Rolling Country 2015

Happy new year, everyone. Starting this thing up. I did not vote in Himes' Nashville Scene country poll this year, but will put together my own list of notable stuff here in the next couple. For now, I think that Sturgill Simpson, Brandy Clark, A. Presley and Miranda will top the poll, with various other Americana-country outliers in the mix. Meanwhile, Claire Dodson at the Scene writes about Eric Church in this week's issue. He's a rebel.

Bassist Henry Strzelecki died in Nashville Dec. 30. Played on George Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her" and many others, country and elsewhere. Piece here.

And now---the amazing, fantaztic six-song bro country mash-up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY8SwIvxj8o

420Patriot1776 1 day ago

Redditor and country music enthusiast here!

I just wanted to say that even though I'm 14 years old I only listen to Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, and Conway Twitty because modern country music sux!

I'm really sorry my generation ruined country music.

420Patriot1776, moderator of r/CountryMusicAwards
Reply · 83

Some of these descriptions incl. unappealing phrases, but info-wise fairly promising (def looking fwd to new Mavericks album, after 2013's In Time: can't reasonably expect two albums in a row to be that amazing, but sure didn't expect the first one, and it happened anyway, so expect or don't, self)
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/2015-country-music-preview-20-reasons-to-love-this-year-20150109/country-goes-back-to-basics-all-year-20150109

Wynonna with one of her "sheroes. I am humbled by their excellence." Right on.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B7BoSvyCUAAu60g.jpg

did y'all know that Shovels & Rope are not actually their real last names? I'm in shock.

haha

Pr email I received: Lee Ann Womack will perform on "The View" on January 19.

The Way I'm Livin' ended up as my #1. May not have been the most innovative or important album of 2014, but it was the one that left the deepest impression on me. A flawless and sophisticated listen.

While there were some impressive releases from newcomers in 2014, the year will go down for me as the year of the veteran. Besides Womack: D'Angelo, Spoon, Aphex Twin, Sun Kil Moon, Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, Kelis--hell, at this point, I'd call Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift seasoned. All of them made some of the finest music of their respective careers.

Think she'll do okay in Nashville Scene round-up, to be posted 1-22/
Thirty Tigers ‏@ThirtyTigers 7m7 minutes ago
Now @leeannwomack is up singing with the @mccrarysisters and absolutely killing it! #RockMySoul #Nashville @npt8 Nashville PBS fundraising special, starring the Fairfield Four (one of 'em is the amazing McCrary Sisters' Dad).

Sunny Sweeney (@GettinSweenered) helps military veteran reunite with lost ring, by @SashaFB http://fxn.ws/1xxaZhn"> http://fxn.ws/1xxaZhn

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B7fVIZzCIAE4nmk.jpg:large

Speaking of Shovels and Rope, they'll be appearing in the forthcoming Heartworn Highways Revisited documentary film--the followup to the 1976 doc that featured Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Larry Jon Wilson, et al. Clark and David Allan Coe appear in the new one, which also sports appearances by Bobby Bare Jr., Langhorne Slim, Johnny (Corndog) Fritz, and others. Today's outlaw-Nashville fringe.

I wrote a Nashville Scene obituary for Dixie Hall, the wife of Tom T. Hall and a songwriter and mover in her own right. Once worked for Starday in Nashville and learned canasta and autoharp from Maybelle Carter before co-writing such hits as Dave Dudley's "Truck Drivin' Son-of-a-Gun." By coincidence, I caught one of Miss Dixie's collaborators, bluegrass singer Jeanette Williams, over last weekend, at the (rapidly declining Nashville country radio show and institution) the Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree, where she sang with a good trad bluegrass quartet, the Farm Hands, and was able to chat with Jeanette about Dixie Hall and the Halls' contributions to bluegrass music, which are considerable.

Results of the Nashville Scene Country Music Critics Poll are up. Which seem to have been posted with relatively little fanfare.

Unsurprised that Sturgill Simpson edged Miranda Lambert for Best Album based upon the Pazz & Jop results.

The triumph of Sturgill Simpson's Metamodern Sounds in Country Music as the Best Album in the Scene's 15th annual Country Music Critics Poll is significant for several reasons. For one, it was the narrowest victory in the poll's history. If just one voter had added Miranda Lambert's Platinum as the ninth-best album, she would have won. As it was, she won the Best Artist category by a comfortable margin over runner-up Simpson.

I didn't vote for Simpson.

What I voted for (categories I didn't merely punt on only; and actually, since I barely heard any, I did kind of punt on reissues):

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2014:
Miranda Lambert – Platinum (RCA Nashville)
Bubba Sparxxx – Made On McCosh Mill Road (eOne)
A Pony Named Olga – The Land Of Milk And Pony (Saustex)
Sunny Sweeney - Provoked (Aunt Daddy)
Angaleena Presley – American Middle Class (Three Tigers)
Little Big Town -- Painkiller (Capitol)
Corb Lund – Counterfeit Blues (New West)
Frankie Ballard – Sunshine & Whiskey (Warner Bros.)
Sam Hunt – Montevallo (MCA Nashville)
Over The Rhine – Blood Oranges In The Snow (Great Speckled Dog)

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2014:
Brantley Gilbert – Bottoms Up
Millie Jackson – Black B_tch Crazy
Kira Isabella – Quarterback
Big Jay Cummings – Can We Ever Go Home Again
Sunny Sweeney – Bad Girl Phase
Kacey Musgraves – The Trailer Song
Eli Young Band – Dust
Jamie O’Neal – Wide Awake
Toby Keith – Drunk Americans
Rascal Flatts – Rewind

TOP (THREE) COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2014:
Millie Jackson – On The Soul Country Side (Ace)
(Various) – Country Funk II: 1967-1974 (Light In The Attic)
Carrie Underwood – Greatest Hits: Decade #1 (Arista Nashville/19)

Also, for what it's worth (partly since I've barely posted here at all in the past year), if I'd been asked to do a top 20 album list instead, my next 10 probably would've looked something like this:

11. Lee Ann Womack – The Way I’m Livin’ (Sugar Hill)
12. Willie Nelson – Band Of Brothers (Legacy)
13. Kenny Chesney – The Big Revival (Blue Chair/Columbia)
14. Lady Antebellum – 747 (EMI Nashville)
15. David Nail – I’m A Fire (MCA Nashville)
16. Eli Young Band – 10,000 Towns (Republic Nashville)
17. Brantley Gilbert – Just As I Am (The Valory Music Co.)
18. Eric Church – The Outsiders (EMI Nashvile)
19. Jon Pardi – Write You A Song (Capitol)
20. Sturgill Simpson – Metamodern Sounds In Country Music (High Top Mountain)

Have never heard of A Pony Named Olga. Will have to google sometime

Metamodern sounds and Facebook country

from the Nashville Scene header

Here's my Nashville Scene ballot, with a few parentheticals, mainly re choices in my new category, Countryoid. Old faithful made-ups Hon. Mention, About Half Good also offer a few asides; Most Pathetic's at the end, but too pathetic and sad for comments, so far.
Many more comments, some tweaked from RC 2014, blogged w ballot, as "Thru The Polled, Rain & Snow," via The Freelance Mentalists: http://thefreelancementalists.blogspot.com/2015_01_01_archive.html

Best Albums:
Miranda Lambert: Platinum
Carlene Carter: Carter Girl
The Delines: Colfax
Lee Ann Womack: The Way I’m Livin’
Lucinda Williams: Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone
Minton Sparks: Gold Digger
Laura Cantrell: No Way There From Here
Nikki Lane: All Or Nothin’
Mary Gauthier: Trouble and Love
Amy LaVere: Runaway’s Diary

Hon. Mentions:
Rodney Crowell: Tarpaper Sky, Willie Nelson & Sister Bobbie: December Day, Terri Clark: Some Songs, Sturgill Simpson: Metamodern Sounds In Country Music, Eric Church: The Outsiders, Billy Joe Shaver: Long In The Tooth, Angaleena Presley: American Middle Class, Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison: Our Year, Alice Gerrard: Follow The Music, Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives: Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, Parker Millsap: s/t, Jerry David DeCicca: Understanding Land, Common Ground: Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin Play and Sing the Songs of Big Bill Broonzy, Elise Davis, Life, Shovels & Rope: Swimmin’ Time, Sunny Sweeney: Provoked (either here or Other [About Half Good], but the good ‘uns are mostly real good)(ditto--->) Caroline Peyton: Homeseeker’s Paradise

Best Reissues:
Jerry Lee Lewis: The Knox Phillips Sessions: The Unreleased Recordings
Shelby Lynn: I Am Shelby Lynne (Deluxe Edition)
Hank Williams: The Garden Spot Programs, 1950

Countryoid:
Bob Dylan & The Band: The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 (Deluxe Edition) (old school country & folk, old school rock-pop, classic American neurotica, incl in original Americana classics, beyondo, & busy being born)
Lydia Loveless: Somewhere Else (country punk, tombstone soul, heavy jangle, noise-baptized, necessary psychodrama, ritualizm crisis, weatherman-tortured Central OH Southern Gothic, roamin’ romance, your dive 2night
(Some prefer the Tweet:
Lydia Loveless, Somewhere Else: country punk, tombstone soul, noise-baptized, necessary psychodrama, maybe ballads, yr dive 2night)
Lone Justice: This Is Lone Justice: The Vaught Tapes 1983 (cowpunk, Hollywoodbilly, sandblast sagas)
Countryoid cont.:
Rosanne Cash: The River and The Thread (Deluxe Edition) (post-country, singer-songwriter, arty, artisanal, artful, art-country, art-country-novelty, sometimes all at once)
Jerry Lee Lewis: Rock & Roll Time (old school rock, piano country boogie)
John Fullbright: Songs (metamodern singer-songwriter insights, neo-retro pop ballad manipulations)
(various artists) Country Funk 2 (often very stoned, mainly too consistently happy (& sometimes self-congratz 4 bing funkee) to be more country than countryoid---Isn’t Western Swing often damn happy? Yes, but it’s Western)
Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers: Get In Union (older than old school Bible songs, work songs, play songs, home songs, going away songs, adult and children’s, several levels at all times, sounds like)
Jerry David DeCicca: Understanding Land (With Urban Ohio having been replanted fairly deeply in Texoidcana, he murmurs, raises glimpses, puts ‘em back, from here to the screen door horizon, between female compass notes, educated yet un-picky picking)
Common Ground: Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin Play and Sing the Songs of Big Bill Broonzy, (settin’ on the tracks, windmill billin’, brothers no bros, in tune for now)

Other (about half good)(40-60%)(not listed in order of percentage)
Jason Eady: Daylight & Dark, Willie Nelson: Band of Brothers, Tim McGraw: Sundown Heaven Town (Deluxe Edition), Dolly Parton: Blue Smoke, Jesse Winchester: A Reasonable Amount of Trouble, Sam Hunt: Montevallo, Justin Townes Earle: Single Mothers, Don Williams, Reflections

Best New Artists:
Elise Davis
Parker Millsap

Best Vocalist, Male:
Willie Nelson
Jerry Lee Lewis
Rodney Crowell

Best Vocalist, Female:
Lee Ann Womack
Amy Boone (Delines)
Nikki Lane

Duo, Trio, Group:
Duo:
Willie Nelson & Bobbie Nelson
Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison
Trio:
Lady Antebellum
The Band Perry
Band:
Eric Church’s band (more them than him)

Best instrumentalists:
Willie Nelson, guitar
Jerry Lee Lewis, piano
Bobbie Nelson, piano

Most Pathetic:
Big & Rich: Gravity

Oh and thanks for the links to RIP Henry and Dixie, Edd; didn't realize they had done so much. Subjects for further study, esp. Dixie.

Yep, some albums made Country's Hon. Mentions and Countryoid as well, the ones I was of two minds about. Next year I'll be firmer/pickier, or maybe drop the whole (Countryoid) thing.

I just now took out the Hon. Mentions duplicated in Countryoid; obv. they were more at home in the latter category. Also, since it needed to be done, added Marty Stuart And His Fabulous Superlatives to Bands.

Have never heard of A Pony Named Olga. Will have to google sometime

Crazed German psychobilly trio released here this year on a punkish indie label out of San Antonio and featuring at least one Duke Ellington cover (sort of), though apparently the album I voted for had come out a couple years earlier in Europe, and they've put out a newer one I haven't heard since then. Either way, I was obviously stretching the definition of "country" to the breaking point with them, probably even more than I did with Bubba Sparxxx (though probably not as much as if I'd voted for Taylor Swift, who I considered grandmothering in before deciding not to -- wonder if anybody else did) - A Pony Named Olga are about as country as the Legendary Shack Shakers or for that matter Link Wray or somebody, maybe. But hey, it seemed like a thin year to me for country albums (despite my managing to list 10 also-rans as well.)

Will check that out, since I enjoyed some of Th (think the is a dif band? They both may be currently inactive) Legendary Shack Shakers and sometimes love Link Wray. Yr description of Olga looks like something tasty for for my Countryoid category. will have to check Lavender Country as well, seeing advocacy in Scene comments. Speaking of which, Himes understandably stuck to the original draft of my comments, rather than the corrections-bombs, but here's what I ended up saying and blogging re Angaleena (the whole section is pretty much track-by-track, but this edit replaces the parts Himes published):

Early notes on Angeleena Presley’s American MIddle Class:
she's kinda the George Harrison of Pistol Annies: religious, though non-charismatic, then again vocals are also n-c... though both (she and he) have seen some shit and have senses of humor--but "Dry County Blues" and "Pain Pills" could sound so much better on Pistol Annies (or Womack, or Loveless, or) albums; here, with slightly generic vocals, kinda like Justified outtakes (or episode recaps, or ye olde US News & World Report clippings: schematic). Still, these, and "Life of the Party," and several others may well grown on me; can't dismiss her.
(later:)
Listened to Angeleena Presley's American Middle Class again, giving it the added advantage of contrast with arty artisanal artful Rosanne. It does grow on me, but still got mixed responses...."Surrender" is even better with the candor again, though not quite spelling out what she's surrendering too, except it's not a sense of (ultimate) defeat, just "I can't do it alone," which I hope means she's realizing she can't rely too much on vocal power/distinction, and that she will also be a Pistol Annie as long as that works.

"(she and he)": Angaleena and George.

Oops, I meant Th', dow. I think. (Actually, of the 2 Legendarily Shack Shaking CDs on my shelf, one uses Th' and the other -- an advance, which might be the reason -- uses no article whatsoever. If indeed Th' and The signified 2 different bands -- assuming they both even actually exist(ed) -- that is news to me.)

Here's what I ended up voting for this year. I like my albums list well enough, but coming up with a good 20 - 25 singles that I even seriously considered was a chore.

Albums
01. Platinum, Miranda Lambert
02. Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, Sturgill Simpson
03. Dynamite!, Tami Nielson
04. Riser, Dierks Bentley
05. The River & The Thread, Rosanne Cash
06. Remedy, Old Crow Medicine Show
07. Daylight and Dark, Jason Eady
08. The Way I’m Livin’, Lee Ann Womack
09. Tarpaper Sky, Rodney Crowell
10. Our Year, Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison

Singles
01. “Blue Blue Day,” Mandy Barnett f Alison Krauss
02. “Walk (Back to Your Arms),” Tami Neilson
03. “The Way I’m Livin’,” Lee Ann Womack
04. “Drive-In Movies,” Ray LaMontagne
05. “Quarterback,” Kira Isabella
06. “Say You Do,” Dierks Bentley
07. “Pain Pills,” Angaleena Presley
08. “Brushy Mountain Conjugal Trailer,” Old Crow Medicine Show
09. “Hayloft,” Nickel Creek
10. “Let’s Get Drunk and Get it On,” Old 97s

Reissues
1. Lucinda Williams (Deluxe Edition), Lucinda Williams
2. Hitchhike to Rhome, Old 97s,
3. Alpha Mike Foxtrot: Rare Tracks 1994 – 2014, Wilco
4. Okie from Muskogee: 45th Anniversary Special, Merle Haggard
5. This is Lone Justice: The Vaught Tapes, Lone Justice

Male Vocalists
1. Sturgill Simpson
2. Dierks Bentley
3. Don Williams

Female Vocalists
1. Miranda Lambert
2. Tami Neilson
3. Lee Ann Womack

Live Acts
1. Drive-By Truckers
2. Old Crow Medicine Show
3. Miranda Lambert

Songwriters
1. Lucinda Williams
2. Sturgill Simpson
3. Miranda Lambert

Duos / Trios / Groups
1. Old Crow Medicine Show
2. Nickel Creek
3. Old 97s

New Acts
1. Maddie & Tae
2. Parker Millsap
3. …

Overall Acts
1. Miranda Lambert
2. Sturgill Simpson
3. Lee Ann Womack

Per usual, I didn't submit any comments. Still think Platinum is only Miranda's second or third best album, but that's still good enough that I didn't consider anything else for my #1. For whatever reason, I didn't consider Holler Annie a new artist, or I would have thrown another vote her way in that category.

@ xhuxk

Millie Jackson – Black B_tch Crazy

I searched and searched for any indication that this was a "proper" single-- which is a semantics point that I'll admit I still get far too hung-up on when voting in polls like this-- because I absolutely would have included it, as well. It's a pretty fascinating and tricky cover.

Rhapsody had (and apparently still has) it streaming as a standalone single apart from the Ace compilation or any other album, which is generally good enough for me, singles-definition-wise (and which I'm guessing means other streaming sites do, too.)

http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/millie-jackson/album/black-btch-crazy

Not seeing the other one now, but seems like last-decade skims used to turn up another Legendary Shack Shakers, though JD Wilkes' crew (prev. Th and also The for a while, now without an article), founded 20 years ago, may well have claimed firsties(and are now working on a crowdsourced comeback album).
Tami Nielson! Rings a bell, faintly. How is her album??

Millie Jackson dropped a country album? Holy whoa.

Think it's a round-up of country-related things she's done over the years, based heavily around her 1981 LP "Just A Lil Bit Country". Not sure if there is anything new aside from BBC.

got it, been listening to it in spotify and you're right.

Yep -- Hence why I voted for it as a reissue, and only the new track as a single. It's good, though!

I was only familiar with about half of the tracks on the Jackson comp and really enjoyed the remainder. It's definitely worth checking out. Very glad to see that some other folks are digging it, as well.

Re: Tami Neilson.

She's from New Zealand, where she's evidently fairly well-known. Dynamite! is admittedly the first of her albums I've heard, but I think she's pretty fantastic. I think the last time I was as immediately taken by someone's voice was with Neko Case's debut, and she has a diverse set of influences that give her a throwback vibe without being at all stuffy or overly beholden to traditionalism. "Walk (Back to Your Arms)" and "Cry Over You" are the official singles and both are great, but the album is absolutely worth a listen.

dow and jon_oh, thanks for posting your NS ballots. Bunch of stuff I need to check out. Had no idea Lone Justice's "The Vaught Tapes." Haven't heard of any of these:

Singles
01. “Blue Blue Day,” Mandy Barnett f Alison Krauss
02. “Walk (Back to Your Arms),” Tami Neilson

Best Albums:
The Delines: Colfax
Minton Sparks: Gold Digger
Amy LaVere: Runaway’s Diary

Yeah, sure glad to learn about Tami Nielson, and I hadn't spotted the Mandy/Alison single either.

Here's the original press release about LJ's Vaught Tapes:

THIS IS LONE JUSTICE: THE VAUGHT TAPES, 1983
PROVIDES EARLY GLIMPSE
OF PIONEERING ALT-COUNTRY ROCKERS

Twelve tracks, including nine unissued performances,
set for release on CD, red vinyl and digital.
Liner notes include testimonial from Dolly Parton, a fan of the band.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — It can be difficult to capture the live power of band in a studio recording. Luckily for us, Lone Justice (Maria McKee, Ryan Hedgecock, Marvin Etzioni, and Don Heffington), forerunners of the alt-country movement, went to Suite 16 Studios in December of 1983 and laid down much of the set list with which they were packing Los Angeles area clubs.

Recorded direct to two-track tape by engineer David Vaught and with no overdubs, those 12 tracks can finally be heard in their entirety as This Is Lone Justice: The Vaught Tapes, 1983, out January 14, 2014 on Omnivore Recordings. As Los Angeles music journalist Chris Morris writes in his liner notes, the release “offers the best representation of the band in its infancy — hot, full of piss and vinegar, and ready to take on the world.”

Nine of the tracks are previously unissued, and include originals (such as “Soap, Soup and Salvation,” which would appear on their Geffen debut two years later) as well as the covers they made their own in concert (Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash’s “Jackson” and “Nothing Can Stop My Loving You,” written by George Jones and Roger Miller).

Available on CD, LP (the first pressing is on translucent red vinyl) and digitally, the package includes, in addition to Morris’ liners an essay from the band’s Ryan Hedgecock, as well as a remembrance of David Vaught from Marvin Etzioni — even a loving endorsement from Dolly Parton, who writes, “I have loved Lone Justice and Maria McKee since they first started out as a group. I remember going to see them at the Music Machine in Los Angeles in 1983; I was so impressed. I especially love this album. It has some of my favorite old songs on it and some new favorites that I've never heard. Hope you enjoy Lone Justice, everybody! I know I will.”

With unseen photos and memorabilia (including images from the band’s personal archive), this collection is what Lone Justice fans have been waiting for. This Is Lone Justice: The Vaught Tapes, 1983 takes us back to a time when music had an energy that was hard to contain.

Thanks to that studio in Van Nuys, Calif., and this release, Justice has been served!

Track Listing
1. Nothing Can Stop My Loving You
2. Jackson
3. Soap, Soul and Salvation
4. The Grapes of Wrath
5. Dustbowl Depression Time
6. Rattlesnake Mama
7. Vigilante
8. Working Man’s Blues
9. Cactus Rose
10. When Love Comes Home to Stay
11. Cottonbelt
12. This World is Not My Home

All tracks previously unissued except # 6, 8 & 12

Refreshing to see people who aren't me talking about Tami Neilson.

Yep yep, I gotta try to catch up with her. Meanwhile, speaking of Minton Sparks, here's my blogged ballot comments:

Minton Sparks, Gold Digger: As live, the music of her spoken word x JJ's guitar (with a bit of studio support, since they happen to be in a studio for this gig). Down home truths, itchy empathy, unspoken and unsung 'til now: "Every line is written on the body," and how.
Expanded for later exploitation:
Minton Sparks is a story-telling poet with an ear for the music in spoken words. She's often held forth with guitarist John Jackson, who toured with Dylan long enough to be prepared at all times, so Live At Station Inn is a good place to start.
Studio arrangements ride along nicely too, and she's sure got a way with a beat. This fall's Gold Digger delivers more down home truths in itchy empathy: "Every line is written on the body," and how. (If had to pick one for a comp, might possibly be "Tennessee Prison For Women," which is like a slice of Orange Is The New Black, although seems even more like based on her teaching there, or is that just a illusion of her deft realness)(could check the bio to see if she actually taught in such a place---it's not unusual---but the music's the thing.

steve earle discovers taylor swift:

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/steve-earle-winery-terraplane-quinn-tsan-interview/Content?oid=16275924

I saw Taylor do "Mean" that night at the Grammys, and I went "Oh!" She's writing about herself, and every teenage girl in the world can relate to it because they've experienced that too. That's the job, man. And I've kind of been a fan ever since.

xxxpost Also, the aforementioned Mme. LaVere:

Amy LaVere, Runaway's Diary: her signature soft soprano sounds really young here, conveying "I can't believe I'm doing this," also "I'm doing this, wow!" and always observant, drawing back a little more whenever things get too gnarly--nevertheless, scary ol street dude Townes Van Zandt drops science in her face, via song, not personal appearance(good selection and sequencing of originals and covers).

Wonder if Taylor Swift's heard that album? Think she might dig.

And finally, since Indexed was wondering and I didn't post anything about them on RC 2014, the Delines:

The Delines, Colfax: Starts with a proposal to skip work, just cruise right past it with that warm electric piano, still clinking like a drink last night, ready to pick the steel guitar on yonder corner, just a few turns away. Not hung over, maybe building up a tolerance, with percentages of desperation and/or desolation as fuel, mileage, habit, neighborhood---anyway, craving something more. Amy Boone proposed to her boss, blues novelist/lifercore Richmond Fontaine leader Willy Vlautin, that he write songs for her to sing lead on, and he did, intrigued by the possibilities and emerging results. So the downchild's possible side-trips get subliminal excitement added to the blend: not a tiger in your tank, but a certain sense of discovery, plain enough to see. The seats are lived-in; the springs are still good.
(Take-away associations also incl. bright gray light passing through the window of a diner, where Piper Laurie and Paul Newman, pretty as lucky pennies, are young and not young, talking and settling in a booth, getting closer to Kentucky all the time [The Hustler].)
Meanwhile, back in the Colfax tracks, another guy can't be satisfied, has to keep picking up in the sticks and moving on, to find another place to argue with his wife, and maybe blame her for. In the near-title song, a woman wakes up to another very late-early call; she has to leave her husband and kids to fend for themselves in the coming day's whatever, as she goes looking for her brother once again, up and down Colfax Avenue, among the aftershocks of war, triggered again by who knows what, or if they ever really stop. That one ends a little too abruptly for me, with the built-in riskiness of an approach (vs. "closure") also favored by Drive-By Truckers, also with mixed results (Delines debut shares DBT's equally unlikely, late-blooming first-listen's-the-charm of their 2010 The Big To-Do, and now English Oceans finds even more of its own self in momentum)(but also now: too rock 'n' roll even for Countryoid, so they've been moved to the Pazz & Jop Top Ten, like Lydia Loveless, despite all y'all's voices and POVs).
Delines don't decline, except for certain invitations (def incl. imitations), while cruising sweetened entrophy right to the end of this thing, gliding, currently fretless, by the signage and other helpful marks, on another smog-enhanced, if not beautifully polluted morning in the city, when the weather still seems good enough, ditto the parking place, not too far from their designated destination…. (there's your ellipsis for the quarter).

Thanks dow.

Really digging this throwback Tami Neilson honky tonk record. Man does she do Patsy Cline to a T or what ("Texas" especially)? Love the guitar sounds too.

Think she'll do okay in Nashville Scene round-up, to be posted 1-22/
Thirty Tigers ‏@ThirtyTigers 7m7 minutes ago
Now @leeannwomack is up singing with the @mccrarysisters and absolutely killing it! #RockMySoul #Nashville @npt8 Nashville PBS fundraising special, starring the Fairfield Four (one of 'em is the amazing McCrary Sisters' Dad).

i missed this: I grew up around Reverend McCrary. Amazing man, 40's/50's Fairfield were an amazing group and they set an absolutely ruinously high standard for live performance in my preteen mind.

Also here's a first skim: http://open.spotify.com/user/forksclovetofu/playlist/0UovNZH0gkGMeUyADHp9PU

Maybe it will be shown again, or is online---PBS is pretty good about preserving shows, esp. related to fundraising. Yeah, the Fairfield Four have been pretty amazing every time I've heard 'em. Check the Music City Roots archives too.

Enjoying Tami Neilson's "The Kitchen Table Sessions Volume II" as well. The a cappella cover of "Sweet Dreams" is a stunner. Thanks again for the recommendation, guys.

Didn't vote in Himes' poll, but here are my album picks for 2014. For what it's worth, the Cantrell album was something I didn't expect to like so much, but she inhabits her subject and sings and arranges cannily. I liked Marty Stuart's double record, but in the end, he just isn't much of a singer, so the persona didn't come thru, though the music was pretty special, mainly a matter of electric guitars and songwriting that split the diff between pastiche and originality.

1. Little Big Town--Pain Killer
2. Angaleena Presley--American Middle Class
3. Lee Ann Womack--The Way I'm Livin'
4. Dierks Bentley--Riser
5. Carlene Carter--Carter Girl
6. Frankie Ballard--Sunshine & Whiskey
7. Sam Hunt--Montevallo
8. Laura Cantrell-No Place There from Here
9. Don Williams-Reflections
10. Miranda Lambert--Platinum

chris stapleton's album is the sort that doesn't need to be any good to be appreciated by the grammy people

the cam album!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/12/07/cam-untamed-stream-listen?hootPostID=6371636dbc30f05d3c88251e2c6b96fb

i like the ep quite a lot.

Oh sweet, thanks for the stream! Yeah, EP got me.
xxpost thanks niels, but I missed the boat on covering Dylan's Great American Songbook album; didn't think he could pull it off (o me of little faith, once again).
This playlist is uncredited, but I highly suspect it's the work of Rolling Country alum and longtime Rhapsody blogger Chuck Eddy, who probably created that venerable ILM country-disco thread. This isn't country-*disco* only, and while the intro cites all kinds of worthy precedents, the tracks listed and linked here are at least relatively recent, some current(haven't had time to check functionality of all so far, but I'm sure forks will hook us up if nec., thanks again forks)
http://www.rhapsody.com/blog/post/country-gets-its-groove-on

Cam album is really great. Dixie Chicks-esque with a lot of swagger. Production team of Jeff Bhasker (most famously cowrote most of Kanye's 808s) and Tyler Johnson (anyone familiar with him?) did a great job--the whole album bounces with life and rhythm. Tracks like "Want It All" seem destined for the Billboard charts...if there's any justice in this world.

Favorite track is "Half Broke Heart," which has a cowrite from the seemingly untouchable Luke Laird.

Leaving aside outsiders like Kacey Musgraves, the most promising debut from a female country artist since Kerosene?

"half broke heart" quietly overtook "burning house" as my favourite on the ep in recent months, the chorus works so well

always quite odd hearing an album when so much of it is familiar but yeah, very strong release

x-post re Tyler Johnson, co-producer

A Grammy nominee two years in a row in the “Album of The Year” category, Johnson’s credits include Taylor Swift’s Red and Ed Sheeran’s X. He moved to Los Angeles from Steamboat Springs, CO to pursue his passion for music,

http://pulserecordings.com/news/tyler-johnson-signs-publishing-deal-with-pulse-creative-nation/

Johnson left for school in Los Angeles in 2004 to study philosophy and political science, but that passion for music never left him. After graduating, he started working as an assistant for Grammy-winning producer Jeff Bhasker, who has worked with the likes of Beyonce, Taylor Swift, The Rolling Stones, Bruno Mars, P!NK, Kanye West, Rihanna and Jay Z.

#About four years ago, Johnson met Cam in Los Angeles, and the two began working together, selling their songs.

http://www.steamboattoday.com/news/2013/dec/19/rising-country-music-star-backed-steamboat-locals/

Struck by the thoughtful, sometimes wry or rueful turns and shading in with the high spirits and sheer vitality; production supports and mirrors her balancing act as young voice of experience, coming out of at least one bad relationship, as she's acknowledged. Could be risky, starting off with a post-breakup album, but no enigmatic personal references etc (although that can work too, with the right production---really like the way Torres' undertow is countered and polished by the Portishead dude etc., though wouldn't work without just the right songs, ditto Cam).
Struck by "Runaway Train"'s bit about after after she's transformed herself into an effectiveinstrument of revenge, maybe she'll feel human again (and the way she sings it---never over the top sounds on top of flamboyant lyrics, like somebody else might do it).

Interesting to see the Taylor Swift connections. A sign of things to come?

Undecided on order, but my top 4 country albums of the year right now are Stapleton, Eric Church, Cam, and Musgraves.

Catching up, I seem to be higher on Church than ILM. Being There is an all-time personal favorite of mine, so the nod to "Misunderstood" charmed from the outset. The transition of "Round Here Buzz" > "Kill A Word" is the best moment of the album; those are melodies that few could carry so effectively today. The former is the same small town country song that's been written a thousand times, but there are very sweet, affecting personal touchpoints that make it work for me. The bite of the latter is more original, but then there's still that sweetness to his delivery. Tough to say if it tops Chief, but it's close. Shame that it kind of got lost in Stapleton's coming out party. Mr. Misunderstood works better than Traveller for me as a front-to-back album, as Traveller seems to get bogged down in 5 and 6-minute tracks in its closing run.

xxp, since you asked nicely:
Country Gets Its Groove On Spotify Playlist

happy to see Ashley Monroe get a grammy nom for best country album

Cam's "Hungover on Heartbreak" has been stuck in my head for two days. Love: the way the guitar switches from finger picking to strumming when the drums kick in; the phrasing of "I get sick when you mention her name"; the warmness of the synth that the second verse is built on; how rhythmic the thing is--has such a great feel of life and momentum, as does the whole album.

That Nashville Sound has their AOTY list up, and as usual, there's lots of stuff I need to explore. Totally slept on that Will Hoge release.

http://thatnashvillesound.blogspot.com/2015/12/that-nashville-sounds-top-40-albums-of.html

1. Chris Stapleton - Traveller
2. Will Hoge - Small Town Dreams
3. Courtney Patton - So This Is Life
4. Pat Green- Home
5. Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen - Hold My Beer Vol. 1
6 Whitey Morgan and the 78's - Sonic Ranch
7. Ashley Monroe- The Blade
8. Logan Brill – Shuteye
9. Statesboro Revue - Jukehouse Revival
10.Eric Church – Mr. Misunderstood
11. Cody Jinks - Adobe Sessions
12. Chris Roberts- Way Out West
13. Daryle Singletary – There’s Still A Little Country Left
14. Jason Isbell – Something More Than Free
15. Lindi Ortega- Faded Gloryville
16. Haley Whitters- Black Sheep
17. George Strait – Cold Beer Conversations
18. Don Henley – Cass County
19. Mavericks – Mono
20. SteelDrivers - The Muscle Shoals Recordings
21. Ray Wylie Hubbard - The Ruffians Misfortune
22. John Anderson - Gold Mine
23. Kacey Musgraves - Pageant Material
24. Elenowen - Pulling Back the Veil
25. Emily Hearn – Hourglass
26. Jamie Lin Wilson - Holidays & Wedding Rings
27. Aaron Watson - The Underdog
28. Alan Jackson – Angels and Alcohol
29. Darrell Scott - 10 - Songs of Ben Bullington
30. Levi Lowrey - My Crazy Head
31. T. Graham Brown - Forever Changed
32. Wade Hayes - Go Live Your Life
33. Maddie and Tae- Start Here
34. Carrie Underwood - Storyteller
35. Corb Lund – Things That Can’t Be Undone
36. Reba McEntire - Love Somebody
37. Stoney LaRue – Us Time
38. Zac Brown Band - Jekyll and Hyde
39. Dwight Yoakam - Second Hand Heart
40. Special mention- Emily West- All For You

Listening to the Stapleton again. Eh, some cuts are ok, but others are too 70s bar band southern rock for me.

the cam album doesn't disappoint, i think the strongest cuts were on the EP but "country ain't never been pretty" and "mayday" are quite something

Production team of Jeff Bhasker (most famously cowrote most of Kanye's 808s)

you can really tell it's bhasker bc of the drum tone. it's really cloudy but insistent. (he produced taylor's "holy ground" and that vibe is kinda there in "hungover on heartache")

my list of best/worst country singles of the year: http://narrowcast.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-20-best-country-radio-hits-of-2015.html

my list of best/worst country singles of the year: http://narrowcast.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-20-best-country-radio-hits-of-2015.html

― Shkreli, Martin & Wu (some dude), Friday, December 11, 2015 6:57 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I had heard that Brother's Osborne track a couple times on the radio with no word on who it was or the song's name. Gotta say thanks for filling in the blanks it is truly great. Interesting that its Jay Joyce, it is the song I wish Eric Church was releasing right now.

Great list, I love the two Thomas Rhett songs, Burning House, House Party, Buy Me a Boat, Smoke Break & Lose My Mind (would love a Brett Eldredge/K Michelle song as an aside). I love/hate Fly.

Completely agree that Take Your Time is the worst song of the year, its the only song I instantly change the station for right now. Its a shame he insists on doing the talking/singing thing, he has an interesting signing voice, I would like to hear it more. Also, I would be interested to hear why you don't like Kick the Dust Up, I keep hearing negative things about it but I don't understand why, its a great party track, reminds me of Something 'Bout A Truck. Great for awkward country wedding dances.

"Kick The Dust Up" probably isn't that bad, i just tend to hate almost anything Luke Bryan does

I can't explain it but I hate Kick the Dust Up with a passion, but I enjoy Strip It Down. Cody Jinks is good too. But the new Eric Church is the best album I've heard in awhile. I love that he finally has a record that I don't skip certain songs. Looking forward to hearing the Cam full length. That Dibs song keeps getting stuck in my head in the worse way.

Also looking forward to what william michael morgan releases after hearing I met a girl. Lyrically the song isn't much to talk about much the way he sings it and the melody is nice.

i'm on board with your top 3 hip hop singles al

"stay a little longer" has become my favorite country single this year by far since i first heard it

Break Up In A Small Town is my favorite song in a while. The country station here plays an acoustic version that I like more than the regular one. His talking thing reminds me of the Billy Bragg/Johnny Marr version of Walk Away Renee.

I'm listening to the original version now and it's a lot crappier, actually. To bad...

Iris DeMent, The Trackless Woods: Good name for it, because, though quicky engaged, I did have to learn to follow the way she (and alert friends) follow Anna Akhmatova's bitter, insatiable quests, all around and right through the zero (kind of like Elena Ferrante's charismatic outlier in the heart of the old neighborhood, Lina/Lila Cerullo). But damn if DeMent, confirmed Southern Californinan as her old boss Merle Haggard, doesn't find and release the rolling country soul of these uncompromised lines---who knew? Of course the lines also find a release for the vocal and piano melodies of an artist who became seldom seen, at least in part because she's become seldom satisfied with her own lyrics. Release and def points of departure, somewhere under the forest canopy, but with sufficient glints, and sometimes right in the heart. Often enough, and we fans at least get the rousing sound, a bracing dose of old patent medicine DeMentia.

god i would buy a country album based on lila cerullo in a heartbeat

The CD's worth getting for the printed lyrics (also if you're getting tired of backing up back-ups of your back-ups of your back-ups). Not all of 'em come through the singing, not initially, although the way those bits gradually emerge can be quite an experience---and some of it, enough, I guess, I got right off. The combination of sensibilities isn't like Lina/Lila times her great friend and rival for life, Elena/Lenu Greco, because DeMent's persona is something else (but come to think of it, Anna A. can seem like both the Ferrante frenemies at once, scornful and dismissive and anxious and romantic, arguing, fighting with herself to toughen up for the next fool to come passing along, someday, beyond mere possibility)

Not to say that there might not be a lot more to Akhmatova than the way she (so far) comes across to me, based on this selection of translated poems, and the way they sound here.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_music_club/features/2015/music_club_2015/country_radio_s_focus_on_bro_country_has_sidelined_more_than_just_women.html

From Slate's critics discussion for 2015, critc Jewly Hight weighs in on bro country, tomatoes, and more --

country singers like Thomas Rhett and Brett Eldredge had already gone into suave, soul-pop loverman mode on their latest albums. Just this week I saw Eldredge play up his smooth crooning chops at a Sinatra-styled industry soirée. I’ve also been noticing an uptick in country slow jams, from Eric Church’s “Like a Wrecking Ball,” a track from The Outsiders that wasn’t released as a single until this year, to Luke Bryan’s “Strip It Down” and Carrie Underwood’s “Heartbeat.”

Part of what’s going on, I think, is an expansion into more uptown or intentionally adult-sounding modes of expression, perhaps even some implicit pushback against the perception that contemporary country seduction is boorish and juvenile. There’s certainly a classist layer to those readings, as Carl noted earlier this year. It’s also worth considering how these musical moves are re-enacting the cycle by which country ups its sonic progressiveness through borrowing from soul and R&B traditions, a fraught history of racial-musical exchange that Charles Hughes masterfully unpacks in this year’s Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South.

more from jewly hight:

the rise of the country-music super producer

I haven't been able to like Kelsea Ballerini like lots of peers -- she sounds false to me. I love "Crash and Burn" and haven't gotten tired of Dierks Bentley's "Say You Do."

sad.

xp to that article

if Rhett is bro, he's pitching and setting a very appealing example/standard: frisky, but not boorish (or bland). Also, he's good for a whole album, unlike most designated bros. I try to keep an open ear and mind; only Florida-Georgia seem hopeless, but maybe only because I can't stand to listen long enough to get to the good stuff.

Tim McGraw, Damn Country Music: Still young enough to be restless and hopeful, even when lyrics sugest this might also be his version of midlife crisis (or even on the more excitingly uneven Deluxe Edition of Sundown Heaven Town's title track, middle-aged crazy). Always smart enough to be grateful for whatever he can get---and lose, but hey it's another experience. Life, incl. music, keeps him on his toes, though sometimes promising starts nudge me toward alleged hooks via too-slick surfaces, too quickly and repetitively, always on the verge of getting it on. Well, that's life too, especially for us longterm fans. Still, the best tracks combine a supple way with close studies, though not discernibly direct lifts from 80s poptronic radio hits----maybe the Police, Billy Ocean, Springsteen---also r&b, early-Tim Hat Country widescreen contemplation--- and especially all of the above on "Want You Back," which is also, what? Chromatic? Caribbean? With steel guitars and something chipping away at the edge of my headphones too---Oh yeah, he's even implicitly if grudgingly grateful to "damn country music," judging by the degree to which he withholds vociferation, while acknowledging, candidly but not tearfully, that he pulled up "roots," broke his mama's and "an angel's heart, on the way outta town"---all in a day's work when you're ready for the Big Time, "bleedin' Yes and hearin' no," finding that your best just seems "so-so." Yet he doesn't deny that he's made it, and keeps on earning his keep. Good enough.
So I shouldn't have been surprised that even "Humble and Kind," which starts with atypically up-front ick, soon goes for the gusto, with no undue jolts, just the dues.

I haven't liked any McGraw single since "Meanwhile Back at Mama's."

Another one for us diehards: Toby Keith, 35 mph Town, predictable as you'd suspect, incl. the novelty reviewer-bait lead-off, "Drunk Americans," which sways in a semi-Irish manner, "We all sing it wrong, but we all sing along," "we" incl. "mudflaps and bourbons, ballcaps and turbans....CEOs, GEDs...FBI....we don't give a rat's ass, if you are a/Democrat or a/Republican, we're just all Drunk Americans." The title track immediately does an about-face---of sorts though for once his diction seems odd on some of it: ever'body's "peeing?" and "suing," pretty sure that's right, when they should be getting the Bible out, because it says Christians don't sue, or so some Christians have told me (can't find that bit in it, but okay). Like the music alright, especially something like a slow virtual windmill, so guess he's okay with alternative resources.

"Good Gets Here" yodels some lyrics like Yoakam, but the music is faster, leaner (than Hagar, anyway, who made at least one solo album with horns that this somehow brings to mind). The other rockin' one, with more of a Hagaresque attitude, is "10 Foot Pole," and it's not that he wouldn't touch his ex-fiancee with one, but he "couldn't," because her momma and daddy would never let him get that close, not no more. "You shoulda seen us all at the mall!"

His power-crooner voice is still splendid on three ballads, at least one of which would be prom-bait 20-odd years ago.

Couple Buffet songs or clones thereof, because such a shortage.

He also delivers good vox on "Drunk Americans" and all the others I can stand to listen to, which is 7 out of 10, but some of the good 'uns are half-good/-assed in terms of keeping me interested, even for 33 minutes (and remember I'm a diehard). Brevity is the soul of wit, but he's more of a wag, and so very very very proud of it. Oh well, I'm used to it. Uncle Tobe, home for the holidays. Doesn't really drink, but it's a good subject, he finds.

One much fresher, only in part because she's much younger: Brandi Carlile, The Firewatcher's Daughter. Nominated for an Americana Grammy; keep thinking she did a CMT Crossroads session with Elton John, but (she and EJ did something else, right?) but no, CMT was Eltie and Ryan Adams. Same idea, though: catchy drama in denim--this is maybe mostly acoustic, but pushy and electric where it counte, especially on "Mainstream Kid< which burns its way through to the floating, observant, recuperative "Beginning To Feel The Years," and "Blood Muscle Skin and Bone," which somehow natcherly follows the pioneer workbreak of "Wilder (We're Chained"---"and when everything else is gone, our love will still remain"--with something like The Band Perry mixing their glam handclaps, and maybe some cowbell, with post-punk rhythm guitar durr-durr-durr, little train chugging by (not too far from the "Petticoat Junction" theme, come to think of it)
It's all hard-won wisdom, philosophical, sometimes rationalizing, sometimes declaiming, clawed back from the brink, while chasing love, and still capable of extravagant (brandy-rich, costly) moves. Rueful and even twangy enough, occasionally, to qualify as young Americana, if not quite young country, as much (but if CMT ever does another Crossroads, I wouldn't be surprised to see her on there---with---?)

Crystal Leww on 2k15 bro-country:

http://crystalleww.tumblr.com/post/135715784972/the-evolution-of-bro-country-in-2015

hiya! Here are my picks:

https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2015/12/23/best-country-songs-of-2015/

http://www.savingcountrymusic.com/dave-cobbs-upcoming-the-southern-family-concept-album-includes-incredible-list-of-talent

Record producer Dave Cobb is sitting on top of the world at the moment after being involved in nearly every major upsurging project in country and roots music for the last two consecutive years, and without any sign of letting up anytime soon. From Chris Stapleton’s Traveller, to Jason Isbell’s Southeastern and Something More Than Free, to Sturgill Simpson’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music and so many more, Dave Cobb’s name is glowing hot at the moment, and anything he touches deserves extra attention from listeners.

But it’s not just listeners who are taking notice of Dave Cobb’s talent. In April, he signed a deal with Elektra Records out of New York to launch and A&R-style partnership with the Warner Music imprint. The deal allows Cobb to sign artists and develop talent as part of his producing duties. One of the first artists Cobb worked with under the new arrangement was Anderson East.

But there’s something much interesting brewing that’s bigger than any one artist at the moment—an expansive concept record dealing with artists’ experiences growing up in the South. The project was first hinted at in April when the new Elektra deal was signed, and since then there’s been murmurings about Cobb’s concept record here and there, but now we’re finally beginning to piece together the details.

Called Southern Family, the album will involve contributions from:

• Morgane Stapleton (with Chris Stapleton) Holly Williams • Jamey Johnson • Miranda Lambert • Rich Robinson (The Black Crowes) • Zac Brown • Jason Isbell • Shooter Jennings • Brandy Clark • John Paul White (The Civil Wars) • Anderson East • Brent Cobb

Most of these artists have worked with Cobb before. He’s currently working on a record with Holly Williams that is expected in 2016. Brent Cobb is a songwriter who also happens to be a cousin of Dave. And there may be more names yet to be announced. The record was briefly touched on in a new interview with Cobb on NPR.

The album is partly inspired by the 1978 Civil War concept album White Mansions, which featured Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, guitar playing by Eric Clapton, and followed the story of four main characters as they narrated their perspective on the Civil War from a Southern’s perspective.

It will be released March 18th.

TRACK LIST:

southern-familyJohn Paul White – “Simple Song”
Jason Isbell – “God Is A Working Man”
Brent Cobb – “Down Home”
Miranda Lambert – “Sweet By and By”
Morgane Stapleton (with Chris Stapleton) – “You Are My Sunshine”
Zac Brown – “Grandma’s Garden”
Jamey Johnson – “Mama’s Table”
Anderson East – “Learning”
Holly Williams – “Settle Down”
Brandy Clark – “I Cried”
Shooter Jennings – “Can You Come Over?”
Rich Robinson – “The Way Home”

I'd rather hear about the experiences of a country fan growing up outside the South---in the backside of the semi-ex-Soviet Union, Beverly Hills, a mining colony on a moon of Saturn---but will try to keep an open mind. Hopefully Shooter will keep thangs lively with one of his Tea Party/Alex Jones-type scenarios.

Kacey Musgraves, Pagent Material: presents herself here as so down-to-earn and wholesome and normal and been-around-just-enough-to-have-uncommon-common-sense, that she only has two problems: one is that her previously noticeable unreliable ear for classic country-worthy cliches now leads her very far into friendly righteous triteness most suitable for bumper stickers, home schooling, 69 cent greeting cards, and Facebook; the other problem is that she "can't smile when I don't feel it inside," or words to that effect.
The first prob is chronic in the bad sense, even though she may still be okay with reefer, judging by one of the few tracks I like, "Die Fun" (also reasonably okay with most of the opener, "High Time," and certainly the penultimate "Fine"---ones where she trusts the melodies, more than Deep Thoughts, to look around and guide the listener, also her). It's so chronic that it creates a distracting context for the unlisted closer, "Are You Sure," a Willie Nelson rarity, rescued for this sufficiently poignant duet with the man himself. Fortunately there's a video going around, rescuing the track from this album.
Oh, yeah, and not smiling when she don't feel it could is at least potentially a major problem, very promising re song material, but unrealized here.
I know, I hope, that musical magicians such as Womack and Rimes may glimpse other potential here, presently unavailable to mere me, but meanwhile, much of it is almost unbearably painful to listen to---in this case, because of triteness, but that does make it country, in its own peculiar way.

"distracting context" because it underlines the degree of righteousness in the lyrics, distracts from the counselling (poignant)voice of experience.

I found Pagent Material unbearable too.

Still exploring a few year-end lists, but my favorite country albums of 2015, in no particular order:

Eric Church - Mr Misunderstood
Chris Stapleton - Traveller
Maren Morris - s/t EP
The Turnpike Troubadours - s/t
Kacey Musgraves - Pageant Material
Maddie & Tae - Start Here
Cam - Untamed

Honorable Mentions
Whitey Morgan & the 78s - Sonic Ranch
Ashley Monroe - The Blade
Shovels & Rope - Busted Jukebox, Vol 1
Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell - The Traveling Kind

Looking back over this year's RC, I was reminded that several of y'all turned me on to Tami Neilson, thanks. Her 2015 album, Don't Be Afraid (all original material from the Neilsons and friends, I think),seems somewhat Ronstadtian, with (somewhat) mixed results: blues-gospeloid belting I find distractingly generic, but when she eases back just a hair, we get some fine ballads (and occasional upper tempos): country-bluesy-soulful, sometimes w jazz potential and Latin turns (could imagine Freddy Fender doing a couple of these). Her Bandcamp is a little balky tonight, but well-worth the effort:
http://tamineilson.bandcamp.com/

I'm wrapping this thread up for the year. If I missed something or if a track comes available sometime in the future, bump here to let me know and I'll add.

Rolling Country 2015 Thread Spotify Playlist

Had to take a break before the rest of that, but speaking of St. Vincent, "Born Again Teen" is like her x Motown: ah, those youthful mood swings, maybe especially on acid. But/and the mirror sisters of Lucious eventually rock their way to higher ground, for another smoke break anyway: "It's all a manual that we've been writing, a future instructional guide / if we skipped ahead to our pre-fulfilled dreams, we'd be lost without our own advice." Ha, dood one.

Wrong thread, sorry! That was about Good Grief, new album by Lucius (not country, but not bad)