Rolling Country 2015

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

Didn't much care for Sturgill's record, btw. I think he sounds repressed, myself.

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.

Seconded

Just heard a touring muso on the radio mention being "in the moment" (vs. playing exactly the same show wherever you go, like a big ol' touring disc). Couldn't resist listening to Willie & Bobbie's xpost December Day one more time. The flow of all this*, while Willia and a few other guys stand around Bobbie's piano, still sounds much more in the moment than seamlessly edited... Still streaming here, minus the commercials of free Spotify---just scroll down past the new Robert Earl Keen, Ryan Bingham, and others I'll get to d'rectly (or not):
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/arts/music/pressplay.html?state=-1

*1. Alexander's Ragtime Band 2:42
2. Permanently Lonely 4:21
3. What'll I Do 3:30 $
4. Summer of Roses / December Day 3:11
5. Nuages 3:22
6. Mona Lisa 3:30
7. I Don't Know Where I Am Today 2:25
8. Amnesia 2:31
9. Who'll Buy My Memories? 2:46
10. The Anniversary Song 2:12
11. Laws of Nature 5:39
12. Walkin' 3:40
13. Always 2:39
14. I Let My Mind Wander 3:09
15. Is the Better Part Over 2:41
16. My Own Peculiar Way 4:11
17. Sad Songs and Waltzes 2:44
18. Ou Es-Tu Mon Amour / I Never Cared for You 5:23

@barelywashed AKA Barry Walsh tweets that time my son tried on Waylon's hat:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B9HiuhoIUAEpOlQ.jpg:large

Finally starting to catch up to xpost Tami Neilsen: from her Spotify stash, so far I've listened to the latest, 2014's Dynamite! and yep The Kitchen Sessions Vol.2, which is, speaking of "in the moment," def takes me through each note and syllable--like Raitt at her best, though actual sound is more like Ronstadt's voice at times, or yeah Cline's: the deeper, richer stirring of the tones, though she's got a good, unshowy higher range too.
Despite the title, it's as produced as it needs to be, jangly country-folk-rock in a late-60s/dawn of the 70s way, though the "kitchen table" thing does apply re sittin' and thinkin', confidentially direct address. Though it's actually about leaving home (following a guy pretty far, in some songs), she finds that home hasn't left her in "This Town": if she gets off the bus and you're there, you suck. You're a citizen, a resident, "standin' still while I crashed and burned," like the guy in the last town, and the first town, where prying eyes, incl. sympathetic ones, were and always will be too much. "The first thing I'll do when I get to this town/Is leave." Even more effective for following the sweetest, yet maybe most complex song,"Great Day," where she seems totally and happily at home, though in a way that doesn't necessarily bode well "The boy who stole a kiss and never gave it back/Still it's alright he makes me laugh," even before "This Town," she's reveling in "a great day to be loved"--by who? By that boy? By everybody in this hometown, sounds like--yet the way she holds certain notes and lets them change, there's a calling, a yearning for more, even/especially while she's luxuriating in love and the sounds she can make, feeling her young powers a-buddin.'
Ph yeah, and in between those two songs, there's the persistent pursuit of "One Thing," not too fast, but she's growing vocal (and a few other) overdubs without missing a beat, in a way I don't think I've ever heard anybody else do.

Not that every track has the impact of those three, but still (The Kitchen Table Sessions Vol.2 is the one I'm talking about).

More antipodalacana,via Australia's Cyndi Boste: the following excerpt from "Alias In Wonderland" (Voice round-up of cosmic cowgirls, also incl. Maria McKee, Mary McCaslin, and others)goes wayyy back, but Home Truths was a breakthrough, and still sounds good on Spotify. Sounds kinda like Neilsen, but with def. more of a rough edge, and the Aussie accent at times, but not too nasal or lockjawed:

...Further West, Cyndi Boste has been called "the Lucinda Williams of Australia." And both artists do bear down, on what could otherwise easily remain mere backwatery blues-mindedness. But Car Wheels on a Gravel Road usually works best when Lucinda looks up from her road maps, and lets the music unwind, even snake around some. On Home Truths, Cyndi keeps playing her cards (hungry textures, tiny solos, rationed hooks) close to the vest, but her game's always gaining momentum. Meanwhile, she's gathering scattered impressions, impulses, hoarding insights and courage.

Then she cuts out, through the day's apparently endless scrutiny of things-as-they-are, into the desert night, where "new" things start to move around differently—she wanted it, she's got it. No time left, even after "Daddy Comes Home," for the world to end, or begin. The deep rich voice intensifies its clipped delivery of key phrases. These click on by, like slide shows, empty chambers, telephone poles. Hello Operator, she's making a lonnnggg distance call.

Austin City Limits retweeted
The Boot ‏@thebootdotcom 15h15 hours ago
@EmmylouSongbird and @WillieNelson did a BEAUTIFUL version of #Crazy on @ACLTV! WATCH:
http://theboot.com/emmylou-harris-willie-nelson-crazy-austin-city-limits/

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-EGdWACIAAJRC1.jpg

Waymore & Buddeh

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-pVIzZUIAEAccp.jpg

Tonight's Music City Roots incl. Jamey Johnson, James House, Jonell Mosser, Lisa Oliver Gray, Tommy Womack.
Starts 7 Central, 'til a hair past 9:30-ish, probably. You'll see the livestream vid link staring you in the chin; audio-only is bottom right:
http://musiccityroots.com/events/wednesday-february-25th/
It'll be archived, if they're still doing that (haven't checked lately, but seems likely, unless the new deal with PBS says otherwise).

Jeez sorry, forgot how tricky it can be to get the radio stream; if you have trouble, try this: Streamdb4web.securenetsystems.net/v5/WHPYFM Or just stream the video direct from musiccoturoots.com

May only work on firefox, if at all, sorry.

Actually just go hear and click on Listen Live: http://www.hippieradio945.com/

Instead of staying for Jamey Johnson's set, I switched to Nashville the immortal series, thinking I'd catch him on the download, but it's messed up (so is last week's). Maybe I'll try the video, but did hear Janelle Mosser, who's worn several hats, and now as co-writer, demo singer, sometime headliner, switches styles from song to song (writing and arrangement-wise. but her voice provides continuity), making it seem easy. Which is maybe why she isn't a star, no heart-on-sleeve, although she doesn't seem insincere.
James House's vocal approach, on the other hand, brings a solemn soap opry sinkful 'o' suds, though not in a fun way, to original and co-written material for the stars.
Tommy Womack has a clever, vernacular, busking, medicine show way with words, seemingly loose, but never getting asymmetrical about it. He's a bit too Tom Sawyer slick sometimes, but keeps me listening.

First newsletter from Rodney Crowell in quite a while:
February, 2015

I have an unhealthy disrespect for ice. Approaching patches of it like a Dutch speed skater in orange crocs has been my downfall. I’m presently sporting a sore backside and neck-bone as proof. You’d think I’d learn.

The month of February 2015 started in Glasgow, Scotland. The Trans-Atlantic-Sessions. As one of five singers and a cast of wonderfully crazy Celtic and American musicians, some of the best I’ve ever worked with, I spent a fortnight pooling talent and belly laughing at the absurdities of life on the British motorways. It could go down as one of the more memorable times in my professional life.

Briefly before the show in London, I was introduced to a famous guitar player and was surprised how dry mouthed it left me. Which set me to thinking about whether it was this person's fame or greatness that made me nervous. It was, of course, his greatness. My ex-father-in-law was a world famous performer. We once spoke at length in the early eighties about achieving greatness. He said one of the downsides of his success was how little time it left him to devote to becoming a better artist, and wasn’t sure if it was in the cards to ever find it again. To which I blurted out, “Man if you’re still having doubts, I’m screwed.”

"We’re all screwed,” he said, with a laugh, “self-doubt comes with the territory.”

Interestingly, his recording of the song “Hurt,” which was his very last, is, I believe, the best performance of his entire career.

Nowadays I don’t feel the pressure to prove myself as much as I did back then. (Which isn’t to say that creating museum quality art isn’t still the goal. It is.) The obsession to make a name for myself has more or less given way to an exquisite longing to experience the feeling of knowing I’ve created something, be it large or small, that will outlive me. Meeting the famous guitar player simply reminded me how far I still have to go. Perhaps the dry mouth was the result of a resounding gulp.

All that said, I reckon it’s obvious that I’m back in the business of hollering at you once a month. When toward the end of last year it filtered through to me that an old friend had accused me of being full-of-shit and not caring about the little people, I had to take a look at what I was doing in order to decide if there was any truth in the accusation. Probably some. But I honestly don’t know anyone I’d call little. And whether I’m full of shit or not is irrelevant. I love an audience.

And I’ve got something to say. Which is this: I recently heard an album of ten Ben Bullington songs recorded by Darrell Scott. It is a masterwork. Get hold of this record as soon as it comes out. It’ll be released in late spring---as will the new Emmylou and Rodney album. Which is also pretty darned good.---Rodney

Mavericks sporting new alb, streaming soaring live set (archive sounding great so far) on this week's Beale Street Caravan (also: saxman Jim Spake on great honkers, wailers) http://bit.ly/1BrKfG2

Speaking of Mavericks, Mono is very catchy (get it?), for the most part, with some equally distinctive ballads, though a couple of mid-to-slower tempo tracks could use lyrical turns. Lyrics are no prob on, for inst, the Latin ska numbers, and the closer, "Nitty Gritty," turns out to be, just like I hoped, an excellent cover of the bouncy Sir Doug song, with Augie Meyers guesting, I think.

Charles EstenVerified account ‏@CharlesEsten
So honored to sing the beautiful "The Rivers Between Us Are Deep" by our friend, Hall of Fame songwriter @JDSouther & Erik Kaz. #ThanksWatty
Watty, Souther's character, was Rayna's mom's secret musical lover, may have gotten her killed by jealous dad or "dad," since on Nashville the immortal series, musical biologicals are not uncommon. Case in point of course, Esten's character, guitarist-singer-songwriter (in that professional order, usually) Deacon Clayborn, the formerly hard-livin', now liver-needin' musical lover of Rayna (Connie Britton). He's also the biological father of her older daughter---but 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.

x-post
Mono is very catchy (get it?),

Looking forward to your next stand-up comedy gig

http://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20150306/8e/eb/c2/f0/e8ff1d1eb94ea8519e11d33f_439x440.jpg

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.
###
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.

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