Rolling Country 2015

Putting internal quotes in bold because having formatting/computer/nearsightedness probs

she was wonderful live and basically all the new material sounds great; this is gonna be a v v popular album.

Frazey Ford may not be country but god is that record good.

Will check her out, thx. Meanwhile, Miranda and Ashley share "Nashville"-type on-stage refreshment, in a little Nashville club:
http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/miranda-lambert-makes-first-public-appearance-post-blake-shelton-split-2015237

Presuming that Nashville Songwriter Hall of Fame inductees qualify for this thread, I'm really digging the new Gretchen Peters album, Blackbirds, a dark affair of murder ballads and PTSD stories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5hIn569qMQ

RIP pedal steel wizard, ripple on:
http://www.npr.org/2015/07/30/427800540/buddy-emmons-the-pedal-steel-guitarist-who-taught-everybody-to-play

He did play with lots of folks. RIP

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6648310/jason-isbell-country-albums-chart-alan-jackson-brantley-gilbert

Billboard's take on Isbell selling 46,000 copies of his latest so as to beat out Alan Jackson for #1 selling country album

Billboard also has him #1 on rock albums beating out Tame Impala and Sublime with Rome. Apparently, he didn't make the r'n'b or rap or classical charts though.

http://www.billboard.com/charts/rock-albums

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style-blog/wp/2015/07/30/heres-why-luke-bryan-cant-top-sam-hunts-party-next-door/

Upthread I was touting Sam Hunt's "House Party." It's now being suggested as a song of the summer by the Washington Post's music critic Chris Richards. It's also at #4 on country singles chart.

The album has hung out in the pop top ten without any signs of slowing down.

Doesn't sound any better now than it did in '14 (about 40-45% okay).
If the Nash Scene ballot was due today, I'd prob say: Jackson, Isbell, Monroe, Yoakam, Willie & Merle, Emmylou & Rodney, Shelby Lynne, and uhhhhh---that's almost all the country charting sets I've heard, so far. Seems like a slow year. (I should check Cam, Randy Rogers & that other guy, Rhiannon Giddens, Musgraves, did check Mickey Guyton, Alison Moorer.) Big releases coming up?

(Not counting the Mavericks album, which is really good, but not very country.)

Other albums on the spotify list of note include Caroline Spence, Chris Stapleton, John Moreland, Kentucky Headhunters, Nikki Lane, Willie and Merle and Zane Campbell.

I should have mentioned Stapleton just now, esp. after praising his album upthread. Ditto Kentucky Headhunters, although (assuming you mean the one I mentioned, with Johnnie Johnson), would have to be in the Scene ballot's Reissue category, since it was recorded more than five years ago (despite having been prev. unreleased). I did count Willie & Merle--Nikki Lande doesn't have an album released in 2015, does she?! Hope so, but taking it that you mean the one on my 2014 ballot. Will check the Caroline Spence album (not much vocal presence on the recent Music City Roots livestream, but seemed like her songs might come across with studio assistance). And thanks alsofor reminding me to check Zane Campbell.

I've also been digging albums by Banditos (reminiscent of Alabama Shakes' live shows and not their more affected studio recordings), Humming House (which skews more in the contemporary folk direction, in the vicinity of OCMS or a competent version of The Lumineers), and Big Tobacco & The Pickers (mines camp in a manner similar to Southern Culture On The Skids, but with a more traditional country and less rockabilly bent).

New Iris DeMent is out soonish, though "big" release is relative there. But I'm looking forward to that one.

Nikki Lane's deluxe version of All or Nothin' came out this year, that's what I was looking at.

Yep, "big" just means ones I'm looking fwd to too, and thanks for those (although I enjoy Alabama Shakes' latest album, cutting up familiar elements in unexpected ways). Nikki deluze! Good to know. Also need to check xpost the current Gretchen Peters album. Her new newsletter incl. podcast of recent radio interview x acoustic session:
https://soundcloud.com/music-business-radio/gretchen-peters ("Music business radio"? On a Nashville station...)

Deluxe, but wouldn't mind deluze either

RIP lynn anderson

I'm baffled that tasteofcountry has “Kick the Dust Up” at #2 for july. I really thought it would sink as a single.

‏@0wlred 2h2 hours ago

Zane Campbell, s/t: Bereft vitality (barebones bellow), to dour elegance, to new VDay classic"Bringing The Boys Home" ("NobodywantedtoDOit")
First four tracks are maybe too bare, but once he gets with a group, oh my. "BTBH" kinda Stugill sings Cash, classick

"Sturgill," that is (what's deal w speling lately)

"Potters field" and "fess up" are my two favorite Zane Campbell tracks atm. Got one judge I don't need two

"Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy me a boat" Chris Janson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-6k6wPyySc

speaking of the new Iris Dement album (out today), it's also a new approach for her:
http://nodepression.com/article/anna-akhmatova-beckons-iris-dement-toward-%E2%80%98-trackless-woods%E2%80%99

“So that was just a blessing to have this – these beautiful poems complete, in and of themselves. And to be able to just work with them, and try to weave this melody around them. It was just a really joyful thing. I never, ever, ever felt frustrated. It never felt like work. I mean, it took me four years,

Russian poetry with Iris Dement vocal melodies. Could be good, but it all depends on those melodies.

Either way, I'm glad she's working with somebody else's words, since she indicates in the feature that lyric-writing has become a problem (and she doesn't seem to think enough of her melodic chops to try an album of instrumentals).

RIP Wayne Carson (w Thompson tacked on for a while): knew he wrote Box Tops hits ("The Letter," "Neon Rainbow," "Soul Deep"), and most of "Always On My Mind," but did not realize until now that he provided awes fuel for Gary Stewart's heyday---such as (if the link doesn't show the title, it's "She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh-KEYAN9dg

Also wrote what could have been Stewart's theme, alas:
("I've Got This Drinkin' Thing")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5-Y3UXEY7M

And!
("I See The Want To In Your Eyes")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09zorXQpfRo

One of his all-time best LPs, Out of Hand, shown there (if 'twere at hand, would check for more Wayne credits)

His last album was weird, but appropriately so---wrote briefly about it, and his prime time appeal, here:
http://www.villagevoice.com/music/out-of-hand-6408550

I had no idea Gary Stewart had killed himself, don't know how that slipped by me. I saw him with my parents when I was 9 at Jones Country in Colmesneil, TX.

http://www.bigthicketdirectory.com/articles/articles1.html

Big Thicket! Thanks, Jacob. Reminds me, I need to check out some early George Jones, country and rockabilly sides. The only one I know is "White Lightnin'." What's a good collection (or two)?

not sure if it's still in print or not, but the 2-cd set cup of loneliness: the classic mercury years is (or was) the definitive early george jones collection.

Thanks cuz---not seeing that, but Spotify has The Definitive Collection (1955-1962): 22 songs in 55 minutes (not counting the grayed-out "I'm Ragged But I'm Right"). Even at that, some of the tracks seem too drawn-out, but plenty are amazing. The earliest seem like the next step after Hank Williams, what Hank himself would have had to do, for a comeback: keeping the tensile, high lonesome reach, but also getting to something just a bit lower, a bit smoother in the shadows, easing up and drawing back, just at the right seconds---one ear out for the rise of Sinatra's Adult Pop, the other ready for rockin' upstarts, and the new gospel, even---"Cup of Loneliness" is drive-by living, in its unrelenting, anguished eloquence. Some twisted romantic situations as the 60s appear, duh. Think he taught Doug Sahm, Freddy Fender, Gary Stewart a thing or two. Whew! Looks like Spotify has a fair amount of early stuff on other collections.

From a freelancer's review of Zac Brown at Nationals Park in DC

Brown seemed particularly invested in his cover of Americana darling Jason Isbell’s “Dress Blues,” a crushing tune about a young American killed in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Two men in Marine dress uniforms marched onstage as Brown sang with apparent anger about a “godawful war.” At the end of the peacenik ode, a chant of “USA! USA! USA!” broke out in the upper deck and spread throughout the stadium. Now that’s country.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/at-nats-park-zac-browns-multiple-musical-personalities-on-display/2015/08/16/80d45d40-4428-11e5-9f53-d1e3ddfd0cda_story.html

Pissiness: it's not a "peacenik ode," it's about a guy killed in war, as he said in front, and the way any funeral can be something of a torturous experience, but especially the more formal ones, especially when the ritual comes damn near to saluting its own tradition, itself, more than the one being buried. Anybody, regardless of politics, could think it "a godawful war," considering the loss; after he left office, I think, Bush said the casualties kept him awake in the White House...
Yeah, hawks are getting cranked up again, but, even when the Dixie Chicks were banished, some Southern DJs substituted Bruce Robison's original version of "Travellin' Soldier" for the DC's, and got no complaints, far as I know; country listeners were ready for that song.

For that matter, chanting "USA! USA!" isn't necessarily a retort; could be "Yes, War is Hell, but the good guys will prevail," or something like that.

From Rolling Reissues: audio as well as more info via link:
My friend Jason has compiled a beautiful set of 14 country songs, all taken from 45's and all custom releases, or private press. I can not recommend this enough!
http://lightintheattic.net/releases/1946-small-town-country-vol-1

― JacobSanders, Monday, August 17, 2015 9:13 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Thanks, Jacob!

Some other good collections of country etc rarities also on that page.

x-post -re Zac Brown, knew he likes to please all, but did not realize that meant 8 covers in his set including from Beatles, Queen, Charlie Daniels, Dave Matthews,Led Zepp, Marshall Tucker...

Lindi Ortega, Faded Gloryville:
cute voice knows when to go against type, for desolation angel/veteran perspectives like the title song but naming the album for it turns out to be something of a bait-and-switch, as the bluesy, moody, sometimes lilting beat ( thus sometimes reminding me of Arthur Alexander's "You Better Move On") gets mischievous behind the sad 'n' sexy vocal on "When You Ain't Home," faster for "Rough Neighborhood," where she offers weed for cigs, faster still in "Run Amuck," knowing when to relent a little, as another means of increasing the momentum in "Tell It Like It Is" (one of several new originals with titles of classics she might be expected to cover, considering her style--again, going against type just that much). Even there, she's effectively back and forth between confidence and vulnerability---like the love pilgrim's almost losing her nerve at times; the suspense! (Also almost making me forget she darn well should be confident in the studio, considering that this is her sixth album.) And does sound sincerely sorry for having to tell the boy "You're too clean-cut."
Rec to fans of Nikki Lane, Amy Farris, Bonnie Raitt (70s and recently), also Brende Lee, when she's comin' on strong.

Managed the spelling this time, but left out several intended commas; sorry.

I'd say John Prine phones it in, but that would imply more effort than is evident. Most of the rest of this is pretty darn good (even Kristofferson, although he hands off lines to others). The Original Carter Family selections don't reach me like other configurations of Carters, but then again there are lots more of the latter (maybe the doc is about the Carter Legacy, and how it moves on through more toe-tapping eras?) Fave so far is the title song, "Do not disturb this daydream," in which "the sparkling trout" is eyed by the kingfisher, and "Someone with golden hair/Looks a lot like you."

OMNIVORE’S SOUNDTRACK ALBUM
FOR AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
ABOUT THE FAMILY AT THE HEART OF COUNTRY MUSIC
THE WINDING STREAM: THE CARTERS, THE CASHES
AND THE COURSE OF COUNTRY MUSIC
COMING OCTOBER 16, 2015
Features songs of the Carters performed by Johnny Cash, Mother Maybelle and the original Carter Family, Rosanne Cash, George Jones, John Prine, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with Kris Kristofferson,
Old 97’s Murry Hammond, and others.

The Carter Family
MACES SPRING, Va. — There is a stream that courses through American roots music. Its source is in the Appalachian foothills in a place called Maces Spring, Virginia. It was there that A.P. Carter, his wife Sara and his sister-in-law Maybelle began their careers as three of the first stars of country music. From their earliest days as Victor recording artists to their international success via the phenomenon of border radio, the original Carter Family made their mark on the history of American recorded music.
Beth Harrington’s documentary about this saga has played festivals and won awards and accolades across the globe. Omnivore Recordings, in conjunction with Harrington, is proud to present the soundtrack to this very important film: The Winding Stream — The Carters, The Cashes and the Course of Country Music.
The film will be in theaters around the country this fall. Screenings in select cities will feature local artists performing Carter Family music. Check ArgotPictures.com for details.
The soundtrack will hit stores on October 16, 2015. With songs from the iconic original Carter Family, performed by them as well as the likes of George Jones, Johnny Cash, John Prine and Rosanne Cash, The Winding Stream sends listeners on an audio journey through the history of the music we now know as “country,” how it came to be, and how it endures today.
With liner notes from Harrington, pictures from the John Carter Cash archives, and mastering/restoration from multiple Grammy ® winner Michael Graves (whose most recent win was for his work on Omnivore’s Hank Williams: The Garden Spot Programs, 1950), this CD and digital release is a must for those who know, love and want to learn more about this truly American musical genre, its origins and its legacy.
According to director Harrington: “The story of the Carter Family is one about gleaning the best of American roots music and passing it on. That’s what the Carters did with their song collecting and writing and that’s what happened with their music down through the generations of family music-makers as well as other musicians. This soundtrack to the film is in that tradition, highlighting the work of the Carters themselves as well as a variety of family and friends interpreting that music. It’s exciting to have it out there on Omnivore.”
Track Listing:
Bear Creek Blues – John Prine

Lord, I’m in Your Care – Grey Delisle & Murry Hammond

Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow Tree – The Original Carter Family
Single Girl, Married Girl – The Original Carter Family

Worried Man Blues – George Jones

Hello Stranger – Carolina Chocolate Drops

Keep on the Sunny Side – The Original Carter Family

Cannon Ball Blues – The Original Carter Family

I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes – The Original Carter Family
Wildwood Flower – Mother Maybelle & the Carter Sisters

Will the Circle Be Unbroken – Johnny Cash & the Carter Sisters

In the Shadow of Clinch Mountain – Murry Hammond

Sweet Fern – Maybelle & Sara Carter

Gold Watch and Chain – The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band With Kris Kristofferson
Step Light Ladies – Home Folks, Joe Carter & John McCutcheon

The Winding Stream – Rosanne Cash
# # #
Watch (and feel free to post) the Winding Stream soundtrack trailer:
http://youtu.be/6mXcbJ5dlu0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mXcbJ5dlu0&feature=youtu.be

Just saw Chris Stapleton and band perform two songs on morning TV. My first response: "Oh, good, we've got a new Jamey Johnson." My second: "This is the song they play on the soundtrack while the biker gang gets massacred by the cops." Boring, turgid 70s rock balladry labeled country. Mandatory beards on everyone but his harmony-singing wife.

BTW, watching him sent me to Johnson's website in a "whatever happened to that guy?" mood. Turns out he's on tour, and is playing NYC (Irving Plaza specifically) on 9/15, a show sponsored by XM Outlaw Country. I haven't listened to his albums in a couple of years, but I wouldn't mind catching a show. Except a) it's a Tuesday night, and I have to be up at 5:30 AM for work, and b) tickets are $68.50. FUCK OFF.

http://www.inforum.com/variety/3830809-bluestem-performer-merle-haggard-todays-country-music-its-crap

"I can't tell what they're doing," says The Hag. "They're talking about screwing on a pickup tailgate and things of that nature."