Rolling Country 2024

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.

tbf my friends also told me directly that they had a hard time enjoying the show. One of them said "I could barely hear Zach."

I had no trouble hearing him, I guess it depends on the volume of the crowd around you and the venue itself etc.

also, he's rotating between playing "I Remember Everything" OR "Something in the Orange" in his setlists on this tour

I deeply respect this kind of self-indulgent "not playing your biggest hit" audience-pleasure withholding but ymmv

it's a puzzling decision bc otherwise, he's such a crowdpleaser (kept on inserting "Toronto" into songs, like it wasn't cute the first time please stop)

I just read a Washington Post review about Bryan's dc show. His stage was shaped like a cross and he wore a t-shirt that said "RIP mainstream media." And lots of communal singing. The article was by a Post staff writer who does not usually write about music.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/2024/03/28/who-is-zach-bryan-concert/

Beyonce is gonna have a song about Linda Martell. I missed this 2020 article about her

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/linda-martell-black-country-grand-ole-opry-pioneer-1050432/

But whoever else gets something out of it besides him, like mass group therapy/catharsis, good for them.

what does this mean

wow that post article is bad

dude...we do not need someone with the influence Zach Bryan has over a generation of 15-25 year olds tearing down the media and/or pointing people toward non-mainstream/fringe outlets. ugh.

i've seen his crowds, i know which direction they'll go. he is a full bottle of fuel on the fire.

I guess I can appreciate pushback on modern male country, but can we get a funky and fun version of the alternative

lol this guy

https://consequence.net/2024/04/morgan-wallen-felony-arrest-throwing-chair/

NY Times and Rolling Stone are excited about 22 years old Oklahoma resident singer songwriter Wyatt Flores

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/10/arts/music/wyatt-flores-half-life.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLQnU63I3IQ

Sierra Ferrell is playing two sold out shows here next week. Never heard of her, afaict, what's her deal?

She’s a fairly polished vintage/throwback vibe. I don’t love either of her albums all the way through but the new one especially has some strong numbers.

She's right behind, like, Charley Crockett on the Non-Mainstream Country Elevator taking all these artists up to amphitheaters, etc.

She's already big and getting bigger fast. And she's good. Very vintage vibe - jazz, swing, ragtime, fiddle music, maybe some yodeling, or maybe that's just Nick Shoulders. Opening for Zach Bryan this summer, too.

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]