Rolling Country 2010

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.)

Um, with Currington it's not a permanent deal-breaker. Colt Ford -- he gets the death penalty. The
mental image is too horrid, sweaty and gelatinous now, a pic of someone who eats lard from a can. And I'm usually not put off by unfortunate looks.

"sure can't play them without sounding hackneyed if he lays off the power and distortion" Only good with power and distortion = cornerstone of much rock we both love, I was gonna remind you, but your main point is that it was stupid of him *to* lay off, and thus he exposed his weakness in this area, rat? Must admit, re my previous unqualified endorsement of Chuck Prophet, I've now heard his most recent studio album, Let Freedom Ring, and discovered how sub-sub-sub-Dylan-y/Petty-y he can be, but about half of it's good-to-damn-good, esp when he's not trying to literally sound like Dylan, and assimilates Dylan's interplay of personal and political, as 60s electric stuff and sometimes more recently. Also Dylan-wise, got the lines that zing, in and out of context: "She was unwanted in 17 states", awww!

I was gonna remind you, but your main point is that it was stupid of him *to* lay off, and thus he exposed his weakness in this area, rat?

Yeah, he was trying to do sincerity and be tasteful at the same time. He's terrible at both. His guitar teacher, who played with him onstage, did tasteful. Tasty = worthless on the big stage.

So can any historians in the house (Don? Edd??) explain to me why Greil Marcus calls Jesse Winchester "rockabilly" in the appendix in the back of Stranded? Just listened to 1989 Rhino/Bearsville best-of (14 songs, 1971-1981) again; I try ever few years to see if I'll suddenly understand what the big deal about the guy was. No luck, again, but the main thing is, damned if I can hear any "rockabilly" on the record. Definitely some stuff that borders on a white-folkie trying Negro spirituals (the opener "Tell Me Why You Like Roosevelt," which has subsequent verses about "Lester B" -- who??? not Bangs obviously -- and Pierre Trudeau, would fit into that category), but mostly I'm hearing gloomy folk, a lot closer to Gordon Lightfoot, who had much better songs not to mention was a real Canadian not just a sad Memphis kid dodging the draft there. (Melody that maybe reminds me the most of Lightfoot, "A Showman's Life" from 1978, might be my favorite.) So, is the rockabilly thing just because Jesse's from Memphis, and does songs about it, not to mention Mississippi and Biloxi? Or does it have something to do with being produced at first by Robbie Robertson and collaborating with Levon Helm? (Not that the mostly bland Band ever sounded rockabilly to me, either, but I can imagine maybe Greil making a case in Mystery Train that they were.) Or (best possibility maybe) is it just that the '70 debut LP (the one Greil includes -- gets a Winchester career-high A- from Xgau too) actually was rockabilly, on songs that didn't make the best-of? Inquiring minds want to know.

(And while we're at it, why did Christgau useta call James Talley "Western Swing"? He wasn't, either.)

Fwiw, the Best-Of I have does actually include four songs from Winchester's debut ("Yankee Lady," "Biloxi," "The Brand New Tennessee Waltz," "Skip Rope Song"), but the LP cover lists them as 1971, not 1970 (the date both Marcus and Christgau use.)

And the Talley album that Christgau calls Western Swing -- Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, But We Sure Got A Lot Of Love from 1975 -- is the one I have, and I'm pretty sure the only one I've heard.

Lester B is probably Lester B Pearson (Canadian prime minister pre-Trudeau).

No why Jesse W. might ever be described as rockabilly. His self-titled debut is by far his best that I've heard, though some good tracks on later albums, here and there. Even at his best, always a cell away from being too fey, or really self-pity (and/or depression?)is the basci complex, which can certainly be true of those considered much more macho. Or maybe the really really basic prob is limit of his talent and/or musical conception, since o course some others, from Hank Williams on down, can make the artistic and/or entertaining most of self-pity. But yeah, if somebody wants something very refined and reflective and chamber Americana (like I was hoping he'd get with John Cale, re JC's own early 70s Vintage Violence), then the self-titled debut is certainly worth checking out (also rec to fans of Nick Drake and John Martyn)Never heard the Best Of.

Anybody else read the Brad Paisley piece in this week's New Yorker? It takes several thousand words to say more or less the same thing I said in 200 in the Cleveland Scene, but it's moderately entertaining.

As far as the Band being bland, their self-titled second album and Moondog Matinee, which is based on their pre-fame roadhouse sets, are prob the most jumping complete sets on their own. Also good funky tracks without Dylan included on The Basement Tapes (one of which even seems like a prophecy of early Steely Dan, though it's a Dylan cover: the one about "stranglin' on this telephone wire). Also, in mellower (if also Xgau's "sprung")sprung modes: Big Pink, and some good cover-bait on Stage Fright, Northern Lights-Southern Cross,good rehash with horns (plus good new cover of Marvin Gaye's "Baby Don't Do It") on Rock of Ages.
But maybe they were more consistent as a backing band.Hot stuff on Ronnie Hawkins' Arkansas Rockpile, and the spottier Mojo Man, both reissued as a twofer in 09 or 08, anyway I posted a pretty good description on whichever year's Rolling Country. Also as backing band on The Last Waltz (plus some of their own, like Garth's roller-rink title song, as the credits roll). And of course as D.'s backing band on Basement Tapes, Planet Waves, Before The Flood.

Haven't read either, but 200 words seems the more apt allocation for Paisley appreciation.

Was off in Connecticut where the only Internet access I had was sound-free. Also been spending time thinking about my old "PBS" rants from the first few WMSs ('87-'88), my notions never having been that thought-through in the first place, so I'm seeing if I can rethink them. One of my thirty or so arguments at the time was that what was going wrong in the '80s was that the "symbol was standing in for the event," so the music (esp. indie-alternative) would play the symbols of risk and innovation without being risky and innovative, would be intellectual without being intelligent, would symbolize rebellion without being rebellious, etc. Even though the argument was often correct, it didn't explain what it was meant to, which is why the music was bad - not to mention explaining how (or even taking into account that) the music could feel good to others. Edd, in his argument about Laura Bell Gundy not being "musical," seems to be making the same mistake that I was. If the people, e.g. me, who like "Giddy On Up" aren't responding to the music - which includes words and presentation etc., but can't get by simply on those things - just what are we responding to? It's not an argument or an idea to say that the song isn't music, it's just a placeholder in wait of an argument that Edd hasn't made yet. (Not that the fact that we respond to it makes the song good, necessarily, just that our response means that the song has something in it that we respond to viscerally.)

Btw, I never even bothered to look at the Gundy vid until the Jukebox convo, and when I did I thought the visuals were not much better or worse than cute but I can't imagine they made much of a difference one way or another to the song's reception (except to Edd, I guess).

(But I extremely doubt that you scared Edd off, Xhuxk. He doesn't seem the sort to scare easily, though he does disappear a lot to take care of other stuff.)

Hope (and suspect) you're right, Frank.

Anyway, here's a link to something I wrote for Rhapsody about what I called the 10 Most Overlooked Albums Of The Year So Far, though maybe I should have added "...And That Are Available On Rhapsody" and "...And That I've Actually Heard" and "...And That Aren't Reissues Of Old Music" and maybe "...And That Will Make This List Look At Least Somewhat Balanced Genre-Wise", but perhaps all of that goes without saying. Includes writeups of one album that could definitely be classified as country (Jerrod Neimann); of five albums that could probably tangentially be classified as country (Jace Everett, Luther Lackey, Slim Cessna's Auto Club, Reverend Peyton's Big Band, Intocable); and of four more that definitely couldn't (Traband, This Moment In Black History, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Marrow):

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2010/07/overlooked.html

Also, my mini-review of Sheryl Crow's new album (which is okay, but I wouldn't really recommend):

http://www.rhapsody.com/sheryl-crow/100-miles-from-memphis#albumreview

Lee Brice album is growing on me, btw. Has lots of stuff I don't care about (at least not yet), but "Sumter Country Friday Night" has a real kick to it. And "Four On The Floor" might go further into a hybrid of country with funk/disco/danceclub-pop than anything else lately, possibly even including Laura Bell Bundy* or Colt Ford. People should listen to it (it's on youtube) and decide for themslves. Pumps up the jam, either way. And namedrops both Barry White and Waylon.

* -- Not Gundy, Frank! (Though I notice a couple typoed names -- not my own doing, actually -- in that Rhapsody post I just linked to, too.)

Also decided to give in and let myself like the Trailer Choir album, which feels only slightly less emotionally and musically lightweight than, say, Uncle Kracker (and features a guy even less lightweight, weightwise, than Colt Ford, so George should stay clear lest he throw up), but it's basically bubblegum catchy beginning to end. Just a really, really easy record to listen to.

Finally, if anybody's interested, here's my favorite Southern Soul/Chitlin Circuit blogger Daddy B. Nice, on the country past of Luther Lackey (who I wrote about in that Rhapsody post):

"God Help That Southern Boy," a new country-western song from an upcoming album of the same name, appeared in May of 2006 under the name of Luther Lackey. For anyone who doubted Lackey's far-reaching scope and brashness, the CD was a wake-up call, and for Southern Soul's insiders the song and CD will prove a litmus test.
Southern Soul artists "crossing over" into country music are rare but not without precedent. To name just a few instances, Bobby Jonz sings country, Sunny Ridell has played with Charlie Daniels and Willie Nelson; Candi Staton did a faithful version of "Stand By Your Man"; Sam Moore recorded a soulful duet with Conway Twitty of "Rainy Night In Georgia" that rivals the original; not to mention the work of the great Ray Charles himself.
It turns out Luther Lackey does have "another life"--or a previous life--as a local and/or nationally-aspiring country-western singer. See "Tidbits" below. It has been a dream of countless black artists, including the great Bobby Womack, to be another Charlie Pride, but most--including Womack--have failed.
According to an article posted in the "Jackson Free Press" in 2004, a year before the release of his debut Southern Soul CD, I'm Talking To You (2005), Lackey already had a "copyrighted" pure-country CD out called At Least I Tried. Printed across the label was the legend: "The Best Country Singer You've Never Heard!"
Your Daddy B. Nice finds this interesting in light of the recent success of Ms. Jody's country-tinged hit, "I Never Take A Day Off," and the arrival of aspiring country-western (and black) singer Tricia Barnwell, who does unabashedly country treatments of songs like "Sweet Home Alabama" and "The First Cut Is The Deepest." Even Bigg Robb's and Carl Marshall's recent remix of "Good Loving Will Make You Cry," while drenched in sythesizer-funk, had a country feel to it at times.
There's a lot of territory to be plowed on R&B's boundaries with country, and given the originality inherent in Luther Lackey's Southern Soul material, there seems to be no reason Lackey couldn't incorporate his love of country into his R&B songwriting.

http://www.southernsoulrnb.com/artistguide.cfm?aid=126

Helps its user-friendliness that Trailer Choir's Tailgate is so short, though (32 minutes), and includes all four songs from their EP from a couple years ago, which I'd written about here:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2008/07/woodbox-gang-trailer-choir-laugh-it-up-down-on-the-farm.html

Brice's "Sumter County Friday Night" starts chronicling a rumble between rival high schools and resulting black eyes, and has a sound mean enough to pull it off, which is pretty impressive. Also he has a tendency to slip in more emphatic moments (in this song, and "Four On The Floor" anyway) into a vocal inflection that sounds like somebody I can't place in '90s commercial rock -- Rob Zombie, maybe, or the guy from Collective Soul? Not sure yet, but it's way more effective than I would have guessed.

Other new album with some really rocking songs on it (among some that are less so, especially toward the end when he gets morose and dirgey and hopes his voice can carry things, which I don't think it can) is Randy Houser's imminent They Call Me Cadillac -- I mentioned the walloping drums in the opening "Lowdown and Lonesome" already, but there's also "I'm All About It," which might be the fastest recent country rock I've heard out of Nashville. Swings, too. And he likes slide guitar.

"a sound mean enough to pull it off) I'll have to check that; reminds me that Link Wray's "Rumble" may be the only instrumental ever banned; supposedly(according to the 'thorities) was named for and became the theme song for gang fights, which is just what it sounds like (like, step up, get set and go off). As far as soul & country, Al Green did great versions of "Together Again", "For The Good Times", and I think he was on "Lay Lady Lay" with Anthony Hamilton and some others. Plus, Bobby Blue Bland, Solomon Burke, Arthur Alexander, Clarence Carter, Stoney Edwards (a tip of the Hatlo hat to Edd for turning me on to Stoney) and a couple of collections I still need to hear, Country & Rhythm & Western & Blues (or something like that) and the out of print box, From Where I Stand (or Here I Stand)

And The Holmes Brothers times Mavis Staples gave an awesome ocncert, made my Best Live Acts on the Nash Scene ballot thatyear.

But what I've really been meaning to mention (and then I'll shut up for a while) is "Learning to Live with Myself", a documentary about Merle Haggard, made for PBS' American Masters series. AM can be pretty puffy, but this was pretty candid. It didn'tmention (at least in the part I saw) his onstage denunciations of "Bush Wars" (as in Daddy Bush's original, plus W.'s Afghan and Iraq operations), around the time that "Dixie Chick" was becoming a verb. It did show him adding some anti-Vietnam War and anti-Watergate lines to "Are The Good Times Really Over. And it led through some landmark concerts and accolades,which he seemed genuinely moved and gratified by (ditto his family with somewhat stressed, earnestly devoted, though also pretty candid fourth wife)--to the point when he allowed as he also loved his compartment on the tour bus, because it was the same size as his cell at San Quentin, and was the only place he feels safe, other than the stage (this last an afterthought). That's one example, and apparently we can still watch the whole thing here, plus links to outtakes and extras:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/merle-haggard/watch-the-full-film/1605/

Must've been unconsciously been thinking of former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy.

Recent tracks I've been liking:

Stealing Angels "He Better Be Dead": Dark doomy pickin' sets us up to expect deadly vengeance in the style of Miranda, instead we get three cutie-pies brooding in the aftermath of a love-'em-and-leave-'em one-night-stand. Tough stuff anyway, though the other tracks on their webpage smooth out too much on the harmonies. Managed and produced by Paul Worley.

Sunny Sweeney "From A Table Away": Woman in the shadows realizes she's stuck being the other woman. Good workaday sorrow, a rich voice that doesn't force things. I should check out Sweeney's album from a few years back.

Randy Montana "Ain't Much Left Of Lovin' You": Passionate sense of loss, reminds me of Neil Diamond's "Solitary Man," despite Montana's voice not really having the heft to carry it.

Jake Owen "Tell Me": More of the same, stronger voice than Montana's, solid mainstream licks, song not as distinctive.

The Randy Rogers Band "Too Late For Goodbye": Love fades, glad to see you go, etc. I could envision Sarah Buxton singing this - she'd do it better, actually, since it needs more of a girl's pout than a guy's whimper.

The Janedear Girls "Wildflower": I imagine that if the Spice Girls had ever gone country, they'd go for country that kicks like this. Would have given it more personality, too.

And these are worth a second or third listen (in potential order of preference):

Jennette McCurdy "Not That Far Away": A good Jennifer Love Hewitt kind of wail, though it gets lost in the arrangement.

Justin Moore "How I Got To Be This Way": Slack singing, but good rippin' rock-country riffs.

Lathan Moore "Beautiful Girl": Cheerful rock 'n' roll chug lite.

Darryl Worley "Keep The Change": Dumbshit full of passionate intensity.

Bridgette Tatum "That's Love Y'All": Strong soul voice, cute-free, though the song doesn't do her singing justice. Her MySpace features metal and funk riffs à la MuzikMafia, though I don't think there's any John Rich association - which is too bad 'cause she could use his songwriting.

Troy Olsen "Summer Thing": A summer's day, about ten years ago.

Boggy Creek "Boggy Creek": Southern rock w/ acoustic pickin' for the sake of pickin'; vocals surprise by going for rich alto rather than broad twang.

Hmmm, haven't heard any of those yet. Got the Randy Rogers advance CD in the mail, but haven't gotten to it yet; kind of assume I'll think it's okay but will never play it again after a couple listens, just like I didn't with his last couple (which I'd said nice things about on previous Rolling Country theads.) He's a pretty big deal around here; one of the leading lights of Central Texas red clay country rock, or something. Even had some kind of promotional deal with Tetco, where I usually refill my gas tank, which means his band's well enough known. They've just always ultimately struck me as respectable (meaning I respect their music) but ultimately, somehow, stodgy and indistinctive. Anyway, Frank, curious where you're coming across all of these, some of which sound real interesting. Doesn't sound like a CMT or radio playlist...I'll try to see which ones are up on Rhapsody, and check them out.

And Don, didn't mean to imply that Daddy B. Nice's country/soul crossover rundown was an all-time definitive list, by any means. There's lots of names on both that great From Where I Stand box, and on the two volumes I've got of Dirty Laundy: The Soul Of Black Country (Trikont Germany, 2004 and 2008) that he didn't mention. (Hadn't heard of that other comp you named.) And obviously he also doesn't even name Darius Rucker, the most popular black country star since Charlie Pride, or Rissi Palmer, who hit with "Country Girl" a few years ago (not to mention some folks I mention in the Rhapsody post below.) Still think it's cool he dealt with the topic at all, espeically on a soul blog.

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2008/04/walking-akon-down-the-dark-side-of-countrys-street.html

Can't say I hear much Link Wray in Lee Brice's sound (hear more in Jace Everett's actually), but do still think "Sumter County Friday Night," and maybe another song or two on his album, might be tough and rowdy enough to qualify as fight music. That song, fwiw, basically takes you through a post-football-game Friday night in a small Carolina town, all sorts of details about the trouble going on; kind of like the idea of Friday Night Lights-inspired country actually. And his band sets up a real hard, funky, incessant groove to carry you through "Sumter County," "Carolina Boys," and "Four On The Floor," right after each other. Listening more, I'm not sure if the '90s grunge grunting alluded to above (which for all I know might really be a Chad Kroeger rip) shows up anywhere else but in the blatant dance song I talked about, but I still really love a lot of what Brice does with his voice, stretching words out, turning individual vowels for several syllables -- not exactly Axl Rose in 1987, but I think he's doing something I haven't heard (at least not much) in country before. Album is uneven, but the opener "Picture Of Me" seems like a pretty good here's-how-I-am-and-here's-why-I'm that-way statement, the kind of song Eric Church might've sang on his first album (and maybe Ashlee Simpson on her first two), though I haven't decided yet if Brice is saying anything new in it. (Lee gets a co-write on all four of thse songs, though not on "Love Like Crazy" and "She Ain't Right" -- which seem to be two of the more tolerable of the album's ballads, some of which are sunk in sap.)

Both the Brice album and Houser album definitely have some funk, in the old funky boogie rock sense, in their groove. And both guys seem set on playing the bad boy, though Houser seems to want to come across a more weathered outlaw type, and Brice more the young buck. Both want to be sexy for the girls, too; Houser brags a lot about his prowess. Which might be part of why they call him Cadillac. Talks in "I'm All About It", if I'm hearing him right, about "going down all the way" with a girl who gives him "lead" (as in pencils?), but also think that song swings harder in my head than when I'm actually hearing it. Kind of wish his band had stretched it out more, its bridge is the nastiest part.

Actually, Brice's "Carolina Boys" is also about a fight, or a potential one -- Girl he's hot on walks in with her city slicker or yuppie boyfriend, "in his three piece suit and his penny loafer shoes"; "I gave him a glare and I swear he looked pretty scared to me, I saw him swallow his pride and I looked deep in his eyes, and he decided he didn't want to take it outside." Lee meanwhile has on "my white T-shirt and my cowboy hat and my baby blues." Class warfare of the asshole kind, but it works.

Listening to Bridgette Tatum's A Taste Of Sex, Church, and Chicken EP, which features the track Frank listed, on Rhapsody now; like the title, and the title of "(I Like My) Cowboys Dirty." She's got a good big husky voice, and right, she's not afraid to boogie. Reminds me of Gretchen Wilson and Lacy J. Dalton, maybe. But yeah, think I agree with Frank in that she could probably use better material.

Meanwhile, anybody heard any of these? (Are the Chesney or Jessie James ones Don Henley sequels?)

13 17 2 The Boys of Fall, Kenny Chesney
B.Cannon,K.Chesney (C.Beathard,D.Turnbull )
BNA PROMO SINGLE | 13
44 1 Stuck Like Glue, Sugarland
B.Gallimore,K.Bush,J.Nettles (J.O.Nettles,K.Bush,K.Griffin,S.Carter )
Mercury DIGITAL | 44
57 NEW 1 Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not, Thompson Square
New Voice Entertainment (J.Collins,D.L.Murphy )
Stoney Creek PROMO SINGLE | 57
58 58 2 Boys In The Summer, Jessie James
J.Fields (J.James,J.Michael )
Mercury DIGITAL | Show Dog-Universal | 58
59 57 59 3 One Thing Beautiful, Rocket Club
M.Kirkwold,J.Sayles (D.Smithmier,J.Sayles )
Feather Moon DIGITAL | Rocket Club |

Not challenging you or Daddy B., just chiming in, mainly for those who might not know (most of my stuff is for the lurkers, which I mostly am) Friday Nights Light country is a promising trendancy, hope the Music Row songwriters are studying those subplots, and not too distracted by the ratings. Yeah Frank, that first Sunny Sweeney album is pretty good, got her into the Best New slot on my Nashville Scene ballot. She was def among the young and restless, sounding like an alternate universe Natalie Maines, still spinning her wheels in backwoods Texas (think she actually mentioned the trees, anyway that's what it sounded like, with overcast brooding rather than stark desert dichotomies ect)I'll burn it for you if I can find it, but that's a fair-sized "if."

spinning her wheels in backwoods Texas (think she actually mentioned the trees

Yep, in "East Texas Pines" (about the Piney Woods -- hey, I've been there now!), easily the best song on Sweeney's '06 debut to my ears. Also liked, at the time (according to notations still inked on my CD) "Here Lately, "Slow Swinging Western Tunes," "If I Could" (written by Tim Carroll, Elizabeth Cook's hubbie) and (speaking of Lacy J Dalton, who had a hit with it once upon a time) "16th Avenue."

I'm listening again to "From A Table Away," and oddly enough Sunny's emotional tone and melody remind me a lot of Vanessa Carlton's otherwise different (and unfortunately overlooked) singer-songwriter album (on Murder Inc.!) from a couple of years ago.

And the intro to "He Better Be Dead" has the feel - not the notes, but the nervousness - I got from the opening to Warrant's excellent "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (a song that's aching for a country version), right after the instrumental diddling at the start and before Jani starts shrieking, the dread. But then the Angels go cute and punchy, rather than to Jani's anguish.

Did Akon's country move ever materialize?

Not that I know of. But it's not like I keep close tabs on Akon these days. (Assume I'd have heard, had he actually done it. Snoop tried a one-song country move a few years ago, right? Or pretended to?)

Man, Jani Lane would be a natural in Nashville, you'd think. Kind of surprised he hasn't made the move, like so many other semi-retired hair-metallers have. Same with Tom Keifer (who did show up on an Andy Griggs CD several years back, at least.)

Listening to a live (and hot) "Picture Of Me" on YouTube, not taking in the lyrics, but Lee Brice's wail also reminds me of Ashlee, his voice scooping down and yarling up. Kicking band, too. Think the production is a little too clean on the studio "Sumter County Friday Night," or maybe I'm thrown by how cheery it sounds, in its toughness. I'm meh on "She Ain't Right" from a few years ago, too much stereotype and not enough force.

Here's a live Sumter County; bet the band are fans of "Crosstown Traffic" and "Voodoo Child."

They sledgehammer that live. From the perspective of the venue and crowd, not really possible to deliver that the way it is in the record. You gotta lose the banjo, the slight rhythm change-up, all of the twang, which is a casualty of the recording. Plus the acoustic guitar -- really, has no chance in the mix.

Works anyway.

The prole cap rock thing.

Class warfare of the asshole kind, but it works.

Hah. Two cartoon stereotypes in combat. My only question, who wants to be the cartoon stereotype
more?

Don't quite know why but that also made me take a listen to Justin Moore's "I Could Kick Your Ass."

Good for about 90 seconds.

Off Frank's list of songs above:

Guitar at the beginning of Jake Owen's "Tell Me" reminds me of Metallica in quasi-spaghetti-western funereal gloom mode ("Fade To Black," maybe, or one of their interminable ballad hits from the early '90s. Except Owen's song is thankfully less interminable.)

Guitar at the beginning of Darryl Worley's dumbass opportunistic (but still unfortunately admittedly somewhat rousing) would-be Tea Party anthem "Keep The Change" reminds me of some late '70s new wave/powerpop band in hard Byrds mode (most likely "Girl Of My Dreams" by Bram Tchaikovsky.)

Favorite song I've heard so far from the list, easy: "From A Table Away," Sunny Sweeney.

Interesting that this 'homemade vid' has been up for about a month without being yanked for a
TOS copyright violation. They're not racist, oh no.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUWnl7UADYU

I had a Worley rec a couple years ago. On one of the songs he griped about not being as successful as he thought he oughta be -- the record company not getting his CDs into stores in places he was playing.

He comes up with these jingo tunes about the way he thinks life oughta be and he sings 'em good and the guitar sounds great, and he's still a left-behinder. Ted Nugent'd kill for a song like "Keep the Change."

Judging by viewer count though, Ray Stevens' "We The People" is a lot more popular.

What are the Piney Woods like, xhux?

The Singles Jukebox reviews Jerrod Niemann's "Lover, Lover":

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2588

The Singles Jukebox reviews The Band Perry's "If I Die Young":

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2580

I was too flabbergasted to review "If I Die Young" - is definitely my WTF country single of the month. The words are ridiculously, passionately bad, or passionately ridiculous, but I think I'm thumbs up on it anyway, for its audacity and commitment, and no one would accuse it of being generic. I don't know if I'd consider it country if it weren't being marketed as such; sounds like a Brit quirk-girl thing though with an American accent, and loopier and more exuberant and naive even than Tashbed. Sample lyrics:

There's a boy here in town, says he'll love me forever
Who would've thought forever would be severed
By the sharp knife of a short life

Band works with Nathan Chapman (Taylor Swift's producer) and Paul Worley, and is on one of Scott Borchetta's labels (same one as Sunny Sweeney).

(Borchetta's the guy who gave Taylor a contract after she at age 14 or 15 walked out on whatever label it was (RCA?) that wanted to keep her in "development" (or at least that's what I recall being claimed on a Taylor EPK).)

David Raposa, who awarded "If I Die Young" 9 points out of 10: "Sad but true: knowing what the male Perrys' hair looked like before blurbing might've influenced my score."