Rolling Country 2010

Drive-By Truckers have several songs that address the choice between cooking meth and going straight, so that's a topic that's at least been touched upon. And meth is definitely the bigger industry than marijuana in places like Harlan County, but it's not like Dierks' "Down in the Mine" is really off the mark, either.

I still want to find out how the bluegrass audience overlaps with the straight country audience. A label like Rounder, with its bluegrassy singer-songwriters in the mode of Claire Lynch, is kinda like Reprise Records used to be in the singer-songwriter era; and Alison Krauss seems about as universal a country artist as we're likely to see in this place and time.

From my experiences with attending Bluegrass festivals here in Kentucky, I would say that the overlap between the Bluegrass and contemporary country audiences is negligible. If country is popular music's most aesthetically (and politically) conservative genre, then Bluegrass is its lunatic fringe: Acts like Krauss, Nickel Creek, and Cherryholmes all have a sizable legion of vocal detractors for having moved ever farther away from "pure" Bluegrass music. Generally, the Bluegrass purists who are big on artists like Rhonda Vincent & The Rage (though even she has some people who consider her a sell-out), The Gibson Brothers, or Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver don't have albums by Sugarland or Gary Allan in their trucks. And since Bluegrass is still such a niche genre, I haven't run across a ton of people who are just casual Bluegrass fans, and most of the ones I have met are a younger demo that came to Bluegrass via someone like The Avett Brothers, Old Crow Medicine Show, or Punch Brothers, and they aren't really listening to Dierks Bentley, either.

As for how representative that impression is, I can't say. Kentucky obviously takes its Bluegrass music very, very seriously, so there may be a more casual approach to it elsewhere. But around these parts, saying how much you liked Dierks Bentley's "Bluegrass album" would be a poor life choice in certain company. Though, for the record, I happen to like the album quite a lot.

Yeah, what you say about Kentucky fans seems about right to me. Bluegrass people are as funny and as scruffy as blues fans. Here it's a pretty big hub for bluegrass, obviously, and what you're saying is that younger folks into 'grass aren't into mainstream country so much.

Acts like Krauss, Nickel Creek, and Cherryholmes all have a sizable legion of vocal detractors for having moved ever farther away from "pure" Bluegrass music.

Interesting as well. Of course, I'd argue that the various neo-grass combinations--and there's like a ton of these bands here in town, again obviously, from the Time Jumpers (with a bit of western swing in there) to Old Crow...all sort of this strange combination of "songwriting" a la what I think is behind all this shit, just country-rock, post Progressive Grass textures and sonics added to it. But songful, trying to write original material within the confines of bluegrass.

So I wonder how many new fans Nickel Creek, Cherryholmes or the band I wrote about above, Rose's Pawn Shop (who are kind of interesting but don't offer anything all that new to the equation--mixtures of rockabilly, Django Reinhardt jazzy old-tyme '30s chord progressions, and western swing a.k.a. "jump blues" have been around forever--in fact, that kind of Eklektik NPR shit is the foundation of the modern commercial bluegrass movement, which is why I sorta have to laugh at it sometimes), get by crossing over? Again, RPS are playing the Basement here, a small club. Played here a few years back. So you have to contrast that with Dierks' record, which is actually about exactly the same goddam thing, except it's not so NPR-ready. But Nashville wants any demographic it can get and must've figured, Dierks wants to do this and he's already kinda bluegrassy (actually Byrdsy a la its later phase of Karefully Kalibrated Kountry licks and sonic mystery of a sort), so it'll make a good thing for everyone to talk about. Like I'm doing here.

So plug in songwriters (recall some good ones on Dierks' record, like Shawn Camp, I think) but tailor it to Dierks, is what I think happened. And get some outside material and let's do U2 and Dylan, for the "concept." Nashville has always done weird versions of the classic rock canon. It's totally plugged into the way Nashville does things--all these other neo-progressive 'grass bands are really bands, even if they're just playing country rock with fiddles and banjos and Textures.

Here the bluegrass audience seems fairly across the board but skewing toward around 40 as a median age...

Without having the actual sales stats, I'd hesitate to project as to how many more or how many new fans the "Progressive Grass" bands like Time Jumpers or Nickel Creek or the SteelDrivers gain as compared to the traditional Bluegrass acts. But the fact that acts like Krauss and Carolina Chocolate Drops do fit squarely into the NPR / AAA demo gives them a good deal more exposure than someone like Doyle Lawson or Dailey & Vincent routinely get: I've heard Old Crow Medicine Show's singles played in places like Starbucks and Chipotle, but Rhonda Vincent isn't on those playlists.

I'll check out Rose's Pawn Shop, if only because I'm not familiar with them, and I'm enough of a casual fan of / apologist for both progressive and traditional bluegrass that they might be to my liking.

And I would agree that the median age for most of the Bluegrass festivals I've attended is north of 40, which is yet another reason that I usually feel a bit out-of-place there. The atmosphere can be exclusionary at times.

In my review of the Punch Brothers' album, I said that it seems like they're aiming to be a stringband version of Radiohead, so I can see the "acoustic prog-rock" tag. They really don't scan as a Bluegrass band most of the time, and there's a fussiness and show-offy tendency to what they're doing that might be off-putting to some. It may be my years of classical training rearing their head, but I respect the sophistication of the band's compositions and think the songs are strong enough on their own merits.

I found a copy of Rosanne Cash's Somewhere in the Stars I got cheap. It always struck me as excessively straight--but it's a real good MOR record nonetheless. Nice arrangements like the strings and woodwinds of "I Wonder." She sings quite well too and looks quite good on the cover, maybe never looked better. But the bg vocals and electric piano and freeze-dried licks of "Oh Yes I Can" are kinda banal. But you can hear her debt to commercial soul music I guess, altho I do not believe "I'm a dancer" when she sings it. I also like the way she admits she's getting a bit older and doesn't fit in and sorta flaunts her well-earned wisdom on "Looking for a Corner." Not bad at all, in fact quite good. But then there's some fairly banal yuppie soul altho again I like her line about her man's toupee. I dunno, where's Crystal Gayle when you need her? I like Hall's "Memphis" but she's too genteel for it, and I hear what she's trying to do as a singer to "Third Rate Romance," take it down a notch...fitting into the theme of slightly bemused domesticity here. But maybe too recessive a singer for such material, which really needs to the kick of--you know, rhythm aces or whatever. I hear this as good taste running rampant over what could've been even better, and you know me, I like good taste.

Rose's Pawn Shop (who are kind of interesting... contrast that with Dierks' record, which is actually about exactly the same goddam thing, except it's not so NPR-ready.

Meaning: He doesn't sing as bad? (Actually, I'm not positive about that. But when I gave that Rose's Pawn Shop record a play after it came in the mail a month or so ago, I thought a few songs had enough energy to be potentially good, but just couldn't get pass the lifeless vocals.)

Edd also mentioned Megafaun above; I only got a couple songs into that one before giving up. Any reason I should be spending more time with it?

Also, fwiw, Old Crow Medicine Show also did a "Methamphetamine" song on their '08 album Tennessee Pusher. Only Drive By Truckers one I know offhand is "You And Your Crystal Meth"; no doubt I'd know more if I always listened closely to their words (which aren't always delivered in a manner that inspires me to do so.) Which other DBT songs qualify?

I found a copy of Rosanne Cash's Somewhere in the Stars I got cheap. It always struck me as excessively straight--but it's a real good MOR record nonetheless. Nice arrangements like the strings and woodwinds of "I Wonder." She sings quite well too and looks quite good on the cover, maybe never looked better.

The one album from her "classic" period I don't own, although I do know "I Wonder." Nice review.

mentioned Megafaun above; I only got a couple songs into that one before giving up. Any reason I should be spending more time with it?

Well, I am old enough to remember Moby Grape's great 20 Granite Creek and Skip Spence's Oar and McGuinness Flint--which "California Days" reminds me of. And yeah, the singing is sorta light, altho the guy sounds sorta like Brian Wilson or Mike Love in the intro of the good-timey bluesy Norman Greenbaum thing of "Eagle." I mean OK, McGuinness Flint even did "International" better than Mary Hopkin did and Megafaun has the same kinda ricky-ticky feel. Or "Eagle" is also like Nilsson or today's youth's version of early-'70s AM pop a la "Spaceman" or "Coconut." And I hear some prog in there--the whole way they go from vocal section to instrumental section and try to layer it over the drums (which could be better) as about 3:35 into "Eagle" is in that vein. I mean a lot of this is kind of stretched thin, but they at least are trying to do something different, not that the sax solo in "Eagle" is actually something I would recommend.

But what makes me like the record is just that, they'll try anything. I spent a lot of time over the last year going back and really trying to listen to a lot of similar music from the late '60s and early '70s, I mean all the Family albums (can we draw a line from Traffic and Family to Beck to the Megafaun EP?), McGuinness Flint (already a big fan of Coulson, Dean, McGuinness Flint's Lo and Behold and Ashton, Gardner and Dyke and the Incredible String Band...and Bob Mosley's solo album from '72, all that slightly hairy music from that era. And all groups who would try anything. So I would say I prefer the more compressed pop aesthetic of "Volunteers" with its banjo and all to the more overtly bluegrass-based stuff we've been discussing above. But yeah, vocals are a problem, but I like the overall musical effort here--this is pretty commercial, too. I think they do what Deer Tick and the Avetts, maybe, try to do, but more genially and perhaps more stoned. The electronics seem grafted on but again, so what. Going back to the old stuff I checked out over the last year or so, not as good as the Insect Trust, those guys had a really cool female vocalist...

for that matter, I even like the instrumental on the Megafaun EP. Nothing too fancy but it's kinda sweet.

I mean too--Norman Greenbaum is due a reappraisal any day. He was as good as Billy Swan, I think. Petaluma is a masterpiece.

Oh yeah, always meant to check out more of his, other than "Spirit In The Sky." Apparently he was usually more in the Hurley/Rounders etc. groove, with members of Dan Hicks And His Hot Licks, Sopwith Camel etc playing on some tracks too. Running the Velvet Acres goat milk farm his royalities (he was also Dr. West, of "The Eggplant That Ate Chicago"), but apparently not all business. Petaluma seems to be cut out, dang. Very appealing decription of Megafaun too Speaking of Todd Snider Have you heard the Shel trib Twistable Turnable Man, Ebb? Some dud bait from alt rockers like Jim James and Black Francis, but mostly pretty credible; well hep spread the word anyway.

Yow, typos! Speaking of Family and Deer Tick, McAuley's voice reminds me of Roger Chapman's, called up for country duty, re pushing through country fatalism--but the word seems to be that album three isn't quite up to the first two? We'll see.

Also, fwiw, Old Crow Medicine Show also did a "Methamphetamine" song on their '08 album Tennessee Pusher. Only Drive By Truckers one I know offhand is "You And Your Crystal Meth"; no doubt I'd know more if I always listened closely to their words (which aren't always delivered in a manner that inspires me to do so.) Which other DBT songs qualify?

I tend to prefer OCMS's couple of cocaine songs to that one.

As for the Truckers: In addition to "You and Your Crystal Meth," "Outfit," from Decoration Day, includes the line, "Have fun but stay clear of the needle," in its chorus, and "Aftermath, USA" from A Blessing & A Curse, details a line about a bathtub full of crystal meth and a blood-spattered sink ("It's all worse than you think").

I think they do what Deer Tick and the Avetts, maybe, try to do, but more genially and perhaps more stoned. The electronics seem grafted on but again, so what.

I'll second all of that. Thought that Megafaun was a solid record, though I can easily see why it might not play to everyone's tastes.

3 relevant Singles Jukeboxings:

Laura Bell Bundy "Giddy On Up"

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2505

Little Big Town, "Little White Church"

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2507

Train, "Hey Soul Sister" (since it's now officially a minor country hit)

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2027

Sony blocked the video at singlesjukebox, at least in my country, so went to Train's website. Wonder if anyone's playing the 6:45 version of "Hey, Soul Sister." I had to sit through the goddam vamping to hear this guy intone "tonight" and "one of my kind." I can hear why it's a hit, it's catchy bubblegum and it's funny--the line about chest hair and in general, the whole fucking thing is funny. I actually like "Save Me San Francisco" a lot better--great glam in the British tradition, kind of a slight late Move/ELO feel (note the pianos flourishing at the end). "Rock and roll and disco/Save me S.F." and they mention making coin or something in the Tenderloin. I mean shit, it's a great song. Guy got his gig because he can sing high and loud, so I'd guess he learned his shit in disco cover bands. He can sing.

Uh, Laura Bell Bundy, I hate her immediately, and I hate "Giddy on Up" and never want to hear that shit again. Not that I have anything against country-disco-funk, in the abstract it's kind of a cool track, but the minds of people who'd make such an inane video...terrible video, she's too old to dance around like that and I guess somebody somewhere sorta conflated some bad neo-westerns and Tarantino dance sequences...Laura Bell doesn't interest me at all as a sex object. I hate people who sit around and construct these kind of stupid video ideas for themselves and then dance around. She knows what cowboys smell like 'cause she goes thru their shirts, she's gonna fuck the one who isn't impressed by her or her stupid video, see what I mean? But sure, interesting enough as a track. And I guess Trace can do this kinda funk thing so she can too, I guess I'd like Laura Bell better if she were more like Lizzy Mercier Descloux or dressed in a robot suit or something.

I wrote about Ronnie Milsap recently, I missed the thing with him and Trace and Capitol, this single Milsap made to benefit EMTs and firefighters and Trace apparently had Capitol's approval to sing on it, but then they wanted a piece of it after the single hit and Trace left Capitol...

Found a copy of Freddie North's 1975 Cuss the Wind, which everyone else may know about. Really taut, incisive, varied arrangements in a very well-thought-out soul/country mode with blues guitar, strings, horns--and North's sorta Joe Simon wail over it all, and just amazing songs. Every track somewhat unexpected, every track great, including one about rural poverty in which the guy's wife falls into the river she's so worn out from working the fields, and an awesome cover of Tony Joe's "Rainy Night in Georgia" that if anything is better than Brook Benton's. A really great record, a Jerry Williams production so the arrangements are settings--never one knocked-off or slack moment, and his voice really cuts. He did the orig. version of "She's All I Got" that lotsa people did, and Cuss the Wind may be the great country-soul masterpiece of all time, runs about 29 minutes flat.

Cut-and-pasted Edd's Laura Bell Bundy graph over on the Jukebox, where it's now being agreed and disagreed with. Definitely think Laura Bell Bundy is way funnier (and way more catchy bubblegum) than Train myself (at least the Train I've listened to, which admittedly isn't a lot.)

Also, already posted this on Rolling Hard Rock, but it sort of fits here too, inasmuch as fiddles and '70s cornbelt boogie-rock connect to country. "Prog On The Prairie: Midwestern Bands Roll Over Beethoven":

http://www.emusic.com/features/spotlight/2010_201007-essay-prog.html

I wrote a long-ish review of the single and video for "Giddy On Up" a couple of months back (I'm surprised the single just now turned up on the Jukebox, since it officially dropped out of the country chart last week and "Drop On By" has been announced as the second single). I'm with Chuck on considering it one of my favorite singles of the year thus far-- though it's probably only my 3rd or 4th favorite song from the Shakin' half of Bundy's terrific album-- but I said that the video does the song a serious disservice, as Edd's response bears out.

Edd, what did you have to say about Ronnie Milsap? I've been picking up a few of his LPs lately, but haven't gone far into the 80s, or later.

Turns out the Latin song I heard and liked on the car radio over the weekend was in fact Chino (spelled it right this time!) and Nacho's "Mi Niña Bonita" -- so, nothing to do with Regional Mexican. Still thought I detected something country in its sound, which is not a feeling I've gotten from reggaeton before. But maybe it was just where I was driving.

It's more merengue than reggaeton anyway. It's okay, but there are dozens of merengue songs from the last decade that I like more, not that I usually know their names, because those details tend to wash over me when it comes to merengue. (The way it used to work when I was still dancing regularly is that I'd become familiar a merengue song from hearing it in a club and then maybe if I were lucky I'd find out later who it was by and what the title was.) The harmonies seem kind of 50ish/early 60sish (in an early rock or maybe R&B way). Possibly that is what you are hearing as country?

Tim, this was a good recent thread:

Ronnie Milsap

(xhuxk, I just discovered there is a pop/reggaeton version of that Chino y Nacho song, so if that's what you heard I can see how it wouldn't have sounded like merengue.)

(Every time I correct you about something there's always some fact I am missing. I should just stop.)

("correct")

I do the same thing, all the time. Anyway, this totally sounds right:

The harmonies seem kind of 50ish/early 60sish (in an early rock or maybe R&B way). Possibly that is what you are hearing as country?

Though, regardless of the remix, I don't know how much I'd recognize merengue if I heard it. I always assumed that lots of the fast dance music I heard in Dominican-run bodegas in Queens and lower Park Slope was merengue, but I could've been totally wrong about that. That Chino Y Nacho track didn't even strike me as especially fast, if that matters.

Scrolling back, I also see totally eye-to-eye with Jon Oh here:

I've never been all that big on Reba outside of a handful of isolated singles (see also: Strait, George).

And in fact made that same comparison here, in my review and comments:

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=694

Some merengue is extremely slow.

Gave Megafaun another chance (their upcoming album Heretofore -- have never heard any earlier stuff, which may or may not be different.) Reminds me of any number of drowsy, shambly, vaguely rootsy but mostly just plain vague eco-freak indie bands I've momentarily thought might be potentially interesting in the past decade or so but in the long run ultimately determined otherwise for all of them: Fruit Bats (circa Echolocation, the only album of theirs I ever even passingly cared about), Sixth Great Lake, I See Hawks In L.A., maybe My Morning Jacket.
Probably some art-folk period (= zzzzzz) Beck and Wilco in there, too.
Don't hate the record, has some pretty and mildly back-to-the-land evocative parts I guess, but there's not a single track (out of six, in 34 long minutes) that holds my attention all the way through. Also don't get Edd's "they'll try anything" claim -- Laura Bell Bundy's album, for one, seems way more stylistically varied; it's not even close. But then, I never really got what the big deal about Skip Spence's Oar, was, either, and though I still might have a copy of the first Moby Grape LP around here, only song I ever really cared about by them was "Fall On You." So yeah -- different strokes, for sure.

Yeah, I have a weakness for...what you call it, avant-folkiedom. Which doesn't always guarantee cohesion or even tunefulness, for sure. A group like Megafaun seems to me to be just self-consciously trying to do something different, I guess is what I mean...saxophones and Four Tet electronic stuff and some weird chords they learned messing around playing guitars. John Fahey and that kind of quietist folk stuff.

For what it's worth, and I'm sure I make this pretty obvious, I just think music like Laura Bell Bundy's isn't about music that much at all, whereas Megafaun are at least paying attention to some qualities you'd call musical, like the aforementioned playing around with...chords, harmonies and so forth. They're both pretty derivative. But I frankly can't understand how any real talent enters into something like "Giddy Up" at all--anybody with the technology and the right dancin' girl can come up with that stuff, plug in and go. I'm interested in musical expression more or less and I don't think the people behind Laura Bell Bundy care about that at all, it's just another hot babe (supposedly) doing her thing in a world made better by Robert Palmer videos. Show biz, and that's fine, I just don't care.

I was actually referring to the previous Megafaun album in my comments upthread; my editor just sent me their new one, which I haven't listened to yet. And, like Edd, I share his predilection for "avant-folkiedom." Not to turn the thread into some kind of support group or anything.

I find Edd's take on Laura Bell Bundy pretty fascinating. Again, I think it may be a matter of the severe disservice that the video for "Giddy On Up" does to both the single and to Bundy. Simply looking at the video, I can absolutely see how someone would come to the conclusion that there's no there there-- that it's just a matter of the right technology and the right girl and the right pair of chaps and the right So You Think You Can Dance cast-offs. The video is shrill and grotesque.

But the remainder of her album-- and Chuck may or may not agree on this-- shows a real point-of-view and sense of purpose that I don't get at all from, say, Kellie Pickler or Julianne Hough or Jewel or Jenette McCurdy or Jessie James. And, while I value paying attention to musical qualities, having an actual perspective and voice is something that I value, as well. And, while I understand why she's divisive (most traditionalists seem to want her head on a stake), I think Bundy has that kind of a voice. I'll link through to my review of her album if anyone's interested, but I think it's the most accomplished major label debut to come out of Nashville since Miranda Lambert's Kerosene.

I'd have to go back through major label Nashville debuts from the past few years to doublecheck (off the top of my head -- do Flynville Train on Show Dog count?), but yeah, that all sounds more or less right to me. Though I also don't remotely believe Bundy's album lacks "musical" qualities (which Edd seems to be defining weirdly selectively -- and not based so much, if I'm reading him right, on how records actually, you know, musically sound, but on how he perceives those records are made. For one thing, he seems to imply Bundy is just some passive actor with little input on her album's, uh, non-music, and I have no idea where he gets that idea from, especially since she gets a co-songwriting credit for 11 out of 12 songs, including "Giddy On Up" -- I mean, if "anybody with the technology and the right dancin' girl can come up with that stuff," then how come nobody else has? Also not sure why he thinks 29 = an old lady, but whatever.) I value those always fuzzy variables "talent" and "expression," too, but they're hardly the only things that go into making great records. (And after 25 years plus, of course, it won't surprise anyone that's what I think.)

In other news, the first song on the new (forthcoming) Randy Houser album may well have the heftiest drum wallop I've heard all year.

This discussion makes me wanna hear Megafun! (Hi, my name is Josh and I like John Fahey.) (And the new Four Tet sounds pretty good.)

But what I HAVE heard is the Bundy record, just today for the first time, and did I miss something? Is she controversial? Because she's a carpetbagger or something? I dunno, it was a take-it-or-leave-it for me, but I did admire some of the songs and the playing on it, not to mention her singing, which seemed very talented and expressive. The slow half was too slow for too long, and the fast half, while good, didn't do enough to redeem it. So, while I can imagine people liking it, I'm not sure how often I'd wanna subject myself to it. Will try again.

And if anything, Bundy's album seemed more "musical" than Lambert's albums, even if I enjoyed Lambert's first two more. Instruments are more clearly defined, there's more space and variety and nobody compressed the shit out of it. I caught a couple really nice guitar solos, and the band pulls off all the styles with expertise. So if I think it's only pretty good, it's because I was disappointed with the pacing and the songs. The singing and musicianship are probably its MOST impressive aspects. (Do like "Giddy On Up," song AND video.)

Nice review, Jon, though you like the album more than I. I would argue that she's not the only country person (or even woman, if it makes a difference) doing "frank sexuality"--Sara Evans is right there, and Lady Antebellum have their drunk dialing song, and I'm sure there are others I'm not coming up with. There was some article somewhere some months back (you're welcome) about how you can't listen to country radio with your kids anymore, or at least you have to come up with creative ways of explaining sexy lyrics to them. (I'll get back to you if I factcheck myself.)

Ah yes: http://www.radio-info.com/programming/country/booty-call-songs-on-the-rise-at-country-radio

RIP Hank Cochran (songwriter: "I Fall to Pieces," "Don't You Ever Get Tired of Hurting Me," much more besides)

ILX RIP country songwriter Hank Cochran thread.

Some excerpts of Hank's own tracks swirling around NPR very early this morning. Really nice high lonesome hilltonk neon atmosphere. Speaking of acid folk, I really like Couch Forts; they're kinda Rounders meet primo Woody Allen, re personal neurotic/erotic mythologically hand-painted snapshots.(They do not try to sing like Stampfel, or Allen.) Can stream or download beaucoup tunes here:
http://www.thesixtyone.com/couchforts.html

Oh yeah, the reason it says "Couch Forts" under some tracks and "Sufferbaby" under others: those are titles of EPs, which the downloads are from. If you can't be arsed to deal with thesixtyone and their free downloads, Couch Forts also got: http://www.myspace.com/iliveinacouchfort.html

Caramanica in the NYTimes on new albums I haven't hear by Jerrod Neimann (thought his single was okay, not great) and Lee Brice (who I have no opinion about at all.) He likes them both; says the Brice is probably the toughest country album of the year, which I'm extremely sketpical about, having heard Flynnville Train, Randy Houser, Jace Everett, and Colt Ford's albums. (Hell, maybe even Laura Bell Bundy's, for that matter. And Trace Adkins'.) But he makes me want to hear both of them anyway, just to make sure. (Even more skeptical about the non-country stuff he writes about. Thought the Gyptian reggae hit was boring, though nobody else at Singles Jukebox seemed to agree with me. Thought the Zola Jesus goth EP early this year was even more boring -- not nearly as diverting/listenable as the goth album by San Diego band Blessure Grave, who they seem to be associated with somehow -- and my wife, who likes goth way more than I do, agreed with me. Don't remember much about the middling Wacka Flocka Flame single reviewed on Jukebox.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/arts/music/18playlist.html

And speaking of "power country" (Caramanica's coinage -- I like it, wish I'd thought of it, and will surely steal it), here's George on Lady Antebellum's "Stars Tonite," which I agree is is a real good summer open-air concert radio rocker, even if I've listened to country radio so little this summer I haven't heard it on the radio yet myself. Can't see ranking it near "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" or "American Band" myself -- too soft in its center, somehow -- but the riff is indeed propulsive (mentioned it way upthread when I first heard the album), and the singalong's inspiring enough for me to finally push me over to the "gonna keep the CD" side, after liking two previous hits. Also makes me think that what I liked more about their debut album is that there was more rock on it, if probably not anything this rocking.

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2010

"Stars Tonight," actually -- not "Tonite." (And "by soft in its center," I guess I partly means its vocals, which aren't as manly as Grand Funk's or BTO's, obviously. But it also doesn't swing as hard as they did. Still, compared to other "rock" on the charts now, it rules.)

Yeah, Lady A -- with the girl singer, can't have any Don Brewer bellow aka "American Band." The lilts spoil it.

But GF and BTO had no Les Paul guitar chomps like that. No one did back then. The Mesa Boogie metal panel triple-recto whatsis marches on eating everything in its path.

http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Features/john%2Drich%2D0719/

Note Rich getting in-line for his Gibson endorsement during the promotion for his new record.

Saw the video for it yesterday, thought he was setting himself up to be Kid Rock with better clothes and voice. It had all the usual 'rock' barnacles in it -- Ted Nugent, Sebastian Bach, some midget you see all the time. Nugent, who features reporters seem not to notice will do anything for a paycheck these days, pretneds to be at a bar having a shot. For Mr. Rage about the Virtue of Teetotalism ...

Nugent has a love-hate thing going with modern country. He would dearly love to have more of this audience. In fact, it was his audience in the late Seventies, in a harder form. But now he has the real bottom out-of-sighters, a much smaller cut. And it doesn't help that he makes disparaging remarks about country when he thinks his John Rich/Toby Keith buddies aren't in earshot.

So he plays a little guitar on Rich's single, too. Don't know if he actually played it on record. It doesn't sound like a Nugent lick but he actually did rein himself in for Damn Yankees. And Ted keeps putting on weight.

And here's my Nugent research:

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/category/ted-nugent/

Since John Rich did the Massey Coal gig with Nugent as MC last year, one could come to the conclusion they're of real similar politics. However, the Nuge is now real bitter over Detroit -- and not in a good way --
which would seem to be in stark contrast to the sentiment in Rich's last big tune.

Oh man, Nugent was scheduled to be on the cover of a big fat UK glossy, Classic Rock...Where the Legends Never Die. There was a change in plans, which the Editor's Note explained thusly: While the photographer was setting up, "Sweet Home Alabama" came on the radio, and Nugent started yelling something very like: "Turn that dead redneck shit OFF!" And got even iller before anybody could react. Speaking of power country, I too wish I'd thought of it, though I almost did, when writing this show preview:

A certain power ballad sure feels like a sultry country night, as the lady recalls summer love--until she suddenly taunts her old sweetheart, who shouldn't feel too bad. She also loves doing that to stalkers, voyeurs, and other favorite audience members. On Halestorm's self-titled debut album, Lzzy (Hale yeah, "Lzzy")Hale's brand of metal shares 70s/80s rock-based connections with restlessly nostalgic modern pop country. She's a leather working girl, whose extreme measures sometimes have to battle her own Heart-shaped heart, and that's country too. But no twangy strings nor singers need apply.

Reg Mex side note:

Jesse Turner of Siggno (who I'm not familiar with) lists his Top 10 Albums, sort of, including Intocable, Ramon Ayala (who originated most of the songs on Intocable's latest album), and Brad Paisley, among others.

On Paisley: "I don’t have a favorite album, but what gets my mind going about any of his music is that he performs his own songs with so much life. His songs tell different stories every single time. I am amazed at his ability to to write a song about picking between his woman or fishing. Songs like 'Little Moments Like That,' 'Cause He Didn’t Have To Be,' 'I’m still A Guy'… This guy challenges me to do the same and write songs that don’t always have to be about the same thing. I believe that now you can write about a song about a rock that doesn’t move...His albums, lyrics, songs, shows, are all motivating to my music career."

For further research, at least for me.
http://www.ramiroburr.com/true/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=711:jesse-turnersiggno-top-10-albums&catid=3:newsflash

BAD in the Paul Fussell sense: Songs rendered unlistenable under any circumstance by astonishingly unwatchable video.

Colt Ford making a joke of his frankly hard to stomach obesity and the Twilight movies for the intro of "Chicken & Biscuits."

Billy Currington making a nauseating and homely slob the centerpiece of his "Good at Drinkin' Beer." Way too
successful.

Couldn't make it past thirty seconds of music on either of these, because of. And I like to drink beer, too.

They've both done much better, anyway. "Chicken & Biscuits" is one of the least notable tracks on Colt Ford's album of the same name. And here's what Singles Jukebox people just said about that Currington song:

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2547

Also, LeAnn Rimes's "Swingin'":

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2538

And Keith Urban's "I'm In":

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2528

So what has Nugent actually said about modern country? Just curious; haven't come across anything along those lines. He sure does look (and, solo-wise, sound) pathetic in that John Rich video, though. Only thing I'm liking about the song is that the riff's got some ZZ in it.

Austin Statesman piece this morning about Kevin Fowler. Was not aware that he'd been a guitarist in 'twixt-hair-and-grunge metal band Dangerous Toys in the early '90s; never thought they were worth much anyway, but still. Piece also maps out a brief history of Texas frat country that I'd previously only vaguely figured out on my own: "latest in the line of Texas collegiate country crowd-pleasers that can be traced back to Jerry Jeff Walker, then Robert Earl Keen and Pat Green."

http://www.statesman.com/life/kevin-fowler-hitting-stride-and-the-charts-811538.html?cxtype=ynews_rss

So what has Nugent actually said about modern country? Just curious; haven't come across anything along those lines. He sure does look (and, solo-wise, sound) pathetic in that John Rich video, though. Only thing I'm liking about the song is that the riff's got some ZZ in it.

He made some typically Nugent comment about country licks being pathetic, something you'd never hear coming out of his guitar. It might have been in early spring and I didn't save it at the time. Next time I go into Lex-Nex I might look for it.

Paradoxically, the Nuge does this instro called "Honky Tonk" with his old guitar teacher on the 6,000th show Motor City Mayhem thing from 2008 and it's fairly pathetic all by itself. He's commented in the pas that some of his good tunes are written around honky tonk licks, and that's true, but he sure can't play them without sounding hackneyed if he lays off the power and distortion. Which also reminds me of how he spends ten minutes of the concert "celebrating" his blues guitar heroes by doing the worst bar band blues number he can muster. And don't even ask about his imitation of Mitch Ryder. Which isn't to say the concert doesn't have its good parts, of which I'll comment elsewhere, but as a roots musician he surely stinks.

Maybe he didn't actually play the guitar on the Rich thing. You'd have to look on the album. What's the point in calling on Ted Nugent if he doesn't ... like ... do a Ted Nugent lick? Also note Sebastian Bach in that thing, he also of the expanding middle third. And like Nuge, now or still a Doc McGee managed act. Is Rich now handled by McGee?

But with someone like Dan Huff as a producer, Ted could make an momentarily entertaining if maybe not quite decent modern country album. It would have to sell as a novelty -- think Uncle Kracker -- unless he found a singer. If Jason Aldean or Nickelback can pass off those beats on CMT, anyone can do it I think.

Didn't much care for "Swingin'" and haven't yet heard the Urban thing.

And my take on John Rich so far is that he's now overcompensating. Re wanting to do this:

...now on a year or two long solo act kick, apparently so as not to have the psychedelic hippy, Big Kenny, always at his stage right.

Completely off base?

Now he wants to be a thin man's half-Montgomery Gentry?

"So what has Nugent actually said..." See my post dammit! If he has a hissy fit over "Sweet Home Alabama", gives an idee of his take on *Country*!

Two real good '80s pop-country songs, if anybody cares: "Radio Heart" and "If This Is Love," off Charly McClain's 1985 LP Radio Heart (#15 on Billboard country LP chart), which Metal Mike sent me a few weeks ago. He's sharpied on the back, next to "If This Is Love," the following: "Taylor Swift/Def Leppard chords (key of A)". Not sure if I hear that, exactly (lyrics are definitely more pro forma than Taylor's), but judging from this album (third best song: the understandably airier "Talking To The Moon" I think) and her '82 Greatest Hits (favorites probably "Sleeping With The Radio On" -- went #4, and apparently she liked radio songs --, "Men," and "Who's Cheatin' Who" -- covered lamely by Alan Jackson a few years back), I could see McClain intermittently qualifying as some kind of tentative proto-Shania, in her more pop moments anyway. Definitely a '60s AM/early '80s girl-groupy new wave/maybe Motown influence on some of these hooks; her husband Wayne Hussey (three so-so duets on Radio Heart) seemingly shows some adult contemporary r&b influence in his singing inflections. She's a real cutie, too, which also puts her in Shania's lineage. And hmmm, just noticed in Whitburn she covered (and had a #24 c&w hit with) Freda Payne's impotent-groom-on-wedding-night classic "Band Of Gold" in '84; hope Wayne (who married her that year!) didn't take it personally. Whitburn also says she'd toured with black country singer O.B. McClinton, which might somewhat explain the possible soul influence, and appeared on Chips, Hart To Hart, and Solid Gold. Never had a single or LP cross over to the pop chart, though, which is a shame because that clearly seems to have been the intention, and "Radio Heart," for one, sounds like it easily could've been an '80s pop hit.

Speaking of old sellout country, wrote up some longwinded thoughts on Bill Anderson's 1979 Ladies Choice -- probably the most country-disco album I've ever heard -- here a couple days ago:

(vintage) country-disco

Jerrod Neimann album is super entertaining, btw. Lee Brice is mostly boring me so far; need to listen to it more. Though there do seem to be some reasonably tough moments -- e.g., opening "Picture Of Me."

Hoping I didn't scare Edd away with my Laura Bell Bundy defense above. (Fwiw, Edd actually describes how music sounds, and how those sounds work, as clearly and wisely as any writer I can think of. So I want to make it clear that how I interpreted his response to the Bundy record doesn't strike me as typical. Also, just like George with Currington and Colt Ford, there's nothing wrong with deciding not to delve further into an artist because you hate the video. Sure I've done it myself, many times.)

Anyway. Just got back from a "brisk" (actually I don't go very fast but whatever) morning bike ride, let myself accidentally get lost in a couple Austin neighborhoods I'd never been in before and then figure out my way back out in a different direction, fun to do on Sunday mornings when there's not so much car traffic to dodge, and then what do I see parked in front of a house on a street called Villanova Drive but Dale Watson's big fancy tour bus. That sure never happened to me in New York City.

Also worth noting: A couple days I ago I played back-to-back recently acquired (total cost for both put together: $0.50) copies of (sometimes covered by Barbara Mandrell) soul singer Barbara Mason's 1972 Give Me Your Love and country singer Joe Stampley's 1976 (though seemingly from the notes recorded/maybe previously released a couple years earlier) All These Things, and by a complete unbeknownst to me coincidence, both of them turned out to feature covers of "Everything I Own" by Bread. Wow, must have been a really popular song. Haven't decided yet whose version is better. (The Stampley also contains covers of the Box Tops' "Cry Like A Baby," the Four Tops' "I Can't Help Myself," and everybody's "Unchained Melody." Intereseting selection for a country guy. Apparently he had been in a "roots rock" band in the '60s called the Uniques; never heard them, but I've always imagined they were sort of Swingin' Medallions type Southern frat soul guys. Or, yeah, Box Topsish.)