Rolling Country 2006 Thread

the lyrics weren't cringe-worthy but they did make me tilt my head into the upright and locked "huh" position considering she's 19 and she did the majority of the writing for this album when she was 17 (and sometimes younger). i guess that's a popular ageist complaint, but at the same time its hard for me to invest in her sincerity in lovers lost, etc. when she's my lil cousin's age. and i'm a dour old lady at the age of 24!

first impression (i.e., two and a half songs in to her album)? she sounds kinda slow and lacks bounce, and i'd take many of the unknown cdbaby acts on this thread over her easy. also, i think it's rather odd that she says desperate housewives both complain about their husbands no longer mowing lawn AND that the grass is always greener on the other side. this implies that lawnmowing increases green-ness, which is certainly not always the case. (my opinion may well change, though.)

Leanne Kingwell's Show Ya What: Boogie woogie rock and roll, with brassy chick, right away for fans of the Blackhearts, the early Kim Fowley jailbait and guitars sound. Squealing and tuneful lead guitar, rupture your liver in the middle class bar while dancing to the hooks. She's holding a gun, her cheatin' boyfriend's, get outta here with that other wench's lipstick on yer collar. You taught me how to use it, she sez, and I'm keeping it.
Also seems to have something to do sonically with Kings of the Sun and the personal vocal style of Angel City's Doc Neeson. (Or the Angels as she'd call them.)
Oh boy, now there's a great pumping roadhouse organ -- or old timey skate rink -- on "Be With You." Lots of crunch on the guitars and bass.
Tommy James-style "Crimson & Clover" tremolo on "So Long." Boy, along with the old Conwell CDs, a history book of classic radio ready guitar licks and roughed-up and dirty pop rock singing.
-- George 'the Animal' Steele (georg...), April 7th, 2006.

o far I'm liking but not loving Leanne Kingwell. For some reason the name that pops into my head when listening to her isn't any of the teenpoppers or the Divinyls or Suzi Quatro etc. (though I'm not saying the latter too aren't relevant) but Shooter Jennings; the same almost-nothing of a vocal-cord digging into itself and managing to scoop out a voice for itself.
Not that a cross between Shooter and Lindsay wouldn't be worth something...
-- Frank Kogan (edcasua...), March 30th, 2006.

Current album that makes most sense in a CD changer along with *White Trash With Money*: Dean Martin's 1955 *Swingin' Down Yonder,* reissued this month by Collector's Choice. I've never gotten into Dino much -- "That's Amore," "Volare," that's about it. And I've never thought much about him being connected to country music, though obviously Elvis (and Jerry Lee maybe?) considered him a huge influence. But this album (only the second one by him listed chronoligically at AMG, so I would assume one of his first?) is all songs about the South* -- about the Carolinas, and Georgia, and New Orleans, and Basin Street, and the Robert E. Lee and so on, some dating back to the 20s or even 10s (really informative liner notes by James Ritz), and it sounds like he's picking up on what Hoagy Carmichael (I guess - -somebody correct my chronology if I'm way off) picked up from Al Jolson or whoever. (I'm sure I'm missing several important intermediate steps along the way, and would be curious to know what they are.) Anyway, the minstrelized (I guess) yet smoothed out Dixieland-pop sound here isn't far from the jazz the shows up on Toby's new album (and that Merle and Tom T touched on before.) It totally swings, and Dino's signing makes it sound warm and good-humored, even if, obviously, a lot of the lyrics are probably (though maybe not explicitly, as far as I've noticed so far) nostalgia for the good old days of the old plantation south before the War. Anybody else have thoughts on this? And what does it mean that it's still part of country's defintion of soulfulness in 2006?

* -actually looks like there are also four bonus tracks on the CD reissue, *not* about the South. One's abotu Paris! I'ld think that might compromise the concept, but maybe not.

Just finally got this and listened and I actually had to check the lyric sheet to actually verify that they'd put the right album into the CD case. Every so often I'd drift away and start thinking I was listening to some Ryan Adams outtakes record.

And by the way, have I noted how over the top insanely great that *Texas Bohemia: Polkas Waltzes Schottisches: The Texas Bohemian-Moravian-German Bands* album I bought at Princeton Record Exchange a couple weeks ago is? Well, it is. It's barely left my CD changer since, and the amazing thing is that I keep forgetting it's not Mexican music, which it absolutely sounds like until they start singing in German or whatever. Some of the bands are really big, but some of them just seem to consist of nothing more than a drum and a tuba. Pick hits: Adolph Hofner "Beautiful America - Waltz" 1959 (in which he says everything in America is beautiful including the girls. I have a great album on vinyl by him, too. Must have been really hard to have a name like that in America in the 50s!); Vrazel & Majeks & Bobby Jones Czech Band "Corn Cockle Polka" 1992 (party in the background rock!), Tuba Meisters "Edelweiss" 1993 (yes, that "Edelweiss", but not the "Bring Me..." one); Henry Tannenberger & his Orchestra "On Our Porch Polka" 1986 (on Oompah Records out of San Antonio!); The Red Ravens "Stone Heart Waltz" 1977; Leroy Ryback's Swinging Orchestra "El Rancho Grande" 1985; Knutsch Band "Zwei Wie Mir Zwei" 1993; Vrazels & Majeks & Bobby Jones Czech Band (again!) "A Ja Sam (All By Myself)" 1992.

A couple other thoughts/questions about the Dino reissue:

1) I'm realizing that it's never been especially clear to me what exactly Dixieland music (note its name!) *was.* Ritz's liner notes say, "combining elements of New Orleans, classic, and Chicago jazz, Dixieland came into is own in the 1920s." But who did the combining?

2) On the back of the original vinyl version of said album (reproduced small on the back of the CD's inner sleeve), a drum and bugle corps are mraching with a Confederate flag.

3) Clearly one of the obvious "intermediate steps along the way" I allude to above was, duh, Bing Crosby, who went #1 with "Dinah," which Martin covers, in 1932. The album is *all* covers, the notes say, and was partially a response to all the concept albums Sinatra had started putting out in the early '50s. And yeah, as far as I can tell, it does seem to be just Martin's second album. Other songs covered, according to the notes, were originally hits for the Heidelberg Quartet, Paul Whiteman's Rhythm Boys (at least three of them), the Mills Brothers (they did "Dinah" too, or maybe with Bing?), Gene Krupa with Anita O'Day, Jimmy Dorsey, Ozzie Nelson, Gene Austin, and a 20s comedy duo called Van & Shneck. "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans" wound up being a million seller for rock'n'roller Freddie Cannon (who was great, by the way) five years after Martin's version, in 1959.

4) Ritz refers to Martin "singing in much the casual manner in which he spoke, which, for lack of better designation, could be called 'conversational singing.'" So could many of Toby Keith's best performances, it occurs to me. As could "laid back drawl that was not quite southern, but a far cry for the east coast sophistication practiced by most male singers of the day." Not unlike (from the LP's *original* notes) Martin's "easy golf swing."

Those of so foolish as not to haunt the teenpop thread may be unaware that Miley and her dad Billy Ray have a TV show, in which - I gather from the theme song, which is all TV-less me knows of it - by day she's a regular middle-schooler, but at night she twirls around like Sailor Moon and takes on a SECRET IDENTITY as a... as a... well, you'll just have to look for yourself.

The theme song's OK, likable enough, not grebt.

http://www.angelfire.com/folk/polka/bands.html

That Sweethearts of the Rodeo album from '96 I got in Princeton doesn't really cut it for me, though others might think differently. Whoever owned the copy before me had stuck a Xeroxed Alanna Nash review from *Stereo Review* inside the booklet, and Alanna praises it for containing "much more eclectic material than their mainstream county records ever hinted at": i.e, a gospel song, lots of bluegrass, covers of Donovan ("Catch the Wind") and Dylan ("One More Night," never heard of it before) and Jimmie Rodgers, plus what Alanna claims are hints of '60s pop and Celtic folk. I'm guessing that I'd prefer their less eclectic manistream country records (from 10 years before, so mid '80s, Alanna says) myself. I prefer midnight girls in a sunset town to museum curators, which they sound like here.

The Carlene Carter album I bought seems consisently kinda fun but never quite fun *enough*, at least so far. Maybe I wish her poppabilly was more rockabilly, "The Sweetest Thing" is slow, and could amost be a Lorrie Morgan hit from around that time; "Goodnight Dallas," which I like more than most of the tracks, has mariachi horns and yodels, so it's "western" I guess. I'm still waiting for at least one track though to jump out at me as much as, say, "Montgomery to Memphis," which jumped right out of the self-titled Leann Womack CD I bought the second I finally put it in the changer today. So right now I'd say Leann beats Carlene beats the Sweethearts, though Carlene could still win this race.

>More mature, After Here Through Midland lacks the sparkle of Cock Robin's debut. The one time they engaged an American producer in Don Gehman (John Cougar Mellencamp, Hootie and the Blowfish), After Here has a more U.S. rock-country blend to it. In the end, it achieved little in the States, again doing the business in Europe -- "Just Around the Corner," "The Biggest Fool of All," and "El Norte" notched up the U.K. singles chart. "I'll Send Them Your Way" could have landed them the U.S. hit they so deserved. "Another Story" is picturesque -- almost like an Edward Hopper painting of small-town America: small wooden house with porch, a deserted street, heavy grey sky, and one illuminated streetlight. "Nobody's home, so I'll go looking out for trouble," sings Anna LaCazio..

Sounds like the uncharacterisically un-lightweight "Me and the Wildwood Rose" on Carlene's CD might actually fill this bill after all (which means Carlene could be a keeper.)

carlene's CD doesn't quite make the cut, i don't think, though yeah, maybe as don suggests her new wave era stuff is less perfunctory than what she was doing in '90 (when she was actually having hits, i take it.) even "me and the wildwood rose," about growing up at grandma's and singing for miners with her little sister, doesn't quite connect. i like the rockpile-abilly powerpopsters ("i fell in love," "my dixie darlin'," "come on back," "one love," the mariachified "goodnight dallas") okay but never love them. most surprising cut, just 'cause i never knew carlene did such stuff, is that stately lorrie morgan approximation i mentioned, but i doubt i'll need to hear it again.

She's called Sharleen Spiteri, by the way.

Yeah, George is right here. *Heavy Traffic* (2002) definitely makes more sense on this country thread than the metal one, though there are some decent riffs in three or four songs (most notably "Diggin' Burt Bacharach," which doesn't seem to have much to do with Burt Bacharach, though his name does enable an okay raplet verse that goes "black jack clap trap any kind of flap trap big mac lookin' back diggin Burt Bacharach"), and once in a great while ("Solid Gold") the traffic does get moderately heavy. Otherwise, always pleasant, and pretty much always pedestrian. I dunno, if it was an unknown cdbaby band, and it just came out, I might hang on to it, but it's not and didn't. Really the most notable thing about the album is the creepy-assed fetish song "The Oriental," about sex with Mia from north korea and Mae Wong from hong kong, the former of whom has a land rover and the latter of whom is a raver. Most crypto-racist verse, assuming I'm understanding this, in which case yucko: "I don't like sushi/She said that suits me/I take a shower/On every hour." (The song reminds me of a similar fetish song called "Eastern Girls" or something like that, by some early '80s new wave band whose name started with L, but their song was way catchier and less offensive. I'm totally blanking out on their name right now.)

http://www.livinginstereo.com/

Currently there's a brief entry on the Nashville Sound, along with some MP3s, plus a long post on Don Knotts, Cindy Walker and some political musings.

Their track on the Tritonkt comp, "Prune Waltz," is quite the drunken oompah party, and assists regularity as well! (Also I realized I left off my list of faves the version of "Cotton Eyed Joe" by the Fayetteville Flash [Lee Roy Matocha's Orchestra], though that might go without saying since I don't think I've ever heard a version of "Cotton Eyed [or Eye for that matter] Joe" I *didn't* like. Rednex's is still best, though.)

George, check out these guys: Hard-hitting bottle-fight punk-tempo metal'n'roll boogie from the Northwest, complete with yackety sax for coloring and a cover of "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" by, uh, Sonny Boy Williamson, right? Would sound great next to the Count Bishops or Sonics. Cdbaby find of the week, unless I find an ever better one:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/dirtybirds

has anyone heard Blaine Larsen's latest single, on the radio? I keep listening for it and so far have missed, and "The Beaver" here, local country station, always seems to lose my requests.

and, catching up here, I ended up really liking Jace Everett's album. I did a piece for the Scene in which I compared it to Radney Foster's record, and if anything I prefer Jace's. "Gold" is an amazing simulation of a classic '70s single, complete with those almost-black sexy, wheedling female backup singers. And the closer, which is about how Jace follows in the footsteps of his fathers and so forth, has some of the greatest massed guitar moves abstracted from, again, a thousand half-forgotten '70s records. Jace sings totally professional, though, which means nothing really gets thru except the sheer formalism of the whole shebang; whereas Radney sings all soulful, sort of like a cross between Dwight Yoakam and Lyle Lovett, but a little deeper, and the sound is "warmer" (Waddy Wachtel on guitar, analogous to the guitar moves on "Jace Everett). And a great Rockpile imitation, or Fabulous Thunderbirds as produced by Nick Lowe, on Rad's "Big Idea."

and I'll say that I don't know enough about teenpop these days to intelligently post there, but that I really liked about half of Jewel's new one, "Goodbye Alice in Wonderland," some ace, ace pop moves and sunk-back guitars and surprisingly mordant bridges and choruses and thangs...and two songs better than anything on Liz Phair's last one, and comparable to the best stuff on Carrie Underwood's debut. In fact, they sound similar; and Jewel oughta record something like Carrie's in N-ville, if you ask me. all I can say is, anyone who gets all excited about the jammed-together pop of something like the New Pornographers, Jewel's "Satellite" and "Only One Too" beat that stuff, you axe me. and her "country" move, "Stephenville TX," surely belongs with Carrie's "Ain't in Checotah No More" as stardom-I-love-it-I-want-a-peanut-butter-sandwich statement.

he new Kris Kristofferson, does the same thing, he always does--try
to find his place in the universe. Under rated as a singer, and
perhaps the best american song writer since the mid 60s (more
consistent then dylan, more lonely then merle haggard, smarter then
bruce springsteen and less sentimental then anyone else) The single
has a sing along chorus, that sounds like a pentecostal sing-a-long,
but wryly upends all of the cliches we expect of country songs about
jesus.

hes an old man now, an elder but hes always been ragged, always been
downtrodden--what does it mean when he sings this:

Am I young enough to believe in revolution
Am I strong enough to get down on my knees and pray
Am I high enough on the chain of evolution
To respect myself, and my brother and my sister
And perfect myself in my own peculiar way

Its brave, because his desire for radical change is tempered with
doubt, and he realises that to lay prostrate to the creator of the
universe is not the moral equivalent of going out for a pint with a
buddy, and he doesnt see anything wrong with admitting in evoution,
and his desire towards unity is communitarian.

the new album is smart, because it isnt a fuck you to dubya (haggard
did that with his last album), but an upbeat reflection on a minefield
of interior change.