Rolling Country 2015

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Lee Ann Womack’s Trouble In Mind
Limited 3-Song Vinyl w Richard Bennett for Record Store Day April 18
(Nashville, Tenn.) — March 6, 2015 — Lee Ann Womack wanted to do something special for Record Store Day, something that would strip the music down to its essence. Talking with husband/producer Frank Liddell, they decided to use one voice/one instrument. They called on Mark Knopfler/Steve Earle vet Richard Bennett, who brought several of his vintage guitars. The pair recorded several songs in an afternoon – and picked the best three for Trouble In Mind, a limited edition 12” vinyl.
“I think independent record stores are so important,” Womack says. “It’s the last temple of music you can take home... A place where people come looking for the rare, for the special or even just the record they have to buy one more time. But I love the idea of people selling records, talking about what’s on them, getting turned on to cool music."
“I wanted to be part of Record Store Day last year, but we couldn’t get it together in time. So this year, we started early. I got to have Richard Bennett, who is one of those musicians who can get so much heart and tone out of his guitars, come to the house. It was just the two of us, and it was awesome!”
The three songs are the blues classic “Trouble in Mind,” Roger Miller’s semi-obscure “Where Have All The Average People Gone?” and Ralph Stanley’s bluegrass gospel “I’ve Just Seen The Rock of Ages.” Engineered by Grammy-nominated Chuck Ainlay and mastered by Paul Hamann at Suma Recording Studio, Trouble In Mind is Lee Ann Womack unadorned.
“I love the idea of mixing things up, but stripping them back,” says the woman whose first album in seven years, The Way I’m Livin’, was nominated for Best Country Album at the 2015 Grammy Awards. “When you make things that basic, you can hear all the commonalities between, say, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Ralph Stanley... When you make those connections, I think that’s when it gets interesting.”
Womack has spent the last year exploring new territory. Co-hosting the International Bluegrass Music Awards with Jerry Douglas, taking part in PBS’ “Rock My Soul” fundraising special with the Fairfield Four and the McCrary Sisters, Amos Lee, Buddy Miller and Lucinda Williams, taping a CMT “Crossroads” with John Legend, and recording with Ralph Stanley, the 6-time Country Music Association Award winner followed her heart and her muse.
Writing in the essay for the Nashville Scene’s Country Critics Poll, Geoff Himes said Livin’s “...a terrific album rooted in traditional country’s willingness to confront the realities of addiction, adultery, bad romantic choices and small-town blues.” With Trouble In Mind, the vocalist continues to explore the tortured, the saved and the in-between.
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For more information:
Sugar Hill Records

can I sit next to her w/a martini

this impromptu reunion duet on the stage of the Opry brings back a little chill, the musical charisma that made them believable as a country-legendary couple, way back at the beginning of this thing, and central to it---got me hooked on a sometimes torturous soaper, which nowadays tends to use song-fragments as reviving rations, just enough to keep me going. But this song, this singing, holy moly. Oh, whut next.

whut next, dammit, is that after a winter run of exactly five episodes, "nashville," whose scheduling has always seemed a bit seat-of-the-pants, is going back on hiatus. grrr. looks like they're coming back sometime in april, though the lack of an "upcoming on nashville" segment after this week's episode made me wonder if they've filmed anything yet. i really liked that rayna/deacon duet, and i kinda liked the rocking love song that the totally annoying scarlett, somewhat annoying gunnar and i-actually-like-him avery did in their opening set for rascal flatts. but the tune that really floored me this mini-season was the one that somewhat annoying gunnar and formerly-annoying-but-now-sympathetic luke wrote a couple weeks ago ("i can't help my heart"?) after luke finally admitted he's still pining for reyna. i'm still in love with the music on this terrible show that i can't stop watching.

wait, i'm wrong about one thing, gunnar isn't somewhat annoying. he's totally annoying.

via alfred, new ashley monroe
http://tasteofcountry.com/ashley-monroe-on-to-something-good/

went to the country 2 country festival in london last night: brandy clark, lee ann womack, florida georgia line, luke bryan. it was like going to one of the best shows ever followed by one of the worst; i know as a britisher i'm insulated from bro-country so while i knew it was bad i really didn't realise just how incredible terrible it is.

otoh womack is such a magnetic performer and clark's diffidence still serves the songs well live; her new stuff sounded just as brilliant, and she did an amazing, stripped-down version of "better dig two"

This is slightly off topic, but this post from Tami Neilson just tugged at my heart.

http://i.imgur.com/9Duu49Q.png

Yeah, looking fwd to that. Mavis did a concert in Montgomery the night before Obama came for the 50th Anniversary march in Selma, with the Staples' original "I'll Take You There" echoing across the bridge.
Speaking of Nashville:

Lennon and MaisyVerified account ‏@lennonandmaisy

"Ew.. They're both so desperate" Maisy's take on Jeff and Layla haha @aubreypeeples @theoliverhudson

also speaking of "nashville," i have since discovered that "i can't help my heart," which i mentioned a few posts ago, is a sarah buxton song. she seems to be one of their go-to's, and good for her (and good for the show). only version of hers i could find on youtube is live, just her and a guitarist. luke wheeler's version is better.

http://www.wonderingsound.com/feature/millie-jackson-interview
Call back to up top: millie jackson discusses country music

I did Kenny Rogers’s “Sweet Music Man,” you know. I went to see him. They invited me to Carnegie Hall to see him, his manager did. And when it was over, I went backstage and [Kenny] said, “If I had known you was in the audience, I would not have sang ‘Sweet Music Man.’” I thought that was one of the biggest compliments I’ve ever gotten…And he sent me a checkbook holder for canceled checks with a gold check on the top of it. You take the top off and you put the canceled checks inside, then the lid has this gold check from Kenny Rogers to me for a million dollars.

have just discovered the wonderful nikki lane album from last year, love it

Amen. Some Nikki love on RC '14, and she made my Nash Scene Top Ten. Keeping thinking if she could get just one reviewer-bait semi-hit, perhaps with a Timely Theme...?

Xpost

It's a really terrific album, one my favourite from last year, her persona is enthralling.

'Sleep With A Stranger' is a personal highlight.

SXSW yeeeha

Smithsonian MagazineVerified account ‏@SmithsonianMag

Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin is home to one of the largest urban bat colonies in the world http://smithmag.co/qOnUlP

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CAkjFCKWQAAGLsK.jpg

Tonight's Music City Roots live stream (7 Central, http://www.musiccityroots.com) has added Asleep At The Wheel to the bill, which already incl. Hot Rize, Drivin' 'n' Crying, the Valentines, and Daphne and the Mystery Machines. Think I'll either skip this video and listen on http://www.hippieradio945.com/---click on the Listen Live! thingie toward the top---or uh watch "Nashville" tonight and download from the archive (see audio tab at the bottom of the musiccityroots homepage) tomorrow (that's wrong, but that's prob what I'll do).

I am listening to it after all, on hippieradio: interviewing Kevin Kinney before Drivin' & Cryin' perform.

Oh *now* Drivin 'N' Crying are on (after Asleep At The Wheel, Hot Rize, and some nerfos). They've got Warren Hodges of Jason and The Scorchers playing lead. So far so good.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2015/03/25/why-stations-are-pulling-little-big-towns-girl-crush-from-the-airwaves-and-what-that-says-about-country-radio-today/

Alana Lynn, a morning co-host on country music station 104.3 FM in Boise, Idaho, was excited to play Little Big Town’s latest single for her listeners. “Girl Crush,” a powerful ballad about a woman envious of her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend, seemed destined to be a hit.

“I want to taste her lips, yeah cause they taste like you / I want to drown myself in a bottle of her perfume,” vocalist Karen Fairchild sings. “I want her long blond hair, I want her magic touch / Yeah cause maybe then, you’d want me just as much. . . I got a girl crush.”

Sure, it’s a provocative way to describe jealousy. But when Lynn played the song on the air, she didn’t anticipate that she would get furious phone calls and e-mails accusing “Girl Crush” of “promoting the gay agenda” and threats to boycott the station. The last time she heard this much outrage from listeners? “The Dixie Chicks’ President Bush comments,” Lynn recalls, referring to when the trio’s career imploded in 2003 after making critical statements about the president.

Girl Crush is a good song btw

In fact, Fairchild jokes, “Maybe the real controversy is that a 6/8 ballad is on country radio.”

i love "girl crush"

it's actually been charting pretty well despite its inability to amass much airplay whatsoever

This is a quick, quarterly reminder that all available tracks mentioned on this thread (and a few album selections) are being posted as updated to a thread-specific Spotify playlist that I'm maintaining. I just did a quick sweep prior to posting this message and updated as of today with everything that's been added on Spotify since it was first mentioned.

That playlist is currently a bit more than three hours of music and is clickable below.
Give it a spin and subscribe if you want to listen along through the year.

Rolling Country 2015 Thread Spotify Playlist

THANK YOU BASED FORKS

i have really been enjoying grady smith's regular country columns in the guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/mar/31/country-music-image-problem-bro-country-sexist

http://www.npr.org/2015/04/05/396881299/first-listen-dwight-yoakam-second-hand-heart

x-post -Was worrying Grady Smith was just one of those folks into only alt-country, but I see some popular country singers meet his standard

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/feb/17/eight-great-country-songs-2015

Will have to check Grady.
Dwight Yoakam's Second Hand Heartout 2/14) didn't immediately flip me into the back of a pickup truck, not like 3 Pears, but it sure does build. First three tracks seem a tad studious, which shouldn't be necessary after 14 previous albums drawing on mid-60s Buck Owens/Beatles crosstalk, and what they both drew on from the Everlys x various Southwestern crossover artists. But then he starts stretching and flexing the Sunbelt accents, adding Alabama-style syllables to a droll drawl over a "She's About A Mover"-type riff, dropping in some Jordanaires-type vocal encouragement, just for a second ( like some other fleet touches, on this and other tracks: acoustic guitar back here, steel over thar), and the arc of the set really takes off, doesn't let go. For instance, "Man of Constant Sorrow," with a vocal not that far from old timey versions, maybe a little faster---or that's just an illusion created by the slamming electric rhythm tracks, which fit perfectly, without jiving up the high lonesome vibe---they just respond, in a plugged-in, open-flap tent revival way: "Tell us how lost we all are, Brother, that's the first step to bein' found!" (Or maybe just, "Rave on, let it bleed, I'm with ya.")
Yoakam continues to crank up his rock and country connections while passing through, getting cooler and hotter at the same time, eventually ending with a ballad, but one with a beat; sounds like he's been listening to New Morningthe way Dylan was maybe listening to Van Morrison around then.
(And I'll prob get into that first subset more when I listen again, now that I know how he slides up the excitement level.)

Streaming here 'til the 14th, most likely:
http://www.npr.org/2015/04/05/396881299/first-listen-dwight-yoakam-second-hand-heart

"A tad studied," I probably should have said.

Starting to get antsy re new country releases--guess I should check Ryans Culwell & Bingham, eh? Any others?

Did just now try Allison Moorer's Down To Believing for the first time. Haven't gotten all the words yet, but not so much a Goodbye Earle "breakup album" in the usual sense---right away, she's running the potholes with pressing uncertainties all around; the rear view mirror is to used only when necessary (got that, Self?). First three tracks go like that, and more about overall effect, but it's her voice that pulls me in closer, when she slows down a little on the title track. That's the one that grabbed me on the radio, before I knew who was singing---she's not a distinctive stylist, but sometimes the moment in the ongoing situation takes a turn---other standouts so far incl. "Wish I" and "Mama Let The Wolf In," speaking of taking a turn: rec to fans of The Band Perry's hillbilly gothic pop, although it goes from atypical raunch to something more contextually consistent, as the tough adult lets a little of the dread out: "I shot him with a silver bullet, now I pray, pray, pray..."
Continues kicking it through the tumultuous phone message of "I'm Doin' Fine," and a strong version of "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?"

I'm stuck listening to the new Dwight Yoakam on Spotify until next weekend - I want to get the Target edition 'cause it comes with three bonus tracks, and I only go to Target every two weeks.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2015/04/19/academy-of-country-music-acm-awards/26048879/

The telecast began with Eric Church and Keith Urban performing Church's Pledge Allegiance to the Hag, a salute to the ACMs first entertainer of the year, Merle Haggard.

Turned this on late and missed the opening. haven't checked Youtube or elsewhere for it yet. Miranda won her sixth consecutive award for female vocalist of the year. She also won her fourth award for top album for Platinum, as well as song of the year for her hit Automatic.

But Lee Brice won for single record of the year--

http://theboot.com/lee-brice-i-dont-dance-single-record-of-the-year-2015-acm-awards/

http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/6516613/little-big-town-girl-crush-controversy-lesbian-complaints-radio?mobile_redirection=false

Article suggests there were less complaints to radio than suggested in prior articles

Article says...

Speaking of jonesing for new country albums, what's Elizabeth Cook up to these days, other than knocking 'em dead on stage (maybe getting us primed for something)?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CDe-jHSVEAAfOH1.jpg:large

Anyway, here's her site's EC Spotify play list, a good intro:

https://play.spotify.com/user/elizabeth_cook/playlist/1QJ6gSsUu7vjS6c5Cu7RiN?play=true&utm_source=open.spotify.com&utm_medium=open

EC: "Thinking about it..."

https://igcdn-photos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/t51.2885-15/11199652_872804782765281_1971046042_n.jpg

Guy Clark doc in progress, crowdsourcing also in progress:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=16&v=16IxUN-qEUc

Wonder if it'll do that on Firefox:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=16&v=16IxUN-qEUc

http://m.nashvillescene.com/nashville/randy-rogers-and-wade-bowen/Event?oid=4971776

Keep reading about this current Rogers/Bowen effort--said to have Texas country roots. I think Xchuckxx & Edd have been chatting about it elsewhere, and I've seen other mentions of it too.

So far digging the new Emmylou & Rodney, The Traveling Kind, out May 12. More originals than Old Yellow Moon, and while I wouldn't mind an underexposed honky tonk chestnut or two--early tracks seem a bit mild---it does get more intense as it goes along. They were among the first to demonstrate how to fold rock & folk elements into country, also how to bring those out, and keep 'em there, in a Nashville-based sound that didn't get bogged down in trends, incl. nostalgia. They still do that, for inst. in the paranoid social commentary of the somewhut Doorsy boogie of "The Weight of the World," and the cosmic lover's speculation of "Higher Moutains, " delving way into a family photo, maybe, in "Her Hair Was Red,"and getting stardusted in "Le Danse De La Joie" ("Ooo-wee, nothin' in life so sweet/As you 'n' me 'n' four left feet"): where memory's rituals somehow find new creative expression.
Life's plainer, ruder side's here too, with oldsters trying not to hang on just because they're scared, in "We Sure Gave It A Try," which is even harder when one of you is basically gone baby gone already, in "If You Lived Here, You'd Home By Now." Yep, several along those lines.
http://www.npr.org/2015/05/03/403376741/first-listen-emmylou-harris-rodney-crowell-the-traveling-kind#playlist

"...You'd *Be* Home By Now": they can still get all their words in a row, even when I can't.

The Rogers and Bowen album is a good time. Parts of it scan as perhaps a bit too defensive and reactionary, but the construction of the songs is airtight, and there are strong enough hooks throughout. Not my favorite album of what's been a strong year thus far, but it's a likable set that avoids some of the dour self-seriousness of the Red Dirt and Americana scenes.

New John Moreland has some exceptional writing, and his singing is better than on his earlier albums. Have seen several writers who have been quick to anoint him as the next Sturgill Simpson, which does no one any favors.

Moreland used to play in punk bands I see

Merle Haggard @merlehaggard
Relaxing after a day of recording

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CEb6gE4WoAEizAl.png

Chris StapletonVerified account
‏@ChrisStapleton

Baseball with my amazing, incredible, awesome, unbelievably lovely wife

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CEXQTZeXIAEba5g.jpg

When I first heard Chris Stapleton with the SteelDrivers, I immediately thought of Bob Seger: both have the seemingly tight, raspy mid-range that can wail or nearly scream out for a second, then drop back right back into the continuity, which incl. "I drink because I'm lonely, and I'm lonely 'cause I drink," not as a breast-beating confession, but a given, along the way to breaking down the dry difference between "Whiskey and You." So he's got a way with words, but---despite having ditched the bluegrass SteelDrivers, a rock band and a Rick Rubin-produced solo debut, reportedly in a quest for more truthful self-expression---the expression really comes more through in the force and disciplined shape of his distinctive vocal sound. Close to Seger's, yeah, but Traveller is all country, unlike any Seger album so far. Crisp drums and bass *sometimes* meet up with steel guitar, banjo, acoustic or (usually) electric rhythm guitar, but they all know to stand back and let the man do his thang. (Also rec. to Jamey J. fans.)

So far, it works equally well as foreground or accompaniment for other activities.

x-post to : The Rogers and Bowen album is a good time. Parts of it scan as perhaps a bit too defensive and reactionary, but the construction of the songs is airtight, and there are strong enough hooks throughout. Not my favorite album of what's been a strong year thus far, but it's a likable set that avoids some of the dour self-seriousness of the Red Dirt and Americana scenes.

Finally listened to this and wasn't dazzled but kinda liked some of it. That song with the lyrics about being offered a tune called "Dirt" and then turning it down because "we don't write hits we write standards" struck me as a tad defensive and reactionary.

Listening to Stapleton again. "Tennessee Whiskey" maybe raises a glass to Van Morrison, with sparky little waves gliding by in some of his notes. There's also a subset of *relatively* subdued, candid reflections, culminating in the dry-eyed elegy "Daddy Doesn't Pray Anymore." Then he shifts to the uphill build of "Might As Well Get Stoned" 9wishes various friends and relations were still here to do it with him, but since they ain't---) In a strong, arena-ready finale, he lets his musos have enough retractable leash for a prowling country metal groove on "Outlaw State of Mind" (written cliche as you think, but perfectly performed), and "Sometimes I Cry," which also has a touch of cosmic blues.