Rolling Country 2009 Thread

Link to 2008 thread:

Rolling Country 2008 Thread

On deck:

January 2009

* Various Artists - Undone: A MusicFest Tribute to Robert Earl Keen [Live) 05 January
* Alecia Nugent - Hillbilly Goddess 15 January
* Pat Green - What I'm For 27 January
* Various Artists - Johnny Cash Remixed 27 January

February 2009

* Dierks Bentley - Feel That Fire 03 February
* Wynonna - Sing 03 February
* Michael Martin Murphey - Buckaroo Blue Grass 10 February
* Jake Owen - Easy Does It 24 February

March 2009

* Raul Malo - Lucky One 03 March
* Alison Brown - The Company You Keep 03 March
* Dailey & Vincent - Brothers from Different Mothers 31 March

April 2009

* Emerson Drive - Believe 07 April

http://redneckerson.blogspot.com/

I'd like to call attention to this excellent Full album MP3 blog-- Red Neckerson's Radio Roundup. Mostly featuring albums from the 50s-70s.

Maybe the moderators should fix the spelling of this thread, but anyway...

From '08 thread:

Speaking of the future, not to jump the gun or anything, these are my favorite country albums of 2009 so far:

Megan Munroe – One More Broken String (Diamond)
Chuck Mead – Journeyman’s Wager [label tk]
Dierks Bentley – Feel The Fire (Capitol)

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 30 December 2008 22:47 (2 days ago) Permalink

Bentley album, after a few listens, seems to have one great song ("I Can't Forget Her," gorgeously spooky and smokey use of spaghetti western spaces from the desert with sand blowing around), a couple good ones at the beginning ("Life On The Run"'s hard fugitive Southern rock boogie, "Sideways"' blatant dancefloor-filler for the ladies), and way too much mere competence).

Robert Keen Undone tribute: Two sprawling dics, material that often seems promisng but it is rarely sung in a captivating way. Gets wearing sooner than it should.

Raul Malo: ex-Maverick sings consistently mediocre material in consistently excellent voice; dabbles in unfashionable genres.

This link should be up here too, obviously:

Rolling Country 2008 Thread

Calling most of the tracks on the new Dierks Bentley "mere competence" is probably more critical than I mean it to be. What I mean is that most of them just sound like more Dierks songs, just not as good or distinctive as the best ones on his first three albums (or last year's best-of CD.) Most of them are fine; a couple, if they become hits, will probably wind up standing out more than they seem to now.

Listened this morning to Ronnie McDowell's Personally (Epic, 1983), which I found for free on a sidewalk in Manhattan last month as part of a pile of other LPs, and suddenly I'm more curious about the guy. He's clearly another unacknowledged soul-music-as-country-pop singer, and a good one; apparently got his big break with an Elvis tribute single right after Elvis died in 1977, then relied a lot on his ability to sing a lot like Elvis (which I assume is where the r&b comes from, and I doubt he was alone in that as far as '70s/'80s country guys go -- Billy "Crash" Craddock comes to mind.) Apparently he's also done entire albums of soul covers, and did one in '93 (which I've never heard) called Country Dances. Also seems to have an obsession with older women -- had a cheesy early '80s hit of that name (which I think I have on a compilation somewhere), and does one on Personally called "38 Special" about a woman who is both special and, um, 38. I like that one a lot, and on the second side, the first couple melodies sound like they could be played back to back with the Skatt Brothers' disco-country classic "Midnight Companion" almost -- even the one where he talks about him and his baby listening to bluegrass out in the country, which I don't buy for a minute. Best song is probably "You're Gonna Ruin My Bad Reputation." Also, he doesn't look country at all -- Just looks like your usual facial-haired suburban '70s swingtown sleazeball. It's a good look! If anybody has any thoughts about the guy, by all means post them here.

(Oops, hadn't noticed that Prez Keyes had already posted that link, sorry.)

that robert earl keen tribute somehow manages to exclude most of my favorite r.e.k. songs. of, course, "material that often seems promising but" is not a bad summation of r.e.k. overall.

xp Actually, come to think of it, Eddie Rabbit had pretty much the same facial hair in the early '80s -- not to mention a similar relationship to Elvis (he'd written "Kentucky Rain") and rockabilly in general. (Though at least McDowell came from Tennessee, rather than Brooklyn.)

Even more announced 2009 releases:

Adam Gregory Adam Gregory Big Machine/NSA/Midas March 17
Back to Tennessee Billy Ray Cyrus Lyric Street January 13
Buckaroo Blue Grass Michael Martin Murphey Rural Rhythm Records February 10
Carolina Eric Church Capitol Nashville March 24
The Company You Keep Alison Brown Compass March 3
Everything Comes and Goes Michelle Branch Warner Bros. February 10
For the Sake of the Song BlackHawk Airline TBA
The Future is Now Lonestar Lonestar/CO5 TBA
I Got Your Country Right Here Gretchen Wilson Columbia TBA
I Walk Alone Lorrie Morgan Stroudavarious TBA
I'm About to Come Alive David Nail MCA Nashville TBA
If I Had My Way James House Friday TBA
In Overdrive Aaron Tippin Country Crossing TBA
Lonesome Town Tanya Tucker Saguaro Road TBA
Martina McBride Martina McBride RCA Nashville March 31
Notes to the Coroner Chely Wright Vanguard TBA
Right Road Now Whitney Duncan Warner Bros. TBA
Son of a Preacher Man John Rich Warner Bros. Nashville April 7
Sounds Like Life Darryl Worley Stroudavarious TBA
Unmistakable Jo Dee Messina Curb TBA
Voices Chris Young RCA TBA

I think the Eric Church and Chris Young were pushed back from 08.

I Got Your Country Right Here Gretchen Wilson Columbia TBA

I wonder if she'll try anything different this time out.

Anybody interested in more corner cowboys singing r&b, could check what I wrote about Dallas Frazier on RC 2008 (m'mm-m'mm: New Year's Day, with no hoppin' john or hawg jowl, but pork chops, turnip greens, blackeyed peas, cornbread suffice nice)

Raul Malo: ex-Maverick sings consistently mediocre material in consistently excellent voice; dabbles in unfashionable genres.

My advance copy of Lucky One his first cd of new self-penned material in years is not great despite his fine voice. But live I think he is still worth seeing as I like the covers, the old Mavericks songs he does, and his between song chatter is always entertaining.

Here it is--the infamous No Depression critic's poll top 40

1. Alejandro Escovedo, Real Animal (Back Porch/Manhattan) -- 88 -- 14
2. Hayes Carll, Trouble In Mind (Lost Highway) -- 44 -- 6
3. Drive-By Truckers, Brighter Than Creation's Dark (New West) -- 43.5 -- 8
4. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges (ATO) -- 39 -- 5
5. Ben Sollee, Learning To Bend (self) -- 37.5 -- 5
6. Lucinda Williams, Little Honey (Lost Highway) -- 37 -- 7
7. Shelby Lynne, Just A Little Lovin' (Lost Highway) -- 37 -- 6
8. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! (Anti-) -- 37 -- 6
9. Randy Newman, Harps And Angels (Nonesuch) -- 36 -- 6
10. Kathleen Edwards, Asking For Flowers (Zoe/Rounder) -- 35 -- 6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar) -- 33 -- 5
12. Santogold, self-titled (Downtown) -- 33 -- 5
13. SteelDrivers, self-titled (Rounder) -- 29 -- 5
14. Hold Steady, Stay Positive (Vagrant) -- 28.5 -- 7
15. Glen Campbell, Meet Glen Campbell (Capitol) -- 28 -- 5
16. Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet, self-titled (Nettwerk) -- 28 -- 4
17. Jamey Johnson, That Lonesome Song (Mercury Nashville) -- 27 -- 4
18. Old 97's, Blame It On Gravity (New West) -- 27 -- 4
19. Bob Dylan, Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 (Columbia) -- 26 -- 3
20. Basia Bulat, Oh, My Darling (Rough Trade) -- 25 -- 3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21. Fleet Foxes, self-titled (Sub Pop) -- 24 -- 3
22. Calexico, Carried To Dust (Quarterstick) -- 23 -- 3
23. Various, Como Now: The Voices Of Panola Co., Miss. (Daptone) -- 22 -- 3
24. R.E.M., Accelerate (Warner Bros.) -- 21 -- 4
25. Justin Townes Earle, The Good Life (Bloodshot) -- 21 -- 3
26. Tift Merritt, Another Country (Fantasy) -- 20 -- 3
27. Teddy Thompson, A Piece Of What You Need (Verve Forecast) -- 18.5 -- 3
28. Gary Louris, Vagabonds (Ryko) -- 17 -- 3
29. Caroline Herring, Lantana (Signature Sounds) -- 16.5 -- 2
30. TV On The Radio, Dear Science (DGC/Interscope) -- 16 -- 3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
31. Raconteurs, Consolers Of The Lonely (Warner Bros.) -- 16 -- 4
32. Felice Brothers, self-titled (Team Love) -- 16 -- 3
33. Ani DiFranco, Red Letter Year (Righteous Babe) -- 16 -- 2
34. Buika, Nina De Fuego (Warner International) -- 15 -- 2
35. B.B. King, One Kind Favor (Geffen) -- 14 -- 3
36. Jolie Holland, The Living And The Dead (Anti-) -- 14 -- 2
37. She & Him, Volume One (Merge) -- 13 -- 4
38. Michael Franti & Spearhead, All Rebel Rockers (Anti-) -- 13 -- 3
39. Giant Sand, Provisions (Yep Roc) -- 13 -- 2
40. Raphael Saadiq, Sure Hope You Mean It (Columbia) -- 12 -- 4

Looks...pretty much like a shuffled version of every other critics' poll I've seen, especially once you get past that rootsy Top 10. Except with Ani Difranco instead of Lil Wayne, I guess. (Okay, there are some things I never heard of before on there -- Buika, for instance. And Glen Campbell's disappointing comeback album did way better than I would have predicted. But really, this isn't all that far from, say, the poll at Paste or somewhere like that, right? And a lot of it just supports my longstanding alt-country = indie-rock theory.)

xp I like Malo's version of Charlie Rich's "Life Has Its Little Ups and Downs" on that (otherwise fairly useless) Don Imus compilation last year. So maybe the biggest problem with the new album is that he's just better off not doing his own material? (How much did he write with the Mavericks? I should check my best-of CD, I guess. And how good were his last couple covers albums, which I never heard?) Given all the good songwriters in country who are mediocre singers, it shouldn't be hard for an (apparently) mediocre songwriter who's a good singer to find songs, I wouldn't think. If Gary Allen can cover Todd Snider, or Toby Keith (actually a really good songwriter himself, but still) can cover Fred Eaglesmith and Paul Thorn, a lack of memorable material really shouldn't be Malo's problem.

Another listen to that '83 Ronnie McDowell album this morning; turns out two of the less fun songs remind me of Kenny Rogers's '79 "You Decorated My Life" (partly in how Ronnie stretches out his "yooouuuuu"'s.) Again, probably not a surprise, since Rogers's singing style probably had a certain light r&b-ballad influence of its own (as I expect Lionel Richie, for one, would agree.)

Wait, looking again at that No Depression list, I have a BIG question -- Where the fuck is James McMurtry?? Didn't he, like win the poll a couple years ago? That's really strange; is there a backlash I didn't know about, maybe because he sold out by going '80s AOR or something? (Also strange that Chris Knight and Old Crow Medicine Show don't seem to making any of these alt-country-leaning lists. What's up with that? I wouold think they'd fit right in, and they both made better albums that Hayes Carrl's to my ears.) (Alejando Esovedo's perch atop that ND list is cute too; it's not a bad record, but it's a lot cornier and spottier than people seem to give it credit for. But he was ND's artist of the '90s, right? Nobody can say the people there aren't loyal.) (Well, except in McMurty's case, anyway. And to be fair, that one this year was the best Escovedo album I've ever heard.)

Also nice to see Jamey Johnson as the token Nashville pick, obviously.

By the way, while we're still speaking of '08 lists, Curmudgeon, did you see my explanation on the '08 thread about why Toby's best-of didn't make my Top 10? Did that make sense, or do you think my rationale is full of baloney? Curious...

And speaking of alt-country, I should mention here that, though they've never grabbed me at all before (maybe because I never really tried), I don't hate all of the new (out Jan 5) album by the Gourds, Haymaker. They seem okay when they pick up the tempo and beat a little, like in "Tex-Mex Mile" and the sort of rockabilly "Fossil Contender." But mostly I just can't take the flat singing and lack of energy, even if there are hints of smart songwriting, like for instance in "Valentine," which seems to be trying to be some kind of slow '50s sock-hop stroll, maybe.

Also. Here is me almost exactly a year ago, on Rolling Country '08:

thanks to Miley Cyrus and HorrorPops et. al., rockabilly suddenly may be starting to feel current again. Which seems to happen every 20 or 30 years or so, I guess.

― xhuxk, Monday, 7 January 2008 01:27

Didn't take me long to decide that was a foolish prediction, at least in part because the (not really all [that rockabilly anyway) HorrorPops album didn't really hold up for me. But then I saw this this morning, on another thread about acts who the British press is predicting might become hot new pop stars there this year:

Let's start with the Mail. Why? Well, they would appear to have only tipped the one artist (and you have to dig about on their website a lot to find this out), which means we can knock them off the quickest.

And that tip is... IMELDA MAY! She's a rockabilly artist from Dublin who's already been on Later, where Jeff Beck said he liked her. Songs on her MySpace include "Johnny Got A Boom Boom", "Big Bad Handsome Man", "Don't Do Me No Wrong", "Cry For Me Baby" and "Falling In Love With You Again":

Best of all, she's signed to UCJ, the same label as The Priests, The Fron Male Voice Choir and Thingy Out Of G4. So she'll be in the album chart at some point early this year, say number seven-ish, then proceed to hang about til June or so.

― William Bloody Swygart, Friday, 2 January 2009

Imelda May's Myspace claims that Kirsty MacColl was a fan, which considering she's been dead nearly a decade, would perhaps imply that May's lying about her age.

― Keep Carmody and Carry On (The stickman from the hilarious 'xkcd' comics), Friday, 2 January 2009 10:59

Rolling UK Pop/Chart/"Few people would dispute that Elbow have given us the album of the year" Thread 2009

A pretty decent amount of decent-and-better stuff on that No Dep Top 40, although (except for the track I tagged as disco Eagles) no way is Evil Urges countryoid at all! But it's decent, and occasionally better. Good to see they agreed with me about Truckers, Steeldrivers, Jamey Johnson, and (if I'd ever heard more than the uneven but sometimes inspired live broadcast) I might well agree with them about Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet, especially the stuff she learned while living in China, and applied to her (and their)Armericana. I dunno about Malo, being a country singer starting out in Miami might've made him bold in some ways, too cautious in others...?

Oh yeah,and Felice Brothers made in there too!

Xgau CG (this link will only last a month, but I'm not sure how else to do it now): Taylor Swift A-; Darius Rucker, Randy Travis, Ashton Shepherd honorable mentions; Sugarland, Kellie Pickler (!) choice cuts; Jamey Johnson, Blake Shelton, George Strait duds. (Plus lotsa blues, looks like):

http://music.msn.com/music/consumerguide/

A pretty decent amount of decent-and-better stuff on that No Dep Top 40, although (except for the track I tagged as disco Eagles) no way is Evil Urges countryoid at all!

I like Evil Urges a lot, it's one of my favorite albums of 2008, and I can't even begin to imagine it as country music. It's their least country album, and they've never been very country.

fwiw, No Depression finishers I never even heard of til now (though Don mentioned two of them a couple posts ago). (How country are these?)

5. Ben Sollee, Learning To Bend (self) -- 37.5 -- 5
16. Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet, self-titled (Nettwerk) -- 28 -- 4
20. Basia Bulat, Oh, My Darling (Rough Trade) -- 25 -- 3
23. Various, Como Now: The Voices Of Panola Co., Miss. (Daptone) -- 22 -- 3
28. Gary Louris, Vagabonds (Ryko) -- 17 -- 3
29. Caroline Herring, Lantana (Signature Sounds) -- 16.5 -- 2
32. Felice Brothers, self-titled (Team Love) -- 16 -- 3
34. Buika, Nina De Fuego (Warner International) -- 15 -- 2

I assume the Daptone comp is retro-soul, right? No idea about the others.

By the way, while we're still speaking of '08 lists, Curmudgeon, did you see my explanation on the '08 thread about why Toby's best-of didn't make my Top 10? Did that make sense, or do you think my rationale is full of baloney? Curious...

― xhuxk, Friday, January 2, 2009 10:02 PM (Yesterday)

The explanation made sense in some way for you personally, but if someone did not have any Toby Keith or any Rick Springfield cds, and they only had the money to buy 1 cd, are you saying you'd recommend that they get the '08 new Springfield over the '08 new Toby best-of?

Also as someone else said, I'm not sure how you can discern slight differences among 150 cds as you do. How is number 144 better than 148 and worse than 139?

Buika is of Equatorial Guinea descent but grew up in Spain among gypsies. Her cd was popular with European world music fans and djs. She sounds like Nina Simone singing Spanish ballads inspired by Brazilan bossa nova and Portuguese fado. I like her but others might dismiss her as too staid.

As for Malo, I think he co-wrote a lot with the Mavericks. I like the songs online I've heard from his various covers cd, but his first solo cd seems the most varied (and more latin-sounding). That's my quick opinion based on online listening, I don't have all the solo efforts. He seems to have gotten in a rut when left alone to either write songs himself or select songs by others himself--he's got his supper club ballads, his certain old genres of country, etc. With the Mavericks he seemed (possibly with the help of his cowriters) to have more of a pop aspect. When I see him live I manage to just go with the flow and appreciate his singing, and his enjoyable between song chatter. Plus while he does a long show, its varied enough among all his genres to provide balance.

28. Gary Louris, Vagabonds (Ryko) -- 17 -- 3

Gary Louris was in the Jayhawks. I only heard this solo album once but i wasnt too impressed, him trying to sing beyond the limits of his voice. Not very country, more in a sheryl crow/tom petty direction, but maybe not even that. Produced by the dude from the black crowes i believe.

20. Basia Bulat, Oh, My Darling (Rough Trade) -- 25 -- 3

Basia Bulat is a Canadian indie-pop/folk singer with a pretty voice, lightweight songs. Not country at all as I remember it.

That No Depression list is kind of puzzling: TV on the Radio, Fleet Foxes and the Hold Steady? I heard plenty of stuff this year that would make perfect sense on that list: D. Charles Speer, psychedelic country rock; Black Twig Pickers, Appalachian folk/old time; Jack Rose, instrumental country-folk/ragtime; Moondoggies, roots/country rock; Coydogs, power pop with a dash of Crazy Horse twang; Charlie Parr, country folk/blues...

made sense in some way for you personally, but if someone did not have any Toby Keith or any Rick Springfield cds, and they only had the money to buy 1 cd, are you saying you'd recommend that they get the '08 new Springfield over the '08 new Toby best-of?

Um...Sure, if the Springfield CD interests them more. There's tons of information available, Curmudgeon (including my own reviews I linked to); I seriously doubt that anybody out there is just starting at the top of my list, and buying each album from 1 to 150 when they have enough money saved up. If they are, they're obviously nuts. But I'm not really sure anyody should be using my lists as a buying guide to begin with, to be honest -- One of my favorite reviews of Stairway To Hell called it "one of the best and most useless record guides ever written" or something like that, which is totally fine with me. And I seriously doubt that anybody would argue that a repackaged Beatles or Elvis collection with all the hits in a whole new order should finish first in Pazz & Jop in every year such an album is released, just because there's people out there who might not own any Beatles or Elvis records. As for my explanation making sense "personally," I've never seen a Top 10 list that wasn't personal. Not that I can remember.

as someone else said, I'm not sure how you can discern slight differences among 150 cds as you do. How is number 144 better than 148 and worse than 139?

How is anybody's number 3 better than their number 7? Basically, at the moment I was making the list, given the choice, after months of in-depth research, #139 (Zac Brown Band) seemed more likely to be a rewarding listen than #144 (Cool Kids), which in turn seemed more likely to be a rewarding listen than #148 (Left Lane Cruiser.) (Last year, when sending my top 150 into Idolator, I added "the caveat that I will totally disagree with this list five minutes after I send it." But this year, the metric was made significantly more subjective and precise, and my job was made far easier, by a fine-tuned which-album-is-better calibrating device I got for Christmas. I'm pretty sure it's still classified Top Secret.) Honestly, though, I know some people think making a list this long is "perverse" (I'd just say it's "fun," but they're entitled to their opinion), but I'm just acting in the tradition of Xgau's Dean's Lists and the year-by-year lists at the back of Dave Marsh's Book of Rock Lists and the year-end 100-plus list Thurston Moore did in the middle of his fanzine Killer once in the mid '80s. And I really don't get why more critics don't make lists this long. The main fact of music in the '90s is that there's lots and lots and lots of it, which by definition means lots of it is good, and finding the good stuff makes like worthwhile. And if it takes a 150-album list for somebody out there to hear out about Mechanical Bull or the Reds or Frozen Bears or Killola or Prima J -- and consider that they might actually be more worth checking out than say TV on The Fucking Radio, which they all are -- that seems to me like a good thing.

(Oh wait, it's the '00s now, not the '90s, isn't it? Oops. Well, never mind.)

By the way, I checked my Mavericks best-of CD, and it didn't seem to have songwriting credits. Though I suspect they're out there somewhere.

(And I meant "significantly more precise and objective", obviously.) (Except I didn't really.) (And all that good music helps make life worthwhile. Or at least halfway bearable at times.)

That No Depression list also skimps on the bluegrass. Many quality releases this year, including Chatham County Line IV. Plus, banjoist Ralph White, formerly of the Bad Livers, released a great vinyl-only title on the Spirit of Orr imprint. Now that's pretty darn alternative.

That No Depression list is kind of puzzling: TV on the Radio, Fleet Foxes and the Hold Steady?

Yeah--a few years ago they had Kanye West on their list, but this year seems very indie rock weighted. And they don't stick to just American music either. (Though I guess Nick Cave's stuff has at times been Americana.) Like Chuck said, there's a lot of overlap with Paste's list. I guess the voters are just submitting their generic top 10s rather than their Alt-Country/Americana top 10s. Though I guess that folky, singer/songwritery stuff like Bon Iver and She & Him is close enough. In the past, I would have expected to see stuff like Charlie Louvin's new CD (maybe too recent) on the list.

Quite a few of those blog favorites-- Kasey Chambers, Lee Ann Womack, Joey + Rory-- didn't make their list either. I'm also surprised John Hiatt didn't make it.

Has the staff (and/or electorate) (or coverage, for that matter) changed significantly since ND went web-only? I haven't been watching closely myself, but if so, maybe that's where the differences come from...

concha buika's alright, took a date to see her at gwu a couple of years back, i don't regularly listen though. i think she might be making it in the latin american markets as well now if she hasn't been already, she was on some big award show recently.

Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet, especially the stuff she learned while living in China

i started an abigail washburn thread last year, which obv. went nowhere. i like the album pretty well. i'm not a big bela fleck fan, so this is at least my favorite thing he's been involved in. like i said there, "seems like it might appeal to art-folkies, joanna newsom fans, i don't know." to answer the "how country" question, in other words, not very.

Has the staff (and/or electorate) (or coverage, for that matter) changed significantly since ND went web-only?

not really. and it's not actually web-only; they're doing two book-like publications a year, in partnership with the university of texas. (i have a thing on dock boggs' banjo in the next one.) but as for the oddities of the ND list, it's not like no depression ever has had very firm lines about what is or isn't ND material. otoh, i have never submitted a ballot in the poll despite writing for them for years, because my favorite 10 things of any given year are just mostly so far outside the purview that it would seem silly, and i rarely have 10 things i like enough within the purview to justify a ballot. (i did vote in the "best records of the last 10 years" thing, because i only had to come up with 20 things from 10 years, which was easy.)

(but the video clip i linked there in the abigail washburn thread is worth a look, it's pretty cool.)

Re: upthread discussion of describing a country singer as a traditionalist and wondering what that means-

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postrock/2008/12/best_of_2008_ashton_shepherd.html#more
Ashton Shepherd Wash. Post blog interview by J. F. Dulac

Was there ever any question that you'd make a traditional-sounding album? That's not exactly the easiest sell these days.

It was always just gonna be what it is. I remember when we first started, me and [producer Buddy Cannon] were starting to get to know each other. I remember talkin' to him one day and I was telling him the different music that I love. I said, "Buddy, I love John Anderson's music. I love that sound, with the fiddles driving a lot of his songs." And I gave a couple of other examples of real country music that I like.

I was a little afraid then because I didn't really know Buddy. I knew a little of his history of course and just how legendary he is. But I didn't know what he was going to want to do with my songs. Producin', that's not what I do. I'm just a singer-songwriter. I forget how he said it exactly, but he said: "Ashton, you're country, and I am too. And that's the record we're gonna make." When I got off the phone, I felt like: Gosh, he gets it. He gets what I do. He was sayin': "We're both fans of real country music, and that's what we're going to go in the studio to make."

I haven't listened to the record in a long time. I've kept away from it so I could start to listen through it again at the end of this year and start to think about a third single for radio and everythin'. I forget how traditional it sounds in so many ways. It's still kind of contemporary compared to old country music. But when you listen to it after listenin' to the radio a lot, you go: Wow, this is pretty country! (Laughs.)

You know, I've always been a huge country music fan. In school, I went a little south or whatever you want to call it and listened to a little rap and a little rock because all of my friends did it. They weren't really country music fans. When I was in high school and grade school, whoever Hannah Montana was back then, that's who everybody loved. But I was listening to Clint Black and Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson and Patty Loveless on country music radio.

In school, I went a little south or whatever you want to call it and listened to a little rap and a little rock because all of my friends did it.

Ha ha:

There was a lot of pre-release hype about her being the return of Trad Country has been waiting for--based mostly on her debut at the GO Opry where some old timer was quoted saying "This girl has never heard a pop song in her life" (Yeah right.)

― President Keyes, Monday, 22 December 2008

Jane Dark, in his

http://janedark.com/2009/01/top_40_coundown_2008.html

Meant to copy this, from Jane/Joshua:

mutations within hip-hop proper are massive and astonishing and nothing compared to the mutations within r’n’b, soul, rock, teenpop et al to adapt themselves so they could breathe in hip-hop’s atmosphere. What mostly retained its own genealogy was, clearly enough, country, which continued somehow not to be “pop music” (perhaps for this very reason). As a result, much of what had come to characterize rock had no choice but to flee into country, not the least of which would be the guitar solo, the long melody line, the sing along chorus, ripped jeans, and the narrative of starting a band. Country hasn’t become rock, as some like to say by way of explaining to themselves why they are willing to discuss country now; it has absorbed that part of rock that hip-hop didn’t.

I'm not sure what "some" he's referring too in that least sentence, though.

Criticisms of recent Jane/Joshua postings here

rolling 2009 thread for when critics write something that makes you go o_O

More thoughtful and coherent and less mean-spirited criticisms of recent Jane/Joshua postings (uh, not to mention "Is it really possibly to love 150 albums that came out in a single year?") here:

http://blissout.blogspot.com/2009/01/lists-lists-lists-so-many-lists.html

Except, of course, I never claimed to "love" 150 albums. Like, more like. With increasing reservations as the list progresses, obviously. (And who knows, 30 years ago, this year's #1 Jamey Johnson may well not have made my top 50. But I haven't done that math yet.) Still curious which albums on my list Simon thinks are "Nu-Nu-Country" (okay, lots of them, probably) or "Oughties Oi" (Rose Tattoo? Eddy Current Suppression Ring? Jay Reatard? Thing is, a couple years ago, a real Oughites Oi album by Hard Skin made my Top 10, and I didn't hear any like that this year) or "Post-Neo-Freestyle" (Prima J, I guess?) Not to mention which groups he thought I made up. Which would be funny.

QuantumNoise, I haven't heard Chatham County Line IV--they're back with Stamey? The second album produced by him seemed to choke a little, but the first was great, so this one is too, eh? I'll def have to check it out. I'd like to thing anybody could dig them as a song band, aside from any bluegrass interest (ditto this year's Steeldrivers debut).Here's my take on them, in '06:
http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/both_sides_of_the_line/content?oid=40857
Tipsy, the Washburn and Sparrow broadcast I heard can prob still be found in the Woodsongs archive (and they always have Webcast video of each show as well) Xhux, here's what I mentioned about Felice Bros, in the Scene ballot posted on RC 2008:

Felice Brothers suggest baggy-pants carnies trailing Wild & Innocent-era Springsteen and backroads-backing-band to-stardom The Band, only at the other end of the Album Era. The tide’s gone out, mebbe never to return, so, in the classic manner, they treat records as promotional devices and calling cards, as 20th Century labels strongly urged most artists to do. On the merry-go-round, going to get their ashes hauled. Too darn cute for me sometimes, but it’s not me they’re looking for, babe (though if I buy a ticket they’ll punch it). The men might know, but the little girls understand.

Hilarious Wikipeida entry for an Uncle Dave Macon song I came across while searching a piece on music from the Great Depression a few weeks ago. (Second graph, unfortunately, has since been removed.)

The "Wreck of the Tennessee Gravy Train" is a folk song about politicians and bank failures. It is based on a true incident in Tennessee in 1930. After a scandal involving awarding contracts without bids, Henry Horton was re-elected governor of Tennessee. The Caldwell Company Bank collapsed soon afterward, leaving the state 6 million dollars in debt. An impeachment attempt against Horton was unsuccessful, but he did not run for an additional term. The affair also ruined the career of Senator Luke Lea

The train wreck of the gravy train was a historical event. All of the gravy flew on the residents in tennessee. They sued the gravy train because gravy was stuck in their hair and they couldn't wash it out for a long time. The gravy train never ran again. There still is a mess in tennessee and you can see where gravy spread on the houses of the residents. This historical event happened on December 12, 1998. twelve million people died because of this mess and twenty two people were injured badly by the gravy. Firemen were attacked too by the angered residents.

"twelve million people died because of this mess"? yo Wiki!

Yeah, that was great -- 12,000,000 dead; 22 badly injured.

Just found out that these are viewable on line (though you have to click on them to make them large enough to read) -- Some "Essentials" columns I've written in recent months for *Spin* (8 albums each):

Outlaw Country

http://digital.spin.com/spin/200812/?pg=108

Boogie Rock

http://digital.spin.com/spin/200811/?pg=106

Yacht Rock

http://digital.spin.com/spin/200901/?pg=92

I'll check those out, when I get time again on the good computer (with broadband). Speaking of Stamey, as I did above, this thing he's doing with Holsapple is for a good cause, and some collectors of 45s have told me this seems like a good series, so far.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Pop/Rock Legends Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey to Give Free Concert at Euclid Records As Part of 45 RPM Charity Series

ST. LOUIS: Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey, two founding members of the much beloved 80s pop/rock band the dB's, will be making their first St. Louis appearance together since 1991 at 1 pm Sunday, Feb. 1. What better way to kick off Super Bowl Sunday than a live performance by the masterminds behind such should-have-been monster smash hits as "Ask For Jill," "Amplifier," "Living a Lie" and "I Want to Break Your Heart"?
Stamey and Holsapple formed the dB's in the late 1970s, and released two classic albums, "Stands For Decibels" and "Repercussion" with the original line-up before Stamey left the band behind for a solo career. Holsapple soldiered on for two more dB's albums. In 1991, the pair reunited for an album, "Mavericks," which led to their one and only St. Louis appearance together at Mississippi Nights. In the 90s, Holsapple was a member of the acclaimed Continental Drifters, and in recent years, the dB's have been working on a reunion album in between other gigs. Holsapple also writes his own blog, "Does This Band Make Me Look Fat" (www.halfpearblog.blogspot.com) and contributes to the New York Times exceptional music blog, "Measure For Measure." Stamey has released several solo albums, and produced work by Whiskeytown and Alejandro Escovedo among others.
This will be the fourth in a series of live in-store performances to be followed up by the release of limited-edition 45 rpm singles recorded in the store. Each release will be strictly limited to 300 copies, and $1 for each one pressed will be donated to the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund (NOMRF) to benefit musicians displaced or suffering loss of equipment in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The performance will be recorded live, and Holsapple and Stamey will choose one or two songs to be released on the 7" single.
Euclid Records has just launched a website devoted to the series:
www.euclidsessions.com. Here you can find out about upcoming in-store events, read up on past events, subscribe to the series or order/pre-order upcoming 45's.
Each release will be in a special package with the back sleeve designed by Firecracker Press, a terrific graphic and letterpress printshop here in St. Louis. Each front cover will be a unique 7 x 7" print, signed and numbered by various graphic artists such as Gary Houston, Guy Burwell, and more, suitable for framing or keeping as a front cover to each single.
The 45s will be sold exclusively through the websites of Euclid Records (www.euclidrecords.com) and NOMRF (www.nomrf.org). Pricing will vary, as individual packages will each contain unique elements such as colored vinyl, etched vinyl, or other possibilities.
Euclid Records
St. Louis,MO
www.euclidrecords.com

9513's (well, somebody named Brady Vercher's) overlooked country albums of 2008. I liked a couple songs on the Steve Azar one and the (tragic) Hacienda Brothers one; don't know any of the rest:

http://www.the9513.com/overlooked-albums-of-2008/

Been listening to the new (due 1-27) Pat Green CD -- just ten songs (which is probably enough), produced by Dan Huff. Seems...okay so far. A couple songs have real possibilities, notably a semi-rocker called "Lucky," which is confusing since Green's 2004 album was called Lucky Ones. One clue for what they're going for might be in the AP quote on the top of the press release: "Heartland rock leanings, with strains of Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and John Mellencamp." The only time the word "country" is even mentioned on the press bio is in the title of the "tongue-and-cheek" (sic) song "Country Star." Not sure whether that means they're going for a different audience now, or not.

Also, album title is What I'm For, so I hope subsequent listens will give me an idea of what Pat is for. Maybe even what he's against. Though I'm not really counting on either being especially interesting, even in Springsteen/Mellencamp way.

So, a day later, and a couple more listens into What I'm For and especially its title track, here are a few things that Pat Green says he is for: Laid-off factory workers (though presumably not them being laid off), giving ex-cons a second chance, inner-city teachers who don't give up, the wisdom of old men, getting out of debt, beat-up pawn shop guitars, crackers in his chili. Not exactly going out on many major limbs there, obviously, but I still like the list, and am gratified that he saw fit to acknowledge urban America in a positive way. And it's a postivity song, in general: If you know what he's for, he says, you don't have to ask what he's against. A sign of the post-election times, I'm guessing, and a bid to fill the Born In the USA/Scarecrow recession-rock void (though I bet Bruce's imminent album will go for the gold in that department as well.) The parts where he lists good people with good jobs also remind me a lot of Alabama's "40 Hour Week (For a Livin')", populist Cougaresque country from 1985 (early Farm Aid era.)

And then Pat goes immediately into a song called "Feeling Good Tonight"; haven't paid attention to the words, but the guitars start pretty blatantly at "What's So Funny (Bout Peace Love and Understanding)" (Costello cover of Brinsley Schwarz), then switch toward Mellencamp's "Small Town" for most of the rest of the song (and tracing the sound way back, there's probably some McGuinn and some Townshend in there.) Rest of the album seems to have a decent portion of expansive, nuanced rock on it, sometimes moody. Sounds real good so far.

Wanted to like the new album by Saffire The Uppity Blues Women (who always look like cool biracial lesbian golden girls with grandma-punk haircuts on their CD covers) more than the new album by the Nighthawks, but nope, the latter has two okay Dylan covers and an okay Chuck Berry rip ("Jana Lea") (plus a pointless cover of the theme from The Wire, but what the heck) whereas the latter has 20+ songs that are real hard to sit through plus the usual blandification production that, I swear, has pulled down just about every blues CD I've heard on Alligator Records for the past few years. So Nighthawks win. Not that I'm recommending their album or anything. (Apparently they have about 20. I've never heard one I wanted to keep, but I haven't heard that many, so I wouldn't put it past them. Wouldn't put it past Saffire the Uppities either)

Ballot comments (and some on albums not listed)
mostly thumbnail sketches for show previews
Justin Townes Earle
So far, singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle's post-rehab albums
don't have the range (or ranginess) of his father Steve's own prodigal
peaks. No problem: the reflective alertness and hopeful smoothness of
Midnight At The Movies strongly suggest that the younger Earle is his
own kind of escape artist, thankful for the breathing room he's
earned, and the floor plans he's committed to memory. He’s learned not
to get too crazy, and thus distract himself from the female spirit who
always shows up to hold his hand, then “leaves before the credits
roll”, on Midnight...'s title track. More expansively, on 2008's The
Good Life Earle is striding through honky-tonk neon shadows,
thoughtfully singing to passing lovers and friends, while exercising
his still-young lungs with that bracing night-life air.
Phosphorescent
Phosphorescent’s Matthew Houck loves his rolling psych-country
imagery, while he and the band also know their way to and through the
end of a line, adding beats and syllables, even to a monosyllable, as
needed. Such sure footing on a cloudy staircase helps Phosphorescent’s
album of Willie Nelson songs, To Willie, find another mellow mental
ghost town, in the dusty sunshine of lost love. And why not? As with
Houck’s more complicated compositions, Nelson’s songs hum like old
houses, still ready to be slipped into, as Phosphorescent investigate
both sources on tour.
Tim Easton
"Woke up this mornin' with a sranger in your bed/Those boots were haunted/The sheets were burgundy red." For Porcupine, current Joshua Tree CA chrocnicler Tim Easton re-enlisted early Columbus OH cohorts like New Bomb Turks drummer Sam Brown, who does extreme housecleaning on "Burguny Red", Porcupine's opener. Meanwhile, Marty Stuart/Lucinda Williams' touring guitarist Kenny Vaughn's deepening twang keeps echoing through discreet conversation with "The Young Girls."
Tim Easton can get pretty denin-jacket folkie on some sets, but here be pacemakers and jumper cables for his
compulsively mobile characters, who mostly fear getting "too cold to
sweat the dark out", as Easton says of himself. Mainly, you don't need
to catch all the sly-to-wise-to-blunt words to get the points of
Porcupine (cute little critter)
Willem Maker
Willem Maker's not much for burying meanings. They might poison him
like the dioxin dump did in Georgia, before he reached his Alabama
mountainside trailer. He's got one song specifically about that, but
it's as short as the others. Bare facts have to be quickly
re-gathered, re-twisted up the neck of his guitar, peeled by his slide
into images flying by, all around the rising gravity of Maker's "New
Moon Hand." He's also gnarling sonic sense through charred
impressions, somwwhere between Astral Weeks-era Van Morrison,
backcountry Kevin Coybe and young Gregg Allman (more lockjawed
eloquence than moan) Chewing the juice loose again, cryptically vs,
the crypt, "Saints drink wine" and other info. He's singing his truth
through bad and good dreams: learning to "leave the fever in the
past," starting at the end of the line.
Jason Isbell and the 440
The Drive-By Truckers’ Jason Isbell went solo with Sirens of the
Ditch, where poignant, sometimes tragicomic situations rolled their
ow gravelly grooves. On Jason Isbell and the 440, Isbell’s road-tested
band drives further into the cloudy electric horizons of “Sirens”,
still piloting by the lights of homely detail. Isbell’s restless
people are even more souled on stoneful memories (“She’s down deep in
me still/Rolled up like a 20 dollar bill”), but the music knows the
way. “Maybe I’ll flag down a car/I’m not going too far/And I’ve got
cash.” Good plan!
Deer Tick (this is before Born On Flag Day came out)(see followup
email for that)
Deer Tick is the tag applied by John McCauley to himself and his
band—appropriately so, judging by the tenacious midnight bite of his
recently reissued 2007 debut, War Elephant” Points of disorder spark
the leather-lunged lyricism that can harsh his mellow campfire
strumming into toasted constellations. Buckskin-fringed flurries of
fury keep the dust flying, no matter how persistent it it is (damn
persistent) Mr. Tick also knows how and when to propose that you
“Spend The Night”: “I know you’ve heard it all before/But not from me”
rings and rasps gently true. Ditto the Vegas anthem, “What Kind Of
Fool Am I?” It’s no longer a rhetorical question.
Joan Baez
“Every day that passes/I’m sure about a little less/Even my money
keeps tellin’ me/It’s God I need to trust/And I believe in God/But God
ain’t us.” “God Is God” sets the unsettled tone of Joan Baez’s latest
album, “The Day After Tomorrow”. Producer Steve Earle seeks to keep
the Queen of 60s Folk Music’s quest on a solid spirit level, with
compact cadences and carefully selected songs. Further along, Patty
Griffin’s “Mary” is “covered in roses…covered in slashes”, finding her
(and/or Her) way through the story’s edits, somewhat like everybody
else.
Gypsy Dave and the Stumpjumpers
Stumpjumpers are what some residents of far northwestern Pennsylvania
call each other. On A Bucketful of Ghosts, David Washousky takes his
pensive Pennsy roots and their distance along, while sharing his name
in art (and "wandering faith") with an archetypal folk figure. He
sometimes gets a little too fascinated with old people, but his voice
and guitar, times the Stumpjumpers' fiddle and bass, slip tunefully
and thoughtfully through all weather, as "The right slips by, in the
moving light/Of paintings and suppertimes." Is that political? Either
way, "A black 'n' white/Violet summer sky" gently/boldly follows,
bonding differences sensuously. (Stumpjumping indeed, by cracky!)
Ha Ha Tonka
Ha Ha Tonka takes its name, and some of its duties, from a Missouri
State Park in the Ozarks. Listeners get strange tours. "Buckle In The
Bible Belt" bounces taut and twangy, through twists of fate and
choice. The drawl of "Up Nights" shadows a tired parent beating his
kid; the "Falling In" falsetto traces a lovelorn, low-gravity mood
swing (at least). Their new "Novel Sounds Of The Nouveau South" ups
the ante and the amperage, wiring the weather vane into a lighting
rod: "Violence in the crowd/We bled it out!"
The Devil Makes Three
The Devil Makes Three make the kind of pre-bluegrass, mountain-bred
music that traveled through vaudeville halls, carnivals, radios,
alleys and less hygienic vantage points. On DM3's Do Wrong
Right,ragtime bounce and contemporary commentary ride boxcars with the
eerie likes of "Working Man's Blues." The workingman's steadfast, even
militant, though subterranean musical undercurrents may be undermining
(and/or guiding) this miner. Even on less inspired tracks, preachiness
always arrives with some generation of devilishness, often ramblin'
'round leader Pete Bernhard's sense of moral and verbal limits.
Carrie Rodriguez
On young singer-songwriter Carrie Rodriguez's new "Live in
Louisville," atmospherically detailed stories are told boldly, as
variations of key phrases veer through the resolutely shivery delivery
of her violin and other instruments, including the evocative electric
guitar of current accompanist Hans Holzen. Rodriguez also steps up to
the Loretta Lynn-worthy "I Don't Wanna Play House," and briskly
uncovers sexy subtext in Bill Monroe's magisterial "You Won't Be
Satisfied That Way." Micro-epic outbursts and mercurial ballads never
chase the nice clouds away, or the slow male she's usually addressing.
The Flatlanders
"With a backpack full of yesterdays/On a freeway full of smoke and
haze/Where the power lines and fault lines double cross." From country
cliché, to California evening news, to righteous wordplay that
eventually slips deeper, the dustbowl soul of the Flatlanders' Hills
and Valleys rolls on, through all zones. Alternative country icons
Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely and Butch Hancock, mostly writing
together, are philosophical scavengers, poised and antsy. Years and
miles definitely (sometimes densely) add up, but meanwhile, "If time
is money/Space is credit/They're talkin' 'bout it all over town!"

xp Speaking of those last two pathetic songs on Don's ballot, here's something I wrote about backlash/tea-party country in the '00s:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2009/11/countryteaparty.html?pcode=RN&rsrc=null.null&cpath=CNT

Also want to mention that, despite keying my emusic Charlie Robison review around his Dixie Chick divorce, that autobiographical theme really does not figure much, if at all, into my own liking the record either. (And I've yet to hear a better album by the guy, though I'm not sure how many I've even tried. Liked Good Times from '04 okay.)

more of Don Allred's Country 2009 comments:
Deer Tick, Born On Flag Day:Great title, because Mr. Tick does have
some of that ravaged bravura of book and movie of Born On The Fourth of July,
but his testimony and attitude and cadence and imagery are closer to young
Bobby D.s "Ma Rainey and Beethoven once unwrapped a bedroll/Tuba players now
rehearse around the flagpole, " the combination of youth and what Virginia's Tom
Wolfe ID'd as "those old jack-legged chants" from the mountains-but Deer Tick
(John C. McCauley III x his band) are already way into Dylan's later and
recurrent romantic obsessions, in a Southwestern Gothic way, also reminding me of
Townes Van Zandt, who (as with Dylan) and McC's only namecheck, Hank Williams
(McC studied the singles) had the tunes and catchiness as spry, watchful
little beasts of burden for his words; plus, Tick's got this voice that's always
waiting to squeeze through and erupt from his old man shit: it's the musical
equivalent of the incandescent mcguffin found when the funky old trunk gets
prised open in Repo Man and Pulp Fiction-we just see/feel the effects, as even
Tarentino's scuzzers are awestruck by its beauty, and Repo Man's rats are beamed
up through the smog into sweet nothin', by its mighty light. It's articulate,
and when it does devour the form always belches the spirit of his words, but
as a force of nature as much or more than poetic justice (which is why maybe it
isn't catharsis for him, except maybe for the moment, but his shadows come
creeping back, either way).So if I let myself get much into comparisons as
high-concept formula in print, I'd say something like "Roky meets Townes," and
indeed Tick might've also studied that two-disc Roky comp that from a few years
back, with so much of Roky's folk-rock side. But "Flag Day, " his second album,
departs from Roky re less grotesque and otherwise reflexive/refracted
imagery, and his tendencies in
that direction never did seem as compulsive as
Roky's.
Otis Taylor, Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs Otis Taylor is one of
the most (one of the few) creatively distinctive blues singer-songwriters
today. He adapts country blues, with a more regular beat than Delta blues, but it's
an adjustment of that, more than a John Lee Hooker boogie drive. His phrases
are repeated, seeming fragments of memory that gradually meet up and accrue,
sometimes skewed or elliptical narrative, but the ear has to spot the spaces as
well as the connections, just has to do that, when it works out right, as
words and his shifting tone and volume move around his driving (sometimes
shifting) picked and strummed rhythm guitar. This is the basis of the new album, his
first collection of love songs (with some wars back in there, like the title
also says), which, like P.Hood's new set, develop through implication of
detail and atmosphere, and both sets can come to seem like developed
photographs, more than movies. But the figure is the ground, at times, as Otis further
develops deep focus via his own voice being joined by his daughter Cassie's
younger and even more flexible, looping through the jazz of Jason Moran whose
piano knows how hip-hop accents blues and jazz, here, as on his own great Same
Mothers set) and cornet player Jason Miles; while the drum kit of Nasheet Waits
is ground for African percussion figures, or sometimes vice versa (plus,
occasional passing cello, violin, whatever fits the view). Even without Jason's
surname and horn, I'd be thinking "Miles," not that Jason imitates him, but just
this whole approach (which is also a less wordy version of Dylan's and Deer
Tick's deep co-ordination of elements and functions: ensembles, yo, not
entourage.) Can trave
l way into those musical snapshots, way into the travelling
itself, but it's a train, not a showboat.
On Patterson Hood's Murdering Oscar, the narrator of the first and title song celebrates his
victory over Oscar and those who proffered/remonstrated re salvation, "I
saved me, and life forgave me." He may be on Death Row or wherever, but he still
insists, a little too insistently somehow. Ah yes, the well worn Unreliable Narrator device, but it works here.Notes stretch and trail and hold.
He can't let it go, can't let cruel Oscar go, and vice versa. It' an
Oscar-winning performance. Clear enough, but more subtle/subject to interp than
expected, and the dramatic stasis that Hood evidently tends (so often) to go for on
Truckers albums works here, the sense of somebody rattling his chains and
shivering his freezeframe, as we're kept watching the figure's deep focus/fixation.
Which is overtly the point of the next track, "Pollyanna", and Hood (with
another surprise move, making seemingly unprecedented use of his voice's high end,
by simply chirping) goes from rolling Neil Truckers doom of "Oscar" to Who
Sell Out pop scenario over expansive, open-G-sounding Stonesiness, as Pollyanna
rolls on(or has rolled on, since all of these songs are aftermath, ho get it
Stones/Aftermath), having gathered his mossy heart. "It's a little sticky,she's
a little sticky, I'm a little sticky too, I was just something stuck to her
shoe, now I'll have to find something else to stick to." His characters are
always doing or getting themselves ready or not to do the aftermath, and "Pride
of The Yankees" in a third stylistic change, starts as a ballad raising a mug
to Lou Gehrig, then w
ithout a blink to King Kong falling off the building, to
passing mention of 9/11, and wishes he could go hide in the mall, and indeed he
sounds like he's swaying along in an echoing mall with a hole (and a nice
breeze) in it, talking to his little daughter about carrying, clutching "packages
so shiny, and you're so tiny," and it's all the tenderness and fuckedness of
and in the world, in him as he's somehow unsurprised(it fits with the
fuckedness previously experienced, after all or a while) if in a bit of aftershock,
afterglow, afterlife, half-life; the next sudden transition being the next song
o course."I Understand Now" is shorts-deep in the midst of domestic
battlegrounds, old and moldy and comfortable for the moment anyway, as the narrator
gets some kind of 40 watt insight, and really the cumulative thing in just these
first four songs also has me thinking of foo like "9/11 changed everything"
and "All is fair in love and war" and how they're part of the wadding of
changes and transitions, not that all his situations x moments shown don't have
their own internal detail and framing distinctions/lifespans, as characters try to
get creative in doing the aftermath on the train or frame or sidewalk crack,
or playing in bedhead traffic etc It's all about their and their creator's
wise use of familiar and strange elements, reshuffling or ripping or lurching or
padding or jangling along.(Those last two just listed: "She's a Little Randy"
is the stealthy passage of a cougar and the male person studying her, getting
her number sympathetically and then some, as Hood makes good use of the high
voice again, not chirping this time but like a little tight, mostly dry
smoker's voice, with some rheum around the corners, emph by guitar, as he squints
over his cig, and maybe drops it to approach her after that last line (steps out
of his frame, as can be tricky/lacking in Hood songs) "Foolish Young Bastard"
ruefully/hopefully jangles along with a banjo almost hitting him in the nuts,
empty cantee
n percussion def tapping his butt (a bit envied perhaps, by the
somewhat exasperated but unsurprised, family-type person watching him go) then
"Heavy and Hanging" and "Walking Around Sense" are expressive but stuck inside
a way too familiar Neil Truckers doom (which the title song redeemed and
"Range War" took to maybe non-doom,[as expressed in playing]more about rich
shifting currrents of tenderness/fuckedness and war again) Like "Heavy and Hanging"
and "Walking Around Sense" heavy up because he thought he needed something
between "Foolish Young Bastard" and the young heart who sings about writing you
a love song in the "Back of a Bible" (not to be eveel, but cos "there were
some blank pages") A shuffle mainly suggesting white boys of 50s til builds
seamlessly to a solo that obliterates the pro forma of the past two tracks, and in
call and response with other instruments. This final passage is brief but
deep, like the best bits of most of the other songs ("Screwtopia" trails the
afterglow through basically obvious faster/softer recurrences, and makes it work;
makes me think of the traces of "Grandaddy" 's innocently plotted future and
"Belvedere" 's twisted past, and the other character's traces, notions, smoke)
Didn't think he'd carry a whole album without other writers, but he does,
given that it's also got a couple of duds like Truckers albums, and most of the
Truckers are here, and that certainly helps, and he's seamlessly joining a set
of songs from 1994 to much more recent ones (each set or subset benefitting
from proximity to the others, for the most part) with accumulated experience as
writer, player etc as well as other aspects of life, and that comes across in
the adjustments, inclu disruptive moves, within the plot lines and
performances of songs (Oh yeah, this album also features really apt and startling use of
piano which he says startled him too)

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2009:

1. Taylor Swift - Fearless (Platinum Edition)
2. Ashley Monroe - Satisfied
3. Martina McBride - Shine
4. Pat Green - What I'm For
5. Brad Paisley - American Saturday Night
6. Miranda Lambert - Revolution
7. Collin Raye - Never Going Back
8. Holly Williams - Here With Me
9. Willie Nelson - American Classic
10. Charlie Robison - Beautiful Day

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2009:

1. Love And Theft "Runaway"
2. Jamey Johnson "High Cost Of Living"
3. Taylor Swift "You Belong With Me"
4. Sarah Buxton "Space"
5. Lady Antebellum "Need You Now"
6. Caitlin & Will "Even Now"
7. Sarah Borges And The Broken Singles "Do It For Free"
8. Taylor Swift "White Horse"
9. Brooks & Dunn f. Reba McEntire "Cowgirls Don't Cry"
10. Jack Ingram "Barefoot & Crazy (Double Dog Dare Ya Mix)"

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2009:

--

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2009:

1. Ronnie Dunn
2. Toby Keith
3. Jamey Johnson

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS OF 2009:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Miranda Lambert
3. Jamie O'Neal

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST LIVE ACTS OF 2009:

--

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST SONGWRITERS OF 2009:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Ashley Monroe
3. Brad Paisley

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST DUOS, TRIOS OR GROUPS OF 2009:

1. Brooks & Dunn
2. Caitlin & Will
3. --

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2009:

--

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST OVERALL ACTS OF 2009:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Ashley Monroe
3. --

I don't stand by my albums list, since most everything after the McBride has only four or five tracks I like more than a little. Might possibly have rated Collin Raye as high as three, for being the most interesting, but then my ballot would have looked too much like Xhuxk's. And I wouldn't normally have rated something so non-audacious as the McBride as high as three, except I was fed up with everyone else's inconsistency. Wish I'd gotten around to listening to more of what the rest of you recommended.

Actually, the Pat Green album is pretty good from start to finish. I never got around to the Dierks Bentley album, but Green did well in the congenial rocker category. Has more sociological restlessness than Dierks.

My ballot ended up looking like this. Skipped a few categories that I just couldn't decide on an answer for -

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2009:

1. Brad Paisley, American Saturday Night
2. Those Darlins, Those Darlins
3. Keith Urban, Defying Gravity
4. Miranda Lambert, Revolution
5. Carolyn Mark and NQ Arbuckle, Let's Just Stay Here
6. Ashley Monroe, Satisfied
7. Luke Bryan, Doin My Thing
8. Eric Church, Carolina
9. George Strait, Twang
10. Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel, Willie and the Wheel

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2009:

1. Taylor Swift "You Belong With Me"
2. Living For The Night - George Strait
3. Jamey Johnson, "High Cost Of Living
4. Brad Paisley "Welcome To The Future"
5. Keith Urban, "Sweet Thing"
6. Love And Theft "Runaway"
7. Kenny Chesney "Out Last Night"
8. Do I - Luke Bryan
9. Caitlin & Will "Even Now"
10. Toby Keith, "Lost You Anyway"

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2009:

1. Brad Paisley
2. Jamey Johnson
3. Keith Urban

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS OF 2009:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Miranda Lambert
3. Ashley Monroe

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST OVERALL ACTS OF 2009:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Brad Paisley
3. Jamey Johnson

o god should i get the taylor swift album?

Yes.

Judging from Frank's comments, I probably used his all-albums-are-EPs rule on my Nashville Scene list more than he did this year.

Jon Caramanica put Justin Moore's debut album in his '09 top 10 in the NY Times. That's the guy who did the country back-that-thing-up song (with country back-that-azz-up video) last year, if nobody remembers. The single or two by him I heard since went in one ear and out the other, but I'm curious now if anybody else heard the album. (I didn't.)

Caramanica's writeup:

9. JUSTIN MOORE (The Valory Music Company) Modest but by no means dull, the debut album by the Arkansas country singer Justin Moore has traditionalist bones holding together bursts of wry cowboy humor and eyebrow-raising salaciousness. Mr. Moore isn’t winking while playing to type; rather he realizes that there were always winks to begin with, and everyone else has forgotten.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/arts/music/20caramanica.html

He also calls San Fran indie band Girls' album "country rock," which makes no sense judging from the song or two I've heard (neither did the comparisons people make to Elvis Costello and Graham Parker), but maybe it still excuses linking to the Singles Jukebox review of "Laura" here:

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1506

He also calls San Fran indie band Girls' album "country rock," which makes no sense judging from the song or two I've heard (neither did the comparisons people make to Elvis Costello and Graham Parker), but maybe it still excuses linking to the Singles Jukebox review of "Laura" here

I like that band a lot, and I like country music a lot, and I hear no connection. For what it's worh I hear no Costello or Parker in them either. It's more dream-pop/JAMC/shoegaze from people who also listen to a lot of '50s vocal pop, teen idol ballads, Beach Boys, etc

A poll:

2009 country #1's

On which thread an interesting question is raised:

is the co-ed country band (sugarland, lady antebellum) a relatively new phenomenon? i'm trying to think of precedents. i guess it's an outgrowth of the long history of duets, but in terms of an act that has both men and women i can't think of many.

― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 22 December 2009 20:23

xp Well, Trick Pony was one. And now there's also Little Big Town, and Gloriana, and Jypsi. (Probably plenty of others, if I give it a little more thought.) But yeah, there do seem to be more out there lately.

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 22 December 2009 20:30

And actually, obviously, the co-ed country band is a tradition dating back to the Carter Family, and there have definitely been family acts in recent decades (for instance, The Whites). Curious whether anybody else has opinions on whether it's a legit trend or not now in Nashville.

I finally tracked down a copy of Bobbie Cryner today in a second-hand store, an album I haven't heard in 15 years. Holy...if there was a better trad country record made in the 90s, I'm unaware of it. "He Feels Guilty" and "I Think It's Over Now" are devastating, and the Buck Owens cover with Dwight beats the original.

I've never heard it, but Xgau was a big fan:

http://robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=bobbie+cryner

Speaking of '90s country, I killed that country #1s thread last week with the following spiel, which will probably prove just as un-fruitful here, but then again maybe somebody'll have thoughts on it, who knows:

I honestly think what's missing in most discussions of the evolution of Nashville country (and this goes for me too) is that there's this huge historical gap where almost nobody who writes about rock and pop music was keeping tabs on the stuff. Outside of Garth and Shania and a couple others, I'm still fairly clueless about most pop-country from the mid '80s to early '00s -- when, I assume, lotsa evolving was going on.

― xhuxk, Wednesday, December 23, 2009 10:07 AM

I sort of have this theory that Garth and Shania figured out how to make real consistent and varied country albums, like rock bands had been making for years (and had pretty much stopped making my the mid '90s to my ears), and once they did it the rest of Nashville caught on. Which would explain why so many of my favorite '00s albums were country. But it might be just as likely that great pop-country albums were being made in the late '80s and '90s, and I just wasn't hearing them. Not that I've had much luck trying to figure out what they were.

― xhuxk, Wednesday, December 23, 2009 10:17 AM

I mean, obviously there were great country albums before Garth and Shania, going back to the neo-trad and outlaw eras and way beyond. But I definitely got the idea in the '90s (or maybe at least starting back with the urban cowboys in the early '80s?) that even most albums with a catchy single or two on them just tossed in nine perfunctory filler tracks and got it over with. But somehow, for me anyway, that changed. (One change may have been that country started sounding more like the hard rock I grew up with, but going back now and listening to say the Kentucky Headhunters, I'm wondering if that was new in the '00s at all.)

― xhuxk, Wednesday, December 23, 2009 10:23 AM

I'd pretty much concur with your theory; I'm having a tough time thinking of 90s pop-country albums where any artist's personality was allowed to shine beyond a couple of tracks. Terri Clark, Martina McBride maybe. A lot of that had to do with the more restrictive (i.e. "uplifting") lyrical themes that radio was demanding.

Justin Moore self titled album reminds me of Gary Allen or Jason Aldean in many ways, except for the lack of any ballads. Almost every song is an assertion of County livin'. Not enough songs about broken hearts for me.

County=country

Not that affriming ones country roots and way of life in music is a bad thing, but a whole album gets tiring.

Speaking of '90s country, I killed that country #1s thread last week with the following spiel, which will probably prove just as un-fruitful here

Yes, I predict that this thread has but a few days to live.

there's this huge historical gap where almost nobody who writes about rock and pop music was keeping tabs on the stuff. Outside of Garth and Shania and a couple others, I'm still fairly clueless about most pop-country from the mid '80s to early '00s -- when, I assume, lotsa evolving was going on.

Yes. John Morthland's Best of Country Music Guide came out in 1984, and I don't know if any other rock critic tried anything like it subsequently, or what or where Morthland's been writing since then. His book is very good, but on the evidence of it he's probably not the one to appreciate current Nashville trends.

There's a Rough Guide to Country Music that was published in 2000, according to Amazon, and the All Music Guide to Country was in 2003. I've never looked at them. You might want to ask Doug Simmons or Eric Weisbard, since they'd have been keeping their eye out for people to potentially write for the Voice about country in the late '80s and late '90s, respectively. One of the first things Doug asked me when I started submitting stuff to him in 1987 was whether I listened to country.

My source in the '90s for what was happening in country was you, basically, since I wasn't spending much time listen to country radio.

wasn't spending much time listening to country radio, that is

Anthony Easton posted his overall ten bests on my livejournal, included only two country items, Lyle Lovett's Natural Forces album and Corb Lund's "Losin' Lately Gambler" single, which I assume is an alternate title for "A Game In Town Like This," which looks like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITyn99Oa3u4

Seems more bohemian folkie than actual country, which is to say that its aural mannerisms peg it as literary even before I pay attention to the words. Of course, some of my favorite Bob Dylans and Holy Modal Rounders were bohemian folkies at some point in their careers, but it's not a style that's held on for me, even if a Charlie Robison or a James McMurtry makes my country ballot every now and then. Here's what Anthony wrote about the Lund song:

Corb continues to add to the narratives of classic country--as the last album worked through new soldier songs and new horse songs, this one has farm songs and card songs. This is the card song, and it is about betting on home and therefore need to bet from going away. Aside from the world weariness, the sadness of the vocals, the perfect guitar work, there is a processing of the domestic and local over the international. He lives in Alberta, which is losing money and people, and where the money is disappearing, and where the recession is hard. Best song about the disaster of imminent poverty.

Anthony had talked a little bit about Corb Lund a few months back, in the comments section of some folkie's Singles Jukebox review (actually, one wherein Frank had inquired of Anthony about current folk music, but the singer's name slips my mind.) I got the Lund album in the mail, and really wanted to like it -- the idea of some guy (allegedly, anyway) detailing the minutiae of hardscrabble Alberta and Saskatchewan life in his songs really appeals to, uh, the Northern Exposure fan in me I guess. Problem is, as far as I can tell, like so many recent alt-country folkies who may well me good songwriters in recent years before him, Lund sings with no expression whatsoever. He just sounds really wooden and dry -- to my ears, anyway. And like so many good alt-country folkie songwriters with bored demo-singer voices before him, maybe I should have given him more of a chance. I liked a Si Kahn album once, after all. (At least for a year or two, anyway -- Home, from 1979; Doing My Job from 1982 also said to be worthwhile.) But more likely, I'll never latch onto a Corb Lund song until somebody from Nashville covers one. Which may be a doggone shame.

I'm having a tough time thinking of 90s pop-country albums where any artist's personality was allowed to shine beyond a couple of tracks.

I can think of a handful, beyond the obvious Shania and Garth: Mindy McCready If I Stay The Night (1997); Tim McGraw A Place To Land (his best album, 1999); Collin Raye Extremes (1994, just heard it this year); Kentucky Headhunters Electric Barnyard (1991); maybe Joe Dee Messina Joe Dee Messina (1996) and I'm Alright (1998); maybe Brooks & Dunn Hard Workin' Man (1992). Toby Keith Dream Walkin' (1997) is pretty good, if not close to many of the '00s albums. Probably a couple others I'm not thinking of.

Just got into Aaron Tippin (who is basically a honky-tonking hard-country neo-traditionalist I guess, but still) this year, and wrote about him upthread somewhere; his Greatest Hits...And Then Some is really good. But I've never heard any of his regular issue albums.

My favorite country album from the '90s is probably K.T. Oslin's Songs From An Aging Sex Bomb (1993), another best-of. But most if not all of its tracks date from the late '80s, so it shouldn't count.

One guy who wrote pretty well about country in the early '90s, fwiw, was Ken Tucker (the future Entertainment Weekly/NPR Ken Tucker, not the future Billboard Ken Tucker); he did a one-time country-only Consumer Guide in the Voice that I really liked, and wish I still had a copy of. (He was the first critic I read who actually wrote interesting things about Brooks & Dunn.) Also wrote a very entertaining lead Voice review called Country's Sophomore Class: Flex Them Neck Muscles, Boys, rounding up Randy Travis, Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle -- but that was 1987, a little early, and those dudes aren't exactly "pop"-country.

Suspect James Hunter wrote some smart things about country back then, too. And in the early/mid '80s, at least, maybe also Davitt Sigerson, when not recording great Xmas songs for Ze. ("It's a Big Country" on the Ze Christmas Record, 1981 -- if you haven't heard it, you should. I play it several times every year around this time, and it always choke me up. Never heard his album, which came out in 1984.)

But it wasn't until Metal Mike Saunders did a roundup of CMT videos for me (around 2000, I guess) that I obsessively started paying attention.

And uh...how good were Leann Rimes's '90s albums (and does her personality shine through those?) I've always assumed that her albums improved drastically when she sold out to dancier pop structures in the '90s, but I'd be willing to hear somebody try to convince otherwise.

Also, Dixie Chicks' Wide Open Spaces was 1998 and Fly was 1999. so those count. (Have never heard their earlier bluegrass albums.)

"...sold out to dancier pop structures in the '00s," I meant. (Albeit very early '00s, apparently -- Coyote Ugly soundtrack, with "Can't Fight The Moonlight", came out in 2000.)

Really like Confederate Railroad's 2000 best-of Rockin Country Party Pack too, fwiw; they had a bunch of ace hits in the '90s for sure. But don't think I've ever heard any of their regular albums from then.

x-post Speaking of Travis, Yoakam, etc. Those neo-trad guys may not have been pop-country, but they--along with Clint Black, George Strait and others--sold a ton of albums in the late 80s. I'm not positive, but I think Storms of Life might have been the all time biggest selling Country (non-greatest hits) album at one point. Perhaps when Nashville saw that they could make as much money off of albums as they did from singles or compilations they started taking the LP more seriously. And Garth definitely started out in the neo-trad vein.

I suppose the idea of having artists put out an album packed with five or more potential singles became popular in the 90s because some of the artists were becoming international superstars and needed more time to tour the world before they could go back to the studio. The record companies could keep releasing single after single to radio in the year or two it took for a new album to be readied. It seems the norm today, but I don't know how many artists got that luxury in the 90s.

xp McGraw's 1999 album was actually A Place In The Sun, duh. (Title I listed above belongs to Little Big Town, eight years later.)

Also like The Tractors' debut album, from 1994. (Not sure where they fit into this. Seems like there might've been some kinda mini/semi/lite-Western-swing-rock revival on the country charts in the early/mid '90s. Which reminds me I also don't know the Mavericks' individual albums, but their Super Colossal Smash Hits Of The '90s best-of is good.)

In pre-'90s news, here is the very approximate order of how much I've (so far) liked a bunch of old vinyl country LPs I bought for $1 each in the past six months or so:

1. (Various) Motels And Memories (Warner Special Products 1981) (100% country cheating songs, from the mid '70s to early '80s)
2. The Delmore Brothers - The Best Of (Starday 1975)
3. Charlie Rich - I Do My Swingin' At Home (Epic 1973)
4. O.C. Smith - Hickory Holler Revisited (Columbia LP, 1968)
5. David Allan Coe - Longhaired Redneck (Columbia 1976)
6. George Strait - Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind (MCA LP, 1984)
7. The Forester Sisters - Perfume, Ribbons & Pearls (Warner Bros. 1986)
8. Georgia Satellites - Georgia Satellites (Elektra/Asylum, 1986)
9. Gene Watson - The Best Of (Capitol 1978)
10. Jason & the Scorchers - Lost And Found (EMI 1985)
11. Billie Joe Spears - Blanket On The Ground (United Artists 1975)
12. Billy Swan - Rock N Roll Moon (Monument 1975)
13. Merle Haggard and the Strangers - I Love Dixie Blues (Capitol 1973)
14. Bobby Bland - Get On Down With (Dunhill LP, 1974) (w/ covers of Merle Haggard and Charlie Rich songs)
15. Keith Sykes - I'm Not Strange I'm Just Like You (Backstreet 1980)
16. Rattlesnake Annie - Rattlesnake Annie (Columbia 1987)
17. Gary Stewart - Your Place Or Mine (RCA LP, 1977)
18. Dobie Gray - From Where I Stand (Capitol 1986)
19. Hank Thompson - Movin' On (ABC 1974)
20. Gary Stewart & Dean Dillon - Brotherly Love (RCA 1982)
21. Marshall Chapman - Marshall Chapman (Epic 1978)

Marshall Chapman and Stewart/Dillon went right into the "sell" pile; still on fence about the (presumably way past his prime, and not nearly Western Swingy enough) Hank Thompson. The rest appear to be keepers.

Oops (again), actually that Chapman LP (on which she lifelessly interprets both "I Walk The Line" and Bob Seger's "Turn The Page") is called Jaded Virgin; just hard to tell by looking at the cover.

And Stewart's Your Place Or Mine might objectively deserve to be higher on that list, except that I've owned its two best songs (title track and especially "Ten Years Of This") on his 1981 Greatest Hits (one of my favorite country albums of all time) for decades, and most of the rest doesn't leave as much of an impression as I wish.

I'm almost positive Marshall Chapman was marketed primarily to mainstream pop and rock. I remember seeing that LP cover in ads in many places.

Produced by Al Kooper
Album of the Year - Stereo Review

It sez on her website. Not much kindness meted out by Christgau, even on the follow-up in
1979. Course that means they might actually, in fact, rock.

The one I bought sure doesn't. (Interesting, though, who Xgau compares her too: "a lot more confident, clever, and animated than such Northern counterparts as Ellen Foley and Ellen Shipley, but she's a fairly one-dimensional conservative compared to Pearl E. Gates or Chrissie Hynde." But apparently she was based in Nashville, and I'd say she sounds more country than rock -- though I'm saying that with 2009 ears, of course.)

One guy who wrote pretty well about country in the early '90s, fwiw, was Ken Tucker (the future Entertainment Weekly/NPR Ken Tucker, not the future Billboard Ken Tucker); he did a one-time country-only Consumer Guide in the Voice that I really liked, and wish I still had a copy of.

I lurk/skim this thread and I was thinking of mentioning that Ken Tucker was writing about country back in that period you mentioned, but then I thought, nah, they probably don't like the way he covered it or something.

I'm confused by your comment though in regard to whether or not he is still active. I thought he was, but maybe I've been seeing this other Ken Tucker? There are two? I remember Ken Tucker from way back when Fresh Air first started up. I used to listen to it after school, in high school. (Thank god I was doing something intelligent instead of wasting my time feeling up high school girls or going down on them in their parents' garage!)

Sorry to burst in as a "country hater" and everything (although one who will be voting for Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift in this year's ILM poll, which is more than I can say for any rock acts).

Yep, definitely two Ken Tuckers out there -- (maybe even three or four!) And as far as I know, they're both still active (don't think I ever said otherwise, though maybe something I said was ambiguous.) I'm not sure whether the EW/NPR Ken still writes about country, though.

Trisha Yearwood and Lorrie Morgan a couple more '90s country stars who compiled best-of CDs worth keeping in the '00s. (Trisha's is more consistent than Lorrie's, but I was a big fan of Lorrie's '90s "Send In The Clowns"-bombastic marriage-on-skids cabaret-country wardrobe-closet ballad "Something In Red", and also her cover of Journey's "Faithfully" and her new wavey Roxette haircut. Didn't hate the albums I heard at the time, but also didn't like them near enough to hang on to them. But even more than Trisha she was clearly going for the desperate exurban housewife demographic, whose tastes I should probably bend to more.)

John Morthland's Best of Country Music Guide came out in 1984, and I don't know if any other rock critic tried anything like it subsequently

David Cantwell and Bill Friskics-Warren put out Heartaches By The Number: Country Music's 500 Greatest Singles in 2003. It's a good book, and definitely includes assorted late '80s and '90s records, and they make good cases for pop crossover throughout (though they have a definite grudge, it seems, against the Urban Cowboy era.) So there's that. I'd also be surprised if there weren't certain country critics writing intelligently about country; more like, I just wasn't following them. And country records -- especially the more pop kind -- certainly weren't doing very well in, say, the Pazz & Jop poll at the time. (They're still not, but they do better than they used to.)

Relistening to that Corb Lund gambling song from the video that Frank linked, I'm thinking his singing is not as incompetent and wooden as I implied above. It's...functional. But plain, kind of lazy, and not exceptional in any way. He sounds more or less in the same category as any of the (right, mostly folkie/bohemian) "red dirt" guys that I hear on the more alternative-leaning country stations in and around Austin --Jason Boland, Robert Earl Keen, Randy Rogers, Ryan Bingham, those sorts of cowpokes. If I heard that song on the car radio (and around here, if he was from Texas, that'd be possible), I might be less bored by it.

Only '90s LeAnn material I've heard is the stuff on her Greatest Hits, which, to my surprise - it being a hits record - isn't as good as her regular '00s albums. I do like "Blue" and "How Do I Live" and "Can't Fight The Moonlight (dance mix)," which are the first three tracks on Greatest Hits. And as you say, "Moonlight" is 2000, and maybe even 2001 for the dance mix.

Amazingly (to me anyway), Billboard says that Taylor Swift being 2009's Billboard artist of the year (based on cumulative success on chart positions throughout the year) makes her "the first solo female or country act to earn the honor since 1997. That was when Leann Rimes, then herself a young country crossover star, took the honor home."

What's amazing about it is that I feel like I was more or less oblivious to Leann Rimes -- and definitely to how huge a crossover star she allegedly was -- in 1997. (This goes along with something Frank wrote this week on his blog, about how, even with really popular music, you can miss it if you don't make an effort to keep up with it.)

Btw, another '90s country star who put out a solid best-of CD in the '00s is Travis Tritt. I suspect he may have made solid albums in the '90s (and ones that presaged this decade's country-rock crossover), but if so, I don't know that I've ever actually sat through any of them.

I still have Billy Ray Cyrus's Some Gave All (1992) on my shelf, though. As I recall, it's not bad. I should put it back on sometime.

Think I still have Kenny Chensney's 2000 Greatest Hits CD around here somewhere, too; he'd apparently put out five albums by then, none of which I've heard. I get the idea that Chesney and McGraw and Keith didn't really evolve their personalities on record until at least the tail-end of the '90s, but they were around for a while before then. So maybe the country audience detected personalities I didn't.

I was oblivious to Leeann back in the 90s too. It looks like in 1997 she had 2 #1 albums of cover songs, one "pop" and the other "inspirational"--so perhaps she was that era's Groban or Buble (or Streisand.)

Also, Montgomery Gentry's debut Tattoos And Scars was 1999. And though they made albums I loved more later, this is still a real good one, and seems like their personalities were in place from the git-go. (First rock critic I know who noticed them was Joshua Clover, who did a short single review of "Daddy Won't Sell The Farm" for me at the Voice.)

And duh, they just keep coming -- Speaking of Leeanns, Lee Ann Womack's Some Things I Know was 1998. Possibly my favorite album by her, though she got way more acclaim and respect later; definitely has my favorite song she ever did, namely "I'll Think Of A Reason Later."

I still pull down the John Morthland book whenever I come across some artist that I'm not familiar with. But even he dismisses the Urban Cowboy era (and that era was still ongoing when his book came out in 1984)and/or Country Pop crossover one. In a section called Countrypolitan, he says not to look for any info on Kenny Rogers, Alabama, Oak Ridge Boys, John Denver, etc. There is a review in his book of Ronnie Milsap and Eddie Rabbitt, mostly praising their early stuff but looking down on the Pop hits.
BTW- the Countrypolitan artists he does like: Crystal Gayle, Anne Murray and Glen Campbell. But that section of the book is very brief.

There's also The Blackwell Guide To Country Music, edited by Bob Allen, from 1994. I use it as a reference on occasion, but keep it on a secondary shelf in another room for good reason. Anyway, I should re-read Allen's "The 1980s And Beyond" chapter (which does seem to include writeups of several recommended albums toward the end) in the next couple days, but to give you a clue, here's how it starts: "The very early 1980s were, at least from a creative standpoint, a period of relative bleakness in country music." Later; this is awesome: "An even more disturbing barometer of how dismal and directionless country's commercial mainstream had become by the early 1980s was the LA-to-Nashville 'bimbo' invasion. During those years, any number of modestly talented but nubile Southern California pop songstresses recorded half-baked 'country' records which, remarkably, made minor dents in the country record charts. (A California singer named Carole Chase even had evanescent success with a Los Angeles-produced LP of 'country-disco' dubiously entitled Sexy Songs)." Ha -- dollar bins, here I come!

hey chuck this isn't country related, but i asked my parents/friends for stairway to hell for christmas, and they couldn't find it. is it out of print or something? i'm just curious, so as to see if i could find it somewhere else

Loooong out of print, but isn't it on Amazon for really cheap still?

Uh, guess it's considered "collectible" now; wtf?? Hey, I'll sell my copy for $133.75 + $3.99 shipping if somebody will pay me that.

http://www.amazon.com/Stairway-Hell-Chuck-Eddy/dp/030680817X

I wonder what dumb people pay for the first edition these days.

Hey $40 (second edition) on ebay. (Amazon's got several a lot cheaper; I just wanted to brag about that expensive one).

http://cgi.ebay.com/Stairway-to-Hell-:-Chuck-Eddy-(Paperback,-1998)_W0QQitemZ341320660834QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20091216?IMSfp=TL091216217001r32542

haha alright thanks, i checked amazon after christmas, and they had used copies, but i wasn't sure how much i trusted that, quality wise, i mean, but they are cheap, so i might just go ahead and buy one of them. thanks

But they are not cheap anymore! That was my point! I'm not sure when the prices went up. It's not my fault, honest.

Back to hillbilly music -- there is a Link Wray album in that book. And sundry '70s Southern Rock LPs. If I were to update it now, though...

Btw, another '90s country star who put out a solid best-of CD in the '00s is Travis Tritt. I suspect he may have made solid albums in the '90s (and ones that presaged this decade's country-rock crossover), but if so, I don't know that I've ever actually sat through any of them.

Tritt's best album was Down The Road I Go from 2000. It's All About to Change from 91 was his biggest seller - it's the one with "Here's a Quarter". Great voice, but I generally found his choice of material pretty bland.

Actually, come to think of it, calling even Tritt's The Very Best CD (Rhino, 2007) "solid" is stretching it -- at 20 songs, including stinkers like "Can I Trust You With My Heart" and "Tell Me I Was Dreaming," it's about twice too long. (My favorite tracks, last time I checked, were "Where Corn Don't Grow" and "Lord Have Mercy On The Working Man.") I might have even liked his indie-label The Storm album from the same year more, actually -- even had a pretty great Nickelback cover, in "Should've Listened." I'm guessing he's one guy who may have been freed up to do stuff more in tune with what he's best at when he stopped having big hits in Nashville. (Kentucky Headhunters, this decade, would be another one, though as I said their turn of the '90s hits were pretty good at the time. And nobody's mentioned John Anderson, who made consistently great albums in the early '80s, and has made sporadically real good ones since, as a star and then as a post-star -- I assume Seminole Wind would have to rank as one of the best country albums of the '90s, though I don't actually own a copy.)

Rolling Country 2010:

Rolling Country 2010