And by the way, have I noted how over the top insanely great that *Texas Bohemia: Polkas Waltzes Schottisches: The Texas Bohemian-Moravian-German Bands* album I bought at Princeton Record Exchange a couple weeks ago is? Well, it is. It's barely left my CD changer since, and the amazing thing is that I keep forgetting it's not Mexican music, which it absolutely sounds like until they start singing in German or whatever. Some of the bands are really big, but some of them just seem to consist of nothing more than a drum and a tuba. Pick hits: Adolph Hofner "Beautiful America - Waltz" 1959 (in which he says everything in America is beautiful including the girls. I have a great album on vinyl by him, too. Must have been really hard to have a name like that in America in the 50s!); Vrazel & Majeks & Bobby Jones Czech Band "Corn Cockle Polka" 1992 (party in the background rock!), Tuba Meisters "Edelweiss" 1993 (yes, that "Edelweiss", but not the "Bring Me..." one); Henry Tannenberger & his Orchestra "On Our Porch Polka" 1986 (on Oompah Records out of San Antonio!); The Red Ravens "Stone Heart Waltz" 1977; Leroy Ryback's Swinging Orchestra "El Rancho Grande" 1985; Knutsch Band "Zwei Wie Mir Zwei" 1993; Vrazels & Majeks & Bobby Jones Czech Band (again!) "A Ja Sam (All By Myself)" 1992.
― xhuxk, Saturday, 8 April 2006 20:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― don, Saturday, 8 April 2006 21:04 (eighteen years ago) link
― don, Saturday, 8 April 2006 21:15 (eighteen years ago) link
A couple other thoughts/questions about the Dino reissue:
1) I'm realizing that it's never been especially clear to me what exactly Dixieland music (note its name!) *was.* Ritz's liner notes say, "combining elements of New Orleans, classic, and Chicago jazz, Dixieland came into is own in the 1920s." But who did the combining?
2) On the back of the original vinyl version of said album (reproduced small on the back of the CD's inner sleeve), a drum and bugle corps are mraching with a Confederate flag.
3) Clearly one of the obvious "intermediate steps along the way" I allude to above was, duh, Bing Crosby, who went #1 with "Dinah," which Martin covers, in 1932. The album is *all* covers, the notes say, and was partially a response to all the concept albums Sinatra had started putting out in the early '50s. And yeah, as far as I can tell, it does seem to be just Martin's second album. Other songs covered, according to the notes, were originally hits for the Heidelberg Quartet, Paul Whiteman's Rhythm Boys (at least three of them), the Mills Brothers (they did "Dinah" too, or maybe with Bing?), Gene Krupa with Anita O'Day, Jimmy Dorsey, Ozzie Nelson, Gene Austin, and a 20s comedy duo called Van & Shneck. "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans" wound up being a million seller for rock'n'roller Freddie Cannon (who was great, by the way) five years after Martin's version, in 1959.
4) Ritz refers to Martin "singing in much the casual manner in which he spoke, which, for lack of better designation, could be called 'conversational singing.'" So could many of Toby Keith's best performances, it occurs to me. As could "laid back drawl that was not quite southern, but a far cry for the east coast sophistication practiced by most male singers of the day." Not unlike (from the LP's *original* notes) Martin's "easy golf swing."
― xhuxk, Saturday, 8 April 2006 23:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Saturday, 8 April 2006 23:34 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Saturday, 8 April 2006 23:37 (eighteen years ago) link
Those of so foolish as not to haunt the teenpop thread may be unaware that Miley and her dad Billy Ray have a TV show, in which - I gather from the theme song, which is all TV-less me knows of it - by day she's a regular middle-schooler, but at night she twirls around like Sailor Moon and takes on a SECRET IDENTITY as a... as a... well, you'll just have to look for yourself.
The theme song's OK, likable enough, not grebt.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Saturday, 8 April 2006 23:38 (eighteen years ago) link
http://www.angelfire.com/folk/polka/bands.html
― xhuxk, Saturday, 8 April 2006 23:56 (eighteen years ago) link
― don, Sunday, 9 April 2006 04:10 (eighteen years ago) link
That Sweethearts of the Rodeo album from '96 I got in Princeton doesn't really cut it for me, though others might think differently. Whoever owned the copy before me had stuck a Xeroxed Alanna Nash review from *Stereo Review* inside the booklet, and Alanna praises it for containing "much more eclectic material than their mainstream county records ever hinted at": i.e, a gospel song, lots of bluegrass, covers of Donovan ("Catch the Wind") and Dylan ("One More Night," never heard of it before) and Jimmie Rodgers, plus what Alanna claims are hints of '60s pop and Celtic folk. I'm guessing that I'd prefer their less eclectic manistream country records (from 10 years before, so mid '80s, Alanna says) myself. I prefer midnight girls in a sunset town to museum curators, which they sound like here.
The Carlene Carter album I bought seems consisently kinda fun but never quite fun *enough*, at least so far. Maybe I wish her poppabilly was more rockabilly, "The Sweetest Thing" is slow, and could amost be a Lorrie Morgan hit from around that time; "Goodnight Dallas," which I like more than most of the tracks, has mariachi horns and yodels, so it's "western" I guess. I'm still waiting for at least one track though to jump out at me as much as, say, "Montgomery to Memphis," which jumped right out of the self-titled Leann Womack CD I bought the second I finally put it in the changer today. So right now I'd say Leann beats Carlene beats the Sweethearts, though Carlene could still win this race.
― xhuxk, Sunday, 9 April 2006 15:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Sunday, 9 April 2006 15:37 (eighteen years ago) link
>More mature, After Here Through Midland lacks the sparkle of Cock Robin's debut. The one time they engaged an American producer in Don Gehman (John Cougar Mellencamp, Hootie and the Blowfish), After Here has a more U.S. rock-country blend to it. In the end, it achieved little in the States, again doing the business in Europe -- "Just Around the Corner," "The Biggest Fool of All," and "El Norte" notched up the U.K. singles chart. "I'll Send Them Your Way" could have landed them the U.S. hit they so deserved. "Another Story" is picturesque -- almost like an Edward Hopper painting of small-town America: small wooden house with porch, a deserted street, heavy grey sky, and one illuminated streetlight. "Nobody's home, so I'll go looking out for trouble," sings Anna LaCazio..
― xhuxk, Sunday, 9 April 2006 16:25 (eighteen years ago) link
Sounds like the uncharacterisically un-lightweight "Me and the Wildwood Rose" on Carlene's CD might actually fill this bill after all (which means Carlene could be a keeper.)
― xhuxk, Sunday, 9 April 2006 22:42 (eighteen years ago) link
― don, Monday, 10 April 2006 03:07 (eighteen years ago) link
carlene's CD doesn't quite make the cut, i don't think, though yeah, maybe as don suggests her new wave era stuff is less perfunctory than what she was doing in '90 (when she was actually having hits, i take it.) even "me and the wildwood rose," about growing up at grandma's and singing for miners with her little sister, doesn't quite connect. i like the rockpile-abilly powerpopsters ("i fell in love," "my dixie darlin'," "come on back," "one love," the mariachified "goodnight dallas") okay but never love them. most surprising cut, just 'cause i never knew carlene did such stuff, is that stately lorrie morgan approximation i mentioned, but i doubt i'll need to hear it again.
― xhuxk, Monday, 10 April 2006 14:15 (eighteen years ago) link
She's called Sharleen Spiteri, by the way.
― Tim (Tim), Monday, 10 April 2006 14:19 (eighteen years ago) link
Yeah, George is right here. *Heavy Traffic* (2002) definitely makes more sense on this country thread than the metal one, though there are some decent riffs in three or four songs (most notably "Diggin' Burt Bacharach," which doesn't seem to have much to do with Burt Bacharach, though his name does enable an okay raplet verse that goes "black jack clap trap any kind of flap trap big mac lookin' back diggin Burt Bacharach"), and once in a great while ("Solid Gold") the traffic does get moderately heavy. Otherwise, always pleasant, and pretty much always pedestrian. I dunno, if it was an unknown cdbaby band, and it just came out, I might hang on to it, but it's not and didn't. Really the most notable thing about the album is the creepy-assed fetish song "The Oriental," about sex with Mia from north korea and Mae Wong from hong kong, the former of whom has a land rover and the latter of whom is a raver. Most crypto-racist verse, assuming I'm understanding this, in which case yucko: "I don't like sushi/She said that suits me/I take a shower/On every hour." (The song reminds me of a similar fetish song called "Eastern Girls" or something like that, by some early '80s new wave band whose name started with L, but their song was way catchier and less offensive. I'm totally blanking out on their name right now.)
― xhuxk, Monday, 10 April 2006 15:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Monday, 10 April 2006 15:55 (eighteen years ago) link
http://www.livinginstereo.com/
Currently there's a brief entry on the Nashville Sound, along with some MP3s, plus a long post on Don Knotts, Cindy Walker and some political musings.
― Roy Kasten (Roy Kasten), Monday, 10 April 2006 21:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― don, Tuesday, 11 April 2006 03:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― don, Tuesday, 11 April 2006 06:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― don, Tuesday, 11 April 2006 06:46 (eighteen years ago) link
Their track on the Tritonkt comp, "Prune Waltz," is quite the drunken oompah party, and assists regularity as well! (Also I realized I left off my list of faves the version of "Cotton Eyed Joe" by the Fayetteville Flash [Lee Roy Matocha's Orchestra], though that might go without saying since I don't think I've ever heard a version of "Cotton Eyed [or Eye for that matter] Joe" I *didn't* like. Rednex's is still best, though.)
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 11 April 2006 12:28 (eighteen years ago) link
― Roy Kasten (Roy Kasten), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:08 (eighteen years ago) link
George, check out these guys: Hard-hitting bottle-fight punk-tempo metal'n'roll boogie from the Northwest, complete with yackety sax for coloring and a cover of "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" by, uh, Sonny Boy Williamson, right? Would sound great next to the Count Bishops or Sonics. Cdbaby find of the week, unless I find an ever better one:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/dirtybirds
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 11 April 2006 20:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Wednesday, 12 April 2006 13:09 (eighteen years ago) link
― don, Friday, 14 April 2006 04:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 14 April 2006 13:23 (eighteen years ago) link
has anyone heard Blaine Larsen's latest single, on the radio? I keep listening for it and so far have missed, and "The Beaver" here, local country station, always seems to lose my requests.
and, catching up here, I ended up really liking Jace Everett's album. I did a piece for the Scene in which I compared it to Radney Foster's record, and if anything I prefer Jace's. "Gold" is an amazing simulation of a classic '70s single, complete with those almost-black sexy, wheedling female backup singers. And the closer, which is about how Jace follows in the footsteps of his fathers and so forth, has some of the greatest massed guitar moves abstracted from, again, a thousand half-forgotten '70s records. Jace sings totally professional, though, which means nothing really gets thru except the sheer formalism of the whole shebang; whereas Radney sings all soulful, sort of like a cross between Dwight Yoakam and Lyle Lovett, but a little deeper, and the sound is "warmer" (Waddy Wachtel on guitar, analogous to the guitar moves on "Jace Everett). And a great Rockpile imitation, or Fabulous Thunderbirds as produced by Nick Lowe, on Rad's "Big Idea."
and I'll say that I don't know enough about teenpop these days to intelligently post there, but that I really liked about half of Jewel's new one, "Goodbye Alice in Wonderland," some ace, ace pop moves and sunk-back guitars and surprisingly mordant bridges and choruses and thangs...and two songs better than anything on Liz Phair's last one, and comparable to the best stuff on Carrie Underwood's debut. In fact, they sound similar; and Jewel oughta record something like Carrie's in N-ville, if you ask me. all I can say is, anyone who gets all excited about the jammed-together pop of something like the New Pornographers, Jewel's "Satellite" and "Only One Too" beat that stuff, you axe me. and her "country" move, "Stephenville TX," surely belongs with Carrie's "Ain't in Checotah No More" as stardom-I-love-it-I-want-a-peanut-butter-sandwich statement.
― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Friday, 14 April 2006 15:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― don, Friday, 14 April 2006 19:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― don, Friday, 14 April 2006 19:49 (eighteen years ago) link
he new Kris Kristofferson, does the same thing, he always does--tryto find his place in the universe. Under rated as a singer, andperhaps the best american song writer since the mid 60s (moreconsistent then dylan, more lonely then merle haggard, smarter thenbruce springsteen and less sentimental then anyone else) The singlehas a sing along chorus, that sounds like a pentecostal sing-a-long,but wryly upends all of the cliches we expect of country songs aboutjesus.
hes an old man now, an elder but hes always been ragged, always beendowntrodden--what does it mean when he sings this:
Am I young enough to believe in revolutionAm I strong enough to get down on my knees and prayAm I high enough on the chain of evolutionTo respect myself, and my brother and my sisterAnd perfect myself in my own peculiar way
Its brave, because his desire for radical change is tempered withdoubt, and he realises that to lay prostrate to the creator of theuniverse is not the moral equivalent of going out for a pint with abuddy, and he doesnt see anything wrong with admitting in evoution,and his desire towards unity is communitarian.
the new album is smart, because it isnt a fuck you to dubya (haggarddid that with his last album), but an upbeat reflection on a minefieldof interior change.
― anthony easton (anthony), Saturday, 15 April 2006 05:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― anthony easton (anthony), Saturday, 15 April 2006 05:50 (eighteen years ago) link
― don, Sunday, 16 April 2006 00:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― don, Sunday, 16 April 2006 20:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― werner T., Friday, 21 April 2006 17:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Friday, 21 April 2006 20:54 (eighteen years ago) link
― don, Saturday, 22 April 2006 00:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― anthony easton (anthony), Saturday, 22 April 2006 01:15 (eighteen years ago) link
second:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/hillbillyjones
the hillbilly jones from central illinois. expertly swinging (as in, they cover glen miller at least as well as they cover merle haggard and billy joe shaver) rhythm section; best moments are when the singing stops and they just play. "flattop guitar and sangin'" sound thin in comparison to the "doghouse bass" and "electified belly fiddle" and "drumset," though that may have more to do with low-budget production than actual musicianly ability or lack thereof. and "ridin' high" and "runaway train" do have some pub-rock boogiebilly kick, and "ready to fire" is a dark one that ends up in the middle of a sergio leone western, and "muhlenberg county"'s a good one too, and they like johnny cash more than i do, but at least the cash they seem to like most is "folson prison blues" type stuff.
― xhuxk, Sunday, 23 April 2006 02:04 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Sunday, 23 April 2006 02:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― don, Sunday, 23 April 2006 02:42 (eighteen years ago) link
and then your man, its fantastic, yeah the lyrics are awful, and the video for your man is kind of creepy, but when he sings your man, and goes down lower then almost anyone else, so its this meoldic, r esonant, rich, seductive, barritone, like a white boy barry white, its utterly amazing, one of the best singles of the year, for sheer skill--and the whole album is like that--hes too fucking young to be this much in control...
i was worried he would be a one hit wonder, but your man, the album and the single, may be the best thing ive heard so far this year.
― anthony easton (anthony), Sunday, 23 April 2006 09:20 (eighteen years ago) link
I can imagine some of my freinds thinking the whole enterprise rather twee, but I still think twee can be a compliment, and twee country's not really something I've heard or even thought about. What twee country have I missed?
― Tim (Tim), Sunday, 23 April 2006 10:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― anthony easton (anthony), Sunday, 23 April 2006 10:26 (eighteen years ago) link
has anybody else noticed the verbosity of the liner notes on the shannon brown album? i didn't, not until this morning, at least in part because i hadn't played the actual finished object much, after i'd played the advance copy so much when it arrived last thanksgiving, back when my 14-year-old kid sherman was a whole inch shorter. anyway, shannon sure does blab a lot about her songs on that inner sleeve. talks about how "good old days" is her "disco groove thing that i grew up on," and reminds her of her "mom's and dad's bar back home" where there were "no stereotypes, no rules and regulations" and "every walk of life is found there and it's OK," close to toby's "i love this bar" i guess but a far cry to the situation in her single "corn fed" where only country music gets played on the radio. and "high horses" is about inclusiveness too, so shannon's got a lot of contraditions whether she knows or not, which is not a bad thing. and though "can i get an amen," the song with BTO or Doobies riffs, talks about being born again, shannon's liner notes suggest that her main use for the word "amen!" is the equivalent of "hallelujah!" when you get out of "an unhealthy relationship." she also says in her notes to "turn to me" that "i have deep rooted alcoholism in my family, and [the song]'s about a woman being strong enough to support her man." does that mean she joins sheryl crow in frank's co-dependent rock hall of fame?
― xhuxk, Sunday, 23 April 2006 17:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― j blount (papa la bas), Sunday, 23 April 2006 19:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― don, Sunday, 23 April 2006 23:24 (eighteen years ago) link
the songs on the new album arent as good as this (but the more and more i think about it, long black train is a singualr work, and part of the canon and unrepeatable) but some songs on the new album use his voice to similar effect, the warmth and the precision about pleasure, instead of duty, but still its resoant...
i fucking love mr turner, and i wonder why he hasnt got more love
― anthony easton (anthony), Monday, 24 April 2006 05:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― j blount (papa la bas), Monday, 24 April 2006 06:32 (eighteen years ago) link