Rolling Country 2010

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.

Sorry, I italicized, here's the actual link:
http://npr.org/templates/archives/archive.php?thingId=129527317

Wondered about Mel McDaniel upthread when somebody asked what the last rockabilly album to have been a high country charter might've been, so I checked out his Just Can't Sit Down Music from 1986 (#25 country chart peak), and it comes pretty close -- The Springsteen B-side cover "Stand On It" is absolutely rockabilly (and even explcitly talks about dancing to rockabilly bands), but I'd say maybe half of the other tracks ("Lower On The Hog" which John Anderson had also done a great version of a few years earlier -- are the bottom pig parts always necessarily cheaper by the way? I never noticed; "'57 Chevy And You," "Just Can't Sit Down Music," "Oh Naomi," maybe "Chain Smokin") have at least some remnant of rockabilly in their singing and rhythm, though I don't know if purists would embrace them. No surprise that McDaniel apparently got into music in Tulsa around 1956, after seeing Elvis. Biggest hit (a #1 in 1985) was "Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On," which I remember but which never killed me. Christgau gave his 1987 best-of album a B+.

My general feelings about "Americana" (does nobody call it "Alt-Country" anymore?) are on record, no need to repeat them, but I will say since Edd mentioned them that I kind of liked the self-titled 1976 Alpha Band LP that I picked up for $1 last year, but couldn't stomach J. Henry a/k/a T-Bone Burnett's 1972 The B-52 Band And the Fabulous Skylarks, which was almost as dull as, uh, the Avett Brothers are now. Go figure. James Talley has to count as proto-Americana too, right? And it probably all just goes back to the Band, when you get down to it. Did a "Cowpunk Essentials" column (starting with Jason and the Scorchers, whose Fervor I like a lot) for Spin a few months back, but can't find it on line; still think '80s cowpunk had a real energy later alt-country didn't.

Don't know Dottie West's stuff at all, with or without Kenny Rogers (though I suspect I've at least overheard some of the latter), but of course now I'm curious. Been pondering Frank's livejournal question about country guys taking glamour in an idisyncratic direction or countermoving toward country hipness, and I'm not sure I have an answer, though the question did make me think of Phil Vassar (one of the only country guys who seems to make no attempt to look "country" -- in fact, in the few pictures I've seen, he often looks fairly urban and cosmopolitan) and Big Kenny (who is probably one of the few country guys in recent years to present himself as an outright weirdo), but also of Gary Allan and Dwight Yoakam (who, more than Toby or Brooks & Dunn I think, seem to have figured out a way to look both "cool" -- partly meaning strong and silent and shadowy and mysterious and laid-back, but maybe sophisticated, too --and "country" at the same time). Also reminded me that it never registered with me until Caramanica's piece last week that only one guy in Brooks And Dunn -- Brooks -- ever wears a cowboy hat; shows how unobservant I am. Also makes me wonder how and when cowboy hats became the favored male country music headgear instead, of, say, farmers' hats, and why. I usually forget that it's even a costume.

And nah, new Jamey Johnson is definitely not half rockers. Not even close. (I've got a long piece on it in the Voice next week.)

By the way, here's Edd's Americana cover story (which I still need to read):

http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/has-americana-arrived/Content?oid=1798554

Oops, scratch that, actually here (though that previous link does refer to some related pieces, which might or might not be worth looking up in their own right):

http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/as-americanas-identity-takes-shape-andmdash-and-boosts-sales-andmdash-the-fledgling-genre-revels-in-its-new-momentum/Content?oid=1798562

Which reminds me that Frank asked this on his livejournal a couple days ago: "why isn't anybody not on Rolling Country talking about cultural stuff like this, limitlessness versus defeat etc.? Or are there lots of people doing so? I can't say I know the discourse." I can't either, though I wouldn't be surprised if blogs like 9513 and Roughstock, or the Nashville Scene itself, might deal with those questions on occasion -- I dunno, maybe in comments boxes, if not articles themselves? But I don't read them enough myself to know.

Most off-the-charts/over-the-top vocals on that Narvel Felts LP I mentioned here last week, fwiw, would be in "I Remember You," where his singing shifts smoothly from manly to almost ridiculously glam-twee; seriously, the high parts could be Russell Mael in Sparks. Can't think of any other country that does that -- Freddie Fender or Roy Orbison operatics, inasmuch a I've heard them, included (is what they do called melisma, btw, or there another technical term for it?) But maybe it's a Lou Christie or Frankie Valli influence?

Big Kenny (who is probably one of the few country guys in recent years to present himself as an outright weirdo)

Speaking of Big Kenny, I cant recall any talk here about his solo album (which I think came out in late '09), nor did I hear anything from it on the radio, though I guess "Long After I'm Gone" was a single. I'd almost think it was never actually released--except that I saw a physical copy in a Target today.

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

The first one--2002, Monument, self-titled. The one with "Don't Waste My Time," one of their best songs and a single that charted respectably back then. And which is a fine record--early-Byrds guitar jangle, later Byrds rocking jangle, Petty organ, soul inflections meeting California country-pop-rock. "Modal" melodies--"Somewhere Far Away" references "On Broadway," while "A Thousand Years" (amazing track) contains Robyn Hitchcock moves with Badfinger slide, album ends with orchestral pop--strings, His Name Is Alive with boondock fixations. Actually I think their second album, The Road to Here, is their most consistent and thematically unified, with country-funk-disco in "Boondocks" and "Mean Streak" and "Looking for a Reason" rocking hard as shit, plus a song about marrying into the wrong side of tracks called "Welcome to the Family." Only drag is "A Little More You," but this is a record about loving yourself and where you're from--the boondocks--that also addresses utopia after-the-fact in the brilliant production and arrangements (which threw me--the Dobro, banjo, mandolin and so forth seemed like a sellout to country musical tropes, but it's all used perfectly, esp. love the doomsday riff of "Bones). And I always hear the opening line of the record as "There's a coal field runnin' up and down my spine." Like a good Chic record, this is where the tropes and the big-picture lyrics really add to critical mass and explode. And the music is truly inspired, some far-out shit in there, as in the fade to "Good as Gone."

A Place to Land (released twice in '07 and again expanded in '08 by Capitol who also broke the single they did with Jake Owens and Sugarland) is more overtly pop--I hear the Go-Betweens in there, Exile Stones, the Faces, "Vapor" appears to rewrite Neil's "Old Man," while the first track, "Fine Line," is one of the more overt Fleetwood Mac rips (I hear "Go Your Own Way" in there, as if the Go-Betweens sexual tension spilled over into more lucrative territory here). It's a really good record but doesn't hang together as well as Road. And the harmonies and the use of the to my ears rather personality-challenged male vocalists got more savvy over these records; again, it's like Chic in a country context, everything is controlled and laid out there in a way that can seem arty until you realize how much pent-up emotion they're channeling thru the intricacies.

Yeah, there's a thing some acting teachers try to teach, about getting yourself free enough to feel an emotion, but then not try to express it--try to hold contain it, and let it find a way out, against the character's will, because that's what can seem the most credible in a lot (not all scenes). But it's really hard to do right; ditto in music, though it's clearly the thing to do in some traditional, ritualistic ballads, or modern songs that try to emulate them. Speaking of Big Kenny, thanks so much for mentioning that solo album, Mr. President! Here's another that may not have been properly distributed at all in its conjectural first release, and I can't really remember having seen its re-release, despite B&R's apex right about then (streams from this and the Jon album may still work at the original villagevoice.com post)

Wurlitzer Dawgs Out!
By Don Allred Tuesday, Oct 4 2005
Live a Little, Big Kenny's re-released, pre—Big & Rich solo album, brings the noise candy, not the nose candy. It's a skyful of Purple Planetberries, exploding on cue, presented 2 U by B.K., a psych-pop-goes-the-country P.T. Barnum, bopping through amber waves with his drum machine: a confidence man, in every sense and nonsense.
A true con artist has to love his (and all!) mythology, so Kenny's as much wistful crooner as carny barker when singing through a megaphone-like vocoder about "a place where dreams come true." He gets his comeuppance in "Cheater's Lament." Even more so, in "Think Too Much," with virtual drumsticks bouncing off the impervious cello-and-viola cloud of his Orbisonic orbit.
But Roy O. was a Traveling Wilbury, of course (alchemizing with a Bard, a Beatle, an ELO, and a Petty). Which may be why his lonely soul mate Big K.'s only answer, my friends, is the molten-candle-wax Spaghetti Western Mystery Tour that never ends. (With a tip of Big's feathered top hat to "Dor-oh-thee, and Lit-tle To-To," in "Rather Be.")
Down here on the ground where the air is brown and El Lay meets Nash Vegas, Big Kenny's compadre, young Jon Nicholson, listens to the silence all night long. Oh, he can soul-shout all he wants to, but li'l pauses keep getting in between the spooky teeth of Wurlitzer piano on his debut joint, A Lil Sump'm Sump'm. He can dream about a blissfully rolling, Michael Hurley—worthy "Grass River," and a "Grandma" who gets high and flies to glory, with Big & Rich singing along. But he'll wake up, shook up by a girl who "steps to the car," to ask if he's cool. Probably meaning "Are you a cop?" But he's shivering: "Well, how would I know, how does anybody know?" How is his (small-time showbiz) hustle any different from hers? "If you listen to yourself, you're just lying to yourself." But actually, it's OK. Jon's cool.

1000 words I wrote about the new Jamey Johnson album:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-09-15/music/jamey-johnson-sprawls-out/

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/clicktrack/2010/09/glower_power_down-and-dirty_co.html

Really really wish i had made that highline show.

Ah, so the ones about L.A. being the Bad Place are the most L.A.-softee-rock of the bunch? And right, Jamey's beard is outta hand. I had the pleasure of meeting Jamey and doing a profile of him for his last record and reviewed The Dollar when it came out in '06. Women I know say he's a hunk and they LIKE his beard. Gosdin's "Set 'Em Up Joe" seems about uncoverable to me, because Gosdin was about twict the singer Johnson is, but hey, what the hell. ("Set 'Em" is the song they play at ever single Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree, btw--the long-running radio show now taped, once live, at the ETMJ/ET Record Shop out near Opryland in these parts. Followed by Tex Ritter's enocomium to Tubb ("the tall man with the distinctive voice and smile...") and then some of "Walking the Floor." All of which gives the feeling of timeline that I guess Johnson is going for here. I like him fine, but he's limited, me not being a huge fan of Waylonisms (I like him, don't love him, Jessi did). I note, thinking about country's notions of glamour and hipness Frank and Chuck seem to be musing on, that Jamey looks more like one of the Avett Brothers than he does Brooks & Dunn. Does this bode a paradigm shift within country? And I note that I just find a lot of Johnson's music turgid. My favorite moment of his probably remains "Mowing Down the Roses." But his covers of Whitley et al are mostly good. I sensed a lotta Alabama angst in Johnson there in the Mercury offices high above Nashville and that's fine, I feel that way myself these days much of the time. This and Elizabeth Cook's record are the Quality Anti-Nashville Nashville albums so far this year and I think Cook writes better songs but Johnson sings better, or at least I am not annoyed so much by Johnson's vocals as I am Elizabeth's very nice Dollyisms.

Maybe inevitably, the new Jamey Johnson album gets its own thread:

Who wants to talk about Jamey Johnson's new double album, The Guitar Song?

I'm not sure I totally understand Frank's notion of "country hipness," having taken a look at his LJ stuff and some cool Dottie videos. What you may get out of listening to Dottie West is a mental comparison of how a jazz singer or a "straight" "pop" singer might've tackled "Country Girl." Blossom Dearie would've turned it into a celebration of a city girl's fantasy of what country life is like, but West comes from the recognizable stance of a person who'd been immersed in the country and no big deal therefore, which comes across in the matter-of-fact singing--the way she phrases steadily across from verse to chorus. But a hip performance...I don't know how you'd even bring that idea into that music, actually, because it's just so opposed to the entire idea of hip circa the actual West recording. Because the West performance is beyond asking questions about what she even means to do, she's just doing it and her audience wants it that straight and can only deal with it delivered that straight.

But I'd venture that all current Nashville big-time country is more or less exploring this idea of country hip, because Nashville is a country-hip town to begin with. Jamey Johnson looks like he's in a metal band or in Black Mountain or the Avett Brothers, Urban, Paisley, Allan, Yoakam, Vassar, Bobby Pinson all are playing with this idea. Eric Church doesn't seem to be so much. Elizabeth Cook--whose album will doubtless vie with Jamey's in the Scene poll as disc-of-year--is all about that, which actually both helps her and limits her music. At least half of her new one, which contains some brilliant stuff and hangs together conceptually well enough for me to give it a high A grade, tries to inject some funk or rock into the country structures, but it gets stuck somewhere for me--the rockers don't rock enough, but the words to the flat-out country tunes are absolutely great. And this may be one tentative key to why country and hip are hard thangs to reconcile--the words are just so important, don't toy around with them. Country's sonics are flat cardboard so much of the time; certainly Dottie's backing in that old video of "Country Girl" is a pretty uninflected waltz, just functional, just like it oughta be.

I think a question to ask would be: how improvisational has country ever been, in the studio or on stage? How much has it taken liberties with its form compared to pop or jazz or even soul? And more to the point, how would county audiences today react to someone stepping on the form or being too, too hip in that way? Because formally, Johnson's record is way retrograde, but the sonics are a higher grade of cardboard and that's what's selling the thing, besides his great beard and overall great bad-ass attitude, to those of us who wanna be hip, I know I do.

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2010/09/whats-wanker-to-do.html

This just whipped up homemade video of an old song is worth a quick look. The Foremen -- ha!

Well this touches on what I mentioned earlier about Paisley and Bentley getting more toward giving instrumental interludes more room to develope at times (or Paisley's whole album, a while back). Mind you, they aren't doing duets with Ornette Coleman or Weedeater. it's still in acceptable/traditional ways of stretching out, bluegrass and Southern Rock's jazzier,jammier inclinatations (but with hats still on and cowboy shirts still clean)But it can be refreshing if it sounds like it's finding refreshment (mostly live, ditto Keith Urban and a number of others) Anyway, was wondering about Mandy Barnett, and google read my mind of course, hence the most fascinating press release of the past five minutes, incl. a bunch of releases at the end, which might be pretty decent:
_LEBANON, Tenn_. (September 20, 2010) As you start thinking about holiday
entertainment and stocking stuffers, you may want to consider some new music
that provides all the authentic sounds of the holiday traditions so many of
us cherish. The newest CD in Cracker Barrel Old Country Store's exclusive
music program is _Winter Wonderland, _the holiday album by acclaimed
vocalist Mandy Barnett. In addition to the title track, holiday standards
such as "_Jingle Bell Rock_," "_A Holly Jolly Christmas,"_ "_Marshmallow
World_," "_I'll Be Home For Christmas_" and "_White Christmas_" are all
included in this wonderful collection of holiday songs. Mandy has recaptured
the Golden Era with the song choices and production on this album, along
with a musical cast of veterans such as Harold Bradley, Lloyd Green, Louis
Nunley, Gene Chrisman and Tony Migliore, who lent their talents to render an
instant classic. You may care to know that guitarist Harold Bradley and
back-up singer Louis Nunley appear on the original versions of several of
these songs, including "_Jingle Bell Rock_"! This album is now available,
but only at Cracker Barrel.

"I wanted this album to be a classic and to remind people of the simpler
times they had when they were children," said Mandy, in talking about how
she approached recording this CD. "It was important to record these songs in
an authentic fashion so people would connect with them emotionally," she
added.

Mandy Barnett became well-known as a teenager when she starred as country
music legend Patsy Cline in the stage show "Always...Patsy Cline" at the
celebrated Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN. The performances were sold out
nightly and received impressive reviews across the country. Mandy went on to
record various albums, including one with legendary producer Owen Bradley.
She is an active performer nationally and internationally, and is a frequent
guest on the Grand Ole Opry.

Mandy is also a frequent guest at Cracker Barrel. "I am hooked on Uncle
Herschel's Favorite," she says, referring to Cracker Barrel's signature
breakfast offering. She also likes to order the Country Fried Chicken
country dinner plate and macaroni n' cheese, which she calls real comfort
food.

"Mandy has a strong, resonant voice that warms your heart as soon as you
hear it," says Cracker Barrel's Vice President of Marketing Peter Keiser.
"Cracker Barrel is very pleased to provide this high quality, pleasing CD
for our guests' holiday entertainment and gift-giving."

Cracker Barrel's exclusive music program features numerous projects. In
September of this year of this year, Cracker Barrel released the self-titled
_Rodney Atkins_, which includes four #1 hits. In July, the company released
Craig Morgan's _That's Why- Collector's Edition_,_ _and in May the release
of Wynonna's Love Heals debuted at #7 on the Billboard Magazine Top Country
Albums chart. February's release of _Dailey & Vincent Sing the Statler
Brothers_ debuted at #1 on Billboard's Top Bluegrass Albums chart, where it
spent nine weeks in the top position and 18 weeks overall in one of the
three top positions since its release on February 1st. Releases in 2009
included November's _Songs of Love and Heartache_ by Alan Jackson,
September's release of an exclusive new version of _The Foundation_ by the
Zac Brown Band, August's George Jones' release of _A Collection Of My Best
Recollection_, May's release of Montgomery Gentry's _For Our Heroes_, which
debuted at #5 on Billboard Magazine's Top Country Albums chart, and March's
release of Dolly Parton's _Collector's Edition of Backwoods Barbie__, _which
debuted at #9 on that chart. Over the last few years, Cracker Barrel has
released exclusive CDs with Bill Gaither, Kenny Rogers, Ricky Skaggs, Aaron
Tippin, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Josh Turner, Amy Grant, Sara Evans,
and Charlie Daniels_._Think you mentioned some Cracker Barrel comps, xhux?

So Edd, was Marshall Chapman really as good as you say in your Americana piece? When? I picked up an old album by her on the cheap last year, one of her late '70s ones, but thought it wasn't good at all, as the link at this link (and subsequent post-lets) indicate:

Rolling Country 2009 Thread

She did cover "Turn The Page" long before either Metallica or Jamey Johnson, though -- I'll give her that. But Christgau seems to have been really skeptical about her too -- middling grades all down the line, until some obscure 1987 cassette called Dirty Linen that came out on vinyl only in Germany, and which he liked way more than any of her other albums. Anyway, curious which records by her you'd recommend. And either way, her prediction that a "next" Hendrix/Elvis/Hank would emerge from "Americana" music is plainly nuts.

Good piece, though. But I have to wonder about your contention that "a vision of American music that combined traditional values with modernist sensibilities" equals a "experimentalism can seem alien to...the mainstream country follower," since basically that's what mainstream country does too, I'd say -- just differently. In fact, if anything, I'd say I hear way more experimenting with form going on, less staidness, there (or in "pop music," which you also name) than in Americana-so-called. And it's not like Nashville doesn't constantly pay lip service to "traditional values" (and traditional American music) too. But it's not news that I think that.

Anyway, enough griping. Don, yeah, I think I mentioned Cracker Barrel's Montgomery Gentry best-of once. (Haven't heard that; they've got another best-of out next week, apparently, and I haven't heard that either.) Here's my review of the new Randy Houser:

http://www.rhapsody.com/randy-houser/they-call-me-cadillac#albumreview

Marshall Chapman: Dirty Linen, It's About Time and Marshall are her best in roughly descending order. Her new one is nice too. My take is that once she got over being marketed as a rock 'n' rollin' country crossover and just started making the kind of more-or-less relaxed music she does now, she was way better. Her live-at-prison album (It's About Time) is as good as Mack Vickery's live prison record...

The thing about Americana that you picked up on, Chuck, is that I think they think they're being "experimental" and "uncommercial" all the time; they're doing what they want. To the Americana sensibility, pairing Robert "Spook Music" Plant with Buddy Miller or Miller with Solomon Burke is audacious. I don't think so myself, and as I have said here, all of this goes back to Xgaju's "semipopular" in the '70s works of...name somebody, Thomas Jefferson Kaye, Andy Fairweather Lowe (who cut in Nashville), on and on. So, nothing new. The point is that it's conceived as an alternative to bad old country. And right, country does do some stuff that's sorta experimental on the surface, mainly I think it's production, and I guess it's modernist in the sense of something being left behind, the old farm and whatever, but really experimenting...country used to do it more, I think, because the stakes were somewhat lower and everybody knew that when ol' Jerry Reed dabbled with Chet in jazz, it was just country boys playin' around with something that ain't that hard, we're just pickers...that sorta thing. I don't hear the same spirit in Dierks doing bluegrass--which by the way ought to be the Americana record of the year. So let's just say that a 19-year-old performer like Sarah Jarosz, into the Decembrists, or some addled Austin Western-swing outfit, ties into indie in a way that country audiences don't generally get, unless you think Carrie Underwood fans like the Decembrists or Neko Case. But right, something like that Judge Jerrod thing we talked about earlier, it's definitely got something going with both form and production that Americana, in its purity, wouldn't try. As for Chapman's predictions, well, she said it, I didn't. Her point is cogent enough--she's asking where innovative performers like Hendrix would've landed, today. The point she misses is that there was once a whole circuit for someone like Hendrix to learn his chops in, the chitlin circuit, which sorta exists today, but that has little to do with Americana. Someone like Hendrix is beyond Americana, for sure. The main thing I remember is that Americana feeds into the mainstream of country's talent pool constantly; the songwriters, the players, the overall concept, which is Nashville-hip. I love Nashville as a city, it's my home, but I have a place in my heart for crass commercialism and the innovations that arise from those pecuniary motives, and I love jazz, experimental pop, Brazilian craziness, rhythms and general bad taste whenever possible, and this is a town of good taste that can strangle a lot of things. The most jaded audiences I've ever seen. So trying to do anything actually new here...it's tough on you. Americana is designed to give creedence or credence to the notions of being an artist within the same old parameters, and all I do is ask, what are the parameters?

http://mobile.latimes.com/wap/news/text.jsp?sid=294&nid=23165032&cid=16698&scid=1857&ith=1&title=Entertainment

LA Times me-too on Jamey Johnson, doing his video in LA. Matt McConnaughey is his pal, it sez.

Me on the new Kenny Chesney album (which is probably one of the better country albums of this year):

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

...and the new Toby Keith album (which I possibly may have gone too easy on):

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

...and what the heck, the new Doobie Brothers album (which I definitely don't recommend per se', but which sounded better than I would have predicted, plus it's got Willie Nelson on it so that justifies me posting this here):

http://www.rhapsody.com/the-doobie-brothers/world-gone-crazy-3#albumreview

Minor Keith Urban mention on post about destruction of middle class US guitar business for sake of custom shop goods for the upper class/pros with contracts.

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/2010/09/30/guitar-center-made-in-china/

Urban's the cover on the latest Guitar Center shopper, along for a discussion of vintage guitars, which are not the bulk of GC's business in their main showrooms.

Article in today's hardcopy LATimes on the Avett Brothers. I'd suspect they'd be completely uninteresting here since the banjo player is described as playing his instrument, not like Earl Scruggs, but like a guitar player from Echo & the Bunnymen. Which outside of the freakish quality doesn't make me even faintly curious since it's too archly toward nerd rock or the let's write an article the NPR listeners and programmers will save.

I saw them mentioned a little upstream but not in any meaningful or muchly enthusiastic ways.

You're not missing anything:

Rolling Country 2006 Thread

Rolling Country 2008 Thread

Finished #15 in Pazz & Jop last year, for reasons I will never comprehend.

trying to figure out if miranda lambert learned "long white cadillac," one of the half-dozen or so covers she played wednesday night in new york, from the blasters, from dwight yoakam, or from someone/somewhere else. her performance of it was dead on -- not great, not bad -- just a good rootsy song that fit quite comfortably into her set. i was less impressed with her take on rick derringer's "rock and roll hoochie koo," which she just kinda yelled through, as if trying to prove she can rock with a capital R, as if anyone didn't already know. i was more impressed by her encore of merle haggard's "misery and gin," which she nailed after informing the crowd of her intent to marry merle as soon as she divorces blake.

it was a damn good show. it says a lot about how impressive her catalog already is, only three albums in, that she can dispense with "only prettier," "kerosene" and "famous in a small town" in the first 10 minutes and still have a set full of singles and rocking crowd-pleasers ahead. she went balls-out from start to finish, maintaining the feel even thru the ballads. the mic stand built out of a rifle is amusing, especially when she's standing behind it in spiked heels. how does she play guitar in those things? how does she run around in those things? is that why her legs are cut like a bodybuilder's?

i also loved that a roadie mopped -- not just swept, but mopped -- the stage between eric church's set and hers. i've reasonably sure i've never seen that before. a declaration of her girliness, in case anyone didn't already know THAT, perhaps.

i was less impressed with her take on rick derringer's "rock and roll hoochie koo," which she just kinda yelled through, as if trying to prove she can rock with a capital R, as if anyone didn't already know.

― fact checking cuz, Friday, October 1, 2010 3:53 PM (37 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Regardless, one has to be impressed with her choice of covers, generally. The girl's got an incredible sense of both what's worth covering and what she's capable of nailing. I maintain that the two covers from CEG, Patty Griffin's "Getting Ready" and Emmylou Harris' "Easy from Now On", both best the originals. And those aren't artists I would ever imagine someone as inexperienced as Lambert could so easily top.

As far as the "rock with a capital R" thing, I regrettably got that sense throughout much of the last record. "White Liar" and "Dead Flowers" walked a fine line, but "Maintain the Pain," "Somewhere Trouble Don't Go," and "That's the Way the World Goes Round" are three of the album's weakest points, IMO. I worry that the way she's been personified as rough n tough may push her away from her softer, cleaner numbers.

To a great extent, I'm glad that "The House That Built Me" was the song that finally broke the charts, because--like on "Love is Looking for You," "Love Your Memory," and the infallible "Desperation"--it's the contrast of her ballads that I find so enchanting about her.

xpost re Avett Brothers. Those old posts explain the "they were skate punks" thread also running through today's LAT piece.

miranda lambert

Post linked above indicates that I definitely don't see eye-to-eye with Indexed about Lambert's ballads vs. rockers issue. Also thought her third LP was by far her dullest (and have never really connected with Patty Griffin or Emmylou, for that matter). So have to admit the idea of Miranda covering "Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo," one of my favorite hard rock hits ever, intrigues me. I should do a youtube search, though if Fact Checking Cuz is right I'll just get my hopes dashed. So I'll hold off. Could see her MAYBE pulling a real Suzi Quatro with that one. (George, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Quatro sing backup on Derringer's original -- or hit version anyway; he re-recorded it a couple times, right? And guess she covered it herself on If You Know Suzi, which for some reason I don't own a copy of, despite it also containing her only real U.S. hit "Stumblin' In" and, apparently, a cover of Tom Petty's "Breakdown." She also suppposedly inspired Derringer's own '70s andro-glam look; be cool if Lambert picked up on that.)

Anyway, speaking of Brothers, I should confess that I've probably spent too much time in recent months comparing very cheaply purchased or gifted late '70s and early '80s Bellamy Brothers albums. Decided I kinda like Featuring 'Let Your Love Flow' (1976) and Sons Of The Sun (1980), but kinda don't like Plain & Fancy (1977) and Beautiful Friends (1978), which doesn't make a lot of chronological sense, but whatever. Love Flow, besides the soft rock immortal title cut, starts with a couple real bubbly poppy ones about wanting to be a millionaire rock star and wanting to make out in the back of the Chevy back when McCartney was the holy ghost, ends with a sort of quasi rockabilly called "Hell Cat," and has a couple almost semi-pyschedelic hippie dippie things in the middle ("Let Fantasy Live," "Inside Of My Guitar") that sound like the theoretical roots of Big Kenny or Jerrod Niemann, plus an odd one about how living in the West must've been great for all the outlaws but the singer lives in the East. Sons Of The Sun has them soaking in a hot tub on the back and starts with a few sun-burnt catchy sleazy ones, including one about how ladies in New York charge a whole week's pay for sex but the girls back in cowboy land used to do it free, and has their still swampy cover of Jim Stafford's '70s hit "Spiders And Snakes" (which David Bellamy co-wrote in the first place, it turns out) on the flip, after a sort of passably funny one called "Honey We Don't Know No One In Nashville." Plain And Fancy starts with the very promising "You Made Me," which rocks almost as hard as the Doobies circa "China Grove," and has a song called "Hard Rockin" on the flip that doesn't, and none of the rest ever sticks with me. Most memorable song by far on Beatiful Friends is their cover of the Everly Brothers' "Bird Dog," which I never thought much about before, but it was sort of a proto-Trashmen trash goof, and a total anomaly for them, right? Or did they actually do other tunes like that I'm not thinking of? Either way, I bet their version was better.

Well, Indexed and I do agree on "Dead Flowers," I guess. (But I don't think "House That Built Me" is all that much better.)

And, duh, "Love is Looking for You," "Love Your Memory," and "Desperation" are all on the first two albums. So maybe I should read posts more closely before deciding to disagree with them. (And I much prefer the first two albums' ballads to the third album's. And I haven't even played the third one for a while now, so far all I know my opinion on it will change if/when I pull it out again.)

In other news, I decided I way prefer the Lefty Frizell best-of LP I purchased for a pittance this summer to the Ernest Tubb best-of LP I purchased for even less. Apples and oranges? I dunno. Tubb's fine, but after "Walking The Floor Over You," which is great, most everything else he does strikes me as a lesser imitation of "Walking The Floor Over You." What percentage of his big hits were about getting dumped? Judging from this album, must be somewhere near the 90% range, at least. Tubbheads should feel free to argue, though.

Okay, just checked Whitburn -- a weird or maybe not thing about the Bellamys is that they apparently sort of crossed over to country from pop. Or at least, they charted pop first, with that "Let Your Love Flow" album, which Whitburn says is actually self-titled, and which had two other Hot 100 hits on it ("Hell Cat" and "Satin Sheets") along with the #1 pop title track (which did go #21 country. But then their next five singles goose-egged country-wise till, wow, "Bird Dog.") Next two LPs, the ones I don't like, didn't show up on either chart, and then they never put an album in the Billboard 200 again! But in 1979, they started scoring albums and singles (incl. #1's "If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me," "Sugar Daddy," and "Dancin' Cowboys") on the country chart. Sons Of The Sun was the third one there, but their sixth album total. Haven't heard albums #4 or #5 yet.

Actually, six straight post-"Love Flow" 45s missed the country chart, not five. And btw, I realize it's not unheard of for pop acts to cross over to country -- at least from ONJ and Ronstadt all the way to Bon Jovi, Darius Rucker, and Jewel -- but how rare is it for act that does that to never score again on the pop side? Seems weird that the Bellamys wouldn't have had more low-level pop success, given they always had a fairly poppy sound, that even tried to work in reggae, rap, Latin, etc. on occasion. In other words, they were sure no more pure-country than, say, Brooks & Dunn, who actually reminded me of them when they first came out, and who've had a pile of Top 20 albums in the Billboard 200 and lots of Hot 100, even Top 40, hits. But maybe it's just that country was crossing over less in general during the Bellamys' heyday? (Despite Dolly, Kenny Rogers, etc? Weird.) Plus, there's SoundScan I guess.

So have to admit the idea of Miranda covering "Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo," one of my favorite hard rock hits ever, intrigues me. I should do a youtube search, though if Fact Checking Cuz is right I'll just get my hopes dashed. So I'll hold off. Could see her MAYBE pulling a real Suzi Quatro with that one. (George, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Quatro sing backup on Derringer's original -- or hit version anyway; he re-recorded it a couple times, right? And guess she covered it herself on If You Know Suzi, which for some reason I don't own a copy of, despite it also containing her only real U.S. hit "Stumblin' In" and, apparently, a cover of Tom Petty's "Breakdown." She also suppposedly inspired Derringer's own '70s andro-glam look; be cool if Lambert picked up on that.)

I have some bit of detritus in my head faintly remembering seeing some Lambert audience-taken clip of her doing Hootchie Koo and quickly hitting reject. A lot of the audience vids are abominable.

That having been said, it's really tough to do a good version of the song because it requires about the pinnacle in Seventies hard rock backing. You have to have two guitarists and they, basically, have to be really great. Plus ya need a great rhythm section. And if you don't have those, you go over the top on the vocal, which doesn't work.

There are only three versions of the song worth listening to. Two are by those who own it. It's either Johnny Winter And or Rick Derringer. The obscure Brit band, Stretch, who were Johnny Winter freaks, also turned a great recorded version. No one else.

A lot of people just don't remember how influential and all over the place the Blue Sky mafia were. Edge, Johnny Winter, Dan Hartman, Rick Derringer, various hot shit Texas sidemen from Tin House, etc.

The Johnny Winter And studio album is a really great amalgam of hard rock, blues and roots music. And that's where Hootchie Koo started taking off. Although, popularly, it's the center piece of Rick Derringer's first solo album which pushed a polished American teen glam rock vibe, such as it was. I think Derringer was about thirty when he did it (I may be wrong), but what the hey, he had the face.

Pat Benatar's band did a great Rock n Roll Hootchie Koo live. Course, they weren't with Pat Benatar yet. They were Derringer before he ceded them to her and that song is not on his album with them, If I Weren't So Romantic, I'd Shoot You. Which is really good, anyway.

Edge, Johnny Winter, Dan Hartman, Rick Derringer, various hot shit Texas sidemen from Tin House, etc.

Edge? How'd that creep in there?!! Ghosts in the machine? Freudian Alzheimer's
slip. Delete-delete-delete. Ctrl-alt-del.

And, yeah, Rick Derringer has recorded Hootchie Koo many times. Too many, probably. The one you like best is the solo alb version. Johnny Winter And's version is really great, too. Can't check the original vinyl credits for Quatro but it makes sense since the solo album was so obviously aimed at glam.

And, duh, "Love is Looking for You," "Love Your Memory," and "Desperation" are all on the first two albums. So maybe I should read posts more closely before deciding to disagree with them. (And I much prefer the first two albums' ballads to the third album's. And I haven't even played the third one for a while now, so far all I know my opinion on it will change if/when I pull it out again.)

― xhuxk, Friday, October 1, 2010 9:04 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yeah, just to clarify, I think the first two records are miles better than the third; they were two of my most played records of the 2000s. To be sure, if you asked me to name my 10 favorite ML songs, I might pick one off of Revolution.

What I like so much about the first two is how balanced and well-paced they are; the hard rockers are tempered with ballads that actually manage to stand out. They're not bloated or front-loaded. And there are clever covers in all the right places (she's an excellent songwriter, but it doesn't hurt to have Travis Howard and Gillian Welch's help).

An aside: Does anyone know why Travis Howard had such a diminished role on Revolution? He's written some of her best songs ("Famous in a Small Town," "Guilty in Here," "Mama I'm Alright," "I Can't Be Bothered") but only penned one track on Revolution, the pretty good "Heart Like Mine."

On the third one, I felt like the media/radio/CMT typecast of her--as a rough n tough rebel--predisposed the record to sound like it did. It was really over-produced, particularly on the hard rockers, and that's something that becomes especially apparent as you listen to the album front to back. The songs that stand out aren't the big numbers but "Me and Your Cigarettes," "Airstream Song," "Time to Get a Gun," and "The House That Built Me"--all of which are far less heavy handed on the production side compared to, say, "Maintain the Pain" or "Love Song" (which is pretty easily her worst track to date--Thanks, Lady Antebellum!).

The one big exception on the rocker side, IMO, is "Dead Flowers," which is more dynamic and supportive than most of the other tracks. There's a lot of empty space on that track left for her to fill, and the backup vocals are perfect.

The middle stretch is overproduced; maybe an audiophile can define what makes "Maintain the Pain" and "Only Prettier" sound compressed and tinny. As much as I might agree with you about her appeal to the "Gunpowder and Lead" crowd, those Revolution rockers all boast a compelling guitar hook or two. No advances, but no retreads either. To my ears Revolution is her Give'Em Enough Rope.

What bothers me more than the compression is the indifferent sequencing. While I'm not a believer in "thematic unity" or whatever, with this record my attention waxes and wanes too often.

Any of you guys heard Sunny Sweeney's record? Her new single gets reviewed by the Jukebox crew this week. The song and arrangement compensate for her lack of affect.

Haven't heard her album, if there is one. Love the single (and will say so on Jukebox soon obviously.) Frank Kogan lists it as his #2 country single of the year so far on the list below; it'd be up near the top of my list too; could make my P&J singles list (which'll be a winged theoretical mess this year either way.) Frank names a bunch of songs I haven't heard, by the way. Did hear an advance of the Stealing Angels album last week though, even though it doesn't come out until next Valentine's Day, and I liked it a bunch (some tracks more than the one that Frank names, I think) which thereby officially makes it my fave album of 2011 so far, not that there's any competition. (Got an advance of Brit soul rap guy Plan B's early 2011 album in the mail last week too, but haven't put it on yet.)

http://koganbot.livejournal.com/240173.html#cutid2

Stealing Angels' MySpace (they are three gals):

http://www.myspace.com/stealingangels

Also been kind of liking the new album by this Texas duo Rosehill -- good '70s-soft-rock-disguised-as-country road songs, sounds way better in a car than at home, probably on purpose. Favorites so far are "West Of Sunset," "White Lines And Stars," and "Midnight America," with a couple more in reserve (including "Sunday" I think), though "Picassos For Pesos" is sadly not as good as its title:

http://www.rosehill-live.com/Rosehill/Welcome.html

Caramanica slams (most of) the new Toby Keith album, maybe deservedly. Like I said above, I'm already starting to think I cut it too much a break; may well be the most ignorable he's made, at least this millenium. Then again, tracks clicking on the radio (no longer a foregone conclusion for the guy) could rope it in for me. Eventually I'll put it back on again and doublecheck, I guess. Anyway:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/04/arts/music/04choice.html

Also, Caramanica last week, on the new Kenny Chesney (which he likes, as do I):

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/arts/music/27choice.html

Listening to Kris Kristoferson's Me And Bobby McGee LP right now. It came in a box of giveaways from Metal Mike Saunders (who, surprisingly, said he's a fan of it), and it's even worse than I figured. If there's a more rigid vocalist on the planet (well, before alt-country and indie-rock made rigidity a law) I don't know who it would be. I guess some of the songwriting and melodies might click despite the horrible singing, but not much of it, at least so far. Thought "Blame It On the Stones," which I'd never heard before, was kind of amusing -- well, at least the parts that sort of ape the Stones' late '60s middle eastern-ish psych moments. Bombastic chorus really got on my nerves. But before Kristofferson I played Don Gibson's Oh Lonesome Me, which came in a giveaway pile from my father-in-law, and liked it more than I thought I would -- he's got a tangible bounce to his stuff, turns out. Had somehow not made the connection that "Sweet Sweet Girl," the second single I think on circa-1980 pre-Stray Cats new wave rockabilly band the Kingbees' LP with their then-AOR hit (in Detroit anyway) "My Mistake" on it, was a Don Gibson cover, even though I'd probably read that somewhere. A few months ago I didn't have either version, but now I have both, since I found the Kingbees LP for $1 a few months ago. It was passable, just barely, better in the couple tracks where it sped up or gave space to clanky retro percussion, but still a disappointment since nothing else came close to "My Mistake" on it. And finally, last night I played John Stewart's California Bloodlines, which I pulled off the shelf because the two California tracks on the new Jamey Johnson album made me think of him, and basically its knowing world-weariness sounds how I wish Kristofferson would sound. (Kris still on, by the way, still sounding awful. "Sunday Morning Comin' Down" -- okay, that's so great I admit he pulls it off. But his "For The Good Times" was just painful.)

horrible singing

kris kristofferson solo acoustic three or four years back at carnegie hall, opening for george jones, may well have been the single worst performance i've ever seen by a major artist. endearingly awful, but awful nonetheless. in addition to horrible singing, which in this case meant he literally couldn't carry a tune, there was daniel johnston-level guitar playing, plus he forgot the words to several songs and abandoned them halfway through. he looked and sounded like a nervous 12-year-old playing his first recital. it was endearing because he acknowledged all that, and because he looked so utterly cute, like your hipster granddad, as he stumbled along. but. still. i assume he could have afforded a band if he wanted to.

that sunny sweeney single may well be my favorite single of the year. countrypolitan heaven.

Jason Aldean, title song of new album, "My Kinda Party." Mediocre hard rock riddled with all the party cliches, Aldean baring his teeth heroically. I might like his stuff a little more if he took some amphetamines. Seemed extraordinarily tuneless, even for him.

Guess he never was a big fan of ZZ Top.

that sunny sweeney single may well be my favorite single of the year. countrypolitan heaven.

― fact checking cuz, Monday, October 4, 2010 9:47 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

For sure.

Anybody else diggin' the Blake Shelton/Miranda Lambert duet "Draggin' the River" on his All About Tonight EP? It's a fun number.