Rolling Country 2015

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)