Rolling Country 2010

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

the reggae in the Sugarland single was interesting and the vocoder (?) breakdown toward the end, ditto. seems notable that they need to take up their version of island patois in order to express the clingy sentiments of the song. and the video is ridiculous indeed, altho JN does look pretty good in the blue tights.

so far, the new Little Big Town sounds good to me, esp. the guitar moves (which seem almost more the point than the vocals themselves, I am distracted by the trading off in some of it)--they seem like the point of the music almost. Intricate. the slow ones are draggin' me so far, though.

Speaking of Sugarland, Adkins' "Don't Mind If I Don't" sounds much like the first single from the
former's last album.

My Country Fleetwood Mac Contest -- Lady Antebellum vs. Little Big Town (hint: nobody wins):

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2010/08/countrymac.html

Heard of Paz Lenchantin through Jonathan Bogart: sort of "psych folk" or whatever they're calling that stuff; have a feeling that listening to five tracks of hers in a row might cause me to scratch the plaster off the plasterboard, but for one song ("Bloom On The Rose," fifth track down at the Black Tent Press MySpace) this could be a positive attribute - Carter Family type trad material but shifted out of whack and forced into a thick haze. Most of you will hate this.

Think you - and ultimately I - will prefer Juana Molina's "Un Día"; the sliding shifts in the music have an aggressive rather than a hazy effect. Most recent YouTube comment: "Why is this so catchy? And why do I like it? I don't even like Bjork type shit." Finally settles into a Yardbirds/Velvets-type coagulated pounding. I'm hit or miss on her other YouTube tracks; occasional and annoying jazz tendencies, or precious ephemera, which this one avoids altogether. In Argentina she'd built a career as a comedian, which has nothing to do with her music.

Perhaps everyone here knows but Chesney's Boys of Fall is not only a song and a nine-minute video, it's also an hour long paen to football, written and directed by Chesney. It just ran on ESPN but after twenty minutes was so ... I just left it on in the background.

The basic message was that football teaches everyone all they have to know in the game of life, over and over. Everyone says their days as a football player were the best of their lives, so if the former is trye and you never make it past college or high school football, it must be all downhill. Chesney's very
sincere and he's in it with old snaps of himself as a high school receiver and recent ones of his hs football buddies, At some point, "Hey Man, Nice Shot" was used as background music, which was a bit jarring since I was living in Pennsy when Budd Dwyer killed himself in public. Not exactly football music.

A couple people try to make the point -- Bill Curry most notably -- that football brings all the kinds of people who naturally hate each together on the team, the liberals, the rednecks, the etc. Was not my experience in the locker room where most were still unformed in their leanings, which were almost as junior league fascists. It was a nice sentiment, though. Maybe it was true in the old NFL or on Ivy League football teams.

No doubt about it, Chesney loves football. It is lots better than Hard Knocks in the Jets training camp which is only exhibitions of Rex Ryan becoming the most morbidly obese celebrity in bedsheet sportswear that everyone knows, and the Jets as a collection of really big overweight men and physical fitness freaks, all with very little native intelligence and surprising lacks in character and personal hygeine. Which is about the diametric opposite of what Chesney makes the case for.

Ah, now it makes me fondly remember the movie version of Paper Lion. Which made George Plimpton the only liberal in the Joe Schmidt-coached Lions lockerroom. Alex Karras was a gambler, though.

xpost Kinda made me want to go back to the LBT album although, except for "Little White Church," it didn't grab me when I skimmed it on-line.

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/2010/08/28/patriotic-class-war-song/

Paz has played (most often bass, but also violin and piano) and sung with A Perfect Circle, Zwol, and many in between; best album I've heard her on is the Entrance Band's s/t (sort of like an aural anime of backstreet progressives, somewhat in the historical, Glenn Beck anathema sense, though more about challenging doomsters to stop playing with shadows in the mirror and come get some clean free needles already--or something like that, if we must reduce TEB's phantosaurus sound and vision to mere sense). She's also contributed to some countryoid offerings of the Silver Jews etc. Most relevant to what Frank's describing,she also locked herself into a backstreet Louisville hotel with some very old school country sides, and recorded self-written songs, think it was an EP's-worth, after her brother died. So thanks for reminding me of that, Frank, I'll check it out. George Plimpton's daughter Martha has played a worthy corporate law adversary for The Good Wife, hope she continues to do so.

You got my hopes up for a moment there, Don! Think you meant Zwan, though, not Zwol (who I wrote about at the link below):

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2010

Meanwhile, I finally saw Mother Truckers Saturday night, at the Continental Club here, their return to town after a brief van tour out West. Definitely sounded more (Stones-style) hard rock than country or college rock or cowpunk live (though "Van Tour" itself qualified as the latter.) Teal (dressed kinda classic hillbilly) is a vocal powerhouse live, and I'd say her hubbie Josh Zee (in a N.W.A. T-shirt and truckers cap) held his own vocally and outdid himself guitarwise, sometimes verging on metal though not as much as the longhaired AC/DC-shirt bass guy Danny G. At any rate, they definitely know how to throw a party -- tons of energy, lots of people (including a few lesbian couples, looked like) dancing, good calls and responses, and I recogized every song except one, I think. (And that one's not on any of their three CDs, looks like.) Favorites were probably "Dynamite" from the second album and "Alien Girl" from the new one; i.e., the most glam-rock ones. Also, as far as I could tell, there were zero college kids in the crowd; possibly even nobody under 30, and I'm fairly positive I wasn't the oldest person there. Just townies, I guess, or people who came here for school years ago then never left. Bottled beer overpriced, but what the heck, still glad I forced myself to go out for once.

Via email from a publicist; any takers?

Was just having a conversation with a friend and the Billboard Top 10 debut of John Mellencamp's No Better Than This album came up. Mentioned that it's John's tenth Top 10 album and that it's offered only in mono which begged the question: "What was the last mono-only album that debuted in Billboard's Top 10?" We're thinking it must have been over 40 years ago as albums were offered in both stereo and mono from the late 1950s onward. Any suggestions? I'd love to make this a contest but since I don't know the actual answer, I'm not sure I'm in a position to declare a winner. Would love to hear your thoughts which I'd share with all the recipients of this inquiry.

Best, Bob Merlis

Also just got word from a different publicist that "I'm All About It," which I talk about above, the fastest and horniest song on my advance of Randy Houser's new album, will be left off the final version "at the request of Mr. Houser", since he "felt that particular track was not representative of him as an artist." (Not sure whether I mind or not; tbh, its novelty was starting to wear off already.)

CMA nominations are out. Miranda Lambert sets a record for the most nominations by a female artist in a single year. Which is a pleasant surprise, unless you're one of the Carrie Underwood fans who have taken to every message board and blog they can find to decry the grave injustice that is Underwood's omission from the Entertainer of the Year short-list.

Some turnover in couple of the major categories, but there's not a whole lot to get worked up about one way or the other. No Laura Bell Bundy anywhere on the ballot, despite the high-profile ACM performance a couple of months back.

The new Marty Stuart is awfully good for the trad-country stumping thing that it is, and Connie Smith sings with him a couple of times, which is always welcome. Also liking the new album by Amanda Shaw, a 19 year-old fiddler from Louisiana, who incorporates a healthy dollop of cajun music and some traditional blues into her pop-country, and she has a husky but not quite ripe alto that reminds me, in a good way, of Alecia Elliott. Have only given cursory listens to the new SteelDrivers and Justin Townes Earle, but liked both pretty well on the first pass, the former moreso than the latter.

This is an interesting news link on the CMA nominations at a music writer's blog, but more for the amount of malicious spam comment (page down, you'll see it):

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/ourcountry/51632/miranda-lambert-scoops-up-a-record-nine-cma-noms/

(Shakes head)

Yeah, we get bombarded with exactly the same kind of spam at the Rhapsody blog; it just doesn't make it onto the site. Until a month or two ago they were having us sort one by one through the emailed comments, but at some point they decided that meant wasting way too much time, since we'd eventually only wind up approving, say, one out of every 100. So now I just guess every comment just goes into the spam trash can -- I don't even see them in my inbox anymore.

Btw, I wasn't aware that "Rain On A Tin Roof" on the new Little Big Town album was a cover of a song on the first Julie Roberts album from six years ago until I read Caramanica's Times review a couple days ago. I probably still have my advance of that Roberts album in my storage closet somewhere (liked two songs pretty well, as I recall), but I never really got into it as a whole.

I mentioned "Rain on a Tin Roof" in my LBT review, as well. They do a fine enough job with the song, but I probably prefer Roberts' version of it. Her second album was better, but there was some real substance to her debut, as well. "Break Down Here" was the top 20 single, but "Wake Up Older" is the standout cut. She doesn't have much of a range to her voice, but she makes up for it with a mindful sense of phrasing and with solid song choices. I'm a fan, but I can't imagine she'll get a shot at a third major label record after Men & Mascara bricked.

Her second album sounded even more marginal to my ears, iirc. (Though the title track seemed okay, and I'm pretty sure the two songs you named from the debut were the ones that stood out for me at the time.)

Re-listening to Ray Wylie Hubbard's early 2010 album right now, for the first time in months. It's better than I'd remembered, especially if you've got a taste for hard dark mean repetitive deeper-and-deeper-into-the-gravel blues drones (which I do, apparently).

Yeah, we get bombarded with exactly the same kind of spam at the Rhapsody blog; it just doesn't make it onto the site.

Baffling, since my domain's anti-spam mechanism is really good at stripping it all out so I -don't- have to look at it.

So how come nobody ever told me what a great singer Narvel Felts was? Or did somebody, and I wasn't listening? Halfway through his self-titled LP from 1975 which I bought for 50 cents (went #4 country, with "Reconsider Me," "Blue Darlin," and "Funny How Time Slips Away" all hitting), and I'm already kind of blown away. Guess I'd put him in the fancy-pants tradition of guys like Roy Orbison, Freddie Fender, Gene Pitney -- is that way off? -- with almost pop-operatically flamboyant falsetto parts. Maybe a Mexican influence, too, deep down. And a soul one, given that it looks like he hit with "Lonely Teardrops" (presumably a cover of the Jackie Wilson song) a year later. (Okay, just checked Xgau, who B+'s the LP -- "Wotta voice," he says. Also mentions Orbison, and calls him "an r&b singer on the country side of the fence.") Probably some influence of Charlie Rich -- who could also do fancy Latinish stuff -- in there too.

Actually been liking an album by a British folk-rock singer named Johnny Flynn -- coming out on Thirty Tigers in November -- while it's played in the background this week. Didn't expect to like it, either. Haven't paid attention to the lyrics (which may well stink) yet. But the music somehow manages to be minor-key pretty and have rhythmic drive at the same time. Mostly ballads. His MySpace:

http://www.myspace.com/johnnyflynn

And speaking of folk, new album by Heart is mostly if not all acoustic, and also pretty good, and by now they have a connection to country thanks to people like Carrie Underwood and, uh, Sarah Palin or whoever. Here's what I wrote about it for Rhapsody:

http://www.rhapsody.com/heart/red-velvet-car#albumreview

Also heard the new Those Darlins single (7-inch vinyl 45!), "Nightjogger," today, and was very disappointed to find out that they now seem to be trying to sound like Sleater-Kinney-type alt-rock instead of cowpunk. Not sure if that's a one-time deal or not; if not, too bad, because though their cowpunk schtick had limitations, it made them less generic. So I'm wondering if Edd knows what's up.

Have been watching the CMA rock thing on network teevee. Lots of mediocre blues hard rock, specifically Carrie Underwood as the shouter in short hot short shorts and heroically sexy poses. Hotcha.

But that stuff wears out fast, really, if you aren't doing a sixpack.

Way too much Kid Rock. Had no idea he was so much into being the poor man's Rockets.

No idea why anyone likes Uncle Kracker. Sweaty vaseline-coated obesity in a worn RUN-DMC T with unjustified high self-esteem as a mass psychological disorder, I guess. Same for the guy who sings "Unstoppable." Hnad-wringing sincerity and very clean baggy jeans only go so far.

Best performance by far: Miranda Lambert with "Even Prettier." This sounds harsh but I like the
Ray Nitschke as drag queen look and the c&w attack. Plus her band doesn't have the usual six guitarists they put on stage to play what one or two could do.

Zac Brown -- hippie reggae bookended by twenty seconds of hard southern rock jamming to make you think it might be good before it goes bad.

Morgan in a club with Lambert and the really hairy singer/songwriter, whatever his name is. Over yet?

Now let's all order up another beer while Billy Currington does something rote on that's how country boys roll.

Assume you mean the CMT Awards not CMAs (I make the same mistake somewhere above I think -- easy to do), and actually, Kid Rock being a Detroit boy may just be almost old enough to remember who the Rockets were. Pretty sure the "really hairy singer/songwriter" would be Jamey Johnson; I thought "Macon" was okay on that show, I think, but I like it better on the album, and can understand why people might think it goes on too long in either format. Totally drawing a blank on "Unstoppable" -- oh wait, Google says Rascal Flatts? No wonder. I actually had fun watching that show in total though (in a hotel room in San Francisco), but yeah, I had a sixpack (at least) from the bodega down the block to help.

(Also, bad pizza, iirc. And not saying I put away six-plus beers in the duration of the show; probably more like three. But the rest were there, just in case.)

I got the Jerrod Niemann album a few days ago. I'm glad there's better songs than "Lover Lover" ("Bakersfield," "I Hope You Get What You Deserve"). I haven't heard the Funkadelic stylings that edd noted a few weeks ago.

xpost

hey, Gucci Mania, it's track 11 on the Jerrod record. Lunchmeataphobia guitar line, and the vocal thing at the first is George Clinton-like. Who says a country record can't...you get the drift.

decided I liked the Little Big Town record. the vocals are really country, lots of slurs and sliding. and I think it's tolerably Fleetwood Mac-esque. don't get much personality out of the singing, though, the blocks of harmonies don't sound that good to my ears, are are just blocks of sound in the larger picture. but state-of-the-art country record, some very deft little arrangements and guitar sounds and all that.

caught Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver the other night. man, they have their own style, with all sorts of weird fucked-with licks and runs and commentary going on. quick on its feet, rooted but unsentimental. the Dobro player is avant-garde and so is the banjo player. the song-form stuff they did all had something different in it--it was like watching a superior jazz group do their thing, but you got pleasure from the surface of the performance but if you listened hard they were doing all sorts of really outrageous and subtle things as they made transitions. and could play real fast on Bill Monroe songs or real sneaky on covers of Porter and Buck. Doyle plays some ferocious mandolin, no bullshitting around, and each soloist did something unexpected and wholly within the moment nearly every time. in short, real style, finesse and attack and they can sing, too. probably the best bluegrass group I've ever seen by about ten miles--could've listened to them all night.

>>Assume you mean the CMT Awards not CMAs

Yep.

>>(sure the "really hairy singer/songwriter" would be Jamey Johnson; I thought "Macon" was okay on that

It was.

>>Totally drawing a blank on "Unstoppable" -- oh wait, Google says Rascal Flatts? No wonder.

Yep, again. Was making joke, small one. I like the part where RF get to answer insipid questions printed white cards. I guess wholesomeness and piety comprise most of their appeal. Which would be why I don't like them.

>>I actually had fun watching that show in total though (in a hotel room in San Francisco), but yeah, I had >>a sixpack (at least) from the bodega down the block to help.

I had some beers, too. It didn't help as much I thought it might. If I can be so nosy, why in SF?

Oh, I was just there for some Rhapsody brainstorming session the week that show first aired. They flew all the freelancers in, then flew us out two days later. Basically, I checked into the hotel room and turned CMT on, since I don't have cable at home.

Edd, just out of curiosity, what did you think of last two Little Big Town records? (Which I can see how somebody might hear as less "country" per se', but as far as I can tell were just way, way better. Guess I'm not somebody who judges country records by how "country" they sound, though -- just like I don't usually judge metal records by how metal they sound, and so on.) (Actually, my favorite parts of that Jerrod Neimann record might well be some of the less country parts, come to think of it; definitely wouldn't have pegged the two songs that Alfred named as the standouts. Which isn't to say I dislike them.)

Gorge, you were right the first time: the CMA Festival was on ABC last night, and went as you described (no trouble tearing myself away). Jon-oh, I'm so far a bit disappointed in (or of, as the young folks say) the Marty, but at least a fat EP of keepers; wish he'd done more instrumentals, Ebb's comments on Lawson & Quicksilver remind me that there's some kind of sense of moving toward instrumental release in "real" country music, re Paisley's instrumental album, and what Keith Urban can do live, ditto Dierks, I'd think, at least, his press shetts once played up early jam-tending tours with Cross Canadian Ragweed, and the current bluegrass ect seems to draw on the most listenable bits of previous albums. Speaking of ebb, he turned me on to Freddie Curtis's Cuss The Wind album, never on CD, unlike Friend, source of his hit, "Don't Take Her (She's All I've Got", though that may not be the exact title yallknowwhatahmean. Here's my email re Cuss:
"Cuss The Wind" and "Oh Lord, What Are You Doing?" are like
country soul Charlie Rich, ca. "Field of Yellow Daisies", if not more
so, expansive drama taunted by placid beauty.Ditto the majestic "My
Whole World Has Ended": coulda shoulda been a hit, with a little edit
for acceptable radio time. "Sun Comes Up" like a more concise version
of Bill Withers' "Sun Coming Up in Harlen", the twist of "Gotta Go Get
Your Mama", as good a version of "Rainy Night In Georgia" as I've
heard.

Best version of "Rainy Night In Georgia" I've heard this year, fwiw, comes courtesy of Sir Charles Jones, an Alabama-based Southern Soul singer. Some brief notes on his album, and others I've been liking (and having mixed feelings about) in that genre lately, here:

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

Cuss is also posted here and there; a few tracks are included among many bonuses on the reissue of Friends: 20 tracks for a good bargain price at Amazon MP3, reissued on S.D.E.G. (Swamp Dogg produced both LPs). Also a couple of other Freddie comps on there. Ebb says Freddie was a WLAC DJ in Nashville, apparently retired now, if not RIP.

Oh yeah, I think Sir Charles Jones used to play around here. I'll check him out.

Gorge, you were right the first time: the CMA Festival was on ABC last night, and went as you described (no trouble tearing myself away)

Huh. I hung on 'til almost the end. It really started petering out when they put Keith Urban on and
Paisley did a sped up "Another Saturday Night" as a second tune.

Something to keep in mind about Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver is that the line-up of pickers in Quicksilver changes pretty frequently-- between most of their studio albums, I believe, but maybe with slightly lower turnover. It usually comes down to whether Lawson is feeling more progressive or more traditionalist at the time. But, in either case, playing in Quicksilver is considered something of a rite of passage for many of the best instrumentalists in Bluegrass. Their live shows are generally much more worthwhile to seek out than their recordings. But their progressive stuff can be really fantastic, and I tend to prefer their traditional stuff to, say, The Gibson Brothers or Dailey & Vincent

I should dig up my DL&Q promos from recent years, prob incl the gospel one, I'm thinking now, having just seem a bunch of apparently mid-60s clips from a show called Barnyard Jamboree, featuring the Rambos, whose gospel melodies, harmonies and electric chording keeps going where I don't expect--I got the Kentucky origins before they were mentioned, but Kentucky kinda like the Everlys, creative initiative-wise (in this case, mebbe some Neapolitan chords come aboard now and then?)Host claims that Dottie Rambo was the first woman to play electric guitar leads on TV, and "What guitar company created the Dotte Rambo Guiar? He says he'll answer after commercial, but doesn't. However, "Dottie Rambo wrote and published over 2,500 songs." Doesn't get any major DL&Q action going in these clips, but still fairly intriguing.

Oh yeah, an excerpt from most/only intriguing press release received this a.m.
Hayes Carll's LABOR DAY BARBECUE He's bringing the party to Luckenbach, TX,the heart of the Hill Country!

This year he'll be performing along side a diverse line upcomprised of; Hard chargin' honky tonk hero (and co-star in the She Left Me For Jesus video) - JESSE DAYTON , Rockabilly Filly - ROSIE FLORES, Soulfulharmonistas - THE TRISHAS, Roots of Rock & Roll show with the kidsfrom Austin's SCHOOL OF ROCK, King of Hot Rod Country - The JOHN EVANS BAND,FIVE time Candadian (way North Texas) Roots Artist of the year, CORBLUND, and headlining this years bash is Austin's own Roots Rockicon, ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO!

* * * * *
"Hayes Carll is the traveling Texas troubadour for today's X Generation.He's the snarky slacker with a heart of pure Kerouac. He's a modernstoryteller's dream, wrapped in a cloak of country-folk charm."
-TulsaWorld!

WORKIN' MANS BLUES...

Hayes is looking forward to a day off surrounded by friends,good eats and great music!

Seems like he's sittin' on top of the world these days.. He'sjust filmed a show for Austin City Limits, which will air as part of ACL's 36thseason premiering on PBS this fall and was recently featured on the 30min. season finale of the hilarious, hit animated series"Squidbillies" along side Lucinda Williams, Drive By Truckers, ToddSnider, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Rhett Miller and Jimmy Dale Gilmore! Keep your eyes peeled for re-runs folks!
Furthermore, he's been busy in thestudio recording ... A LOT! Not only does he have a new record in his backpocket, but Don Imus, who say's "She Left Me For Jesus" is "thegreatest country song ...ever!" asked Hayes to record "King of TheRoad" for his upcoming Imus Ranch benefit album (New West), he's gotmultiple new songs that will be featured in the upcoming Gweneth Paltrow film'Country Strong' AND a holiday single in the works for 2010. Look for Hayes new album to bereleased in early 2011, on Lost Highway!
I'd like to check out the Trishas, and speaking of Alexandro, I've been hearing an unexpectedly vigorous new track; like, where the John Cale-produced tracks tended to sound like J.C. in pop-rock mode with A.E.'s vocals substituted, this new 'un ("In Love With Love", or something like that) sounds like he's invigorated by but not too closely following Cale's geezer swagger. (And maybe Imus's too!)

Ha "Austin's School Of Rock" is at Northcross Shopping Center on Anderson, walking -- or at least, very short biking -- distance from our house. That's where the Walmart's going in, too -- But not a Super Walmart; gotta "keep Austin weird," doncha know.

And Luckenbach, Texas, barely even exists -- no town (population: 3, Wiki says, though that's a 2006 figure apparently) -- just basically a souvenir store and a stage or two. Cute bathroom-break stop on the way to Fredericksburg, though. (Haven't been since the year before last, during a pre-move recon visit. Have yet to see a show there.)

Just in time for Labor Day, Dick Destiny imagines Brad Paisley imagining a more realistic future (click on the "here" link to hear it):

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/2010/09/03/a-rock-n-roll-weekend/

Wow! Thanks xhuxk.

Caramanica on Brooks & Dunn's farewell show, in Nashville two nights ago. (He likes them but calls my favorite song by them "banal." Which it probably is, but it's still great).

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/arts/music/04farewell.html

Now, to start battling Burnt Orange traffic from Austin to Houston. (I was thinking "it's a Saturday morning, taking 290 will be a breeze!" And then I remembered the Rice game.)

Yeah, my Texas alum pal is coming over to watch it around noon. Complete with his Texas shirt and cap.

A roundup of recent Texas country releases I did for Rhapsody. (The Randy Rogers, Ryan Bingham, and Willie Nelson reviews are by Linda Ryan, not me; haven't posted my own reviews of the Ray Wylie Hubbard or Jason Boland albums or the Kevin Fowler single here before):

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2010/09/texascountry.html

Also, my review of the new James Otto album:

http://www.rhapsody.com/james-otto/shake-what-god-gave-ya#albumreview

yeah, the first Little Big Town record is the best to my ears. the second one seems a bit too derivative of those weedy CSNY harmonies. I really do like the new one as a piece of formalist pop, but basically, I wish the singing on all of them were toned down a notch or two. talked to someone about this the other day as I was waiting to catch a song or two by David Olney at the Country Music Hall of Fame--he said he'd "figured out" the way LBT's producer had stacked the harmonies and added one voice, then another, as a formula, which I guess I understand. but we agreed this was as I probably said before state-of-the-art country record-making. it's good.

I wrote up something on this year's Americana fest now happening in Nashville, for last wk's Scene. they gave out awards last night--Rosanne Cash got record of the year, the Avetts duo, the usual instrumentalists, and they gave some lifetime awards to people like Wanda Jackson. emerging artist to Hayes Carll, who made his first record, what, 7 or 8 years ago? baffling.

in general, may I say that I thought I did a good enough overview of Americana, talked to a couple of artists and the director and a radio person or two and a Journalist--Barry Mazor, who's always cogent and quotable and who, no surprise, thinks Americana is lot more viable and interesting than I do, probably. I didn't have space to talk about what is obviously most interesting about the whole thing, which is the relationship of Americana to country music itself. No one would admit to me that country looks to Americana, however cloudily, as a source of inspiration or at least gelt, but Dierks Bentley is playing the Americana show this year. The usual boilerplate about how Americana artists are artists but country music is profit-making. One comment I could not use that sorta amazed me; asking about why black artists are underrepresented, an unused source said, "Well, they must not've sent us their record. We don't push stuff unless someone takes the time to send us their music." So the AMA isn't exactly A&R all over again. Anyway, I guess I think Americana starts in the '70s but picks up steam in the punk/new wave era when many people began looking to country music and other old-tyme stuff for inspiration, like Jason's Nashville Scorchers. Costello in his mid-'80s phase. And a lot of stuff no one remembers for perhaps good reason, like those three Alpha Band records T-Bone Burnett did in the late '70s, or Randall Bramblett's two Polydor albums (the latter of which are quite good actually, esp. the amazing "No Stone Unturned.") So much of modern country is sonically and even musically kind of innovative or at least try-anything, but that effort is scorned as selling out by the Americana crowd. It's the same historical overview you get from both sides, though, with its emphasis on the Classic Rock era more or less. And while I thought Dierks' record was not all that great (altho it is quite listenable and there are some good moments), what it did was update Charlie Daniels and Southern rock for the bluegrass generation. which is interesting, for sure. And for sure, folks will tell you that Up on the Ridge came about because Dierks just decided to do his thing, not that a small army of people made sure he did it within certain parameters or with an eye to the Americana audience.

And right, I also kinda liked Ray Wylie Hubbard's latest, grew on me and I ended up listening to it a lot. he's funny.

the first Little Big Town record is the best to my ears. the second one seems a bit too derivative of those weedy CSNY harmonies

By "first" do you mean the actual first, which I've never heard and which no one here has talked about as far as I know, or do you mean the second, which is the first one that scored big (and which I reviewed way back when)?

Being a Johnny Come Lately to this country stuff, I'd never thought ten seconds about Dottie West until two days ago, when a Wikip sentence about her plastic-surgery sex-appeal makeover intrigued me and I listened to a few of her tracks. My ignorance didn't stop me from making a couple of posts about them on my lj (here and here. Suspect that the musical difference 'tween 'fore and after may be less fundamental than it at first seems, given that prior to the change she had leanings towards toney soul, so the disco-cum-adult-contemporary postmakeover tracks may actually be somewhat in line with where she was headed earlier. Surprised how much I liked the bedroom soul of the Kenny Rogers duets such as "What Are We Doing In Love," Kenny especially - Dottie's voice seeming a bit shot in comparison, though she uses the rips in her voicebox to pretty good effect. I prefer her in the '60s, I think, but these opinions come after listening to ten songs of hers total.

saw jamey johnson for the first time last night. saw some discussion of him way upthread as diffident onstage. not sure i'd use that word. my friend jim said "taciturn." that sounds right. just doesn't feel like talking. and not just to the audience. he barely looked at, or talked to, any of his bandmates either. they're a damn good band, by the way.

the show had an improvisatory feel to it, like they were winging it sans setlist. every song, with maybe one exception, started with jamey seemingly noodling alone on his acoustic guitar, as if trying to remember the chords to a long-lost song. there'd be no eye contact with anyone in the band, and you'd think maybe he was literally noodling, but then he'd start singing, and the band would slowly join in. wayd battle, his upside-down lefty lead guitarist, re-tuned for nearly every song, and he did so, without fail, AFTER jamey had already started the song. he also switched several times between acoustic and electric, again doing so only after jamey had begun singing, making it pretty clear that he, at least, had no idea what jamey was about to play. and yet when they all did kick in, they were tight, and perfectly understated, and beautiful. despite two electric gtrs on stage, the pedal steel did most of the lead work, and jamey did a nifty solo or two himself on his acoustic.

they played lots of new songs, and one of the only things jamey did say to the audience was that it was their first time for a lot of the songs. he heavily emphasized slow ballads. i was under the impression the double album was half and half, ballads and rockers, but if that's the case he pretty much left the rocking half alone. there was more than a little grumbling in the crowd about the slowest ones, but i didn't care, i thought that's where he was at his best, with that great baritone, and with that subtly sophisticated acoustic guitar work (man doesn't show off, but man can play). every time he did play a rocker, he'd slow it down again, almost in an exaggerated way, with the next song. people around me grumbled, i smiled. he didn't play any of the (relatively) upbeat ones from the lonesome song either, no "women," not even a "between jennings and jones," no matter how loudly people yelled for 'em. i could've done without the "turn the page" cover, which i actually think strained his voice. i was glad that he didn't use that song to actually turn the page. he just kept being himself.

sorry to ramble. it was one hell of a show.

p.s. i don't mean to suggest everyone else in the crowd hated it or anything like that. there was some grumbling. but he kicked people's asses. in the good way.

good to hear. debating driving two hours on a work night to see him in richmond.

Fresh Air recently re-ran a bunch of their country interviews (with decent amount of music in each). They're all posted, and you can listen to: Charlie Rich, Dolly Parton, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Doc Watson, Charlie Louvin, John Doe (promoting the collection of jukebox chesnuts he did with the Sadies, though they're not at the Fresh Air session), Ricky Skaggs, Charlie Haden (yeah, his family had an Okie string band when he was a lad, used to play live on the radio, and he's done some countryoid thangs with Frisell and Metheny), Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Bobby Braddock, George Jones. Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, maybe some others http://npr.org/templates/archives/archive.php?Id=129527317 of course NPR's got a buttload of concert archives, but these were certainly better-than-average interviews, and relatively decent talk/music ratio.