Rolling Country 2010

helped create modern country and therefore modern pop

Well, obviously didn't help create all of modern pop, just pieces of it.

Here's a link to Geoffrey Himes' 100 Best Albums of 2009

http://sonicboomers.com/albumreviews-0

Drunk-dialing masterpiece "Need You Now" is number 5 on Billboard's ringtones chart!

Meanwhile Skaggs tells the Washington Post he likes some bluegrass

Ask Ricky Skaggs about his favorite contemporary bluegrass acts and he'll rattle off a mighty list: Cherryholmes, The Infamous Stringdusters, Mountain Heart, Blue Highway, Sierra Hull and many others. But ask him about his favorite new country artists and... crickets. Skaggs thinks the genre has "lost its way."

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/clicktrack/2010/01/be_specific_bluegrass_great_ri.html

Caramanica on banda singer Jenni Rivera (whose new album is said to be an all-mariachi affair on which she covers country singer Freddie Fender's "Before The Next Teardrop Falls"); some indie band called Wild Yaks (who Jon says play "country-rock", though since he said the same about indie band Girls I'm skeptical, and since he calls their country-rock lackadaisical I assume I'd hate anyway); and the Huntsville, Alabama hip-hop scence (featuring the hit "Fresh" by 6 Tre G, which I'm pretty sure I heard on the radio a week or two ago and actually liked):

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/arts/music/10play.html

Jenni Rivera has been covering Tex-Mex for years; still prefer her banda version of "I Will Survive" with its wailing clarinets though. She's awesome.

Although in "Ala-Freakin-Bama" Trace Adkins says he grew up on Skynyrd, the song sounds at least as much (or a lot more) like he grew up on Gary Glitter or Joan Jett doing the Standells.

Kara DioGuardi about writing for country artists:

It's lyrically heavy in a way pop music isn't. It's got to be the perfect way to put it, but it's also got to have emotion [that resonates]. It's poetic in a way that pop music isn't. It really tests me. It makes me go back to songwriting 101. It's not just describing an emotion at face value, it's more like, "Here's the emotion -- how do I say it in a way that's interesting, so that someone gets what I'm trying to put across but it's also a twist on it?"

[For instance], "I Hope You Dance"? What an incredible metaphor. I hope you take that risk, I hope you take that chance, I hope you live life to the fullest. The way they paint that picture, when they get to the chorus you know exactly what they're talking about. I'm very drawn to the genre because I feel like I've become a better writer by going down there, and I'm always learning in the sessions.
--Billboard Interview

(I don't think it's such an incredible metaphor, myself.)

You're not terrified of dancing the way some of us are.

Christgau wraps up 2009 (year in music):

http://bit.ly/6wSxv7

Here's a new Voice piece I wrote on the music played at PBR (that's Professional Bull Riders) events.

I'm here to warn people off the new Jason Boesel album, which I'm currently streaming. He's drummed for Rilo Kiley and Conor Oberst, so it's ironic that Hustler's Son is completely devoid of memorable beats. Or memorable tunes, or singing voices, or words... CMT blog says he sounds like Chris Martin, which I don't hear at all. If anything, he's a less-distinctive and sometimes pitchy Jack Johnson. No way is he a hustler's son, unless he's overcompensating. You've been warned.

Also ungood, though still listenable, is Freedy Johnston's Rain On the City. I'll say he counts here since he recorded it in Nashville and "It's Gonna Come Back To You" sounds country. (And the guitar sound on "Livin' Too Close to the Rio Grande" is what I imagine Uncle Tupelo sound like.) I'm sad it's not good because I really like some of his songs, but he seems to have smoothed a lot of the interest out of his voice. There's a point in the second song where he sings "tried and tried and tried and tried" etc., and if you can imagine Freedy Johnston singing that, you can maybe picture the unusual way he used to shape vowels--very round and throaty. Unfortunately, that's almost all gone. Some of the tunes are pleasant, but nothing compelling. So all you've got left is the least interesting part of his arsenal--the Evocative Lyrics. On about half the songs, he tries to amp up the evocativeness by playing slowly, bleh. I may listen again in case I missed anything. Got an alarmingly high score from Ann Powers.

Nice article, unperson--real colorful.

OK, Freedy Johnston sounds better today. It's still not setting the world on fire and I still miss his idiosyncrasies, but the tunes have grown on me. He's rhythmically competent enough that most of the songs hit some sort of relaxed groove, and his drummer knows how to work with his melodies. Best song probably "The Other Side of Love," which has a BeMyBaby beat. "Don't Fall In Love With a Lonely Girl" (the "tried and tried and..." song) is also good. Worst may be the bossa nova exercise "The Kind of Love We're In." Still borderline overall.

My five favorite country singles of 2010 so far; order very fluid:

1. Jason Aldean – The Truth
2. Trace Adkins – Ala Freakin Bama
3. Martina McBride – Wrong Baby Wrong Baby Wrong
4. Brian Burns – Rattlesnake Tequila
5. Colt Ford featuring Jamey Johnson – Cold Beer

Weirdest 2010 country album I've heard so far: Shooter Jennings & Hierophant, Black Ribbons (due out March 2 on Rocket Science Ventures), which has very little or no country music on it whatsoever (well, maybe some very occasional very sublimated melodic twang in the guitars), but it does have a whole bunch of doomsday recitations by Stephen King as a radio announcer calling himself Will O' the Wisp, plus theoretically apocalyptic songs somewhere in the general vicinity of Alice In Chains/Queensryche/Soundgarden/'90s Metallica/Use Your Illusion/Buckcherry. Not sure yet if any of them are remotely worth a shit, but at least the concept seems boderline audacious on paper.

Still didn't get even halfway through the new Lady Antebellum album.

Another constipated and leaden new country-goes-off-the-grunge-deep-end record: 7DayBinge, Muzik Mafioso Jon Nicholson's eight-songer (last song 10+ minutes long, and most others in the four-to-five-minute range, so an album not an EP) with assorted Twisted Brown Trucker (a/k/a Kid Rock's backing band) and 3 Doors Down dorks. Maybe a little rustic blues rock in something like "I'm No Good" or "Cold Dark Grave," but mostly it sounds like bad Nickelback (or Creed, or whatever) to me.

Stephen King as a radio announcer calling himself Will O' the Wisp, plus theoretically apocalyptic songs

End of the world/apocalypse stuff is the new emo mall punk. One new movie a week now, sometimes more on apocalypse, particularly if you get extended cable.

In the meantime, we'll always have Haiti.

End of the world/apocalypse stuff is the new emo mall punk.

Yeah, the new Ray Wylie Hubbard LP (which has been getting lots of press around these parts, and which I actually like, though it sure does plod a lot) definitely fits in the 2010 doomsday country category, too. Probably also the Legendary Shack Shakers' Agridustrial, due out c. Income Tax Day, which I've been liking even more even though Hubbard's abum is probably more immediately comprehensible, vocal/song-wise. Shack Shakers have more energy, more humor, more hooks, probably more variety. Both have some tough blues riffs and touches of gospel.

Good time for me to mention Shooter's excellent duet with Ike Reilly on the latter's Hard Luck Stories (digitally 2009, "real" disc 2010, has a shot at being my favorite album of two straight years). Song is a funny country blues song about the awesomeness of smalltown girls with daddy issues, until it takes a characteristic Ike turn into lyricism. Shooter ain't got no voice at all but he can sing all right.

Ray Wylie Hubbard album gets especially doomsday-dirgy toward its tail-end (titles "Every Day Is The Day Of The Dead"/"Opium"/"The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse" an obvious clue -- more or less metal, delta blues, and Celtic sluggish drones respectively.), and I actually like those, so far, more than most of the other trudging before them. Favorite track so far though is probably the relatively upbeat (well, at least midtempo) "Drunken Poet's Dream," which talks about mescaline, gasoline, naked women, and Judgement Day (and which I just realized was also the lead cut on the last Hayes Carll CD, where both Texans got co-writes). Also liking "Loose," which notably rhymes with Bruce, though I haven't decided yet if it's trying to sound like early or recent Bruce.

Well, this thread was cooking. Where'd everybody go?

Anyway, finally made it through the new Lady Antebellum -- albeit in the background, while reading the morning papers. Not sure what it will take for me to determine whether there's another ballad anywhere near the level of "Need You Now", which I'm ashamed to say made me shrug in the first place itself. Ballads often aren't immediate impact for me. Right now I'd say the closer, "Ready To Love Again," has the best shot, but that's just a wild guess, and overall I'd say the boring-ballad ratio here is even higher than on, uh, the new Vampire Weekend album (which still has nothing nearly as great as "Need You Now" fwiw.) Second favorite song on Need You Now so far would be "Stars Tonight," an insistent two-chord pop-rocker about joining a rock band because rock people dress really cool. At least, that's what I think it's about. "Perfect Day" has a bit of bounce to it, too. But mostly the album's making me shrug (and I liked their first one, by the way. Liked Vampire Weekend's first one too, but liked Antebellum's more.)

Best country album I've heard in the past couple months, maybe in the past couple years, heck maybe ever almost, is a 20-song 1981 Warner Special Products vinyl mailaway compilation called Motels And Memories that I got for a $1 in San Marcos last month. All cheating songs, only a few I was familiar with before (John Anderson "She Just Started Liking Cheating Songs," John Conlee "Friday Night Blues," Gary Stewart "She's Acting Single [I'm Drinkin' Doubles]," Barbara Mandrell's "Married But Not To Each Other" which is basically an r&b song I swear, maybe Crystal Gayle "Talking In Your Sleep" which I really love), and a lot by artists I've barely ever listened to before, often to my shame (Conway Twitty, Stella Parton, Vern Gosdin, Jeanne Pruitt, Earl Thomas Conley, Carmoll Taylor, Bill Anderson, Margo Smith, Mel Street, etc.) Tails off slightly toward the very end, maybe, but still makes me wonder why, if cheating (and even more, being cheated on) was such a major obsession of country singers for so long, when and why did that change? Or did it? Only really great one I can think of in the past year would be "Even Now" by Caitlin & Will (cheating both ways), and that didn't hit big at all. Probably there's some I'm not thinking of. Anyway, did the moral majority's influence over country ensure at some point that songwriters would stop dealing with the topic? Or were the '70s really just one big Ice Storm key party? Or what? (Also been listening to Billie Jo Spears' 1975 Blanket On The Ground, another $1 find, which just strikes me as way more sexy than country nowadays, even though Paisley also sang about doing it outside in "Ticks" couple years back I guess. Getting the idea country lost something along the way, and maybe it's worth talking about here.)

And oh yeah, played the Mavericks' 1999 CD Super Collosal Smash Hits Of The '90s: The Best Of The Mavericks yesterday, and can I just say that, despite the frequent warm mariachi lilts and Raul Malo's equally warm and very smooth singing, those guys were kinda booooring. Lacking almost any memorable songs probably had something to do with it.

And remembered yet another '90s country star with a seemingly good best-of on my shelf, which might have had good '90s albums I've never heard backing it up: Pam Tillis (Greatest Hits, Arista 1997.)

The track listing on that Mavericks comp looks boring but they weren't quite that boring; "Pretend" off What a Crying Shame is a pretty memorable honky-tonk with Latin-flavored vocals as their hype promised (but often did not deliver; "Dance the Night Away" a nice exception); and their cover of "All That Heaven Will Allow" is excellent and better than the already great original. So all in all, a very minor band but you could make a better comp than the one you got.

Played the new Easton Corbin (his debut) and Gary Allan albums. The Corbin was pleasant at best; nothing really jumped out at me. But I'm liking at least four songs on the Allan -- masochism metaphor "Get Off On The Pain" and "That Ain't Gonna Fly" for their toughness; "We Fly By Night" and mercy fuck/breakup sex number "Kiss Me When I'm Down" for the specificity of their lyrics. Like this line in the latter, listing stuff she left behind at his place when she dumped him: "A stack of mail/a tube of toothpaste/An empty Zeppelin III CD case."

x-post. Yea, I think there are some memorable Mavericks songs and would not dismiss the group. I never saw them live, but I saw Raul Malo solo and with a band live several times and recall some of the Mavericks songs working. Xhuck, he's got quite a voice as you acknowledge. For some fans that's enough (also noticed that women were especially charmed by him live).

Regarding cheating songs, that's interesting that country has largely abandoned them (if that's true). They still dominate Southern (Chitlin Circuit) soul to the point that they are formulaic and predictable and I am sick of them. Actually I never liked that lyrical theme much to begin with.

Surely "White Liar" is a cheating song, and quite good. Not definite on what counts as a cheating song; is it only a cheating song when the protagonist cheats (which might disqualify great tracks about a lover's cheating like John Conlee's "She Can't Say That Anymore," since it seems to be through the guy's eyes, but is really about the gal)? In any event, Taylor Swift's "Should've Said No" is about not forgiving a cheater, and if you take account of the video, so is "White Horse." Doesn't Gretchen Wilson have a few? (Well, maybe I'm thinking of the one on the Barbara Mandrell tribute album, which would only confirm your point.) From a few years ago we've got Toby's excellent "Stays In Mexico" and Lee Ann Womack's excellent "There's More Where That Came From."

Yeah, "Stays In Mexico" occurred to me, and most of those others make sense -- duh. Not sure why it seems like there's fewer now; maybe just because I don't have them all compiled in one place. (Most obvious one we haven't mentioned: Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats"! So yeah, cheated-on songs, as I suggested above, definitely count; "She Can't Say That Anymore" is even more blatant about that than "Friday Night Blues," which only implies Conlee's a cuckold but was included on that cheating song compilation regardless.)

Of the songs I listed above, maybe most of them -- definitely "She Just Started Liking Cheating Songs and "She's Acting Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)" -- obviously revolve around the protagonist's spouse cheating.

Xhuxk you know how much I love Gary Allan. Can't wait to hear it...although no chance I'm gonna get a promo, I'm deader in Nashville than Charlie Robison or Robbie Fulks.

Miranda Lambert & Brad Paisley place in Top 40 in 2009 Pazz & Jop.

http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/

Lots of country in Jane Dark's top 25 singles of 2009:

http://janedark.com/2010/01/top_25_songs_of_2009_in_a_sing.html

Sarah Buxton to open for Martina McBride and Trace Adkins on the Shine All Night tour, so possibly she won't disappear commercially in the way that Ashley Monroe disappeared.

I bumped into a few interesting websites and thought I'd share the links.

This guy comes to country from an alt perspective, but he's clearly got a lot of curiosity about Nashville proper. Impossible to search but fun to browse, with tons of album reviews from all eras of country.

http://www.slipcue.com/music/country/countryindex.html

This one's got to be the definitive David Allan Coe review page.

http://www.roctober.com/roctober/greatness/coe.html

Just heard "Ala Freakin Bama"

Wow.

They call it the crimson tide!

Hey everyone. Just catching up with this thread. RE the Brad Paisley discussion above from a few weeks back, some of which mentioned me explicitly: it's possible to love Paisley (and Taylor and Miranda and Jamey Johnson and other critical darlings) *and* to love country that's not on the mainstream rock-crit radar. Not all Paisley lovers are by definition idiot arrivistes. The know-it-all territorialism around country that rears its head on ILX and elsewhere is embarrassing. There are certain critics who want own the genre, and reflexively lash out at anyone who dares venture on their "turf." Sorry--you have to share.

Also, for the record: I do love "Then," but it's not my favorite song on ASN. (That'd be "Anything Like Me." I'm soft like that.) "Then" is my favorite of the singles released so far.

That said: I love the country talk on ILX generally. I come here every once in a while just to read and always learn a lot. FWIW totally co-sign on "The Truth" and I think the new Gary Allan is a grower. All his records have taken a while to open up for me...

Hey Jody, great to see you here. And point well taken on the guarding country-critic turf issue, though I'm fairly sure you overstate the extent to which it occurs here -- Only once, to my knowledge, by me, and I was pretty self-critical about it, to wit: "...increasingly 'the country singer it's okay for critics to like.' Honestly, that's a good reason to be skeptical...Not sure why it bugs me, except that there are country artists this decade who I've liked more. (Probably just a kneejerk reflex, part of my chemical makeup from way way back.)"

That said, I've been surprising myself this week by liking "Why Don't We Just Dance" by Josh Turner, who've I never particularly cared about before. Starting to understand, a little, why people might consider his deep voice so sexy. Guess I should listen to the rest of the album...

Also, Lady Antebellum's new album is growing on me. At least a little.

Also kind of like "Hillbilly Bone" by Blake Shelton feat. Trace Adkins, not so much for the song itself, which is neglible as far as I can tell, as for the playing behind the guys, which has to rank among the funkier and more convicing Skynyrd approximations to have hit country radio. (Which means Ricky Skaggs, who believes everything on country radio sounds like "Sweet Home Alabama", probably hates it. Meant to mention up above, though, that probably my favorite Ricky Skaggs song -- "Heartbroke," from 1982 -- has what's sure always sounded to me like a Motown bassline. So again, he hasn't always been the purist he presents himself as.) (Also like that song's high multisyllabic-word quotient. Only competition for favorite Skaggs song, "Highway 40 Blues," came from the same album. But it's not like I've really kept up with him.)

Funny thing, Chuck: I reviewed the Lady Antebellum record and was pretty hard on them...and now I feel a little cruddy about it. They can write tunes, and the new album is definitely better than the last. I saw them play last year, though, and they really bored me silly. I'll take Little Big Town.

Regarding Josh Turner, I've always *loved* his voice, but I wish he had more good material -- more songs as good as "Your Man." Maybe the new album will be decent? What do you think of Chris Young? He's got that nice basso profundo too, and I've liked several of his songs a lot.

Only Chris Young song I've remotely cared about is "I'm Headed Your Way Jose'" from his debut (a more explicit pro-immigration song than "American Saturday Night" if you ask me), but then again, the debut is the only album I've ever played by him all the way through.

Just played Turner's new one all the way through, and he's definitely going for smoldering beefcake romance -- almost all love and lust songs, like the last Keith Urban album. Sounded okay, some of it maybe better than okay, but yeah -- not sure how great the material is. Only song that really jumped out as me like the single did is "Your Smile," which has some real warm Hoagy Carmichael Mint Julep jazz to it (maybe somewhere between what Alan Jackson was doing on Like Red On A Rose a couple years ago, and what Toby Keith was doing on White Tra$h With Money, kind of), complete with a nice sunny-afternoon whistling break. And "Lovin' You On My Mind" seems a decent quiet-storm makeout session. Last song, "Answer," is gratuitous put-your-faith-in-Jesus bullshit; when did the tradition of country albums ending with Jesus start, anyway? I've noticed that a few times, the last few years.

I almost definitely don't like the new Lady Antebellum album as much as the first one -- as I said above, too many ballads (see also: Vampire Weekend.) But then, I don't know anybody else who liked the first one as much as I did. And right, they're not near Little Big Town's level.

Turner album also has an at least fair-to-middling, maybe better, just-got-paid number, in "Friday Paycheck," complete with the take-this-job-and-shove-it references its title would lead you to expect. (I didn't like "Your Man" when it was a hit, btw, though I may have underrated it. I remember Anthony Easton being a big Turner supporter around here.)

One song from last year in that jazz vein you were talking about is Joe Nichols' "This Bed's Too Big", one of the few songs I really liked on his most recent album.

Interesting Chris Young and Josh Turner were mentioned together - That Turner song about dancing sort of reminds me of Young's song about getting dressed up mostly to get undressed, "Getting You Home", which is one of the only songs I really remember from his album last year, which overall was decent but didn't make that strong of an impression, though there is something I like about his singing.

I somewhat facetiously raised the idea of C.B. Radio songs on last year's Rolling Country thread, halfway figuring -- without much evidence -- that they might've been a breif fad in the late '70s:

Rolling Country 2009 Thread

Well, now I have evidence -- A compilation, released on Realistic Records and sold exclusively through Radio Shack according to its cover, called All Ears: 10 New And Original Songs With a CB Theme; found it for $2 (a real splurge for me!) at a vintage store in Houston last month. No copyright year anywhere on the cover, but I assume not long post-"Convoy" (which topped the pop chart in early 1976). Best cuts, like "Convoy," are basically talking blues: "The Handles Hall of Fame" by Johnny Hemphill (a list of creative nicknames that makes me think of the one in Kool Moe Dee's "Wild West West") and "Listenin' CB Blues" by Mac Wiseman (about trying to get used to all this newfangled technology.) "Everybody's Somebody (in Our CB World)" by Ed Bernet is the most American songpoem like in its cluelessness, but also the post proto-Internet in concept -- namely, the idea that, no matter how you look or whether you're a young girl or an old man, you can create a persona and make friends to talk to via the network. "L.J.'s CB Radio" by Oscar Rey is a cornball Hee Haw standup comedy routine; "The Night I Talked To The Lord" (...on my CB Radio) has the same concept as Carrie Underwood's "Jesus Take the Wheel," seeing how God saves the driver from a devastating crash. Other songs show an obvious Ray Stevens and David Seville influence, and a recurring theme is trying to make sense of all this brand new slang. Most of it is pretty bad, I guess, but I'm still really glad to own it.

Also definitely not hating, if not quite know if I'm liking enough to keep yet, two new folk albums: Ike Reilly's Hard Luck Stories (verbosity in an early Dylan/early Springsteen style, definitely witty but so far too plain and detached to really grab me -- Cibula's a big fan) and Sparrow and the Workshop's In The Wild (Chicago girl whose voice triangulates somewhere between Janis Joplin, Kate Bush, and Polly Harvey leading an I guess post-post-post-Fairport Convention folk band from Glasgow -- 25-minute EP/mini-LP, the brevity of which helps, but I don't know whether any individual songs will sink in beyond the likably lush and dusky drone -- actually came out last July, as far as I can tell from the web, but only just showed up in my mail this week.)

If somebody can sell me on Sparrow And The Workshop, especially, please do so. I want to like them. Here's a link to their Myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/sparrowandtheworkshop

Aw man, no love for the Ike Reilly/Shooter Jennings duet?

Laff riot FRONTPAGE story in the LA Times today by Geoff Boucher on ... wait for it ... how rock bands don't get in the charts or get to do the major label album thing as in days of yore. Focus on some marginal indie band playing the Troubador called The Afternoons.

Earth to Geoff Boucher and the LA Times, all d' rock bands like you talk about went to de Nashville where they're doin' just fine, K? THX. Jason Aldean sells more, rocks harder, than The Afternoons.

Who the fuck are The Afternoons, anyway?

"The Afternoons have also sought out public radio ... "

Brilliancy prize subhed: Rock is a hard place

Flea interviewed for bits of received wisdom. "It ain't like it used to be in the ol' days when I ... "