Rolling Country 2010

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.

The Sweeney single is pretty fantastic, yes, and I've been pleasantly surprised that it's shown some legs at radio.

Counterpoint: On first listen, the new Sugarland, The Incredible Machine, is a trainwreck, and not the entertaining kind.

Haven't heard it, but this suggests that "trainwreck" (though presumably the entertaining kind) may be what they were aiming for:

Nettles says that "The Incredible Machine" --both the album and their forthcoming tour -- take inspiration from the "steampunk movement," , a branch of science fiction that imagines a world where humans evolved intellectually, but technology remained set in Victorian times. "I describe it emotionally as bungee jumping and eating chocolate cake," she says.

http://www.billboard.com/news/sugarland-goes-steampunk-for-incredible-1004080330.story#/news/sugarland-goes-steampunk-for-incredible-1004080330.story

Also, am I several months behind the curve to learn about this? (I actually don't watch videos much; not sure if it ever came out).

Taylor Swift, who has a rival album due out in October also, does not want to be outdone by Sugarland. So she is working on her own video based on a sci-fi sub-genre. But it’s not steampunk, it is the excessively-graphic, hyperintensive horror of splatterpunk.
“It starts off innocent enough,” said a member of the production crew, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It begins like the Taylor Swift songs we’re all used to, about a High School sweetheart. But when she goes to a party and finds her new beau on the arm of another girl, the blood and guts start flying.”

http://www.savingcountrymusic.com/taylor-swift-tops-sugarlands-steampunk-w-splatterpunk

That Adkins/Lambert single is indeed fun. Rhythm is Skynyrd's "Gimme Three Steps," but the real energy is in the singing (no big surprise for Miranda, but I'd forgotten Blake could sound so hearty), the story, and the borderline provocative asides at the end.

Actually, that Taylor story may be a joke, for all I know. (Though I'm not sure I'd put it past her.)

But yeah, that website doesn't look like one that would take kindly to Swift. So an attempt at humor, I'm 99% sure. Homepage stories about Justin Townes Earle getting arrested and checking into rehab, plus stuff about Emmylou Harris and lots of apparently alt-ish artists I never heard of before; headlines about "REAL country," ho hum. This, from their Jamey Johnson review, seems fairly typical:

let me summarize by saying that compared to most of the independent/Outlaw/underground country I am used to listening to and reviewing, this album is somewhere between mediocre and average. But compared to the rest of the material coming from major labels in Nashville, this album is remarkable...For a Nashville-based album put out in 2010, the songs and arrangements are surprisingly tasteful and true to the roots of country

A ton of comments at the end, though, some of which might be interesting if I ever got around to reading them.

http://www.savingcountrymusic.com/album-review-jamey-johnsons-the-guitar-song

Nettles says that "The Incredible Machine" --both the album and their forthcoming tour -- take inspiration from the "steampunk movement"

Wow. They read William Gibson's The Difference Engine.

It's a show stopper, like admitting your favorite book in college was something by Ayn Rand. Or, worse, Bruce Stirling. (That's a joke, he was the co-author with Gibson.)

miranda and blake had a very different-sounding co-write and duet called "bare skin rug" on his 2008 album, startin' fires. that one was an old-timey waltz, and it was totally sexy and totally fun.

Yeah, I actually interviewed him for Billboard at the time, about that album (which turned out to be not very good, overall, I thought):

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE4A003R20081101

And obviusly I meant "Shelton/Lambert single" above, not Adkins/Lambert.

Also, for what it's worth, the three new Jamey Johnson tracks that SavingCountry reviewer liked a lot (“Can’t Cash My Checks,” “California Riots,” and “Macon") are three of my favorites on the album, as well. But the guy's not too coherent otherwise, as far as I can tell. Plus he seems to think Hank Williams III is a great artist, which is ridiculous.

miranda and blake had a very different-sounding co-write and duet called "bare skin rug" on his 2008 album, startin' fires. that one was an old-timey waltz, and it was totally sexy and totally fun.

― fact checking cuz, Monday, October 4, 2010 11:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yes! It's a wonderful track. But I think I like "Draggin" more.

I'd read about the "steampunk" angle for The Incredible Machine, but my understanding is that it only carries through as far as the album's packaging is concerned-- Sugarland's logo is spelled out using gears and bolts and other machinery, and they're dressed like they sent some of Sweeney Todd's costumes to the dry cleaner. That is, unless sounding a whole lot like Coldplay and Melissa Etheridge somehow qualifies as "steampunk," which I'm pretty sure it doesn't.

On a positive note, Nettles doesn't affect that ridiculous, bullshit drawl on this album. But she also doesn't enunciate half of her consonants at all, so you win some, you lose some...

The Taylor Swift splatterpunk thing is most certainly a joke, and, no, the Saving Country Music blog is not a fan of hers or too many major label country acts at all.

You mean they look like Robert Downey and whatsisname in the Sherlock Holmes movie from 2009, only a lot cleaner?

Bizarre. Since that time was Dickensian England and grinding poverty.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWi182CMJY8

Victoria Jackson doing a semi-poor woman's Ray Stevens.

You can cut & paste. More surprising to me is that Victoria Jackson's YouTube channel is called PasadenaTeaParty.

Seen across the el Molino st bridge everyday I go to lunch, big lawn sign in a iron-fenced yard guarded by a Doberman that's had its bark silenced: "Voting for liberals in Congress is like putting PIRANHAS in your child's playpool!"

Heard a whole bunch of pretty good country singles last month that I oughta write up, while not liking most of what I'm hearing this month though I like the one where Toby and the border whiskey girl go in on the lam and out like Bonnie and Clyde. And the track where Tim McGraw goes all singin'-and-bouncin' about lip gloss. I like the new Aldean, "My Kinda Baby," more than George does, though do think it's good fundamentally for the guitars, while Jason fails to hold his own. Checked out the original by Brantley Gilbert, whose voice is no stronger than Jason's but whose arrangement gives it a much better setting. In any event, both versions whip out the guitars, the Brantley with hot riffs and lines, while the guitars on the Aldean are more... not sure what it is, architectural, maybe, creating a structure rather than riding the bronco. Makes me think of hair metal, a bit.

I went and listened to Gilbert's Halfway To Heaven, which doesn't have "My Kinda Baby" but does have Colt Ford's "Dirt Road Anthem" remade as a duet. Gilbert's voice is too small for the rocker he wants to be, and the few lyrics that snuck into my ear were this-is-what-people-like-us-are-like country-cheerleader tedium. But the sentiments aren't bad ("Country Must Be Country Wide," which unfortunately is more about country spreading throughout the country than about about country taking in the whole country à la Big & Rich, but at least it's glad to share its sensibility with northerners and city folks), and he intends the rock moves to really rock. The rocking tracks are the ones I might return to, "Take It Outside," "Country Must Be Country Wide," and "Kick It In The Sticks" in that order, the last of which references AC/DC. Gilbert's melodies generally are good, and that's likely to be where this guy makes his impact, writing rather than singing.

Turns out Brantley Gilbert is on the original "Dirt Road Anthem" too. And here's the vid for "Kick It In The Sticks."

does have Colt Ford's "Dirt Road Anthem" remade as a duet

As does Aldean's imminent album My Kinda Party, oddly enough. But on one listen, I liked it less than Colt's own version (have yet to check out Gilbert's), and I liked the album less than Aldean's last one (which was far from great.) It did seem to have some intermittent promising moments, however. Have no opinion, yet, about the single.

That Toby title track single did sound suprisingly good when I heard it on the radio this week. Maybe I didn't overrate the album after all.

Only very very marginally country (and not a keeper to my ears), but here's my reviewlet of sometimes semi-billy Dwight Twilley's new album:

http://www.rhapsody.com/dwight-twilley/green-blimp#albumreview

Short reviews I wrote of....

New Sugarland album

http://www.rhapsody.com/sugarland/the-incredible-machine#albumreview

New Dan Hicks & the Hot Licks Xmas album

http://www.rhapsody.com/dan-hicks/crazy-for-christmas#albumreview

New Girl In A Coma covers album (not country, but they come from San Antonio and cover Patsy Cline and tejano numbers, so in the neighborhood, sort of)

http://www.rhapsody.com/girl-in-a-coma/adventures-in-coverland#albumreview

Don't really recommend any of them, but find the latter two sort of charming. Definitely like the Sugarland the least of the three.

My full review of the Sugarland album is here. It's a long-ish piece, but the gist of it is that it's all well and good to make a pop album so long as you make a good pop album, and Sugarland were perhaps too busy trying on stupid hats to remember to do that.

When I saw a promotional clip for The Incredible Machine with Nettles in a ridiculously exaggerated bustle amid a crazy stage I thought of Peter Gabriel around the time of Genesis' "Return of the Giant
Hogweed."

The Difference Engine was barely readable, though I've rarely enjoyed or even been impressed by Gibson-did like his early short stories,esp. "New Rose Hotel", though have been cos it was unusual then, and short. Or Sterling, though, long after heyday of his "cyberpunk" agitation, did enjoy his rally for librarians: "Yeah, why information here (riffles pages of book), when you can have THIS (snaps CD in two)?" I didn't mean to yell about condescending towards local efforts here a while back, sorry bout that. But, boosterism aside, I do like what Sarah Dougher said.. She's a Northwestern singer-songwriter-etc, best known via Corin Tucker's Cadallaca, a band that may not exist anymore (pretty good cowpunk-ish EP though), does have an indie coffeehouse following, and she said that whenever boondocks audience members ask her about how to get a performing career started in Seattle or Portland, she asks, "What's it like around here?" Gets them thinking about grassroots possibilties, networking, traveling, like just about everybody with any ambition or need for increased income has to do anyway,even including Seattle and Portland exemplars! So we need to encourage locals to keep up and raise standards, certainly, but some should consider staying local, or moving through the hinterlands, and not inadvertanly helping Monopoly monotony and cultural warfare re making the Big Ceety into, like, Kabul (isolation-wise)

I liked that Girl in a Coma disc better than you, but I think I like them more than you do in general. I thought their last album, Trio B.C., was terrific.

No doubt, and to make my analogy a little more readable, in this brief post: if Seattle/Nashville etc. becomes Kabul, tours are patrols, if not incursions. No doubt some already think that way, re the biz cliche, which I, Retail Boy, have heard asserted more than once: "The customer is your enemy."

I don't know what Kristofferson thinks of his own voice, but he did say Wille told him he couldn't sing. I'd wondered if Willie's album of K songs might be worth checking out, but xgau, big Willie fan, that he is, nevertheless sez something like "Willie's too tactful to deliver such arrant corn." Oh well. I did used to like K's early 70s LP The Silver-Tongued Devil And I, but haven't heard it since the early 70s. Even then, when he was fairly smooth, already awesomely arhythmic; not exactly Nico, but it was kind of intriguing. Tonight, Austin City Limits is gonna debut a show with separate Robert Earl Keen/Hays Carll sets, both their bands. Lloyd Maines is among the guests on Keen's set,Ray Wylie Hubbard on Carll's It'll be be re-broadcast later in the week, at least around here, and I signed up for email reminders, can also get more info, excerpts and interviews on sustincitylimits.org. Next: Steve Martin and Steep County/Sarah Jarocz, if I spelled that right, she's now late-teen vocal & banjoist who can do some good hip-hop covers live, so here's hoping (later in Nov: Rosanne performing from The List/Brandi Carlisle)

Needed a bump. This is as good a reason as any:

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/2010/11/01/the-logistics-song/

So has anybody noted that last week was a really big week for country stars getting divorced -- both Billy Ray Cyrus and Randy Travis, within the space of just a few days? Must be something in the Nashville water. Anyway, when I was driving back to Austin from San Antonio the other day, I caught a country station playing Randy's "Forever And Ever Amen," which I thought was amusing.

Whole bunch of Singles Jukebox review roundups (including at least one song I haven't even bothered to listen to yet):

Taylor Swift, "Back To December"

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2894

Carrie Underwood, "Mama's Song"

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2895

Margaret Durante, "Mississippi's Crying"

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2896

Eric Church, "Smoke A Little Smoke"

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2871

Brad Paisley, "Anything Like Me"

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2840

Also, my Johnny Flynn album blurb, from Rhapsody:

http://www.rhapsody.com/album/been-listening?artistId=16729245#albumreview

Watched CMA last night. It must not have been that good because I dozed intermittently.

The best performance was Miranda Lambert doing a bit of a boogie. Don't know what the song was called. Great, though.

Brad Paisley cried at the end. I've never been big on how people who've become ubiquitous and inescapable get publicly overcome while thanking their good fortune. He also deployed Little Jimmie Dickens for about thirty seconds, mentioning him as an inspiration or something like that.

At a point near the end the show was given over to promoting Gwyneth Paltrow and her country movie, sticking her onstage with Vince Gill to prop her up for a song called "Country Strong." The movie producers must have paid big money to get that because while the performance wasn't awful, it did put the actress in an obvious tight spot. She cringed a little during it, rightly so, probably.

Act Naturally -- grizzly bears, midwest stitch Nazi, Rand Paul, other things.

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/2010/11/12/rock-roll-friday-act-naturally/

Xgau on Miranda & CMA (sort of):

Due to its pyromaniac title song, which with its fierce beat and snarly vocal was taken more literally than its lyric warranted, "Kerosene" created more stir in New York than Nashville, and far from letting up, "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" was fiercer: damn near as angry as one of those stupid anti-A-Rab albums that preceded our unfortunate Iraq adventure. In the lead track Lambert shoots up a boyfriend who'd beaten her down; in the title song she sanely leaves her pistol in the car in the role of the crazy ex. But songs such as "Desperation," "More Like Her" and the painfully conflicted "Guilty in Here" offset hot-bloodedness with self-doubt. It's the most consistent country album of the '00s as well as the feistiest.

Chuck-bait.

oops, forgot the link to that:

http://music.msn.com/cma-awards/miranda-lambert/story/feature/

The new Sugarland settled with the old Sugarland for an undisclosed amount. I would assume they set her up for life.

Dave Moore writes about The Guitar Song over on Tumblr, and asks for advice, if you want to go visit him and give some:

Have slept on Jamey Johnson, like most innernet-hyped country, until listening on a whim to The Guitar Song, an eclectic group of what I’d probably describe as "tour songs," the kind of inventive but casual, semi-formalist numbers w/ ample room for jamming in the empty spaces, that seem to go hand in hand with writing on the road.

So I'm hearing it as a series of song sketches, some pretty well sketched-out, some not needing the sketching-out and some benefitting from the vagueness that the sketchiness grants them (like the borderline-deplorable "California Riots," whose extended improvs and lack of detail in the verses keep me from noticing so acutely how racist it may be. He's coy in providing no detail whatsoever to explain which "half" of California will be doing the rioting).

I like it slightly unformed (I imagine his other stuff isn't quite so loose), but what else should I check out? Hating his dips into inevitable maudlin sentiment on occasion (though that's rare) but in the context of 20-some other songs I don't mind. I could imagine that three out of twelve songs being like that would be a bit of a deal-breaker, though.

He's coy in providing no detail whatsoever to explain which "half" of California will be doing the rioting).

The political division in California is coastie/westie. If you live in the interior to the western
side of the state, you're a white hick/Tea Party type whose district has enough of your own and been gerrymandered so that the local Latinos still can't unseat you.

If you're on the coast/in the cities -- except for San Diego which is all natsec industry and GOP -- you've run the GOP out of the place.

Perhaps he's recalling the Latino rallies that occur from time to time in LA, usually in objection to something the heevahavas have tried to do nationwide or next door.

BTW:

http://www.thenation.com/blog/156468/tuesday-daybook-obamas-new-book-olbermann-hits-koppel-maddow-stewart-rip-mccain-dadt-mor

Maybe I'm taking the word "literally" too literally in Xgau's blurb, but I don't think anyone in NY or elsewhere claimed that "Kerosene" was actually about setting fires. But in the context of commercial country, the lyric "Life ain't hard but it's too long, livin' like some country song" is pretty incendiary (figuratively speaking), or at least ought to be. Also, the fact that, as a major-label debut, Kerosene debuted at number one on the country charts, means it probably created more stir in Nashville than in Manhattan. That said, if you take Xgau to be figuratively making the point that hints of nihilistic discontent are the sorts of things that the 30 or so NY bohemians and hard rock fans who care about about country tend to lap up, he's right on target.

I do think Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is Miranda's most consistent album and very good, would probably only rate Montgomery Gentry's Carrying On and Toby Keith's White Trash With Money as more consistent in the '00s. Consistency isn't my prime criterion, however, and I'd definitely rate the not-quite-as-consistent Horse Of A Different Color and Taylor Swift and Fearless over Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and White Trash With Money (whereas Carrying On was my number one country album of the decade and my number two of any type).

I actually hadn't read that entire Christgau paragraph until now. (And still haven't read the entire piece.) I'm not really bothered either by his calling Miranda's second the most consistent country album of the decade -- though, like Frank, I don't quite agree with him. It's close enough, and consistent enough, that it's not worth splitting hairs. I also can't tell, from that quote, if Xgau is suggesting the "Kerosene" single or the Kerosene album were bigger in NY than Nashville; not sure why he would believe that either is true. The single went to #15 on the country chart, looks like. But yeah, maybe I'm reading him too literally as well.

As for Jamey Johnson, maybe Dave Moore should read my Voice piece, and the ILX thread on the record. They're linked upthread somewhere. I made the point about Johnson not spelling out which half of California riots in the song (one of the album's best tracks) months ago. But suggesting it's "racist" is an odd leap, I'd say. And though I've got my reservations about the album (it'll likely make the bottom of Pazz & Jop top 10), it doesn't seem "unformed" to me at all, really -- if anything, it sounds meticulous. And I'd say Guitar Song's best cuts are as good or better than Lonesome Song's best, outside of "High Cost of Living."

Okay, re-reading it (even more sleepily than the first time I read it), Christgau's clearly talking about Kerosene-the-album when he makes that claim. Which confuse me even more: The single at least placed (27th) in Pazz & Jop; the album only got a couple votes (including Frank's and mine), I'm pretty sure. So what stir it's supposed to have created in New York is beyond me.

...confuses me even more...(etc.) (And "created more stir" is not necessarily the same thing as "bigger," I suppose.)

Eh..Do I really think "California Riots" is as good as "In Color" or "Mary Go Round"? Possibly not. And I now have no doubt that the previous album drags more than the new one, though I definitely liked it more at the time, when I called it my album of the year. Really I'd say "California Riots" is in Guitar Song's second tier (actually prefer the other California song, "Playing The Part", though I'm fairly convinced Jamey J is a part-player by nature and hence something of a hypocrite to make it an issue.) But anyway, my favorites and least favorites are pretty much all spelled out in detail on the album's own thread. Then again, I'm a time-proven sucker for songs about escaping to, then from, California. (Did almost a whole chapter about those in my second book.)

actually, i should have specified that what i was really wondering about was what you guys made of the following:

damn near as angry as one of those stupid anti-A-Rab albums that preceded our unfortunate Iraq adventure

i mean, is that specifically a dig at Toby Keith, or am i forgetting something else that was all "rah-rah, let's get 'em, but good" back then?

sorry for being a nuisance, but since i'm kinda assuming that you guys are ilx's biggest Keith supporters, i was wondering how that struck you.

"I'm wonderin'..."

Just Bob being Bob. Though Toby actually did an arguably pro-A-rab song, too: "The Taliban Song." at least as funny as Ray Stevens in 1962. Maybe Xgau was referring to Daryl Worley's Have You Forgotten, though? Or the Alan Jackson 9-11 song where he said he didn't know the difference between Iraq and Iran? There were others, I'm sure. But calling them anti-Arab is probably stretching things, in almost all cases. (At least compared the one non-country demo-CD submission some idiot sent me for the 9-11 compilation CD I put together for the Voice that actually raged against "towel heads" and "camel jockeys." Specifics about that one, and other submissions -- some of which were good -- though, are lost to history. Probably I should have kept a box of notable ones from no-name bands and singers I'd never heard of; put together, they'd have made for an educational CD-R for future generations.)

Anyway, Xgau's Worley review:

http://robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Daryl+Worley

And here is on Toby, fwiw:

http://robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Toby+Keith

Pretty sure Montgomery Gentry never really dealt with the Middle East problem; Frank or somebody should remind me, if I'm wrong. (Hank Jr., maybe? I'm not sure.)

So Keith Urban has a new album? I'm a bit out of it right now. Anyone heard it? The last one was kind of a snooze though I ended up liking all the singles when I heard them on the radio.