Rolling Country 2010

In terms of mass psychosis, this would seem to have some relevance:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/08/growing-number-of-americans-falsely-believe-president-obama-is-muslim.html

Boy, didn't think I could be made to feel embarrassed about admitting to like watching football. But Chesney's eight-minute (8 minutes!) video for "Boys of Fall" sure took a good stab at it.

Gracious, what's he trying for, entry into the hall of fame, a second career at NFL Films, a
starring role as Ara Parseghian in a remake of Rudy or the Gavin Grey character in Everybody's All American?

SJers (but not me) review new singles from

Taylor Swift

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2666

and Miranda Lambert

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2668

Good lord, this thread exploded since I last checked in! It's probably a bit late to jump into the Daryl Worley discussion, however much I may want to bring up his Playgirl spread, so I'll just start from the bottom.

Anyone care to take a shot at parsing this blurb from the "Only Prettier" TSJ:

How long do you think it’ll be before country lyricists realize that no one who actually lives in cities spends much time contemplating hypothetical bar out-tartings with rowdy crews from the sticks? Or really, any potentially awkward encounter with corn-fed denizens? That, perhaps, the point of cities is to provide us with something better to do with our time?

That strikes me as an especially ugly thing to say, and with not a hell of a lot of actual relevance to the lyrical content of "Only Prettier." But maybe I'm being a bit too sensitive here?

The new Trace Adkins set *sounds* pretty great-- the rock licks have enough heft to them without the piss-poor compression issues on so many recent country albums-- but the number of novelty songs grates. I didn't like Joe Diffie's 90s albums for pretty much the same reason. Adkins is a fine enough singer, but he only has a handful of singles and album tracks that I would revisit on purpose.

New Joey & Rory out next month isn't much to get worked up about at all.

I liked "Only Prettier." Heard it via the video. Maybe the vid had something to do with it, starring Pickler and the girl from Lady A in side roles, and probably others I didn't recognize. The guitars have the shapr glisten to 'em that I always like.

piss-poor compression issues on so many recent country albums

Which ones? (I'm not sure my ears are atuned to "compression issues", good or bad, at all, fwiw.)

New Joey & Rory out next month isn't much to get worked up about at all.

Nor was their first one, tbh, but there's something vaguely interesting in the lead cut/key cut/(first single maybe?) being called "Album Number Two." Turns cliched before long, but still -- very meta, as was some other new country track heard in the last week. But right now I can't think of what that was.

Sunny Sweeney "From A Table Away" now getting country play in Austin; Kevin Fowler "Pound Sign (#?*!)" getting more and more -- both sound great on a car radio, so both climbing my 2010 singles list as we speak. And until it slows down at the end, at least, the new Randy Houser album is growing on me, too.

Re compression, Miranda Lambert songs hurt my ears worse than the Sleigh Bells. Everything's as loud as everything else, and her voice is strident to begin with. That said, I like Miranda better than the Sleigh Bells. I'm not sure who else Jon hears having compression issues, but this makes me wanna hear the Adkins more.

That ugly Singles Jukebox comment really pissed me off until I listened to "Only Prettier", and I guess Miranda's kind of asking for it. I'll say she's equally ugly, only funnier. But she's not really talking about what she does with her time in that song, which seems to be the implication of the comment. I'll assume she leads a full life.

As far as compression goes, it seems like the Loudness War has finally come to Nashville in the last year or so. Revolution is probably the worst offender I can recall offhand-- it's a good thing I like the songs and Miranda's singing, because the record itself sounds awful-- but I'd say that Carrie Underwood's Play On, the last Jack Ingram album, Lee Brice's record, and Blake Shelton's two EPs from this year all suffer from the same problem of everything being "as loud as everything else."

Here's Chris Neal's much more articulate take on the subject from the last Nashville Scene comments:

Last year, too much loudness (that is, an excess of volume and dynamic-range compression in the mix and/or mastering) did unforgivable damage to what should have been my favorite rock album of the year, Metallica's Death Magnetic. This year it did the same for what should have been my favorite country album of the year, Miranda Lambert's Revolution. Here is an album filled with wonderful songs and terrific performances, neither of which I can stand to listen to because the sound has been so distorted by loudness and flattened by compression that it breaks my heart. The so-called "Loudness War" has been raging for more than a decade in the rock world, but Revolution will always stand for me as the first great country album to become a casualty. This vile practice is the mortal enemy of modern music, and it should be stopped immediately.

To which I would say: Yes, that.

The first single from the new Joey & Rory is actually "This Song's for You," the duet with Zac Brown. Basically a protracted handjob to a crowd at a show: Probably plays fine enough live, but I can't think of a single reason anyone would want to hear a recorded version. They're a charming enough couple in their interviews, in a way that only intermittently comes across in their music. The single and the album overall, despite the self-referential title cut, are both just inert.

"Pound Sign" has already gone to recurrent status on the Billboard chart, but I was surprised that it didn't even crack the top 30. The Sunny Sweeney single is a grower, though. With so many new singles from Underwood, Taylor Swift, Rascal Flatts, Sugarland, and Brad Paisley all having debuted in the last month, it's going to be hard for Sweeney to push very far into the top 40, but I could get on board with that.

Ha ha, I posted that Neal comment upthread, again bitching about Lambert's sound. So, agreed--except Jon, please tell me you're not also coming out in favor of "Death Magnetic."

I'll go ahead and link to Nick Southall's Imperfect Sound Forever article, an excellent explanation of why overuse of compression is bad, in case people haven't read it.

Refined what I had to say upstream a bit, added some things, some repetition:

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/2010/08/19/another-tea-party-band/

listening to the Riley record again today. One great song about a guy who learns how to be a man when his dad returns from doing time for fucking up the dude whom his mom was fucking, another great one about stopping to smoke weed in a "field of green," two takes on the title track, "Grandma's Roadhouse," which mentions bar-b-que pork on cornbread, a very Marmalade "Reflections of My Life" chord progression in one called "Pictures," and plenty of rock grooves that are never overdone but which really rock. Extra tracks include one called "Got to Get Away" (not the Rolling Stones tune) that chugs out on three minutes of fuzz guitar. The vocals by Gary Stewart are fine; the vocals by Riley Watkins himself are even better, robust, energized, and reminiscent of Burton Cummings at his most astringent or Moby Grape's Bob Moseley. In short, a masterpiece of a record; there's real passion and delicacy, but at its most generic it sounds like great Southern rock without a shred of chauvinistic preening and like Sahm or CCR or the Grape without any of the stiffness of CCR or the laziness of Sahm or the formalist fuck-off of the Grape. Riley Watkins went on to play in bands in the '70s and played again with Stewart in the late '70s and early '80s--you can see him with Stewart in Austin City Limits footage from '81. I talked to Watkins this afternoon; he said that in the early days Stewart's focus was almost entirely rock 'n' roll, and when Watkins saw Stewart perform in the mid-'70s, doing some songs during a Charley Pride set in which Stewart played piano in Pride's band, Watkins was shocked at how completely Stewart had veered toward country. Production on Grandma's Roadhouse is excellent, great stereo separation and blend of guitars and electric piano, with vocals expressing a yearning for roots and peace of mind, even, that the lyrics themselves both confirm and deny. If there's a stronger divorce song told from the viewpoint of a wounded child than "Daddy's Coming Home" I don't know it.

I agree on the compression issue. It also has ruined a lot of rock records, like the last Go-Betweens album--listen to the way the otherwise awesome "Darlinghurst Nights" grates on the ear due to the attempt to make everything LOUD. It's fucked up.

So Mellenfarmer's furrowed brow became the aforementioned and enduring template for so many, incl Worley at his best. I wouldn't mind following Adkins across the tracks, to what would be the good side of town in my case, but also I still like Mellen as an old-James-Dean folkie,with restless cig smoke from sea to shining (incl deep-oiled) sea. Premise of new album seems pretentious, but I liked a couple of tracks when blindfold-tested, also still like this set, though my writing isn't quite what I'd want now:
http://www.villagevoice.com/content/printVersion/217257. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Jun 4, 2010
Little Punk Houses For You and Me
Don Allred
published: August 31, 1999
John Mellencamp: Rough Harvest Mercury
Thee former Mr. Cougrat's latest offering, Rough Harvest, is a compatible collection of big hits and personal chestnuts, re-recorded with his fave-ravin' fiddle-and-drum band, during rehearsals, gigs, and other moments gracefully gleaned from the glimmering old gravytrain. No more huge hits a-coming, probably, but anyone who once tapped a toe to, then started to yawn along with, Hootie, Ani, R.E.M., or for that matter Dylan's once-ballyhooed Rolling Thunder Review (past Desire's "Hurricane") will nevertheless find here dang near a whole album's worth of purty pet (not pat) sounds suitable to shaking a stick or even a leg to (or at). Knee-haah!
However. Once I got used to jigging around at RH's immediately engaging hoedown, I started fretting the prominence of its folkie keep-on- truckin' farm, good-taste-bound. Bumper crop of beats notwithstanding, was this not basically bad faith with the hard-(Coug Age)-won, and even harder-(1989 98's Human Wheels, Dance Naked, Mr. Happy Go Lucky, John Mellencamp)-established balance of acoustic/electric, loud/soft, boy/girl "secret" alliances? Mellencholy comfort food for his/our downtime?
I mean, just consider a little ditty I know you know, about Jack and Diane. Ever the astute collector, Mr. Camp copped (one of) this song's famous phrases from Garland Jeffreys's Ghost Writer. GJ's "Spanish Town" was as much limbo as ghetto, about a guy who's "gonna suck on a chili dog"— seems like that's all his Hot Latin Heritage comes down to. Likewise, Jack and Diane are about to see their chili dreams left on ice, down by the Tastee-Freez. But there's something almost luxurious in the way John rasps "Ohhh Yeahhh," and then positively flourishing is "Life! goes on-n-n"— one hand's resting on the wheel, the other's magnanimously waving another driver by. So, " . . . long after the thrill/of livin' is gone" still is, like, foreboding, but ends up presuming it's got all the time in the world to be that way (and to take moody-broody satisfactions where it can).

My favorite bits involve the guitars. Acoustic serenades for Jack and Diane; mushy stuff offset by a remarkable refrain. Stern electric chords move in like a starchfront, only to meet a little patch of finger-, gum-, and even string-pops spelling out "So what?" (As in "What are you rebelling against?" "Whaddaya got?") Cherrybomb-flava'd topping, on such an almost just-plain-pained-abundance of 'tude— thus, pop-wise, we're given the pause that (still!) refreshes. So ('tudinally), let's compare Harvest's nice new versions to the originals.

"Rain on the Scarecrow" (1985) was where John got (some of) the bathetic pseudo-populist crap scared out of him by the reality of farms disappearing in an epidemic of foreclosures, every day. So "Jack And Diane" 's robust "So what?" became two notes endlessly repeated by a rhetorical worm of mechanical guitar: "Dur-dur?" automatically shredding a glare-ice storm over a farm being taken, burying John's merely human, merely eloquent outrage. This current edition is merely (?) eloquent, period. And "Jackie Brown" 's new purism dilutes Jackie's possible solace, glimpsed in Human Wheels's more "commercial" string arrangement. Yep, mighty Rough Harvest, by crackey— those two were too old for geldin'. But the rest of it's a trade-off that gets better all the time.

Human Wheels's title song is now minus some of the studio version's catchiness, but also its arty-farty vocal filtration. The "Losing My Religion" parajangle R.E.M.ains (electric!). One or two other numbers do miss Kenny Aronoff (he's with Melissa Etheridge now), but new drummer Dane Clark (plus the return of Me'shell Ndegéocello's bass and vocals) keeps a live "Wild Night" shoulderbopping past Van Morrison's fancily nostalgic Tupelo Honey original. And the traditional "In My Time of Dying" 's buoyantly celebratory momentum makes Led Zep's (copyrighted) 11-minute Physical Graffiti wankathon seem positively Spïnal Tap.

As for the (appropriately) smoother stuff, that Pied Piper glint in Dylan's (Bootleg Series box) "Farewell Angelina" ain't here, probably because Mellen figures we'll never get out of this world alive, so rather than tease, he takes us on a merry-go-round tour of the song. Then he decides what the heck: his own "Minutes to Memories" forgoes its original antsiness to float a few between-the-Earth-the-Moon-and-the-Greyhound suspensions in its title's process. "Under the Boardwalk" 's harmonies have a cookout by the sea. And overall, Miriam Sturm's violin plays off Janas Hoyt's vocals, as well as her own (and everybody's rhythm): hazy one minute, prismatic the next. John's never sung better than on this album, un-der the moh-woh-woh-ohhn, of course. Pawp's Art!

listening to the new Caitlin Rose right now. "who's gonna take me home/who's gonna want me now, ah-ah." She don't wanna go it alone. Voice raises to a pitch of hysteria and then the arrangement loses the strings and she quavers about how it's not her right to push her man around. "For the Rabbits" opens also with strings and then settles into a 12/8 thing in a vaguely countrypolitan thing with elec piano and Beatle-esque chord progressions and tremelo guitar. nice 'politan chord changes and a guitar solo that leads back into her vocal.

got a throaty wistful kind of approach and something a bit genteel too. "Fall into this old disaster/Because it's better than spending your nights alone." More strings. I sorta wince every time she re-enters the mix. Well-written but she also rhymes "ocean" and "emotion." Something little-girl about the whole thing. I find the mix and the playing good, but somehow too much, perhaps on purpose, fulsome or even saccharine. It's the voice. Let's try "New York City." Same kind of chord changes as before. Folkie melodic moves and she says, "didn't have to pay no rent or be no good com-pa-ny." Ricky-tick all the way. But these Tin Pan Alley suspensions and seventh chords constantly coming in and some castanets or something. John Sebastian.

Doubletracked voice elsewhere on a song about hitting the bottom/hear me callin'/from the bottom of her sinful wishing well. Yikes. this is musical but the singing is too damned arch for me, fadeaway phrasing, she's trying to be cute. I thought she was supposed to be a tough girl who drank too much and smoked too many American Spirits and all that, just another folkie, but Nevers made it sound good. Holy shit, the British press are giving her good notices, and I saw her in cowboy boots in a parking lot once, and she is cute and about 23. I feel like I've eaten a bag of peanut butter M&Ms and drank two Bud Lites in the back of a Ford Explorer stuck on I-40.

except Jon, please tell me you're not also coming out in favor of "Death Magnetic."

Good God, no. Neal can stand alone on that one.

In agreement, though, that the new Mellencamp w/ T Bone album is worth a listen. Strikes me as drawn heavily from the brand of old timey acoustic blues that they didn't really pull off on Mellencamp's last album. Suits Mellencamp well, though, and it surely belongs in this thread.

Anybody got a publicist contact for Jamey Johnson? Email me at pdfreeman at gmail dot com. Thanks...

Listening to Grandma's Roadhouse, so far I'm digging most of the writing and playing. The picture's faded, and Riley's set free! How often does that happen in a country song, or any song? Not nearly enough, and he rejoices. But he's the dominant and gut-busting voice, which will take some getting used to. He's better on the more rocking tracks--the bonus tracks are excellent and should have been on the LP, losing the included version of the title track, (that cool, down the steps melody's revealed in the outtake; no need for the master'srawkus caucus). Also could ditch "Field of Green", which distractingly recalls Crosby Stills & Nash; ditto "Funky Tar Paper Shack", with its "Lodi" roll. Th version of "Easy People" 's recurring suggestion of "The Weight" is a little distracting, but main distraction is Riley's vocal squeezebox. But at least six keepers. Really digging the rubbery sustain over tilting groove, in "Gotta Get Away", especially, and many trax have some truly pungent electric piano (a truly rare thang re electric pianos). Thanks for the tip, Cousin Ebbtide! (PS: country needed Gary more than rock, Ebb, and still does)

As for Gary, this following just manages to suggest how soulfully/conflictedly satisfying he can still be, but anyway:

Out Of Hand
A bar-stool freebird of yore avoids a million nights alone
Don Allred
published: January 20, 2004
Details: Gary Stewart Live At Billy Bob's Texas (Smith Music Group)
(The following paragraph was written for a country music poll ballot in December, right before I glanced up from my laptop, and saw the wordcrawl beneath Larry King: "Singer Gary Stewart has just been found dead in his Florida home." [Wife died, and he shot himself in the neck, a fairly slow way to go.])
On Live at Billy Bob's Texas, Gary Stewart is but a ghost of himself. Now fitting the "quiet ones you gotta watch" barkeep's pro-file, this free(dom'sjustanotherword)bird of yore (once hyped as the "Springsteen of country," when he and the new Boss were go-cart Mozarts versus mid-'70s murk) no longer shivers and wails, but leaves dusty fingerprints all over gleaming, surging honky-tonkcore, the Lost City of his Greatest (mostly shouldabeen) Hits. The band's eager, but also well disciplined, and totally unannotated, like ghost riders in the sky.
(Later): Yeah, another dead guy. Once upon a time, he was Dr. Fun and Mr. Doom (and self-awareness, and headlonging), simultaneously. Gary still sounds like an impossibly corny, truly inspired evangelist, on Out of Hand/Your Place or Mine, his two best LPs on one CD. Songs flash by like whole lives, but really they're just his moments, ticking away.
Live cuts like "An Empty Glass (That's the Way the Day Ends)" turn the tides down like blankets, till I'm bathed in the sweetest taboo (of self-pity). Tiring, soothing. I just stare through his stare, on the rocks, as he imagines/avoids/follows her stare. "Maybe you feel cheated, for having married so young," he mutters to himself and his significant other, while shifting on his bar stool, in the still-rousing "Ten Years of This." ("A million nights alone!") So: Mebbe getting married is cheating? No! Not always!
The Live CD is labeled with Gary's chipmunky, half-quizzical half-smirk. ("Crazy world, haint it.") Vividly painted. Like one of those commemorative plates advertised on late-night basic cable. I try to put it away, but then a-l-l-l his damned drinkin'/cheatin' songs start swirling through their rounds again. Scores unsettle themselves, in Gary's man-made afterlife. (Reminding 25-years-teetotaling meeee: For the first time in eight years, I gotta find another job, and now Bush wants Mars!) Art sucks.

Friday's dose of Nugent. He never sleeps and it's what you've come to expect.

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/2010/08/20/droolin-pukin-dyin/

Obituary of Kenny Edwards in today's LA Times, very well done:

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-kenny-edwards-20100820,0,5948959.story

Great on Stewart, Don. I like Stewart's early stuff--"Big Bertha, the Snuff Queen" and "Caffein, Benzedrine" and those cuts, which are...more country than some of his later material. The voice got more out-of-control after the late '70s. He was certainly a better Jerry Lee than Jason D. Williams, whose new Todd Snider-produced record is just too close to one of those Orion/Elvis Sun ripoffs for my taste, altho I am amused by the way Jason D. changes the words to "Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-o-Dee" and I also am quite intrigued by one called something like "If You Ever Saw a Baby with Its Pud," which is sorta the nutso of the retro-lovers' dream I guess.

Listened to the new Marshall Chapman record. Surprised at how good it is. Easy on the ears and quite cannily sung given her vocal limitations, even a nice western-swing Cindy Walker cover and several songs about going to Mexico. Not bad at all and the production really fits what she's after, so I'm impressed.

My ears don't tell me when a record's been compressed, though I suppose if I had training I could figure it out (e.g., not a lot of quiet spots). But if modern recorded music is awash in compression, I must be able to handle it, since I like a lot of modern music. Xgau complained about the "compressed-to-oppress production regimen" on Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway, an album whose sound I have zero problems with. Supposedly, Iggy's production botch on the late '90s remix of Raw Power is all compressed and scrunched-up into an oppressive loudness, but my problem with the album is that Iggy took the bounce and flow out of the bass etc., killed the rhythm, and (in my ignorance) I assume the problem is in what he did with the eq, trying to punch up every instrument separately. That's just a guess. (Xgau on the other hand was fine with that remix.) My problem with Revolution, on the tracks that disappoint me, is the songwriting. Of course, the compression may influence my ears, may make me like the music less than I would had the track not been compressed. Or may make me like the music more than if it had not been compressed. I wouldn't know. I sure hope compression isn't mandatory these days, but I don't have a clue when or if it's a drawback or advantage.

that jace everett's pretty nice. wonder what the last big rockabilly album to make noise on the country charts was. got a friend that's been getting some momentum on the east coast with the rockabilly thing but it seems like a limited market... a lot of small, blue collar towns in WVA, MD, and PA.

Holy moly, just listened to the stream of Mellen's new album, not nec expecting that much,but past the first couple tracks, things got amazing pretty quickly. Track 3 def conjures with the fiddle, which I just realized may not be on many other tracks, but by the same token, it really is the overall vibe, as advertised--plus the songwriting. "A Graceful Fall", despite its fancy title, is a genuwine honky tonk classic; could def see it on Merle's next set, with any luck. And "No One Cares For Me At All" ("If I had to guess/It's cawse I'm spotty at best") totally gets that side of Hank, and his studies of Jimmie and Woody have paid off as well. "Love At First Sight" could be the pappy of Paisley's excellent "Me Neither", albeit with a twist in the last line; ditto the parting spark of "Easter Eve", to say the least. And Coug Age catchiness isn't off the map either (reminds me that, just as we might not know or care about musical differences between 1830s and 18880s, many now living are likewise 1930s & 1980s, or soon enough will be--and indeed, long as it works) Oh yeah, here's the stream, though you might have to turn it up:
http://www.spinner.com/new-release#/8

Crap, should a plural http://www.spinner.com/new-releases#/8

My problem with Revolution, on the tracks that disappoint me, is the songwriting. Of course, the compression may influence my ears, may make me like the music less than I would had the track not been compressed. Or may make me like the music more than if it had not been compressed. I wouldn't know. I sure hope compression isn't mandatory these days, but I don't have a clue when or if it's a drawback or advantage.

Yeah, I'd been thinking the same thing. The difference between the tracks on that album that I like and the ones I don't like doesn't seem to be production, and I haven't noticed a major "loudness" difference between the tracks I like on Revolution and the ones I like on the first two albums (which I much prefer, for other reasons.) Also don't hear where everything-loud-at-once does damage to the Lee Brice album; again, there are songs I love and songs I don't, and it's not like the ones I love are less "loud" (if anything, the opposite, though that's more the nature of performances than production.) By the way, unlike Frank and George, I can't swear I prefer the more overwhelmingly rocking live Brice tracks linked above from youtube to the versions on the album, if only because, through lousy laptop speakers, those live tracks are so much less pleasant for me to hear. I get how there's more going on with the band in them, but still wouldn't say I'd rather listen to them than studio versions, which tend to rock tough already to my ears.

Singles Jukers on Brad Paisley's "Water":

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2674

Hope I got the gist of George's Paisley complaints more or less right. (Maybe should have tossed in something about how so many rural Southern areas still lack broadband, now that I think of it. None of which has much to do with this particular song, either way.)

Our most rural AL counties just got some new grants sepa for that, but we'll see what the new Congress has to say. Xhux, say goodbye to bad computer speakers! Get like Maxell headphones, the gray ones with black foam, that cover your whole ear, getum at the the drug store. Or Sony or Koss, long as they cost like $17-20 or so, that's enough, they helped me so much! (not a paid endorsement).

cover your whole ear

You lost me there, Don. I've never met a headphone or earbud that I've liked, at least at home. (Did use them when I used to DJ, though.) Anyway, I'm sure there are other options to solve my bad computer sound quality problems, but I'm cheap, lazy, and lacking anything like an audiophile gene. And even beyond all that, "hearing" what's going on underneath all the crowd and other noise in live youtube clips (sometimes even live albums, if they're real ones) at least as often as not strikes me as theoretical, at best.

that jace everett's pretty nice. wonder what the last big rockabilly album to make noise on the country charts was

Looks like Joe Ely never got higher than #57 (Live At Liberty Lunch, 1990); weird, because I'd been under the impression that Honky Tonk Masquerade was an actual hit. That one didn't chart at all; neither did his more rockabilly Musta Notta Gotta Lotta a couple years later. Do any Gary Stewart albums count? (Everett's albums, the new one inclued, don't seem to have charted in the U.S., country or otherwise, either, though his 2005 single "That's The Kind Of Love I'm In" got to #51 country. Anybody heard his second one, Old New Borrowed Blues, from 2008? I need to track that down.) Anyway, maybe there's somebody else obvious were not thinking of. Guys like Dwight Yoakam and Gary Allan probably have had at least traces of rockabilly on their records, right? And Juice Newton had a #14 country single with her cover of Dave Edmunds's "Queen Of Hearts" in 1981, so at least there's that.

Hope I got the gist of George's Paisley complaints more or less right

Yep. Clueless upper class delight at consumer electronics and the services society, just as Wall Street was wrecking the world economy. All the shit Brad likes so much is the stuff made by slave labor and the stuff that's not, like the idiot robot or the chrome spring leg, is either a toy for rich people or
something for people who would be better off not having had to take advantage of the "technology" at all. Get your leg blown off by an IED that costs 50 cents to make. Now you can have a chrome spring replacement, what, thousands of bucks? That's real progress.

Part of it stems from reading an interview with him from about a year and a half ago wherein he compared himself to Mark Twain, in terms of writing. Which besides being laughable is just plain delusional.

I have a couple select screen shots from his video to make the point, just haven't posted them with appropriate captioning yet. The music's tone is perfect -- he's worked on copping the big jangle for the last couple years and he has it nailed. I still like Time Well Wasted[i] and about a third of [i]Fifth Gear.

In terms of compression tricks, I can always tell because the cd sends me for the volume knob. Anecdotally, it seems less oppressive than it did a few years ago but I'm also buying a lot less of the things you'd find it on.

I've used headphones for years. Settled on an audiophase pair and a backup by sony. I intensely dislike listening to music on the computer and they're the only thing that saves the experience.

Billy Swan=rockabilly. "I Can Help."

posted over at Singles Jukebox on "Water," which is a good Paisley song.
you can read it over there, but I will add that Paisley in general seems troubled in some very strange way by his strenuous efforts to keep himself normalized, I guess is how I'd put it. "Water" is definitely a stages-of-life song and it works as such, and I think the audience recognizes it as such, as they do all his music. And you know, there is some kind of genius in his songwriting--he has the knack for inflecting his structures in a way that connects emotionally and works with the lyrics, just like the Go-Betweens or someone. The guitar solos are cool, but basically all those notes are not necessary, it's like he's so careful to be one way with his actual songwriting he feels the need to show off when he picks. Which is fine, Jerry Reed did the same thing, and he's certainly a deeper artist than Jerry Reed. But I get no sense of gravity or gravitas or any but the most manageable stresses and traumas from Paisley. Not the sort of thing I return to, sounds good when it's on but when it's over it's over.

Swift Boat: the scuttlebutt here in town for a while, which may not be true, but the people who've said this to me are credible, is that Swift has never written her own stuff without help, or maybe not at all. Has had the guidance of a well-known songwriter whose daughter is a young alt-country nymphet. Probably untrue, but interesting.

If by "guidance of a well-known songwriter whose daughter is a young alt-country nymphet" you mean Liz Rose, mother of Caitlin, that's hardly news, or a big deal, since Rose is all over the writers credits on Taylor Swift songs (cowriter of seven songs on album one, four on album two plus two more among the bonus tracks, many of these among my favorites). There's no reason Taylor shouldn't work with collaborators: Lennon worked with a collaborator, Jagger worked with a collaborator, George Gershwin worked with a collaborator, Johnny Mercer worked with collaborators. As for the possibility of Rose doing all of the writing and Taylor none, that doesn't seem remotely plausible, since it would make no sense for Rose to be listed as a co-writer on "Tim McGraw" and "You Belong With Me" but not on "Should've Said No" or "You're Not Sorry" if Rose is writing everything. Unless Liz writes all their collaborations without Taylor's input and some other, mystery ghostwriter is writing the tracks credited to Taylor alone. But this would mean that Rose is lying through her teeth (e.g. here) when she describes what it's like to write songs with Taylor, and that Nathan Chapman is lying through his teeth when he talks about the advantage of working with Taylor. ("She just shows up with unbelievable songs that she wrote, and then we just produce the songs. As a producer I'm not having to go out and look all over Music Row for a hit. She brings them in." Chapman met Taylor through Liz Rose, had worked with Rose previously on demos so worked with Taylor and Rose on their demos, says that it was Taylor who then pushed to have him get to produce actual final recordings, three on the first album, made him co-producer with Taylor on all of the second album and reportedly all of the third). If you don't mean Liz Rose, then your story makes even less sense.

Probably untrue, but interesting.

Well, it's interesting in the sense that it tells us about our deep social beliefs and prejudices, i.e., that middle-class suburbia and middle-class suburban white girls in particular can't be the source of real music unless they become bohemians/freaks and draw on the music of poor blacks and whites or the wild avant garde. The prejudice is strong because, among other things, the South of poor blacks and whites really was the wellspring for a disproportionately large amount of our great music,* and also because suburbia is perpetually trying to get out of its own skin, define itself as fake. But this particular claim about Taylor - this manifestation of the prejudice - is just ugly: like saying that Taylor and her ilk can't possibly be a creative source of real music, so let's invent reasons to discount her and erase her.

Edd, you really shouldn't be posting stuff like this, even if you're expressing skepticism; or anyway, since it is interesting, you shouldn't be posting it and claiming credibility for it unless you really have corroboration, really know that it's true. We're just a little message board, not the New York Times, but that still doesn't give us the right to blacken people's reputations.

Btw, last December I wrote down my top fifteen Taylor Swift songs, so as to prove definitively that "Fifteen" was her fifteenth best. Of the top five, two were by Swift & Rose, two were by Swift alone, and one was by Marshall Mathers, Luis Resto, and Jeff Bass. I thought the two by Swift & Rose ("Tim McGraw" and "Come In With The Rain") had more poetic and narrative complexity than the two by Swift alone ("Should've Said No" and "You're Not Sorry"), which is hardly surprising (though for all I know those lyrics were all by Taylor, with Rose concentrating on the music).

The majority of Fearless was Taylor writing solo, and supposedly all of the new one is. Lots of continued discussion on the Jukebox thread about how well the lyrics to "Mine" work/don't work. I decided that "I was a flight risk - afraid of fallin'" (third line of the first verse) is brilliant (speaking of poetic complexity), but the subsequent lyrics don't live up to it, at least not yet, for me.

*Though urban songwriting professionals was also a part of the fields and backwoods musical story, according to Bill Malone's Country Music USA.

...urban songwriting professionals were also part of the fields and backwoods musical story...

I suppose suburban middle-class white girls can also be considered legit if they go postpunk and alt too (though iirc there was a while when people were questioning whether Courtney Love really wrote her own songs).

I don't understand the phrase "hypothetical bar out-tartings" in Mallory's blurb for "Only Prettier," but I don't think the blurb was ugly; I took it to mean that people in cities aren't spending time thinking about whether people from the country want to walk in and pick fights with them. Not sure how the comment was relevant, though, since Miranda wasn't calling out people in the city, and anyway was writing the song for people who identify with her, not for the "you" the song was supposedly addressing.

xp Well, Swan's "I Can Help" was way back in 1974, so that was a while ago. (Did go #1 country as well as pop, though, apparently.) I put it on a playlist of "secret rockabilly of the '70s and '80s" I made for Rhapsody last year (though there are many other tracks I'd include if I were to get a do-over on that one):

http://www.rhapsody.com/playlistcentral/playlistdetail?playlistId=ply.28955046

Don't see many counry hits on that list, though Eddie Rabbit and Mel McDaniel (covering Springsteen) and Gary Stewart probably were. Anybody know how rockabilly McDaniel's whole albums were? (And what about Billy Crash Craddock?) Actually though, I wouldn't be surprised if the last high-charting rockabilly LP on the country chart, now that I think of it, was some kind of Jerry Lee comeback -- or a post-humous Elvis record, if that counts.

Frank, I certainly see your problem with the comment on Swift, and right, it's no news that she's collaborated. Don't think that blackens her reputation, though, and I guess I don't read as much sociology into someone writing songs as you do, altho sure, the credibility issue would perhaps be less were Swift a different, edgier person. What the comments I've heard here may reflect, though, is a skepticism and a dismissal of what Swift does in the context of country music. Far be it from me to erase her or to discount her; her music is what it is, she's expressing herself quite well and I'm glad she's raised Nashville's profile and all. Sorry if you were offended.

Also, Frank, I understand what you're saying about the wellsprings of songwriting inspiration and suburbia, all perfectly valid points. I don't expect young women such as Taylor to be going there for their inspiration, except that there is a whole generation of young white women and men who are going back to old-time blues, gospel and country for their entire musical vocabulary. That Swift is an original I have no doubt, either. I would say that, in Nashville, there are a lot of people way more concerned about Swift being passed off as "country music" than maybe they should be, I mean I don't think it is, and don't care. But for what it's worth that's what my little comment was about--the concern with authenticity, the belief (and I am well aware of with whom Swift has collaborated and that she has collaborated) that it all just couldn't come from this one person, that her success ought to be dismissed in this way. Suburbia shedding its skin and all that, sure, and boho avant-garde vs. middle class, also sure, but I don't think these oppositions are behind any comments on Swift and her sources that occur in Nashville. I mean all songwriters collaborate here.

her success ought to be dismissed in this way

Sounds like basic sour grapes, to me.

Btw, it also occurs to me that the last rockabilly song to be a huge pop hit (#10 in the Hot 100, didn't chart country though she has otherwise) would almost definitely have been Miley Cyrus's "See You Again," just a couple years ago.

Yeah, fine if she gets help with the songwriting, too band indie rock auteurs don't do more of this; would also be cool (based on my own live listening experience, and esp those of friends who paid hard-earned big bucks for tickets) if she were more dependable in concert; should go the full Elvis route and have a high note person, low note person and hell mid-range person among her backup singers. She was really good with Def Lep on "Crossroads", however that may have been recorded and/or fixed in the mix (no dis; if artists approve pix, why not audio). Sorry of that's crucifying the poor middle class suburban while girl.

too "bad", sorry "if"

Yeah, Taylor's success has engendered the usual sniping here, and if I don't especially think she's the greatest artist to go down the pike and don't think it has much to do with country music (beyond marketing), I certainly don't think the it-ain't-country line gets at why she's either good or bad. Glad to see it all spurred Frank to his usual eloquence. Posted this on her new single over at SJ, btw:

Whether or not it’s completely premeditated–and I hear some of the relatively subtle vocal turns as little things she or her producer or someone worked out for her, to alleviate her imprecise pitch sense and flat phrasing–this has some good qualities. The stop-start aspect was remarked upon above; the pauses make me listen, and I think she handles the time element of the song pretty well. The big power chords toward the end are nice too. “A careless man’s careful daughter,” though, yeech, that’s not exactly brilliant in my book. In general, she sounds either terrified or trying to act scared, I’m not sure. Don’t hear anything particularly distinctive in the music itself, it’s functional and that’s about it, but it’s a good song. I’d be pleased to like it, and Swift, more, because I hear something in there that’s almost like real talent. But my objection to this would be not that it’s too careful but that it just isn’t detailed enough, even given those moments where she illustrates she could learn to sing more effectively. Functional (objectively pretty terrible) pop singing that’s a kind of genius, absolutely–how on earth do you even critique it? The obvious points about her archetypal quality and all that don’t get it. Baffling.

I think her singing is absolutely brilliant, but it's one of those "Kids, don't try this at home" things. It'd be like people trying to imitate Neil Young: it seems like anyone can do it; turns out very few can.

My guess is that she's just got a really good ear for, e.g., when to go frail and when not. I'm sure I could sit down and analyze it and learn a lot. But I don't think that the analysis would really explain it - just as when I look at my own writing, I can see that assonance strengthened one sentence and ruined another, and that I'm overusing a particular phrase, and so forth. But I wouldn't be able to tell you why it was overuse in this instance but not that, or why assonance worked here but not there, etc. (or when I can get away with "etc." and with an antecedent-free "it"). Writing well isn't a deep mystery, but it's not altogether explicable either; same with singing.

As for Taylor's sense of pitch - Himes said in his country poll writeup that he's heard her being pitch-perfect, and my livejournal friend Cis heard her right on-pitch in London. But obviously this is something you can't rely on. Maybe she uses pitch correction in the studio, maybe she does multiple takes, maybe she's just got a congenial emotional and acoustic environment.

Yeah, I don't know how much Taylor sat down and planned the little things she does in "Mine." I do find the attention to detail pretty interesting. What she doesn't know or doesn't want to know about singing she makes up for with smarts, sure. It's a real American voice. When I listen to someone who's about as young as Swift, like Sarah Jarosz (a bluegrass-indie sorta person), and hear how annoying that kind of voice can be, I realize what a free-fall and frightening world Swift must live in, without the crutch of Received Wisdom. That's pop. The wobbles and drop-outs in Swift's voice do add up to something she's manipulating emotionally, I think.

I'm sure there's a lot of great pop and country where the singer has almost no say as to either the material or the arrangement. Obv. when the singer also writes songs and plays an instrument, and therefore knows something about arranging as well, the label may well want to take advantage of these talents, assuming the talents go in the direction that sales will go. And then there're the singers who demand control and for better or worse get the power to do what they want, either through sales clout or an ally in the biz.

But there are also situations where the artists know the idiom and the audience far better than does anyone in the biz. This happened in Britain in the early Sixties. It would've been commercial suicide not to have allowed the bands to generate material.*

The legacy of the Sixties pulls two ways: on the one hand, the biz became full of people who bought into the ideology that the performers are artists and therefore should be the creators, on the other, you get session men, songwriters, and execs who do know the idiom and attitudes and can generate material themselves.

I'm curious, especially for those of you who haven't read it before, what you'd think of this LVW piece I wrote several years ago. The model I detailed for mid '00s teenpop - teen singer-songwriter working with music biz veterans in their thirties - fits Taylor perfectly, except Liz Rose is older than that (she's almost my age). My thesis is that one reason this model worked is that the teens could bring material that the adults wouldn't think to.

The teens are cool, but they burn out

(Haven't done a good job of keeping up with Shanks, whom I called the decade's best melodist; I've been pretty iffy on his country stuff, and on his recent tracks with Miley. Need to know the material better, though. Nathan Chapman cites Shanks as one of his producer heroes (others are Mark Wright, Daniel Lanois, and Buddy Miller). I've summarized a bit of that Chapman interview here: Nathan Chapman.)

Taylor's timing was lucky: she was creating her first album right when High School Musical came along and siphoned the younger teenpop listeners over to Disney, leaving the teen confessional shelf mostly empty. And Taylor waltzed in and filled the gap.

*A partial exception here is the Animals, who did sometimes use biz songwriters, but those songwriters were Americans experienced in the idiom the Animals were playing (Goffin & King, Mann & Weil, Atkins & D'Errico).

xpost

(It's possible that Taylor's got strong models that I don't know or I'm not thinking of. Maybe Neil Young, even. It's mostly mediocre indie boys whose names I've forgotten who try to exploit the high nasal waver.)

Yeah, though here's an exception (from another show preview)
Rascal Flatts with Kellie Pickler
Man band Rascal Flatts faithfully replenish their turf, every time Gary LeVox's high, lonesome tenor crosses just over the rainbow to sensitive pop atmospheres, while remaining unmistakably (yet courteously)country. If that doesn't float your boat, consider Kellie Pickler. While convincingly portraying a dizzy blonde, she cannily rose from rough origins via cogent association with American Idol and Taylor Swift. Her sweetly well-earned word to us all: "Get on with your life." That's also a line from her song, but reached the word limit and fans will know.

Of course Edd's right about details, and in some ways it's good that some/most ambitious artists have to rely more on these, not having the temptation of over-reliance on a trademark sonic ambience, as sometimes happened to Elvis,Sinatra,Willie,Emmylou, Dolly might yet happen to Toby Keith and LeeAnn Rimes. But over-reliance can result in perceived over-exposure, so Willie, Dolly and Emmylou are at least trying to stay focused on sufficient detail. Now to read Frank's linked piece.

Yeah, good points, I guess Swift might be the teen star who's benefiting most by inter-generational collaboration at this point. Usually what I'm aware of is the older guy's production, in response, so the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach brings what I called a "charged nocturnal atmosphere" to Jessica Lea Mayfield's ruminations, while leaving them sufficiently roomy. Though she's not really pop, in the mainstream or even cross-over indie sense, though may well share a peer audience sector with Swift. And I guess neither is punky tonk gurl Lydia Loveless, in this context. Could see some (rougher-edged members) of Pink's confessional rock segment digging all of the above, mind you. But 60s examples might also include Brill Building pros (self-avowedly competing with each other while) writing in response to the *sound* of Shangri-Las etc, ditto Spector's response as producer and sometimes co-writer. And West Coast session kings playing on most of the Byrds first album, so appropriately.And hey, just thought of this: ever-budding Bobby Dylan with all those great, mostly older session guys too. (Plus early guidance of John Hammond and Tom Wilson)(and xgau would prob emph Fred Rose's sub rosa songwriting workshops with Hank Williams)

Um, well, B.D. was mebbe still a teen when Hammond brought him aboard; you weren't talking teens-only, what with citing Stones, etc.

My reviewlet of the new Little Big Town album (not quite a challenge to the Hold Steady as the most disappointing album of the year -- at least LBT's LP has a great single on it -- but not too far off, either):

http://www.rhapsody.com/little-big-town/the-reason-why-2#albumreview

SJers consider the current Sugarland hit:

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2682

More Jukebox singles roundups. I may have overrated the first two; I still haven't heard the third one.

Kenny Chesney

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2694

John Rich

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2690

Darius Rucker

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2691