
Mentions: 11
85 Arthur Russell, Love Is Overtaking Me
Audika Points: 125
Mentions: 11
92 Charlie Haden Family & Friends, Rambling Boy
Decca Points: 114
Mentions: 10
95 Jenny Lewis, Acid Tongue
Warner Brothers Points: 113
Mentions: 14
103 Shelby Lynne, Just a Little Lovin'
Lost Highway Points: 105
Mentions: 13

Singles:

32 Hayes Carll, "She Left Me for Jesus"
Lost Highway Mentions: 15
49 Taylor Swift, "Love Story"
Big Machine Mentions: 11
68 Kid Rock, "All Summer Long"
Atlantic Mentions: 8
73 Lee Ann Womack, "Last Call"
Mercury Nashville Mentions: 8
76 Miley Cyrus, "See You Again"
Hollywood Mentions: 8
77 Drive-By Truckers, "The Righteous Path"
New West Mentions: 8
82 Jamey Johnson, "High Cost of Living"
Mentions: 7

If the Voice had carried over the 3 votes that Frank says the Miley single had received last year, it would have finished higher.

If my favorite song of the year "High Cost of Living" had been an actual single, I would have voted for it, and it would have finished higher.

If the Voice website reflected ties (i.e., all singles receiving 8 votes finishing with the same placement) I would have, but they didn't.

Justin Farrar (who says he "limited releases to some vague notion of roots/rock and rock/folk/countryish stuff") posted a link to his ballot on the Pazz & Jop thread. Inasmuch as I know his writing, I think his tastes lean more to what I'd call art-country than alt-country. But the only one of these albums I heard was the one by Brooklyn's TK Webb, which hit me as a not especially exciting and mostly shapeless indie-blues-rock record with no beginning and ends to the songs but some occasionally noisy Crazy Horse guitar blur (and very intermittent Dylan mimicry in the vocals.) Anybody know anything about any other records on his list? (Pretty sure Don's mentioned Chatham County Line before, but I may be wrong):

http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/critics/2008/685882

So, according to both roughstock.net and Wikpedia (hadn't heard this anywhere else), the second single off of Jamey Johnson's album is, uh, "High Cost of Living." That's awesome (could wind up my single of the year for 2009), but also completely nuts and hilarious. Does anybody have mediabase access, to track whether any country stations actually play this monstrosity? (How long did it take pop stations to pick up on "Like A Rolling Stone" in 1965? But that one eventually went to #2, so who knows?)

http://www.roughstock.com/blog/jamey-johnson-high-cost-of-living

Just checked Billboard's Hot Country Song chart; it hasn't hit the Top 60 yet. (What did make the chart a couple weeks ago, incidentally, was apparently a remix of Rehab's modern-rock-radio hick-hop hit "The Bartender Song" with Hank Jr. on it. Never heard that, though, and I'm not sure I really want to.)

Still no "High Cost Of Living" promo vid on youtube either, as far as I can see. (Strategy obviously could be to attract non-country radio fans -- like, Triple A, maybe? Might happen, especially given all the year-end lists that Jamey scored on.)

If my favorite song of the year "High Cost of Living" had been an actual single, I would have voted for it, and it would have finished higher.

Apparently it is being released next month as a single--so maybe in the '09 poll.

Whoops

Single release date Feb. 17 according to Jamey Johnson's myspace.

I'm back, after an extended period during which I worked on some bigger projects (liner notes for the forthcoming Caroline Peyton reissues of Mock Up and Intuition, out next Tuesday), took a vacation to visit Mayan ruins in peninsular Mexico and snorkel amid Cozumel reefs, and hung out in New Orleans' Bywater district. The shrimp half-loaf at Mandina's on Canal was just as good as ever and the shrimp remoulade was even better than before, you can eat that stuff just soaking up the sauce with the french bread they give you as a side. Met my sweetie's parents and hundreds of Extended Family on a trip to Brookhaven, Miss., a town where everyone has a grand piano and an opera score in their house (everyone except the domestic help, who dig mostly gospel). Turned 50 and I got a party, and meeting your true love at 49-and-holding is something else, so I'm here, happy, and trying not to get fat on said sweetie's excellent southern cookin'. Moved to Brentwood, south of Nashville, so far they've let me walk the streets as it were.

Anyway, I took a break for various reasons, not from writing, but kinda from thinking a lot about country music. Part of that was just doing the liners for Mock Up and Intuition, which took a lot of time, part of it was my life in general, and part was the feeling that country didn't matter as much to me in the year of Obama. I ended up listening to Jamey Johnson's record a good bit and I did a story on Jan Bell, who is one of the Good People. And wrote something on Holly Golightly for the Nash Scene, saw her and Lawyer Dave play here and they was quite relaxed, Holly never stopped smiling. Did some work for Those Darlins, who are going on to be pretty popular all over the country. I like them, love those girls, wish they sang some harmony, they do tend to stand up there sometimes and just sing the same notes.

Have been listening to Jason Isbell's new one. Music signifies more than the words but the stuff about the seductive bartender, she of the alto voice, and the mutterings of getting older and diminished expectations, are quite good in their way and the music really is detailed. Sounds like he been learning some new chords. I've also always liked the name, Gurf Morlix, but his new one is all about how he's losing his edge, only one great song, well, sort of great--one concerning all the time-wasting strategies a songwriter can employ instead of writing songs, wasting one's talent, being a general bum. I know what he means. Good to see y'all again.

as for Chuck Mead's new one that Chuck mentions upthread, I listened to it once the day I got it, and remember noting something like "does well with readymade place-name songs" and my usual Stiff Records comparison. Seemed loose enough to me. As for Malo (Raol, not the old-time Latin rock band), I suppose I hear the Claudette Orbison Effect somewhat but as you can see from his beard and general air of ass-manliness on the cover, he has his fans because of the Voice, and it's a good one.

Curious about the Dailey and Vincent record. Live, they are reckless Christians and play off the tall/hair and short/bald comedy inherent in their act, and they, er, inhabit they idiom, I mean they're good. They gave me two intense, short, Capitalist Christian interviews last fall when I did a bluegrass roundup, I also praised Cadillac Sky's Gravity's Our Enemy back then and still think they do progressive 'grass real well indeed.

Interviewed Tony Rice for the now-defunct Knoxville Voice. Turns out he, like my Texas superhero Johnny Bush, had dysphonia, but Rice's was muscle-tension, while Bush (and Linda Thompson and actually a famous voice teacher [!], Marge Rivingston) had spasmodic. Rice said he was on stage in 1994 in Pennsylvania and the voice just went. Anyway, Rice seems to me the best of all those neo-grass guitar players, in that he's deeply influenced by jazz, uses space, and always appears to be thinking. Not that bluegrass ain't about chops and headspace just like jazz, but that it's a music of too MUCH flow and not enough, which is why the broken structures and relative indecision of the Cadillac Sky record appeals to me. Rice is in Krauss' DVD, A Hundred Miles or More.

I mentioned Those Darlins above and another all-girl band who does their shtick maybe as well or better is the Bridges, whom I caught opening for Matthew Sweet back around Xmas time. Clearly, the New Seekers or whoever (watched Steve Coogan in the movie of Tristam Shandy last night and his wife was playing Bach for an infant, and Coogan said, "I got the New Seekers and look how I turned out...") are such a big influence on today's neo-folk.

Got Chuck Mead's record here, Journeyman's Wager (suitably modest title) and now I remember liking "She Got the Ring" and "Albuquerque" the best, of course he's got to do "Old Brown Shoe" (while moving I found a picture I saved from the Memphis Commercial Appeal at Carl Perkins' funeral in Jackson, Tenn. with a ravaged-looking George Harrison commiserating with Jerry Lee Lewis at the funeral). Chuck's a nice guy, I run into him frequently and he's been writing with lotsa people these days, I hear.

this should be linked now to my e-mail address...

make that Raul Malo, of course. Also dig Chuck Mead's "Out on the Natchez Trace," that is an historic road as well as a road that takes you out of Nashville to the southwest and Mead's smart, that's a classic place around here for people who want to End It All or Start Over Discreetly to end up dead by the side of the road or out in the woods, although I never understood why more people don't jump into the Cumberland River here, there are several new pedestrian bridges.

Speaking of suicide, the new issue of the Oxford American is worth buying for the great shot of Gary Stewart (back page) scoping out reading matter in Elder's Bookstore on Elliston Place, 1978.

As for ND, Chuck, it's pretty much the same folks. I've done some reviewing for them--Nimrod Workman, Jim White, Linda Perhacs actually, Frank, and some other stuff--and what can you say, ND's end-of-year lists...well, look at mine, I liked Randy Newman's record even though there's something undeniably airless about the fucking thing even as I so, so admire his craft and all that, I mean I recently saw the Nashville production of Sweeney Todd and Randy Newman makes Sondheim look bads, plus Randy's always been interested in racism and nookie and so forth. His takes on New Orleans and his rueful tales of young girls he still don't understand, and his orchestrations, speak to me but now I'm officially old. At least one can age gracefully like Ross Johnson, who, I believe, speaks to the ages if anyone did last year.

"Out on the Natchez Trail," it should be, and Sondheim look bad not bads...actually the Angela Lansbery version of Sweeney Todd has its dissonant moments and like Newman Sondheim is interested in some extreme states of being, but whatever.

so what's the deal with Joey + Rory: they have their own restaurant or something...?

yay, edd's back!!!

also, if anyone wants this great Homer and Jethro comp my buddy Dave Duncan made, lemme know offline. they're great artistes and masters of comedy. easily as good as this Manilla Music band we caught on the Carnival Cruise ship; four short guys from Manilla dressed in Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles outfits playing Beatles tunes, just excellent, and Homer and Jethro do what I think is the greatest Beatles cover of all time, "I Want to Hold Your Hand," '64, plus "No Hair Sam" and you won't believe "Winchester Cathedral."

Welcome back, Edd!!! And wow, when you are back, you are back. Now the rest of us all have some catching up to do.

By the way, Edd was my "most similar voter" in Pazz & Jop, with a score of 3.93, whatever that means, seeing as we both voted for two albums by guys named Johnson. (Second-most similar to me was Corey Du Browa, who also voted for one Johnson and a Knux.)

My new favorite ballot (well, for right this second anyway) came from somebody I never heard of before named Bill Holmes, whose favorite single was "Dynamite," my favorite song on the Mother Truckers album, and who also voted for "Elsie," my favorite song on the Boss Martians album, both of which I'm just happy to see somebody else listened to (though Boss Martians did get at least one other singles vote, for a different song, apparently.) Bill Holmes also voted for a single by the Paul Collins Beat, who I had no idea existed anymore:

http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/critics/2008/685403

Anyway. I liked both the 3-song Those Darlins EP and 4-song (two of them the same) Those Darlins demo I heard last year (favorite song: probably "The Whole Darn Thing," which is about eating every part of a chicken), though not enough for them to make my top 150 album list (like both Mother Truckers and Boss Martians did). Had I expanded the list to 200, the EP probably would have made it (as would have the Trailer Choir and Big N Rich EPs from last year, though that's getting pretty marginal admittedly.) And I look forward to hearing a whole Darlins album.

Btw, the URL for my Rhapsody blog has mysteriously changed as they've overhauled that portion of the site, and the URL for my '07 lists with it. So here:

http://72.47.254.75/chuck-eddys-chuck-it-all-in/

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2008/12/chuck-eddys-best-albums-of-the-year-countdown-part-3-numbers-1---50.html

'08 lists, I meant. (Still writing '08 on my checks, too.)

Listening to the new Flatlanders album in the background now, and liking it more than I expected. Some fairly didactic songs about the bum economy and immigration, maybe, but those seem well-personalized and geographically pinpointed and the melodies and singing are frequently grabbing me. Noticed what sounded like a stinker of a Joe Ely song too (I assume that was him anyway), and other sections are blander than I wish, but I'll keep it on for now.

Liked the new album by some Brooklyn alt-country group called the Defibulators more than I thought I would, too -- energy and humor helps a lot. And the new album by the Greencards less than I thought I would (polite Duhks-style worldbeat delusions are boring me quicker this year, apparently), though one song at least had sub-Little Big Town (sub-sub-sub Fleetwood Mac) harmonies mixed into its bluegrass.

And yeah, I've been liking the city songs on that Chuck Mead album, which I should probably play more despite my reservations about his apparent lack of an interesting voice. Thought the more Rockpiley tracks were "She Got The Ring" and "I Wish It Was Friday," and he does wanderlust ("Albuquerque") and wistfulness ("A Long Time Ago") pretty well. "Up On Edge Hill" seems to have a good plot about the sort of folks who live up there, and "Out On The Natchez Trail" is a decent go-west song, and I like how "Gun Metal Gray" sound kind of like "Ode To Billie Joe."

Speaking of wanderlust and heading west, the big news in my life is that it increasingly looks like we'll be packing up and moving to Austin before springtime -- in fact, my Texas-born better half is down there as we speak, scouting out possible dwellings. So if anybody reading this knows anybody down there who I should alert of my impending arrival (especially but not only if they're the kind of person who loves helping unload lots of boxes of records off moving trucks), by all means email me.

What else? New Neko Case album coming out soon, apparently, and I've never remotely paid attention to her, and I'm thinking now that maybe I should, since I heard a song by her in Starbucks a couple months ago that I have to confess sounded way better than most of the other songs I hear in Starbucks, plus she comes off charming (not to mention cute) in this new cover story in Paste I just read in the bathroom. Even halfway considering subscribing to this magazine called Hobby Farms that she recommends: "Who likes to read about goats? I do! You know, the Caprine subfamily? Lowline cattle, anyone? Weeder geese? Guinea hens on tick patrol? Draft horse logging? That's what I'm talking about."

Interesting piece by my former Farmington, Michigan middle school classmate R.J. Smith in tomorrow's NY Times about the resurrection of King Records in Cincinnati: Another key to King’s success was its racial pragmatism. It’s probably a stretch to call Mr. Nathan a progressive, but he was colorblind in his pursuit of the widest possible audience. He didn’t just record both white and black acts; he had his ace R&B studio band playing on country records, and his country bands trying their hands at black pop hits, an almost unthinkable practice at the time.

The Stanley Brothers, for instance, did a version of Ballard’s “Finger Poppin’ Time,” and the African-American shouter Wynonie Harris covered the honky-tonk singer Hank Penny’s “Bloodshot Eyes.” It was a way of getting the most out of a hit, and perhaps it was Mr. Nathan’s stubborn nature to argue to those who told him blacks and whites would never like the same records how very wrong they were.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/arts/music/25smit.html?ref=arts

And oh yeah, speaking of the New Seekers (as Edd was earlier today, though I know basically nothing about them), here's something I posted on that German 45s Metal Mike Sent Me thread a few days ago:

Daliah Lavi "Wer Hat mein Lied So Zerstort, Ma?"/"Akkordeon" (Polydor West Germany, year unknown) Figured out the title was an Aryanization of "Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma" (always secretly loved that song ever since my secretly emo childhood, though for some reason I keep thinking it's by Melanie or Yvonne Elliman when really it's by the New Seekers) just by reading the sleeve; good for me! And long-haired pensive beauty Daliah schaglerizes it wunderbar; some dark Nico ice-queen cabaret stuff in there, neat. Also deduced that the B-side would somehow involve accordions, but didn't know it would start out like a cross between "Love is Blue" and, well, either "The Windmills Of Your Mind" or "As Tears Go By" I guess. Which is to say...dark! depressive! in the afternoon! yikes! And actually, the accordion is way back in the background, though it's there.

then later:

Daliah Lavi's New Seekers cover thankfully balances its ice-cold Nico schtick with warmer Al Jolson phrasing (if Al Jolson was German and rolled his r's), at least whenever she says "mama." And her accordion song has a palpable...wurlitzeriness? hurdy-gurdiness? caliopiopity? or something to its rhythm. None of which might come from the squeezebox (which doesn't do a whole lot til the song's end.)

There's a also a nice Neko Case interview in the new Oxford American music issue (and while I enjoy reading it, am I the only one who thinks the types of Southern musicians they cover has become a tad predictable). Little of it is online btw.

The New Seekers were an updated version of the kind of groups parodied in A Mighty Wind, except the NS were a hip, '70s version who covered (on the one LP I still own) both Roy Wood's "Tonight" and a Richard Thompson tune! And I think they did a Coke commercial, maybe the one that rips off Jobim's "Waters of March."

I didn't even participate in Himes' Scene poll this year. I guess I didn't even want to think about Taylor Swift, whom I interviewed late last year and whose actual music I find...what's the word? Nugatory? Evanescent? Her devotion to writing I admire and she has a way with words, but the music itself just evaporates, not to mention the "settings" which are so anonymous, lacking in character, as to be positively offensive. She's a case where I definitely think I could take it all better if she were to just play the damned things on just a guitar. But she obviously has an audience that goes beyond 14-year-old girls, and of course, I think Himes states the blindingly obvious when he starts talking about the "suburban" audience for country. That's been happening since Tom T. Hall sent up suburbia in "Harper Valley P.T.A." Who bought all those '80s country records?

There is, btw, a New Orleans version, with James Black on drums, of "Harper Valley" by a singer named Mary Jane Hooper, that is fucking amazing. The guitar player, George Davis I believe, does the best African-American impression of Nashville guitar you could conceive, and Black is always worth hearing no matter what the context.

Still writing about plenty of Euro-country (not to mention Eurodisco, schlager, glam-rock, and what not) over on that other wacky thread I started a couple weeks ago; here's the latest country-leaning tracks I talked about, but honestly, you folks should peruse the thread -- maybe even post on it. (It's getting kinda lonely over there these days.)

PEGGY MARCH "Oklahoma" (Real nice quasi-country sung in German -- so does that mean formerly "Little" Peggy wound up shooting for stardom there once her star faltered in the U.S., as somebody said above that Roger Whitaker did? Not that I know all that much about Peggy March to begin with, beyond her great 1963 #1 "I Will Follow Him" at 15 years old; looks like she had two other, much smaller Top 40 hits later that year, after which her career took a quick nosedive. Really, the main thing I know about her is that Richard Meltzer includes her in a genre called "march rock" in Aesthetics of Rock.)
TRUCKSTOP "Die Frau Mit Dem Gurt" (Took me mere seconds of listening to this fast country talker to realize country-rock Canadians the Road Hammers did it as "Girl On A Billboard" on their album last year. But I don't think a "gurt" is a billboard. No idea what the original version is. Or who Truckstop are for that matter, but they sound sehr gut.)

I Have Never Heard Entire Albums By These Bands Who Have Excellent Songs On Late '70s/Early '80s European K-Tel-Style Compilations

So man, this new Flatlanders album (due out late March) starts with a great great great song, possibly the best New Great Depression song anybody has managed yet; its ingenious idea is to flip-flop Woody Guthrie's Dust Bowl ballads, so a guy whose granddad headed out to California from Oklahoma after the crash of '29 is now heading back: "I lost my home when the deal went bust/To the so-called Security and Trust/I ran my life the way they said I should...," and the song's got the dank dusty wind-blown melody and singing to pull it off. "There's refugees from Mexico behind an abandoned Texaco," and they're the same as him. Title is "Homeland Refugee," writing credited to Ely/Hancock/Gilmore on the press bio, and I'm pretty sure that's Joe Ely singing, though I wouldn't bet my 401-K on it.

Problem is, for the most part, the album seems to go really flat and flimsy real quick after that. Never thought Hancock or Gilmore were anything in the way of vocalists, and to be honest it's been so long since I listened to them that I can't tell who's who without a scorecard (New West Records didn't send one). Which one's the guy with the halfway-to-Willie Nelson high voice? Anyway, I feel like there's some decent song in there somewhere that runs off a list of small southwesten cities, but I'm not sure which one it is. "Borderless Love" seemed promising, but comes off pretty heavy-handed to my ears: "There's no need for a wall," ba-dum-bum. "Just About Time," I think it is (also Ely I think) quotes "Brother Can You Spare A Dime" and has some Jew's harp bloiings in it, but still doesn't strike me as especially memorable. I dunno though; maybe more will sink in.

Liked the new album by some Brooklyn alt-country group called the Defibulators more than I thought I would

Not nearly as much as I want to, though. They seem to be trying for the same kind of old-time barn dance craziness that the Woodbox Gang pulled off last year. But while they get an okay swerve going now and then (in "Honey You Had Me Fooled" for instance), and while (except when their girl singer goes straighter alt-country on occasion like in "Wandering Eye") they're not as prissy as say Hot Club Of Cowtown, they still don't come off half wild-haired insane or drunk enough, and they never even hint at the Woodboxers' punchlines or hooks or rhythm section with all those incidental gypsy extras tossed in. (Still, not bad for Brooklynites.)

Tom Lane, "Country Gets The Pazz & Jop Shaft"

http://tomlanesblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/country-gets-pazz-and-jop-shaft.html

(Lane contradicts himself all over the place in that short post -- does country get shafted every year, or doesn't it? -- and "a year that produced 2 of the year's best Country albums" is a pretty goofy phrase, but thought I'd post the link regardless.)

Seven favorite songs on that Chris Gaffney tribute album on Yep Roc, in approximate order (not necessarily what I would have predicted):

1. Dave Alvin "Artesia"
2. Tom Russell "If Daddy Don't Sing Danny Boy"
3. Alejandro Escovedo "1968"
4. James McMurtry "Fight (Tonight's The Night)"
5. Chris Gaffney "Guitars Of My Dead Friends"
6. The Iguanas "Get Off My Back Lucy"
7. Joe Ely "Lift Your Leg"

Still wish Escovedo, McMurtry, and especially the totally blank Iguanas guy could convey more character with their singing, though. (Iguanas sort of make up for it with good Tex-Mex-organ bouncing and lyrics about a nagging wife.)

Dullest songs are sung (though actually not much sung at all) by Calexico, Robbie Fulks, Jim Lauderdale, John Doe, and -- hate to say it, but -- Dan Penn (not necessarily in that order).

Not familiar with the Haciendas song Tom Russell covered and had to check it wasn’t one of his own, sounds so much like something he'd write. Haven’t been able to listen to the Calexico all the way through yet, which is not unusual but I can’t help loving the Freddy Fender. Tributes are so much better when you’ve never heard the songs before.

though countryish schlager songs are all over those '70s comps that I write about on that other thread, is such music still being made now?

Frank may have answered this on that "vintage country disco" thread last year, actually:

Texas Lightning's "No No Never" (Germany's voyage in 2006 to a strange land called Eurovision) is a country song that doesn't disguise its Europop heart.

So there may well be at least 30 years of the stuff (Country-and-Western-German, I've been calling it), which somebody should probably document someday.

there are several country-identified critics missing from the Pazz & Jop ballots--folks like David Cantwell, Bill Friskics-Warren, et al., I don't believe either Barry Mazor or Jewly Hight have ballots either.

Holly Gleason had Lee Ann Womack as her #1 record, and also voted for Rodney Crowell, Allison Moorer, Kenny Chesney and Lady Antebellum. And J.D. Souther, whose record was touted as a master musician's flirtation with jazz in a country context but left me cold.

I swear I never realized until last year that any critics had any use for J.D. Souther at all, but in the past few months his name has come up a few times (elsewhere on this board, too, I believe, plus I found out a record store guy I'm close friends with in Philly is a big fan.) Someday I'll listen to him.

Didn't Holly Gleason also vote for a Michael Stanley album? Yep, just checked ...Just Another Night, tenth-place on her list. That's pretty cool, though the one Stanley album I heard in the past couple years (can't recollect whether it was that one or not) was pretty bleh singer-songwriter fare, I thought; didn't rock like his old Stanley Band LPs George burned me a CD-R comp of a few years back. Don't think it told me anything real interesting about Cleveland either, but maybe I just missed it.

I've never been able to hear the appeal of Rodney Crowell at all -- well, except for this reissue a couple years ago of an old alblum by this pub-rocky side project band called the Cicadas that he did in 1997. Picked up a copy of one of his solo albums -- self-titled one, maybe? -- at Princeton Record Exchange for a couple bucks a couple years ago, and I thought it was total snoozeville, like they guy couldn't write or sing a hook to save his life. But in this morning's Times, cabaret guy Stephen Holden reviewed a Crowell live gig, and mentioned some songs whose subject matter seemed intriguing:

Crowell led off his acoustic set with “The Rise and Fall of Intelligent Design,” a scathingly witty broadside from his newest album, “Sex and Gasoline,” in which he imagines himself as the first female president, then inveighs against the barbarous inhumanity perpetuated in the name of organized religion.

Two wrenching dramatic monologues performed back to back — “I Wish It Would Rain” and “Wandering Boyd,” both from his 2001 album, “The Houston Kid” — explored the bond between twins, one of whom has AIDS. The first was sung from the point of view of the ailing brother, a gay hustler on the streets of Los Angeles; the second by his twin, to whom he returns to live out his final days.

Okay, I'd probably hate the songs, but who knows. Or maybe I'd like them if somebody else sang them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/arts/music/27song.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/H/Holden,%20Stephen

Edd, I owe you an email; I'm horrible at getting around to personal emails, but yours was totally welcome. Will eventually respond in kind, I promise.

though countryish schlager songs are all over those '70s comps that I write about on that other thread, is such music still being made now?

Frank may have answered this on that "vintage country disco" thread last year, actually

If I did, it was probably by accident, since I've never really known what "schlager" is, except maybe Europop that's a bit more florid and weepy than average Europop and it's not sung in English (and supposedly it draws on some Central and Northern European folk traditions, but damned if I can tell, and I'm listening to a kind of discoish Super Schlager Party Mix and it all seems fairly sing-alongy, and I can imagine Boney M occasionally using these melodies and rhythms, but then I can imagine Boney M occasionally using almost any popular style of melody and rhythm*). And half the time I see the term I confuse it with Schaffel, which doesn't mean the same thing at all but has many letters in common. (Schaffel is European electronic dance of about three years ago that uses triplets as if it were swing or early rock 'n' roll or boogie or r&b or T. Rex and Gary Glitter and Slade, which doesn't really narrow down the def'n and it doesn't sound nearly enough like swing or Slade to my ears. People at Poptimists were griping about Britney's "Womanizer" being a Schaffel rehash, which seems a silly thing to choose to gripe about if you're going to gripe about "Womanizer.")

Anyway, I still see the word "schlager" bandied about, so I'd assume that it's an ongoing style, and country being an ongoing trope on Eurovision, I'll bet some schlagerry combos wear cowboy hats.

*Maybe Big & Rich could revive themselves aesthetically by going schlager.

Which one's the guy with the halfway-to-Willie Nelson high voice? Probably Jimmie Dale Gilmore. He's got a distinctive, slightly warbly, high voice.

country being an ongoing trope on Eurovision

See, there you go again, Frank, answering questions you're not even meaning to answer. Anyway, yeah, I obviously cheated by conflating "Europop" with "schlager" in the earlier question and answer; on that (ahem) neglected K-Tel thread I keep whining about, I've consistently been distinguishing between the two (which each generally seem to be relegated to their own separtate K-Tel-type compilations), or at least I've been distinguishing between them ever since somebody corrected me and I stopped called schlagers "lieders" by mistake. (And right, I'm not sure how exactly one would define schlagers, either, though I've generally been defining it like the compilations -- which admittedly rarely explicitly use the "schlager" word in their titles -- seem to, namely something like "pre-rock style German MOR pop for grownups and maybe rural German children that never died, or at least didn't by the time these comps came out.") But ANYWAY, my point is that I'd been wondering on that thread not only whether the country-schlager is still around, but also whether the country-Europop (best exemplified,as far as I can tell so far, by the '70s band Pussycat and a few stray early Bonnie Tyler songs) is still around, the latter which your Texas Lightning mention seemed to indicate it might be. Which was news to me, as is country being an ongoing Eurovision trope (do you know other examples?), so thanks. (Also, seems to my unschooled ears that those schlagery Northern European florid weepies you speak of are all through Europop, most obviously in the melodies of Abba -- the group who pretty much defined was Europop is -- unless I'm missing something. And if those compilations are any indication, there also seems often to be a fine line between Europop and schlager, at least when chirpy upbeat young female Eurovision contestants are involved.)

Poptimists were griping about Britney's "Womanizer" being a Schaffel rehash

Okay, this is getting way out of the proper bounds of a rolling country thread, but that's just ridiculous -- they were complaining that it's a rehash of some kind of music that lasted all of five months three years ago, and that almost nobody even heard? (Actually, for all I know I do the same thing all the time, too. Or is their point that schaffel -- which I've barely heard myself, and when I did, it um, sounded "kind of shuffly" to me, which is the adjective I give to 99% of the European electronic dance music I hear but don't quite get these days -- was never any good in the first place, and therefore not worth rehashing?) It'd be even sillier than complaining that some new country act was just a rehash of early Big N Rich. (Okay, I did what you did. And I'm guessing B'N'R were more popular than schaffel was. And Trailer Choir, who half-heartedly rehashed early B'N'R last year, were merely okay.)

Actually (okay, here's a less forced way to put this discussion back in the c&w ballpark), how Europop-country was the so-called "pop" album by LeAnn Rimes that came out in Europe but not in the States a couple years ago (and which I shamefully never got around to checking out?) And how much commercial success did it have in Europe, for that matter?

German MOR pop for grownups and maybe rural German children that never died, or at least didn't by the time these comps came out

I meant the style of pop hadn't died by then, not necessarily the children (though I hope for their sake they didn't.)

Also: "...the latter OF which your Texas Lightning mention seemed to indicate it MIGHT."

and: "Abba -- the group who pretty much defined WHAT Europop is"

This (from a press release) sounds potentially interesting, but my blind spots are such that I seriously doubt I could make it through a double gospel CD by anybody, not even Ronnie Milsap (whose 2006 My Life album I liked a lot):

"Up To Zion" is a standout track on Ronnie Milsap's two CD set 'Then Sings My Soul: 24 Favorite Hymns & Gospel Songs' (March 10th, EMI CMG) that brilliantly showcases the legendary musician's more soulful side. When co-producer Rob Galbraith presented the track to Milsap, he instantly fell in love. "'Up to Zion' is up-tempo, kind of reminiscent of some of the old-time black spirituals," Milsap details. "It reminds you of the Mississippi Delta. I have a great connection to that kind of music."

Tom Lane, "Country Gets The Pazz & Jop Shaft"

That's sort of an endorsement, if you look at it another way, much like John Mellencamp on Biography last week talking about how critics were never going to like him until he had so many hit singles they were forced to deal with him. Do the viewers of GAC even know what the Village Voice is? So why should it work vice versa?

Well, look at what happened when Alan Jackson saw his album reviewed in the Village Voice...

Howcum no one mentioned Scott Kempner's solo album here in 2008? Did anyone get it? Seems to me it would have been right in there with the people who liked Alejandro Escovedo, except more Dion-like.

And I missed Dan Baird's team-up thing with Warner Hodges, too.

I heard the Kempner--I heard it as school-of-rock rock, somewhat depressive or at least more depressive than the Escovedo record, which was way too rockist for my taste. but definitely had an East Coast, Dion sorta thing going.

picked up for one dollar Cyndi Thomson's '01 My World, which has a song written with Chuck Prophet (who was Escovedo's collaborator on Real Wild Animal or whatever that one, where AE looked like Lou Reed playing with his joystick circa New Sensations, was, that everyone but me liked), "I'm Gone." Nice, and Cyndi is posing with a basket of apples on the cover and carryin' 'em on the back.

I believe the columnist who picked up the publicist's ball on the Alan-Jackson-can't-understand-big-words tip (when I reviewed his last record as a "Zen sneak-fuck," which I meant as a compliment to the vigor of Alan Jackson hisself), is leaving Nashville's increasingly thing Gannett paper soon. "What in God's name does detumescence mean?!" she asked of one of the words I threw into the pasture on that one, and I can only hope she's never had to find out.

increasingly thin Gannett paper, actually.

saw George Clinton on that John Rich Nashville reality show the other night looking like he didn't know where the fuck he'd just landed.

the Charlie Louvin gospel record was not enjoyable, because Charlie Louvin is old and can't sing any more. I recently saw a movie, one of those cheapo semi-documentaries they made in Nashville in the '60s, that climaxed with a fiddler, Gordon Scott, doing his thing in what looked like the basement of a Holiday Inn. And also Webb Pierce driving around in his car, the one with silver pistols for door handles and so forth, with some other country stars. Charlie Louvin performed, this was after his brother got killed, and he was perfectly fine, not inspired. Who was insanely great was the great Dave Dudley doing "Six Days on the Road," he had a big, knowing, slightly pockmarked face and he could barely sing but he delivered his great song with real panache. Pretty far out, actually. The movie was called something like Music City USA, and caught a moment (1966) where Pickers were the thing in Nashville--mythic, modest old boys who loved tinkering with things like pedal steel guitars (great sequence with Shot Jackson in his pedal-steel shop messing around with) just like Southern boys always liked getting their hands black working on cars.

So what Dion era is Kempner suggesting? Belmonts, "Abraham Martin and John"/"Your Own Backyard," something between? Now I'm curious. (Never heard the record, or heard of it, til now. Ditto the Baird/Hodges.)

So I got some mass email about Neko Case's tour, replied saying I'd love to check out her record, and never heard back. If they send me one, I'll listen, but I really doubt I'll pursue it any further than that. There's got to be some reason that her stuff (and the New Pornographers stuff) has never at all stuck with me, and though part of that may well be because I've never put all that much energy into it from my end, I'd also be surprised if she suddenly grabs me at this point. If that Paste cover story is indication (hey, free magazines always get stuck in my bathroom), she mainly seems to write about...what? Dreams and fairy tales? Not a good sign (even if one the dreams she mentions does involve "getting it on with Steve Earle and Madonna. She told me my hair looked like a wig." What is it about 30something* female singers -- see also Jennifer Nettles -- and Steve Earle anyway? Don't think that one inspired a song, though.) Even worse sign is that the album is said to include "all these amazing musicians like M. Ward, Sarah Harmer, and Lucy Wainwright Roche, plus folks from Calexico, the Sadies and the New Pornographers all coming in." So in other words, it's just indie rock, right? Not to mention indie for growunups? Sounds, uh, "great".

* -- Didn't check their ages; just estimating.

QuantumNoise, I haven't heard Chatham County Line IV--they're back with Stamey? The second album produced by him seemed to choke a little, but the first was great, so this one is too, eh? I'll def have to check it out. I'd like to thing anybody could dig them as a song band, aside from any bluegrass interest (ditto this year's Steeldrivers debut).Here's my take on them, in '06:
http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/both_sides_of_the_line/content?oid=40857

Hey Dow, I just saw this. Belated thanks for the link! Yeah, the new album was recorded with Stamey, here in Asheville, I believe. I think this new one has some of their best songs to date. And even though I ultimately prefer bluegrass live, I listened to this album with headphones last night, and there's a lot of subtle stuff going on (thanks to the wife for a new pair of Sennheisers). It's really warm, and the picking is well-detailed but never in your face. Stamey did a really good job blending everything without it turning to goop.

as pure singer, Neko Case makes it, and I thought Fox Confessor was a lovely record. she sang about real life a good bit, far as I could hear--unwed mothers, drugs, boredom, death. just an enormous voice. she's almost as good as Caroline Peyton, whose '72 Mock Up invented and discarded freak-folk before it ever got off the ground, and Peyton could sing blues very credibly ("Fishin' Blues" on the video segment of Mock Up and she used to "Built for Comfort" too) and there's some country leanings on her second record, '77's Intuition along with a few demos in which she's up there with thousands of other folkies, except that "Try to Be True" is pure California pop in the vein of Jackie DeShannon and sung far better than DeShannon, Joni Mitchell or even Linda Ronstadt could muster. (I did the liners for both these reissues, and Peyton told me she gave voice pointers to Ronstadt in the early '80s.) Anyway, as expressionist pop these records were prescient, which isn't to say I think they always work.

I dunno, neither Neko's singing nor lyrics have ever hit me as especially direct; always felt there was a distance I just couldn't get past. But like I said, I've never tried that hard. Maybe this time I will.

I feel like we briefly talked about the dearth of Catholic country on the rolling thread last year or the year before; either way, this hits me as interesting choice for a single (from Billboard's new country song chart.) I'm probably the only person who cares at this point, but maybe they can even milk more sales out of Kid's year-and-a-half-old album (which, when it came out, everybody agreed barely seemed to have any "country" on it at all):

57 NEW 1 Blue Jeans And A Rosary, Kid Rock
Kid Rock,R.Cavallo (R.J.Ritchie,M.Young ) Top Dog/Atlantic PROMO SINGLE | CO5 | 57

Dan Baird & Homemade Sin is him, Hodges, Mauro Magellan and another guy from the Yayhoos, probably Keith Christopher. They had two recent albums, both on import. And Baird was apparently on Hodges' solo record.

Billy Powell died, he of the piano intro to Skynyrd's "Freebird."

I like Neko's voice, strong with a lot in it, though on the only alb of hers I've heard in full - her first, I think (have also heard her on New Pornos) - she achieved that lost-in-the-distant-drizzle feel that indie likes and I usually don't. My friend Mara says that later Neko albs are better than earlier. (Actually, I need to explore Mara's taste further, as she's a mighty fan of Dylan, but interestingly she manages to pretty much reverse the canon on the guy, got into him in 1987 - "generally regarded as his worst year" - and, while she's willing to like the '60s records, cares most for the stuff from Planet Waves forward. I think her favorite is Street Legal. She adores his radio show, which one of those satellite stations keeps rebroadcasting, 'cause of the way he seems to be willing to play anything from anytime. She likes his concerts for the way he's willing play any of his stuff in any way, though she was once hearing a concert boot and she identified the year (early '00s, I think) on the basis of "oh, that's the year that they would sing harmony on ______" (some song from Planet Waves, iirc). A recent concert in Aspen had "the worst audience I'd ever witnessed at a Dylan concert" (rich and lethargic, or easily distracted, or something) but she enjoyed it anyway because for the first five songs the band sounded like it was trying to fall down the stairs, which may or may not have made it good music but was worth trying, she said.)(I suppose that if you're in Aspen and not skiing, falling down the stairs is an alternative). (None of this has anything to do with Neko Case except if there's an unexpected pathway that can lead me into Case's music, Mara would be the person likely to have found it.)

xp Fwiw, when I wrote about Kid Rock album for Rhapsody last year (and here before that), "Blue Jeans And A Rosary" sounded to me like it could have been a ballad on the second Faster Pussycat album. (Probably not as good as most of that album, though, and not creative enough in its sappiness.) Still, more evidence that hair metal then = country now.

Speaking of glam-rock: Two listens in (which is all I'm gonna attempt), by far the funniest thing about the new Springsteen album is how the background "doo-doo-doo"s in the opening track "Outlaw Pete" sound exactly like "I Was Made For Loving You" by Kiss, their late '70s disco move which has since been covered by countless gay Euro Hi-NRG acts.

And I guess it says something for the album that I was actually able to make it through twice without pushing reject, but not that much. I think Bruce's voice's is just really shot and coagulated and sodden these days -- but then, I've thought that for almost two decades now, and if the songs actually had some energy to them, I might not mind so much. What I really really really hate is Brendan O'Brien's totally vacant and antiseptic new age bachelor-pad Muzak schmaltz production touches, which I gather are supposed to give the music space and drama, but to me just drain it of any life.

Not that it would have that much to begin with, but at least, sometimes, in the first half of the album, some semblance of Springsteen's old knack for melodies seems to be there, albiet submerged somewhere under O'Brien's bloat -- like, in "My Lucky Day" (didn't he already have a boring album with a name like that?), you can sort of hear the amusement park sound of Born To Run, but it's way out there in the distance, like you're listening across a couple bodies of water and all this wind, which just dampens the effect and makes it all moot.

I like the straightforward lyrics of "Queen of the Supermarket" okay (he's got a crush on the cashier who bags his groceries, like Jonathan Richman at the bank), but then I think of how catchy, say, Kenny Chesney could make it (hasn't he had grocery cashier as heroine songs in the past couple years already?) And there's something vaguely Celtic about the guitars and backup vocals of "What Love Can Do," and "Good Eye," I think it is, tries to get a sorta CCR swamp-blues groove going. But none of it clicks. Springsteen sings a lot of it in this weird detached way that sounds really heavy-handed to me, like he's "interpreting" some old standards somebody else wrote -- putting them on a pedastal or something. Strange since the songs aren't all that good in the first place. (Aren't some or all of these suppposed to be outtakes from his last mediocre album?)

Another thing that kind of amused me is how, in "Tomorrow Never Knows" (which halfway counts as country since it's got green grass growing), his voice sounds so much like tired late-period Mellencamp, who back in the '80s everybody thought of as a Bruce ripoff to begin with. And then toward album's end there's this song called "The Last Carnival" that comes off like a much lamer version of "County Fair," which was probably the most tolerable song from Mellencamp's mostly lame '08 album; I guess circus-as-aging metaphors are a new trend. (Is that a Tom Waits thing?) Then, next and last song ("The Wrestler," alleged "bonus track"), Springsteen mentions a scarecrow!

And oh yeah, not that it necessarily would have salvaged the thing, but I really expected Bruce to be an opportunist and somehow tackle the economy -- layoffs, foreclosures, plants closing, etc. Isn't that part of why he exists? And if not now, when? He practically owned the Reagan era recession. But nope, there's none of that at all.

Jessica Popper once posted this on my livejournal while I was liveblogging last year's Marit Larsen album:

There is a Swedish pop-country artist called Jill Johnson, but she has become more of a typical schlager-pop singer lately as she is a past winner of Melodifestivalen.

I was totally cut off of country last year, will make it my goal to connect into it this year. I've not heard the Jamey Johnson or Carll Hayes or anything. I guess I'll start with Kogan's and Eddy's country critics polls ballots, and any others that get posted here. Countryuniverse.net I usually find great for this stuff as well.

Anyways, re: Neko, I've always loved Furnace Room Lullaby, but the rest of her albums just sound like mediocre indie rock with a slight country twang, to my ears.

Good luck, Greg. There are actually a bunch of year-end country best of lists toward the end of the Rolling Country '08 thread. Also, I noticed these two unusually country-heavy Pazz & Jop ballots:

Randy Lewis

http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/critics/2008/685482

Bobby Reed

http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/critics/2008/685428

New Eric Church album on now; lots of really hard-rocking songs, sounds like. (Plenty of ballad mush, too, which might not be bad.) Also one where he seems to be saying Johnny Cash would kick Jason Aldean's ass (though he doesn't mention Aldean by name, just refers to some guy singing about Cash.)

New album by Seattle boogie-rock power trio Too Slim and the Taildraggers, Free Your Mind, due out mid-March -- man, I cut him plenty of slack last year, but I really wish Too Slim sang half as good as he plays guitar. That laid-back grumble of his is sort of distinctive, but really doesn't put any personality across to speak of, and really cuts into the songs' hook quotient -- cuts into them working as songs, period. Album finally kicks in a bit more toward the very close, with one called "This Phone" where some gal never calls him up but then at song's end the phone rings, then with closer "The Light" featuring lady gospel/soul shouter Lauren Evans, but her belting only serves to underline how dang lackadaisical Slim's own vocals have been sounding throughout. Some real nice guitar solos, though.

"Ya sing about Johnny Cash/The Man in Black woulda whipped your ass" -- in a song about "one hit wonders" and "boy bands." "I'll see you again when you're laying in the bargain bin." Plus your usual kiss-the-ass-of-the-past horseshit about how Waylon and Hank wouldn't've done it this way, as if I care. I dunno...nothing new there, I don't think, except the explicit wishing of violence on another country star (and who won't end up in the bargain bin at this point, assuming there still is one?) Also, Aldean's Cash song rocked fairly hard itsownself as I recall. But Church does seem to do better stuff (some of it more rocking than the rest. Also, can't swear there's more rocking stuff this time than last time, but most of what's here sounds good.)

new Flatlanders album ...some decent song in there somewhere that runs off a list of small southwesten cities

Okay, found it -- "After The Storm." I think Gilmore's singing, and I like it. Real good existential homeless hitchhiker-country ballad with very pretty pedal steel. So that makes two songs, at least. "If I'd taken that job in Santa Fe, I never would have lost what I lost today...You're in Baton Rouge, I bet, or maybe Lafeyette, Houston, San Antone, it's all the storm." People tell him the storm has passed, but it's still raging in his mind.

"it's all the same," I meant.

Next song starts with somebody (Hancock I'll guess) standing at the crossroads in the rain, then quoting the Book of Revelations. Beginning sounds a bit too much like Cat Stevens' "Moonshadow" for my tastes. I like the verse about shattered glass all over the floor (and leaving something on the fridge??), but not so much the chorus about wishing for rainbows.

Then "No Way I'll Ever Leave You," somewhere between tejano and zydeco; Gilmore again? Okay, this album is better than I was suggesting above, I guess.(And those southwestern cities in the storm song clearly aren't as small as I thought they were, either.)

Kelly Clarkson's new single, "My Life Would Suck Without You In My Pants With A Butcher Knife," is vaguely countryish at the start in that the melody of the opening couplet is lifted from "Desolation Row" (then the melody of the next couplet is lifted from "You Can't Hurry Love"). Overall, the track is a bit more obvious than one would expect, at least in comparison to the subtle gradations and gentle lyricism of other recent Dr. Luke productions such as "I Kissed A Girl" and "Girlfriend."

Church's Carolina was originally set for Aug. '08, so an additional 8 months to get it out. Wonder what took so long.

wait -- "Desolation Row" had a melody? whoa.

Taylor Swift is selling, as today's New York Times reports:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/arts/music/31swif.html?ref=arts

she's affiliated w/ Universal Republic thru Big Machine, who have offices on the Row. Interesting, I recently interviewed Courtney Jaye, a sort of garage-pop-country artist who once had a major-label deal (with Island) and has recorded a new one that includes a duet with Band of Horses' Ben Bridwell. She had cut a deal with Universal Republic to work just one single from her forthcoming, which is gonna be called The Exotic Sounds of Courtney Jaye, as well as shoot a video and work a tour. Apparently this was under the aegis of something called Republic South, and Jaye expressed doubt that the deal was gonna work as well as she or UR/RS might've hoped. Anyway, the Swift piece was interesting and I would guess that Radio Disney had a lot to do with her success, too. The numbers are good but in comparison to what a number-one record was selling 9 years ago, sobering.

x-post on Church's Carolina: It seems like labels are hesitant to release an album these days if they haven't already gotten a single from it into the top ten. Church has already released two or three songs from the new record & I don't think any of them has been a hit yet.

Lots of major label country albums have been pushed back almost into oblivion in the past couple years -- Phil Vassar came out maybe nine months or so after it was supposed to (with a slightly changed track list), and others (Bombshel, Ashley Monroe, Terri Clark) never came out at all, as far as I know. (Wasn't there even some Lee Ann Womack album that was shelved a couple years ago? Or did that one just wind up being reconfigured somehow later?)

Taylor Swift is selling

Well, sort of. Point of the piece seemed to be that, for an album that's topped the Billboard chart for eight weeks, Fearless really hasn't sold all that much (compared to previous albums that have performed similar feats) -- just 2.4 million. Not surprising given industrywide sales downturns, and the fact that nobody much buys music in January anyway. The piece did, though, have Billboard chart honcho Keith Caulfield saying those buying her album aren't just teens, but also "older people, like moms and dads." Which reasserts some claims made upthread.

Not sure I hear the Dylan and Supremes that Frank hears in that Kelly Clarkson song, but I do think the guitar opening has some country or rockabilly in it. I think the song sounds pretty good until Kelly starts yelling at me, and then I'm out the door.

I think you're right about the Womack album-- a single came out, tanked, and then the album was pulled and all new songs recorded.

And I think Terri Clark was dropped from her label & is now concentrating on the "Canadian market."

Womack released a summer 2006 single, "Finding My Way Back Home," which scraped into the Top 40 before dying. She shelved her whole project and started again.

Very similarly, Clark had a pair of (bad) singles bomb at radio in '07. Unlike Womack, she couldn't agree at all on material with her label. In November '08, she wrote on her website that she'd asked out of her contract with BNA. Given that the statement said she was going indie because she couldn't (wouldn't?) fit into Music Row's rigid philosophies, I'm guessing the decision was two-sided.

Eric Church's debut showed promise, but the new single is a complete waste. He loves his cold beer, his kick-ass truck, and mama's cookin', but not as much as his beloved. Some way to woo a woman.

Wonder if the unbargained-for success of Jamey Johnson's album has had any bearing on his buddy (or at least sometime on-stage collaborator) Church's album finally coming out. Don't hate that single myself, but it did hit me as a much lesser version of Toby's "I Love This Bar" ("I like my truck/I like my girlfriend/I like to take her out to dinner/I like a movie now and then.") And yeah, can't imagine many women would be wooed by Eric's love of Skoal, or whatever he says. (Seems more likely the idea though is to woo men -- guys saying "hey bro, I love all that stuff, too! So I guess being in a relationship doesn't make me a total wuss, right?"

Anyway, wonder if Johnson's success (though he did have one hit single at least) convinces anybody in Nashville that you might not necessarily need big single hits to sell an album these days, at least as well as all the not-great-selling country albums these days that do have big single hits. In other words, maybe there's a different marketing plan they could use with Church -- if, say, they could figure out how to sell him to rock or Triple A fans (what I suggested might also be happening with Pat Green up above, and might explain why Jamey's new single is "High Cost of Living.")

Actually thought Terri Clark's "Dirty Girl" was fun myself, and "In My Next Life" not that bad either (ditto the shelved album they came from), but I've never been a great predictor of what country fans will go for. (Never heard her as that far from the Music Row mainstream, either, except that she tended toward better material than lots of it.)

Interesting piece on the Big Bopper in Texas Music's 50th Anniversary of the Day The Music Died issue with Buddy Holly's glasses on the cover; had no idea he'd planned to do a record called "Purple People Eater Meets The Witch Doctor" (!), not to mention that (under his real name J.P. Richardson) he wrote George Jones's "White Lightning" and Johnny Preston's "Running Bear," not to mention that some credit him with inventing the term "music video."

Long Pareles piece on Springsteen (new album, Super Bowl appearance, Wal-Mart, etc) in today's Times; claims the new album "often plays like a '60s anthology." Says certain tracks sound like the Byrds and Beach Boys and Ben E. King (and hears Creedence in the title track rather than "Good Eye," which he calls "pyschedelic blues-rock"); I'm not saying that's not there, but how he hears that '60s music under all that vacant Brendan O'Brien BS in beyond me. (I hear way more specific '60s influences in, say, the new Black Lips album due out this spring.)

(Actually seriously doubt I'd hear much "60s Top 40" on Bruce's new record even if O'Brien wasn't involved, fwiw; it just doesn't have the concise hooks or songs for it. And while it's not like Born To Run, say, ever literally "sounded like" girl group oldies or Gary "U.S." Bonds either, at least I could hear how it was influenced by them.)

Biggest country-release ultra-delay of recent years, now that I think of it, was maybe that first Julie Roberts album -- I swear that advances were floating around a good year before it ever hit the stores. (Shelby Lynne may have had one like that too, once.)

(Ed Wards playing fahn fahn morsels from Thank You Friend, the Ardent comp, rat now on NPR--not that country, but since we sometimes talk about power pop etc on RC threads, it's vivrantly relevant)(Greg, there are more ballots, incl mine, on last part of RC 2007)(xhuxx, have you seen the Please Tell Me About Schaffel thread from a few years back; it may have spawned)Posts have gotten meatier since I went away, better do that again. Except I'm a semi-vegetarian (segue scootin to yet another of my show previews)
Ex-Marine, ex-cop, but mainly a songbird migrating between Key West and Ohio's Put-In-Bay, Pat Dailey has a wide, wild range of musical perspectives on human behavior. Perspectives on perspectives, really, because he knows all the sweet, salty and stinky fish stories we tell ourselves and each other, while bumping and sailing along. Dailey's mother wit was sharpened by the late, great songwriter-cartoonist Shel Silverstein, from the "R"-rated banquet (and implied Jimmy Buffett parodies) of "Raw Bars," to their kiddie-songs classic, "Underwater Land," where life in the food chain tastes better than everHe also goes into Gordo Lightfoot/Waylon Jennings vibrato grooves sometimes, but with some articulate, stalwart sentiment, like Stan Rodgers covers.

Xhuxk, when Kelly sings "Guess this means you're sorry, you're standing at my door" at the start of "My Life Would Suck Without You," the melody is an exact match for Dylan singing "They're sellin' postcards of the hangin', they're paintin' the passports brown" at the start of "Desolation Row" (well, Kelly's voice rises on the "ry" in "sorry" while Dylan's descends on the "in'" in "hangin'," but the chord is the same and that's as close to identical as anyone ever gets), then when Kelly follows that with "Guess this means you take back all you said before" that's a near match to "Love don't come easily, it's a game of give and take" in the Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love" (different number of words - more in the first half of the Kelly line and more in the second half of the Supremes line - so there's a bit dif rhythm, and slightly different chording in the second half of the line). Then Kelly repeats w/ a couple more lines, same Dylan-Supremes melody combo as before, and that's the verse basically. Then she starts blaring her way to the chorus. And then she does a second verse, same melody as the first. And the third verse is the same melody as the first.

(OK, now that I listen to the Dylan, he starts higher on "They're sellin'" than Kelly does on "Guess you," if that strikes you as a big difference. And "Paintin'" is a third higher than "standin'," too. Melody seems real close nonetheless, at least to me.)

"articulate, stalwart" yadda yadda--okay, he does this one Rodgers song about a sailor who's frustrated because "If I told that kid once, I did a hundred times" not to trust fickle Erie, especially at night; now he can't stop picturing the kid's bereft girl friend, staring into her pillow most likely. And another about a guy watching a cosmic sunset and listening to himself yak, but really he just wants to see his old lady NOW fuck this picturesque shit.

Flatlanders' "Borderless Love" seemed promising, but comes off pretty heavy-handed

Possibly redeemed, though, for sounding like the Royal Guardsmen's "Snoopy Vs. the Red Baron."

New Dierks Bentley album seems to be getting iffy reviews so far, at least from Rolling Stone (can't recall who wrote that one) and Jon Caramanica in this morning's Times. Wasn't aware that the one track I love, "I Can't Forget Her," had originally been done by Clay Walker a few years ago. Both reviews miss how beautiful and eerie Bentley's version is; I should check out Walker's. Do agree it's Dierks's most ignorable album so far, though.

I like the riffage and what I suspect is a calculated effort to appeal to pot-smokin', jam-band-lovin' fans on the Dierks record. Great road music, but his voice is fairly marginal. Some cool riffs, though.
Pat Green has a goofy voice full of sympathy and there are lotsa eerie touches on nearly song, some kind of poignancy that can seem overdone, and damn he sure wants to sympathize with everybody and everything. So he's for shit and not against. "Man, that's lucky," and he almost rhymes "paparazzi" and "NASCAR" on that one. Nice weeping slide there too. Hopes, dreams, regular guys, red-white-and-blue skies: he's filled in the Springsteen gap. The attempted modalism of the melody of "In This World" is also pretty good, and I like the line about his sister when the sun goes down. This is the one he wrote himself and might be the best thing on the record, very tasteful indeed. Except he cannot resist overdoing it, and I could see how his vocalizing could ultimately be as annoying as, oh, Elvis Costello's; it seems a bit heavy to me. But shit, a beautiful ending to "In This World." The less said about "Country Star" the better, although I think he has a sense of humor, as in "gotta get my ass to Nashville." Or maybe this is such received-notion songcraft that it's become new again, dunno.

Saturday night we got out and saw Amber Digby, at the Midnite Jamboree. A cute girl with a decent voice, pure Texas shuffle, on a Texas label, and a great steel player. Did a few Loretta Lynn numbers, some Justin Trevino tunes, and Johnny Bush would be proud. Speaking of Bush, been reading the new Willie Nelson bio by Joe Nick Patoski. Pretty fine, and Bush relates how he first met Willie, cartoon-like, as some woman or another threw a pot at Willie's head and he was first glimpsed by an astounded Bush outrunning the object, just like Wil E. Coyote--everything suspended in mid-air.

Curious which of the new Dierks songs you think have notable guitaring, Edd. Like I said, I like a few songs -- the first two, and that Clay Walker cover -- but I just replayed the thing, and I'm actually irritated by how pedestrian most of it sounds; his singing has never sounded more bored, for one thing. A few tracks (e.g. "Pray") are almost unbearable to me, and that bluegrass closer with Ronnie McCoury just strikes me as pro forma, not exciting at all.

Have made a point of not paying close attention to the words of Pat Green's "Country Star," but oddly (given that it's apparently about country music), it so far strikes me as the toughest '80s Cougar-style heartland rocker on the record. Best guitar solo so far seems to be in "Carry On," unless I missed one.

Best '80s heartland Cougar on Eric Church's album is "Young And Wild" (cf. "hang onto 16 as long as you can," or Kenny Chesney's "Young"); like the even harder rocking opener "Ain't Killed Me Yet" (about not avoiding stuff the doctor says you should) even more. Starting to really hate the stupid anti-pretty-boy-one-hit-wonder thing between them though ("Lotta Boot Left To Fill." And I'm finding that, a few songs into the album, when tempos slow down and the ballad schlock quotient inceases, my attention fades.

If Dierks is really aiming for his newfound Bonnaroo fanbase as Edd suggests (assuming he now has one), that's yet another possible exception of country guys looking beyond the country audience, obviously.

"Life on the Run" has those Detroit chromatic walk-up guitar licks all thru it, and I quite like the way the production combines banjo and guitar (and a police siren) on this one. Quite similar to what he's done all along. I also really like "Sideways," which maybe he got from the film of the same name (I was watching some Roxy Music videos with my buddy Dave Duncan the other day and he said, "shit, just imagine a Velvet Goldmine remake with Paul Giamatti playing Eno..."). Nice riff in the beginning of the third song, "Feel That Fire," but he's doing a lot of songs about how he sort of understands women, as in "she wants to wear my shirt to bed," I assume it's a white shirt and not the plaid he sports on the cover, which probably smells like bad incense and good weed, which I think is a good title for the record in another universe. Lot of walking-up guitar licks again "Here She Comes." The weird little distanced sonics of the opener to the wistful-as-hell "I Can't Forget Her" bleeds in the obligatory western-mythos move on the record, "here in Del Rio nothin' seems to change 'cept the weather," so he got to get on the road. She runs like a river but she should be running like a well-outfitted tour bus. He watches TV on the bus and it's bad news in "Beautiful World." Very nice brief lick opens "Little Heartwrecker." "Last Call" is bluegrass of the stoned variety. So yeah, this is a pretty mediocre album, all said and done. Could even be that Zac Brown (who I think also has his eye on the jam-band market) does it better.

xp yet another possible exception of country guys looking beyond

"possible example" I meant, not "exception."

And I guess Dierks played Lollapalooza not Bonnaroo last year, right? (Though inasmuch as those two festival crowds differ these days -- i.e., not much anymore -- I'd still say he's got more a potential audience with Bonnaroosters than Lollapoloozers.)

Funny how Pat Green's new album, just like Springsteen's new one, includes a song with "lucky" in its title, a couple albums after they both put out albums with "lucky" in their titles.

Second half of Church's album does have at least one hot rocker -- "Smoke A Little Smoke" (where he also drinks a little drink, and pulls out his stash), with meaty boogie riffs and glam-rockish handclaps. Also like how "Hell On The Heart" starts out like the Beatles' "Twist And Shout." And I wouldn't be surprised if a ballad or two sink in before long. (Actually, come to think of it, semi-extended guitar climax of the somewhat smoldering closer "Those I've Loved" is sounding pretty good right this second.)

Speaking of Eric Church, here's my May 2008 piece on Church, somewhat in advance of the new record. It should be he was "scared" by '70s-band songwriting, not "scarred," though.

We were talking about Neko Case the other day. the new Marianne Faithfull record Easy Come Easy Go: 12 Songs for Music Lovers (which has been out in Europe for a while but is just now getting a Decca release stateside) contains the singer croaking her way thru Case's "Hold On, Hold On," from Fox Confessor. Yikes. Also her and Keith Richards doing the old Gram Parsons chestnut "Sing Me Back Home." And Dolly's greatest song (one of her greatest, at least), "Down from Dover." Hal Willner provides some interesting settings and the usual guest stars, and Faithfull looks good in the cover shot and all, so how you react to this depends on how much you like spoken-word records...I suppose this is what remained undreamed-of in Shelby Lynn's philosophy...

via email from Metal Mike Saunders:

this is the BEST "LOVE SONG" OF THE LAST 30 YEARS

hahahahahaha, no seriously

KEROSENE Miranda Lambert no.18 country hit / 2005 first lp, both albums have gone platinum by now

feb 14 is on a saturday so i think i will put my CD on "repeat" on this track and play it on/off all day with the front door open, for like an hour at a time, thrice

i think every February/valentine's for the rest of my life, our band page will be a "miranda lambert valentine's day" tribute like right now

www.myspace.com/192503angrysamoans (top right, a little down)

good fan "mashup" video of the song

live outside, Eu Claire WIS w/pink electric guitar

her tour band sucks

oops, repeated one of those links; here's the Samoans page:

www.myspace.com/192503angrysamoans

(top right, a little down)

Guess you gotta self-paste the Samoans link in your browser; weird. Anyway, more Metal Mike, couple weeks ago:

i have NO use for almsot any/all country issued (by new artists since 1965, in fact)(the first Patty Loveless lp is where i get interested in country again = a proper marriage between trad/country and trad/pop-songwriting, aka Brill Building).

apparently Taylor Swift is the new (fifst) female Elvis Preseley (or Beatles) but i'mnot brave enough to plunk out $14 for her new abum yet (i havern't even fully digested the fifst one which is pretty darn good).

but her "revised" MISSION STATEMENT on her myspace page is, holy fuck, this girl is articulate. she writes better (in her journals/blogs to her 2,000,000+ "friends" of whom any 100's comment into her each/every journal) than the average Stanford (or ivy leaguer) entering freshman! and she loves "minor chords" (aka, brill building musical vocabulary). could give a shit about boys, is in love with her guitar/writing/songwriting, is FRIENDS WITH MYLIE CYRUS ( = she should write fucking mylie some good ROCK songs instead of the crap mylie's or mylie-plus-adivsors keep barfing up. Def Lepperd riffs and shit. they should form a side-band, althoughi don't doubt that idea has alredy kicked itself around. Mylie and Taylor butchering 3-chord Def Lepperd riffs, rewritten. i thought Taylor's "CMT" thing w/Lepperd was totally cool. although being no fan whatsoever of the Lep guys i don't have a high bar whenit comes to hearing re-makes of their hit catalog.

Taylor is articulate, and I think she can write. I have trouble with the actual music/arrangements but I am old-fashioned. But smart, yep, and that bit about "minor chords" is funny because I spoke with her last fall and she mentioned she used this "weird" chord in one of her songs, the one she wrote w/ John Rich, and me being me I had to call her on that--"Taylor, that's a minor chord, the Beatles used it to spice up that shit like 'You Won't See Me' and everything." And yeah, the Brill Building writers liked that technique too. Probably she went out and bought one of those Mel Bay chord books and got up to speed. She's so smart!

Seems like Bentley's second album arrived with a bio that emph his and his band's early tours (especially with Cross Canadian Ragweed)that included some of the jam band circuit, as well as more country per se venues.His band got a lot of room on that album, and deserved it. Never been that crazy about his po'studmo vocal persona (a kiss 'n' cry cousin of Billy Currington's more spirited midnight plowboy). Even People magazine slams his new 'un (while big upping Coldplay for Album Of The Year). Oh, should still be a downloadable Neko show on NPR, think it's the All Songs Considered section (also a good Martha Wainwright show, she was Neko's rowdy lil sister opening act, but it's a sep file)I P&Jd Neko's Furnace Room Lullaby, also liked her (even more ruminatin' urban prairie echo of) The Virginian, and the Corn Sisters (Neko and Carolyn Mark, like the Everly Sisters, and kinda 12-string proto-psych country at times) and an Austin City Limits set with full band incl Kelly Hogan. Also, her version of "Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis" was a highlight of an unusually worthwhile tribute album, New Coat of Paint (Tom Waits songs are pretty good, long as he's not the singer)Haven't kept up with later albums, but her dynamic stairwell channeling of family, friendship, and other encounters through ever-emerging porchlit/rusty river imagery (stage smarts x private life) is very appealing on earlier works. Am only reviewer on Earth to pan New Pornographers.

Songs I'm curious about on the current Billboard Hot Country songs chart. (Will check youtube for them when I get around to it, but I'd be curious what anybody who has actually heard any of these thinks):

34 1 Shuttin' Detroit Down, John Rich
J.Rich (J.Rich,J.D.Anderson ) Warner Bros. PROMO SINGLE | WRN | 34
35 36 39 12 Best Days Of Your Life, Kellie Pickler
C.Lindsey (K.Pickler,T.Swift ) 19 DIGITAL | BNA | 35
37 40 40 7 Telluride, Josh Gracin
B.James (B.James,T.Verges ) Lyric Street DIGITAL | 37
38 38 38 15 Space, Sarah Buxton
S.Buxton (S.Buxton,C.Cannon,L.White ) Lyric Street PROMO SINGLE | 38
47 43 45 10 Like A Woman, Jamie O'Neal
R.Good (J.O'Neal,S.Bentley,J.Femino ) 1720 PROMO SINGLE | 43
48 47 46 9 Everything, Jessica Andrews
J.Demarcus (Marcel ) Carolwood PROMO SINGLE | 45
58 NEW 1 The 12th Man, Dusty Drake
D.Drake (S.Yurjevich,K.Fowler,D.Drake ) Big Machine DIGITAL | 58
59 59 55 5 You're My Life, Steve Azar
S.Azar (S.Azar,R.Foster ) Ride/Dang DIGITAL | New Revolution | 52
60 NEW 1 What Would You Say, Trailer Choir
Butter,M.Logan (Butter,Big Vinny,D.Fortney ) Show Dog Nashville DIGITAL |

---

The Trailer Choir track definitely wasn't on their okay EP last year; the Steve Azar track may or may not have been on his okay album last year, but if so, it wasn't one of the tracks that jumped out at me (plus it has a mushy title, so I don't have high hopes. Also don't have high hopes for the Josh Gracin, but "Telluride" is a potentially interesting title. Though not nearly as potentially interesting as "Shuttin Down Detroit" from McCain's main man.)

As for Jamie O'Neal, Jessica Andrews, Kellie Pickler, and Dusty Drake, I've liked albums by all of them before, but have fallen behind, apparently.

Not sure I've ever even heard anything by Sarah Buxton (besides a duet she did with Cowboy Troy once), but I'm pretty sure that Frank likes her.

---

Way off the chart, I played new albums by both Nashville Pussy and Ian Tyson (former Ian & Sylvia folkie, now an Edmonton cowboy) a few times in the past few days, but nothing seemed to click. Which is the only thing they had in common with each other.

Yeah, okay, "Shutting Detroit Down" (live version below on the radio in Jersey) gave me the chills. Not surprised. Don't really mind its New York-baiting disguised as Wall Street-baiting, either. Haven't heard the official recorded version (and John Rich might want to ask himself why even the so-called "Reagan Democrat" Detroit suburbs went so strong for Obama. Unless he's come to his senses by now.) (Also worth noting that, when I visited my family out there at Thanksgiving, nodody seemed all that pissed off about the auto execs private-jetting to D.C. to ask for the bailouts; their line seemed to be more that jet-setting Congresspeople were hypocrities for complaining about it. Bet they'll like this song if they hear it, though -- even if the only country music they care about is Kid Rock):

New single (about broken couples?) by Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles is more pop-rocky than her more pub-country last album, but catchy regardless. (Just got sent the link via email, is how I know):

John Rich couldn't even be half as screwed up as Ted Nugent when it comes to political beliefs. My opine is that country is going to see a bit of a dip in yearly sales as its constituency rolls into ever increasing joblessness through 2009. People will buy the CDs and go to shows for awhile and then, at some point when there's a critical mass collecting unemployment, a noticeable shortfall will occur. A big Ford dealership on the corner of Colorado, something which has been in Pasadena at least as long as I have, suddenly went out of business, its lot suddenly scraped completely clean in the last couple weeks. Where did the hundreds of new cars go?

Yeah, several friends from different areas have recently mentioned suddenly clear air, lots, etc...mebbe somebody should do a country cover of T.Heads' "Nothing But Flowers." But who will buy, in such a climate?

Trailer Choir "What Would You Say" is about trapped miners and uncharacteristically sappy; Dusty Drake "The 12th Man" about Pittsburgh Steelers fans and has some boogie to it. Drake much better, both already possibly somewhat past their sell-by date.

Okay, let's see here: Sarah Buxton's "Space" is excellent (he says he wants space and she's bitter so she's going to give his sorry juvenile ass space and make it sting and she's going to put spooky quiet space in the music too and mention the dark side of the moon while she's at it and sing it all in a great scratchy rasp I now need to hear more of); Kellie Pickler's "Best Days Of Your Life" is passingly cute pop-rock (another breakup song about how he's gonna miss this); Jamie O'Neal's "Like A Woman" is very horny wife-and-new-mom who wants her husband to make her feel like a natural woman song (sung in an appropriately fleshy country-soul voice to match); Josh Gracin's "Telluride" is not nearly as good as the eight-year-old original version by Tim McGraw and also doesn't put over the resentment of a working class kid spending his vacation working to serve spoiled rich kids nearly as well (at least judging from several live Gracin videos on youtube -- couldn't find his studio version, but I'm still fairly convinced that as a singer the dude's a zero not a hero, which can not be said of Mr. McGraw).

(Pickler song more "just pop" than "pop rock," actually. Production suggests something non-country from the '80s.)

That Sarah Borges xhuxk posted is very, very Joan Jett.

Jessica Andrews "Everything" -- Big bland devoid-of-personality adult-contemporary ballad about how some guy Jessica broke up with (and should therefore GET OVER ALREADY) is her everything. Also it's too long.

Steve Azar "You're My Life" (another "you're my" song just like Jessica's apparently) doesn't seem to be on youtube. But it was indeed on Indianola last year, and I didn't like it then. Songs on there I did like somewhat were "Crowded," "Flatlands," especially "The Coach," and maybe one or two others.

Speaking of sell-by dates, I finally figured out what I like best/basically about Jamey Johnson, in the following show preview:
After eight years in the Marines, Jamey Johnson won and lost in Nashville, then wrote clean-and-sober hits (plus "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk") for others. He's learning to see and get through the old dualities. So, on Johnson's current album, "That Lonesome Song," his band bounces the sardonic daydream of "Mowin' Down The Roses" and brushes by the testimonal "High Cost of Livin' ", sweetly tempting each. Also, black-and-white images (mere evidence) lead straight up through a World War II veteran's history, always lived "In Color", and still in the present tense.

Actually, it was "see (and get) through the old dualities" and I think I got all the commas AP-right in the sent/published version, this is typed from handwritten original

So, question of the day: When exactly did John Doe (the ex X guy) start to suck? I was actually a pretty huge fan of those first four X albums (stuck with the band longer than some punk fans I know), including the third and fourth ones where they started to work in country/roots-type influences. More Fun In the New World was even my #1 album in 1983, the first year my Pazz & Jop ballot got printed in the Voice. Only liked a couple things they did after that, though (especially "4th of July"), and thought Doe and Exene's proto-alt-country Knitters were just bad cornball kitsch, and have never paid much attention to Doe's solo stuff. Now he's got one of the dullest tracks on that Chris Gaffney tribute album, and he's got an album of country covers coming out on Yep Roc this spring which I played a couple times yesterday, and man, the guy has no capability for expression left in his singing at all. He used to, even doing music not too far from this. Anyway, he cardboard-voices his way through "Detroit City," which is well-timed, but he does nothing with it, plus "Help Me Make It Through the Night" (the Mekons did that one better as I recall), "The Cold Hard Facts Of Life," "Stop The World And Let Me Off" (some of the same chord changes as Merle Haggard's "If We Make It Through December," I just realized, not to mention some song the Boxmasters did last year), etc. (I'm not even sure off hand which old country acts those last couple are most associated with, so maybe Edd should school us.) Closest song Doe comes to pulling off is probably "Are The Good Times Really Over For Good," early '80s Merle about how Ford and Chevy don't make cars as good as they used to and stuff like that, but maybe I was just happy to hear the song. (Didn't some alt-country type cover "Big City" recently too? If so, seems like the Hag LP of that name is maybe belatedly being acknowledged as the classic album it had always sounded like to me in the first place.)

(Also "Are The Good Times Really Over For Good" clearly counts as '80s recession country, even though one of the main things Hag laments in it is how girls have forgotten how to cook properly ever since the microwave oven was introduced. That "back before Nixon lied to us all on TV" line really hits me now, though, since I've been reading and loving Rick Perlstein's Nixonland this week.)

(Didn't some alt-country type cover "Big City" recently too? If so, seems like the Hag LP of that name is maybe belatedly being acknowledged as the classic album it had always sounded like to me in the first place.)

I thought Peter Guralnick's discog in the back of Lost Highway was the reason why I bought a copy of Big City. But now that I'm looking at it I don't see the record mentioned. Strange. Anyways, I think it's a great record, and at some point in my life I remembering reading a review that inspired me to pick up a copy.

Big City probably fell victim to the hipster idea that no good country was made after Urban Cowboy was released. But maybe the '80s is being reevaluated. John Anderson and Randy Travis could become the next names for Americanians to start dropping.

Just picked up a vinyl copy of "Big City" for 5 bucks at a record store in Louisville. It really is great. That late 70's, early 80's period of his produced some of my favorite songs (Footlights, The Way I Am), but most of the albums are fairly inconsistent. "Big City" is the best of the bunch.

Also nabbed a copy of Waylon's "Are you Ready for the Country" which wasn't as satisfying, though the NY cover is pretty great.

Early '60s folk revival sort of counts as country, right? A lot of overlap over the years, probably. Anyway, I got sent this vinyl LP two days ago called Songs Of Leaving on a Chicago label called Numerophon by this girl folk singer named Niela Miller, recorded in 1962 in NYC -- or really, by 2009 (even 1981, if not 1962) standards more like a vinyl EP, since it seems to clock in around 20 minutes for about 10 songs. The thing is on 150-gram vinyl, really thick and heavy; label looks like it would have been plastered on some old 78. Record cover cardboard is also super thick, made to look like some Folkways album from the '50s. Clever (and actually quite beautiful) marketing concept, I gotta admit -- maybe even smart, on an extremely small scale, since the idea I guess is to make physical product collectible in the age of mp3s. (Apparently this album is the first of a series on the label.)

Thing is, there's also music on the thing, and it's just....okay. Niela sings her (apparently mostly if not all original) blues-folk in a tone that strikes me as really proper and cautious, maybe a precursor of Joan Baez-type singing (never listened to enough Baez to know for sure) (maybe proto Janis Ian too?) -- basically, it's how you'd expect those iron-haired private-girls-school rich chicks in Animal House (also set in 1962) to sing. Played it back-to- back this morning with a couple of New Christy Minstrels LPs from around the same period (sent to me by Metal Mike a couple years ago), and Miller sounded completely strained and constrained and unenergetic and humorless in comparison (and the New Chistry Minstels didn't seem as good as the Kingston Trio or Limeliters, all of whom I'm guessing Miller's milieu would have dismissed as phonies and sellouts, though somebody correct me if I'm wrong.)

Still, I like the record okay -- especially "Goodbye New York," which has a tune and some bite to it plus a lyric I identify with right now, as my apartment fills up with boxes packed for my move. And (apparently the main justification for the reissue), there's also this song called "Baby Don't Go To Town" which the (Folkways-like) liner notes peg as a prototype of "Hey Joe" -- or, at least the song that was allegedly combined with Carl Smith's 1953 country hit "Hey Joe" to get the song that Hendrix and the Byrds and Leaves and Deep Purple and Cher later did. (Aside: Back at University of Missouri in the early '80s, I knew a guy -- otherwise a major fan of the Jam -- who collected on cassette tapes all the versions of "Hey Joe" he could get ahold of.) Supposedly Neila Miller's "unstable boyfriend" Billy Roberts stole her version, had it copywritten, and the rest is history. I'm skeptical about all of this, but it's a good story, either way. And there is a certain proto-garage-punk (post-blues) punch to the guitars in Miller's song. Or at least I imagine there is, so I can keep her cool looking record.

(Though when I say the novel marketing concept is potentially smart, I'm leaving out that I have no idea what it would cost to put out a record that looks like this one in 2009, with vinyl pressing plants supposedly shutting down and all. Looks expensive to my eyes, but what do I know? Also leaving out that, though the thing looks real classy on one hand, it's also obviously kind of ridiculous, which may or may not be part of the point.)

And probably the proto-garage part of how "Baby Don't Go To Town" sounds is just its guitar progression, which the liner notes identify as AMAJ (not that I'd know). And Niela might be as proto-"freak-folk" (or proto- the tuneless kind of '60s folkies that freak folkers gravitate toward now) as proto-Baez. And by "Miller's milieu," I guess I basically mean Dylan's -- she supposedly attended his West Village debut. But her backstory doesn't make her sound "authentic" at all: learned about folk music at summer camp in the Catskills while on vacation from the High School Of Music And Art in '48, became the promoter of folk music at "liberal Antioch College" in '52, dated a "black, Jewish and Communist folk singer," wrote "Too Long Blues" after an early boyfriend snubbed her for another gal at a Weavers gig in '53. I swear, the whole plot reads like a parody to me. I half expect the Beastie Boys to come out and start rapping about beatnik chicks just wearing their smocks.

But though I never thought of the folk revival this way before, it also all means that she was learning about the blues around the same time that all the (white) early rock'n'rollers were. Which is kind of cool, even if she wasn't nearly as good at it (and if ignoring rock'n'roll then makes her a total geek.)

(Also makes me wonder how much audience crossover there was between early '60s rock'n'roll and early '60s folk -- There must have been frat bros who bought both Beach Boys and Kingston Trio LPs at least, right? Both groups even kinda dressed alike.)

Have always loved Iris Dement's version of Big City that she did for a Hag covers album called Tulare Dust. AMG tells me it came out in 1994. John Doe was on that one, too. And he was boring as I recall. But Tom Russell's version of Tulare Dust / Tearing the Labor Camps Down was fantastic. Sadly this type of Depression-inspired lyrics might get more real again.

Early '60s folk revival sort of counts as country, right? A lot of overlap over the years

I'm guessing Johnny Cash might count as the biggest overlap; he definitely had at least half a foot in folk (and not just because he did Dylan covers.) And now I find out that both Kenny Rogers and Kim Carnes (though not on the group's earliest LPs I have) were members of the New Christy Minstrels. And the better of their two albums I've got, Ramblin' Featuring Green Green (which charted #15 in Billboard in 1963) is all traveling and rambling songs, more country than I would have guessed though I have no idea whether country fans cared. That one has only two ballads or so out of a dozen mostly sprightly and catchy tracks; their debut Presenting the New Christy Minstrels from a year (and three albums) earlier feels a lot slower and less raucous, but does have their versions of "This Land Is Your Land" (apparently the highest charting version of the rock era at #93) and "Springfield Fair" (which Simon & Garfunkel later made much prettier and more exotic as "Scarborough Fair.") It's also got liner notes talking about how Edwin P. Christy founded his first group of traveling Minstrels way back in 1842, but these New ones don't wear blackface anymore. Randy Sparks, the leader, says too many folk groups from the time "sing too prettily and too delicately to transmit the message of folk music," so apparently he thought the New Christies were more raw and real compared to those groups. But they don't seem to have nearly as much tongue-in-cheek self-knowledge as did the Kingston Trio or Limeliters (both of whom first charted earlier -- Kingstons way back '58.) And they look totally square on the cover -- ten members, all really young and cleancut and maybe like they're part of a small-town theatre troupe. There was definitely at least one copy of one of their albums in my house growing up, though I have no idea whether it belonged to my mom or my dad.
Still think Ramblin' is a good album, though.

I'm also gonna guess that most fans of both "real" folk-revival folk and fake commercial folk-revival folk at the time would've tended to vote for JFK. (Though who knows, maybe more radical real ones held their nose, wishing they could get away with voting Commie instead.) Not sure who my parents voted for.

Hey xhuxk, I wonder if you could address something that's been bothering me recently about folk. On one hand there's this 1960's-folk inspired contemporary folk (some of which you're mentioning here) and on the other there's freak-folk, or indie-folk, or whatever. And I tend to like a broad swath that cuts across both these groups, but I don't necessarily see huge differences between them. A lot of times the aesthetic difference is pretty superficial, and sometimes it's just a difference of community (if you live in NYC, maybe you're freak-folk, if you live in... I don't know... Nashville? Newport? you're "real folk"). So how do you distinguish this? And is it even worth wasting time on? Like Kathleen Edwards could easily be Joan Boaz/Neil Young inspired. And isn't she just a jump away from, say, Laura Marling? (Or Neko Case who, despite playing with New Pornographers, has a lot of solo music that sounds kin to the Newport folk movement?)

There must have been frat bros who bought both Beach Boys and Kingston Trio LPs at least, right?

My dad had albums by both groups--though he never went to college.

xp Wow, Mordy, I swear you are the first person in history who has ever taken me to be a folk music expert. Not complaining -- I'm kind of flattered. But to be honest, I pay so little attention to current stuff (and despite my posts here yesterday and today, I've barely dabbled in the '60s stuff) to feel I can make useful distinctions. I had a hard enough to time making sense out of how "freak folk" mysteriously seemed to replace "anti folk" in New York a few years ago, and I've been bored by almost everything I've heard in both supposed genres. I've never heard a note by Laura Marling, and (like I said upthread), I've never given much attention to Neko Case, either. I guess I've always assumed the "freak folk" stuff is supposed to be somehow influenced by more acid-damaged music, psychedelia or noise or whatever? Which would theoretically make it weirder and more formless. (And old singers like Vashti Bunyan embraced by freak folk fans maybe sounded that way by accident?) Not sure how that holds up in reality, though. ("Anti-folk" was more NYC than "freak folk" though, wasn't it? I mean, doesn't the latter often have pretensions of being made by communal extended families in abandoned Vermont farm houses? Or did I just imagine that?)

Do think the music called "alt-country" as often as not has more in common with what I consider folk (or singer songwriters or whoever) than what I consider country, though. (But like I said, lots of overlap.)

And I do get the idea that Kathleen Edwards is less hookaphobic than, say, Joanna Newsom or whoever.

Hookaphobic?

As in "afraid of hooks." (Just made it up. Don't know what took me so long.)

the Numerophon thing is an imprint of Numero Group, the Chicago reissue label. (As I've mentioned earlier, they've reissued Caroline Peyton's fairly classic [and proto-"freak-folk"]) Mock Up on their Asterisk imprint, as well as the more dispersed Intuition [which contains one actual country tune, "Still with You," that falls in nicely with the eclecticism of the thing in gen'l]. And what about "Long Black Veil" and maybe even Roger Miller as sorta bridge between "folk" and "country" way before zillions of folkies did it in the wake of the Band after '68...?

I also figured out that Neko Case is basically K.D. Lang for a new generation, gets over on her Byootiful Voice and Ambiguo-Sex Appeal and that's cool, I guess I like Neko far better than I ever have Lang; both are undeniably first-rate singers.

I dunno about that, Edd; I've been denying Lang's ice-cold affectations for years. (Frank has too. Don't have the old issue of Radio On in front of me, but I think his line about k.d. went something like: "If this is torch, Sophie B. Hawkins is a conflagration, and Teena Marie is a holocaust.")

which old country acts those last couple are most associated with

"Cold Hard Facts Of Life" = Porter Wagoner; "Stop The World And Let Me Off" = Patsy Cline? Waylon Jennings? Dwight Yoakam? (Still not sure who had the biggest hit with it, though I guess they all did it.)

xp Also get the idea it's possible (in response to Mordy) that, if Baez was obscure instead of famous, she could be an old freak-folk cult heroine.

I don't think Baez ever had enough of the "freak" in her. The freak folk heroine seems to be more of a cross between NorCal Joni knock offs and Brit folk ladies like Bunyan and Bridget St. John.

The aspect to Baez's career that I think gets overlooked is her country-folk phase in the late '60s and early '70s. She did a string of records with the same band that Dylan used during for John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline. Norm Blake is on guitar. I recently made a compilation CD-R of this stuff for a friend, who was skeptical that Baez could make anything other than terrible music. It's about 25 songs: Steve Young covers, "Long Black Veil," Gram Parsons tunes, The Band, some Stones, old Appalachian folk stuff with more twang than her early Newport stuff, and so on. It's not bad.

Another decent country/folk revival hybrid is the Great Speckled Bird LP from '68(?). That's Ian & Sylvia along with a bunch of stoner cowboys. The record features pedal steel player Buddy Cage, who is really quite good for a "longhair." Ian & Sylvia's previous records found them doing more and more country. Then again, maybe it's more of a Canadian prairie cowboy shtick.

well, Buffy Saint-Marie did records in Nashville on Vanguard, I think. I mean Ian and Sylvia did too, on Bearsville.

I wasn't saying I necessarily liked or even thought about K.D. Lang that much--my point was that she's a good singer and that's her claim to fame, her "great voice," just like Neko. and that there's a segment of the country audience--the NPR side--who might groove to Lang, Case or even that Bradley's Barn Mandy Barnett late-moment-of-countrypolitan record from '99, in terms of sheer aural quality and all that shit. But yeah, as Frank says, it's sort of a faltering-torch torch-music move, I mean bloodless, but I think you have to ask yourself if that kind of dryness and formalist western-mythos-swing shit isn't a part of country too.

Otis Gibbs' new one displays his ugly voice on songs that producer Chris Stamey turns into the veriest processed-mush country music--the steel says nothing, the strums received wisdom, the occasional pop move (major seventh chords on one that is sorta like "Everybody's Talkin'," another unacknowledged pop-folk dude wrote that, Fred Neil. Gibbs sounds honest, he's asleep in a truck stop, longs for his grandmamma's quilt and his baby's arms, sleeps on a rolled-up jacket. I don't really know why this supposed quality item was even made but it's relevant to our discussion of folk music, maybe he spent time writing these songs but the classiness of Stamey's production is sawdust-on-the-floor in every way and has zilch to do with anything I love about either folk or country music.

and yeah, the new Dierks ended up boring me; likely "Lot of Leavin' Left" will be the template for the kind of truckin' pothead music he's good at and everything else is more or less useless, unless you wanna hear about his Lady. I still like the idea of Dierks and am trying to think of folks who do the bluegrass-jam-rock move better. Well I mean the Byrds invented this shit on Untitled which is a shitty Byrds record even with Clarence White, whose licks can't even save a lot of that later Byrd-shit (the live Albert Hall reissue a case in point).

Been able to peek into the forthcoming Those Darlins record. Not what I woulda expected, more pop and abstract ('60s Beatles and '70s Nick Lowe moments), pretty good. Anyone else hear or see this group of young girls from Alabama, the Bridges, last time out? (Opened some shows for Matthew Sweet late last yr.) They yell out some stuff in unison and smell like apricot face scrub, real cute.

Last Sunday the NYT did a long piece on whatshername and The Heartless Bastards' new record. So the LA Times assigned someone to imitate it and that ran wednesday or thursday. So what does what'shername and the Heartless Bastards sound like? Because I can't trust either newspaper's entertainment writing, particularly the latter's because it was doing kneejerk us-too-ism.

In theory, it sounded almost like something worth investigating. But the quacking about country and roots for indie rock fans and what'shername (Erika Wennerstrom) admitting she might not be such a good guitar player raised two stop signs.

Here's the NYT copy:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/02/arts/heartless.1-417498.php

Frank on Whatshername and the Heartless Bastards (plus another rootsty Ohio rock band, the Tough & Lovely) in 2005, back when there was a Village Voice. (Of the two bands, he liked the Bastards more at the time; I preferred the Tough & Lovely myself, though I might reconsider if I relistened now):

http://www.villagevoice.com/2005-08-23/music/can-t-buy-a-frill/

I heard one track off the new Bastards album late last year -- called "The Mountain" or something -- and thought it had a decent Crazy Horse style guitar climb to it, but that they still lacked something in the rhythm and singing departments. Not bad for an indie-rock band; not great for a blues-rock band.

(Though, right, it's not like Wennerstrom's guitaring is going to blow you away, either. Or her tunes, from my experience. Or her live show, judging from the just-okay one I say in Manhattan a few years back. Though apparently she's got a new rhythm section since then, and since Frank's review; guess it's possible that the new album's a leap forward.)

"...tries to make a virtue of sartorial paralysis..." Hmmm, perfect for NPR, though, right?

The descriptions remind of the other What'shername (Jesse Sykes?) & the Sweet Hereafter who kind of sounded like Crazy Horse, too. But someone paid me fifty dollars (or maybe more, I forget) to say that and it's not like anyone really wanted to hear something that accurately sounded like classic rock.

Anyway, the LAT article made out that production on the Heartless Bastards had gone through an upgrade with people adding shit that normally the band wouldn't have been able to play, which was what Frank seemed to be driving at.

Neila Miller's "Mean World Blues" is a song that been rotating on my headbox for nigh on twenty year, or however long it's been since I started listening to Dave Van Ronk's No Dirty Names. Somebody gets up and leaves, at their own chosen speed, balancing on an implied bass line, rope ladder, "Well, I'm goin', goin' away baby, and don't, you follow me," words about the mean world curl around before she disappears, "You're blind now, baby you can't see." Some kind of very quiet implosion in somebody's life, in the fog around Van Ronk's searchlight melisma. Could well imagine Mingus playing this (and for a while, he billed himself as folk), the wispy melody evaporating in some waterfront tenor sax. As it is, we just get Dave's limited but evocative voice and guitar, as on the rest of this LP, and what a resource he was, a gateway drug, for those (incl Bobby Z., future D., and AKA Elston Gunn, with the Golden Chords and Shadow Blasters in Hibbing High, before he lifted Paul Nelson's record collection and played piano for Bobby Vee)finding their way past genteel purists and bland hitseekers alike. Anyway, that's the only way I know, Neila, always wondered about her, and requested the promo a while back; if it's bad, too bad. Even putting "authenticity" in quotes, though, I don't get then making fun of her for not being born in the blues under a cabbage leaf at the end of Tobacco Road. Anti-folk seemed more polemical, incl sexual politics of a night flashingly hinted at; freak folk is like paisley cottage/college industry, working from Donovan and Fahey and getting better sometimes when it twines around ye olde bass trombone etc from high school. Doe's made some good solo albums, once he figured out how to sing in a way that didn't make it all too concise and too clear that Exene ain't hear--although sometimes she does turn up on his albums (as do other duet partners, like his daughter), and some of the X live reunion tapes I've heard ain't bad. Haven't heard the tracks mentioned recently, so dunno. K.D. and Neko sound pretty warm to me, "sheer aural quality and all that shit" aside. They're not as deep as they'd like to be, but it's just as well.

Don's correct of course when he says my guffawing at Neila Miller's upper-end Liberal Arts inauthenticity is totally unfair (and also that it has nothing to do with how good or bad her music was -- and as I said, her music doesn't seem that bad); just me being kneejerk, I guess. And I may be setting up a strawman in assuming that folkies "like" Miller (whatever that means) would have in turn looked down their noses at the inauthenticity of Kingston Trio/New Christys etc. Maybe they wouldn't have. If anybody knows the truth, I'd be curious what it is.

Speaking of Donovan, I posted what's below on an old thread about him a couple days ago, but either nobody noticed or nobody cared. Here 'tis again:

Okay, this is going to sound retarded, but I've been hearing the song "Sunshine Superman" all my life and I never realized what it was until this morning. (A next-door neighboor had given me the album with that title in a pile of other used LPs two years ago, and I never got around to listening to it til now. I always knew Donovan did a song with that name; just never associated it with the song that goes "when I make my mind up you're going to be mine" and "Superman and Green Lantern ain't got nothin on me" etc. Not sure who else I thought did it; guess I never wondered one way or the other. And never really checked out Donovan much at all, even though the person I'm married to is named after one of his songs. Anyway, the album -- which also has "Season of the Witch," which I've always loved -- is good. A lot better than the *Wear Your Love Like Heaven* LP, which the same neighbor gave me, but which I thought was boring since Donovan's voice didn't seem pretty enough to support its tweeness, even though he's quite possibly inventing the genre.)

Husker Du covered "Sunshine Superman" once, right? Don't think I've ever actually heard that, either.

Not that there isn't some good comedy in a mighty windy and pretty fly for a blue kid playin the whites, to approximate a Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee title, and Jules Feiffer and Lenny Bruce made something of that whole strange era (per yout mini-history of Neila, let's put it between Democrats vs.Dixeicrats re the Civil Rights plank of '48, and Civil Rights Act of '64). And Bobby D. made something of it too, of his and Mr. Jones' ("Everytime I say 'you' I mean 'I'") inauthenticity/culture trek. He's also made something valid of reversing that course in the last twenty-five years or so, getting back into the Heritage of folk-blues-country-jazz, crucially personalized of course, and he's earned his place next to Jimmie Rodgers etc, if that's where he wants to settle in (still with some funky zingers at his old lady and "mind of a DJ," to cop Frank's apt phrase; whether lifting the needle from Thought Two to Four, or adapting lines from a Confederate laureate, etc, before becoming an actual radio DJ--will he end up doing that in clubs?)

Oh yeah, and Butthole Surfers did a good version of "Hurdy Gurdy Man"--was it Page on the original, or Beck? I gotta get some more Donovan from that era--seems like he actually briefly formed (? there were publicity pix, anyway) a proto-psych-folk-rock combo, the Open Road...? Always liked the waltz and first verse of "Sunny Goodge Street": On the firefly platform of sunny Goodge Street/A violent hash eater shakes a chocolate machine/Involved in an eating scene..." Although his observations could slide into unedited bliss, like the bit later in there about the magician (Spoiler Alert! "His name is Love, Love Love") Nice jazzy flow though ("Mingus mellow fantastic" though Mingus was famous for being pretty violent too, at least insofar as he had to shake your bourgie machine)("had" re artistic frustrations and some, incl. Mingus, judging by quotes in Priestley's bio) came to expect it as part of his show). Also good tourism in "Mexico", incl watching the sun go down while "the simple act of an oar's stroke put diamonds in the sea" and "Microscopic circles in the fluid of my sight" and "Watching the black-eyed native girl/Cut and trim the lamp/Valentino vamp/In Mexico." But "Young Girl Blues" scared me in high school--he knew a lot more about girls in that song than I ever would (but also I could relate to what his subject was privately going through, and those two impressions made a very unsettling combination)

xhuxk, you're probably keying in on the Micky Most-produced Donovan. "Hurdy Gurdy Man" was, indeed, Page on guitar and probably the rest of Led Zep (sans Plant) backing. Hurdy Gurdy Man -- the album -- is patchy, some of it way twee. Barabajagal had Jeff Beck on it but you don't see that so much in stores, anymore. "Atlantis" has always been a fave among hard rockers and psychedelic types.

Haven't made it to the early '60s folkie discussion Xhuxk promises is at the end of this thread, but I just watched the video for Jamie O'Neal's "Like A Woman" that Xhuxk recommends above and I swear in the middle of it I kept thinking of Shontelle's "T-Shirt" - an r&b song that isn't as good as its premise, which is that she's lonely without him and she can't get herself to get dressed up and go out so she's lying around wearing nothing but his T-shirt, hence a song that can be simultaneously wistful and salacious - so I keep expecting the women in the Jamie O'Neal vid (middle of the day, their respective men are off at work, they wishing the men back) to start changing into his clothes...

Agree that Sarah Buxton's "Space" is excellent; the best song I've heard of hers is "Stupid Boy," which Keith Urban turned into a hit but her version is as good as his. Her rasp can be alternately - or simultaneously - cute and cutting. Likable, though not quite as good, is "That Kind Of Day," where all these little things go wrong so she grabs her credit card: "When times are tough it's time to shop."

Xhuxk, I didn't have any Chad Mitchell Trio records to tape when I was putting all those old Kingston Trio songs on cassette for you back in the '90s, but the Chad Mitchell Trio were definitely getting a lot of play on the Frank & Richard Kogan record player 1963-1964. Here's a clip from the Bell Telephone Hour with them accompanied by an instrumentalist who went onto greater fame. They also did a lot of political satire that was no doubt considered unsafe for television:

The only version of "Baby Don't Go To Town" I can find on YouTube is this one by Doc Pitman and son, who say that they've inserted their own lyrics. I like it, though its chord pattern and some of its lyrics are basically "I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground" rather than "Hey Joe." Does anyone know who first recorded a song with the "Hey Joe" chord pattern, since I haven't heard any records made previous to whatever the first recorded version of "Hey Joe" is (Love? The Byrds? The Seeds? all of whose recorded versions predate Tim Rose's or Jimi Hendrix's recorded versions, the latter two following the "Billy Roberts" template, the former three the "Dino Valenti," who probably taught it to the Byrds). I have of course heard the chord pattern subsequently, Deep Purple's "Hush," for instance.

But her backstory doesn't make her sound "authentic" at all: learned about folk music at summer camp in the Catskills while on vacation from the High School Of Music And Art in '48, became the promoter of folk music at "liberal Antioch College" in '52, dated a "black, Jewish and Communist folk singer," wrote "Too Long Blues" after an early boyfriend snubbed her for another gal at a Weavers gig in '53. I swear, the whole plot reads like a parody to me.

Well, the plot is dead-on accurate for the milieu that propelled the "folk" craze in the '50s and early '60s, so in that sense it's very authentic, the very kids who glommed onto the music of a couple of decades back from Appalachia and the Southeast.

I'd say, though, that the music they fixed on doesn't altogether match up with the country music of the '20s and '30s, or the blues; I don't know enough music theory to identify the difference, exactly, but the "folk" music tended more towards the minor key (or suppressing the "mi" note of the chord altogether) and the black-derived music tended more to sound like what I'd vaguely call "spirituals." Someone like Edd could probably be more accurate and articulate as to what I'm trying to say, that is if he's clairvoyant enough to know what I'm trying to put into words.

I know Love did "Hey Joe" at around the exact same time the Byrds did it. A lot of early Love is "Hey Joe" anyway. I think what Frank's getting at is the whole sadness trip of the blues as "folk expression" of good liberal blacks for good liberal blacks, and occasionally a criminal like Leadbelly sneaked in there. They had a hard time telling apart commercial and "folk-expression" African-American music--nothing was more money-oriented than gospel music, because look at the great tightwad soul men if you don't believe me. James Brown, the Womack Brothers, Sam Cooke, Aretha herself. The big-time world of gospel music.
I haven't heard Neila yet. I understand it's from an acetate that was warped and the sound quality isn't great. I'd have to hear the "Hey Joe" template to make a judgment on that, but it sounds just like the "Louie Louie" template. "Hey Joe"'s definitive version is Hendrix', because he had the best rearranged folk thing happening.

So I have an important question. Is there actually any "rockabilly" on that Plant/Krauss album that won all those Grammys last night (the parts of which I've heard were reverent to the point of drabness, with not even enough oomph to be called bluegrass), or was the NY Times headline writer this morning lying? (Hell, "Hot Dog" by Zeppelin sounds more rockabilly than anything I've heard off that album. Not to mention that Honeydrippers EP, maybe. How come the Grammy jokers never gave that one an award? Wasn't it like the biggest selling EP ever?)

Pretty good country performances on the show: Carrie Underwood and (separately) Kid Rock (the beginning of whose medley I missed -- need to check it out on youtube) were so country that they were hard rock. And I swear Miley outsang (outdrawled, whatever) Taylor on their nice "Fifteen" duet. (Loved Lil Wayne w/ the Dirty Dozen Brass Band + Alan Toussaint and M.I.A. with lots of less pregnant rappers, too. And thought Katy Perry's fruit suit and Thom Yorke dancing wackily to the U.S.C. "Tusk" band were a whole lot more entertaining than Kenny Chesney's and Sugarland's boring ballads, the latter of which actually improved but not by that much when Lisa Stansfield I mean Adele came out to help. Did think Jennifer Nettles' award acceptance speech was adorable, however. And while like everybody else I feel sorry for Jennifer Hudson's family tragedy -- and my wife liked her outfit -- I'll be damned if I can understand how anybody can not find her singing a perfect time to take a bathroom break. Thought that during the Super Bowl too, for what it's worth.)

the tapes Frank mentions above also schooled me on the Limeliters, and Kingston Trio's "C.T.A," in which the narrator seems to be singing this little song to himself he sings every morning while commuting, kidding the folk-saga-for/of-white-dayjob-folkies or fans of folkies, deflating himself just a little for perspective's sake (can't go postal when he gets to the jobsite, miles to go and promises to keep), but also sounds kinda proud of himself--it's his own saga after all! And his workadaddy comrades' too.

And if it's more folkies ye be wantin', here they (don't)blow (judging by the music I was sent, but they do have a shipload):
Great Big Sea hail from Newfoundland, with full-sail harmonies that don't obscure the gnarlier details of their traditional and original ballads. On GBS's latest album, "Fortune's Favor," Alan Doyle and co-writer Russell Crowe raise their tankards to the iconoclastic comedy icon Bill Hicks, celebrating "A Company of Fools." In "Hard Case," a siren gets a booty call: "Hold me down/Under the sea/Drag me back to where we used to be." Folkwise, especially live, they can lead us through the hungry shadows, reeling around those old choruses.

More country-folk vinyl fetishism, from the buy-that-for-a-dollar thread. The band in question covers George and Tammy's "The Grand Tour" as well as "Jolene," but on first lesson, I'm liking their restrained and way too quiet attempt at an old-timey backporch drone even less than the Neila Miller EP. I want to like them, though (at least enough to justify keeping this nifty disc), so somebody please explain them to me. (They had something of a rock critic following at one point, as I recall; think they even finished Top 40 Pazz & Jop once):

$2, thrift store, 46th and Queens Blvd, Sunnyside, today:

The Geraldine Fibbers Get Thee Gone (Sympathy For The Record Industry 10-inch EP, c. '90s I guess)

An extravagance, since I am a total fetishizing sucker when it comes to 10-inch EPs (even though it is impossible to find inner sleeves). Plus I've never liked anything by these '90s indie art roots nerds before (not that I've listened much), and why would this be any different? But I used to be (very) mildly curious about the Fibbers, and I figure, if I'm ever going to like anything by them, this'd be about the correct amount of songs. Plus they cover Dolly's "Jolene" on it; how bad could that be? (Pretty bad, but I'll probably keep it anyway.)

― xhuxk, Monday, 9 February 2009 19:19

This record sounds like a frog being choked while someone laboriously puts a guitar out of tune, but I love it; only thing I ever liked by them. Bought it when it came out & would buy a nearly infinite number for $2 each, or half of infinity for $4/ea. It was around the time of Uncle Tupelo's breakup and we were all looking for a new hip alternative country act. Didn't find it; found a choking frog. Still!

― staggerlee, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 01:54

I just have to put in a good word here for the Fibbers' two proper albums, the 1st of which is a favorite of mine.

― sleeve, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 02:14

Posters on that thread also offered helpful advice about inner and outer sleeves for 10-inches, but I'll leave that stuff there.

so I kinda dig old Marianne Faithfull covering Dolly's great "Down from Dover," even tho she sing like a frog--a once-beautiful frog but a frog and who say older wimmen don't still have it? The sonics are VERY good, and you know, I decry sonics and all that shit but of course, I am that sucker, totally.

Dug Carrie U. on Grammys--very sexy and good. Keith backin' up Al Green was interesting, but Al still cuts all those kind of singers, even Timberlake who is actually from (east) Memphis. The Toussaint thing--was that "Whirlaway" or what he played, gotta look it up--was amazing. I really like Lil' Wayne.

Raising Sand has always underwhelmed me; as Caroline points out, Alison outsings Plant by a mile and she wondered if they were playing hide-the-salami on tour? they seem close. anyway, I thought that their take on the Everlys' great "Gone Gone Gone" was underwhelming. I mean OK, folk minimalism and great song choices; but the Everlys' own version of "Gone Gone Gone" is heartbroke, brilliant super-pop of a level unimaginable today and so Raising Sand is just this year's Quality Item that has bored more than a few of the folks who took it home, unless you know the originals then seems to me that frission dissapates. Robert Plant would like to be a combination of Gene Clark and Arthur Lee but instead it just turned out to be another duets thing and exercise in good taste. But for the Grammys, it was pretty stripped-down and that was the point of it I guess, the contrast.

Ah, Marianne--was worried when I heard she had breast cancer and then no more news for the past year, so even if the new album ain't so hot, glad she's still at it. transition: Shel Silverstein's "Ballad of Lucy Jordan" was a highlight of her great Broken English, and: Just finished Lisa Rogak's epic (but not too long) Silverstein bio, A Boy Named Shel. From working class Chicago in the 30s, to Korean War Asia (already peripetatic cartooning chronicler for Pacific Stars & Stripes)back to Chicago and dropping cartoons off at the probably gone-tomorrow office of young Playboy, which soon took off and sent him globetrotting again, when he wasn't hitting the beatnik folkie scenes in Old Town and Greenwich Village; later adding his pads and milieu in Sausilito's houseboat community, Martha's Vineyard, Nashville and Key West (but he could show up anywhere anytime, on yout doorstep, corner cafe or used bookstore, to work and/or play together--and when he was bored, he was gone in a flash). It's all about working and playing hard, cos that's what he was all about, and creatively as possible, in his own sometimes irasible (or axiomatically challenging) way. Lots of great comments from friends and collaborators (Bobby Bare, David Mamet, etc, etc)Some intriguing mentions on robertchristgau.com, but the only albums I've got are the collaborations with Pat Dailey in that Daily show preview I posted, and one with Fred Koller, and an expanded reissue of Where The Sidewalk Ends, which I haven't listened to yet. Any other recommendations,as far as his own albums, songs for/with others,the books?

"Ballad of Lucy" shows up on Bare's neo-politan The Moon Was Blue. dunno a lot about him otherwise, should check out the bio. His country cousin has to be, though, John D. Loudermilk...

The author describes a lot of albums (and books and plays and a screenplay collab with Mamet). But she doesn't really evaluate them, other than how he perceived/presented 'em and reviewers and others reacted, and how they figured in his career, incl his and his team's experience during the projects--without getting endlessly detailed. A couple of sites she lists, that I need to check: (she doesn't list the whole URL, so possible might not be a www. in one or both of these) Carol's Banned Width banned-width.com and Sarah Weinman's Shel Silverstein Archive shelsilverstein.tripod.com

Turns out, at least on that EP, the Geraldine Fibbers are not always totally quiet; like Scott Seward is already telling me, you just have to turn the sound up. Carla Bozulich's croak is indeed very flat (I swear I usually think it's a guy singing, but she's got the only credited vocals), but they halfway pull off the death waltzes of "Outside Of Town" and "Mary" (about someone's pretty face going to hell) anyway, and I like the folk-drone break in the middle of "Get Thee Gone." "The Grand Tour" doesn't work at all, but "Jolene" sorta does (seems weird, again, because it sounds like a man telling Jolene not to take his man), and makes me wonder whether it didn't somehow inspire White Stripes, who covered it five years later on the same record label (the Fibbers EP's from 1994, apparently their debut set if I'm reading their Wiki discography right.) Also, "Blue Cross" is apparently a Beck song, and not one of the better tracks. Still, I was right -- seven songs is all I'll ever want by these people.

found for $5.00 at Grimey's: Haggard twofer, The Way I Am and Back to the Barrooms. Exquisitely sung with some real blues in there--great guitar playing, concentrated licks--and the amazing "Sky-Bo," a ridiculous song worthy of a bad Elvis movie that Haggard sings the shit out of and makes totally convincing, another country song about success that moves from Phoenix to Shreveport in 3/4 time.

A short list of Citizen Band radio songs, in case anybody needs one: C.W. McCall "Convoy"; Cledus Maggard and the Citizen's Band "White Knight"; Rod Hart "C.B. Savage"; Gunter Gabriel "Ich Bin C.B.-Funker"; MX-80 Sound "PCB's"; the Fall "I'm Into CB."

Not aware of any by Dave Dudley, Dick Curless, or Red Sovine, but I sure wouldn't put it past them.

Dave Dudley's '76 "Me and Ole C.B." as Dave says in his own defense of his calling:

Check out my new "American Trucker" CD and find out exactly what I think about the enemies of these here United States of America on "You Ain't Gonna Truck With Us" and "Don't Mess With U.S. Truckers."

Cyndi Boste, a great Australian country-folk-blues etc singer-songwriter, responds to query: "Yes it is horrific what has been happening in our little State down south. Over 200 killed in one afternoon and they're still counting the dead. I can't tell you how eerie it was. 47 degree heat (she mean C or F?) with 100km notherly winds and a landscape bone dry and ready to burn for years. You could sense death in the air upon waking. We were all prepared for a dark day, but I don't think anyone possibly expected it to be so bad. I have only recently moved out of Melbourne and to the countryside myself. I now live in the middle of a State forest! Fortunately it hasn't come our way yet, but no-one is taking any chances and we have all learnt very valuable lessons from the tragedy of others. We won't stay and fight...we'll just grab the animals (maybe my guitar if there's time) and get the hell out...We've got another 6 weeks or so to wait this out, so there'll be a situation of 'high alert' for all of our remaining summer, which now tends to go into March. No such thing as climate change huh?" I wrote about her music here:
http://www.villagevoice.com/2001-05-01/music/alias-in-wonderland/

Glam jeepster Leanne Kingwell also responds: "I've been head down in the studio making new music, so I didn't know much about it until it was well under way. The fires are burning at least 100 miles away from the city and wrecking beautiful small villages and countryside, not to mention killing a lot of people and animals. But ya know what...it sure puts the 'global financial apocalypse' into perspective. Everyone is rallying around those affected. Lots of donations, benefit concerts, volunteer work, stuff like that, really reaffirms one's faith." About her music here:
http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0627,allred,73762,22.html

xgau on the grammys:

http://www.najp.org/articles/2009/02/live-blogging-the-grammys.html

Euler just started a keith whitley thread, though I wish he would have asked this question here instead:

Keith Whitley

I thought Keith deserved a thread of his own, though I'd be happy to talk about him here too.

Am listening to Miranda Lee Richards on her MySpace because MySpace is pushing her and I thought from her name she could be country. She lists herself as "Other / Folk / Pop." The actual sound is pale elocution-school singer-songwriter pop with an overlay of psychodepression. Mediocre, if even that.

Dierks Bentley's "Feel That Fire" single rises to 32 on the Hot 100, the first country song not by Taylor to crack the Top 40 in two months.

Red Sovine's "Teddy Bear" is definitely a CB-radio song; won't tell you the plot so you can experience it for yourself.

Chad Mitchell Trio did Shel Silverstein's "The Hip Song" about a guy who was so hip he was square (the gag being that his lingo was hipster to such a degree that no one could make sense of what he was saying).

Heard on the news that it did indeed get up to 47 degrees Celsius in Victoria, which is about 117 degrees Fahrenheit.

Interesting country-song chart movement this week (anybody know what "Wild At Heart" by Gloriana is?); especially note that intriguing debut at #60. (Wonder which stations are actually playing it...)

26 34 2 Shuttin' Detroit Down, John Rich
J.Rich (J.Rich,J.D.Anderson ) Warner Bros. DIGITAL | WRN | 26
41 38 38 16 Space, Sarah Buxton
S.Buxton (S.Buxton,C.Cannon,L.White ) Lyric Street PROMO SINGLE | 38
46 47 43 11 Like A Woman, Jamie O'Neal
R.Good (J.O'Neal,S.Bentley,J.Femino ) 1720 PROMO SINGLE | 43
53 56 57 3 Blue Jeans And A Rosary, Kid Rock
Kid Rock,R.Cavallo (R.J.Ritchie,M.Young ) Top Dog/Atlantic PROMO SINGLE | CO5 | 53
54 55 55 3 Wild At Heart, Gloriana
M.Serletic (M.Serletic,J.Kear,S.Bentley ) Emblem PROMO SINGLE | New Revolution | 54
60 NEW 1 High Cost Of Living, Jamey Johnson
The Kent Hardley Playboys (J.Johnson,J.T.Slater ) Mercury DIGITAL | 60

From the publicity sheet for the Martina McBride's forthcoming Shine:

In order to dig deep into that creativity, she teamed up with chart-topping producer and virtuoso guitarist, Dann Huff. Admittedly, she struggled to find inspiration on some of her latest releases, but co-producing with someone new forced McBride out of her comfort zone and re-lit the fire within.

...

Ten months later, she is releasing an album not categorized necessarily as a departure, but certainly something fresh and innovative.

I listened to that Miranda Lee Richards album a bunch actually. I wouldn't call it country tho. If anything, I hear a closer parallel to someone like Vanessa Carlton (piano-based female singer-songwriter pop).

117 degrees in Victoria! And Cyndi says they've prob got six more weeks of the danger zone.

Looks like Gloriana do four-part (two boys/two girls) harmonies, not unlike Little Big Town. Studio version of this song (also hearable on youtube, with less to watch) seems to have a drum-machine-like semblance of near-Diddley-glam beat underneath. As of now, I'm officially on the fence about it:

Not on the fence at all about Justin Moore's "Small Town USA" (followup to the country "Back That Azz Up"), the CD single of which came in the mail today. Not John Cougar enough, and your usual bullshit cliches about small-town living in its lyrics. Dude, the rule from here on: No meth labs, no credibility.

Lady Antebellum got nominated this yr for best new group, and maybe in one other category? Sugarland were breathless playing same show with Sir Paulie. I wish they'd done "Mother Nature's Son" or something that would've showed the link with country; I don't see why Sir Paul and Linda Thompson shouldn't make a duets record, an English version of Raising Sand. Did I mention I actually loved Sugarland, that guy is so anonymous but so essential to Jennifer, who is a very good-looking person and seems sorta genuine.

Well, Eric Church sounds smarmy, his vocals, and what I hear here is lack of detail. He idealizes his stay-at-home wife as he tussles with the road and loads up the bong, and the level of musical detail here isn't bad, but every song casts him as this everyman, and he also just sounds like bullshit, in the sense of fake piety, a lot of the time. However, he certainly can write and I did get off on the groovy changes and sonic shit on a couple. Little Feat lives, sort of, and I submit that these old boys, who never lose their accents but get their business degrees early and and gonna make it, and who can write some, and say, in the end, something interesting about a certain kind of Southern male, can be mighty interesting. But Carolina is like eating a spaghetti-and-Wal Mart French bread dinner, made by fervent Baptists. It sounds off to me, like Church is trying to hard, working the dualities rather grossly, I dunno. I like the rock and roll and it's writerly, and some great slide guitar, but the whole thing bugs me a little.

This Spidrift record is like early Beefheart, Kaleidoscope, Love, and so forth, and certainly fits into the country-folk equation. The West.

I mean, maybe it's like going to Chili's when they renovated it and settling for a burger, but you want Chipotle sauce on the side. Ten years ago nobody in Kannopolis, N.C. knew about Chipotle but now it's on fucking everything at Chili's (as in the one in Chattanooga, the only thing open in that town after 9:30). Now everybody knows about Lowell George or something, he's the Chipotle. Or the Band. The old-time stuff that's been merging with country for years, along with glam-rock and all the rest. Anyway, I do think Church tries too hard and I detect an annoying, arrogant tone to his pieties that, as I said, bugs me. And the only thing he writes about is that Baptist duality, and being on the road, and being a regular guy and all that, except in that one song he's just a little different, the kind of cool biz major who smokes a lotta dope and maybe even goes in for a sidecar just to make a little spare change now and then.

Yeah, I can hear all that stuff Edd mentions in the Spindrift album (which he may well like more than me); compared it to some other bands here, though (toward the bottom of a bunch of louder reviews):

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2009/01/science-faxtion-living-on-another.html

if Spindrift were only as (half as) good as Pere Ubu on "30 Seconds over Tokyo." I found it diverting, that's about it, and really do wish folks would stop comparing rock bands to Morricone. I've been listening to Morricone (as much as you can listen to it; Bernard Hermann beats him, altho I do find Morricone's bossa stuff amusing), and so I think such comparisons are way off the point. And I think that the 2 Area Code 615 albums are quite possibly among the most prescient of all time, especially the second one, Trip in the Country, 1970. Their exotico-overall-pocket-with-weed-innit hillbilly-new-age shit got Morricone, or Spindrift, beat by a city mile...

The Area Code 415 twofer is a calmly wild ride, an almost overwhelming slide across one disc (thanks so much for that, Edd!)Posted about it on the Psych Country thread. I dig Kaliedoscope too (the ones from Cali, never heard the UK's).

Area Code 615 that is. Kaliedoscope are the ones who were in the 415 area, rat?

or Kaleidoscope, mebbe...

Keaton Simons' LA pop hints at both Jellyfish (on "Good Things Get Better") and maybe Jules and Polar Bears elsewhere, and a bit of Keith Urbanism in there too. Fairly anonymous, though, despite or perhaps because of Connections the press kit trumpets, which are fairly minor LA too. Sententious but listenable, and if he sang with an accent he might make it out here in Nashville. As on "Misfits," which I don't think is by Ray Davies.

and, if anyone's in the Nashville area on Sat., March 7, ol' pothead Ray Price (great anecdote in the new Willie bio about Ray having to buy back his repoed bus in order to get at some stash within) will talk to Eddie Stubbs about his career, Hank Sr., and so forth. Also that nite, at Ernest Tubb Midnite Jam, a tribute featuring Price and Bobby Bare (Sr.), to Hank's steel player, the late Don Helms. Should be cool. Planning to catch Isbell and co. Monday in town and sit down with him to chat.

the Stubbs/Price is at Ford Theatre at Country Music Hall of Fame, 5th Ave. S., Nashville, btw...2 p.m. Sat., March 7.

if Spindrift were only as (half as) good as Pere Ubu on "30 Seconds over Tokyo." I found it diverting, that's about it, and really do wish folks would stop comparing rock bands to Morricone.

Totally agree about Spindrift; hope I didn't imply that either they or their song comes anywhere near touching the level of Ubu or Ubu's song (or Sabbath or Sabbath's song, for that matter); and right, their album is mildly diverting at best -- not a keeper, even for somebody like me who got it for free, so caveat emptor. As for comparing rock bands to Morricone, yeah, I guess it's kind of a cliche; also, obviously shorthand, since only a fraction of the tracks on those four or so spaghetti western soundtracks (which are obviosuly only a fraction of Morricone's work, which I've never gotten much out of otherwise) sound how people mean when they say some rock song "sounds spaghetti western." So I see Edd's point, I think, but it really doesn't bug me much (and I'll probably continue to say some songs sound spaghetti western now and then regardless.)

Anybody remember the music in the Westerns Eastwood first directed? He took a different approach, which I kinda prefer to most of Leone's big sky horse operas, though I love Morricone's music (much more encompassing than most of what it's commonly compared to, though I get the similar vibe fairly ofteh, like with the Sadies). Eastwood's movies are more--overcast, and delibetately smaller-scale; but (maybe that's why I) don't remember their soundtracks (later, of course, he even sang with Merle Haggard, prob on the soundtrack of Honky Tonk Man or Bronco Billy)

He sings toward the end of Gran Torino, too; seem to work effectively in context of the move (which I liked a lot), though I can't imagine wanting to listen to his song outside of said context. Otherwise, he's been working in more jazz in recent years, hasn't he? As for his Westerns, I remember Phil Dellio joking once in Radio On that Clint's "Unforgiven" vs. Metallica's comparably sluggish and interminable "The Unforgiven" would make for a stirring foot race. (Personal favorite Clint movies, fwiw, are probably Tightrope, The Gauntlet, and Escape From Alcatraz. I've always found staying awake through those old Sergio Leone flicks really difficult, though I also get the idea that might sort of be the point.)

the sound effects in the classic Morricone STs are cool, and appropriate. the ST for Once Upon a Time in America is fine, and I guess, Chuck, I'd have to say, try to attend to Once Upon a Time in the West, '69, the best Leone film and a typically good Morricone ST. (It's the one in which Henry Fonda is a villain.) Jason Robards is great in it.

I remember reading Xgau in the '90s Guide, saying something to the effect that Mercury Rev was what happened when rockers allowed as to how they really liked Morricone, in other words, soundtrack-rock isn't good. I see his point but what does that mean, that musicians wanting to expand their palettes are supposed to follow Christgau's taste in what's Appropriate or not? Or that atmospherics don't a good record make? Just seemed like another example of Christgau being kind of narrow, like his weird dislike of salsa or something. That said, I don't much care for Mercury Rev myself, and the Spindrift record works best when it's kinda psych-Nuggets-blooze/Arthur Lee filigree...

speaking of aural textures, I'm struck by how convoluted the new Jason Isbell is, like the end of "Sunstroke" where it gets sticky and then he has to follow it with how the sunlight makes fools of peoples. "I need some things to look forward to," and I like this record but find it depressing. So maybe he needs the textures. The more straightforward songs, like "Good," sound like retreads to me, good songs but the words are kinda buried.

xp Speaking of free records, the mailman has for some reason been bombarding me with new ones by country-folk-blues-pop-alt-AC-whatever ladies for the past week, but I've mostly been too busy playing old CDs and even ancient mix cassettes I come across while packing boxes to keep up with the deluge. That said, and noting that I've barely made it all through any of these paying attention, this is the approximate order I've been liking them so far (very likely to change when I'm able to devote more time):

-- Sarah Borges & The Broken Singles (on Sugar Hill) Like it better than her previous album so far, and yeah, that single (opening track) has a lot of Joan Jett in it, though also some Sheryl Crow I think. (In fact, I hear Sheryl in pretty much all these women.) Second track is vintage-sounding 1979 pub rock new wave, and she does a real good version of "Being With You," probably my favorite latter day (= '80s) Smokey Robinson song (which actually made my top ten singles list the year it came out; only late-Smokey competition would be "Cruisin'" I guess.)

-- Alice Peacock (on Peacock Music/Rocket Science/Adrenaline) From L.A. and records in Nashville, apparently. Two very detailed and catchy songs I love so far -- "Real Life" and "City Of Angels." The latter is built on early Tom Petty type guitars. 15 songs is a ton to get through, though.

-- Ellen Jewell (on Signature Sounds) More toward the Lucinda or Kathleen Edwards direction it seems. Covers "Shakin' All Over" by slowing it down. Probably not a not a good idea -- and there's a good chance she'll wind up boring me -- but we'll see.

-- Jaden South (self-released I think) Two girls, not one. More rock/Heart-oriented, or at least that's what they seem to be trying for in the first song. Far from convinced they'll pull it off, though.

-- Michelle Malone (on SBS/Thirty Tigers.) More white bar band blues-ish. From NYC, iirc. And still more indebted to Sheryl than anyone else, it seems.

Probably won't wind up liking any of these as much as I like the Megan Munroe album that came out in January on Diamond (and which I still haven't gone into any detail here about what I like about it. Hope to someday.) But they all show some potential.

Anyway, bottom line, Borges and Peacock seem to have the poppiest insticts, and Jaden South and Malone seem the stodgiest. Borges and Peacock sounded the best in a rentavan this weekend. (Btw, it will be interesting to see which shades of my tastes change when I'm back to listening to music more while on the road, in Texas. I've missed that in New York.)

Still, right now I've got Bonnie Raitt's reputed 1982 new wave album Green Light on (see, another old CD pulled off the shelf), and she sounds like might have had better pop instincts than any of those new gals, at least when she was covering NRBQ anyway. (And really, how good can your pop instincts be if they're not even as good as Bonnie Raitt's?)

Also got an advance of a new Los Straitjackets album on Yep Roc in the mail; I know Don was a fan of an album (which I never heard) a couple years ago where I guess they covered old East L.A and Mexican-border Latin brown-eyed soul and rock songs, but I mainly know them for their Nacho Libre surf instrumental schtick, which has always struck me as completely pointless (I mean it's not like I've ever listened to Dick Dale or Johnny and the Hurricanes or Chantays albums all the way through, even; surf instrumentals have always just struck me as a cool change of pace at best. And at least those old bands were inventing something.) So I only got through four songs, then gave up. But who knows, maybe some kind of guitar afficianado finds them entertaining.

in other words, soundtrack-rock isn't good...Or that atmospherics don't a good record make?

But uh...It's not. And they don't. Like, 99 percent of the time or so. I mean, occasionally you'll get an Another Green World or something, but really, how often does that happen? (Honestly, I bet Xgau thinks it happens more often than I do! He even wound up giving the crappy '08 Nine Inch Nails album an A-, calling " background music, there waiting when your mind drifts speakerward, just distracting enough to change up your mood in a useful way.") Or maybe we just like different atmospherics.

(Actually, not sure how much I even agree with what I just wrote. I've liked quite a bit of atmospheric/ soundtrack/background rock in the past few years; usually, strangely enough, it falls under the genre heading "metal" -- which for the past decade or two has been better at sounding good in the background than at writing memorable songs. And usually, I miss the songs. So though I like a lot of it, I don't love very much of it. So maybe atmospherics makes for good records, not just great ones.)

Also, I swear I'm not being difficult here, Edd, but I'm not sure why Christgau not liking salsa much is "weird" -- no more than me not getting African music as much as he does is weird, or me not having much use for shoegaze or Brit-pop or twee indie music or any number of other genres is weird, or salsa fans disliking metal is weird. There are some genres I wish he got more (and some genres I wish he got less!), but seems to me his tastes are fairly broad, compared to most people who write about music (not to mention most people who don't.) And of course he wants musicians to make music that appeals to his tastes. Don't you?

Okay, now somebody get us back to country, please.

Though maybe your point is that, for somebody so versed in so many seemingly esoteric and highly rhythmic types of music from around the world, salsa should be a breeze? (If so, I can maybe see that. Though truth be told, I don't listen to a whole lot of salsa myself, either. Maybe even less than Xgau.)

xp Better pop instincts than Bonnie Raitt, to my ears (even if they lacked hits): Robin Lane and the Chartbusters (whose debut album I was just playing).

The best Raitt I've heard are still Give It Up (1972) and Takin' My Time ('73?), mixing very rowdy old New Orleans and other regional r&b covers with fetching folkie ballads and her moody slide and bottleneck guitars (esp. on Chris Smither's groovestential "Love Me Like a Man" and "I Feel the Same," the latter backed by primo Little Feat). And crazy shit that works, like Jackson Browne's long and winding "Under The Falling Sky," with congas and Paul Butterfield's harmonica galloping between starry-eyed freefall choruses. And I think Smokey Robinson wrote "Girl, You Been in Love Too Long," Allen Toussaint did some others, but that's as pop as it gets. Green Light's good too, and Home Plate, then I'd get Sweet Forgiveness and The Glow from the bargain bin (all of this has finally been remastered, but prob that's in the bin too). That Straitjackets album is creative recastings of ancient American rock hits, xhuxx, like ancient Mexican hipologists used to do all the time ("El Microscopico Bikini" is reworked "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini")

Yeah, figured I'd misconstrued that, somehow. (And earlier meant to say that "maybe atmospherics makes for good records, just not great ones." In the background now: A highly atmospheric 1993 album by the noise band Smegma. Hey, it beats Mercury Rev.)

well, I mean Xgau likes the New York Dolls a lot more than he probably likes Morricone, but I don't, really. maybe he's thinking that Morricone is just one step up from that space-age bachelor-pad shit of the early '90s and that bothers him. I guess I don't see how adding Morricone-style sound effects or "atmospherics" necessarily add up to anything better or worse than your average rock and roll any more than Randy Newman doing his little Broadway-parody arrangements adds up to a debasement of rock and roll itself or whatever. but yeah, my point really was that it ought to be a breeze; it seems more or less like a breeze in general to me these days, for Chrissake my significant other likes Marc Cohn and Sting and Stevie Winwood circa "If You See a Chance" and to her, that's just good singing and maybe I'm just tired of arguing ideology, I ain't dumb enough to do that with her. Because it is "good singing," a lot of it, and that makes me sit back and rethink some of what I've always believed, which has always been pretty close to the Xgau semipop line and all that. "good singing" being analogous to "atmosphere" and "soundtracky" maybe.

the first Sarah Borges thing, on Silver City? label, has always been my fave, even more so than the second record she did, which I loved at the time but maybe now I'll go back and find I don't like it so much...

Area Code 615 that is. Kaliedoscope are the ones who were in the 415 area, rat?

I believe they were from L.A. But who knows -- maybe they spent some time in SF?

Some time in Science Fiction, anyway. Not the lyrics as much as the music, which speculates and expands (psychedelic=mind-expanding, though not bothering to stay with the "psych" tag, a stylistic marker only-not when, for inst, they recorded with Johnny Guitar Watson)(and yeah xxuxx, usually we want to check "music that appeals to our tastes<" but I also look for music that pulls me from what I've written about as "the grave of taste," in the sendse that taste can beone more habit that sticks a fork in my ass cos I'm done==and xgau gets pulled out sometimes too, like, I guess, when he gets hooked on Cachao or the Buena Vista masters, though prob not the Breakfast Club album, despite not getting salsa--and not that they play salsa, but such experiences go around, though not through, some barriers--I hope I never "get" a lot of stuff I now can't stand, but Time Of Orchids and Shearwater show me how some prev. repulsive elements *can* be very enjoyable and/or admirable--and getting back to the country for a minute, that collection of George Strait's 500 or 50 #1 Hits showed me how Andy Williams-type golf course crooning *could* be good; I liked about 25 of 'em anyway! Pretty good, esp, considering that #1 Hits are a shady category, re what it takes to get there so damn often--Elvis's Top Ten Hits is a much more roadworthy collection than his #1s, for instance)

So moving means purging (though I haven't been purginig nearly enough of course), and I noticed Lalena was going to give away her copy of k.d. lang and the reclines' 1987 Angel With A Lariat, which I didn't even know she owned and which I hadn't listened to in 20 years. So I decided to this morning, and determined that it is still the only k.d. lang album I will ever like. Had forgotten that Dave Edmunds produced the thing, but that totally makes sense -- it's a real catchy new wave cowpunk rockabilly record, especially side two (which leads with a version of "Rose Garden" that's like the missing link between Lynn Anderson and Kon Kan). Thing is, k.d.'s voice is my least favorite thing about the album; it's just not a rockabilly voice -- weightless, made of air, no gravity, never touches the earth, which I guess is what people like about it but I don't hear her conveying anything at all. As much as I like the record, I'd probably like it more with almost any other random female country singer. So I guess I understand why k.d. switched to more, uh, atmospheric music soon after, but at least this one had some hooks that could be grabbed onto, and I like that she wasn't taking herself with such deathly dull seriousness yet -- I almost get the idea she was going to be marketed as the country Cyndi Lauper or something. Didn't work commercially, though. (She didn't make the Top 200 album chart in Billboard until Shadowland a year later, which I have no interest in hearing again.)

Yeah, that's a good 'un. (Where is old Dave anyway? At least he's not presenting us with those twilight time snoozes like Nick Lowe's recent bequests.)I also like Absolute Torch 'n' Twang; despite its title, prob her best mainstream-country-plausible set--it's got her Western Canada ranch gal roots, flexing "Tallll in the Saddle," without any shootout etc scenarios. "Trail of Broken Hearts, " oo wee.Atmospheric like the wind swooping, brushing 'cross the plain. Shadowland was a touch too framed by its black and white cover photography, but also had that group vocal with Loretta Lynn and Kitty Wells

My Blender review of the new Jason Isbel:

http://www.blender.com/guide/reviews.aspx?id=5435

Also, in case anybody cares, here is a thread full of C90 mixes I made for myself, mostly in the late '80s and early '90s (a few of which actually cannibalize mixes that Frank and Scott Seward had sent me first.) One thing that surprises me is how little country -- at least current country -- is on them. I was even listening to more, uh, salsa then. Maybe even more Brit-pop. (Not to mention lots of old-school hip-hop, punk, other stuff.) Weird!

Song Lists From Ancient Mix Cassettes I Just Pulled Out Of Storage After Several Years

Someday I need to pinpoint the exact moment I became a commercial country convert. I have a feeling that Metal Mike talking about liking a lot of it at the tail-end of the '90s was a major waker-upper. (Garth and Shania no doubt helped some, too. I was definitely watching CMT some in the early '90s, though, which helps explain the stray Lorrie Morgan and Little Texas tracks that pop up on these mixes. Even did a video rundown once for Radio On.)

(Almost no then-current heavy metal or "teen pop" on the mixes either -- unless hair-metal counts. Which, again, is what lotsa country wound up sounding like.)

i believe you once in Voice credited the Army with schooling your suburban ass on country, via initially involuntary exposure (maybe when you were comparing Tom T. Hall's Germany-based military experience, referenced in song, to to your own). Speaking of atmospherics, caught and was caught by a misty morning encounter with a new brush-by cover of Townes Van Zandt's "If I Needed You" (who else covered this, in a hit version maybe?) Turned out to be a new track by Kimmie Rhodes, known mainly in Texas, I think. Once briefly owned an album where she mentioned how she just didn't understand how some people aren't eternally Grateful for this blessed blessed world, mentioned that once too often. Inspired closer, mist-dissolving scrutiny. But (vaguely recalled) reliable sources insist she can be awesome, and "If I Needed You," though not awesome, is close enough to make me wonder (maybe she's just better on covers--anybody know her other work?)

Well, yeah...I self-schooled myself on old country when I was in the Army (and before that, I'd met a few kids in college at Missouri who were fans of CDB and Willie and Waylon etc., which at the time they referred to as "progressive country"), but I'm talking about the post-Urban Cowboy (and especially '90s and beyond) pop-crossover-type stuff here. I had little use for that until the late '90s, seems to me -- which those mixes seem to confirm. (Though there were clear exceptions, most obiously the Bellamy Brothers, who I wrote about for the Voice. Wrote about John Anderson more, though.)

Or maybe a more accurate way to map it out is that I paid cursory attention to some country (mostly neo-trad stuff) through most of the '80s, but then I stopped paying attention for several years, and didn't get really obsessed about it above most other genres until I was living in NYC, of all places.

More evidence is that, in year-by-year discographies in the back of Accidental Evolution (15 albums per year), very few country albums make my '80s and '90s lists -- Best-Of LPs by John Anderson, CDB, John Conlee, Bellamy Brothers, K.T. Oslin, Garth Brooks (only one of those mainly a '90s act), and I think that's it. Yet in the past few years, most of my #1 Pazz & Jop ballot albums have been by country acts -- Big N Rich, Montgomery Gentry, Brooks & Dunn, Jamey Johnson. I'm wondering now what set that shift in motion, and why it happened.

Er, guess I don't really mean "pop crossover" (since none of those current acts I just mentioned actually cross over pop), but just plain "contemporary."

just posted on the Isbell thread now, but wanted to mention I chatted with Jason here in Nashvegas for a good half-hour on Monday. Smart guy, who went to music school in Memphis, so what we ended talking about was shit like Duke Ellington and arranging and suchlike. he then got his guys together and did a brief 5-6-song set at Grimey's, and apart from a few vocal gaffes (he's a good singer but I can tell he's not, er, taking care of his voice, and he's now 30), it all sounded great. Some kind of mix of '70s calibration and more direct soul/country stuff.

I hear that Booker T. and Neil Young have contributed to some of the new Drive-By Truckers shit, and that Patterson Hood will have a new one out soon. Also been listening to this Doug Sahm tribute, nothing's quite kicked in but I gotta go back and give it more time I guess.

The forthcoming Booker T. album is backed by the Truckers, and Neil may be on it too (remember, Booker T & The MGs have backed Neil on at least one tour--think it was the whole group-- and some members def on some of his tours; check the Red Rocks live CD and more stuff on DVD, or was on VHS,anyway). So, if he's on theirs, fair enough (wonder if Spooner Oldham's keys are still in the mix as well?) Saw a YouTube vid of Booker T. sitting in with Isbell & 440s at last year's SXSW, recorded on somebody's phone, judging by crap sonics, but when Booker T. took a solo, he surged through der hiss.

Snooks Eglin just died. He's not country but a unique, great New Orleans guitarist. I added details about the sad manner of his passing on this thread--Snooks Eaglin ?

Yeah, I think I got the Booker T. thing mixed up.

I saw Snooks Eaglin three times, and he was always great, with really good taste in covers. He was tagged as a folk musician when he wasn't, early on, which sorta relates here in a way I guess.

Notable chart movement this week below. (Huge leap for Jamey's drug song; good leap for Rich's Detroit song. Hadn't noticed til now that "Marry For Money" and "It Happens," both of which I like, were doing well. "Sissy's Song" seemed sappy last year. Need to hear the Lost Trailers, Bombshel, and Chris Young.)

21 26 34 3 Shuttin' Detroit Down, John Rich
J.Rich (J.Rich,J.D.Anderson ) Warner Bros. DIGITAL | WRN | 21
22 24 24 7 Marry For Money, Trace Adkins
F.Rogers (D.Turnbull,J.Melton ) Capitol Nashville DIGITAL | 22
25 28 28 19 How 'Bout You Don't, The Lost Trailers
B.Beavers (S.Nielson,V.McGehe,J.Stover ) BNA DIGITAL | 25
35 38 40 6 Whatever It Is, Zac Brown Band
K.Stegall,Z.Brown (Z.Brown,W.Durrette ) Home Grown/Atlantic DIGITAL | Big Picture | 35
40 1 It Happens, Sugarland
B.Gallimore,K.Bush,J.Nettles (J.O.Nettles,K.Bush,B.Pinson ) Mercury DIGITAL | 40
43 46 47 12 Like A Woman, Jamie O'Neal
R.Good (J.O'Neal,S.Bentley,J.Femino ) 1720 PROMO SINGLE | 43
45 NEW 1 Sissy's Song, Alan Jackson
K.Stegall (A.Jackson ) Arista Nashville DIGITAL | 45
46 60 2 High Cost Of Living, Jamey Johnson
The Kent Hardley Playboys (J.Johnson,J.T.Slater ) Mercury DIGITAL | 46
50 53 56 4 Blue Jeans And A Rosary, Kid Rock
Kid Rock,R.Cavallo (R.J.Ritchie,M.Young ) Top Dog/Atlantic PROMO SINGLE | CO5 | 50
51 54 55 4 Wild At Heart, Gloriana
M.Serletic (M.Serletic,J.Kear,S.Bentley ) Emblem PROMO SINGLE | New Revolution | 51
54 NEW 1 Fight Like A Girl, Bomshel
C.Howard (K.Shepard,K.Osmunson,B.Regan ) Curb PROMO SINGLE | 54
58 NEW 1 Country Star, Pat Green
D.Huff (P.Green,B.James ) BNA DIGITAL | 58
59 NEW 1 Love Your Love The Most, Eric Church
J.Joyce (E.Church,M.P.Heeney ) Capitol Nashville DIGITAL | 59
60 NEW 1 Gettin' You Home (The Black Dress Song), Chris Young
J.Stroud (C.Young,C.Batten,K.Blazy ) RCA DIGITAL | 60

Had been looking for Carolyn Wonderland's Miss Understood for a bit and, initially, it's a letdown from the build-up and cover photo of roots lady in army jacket with peace sign and guitar, hair-flying.

Best song is Rick Derringer's "Still Alive and Well" which lives up to billing. The rest is split between blooz & such, mid-tempo stuff screwed up with additions of do-nothing horns instead of just turning up the guitar. The rest is country, probably to the taste of No Depressioners. Best of these is "Long Way to Go" and "Feed Me to the Lions." Worst is "The Farmer Song" -- dull as dishwater, just like you'd think most songs with "Farmer" in the title should be. Am compelled to give it more chances to grow but my question is when someone does a record lie this, why can't they even play the blues as well as Foghat, Savoy Brown or Chicken Shack?

Because they're Texan, and one has to make concessions to being a rural but tasteful hack when doing Texas fern bars in 2009, more than British men in duffle coats doing the same in dives in Milton Keynes in 1969?

Boy, this sounds so bad. "Still Alive and Well" is great, "Long Way to Go" has some charm.

Bombshel, Lost Trailers, and Chris Young hits are no great shakes. Respectively: Two-girl harmony advice from mom to daughter about staying strong through life; last-ditch power-ballad (vaguely verging on '80s commercial Richard-Marx-level medium-soft rock) attempt to withstand a breakup before it slams door; decently sung wait til I get you home quasi-lust. None of them better than ho-hum on one listen.

Still no official "High Cost Of Living" promo vid on youtube (anybody who has CMT -- is there one there?); ditto "Shuttin' Detroit Down," though the latter has at least inspired a couple fan clips. Sounds like there's two different versions of the song; so far I prefer the more downcast and folkish version, which seems to capture the graveness of the situation more, to the more click-tracky upbeat mix where John should've hired Kenny Aronoff. But I can see why the latter might sound better on a car radio.

Fan vid for the click-tracky one has more politics (covertly seems to blame Detroit's current economic state on Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank, which is baloney) but also a couple really moving shots with abandoned lots in them (also as many farmers as auto workers, which is odd); fan vid for the folkish mix has more Detroit (assembly line history, sports teams, Motown, city landmarks, rock stars, some kid band apparently called the Muldoons whose uncle maybe put together the video, who knows.) Detroit-heavy one yanks my heartstrings more, so here it is:

Comments are fun to read, too:

tinyandy4 (5 days ago) song is great, your video sucks

I'm from the 313. you act like you are from the 248

punkmusicmike (5 days ago) If you were to take some time snd look st my profile you would have figured out I "come from the 586". How does someone "from the 248" act? What is this area code crap anyway?

I made the video because I wanted to contribute and let people know I care about Detoit. Your 313!

I love John Rich's song and these are the first things that came to mind when I made the vid.

daphneowl (3 days ago) What I think what he means by "248" (Oakland County) is that there is a lack of black folks and black perspective in this video. It is Detroit proud, but definitely represents a white nostalgia view of the city. Not trying to start a race debate here (I can go to the freep for that). Just sayin.

punkmusicmike (3 days ago) Others can vouch for me as I an not racist at all. I am pretty diverse as I am from the 313, the 810 and now it's called the 586 haha ;-D

The funny thing is I really don't care for the music of Kid Rock but I did add him.

I really, really wanted to add the Detroit Tigers Willie Horton but I figured more people would know who Al Kaline was. I loved watching Willie and Gates Brown play baseball!

These comments evoke a "school kids" version of Alexandra Pelosi's Feeling Wronged: Voices from the Right.

Fwiw, I posted this over on Poptimists about Taylor Swift videos, responding to Lex's saying about "Love Story": "So much better without the video, the song's all about the details and the minutiae, and the video just goes in the opposite direction and detracts from the song."

I agree totally about the Taylor vid. The dressy dresses in the "Our Song" vid had been so incongruous as to be fascinatingly weird and who cares if they have nothing to do with the song (and they really defy the country standard of dressing like your audience), but "Love Story" is just Prince Charming and Princess Taylor stereotypes that do nothing for the song's actual fear and hope ("we'll make it out of this mess"). The vid for "Teardrops On My Guitar" is brilliantly spot-on normal in the high-school scenes and so bizarrely strange with her doll-costume and fake glitter tears in the "home in bed and dreaming scene" as to be brilliant too. My favorite vid is the pre-megasales "Tim McGraw," which is also my favorite song of hers, the guy playing the boyfriend having such a handsomely unrevealing face that he's perfect as the boy ambivalently addressed in the song. Great use of standard pastorale scenes that the song lyrics give an edge of uneasiness to. Compare to the great Deanna Carter's "Strawberry Wine" ("I was thirsty for knowledge, and he had a car"), the prototype for both the song and the vid, but the video for "Tim McGraw" has a much clearer sense of its story. "Picture To Burn," which I totally missed at the time, seems like a quickie concept, "let's do a takeoff on a whole bunch of new wave and rock show videos," and is disappointing in the way it hints at some "Kerosene" or "Before He Cheats" action but then keeps taking you back to the rock show. "White Horse," which just came out last week, works really well as the anti-"Love Story" vid; e.g., the way she finds out that her boyfriend is going with someone else is by seeing him carrying groceries to the other girl's door. I like the way that she plays neither poor nor fancy in the restaurant and house settings. (Too bad I don't like the melody in the chorus.)

(Xhuxk, one reason there might not have been much "teenpop" on those cassettes is that it's not all that clear what "teenpop" would have been back then (except as you say, Poison and Slaughter and Guns N' Roses etc.), though there's always a persistent bubblegum fringe with one or two big acts and then a bunch of novelties, but very little that would come across as kids-only in the way that HSM is now. New Kids obviously, New Edition except they were earlier and I don't think Bobby Brown, Bel Biv DeVoe et al. on their own counted as teenpop (though don't know why I say that, and the latter were a template for the Backstreet Boys). Paula Abdul was big among teens and tweens and five-year-olds but also among adults. TV has been a generator of teenpop since Ricky Nelson on Ozzie & Harriet, but you didn't then have kids-only TV networks generating lots of those singers, and I don't think any general TV show of the time was producing teen singers in the U.S. in the way that Neighbours gave Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan to Australia and Britain. The U.S. had 21 Jump Street but Johnny Depp didn't sing (though he did once tell Smash Hits the name of his favorite group, and the reporter wrote, "We couldn't quite understand what he was saying but it sounded something like 'Lemon Bagel Surfers'"). Maybe there were boybands that came and went in the late '80s and early '90s that had scads of fans and that no one like me knew anything about. Not at all impossible. Tiffany and Debbie Gibson might be relevant late '80s acts and Brandy and TLC in the '90s, and with those acts we're starting to get the shift towards teenybopper girls listening to girls (though Madonna sets that off a decade earlier, to some extent). And I guess the Spice Girls were a mass breakthrough of some kind (as I suppose were Hanson on the boy side). Anyway, forgive the noncountry intrusion here. I'm probably forgetting about somebody obvious. A lot of kids were fans of Pearl Jam and Nirvana, I'm sure.)

Well, I guess I just meant that there were no songs by NKOTB, Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, or Hanson on the tapes. (There's a Lisa Lisa song and a Vanilla Ice one, though. And one of the tapes that I didn't transcribe titles from starts with two songs from Hanson's Xmas album.)

So in this morning's NYT, Jon Caramanica compared the guitars from "Eight Second Ride" on Jake Owen's first album (in a review of his second one) to "a more thoughtful Black Sabbath." Pretty sure he was exaggerating (and I'm not convinced Sabbath were especially unthoughtful in the first place), but maybe I'll go back and check sometime.

Played the new Flatlanders and Eric Church albums again today. The latter had more rocking songs, but I think I liked the former more regardless. It was close, though. "Smoke A Little Smoke," one of the more rocking songs on Church's albums, is really starting to get on my nerves (as does one of its other rocking songs, "Lotta Boot Left To Fill") and not only because I can't figure out why Eric thinks we need "a little more right and a little less left," which doesn't seem to have anything to do with any political opinions he expresses in any other songs, as far as I can tell.

Played the new Jason Aldean the other day, too. Better than mediocre, I guess, though I can't recommend it any more than that. Also better than the Heartless Bastards album, as far as I can tell.

I heard a track by them that seemed good. No relation to McMurtry's group of the same name, apparently. Frank used the word "pastoral" for what feels like the first time on Rolling Country threads, and I shall use it once more, in the following show preview (album co-produced by Mark Nevins, frequently associated with the more Whisperin' Edd-worthy review objects)
Lambchop was once an orchestral party of floating friends and strange guests. Almost twenty years later, as a smaller, imperfectly focused but durable unit, they're flexible role models for quirky indie rockers. Their new album, "OH(Ohio)," vividly personalizes the early 70s pastoral romance (hippie make-out music) of sets like Van Morrison's "Tupelo Honey," as head Lambchopper Kurt Wagner brings mixed feelings to the one who still inspires his affections and obsessions. But he knows the approach: with tiny, surreal, bittersweet jokes, gentle and otherwise, intimately glinting in bouquets of images, usually changed before wilting (not totally unlike Love & Theft, though I'd rather hear Cap'n D. growling at his old lady---in both cases, in many cases, I do relate to mixed emotions--ah, the richness as you stir, otherwise they bogs)

Wagner does have a sometimes schticky tendency to swallow certain clues like he's proudly swallowing li'l frogs, once he's got me hooked (though it ain't me he's hopin' for to stay hooked, the one that's got him hooked on trying to impress)

Yeah, I was probably at least a wee bit too flippant and abrupt in my dismissal of that new Heartless Bastards album here last night. Played about half of it this morning back-to-back with about half each of those Michelle Malone, Jaden South, and Ellen Jewel Triple country-folk-rock gal albums I'd mentioned this morning, and the Heartless Bastards are unarguably more distinctive than any of them -- not much in the way of tunes or rhythm, but a few songs have some stomp to them, and I'm guessing their fans are responding to both the lush ooze of Erika Wennestrom's guitar and the lush ooze of her voice (which reminds me of some late '60s/early '70s cult woman singer I can't place.) Me, though, I really can't get past that singing, which just strikes me as way too immobile and detached and codeined-out. Nothing anybody (including Frank) has written has sold me on them. But maybe something will, who knows.

As for Malone and Jaden South, both of them seem to succumb to either voices or production too thin to match both of their too-intermittent Sheryl Crow-style Stones riffs. And Ellen Jewel just hits me as Lucinda-by-numbers, without Kathleen Edwards' hooks, and I'm not enough a Lucinda fan in the first place.

"Triple A country-folk-rock," I meant.

As for Jason Aldean, he's just a Nashville hat hack, and not an especially interesting as far as I can hear (though his guitars still get nicely loud on occasion.) But unlike those four distaff albums I just talked about, at least his hacky CD has hooks.

" not an especially interesting one."

Can't remember which Eilee Jewel album I heard, but, although there were a couple decent tracks, most of it was horrribly boring (and I'm one who does usually like Lucinda and several others Jewel often gets compared to)

Whisperin' Edd wrote mighty fine liner notes for two worthy, oft remarkable Caroline Peyton reissues (I prefer the earlier one, which even smoothly melds proto-mainstream balladry with even earlier psych pastoral excursions; the second is eminiently qualified resume rock. Chekum both) He reports on a recent show(with Clem Snide!), and links to a concise but more detailed run-down:

...she played Basement last nite and evoked Linda Thompson on Bo
Diddley-modal "White Teeth", Joni on "Gone for a Day" and rocked
"Fishin' Blues." she's still got it.
story:
http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/news.php?viewStory=66332

--at least one song from the *high school musical* OST, "breaking free", sounds as much like a pop-country power ballad to me as a teen-pop power ballad (isn't that one of the big download hits? i think so, since it's one of two tracks with a "karaoke instrumental" version at the end of the CD. and come to think of it, the instumental - which i I kind of like; when I first heard it, it was in my random CD changer, and I guessed it was by either tea leaf green or the tossers! -- sounds somewhat rural or pastoral or whatever as well.) the non-karaoke rendition is said to be sung by leading man troy + leading lady gabrielle.
--Xhuxk, February 20, 2006

Birdie Bush seems more interesting to me (than do Pinmonkey). I need to take her home and put her in my CD changer with the new album by Espers, and figure out which (if any) has more Fairport Convention pastoral gorgeousness. (They're both from Philly, right? Where phreak pholk lives, I guess.)
--Xhuxk, February 23, 2006

On Wildflower, her latest album, Sheryl's mostly going for meadows and brooks and Hallmark Cards pastorale, albeit vaguely about relationships and feelings rather than about actual flowers. Occasionally achieves the misty beauty she's trying for, but not often. I miss the great codependent holes she used to dig herself into and then try to blast out of, "The Difficult Kind" and "My Favorite Mistake." I'm right now listening to her new track, "Try Not To Remember," for the first time, and it's one of the better things I've heard from her recently, also the most teenpop (sounds a bit like "Behind These Hazel Eyes" in the chorus, just like Chuck's least favorite song on the Taylor Swift), though it's arrangement is more womby-tweepop like Jewel or McLachlan, and it slowly bleeds to death at the end.
--Frank Kogan, January 22, 2007

(Daniel Lee) Martin's more the rugged outdoorsman, apparently, but I really like the rocker about the girl born into a family whose business is moonshine, and the outdoorsy anthem about why tall buildings in cities are why God made rivers, and the song about it depends which way you look at it with the dark hard opening riff that reminds me that Bob Dylan's "Hurricane" was pretty dark and rocking song, and the pastoral introduction to the John Denver cover which I haven't otherwise listened to yet.

The guy whose imminent album I'm surprised to determine is geared largely to women (though he probably always had a certain beefcake appeal about him, and I can see why he might decide to emphasize that in the Trace Adkins era) is Travis Tritt. Most audacious cut on The Storm (an album which by the way I believe Randy Jackson is said to have played a major role on) is "Rub Off On Me," borderline porn-for-housewives that I swear might as well really be called "Rub One Out On Me," since that's what it seems to me about; that parody boy band from a few years ago 2Gether would be very impressed. It's this sort of slow funk bump-and-grinder (funkier than the also soul-sistered funk-flirting single "You Never Take Me Dancing," to my ears) where Travis tells this woman to get it off her chest, and at the end the music just drops out for a while to a spare beat and r&b singers repeatedly chanting the title over and over again -- takes its time finishing, in other words. The other songs I really like on the album are the Skynyrd/CDB-style swing-funk two-step (which namedrops "Gimme Three Steps") "High Time For Gettin' Down," plus somewhere between two and four slow intense Southern rock bluesers: cheating in the next room song "The Pressure Is On" (which opens with a pastoral Led Zeppelin lick); kicked out of the house song (his clothes are thrown all over the room and his credit cards are gone and so is she and his wallet's in the yard) "Should've Listened" (but instead like he learned from his Daddy everything she said went in one ear and out the other and now he's paying for it), and maybe "The Storm" and "Somehow, Somewhere, Someway." "Something Stronger Than Me" (= Jesus or liquor) is an okay gospely thing; "Doesn't The Good Outweight The Bad" is a boogie kept fairly light with some tra-la-las, and most of the rest (the stuff that doesn't grab me) is sentimental stuff for the ladies. But all in all, better than I expected.
--Xhuxk, July 22, 2007

The Daniel Lee Martin passage was also by Xhuxk, March 31, 2007.

Also spent a lot of time this week listening to the intricate pastoral acoustic Scandinavian Celtic chamber jig prog bluegrass mandolin nyckelharp violin 12-string and so on folk of Mike Marshall & Darol Anger's With Vasen (imagine umlaut over the "a" in Vasen.) From Sweden, I thought from the CD package, but their myspaces place them in California, which I will try not to hold against them even it decreases their mysteriousness factor. I think I tend to like them better in jig mode (i.e., "Yew Piney Mt") than Penguin Cafe Orchestra mode (i.e, "Misch Masch"), but both sound good. "Os Pintinhos" (which appears to have tango parts, or something) is defintely another favorite of mine
--Xhuxk, September 22, 2007

Xhuxx, New Bloods' music instantly took me run skip hop dub through the big bad woods with these somewhat gunpowdery little red riding hoods, but woods, like folk, pastoral tec don't nec.=country, they seem a little too urban, in the sense of "I know trouble when I see it three blocks away, cross the street [or the creek] almost without thinking"--not making as big a deal of it, in bravura and/or brooding a way as country tends too--not that some big ceety types don't make a big deal too, but either way goes with urban (New Bloods do take note of shadows etc but they're used to it, wothout getting that mountain-fatalistic about it, or maybe I'm distracted by the music, but that's part of the non-country feel)(but I'll listen some more)
--Dow, November 13, 2008

New Miley Cyrus single, "The Climb," has a "country mix" that is microscopically different from this one, will be officially released to the country market on March 9. The differences I could hear are a bit of steel guitar and less guitar crunch. Produced by John Shanks, written by Jessi Alexander, Jon Mabe. Miley and the rest of them do a good job, and I don't mind listening to it, though sky-reaching power ballads aren't really my kind of song.

And then there's the "Miley Cyrus Hoedown Throwdown," Miley seeing if she can be Cowboy Troy and also create her own Crank That Soulja Boy type dance, doesn't make it. Where is Ludacris when you really need him?

I'm glad to see how often and well we did use that word, and I still need to check out that Travis Tritt album. Mike Marshall were in the David Grisman Quintet thirty years ago, playing music that changed some of my friends' lives,starting with their careers; later they were bands like Psychograss and the Modern Mandolin Quintet, maybe the Turtle Island String Quartet too, and many things since, playing glorious Americana chamber music with some doors cut into and windows kicked out of the chamber, all going back to what Grisman always called dawg music. Just saw a re-run of the Saturday Night Live with Taylor Swift doing her prince and princess song. The band didn't showboat, but the song,judging by basic practicalities of guitar-friendly framework supporting innocuously hott daydreams of words and tune, seemed most effective insofar as it was designed for the ace musos' pleasantly muscular delivery (incl. their discreet backup vocals). But she's a good hostess, not unlike the singers who basically presented big bands, and it's the total effect that counts.

Mike Marshall and Darryl Anger were in the David Grisman Quintet, I meant (and I might have a very dif opinion of the studio version of Taylor's song, but it doesn't seem like the song itself as much potential, however much the singer may have)

Looks like the No Depression website is ending its editorial functions--which I guess means no more feature articles or reviews. Now it will just house blogs and a message board.

Darol Anger

So what inspired you to search "pastoral", Frank? (Not that there needs to be a particular reason, obviously. But if there was one, I missed it.)

Chart action: "Shuttin' Down Detroit" up 21-->18; "High Cost Of Living" up 46-->43; Randy Houser "Boots On" debuts at 59.

And for what it's worth, I now live in Texas. (Though not actually in Austin until the end of this week, when my boxes arrive, hopefully intact.)

Pardon me for askin', how and why Texas? Although you've picked the only place, Austin, that makes any sense.

Lalena grew up in Houston before spending the past 14 years in NYC, and her parents are still there; we both like Austin, where she did her undergrad. (And the would-be hippies can't be any less tolerable than they were in Ann Arbor, right?) I'm also fond of armadillos, barbecue, and Friday Night Lights (not that I'd have any interest in living the latter). Lower cost of living and warmer weather than NYC help too (plus, not being New Yorkers, we were both way beyond burnt out on being there.) Also doesn't hurt that OK music comes from here sometimes.

Don't think I've listened to either Birdie Bush or
Marshall & Anger since I called them pastoral above.

My football watching friend's a Texan. He lived in Austin for many years, obviously liked it quite a lot. Hook 'em 'Horns every Saturday in the fall.

Holy shit, Caroline Peyton reissues! Edd Hurt liner notes! Something for MX-80 Sound obsessives to lust over...

yeah, Chris Stigliano writes about the MX-80 connection here (scroll down the post):

http://black2com.blogspot.com/2009/02/dont-jump-call-to-mass-suicide-has-been.html

Frank used the word "pastoral" for what feels like the first time on Rolling Country threads, and I shall use it once more, in the following show preview
--Dow, February 24, 2009

Don't know if Don thought it was just my first use or rolling country's first use, but decided to check both.

That makes sense. Anyway, that Miley "Hoedown Throwdown" hick-hop thing is clearly not pastoral. But I also don't see how it sounds remotely like Cowboy Troy, and nor do I get how I Ludacris could have made it better. It reminds me more of some proto-Rednex early '80s British new wave novelty I can't place -- Hasysi Fantayzee or Wide Boy Awake or somebody like that. Maybe Scott Seward could figure it out. And "boom boom clap boom de clap de clap" is a catchy chorus. I kind of like it, maybe needless to say, but it could maybe afford to be longer, more fleshed out with goofy Euro-beats or something. (Not sure if this is the full version, or just a teaser. A minute and a half seems kinda short for a single, especially a line dance aimed at wedding receptions.)

(Also could obviously use at least one fiddle solo.)

And could use some hoe jokes, courtesy Ludacris.

(Cowboy Troy in that it's hick-hop, not that she's going close to his old school mannerisms.)

Do Da Stanky Legg: Not country, but state of the art for silly Internet dances, and like Xhuxk, they're Texan.

yeah, Stigliano gets it about right: Bloomington was "Berkeley west," at least on Peyton's Mock Up (the deleted track, "Lor el iii," is kinda fun but ultimately just another jam). MX-80, well I mean I just listened to one of their live cuts on this obscure Bloomington sampler on Bar-B-Q Records and er, they were Beefheart (therefore, L.A. east) but of course Pere Ubu came along and upped the ante on that.

"Berkeley east" that is.

and obviously, Bloomington was proto-indie scene similar to what was happening around Stax Records in Memphis, with Terry Manning, Chris Bell, Alex Chilton and Jim Dickinson all interacting. with Mark Bingham, who was the guy making a lot of the interesting stuff happen, it was about getting these jazz players from the Indiana U. music school and putting them with folkies, as Mock Up does. I did like MX-80's We're an American Band (is that right?), the song about the French was good.

Missing link between the mid '70s-to-early '80s Southern Indiana indie-rock (Indy rock?) scene and contemporary country would obviously be one Johnny Cougar of Seymour, Indiana (who actually wrote a pretty hilarious early review of MX-80 Sound at the Bloomington Public Library I've got stuck in a file cabinet somewhere; basically, he argued that kind of music didn't work for Beefheart, either.) I have more use for MX-80 more than the Coug and maybe Edd (if not Myonga or Stigliano) do, though -- which is to say, probably more use than I have for Beefheart (who didn't come close to MX-80's sense of metal) if not as much as I have for early Ubu (way way way more than I have for late Ubu, though.) And I'm also a longtime fan of lots of subsequent Bloomington and Indy bands -- Dancing Cigarettes, Gizmos, Panics, Jetsons, Zero Boys (the latter of whom's often very hooky Vicious Circle has just been reissued on Secretly Canadian.) Also, Red Snerts was an excellent early '80s Southern Indiana comp, fwiw. Probably my favorite provincial early '80s/hardcore-era punk scene, give or take the one in Vancouver.

As for the "Stanky Legg" rap song Frank mentioned, it actually grazed the bottom of the r&b/hip-hop chart last fall, at which time I wrote the following writeup for Idolator that never got published, as I recall, because it was when they refigured my "Next Little Things" column before completely shelving it:

G-SPOT BOYZ

This has been an excellent October for north Texas rap groups doing silly dance songs. Two weeks ago I celebrated “Do The Ricky Bobby” by Dallas/Ft. Worth’s B-Hamp, and now Arlington’s G-Spot Boyz have entered the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at No. 95 then jumped up to No. 82 this week with “Stanky Legg,” which involves extending one lower appendage and then the other out as far as possible, thereby accentuating their utter stankiness. Judging from the song’s video, it helps to do said dance while wearing plaid Bermuda shorts, and it’s also possible while ghost-riding the whip. “I don’t chicken noodle soup,” one G-Spot Boy warns at one point; I’m not sure, though, what “Stick your leg out Doug E. Fresh and drop it low” means. Homemade viral videos are of course encouraged. One by a teacher already exists, as does one in which a girl named Kyesha demonstrates the dance to her dad and kid sister.

I'd copy the youtube links, but who knows if they still work. Anyway, seems the song is finally taking off, now under the more radio-friendly group name GS Boyz. Heard it in a rentavan two weeks ago while driving from NY to Bucks County (to pick up aforementioned boxes full of mix cassetes from storage, among other things); I liked it more than "I Love College" by Asher Roth (which may or may not be completely horrible), but not as much as "Day 'N Nite" by Kid Cudi or "Heat Rocks" by Raekwon (probably my favorite rap single of '09 so far - basically, a retooling of Grandmaster Flash's rarely heard "Flash To The Beat.") (None of which has much, if anything, to do with country music, obviously. But hey, Frank brought it up, not me.)

new Bela Fleck semi-successfully unites west African/bluegrass banjo, goes on too long probably. after listening to The Music in My Head, Bela, forgeddabout it.

I do like what MX-80 were getting at, and right, Mark Hood's Echo Park studio is where I guess John Cougar got started up there in Bloomington. The sampler I mentioned is a fairly good representation of the Bloomington scene circa, looks like about 1975--experimental thrash from MX-80, country-soul-folk from Bob Lucas, and a fairly amazing sorta early funk-electro-disco track by Caroline Peyton and Mark Bingham, "Lay in Your Groove," which is a bridge between the midwestern avant-funk that I guess bands like the MC5 paid homage to--hard funk with a nasty edge--and the stuff that was coming up. "Party Line," the club-disco cut on Peyton's '77 Intution, is similar. And Peyton probably could have made some kind of career out of being an avant-jazz screamer, on the evidence of "Lay in Your Groove" she could make some pretty unearthly sounds and that record really takes off in the run-off when it's kinda like Energy Music. But yeah, sometimes Intution strikes me as an Asylum Records thing, right down to the somewhat ropey blues cut "Donkey Blues" and the hair-gelled "Still with You," which is perfectly listenable, even elegantly done, country-rock. I mean it's possible these people could've been as big as Quarterflash had they had a more banal and all-American moneygrubbing collective soul, so it's a record that somehow or another sums up Certain Tendencies in Pop Circa 1977 but doesn't manage to be as compelling as it almost is...

Speaking of Peyton's excursions, I mentioned above the inclusion of Screaming Gypsy Bandits tracks on one of the new reissues; please encourage her to get the whole SGB out, Edd, though I know it's not just her say-so. Also please post a link here to yr Isbell piece, sorry if you already emailed it to me, I've been swamped lately (still gotta check xhuxx's blog post too) Here's my two cents-and it really is two, given the show preview word limit (may try to do more later, there's def more to be done)
The Drive-By Truckers’ Jason Isbell went solo with “Sirens of the Ditch,” where poignant, sometimes tragicomic situations rolled through gravelly grooves. On “Jason Isbell and the 440,” Isbell’s road-tested band drives further into the cloudy electric horizons of “Sirens,” still piloting by the lights of homely detail. Isbell’s restless people are even more stoned on soulful memories (“She’s down deep in me still/Rolled up like a twenty dollar bill”), but the music knows the way. “Maybe I’ll flag down a car/I’m not going too far/And I’ve got cash.” Good plan! Welcome to the South, xhuxx...

Speaking of Bucks County, turns out frat-party-loving Asher Roth is actually from there -- Morrisville, to be precise. Not that that really gives Morrisville anything to brag about. Though then again, I figured Eminem and Beck as corny one-hit novelty wonders when I heard their first radio hits, too. But Roth's hit reminds me niche-wise more of earlier suburban (or at least surburban-like) Philly twerps like Dead Milkmen, Atom & His Package, the Hooters -- except a more "hip hop" version, theoretically. (Though I swear, when I heard "I Love College" on the radio, I couldn't figure out if he was trying to rap, or just talk, or what.)

Favorite song on Jason Aldean's album may well be the Top 20 country hit "She's Country," which unless I've forgotten something obvious has the most AC/DC ('80s-AC/DC, but still) guitar riffs ever in a country hit -- almost as much a "Back In Black" sample as the Beastie Boys' "Rock Hard" 24 years ago. Which is kinda wacky given that the song is about being "country" (not unlike "Country Star," one of the most rock songs on Pat Green's new album.)

Strangely, given what Caramanica wrote about a Jake Owen track last week, I compared the guitar riff in Aldean's "Hicktown" to Black Sabbath on Rolling Country a few years ago. Later retracted that somewhat; decided I'd hyperbolized a little. Still think that Aldean's biggest distinction may be the use of occasional rock riffs that feel more "heavy" than "hard." Though you could now say the same about the guitars in Eric Church's "Smoke A Little Smoke" -- interesting, since Eric Church apparently doesn't like Aldean much. Or at least he pretends not to.

(Actually, Montgomery Gentry got a somewhat blatant AC/DC rip onto country radio a few years ago, come to think of it -- "Hell Yeah," I think it was? But Aldean's, if you hear it, is way more blatant. Which isn't to claim it's as good a song.)

Aldean's rock stuff really seems to come from Bad Company, Shooting Star and the often submediocre rock stuff after that. I can totally hear him doing "Young Blood." It's just slightly below mid-tempo with the thud-whack simpleton thump of Simon Kirke, the Brit drummer most successful at entirely eliminating fun shuffles from BC's version of blooz rock. That sort of style really plays to the jutting man of action thing that Aldean peddles.

xp "She's Country" is also the first country hit I know of ever to quote "She's a Bad Mamma Jamma" by Carl Carlton.

Also blatant so far this year:

Guitars in Pat Green's "Let Me" = "Summer Breeze" by Seals and Crofts
Melody of Dierks Bentley's "Better Believer" = "Photograph" by Ringo Starr

"suburban" was thinking, on my way over here, that all the power pop I like could be considered boondocks: the Shoes (Zion, Illinois); Dwight Twilley (somewhere in Oklahoma); Big Star (Memphis, which was scruffy as hail back then, and they took their name from that of a not-so-super supermarket, at least it wasn't super back then, but right across from the studio parking lot); Tommy Keene (somewhere in Mississippi); Sneakers/dbs (mostly from Winston-Salem, mostly R.J.Reynolds High, Class of '75 There were exceptions of course(Todd Rungren was from Philly or Pittsburg; Harry Nelson/Nilsson was from L.A, I guess, though might have been from a bad neighborhood like Beck) Isolation and wishful thinking=fewer distractions/options, more motivation (of a sort/specialized arc)(like where are they all now, but you could say that about most people)But countrywise, some of today's top Nashville Cats, like Pat Buchanan, were power popsters early on.

Most cringe-worthy current hit I'm hearing on country radio in Texas so far: "I Wish" by female-fronted Christian-pop veterans Point of Grace, now crossing over to country (unless they crossed over previously and I was lucky enough not to notice):

I wish there was a cure for cancer
I wish somebody had an answer
And all God's children never got hurt
I wish Eve never bit that apple
Young men never went to battle
And I didn't get so mad at the world
I wish I was more like Jesus
And could pick up all the pieces
And make a better life for my baby girl

"I wish I was more like Jesus and could pick all the pieces": Yeah, "more like" should help me do that. I second QuantumNoise, if that's who it was saying Joan Baez was actually pretty good sometimes when in a country mode or mood, like in the 60s with "I Still Miss Someone"(except when she went too high on its bridge), "When You Hear Them Cuckoos Hollerin'," and several from-the-belly Spanish-language songs. Her One Day At A Time LP was before the show of that name, but title song was Willie's (def not the show's), when he and even the saying weren't that well known. She was pregnant on the cover, waiting while her husband was in the Pen for inciting anti-draft activitiies. Had some rolling spirt, accentuated by several duets (incl title track) with Jeffrey Shurtleff (sp?), who sounded a bit like Elvis's folkier side, but not glum like "Kentucky Rain" Elvis, or not so much. Also--kind of funny that Steve Earle should be the one to reign in Queen B.'s mannerisms a bit, but he can be a pretty astute producer of others, and sometimes of himself. Her band's pretty good too, with Solas-co-founder John Doyle, Todd Phillips, Dirk Powell (songer and multi-picker and hubby of bayou heartbreaker Christine Balfa) Anyway, another show preview (didn't have room to say that Earle wrote the song I quote in front)
"Everyday that passes/I'm sure about a little less/Even my money keeps tellin' me/It's God I need to trust/And I believe in God/But God ain't us." "God Is God" sets the unsettled tone of Joan Baez's latest album, "The Day After Tomorrow." Producer Steve Earle seeks to keep the Queen of 60s Folk Music on a solid spirit level, with compact cadences and carefully selected songs. Further along, Patty Griffin's "Mary" is "covered in roses...covered in slashes," finding her (and/or Her) way through the story's edits, somewhat like everybody else.

Her road band's the trio I list; lots of other worthy players and singers on the album.

"I Wish" despicably now at #57 on Hot Country Songs, btw. "Shuttin Detroit Down" (which is being played to death on Houston radio) inches up one notch to #17; "High Cost of Living" stalled at #43; Miley's "The Climb" (her first solo country charter, unless I'm wrong) debuts at #48, as does something called "Runaway" (always a promising title) by somebody named Love and Theft (late Dylan fans?) at #60. Have yet to hear "High Cost" or "Blue Jeans and A Rosary" (which climbs slightly to #50) on the radio in Texas. Did decide I kind of like "Brand New Girlfriend" by Steve Holy though (only hit song ever to mention a "shitzu hound"?). When is that from? And who the heck is Steve Holy, anyway?

"Runaway" makes Love and Theft sound more like Firefall and Pure Prairie League (and later in the song, Def Leppard and Bryan Adams) fans than late-period Dylan fans, totally fine by me. Something in chorus's melody reminds me of "Just Remember I Love You" by Firefall. Three heart-throbby boys strumming and chiming harmonies; one is said to be the Stephen from a Taylor Swift song. I like it:

And to answer my other question, "Brand New Girlfriend" by Dallas native and Curb recording artist Steve Holy turns out to have gone #1 country in 2005. But according to Wiki, Holy has only charted country with three songs since then, none higher than #35. So for now at least, a has-been.

i liked 'brand new girlfriend.' but holy's career has been so weird, i hesitate to count him out. his first singles stopped shy of nowhere, and then 'good morning beautiful' was a slow burn that finally sat at no. 1 country for weeks (which i never really warmed to, but seemed like a natural hit, sweet as it was). it kept low embers from there, staying in backup rotation, keeping the album on shelves. so even though his debut album was in 2000, he still managed another no. 1 country hit in 2005 from his sophomore (released half a dozen years after the debut). he's a good performer, but not a great one. regardless, i figure he'll be back if he can ever get another album out.

yeah, I think I saw Holy once here in town and he struck me as being almost a good singer, but he had a weird, almost menacing stage presence.

Decided that I liked Eric Church's record more the third or fourth spin; I'm impressed by the sheer flow of the thing, and the way that there really seems to be a side A and B. He apparently planned it that way. I think he's one sly operator all round, and he manipulates pop quite well. Even the strings and the "African" percussion work here. Could be that "Where She Told Me to Go" is the absolute great song on the record, but there's more to this record than songs.

Also halfway liked the Defibulators' Corn Money, having been into Dave Dudley, Buck Owens and the Mar-Keys for most of my life. Clatter of the record is a turn-off; I wrote a pick on their upcoming Nashville show and said that it sounded like it was recorded both for and from AM radio. But "Go-Go Truck" is a cool Dudley pastiche. The lunacy seems a bit forced, but I like the idea.

New Glenn Tilbrook has a cool Doug Sahm pastiche that leads off, complete with accordion. Pandemonium Ensues.

Here's my Nashville Scene piece on Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit.

Pretty certain by now that I like the new Pat Green and Rodney Atkins (which sounds great, and hasn't been mentioned here before) more than the new Eric Church, which I've decided has a fairly sub-par second side, at least until the guitars it ends on. New/imminent Urban, Bentley, and Aldean (probably in that order) all stike me as iffier, though they all have moments I like and/or love, and the 100%-lovey-dovey but sometimes kicking Urban could be a grower. Doing a roundup of all these for the Voice; if anybody has opinions about which of these dudes are the hunkiest (Urban and Bentley, right?) or un-hunkiest (Aldean maybe?), please state your case.

Thought the Defibulators (whom I mentioned upthread) very much lacked the music to support their schtick, which isn't all that amusing a schtick to begin with.

Thought the new Dave Alvin was mostly dull, despite a couple engaging cuts, most notably the spoken one about Big Joe Turner. Only got through four or so songs on the new Cherry-Poppin-Daddyfied swing-revivaly Wayne Hancock.

Think it's way too early for a Shooter Jennings best-of (after only three studio albums, wtf?), but the live version of "Daddy's Farm" (apparently actually from a barely distributed live album I never heard) is the heaviest thing I've ever heard from him. George should hear it, and should also hear Charlie Sexton (who I've never cared about at all before) doing "You're Doin' It Too Hard" hard on the new Doug Sahm tribute on Vanguard; also like the Flaco Jiminez, Delbert McClinton, and Joe "King" Carrasco cuts on that one, and don't remotely mind the no-name covers of "Mendocino" and "She's About A Mover" or the Los Lobos brown-eyed-soul tune--which I guess makes it a keeper, at least a marginal one. (Like somebody said above, tribute albums are always more viable when you don't know the originals, and I'm a long way from being an expert on most Doug Sahm.)

George might also like some stuff on the upcoming Mick Fleetwood Blues Band live album, which I've actually played all the way through four times, strangely enough. Ultimately too stodgy, and it takes too long to get going, but the backloaded six/seven-minute "Black Magic Woman" and especially "Shake Your Moneymaker" crank. Don't mind the more boogie-woogie/New Orleans r&b/"My Toot Toot"- rhythm tracks scattered through, either.

Also worth noting that the Shooter best-of omits "Little White Lines" and "Hair of the Dog," my two favorite tracks on Electric Rodeo, which increases its pointlessness quotiet even more.

More marginal blues-rock that doesn't quite make it: Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears on Lost Highway.
I like when he pretends to be Mitch Ryder, Wilson Pickett, Howlin' Wolf, and Slim Harpo more than he pretends to be James Brown. But not that much more.

Best old-school soul-revival I've heard in a long time is Betty Padgett's Luv N' Haight on Ubiquity -- real good covers of "My Eyes Adored You" (smooth reggae) and "Rockin' Chair," plus "Sugar Daddy" is the catchiest, warmest, most propulsive early (as in mid '70s) disco facsimile in recent memory. Also, the gal can sing. (Apparently this is a comeback, but if I skimmed her bio right and she did indeed record in the '70s, I never heard her.)

Songs I may well like even more than the Joan-Jetty single "Do It For Free" on the new Sarah Borges: "Yesterday's Love" (which totally gets the hookiness of 1978 Costello sound pub-wave down), "I'll Show You How" ("Hey Little Girl"/Sonics-riffed sex-predator garage rock from a gurl's point of view but with singing that doesn't try to sound garage), "It Comes To Me Naturally" (early Nick Lowe power-pub-pop with Yardbirds/Zevon "A Certain Girl" backup call and response), aforementioned cover of Smokey's "Being With You." Which makes five tracks I like a lot out of ten: a real good batting average.

Still trying to get the hang of Austin radio. Weird being in a place where you can hear not just Alan Jackson but Robert Earl Keen on the air. There's what seems to be a fairly mainstream commercial country station, but also another station (98.1) that mixes commercial country hits with more old classics and plenty of "Texas music" that I doubt gets much airplay in any other state. (For instance, they played Joe Ely's "Honky Tonk Masquerade" the other day, a song I've loved for nearly three decades but don't think I've ever actually heard on commercial radio before.) And there's also a Triple A station that seems to mix in country on occassion.

And oh yeah, Black Joe Lewis should not be confused with the similarly named and similarly marginal Soul Of John Black, who I reviewed for Rolling Stone here:

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/25823377/review/25895699/black_john

And a Brooklyn-boho old-school folk-country prankster album I liked more (though not that much more) than the Defibulators' one is the one by Andy Friedman, which I reviewed for emusic here:

http://www.emusic.com/album/Andy-Friedman-Weary-Things-MP3-Download/11371123.html

i'd guess the shooter jennings best of is contract filler. he's done okay album-wise, but hasn't had a hit single since "4th of july." depends on what, exactly, universal thought they were getting.

you need a copy of Mendocino, Chuck. that's the Sahm to start with.

yeah, the Defibulators are tiresome over the long haul, but I do like a few of those "songs." I guess I hear it as too much music, though, instead of not enough; the same old guitaristic obsessions and formalist winks getting in the way of, you know, the basics.

thinking of going to this Keith Urban Press Conference next wk at BMI here. will keep you informed, maybe Nicole will be there.

Favorite songs on Aaron Tippin's way tougher than I remembered him Greatest Hits...And Then Some from 1997 which I bought for $3 on CD at Austin's "Citywide Garage Sale" today: "A Door," "I Got It Honest," and "The Call Of The Wild," the latter of which may well be the most Cramps-like wolf-howl I've ever heard from a modern Nashville country singer. (Aaron's howling about a woman who gets loud at night, and I'm guessing he and the Cramps share inspiration of some wild-haired old rockabilly I can't place.) Xgau wrote at the time that Tippin was "as prole as Music Row gets," which may or may not be true, though I'd say "Working Man's Ph.D" is more prole than Bob's own two faves, namely "Cold Grey Kentucky Morning" and "There Ain't Nothin' Wrong With The Radio," both (actually all three) of which I also like. Also want to note that Tippin's down-and-out ballad-singing voice reminds me of John Conlee sometimes. And his mustache on the front and back cover reminds me of a '70s porn star.

Upcoming album by Martina McBride sounds better (ballsier, bluesier, darker, more energetic, more involved) than her last couple, at least after a couple listens, but that's all I can claim so far. Except that I read on line that Martina was one of the people (Sheryl Crow was another) attending a record preview party this week by some new band of Jack White (which also includes one each person from the Greenhornes, the Kills, and Queens of the Stone Age.) I don't have especially high hopes for the band, but I still think it's cool Martina was there.

Turns out on subsequent listens that Betty Padgett is maybe a more average B-or-C-level soul voice than I implied in my post yesterday (and her covers of the Frankie Valli and Gwen McRae are less astonishing than I may have implied), but I still like her album, especially her very convincingly disco-bubbly single "Sugar Daddy" (incl. its second version with background party voices), where I'm pretty sure I read in an email press release earlier this week that she's backed by Detroit indie-rock Afrobeat nine-piece Nomo (whose first couple albums sounded funky enough, but whose upcoming one doesn't hold my attention for some reason. Never heard their third. Do like where they're coming from, however.)

George might also like some stuff on the upcoming Mick Fleetwood Blues Band live album, which I've actually played all the way through four times, strangely enough. Ultimately too stodgy, and it takes too long to get going, but the backloaded six/seven-minute "Black Magic Woman" and especially "Shake Your Moneymaker" crank. Don't mind the more boogie-woogie/New Orleans r&b/"My Toot Toot"- rhythm tracks scattered through, either.

Yeah, probably good percentage, if I ever see it. "Black Magic Woman" never cranked, though. "Shake Your Moneymaker" did, illustrating the split personality of Fleetwood Mac as one of the most successful during the Brit white boy blooz boom. Jeremy Spencer fronted the band on the Elvis-flavored stuff like "Moneymaker". Peter Green took over for everything else. Be interested to know if Fleetwood dug up Bob Brunning to play on this, since he was one of the first members of Fleetwood Mac.

Actually, the best buy for blooz boom stuff now is the 3-disc reissue of Mike Vernon-produced Chicken Shack, originally on Blue Horizon. Two thirds of it has Christine McVie singing every other number, alternating with Stan Webb. By the third disc, McVie --then Perfect -- has left and Webb has taken Chicken Shack heavy for Accept Chicken Shack. The band would spin off into Savoy Brown and UFO.

And if it's remakes/revisits you like in this vein, the new Foghat live album kills. Even though half of Foghat, including Lonesome Dave, is dead. Hard to figure how this is done, but everyone in the band is all on the same page, spiritually, I guess. Thirty five years later, they do "Fool for the City" like their lives depended on it. And I saw the originals do it many times.

Huhx, my fave Sir Doug is mostly from the 70s or late 60s, def Mendocino, as Edd says, though don't know how its baked wired mellow sound comes across on CD (it's more consistently focused than some of his, though). Also (these are all billed as Sir Douglas Quintet): The Return of Doug Saldana, with more actual Chicano scientists than usual in SDQ albums; Together After Five (skoal yall); Rough Edges ("Doin' It Too Hard," which might have inspired the Tex-Mex section of "Sister Ray", plus Tom T. Hall's "The Homecoming," many other lost wages rescued by Paul Nelson, for a new grab bag). Also ragged and rugged is 1+1=4, with horns (which turn up here and there on various other albums)This takes Gatemouth Brown's Texas blues-bop toward Coltrane on one track, which is still mostly funky, and 2-man high school marching band overall. More horns, getting a little Texas lounge-y at times, but with tight small group tracks too, on The Sir Douglas Band's Texas Tornado. Most tracks from this and Doug Sahm And Band, plus prev unissued from the latter sessions, can be found on Rhino's The Best of Doug Sahm & Friends: Atlantic Sessions. I liked the And Band stuff a lot more than expected, considering what Marcus and xgau's sympathetic but low-ish ratings (xgau's pretty good on Doug overall, though)Border Wave was the SDQ comeback, in the heyday of Rockpile etc; their Day Dreaming At Midnight is marred by the hair metal licks of son Shawn Sahm, according to some, but I like it, esp vs some of the songs' Dad commentary (although they Texas psych punk out on an sncient track by Mother Earth, who I had no idea ever did such thangs, thought it was all about Tracy Nelson's waves of gravity)Oh yeah, other excavations: Norton Records' Doug Sahm, San Antonio Rock: The Harlem Recordings 1957-1961 --I haven't listened that it much yet, but I dig Edsel Records' She's About A Mover-The Best of Doug Sahm and the Sir Douglas Quintet, which is I think a volume in a series, The Crazy Cajun Recordings. Anyway, 60s tracks, like prob original "Mover" (which gets "that freaky guitar--you musta learned that in San Francisco," he informs himself on the excellent Mendocino re-make). And some great prev unissued, like extended "Funky Side of Your Mind," more VU-bait, though it's also a studio zen forensic. In fact--xhuxx I'll send you an email

And of course we mustn't forget the hits 'n' tits of the Texas Tornados!

The LP referred to as 1+1=4 is actually 1+1+1=4, and I meant it employs the approach I associate with Gatemouth Brown, not his actual presence, alas.

xhuxk wrote: Pretty certain by now that I like the new Pat Green and Rodney Atkins (which sounds great, and hasn't been mentioned here before) more than the new Eric Church

I haven't heard the Rodney Atkins album yet, that "America" single kind of turned me off from hearing it. I'd love to hear more about why it sounds great.

This is what I said on my livejournal today about the recent Rascal Flatts and Carrie Underwood songs (according to Wiki the Underwood isn't being pushed to radio yet but is doing big business as a download, thanks to its American Idol tie-in):

Rascal Flatts "Here Comes Goodbye": I like the specificity of the lyrics, how he knows he's losing her: her ringing the doorbell where previously she'd come right in. The high-pitched twang of the singing against the strings and pedal steel has a neutralizing effect, however, like white against a white sky. BORDERLINE NONTICK.

Carrie Underwood "Home Sweet Home": Placid ballad to kiss American Idol losers goodbye with. Given weightier instrumentation and heavier singing than is good for it, but her voice is warm. BORDERLINE TICK.

On fourth listen or so I'm liking "Home Sweet Home" less and less. Carrie's singing is strained on a song that I'd have thought would have been a simple glide for an excellent mimic like her. And "placid" here means "wet blanket." But I think it's a good song, and I say this without having any memory of the Mötley Crüe original.

The Singles Jukebox is back, though no longer associated with the defunct Stylus, obviously. Four different reviewers per track, they haven't done any country yet but "Home Sweet Home" is in the hopper, should be up in several days.

When you type "love and theft" into the YouTube search box, the suggestions YouTube gives are:

love and theft
love and theft music
love and theft band
love and theft stephen
love and theft bob dylan
love and theft it's up to you
love and theft taylor swift
love and theft you to miss
love and theft download

Hey erasingclouds, I should actually save my longer Atkins notes for my Voice roundup piece, but yeah, I find "It's America" fairly irritating too -- starting with its idiotic, bigoted idea that only in America would neighbors help neighbors when there's a natural disaster -- but it's not nearly the best track on the album. Which has many good Stones riffs.

Glanced through this week's charts, and nothing is startling me -- "High Cost of Living" and "Blue Jeans And A Rosary" start to dip slightly, Love and Theft slowly climbing, Carrie debuting with her Crue cover, etc. -- but am wondering what these three at the bottom of the list are. Anyboy out there know?

58 NEW 1 Boy Like Me, Jessica Harp
J.Flowers (J.Flowers ) Warner Bros. DIGITAL | WRN | 58
59 56 2 Keep The Change, Holly Williams
J.Neibank (H.Lindsey,L.Laird ) Mercury DIGITAL | 56
60 NEW 1 Address In The Stars, Caitlin & Will
C.Lindsey (C.Lynn,C.Lindsey,H.Lindsey,A.Mayo ) Columbia PROMO SINGLE | 60

I've been listening to Southern soul on the radio in Austin; commented on songs called "Southern Soul Party" and "I Need A Bailout" here in recent days:

Chitlin Circuit Double-entendre -filled Soul 2004 (and onward) Theodis Ealey's "Stand Up In It" is a song of the year

Last week was Grand Ole Opry week on American Idol. Adam Lambert's "Ring Of Fire" was indescribably terrible, but still one of only two performances this week worth hearing more than twice, and I urge you to listen. The guy has ideas, even if putting them together produces a misshapen mess. And I actually liked Kris Allen doing "Make You Feel My Love"; gave it a light step, turning it into gentle slush and ignoring the lyrics' buried aggression, which is fine with me. (I have a little more to say about last week's Idol on my livejournal.

"Boy Like Me" is Jessica Harp (of the Wreckers) saying that she's the kind of girl who likes the kind of boys who like the kind of girls who like to drink and fuck on the first date, but not saying it quite like that. Has a nice rocking crackle and strong slide playing in the break; the arrangement ends up overwhelming her voice, but the track isn't bad.

I don't know Caitlin & Will's "Address In The Stars," but their "Even Now" is a good duet where a couple sing about playing breakup and infidelity games to hurt each other and to get even with each other and without knowing how to stop the hurtfulness or stop loving one another, but the way I've said it is clumsier than the song's way; has got good reworkings of the title phrase (they're even now, meaning they're getting even with each other, but they love each other even now, and aren't they finally even now, so they can stop the love wars?). Caitlin's got a good half wail, and the song does a good job of trading points of view, starting with them singing separately and then bringing the vocals together as they try to keep the relationship together.

First I ever heard Caitlin & Will was a few days ago. Here's their MySpace, which I'll listen to in the next few days. "Even Now" is the first track up.

Love & Theft's "Runaway" is one of my favorite tracks this year; I wouldn't say it's anything special; it's confidently off-hand in its harmonies and rhythms, sets its hooks nicely and then just keeps rolling along.

Have to check those. White against white doesn't have to be self-cancelling, if you get the textures right. Lucinda Williams and yacht rock, for instance

Still need to peruse those Jessica Harp and Caitlin & Will numbers. (The latter duo are said to be Can You Duet alumni, like Joey + Rory before.)

Thought Adam Lambert's quasi-middle-eastern-undulating hush-goth elongation of "Ring Of Fire" was interesting enough for one time, though not as entertaining as Randy Travis's reaction to the guy , or Wall of Voodoo dooing it in the early '80s (or Celtic Frost dooing Wall of Voodoo in the late '80s.)

Did not manage to catch any of the many Those Darlins sets during SXSW (hard to leave home early enough to get to a bar by noon, or even 3 pm), though I expect I'll have other chances now that I'm in Austin. Also didn't catch the Saturday night set by reportedly "country metal" Rascal Flatts-hit songwriter Jeffrey Steele. Did make it to a 4 pm Friday set by Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles, though, and thought they rocked both exuberantly and hilariously; what most took me by surprise was the dominant-submissive on-stage rapport between Sarah and her scraggly little bassist Biggie (who had some good goofy one-liners, like one about how he would put a wallet in each back pocket next time after Sarah took him to task for his lack of booty.) They sure don't seem like a Boston band, and that's a compliment (unless you're the Dropkick Murphys I guess.) (Or okay, the Cars or J. Geils or, uh, Boston. But you get the idea.) Some local giveaway sheet takes their new album to task for having songs that sound like Joan Jett and the early Pretenders (which I guess makes them not alt-country enough), but I hear the harder rocking stuff as an improvement. Had no idea they were covering Magnetic Fields and Lemonheads numbers on their new CD along with Smokey Robinson (not to mention Any Trouble, who turn out to be the source of the pub-rock track I like so much "Yesterday's Love"), and I honestly don't think I'm any worse off for learning the truth.

Like upcoming albums by Texas songsters I never heard of before and will inevitably confuse with each other Ryan Bingham (on Lost Highway) and Scott
Biram (on Bloodshot) more than the upcoming album by hypster-hyped Texas garage band Strange Boys. The former two have more boogie than I would have predicted, though I haven't decided if they have any worthy songs. The Strange Boys once in a while slip into some semblance of mid '60s Dylan groove, but their songs would be a lot more memorable if they didn't insist on slopping them to hell all the time. Just makes the record hard to sit through, though they might have potential if they drop the schtick.

Way better than any of those: Heavy Chevy ZZ-style blooze-metal from Rufus Huff, Kentucky men featuring Headhunters guitar killer Greg Martin. George and Frank and Don should all check out that one when it comes out in April. (And George needs to hear Ian Gillan's new One Eye To Morocco, which I also like a whole lot, but it's not country at all. Parts might make sense on a jazz-fusion thread, though.)

And speaking of Don, thanks for all the Doug Sahm burns (+ Steeldrivers, too.) I'll get to them sooner or later, I promise. Will report back when I do.

Yeah, probably good percentage, if I ever see it. "Black Magic Woman" never cranked, though. "Shake Your Moneymaker" did, illustrating the split personality of Fleetwood Mac as one of the most successful during the Brit white boy blooz boom. Jeremy Spencer fronted the band on the Elvis-flavored stuff like "Moneymaker". Peter Green took over for everything else.

In addition to the rock & roll oldies, Spencer handled vocals on all the Elmore Jams throwdowns. Also, Danny Kirwan handled vocals on numerous tracks. Whenever I want to play Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac for somebody I start with the three volumes of live material recorded at the Boston Tea Party in 1970. I then play them a smattering of the singles: "Oh Well," "Green Manalishi," "Man of the World." They are one of my all time fave bands and really quite versatile: Chicago blues, psych-pop, folkie stuff, Flamin' Groovies-like oldies, extended hippie jams (23-minute version of "Rattlesnake Shake), boogie rock and even some proto-metal.

xp I'm actually getting the idea that the Strange Boys' even-looser-than-Black-Lips slacker routine -- the impression that they're too stoned and layabouty to bother making their songs coherent -- is probably actually very Austin (though obviously it's also been an aesthetic running through indie-rock forfuckingever, from Flaming Lips and Dinosaur Jr. to Sebadoh and Pavement and Beck to No Age and Times New Viking etc.) And while the aesthetic doesn't always preclude making good records, it's usually an irritant at this late date, maybe even more than a decade or two ago. (Got tired of the new Black Lips after a few listens, and couldn't get into this new CD by Wavves either -- more indie kids who got a lot of SXSW hype tossed at them this year. Though maybe not as much hype as now ten-years-gone Doug Sahm.)

Anyway, here's a piece on music from a couple few-years-old collections of (often countryish) music from the Great Depression that I wrote for a mag called Good. The theme is probably more forced than I wish, and the ending's kinda flat. Plus I wrote it before John Rich's Detroit song:

http://www.good.is/?p=15807

Teen-pop stoner revives me-decade yacht-rock classic for space-buddy movie (# 20 on Radio Disney countdown this week, apparently):

Btw, Caitlin & Will's mushy new ballad single about unsuccessfully attempting to mail a letter to a dead loved one is not nearly as good as their cheating-on-each-other song (which is indeed great. And it's been a while since a country couple hit with one of those, hasn't it? Except I have no idea if Caitlin & Will are a couple, in the romantic sense. Plus "Even Now" wasn't actually a hit, apparently. I do like how neither duo member seems physically attractive in any traditional American sense, however.)

I'd probably like Carrie Underwood's "Home Sweet Home" better if it was "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" or "I Won't Forget You" instead. But it's okay.

Come to think of it, I'd also probably like Alyson Stoner's "Dancing In The Moonlight" better if it was "Moonlight Feels Right" instead. And that techno-y part toward the end freaks me out. But it's okay, too. I enjoy her inflections, and any record that reminds today's kids of the early roots of country-disco is nothing to complain about. Though I sure never took "they don't bark and they don't bite" as literally as the directors of her video seem to.

Intriguing excerpts from Black Key Dan Auebach's solo album in Ed Ward's NPR review. As he says, end-of-60s psych bluesoid--with some pop in there somewhere, not too far from the (post-end-of-60s) ZZ Top (although I never heard the Moving Sidewalks, American Blues, or other pre-ZZ bands that the Toppers were in, maybe some catchiness there too) Not exactly hooks, not in these excerpts, but some nice beardo stuff that hops around the room: I wouldn't put it past him to cover Blues Image's "Ride Captain Ride." Both Keys did recently do a good version of Captain Beefheart's "Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles"(one of his more "commercial" tracks, or that seems to have been the idea) for a Warners anniversary comp.

Oh, and xhuxx, be sure to start (or get to, while you're still at it)Best of Doug Sahm and The Sir Douglas Quintet (1968-1975), the one on Polygram with him holding stringed instruments like they'd just sprouted from his outer thighs, which maybe they did. Be in a Random Play state of mind, and pretend it's a whole carousel of dif discs, rather than just one.(QuantumNoise, I hear you on early F.Mac)

"Auerbach," that is.

Caitlin & Will's "Even Now" was slated as their single and had been released with a video and everything and then to the duo's surprise the record company pulled it in favor of the mushy dead letter song.

As many of you know 'Even Now' has been our new single for 4 weeks...well my Aunt Lisa up in heaven didnt like that and decided there should be a change (of course Columbia decided this, but I'm sure La had a hand in it)...



We have CHANGED our single that radio will play. 'Address in the Stars' is now the NEW single. Honestly it was a huge shock to Will and I, but we have had such an amazing response from EVERYONE in radio that it was hard to ignore.



I do have to say I called my family individually to tell them and I believe each one of them teared up or started crying. Honestly I can just see my Aunt La sitting in heaven with her legs dangling over some edge just giggling about the turn of events down here. Address was her last word I think.



My Aunt Tae said on the phone "I guess she got your letter" I then started sobbing because I didnt think of it that way. I guess she did after all. I guess its just one more way of telling my Aunt Lisa that I love her.

My rule is, if there's a vid, it's eligible for my singles list, so "Even Now" can contend. The Caitlin & Will EP is out today; most of it's up on their MySpace, which is still geared to sell "Even Now." According to a fan on YouTube, the "Even Now" video is "is just incredible, the best country video in years and probably the best ever made! WOW! Like OMG WOW!"

Jamie O'Neal album is due today too, according to Wiki. Have only heard the title track, "Like A Woman." Strangely, unless the tracks are mislabeled, there's a "radio edit" on the single that's longer than the "album version," has an extra verse at the start about working hard and feeling hemmed-in as a housewife. Instructions to husbands. (The melody is only average, but she's got a killer voice.)

Billboard article confirming what Don said upthread about the Drive By Truckers and Neil Young playing on the forthcoming Booker T. LP (due on April 21). It'll be all instrumentals, including a version of "Hey Ya."

I made this livejournal post referencing this livejournal conversation in regard to Lily Allen's countryesque "Not Fair," though our posts are also somewhat about this jukebox conversation about "Not Fair," and my post touches on country music's own uneasiness with its vocabulary.

(Oh, and there's a tiny bit of poptimists conversation about "Not Fair" in this week's Yet Another Year In Pop. Also, the crucial question is raised once again but not answered: who started the meme "Who let the dogs out, woof woof woof"? We can't trace it any further back than Gillette's "You're A Dog" in 1994, but that hardly means it's not from earlier.

Posted this on my livejournal (as part of my first quarter top 22):

Jamey Johnson, "High Cost Of Living": Exuberantly grim! It's a drunkalog, basically, and the apparent grimness is to try to fend off the call of the wild. The title and the lyrics in the chorus are built around a pun, and the track ends with Jamey laughing encouragement to his guitar player.

I need to check out most of the songs on Frank's Top 22-so-far. I like Shystie feat. Deekline and Timberlee feat. Tosh. Actually reviewed the Ryan Leslie and Mavado albums for Rolling Stone, believe it or not (I'll review whatever they assign me, and they've been assigning me some stuff way out of my ballpark); liked them both okay, though not enough to recommend them (and the Leslie/Jim Jones single isn't on Leslie's album anyway.) Listened to Lily Allen's twice over Rhapsody on my laptop, which never lets an album seep in as much as if I had physical copy, and it irritated me more in a Nelly McKay-type cabaret way than her debut (which I liked a lot) had, but I probably need to listen to it more.

I've actually got a copy of the MC Lars album here; didn't make it very far into it (after being amused enough by an EP he did several years ago to still own a copy), but I'll check out the track with the Donna singer and the Therapy? riff at least. (Amazed that Frank could identify a Therapy? riff; doubt I could, and actually sort of used to like them once.)

Anyway, since we're doing quarter-year best ofs, here's how my top 10 county singles and albums would probably look, if the entire year were to end today:

COUNTRY SINGLES

1. Jamey Johnson – “High Cost Of Living”
2. John Rich – “Shuttin’ Detroit Down”
3. Sarah Buxton – “Space”
4. Love and Theft – “Runaway”
5. Caitlin & Will – “Even Now”
6. Floyd Taylor --- “Southern Soul Party”
7. Trace Adkins – “I Can’t Outrun You”
8. Jamie O’Neal – “Like A Woman”
9. Megan Munroe - “Moonshine”
10. Sarah Borges And The Broken Singles – “Do It For Free”

Floyd Taylor's song makes the list on the basis that it makes Southern Soul feel country partly by saying they're serving cole slaw at the golf course. Sarah Borges's song makes the list despite sounding like Joan Jett on the basis of most of her songs sounding more country than this one does. "I Can't Outrun You" qualifies the same way "Even Now" does -- though apparently not released as a single per se', it's got a video anyway (a few references to it on the web), though I've never seen it. John Rich's song would rank lower if it wasn't about Detroit.

ALBUMS

1. Megan Munroe – One More Broken String (Diamond)
2. Pat Green – What I’m For (BNA)
3. Rufus Huff – Rufus Huff (Zoho Roots)
4. Sarah Borges And the Broken Singles – The Stars Are Out (Sugar Hill)
5. Rodney Atkins -- It’s America (Curb)
6. The Flatlanders – Hills And Valleys (New West)
7. Eric Church – Carolina (Capitol)
8. (Various) – The Man Of Somebody’s Dreams: A Tribute To The Songs Of Chris Gaffney (Yep Roc)
9. Buckwheat Zydeco – Lay Your Burden Down (Alligator)
10. The Boxmasters – Modbilly (Vanguard)

Something interesting is that, if the year were to end today, my top six or seven country singles would make my overall top ten singles list, but only my top one or two country albums would (if that.) Which means I've been paying way more attention to non-country albums than to non-county singles, I guess.

Convo last week re Buckwheat Zydeco from the Rolling Hard Rock thread:

the new Buckwheat Zydeco album Lay Your Burden Down on Alligator includes songs previously done by Led Zeppelin ("When The Levee Breaks,"originally Memphis Minnie), Brownsville Station ("Let Your Yeah Be Yeah," originally Jimmy Cliff), Gov't Mule (the title track), and Captain Beefheart (his long-ignored-probably-due-to-its-normalness Southern soul move "Too Much Time," always one of my favorites by him) -- though only the five-minute "Levee" really sounds like hard rock, at least so far. Anyway, I never cared at all about Buckwheat before (he's been around forever it seems, and his voice seems pretty average), but I like this record. Best original so far: "Throw Me Something Mister," which basically sounds like mid '60s funk-band instrumental with party-chant interjections.

― xhuxk, Thursday, March 26, 2009

By "mid '60s funk band" I guess I mean Meters, duh. Who didn't actually chart til the late '60s. Also, I get the idea that, in general here, Buckwheat employs his accordion like an organ, so I'm not sure how "zydeco" any of it really sounds. (Not that I'm a zydeco expert myself, and not that anybody reading a hard rock thread might care one way or the other.)

― xhuxk, Thursday, March 26, 2009

Buckwheat Zydeco
cranks up his accordion
like a metal god

Saw him close a show
with "Hey Joe" back in the day
Shredding feedback hell

― Haikunym Mark II (Dimension 5ive), Friday, March 27, 2009

(Actually, re-eyeballing that very rough singles list, I think I'm overrating the Jamie O'Neal track a little -- like Frank suggested a few posts up, the song and tune don't quite equal her singing power. So it's entirely possible Sugarland's "It Happens" or Pat Green's "What I'm For" or Kid Rock's "Blue Jeans And A Rosary" or Trace Adkins' "Marry For Money" or Carrie Underwood's "The More Boys I Meet" or something deserves to be in the top 10 instead.)

I "recognized" the Therapy? riff, which I don't remember having heard before, because when Moggy linked the MC Lars track she said "oh dear i just wrote a thing about how this song sounds like 'screamager' by therapy? and then realised it actually samples it when the chorus kicks in. I R SMRT. 'screamager' is a fucking awesome song, obviously. i'm not totally sure this song completely works but it's quite fun." Wiki says that "Screamager" was the hit track off the EP that made Therapy? popular and made it into the UK top ten in 1993. But believe it or not, the MC Lars track kills it, though I don't know how much credit to give Lars since his rap on it is a bore. And now I'll shut up about it because it's not country.

xp In completely unrelated news, I have made the entirely ill-informed decision (based soley on their stray tracks on 1978's far-from-great but occasionally entertaining Every Which Way But Loose soundtrack, which I bought for 75 cents at a thrift store last month and which features Clint Eastood and an orangutan on its cover) that I like Hank Thompson (whose "A Six Pack To Go" is quite boppily almost-Western-swinging trucker fare) way more than Mel Tillis (whose "Send Me Down To Tucson" is a rather creepy cheating ballad and whose "Coca Cola Cowboy" is worse and neither of which contain many or maybe even any of the stutters I was under the impression Mel was known for.) Anybody who knows more of these guys' music than me (which is to say, anybody who knows their music at all), please tell me whether I'm right or wrong about my preference. (Not sure why it's never occurred to me to check either fellow's music out before; just never have.)

Also notable on the soundtrack is an instrumental called "Eastwood's Alley Walk" which pays explicit homage to Morricone's Spaghetti Western music for a few notes at the end, whether Edd likes it or not.

And there's another "instrumental" that actually consists of doo-wop voices, not unlike the doo-wop homage toward the end of the Move's rocking nine-minute "Feel Too Good" off their very fun 1971 Looking On LP, which I bought for $1 at a garage sale last month. Makes me think somebody should do an EMP project on ironic/nostalgic doo-wop homages on '70s non-doo-wop records someday. (Though not me.)

(Neither the Mavado nor the Leslie albums clicked for me overall, though I think I'm going to give the Leslie several more chances because he's a good producer and I think "How It Was Supposed To Be" and its vid aren't bad and I'm wondering if, like The-Dream and Ne-Yo, he'll be a grower. Funny thing, this trend in r&b singers with little projection or immediate charisma who are making interesting music (Ne-Yo, The-Dream, Ryan Leslie, Keri Hilson). (With the exception of Ne-Yo I'd probably say "sporadically interesting," though the new The-Dream album has a lot going on, even if you have to wait six songs for it to start happening.)

SPOILERS: I remember quite liking Every Which Way But Loose, the movie, the Eastwood character taking forever for it to get through his noggin that the Sandra Locke character wanted sex with him but not a relationship, but I didn't even know there was a soundtrack album. (And then I wouldn't even see the sequel to Evey Which Way But Loose, since it completely abandoned the premise of the first movie in order to create a sequel with Eastwood and Locke. Wouldn't see any of the Rocky sequels for the same reason. I admit that the reason's dumb, that I should take the later movies on their own terms, and Rocky 2 has a good reputation, but I hate the fact that the series abandoned ideas that were integral to their conception. The thing is, Rocky Balboa was never going to be a great fighter, his achievement was to get himself in shape and persevere so that he could survive in the ring against Apollo Creed and not be the patsy he'd been set up to be.

"How It Was Supposed To Be" and its vid aren't bad

Fwiw, that song and "Valentine" were my favorite songs on Leslie's album. Favorite by far on Mavado's album was the extremely bats-in-belfry Gothic-doom sounding "Welcome To The Armageddon," followed maybe by "Money Changer," though I should probably relisten to the single Frank likes so much.

Have never actual seen Clint's monkey movie myself; maybe I'll add it to my Netflix queue.

Orangutan

Boxmasters -- Modbilly (Vanguard)

What, already? That makes three, including the Xmas special?!

Yep, and it's a double (with the second disc all covers) again. Which sort of makes FIVE, if you want to count them that way. Pretty sure I like the covers disc better than the one last year (only "As Tears Go By" seems completely wtf pointless); originals disc seems on par so far. (Best song title, and one of the best songs: "That's Why Tammy Has My Car." Also great: "Heartbreakin' Wreck.") May or may not go into more detail about it here or elsehwere sometime. (Though I will say I really like Modbilly as an album title, too.) (Didn't like the Xmas album at all, for what that's worth.)

But izzit exactly the same style and tone?

Yep. I dunno, possibly less off-hand "incidental music" between songs, but same voice, same sound, same middle-aged fuckup who drinks too much persona. I'm realizing now that, while Billy Bob is just adequate as a singer (which I'm fine with), he is probably one of my favorite country songwriters (in terms of lyrics and melodies) at the moment. And one of the funniest songwriters working now, period. (Should've voted for him in the songwriter category in last year's Nashville Scene poll.)

CMT has a video up for "Shuttin' Detroit Down"-- with Kris Kristofferson as a laid off auto worker and Mickey Rourke as his buddy.

http://www.cmt.com/videos/john-rich-country/367274/shuttin-detroit-down.jhtml?

Wow -- Right wing populist rage; sabotage on the deadend streets, police cars overturned. Can't think of another country video that's ever bleeped out the word "fuck," either. It occurs to me that the "they" shutting Detroit down in Rich's song is as undefined as the "they" in any old hardcore song. (Guess it's "Congress," or "rich assholes who own banks" or just "people who live in New York City and Washington D.C. and aren't like us here in the real world"; how long til the New Depression gets its own Father Coughlin? Not that I'm, uh, implying anything.) So who's the congressman who makes the split-second cameo appearance on the TV news in that video, anyway? On first viewing I was thinking Kucinich -- can't get more lefty than him, right? But I'm probably wrong. Anyway. Great song, great vid. But that doesn't mean it doesn't make me uneasy.

By the way, if anybody missed it, Jon Caramanica ran an interview of John Rich in the Socialist NY Times a couple days ago, and called "Shuttin' Detroit Down" "the first great song of the bailout era." Judging from the sparse quotes, it didn't look like Rich gave Caramanica a whole lot of his time, though he did mention that Merle Haggard had compared the song to "Okee From Muskogee" (which it isn't nearly as good as, but still.) And when Caramanica asked him about another song on his new album where he says "we'd all be speaking German, living under the flag of Japan" if it wasn't for our WWII vets, John told Jon "I mean it completely literally." (Which leads me to wonder whether the Japs would be speaking German too, but never mind.)
Anyway, here it is. (I haven't heard the whole album myself; got sent a download link, but I'm lazy when it comes to the evils of modern technology. And I still wonder where Big Kenny stands on all this):

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/arts/music/31rich.html

(By the way, my use of "right wing" is pretty amorphous, too. Obama and Democratic Congresspeople supporting a bailout of course make for easy right wing targets, but the video and song are explicitly critical of big business and at least implicitly pro-union. So Rich is obviously walking a fine line. And if the song had come from somebody who wasn't so vocal in his support of McCain last year, I'm not sure I'd be saying which wing he was flying with.)

Also wonder whether the ultimatums Obama gave auto companies this week makes the song more or less relevant; not bailing them out could shut Detroit down, too, right? If me and you run to the rescue, isn't there a chance that might save Kristofferson's job? So the message is confused, too. (Rich only explicitly mentions bailing out bankers, but he also talks about bossmen jetting out of town, which clearly refers to the auto execs -- who most Michiganders I know seem apologetic for.)

You're correct--that was Kucinich. A big WTF moment for me. But Kristofferson is such a well-known lefty I guess the video was meant to be bi-partisan.

So what do people here know/think about O.B. McClinton? Unsuccesssful soul singer/semi-successful soul songwriter from Mississippi, crossed over to country (sometime calling himself "The Chocolate Cowboy") in the early '70s and had a passel of not-very-high-charting hits between 1972 and 1987 (most promising title: "Honky Tonk Tan," 1984), the not-so-big biggest of them coming at the very beginning -- "Don't the Green Grass Fool You" (#37) and "My Whole World Is Falling Down" (#36) in '72. Apparently recorded three country albums for Stax subsidiary Enterprise, and a few later ones for a few other labels. Died of cancer at age 47 in 1987.

Got his 1974 If You Loved Her That Way for my usual going price of $1 at a flea market last month, and it's good. Two songs about good wanton women, though in one of them ("Clean Your Own Tables") she's just called a barmaid instead, but that's okay because (I'm paraphasing from memory) "She' not what you'd call an All-American girl" and "I'm not what you call an All-American Boy, I've done time in San Francisco and L.A."; in the one where the woman is actually called wanton, her name is Dixie, and she was like a Mama to O.B., so he's not going to stand for anybody running down Dixie -- a pretty twisted metaphor, somehow, coming from a black country singer, not unlike the minstrely blackface phrasing ("when my self is feelin' low") in "Little Green Apples" by O.C. Smith, another early '70s black country singer I often confuse O.B. with (and you can throw Southern soul guy O.V. Wright in there too.) There's also "If You Loved Her That Way" (where O.B. blames the infidelity of a friend's wife on the friend's inattention to her), a decent cover of "Lean On Me" that reminds me that Bill Withers had country leanings as well, and a great cut called "Hallelujah" that seems like an example of its own unnamed genre -- spoken more like a sermon than a gospel song; a few verses detailing bad stuff going on in the congregation (a marriage splitting up, a man looking down on the neighbors in his new neighborhood), separated by a recurring chorus about "hallelujah -- save us again" (the chorus of which reminds me of "Hallelujah I'm a Bum," but I have a feeling it might be related to some other template I've just never noticed before). And O.B. has more soul music in his singing, overall, than Darius Rucker or Cleve Francis (maybe even Charlie Pride) if not Lionel Richie or Ray Charles or Dobie Gray or Big Al Downing when they made country moves.

Also been listening to the car radio a lot in the past few days. Love Kenny Chesney's "Out Last Night" -- seems like the most fun thing he's done in years, after he starting getting a little depressing and rolling up in an acoustic ball in his blue chair and I stopped paying attention so much (which means I may have missed something, but this is still good.)

Have come to truly hate the ubiquitous George Strait hit about "rolling down the river of love," but I've come to like Montgomery Gentry's unusually laid-back, somehow almost early '70s Grateful Dead-feeling (though melodically partly Counting Crows reminscent) "Roll With Me" a lot, which proves I have nothing against rolling per se'. And I also have nothing against George Strait per se' -- I've come to like his hit "Troubador," too (even though K'Naaan has a way better Troubador album.)

Then there are songs they probably only play on the radio here and not anywhere else. Jason Boland and the Stragglers' '08 album track "Comal County Blues" is on the air enough to count as a legit hit in my mind (seems to be about an Austinite who moves south to the Texas country but comes back into town at night to drive the streets and relive old good times when he feels depressed), and I like it, though I've never heard Boland otherwise. Heard a song on the Triple A station the other day that sounded kind of like James McMurtry and had the guy talking in a gruff voice over a killer "Symphathy For The Devil" groove (with rock guitars building like a coastal storm) about how much he liked the bayou, but they didn't back-announce it, and I'm not even sure what title to google to find out. Also don't think I ever heard this great old honky-tonk song "Bloody Mary Morning" before -- Google says Willie Nelson has the most famous version, but I'm fairly positive the rendition I heard on the air last week wasn't him.

Also heard an awesome, apparently '80s local late-new-wave bar-band dance-craze hit "Earthquake Shake" last night by a band I never heard of before called the Skunks (link below.) Shades of, I dunno, "The Meltdown" by Root Boy Slim and His Sex Change Band" or something dumb like that. Plus they apparently cover "Sister Ray" on the MySpace, it looks like:

http://www.myspace.com/theskunkstx

Not to mention the fact that the public station at 88.7 that sometimes plays Southern Soul also has other shows where they play '80s old-school r&b (yesterday: Cameo's "Single Life," Maze featuring Frankie Beverly's "Happy Feelin's," Slave's "Slide," One Way's immortal "Cutie Pie"), and still other shows where they play presumably current gospel songs that try to sound like old-school rap and funk music, and sometimes do it pretty well (one I heard yesterday had Taana Gardner's "Heartbeat" bassline.)

Also my excellent mailman Daniel Patrick O'Flannagan McGee (not his real name, but it's not far off) is a huge Hal Ketchum fan who back in college was a huge It's A Beautiful Day fan -- two artists I know almost nothing about, though maybe I should find out. (Apparently Hal put a new album out lately.)

Most of the time, John Rich is as politically nuts as Ted Nugent, only he's not 60 yet. Being on Beck and Hannity makes one officially part of the tribe of Turner heevahavas -- people who don't realize they appear like peripheral characters from "The Turner Diaries" but who have never seen the book or know what it is. T-shirts that say "America -- love or leave it." Eesh, yeah, so many of us anarchists and haters want it burned down.

Making "Shuttin' Down Detroit" would seem to be more proof of a busted watch being right twice a day. I haven't been watching CMT lately but I'll definitely be tuning in this week to see the video in top rotation.

I heard the John Rich album today-- needs fewer ballads and more batshit. The standout songs (besides "Detroit") are the one mentioned earlier about how if not for the Greatest Generation we'd be living in The Man in the High Castle--speaking German under the flag of Japan. John is mad at unspecified people on his TV "taking shots at Uncle Sam" who presumably think that fighting the Nazis was a bad idea. In the title track "Son of a Preacher Man" he figures he can still get into heaven because "Jesus ran with a party crowd." In another song he becomes Eminem and complains that everyone wants to be him--that is to have his money and fame, but they don't want to pay the dues he paid, nor do they want to put up with having cameras in their faces everyday or having their "country boy views" blown up into "big city news."

as politically nuts as Ted Nugent

Speaking of which (and the shuttering of Detroit):

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090404/ap_en_mo/final_four_detroit_spotlight

"Left to their own accord and entrepreneurial enterprise, I am confident the U.S. auto industry would have outperformed all others. ... Now that Fedzilla has had the audacity to turn up the havoc-wreaking, criminally violating the U.S. Constitution and all parameters of logic and decency, it appears the death knell has sounded. It breaks my Motor City heart," he said.

So government intervention in the auto industry caused Detroit to fail? And it was fine before?

And speaking of Michigan and country, this is from a pretty good (if seemingly over-edited at points) piece by my old Farmington, Michican middle-school pal R.J. Smith on Ron Asheton's final days, in what turned out to be Blender's final issue:

"Ann Arbor in the mid-1960s was shaped by freak culture. This wasn't the peace-and-love scene of San Francisco. It was scrappy, built on hustles. Michigan hippies had hillbilly ancestry: Their parents had come from the Deep South in World War II to work in defense plants. They brought a don't tread on me rebel vibe."

They may or may not be some leaps of analysis in that passage (and the first couple sentences say nothing that hasn't been said thousands of times before), but I'm interested in the demographic geographic shift R.J.'s talking about -- obviously lots of Detroit's black population came from the South to work in factories, but it never really occurred to me that a good portion of Detroit's white population did as well. I'd like to read more on it. Either way, it kind of explains Kid Rock.

I had a discussion about this general topic with friends in Kalamazoo last year. They were wondering why so many poor whites in Michigan talk like they're from the South. I said this probably has to do with the fact that a huge influx of Appalachian folk moved north to work in factories (in southwest Michigan they came for the paper mills). When my wife and lived in Cleveland for a year she worked with poor people and nearly all the whites had roots in Appalachia. This is partly why places like Detroit and Chicago had fairly thriving bluegrass and country scenes. The Osbornes and Mac Wiseman -- as well as Jimmy Martin, I believe -- all had radio spots in Detroit in the 1950s and early '60s.

Neil V. Rosenberg does a great job charting this migration in his book Bluegrass.

Almost forgot: The Monroe Brothers were formed while Bill and his brother Charlie were working in an oil refinery in northern Indiana, near Gary. They frequently appeared on WLS in Chicago, which, if I'm remembering correctly, had America's no. 1 barn dance/variety show before the rise of WMS. But I'm not toally sure about that.

Left to their own accord and entrepreneurial enterprise, I am confident the U.S. auto industry would have outperformed all others

Four months ago the Nuge was blaming it all on the UAW and insisting the government had to force contractual "restructuring" on the blue collar workers. No one can accuse him of logic. Most of Ted's stuff reads like he's dictating it in a stream of rant to a stenographer, which is proably exactly how it's made.

on his TV "taking shots at Uncle Sam" who presumably think that fighting the Nazis was
a bad idea

Re Rich, this is so fucked-up, it's difficult to know where to start. I'd think that the those who thought fighting the Nazis was a poor idea prior to the declaration of war are 99.8 percent dead for a good many years now.

As for Detroit, I bet it was a complete polyglot, as many Euro-immigrants as southerners moved northern and urban.

I'd think that the those who thought fighting the Nazis was a poor idea prior to the declaration of war are 99.8 percent dead for a good many years now.

And plenty of them were right-wing populists at the time too, as I understand. Speaking of which, and as George suggests, it's hard for me to believe that the strong German/Polish Catholic bent of much of the Detroit area's working class white population originated in the South. So I suspect there's some major hyperbole in R.J.'s claim, but I'd still like to see any population figures that might support it. (And I may well check out that Bluegrass book, if it details the migration pattern clearly.)

John Rich should have taken the opportunity to write an anti-union tune, which would have been more in line with his previous politcal stance. 30 years at a union plant and there's no way that guy would be losing his home, unless he had another one in Traverse City and a boat in the driveway. As it is, I realize John Rich is just blowing with the wind and wholly full of shit.

On a side note, one feels sorry for Cowboy Troy, missing out on this momentary glory. Last night he made an acting debut in Furnace, a Sci-Fi Channel Saturday night 'special'. It was a movie for various jobbers including Michael Pare, JA Rule, the ugly Mexican guy from central casting who has tattoos all over his chest and was 'Machete' in one of the Grindhouse trailers, and Tom Sizemore, who has been ruined by drugs, prison and Heidi Fleiss. Furnace was, naturally, about a prison called Blackgate, one in which a dead warden molested his own child, who he put in the furnace. And then he was killed near the furnace. So the ghosts come out of the furnace to start killing prison guards and the condemned for no obvious reason. Troy plays a janitor and is killed early, perhaps a blessing because it's a two-hour movie that seemed like four and it must have been nasty having to stand around on the set for days.

Sci-Fi channel advertises its Saturday night specials as 'the most dangerous night on television.' It is truth in advertising, very dangerous to your ability to stay awake.

Anthony E., who I told should resume posting here, asked this on my lj:

John Rich's song about Detroit, Runaway, Johnson's High Cost of Living, three make a trend, but other country rock recession documents? (this is good, sort of like shelton, a lot like urban, but i love the steel guitar)

Btw, I don't think "Runaway" and "High Cost Of Living" are recession documents (and I also don't know what the parenthesis refers to; Anthony doesn't like Jamey and is pissed off at Rich, and I don't hear any pedal steel in "Runaway," though I think there's a little bit of slide).

Juvenile piece of hagiography on Bruce Springsteen in today's LA Times. Paper actually went ot the the trouble of sending their reporter, who usually does the comic book beat, to Asbury Park
to take dictation from the ummah.

Springsteen, it is said, is "a troubadour for troubled times." That made me laugh. I dunno how anyone can write, let alone read, that kind of line with a straight face. I'd think any normal person would flinch if they saw that said of them, no matter how bloated on themselves
they've become. And by the look of it, Bruce's has been drinking in his own p.r. for some time, actually thinking that the lyrics on his latest album are deep.

Of course, the album's not sold as well as expected and there are empty seats at some of the shows and, let's face it, did you really think him singing the chorus of "Glory Days" at the Superbowl gig was great? We went out for a quick burger stop. Seemed like he was still singin' it when we got back.

"(Bruce) paused and pondered his illustrious songbook." Man.

"The live show is a current event at all times." I should hope so.

"The forever-young Springsteen seemed to be pulsing with new reasons to believe after watching the election of Barack Obama."

"Springsteen is driven, competitive, and whether it's on stage or in the gym, obsessed with a muscular expression of himself as some sort of populist-poet-as-athlete ..."

Effin' Ay!

"For the singer, it's not enough to be an essential artist, he also wants to be urgent."

So apparently Clarence Clemons walks with a cane now because he's had hip replacement, and Nils Lofgren, like Eddy van Halen, has had both replaced.

Speaking of which, and as George suggests, it's hard for me to believe that the strong German/Polish Catholic bent of much of the Detroit area's working class white population originated in the South.

I hope I didn't imply that. I was just saying the migration was very real, and the big cities of the Midwest had significant numbers of Appalachian people.

A friend of mine, who is something of a Appalachian expert, recommended to me this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Appalachian-Odyssey-Historical-Perspectives-Migration/dp/0275968510/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238969365&sr=8-1

Unfortunately, it's too expensive for me. Here's the blurb for it:

One of the greatest internal migrations in American history has been the movement of the people of Appalachia to a variety of rural and urban destinations all over the country --- wherever economic opportunity beckoned, from the industrial Midwest to the timber empires of the Pacific Northwest. This movement (about five million in the 1950s alone) has taken place in several waves throughout the twentieth century, and continues to this day. Appalachian Odyssey provides an interdisciplinary exploration of the impact of this phenomenon on both the Appalachian region and the country as a whole. Scholars from a variety of social science disciplines bring their perspectives to this volume in an examination of the historical, political, social, economic, and cultural impact of a talented group often derided as "hillbillies". Appalachian Odyssey provides a much-needed corrective to this bias, and a deeper understanding of a people who have significantly influenced the American story.

Frank Rich on this morning's NY Times Op-Ed page, on Detroit, Wall Street, and John Rich:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/opinion/05rich.html

In the unsatisfying aftermath of Rick Wagoner’s demise, we must rid ourselves of the illusion that there’s a rigid separation between Wall Street and what John Rich calls “the real world.”

Mike Hudson of the Pagans once said that Ohio city dwellers were scared that the hillbilles were gonna come swarming in and steal the jobs. This had something to do with fear of Elvis, Jerry Lee etc (not that a lotta sane Southerners would want to encounter Jerry Lee in the flesh). Southern blacks and whites both migrated to the Midwest, of course, and were more concentrated in some areas.(Didn't the longtime mayor of Dearborn ban African-Americans? Dunno what Henry Ford thought about them; maybe he was too busy stdying the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to bother). That novel The Dollmaker is a saga of such migration; think I'll read it when I get time (saw the movie long ago, with Levon Helm and Jane Fonda--seemed good at the time). Xxhuxx, Willie Nelson wrote "Bloody Mary Morning." It kicks off the ex-husband's side (Side B) of Phases And Stages, ca. 1973: excellent concept album/soap opera about two exes after the break-up(excellent opp for product placement if they'd drunk Dos Equis, but no labels are recited from).

Hudson didn't go on to write that fear of a hillbilly planet in Ohio had to do with fear of Elvis, etc. that's just my take.

And then of course there was A Face In The Crowd, with a musical hillbilly TV fascist messiah (inevitably portrayed by Andy Griffith), and Flem Snopes, ancestor of the method acting white trash-with-new-moneymutant Jett Rink, of Giant, and of Anton Chagur (spelling?) the principled psycho in No Country For Old Men (yeah the Gone To Texas thing, that was also big down here in the Southeast)

Todd Martens (who used to write for me at Billboard) live-blogs the ACMs on the LA Times website, giving each performance a letter grade (usually low ones):

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/04/acm-awards-the-performances-as-they-happen.html

(Fwiw, Todd used to write the indie column in his trade-magazine days; not much of a country music fan, I don't think, which that snarky blog post pretty much confirms. I didn't see the ACMs myself.)

(Actually, though, re-reading it, it's not entirely snarky, and not entirely un-country-fan like. And for all I know, I would've graded lots of those songs at least as harshly. So ignore my last post.)

(okay.)

5. Jamey Johnson's "In Color." The first ballad of the night comes from newcomer-ish Johnson. The cut has already won song of the year, and it's not. Performing largely in black-and-white here, this one is aimed straight for your heart. Isn't it sweet how he inspires us to reminisce about our grandmother and high school teacher? No. Skip the song and look through your photo album: C-

Where I realized the writer had nothing to say to me.

Re the LATimes Pop blog: The ACM's were covered in the real newspaper by Randy Lewis and that story ran today inside the Calendar section. Since I know how the Times handles its blogs -- it's practice is to encourage its reporters to continually update them with as much stuff as possible at the expense of the copy editors and regular staff who do the gut work, it's kind a sore point. The Times continually publishes its growing hit counts but does not release how much money it actually makes off all this 'action.' Secondarily, and this is a philosophical point, but a big one: If you don't do the copy-editing your blog, or pull the trigger on it, or even deal with it when the software application falls over on you (like most people who do regular blogs do), is it actually a blog, or just you doing the free-lance mill providing more content for the old media's new media site, desperate to get eyeballs? This has extra meaning for the Times since it just finished another purge of its editorial staff. In these purges, staffers get left go from their salaried positions and in frequent cases show up doing the same stuff they did the week before, except they're now on free-lance or whatever the free-lance blogger scale is at the joint. And while this is not rare in journalism, there is something very unseemly and sleazy about it, circumstances in which the executed get to participate in their own execution, after which they are exhumed to do work at zombie scale.

And that doesn't seem very 'country' or 'Merican does it? Vulpine, yes.

In the real world they're shutting copy editors down.

For what it's worth, back in the mid '90s even when we weren't falling ever deeper into a recession the environmental and engineering firms I worked at were doing the same thing with the support staff (technical editors and word processors), cutting the salaried employees and bringing in temps - though I think there's some potential problems you can get into with the NLRB if you fire someone and then bring that same person back as a temp (not that I know anything about labor law).

A couple of Jamaicans ride a Benny Hill riddim and try to put on southern accents.

Lady Saw "Jealous"

Leftside "Cowboy"

(Neither of which is nearly as good as Timberlee f. Tosh "Heels" (where she not only attempts but masters a Southern California accent) or Elephant Man "No Tikkle.")

Questions or comments on the recent posts on this thread.

xhuxk have you moved to Texas? (don't answer if it is personal, I'm trying to figure out where you are hearing this music on the radio)

Hank Thompson is better than Mel Tillis, but I'm not an expert.

I saw either Rich or Big's house on CMT Cribs last weekend, and it was a big tacky building that looked like a woodland lodge, but I fast forwarded through it because I just wanted to see Denny Hamlin and Mark Martin's houses (NASCAR)

The rural Midwest always seemed just as country as the south to me, even though my family migrated the other direction, and it really isn't that far if you are driving north from a "southern" or "Appalachian" area to the Midwest.

I've got Springsteen tickets for Wednesday, and today on the radio they announced "front section tickets for 20 dollars if you show up at the box office at noon on Tuesday with a food donation" way to screw loyal fans who paid full price, pretend you are doing something good with your can of beans, get press, and fill the house.

Hey James -- Yep, moved to Austin in early March. Where are you??

And I don't disagree about the "rural" Midwest (the cornfields of Southern Indiana say), but it's probably worth mentioning that Detroit and Ann Arbor aren't exactly rural. (Also, for what it's worth, I barely heard any country music at all growing up in Suburban Detroit -- not sure whether anybody in my high school listened to it, though maybe the Keego Harbor kickers taking all industrial arts classes did, who knows -- but when I went to college in Missouri I met plenty of Willie and David Allan Coe fans my age.) (Charlie Daniels too, though come to think of it he definitely got airplay on Detroit's AOR stations in the late '70s. But he was considered more "Southern rock" than "country" then obviously.)

I need to check out the hicky dancehall tracks Frank linked to; "Heels" is in the running for my single of the year so far. Which reminds me I emailed a long incoherent multi-part rant to Frank last night on what I'm convinced is the horrible state of '00s (and for the most part '90s) r&b. May expand on it to some extent sometime here, seeing how it mirrors some folks' feelings about '00s and '90s commercial country who I disagree with. I do touch on it a bit in these skeptical Southern Soul posts though:

Chitlin Circuit Double-entendre -filled Soul 2004 (and onward) Theodis Ealey's "Stand Up In It" is a song of the year

And speaking of (a lot more) skeptical, here's my Rolling Stone review of the new Bonnie Prince Billy album:

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/26987513/review/27078310/beware

I tracked down the Detroit radio station the Osbornes, as well as many other country musicians, appeared on.

WJR

They had a show called the "Lazy Ranch Barn Dance" in the 1950s. It took place every Saturday night at 12101 Mack (St? Ave?). The also had a show called the "Big Barn Frolic"!

Jake Owens "Don't Think I Can't Love You," in the country top ten; in which it is asserted that even poor people can have the s3Xor. Song is kind of boring, unfortunately. (So, perhaps, is the sex.)

Taylor much more in tune this year than last year at the ACMs, and did "You're Not Sorry," the best song on Fearless. Wrote about it on my my lj:

Somewhat strange "You're Not Sorry" from Taylor Swift at the ACMs: she clips off each word, making the song sound really angry - which it is, of course, but on the studio version she kept the voice sad and let the words carry the anger, which is more effective. But this is effective in its own right, or tense, anyway, almost hard to watch.

She seemed totally immersed in the sadness and upset, as if the audience weren't there (though of course that might have been exactly how she intended to come across). Speculation in the YouTube comments that she was ill while performing. Also, this, which made me go "Huh?":

ricefarmer (10 hours ago)
fuck ugly muslims

NECOLE21 (9 hours ago)
ricefarmer...fuck u'r mama!by the way taylor is not muslim!usucked ur bitch even im not muslim u should not do that to them...coz they are not bad as u know

Here's more info. However, this says it was WXYZ, not WJR:

This is from: http://www.hillbilly-music.com/programs/story/index.php?prog=400

On Saturday nights in the mid-1950s, folks turned to radio station WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan for the "The Lazy Ranch Boys Barn Dance" show at 9:00pm every Saturday night. The show had a cast of 14 regulars and special guests as they appeared. They had such infamous guest stars as Moon Mullican, Lulu Belle and Scotty, Jimmy Dean, Ken Marvin, Tommy Sosebee, Ernie Lee, Neal Burris, Jonnie and Jack, Kitty Wells, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Smiling Max Henderson, The York Brothers and more! So this show looks like a stop on the touring of some of the more famous hillbilly acts back then.

The hosts or headliners of the show were the big little band called the Lazy Ranch Boys. They consisted of Casey Clark, fiddler who also doubled up as the shows emcee, Herb Williams, guitar and vocals, Barefoot Brownie Reynolds, for comedy relief.

Barefoot Brownie played the harmonica and bass and was said to be quite funny. He had worked with folks such as Red Foley on the Grand Ole Opry, at the Renfro Valley Barn Dance up in Rock Castle County Kentucky and other Saturday Night Jamborees. His career was said to have started on the Pa and Ma McCormick show that aired over WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Herb Williams palyed the rhythm guitar and did most of the vocals for the Lazy Ranch Boys group. He did a lot of ballads or folk songs and they said his recitations and poems were always near the top of the request list. He wrote many of those compositions. He was a rather down to earth fellow and that earned him the nickname of "The Country Gentleman". He was the smallest of the group, but ate the most and said he stayed thin because he "carried it around".

One of the popular acts on the show was the duo of the West Virginia Sweethearts, Charlie and Honey. Honey was quite the yodeler then. They got their start in radio on WCHS in Charleston, SC on the "Old Farm Hour" show. Then they moved on to WSM in Nashville and also the Renfro Valley Barn Dance.

Another attraction was a 12-year old singer by the name of Little Evelyn who also appeared with the Lazy Ranch Boys at personal appearances. Then there was Mary Ann Johnson, a songwriter of some fame, who had her tunes of "Honey Baby Blues" and "You're Stepping Out" recorded by Neal Burris on Columbia Records. Mary Lynn, was the show stopping fiddle players on the show. The Kentucky Boys were noted for their "hillbilly comedy".

Some of the regulars on the show at that time were:

* The Lazy Ranch Boys, Casey Clark, Herb Williams and "Barefoot" Brownie Reynolds
* Chuck Carroll
* Herb Williams
* Little Evelyn, 12-year old singer
* Mary Ann Johnson
* Mary Lynn
* West Virginia Sweethearts (Charlie and Honey)
* "Barefoot" Brownie Reynolds
* The Kentucky Boys, Nat and Bill

Yeah, without doing web research to confirm this, I'm pretty sure I thought of WXYZ and WJR (both on AM) as "parents' radio stations" or "grandparents' radio stations" when I was a kid -- get the idea that, by the late '60s, WJR and possibly both featured a lot of news-talk. Teens and pre-teens into cool Top 40 tunes gravitated toward Windsor's legendary CKLW -- before eventually switching to FM: Which meant WDRQ first (Top 40 unto disco), then WABX, WRIF, WWWW, and eventually WLLZ (All rock/AOR. But what comes around goes around: One of those AORs at least temporarily later switched to a country format, I believe, probably after I'd moved away.)

Richard Thompson's soon-to-hit-shelves four-volume Walking On A Wire: 1968-2009 deserves a mention on this thread because, obviously, British folk music is just country music by British people. Anyway, Discs 1 and 2 are definitive (at least to somebody like me who owns no previous Richard Thompson box sets), and Discs 3 and 4 are basically unlistenable (even though I kind of liked his Sweet Warrior album two years ago.) Fortunately, I was sent the box as two separate two-disc sets! Which means one stays on my shelf; the other doesn't.

And the Yeah Yeahs deserve a mention here too because the instrumental-seeming (though not technically instrumental) fourth track of their new album, "Skeletons," has some penny-whistly British folk music wafting through it. And the album has several better if less country tracks too, most notably the one that goes "off with their heads/dance til you're dead." And they seem to be incorpoprating dance-music-type space and beauty into their sound, which seems an improvement over the last time I paid much attention to them. (Which has been a while -- never got why folks liked "Maps" so much, and to be honest I kind of lost track not long after their debut EP all those years ago.) That said, though, a lot of the album still hits me as too vague and shapeless -- maybe partly because Karen O's voice (which I find kind of grating in the first place, though not nearly as grating as say Bjork's or whoever) seems to fade into the mix too much. And she doesn't exactly kill me even when she doesn't fade into the mix. But Frank says the album is likely to end up among his top five for the year. So perhaps further listens will change my mind.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs, obv.

In far more relevant news, here is my long-awaited (by me anyway) "Battle Of The Country Hunks" roundup of new albums by Pat Green, Rodney Atkins, Eric Church, Keith Urban, Dierks Bentley, and Jason Aldean (which I like in more or less that order):

http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-04-08/music/battle-of-the-country-hunks/

And to be fair to Aldean, it should be noted that Sasha Frere-Jones is currently listing his "This I Gotta See" as his ninth-favorite song of the year on his website. (His #5 is "I Forget The Name" by Holly Williams. No idea if that's the song's actual title.)

Jason Aldean in Manhattan, eh? I'll bet that'll be one of his least fun nights on record. Now there's a guy who could use a short form vinyl LP live album, one with everything non-electric guitar left off. Why he's playing NYC is the 50 buck question.

BB Kings seems like only a 25 buck answer.

I must admit that I find it personally hilarious the New Yorker would rate his music highly, let alone deploy the disciminatory power necessary to place it at #9, as opposed to #6 or perhaps #11.

Maybe it is time for Mama Tried to Walk the Line: The 500 Greatest Country Albums starring Richard Thompson, Kelly Clarkson, and Son House.

xp, to xhuxk I'm here in Houston, and our country music, like the rest of our radio is in sad shape, but what you were describing on the radio sounded like it could be Austin. I may search the AM dial and see if there are any classic country stations at the moment.

Billy Bob momentarily dissed by blogger at National Post

Billy Bob Thornton gets two to three grafs in the shorts from the National Post for being uncooperative on the CBC when the host wanted to talk about his acting rather than the Boxmasters. Pretty standard reaction, interviewer's not interested in the second career, which is why the interview was set up. Collision ensues.

Someone please send me the pr contact for Thornton's rekkid on Vanguard. I would very much like to request a copy, seeing as how I liked the first one muchly.

First impressions on Boxmasters' ModBilly:

http://dickdestiny.com/billybobgirl.jpg
They dint grow 'em like that in 1963

Much more chime and Merseybeat ("Turn It Over" and the Stones' "As Tears Go By," the latter which sounds more Beatles than Keef, Brian and Mick)in this than on the debut. Somewhat less lap and pedal steel, too, which makes it less cornpone-sounding by a few degrees.

"Heartbreakin' Wreck" and "That's Why Tammy Has My Car" remind me of Hee-haw and Roy Clark although TV would've never allowed the chorus "I'm a moron/He's a dumbass" and the lines about assholes going to far and throwing the finger.

Honestly, once past the nods to the British Invasion much of this sounds like The Outlaws' first record, less the two Les Pauls and one Strat going full throat which, tonally, changes things quite a bit, but not the tenor. Songs in question: "New Mexico," "You Crossed the Line," "Santa Rosa" -- which is to say some of it also sounds New Riders of the Purple Sage-ish. Makes some sense because Boxmasters and Outlaws both covered "Knoxville Girl."

And the vintage tones are all carved and in place, a good deal of the point. Came with drink coasters with Tiger Beat-like profiles on the backs. "Fav Chicks:" Ann Margaret, Suzanne Pleshette, etc. Must be single-handedly adding some asterisks and change to Mike Nesmith's royalty statements. If there is a thing like a Mike Nesmith tribute band, Boxmasters is it.

No doubt about it, more than half of the appeal on these records is Billy Bob's knack for wry avuncularity ("Tammy's Car," "Two Weeks Notice,", etc). He delivers the chorus, something
characteristically droll and chuckling, followed by sly Tele and drum fills in the turnarounds.

I watched the clip of that CBC interview with Billy Bob-- the interviewer was not asking about his film career, just about music. Billy Bob was pissed that in the introduction the interviewer mentioned that Thornton was an Oscar winning blah blah blah. Seems like he has credibility issues.

He kept saying, "Would you ask Tom Petty a question like that?" If Tom Petty decided to start a second career as an indie film actor, I doubt he'd be a dick to an interviewer who merely brought up the fact that he was also a famous fucking rock star.

Probably not. But I still like the two Boxmasters (missed the Xmas one) packs. Billy Bob's
stuff cracks me up.

Hurdy Gurdy Man" was, indeed, Page on guitar and probably the rest of Led Zep (sans Plant) backing

http://www.coda-uk.co.uk/clem_cattini.htm

If Tom Petty decided to start a second career as an indie film actor

http://img.actressarchives.com/features/E498_the-postman.jpg

the only thing that impressed me about the billy bob interview was the interviewer. i don't listen to cbc so i don't know that guy, but he held his own.

I overheard Mrs. Redd listening to some bizarre thing on youtube which was apparently that interview. Will have to investigate. Is that from The Postman, Jesse?

yes, tom petty being actorly.

Listeners who've never heard of or don't care for the Boxmasters thought CBC host was a stalwart shockah.

I don't think knowing or caring about the Boxmasters would change much. The other members of the Boxmasters came across as okay types, the CBC host committed zero sins. The only complete asshole in the situation was the guy who used to sleep with Angelina Jolie.

Black. No, white. Red. No, it's green.

i can't identify with being one of the boxmasters,however awesome they may be, but i can totally identify with being dude whose job it is to interview problem celebrity. so, yeah. (the boxmasters may be awesome, i have no idea.)

It's challenging to deal with someone being a douchebag for an entertainment industry
interview? Actually, I can't much identify with Billy Bob Thornton or the guy he was being
cranky with.

But I do like Modbilly and "Reasons for Livin'," a song where Billy Bob sings about a chancre on his lip and how it's contributed to said 'reasons' running out, apparently. The pictures are neat and the whole pretense of being a groovy Sixties mod band, half of the idea which seems to be stolen from "That Thing You Do."

Speaking of Ann Arbor's country connection, there's good backstory about that in Geoffrey Stokes' Star-Making Machinery, which is mostly about Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen trying to make a hit album for a perhaps unusually warped label, but iall also describes their first decade or so in Ann Arbor. Cody was this painter of giant superrealist canvasses mostly I think (murals would have been too easy), and lived in a treehouse in the backyard of the wildest frat house (that was as close as they'd let him get). He of course found kindred souls and started what soon became the wildest honk tonk fratbilly band, and they did that til 1969, with many members going in and out of undergrad and grad school, and in and out of Ann Arbor, 'til finally they all got all the degrees they could get grants for (I'm guessing, based on experience), and moved to Berkeley and plugged right into that scene without chhanging anythang and were soon opening for the Dead ( they *weren't* a jam band, that was prob what made a good funky appetizer/ cleanser of the palate) The country background also figures in the attempted hitmaking: for inst, vocalist Billy C. was from this Alabama bluecollar family, migrants to Michigan I think, and the producer John Boylin knew to talk to him not like he did to some of the others, like they were all hip faculty colleagues, but more of a straightforward authority figure (it worked) Anyway, great book about a lost world (penniless rock reviewers bribed with monster, endless press junkets!) Required reading in several departments of monster Comm School (second in size only to xhuxx's alma mater), when I was at the University of Alabama (though not the Comm School)in late 70s.

I interviewed Commander Cody many years ago and he made a point of starting in Ann Arbor with a big gang of characters, including women with names like Pat the Amazing Hippie Strippie. He said they would drive to gigs just about anywhere in the US, even if it took 24 hour around the clock all night bare-knucklers. He insisted they went coast to coast from Michigan, could be in California or New Jersey.

Oh yeah, he should def do his own book about those years. Surely it's been suggested. Him and Billy C. and several others are still on the road, prob crossing the same intersection rat now

My fix-up review of the Boxmasters <A HREF="http://www.dickdestiny.com/blog/2009/04/sunday-afternoon-jukebox-cue-list.html";>here</A>. Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation reissues, too. Was going to include Chicken Shack's entire catalog but decided to save for a future date.

Ah, here.

in a bar yesterday i heard a country version of "i used to love her (but it's all over now" sung by a woman, with the pronouns flipped. it was great, any idea who it was?

Well, Molly Hatchet does a pretty good version. But despite being named Molly, Molly is not a woman. Or one person, even. Or country, exactly. (John Anderson, who also does a good version, is country but also not female. Nor are Bobby Womack, who wrote it and first performed it with the Valentinos, or the Rolling Stones, whose version a month later in the summer of 1964 was a much bigger hit.)

So I'm stumped. Searched "All Over Now" with and without the "It's" on Rhapsody, and got way too many possibilities, none of the female in a promisingly country way (at least among names I recognized.)

But Frank says the album is likely to end up among his top five for the year

Er, I think I said it was likely to end up Pazz & Jop top five, and Xhuxk must have assumed that meant my Pazz & Jop, but actually I meant Pazz & Jop as will be voted by the collected critics who submit ballots.

As of right now I've heard no 2009 albums that'd I'd want on my ballot, but that's owing to my not having listened to a lot of albums, I hope. And if I had to vote now I probably would list the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (and The-Dream, the Federation/TNT mixtape, and maybe Lily Allen), but none of those would have made my ballot last year. My favorite songs from the YYY alb are "Heads Will Roll" (the "off with their heads/dance 'til you're dead" one), "Dull Life," and "Runaway," none of which are as good as Love And Theft's "Runaway" (or Del Shannon's "Runaway," but they're better than Nelly Furtado's "Runaway," which isn't bad).

Karen O. can sometimes sound like PJ Harvey having a cow, for better or worse. (And since PJ sounds like Chrissie Hynde having a cow, that's a whole lot of cow.)

(Also, cows = country, obviously, so it totally makes sense to discuss the album here.)

(I also like Bon Jovi's "Runaway," not to mention various versions by DJ Goldfinger.)

Jukebox pissed me off with these blurbs on the Brooks And Dunn Plus Reba "Cowgirls Don't Cry," and didn't piss me off (but didn't inspire me, either) with these on the Carrie/Randy "I Told You So" duet.

And I gave the Jason Aldean single this totally uninspired writeup on my lj.

(I actually do like M.H. Lo giving a rationale for how the lyrics to "I Told You So" could make sense as a duet.)

(And I was a bit jarred the first time I heard Reba come in with the father's words at the end of "Cowgirls Don't Cry" on that duet, but I could make sense of it as the cowgirl now passing along her father's wisdom - which wisdom the song is clearly ambivalent about, despite the insistence of the Jukebox writers that they know better than the song does, and know better than the father.)

damn, i knew i should have asked what was playing in the bar. maybe it's on the jukebox.

Xhuxk, is Eric Church really considered a hunk? Looks to me like the only current country star who wouldn't appear out of place in Slade.

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/2870/ericchurch.jpg

Yeah, I may have been stretching the definition in Eric's case. (Actually, though, when I ran photos by an expert I'm married to, she rated him higher than Keith Urban. Though then again, she also married me.)

Anyway, I realized that I have been calling Megan Munroe's One More Broken String my favorite country album of the year all year on this thread, but I haven't said hardly anything else about it. And though nobody I've pitched the album to has had any interest yet in me writing about it, now Megan's publicist (who apparently found Rolling Country via google) is asking me for a quote for her press kit. So maybe I should figure out why I like the record.

So, um. The single, and the spookiest and probably best song, is "Moonshine," seemingly about riding shotgun and getting high on moonshine in a pickup on a Friday night when not much else is going on while the moon shines down on Megan. She's with a guy, and other stuff is going down too. Possibly even the guy.

Like the other tracks I like the most (which are mostly front-loaded), "Moonshine" is basically a blues-rock stomp in pop-country form (not far from, say, Carter's Chord last year, or Leann Rimes. Though critics, if they heard Megan, might be likely to compare her to Gretchen or Miranda instead.)

Opener "Angel On My Shoulder (Devil On My Back)" is another hard blues stomp, turning gospel at the end. "Leavin' Memphis" is a slower crawl, with what sounds like more slide toughening it up -- a cad steals his wife's new Chevy before church, leaving her with "two kids, a mortgage, a busted fridge he'll never fix," so she hits the road to hunt him down. Drawl suggests Dolly; revenge motive reminds me of "Before He Cheats." And "Muddy Water" later in the album sounds basically how you'd expect a muddy-water song would sound -- slow baptismal-boggy flow.

"Pennies In The Ocean" has hints of modern adult contemporary r&b, maybe even a little light early-Mariah melisma, especially as it climbs toward its climax. "Good Fight" feels closer to '90s quasi-alt-rock Europop, like Roxette (or maybe Colorhaus or One 2 One, who nobody remembers but me), with rock guitars. "Shameless Fool" is another power ballad, as much pop as country. Other songs lean toward pop bluegrass ("Angel Of Fire") quiet storm pop with quasi-classical violin stabs at the start ("Perfect Storm") and "sexy librarian folk" for coffee houses, as Rob Harvilla calls such stuff, a la Colbie Caillat or Sara Bareilles ("Speechless.") So Megan covers plenty of ground, without making a big deal out of it. And has a voice voluptuous and melodies hooky enough that I play the whole album, a lot, and the sound carries the thing even when the writing gets less specific through most of the second half.

None of which probably explains sufficiently why I like the album so much, but for now it will have to do. (Either way, I'd be surprised if it doesn't make my country top 10 at the end of the year. Might have a shot at my Pazz & Jop list, but maybe a long shot.)

Here is Megan's myspace page:

http://www.myspace.com/meganmunroe

Otherwise, I made it through the new Dale Watson album The Truckin' Sessions Vol. 2 once, and it sounded pretty good, though the songs that jumped out at me ("Truckin' Queen," "No Help Wanted") were already on Whiskey Or God a couple years ago.

Made it through the new Black Angel album O'SanFrancisco once, which was an accomplishment since it has 17 songs, and it sounded consistently good and country-Stonesy but then again so did O'California and O'SantaBarbara a couple years ago and their covers all look the same and I'm not sure how many albums like that I actually need. Noticing a great new song or two would help, though.

Did not make it through Pete Berwick's new Just Another Day In Hell yet. Cut him slack a couple years ago despite his voice being even more deadwood than Steve Earle's; not sure I can do that anymore.

Okay discussion of the relationship between '70s BT0/Seger blue-collar "butt rock" and '00s Nashville country-rock (and the sociological implications thereof) beginning here, if anybody's interested:

So what is this BUTT ROCK, anyway?

"Other stuff is going down too. Possibly even the guy."
--Chuck Eddy, ILX

So how come nobody has ever told me about David Lee Murphy's "Dust On The Bottle," which apparently (according to AMG) topped the country chart in 1995? "Love Potion No. 9" plot (though actually the love potion is well-aged homemade wine, which is consumed by two frisky young lovers in a vehicle a la Megan Munroe's moonshine) set to a funky "Sweet Home Alabama" riff/groove, and with an opening line about what seems to be an old black man (one Creole Williams who lives down the back road) in the great tradition of Merle's Uncle Lem or Tom T.'s Clayton Delaney. Okay, not as great as those. But still good.

Not sure if I've ever heard any other songs by David Lee Murphy (who apparently hasn't had a hit for a few years.) Anybody know how good is oeuvre is/was?

Read Frank's review of the Aldean single, and while I basically agree there's nothing interesting about the singing and words, I do get the idea that riffs in a few of his hits seem to be reaching a density (or whatever) that even Big N Rich's and Montgomery Gentry's guitars haven't, quite. Which isn't to say his songs are anywhere near as good as their best (though John Rich helped write "Hicktown.") "She's Country" does sound great on a car radio, though.

Anybody who hasn't read the Boxmasters writeup on George's blog, should. It's inspired. Hope Billy Bob gets to read it and takes note of the Mott stuff.

Frank mentioned The-Dream's album above, which has nothing to do with country otherwise. But so what, I tracked through it on Rhapsody the other day anyway, to try to figure out what the big deal is. I didn't figure it out, though. It's nice The-Dream has a high voice, I suppose; it'd be better if he used it to make his music as pretty as, say, Ne-Yo's (much less Debarge's, or the Stylistics', or any number of more forgetten soul hacks.) There are "interesting production touches" here and there, maybe, but none that kept me all that interested. And Bobbie Gentry did a way better song called "Fancy" (Reba McEntire, too), and the Angry Samoans did a way better song called "Right Side Of My Brain." (They said "Mind" instead of "Brain," but why split hairs?) So: shrug.

And the Police did a better song called "Walking On The Moon," duh. Pretty sure some soulish reggae woman did a good cover of that in the '80s, too -- Sheila Hynton, maybe? Was that her name? -- but Google is no help. Did learn that Janie Fricke, another '80s/'90s country singer I know nothing about, had a song with that title, though. Can't vouch for whether it was better than The-Dream's.

Ah...found it. Right artist (Sheila Hynton), wrong Police cover ("Bed's Too Big Without You.") Still stand by the rest, though.

For current momentary but timely musical entertainment, The Internal Revenue Boogie, done a couple years ago, but undated.

Thanks, think I'll pass on that one (just like a kidney stone) Megan sounds like my kinda gal (musically too). As uaual a lot of my list frontrunners so far are reissues, but not of anything that was really all that prev issued: Death's ..For The Whole World To See; The Tiffany Transcriptions (first time all ten volumes/150 songs have all been in one set, rat? May not have all been on CDs before-- great remastering, anyway); Chris Darrow's twofer, s/t with Under My Own Disguise. from the early 70s, post- or late-psychedelic folk/country rock I'd say: he reaps the whirlwind, under inpenterable cloud cover, but re-orientation is no prob: dense but clear, as xgau said of Meltzer's best writing, And no up-in-lights oh wow factor, cause no lights. Lots of stuff going on, but mainly what gets me is voice-keyboards-bass-drums in the pocket, like on Fotheringay 2, Jessi Colter's Out Of The Ashes, Tell Tale Signs (and some other Dylan tracks, much older than Tell Tale Signs' outtakes, like "Ballad of a Thin Man"/"Dear Landlord"/"Down Along The Cove"/"If Dogs Run Free"/"Dirge") Vocally, a bit like Michael Nesmith, but this guy can hold a note as long as he wants to, and flex it too (might be some of that Middle Eastern in his alma mater, Kaleidoscope, but he always sounds like a cowboy, incl in UK with maybe some of the same people on Fotheringay 2, come to think of it-- although some of the "UK" vibe turns out to be from the L.A. sessions,a nd vice versa)

So does Cal Smith (or Hank Thompson, or Bill Anderson, or all of the above since they all apparently sang it) have many other songs as great as "The Lord Knows I'm Drinkin'," which the Boxmasters cover on their new album? If so, I have clearly been neglectful in not teaching myself about said fellows, since it is my new favorite song that's been around forever without me hearing it:

Hello Mrs Johnson you self righteous woman
Sunday School teacher what brings you out slummin'
Do you reckon the preacher would approve where you are
Standing here visitin' with a back slidin' Christian in a neighborhood bar

Well yes that's my bottle and yes that's my glass
And I see you're eye ballin' this pretty young lass
It ain't none of your business but yes she's with me
And we don't need no sermon you self righteous woman just let us be

Goodbye Mrs. Johnson you self righteous biddy
I don't need your preachin' and I don't need your pity
So go back to whatever you hypocrites do

Also curious whether it's Mel McDaniel's or Amazing Rhythm Aces' arrangement of "Big Ole Brew" that Billy Bob and his bros are interpreting. (Any recommendations on any of these artists are welcome.)

Ah suspect Amazing Rhythm Ace's first LP was best (blanking on title); best I've heard, although all had some good stuff (worth digging through 99c crates) and I got a Russell Smith promo several years ago was pretty decent; he's still got that tight little--voice.

One obvious thing that nobody mentioned in our discussion above about Southerners moving to Detroit is that there have actually been songs about it -- most obviously "Detroit City" by Bobby Bare (by day he makes the cars and by night he makes the bars then dreams of the cotton fields back home), and now I've got this Isaac Payton Sweat LP called Cotton Eyed Joe And Other Bandstand Favorites and it's got a song on it called "Goodbye Motor City" where the guy says he's been installing windshields on the assembly line for 18 years but, again, misses the cotton fields, and is about to quit his job and move to Mobile. (Not sure if Sweat did it originally, or it's a cover, like most of the other tracks on the Sweat LP. Google is no help.)

Google's not much help in finding out more about Isaac Payton Sweat, either. He doesn't even have a Wiki page, and he's not mentioned in the country album guides I've got. AMG lists a couple albums, but has no writeupd. Did just find a myspace page, though, that says he died in 1990; the album I bought for $1 last week is the second one down:

http://www.myspace.com/isaacpaytonsweat

The album looks really homemade, cut-rate. Back cover is basically an ad for Lone Star beer. At the Austin Record Convention one dealer had about 40 sealed copies, which makes me theorize maybe it was sold at dancehalls here but nobody bought it. Thing is, Sweat's version of "Cotton Eye Joe" was seemingly some kind of hit, since it's one of ten country line-dance songs this K-Tel compilation CD from 1995 I've got called Country Kickers, and most of the rest are actual familiar hits. I guess the idea is that in the middle of the song everybody yells "bullshit!," and in Sweat's version, the bullshits are actually audible. Lalena says, growing up in Houston, they'd teach the song to kids in gym class (!), and even the kids used to yell it.

Looks like there's a informative Wiki entry for "Cotton Eye Joe," by the way; haven't read the whole thing, but this stuff seems pretty interesting:

The precise origins of this song are unclear, although it predates the American Civil War...Cotton-eyed Joe, on occasion referred to as "the South Texas National Anthem", was played for minstrel-type jigs, and has long been popular as a square dance hoedown and a couple dance polka. During the first half of the twentieth century the song was a widely known folk song all over English-speaking North America. One Discography lists 134 recorded versions released since 1950...A list of the possible meanings of the term "cotton eyed" that have been proposed includes: to be drunk on moonshine, or to have been blinded by drinking wood alcohol, turning the eyes milky white; a black person with very light blue eyes; someone whose eyes were milky white from bacterial infections of Trachoma or syphilis, cataracts or glaucoma; and the contrast of dark skin tone around white eyeballs in black people...A 1967 instrumental version of the song by Al Dean, who recalled the song called "The Gingerbread Man" in South Texas, inspired a new round dance polka for couples.

I swear somebody told me once that the song was actually about an abortionist, but I don't know where that information came from. Wiki is silent on the issue:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton-Eyed_Joe

Otherwise, pretty hilarious exchange about the band Alabama's classic fashion sense on another thread this morning:

sort of appreciate a band that dresses as if a VFW league softball game was going to break out at any minute

― 4,000 hoes in blackburn, lancashire (M@tt He1ges0n)

yeah i think a VFW softball game is OTM. or maybe a VFW pancake breakfast.

― tylerw, Friday, 17 April 2009

whenever I drive through Muscle Shoals I'm tempted to stop at the Alabama Music Hall of Fame because they claim to have an Alabama (the band) tour bus inside, which I bet has awesome koozies and some seriously comfortable furniture inside.

― Euler, Friday, 17 April 2009

Most Horribly Rong One Star Rating from the 1982 Rolling Stone Record Guide, Part 1

From Isaac Payton Sweat's myspace:

Ikey played bass on the Johnny Winter's Columbia Record release "White, Hot & Blue", a very successful album. Then he went "psychedelic" in the days of blacklights, posters, and long hair. Those days found musicians jumping from band to band without much loyalty or fear of unemployment. When he switched to country music he considered himself the original country "outlaw" when he had the beard and Willie Nelson was still in Nashville with a military haircut. Sweat cut his hair and began playing conservative country. In 1981 he had his own band, but preferred to be a singer and not a leader.

MR "COTTON EYED JOE" Sweat cut a vocal version of the Al Dean instrumental standard "Cotton Eyed Joe" which became a big regional hit. In 1980 everyone was doing "The Cotton Eyed Joe". Isaac WAS "Mr. COTTON EYED JOE".

Ikey did not like, or understand the business side of the record industry and felt that he didn't get what he deserved from his best selling recording. However, it was said that he had recorded the song for a flat fee and no royalties were due. Without a valid contract he was free to re-record the song for PAID RECORDS in 1981. When he got his first royalty check from PAID RECORDS he said that out of all the recordings he had made, that was the first time he had ever received any royalties.

"I find the most unusual thing is that the gun, sunglasses and keys all were near the left hand," Geick said. "If he were to commit suicide, he certainly wouldn't use his left hand, holding the sunglasses and keys, if he were right-handed.' Friends and relatives said recently that Sweat, despite some regional success, sometimes was despondent over his failure to make it big in country music. But they said the 25-year musician would not have committed suicide.

His widow was arrested, but murder charges were dropped two years later for lack of evidence.

http://userpages.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/song.html

Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2000 10:43:06 -0500
From: Amelia Carr
Subject: Re: songs about abortion

Michelle Shocked's song Prodigal Daughter on the CD Arkansas Traveler is about a woman who had an abortion. The reference is a little bit obscure,
and involves her reading of the old folksong "Cotton-Eyed Joe." When I heard her sing this in concert, Michelle went through a long and pretty convincing rap about the Cotton-Eyed Joe with its verses like:

I could have been married a long time ago
If it hadn't a-been for Cotton eyed joe

However, I've heard lots of versions of Cotton-Eyed Joe, and I think it's one of those songs that can absorb improvised verses that might take it far away from Shocked's interpretation. A number of current rock-a-billy versions turn the Cotton-Eyed Joe into an actual person, a temptation to women. Perhaps it boils down to the same thing?

Holy shit, new album by country singer Colin Raye starts out like a cross between "American Band" and "Urgent" -- he lets the hard rock guitar and cowbell play for half a minute at the beginning before he even starts singing. Total butt-rock, and "Mid-Life Chrysler" (great title) later throws its butt around, too. Also covers Nilsson ("Without You") and Stealer's Wheel ("Stuck In The Middle With You"). And sings like Don Henley throughout. Who the hell is this guy? He had hits in the '90s, right?

New albums by Meat Puppets and Steve Forbert not so hot, though. Former has a couple perty guitar solos, I suppose, but just seems majorly lacking in energy otherwise. Latter may deserve another listen; "Beast Of Ballyhoo (Rock Show)" and "Labor Day '08" didn't sound that bad, plus he covers that old Anthology Of American Folk Music ditty "Coo Coo." And sounds more like Arlo Guthrie than I'd remembered.

Hot Country Songs: "Shuttin Detroit Down" #14, Kenny "Out Last Night" #16, "High Cost Of Living" #40, "The Climb" #41, "Runaway" # 43, Jack Ingram "Barefoot and Crazy" (still need to check that out) #46, Trace "Til The Last Shot Fired" debut at #50 (with "Marry For Money" still at #17), Hank Jr. "Red White and Pink Slip Blues (haven't heard, assume it counts as recession country) #60.

Steve Forbert album sounds good somehow. It has a kind of groove, and seems to pull off its darker, more minor-key parts convincingly; haven't figured it out yet. And actually he sings more like a more relaxed (but somehow not lethargic) Tom Petty (sort of the way he always did) than like Arlo; it's just that "Stolen Identity" borrows its melody from "City Of New Orleans." If there are memorable songs here, it's entirely possible this could be a good album. No idea if Forbert's ever made one before; maybe he's one of those rare old pros like Rick Springfield who has actually improved with age. Or maybe he was just inspired by Keith Urban covering "Romeo's Tune" (and Taylor Swift rewriting it?) Or maybe the album stinks; still not sure yet.

Collin Raye album doesn't stink, and seems to have actual songs with interesting plots and stuff to go with the funky music. "Where It Leads" sounds great so far, too. Good chance this is the best album I've heard all year, at least based on three listens.

National Record Store Day has its own thread now, and good for it, but I'll mention a couple of country-oriented press releases: the first is really just an excuse to plug Dale Watkins' new The Truckin' Sessions: Volume Two, available tomorrow (ahead of street date) at Waterloo Records in Austin and Cactus Music in Houston. And Dale's two-hour "trucker appreciation" concert at Willie's Place in Carl's Corner, TX will be re-broadcast tomorrow (Sat) night 10 P.M. CST on Sirius XM Outlaw Country. I dunno, I couldn't get in to that album last year or was it 07, where he sang about "Yellow Mamma" (the 'electric chair at one of our fine Alabama institutions [Kilby, I think], although he didn't bother to explain the reference and the intended vibey enigma just seemed vague). Mainly, he wants to sing about some Very Bad Things but too obviously also just wants to be liked, to be a bro. But he might do okay with truckin' songs, and vice versa (at least as edutainment, since I don't have many truckin' songs, except "Truckin'" of course.)Big endorsement from Willie Nelson also included. Also a plug for Seth Walker, whose new album, Leap of Faith "packs in Sam Cooke soul, Kansas City jump blues, rustic country blues, Percy Mayfield and Bo Diddley rhythms." Any good at it though?

The other press release, from Lost Highway Records, has more about National Record Store Day festivities and sez, "Find partipatiing stores here. For you Nashvillians out there, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears will be performing at Grimey's New & Pre-Loved Music this Saturday at 3:15! And stick around for other bands performing Yazoo Brew, No Name Barbeque (are these bands or brands? since we're gonna have a list of other bands in just a sec)and meet the fine people from United Record Pressing. Also performing: The Avett Brothers, Stardeath and White Dwarfs (led by nephew of Wayne Coyne, but debut full-length The Birth is a bit psych-proto-metal sometimes, or at least fearlessly logging bad with good trips, more than Uncle Wayne's Flaming Lips; pretty slick though), Michigan City Vandals, DeRobert & The Half-Truths, Charlie Louvin, Del McCoury, Royal Bangs, Mute Math, The Ettes (blue ribbon for best name!)

re "Cotton Eye Joe"
I guess the idea is that in the middle of the song everybody yells "bullshit!," and in Sweat's version, the bullshits are actually audible. Lalena says, growing up in Houston, they'd teach the song to kids in gym class (!), and even the kids used to yell it.

This is true, and I could have lived the rest of my life without the memory. What I really don't remember is what the hell was going on in gym that we needed music, and I'm starting to be afraid that the answer is "Square Dancing". maybe it was 'parachute dancing'.

Parachute dancing? As in parachute pants? Can't touch this!

http://www.pecentral.org/lessonideas/ViewLesson.asp?ID=8735

this is relevant to the thread because the link suggest Brad Paisley.

There is a great big Parachute. I don't know where they came from or why they are at schools. I really didn't want to remember.

everybody holds around the edges, and then it is raises and lowered? sometimes you stand outside and sometimes inside? right foot out? other foot in?

wtf, IDK.

I'm starting to be afraid that the answer is "Square Dancing". maybe it was 'parachute dancing'

Lalena (who tried to explain parachute dancing to me as well -- maybe you went to the same school) says the song "Cotton Eyed Joe" was played to teach kids neither square nor parachute dancing, but rather -- not surprisingly -- the Cotton Eyed Joe (dance) itself.

Forbert album not gonna kick in after all; forget I mentioned it. (More interesting than the new Tanya Tucker, though.)

Okay, this is going to sound really dumb, but in "South's Gonna Do It Again" when Charlie says "Barefoot Jerry and CDB," I always just assumed Barefefoot Jerry was a nickname for Jerry Jeff Walker. But I was just paging through the All Music Guide To Country (print edition -- website always way too slow anyway) to read the entries on Collin Raye, David Lee Murphy, Hank Thompson (most popular Western Swing musician of the '50s and '60s, I had no idea!), and I accidentally stumble across the entry for Barefoot Jerry, and it turns out they were a '70s band in and of themselves, some kind of spinoff of Area Code 615 (who I've also still only heard one song by I think). So...has anybody ever heard them? Were they any good? And is there a more obscure band mentioned in a country song that famous?

And incidentally, the new Collin Raye isn't all butt-rock, though I'll be surprised if the three most butt-rockin' tracks don't wind up being my favorite cuts, seeing as how they also seem to have the most interesting plotlines: one (I think) about a couple smuggling drugs across the border, one about a guy who works out his midlife crisis with his wife of 25 years while all his buddies his age are sowing wilder oats, one where a guy and gal hit the road west semi-successfully hunting for dancing jobs for her in Vegas and wind up on a riverboat outside Cincinnati instead. And in all three songs, details flesh out the plots and make them more interesting than I just have. Plus there's the two decently done covers (Nilsson classic** I always mistake for "All By Myself" by Eric Carmen, Stealer's Wheel classic I always mistake for "Mama Told Me Not To Come" by Randy Newman). Plus three slow and possibly sappy but halfway promising anyway songs involving Jesus which I so far have mixed feelings about, including one involving a convenience store holdup and one that I think might involve a handicapped child* but I'm not sure yet. Plus what I assume so far are love-type ballads (12 - 3 - 2 - 3 = 4 of those I guess), though they will inevitably take longer to sink in.

Lalena, who likes Raye's phrasing too, says it's probably only the grain of his voice that's reminding me of Henley, not so much how he sings. Though I swear there's something blatantly '80s- Henleyesque about the drug-smuggle song, i.e., lead cut that starts out cowbelling like "American Band." Something about the dancing-girl one. "Where It Leads," keeps bringing to mind mid-period (i.e., when they were good) Drive-By Truckers, but I'm not sure yet whether it's the melody, the pacing, or what. (Worth noting the album was recorded in Muscle Shoals, and Raye gets considerably more funk into this music than Jason Isbell got into his this year, Sings better, too.)

* -- Just checked press one-sheet; says "his severely neurologically ill granddaughter." It's the closing cut, sparest and most reserved music on the album. And so far, it hasn't made me gag.

** - "Duet with Grammy nominee Susan Ashton," whoever she is

-----

Also, surprised to find (especially after what I wrote here a few days ago), that I'm liking the new Pete Berwick album a lot more than the new Black Angel album, which feels too long and too redudant and too lackadaisical. Not sure whether it's that Berwick's voice isn't deadwood after all, or whether he just knows how to give his deadwood bite anyway -- at least enough bite to make the songwriting, which has a lot of hard-assed renegade fuckup humor that somebody like Eric Church could relate to, sink in. (His album cover, visible at the link below, should give you a pretty good idea where he's coming from):

http://www.myspace.com/peteberwick

Actually, seven love and Jesus ballads (eight when you include the Nilsson "Without You" cover) out of 12 is not a promising percentage, obviously. So far they haven't gummed up the works, though, which isn't to say they won't down the line if they don't sink in. (Can always skip over them either of way, of course, which I've already done a couple times.)

And don't think Henley solo ever rocked as hard as Raye's "Never Going Back" -- well maybe that "I Will Not Go Quietly" song he did with Axl; I'm not sure.

Collin Raye's Myspace (where you can hear most of the songs I've been talking about, though the album doesn't street until 4-28):

http://www.myspace.com/collinraye

His last top 10 country single, according to AMG, was "Couldn't Last A Moment" nine years ago. Had four #1's and a bunch of other top 10's in the '90s. Assume I must have heard some of those; just wasn't paying attention to who was singing, probably. AMG writeup refers to Extremes from 1994 as "harder rocking" than his other albums; so maybe beyond a best-of album, that's the one to look for.

Another '90s-associated country guy I didn't pay much attention to at the time but feel I should go back sometime and investigate is Hal Ketchum, who my mailman here is a big fan of. In 1992 I wrote the following review of one of his singles in Radio On, which rereading it makes him sound possibly intriguing, but I've never checked him out further:

Hal Ketchum, "Past The Point Of Rescue": Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to talk to you again. (Hal feels even more depressive than John Anderson -- his guitar-drone is on par hauntingness-wise at least, and that title could almost be a Stacey Q line. But John beats Hal in the tunefulness department.) (7.5)

The depressive John Anderson song I was referring to is the first one below:

John Anderson, "When It Comes To You": Achieves the gloom Alan Jackson merely aims for, and does it with Dire Straits blues guitars (7.5); "Straight Tequila Night" (6.5).

I underrated "Straight Tequila Night," which I heard on the radio the other day. Great song; I'd probably give it an 8.0 now. And, uh, the gloomy Alan Jackson song I was referring to is the second one below:

Alan Jackson, "Don't Rock The Jukebox": George Jones suckup bullshit (1.5); "Midnight In Montgomery": Neotrad goth-rock (5.0).

So far, Booker T's new Potato Hole, with backing by Neil Young and Truckers, is flipping my wig: crunch 'n' roll, with keyboard from sea to wine-dark sea. Ah say as a fan: I didn't know the Truckers had it in 'em, and "it" incl such heartflecks as Booker T selects from his cover of their "Space City," the Grand Finale, no less, though it doesn't lose any of the rocking chair reflections of those big lights far off. (That's way after "Hey Ya" takes the top of my head off, and "Native New Yorker" keeps it off) Guess the most of these spoils me enough to take or leave a few, but so what. So far, dayyyyum.

I listened again to some of their other stuff, and of course the Truckers had it in 'em, and sometimes they gave it up--I just forgot (sorry)

More questions about '80s/'90s country artists for everything to ignore! Anybody know these artists?

These are from a singles column ("45 Revelations") that Ken Barnes did in Creem when it was on its second-to-last legs in the late '80s. I have never heard of either singer, but he makes the songs sound really inticing:

Jay Booker "The Mule Won't Move": It isn't news anymore when country mines a rockabilly vein, but when it starts recalling the Rolling Stones covering Solomon Burke ("Everybody Needs Somebody To Love," to be precise), then you've got something extraordinary.

David Lynn Jones "Bonnie Jean": As rockin' a trucker song as you could want, with a nasty reverb guitar and hard-driving sax. Mick Ronson's entry into country production is a winner (and a hit).

(It went #10 country, according to AMG, and Jones's only three subsequent charting singles went #14 then #36 then #66. Booker's#61 hit was a different song, called "Red Hot Sweater." AMG doesn't even list an album for Booker, and there are none for sale on amazon. Jones's '87 Hard Times On Easy Street apparently went #28 country in 1987, not too shabby, but the copies on amazon cost a pretty penny.)

Barnes also says he's obssessed with Baillie & the Boys, who I have vague memories of hearing back then. He calls "He's Letting Go" "a slow-building, taut and tense tale of disillusion/disolution, very much like co-writers Pam Rose and Mary Ann Kennedy's magnificent 'Somebody Else's Fire' (a Janie Fricke hit a couple years back)."

I don't think hardly any other "rock" critics were even paying attention in 1988. I sure wasn't, and more and more I feel like I might have missed a lot.

Interesting stray Pazz & Jop column from the same year (1988) that I thought was completely ridiculous at the time. Maybe it was; maybe it wasn't:

I've been listening seriously to country because it seems to me that the 'new country' contains more of the elements of true rock & roll than most of what's on the pop charts: the simiplicity, the immediacy, the commitment to a feeling. Even formally speaking, there are more TRUE rock & roll records on country radio today than on CHR or AOR radio. (Who rocks more: Highway 101 or Rush; Patty Loveless or Whitney Houston?)

ANASTASIA PANTSIOS
Cleveland

Except I'm pretty sure I've never fully believed that "simplicity" is a hallmark of "true" rock & roll. And I also never really liked Patty Loveless much (though maybe I just missed her best stuff).

Highway 101 was okay, though tried to replace the lead singer *after* establishing selves with her; does that ever work (not talking about early-ass lead singers, like the guy before Bloom in BOC). But "rocks more"? if it mattered, Rush (though a Canadian female label person tells me they were always " boys' band," so I would pick them, except I often prefer female lead singers). Patty Loveless can be pungent on occasion (although a lot of country music was most popular on cassettes, which tended to have typical 80s cheese, like the synth on Dolly Parton's version of Woody G.'s "Deportee," although it kind of worked anyway. Either that, or it would be intended as Real Country, thus thin beer on 80s cassettes, not that I don't have good 80s cassettes, but usually not ones aimed at toppermost of the poppermost)

Bluegrass alert: I've been spinning Brothers From Different Mothers, the new album from Dailey & Vincent, released at the end of March by Rounder. These guys have fantastic harmonies. While they possess a touch of modern Nashville, they also recall the classic brother duos: Louvins, Blue Sky Boys, Monroes, Everlys, etc. Great fusion of past and present. I'm just really blown away that they AREN'T brothers.

http://www.myspace.com/thedaileyvincentband

I wrote about Keith Urban's newest album for PopMatters: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/73078-keith-urban-defying-gravity/

It's a spiel about the album as romantic fantasy. I've been enjoying hearing it on that level, as a dream.

okay, what the fuck is happening with john rich?

Um...Welcome back, Anthony! But care to elaborate on what precisely you're referring to? (There's lots and lots on John Rich upthread. Still haven't heard the whole album myself, though.)

re: john rich

a) the fights, the law suits, the drinking, the sneaking underage girls into lower broadway bars, the ambigious marriage, the coke, the whole mccain stuff, the whole homophobic daddy stuff, what ever is happening with john anderson, etc etc i read the upthread john rich stuff, but this seems like the possbility of a book, or at least one of those late 70s rock exposes no one ever writes or publishes anymore.

and since i am here:

adam gregory is a nice suburban kid, from st albert, who has been flirting with american success for half a decade, he has been playing since he was 12. not v. interesting, thought charting on a dance remix is nice.

sissy's song by jackson, is there anything interesting there at all?

i really love eric church, and have written about him a bit, i think it is is voice more then his politics.

my review of the john rich should be up this week, the only real country writing i have done all year, though i got a big interview with the (niche/cult) lutheran singer songwriter johnathon rundman at killing the buddha--nice guy, brilliant writer.

i got into graduate school and moved to toronto, and decided ilx was a time dump that made me lazy, and chart/alt country both have really bored me, it seems to be in a semi major lull, and my ears must be broken because i am genuinely confounded by all the love for jamey johnson. (i also sort of realised how reactionary most of the genre, at least politcally, and i sort of got sad by that and took a break)

chuck, when i am next in austin (maybe next year) (gonna be in slc next year, and detroit in october, and upstate ny this year) can we go to cinch or the rainbow cattle company.

i presented this at the pop culture assoc of america conference this year, in new orleans (i love new orleans, more then any american city i have been to, a lot like montreal, cheap and fun, with handsome men, drinking on the streets, and an overlay of catholic aesthetics.

http://pinkmoose.blogspot.com/2009/04/in-last-few-years-country-music-has.html

not jon anderson ashley jordan