Rolling Country 2006 Thread

has anybody else noticed the verbosity of the liner notes on the shannon brown album? i didn't, not until this morning, at least in part because i hadn't played the actual finished object much, after i'd played the advance copy so much when it arrived last thanksgiving, back when my 14-year-old kid sherman was a whole inch shorter. anyway, shannon sure does blab a lot about her songs on that inner sleeve. talks about how "good old days" is her "disco groove thing that i grew up on," and reminds her of her "mom's and dad's bar back home" where there were "no stereotypes, no rules and regulations" and "every walk of life is found there and it's OK," close to toby's "i love this bar" i guess but a far cry to the situation in her single "corn fed" where only country music gets played on the radio. and "high horses" is about inclusiveness too, so shannon's got a lot of contraditions whether she knows or not, which is not a bad thing. and though "can i get an amen," the song with BTO or Doobies riffs, talks about being born again, shannon's liner notes suggest that her main use for the word "amen!" is the equivalent of "hallelujah!" when you get out of "an unhealthy relationship." she also says in her notes to "turn to me" that "i have deep rooted alcoholism in my family, and [the song]'s about a woman being strong enough to support her man." does that mean she joins sheryl crow in frank's co-dependent rock hall of fame?

the songs on the new album arent as good as this (but the more and more i think about it, long black train is a singualr work, and part of the canon and unrepeatable) but some songs on the new album use his voice to similar effect, the warmth and the precision about pleasure, instead of duty, but still its resoant...

i fucking love mr turner, and i wonder why he hasnt got more love

www.xmradio.com/b0bdy1an_s3c
username: press1
Password: xmr0ck5!

I think Frank posted something somewhere about how this would be a great show if Chronicles guided the playlist. Not quite, but close. I wish I could afford XM.

Also it should be noted here that I actually like "Me and My Gang" off the new Rascal Flatts album -- not a Gary Glitter cover, but swamp-country sifted through Big'n'Rich hick-hop.

miranda lambert came thru again and i missed her again. 14 dollars!

Also slowly exploring the two-disc, R Crumb-artworked new Yazoo comp *The Stuff Dreams are Made Of: The Dead Sea Scrolls of Record Collecting!: Super Rarities and Unisseued Gems of the 1920s and 1930s.* Quite a hodgepodge, united as the title suggests not by genre but merely by how hard the records are to find, never a good sign, but I'm liking pretty much all of it regardless and loving lots of it, including tracks by Dock Boggs, Andrew & Jim Baxter, Ollis Martinn, the Three Stripped Gears, and especially Wilmer Watts and the Lonely Eagles. Those are all on disc 1; haven't touched disc 2 yet.

ALINA SIMONE --- Passive-aggressive, apparently humorless art-song emoting, from a gloomy gal born in the Ukraine who grew up in Massachusetts and decorates her EP’s five songs with lap steel, violin, and farfisa parts.

SUGARPINE -- Brooklyn alt-country, probably rock enough for Drive-By Truckers or Bottle Rockets fans, if not Montgomery Gentry or Lynyrd Skynyrd fans. Singing's a bit bland, and sadly "Effigy" is not a Creedence cover. But in the early '80s, they would've been called cowpunk, lumped with Rank and File or Jason & the Scorchers. And "Manhattan Special" even sounds kinda funky at first.

REV. HORTON HEAT -- This Texas retrobilly guitar vet, who quite possibly peaked with his charbroiled Subpop *Smoke 'Em If You Got *Em* way back in 1991, celebrates his new Christmas CD, which doesn't sound half as raunchy as you'd hope.

ELIZABETH COOK -- This photogenic Florida-born second-generation retro-country hopeful has predictable smidgens of Loretta and Dolly in her inflections, but, on *This Side on the Moon*, not much memorable in her words or tunes. A poppier producer would help.

BRIAN KEANE --- Despite going shirtless on his CD cover, Brian has the commendable distinction of being a local singer-songster who is not hard to take, thanks in part to his sense of rhythm. His sound has blues, soul, and Latin in it, albiet via Paul Simon and Jackson Browne and Counting Crows. And he knows Mexico and small towns can be good subject matter.

JESS MCAVOY -- At first the first song on this Aussie bird's CD seemed to say "You could arrange your world to consist of Opening Day," and I thought, "cool, a song about a boyfriend who likes baseball too much!" But nope, the lyric sheet says "opening doors," oh well. And her sometimes-slightly-cello-and-trumpet-jazzed folk-trope unspecifics continue from there.

NORFOLK AND WESTERN -- This Oregon boy and girl call their album *Dusk in Cold Parlours,* but manage to scare more life out of their apparent Leonard Cohen and John Cale and Appalachia and minimalism influences than most indie drone-folkies.

RON SUNSHINE -- Cornball-not-entirely-on-purpose NY (ten-piece-) swingbandleader who seems to miss the annoying jump-blues revival from a few years ago. He's recorded with the P-Funk horns, and croons about drugs and abominable snowmen.

LEAH CALLAHAN -- Former indie-rock grrrl goes the smokey-room jazz-cabaret lounge-revival-all-over-again shtick route.

CHRISTOPHER JAK -- This young strummer, who began in Jersey then spent time in Colorado before landing in these parts, covers Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" and sings both verses and stanzas about his unbelievably deep feelings

MARLY'S ANGELS -- You'd think the Carole King comparisons plus Steely Dan comparisons plus Norah Jones comparisons plus that beret on her head might add up to Rickie Lee Jones, but local writer-warbler-pianist Marlys Hornick just ain't crazy-funky-beatnik enough for that. Sincerity with jazz changes; should hire a saxophone player.

THE TYDE -- The debut CD, *Once*, by these shambling and jangling crystal-canyon Los Angelenos (some of 'em moonlighting members of Beachwood Sparks) was named 44th best album of 2001 by morons at *NME.* Their new CD is called *Twice* (get it?), and is quite twee. Though "Henry V111" is oddly not a Herman and the Hermits cover.

REVEREND GLASSEYE Our Lady of the Broken Spine: Way way better than its satirical title and campy drama-club intro vocals led me to expect. Which doesn't make this super amazing, given the lowness of the expectations and given that the campiness is basically a cover for a voice that has no other way to achieve extravagance. Nonetheless, this is passionate music, drenched in Mexican horns that have been colored with Romanian (or some such) density. Country & (spaghetti) western guitar boogie is a frequent spice.

they dedicated one song to Jack Clement, who came in to catch their set and sat next to us. I went up and shook Mr. Clement's hand, too, after they were through.

nly NEW hard rock/metal album i've played much in the past few days is *rebel meets rebel* by d.a.c. (as in david allan coe) and c.f.h. (as in cowboys from hell, which means dimebag darrell who is dead plus vinnie paul who is i think his brother on drums and rex brown who may or may not be in pantera--how the hell would i know?--on bass). at first i thought, "uh, nice try, coe can't sing anymore, but at least he sings better than phil anselmo", but then i decided it doesn't really matter; coe *doesn't* have the voice he used to have, the point's moot in this kind of biker rock (heaviest and/or funkiest and most successfully boogiefied in "heart worn highway" which is actually kinda jazzy in a '70s hard rock way; "cowboys do more dope" with its shouted anthem chorus about how country rocks harder than rock these days and also takes more drugs; "cherokee city" about how people fucked over the native americans; "time" which is a great hendrix rip with "ball of confusion"-meets-hombres rhyme-rapping and roky erikson-style observations about "alien forces inside my brain"); i also really like "arizona rivers" (fluttery psych-blues not far from j.d. blackfoot's CD last year) and "nyc blues" (understated talk-vocal walk through the east village a la peter laughner or whoever about seeing weirdos with blue hair, namedropping cowboy junkies probably because d.a.c. likes their name then talks about prince and purple rain and ends the album afterwards with a snippet of an apparently shitty song called "proud to be an american" by some band called pumpjack, played over the car radio which doesn't make sense because it's not a song about driving, but this is still like when rappers end their album with part of a new rap song by their unknown rapper pal who has an album coming out next year, so it's a neat idea. also: "nothin to lose" has female sex moans in it; "rebel meets rebel" is more heavy biker funk; "one night stand" is more heavy rock'n'roll with a "day tripper" riff and a verse that says one night stands aren't just for sleeping with women but also for bands (presumably like this one-off here); "get outta my life" isn't horrible but hank williams III's dumbass fred durst imitation in it is (what do people see in that dork again?); "no compromise" has more talked verses. in fact, in general, coe talks as much as he sings, which is a good idea. so: way better than any pantera album; also way better than the EP that coe made with kid rock a couple years ago (which i got sent a CD-R advance of; don't think it ever came out.)

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just didn't post this on the metal thread:

weird thing is, every once in a while, when i had the rebel meets rebel song in my CD changer, a song would come up where i'd say, "okay, THIS is how david allan coe used to sing". but inevitably the song wouldn't be by coe, but rather by jamey johnson, whose album i wound up liking a lot. at first i wondered whether the coe influence was just my imagination, but then eventually i noticed that johnson drops coe's name at the end of his own most biker-funked song "rebelicious," and i was vindicated. i can't believe that piece of butterfly-kisses fatherhood sap "the dollar" (which i complain about above) was/is both the hit and christgau's choice cut on this thing; it's like the worst song on here, just about (and the reason i took so long to listen to the rest)! and "keeping up with the jonesin." which is better but is still pretty damn cornball though it seems to be the other song everybody talks about, is hardly one of the best. i'd pick "redneck side of me" (the other one that reminded me of coe), "back to caroline" (hard hard honk tonk), ""flying silver eagle" (maybe the best divorce song of '06 so far). "ray's juke joint" (anti-hip-hop. pro hidden bar in the woods a la that black sage album don and i discussed up above), and "rebelicious" itself. gospel closer "lead me home" is nice too, as gospel closers go. way better album than i expected it to be; probably has a good shot of making my '06 country top ten if i make one this year. up there with toby keith, dale watson, carrie underwood.

Emmy Lou will get in this year or the next. Next will be Rosanne or Alison, but not sure after that. I would vote for Sammi Smith but no one is asking me. If the Chicks can stay together for 10 more years, they'll make it.

Rebel Meets Rebel is on Big Vin Records, which for all I know was invented just for this...

Also listened this morning to local EP by Lorraine Leckie and her Demons -- pretty decent Hank Wiliams "Lost Highway" cover at the end which reminds me of the Mekons's version (though maybe they changed the name? On *Fear and Whiskey* I think) and definitely captures the cheating-on theme of the song well, though most of the EP is more goth-folk in a Tori/Sinead mode, interesting when the instruments stretch themselves into drones at ends of songs but still not really my cup of tea. I do like "Rainbow," though, which has an AC/DC riff and a catchy rapped chorus that's shouted and not detached, and hence rocks.

and okay, here's the cdbaby link, you lazybones:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/kwilder3

True Brothers' *Wanted: Country Outlaw Tribute* is another good cdbaby country CD, with adequate-to-great obligatory covers of "Take This Job and Shove It," "You Never Even Called Me By My Name," "Just Good Old Boys," "Older Women," and (most suprisingly) the Swingin' Medallions "Double Shot of My Baby's Love" (one of my favorite songs in the world, though they don't make it sound like anywhere near as much a drunken frat party as the Medallions did; still, I love that they cover it at all and wonder if anybody else considers it country - where were the Medallions from, Memphis or somewhere? Louisiana? I forget). There are also some apparent covers of novelty songs I don't remember hearing before -- "Marie Laveau", a goofy Shel Silverstein song about looking as ugly as your mom or something, and "Rub It In," which appears to be mainly about suntan lotion and instructs you to rub it on their back and their sacroliliac. And the album closes with an original called "Country Outlaw Theme" where they talk about how their dad thought all country singers should be clean shaven with short hair, but then the True Bros (who are true bros, apparently) started listening to Willie and Waylon and Kinky and Bobby Bare after school, and now Big N Rich and Montgomery Gentry and Toby are "throwbacks" to the original outlaws. Not sure if anybody put it that way before, certainly not in a song.

What's weird is that on the cover of the *Wanted* album (from last year) the True Bros LOOK like hairy scraggly dirty outlaws, but on the cover of their *Hymns and Other Songs We Wrote Ourselves* from 2003 they look like super-clean-cut hee-hawing old-time country (preacher?) dorks in gold (lame'? what does lame' look like?) suits. So at first you think it's going to be a religious record, which it sometimes is, but then you notice there's a real good song about Dorian Gray ("based on the novel by Oscar Wilde") and a real good one about Jecklyl and Hyde and a real good one about how if you marry a banjo-pickin mama she might not do anything else but play banjo, not even cook. And others about getting married and dad getting buried next to a tree so he can be next to his wife for eternity. And other songs *are* Jesus songs, often talked like a rhyming sermon like that old deck-of-cards song (which might not have rhymed, come to think of it) and sometimes acapella (with Louvin/Delmore style brother harmonies); "Six Steps to Heaven" is my faovrite worship one so far, but there are 16 tracks (all fairly short) on the album, and I haven't really absorbed all of it. Instrumentation is fast catchy bluegrass, no showoff bullshit whatsoever. Most of the songs sound like forgotten old obscurities, but songwriting credits are mostly all "Jacky, Roger and Teresa True" except for "A Christmas Wish" by Ricky Dunn, and "missing You/Hats off to Web," which is said to be based on a Red Sovine tune.

Religon stuff on Albert Lee's new *Road Runner* (at least 75 percent a country CD, by an old rocker who appears to be born again or at least is doing a pretty good imitation of being born again) are a lot more reverent and boring. The stuff on the album I kind of like is the Junior Walker title cover, the Billy Burnette and Delbert McLinton songs that sort of sound like 1979 Dave Edmunds rockabilly but not as good, and the seven-minute instrumental guitar jam solo "Payola Blues." But even those I can take or leave, and the more reverent soft-rock (including numbers by Leo Kottke, Richard Thompson, and a horrible John Hiatt one called "Rock of Your Love", presumably from after Hiatt started sucking) are way too hard to get through. Ten Years After CD from last year was way, way more fun.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/truebros2

two albums kicking my ass this morning that i found out about not through cdbaby, but through myspace of all places (nope, i don't have a page, and have no intention of getting one, but i figured out how to do the music search): victory brothers' *kowboyz de loz angeleez* (probably the best big n rich *horse of a different color* substitute I've ever heard including ones by big n rich, and now vying with leanne kingwell as my album of the year) and penny dale's *undaunted* (the best stevie nicks album i've ever heard by a country singer, probably, and an immediate 2006 top ten candidate.) lots to say about these two, eventually, but i'll hold off for now.

also really liking irma thomas's *after the rain* on rounder, the "rain" obviously being katrina, though i kind of hate the mooshy shelter-from-storm piano ballad the album ends with though i do hope it provides solace to new orleans. what i love so far is "flowers" (soul about flowers on roadsides after car crashes, with a sound that i swear reminds me of "uncle tom's cabin" by warrant), "make me a pallet on the floor" (cheating with a painter, wow), "till i can't take it anymore" (country music in a soul voice, about how "you work your thing so well/I dream of heaven and live here in hell"), "these honey dos" (vampy bawdy boogie woogie where the honey dos are at first temptations but wind up also being about manners like please and thank you), and "stone survivor" (which is just plain funky).

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=58969629

penny dale:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=8670245

Willie Nelson has always deconstructed westerns, and maintained a
belief in telling the truth about places buried under their own
mythology. It is found on his album, the Red Headed Stranger and in
any number of singles over decades. It is found, in his low, lean and
hungry version of the traditional ballad "He was a Friend of Mine",
which could so easily have been dismissed, because of its lyrics, and
because of its placement on the soundtrack to that Heath and Jake
movie. After his soundtrack work, he released, on Howard Stern and
then i-tunes, a cover of the cult classic outlaw tune Cowboys are
Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other. The two songs entwine, and
emerge as one text, working out familiar themes: the decimation that
unexpected desire can cause, ideas of masculinity and honour, the
implications of dereliction of duty, and larger, more formal concerns
of isolation, landscape and comfort.

Cowboys…is the rare song that actually talks about what it means to
fuck the same gender on the prairies. Fuck in any number of ways, fuck
because they love each other, fuck because they are lonely, fuck
because they want to be kept literally warm or have a companion, or to
continue their lives outside the mainstream, as another kind of
outlaws. Like any number of us, it is about what happens when others
cannot handle the fluidity and dangerous nature of desire. The song is
a classic, because it catalogs the options for how bodies fit
together, and because it acknowledges that some of the options mean
that "there's always someone who says what the others just whisper/and
mostly that someone is the first one to be shot down dead"

The original is done in waltz time, and has a theatrical winking and
nodding. The music has the same kind of music hall extravagance that
caused Jobraith to lose his career, and 30 years later for Rufus
Wainwright to have one. (Think of it as a less secure, less ambiguous,
less haunting version of the Magnetic Field's Papa was a Rodeo.) The
slippages of gender, sexuality, and desire emphasized here are
bog-standard Freud, lines like "I believe to my soul/there is a
feminine/and inside every lady/there is a deep manly voice/ to be made
clear", maintain gay men really want to be women and vice versa line
that seems so old fashioned in the land of Brokeback and the
International Gay Rodeo Association.

The satisfaction in male companionship is a central theme in the both
songs, in the film, in westerns in general. The codes of masculinity
are Byzantine and violations of these codes are rewarded by violence.
One of the reasons why Matthew Sheppard was left to die in that field
in Wisconsin was the difference between city boys and country boys,
between those who went to college, and those who were working men.
Watching Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee is as aware of this; as is Ned
Sublette (the songwriter of Cowboys…) the hardness of the lovemaking,
and the wrestling/shoving/physicality of the foreplay in the movie
show this. He was also wise choosing the solidity of Willie Nelson to
sing over the credits, as a coda, a song that expressed issues of
masculinity, obliquely. He was a Friend of Mine, comes from the ground
of the west. It does not have an author, and the narrative is basic
narrative, with little detail, some in cliché. He sings it with great
tenderness, but little directness (as opposed to Dylan, who was never
really tender).

Like most ballads, the key to "He was a Friend of Mine", is the
repetition of the chorus. The lines "he never did wrong/a thousand
miles at home, and he never harmed no one" have an old fashioned,
permanence—a depth of hagiography that was never really existent in
either Clint Eastwood or in Roy Rogers. The two songs here are never
really about fucking, but about how to live integrously in a land that
rewards anything but what it says it does.

Both performances then are about what the Quakers would call speaking
truth to power, and farmers I know, would call handling your own shit.
The laconic taciturn outside of the cowboy hides a soft center. There
is an effort to keep secrets, to cause no trouble. There is something
of the private text, spoken softly amongst friends, in He was a Friend
of Mine, and Willie infuses all of the privacy, the sadness and the
shock, in the line "Stoles away and cries". There is tension between
being quietly silent and actually processing grief, a tension that
violates the code of the west, just as admitting that the desires that
one cowboy has for another, may not only be geographic convenience,
but about lust.

This might be Willie Nelson's American Recordings moment, a desire to
push himself away from old complacencies, and old audiences. It often
happens when someone's physical instrument is so ragged, and when the
desire is to communicate differently Nelson's voice is shot. But how
ragged he sounds here, and how broken he sounds, makes the two songs
even sadder, stronger, more tragic. They are a return to questions
that remain unsolved in the 70s, and their answers are of an old man:
be generous to people, mourn the dead, fight for the living, refuse to
apologize for love and desire. Together, they prove a testament to
Nelson's skills as an interpretive guide, and to someone who really
knows cowboys.