Rolling Country 2024

(Curm posted the link to ilxor of yore xxhuxx's annual list on auld lang RC 2023, and I'll start the New 'Un with it, as usual)

The conversations I saw online this year about country music generally revolved around either white male Southern small-town lost-cause grudge-keeping (Jason Aldean, Oliver Anthony, and Maren Morris’s backlash to the same) or alternate viral routes to popularity (Zach Bryan, Tyler Childers, Oliver Anthony again, Bailey Zimmerman and Jelly Roll maybe, and I suppose Warren Zeiders and now a band called Red Clay Strays though I’ve yet to see anybody mention them.)

And okay, maybe Morgan Wallen having both the biggest single and biggest album of the year in any genre, according to Billboard. And mainstream country music sounding more legitimately “country” than it had in years, especially through that era of bro-doldrums, according to the neo-neo-traditionalists (or just reactionaries) at Saving Country Music. And Luke Combs crossing pop with a Tracy Chapman cover. Which song I usually stayed tuned to when it came on in my car, but none of which otherwise had much to do with my own 2023 listening.

Somebody reading over the list below might be more inclined to believe that the year’s biggest trends, occasionally intersecting ones, were (1) songs with a good beat and you could dance to them that I have no idea whether anybody actually ever did since I have two left boots and don’t frequent honky tonks much and (2) young women following the confessional footsteps of Time magazine’s Person of the Year Taylor Swift like podunk garage bands trying to be the next Rolling Stones in 1966. More likely that’s just my own personal taste. But on the other hand these songs did happen, so who can really say?

Then again, as pop-oriented as many if not most of my choices lean, it’s relevant that none of them actually dominated the charts. One possible reason: My back-of-the-matchbook calculations estimate my list is 62.5% women (25 singles out of 40) and 20% people of color (8 out of 40.) The latter of which still seems pretty low to me, but both of which most likely greatly exceed ratios country radio would permit.

That said, since Nashville Scene doesn’t poll like they used to, and since I set a precedent in my 2022 Best Country Singles post, my top 10 country albums this year would more or less shake out as: Megan Moroney, Bloody Jug Band, Tamara Stewart, Li’l Andy, Tyler Dial, Lauren Alaina EP, Jason Eady, Nude Party, Tanner Addel, Chickasaw Mudd Puppies. Which I realize is a rather odd and open-ended list, and less commercially inclined than my norm. (Honorable mentions: Jelly Roll, Kelsea Ballerini EP, Ashley McBryde, Mike Jacoby Electric Trio, Fanny Lumsden, Peter One, Hot Spring Water, Leah Marie Mason EP.)

But then again you’re not some old fogey who cares about albums, now are you? Heck no! Here are the country singles you came here for:

To wit, with author's permission:

1. Fanny Lumsden "Millionaire": I still don't have a great idea of what passes for country music in Australia, but both this song and another a few rungs down by 36-year-old New South Wales native Lumsden suggest the genre's given a wider berth there than here -- to include hard-jangling summery '80s post-Paisley Underground modern-rock pop, at very least. Can't recall much country sounding like that even back then -- even early Rosanne Cash or Carlene Carter never got MTV play the way, say, the Bangles did, and "Millionaire" actually seems closer to that band. It's easily one of sunniest and most optimistic records I heard in 2023, certainly from an economic standpoint. Lumsden says she got her first job when she was 15, working on weekends, and "we didn't make much but even ten bucks would make you feel rich." Actually being a millionaire was never her life goal, see. I wonder how teenage employment down under compares to the US, where it peaked my high school senior year 1978 (I had busboy, dishwasher, Fotomat, golf caddie and newspaper delivery gigs myself), then fell gradually over the next few decades, only to finally recover slowly after bottoming out with the Great Recession of 2008. Three years after her first job came Lumsden's first car, a lime green Daewoo Cielo the lyrics say even though in the video she apparently drives a Toyota Seleka. (I'm no expert, but I can read.) I guess part of what makes this "country" is that she's singing about being "kids out in the sticks," the sticks in the video being "the land of the Wiradjuri people," who she thanks in the credits, paying "our respects to elders past, present and emerging." It's unclear if anybody in the video (or Lumsden herself) personally qualifies as indigenous, and I'm not sure if that matters; in a year when 60 percent of Australians voted against giving Aboriginal people a constitutionally mandated advisory voice in Parliament, I suspect it might. But even that doesn't cut into the uplift I get from this music, set in a country where the west remains wild.

2. Devon Cole "Hey Cowboy": Canada also defines "country" wider, I've long suspected. Here Alberta pop-rock singer-songwriter Cole, 24 years old with a psych degree from Kingston, Ontario, compares her boots to those of a dude she meets in a cowboy bar, taking him home then riding away into the sunset after he serves his purpose -- which, judging from the lyrics and sound effects, involves at very least some light bondage and a cracking whip. First song I've ever heard mention Burt's Bees. And the video honors alternate lifestyles. YouTuber alexaderford5371: "as a bisexual man, this video had me gasping for air, please dont assault me like this again." Youtuber skydivertanner: "I had a performance idea for my fiance who does drag. When I came youtube to see if there was a video, it did not disappoint!!!! Now I feel he HAS to perform this song in drag." Your move, American country.

3 -4. Megan Moroney "I'm Not Pretty" and "Lucky": "I'm Not Pretty," where the Savannah, Georgia 26-year-old's ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend scrolls through the Savannah, Georgia 26-year-old's "Insta-graham," might be the closest any song on this list came to being a legit Billboard hit -- and at #38 Hot Country, #30 Country Airplay, it still wasn't all that close. Said girlfriend keeps reassuring herself that Moroney's not pretty, that (in a reference to a 2021 should've-been-hit by Priscilla Block) Moroney's one of those girls who peaked in high school (with an "emo cowgirl" sticker on her locker door judging from the video!), that she (again according to the video) can't sing and only writes about ex-boyfriends and uses too much makeup and could use a stylist. One way to deflect criticism, I guess -- especially criticism your major influence Taylor Swift had to deflect first -- is to head it off at the pass. So Moroney (whose name gets misspelled on purpose once in the video) blesses her rival's heart. It's somehow sad but resilient; I wish the video didn't necessitate blondes beating brunettes in a baking contest, but I'll let that slide. The singer accuses her nemesis of "overanalyzin' like the queen of the Mean Girls Committee"; in "Lucky," one of the year's sprightliest straight-up sawdust-dancefloor boot-scoots, she tells the ex who's about to get lucky with her (because she's drinking, probably spicy margaritas judging from the other video) to "come over and don't overthink it," though I may be overanalyzing/overthinking to connect the two. (My theory: Megan herself does both.) "Lucky," like Olivia Rodrigo's "Bad Idea, Right?," is about hooking back up with somebody who you broke up with. For some reason its opening melody reminds me of Dion's "The Wanderer," and its "tell me whatcha gonna do" Greek chorus of Alice Cooper's "Teenage Lament '74." Either way, Meg's "only ambition is to make a bad decision," clearly a proud and popular choice with young county women these days.

5. Shy Carter & Frank Ray "Jesus at the Taco Truck": This could easily have come off condescending and corny. Doesn't hurt that it's sung by two people of color -- one a 39-year-old whose dad is Black, who grew up in Memphis on Three 6 Mafia, and whose credits include records with Chingy, Meghan Trainor, Faith Hill and Gloria Trevi; the other a Freddie Fender-and-ranchera-inspired 36-year-old ex-cop from New Mexico whose birth name is Francisco Gomez and who's landed two previous songs on country radio. But what helps more is that it hits so many bases without pulling punches, from just 20 seconds in: "I asked him how it's been in Tennessee, he said some people here want to crucify me." "The only way he could get in was to walk across the Rio Grande, I saw all the scars on his feet and his hands." (Stigmata!) "I know I'm gettin' into Heaven, but it was hella hard gettin' into Texas." No doubt -- what with the governor defying feds by slicing up refugees with sunken razor wire across state-trooper-patrolled border waters, not to mention the criminal on the verge of returning to the presidency, in his best Hitler imitation, pledging to round up into gigantic concentration camps those dark-skinned people he calls vermin poisoning the blood of America. A mainstream county song so blatantly pro-immigrant in 2023 is a miracle in its own right, even if the melody didn't reel you in.

6. Caitlin Cannon "Amarillo and Little Rock": Pretty much a straight line due east, just under 600 miles in an eight and half hour drive. Cannon, who's been tearing up the Americana circuit she's too lively a singer and tunesmith for this decade both solo and with her duo Side Pony (one album each), breaks down (figuratively) and fails to abide by a traffic stop (literally -- well, her protagonist anyway) somewhere between. Though probably not in Oklahoma City, which is near the halfway point. Where she's pulled over, seems like, is the middle of nowhere. Whatever speed she's been going wasn't fast enough to catch up, just like every other Middle American balancing hay by the roll or bale with covert cash crops. The trooper trying to meet his ticket quota checks her driver's license and asks why she's so far from home (where she wasn't long enough to call it that) or if she's sober ("I really don't knowww, sir.") Heck, only reason she stayed in the South in the first place was the low property tax. Okay, and maybe the pills.

Mackenzie Carpenter craves venison burgers.
7. Mackenzie Carpenter "Huntin' Season": A marriage song! About occasional time away not being a bad thing! Because absence makes hearts grow flounders, I mean fonder! Basically, Carpenter (a Georgia 24-year-old whose late-year country retooling of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" didn't quite cut it) looks forward to Hubbie going hunting so she "can shop online, drink all the wine, binge a whole season of The Real Housewives," not to mention "stay up all night talkin' bout our feelin's" and leave the toilet seat up. (Wait, I thought guys did that?) Excellent "deer" puns and drunken slurring of the title. And "doncha come back without a 12! Point! Buck!" makes for a super fun yellalong.

8. Breland "Cowboy Don't": New wave 1979 rockabilly, á la Moon Martin or Dave Edmunds -- except as a country dance song in 2023, sung by a Black man wearing nerdy glasses who says he enjoys doing stuff cowboys don't. For instance his boots are made not for walkin', but for knock-knock-knockin', and "the back road'll get you where you're goin' by the end of the night, but thе highway'll save a couple of minutes wе can spend on the side." Anti-rural country! The video also seems to identify dominoes, DJing, basketball, twerking, eating corn on the cob and soaking in wading pools as activities cowboys avoid. That other things cowboys won't are sexual is, at least, implied.

Cowboys probably don't wear plaid shorts, either.
9. Robyn Ottolini "Sad To Work": Monday morning and she's still mourning. Got dumped over the weekend though she "would've made a good wife," but can't use that as an excuse to stay home from the "shitty ass restaurant" (or bar, it looks like, in the video.) "Gotta be nice to people knowin' you're with her for eight straight houuuuurs, smilin' and noddin' and sayin' yessir." So if the fries are running a tad late be polite to your waitress, advises Ottolini, another twentysomething (28) from Canada (Uxbridge, Ontario), and one of the more promising post-Swifties of recent years. File this selection's service-industry drudgery alongside "9 to 5," "She Works Hard for the Money," "Mr. Sellack" by the Roches -- only from a more heart-achey angle.

10 - 12. Cecily Wilborn "Pickup Truck" and "Southern Man"; O.C. Soul "I'm Packing My Clothes": All Southern Soul is country, in a sense -- no other genre, for instance, devotes so much time to songs about trail-riding. (Well okay maybe zydeco, but trail rides are where the two styles meet.) But some Southern soul is more country than others. Cecily Wilborn of population-3000 Marianna, Arkansas makes my list primarily by virtue of subject matter: How can a song about a pickup truck, especially how men with pickup trucks exude an irresistible attractiveness to women, be anything but country? Even if it opens with spoken monologue in the style of '60s/'70s/'80s soul diva Barbara Mason, and Wilborn says she and her new pickup man dance to her favorite song "Let's Get It On." "Southern Man" (not the one by Neil Young) is along the same lines: His allure comes from how he's not afraid of hard work, loves his mama and attends church, treats his stepkids like they've been his from the start, leaves his workboots by the door and loves to dance, not to mention "by the way he wears his pants" and how "he gotta smooth walk, he kinda grrrrrowl when he talk." The sultry groove, eventually, seems to take in the Staple Singers' "Let's Do It Again." OC Soul is no grrrrrowler himself; he's way too relaxed for that, tender even when he's on the way out the door with his luggage packed because he "can't do it no more." But "I'm Packing My Clothes" sounds country to me the way, say, Bobby Bland's "Members Only" (later covered by boondock booster Billy Joe Royal with happiest girl in the whole U.S.A. Donna Fargo) or James Brown's "How Do You Stop" sound country. It would have fit right in on Dirty Laundry: The Soul of Black Country, which the German label Trikont compiled back in 2004. Its unashamedly amateurish eight-minute (including intro and outro) video, though, is just bizarre, especially since at the end you realize that the guy packing his hobo backpack with clothes and alcohol while his wife looks on and at one point blindfolds him (??) is not OC Soul at all.

Jiraya Uai & MC Toy both point at Jiraya Uai.
13. Jiraya Uai & MC Toy "Joga a Bunda": Rednex-style hoedown parts in a Brazilian favela/baile-funk carioca context, with "Hwa! hwa! hwa!" vocal percussion, laughs incorporated into the mix, and cowboy-hatted wolves in the video. That said, I'll turn this over to Frank Kogan, writing about Uai's "Hoje Tem Rodeio, Baile De Favela" with MC Tarapi, in his November blog post "The Ministry of Funny Beats": "Google Translate says 'Today there's a rodeo, a favela dance,' and perhaps the cowboy hats are meant to signal sertanejo, a rural-identified genre I have no sense of. The music on this seems pretty radical and experimental. What puts this in the funny category is its folkish-countryish tendency, the snaking gtr line and the two (!) harmonica parts (one sucking in and the other blowing out). And to call the guitar 'folk' or 'country' fails to communicate the psychological sense it has for me: it's the sort of line I'd have sold my kidney to write in 1979 when I was listening hard to Miles Davis's On The Corner and even more to 'Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose'–era James Brown and trying to twist those into something stranger and more destabilizing, aspiring to create a kind of no wave that wouldn't necessarily be abrasion so much as the feeling when you suddenly go into a roller-coaster drop."

14 - 15. Elvie Shane "Forgotten Man"; Elvie Shane feat. Jenna McLelland "Jonesin'": Nobody in country rocked harder than Elvie Shane this year, starting with his six-minute version of "Sympathy for the Devil" on the Rolling Stones tribute compilation Stoned Cold Country back in March. The standalone singles he's snuck onto streaming services since pick up where Eric Church left off a few years back, in terms of pumping up volume with a chip on the shoulder. "Forgotten Man" is convincing working-class resentment: Shane inherits the blue on his collar and red on his neck from his dad, who wore his workshirt's name patch like a badge of honor; he can't keep up with gasoline inflation or banks pissing away his I.R.A. or gentrification "sending rent through the roof." He hints he's in the rust belt, and when he says of his "little white house with a flag in the front" that "way that it is, is the way that it was," you're not sure whether he's stubbornly stuck in another century or just can't afford renovations. "Sent me off to school, tried to turn me to a scholar" (but he clearly resisted) might refer to the singer's actual stint at Western Kentucky University, from which he dropped out. Needless to say, in the Trump age, this kind of populist indignation carries more than a hint of threat, even more than during Church's or Montgomery Gentry's heyday. So it's worth noting that in the video, not everybody is white or male, and at least one teacher and one nurse balance out all the assembly liners and firefighters and farmers. Lots of farmers. John Mellencamp would approve. Which is to say, this song is not "Try That in a Small Town," nor even "Rich Men North of Richmond." It's smarter, not as bigoted. Also: fatter drum fills and bigger guitar bwaaaangs than you'd expect in this genre. "Jonesin," not as overtly inebriant-oriented as Jamey Johnson's 2006 "Keepin' Up With the Jonesin'" but still about how Shane can't get no satisfaction 'cause he's addicted to the edge and a hell too hot and heaven too high, propelled by AOR electropercussion and climaxing with swirling guitar effects, might be even louder.

16. Renee Blair "SPF Me": Give or take a grossout redneck comedian or two who nobody'd ever want to go to bed with anyway, this is as explicit as country music gets. A whole lot of epidermis gets massaged, in other words, even if it's to apply suntan oil, and I doubt the title's "F Me" ending is accidental. "Lather me up with that Australian Gold...might get a little bit messy": Good, since country too often avoids messes. My only complaint is the gratuitous wolf-whistle after Blair asks her paramour to untie the strings behind her (itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot?) bikinki. Trivia note: Turns out Blair, a Dixie Chicks- and Nelly-inspired St. Louisian who co-wrote Hardy and Lainey Wilson's "Wait in the Truck" and whose debut album Hillbetty is due in 2024, shares her name with a character played by Rosemary DeWitt in the 2011 romcom A Little Bit of Heaven!

17. Luke Combs "Joe": Forgoing alcohol has been a go-to aging male country theme for decades now -- off the top of my head, I'm pretty sure Ronnie Milsap, T. Graham Brown, Gene Watson, Montgomery Gentry, Jamey Johnson and Tim McGraw have all produced plaints along those lines, and heck maybe you could trace them all back to the hangovers hurting more than they used to and corn bread and ice tea taking the place of pills and 90 proof in Hank Williams Jr.'s "All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down" way back in 1981. Or even further, maybe. I appreciate the struggle and sentiment, and as somebody who has hugely reduced his own consumption in recent years, I even relate to it to a certain extent. But it's also kinda predictable, and I have to admit that my long-standing grudge against cults like AA and even Smart Recovery leaves "What do you want, a medal?" in my arsenal of reactions. But not to this song, easily my favorite on a big album by a big guy who seems like a good guy to boot. (Released prior to Gettin' Old, "Joe" actually reached #22 on Billboard's streaming-dependent Hot Country Songs chart, but didn't touch the airplay tally.) Joe who did county time for a fuckup or two gets hired down at the Texaco, never shows up late or drunk, and his pals come by and ask how it's going and he tells them "sleepin' pretty good, stayin' dry." Mainly, Luke Combs' humility is so believable you just wanna hug the big lug.

Left to right: Bentley's bellybutton, Lainey's back.
18 -19. Hot Country Knights feat. Darla McFarland (aka Lainey Wilson) "Harassment"; Lauren Alaina feat. Lainey Wilson "Thicc As Thieves": Funny how Lainey Wilson showed up as a guest on two different country songs this year about voluptuous gluteal curves, both the supposedly satirical one and the (comparatively) serious one. Also they both reference "Baby Got Back," of course. (And maybe both contradict what I just said two minutes ago about country not getting explicit, but never mind.) Fronted by Dierks Bentley under the pseudonym Douglas "Doug" Douglason with an alleged Terotej "Terry" Dvoraczekynski on fiddle, Hot Country Knights are billed as a '90s country parody even though three years past their debut The K is Silent I still can't pinpoint what '90s country they're supposed to be poking fun at. "Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On" by Mel McDaniel came out in 1984, if you're wondering. "Harassment" (as in "...everything to me") has all the jokes you'd expect about one-crack minds and anacondas and "Fat Bottom Girls" and pirates digging up booty on the beach, plus at least one fake blooper about anal sex and a #metoo joke at the end, but it makes me laugh anyway, in part because it works better musically than any of Bentley's non-spoofs the past few years, in turn in part because he sounds like he's having a blast. In the video he even bares his belly under a cutoff Florida T-shirt. "Thicc as Thieves" is just two ladies admiring each other's womanly brickhouse figures ("Busting out the tin like some Pillsbury biscuits, how we got in ‘em that’s some tae bo fitness," etc.), and ends referencing Luke Bryan's bro-country mainstay "Country Girl (Shake it for Me)." Let's just say I'm an admirer of this particular aesthetic.

20. Brennen Leigh "Running Out of Hope, Arkansas": Could easily have paired this with "Amarillo and Little Rock" (both about Arkansas and running out of hope) or even "Sad to Work" (both about crummy jobs -- Leigh rings up diesel, cigarettes or Mountain Dew at a service station.) But where Caitlin Cannon's always been on run, Leigh's "never been past Little Rock and I'm damn near 33," and where Robyn Ottolini's conception of country starts around Taylor Swift, Leigh sounds as traditional as anybody listed here. This is quite the front-porch lower Appalachian foot-stomper. The main drag's all boarded up, her friends are all married or in jail, and she's finally fleeing the holler, with her landline disconnected and mail forwarded nowhere.

21. Priscilla Block "Fake Names": Let's see here: Eve as played by Joanne Woodward in 1957 had three personalities or at least "faces"; Sybil in Flora Rhetta Schrieber's 1973 book had 16 that later turned out to be fake; SheDaisy in 1999's almost-top-10-country "Lucky 4 You (Tonight I'm Just Me)" had at least 32 (the one assigned that number "wants to do things to you that'll make you blush"). Priscilla Block, the 28-year-old from Raleigh who's had a couple minor country hits this decade (this sadly not being one of them) calls hers "alter ego"s and treats them like get-out-jail-free-cards. Alphabetical roll call: blacked-out Britney who pukes on your expensive boots ("rowdy ostrich" runs $645 on the Lucchese site and that's not even near the highest-priced); Elvira who goes home with the doorman; bat-shit crazy Hurricane Hayley from Alabama; Navy pilot Mary Jane; Rhoda who winds up in North Dakota; brain surgeon Tawanda. So....six. At least. All of whom appear to pop Pedialyte bottles for morning hangovers, and wish they could escape their small town (which may or may not be Harper Valley) where the PTA (which may or may not include book-ban bigots Moms For Liberty) should calm down. Let's hope the threesome scandal in Florida expedites that outcome.

Not Priscilla Block's real name.
22. Fanny Lumsden "When I Die": More twanging, clanging, ringing hard pop-rock -- guitars at points could pass for the new wave pub-powerpop of Bram Tchaikovsky or the Records (though I suppose it's more likely they're shooting for Tom Petty's early Heartbreakers), who in turn probably aimed for the Byrds. About how deaths should be toasted wake-style, not mourned: "We're gonna shoot my ashes into the sky...so plee-ee-ee-ee-ee-eeze don't cry, cause I lived a good life," clang clang. In the video -- filmed, this time, "on Ngarigo land," which is to say Australia's southeastern corner, right across the Bass Strait from Tasmania -- Lumsden's surrounded by old guys happy just to be there; judging from YouTube comments, one is her dad.

23. Sunny Sweeney & Jamie Lin Wilson "Red Dirt Girl": I probably don't listen to Emmylou Harris as much as I should, so excuse me for being oblivious to this song until this version even though Harris recorded it way back in 2000. Also excuse me for being confused because "red dirt music" is what cigar aficionados call the dusty, dusky, windswept, parched and underproduced regional Americana honky-tonk style of Texas and Oklahoma, and this song is about a girl and her best friend Lillian from a town called Meridian, which the lyrics suggest is in Alabama but Wikipedia tells me is "the eighth most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi". Maybe Emmylou meant Meridianville, instead? Heartbreaker of a tale either way, at least as Texans Sweeney and Wilson tell it -- especially when Lillian's brother doesn't come back from Viet Nam and she herself perishes at 27 with five kids, from the whiskey or the pills or "the dream she was trying to kill." Or just as likely, from all three.

24. Abby Anderson "Heart on Fire in Mexico": Most somber song on this list, partly because maybe the only one in a minor key. Starts with a "dark-haired Juarez beauty" tending bar, then knocked up from a one-night stand with a soldier she never sees again. She winds up abandoning her kid, who grows up angry in foster homes. Or as YouTube viewer Evija3000 put it, "The story goes through generations and initially you might think the heart on fire belonged to the girl who got pregnant, but in the end it actually fits the daughter much more because the mom ended up just running away, but their daughter had to live with the consequences. Because of one reckless night a little girl had to grow up in the system and become stronger and smarter than both of her parents." Anderson, who wrote it, has Instagrammed that the daughter is her own mom. In the tradition of the Supremes' "Love Child," the Roches' "Runs in the Family," Elvis's "In The Ghetto."

25. Brad Paisley feat. Volodymyr Zelenskyy "Same Here": Hard not to have a soft spot for how Paisley still does his quixotic damnedest to keep the liberal dream alive in Nashville country music. First verse: Californians? They go to the corner bar and brainstorm the state of the world, just like us! Second verse: Mexicans? They tear up at weddings, just like us! Third verse: Ukranians? They love their families and flag and losing football team, just like us, even though it's a different kind of football! Then he talks to President Zelenskyy on the phone -- back in February, when most Republicans could still be reasonably assumed to want to help Ukraine out! Now though? Fat chance! At least not ones in Congress holding financial support hostage to extreme immigration restrictions. And to be honest, recent news reports of Ukraine yanking otherwise exempt men off the street and forcing them to enlist probably aren't helping. Or the hypocrisy of funding bombs for the oppressors in one war and the oppressed in another. But hell, just two years ago, Toby Keith of all people took it for granted in "The Worst Country Song of All Time" that country fans would naturally despise Vladimir Putin. Those were the days.

26. Sara Petite "Bringin' Down the Neighborhood": From San Diego and on her seventh small-label studio album, she'd place higher with this celebration of wasted friends in low places if it didn't lose so much momentum with the spoken sermon section aimed no doubt deservedly at dissemblers three-quarters of the way through, and to a lesser extent with her awkward "whoooo!" exclamations whenever she mention police sirens. Still, it's a barrel-of-monkeys corker over a barrelhouse groove, and the part about how "we got a lot of magic mushrooms, pills and pot" (and Mama's "hopin' our asses don't get caught") really does flash me back to Singin' Bear's psilocybin in "Hoodoo Bash" on Michael Hurley and the Unholy Modal Rounders' 1976 Have Moicy!, as unruly as disreputable backwoods parties get.

The stars of David at night are big and bright.
27 - 31. Lola Kirke "He Says Y'all"; MaRynn Taylor "Shakin in My Boots"; Catie Offerman feat. Hayes Carrl "Ask Me To Dance"; Shania Twain "Giddy Up!" ; Sophia Scott "No You Didn't": Dance songs! Or rather (after "Hey Cowboy" and "Lucky" and "Huntin' Season" and "Cowboy Don't" and "Thicc as Thieves" etc.) more dance songs! Though the only one that precisely spells out instructions in its video is the one where the London-born, New York-raised actress daughter of longtime Free/Bad Company drummer Simon Kirke falls for a fella with a hillbilly drawl because she likes her boots clean and boys dirty, and dances with stars of David on the seat of her pants and her friend Tim twinky in pink by her side. ("Step forward right, double clap, step back left, single clap, grapevine to the right..." -- which apparently means crossing one leg behind -- "...6, 7, 8, big step left, drag your right toe," and so on.) MaRynn Taylor, for her part, spends her video getting gussied up, trying on lots of different outfits while hoping her date is "pickin' up what my mind is two-steppin' on." Offerman's "gettin' bored and the night's gettin old" and hopes she didn't get dressed up for nothing, but somehow dueting with fellow Texan Hayes doesn't make her boot-scoot too Americana for a YouTube commenter to rave that "it feels like '90s country." Shania, of course, is '90s country, so she rents "a car with the '90s on" while heading out west to Arizona from small-town Oh-Hi-Oh atop a modified Bo Diddley beat, which a multi-racial contingent in sundry laundromats, convenience stores and diners, including one woman in a wheelchair, slide left and right to in the video. Sophia Scott's in denial after making bad decisions (see I told you they were popular) the night before; her number's off an album called Barstool Confessions but she's apparently not quite ready to offer any just yet.

32. Alana Springsteen "Twentysomething" : 23 to be exact, and says people her age don't eat or sleep enough, leave clothes in the dryer but need air in their tires, and are lucky if they've got half a tank and fifty bucks in the bank. So, clearly another post-Swifty. Wonder if anybody's pointed out to her that her lastnamesake Bruce Springsteen, who she's not related to though she recently covered "I'm on Fire," also rhymed growing up with throwing up (or some conjugation of those verbs) at her age. Near as I can tell, Adny Shernoff wasn't quite 20 when he rhymed them in the Dictators' "Master Race Rock." ("It's the dues you've got to pay for eating burgers every day," he explained.) Still, what great company!

33- 35. Jordyn Shellheart "Tell Your Mother I'm Fine"; Brettyn Rose "Boys Night"; Taylor Edwards "Petty" : Three more twentysomething women deal with breakups, and what gets said in the aftermath. Jorydyn Shellheart, who has written songs recorded by stars like Little Big Town and Cody Johnson, receives sweet texts checking up on her from her ex's mom, who may not know the whole truth about her no-good son; it extends the lineage of Dr. Hook's "Sylvia's Mother" and OutKast's "Ms. Jackson," but the cracks in Shellheart's voice are what put it over. Brettyn Rose worries not so much about what her ex told his friends, but how the rumors about what happened late one night spread from that point, in a cadence recalling a young Suzanne Vega; "don't know why they gotta be so petty," she frets. But Taylor Edwards opts to turn the tables and be the petty one instead; "it's kinda working for me," she grins, as she heads home with her ex's buddy. Of the three, she's the only one who sounds particularly happy about her situation.

36. The Nude Party "Ride On": What used to be called cowpunk, with some Stones r&b in its shamble. Old vaquero Alfredo riding bulls in the Mexican rodeo, grocery store greeter Juanita nearing 95 working 9 to 5, this North Carolina sextet playing rock'n'roll for a dollar to pay a two-dollar toll all won't quit, though they might be better off if they did. A couple minutes in, the singer turns into Lou Reed. Got to #20 on Billboard's Adult Alternative chart ("sometimes they play us on the radio," the lyrics humblebrag), and it's not even the best song on the album. Which might not even be their best album. I'm way outside the Americana loop, but how are these guys not bigger there?

37. Zac Brown Band feat. Jamey Johnson and Marcus King "Stubborn Pride": Southern rock with soul backup, seven minutes long. Opens teasing you into thinking you're about to hear "Knockin' On Heaven's Door." Video naturally rendered in sepia. Jamey Johnson gutbusting that he was always 12 steps behind. Gypsy hearts tamed by womenfolk. Marcus King's blues guitar solo telling the real story.

38 - 39. Kassi Ashton "Drive You Out Of My Mind"; Karley Scott Collins "Heavy Metal": “In country music, the space in which women are allowed to feel sexy about themselves, for themselves, is very small,” central Missouri's Ashton confided in statement later in 2023, when she covered "Genie in a Bottle" by Christina Aguilera. “I hope this widens it.” How often do you hear a country singer admit how narrow country is? But to my ears, Ashton's been testing those limits with the rough huskiness of her singing alone for a couple years now, at least since "Heavyweight" in 2021. Nobody in the genre right now has more full-bodied pipes. So it's interesting that Karley Scott Collins, a moonlighting Florida actress, might be giving Ashton a run for her money in a single similarly called "Heavy Metal" -- not about that music although her dad brought her up on Guns N' Roses and Alice In Chains, but about a wedding ring weighing a woman down.

40. Sabrina Estevez "Vintage": A slow drag -- the "vintage" San Antonio's Estevez croons about dancing to in the kitchen is "old country songs, George Strait to Jones," but the sound here is older. Maybe not as old as the mariachi her grandpa used to play, but still lost in the '50s tonight, as Ronnie Milsap put it in a 1985 Five Satins update. Almost four decades later --- farther from Milsap than his nostalgia was from "In the Still of the Night" -- the stillness can still give you shivers. Given that San Antonio was once known for Mexican American female doo-wop groups (Roulettes, Uniques, Dreamliners), there's every reason to believe Estevez is carrying on a local legacy.

Have never been a fan of the Zac Brown Band country-rock , southern rock bar band sound

More from the embers of RC '23---thanks, Indexed!

Long-running country blog That Nashville Sound's top albums and songs of 2023
https://thatnashvillesound.blogspot.com/2023/12/that-nashville-sounds-top-country-and_31.html
https://thatnashvillesound.blogspot.com/2023/12/that-nashville-sounds-top-country-and.html

SCM's exhausting rundown:
Album OTY - https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/the-saving-country-music-2023-album-of-the-year/
Album OTY noms - https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/saving-country-musics-2023-album-of-the-year-nominees/
Other essential albums - https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/saving-country-musics-2023-essential-albums-list/
Mainstream country albums OTY - https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/the-best-mainstream-country-albums-of-2023/
Song OTY - https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/the-saving-country-music-2023-song-of-the-year/
Song OTY noms - https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/saving-country-musics-2023-song-of-the-year-nominees/
Single OTY - https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/the-saving-country-music-2023-single-of-the-year/
Artist OTY - https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/saving-country-music-2023-artist-of-the-year/

I like Gabe Lee's voice a lot but that album left me totally cold. Felt like paint by numbers John Mellencamp pastiche to me.

Utterly gutting single from the Nashville Sound list

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruVowvb-YJQ

"I’ve got bruises on my skin and a bite mark on my thigh
From a prince who turned to pauper when the wicked clock struck midnight
I wanted him to like me so that I could like myself
What does it say about me if I let him cross my boundaries"

Hadn't heard of Julie Williams, thanks.

SCM's exhausting rundown

We don't post our year-end roundup until the first week of January; unranked list of 60 best country singles of 2023 is here. Playlist is at the end of the post for those disinclined to read the various essays.

Top 30 country albums of 2023 kicks off here. Again, with a playlist at the bottom of the post.

Had no idea Jaime Wyatt released a new album this year -- thanks!

The traditionalist factions took issue with the change in style on the Wyatt album, but I dug it.

Full list of t30 albums, with a playlist, is live now. Wrote a long essay on Jason Hawk Harris' album.

Thanks! Lots I haven't heard.
Commentary, incl. much by Carlene, on June Carter Cash, re new doc:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/jan/17/june-carter-johnny-cash-documentary-movie
review:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/jan/17/june-review-country-music-legend-who-was-much-more-than-johnny-cashs-wife

Finished listening to everything from 2023 that I wanted to. Here's my rundown...

Albums
AOTY: Margo Cilker - Valley of Heart's Delight (fav track: "I Remember Carolina")

Also Great:
Jess Williamson - Time Ain't Accidental (fav track: see below)
Nick Shoulders - All Bad (fav track: "It's the Best?")
Kelsea Ballerini - Rolling Up the Welcome Mat (fav track: "Mountain with a View")
Pony Bradshaw - North Georgia Rounder (fav track: "Foxfire Wine")
Brennen Leigh - Ain't Through Honky Tonkin Yet (fav track: "Running Out of Hope, Arkansas")
Various Artists - I Am A Pilgrim: Doc Watson at 100 (fav track: Nora Brown - "Am I Born to Die")
Charles Wesley Godwin - Family Ties (fav track: "Family Ties")
Bella White - Among Other Things (fav track: "Rhododendron")
Ashley McBryde - The Devil I Know (fav track: "Coldest Beer in Town")
Zach Bryan - Zach Bryan (fav track: "I Remember Everything" feat. Kacey Musgraves)

Solid/Honorable Mention:
Lori McKenna - 1988 (fav track: "Happy Children")
Florry - The Holey Bible (fav track: "Drunk and High")
H.C. McEntire - Every Acre (fav track: "Shadows" feat. SG Goodman)
Megan Maroney - Lucky (fav track: "I'm Not Pretty")
Tyler Childers - Rustin in the Rain (fav track: "Rustin in the Rain")
Turnpike Troubadours - A Cat in the Rain (fav track: "Brought Me")
Drayton Farley - Twenty on High (fav track: "Stop the Clock")
Whitney Rose - Rosie (fav track: "Can't Remember Happiness")
Amanda Fields - What, When and Without (fav track": "2 Steppin'")

Tracks
SOTY: Jess Williamson - "Hunter"

Also Great:
Julie Williams - "The Prince"
Allison Russell - "The Returner"
Aly & AJ - "Blue Dress"
Jordyn Shellhart - "Who Are You Mad At?"
Emily Ann Roberts - "Whole Lotta Little"
Luke Combs - "Fast Car"
Fanny Lumsden - "Millionaire"
Rachel Baiman - "Annie" feat. Erin Rae
Iris DeMent - "Workin on a World"

Solid/Honorable Mention:
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit - "Strawberry Woman"
Cody Johnson - "The Painter"
Chris Stapleton - "White Horse"
Molly Tuttle - "El Dorado"
Stephen Wilson Jr. - "American Gothic" feat. Hailey Whitters
Laura Cantrell - "Bide My Time"
Lainey Wilson - "Wildflowers and Wild Horses"
Joy Oladokun - "Sweet Symphony" feat. Chris Stapleton
Gabe Lee - "Drink the River"
Esther Rose - "Chet Baker"
Cory Hanson - "Housefly"
Colter Wall - "Evangelina"
Colby Acuff - "White Western Pines"
Brit Taylor - "No Cowboys"
Jason Eady - "Way Down in Mississippi"
Dean Johnson - "Faraway Skies"
Maren Morris - "Get the Hell Out of Here"
Alex Hall - "Women and Horses" feat. Brandy Clark
Josie Toney - "City Girl Blues"
The Malpass Brothers - "I've Got Her on My Mind Again"
Katie Pruitt - "Blood Related"
Morgan Wallen - "Last Night"

sweet list! thanks for sharing.

Love that Margo Cilker album a lot.

Indexed - not trying to poke holes or anything, but none of the tracks on your album of the year were among your 30ish favorite songs of the year? Just curious if that's really the case or you just kept her off the tracks list or something.

Here (as in my other ILM voting) I try to keep them as wholly separate lists. Anything on my albums list has many tracks that I love; I use the Tracks list to highlight artists whose albums didn't quite hold up for me or who released a great single/EP. There are occasional exceptions where one of my absolute favorite tracks (e.g., "Hunter") has to be mentioned, but I rarely will have more than a couple repeats on my ballots.

Also, missed this track -- should be in my "Also Great" list:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMXI2QzeBHg

Also going to take this opportunity to share this one from my extended Tracks list bc I think it'd be a hit here. Rippin guitar record.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuz1vufyMYA

Got it. Thought that might be the case.

At the same time, I could see someone holding the opinion that Cilker's album is terrific because it's full of great songs that are all similarly great - but none that stop you in your tracks or whatever.

But your answer makes more sense. :)

https://wapo.st/47OD392

Brittney Spencer

Ned R mentioned her on Bluesky.

Freelancer Emily Yahr for Washington Post says - Brittney Spencer makes ‘universal’ country music. Nashville’s listening.
In a genre that has historically sidelined Black singers, she broke through with a viral video and a debut album that blends country sensibilities with rock and R&B.

Jon Pareles in NY Times re Sarah Jorosz, Americana singer trying a Nashville pro approach sorta this time--

In modern Nashville, songwriting is often a matter of professionalized co-writing: planned, mix-and-match collaborations by appointment, musicians sharing a room to come up with sturdy material.

It’s a method that Sarah Jarosz had largely shied away from until she made her seventh studio album, “Polaroid Lovers.” The LP, arriving Friday, includes songs she wrote with behind-the-scenes Nashville stalwarts including Jon Randall, Natalie Hemby and the album’s producer, Daniel Tashian, who worked on the country-psychedelia fusion of Kacey Musgraves’s “Golden Hour.”

On “Polaroid Lovers,” Jarosz reaches toward a broader audience while still maintaining her individuality. The songs are more plugged in, muscular and reverberant than her past albums, which were intimate and largely acoustic. But her particular perspective — at once clearheaded, thoughtful, vulnerable and open to desire — comes through.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/24/arts/music/sarah-jarosz-polaroid-lovers.html

Pareles in NY Times re Jarosz link

Thanks for the heads up, this is a really enjoyable record, plus I see that she is playing here in a couple of weeks.

The Jarosz album isn't my favorite of the year so far-- that's the new Lizzie No, with Willi Carlisle and Randall King not far behind-- but it's awfully good. Other early favorites are the Brittney Spencer, Hannah Kaminer, Colby T Helms, and Chatham County Line.

I liked the Colby T. Helms but holy moly that's the most "sounds like" another artist I've heard in some time. He's going to have to push past his lifetime of listening to Childers somehow.

Just saw hype for the return of Brooks and Dunn, with their 1st album in 12 years - Reboot

Their album titled Reboot came out in 2019? Or is there a "career reboot" album on the way?

reboot rescootin boogie

yep

NEW ALBUM ‘REBOOT’ AVAILABLE NOW
Brooks & Dunn’s collaboration project REBOOT is available now! Click below to buy or stream at your favorite retailer.

LISTEN NOW
https://smarturl.it/brooksdunnreboot

REBOOT – Track List:
1. Brand New Man (with Luke Combs)

2. Ain’t Nothing ‘Bout You (with Brett Young)

3. My Next Broken Heart (with Jon Pardi)

4. Neon Moon (with Kacey Musgraves)*

5. Lost and Found (with Tyler Booth)

6. Hard Workin’ Man (with Brothers Osborne)

7. You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone (with Ashley McBryde)

8. My Maria (with Thomas Rhett)

9. Red Dirt Road (with Cody Johnson)

10. Boot Scootin’ Boogie (with Midland)

11. Mama Don’t Get Dressed Up For Nothing (with LANCO)

12. Believe (with Kane Brown)

Produced by Dann Huff
*Produced by Dann Huff and Kacey Musgraves
https://www.brooks-dunn.com/brooks-dunn-buckle-up-for-the-reboot-tour-2024/

... Yeah, that's the one that's been out since 2019. Super uneven in terms of the collaborators' pulling their weight.

https://people.com/brooks-and-dunn-announce-reboot-2024-tour-dates-tickets-8547766

From ny Scene ballot comments:

Brooks & Dunn's Reboot is 12 of their hits rerecorded with popular young 'uns, mostly one at a time, except for LANCO (sic, sorry), a man band. Wiki sez their greatest hit was featured on ABC's The Bachelor, and I believe it: this version of "Mama Don't Get Dressed Up For Nothin'" sounds like Hall & Oates wannabees (incl. B&D) making thrift store yacht country with Casio cowbells, but not as well-done as that could be. (Midland's a band too, right? Adding nothing much to "Boot Scoot Boogie," but once again, and as usual on this set, neither do B&D). Programmed beats do signify on "Neon Moon," which is now mostly Kacey Musgraves keenly keening for certainties or at least passing solace---her most and only compelling performance ever, far as I've heard. B&D seem to be living the dying of "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone" all over again, or still, and Ashley MacBryde keeps the ballad momentum building, ditto Kane Brown on "Believe." Damn that could have been so blustery, but it's not. Reminds me of my favorite line in "Red Dirt Road, " where they learned that "happiness on Earth was not just for high achievers." Such a relief! Cody Johnson does no harm to that one. Oh, and good, if slightly too long, re-reboot of BW Stevenson's 70s hit, "My Maria," with Thomas Rhett.

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.

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/

https://variety.com/2024/music/news/zach-bryan-grammys-ballot-absent-1236168511/

Zach Bryan decided not to submit his name for any Grammy Awards. He also doesn't appear to have his own ILX thread but he could not be reached for comment on that.

Country may be big , but some non mega star acts still don’t play DC, NY, Boston, Chicago…. Below is from a press release email I got

– One of Country music’s most exciting live performers, Parker McCollum, has announced the first round of dates for his 2025 What Kinda Man Tour. Known to be a committed road-warrior, McCollum is setting his sights on a new year with new music and even more touring. Named for his current radio single, “What Kinda Man,” available now – the upcoming 2025 tour promises fans all the hits they love along with some new music from this full-throttle performer. Joining McCollum on tour is rising Country star Kameron Marlowe, with special guests Laci Kaye Booth and William Beckmann.

Parker McCollum’s What Kinda Man Tour Dates:

1.23.25 Athens, GA Akins Ford Arena

1.24.25 Charleston, WV Charleston Civic Center Coliseum

1.30.25 Kingston, RI The Ryan Center

1.31.25 Portland, ME Cross Insurance Arena

2.1.25 Amherst, MA Mullins Center

2.6.25 Duluth, MN AMSOIL Arena

2.7.25 Minneapolis, MN Target Center

2.8.25 Champaign, IL State Farm Center

2.13.25 Tupelo, MS Cadence Bank Arena

2.14.25 St. Louis, MO Chaifetz Arena

2.15.25 Louisville, KY KFC Yum Arena

2.20.25 Wichita, KS Park City Arena

2.21.25 Lincoln, NE Pinnacle Bank Arena

2.22.25 Cedar Rapids, IA Alliant Energy PowerHouse

4.24.25 Portsmouth, VA Atlantic Union Bank Pavilion

4.25.25 Charleston, SC Credit One Stadium

4.26.25 Gainesville, FL Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center

some non mega star acts still don’t play DC, NY, Boston, Chicago

the lack of a traditional terrestrial country radio station in new york certainly doesn't help.

We have a commercial country radio station in DC and such acts still don't come

Parker sounds good on Miranda's "Santa Fe."

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – With excitement peaking, George Jones: The Lost Nashville Sessions is available today, offering fans a long-awaited treasure trove of music from the legendary George Jones. This album features sixteen tracks, blending beloved classics with rare gems from Jones’ extensive catalog. Fans will recognize favorites like “The Race Is On,” “The Grand Tour,” “White Lightnin’,” and “Tender Years.” The collection also highlights lesser-known recordings of songs such as “Old Brush Arbors,” “She’s Mine,” “Four-O-Thirty-Three,” and more, providing a fresh glimpse into Jones’ iconic career.

“Music truly is the gift that keeps on giving,” say Nancy Jones. “Even after all these years, we’re still able to bring new George Jones music to his fans. This collection features sixteen tracks, including fan favorites in fresh, previously unheard versions. I’m excited to share these special recordings with everyone who has cherished his music.”

Originally recorded by Jones in the 1970s for radio, these tracks have been carefully restored to twenty-first-century quality, preserving Jones’ signature sound with subtle enhancements in instrumentation and background vocals.

These recordings were initially made exclusively for artist promotion, often completed in just one or two takes with an announcer’s voice between songs.

Once aired, the tapes were often discarded or destroyed by the stations. Country Rewind Records President and Executive Producer Thomas Gramuglia discovered the original boxed master tapes and recognized that true fans would appreciate hearing these timeless recordings despite their poor condition after years of neglect. With the help of co-executive producer Rex Allen Jr. and producer Paul Martin, George Jones: The Lost Nashville Sessions provides a unique collection of George Jones’ music that showcases his emotional depth and lasting influence on country music.

Some of the songs were previewed exclusively by Whiskey Riff, American Songwriter, Forbes, Cowboys & Indians, The Music Universe, and The Hollywood Times.

George Jones: The Lost Nashville Sessions Track Listing:
01. Window Up Above - Forbes
02. I’ll Share My World With You
03. The Race is On - The Music Universe
04. The Grand Tour - Whiskey Riff
05. Once You’ve Had The Best
06. Love Bug
07. She Thinks I Still Care - Forbes

08. Four O Thirty Three

09. The Honky Tonk Downstairs - American Songwriter

10. Old Brush Arbors

11. A Picture Of Me Without You

12. Walk Through This World With Me

13. Tender Years - Cowboys & Indians

14. She’s Mine

15. White Lightnin’ - The Hollywood Times

16. Hey Good Lookin’

From Omnivore:

https://omnivorerecordings.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Willis-What-I-Deserve-OV-560.jpg

Kelly Willis
What I Deserve: 25th Anniversary Edition

Release date: October 25, 2024

Description
25th Anniversary expanded edition available on CD and for the first time on vinyl. Both formats include 5 live bonus tracks.

While gigging in Austin, Texas, in the late 1980s, Kelly Willis developed a strong fan base. Among her fans were other Texas musicians like Lyle Lovett and Nanci Griffith. Griffith introduced her to producer Tony Brown who signed Willis to MCA Records. Soon, she would find herself in the films Thelma And Louise and Bob Roberts, as well as receiving a nomination as Top New Female Vocalist at 1993’s Academy of Country Music Awards. After three records on MCA, and an EP on A&M, Willis finished her fifth release and signed with Rykodisc, who released What I Deserve in 1999.

Featuring originals by Willis, three co-writes with The Jayhawks’ Gary Louris, and songs by Paul Kelly, Paul Westerberg, Nick Drake, Dan Penn, and more—What I Deserve became her highest charting album to date, hitting #30 on the Country charts and #24 on Heatseekers Albums. It is also now revered as a landmark release in Alternative Country and Americana circles—with good reason.

To celebrate its 25th Anniversary, What I Deserve returns—expanded with five previously unissued live performances of songs from the album recorded November 14, 1999 on Mountain Stage. In addition to an expanded CD reissue, the release sees its first appearance on vinyl as a double-LP! In addition to the 17 tracks (appearing on both formats), the packaging contains lyrics and new liner notes from Peter Blackstock (No Depression, Austin American-Statesman), all done with Kelly’s approval.

What I Deserve has always deserved another look and listen for those who may have missed it the first time—what you deserve is to lose yourself in Kelly Willis’ incredible What I Deserve and celebrate 25 years of this landmark album.

CD / 2-LP Track List:

Take Me Down
What I Deserve
Heaven Bound
Talk Like That
Not Forgotten You
Wrapped
Cradle Of Love
Got A Feelin’ For Ya
Time Has Told Me
Fading Fast
Happy With That
They’re Blind
Not Long For This World

Previously Unissued Bonus Tracks
Live on Mountain Stage, November 14, 1999:

What I Deserve
Not Forgotten You
Cradle Of Love
Heaven Bound
Fading Fast

Cat: OV-560

TIL there's a Country/Bluegrass singer named Zach Top. Hopefully his middle name also starts with a "Z".

Shades of Vincent Neil Emerson (Top Tenned his Crowell produced alb, should check the others).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/2024/11/21/shaboozey-responds-cmas-awards-name-jokes/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Editorial+and+Events&utm_campaign=da06947d2b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_11_22_04_22

Country music media was not laughing; The Tennessean noted “The CMA Awards were full of jokes about Shaboozey’s name — not all of them worked.” On X (formerly Twitter), an editor for the popular website Taste of Country said that viewers deserved an explanation for Willmon’s comment, which “tarnished” Johnson’s win.

“Shaboozey Deserves More Than What the CMA Awards Gave Him — Including an Apology,” headlined a story in Rolling Stone by Larisha Paul, who pointed out that Shaboozey, who brought many accolades and much attention to country music this year, “was rewarded with microaggressions about his name” during the genre’s biggest awards show.

Oops, this is what started things. Shaboozey's song despite being on chart for quite a while lost out to an older 2023 Chris Stapleton song that had less success, and then several folks including a producer decided to make fun of his name.

Shaboozey’s fans were unhappy that the song was overlooked, but there was another reason the singer was in the headlines today — during the three-hour telecast, his name became a running joke, and one that many viewers did not find funny. The most notable mention was by producer Trent Willmon, who randomly name-dropped the singer during his album of the year acceptance speech for producing Cody Johnson’s “Leather.”

“I gotta tell ya,” Willmon said, holding up the trophy. “This is for this cowboy who has been kicking Shaboozey for a lot of years, y’all, Cody Johnson.”

On Wednesday night into Thursday, viewers expressed disappointment on social media about the line, noting that even if Willmon was trying to make a joke about “kicking booty,” it was in poor taste. Shaboozey, born Collins Obinna Chibueze, has spoken in interviews about how he co-opted the nickname from a former football coach who, like many others in his life growing up, found it difficult to pronounce his given name correctly.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/2024/11/21/cma-awards-2024-winners-best-worst-moments/

Morgan Wallen, who wasn’t in attendance, won entertainer of the year, while Chris Stapleton and Lainey Wilson also took home multiple trophies.

do people here like the Shaboozey album? or no?

i like it, just curious ...

Very much so.

New Dwight out

xxp undeniable

Jeff Bridges messed up Wallen's name, but wasn't making a joek.

Spotify says I went through a "Pumpkin Spice Tavern Country" phase mid-year and I guess I can't argue.

Songs of that? I might want a whiff.

Now swept into the homestretch of Rosanne Cash's fairly amazing life-music memoir, Composed (her husband has suggested that the follow-up be Decomposed, but we'll see). It's reminding me of this song and video, which I've prob posted on a previous RC but still good for all seasons:
(if it doesn't show up, it's:
Rosanne Cash---Biloxi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDhV5SscEgc

i haven't listened to the shaboozey album but love the song "highway" from it

https://holler.country/lists/the-best-country-music-albums-of-2024/

Good to see Koe Wetzel on a list. His song "Ragweed" is still one of my faves of the last few years. He went deeper into grunge-country on the album after that and it was just bad. The new one steps back in the other direction and is better for it.

The title song from Maggie Antone's album is on my best of list, too. I don't think I even heard the rest of the album that one's so good.

zach top is so big but has basically been noncovered by mainstream press, feel like that will change in 2025 tho...

disappointed to learn his middle name is Dirk and not, say, Zeke

B-but country has so many Zaks, Zachs, and Zekes, probably---we need more Dirks! I can't think of any, offhand/
Speaking of xpost Rosanne, she talks about the personal, critical and commercial gratifications of King's Record Shop (and why and how there was so much friction when she switched gears later---for one thing, a truckload of debt followed her when she moved from Columbia to Capitol---such a thang had knever occurred to me.) Here's good piece about the namesake store, so cool and country funky when I lived in Louisville (was an "undeveloped" neighborhood, for sure, but customers should pay some dues too, rat?)
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/01/08/Inside-Kings-Record-Shop/2629568616400/

The title song from Maggie Antone's album is on my best of list, too. I don't think I even heard the rest of the album that one's so good.

― j.o.h.n. in evanston (john. a resident of chicago.), Wednesday, December 11, 2024 2:25 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdl2ux07Tjw

thx remynding me ov Pam Tillis alb, same title.

and speaking of Maggie Antone, she is here:

Don't Rock The Inbox
Issue #79: Our Favorite Songs and Albums of 2024
Bad year for humans, good year for country music, so it goes

It’s that time of year: ranking shit time! Except we are not doing any ranking here at Don’t Rock the Inbox, because no one said we had to. We loved so many songs and albums this year, we’re presenting them to you in alphabetical order. We hope you’ll let us know in the comments what you loved too (only open to subscribers, but we are running a sale!), and we also hope you found some of your favorites on this very newsletter, if we are doing our jobs correctly!

First off, we partnered with Stereogum again to pick our favorite country albums of 2024. Thanks Stereogum! You can find the whole list over at their website here.

JOINT FAV: “Dollar Bill Bar,” Sierra Ferrell: It’s Beatles, it’s country, it’s catchy and pretty perfect [My no. 3 most played song of the year per Spotify (sorry). Just a plain old banger, right from the opening chords — fun, catchy and irreverent. "Guys like you are a dime a dozen…" I need to scream-sing it, immediately. — NW].

"Johnny Moonshine," Maggie Antone: Speaking of earworms! Spent months with this one on repeat, because with a hook like that how can you not… — NW

Great song, John, but I meant to your best of list!

Still working on it! For purposes of this thread, though, I listened to way less country this year than the past few, so I'm cramming over the next couple of weeks. But what's included thus far is pretty basic -- "Pink Skies" and Miranda's song from the Twisters soundtrack. I've got a lot of catching up to do based on these lists coming out.

Ah, yes, same. Did you catch Jess Williamson at SPACE? She really could've used a band but was charming nonetheless.

Nice. Pretty rare that I get out late these days, even to a venue in walking distance...Like, those Raul Malo shows were tempting but pricey iirc. Sold out now.

Can't resist previewing Chuck Eddy's 20 (+ 24?) Best Country Singles with this excursion:

...the more-than-century-long history of Black country artists — dating back, as Craig Jenkins put in his April Vulture review of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, to “the adaptation of the banjo by musically inclined African slaves (and) to the unsung tradition of Black vocalists who were yodeling before Jimmie Rodgers in the 1920s.” And maybe most newsworthily to 1891, when Louis Vasnier of New Orleans recorded his recently rediscovered wax cylinder “Thompson’s Old Grey Mule,” just reissued last month as a vinyl 45 on Archeophone Records. Since it’s older than any other country recording known to humans, it wouldn’t be fair to pit it against country singles recorded 133 years later; if I did that, I’d probably also have to call the Unholy Modal Rounders’ Unholier Than Thou 7/7/77 my favorite country album of 2024, which just doesn’t seem right somehow.

That was very interesting . Haven't listened to all of Chuck's faves to compare them with these other 2 categories of country that he is less a fan of. I think Chuck's likes fall in between these 2 categories and blend a little of each category i think.

Anyhow, Shaboozey’s single wound up spending most of the rest of the year in the peak Hot Country position — 25 weeks total as of this writing — only temporarily relinquishing the spot to former alleged rapper and all-around genre chameleon Post Malone’s “I Need Some Help” featuring white n-word spouter Morgan Wallen for seven weeks in the summer then Wallen’s own “Love Somebody” for one in the fall. And unlike Beyoncé’s hoedown move, Shaboozey’s smash actually managed to dominate country radio as well — its seven weeks atop Country Airplay were the second longest any song spent there all year, behind only Nate Smith’s “World on Fire.” Mixed-race crooner Kane Brown (two weeks at number one, including one with electronica DJ Marshmello) and former hip-hoppers Malone (seven weeks with two songs) and Jelly Roll (five weeks with three songs) also crowned the airplay countdown this year, obviously giving country purists fits.

Yet at the same time, oddly enough, purists like the ones at Saving Country Music frequently praised the neo-(neo-neo-neo)-traditionalist turn they saw commercialized country taking, as exemplified by singers like Zach Top, Luke Combs and Cody Johnson (and maybe, if they didn’t think she sold out, Lainey Wilson). I’m still trying to wrap my head around how, sometime in the past couple years, “’90s country” suddenly (or gradually?) became “traditional” — especially when I remember not only when traditionalists considered ’90s country “way too pop,” but also being surprised when Lee Ann Womack’s There’s More Where That Came From came out in 2005 and ’70s countrypolitan was suddenly trad. I guess the formula is “X minus 30 years”? I fully expect bro-country nostalgia by around 2040.

Is it fair to lump Lainey in with Zach Top and Luke Combs? Her album reminds me a lot of Miranda Lambert's, and not just because of the guest feature. Have you all heard "Ring Finger"?

That should say " Miranda Lamberts' ", as in, her past catalogue, not just her 2024 release.

I took it that Chuck was wondering about Slaving Country Music's (possible?) lumping (btw I don't follow them much any more but can imagine some complaints about jazzy elements on JJ's Midnight Gasoline, also some electronics on "New Orleans Saturday Night")