Rolling Country 2024

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https://wapo.st/45NXEuR

Jeremy Tepper obit

Tucker Wetmore

How is this not the product of Random Country Music Singer Name Generator on the fritz?

Ha, exactly

I see you Tucker Wetmore and raise you Corb Lund.

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:

Just now signed up---thanks, Indexed! https://www.dontrocktheinbox.com/

Lorrie Morgan's back---on Cleopatra---but looks like it might be okay:

This album is very special to me,” shares Morgan. “Sadly, it turned out to be the final producing credit by my longtime friend and collaborator, Richard Landis, who passed just before its completion. Dead Girl Walking ties together a career journey from my career-making album, Something in Red, to the top 10 album, 'War Paint,' both produced by Richard and up to this new album. Richard also co-wrote the Billboard-charting single "If You Come Back From Heaven." Also in 1994, Landis was one of 14 producers to receive a CMA Album of the Year award for 'Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles,' and produced me on the last track on the album, my cover of "The Sad Cafe." Richard’s brilliant, creative touch is all over this album..."
Dead Girl Walking’ Track List:
1. “Hands On You” (Ashley Monroe, Jon Randall)
2. “Dead Girl Walking” (Kelly Lang)
3. “Me And Tequila” (Ashlee Hewitt, Matthew Morgan)
4. “I Think It’s Jesus” (Kelly Lang)
5. “Mirror, Mirror” (Kelly Lang, Lorrie Morgan, Mark Oliverius)
6. “Days Like These” (Kris Bradley, Marty Morgan)
7. “What Will I Do?” (Mickey Newbury)
8. “I Think You’re The Greatest” (Marty Morgan, Johnny Garcia, Katrina Burgoyne)
9. “I Almost Called Him Baby By Mistake” (Larry Gatlin)
10. “You Send Me” (Sam Cooke)

Got good players, such as Dan Dugmore, Pat Buchanan.

Listen/download/purchase ‘Dead Girl Walking’ orcd.co/lorriemorgan_deadgirlwalkingalbum

also:

Morgan launched her ‘War Paint with Lorrie Morgan’ podcast in 2023, featuring guests including Larry Gatlin, Jessie Keith Whitley, Morgan Whitley, Pam Tillis, Vince Gill, and Nancy Jones, with many more to come. Listen to ‘War Paint’ wherever podcasts are found. (We suggest Audible, Apple, iHeart, or Spotify!) The program has been picked up for broadcast television, launching on The Heartland Network July 12, 2024.

Trying that link again:
https://orcd.co/lorriemorgan_deadgirlwalkingalbum?ct=t%282024-07-01_LorrieMorgan_DGW_album-out-now%29

https://www.billboard.com/music/country/the-mavericks-lead-singer-raul-malo-health-update-1235720646/

Took me too long to get to the Adeem record but glad to be late to the party. He hopscotches around in styles picking up bits of Dwight Yoakam, John Prine, and Jason Eady, both their sounds and narrative styles. All of it's done so well. "Nightmare" is the track I keep coming back to, its upbeat pace and strong back beat a perfect match for the anxiety-inducing message. (I'm also a sucker for the overlapping male/female vocals, which amps the thing up even more.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6qyY85AEGY

get to White Trash Revelry, too. it is excellent.

I don’t love the new Kaitlin Butts album all the way through, but I do appreciate her ambition and guts to make a country album in the form of musical theater.

thoughts on the new Zach Bryan?

as usual, a bit too long (as opposed to way too long), he needs to stop with the spoken word poems, a few cringey tracks, a few keepers, starts a bit weak, ends v strong, the Springsteen track is a tantalizing look if he went full pop

my favourite LP he's done so far

don't think it's as consistent as the S/T or has the highs of American Heartbreak

I absolutely love the Kaitlin Butts album-- every one of her big swings connects-- but I'll concede that it's not going to be to everyone's liking.

What I wrote about the Bryan set:
Z. Bryan, ... (***): CTRL+V: A few stunners to justify the roar of the crowd ("28," "Oak Island"), and a whole lot that could've been cut for concision and quality. Lack of growth is troubling, but with a vocal cult of devotees and little self-reflection, where's the motivation to do, be better?

Ashley Monroe has released three new tracks thus far in 2024, with very little fanfare. The best of the three is a cover of a Fred Eaglesmith rarity ("I Like Trains"), but all three are strong.

The opening (and best) track on the uneven Lorrie Morgan set mentioned upthread is a cover of Monroe's "Hands On You," incidentally.

xp agreed, the Kaitlin Butts is one for the ages. I was very high on What Else Can She Do, but Roadrunner! surpassed any expectations I had and then some.

Keep listening to Roadrunner! I hear bits of Kacey’s Pageant Material, Miranda’s Platinum, and Elizabeth Cook’s Balls. Similar to those, it’s dressed up as a throwback — in this case, country & western — record but is thoroughly modern. Though her voice struggles to keep up with her ambitious writing, in places, when she softens it, it can be startling.

Favorite tracks: “Roadrunner!”, “Come Rest Your Head (On My Pillow), feat. Vince Gill”, “Spur”, “Elsa.”

Tracking the new box office smash Twisters through tornado territory, Midwest and Deep South audiences eating it up even more ravenously than projected, Deadline gets to:

Of all the marketing lynchpins that heightened the movie’s profile was its country-infused soundtrack. What a pop Dua Lipa-Billie Eilish laced soundtrack did last summer for Barbie, a country fried one was essential for Twisters with 29 tracks by such artists as Luke Combs, Jelly Roll, Miranda Lambert, Lainey Wilson, Bailey Zimmerman, Kane Brown, Thomas Rhett, Shania Twain, Charley Crockett, Flatland Cavalry, Tyler Childers and Megan Moroney.

Speaking of Barbie, when Uni was meeting with record labels, they decided to work with Atlantic’s West Coast President Kevin Weaver over a Nashville-based company, as the exec was coming off the success of the Barbie soundtrack. Weaver has also assembled such soundtracks and cast albums as Hamilton and The Greatest Showman.

Combs’ “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma” was released on May 16, the lead single off the Twisters soundtrack. The song was tied to the second trailer launch and ultimately busted into Billboard’s Top 10 Country Airplay chart. Combs performed the song during his summer tour which further propelled it to 120M+ global audio streams to date and 36K+ creations on TikTok totaling more than 225M views. As we told you over the weekend, Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos showed up on stage Friday night at Luke Combs’ concert at Jets stadium.

In total, the Twisters soundtrack has amassed 175M+ streams to date since dropping on May 29. Uni released one song a week for the past 10 weeks — plus a song a day this past week. The Jelly Roll Twisters song “Dead End Road” was used in the TV trailer for the pic. Other music highlight included a pic partnership with Bobby Bones, the No. 1 iHeart network country DJ.

A little too much of that mebbe---but what I had meant to say: today's revive of Prine thread reminds me of Todd Snider's "Handsome John," on the somewhut misleadingly, imposingly (wryly?) titled First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder, alb otherwise more suited, in a fine wine way, with words worth checking on AZlyrics, for the Country Funk thread---whereas this is just voice and piano, rolling on, fond but never overselling,"I didn't know him as well as I tell everyone I did":
http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-e&q=todd+snider+handsome+john#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:238f7e88,vid:WnKWetl2rtE,st:0

Another one about friends etc.: Jessi Colter, "Angel In The Fire," and I'm influenced by the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOHUCGgXKO8

Chris Willman on next Miranda:

Miranda Lambert has set a release date, title and tracklist for her first album under a new deal with Republic Records. “Postcards From Texas” will be out Sept. 13, and in the meantime, the country star’s fans can collect “Alimony,” a track issued concurrently with the album news on Wednesday.`

The 14-track album is self-produced by Lambert along with frequent collaborator and fellow Texan Jon Randall; she co-wrote 10 of the tracks, although the album-closer is reserved for a David Allen Coe classic, “Living on the Run,” from the country outlaw hero’s 1976 album “Longhaired Redneck.”

“Alimony” was co-penned by Lambert with two of country’s most in-demand songwriters, Shane McAnally and Natalie Hemby, as was another track with an obvious Texas theme, “Looking Back on Luckenbach.”

Oops, just saw newsletter. She adds:

Each song is a letter from me to you. Xo, Miranda

PS: It’s Honky Tonk as Hell.

From an earlier interview with Willman, re moving to Republic/Big Loud, setting up her own imprint, Big Loud Texas, and I'm mostly interested in how she wants to cultivate new artists

I’ve got a meeting today for the Big Loud Texas label side of it, which is also really fun. I’m loving getting to learn that side of it and really kind of step into the role of being an artist (advocating) for the artist. Because I’ve been through pretty much all of it, so I can understand the phases and what goes on in an artist’s brain; I’m just there to help and it’s been really cool.

Anything you would say about releases that are coming through your label?

Well, I don’t have any names I can say yet, but we’ve got some really cool things up our sleeve, and Dylan Gossett is our flagship artist and he’s killing it out there. I’m real thrilled to watch his star rise, and it happened really fast and I’m so thrilled that it’s part of what we’re building. I mean, our label is about a legacy of the outlaw movement that came from Texas that inspired all of us — not just country music, even. You know, Willie inspired everybody, I’m pretty sure. So I just feel like Jon and I want to keep that legacy going, and we’re glad to be a tiny part of it.

As he gears up for tonight’s first concert on his Last Call: One More for the Road Tour, Alan Jackson reveals good friend Lee Ann Womack will join him as his special guest at upcoming shows in Grand Rapids, MI (Saturday, August 24 at Van Andel Arena) and Fayetteville, AR (Saturday, September 28 at Bud Walton Arena).

I missed that Charley Crockett put out a second album this year (of course he did). I like this one more than $10 Cowboy although both, for me, have begun to signal diminishing returns for this ultra prolific artist.

Randall King - never really paid attention to him and probably just assumed he's another faceless mid-tier country dude (my bad) but ... the album out earlier this year is ... great? Am I wrong?

or is it just good and i'm in the honeymoon phase?

speaking of young dudes bringing the '90s vibes: new Muscadine Bloodline album is out Aug. 16

There are a bunch of acts who have put out records in the same 90s Hat Act vein as king this year, and I think King's is the best of them. It's a great album, especially for how many tracks are on it.

Zach Top, Amanda Kate Ferris, David Serby, and Kimmi Bitter all put out strong albums with similar vibes.

The new Amanda Anne Platt album is exactly as good as all other Amanda Anne Platt albums.

Heard a couple of hers
from Scene ballot for 2016 albs:

The Honeycutters, On The Ropes---something of a---I don't quite wanna say "antidote"---but a refreshing change from the derivative, predictably enjoyable limits of Margo Price's debut (a Loretta Lynn knock-off would have more of a kick if emulating LL's daring-for-the-times topical testimonials, and oops here's the original back with a good new album of her own). Amanda Anne Platt doesn't sound like anybody else I can think of: she and her bandmates (especially the drummer) grab my attention right away, in a straightforward yet detailed way; obviously they've been around, gaining the confidence not to oversell the pictures from life's other side, and their well-traveled set list. However, her plain voice could use a bit more of her good overdubbed harmonies (some harmonies are also credited to the musicians, but I haven't noticed male voices yet). And she should leave more room (shut up more often) for solos, though the accompaniment gets breathing room, even swirling room at times, without things getting crowded--except, done this way, her songs can seem wordier than they might in a different kind of production. Still, track by track, I already like and am intrigued by most of it--well def keep listening, which seems to be the plan.
(One exception: will prob keep fast-fwding past the sole cover, an exceedingly long-ass version of L. Cohen's "Hallelujah"---enjoyed Willie's version, but jeeez, Rufus Wainwright's, Jeff Buckley's, who knows how-many others...this is not one if your more performer-proof songs.)

Fllow-up:

Amanda Anne Platt/Honeycutters: S/T
The Honeycutters’ 2016 On The Ropes had only one problem that tipped the scales from Hon Mention to About Half Good (still 60-odd % good songwise), and that problem was that the lead singer-songwriter never shut up long enough to let the band take us a little bit further---into the thinking/breathing/sinking-in room at least or most, that’s all I ask; no set-the-night-on-fyre picking is required, though nothing against it. Here she (Anne Amanda Platt!) slaps her name in front of the band’s, and gives them and listeners enough room---Brandy Clark had to learn to do that too---and, while I still can’t find purchase in the philosophical wordmill of opener “Diamond In The Rough” grabs me at the drummer’s kick-off, and thence through the goalposts of life/the rest of the album, especially “Eden,” which starts with an appreciation of the heartland as idyll, but quickly and methodically deconstructs the narrator as she connects so many things that cling to the view; just what kind of crap is her L’il Opie’s towhead getting crammed with, over at the little schoolhouse on the prairie? “Learning How To Love Him”----not really “Again,” but she and hub are approaching what they never really had, cruising familiar sights with a gradually changing view, and she’s “sitting by your bed in a little white room.”

So that was better, was really looking fwd, but Live at the Grey Eagle I just tagged as "Milk Dud" (sluggishly sincere, I think was the basic, maybe only, impressions over several listens).

Although even Grey Eagle might be good for cherry-picking--- made last place in

About Half Good (60-45%), in descending order of Goodness or goodness:

AAP & The Honeycutters are one of those bands that could be a bullseye for me. That kind of jangle-country is exactly what I love most. But they do just consistent stay right in the middle - nothing is bad, and nothing is really transcendently great either.

Uh-oh, that title:

We’re excited to announce the upcoming release of Willie’s latest album, LAST LEAF ON THE TREE, set to drop on November 1.

This album is more than just music—it’s a heartfelt family creation.

Thanks to the extraordinary talent of Willie’s son, Micah Nelson, LAST LEAF ON THE TREE brings a new level of artistry and personal touch to Willie’s legacy. Micah not only produced the album, he played many of the instruments, designed the cover, and created captivating visuals.

To celebrate this special family project, we’re offering an exclusive pre-order edition. This special 2xLP version will include a limited-edition woodcut print created by Micah himself.

Only available here in Willie's shop.

...Last Leaf On The Tree finds Willie covering songs from moody indie rock (Beck), psych alt-pop (The Flaming Lips) and punk-informed folk (Sunny War, Micah’s Particle Kid) to thought-provoking soul jazz (Nina Simone) and lesser-known gems from legends like Tom Waits, Neil Young, Keith Richards, and Warren Zevon.

In addition, the album features new takes on one of Willie’s oldest songs (“The Ghost” from 1962) plus a new one penned with Micah (“The Color Of Sound”) that joins Willie’s collection of Zen-soaked classics. In addition to producing, Micah Nelson plays many of the instruments and even designed the album cover. He is joined by a host of celebrated musicians plus guest spots from legendary producer and musician Daniel Lanois, John Densmore of The Doors and harmonica master Mickey Raphael, who has played alongside Willie for over 50 years. On 2xLP amber swirl vinyl with a lithograph.

Track Listing:

Side A
1. Last Leaf
2. If It Wasn’t Broken
3. Lost Cause
4. Come Ye

Side B
1. Keep Me In Your Heart
2. Robbed Blind
3. House Where Nobody Lives

Side C
1. Are You Ready For The Country?
2. Do You Realize??
3. Wheels

Side D
1. Broken Arrow
2. Color Of Sound
3. The Ghost
4. Lookin’ For Trouble

I would like him to do one titled Texas, incl. "In The Jailhouse Now," "I'll Be There Before The Next Teardrop Falls, " "Spanish is the Loving Tongue," "Get It While You Can," and "You're Gonna Miss Me."

Not that familiar w David Olney, but considering contributors (whose own New West albums are on related sale), this should be worth a listen.
Release date Oct. 25, on vinyl and colored vinyl as well as CD:

“Anytime anyone asks me who my favorite music writers are, I say Mozart, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Bob Dylan and Dave Olney. Dave Olney is one of the best songwriters I’ve ever heard.” – Townes Van Zandt

TRACKLIST:

Deeper Well - Lucinda Williams
Sister Angelina - Steve Earle
Voices on the Water - The McCrary Sisters
Jerusalem Tomorrow - Buddy Miller
If My Eyes Were Blind - The Steeldrivers
Women Across the River - Willis Alan Ramsey
1917 - Mary Gauthier
Always the Stranger - R.B. Morris
If It Wasn’t for the Wind - Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Running From Love - Anana Kaye
That’s My Story - Greg Brown
Sonnet #40 - David Olney
Titanic - Afton Wolfe
Steal My Thunder - Dave Alvin with the Rick Holmstrom Trio
Delta Blue - Jim Lauderdale
She’s Alone Tonight - Janis Ian
Illegal Cargo - Townes Van Zandt

Luke Bryan Mind of a Country Boy album out today. He's gonna be on Good Morning America Monday Sept 30 and on Jimmy Fallon October 2. He's got a writing credit along with others on the title track, and on a song called "For the Kids." The other songs on the album appear to be written by Nashville country songwriters

https://www.billboard.com/music/country/luke-bryan-album-mind-of-a-country-boy-1235786806/