Rolling Country 2010

As far as older Country goes, does anyone know anything about a guy named Lee Clayton? Looks like he played w/ a lot of the Highwaymen and wrote one of my absolute favorite tunes "If You Could Touch Her At All" which was done by both Willie and Waylon. Allmusic says he put out a couple of albums in the early 70's, but all I can find on Youtube are these kind of terrible sounding Dylan ripoffs. Did he do any straight up country albums?

Wright is the first major country artist ever to come out.
What, k.d. lang doesn't count? Though I have no idea when her coming-out happened in relation to her temporary country stardom. Or maybe she doesn't count as "major," though it's not like Chely Wright has had a ton of huge hits herself.

or what about kristen hall, founding member of sugarland? not sure if she ever specifically came out inasmuch as i'm not sure she ever was in the closet in the first place. but does she count?

I just now posted on the comment thread to those Jukebox reviews that Chuck linked of Mallary Hope's "Blossom In The Dust" (which I don't like as much as Martina McBride's "Wild Rebel Rose," speaking of Rose's in the dust). I basically agree with Jonathan Bogart's and Michaelangelo's social critique of the song, it just doesn't make me dislike the song in the way it made them.

Jonathan elaborates on his thoughts over on his Tumblr - says his first impulse had been to give the song a 10.

I rather like it tho' it starts out so much like Fifteen I'm still often confused when it plays.

I still love it, despite almost as many reservations as anybody else. Just added a comment to that thread.

Jon Caramanica on Chely Wright, Mindy McCready, and moonlighting Dixie Chicks the Court Yard Hounds, and what they're all up against:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/arts/music/06country.html

Hi Mordy!

er, you belong to me, not fifteen.

Via email:

KE$HA ANNOUNCES NASHVILLE FLOOD BENEFIT CONCERT ON JUNE 16TH
( New York - NY) - Global pop superstar singer/songwriter and Nashville native and resident Ke$ha has announced a flood benefit concert on June 16th at Limelight in Nashville , which is located at 201 Woodland Street . Tickets go on sale on May 6th at 5pm CST and are available starting at $30 at http://bit.ly/Kesha4Nashville.
Says Ke$ha, “I'm thrilled to announce that I will be playing a show to help benefit Nashville , my hometown. 100% of the profits from ticket sales will go to help the victims of these devastating floods. Nashville helped shape me as an artist and as a person and my love for this city is beyond words. I will continue to do anything I can to help rebuild this city and support the families and animals who have been affected by this tragedy."

I keep forgetting that Ke$ha's from there. Could well bode well for the future of country music. A duet with Colt Ford would be cool. (He's apparently a big fan of his daughter's Lady Gaga album.)

By the way, to answer Moreno's question above, I don't think I've ever heard Lee Clayton. He apparently never put an album on the country chart, and is mentioned only once in Bob Allen's Recorded Country Music, as having written a song (unnamed in the book) for Jerry Jeff Walker. You've apparently checked AMG; I haven't, but I do have the AMG Country print edition, and the entry for him in there seems to suggest that his 1978 album Border Country is more country, less rock than '79's Naked Child. Not sure whether that corresponds with what AMG now has on line or not, though I'm guessing it does. (Also says his most famous song was "Ladies Love Outlaws," for Waylon.)

Haven't mentioned that I've been sort obsessed with C.W. McCall lately, especially now that Colt Ford covered "Convoy." Have a Greatest Hits LP, plus Wilderness from '76, the latter of which went to #9 on the country chart, with two Top 40 country singles ("Crispy Critters" about a town taken over by hippies who look like shaggy dogs and the narrator can't stand #32, "There Won't Be No Country Music {There Won't Be No Rock'n'Roll}" about a country destroyed by polluting corporations #19) even though almost nothing on the album was actually sung -- almost all talk-rhymed like "Convoy" was, though there are movie-music jig instrumentals ("Telluride Breakdown"), a very rap-like but brief 35-second poem about McCall's cat done only to Jews Harp accompaniment ("Roy"), Dylan-like talking blues done in a blackface voice ("Silver Iodine Blues," about fake snow), and enough string bombast for a Meat Loaf LP. Almost all the songs, as the title suggests, are about being in the backwoods, specifically the snowy northern prairie west (also songs called "Jackson Hole," which I like a lot, and "Columbine" {!!} in addition to the Telluride one -- btw, I also like James Wesley's different, currently chart-climbing country ballad "Jackson Hole," about being stood up at a ski resort in the dead of winter.) "Riverside Slide" is another good, gruff one. Makes me wonder whether more "Western" country hit in the '70s, also to what extent ecology was a popular country song subject at the time (John Denver scored on both counts, right? Never liked him much myself); also whether McCall was the most consistently rappy country star ever -- Charlie Daniels talked a lot too, obviously, and there must be other guys I'm not thinking of.

Joel Whitburn: "Born William Fries on 11/15/28. The character 'C.W. McCall' was created for the Mertz Bread Company. Fries was an advertising man. Elected mayor of Ouray, Colorado in the early '80s." In "Crispy Critters," fwiw, "the mayor was a space cadet." Interesting that McCall hated (or pretended to hate?) hippies so much when I always had the idea hippies were at the forefront of the '70s environment movement that McCall clearly latches onto. (John Denver must have had a certain post-hippie following to some extent, right?) Though more likely, especially given the "long-haired friends of Jesus in the chartreuse microbus" in "Convoy," McCall just thought they were funny.

Uh, "backwoods" might be wrong -- maybe I just mean "mountains"? (Upper prairie west is one of the parts of the country that I've barely set foot in, so I obviously have no idea what I'm talking about. My wife said Jackson Hole, Wyoming's the coldest place she's ever been, though.)

And Jerry Reed was definitely another guy who may have talk-rhymed as often as he sang (though I'd guess his balance wasn't tipped as overwhelmingly toward the former as McCall's was.) Commander Cody too, maybe? And obviously they're all part of country tradition that dates back at least to the white country blues of the late '20s/early '30s.

And lots of trucker songs are part of that tradition too, obviously. (I've never heard much Red Sovine -- get the idea he might have talked a lot, too.) AMG seems to suggest that trucker songs are mostly what C.W. McCall did, and there are a few on the albums I have, but I wouldn't say they're the main thing. (Have never heard '75's Wolf Creek Pass, which has "Old Folk Home Filler-Up An' Keep On Truckin' Cafe," which he apparently wrote for the bread company and won a Clio Award with, or '76's Black Bear Road, which has "Convoy.") AMG also says McCall had a fine arts bachelor's degree from University of Iowa, and was a graphic designer who worked as art director for an Omaha ad agency in the early '60s -- so basically, he was a Mad Man, albeit not on Madison Ave. And not surprisingly, the environment was his pet issue when he when he went into small-town Colorado politics.

And btw, also checked out "Here Comes Summer" by LoCash Cowboys (which entered the country chart at #60 last week) a couple days ago; seemed passable, just your usual innocuous and forgettable forced fun, but they looked like they might potentially be interesting, if only because they (they'e a duo) dress pretty goofy (maybe supposed to look like "party guys" or something? hard to tell -- lots of rips in their jeans and weird headwear) and they claim to be influenced in part by Justin Timberlake and '80s r&b as well as c&w; album (not yet out I don't think) is said to have touches of country rap. Of course, all of that stuff could also add up to horribleness; time will tell, I guess.

Uh, "backwoods" might be wrong -- maybe I just mean "mountains"? (Upper prairie west is one of the parts of the country that I've barely set foot in, so I obviously have no idea what I'm talking about. My wife said Jackson Hole, Wyoming's the coldest place she's ever been, though.)

Well, I'd think "upper prairie west" would be defined by the absence of both woods and mountains (with not much in the way of hills, either), though often you'll get some mountains in the background, in case you're wondering what way west is and the sky is overcast so you can't judge by the sun (though allegedly the skies are not cloudy all day, so this may not be a problem).

Oops, good point. I think I meant "Prairie" as a region, or even a time zone, though, not a terrain feature. Which might not make sense, since the time zone is Mountain Standard Time, not Prairie Central Time, but whatever. (McCall doesn't actually use the word himself, I don't think. Definitely seems to spend a good deal of time in high elevations.)

Is it worth spending the eight bucks on the new Hag album? I just heard the title tune on YouTube and it's ehhh.

I need to listen to it again, so take this with a grain of salt, but his voice bothered me on the new one. He sounds like he's been screaming at a football game and has lost both ends of his range. Listening actually caused me some psychosomatic discomfort in my own throat. So if you value his mellifluous sonorities above all, you might be disappointed. Tunes seemed pretty solid, though--like I said, I need to listen again.

And weirdly enough, this scratchy, compressed-range quality has never bothered me with recent Dylan, maybe because I don't have the same expectations with him. And incidentally, Ke$ha says in Rolling Stone that "Nashville Skyline" is her favorite album OF ALL TIME.

Weirdly (and I posted a link to my emusic review on this thread within the past couple weeks), Haggard's newly haggard voice didn't really bother me much, though I tend to find, say, recent Dylan extremely hard to listen to and recent Randy Newman unbearable. I like the album, and like its title track. Wouldn't call it my favorite country album of the year anymore, but it's up in the top four or five at least. But Alfred asked whether it's worth paying $8 for, and truth is I can't remember the last time I paid that much for any album. So I'm probably not the one to ask. At any rate, I'd rank it below Hag's Like Never Before from 2003, but not necessarily below If I Could Only Fly from 2000, which lots of people loved, but I never thought was so amazing beyond "Wishing All These Old Things Were New." Does that help?

The new country album I've been loving this week is Well After Awhile by Shinyribs, the alias of Kevin Russell, who is apparently in the Gourds, who oddly enough never did a thing for me (though I probably only tried a couple of their albums, maybe not the right ones.) At any rate, here he's doing a very funky Leon Russell/Dr. John kinda country soul thing, ten mostly smart songs that stick with me -- my favorites so far being "Country Cool" and "Poor People's Store." Also does okay by a cover of "Change Is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke at album's end Based in Austin; I should probably catch him live sometime. His MySpace:

http://www.myspace.com/shinyribs

Also, three newly charting songs maybe worth investigating:

56 59 2 While You're Still Young, Montgomery Gentry
M.Knox (J.Collins,T.Martin,W.Mobley )
Columbia PROMO SINGLE | 56
57 1 Summer Thing, Troy Olsen
T.Olsen (T.Olsen,B.Hayslip,J.Yeary )
EMI Nashville PROMO SINGLE | 57
58 NEW 1 Wildflower, The JaneDear Girls
J.Rich (S.Brown,V.McGehe,J.S.Stover )
Reprise PROMO SINGLE | WMN | 58

Saw the Felice Brothers this weekend and really enjoyed it. Never got into their albums much, but they bring it for the live show. They've got a fiddle/washboard player and a guy on the keyboard and accordian so I feel safe posting this on a Country thread... though they seem closer to Dylan w/ the Band Basement Tapes era. They bring a nice drunken, punk enthusiasm to the songs live that doesn't translate as well on their albums.

Thanks for the response re: Lee Clayton xhuxk. Gonna keep my eyes out for Boarder Country.

Over on poptimists, Mark Sinker asks us which musiccrit-type writers we'd point an intelligent outsider towards. So far I'm the only one who's answered, so you guys might want to add some pointers. Also has a question about music movies, which some people did join me in answering. This Is Spinal Tap seems to be a favorite.

By the way, has anyone heard from Edd? Wondering if the flooding had any impact on him. (I have no idea if he lives near to or far from the water.)

I didn't care much for If I Could Only Fly either (I'll add "Bareback" to the keeper pile, along with "Wishing All These Old Things Were New." But as of yesterday morning I found on used copies of the new one. Thanks, guys.

Re: Merle Haggard's new one. I find it really enjoyable, though at first I was itching to file it in that johnny cash template of aging country singer sings about mortality. Difference is probably that he's still writing solid songs, and his singing is relaxed in a way I enjoy, not overly serious. Still don't love the album as a whole but I do enjoy it.

Actually, here's the piece I wrote about it, for what it's worth - http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/123964-merle-haggard-i-am-what-i-am

And if I'm posting links to my own stuff I figure I'll mention I've starting trading off months with another writer on a country-music column for popmatters. I wrote two so far, one on Toby Keith (on the idea of his 'arrogance' and the way it works within his music) and one that went up today about Taylor Swift, sort of stemming from seeing her live last month, and using that as a jumping off point to write about all sorts of things.

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/column/121185-the-arrogance-of-toby-keith/
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/column/124985-things-will-change-what-taylor-swift-represents

Nice job, Dave!

I think some of us on a previous year's RC thread agreed that Merle's usually good on every other album, and I don't remember the one just before this, so dunno what to expect (except even approving reviews make it seem pretty run of the mill).Nobody hates it, apparently which might or might not be a good sign (might be just okay for apathetic acceptance, like a lotta) But I'm sure I'll check it out. Meanwhile, somebody enjoyed a Felice Bros show upthread, and here's a a preview I recently wrote, that might indicate some of their appeal (mad telegraphy, but mad word limit too)

The Felice Brothers
Wednesday @ Rumba Café

On Yonder Is the Clock and Mix Tape, the young Felice Brothers follow Dylan and the Band's rural Basement Tapes quest in reverse, back to the city of dinosaur dreams. Echoing through subway hayrides, they cheer trains bound for Heaven and everywhere else, while moodily and shamelessly waltzing around the "Ambulance Man." He's patient, but the Felice Brothers know he doesn't have all day. Equally vivid is "Boy From Lawrence County," whom they know they could track (if they knew you'd pay), because "He's a friend of mine."

From the same column, a Canadian folkie with some coutry appeal, especially in her best material (Also, was Alanis's pre-debut-album voice teacher)

Lynn Miles was recently spotted on YouTube, leafing through lyrics that list all the things she's tired of, ending with "singer/songwriters." Ho-ho, she knows she's in that game for life, as her steady voice gets deeper and darker, especially on full-bodied, country-tinged coffin-thumpers like "I Give Up." On Live at the Chapel, Miles shifts into bruised cruise control for "Night Drive" and "You Don't Love Me Anymore," a wised-up kissin' cousin to the Eagles' best ballads. Meanwhile, "Black Flowers" bloom so beautifully, as coal dust settles on their petals.

Welcome back into the fold, Don! (Now if only somebody could corral Edd.) And Dave, thanks for linking to those posts; they're really good!

Mentioned Jason Boland and the Stragglers' live High In The Rockies on here last week; very useful document by a tireless Texas road band, recorded in the uh, upper mountain west (Colorado and Wyoming) in January. Fell for their "Comal County Blue," about driving into Austin's night to get away from the rural hardscrabble life, in its studio version on the radio here last year. And for almost the first half of the live album, nothing else much comes close to it -- decent sour-grapes opener about how Hank wouldn't be a star in cookie-cutter Nashville now, cover of Don Williams/Clapton's "Tulsa Time," pretty good rejoinder to a girl with her head in the clouds in "Down Here On Earth," alcoholic song Jamey Johnson could cover called "Bottle By My Bed," all likeable but surrounded by fairly pro-forma stuff. But track 11, cover of a great Tom Russell bordertown rooster-fighting song called "Gallo Del Cielo" I'd never heard of before (in fact, I've barely heard Russell period), things finally kick into gear, and for the next three songs you can really tell you're hearing a working band: tornado-attacking-yokels number called "Blowing Through The Hills" that I could imagine the Legendary Shack Shakers doing except Boland can sing and they can't, "Time In Hell" about soldiers overseas waiting to come home, weird existential country thing called "Jesus And Ruger" that says napalm and Islam mean something to somebody. Boland and the band more or less keep it up for the rest of the album, too; they cover Merle's "Rainbow Stew" and end with a jamming "Outlaw Band," cool. Anyway, here are a couple links, for anybody who might be interested:

http://www.myspace.com/jasonbolandthestragglers

http://www.thestragglers.com/

I've also been getting re-obsessed with current Southern Soul these past couple days, including a Mississippi guy named Luther Lackey who's definitely got some country in his sound. Been binging on what I can hear at Rhapsody. And I talk about it a lot, starting right about here:

Chitlin Circuit Double-entendre -filled Soul 2004 (and onward) Theodis Ealey's "Stand Up In It" is a song of the year

Thanks for the kind words on my articles, I appreciate that. Re: Tom Russell's "Gallo del Cielo" - I'm a big fan of Joe Ely's version of that song, on his Letter to Laredo album (his tex-mex, border-themed album). I like how he sings it better than Russell, though really it's the writing, the story-telling, that makes the song. I'll have to check out the Boland version.

Huh, wasn't aware Ely had done the song; I should check that out. Pretty much stopped paying attention to him after the mid '80s, though I liked last year's Flatlanders album okay, and I posted this about 1984's much-maligned techno-rock move Hi Res a couple months ago:

(vintage) country-disco

Also doesn't surprise me that Ely would sing it better than Russell, going by what little I've heard by Tom (which was, like, one or two albums a long time ago.) He basically has no singing voice at all, right? Which is a shame, because as I recall, he can really write songs.

Anyway, here's me stretching out a little re: Colt Ford, in this week's Voice:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-05-11/music/colt-ford-renaissance-man/

And (scroll down) Caramanica on Colt Ford in the NYT a couple days ago. (I knew the “Heeeeyyyyy, we want some countryyyyyy!” chant came from somewhere, but couldn't place it; Jon says it's from 2 Live Crew):

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/arts/music/09play.html

Chuck, don't tell me you're unfamiliar with 2Live's HEYYYYYY WE WANT SOME PUUUUSSSSYYYYY"?

I am! But like I said, I just couldn't place it. (I don't have any 2 Live Crew LPs, though "Banned In The U.S.A." did stupidly make my Pazz & Jop singles list the year it came out. Assume their earlier stuff -- most likely, their earliest stuff -- was a lot better though.)

Also, me stretching out re: Chely Wright, on the Rhapsody blog:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2010/05/chely-wright-comes-out-fighting.html

And finally, a short review of Elizabeth Cook's new album (which grew on me -- too long, and only one great song, but plenty of good ones):

http://www.rhapsody.com/elizabeth-cook/welder

Did you like [i]Balls[i]? I did. (That's a Cook album yall, in case the italics don't kick in.) Good to know Jason Boland and the Stragglers have a new live album. I'll have to check that and their [i]Live at Billy Bob's[i] (I covered Gary Stewart and Coe's sets in that series--wonder what Smith's Entertainment Group is issuing these days?) Boland and the Stragglers' Somewhere in the Middle was pretty sassy, despite its title; made my 2004 Nashville Scene Top Ten, if they did one.

Oh boy, it's been a lonng time since I did this; left out the backslash. Must practice some more. nah

He basically has no singing voice at all, right? Which is a shame, because as I recall, he can really write songs.

Yeah Tom Russell's not much of a singer, at all. Can be a really interesting songwriter, at least judging by a 2-disc career overview that I wrote something about a year or two ago, plus a couple of his albums I've heard here and there.

Did you like *Balls*? I did. (That's a Cook album yall

Nope, I could never really get into her before, though I've always thought she had potential, as these previous years' posts demonstrate:

Rolling country 2007 thread

Rolling country 2007 thread

Rolling Country 2006 Thread

Though your and Edd's posts about her on those threads definitely suggest you guys were hearing something I wasn't.

Had never heard a Boland album before his new live one.

Posted this in the Hag thread:

Continuing my wade through his catalogue I got the 1999 remastered version of Big City. It's got the title track and "My Favorite Memory," plus you may know Rosanne Cash and George Jones' versions of "You Don't Have Very Far To Go" and George Jones' "I Always Get Lucky With You," respectively. The singing and playing are top-notch, and they do wonders for the reactionary "Are The Good Times Really Over."

And I answered that well, it's not entirely reactionary: "I wish Coke was still cola and a joint was a bad place to be/It was back before Nixon lied to us all on TV." Great song, either way. And my favorite album by him in the past three decades.

New CG, Xgau gives an A to Johnny Cash; B+ to Merle, honorable mentions to Drive-By Truckers, Texas Tornados, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Lyle Lovett, Drakkar Sauna, James Hand, Willie Nelson, Peter Karp & Sue Foley, Easton Corbin, Rev. Horton Heat; duds to Bobby Bare Jr., Blake Shelton.

Yeah, it doesn't sound entirely reactionary because the character sounds genuinely scared about what the future brings (I think "Okie From Muskogee" is a terrific song, btw, and don't have the trouble some critics apparently did at the time with separating Hag from the character -- although who cares if he was the same guy?).

Six listens through Laura Marling's "Rambling Man" and it still sounds like a generic finishing-school Britfolk snoozer, though not bad, and it got high marks and friendly writeups on the Jukebox. Marling's got a good scratch in her voice and better songs than "Rambling Man," and strong good looks. She's three months younger than Taylor Swift and has plenty of potential, though she seems hemmed-in by her style.

"That is a fantastic article. Who is Dave Heaton and how can we rope him into our convos, too?"
--From a comment on my livejournal.

Please come back, people! (Me included.)

52 NEW 1 Pound Sign (#?*!), Kevin Fowler
D.L.Murphy (D.L.Murphy,J.Collins,T.Martin )

Just heard this on the radio, and like it a lot -- punchy popwise country rock novelty song about feeling like shit, probably because he drank too much the night before, except he can't say "shit" on the air so he just lists all the punctuation symbols a la comic book pages.

"That is a fantastic article. Who is Dave Heaton and how can we rope him into our convos, too?"
--From a comment on my livejournal.

Oh wow, nice. I just saw this. Maybe I should figure livejournal out

A couple short reviews I've written in the past couple weeks:

Jace Everett (in the running for my album of the year -- also one of the most rocking albums I've heard this year if you're say a Link Wray fan -- even though it technically apparently first came out last year on an even smaller label; though then again I just heard the due-in-September new Jamey Johnson double CD yesterday, and that will mostly likely give this one a run for the money, at least.) Most garage-punk Everett track is probably "One Of Them," by the way, followed by "Little Black Dress," "What It Is?'," and maybe "Permanent Thing," the latter of which reminds me of the Screaming Blue Messiahs. Least favorite track is "Slip Away," on account of it starting out more like John Mayer than say the Chocolate Watchband or Music Machine, but even that one picks up and gets to soaring after a bit. Anyway, the review:

http://www.rhapsody.com/jace-everett/red-revelations#albumreview

Also, the new (and also good) Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band album:

http://www.rhapsody.com/the-reverend-peytons-big-damn-band/the-wages#albumreview

Some other more or less country-related new albums I've been liking lately, which I may or may get around to talking about in more detail here someday, at least if I'm not the only one posting here again:

John Jackson – Rappahannock Blues (Smithsonian Folkways reissue)
Dierks Bentley – Up On The Ridge (Capitol)
Tim Woods – The Blues Sessions (Earwig)
Stone River Boys – Love On The Dial (Cow Island) *
Intocable – Classic (Sony Music Latin ‘09)
Andy Cohen – Built Right On The Ground (Earwig)

* - New band of Dave Gonzalez, from the Haceinda Brothers

And because I'm such a helpful guy, some Myspace links:

Jace Everett album stream

http://www.myspace.com/jaceeverett/music/albums/red-revelations-15552393

Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band

http://www.myspace.com/therevpeytonsbigdamnband

Stone River Boys

http://www.myspace.com/stoneriverboys

Andy Cohen

http://www.myspace.com/andycohenblues

Not finding one for Tim Woods (who is more a blues-rock guy, actually).

ooohhh i'd love to hear more about this new Jamey Johnson double album.