Rolling Country 2010

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.

Ha, think I'll let it sink in and germinate for a month or two first. Just got mastered, apparently. Sounded amazing on first listen, though -- and I'm somebody who didn't think he could follow up his last one.

Btw, another (non-country) reference point I thought of for some of that Jace Everett album might be, say, if Afghan Whigs or Von Bondies or somebody like that had had less stiff singers and catchier knacks for radio hooks. (Though maybe I just think that because one song is subtitled "C'Mon C'Mon," a la Von Bondies' Rescue Me theme.)

So, Christgau gave Elizabeth Cook's new album an A:

Elizabeth Cook: 'Welder' (31 Tigers)
Grade: A

First you tell me the fourth album by a thick-drawling Opry regular from rural Florida assembles 13 pieces of harmonically received verse- chorus-verse, and then I'll tell you they pack more aesthetic power and sophistication than any college-educated art damagee has scared up in a while. Although it helps that she's a college-educated art damagee herself, it helps even more that her bootlegger-turned- welder dad was in a band with her mom. Cook has been perfecting her craft long enough to recognize that her mama's funeral and her heroin addict sister are the stuff of art--those are both exact titles, but capitals and quotation marks would reduce them to mere songs rather than experiences the non-irony-damaged can share. And she's been living her life long enough that she won't let her suffering, to call it by its rightful name, dampen her appetite for good times. Inspirational Verse: "And if I wake up married I'll have to annul it/Right now my hands are in his mullet."

Agree it's a a good album, though I'd say more in the B+/A- range.

Also gives a Choice Cut ("Ain't No Sun") to Courtyard Hounds, which I haven't heard, and Duds to Lady Antebellum, Shelby Lynne, and Carrie Underwood, none of which I'd recommend myself (actually still holding out on Antebellum -- another real good radio single could finally win it over for me), but none of which I thought were all that awful. (And also, non-countrywise, gives a B+ to Tin Huey and Honorable Mentions to the Fall and This Moment In Black History, all of which I also like.)

I'd say the Lady A record is pretty dud. Great first single, okay second. I can't even remember what the hell else was on it.

So watching the Brooks & Dunn tribute there were the usual karaoke performances and then Sugarland made "Red Dirt Road" sound like a Springsteen song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0L1dtoztQk

I'm new to big contemporary country music acts that aren't Swift/Lambert/Paisley/Jamey/Underwood, and have only heard a few Sugarland singles. What album would you suggest? Interested in hearing that Elizabeth Cook now too, thanks xhuxk.

The first Sugarland album "Twice the Speed of Life" is probably the best, though the other two have some great songs.

Lady A record is pretty dud. Great first single, okay second. I can't even remember what the hell else was on it.

Yeah, me either, to be honest! Not sure why I think some other song might magically hit me at this point. The CD's in a small limbo pile in the closet, with, like, the latest Gil Scott-Heron, Hold Steady, Mindy McCready, Joe Dee Messina albums, maybe a couple other things -- which is to say that I'm fairly convinced it's not good enough to keep, but I'm also worried that, if I get rid of it, two weeks later I'll somehow wish I didn't. Sounds crazy, but I swear that's happened to me before.

As for Sugarland, I might actually like my favorite songs on Love On The Inside more than my favorites on Twice the Speeed Of Life, but yeah, I guess the debut would get the nod overall. (It's definitely the most ethical one, given Kristen Hall still being on it.)

Then again, without doublechecking by playing them back-to-back, I for sure think of the third album as the more adventurous (and more rock-leaning) of those two, even if it's not as consistent. (And it does have "Take Me As I Am," which I'd probably count as their best song.)

So relistening to Need You Now and it's still pretty unremarkable barring the title track and "American Honey," if you want to be generous. "Hello World" has a nice bombast but the line about little white crosses on the front lawn of a church is sort of jarring, and then the song seems to last forever. And then there's a weird Kurtis Blow shoutout in "Perfect Day" that makes me want to like it more than I actually do.

The "Stars Tonight" riff is sort of a muted "Celebrity Skin," and the rest of the song is way too limp for being a We Are An Awesome Rock Band song. I never heard the debut; were those songs all so mid-tempo and drab?

Thanks for the Sugarland recs.

Antebellum debut was a lot catchier (and less downbeat more often) overall, I thought. Definitely liked it more. Here's what I wrote about it at the time, though I probably overplayed the grunge angle a bit:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2008/05/lady-antebellum-helps-country-get-its-grunge-on.html

Speaking of Joe Dee Messina, heard "Bye Bye" (written by Phil Vassar) from 1998 on the radio for the first time in a long long time today, and wow -- forgot what a great pop-rock country song that is. Like, Katrina and the Waves level catchy. (Same album as "I'm Alright"," too -- that was the title track -- another great hit written by Vassar.)

Miranda Lambert's experienced quite a sales spike in the last few weeks, I see (awards, etc).

She's also finally got a #1 song w/ "House That Built Me" (she said her first was "White Liar," but Billboard has that peaking at #2, unless she's talking about some other chart).

I've participated in the last couple of Nashville Scene polls, so I hope it's fair game to jump into the conversation here.

Miranda's "White Liar" hit #1 on the Mediabase chart, which is used for most of the radio countdown shows like American Country Countdown, but not on Billboard. I have no idea why anyone would get caught up in that distinction, but if you're a pyromaniac, you can go to Carrie Underwood's fan forum and ask someone how many #1 hits Underwood has had, and then hold on to your hat.

Singles Jukebox reviews of current singles by...

Josh Turner

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2378

Jason Aldean

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2377

Chris Young

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2379

Lots to say, mostly on some later date maybe, about the CMT Country Video Awards or whatever they're called the other night (actually watched them in a hotel room in San Francisco that had cable!); drunk Kid Rock opening with five or so minutes of hard rock rap was a trip (hey, the song was "Cowboy" -- get it? plus Trace and Bocephus and Martina McBride and Randy Houser helped him out), and seemed to leave almost as many people in the audience confused as when those two stupid "Jersey Shore" kids (who I'd never seen before, and have no interest in seeing again) and Paula Dean (who I'd never even heard of before -- apparently she has a cooking show or something, somebody told me?) came on to present an award. Whole show reminded me how "CMT" is a way different, more wide-rangningly trendy, aesthetic than CMAs or ACMs or whatever; no stodgy old George Straits or Randy Travises hanging around to bore things up, for one thing. But I do think country purists would probably have a point about a lot of the show being aggressively non-country, even if that made it more entertaining, for the most part. Anyway, where that really comes into play for me is that I swear I saw John Anderson on the screen five times at least during the ceremony (including, if I'm not mistaken, playing guitar in the background during LeAnn Rimes's pretty good boogie-woogie-bugle-boy -schticked remake of "Swingin'"), but he was never named -- I think they even just introduced "Swingin'" as an "old country classic" or something like that. There was something really fucked up about that.

"I just recorded a song with Kid Rock for his new album. It seems like an odd pairing, but I love that he sees the real redneck in me," McBride said during Billboard's Country Music Summit this week. "There's a rapper called T.I. who raps the third verse. Kid Rock sings the first verse, I sing the second verse, and T.I. raps the third verse. Crazy, but it's really uplifting and it's a cool melody and it feels good. It makes sense. If I was rapping the third verse, that would not make sense."

http://www.billboard.com/#/news/country-s-martina-mcbride-collaborates-with-1004097478.story

Was flipping channels on Saturday when I went by CMT Top 20 Countdown. Nickelback had something
in it. Can't remember the title, made me laugh, along with Kenny Chesney forsaking his usual summer take on Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville for Jason Aldean's Bad Company imitation in a lighter/higher register. You owe me for that one, Chuck. Actually, I'm giving Chesney too much credit on "Ain't Back Yet," since it's so languid it's almost dead. He makes Bill Shatner/Jim Kirk grimaces and grandiloquent
stage gestures and you keep waiting for the music to kick it up a notch or something like a real thump to creep into it. But it never does. Horns try to add pizzazz, fail. When he sings "I'm gone and I ain't back yet" about one hundred times it's truth in advertising.

Actually, "I was gone and I ain't back yet." Joe Walsh and Sammy Hagar make video appearances.
The Grandpap club, desperate for attention, will get onstage with anyone.

The Chesney single is a complete non-starter. I think it's telling that it's one of just a small handful of singles (just 5 or 6 total, out of more than 20) that he's released since 2000 to miss the top 2 at country radio.

The new Little Big Town album, though? A couple of dud, Starbucksish ballads, including a cover of a song from Julie Roberts' self-titled debut, but most of it is pretty terrific stuff. Granted, it will probably sell a fraction of what the new Lady Antebellum has sold, but it has a much stronger pulse.

Good to hear about LBT. (Though I'm holding out for a physical advance copy before I listen to it, at least for now. Out in September I think.)

The Nickelback song on CMT that George mentioned is presumably "This Afternoon," the relatively (for them) light and bouncy semi-country choogle from their most recent long-shelf-life album. It just entered the Hot 100 this week, I think; mentions CCR and Bob Marley in the lyrics, as I recall. About partying with bros. Haven't seen video yet.

And yep, George definitely deserves credit for my Aldean/Bad Co linkage.

Anyway, a couple reccent reviews. First the new Dierks Bentley, which I didn't expect to like (as I said upthread), but really grew on me:

http://www.rhapsody.com/dierks-bentley/up-on-the-ridge-2#albumreview

Now archived folk bluesman John Jackson, who covers a great country hit:

http://www.rhapsody.com/john-jackson/rappahannock-blues#albumreview

And here's a few hundred words I just did for Rhapsody, on Petty/Mellencamp's influence on current country:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2010/06/heartland.html

The Nickelback song on CMT that George mentioned is presumably "This Afternoon," the relatively (for them) light and bouncy semi-country choogle from their most recent long-shelf-life album.

plus it has a passing resemblance, musically, to kid rock's "all summer long."

best thing about the video, which is basically a pool party stocked w/bikini babes, is that when the kid running the party finds out nickelback will be the entertainment, he says, "nickelback? you got me nickelback??? alright, fine, they'll do." i can't tell if that's nickelback making light of their critical reputation, or if it's them making light of their considerably large egos, or if they're just being silly. either way, it made me smile.

LBT is out on August 24th, so hopefully the physical promo copies will be going out before too long.

The Petty and Mellencamp influences (and I'd probably throw Bob Seger into that conversation, as well) are definitely felt heavily in many of the men in contemporary country, but I don't know if I would necessarily extend that to the likes of Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift or some of the other women (Miranda Lambert, Kellie Pickler) who have some traction at country radio. The Grammy performance with Swift from back in the winter suggests that Stevie Nicks might be the best analogue for the women, but there's also a whole lot of Pat Benetar in Underwood's uptempo numbers and especially in the last Martina McBride album.

Well, like I said, Swift has covered "American Girl," and "Picture To Burn" has early Cougar in its phrasing. And somebody was saying here a couple years ago that they heard Mike Campbell type guitars in the Dixie Chicks' "Voice Inside My Head," and various Kathleen Edwards songs, if she counts. But yeah, I agree that influence is primarily on the country guys. And sure, there are other influences, too, of course -- I just focused on Petty and Coug there because they have, uh, new product on the shelves. I don't doubt Urban and Paisley are also Lindsey Buckingham fans, and obviously Little Big Town are almost a Fleetwood Mac tribute band. (Kid Rock called Lady Antebellum "the country Fleetwood Mac" at the CMTs, which makes less sense.) Not so sure I hear very much Stevie Nicks in country's females voices, though -- maybe occasionally. Occasional Benatar too. Sugarland's "Take Me As I Am" has a lot of Benatar in it, I think. I hear a lot of '80s Heart in Underwood; maybe some Joan Jett, too, which she never quite pulls off.

As for that Nickelback video, which I agree is funny, maybe the point is just that they want to expand their already huge audience to music fans (e.g., country ones) who are now skeptical about them. So self-deprecation could work in their favor. (Btw, I was way off about "This Afternoon" having just entered the Hot 100; it's actually been on that chart for 10 weeks. Entered the Top 40 just two weeks ago, though.)

And as for the country chart, two new songs I should try to hear:

55 1 Trailerhood, Toby Keith
T.Keith (T.Keith ) Show Dog-Universal PROMO SINGLE | 55
58 NEW 1 From A Table Away, Sunny Sweeney
B.Beavers (S.Sweeney,B.DiPiero,K.Rochelle ) Republic Nashville PROMO SINGLE | 58

Most interesting phenomenon on the country album chart might be this, I think -- which seems to have expanded since I first noticed it here a few months ago; wonder if Billboard's done a story on it yet:

26 28 25 15 Hillbilly Bone (EP), Blake Shelton
Reprise/Warner Bros. 522642 | WMN | 8.98 2

56 56 68 53
Off The Hillbilly Hook (EP), Trailer Choir
Show Dog-Universal 025 | 7.98 30

58 RE-ENTRY 2 She Won't Be Lonely Long (EP), Clay Walker
Curb DIGITAL EX | 4.98 58

60 RE-ENTRY 2 Love Like Crazy (EP), Lee Brice
Curb DIGITAL EX | 4.98 56

75 66 74 7 The Band Perry (EP), The Band Perry
Republic Nashville DIGITAL EX | UMGN | 4.98 42

I know Colt Ford had an EP on the chart a month or so ago, too.

Mellencamp's longtime association with FarmAid, which has always drawn some country headliners, makes him a pretty obvious artist to bear influence on the genre. CMT routinely ran the videos for "Jack & Diane," "Paper in Fire," and even "Key West Intermezzo" during their various alternative-country programming blocks during the mid-90s. I can remember Petty turning up alongside Kelly Willis and Kevin Welch during those blocks every once in a while, as well.

The Toby Keith single is streaming here:
mms://wm1.cesca.com/showdog/TobyKeith/Trailerhood.wma

I've found that the execution on his recent output has been lacking, and I don't hear much life in his performance on this one. Though, if nothing else, it's better than the Josh Turner album track of the same name from a couple of years ago.

55 1 Trailerhood, Toby Keith
T.Keith (T.Keith ) Show Dog-Universal PROMO SINGLE | 55

Josh Turner has a song w/ this title on Everything is Fine.

Pat Benetar in Underwood's uptempo numbers and especially in the last Martina McBride album.

Maybe you didn't see it but country on cable had a "Crossroads" broadcast that teamed Benatar and McBride doing each others tunes. During the course of the thing Martina McBride said she'd been in a cover band named Penetrator or Penetration, I can't recall precisely, and they'd performed some of Benatar's tunes. Much hilarity ensued.

Wouldn't say that the Taylor-Stevie connection is influence (at least not in regard to musical specifics such as pronunciation, arrangement, etc.) so much as that Fearless is marinated in a moody femininity that reminds me of Wild Heart-era Stevie* and that Taylor (and Michelle and Jewel, and the Natalie Dixies before that) is heir to a feminine singer-songwriter sensibility that includes Stevie (is much more its heir than Little Big Town is, even though Little Big Town is so obviously indebted to Fleetwood Mac). That's what I argued in my Country Critics ballot, which I posted upthread.

(I forget if I also linked my decade's end piece here, but that includes a variant of this theory, starting about halfway in.)

*Wild Heart contains a Tom Petty song, not that that's particularly relevant to what I'm saying.

Don't have a strong opinion yet on "Trailerhood"'s sound: I like the Hawaiian slide a lot, the rest is deliberately laid back, and maybe my not having an immediate strong opinion on a Toby sound does constitute an opinion, i.e., I'm leaning "so what?" Lyrics make the trailerhood sound a lot narrower and more ingrown than the world of "I Love This Bar."

Jaron and the Long Road To Love, Singles Jukeboxed (and I'm still wondering about the, er, Jewish question that I raise in the comments):

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2426

Also, John Mayer with a smidgen of Taylor Swift:

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2427

Jon Caramanica on Elizabeth Cook, live in NYC's suburbs:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/23/arts/music/23cook.html

...And on the Nashville Rising flood benefit. Is Michael W. Smith always such a Tea Partying asswipe, or was he just having a bad day? (Also, how, quantitatively, does devastation from the Nashville flood compare to Katrina? It's not even close, right?) Also wonder if I'm the only NY Times subscriber who read this piece and knew what by Toby Keith "doing his best Jamey Johnson impersonation," but it made me laugh anyway. Toby looked pretty worn down on the CMT Telecast, I thought, and bored while singing "American Ride"; when asked what he thought of Kid Rock's opening performance, he said he missed it because he was in the bar. (Still haven't checked out his new single myself.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/24/arts/music/24nashville.html

"what was meant by Toby 'doing...." etc. (Actually, I do wonder whether badasses like Toby might think that Jamey is raising the ante for what they should be doing. Could prove interesting, if so, but I haven't heard it reflected in Toby's -- or Trace's, or Montgomery Gentry's, etc. -- music yet. Though I also wouldn't swear Jamey is that big a leap. He does concentrate more on looking scary on stage, though.)

Finally, Michael Corcoran in this morning's Austin Statesman on the Mother Truckers, whose new album I like, just like I liked their previous two, though I think I agree that their second one was most consistent, and the new one leans slightly more toward blues-based hard rock and less toward country. Also do like "Keep It Simple" too, though I'm not sure I think it's the best track; leaning toward opener "Alien Girl," which just like "Dynamite" last time reminds me as much of Suzi Quatro as anything rural or rootsy. Actually wish they did more songs like that. Still need to catch them live sometime, but they always play below the river, which is a little bit of a trek, and more so, farther away than I'd want to drive home after midnight from after drinking a few beers, which I'm sure would be hard not to do while watching these folks. Lame excuse, I know. Still need to catch Shinyribs sometime, too.

http://www.austin360.com/music/mother-truckers-better-than-the-van-764283.html

Mother Truckers' myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/themothertruckers

Watched the "Dynamite" video on YouTube. Rockabilly, a bit more on the rock boogie with the cool train beat, so I get the Suzi Quatro ref -- with the lady. The guy's nerd rock voice, though -- ehhh. No way I'd last for an album of that. Having read the Austin Statesman piece, not buying the bit about any hit single.

There's an ever more ornate shtick these types of bands mint. Not sure what it's called -- grindhouse movie pseudo white trash baseball capped roller derby for college students in [name the university town].

I guess it was cowpunk when it started three decades ago.

"Hot Legs" recorded & video'd in some dive was entertaining but I'd by fibbing if I said I got the end of these things. Three minutes with one minute of a heavy metal interlude tossed into the Rod Steward tune and the band's real tight but the self-defeating baseball cap look's gotta go and the lady has to get to sing more with a little less from the band.

And is the look taken from Sookie Stackhouse's dim brother in True Blood all the rage now, or?

Reba does Beyonce.

Not as on-point as Sugarland's version of "Irreplaceable," but she and Beyonce both lean heavily on melisma when they sing, so it works pretty well.

Jaron and the Long Road To Love, Singles Jukeboxed (and I'm still wondering about the, er, Jewish question that I raise in the comments)

Juice Newton is the only Jewish performer I can recall who has hit the top 20 on the country charts. Ray Benson, the frontman for Asleep at the Wheel, is also Jewish, but that act has only cracked the top 40 a handful of times. And Kinky Friedman is something of a cult figure, though he never really had any noteworthy chart success.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu7U-UD766s

is this a good country song? is this a country song? i like it

Did you guys read the Nashville Scene thing I did on Elizabeth Cook (looking back upthread)? It's on the Scene site in case you didn't see it. I would say it's an intermittently brilliant little record, I would give it a A-minus if I gave grades. Songwriting fades halfway thru and musically...well, it has its moments, but it's mainly received wisdom or received harmonic language as Xgau pointed out. Saw Cook at Station Inn for the release party in Nashville--you know, we liked it, she's great and her husband plays nice guitar. But whether or not the voice is compelling enough or rich enough to keep me innerested over the long haul...dunno. However, "Heroin Addict Sister" is mighty good songwritin'.

Let's see, mainly I've been writing about just whatever tickles my fancy and/or comes thru town. Did see Tim O'Brien, also at Station Inn (I like the old dump of a place in the newly gentrified Gulch area of town with its fancy coffee shops and new buildings). You know, the guy's kinda wry and he comes across as another victim/observer, I like him OK. And mainly we've been going out to see stuff, we caught Paul Thorn, who definitely belongs here on this thread, at the Belcourt. Tight little band in a Stones/Attractions vein, a real good drummer and a big, fat keyboard dude, like Thorn from Tupelo. Anyway, his trailer-park song and his one about how he don't like his relatives but he loves them are also good, funny, and he knows how to parlay his plain voice and average-dude looks and Southern bad-boy charm into a very good night out indeed. Caroline just loved him, I liked him a lot, the women in gen'l seemed to love him. The record--Pimps and Preachers--is just OK, though.

And I think I find Deer Tick a bit repetitive, altho the opening Black Dirt track is quite cool. Megafaun's use of electronics 'n such gives them the edge over the Tick. I wrote something about Dierks B. recently--I thought his bluegrass record was mainly a load of shit, just because the songs were such Music Row hackdom and phoned in. The Dylan cover, meh, but one blues by Suzi Ragsdale or someone like that (writer) was kinda good. Just didn't get the frission of bluegrass/country I was supposed to, and I still like his thrown-away road-dog singles from a few years ago, as bluegrass fusionoid thang.

Someone above, Chuck maybe, asked about the Nashville flood. Maybe I should look at the numbers, but I can tell you whole subdivisions (the ones built in bends of the Cumberland River, where of course they shouldn't have been) were wiped out, main roads like Harding Pike there at Belle Meade Blvd. (very tony address) and Charlotte Pike were under water, the interstates were under water. In our little subdivision, the entire row of houses along the Little Harpeth River were flooded with mud up to the windows, and two houses partially burned right down the street. Pretty bad, but the impact of Katrina on a much poorer populace was probably bigger. We didn't get flooded 'cause we up on a hill, but it was freaky: 40 hours of straight rain.

Also saw Neil Young at the Ryman and, you know, he was good and all. But actually I was there to see Bert Jansch, I had been listening to Jansch a lot recently, and also wrote him up in the Scene recently in case you wanna read it. I mean Jansch belongs in this discussion if only for the way he parallels bluegrass and acoustic blooze/roots stuff--the L.A. Turnaround is a decent slice of country-rock but perhaps not him in his most congenial surroundings, and produced by Mike Nesmith with the great Red Rhodes on pedal steel. Speaking of bluegrass, Roland White's I Wasn't Born to Rock 'n' Roll, recently reissued by Tompkins Square, is an uncommonly relaxed and listenable straight bluegrass record from mid '70s.

Hey Edd! (At least I assume you're Edd...) Glad you're okay, and glad you're back, even if we don't see eye to eye about what counts as powerpop. Hope it didn't seem like I was underplaying Nashville's storm damage; didn't mean to. Just thought Michael W. Smith's claim that Katrina got New Orleans more national attention mainly because of all the "looters" was totally offensive bullshit, especially coming from a Christian pop star. Fairly obvious what "looters" there is code for.

I played the new Paul Thorn album a couple times, and nah, it didn't do anything for me, either. Just don't think he's got a compelling voice, at all. (Can say the same for his fellow onetime songwriter for Toby Keith, Fred Eaglesmith, whose new album shot maybe even more of a blank for me.) But the one time I saw Thorn live in NYC, he was indeed fun.

Curious what you think about some of the classic country folks I discuss upthread -- Hank Thompson, Statler Brothers, Buck Owens, etc. Still feeling that Owens's sad-sack schtick is way more limited than he's usually given credit for -- seems odd that the Buckaroos' fast instrumental cuts so often wind up being some of my favorites on his LPs -- but I did wind up liking the 50 cent copy of 1965's Before You Go/No One But You I picked up OK. He even covers the Coasters.

I'll have some more to say about Mother Truckers one of these days -- George is right that they're much better when Teal sings, but I might like the guy's singing at least a little more than George does. Their albums are pretty spotty, either way. Not so sure that their fans are mostly college kids, as George suggests -- do college kids even like bar band roots rock anymore? -- but then, George seems to have watched more live youtube clips than I have. (That usually takes me a while.)

Wrote a bunch about Flynnville Train's new album on Rolling Hard Rock. Normally I'd just post a permalink, but it's spread over a bunch of posts, so for user-friendly reasons I'll just cut and paste instead: