Rolling Country 2006 Thread

the road hammers are headed by jason mccoy, who i have been talking about forever, there was a fascinating reality television seires putting together the band, lots of juicy bullshit about the nashville scene, hes really astute in terms of the pure commerical aspect, and he hasnt broken thru from canada yet. i have seen him maybe 4 times, and hes a solid guy too, never interviewed him, though i guess i should for somewhere because of what he thinks about the industry is as impt as his work,i can video tape and send the reality show, if you want chuck. (hes acutally all over cmt, he has had several making the video specials, an hour at christmas this year, a support the troops thing, and his videos are consisently in the top ten, hes toby keith big up north, though he won the CMA Global Country Award this year)

Jason is such an amazing muscian, with a voice like a bullet thru glass, and i am sort of disappointed by the road hammers because it doesnt flatter him, its a bit too much of a cliche, and his love of the good lord means that he holds back a bit when he shouldnt. (there is a scene when they are in the studio, when he is singing about white pills and red wine or something like that, and he felt really bad about that, because he didnt want to be a bad example)

singles to hear, solo:
this used to be our town
born again in dixieland
doin it right
this could take all night
kinda like its love
ten million tear drops
doing time in bakers field
i lie
i feel a sin comin' on
she aint missin me
and his covers of billy shaver are amazing (as is xmas cd)

anyways road hammers, good, jason mccoy, best thing out of country music in the last half decade

don, the nancy mccallion CD i got is self-titled, so it may not be as knew as i thought it was (though i could've sworn it's listed as 2005 on cdbaby, though artists cheat on years there all the time, i've noticed.) also, some copyrights on it date back to '98 and even '84. best tracks on it, seems to me so far, are 'the leaving kind,' 'reckless child,' 'misery,' and especially 'moon over the interstate' and especially especially 'money's moving up' (about how the trickle-down theory's a lie), and they do indeed sound fairly molly-esque to me, more than some of the more staid other tracks.

as far as responses to posts go, seemed to they'd pretty much dried up in recent weeks, and the thread had pret'near up and died except for my own posts. though hopefully that was just a temporary lull.

It just flopped around like a fish on a table and after awhile I got sick of listening to it. A shame because I liked the first record and didn't expect such a mediocre second one.

hes not like dwight at all, hes more tender and almost milksop in a way, he emotes more then dwight ever did.

jason mccoy isnt milksop, wrong word...he emotes, with a depth and an almost tender meloncholy, a sort of melodrama, but not femminine at all, butch!

Don't give up on it, xhuxk. I've been neglecting it just cause I've been freakin swamped and I expect the same is true for others and I've been mostly listening to Go-Betweens albums lately. I think they may be the least country band to ever build music around acoustic guitars. P.S. I saw Tim Carroll and Elizabeth Cook this evening. Sweeter folks you'll never meet. Elizabeth has a new record coming out in Feb, and the single is: "Sometimes It Takes Balls to Be a Woman."

Yep, that's exactly the one I got, too (including the '04 part).

And Anthony, if Jason McCoy solo is even *remotely* milksoppy, or even tenderly melancholy, I'm almost *positive* I'd prefer his Road Hammers stuff. Which isn't to say I wouldn't check him out solo.

I still totally love the cocaine and hangover songs on that Shooter album, and am stumped about why George or anybody else would think the latter, at least, doesn't have a masterful kick to it. If Poco or Pure Prairie ever rocked that hard, they hid ir from me.) (Didn't notice he'd switched the cover at the end; that stinks, both because his "Living Proof" sounded good last time I listened to it and because I sent my advance to either Frank or George or both, without closely checking the tracklist apparently, when my real one arrived.)

(though his last solo album, shes not missing missing me at all rocks the hell out of a broken heart)

I dunno, if it was such a commercial-careerism move (not that it'd necessarily be a bad thing if it was) wouldn't it consist of something other than country-rock trucker songs (hardly the most commercial subgenre out there)? How many trucker songs actually become c&w hits these days? or maybe they do in canada??) anyway, the more i listen, it's clear his "emotive" slow ones are the dullest songs on here (and so far the little feat and jerry reed covers seem the *least* dull -- though i like plenty of the truckin' originals too.)

(As for the Go-Betweens, I think "Bellavista Terrace" probably is the place to start because it's an overview and that's the grown-up way, but I love "Spring Hill Fair" best of all, and I can't help thinking you're going to go mad for "Bachelor Kisses", and maybe "Part Company" (my favourite of all), so I'm half tempted to recomend you start there.)

he has a best of cd out right now, and honky tonk angels, the cd is ecellent as is fears lies and angels (i need to check that title)

meanwhile i think i'm starting to come to turns with ashley monroe, a little. "he ain't coming back," her album's closer, is a breakfast breakup song (since she pours a cup of coffee in it) that seems to take its chorus's melody from one of my all-time breakfast breakup songs, "superwoman" by karyn white, but the breakfast breakup song it's paired with (since this one precedes it), "hank's cadillac," sounds like a teacher's pet is singing -- okay, maybe it's not a breakfast breakup song; wasn't paying attention to the (teacher's pet) title when i was listening to it, just to "if i'd kept the coffee strong," and regrets about all the other stuff she could've done different and he (hank?)'d still be around; the words are fine but the music's a bore. The two rockers, I guess (are there more?) are "can't let go" (another hard-to-let-go codependency-maybe song, same title mariah carey used once) and "pain pain" (which has the eddie rabbit love-me-in-the-rearview rap section and double entrende's about coming again). "that's why we call earch other baby" is the gender-quarrel duet, semi-rockabilly and not bad; who's the guy? (sounds like dwight yoakam, but maybe -- see my jason mccoy notes above -- everybody sounds like dwight to me this week). and then there's "satisfied," which feels dead in the water, and the song i'm really starting to hate, "pony," a preciously polished turd which seems to entail ashely being a little girl who wants a pony and wants a baby and wants to be your lady when she grows up--unless i totally heard it wrong; either way, get it out of my house, ok?

*born and raised* by self-released monroeville, PA six-piece cdbabies North of the Mason-Dixon (aka NOMAD) is interesting in a post-hair-metal world in that it includes (1) a cover of REO Speedwagon's "take it on the run" which sounds like the eagles, (2) a decent rocker called "farmer's daughter" that starts off seemingly swiping chordage from nazareth's "hair of the dog" even though NOMAD's idea of rocking is about one-twentieth what nazareth's idea of rocking was; (3) a track that sounds like billy ray cyrus doing a summer song halfway between bryan adams and kenny chesney; (4) a blatant bon jovi ballad imitation i don't like much called "i'm not your man; and (5) a decently drummed and horned rocker called "alone when you're lonely" that seems to employ cowbells. i also like the slightly latin bluegrassish lilt of "dyin' to live" and the hoedown jamming in "watch the girls." the "amazing grace" cover is okay, and the rest is no worse than lone star or rascal flatts. (in fact, i'd take the album anyday over the new rascal flatts CD, which i wound up liking two or three tracks on okay, but it still mainly stinks.)

road warriors song annoying me the most so far: "heart with four wheel drive". road warriors song reminding me most of big'n'rich so far: "i'm a road warrior," where they brag about their "pimped ride."

I think that's the Kasey Chambers connection I noted earlier. I like Kasey, but that's one of her most pusillanimous tunes.

Now, rethinking the Road Hammers: I'm starting to the get an idea of what Anthony means about Jason McCoy's heart not being in the more rowdy trucker stuff. Outside of the two covers, which are real good but mostly because they're just plain great songs, the only song he really completely puts over, to my ears, is "Girl on the Billboard," which has a cool sort of modal/circular/fugue-ish verse structure and also must be the song I was referring to when I said he sounded like Dwight Yoakam, because it's the only one where he does. The one and only ballad, "Call it a Day," *does* seem somehow more heartfeltedly sung than the faster stuff, and it's not as dull as I implied upthread; the guy does lonesome weariness pretty well, I guess. But I also wouldn't say it's any *less* generic than the speedier tunes; just generic in a less energetic way. I like "I'm a Road Hammer" pretty well, but the five-minute "reprise" version of it at the end (with its jew's harp type break and remixed stretching-out effects) is more B'n'R than the regular version at the beginning, and though Jason also says "chillin' the most" in it, it's really not all *that* B''n'R; actually, toward the start of it, his voice reminds me a little of John Anderson for a line or two. "Nashville Bound" (as in "hellbent and Nashville bound") irritated me at first since its title seemed gratuitious in two different ways after they'd already done "East Bound and Down", but I'm a David Allan Coe and Charlie Daniels fan, so any song where long-haired country guys get in a fight with a redneck is okay by me. "Keep On Truckin'" is not Eddie Kendricks by any means (wow, I just checked Joel Whitburn's book; I had no idea his '73 proto-disco song of that name went #1 pop for two weeks!), but it's kinda funky regardless. And there's lots of little doo-dads, ignition noises and incidental tracks and a track of bloopers called "Flat Tires" (plus the theme song reprise) to make people think this 10-song (eight orignals) album has 14 songs on it, and I appreciate the ripoff shamelessness of that, but then again I didn't have to pay for the thing. Only song I hate is the Country-and-Westerbergish one, "Heart With Four Wheel Drive," which sounds as bland as bland can be.

Roy wrote: P.S. I saw Tim Carroll and Elizabeth Cook this evening. Sweeter folks you'll never meet. Elizabeth has a new record coming out in Feb, and the single is: "Sometimes It Takes Balls to Be a Woman."

I'm back, I'm back. God, my mother's dying of cancer before my (and my sister's) eyes, we got this bad news a couple weeks ago. So I just have been worn out.

Tim Carroll and Elizabeth I've known for maybe 10 years. Great people.

I've been working, as much as I can in between this whole lousy situation--I did a piece on Mark Nevers for the Scene that should run next Wednesday, and he's a fascinating guy. Whatever else you can say about him or Bare or even Lambchop, he gets some cool sounds, and on this new (non-country, actually sorta "Adventure"-era Television/Pavement sounding) Lone Official record he did (they're a Nashville band led by a guy named Matt Button who writes songs about horseracing, feeling lost in the big city, and one kinda great one about bar fights!), Nevers is kinda a poet of the pedal steel or somethin' corny like that. Anyway, I found him real interesting, real cool (into punk rock and Eno and stuff) and he really uses those Music Row miking techniques mixed with his vintage 2-inch tape machines and so forth). I like the way his records sound, even the Candi Staton which I think Chuck mentioned he wasn't impressed by--well, it's probably a bit staid in a way, but it sounds great to me, real good revivalism that isn't stupid.

So far behind--I am also talking to Blaine Larsen sometime next week, so I got to sit down and re-listen to his new one.

I read some of the above posts, and will catch up tomorrow, I promise. I hope everyone here is doing OK--Anthony, Chuck, Roy, Don, everyone.

I did notice some talk about "Girl on the Billboard" above--the great version I know is by Del Reeves. And Chuck, remember the Dean Martin reissue of "Swinging Down Yonder" you were talking about? I saw a great film of him doing "Hominy Grits" from that record, around '52. Awesome.

Finally, it is terrible about Grant from the Go-Betweens. I don't know all their stuff, but I do like a few songs from "Tallulah" which is the most commonly praised one, I think, and from "The Friends of," the one they did in Oregon or wherever. But I never went the way of a lot of people with them, I never quite loved them or anything. They always seemed so serious, and I was always a bit put off by the angst or something. Angst, man, I do not need right now.

much love
ase

(his song girl in the war, is a gender reversal that fascinates, he sings about waiting for his gf, or wife, to come back from being killed...and since i think he is canadian, and we allow women to serve in combat here, and when he sings

And I got a girl in the war, Paul the only thing I know to do
Is turn up the music and pray that she makes it through

it breaks my fucking heart, there have been a lot of protest songs lately, some god awful (bright eyes), and some brilliant (springsteen)
but this is this most personal of an obit ive heard...

i can ysi if anyone wants to hear it

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0335,christgau,46533,22.html

Me, I just played Hank III's cover (on a 2000-copy limited edition picture disc split 45 on oi!-friendly TKO Records) of Antiseen's catchiest song ever "Ruby Get Back to the Hills," and Hank performs the seemingly impossible task of TAKING ALL OF THE TUNE OUT OF AN ANTISEEN TUNE via his usual dried-out riverbank country nostalgia shtick turning into hack dime-a-dozen mosh noise bullshit halfway through, quite an accomplishment (being less melodic than Antiseen, I mean, since Antiseen generally make Motorhead seem like Abba in comparison), but I damned if I'll listen to it again (since he also extracts all the power and humor from the song.) I swear, III annoys me more and more as time goes on. (By the way, are his digs at Kid Rock because Hank Jr has called Kid his "son" or whatever once? That occured to me, and obviously it'd make sense.) Oddly, I actually enjoy the flipside, Antiseen doing "F.T.K." (= "Fuck the Kids," gratitously homophobic but at least thankfully not gratutiously pedophilic, and mostly just gratuitously get-offa-my-lawn-you-idiot-punk-rock-whippersnappers-before-I-get-my-shotgun curmudgeonhood, which I relate too); was that a Hank III song once? (Best new TKO 45 though, is "Broken Bottles" by a band named Broken Bottles, a droney slimey nasal tuneful punk clodhop about getting thrown out of a club that plays '80s dance music, then drinking in the street. That's the B-side; A-side "Suburban Dream" is more cliched but has an actual song to it, too--neighborhood watch amid picket fences; chorus for some reason saying "you and me, we could be the best of friends".)

Now a question I've asked myself and that I don't have an answer for is: Why do I feel that this type of blues-soul is living within unnecessary constraints, snug in its form (especially since, for sure, there's a lot of variety, southern rock to slow blues to jazzy cloudbursts)? Anyhow, that's how I do feel, feel the same thing about the Jessi Colter (which I like quite a lot), that they're too far within a form, and I'm therefore feeling at a distance.

But I don't think that (for instance) Lindsay Lohan is unnecessarily constrained for not loading up her songs with blues licks and not stepping out of her forms.