Rolling Country 2024

saw kacey cover "neon moon" live when she was touring right before golden hour & it was really wonderful, the version that ended up on this album is disappointing overall but especially in comparison

Looks like I thought it was her at her best, but my take on KM has gotten to be more the reverse of most listeners', maybe applying to this track as well.
From Scene ballot comments re 2012:

Kix Brooks' New To This Town brings that well-known early 00s bluesy boogie, Southern Rock as mainstream country thang, plus weekends in Memphis, even "let's put some Otis Redding on" w Cropperesque licks on or leading into the steel guitar. "There's The Sun" is a pool party w the Hi Rhythm Gang (in effect).(Saturday soul sunshine in Kelly Clarkson and Vince Gill's hand-in-hand single, "Don't Rush"; if only their singing was as strong as the groove.) Brooks' title track is like why has no one ever done this before, although it might be risky on a mainstream country album, what will the Chamber of Commerce think of somebody who wishes he was new to this town, cos he's sick of this town, cos he knows it too well, and vice versa. of course because it is mainstream, has to be tied in with a relationship, every street is where they used to walk happy together, and she's still around etc., but that's a good subject too ( could incl they still have the same friends, but that could lead to a sequel). Mostly songs about cutting loose, the other obligatory homefires songs usually fit in better than expected, and the closer, "She Knew I Was A Cowboy", is more affecting than 90 percent of all songs containing the word "cowboy", Ah believe. (no songs about kids, he doesn't push his luck that far). Lots of good video soundtracks here, re what I still think of as the early 00s-type marketing.

Musgrave's "Neon Moon" >>>> B&D's

and I'm not a KM fan

it's a lovely song, km version rules (although I've long overplayed it)

Late honky tonker James Hand got auto-compared to Hank Williams, and the few uptempo tracks on Charley Crockett's trib Ten For Slim can seem Hank Yoakam, in a good way of course, but Crockett def gets Hand's catchy ballads, bringing out a somewhut early-Willie, thus Floyd Tillmanesque, not to mention Gary Stewart, winsome doom (sucks for him, relatable fun for us)---can especially imagine Stewart doing this, although it's unmistakably crunchy Crockett: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svlmMjMzheY

Hand's own Master of Depression was the re-titled (for a signature sadcore cutie, done right by Charley), and otherwise slightly tweaked 2022 10th Anniversary Edition of Mighty Lonesome Man(originally and duh-named for one of the few clunkers [as written and unredeemed] on Crocket's alb).
From Scene ballot comments again, here's what I said about the first edition:

James Hand's Mighty Lonesome Man tracks the fine print white line of life's little ups and downs with mighty fine timing--unafraid to venture beyond deft wordplay into details that could easily keep him orbiting in mental and emotional rituals eternally--but 12 items, 34 minutes, as Windows Media Player sums up, hand him off, pass him along in the alone-together jukebox of honky tonk pop (where he can be a-t with Billy Joe Shaver, for instance). Good in the background or foreground; I'm tempted to say he'll be there when you get there--he's a stand-up guy--but whatcha say James? "Let's do it now, before they use a plow, 'cause then I won't be no earthly good to you."

10 for Slim was 2021; 2022 'sJukebox Charley is mostly good-to-amazing, and starts well, with "Make Way For A Better Man." Track Two brings the cuckold's commiseration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtlHw-Z7mFQ

Current fave on Jukebox Charley: "I Hope It Rains At My Funeral"----people don't cover Tom T. Hall much these days, do they?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtlHw-Z7mFQ

Sorry! Here tis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEPkG4A1Z3k

The new Sierra Ferrell single still doesn't capture how good she is live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3FQpE99zCo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2W8kCk1qnU

enjoyed that dollar bill bar a fair bit

Lainey Wilson won best country album Grammy for her Bell bottom Country one. It was her first Grammy

.@KaceyMusgraves becomes the first artist in HISTORY to win all four country categories at the #GRAMMYs. pic.twitter.com/c007bKMsfY

— Kacey Musgraves Access (@KaceyAccess) February 6, 2024

Of course she's also got an AOTY award.

One more thing about xetcpost Charley Crockett: on a previous RC, I found myself disappointed by The Man From Waco, which I took as an art project deconstruction/rehash of The Red-Headed Stranger, which I had never actually listened to. You could indeed call Crockett's album a deconstruction--of a revenge killer, or the mindset and possible behavior patterns of someone so inclined---who is also smilin' onstage, an embodiment of "Cowboy Candy" ("I hope I got enough")---always fearful, always travelling, running from and toward, but mainly around and around, to a woodblock beat, in his cage of ritual, connecting and mostly low-key-sliding dots on the map (for instance, he's also "The Man From Atlanta," chasing his gal, or anyway reciting where she was born and grew up and ran off to, as he follows (his tail)---though a sense of context accrues, despite the possibly nonlinear sequence, the variation of production touches from track to track, as well as the settings, the recurrence.
One nice afternoon, for instance, he seems to see her around them ol cottonwood trees, driving that "ol' blue truck---it wadn't much, but she loved it, kinda like she did me": aw shucks---but on this album, the keyword seems to be "drove." She drove the blue truck that wadn't much, and also the narrator who always feels his inadequacies/low ratings---later, long after dark she slides through a brief nightmare in a "Black Sedan."
It's the process of breakage, fear and rage and blood being spilled---he doesn't enjoy it---but he'd rather run and feel all the shit he's been feeling than turn himself in to the shady spooky normcore people--at one point he processes himself into "Tom Turkey," the Dylan song, with some lyrics added by Crockett, but still "Billy you're so far away from home," with his friend Pat Garrett leading the eternal replay posse.
There is no other mention on here of anybody being on anybody's trail. There is a sweet-sounding mention of "July Jackson," "a woman with a couple of kids," and a more successful revenge killer, whose cool incl. statement of self-satisfaction, when questioned before the whole town (no mention of court; is this a lynching?). Not only her husband, the girl he was with turns up dead, this time under merely suspicious circumstances----"but that's not how the paper read." Why wouldn't they try to pin it on her? Is it some kind of cover-up? Did the narrator spot something suspicious anyway? What does he know about it and how? Is this whole songful situation another reverie only? He's gone to "Trinity River" to wash his filth in the dirty water of dreams, he's been pretty up front about that---also to "Horse Thief Mesa," seeking a "Grand Finale." Ha.

Does the ever-frontin' candy cowboy habitually dream all this other, or is it his past, his future, or does the killer dream of being up in lights (and still feeling inadequate/played), or does someone else dream of both?
Crockett kind of undersells, justs suggests all of this, in the course of all these details, and many more, always musical, sliding by: a tad simple-subtle for me, but now I got it and he's got me.

Paramore singer Hayley Williams decried a Tennessee House of Representatives dustup this week where a Republican lawmaker blocked a resolution honoring the Grammy win of Black musician Allison Russell while allowing a similar resolution honoring Paramore to go forward.
...Artists like Russell and Americana Music Association award-winner Margo Price were active participants in protests against the House's April 6, 2023 expulsion of Jones and Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis. The pair were expelled for breaking House decorum rules to lead a brief gun reform protest from the chamber floor after the mass shooting at The Covenant School. An effort to expel Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, failed by one vote.

I've been a bit perplexed by my kid's love of Zach Bryan. From my perspective I couldn't figure out why she (and I guess many of her peers) was jibing with this guy's relatively raw downbeat tales of hardship, but then she revealed she thinks of him as someone like Noah Kahan, who I hear as more run of the mill slickly produced singer-songwriter. I was a bit surprised she couldn't or didn't hear a difference. She considers both of them just broadly "folk," but I hear someone like Kahan as more akin to (fellow Bryan collaborator) the Lumineers, just kind of milquetoast and at least seemingly outwardly kinda safe and inauthentic. Anyway, found it interesting.

a whole generation of people just think of them both as "Spotify Roots Music Playlist Music" i think

it's a bummer - no slag on yr daughter, of course. it's just the way kids are coming up.

i have noticed a surge in Reddit posts in recent years that ask "what genre is this?"

oops, i hit send too soon

anyway, i just think streaming playlist culture is increasing the desire in people's brains to put the music they listen to into one of the genre categories they see every time they open the app.

i can see how this is somewhat contradictory with my post about Kahan and Bryan (i.e. lumping them together) but at the same time, they kind of feel like two different symptoms of the same disease or something.

I know my kids get defensive when they play something new or unfamiliar to me and I ask them where they learned about it. They don't believe me when I insist I'm just curious. Like, they don't listen to the radio. There's no MTV. There are literally endless Tik Tok posts they scroll through, so it's a miracle anything sticks. Stuff like Noah Kahan, sure, I guess I get it. It's super marketable/accessible. But Zach Bryan's whole deal is kind of an earnest, no frills middle aged (in spirit) red dirt dude with a truck vibe, not some floppy hat Vermont hippie. But maybe I'm hearing them both wrong.

fwiw the other night her playlist included Zach Bryan, Noah Kahan and Tyler Childers, which to me all sounds like different denomination coins maybe jingling in the same pocket, as opposed to her main currency of Taylor Swift and cohort (Gracie Adams, Sabrina Carpenter, Lana del Rey).

Isn't the common denominator there though that Zach Bryan's earnest and anti-ticketmaster spirit started independent style and he's not a radio friendly country singer singing just about drinking beer and his pickup truck. She can hear Bryan, Kahan, Swift and even del Ray as folk.

I think she does! She was telling me that Lana del Ray has a lot in common with Springsteen. I asked her in what way, and she said they both exude a similar Americana esthetic, or something like that.

Lately she's been complaining that the kick-off to Zach Bryan's (never-ending?) tour here next week is three sold out nights at the United Center where the cheapest secondary market tickets are about $200 each. I told her, please don't feed the beast, that's a rip-off. Suppress that fomo and see how things shake out the morning-of.

I'm going one night. Believe our upper deck tix were ~$120 face value.

Beyonce first Black woman on top of hot country singles chart but....Chris Molanphy, chart historian notes:

As a chart historian, I have misgivings about her topping it out of the gate, when I know country listeners are still listening to more Kane Brown, Nate Smith, Jelly Roll, and Lainey Wilson.

On the other other hand, Beyoncé has already made remarkable inroads with country listeners... As Rolling Stone pointed out last week, for more than a decade, Beyoncé’s songs have been covered by numerous country stars, ranging from country-era Taylor Swift to Sam Hunt, Lady A to Maddie & Tae, Maren Morris to … even Nashville royalty Reba McEntire, who took on Bey’s belter “If I Were a Boy” way back in 2010. Not only did Reba score a top 25 country hit with her take on the slow-burning gender-bender, but she even performed it live on the CMAs, six years before Bey performed “Daddy Lessons” on the same awards show to a more mixed response.

This, in the end, may be the best and most important thing about Beyoncé topping the country chart: It reminds the country audience they already love this artist’s music, and it signals to those leery of genre trespassers that she belongs. It vindicates other Black country performers like Giddens, Rissi Palmer, and Tanner Adell and perhaps clears a path for them on the charts. And the chart is ultimately serving as a productive feedback loop, compelling the Nashville establishment to take this song, this artist, and the very idea of a Black female country star seriously. Even if Bey’s imperial position on the Hot Country chart raises some well-founded skepticism, I am grateful the queen is on that throne.

https://slate.com/culture/2024/02/beyonce-texas-hold-em-country-song-billboard-hot-100.html

I don't mean to be controversial or insensitive but does anyone actually believe this "clears a path" for someone like Giddens to score a Hot 100 Country hit? And how exactly does this "vindicate" her work? The mass approval of another black female artist's work makes her own worthwhile?

I'm very happy to see Beyonce break this glass ceiling but I'm skeptical that the country establishment is ever going to embrace progressive artists and people of color; rather, I think Beyonce has validated/vindicated the genre among millions of fans who might otherwise never engage with it. Bringing new fans to country music will help diversify its listenership and in time could prove more consequential in breaking its long history of discrimination.

Good points re Giddens.

Meanwhile, longtime journalist Ron Wynn (who is Black) is hoping in a public Facebook post that :

For me, if all this conversation regarding Black heritage and traditions in country can get fresh exposure for such long overlooked and wrongly obscure/or forgotten people as Stoney Edwards, Big Al Downing, O.B. McClinton, and Ruby Falls (to cite just four), then it's worth it.

He's hoping , but am sure he knows it's not too likely

just found out about this -- Brennen Leigh, Kelly Willis, and Melissa Carper collaborating on a project. six song EP en route.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw7fiWqfpnU

yeah i agree that the idea that beyonce opening doors for black women in country music comes off like a pipe dream. to me the song is working specifically because of the tension between beyoncé and the establishment, there is a frisson there that i think is exciting to people mostly in the beyhive of course but prob from the country side in some respect too. i think people are somewhat overstating nashville's aversion to interlopers... i mean look at recent huge novelty hits/country collabs by people like nelly, bebe rexha, blanco brown, dan + shay featuring bieber etc. i think that nashville, certainly when viewed as the capital of country music commerce and not as a euphemism for country music culture, enjoys a track from an outsider that genuinely engages with and celebrates country, and becomes a hit. nashville loves hits! the whole city is built around the notion of the Hit Record. so i think the idea that nashville is going to build barriers between itself and beyonce instead of being excited about the potential brand synergy and $$$ is to misunderstand what drives decisions in the music business. i mean, she already performed at the CMAs 5 years ago doing a song that felt much more like a one off genre trifle than this. nashville may still be tribal, but it's not stupid.

to me what zach bryan has done to the country music establishment, which is prove that you can become bigger than just about anybody in nashville w/ little more than an acoustic guitar and a youtube account, is much more important for the future diversity of country music, precisely because it completely neutered nashville as a center of power. now, we'll find out whether country audiences are willing to embrace non-white musicians in the same way, and obv any pessimism regarding that would be well founded. but i do think that, in the long run, the simple forging of a pathway to country music success (via traditional social media channels) that never has to travel thru nashville is moreso going to be the thing that sparks the real change people are looking for, rather than hoping that i.e. beyoncé is suddenly going to get the establishment to throw the doors open to people it has been resisting for years. but that doesn't make for as easy as a narrative as mapping it along black/white or male/female binaries. this was the major problem i had w/ that emily nussbaum piece recently -- its heart was in the right place but it had no understanding of country music as a business or a culture, and how both of those things have already been irrevocably altered in the last two or so years primarily by bryan

Rolling Stone on the musicians who played with Beyonce

When Randolph arrived in L.A. a few months ago, he found himself in a room with Giddens, producer and instrumentalist Raphael Saadiq (playing drums and bass), and keyboardist Khirye Tyler. Beyoncé was there too.

That’s Robert Randolph, sacred steel & jam band player

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/beyonce-country-songs-players-robert-randolph-rhiannon-giddens-1234967138/

Anyone listening to the new Leslie Stevens album? Just a few tracks in but it’s nice. More polished than last releases (said without a value judgement either way atm)

First Stevens song on new one "Big Time , Sucka" has a nice countrypolitan lush pop feel

xpost Musgraves kind of became a country(ish) superstar without Nashville, too, right?

Yea kinda , but maybe Jordan S could add more

My pal/hometown hero Adeem is back with what they call "the Gay 90’s Country Bop you didn’t know you needed." Catchy. "He wants a one-night stand/I want a life full of nights with him."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDZFW-uQnBU

https://popcon2024.sched.com/event/1aBzI/will-the-canon-be-unbroken-a-roundtable-on-country-music-criticism

This discussion with Charles Hughes, David Cantwell, Jewly Hight, Justin Hiltner and Moderator RJ Smith took place today at Pop Conference in Los Angeles. I am not there

It's not quite country per se, but anyone who likes what Waxahatchee has been doing the last few years should check out the new Hurray for the Riff Raff record.

definitely seconded. I had never really vibed with the little bit of HFTRR I'd heard before but I'm loving this new one, maybe my favorite of the year so far. and St. Cloud is a top 5 record of the 2020s for me, so yeah, checks out.

saw Zach Bryan last night, never seen a crowd this intense in my decades of going to shows

normally a crowd singing along to every song at top volume would annoy the shit out of me but it was so earnest I kinda loved it

It's not quite country per se, but anyone who likes what Waxahatchee has been doing the last few years should check out the new Hurray for the Riff Raff record.

I will co-sign all of the HftRR endorsements: Haven't been on board with them prior to this record, but it's one of my favorites of the year thus far and is, to my ears, operating well within the country space.

Country Music Hall Of Fame inductions were announced this morning: James Burton as the Musician, John Anderson (!!!) as the Veteran Era pick, and Toby Keith as the Modern Era pick. They made sure to clarify Keith's eligibility, as the voting results had already been tallied prior to his death.

Not sure if this is the right thread for it, but new Rosali is out today and its sounding great. No Medium was one of my favorite albums of 2021.

Mixed feelings about the new Sierra Ferrell. I had mixed feelings about her debut too and I like this one more, but she still lapses into a pastiche sound that doesn’t totally resonate with me.

saw Zach Bryan last night, never seen a crowd this intense in my decades of going to shows

normally a crowd singing along to every song at top volume would annoy the shit out of me but it was so earnest I kinda loved it

― Murgatroid, Monday, March 18, 2024 9:56 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

I was meant to go a couple weeks ago and came down with a terrible stomach bug just hours before the show and had to bail. The videos my friends sent made me think I may have dodged a bullet. Bryan was barely audible over the fans around my friends, who, while earnest, could not carry a tune. I don't know how this trend started at his shows, but I'm torn between happy for his fans that they've found a communal space to share their love of music and shake-my-fist-at-the-sky-old-man annoyed that you pay $130 to sit in the upper deck of an arena and listen to a bunch of drunk 20-somethings scream over the artist you're ostensibly there to hear. The cynic in me thinks there are people attending these shows who've learned every lyric to every one of his songs so that they can demonstrate to everyone else they're a true fan. The music fan in me absolutely loves that he's inspired that kind of devotion; the kind of deep, repetitive listening required to learn lyrics to that degree has escaped me since high school. I just listen to too much music now to absorb lyrics like that, and I recognize that my cynicism somewhat spawns from this.

Oh no, more musical interest would spoil the primal purity ov his stained class testimony. But whoever else gets something out of it besides him, like mass group therapy/catharsis, good for them.

They're gonna need it, whether Trump's Second Coming goes off as planned or not.

i saw him last summer at a sold out show from the upper deck and... i think judging the quality of a performance vis a vis the surrounding crowd via cell phone video audio might not be the most prudent strategy...

No doubt, but I've never made it all the way through the massive live album either. So far.

xp agreed -- she's a better performer than songwriter, and I'd love to see her put out an album of like 1/4 originals and 3/4 covers like they used to do it. Long Time Coming is solid though and a good place to start.

She gets by on vibes, which is enough for people of a certain age.

Love her cover of "Years" that she did for that John Anderson tribute album a couple years ago. Imagine her doing an album like Roses in the Snow, mixing traditional tunes, a bluegrass version of something more modern (a la "The Boxer" at the time), a throw back like "You're Gonna Change"...it would be amazing, I'm sure, vibes and all.

checked out the farrell album. i dug her songwriting a good deal. the songs aren't lyrically showy but they're effective, and each song has a line or two that makes me perk up. would've liked it a lot more if it were an 8-track all-killer album, but as y'all said, the rest of it still gets by on vibe.

For those still on board with her, Miranda Lambert's new single, "Wranglers," is set for May 3rd. Written by Audra Mae, Evan McKeever, and Ryan Carpenter; not a Lambert co-write.

"Wranglers is a new single about getting revenge in the best way possible… BURNIN IT DOWN"

I get definite Dolly vibes from Ferrell. She can play it straight down the road but isn't above getting silly and cute either. Watched a CBS Sunday Morning segment on her and her story is like something out of a different time - poverty and pills in West Virginia, followed by riding the rails and busking on street corners throughout the U.S. for several years, a near OD, and then getting discovered in her 30s playing at an American Legion.

With fentanyl and pills flooding communities at the heart of the genre, artists such as Brad Paisley, Elvie Shane, Jaime Wyatt, and others are meeting the crisis in song and in action

BY JEFF GAGE

Here’s what a Rolling Stone magazine writer is excited about

x-post above-- I like some of the Sierra Ferrell cuts i listened to as well

Maybe not what the Stone writer has in mind, but he might well mention it along the way (haven't read that yet):
if this doesn't show, it's Johnny Cash, singing "Committed To Parkview"
http://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=78976dc6be027e16&sca_upv=1&q=johnny+cash+committed+to+parkview&tbm=vid&source=lnms&prmd=vinsmbtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj1j5SC7uKFAxVW38kDHckADk0Q0pQJegQICRAB&biw=1094&bih=510&dpr=1.25#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:c73237c0,vid:MSjHvue8rgc,st:0

0uddy Miler feat. Lee Ann : "Meds"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnkfK--6Ke4

My liberal niece went to Stagecoach fest and posted an enthusiastic IG story post with a Morgan Wallen and Post Malone duet .

She likes pop emo rock too

SONGWRITER: A NEW ALBUM FROM JOHNNY CASH

In early 1993, the legendary Johnny Cash recorded an album’s worth of songwriting demos he’d written over many years. Some thirty years later, John Carter Cash, the son of Johnny and June Carter Cash, rediscovered the songs and stripped them back to just Johnny’s powerful, pristine vocals and acoustic guitar. Along with co-producer David “Fergie” Ferguson, the two invited a handpicked group of musicians that played with Johnny, including guitarist Marty Stuart and the late bassist Dave Roe, along with drummer Pete Abbott and several others, to the Cash Cabin, where Johnny would write, record and relax, to breathe new life into the tracks, taking the sound back to the roots and heart of the songs.

Releasing June 28th, Songwriter features songs written solely by Cash, one of America’s greatest songwriters and storytellers. The 11-track collection will be available digitally, as well as on CD and a variety of vinyl options, including standard black and several limited-edition color variants.

Songwriter’s first single, “Well Alright,” is out now. The track is prime Johnny Cash, harkening back to his ‘50s hits such as “Get Rhythm,” “Five Feet High and Rising,” “Cry! Cry! Cry!” and “Big River.”

Listen to “Well Alright” and pre-order Songwriter now! Discover the tracklist below.

1. Hello Out There
2. Spotlight
3. Drive On
4. I Love You Tonite
5. Have You Ever Been To Little Rock?
6. Well Alright
7. She Sang Sweet Baby James
8. Poor Valley Girl
9. Soldier Boy
10. Sing It Pretty Sue
11. Like A SoldierSONGWRITER (OFFICIAL ALBUM TRAILER)

Discover Songwriter, the new album from Johnny Cash. Features narration from Jamey Johnson.

Psyched for this!

https://x.com/KaitlinButts/status/1787607391124455718

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/kaitlin-butts-red-dirt-roadrunner-album-1235003612/

New Adeem album is out and is good. This song about parenting got me all teary on first go-round. Second go-round too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0YAbaIqa7U

Also got some rockers on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga2IO5zq8dg

Dawn Landes has a new album out called "The Liberated Woman's Songbook":

The album reimagines music from the women’s liberation movement, with songs featured in The Liberated Woman’s Songbook, originally published in 1971. Landes, along with producer Josh Kaufman (Bonny Light Horseman, Bob Weir, Cassandra Jenkins) highlights 11 musical stories from the canon of women’s activism, from 1830 to 1970. These messages are just as timely today as they were then.

https://dawnlandesofficial.bandcamp.com/album/the-liberated-womans-songbook

I've not kept up with Landes but love her voice and have seen her perform with Hem. Found out about this from Natalie Weiner & Marissa Moss's newsletter:

I have been meaning to spotlight this for weeks — what a wonderful conceit for an album, and so well-executed! I have been thinking a lot about how country/folk artists can tap into the genre's long, well-established radical, progressive songwriting tradition — how thinking about how evergreen those sentiments and ideas are can make them feel even more potent. Landes really delivers here, from both a conceptual and research angle (there are a few familiar chestnuts here, like "Which Side Are You On?", but many are new to me) and a musical one. — NW [Agreed, I love this record - MM]