Post your country music critics ballot here

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2004:

1. Toby Keith - "Whiskey Girl" (DreamWorks)
2. Montgomery Gentry - "Gone" (Columbia)
3. Big & Rich - "Wild West Show" (Warner Bros.)
4. Big & Rich - "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" (Warner Bros.)
5. Gretchen Wilson - "Here for the Party" (Epic)
6. Montgomery Gentry - "You Do Your Thing" (Columbia)
7. Montgomery Gentry - "If You Ever Stop Lovin' Me" (Columbia)
8. Blake Shelton - "Some Beach" (Warner Bros.)
9. Kenny Chesney featuring Uncle Kracker "When the Sun Goes Down" (BNA)
10. Kenny Chesney - "Anything But Mine" (BNA)

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2004:

1. Big & Rich - Horse of a Different Color (Warner Bros.)
2. Gene Watson - ...Sings (Intersound/Compendia)
3. Country Teasers - Full Moon Empty Sportsbag (In The Red)
4. Montgomery Gentry - You Do Your Thing (Columbia)
5. T. Graham Brown - The Next Right Thing (Intersound/Compendia)
6. Gretchen Wilson - Here for the Party (Epic)
7. Travis Tritt - My Honky Tonk History (Columbia)
8. Blake Shelton - Blake Shelton's Barn & Grill (Warner Bros.)
9. Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose (Interscope)
10. Th' Legendary Shack Shakers - Believe (Yep Roc)

TOP COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2004:

John Conlee - Classics (RCR)
David Allen Coe - The Essential David Allen Coe (Columbia/Legacy)

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2004:

1. Toby Keith
2. Rodney Atkins
3. Gene Watson

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS OF 2004:

1. Lee Ann Womack
2. Gretchen Wilson
3. Martina McBride

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST DUOS, TRIOS OR GROUPS OF 2004:

1. Big & Rich
2. Montgomery Gentry
3. Brooks & Dunn

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST OVERALL ACTS OF 2004:

1. Big & Rich
2. Toby Keith
3. Gene Watson

(write-in category):

MEXICO'S TWO BEST ALBUMS OF 2004:

1. Yolanda Perez - Aqui Me Tienes (Fonovisa/Univision)
2. Grupo Exterminador - De Parranda con el Diablo (Fonovisa/Univision)

COMMENTS: The two Mexican albums I listed were the only two Spanish-language albums I heard this year; either would have been good enough to make the real list if I'd been willing to consider them country, which I somewhat do. And calling the Yolanda Perez album Mexican overlooks the fact that it's from Los Angeles! And U.S. music and Mexican music have been mixing DNA for centuries. Mexico is officially in country's view a place to vacation and a place to run to, but truly its music is part of the bones and structure of country music as well. My thought here is that the incorporation of horns and other Mexican stylings into country, if it takes place, will be a lot less fraught than the incorporation of rap, for instance. And country could learn a lot from Mexican and Latin music in general about how to take in other sounds, including hip-hop, reggae, and the like, while keeping a sense of ease about it and not losing one's sense of musical self.

That's all I've time for. Felt like saying something other than the obvious.

Frank Kogan

[Don't know what was so nonobvious about that, actually.]

(also, good choices, though you chose the wrong big and rich (the proper answer is holy water) and under rated brad paisley (who had two brilliant singles on mud on the tracks) and what do you make of rascall flatts, b/c sometimes i like them much better then gentry, and sometimes i like them much less. i would put sarah evans in the top 20 too, and julie andrews, maybe.

and i think that kieth is aa pretty shitty vocalist, and i can think of a dozen that have better control of their material, and sing with a wider, more complicated and more open pallette--brad paisley;kenny chesney;alan jackson;jason mccoy;maybe blake shelton)

but lee anne womack is brilliant, gretchen wilson actually deserved the hype this year, big and richs album is as good as it could be;loretta;s was much better then i thought it was at the beginning..._

1. Los Tigres del Norte, "Jose Perez Leon" (Fonovisa)
2. Anthony Hamilton, "Charlene" (Arista)
3. Sara Evans, "Suds in the Bucket" (RCA)
4. Big & Rich "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" (Warner Bros.)
5. Gretchen Wilson, "Redneck Woman" (Sony Nashville)
6. The Notorious Cherry Bombs, "It's Hard to Kiss the Lips at Night that Chew Your Ass Out All Night Long" (Universal South)
7. Marco Antonio Solis, "Mi Mayor Sacrificio" (Fonovisa)
8. Trent Willmon, "Beer Man" (Sony)
9. Gretchen Wilson, "Here for the Party" (Sony Nashville)
10. Tracy Lawrence, "Paint Me a Birmingham" (Dreamworks)
TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2004:

1. Terry Allen, Juarez (Sugar Hill)

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2004:

1. Big & Rich
2. Gretchen Wilson
3. Trent Willmon

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST OVERALL ACTS OF 2004:

1. Allison Moorer
2. Big & Rich
3. Charlie Robison

Overall thoughts:

Last year, Toby Keith put out a single called "I Love This Bar," which was clearly an allegory for country music; in this big bar, he seemed to say, there were many different kinds of people, most of whom he had nothing in common, but that that was okay, melting pots were fine by him, he loved us all. I didn't feel like that this year. Obviously, the election was massively polarizing. It was disheartening for me, and not just because my candidate(s) lost; there seems to be an ugly mood in the country these days, and that started to feel true for country music as well. Gratuitous flags everywhere in everyone's videos, crosses glowing on the backs of fascists and urging vigilante Christian justice, SheDaisy failing to condemn a serial-killing protagonist who kills in the name of the Lord -- it was enough to make me question my allegiance to country music.

Fortunately, I found my old copy of Waylon's Honky Tonk Heroes and now it's all back on track. Long high school road trips, nothing but Waylon & Willie in my mom's boyfriend's beat-up Chevy Blazer as we drove all over the great American West late at night, gotta get to the next town for the next gig, windshield wipers going right in time with ol' Hank or new Hank...man, that stuff is deep in my heart. I just wish I connected with "Remember When" or "Live Like You Were Dying" a bit more...man, I ain't dead yet, and I don't want to listen to songs that make me feel like an old man! But old men need music too.

I found it interesting that Toby Keith had a hit with "Stays in Mexico" and that Montgomery Gentry did a song where they said that they don't know anything about Mexico. Those old boys better learn something quick-like, because they're missing a revolution. Norteno acts like Los Tigres del Norte and Los Tucanes de Tijuana released monster albums that sounded way more "country" than most of the stuff on the radio. Everyone who is bemoaning the loss of "classic country music" should find their way to a Wal-Mart and watch all the cowboy-hatted blue-collar Mexican-Americans picking up accordion-based two-step music of great skill and depth of feeling. If some artificial language barrier is the only reason keeping you from hearing Polo Urias or Intocable or Beto y Sus Canarios or Monchy & Alexander, please step aside and let America pass you right by.

The country album that sounded best to me this year was Allison Moorer walking away from everything: Nashville (the dirty 70s-rock sound), blind patriotism ("All Aboard," a condemnation of our rush to war), God (the title track, "Believe You Me" which is probably just as much about America as it is about God), hope itself. It was a Spectacular Bridge-Burning Performance of Incredible Bravery...and, like most S B-B Ps of I B, it didn't sell a lot of copies. Similarly, Charlie Robison didn't get very far on the charts, even though his record contained at least two cross-dressing songs, sex and drug references, and a hearty screw-you attitude towards the machine. Hey, the machine don't run right if it ain't flipped off regularly! In a year when most people seemed to want to slip right in, I loved the songs that came from these two intelligent compassionate angry people saying HELL NAW, in thunder.

I also just want to say this. That whole Big & Rich/Gretchen Wilson thing is big and huge, and it ain't going anywhere, and I loved both albums...but it's not exactly revolutionary. I loved both their albums, but I'm more interested to see where each act goes next. Will they keep their songwriting skills intact, or succumb to the easy path, roads that please the foot? Or will they all be striking out on their own, ready to see where the wind takes them, challenging their audiences with new funky skillz? Time, and bravery, will tell.

1. Big & Rich - Horse of a Different Color (Warner Bros.)
2. Kenny Chesney - When the Sun Goes Down (BNA)
3. Gretchen Wilson - Here For the Party (Epic)
4. Montgomery Gentry - You Do Your Thing (Columbia)
5. T. Graham Brown - The Next Right Thing (Intersound)
6. Gene Watson - ...Sings (Intersound)
7. Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose (Interscope)
8. Pat Green - Lucky Ones (Republic/Universal)
9. The Warren Brothers - Well-Deserved Obscuriy (429)
10. Amanda Shaw - I'm Not a Bubblegum Pop Princess (Little Fiddle)

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2004*:

1. Big & Rich - Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy) (Warner Bros.)
2. Toby Keith - Whiskey Girl (Dreamworks)
3. Terri Clark - Girls Lie Too (Mercury)
4. Gretchen Wilson - Redneck Woman (Epic)
5. Big & Rich - Wild West Show (Warner Bros.)
6. Loretta Lynn - Portland, Oregon (Interscope)
7. Rebecca Lynn Howard - I Need a Vacation (MCA)
8. Chely Wright - Back of the Bottom Drawer (Vivaton)
9. Julie Roberts - Break Down Here (Mercury)
10. Todd Snider - Conservative Christian, Right-Wing Republican, Straight, White, American Males
(Oh Boy)

(*note: I voted for Martina McBride's "This One's For the Girls" last year. If that vote does not carry over to this year's tally, and if she is in the running for finishing on the singles list, please give that song a vote instead of the Todd Snider one above.)

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2004:

1. David Allen Coe - The Essential David Allen Coe (Columbia/Legacy)
2. John Conlee - Classics (RCR)
3. Kim Richey - The Collection (Lost Highway)
4. Ocie Stockard the Wanderers - Western Swing Chronicles Volume 3 (Origin Jazz Library)
5. Red Simpson - Truck Drivin' Fool (Sundazed)

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2004:

1. Big Kenny
2. John Rich
3. Kenny Chesney

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS OF 2004:

1. Gretchen Wilson
2. Loretta Lynn
3. Terri Clark

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST LIVE ACTS OF 2004:

1. Big & Rich
2. The Muzik Mafia
3. Shelly Fairchild

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST SONGWRITERS OF 2004:

1. John Rich
2. Big Kenny
3. Loretta Lynn

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST DUOS, TRIOS OR GROUPS OF 2004:

1. Big & Rich
2. Montgomery Gentry
3. The Warren Brothers

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST INSTRUMENTALISTS OF 2004:

1. Cowboy Troy
2. Big & Rich's drummer (or their other drummer, I can't decide which)
3. Jack White

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2004:

1. Big & Rich
2. Gretchen Wilson
3. Shelly Fairchild

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST OVERALL ACTS OF 2004:

1. Big & Rich
2. Kenny Chesney
3. Gretchen Wilson

(write-in categories):

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST VIDEOS OF 2004:
1. Big & Rich - Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)
2. Montgomery Gentry - You Do Your Thing
3. Shedaisy - Passenger Seat

COUNTRY MUSIC's THREE MOST FASCIST ASSHOLES OF 2004:
1. Joe Nichols (for "If Nobody Believed in You")
2. Montgomery Gentry
3. Chely Wright (for "The Bumper of My S.U.V.")

Give me a break, by what possible definition is this = country music? Crap album no matter what the genre, by the way.

By the way, I am *shocked* at the absence of Bonnie Prince Billy's "Sings Greatest Palace Music" from these lists. Now there is an indie record I could see actual country fans enjoying.

"Man v Cock" would make an excellent Toby Keith song title, by the way.