Rolling Country 2015

the Thomas Rhett isn't bad at all. I'm taken with "Die a Happy Man" and "Anthem."

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, September 29, 2015 9:07 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agreed, I think I still like Crash & Burn most of all, but Anthem is really great, considering how awesome most of his singles have been I think of him as just a singles guy, he makes better albums than I expect.

That xpost Buck 'Em! Volume 2 turned out to be a suitably moody, dependable companion to a long-ass gray day, mostly spent waiting for an appointment that will not have been so exciting (probably, hopefully).
Like most boxes these days, it starts with 4-5 duds, incl. oh-so-serious ones that make me think he's only good at the drollery, often wry, which I mostly know him for---wrong. There are good rueful ballads later on, with bracing music vs. depression, rather than overselling the tearjerking (more like "well, hell") lyrics. And even those can take some apt gray day turns, into a door between us without a key, or waitin' for a train you know has gone, and there are the classics like "Streets of Bakersfield, "I didn't want to be Some-body, I just wanted to be me....You don't know me, but you don't like me." Can see how he was a favorite of Gram Parsons. Some of the lesser, later tracks (after he became a fixture on Hee Haw) rely too much on the classic Bakersfield Sound, the template of it, that is, and can't really conceal mediocre material, though seems like he's not really trying to con us, just honestly, "That's all I got."
Some of the funny stuff is like that too, but plenty of it isn't----like the City Girl---"I like to watch Johnny Carson"---meets the Country Boy---"Let's go see the Martian." Just my taste, but also dig the country-psych pop of "Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass?", with fuzz guitar, harpsichord, shifty Southern suburban rhythms and scrambling drums. "Tiger By The Tail, several songs with cities in the names, mostly celebratory, maybe all, if you include the deadpan put-down of New York which cites some stuff/describes it in terms that are innerestin'.

Jason Boland and the Stragglers, Squelch: social commentary, which can seem self-righteous and lazy in its way, especially since he's always reliant on basic Waylon-to-Sturgill templates, but sometimes it really works, the more personal-is-political he gets (and not nec. "political" in the usual sense; like there's one about finally making it out of a small-minded smalltown, to New Orleans, which is "buzzin' like a sign," and it doesn't go at all like I thought it would).
So it's uneven, but def worth checking out:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/08/05/arts/music/press-play.html?_r=0

thomas rhett's voice on "crash and burn" bugs me so much

Yeah, I still need to check that guy. Good name too.
Barry Mazor, occasional Rolling Country guest of yore, recently provided WSJ readers with an appealing description of Tennessee Ernie Ford's new Bear Family box, which I hope will be on Spotify, like a pretty good number and variety of other boxes.

‘Tennessee Ernie Ford: Portrait of an American Singer’ Review
A look at Tennessee Ernie Ford, a performer who spanned pop, country, rock, gospel, R&B, and even comedy
By Barry Mazor
Sept. 30, 2015 5:55 p.m. ET

A handsome country-music vocalist came along in the 1950s with a strong, winning personality and rugged physical presence, admired by men but especially attractive to women. Starting “down home,” he soon reached audiences across region and class lines, and his impressive versatility led to well over 150 tracks of rocking boogie, hard country, R&B, near operatic pop tunes and a genre he especially treasured—polished gospel singing. His career trajectory took him from Tennessee, where his career started, to Hollywood—and to massive success on both the country and pop singles charts, and some 90 million albums sold. He was also a gifted comedian, able to hold his own with Lucille Ball and Minnie Pearl on the small screen, so this was not Elvis. This was Tennessee Ernie Ford (1919-1991), recalled by many today only for his indelible, finger-snapping, roots-pop hit “Sixteen Tons.”
Tennessee Ernie Ford ENLARGE
Tennessee Ernie Ford Photo: Courtesy of Jeffrey Buckner Ford and Murphy Ford

Ford’s adventurous 1949-1960 secular recordings for Capitol Records are the focus of a new, enormously entertaining 154-track boxed set, “Tennessee Ernie Ford: Portrait of an American Singer” (Bear Family Records). Music historian Ted Olson’s detailed notes track this “stellar singer who refused to let arbitrary genre rules dictate how he should interpret a song.” The records themselves, though, as they evolve in production and performance, ultimately tell the rich story.

Recording at Capitol’s famed Los Angeles studios that were home to both country and pop stars (Jimmy Wakely; Nat King Cole), Ford ably filled the space between those fields, and overlapped both. The diverse women who occasionally joined him for duets—Helen O’Connell, Kay Starr, Ella Mae Morse, Molly Bee—match the varieties of his own stylistic range.

Back-up musicians on the early sides include such top country instrumentalists as Speedy West and Moon Mullican, but they give way to a wide array of West Coast pop and jazz players as producer Jack Fascinato comes to work with Ford on pop follow-ups to the 1955 “Sixteen Tons” smash phenomenon.

Many of “hillbilly sophisticate” Ford’s early-’50s hits, such as “The Shotgun Boogie,” were in a rhythmic mode more slamming than the country boogie of the 1940s, presaging the rockabilly soon to come, and those sides hold up very well. By contrast, such showy vocal melodramas as “The Cry of the Wild Goose”—all-too-apparently designed to milk the wordy, operetta-like genre built on songs like the “Soliloquy” from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Carousel”—now come off as overwrought and kitschy.

In the wide space between those extremes, though, lie most of the interest, excitement and surprises in this collection. Ford’s smart phrasing and diverse musical choices lead to fresh ways to pull traditional country toward pop, and pop toward roots music. “You Don’t Have to Be a Baby to Cry,” originally a simple cry-in-your-beer honky-tonk number recorded by Ernest Tubb and Moon Mullican, becomes a bluesy, knowing pop number in Ford’s rendition. The 1920s country ballad “Left My Gal in the Mountains” is given a smooth R&B treatment reminiscent of Ivory Joe Hunter’s “I Almost Lost My Mind,” and it works. He takes modernizing country songs from Hank Williams or Merle Travis and updates them further, in elegantly simple ways, making them accessible to more urbane tastes. And his clean, moving pop versions of songs considered commercial folk—“Barbara Allen,” “In the Pines,” even “My Grandfather’s Clock”—breathe fresh air into each. This important set convincingly makes the case for Ford’s strong roots-pop legacy.

Mr. Mazor, author of “Ralph Peer and the Making of Popular Roots Music” (Chicago Review Press), writes about country and roots music for the Journal.

More Tennessee Ernie box details covered, in a piece jpegged and tweeted by Conqueroo's Cary Baker:

https://twitter.com/Conqueroo1

I'd paste in the jpeg, but prob too small to read here, judging by prev attempts

Patty Griffin, Servant of Love---Despite the title, nothing submissive about this 'un. Sometimes a dry martini prowl, sometimes more of a search party vibe, or burnished thickets of guitar, over the waves---then again, she's come to think of love as "waves chipping at the rocks, 'til they turn to sand/I would have told you, but you never asked me." Umm, okay, maybe just as well...call it Americana (nocturnal psychedelic treatments of tradition-associated frameworks, somewhat like Robert Plant's Band of Joy, which she sang in), though country enough at times for songs that would be great for Dixie Chicks (or Courtyard Hounds, Natalie Maines); she wrote some of their best tracks ever, you know. Also some of it seems pretty well suited for the latter-day voice of Plant, her ex. Maybe more than her own voice, actually; lots to take in here, anyway.

This is a quick, third-quarter reminder that all available tracks mentioned on this thread (and/or an album selection from each listed) are being updated to the thread-specific Spotify playlist as posted. I just did another (painfully meticulous, three day) top-to-bottom sweep prior to posting this message and have revised as of today with everything that's been added since first mentioned. This thread leans heavily into late / best of 2014 so there's a fair amount of that mixed in. Subscribe if you're into it and let me know if I've missed a track that's available in the US.

Link is below; it's 168 tracks and ten hours.

Rolling Country 2015 Thread Spotify Playlist

Thanks, forks, will check.
Spent most of my lunch break w Oh My Goodness, by Donnie Fritts, mostly known as a songwriter and Kristofferson's long-time keybooard player (saw him with KK in Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid, so yeah goes back pretty far). Not a good place to soak up the good vocal influences, so maybe that's why it took me a few tracks to get into this. Not that he sounds like his boss, but at times just a bit like a sub-Levon, sub-Bobby Charles, even---he knows how to phrase, but thin pipes can make him a little bit too Mr. Pitiful. Still, musical smarts win out, and he gets aboard the studio bus, which never seems crowded, despite having members of the Swampers, Alabama Shakes, St. Paul And The Broken Bones, John Paul White, even John Prine at one point. It's actually an intimate, mostly late night, sometimes slightly surreal setting, with Spooner Oldham's (and maybe Fritts', and even Will Oldham's) elegant keys, especially, suggesting early Randy Newman (or, you know, vice versa; Spooner's been around a long time too). "Lay It Down" is even a Sir Doug-worthy, anguished call (to self and other) for no-bullshit face-to-face. "Choo Choo Train" could even be a Newman---or Loaded-era VU---track. I think. It is a down home geezer album, but rec to those who like any of the musical associations mentioned, without being dependent on them.

streaming here longer than usual, dunno how much longer:
http://www.npr.org/2015/09/30/444185211/first-listen-donnie-fritts-oh-my-goodness

http://www.npr.org/2015/09/30/444185211/first-listen-donnie-fritts-oh-my-goodness

Despite years of trades with Edd Hurt, he still comes up with some post-Dylan Nashville outcats (mixing country, pop, rock, funk, etc etc) I hadn't heard of, plus youtubes re all 50 albums:http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/archives/2015/10/14/blonde-on-blonde-and-beyond-50-classic-albums-of-nashvilles-post-dylan-era-part-i-1966-72

cool i'm adding all the available singles from that to the spotify list because why not

Here's part 2 of my post-Dylan outcats list, that Don refers to. Out of this list, my take on it is that the Cavaleers, Earl Richards, Dee Mullins and maybe Larry Hosford aren't that well known; the Beau Brummels, Moby Grape, Skip Spence Nashville records have been recognized, I think. The Mother Earth record I picked is probably not as well known as the "Tracy Nelson Sings" Mother Earth album, the Gary Burton record is not as well known as it should be, "Moldy Goldies" has been out of print for decades, and the disco records I picked--Scooter Lee and Joe Simon--aren't in any kind of canon, though Scooter apparently has a small cult.

http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/archives/2015/10/15/blonde-on-blonde-and-beyond-50-classic-albums-of-nashvilles-post-dylan-era-part-ii-1973-2008

adding all that in, i happened upon a new album, 'Momentarily Yours', from Larry Hosford that is worth a peek.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_dgywH-Xo4

Larry Hosford apparently is still at it, still has a cult of followers. Portions of both Cross Words and a.k.a. Lorenzo were done in Mt. Juliet at Bradley's Barn. I think the former is actually the stronger record.

Dow, I'm curious which records out of that list you didn't know.

Oh man! Quite a few from your Part 1 list that I'd heard of, but hadn't heard: Col. Jubilation B. Johnston's album (think Marcus mentioned this in the first, early 70s edition of Mystery Train), The Beau Brummels' Bradley's Barn, Moby Grape's Truly Fine Citizen. John Stewart's California Bloodlines, about half of Gary Burton's Tennessee Firebird (found some of it online); think I've heard some things by Dee Mullins and Dianne Davidson (heard all the others I just mentioned elsewhere as well [incl. the Col.'s crew, going by their other names). Still need to check yr. Pt. 2.

OK, from Post-Dylan Nashville Part 2, had not heard these particular tracks, from artists I was otherwise somewhut familiar with---ones listed by: Earl Richards, Paul Kelly. Jack Nitzche, Larry Jon Wilson, Mac Gayden, Cowboy Jack Clement, Swamp Dogg, Joe Simon, White Animals.

Oh yeah, and I def need to give xpost Hosford another shot. I long ago tracked down this LP, after reading what xgau wrote in his 70s Record Guide, currently archived on his site:

Larry Hosford: Cross Words [Shelter, 1976]
A funny country singer-songwriter with complicated emotions and an elusive, strangely ageless vocal persona--mellowed-out Homer and/or Jethro, perhaps, or comic-relief L.A. cowboy gone crackerbarrel, or crackers. His wife calls him Daddy, calls his bluff, and then just calls a cab, but don't worry--here's a man who don't worry--here's a man who knows that love gets easier when you own a blanket with a switch on it. B+

Uh-oh, didn't sound like I somehow thought it would--too soft, mebbe? Don't really remember, but I'm sure I didn't give it a chance to grow on me.

about 30 of those 50 were on spotify; should leaven that country playlist quite a bit

enjoyed Kacey Musgrave and band live last night in DC. Mentioned it on her thread, including the covers she did.

recently heard this brothers osborne song for the first time and am quite enjoying it: http://youtu.be/zY6cMMtLCcQ

A-List Nashville studio & stage cats, "oldfangled" but also backing younger stars like Lambert and Musgraves---didn't know 'til I read this that they have couple of their own albums---anybody heard 'em?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/23/arts/music/the-time-jumpers-country-swing-standard-bearers-thrive-in-nashville.html?ref=music

o forks, please be sure to add Whitney Rose, Heartbreaker of the Year to RC Spotify list thanks. As with xpost Lindi Ortega, it's rec to those pining for the late great Amy Farris, also for Roy Orbison and good David Lynch movies. Cool intensity, no spookier than true romance, and not too reliant on atmosphere: some architecture in there (love the mini-bridge of "Only Just A Dream," also the guitars there and elsewhere, reg'lar and steel, hovering, prowling, serenading, warning, also various uses of drums and, occasionally, keys, organ and piano (the latter somewhut Floyd Crameresque on the rocks in "The Last Party, " but it's not a lift of his "Last Date"). "Be My Baby" is an on-the-nose choice in this context, but it works esp. with producer Raul Malo's non-showboat, non-wallflower vocal turn.
Still, despite the breathing room, 10 tracks and 37 minutes seem like a little too much of a good thing, like a bottle of wine at one sitting, 'til the finale, a metamorphic reworking of "A Tear In My Beer" adds just enough variety.
Also intrigued by another Spotify offering, Cam's Welcome To Cam CountryEP---debut album out Dec. 11.

Ortega and Nikki Lane are a bit more down-to-earth, or down-to-firescape. Rose isn't pretentious, but stays closer to her Senior Prom dress, o yes. A princess who knows how to get past the guards.

x-post -- have not heard Time Jumpers albums. Recall I think Roseanne Cash mentioning them when I saw her with Vince Gill (most recent and famous member of that project).

Speaking of Vince, when I saw Ashley Monroe perform last night, she said she liked to go over to Vince's house and just sit there until he said, hey lets work on a song and would pick up his guitar.

Still haven't made up my mind re Chris Stapleton. I see he's gonna be on the CMA Awards Wednesday night the 4th

Chris Stapleton will be joined by award-winning musician and actor Justin Timberlake for a special performance on “The 49th Annual CMA Awards.”

Celebrating his first artist nominations, Stapleton is a contender in three CMA Awards categories: “Album of the Year” for his acclaimed debut album, Traveller, which he co-produced with Dave Cobb, “Male Vocalist of the Year” and “New Artist of the Year

the one stapleton song i heard sounded like a led zep 'levee breaks' homage iirc.

yep

i'm just getting into the carrie underwood album and it's really good! i hadn't really been into her as an albums artist before but this is probably her best yet. "church bells" and "choctaw county affair" are particularly great, she really suits those bolshy/gothic narratives

I haven't listened to it (yet). Jon Caramanica was very negative in the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/arts/music/review-carrie-underwoods-storyteller-values-power-over-finesse.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FUnderwood%2C%20Carrie&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection&_r=0

“Storyteller” is her fifth album, and even though a decade has passed since her debut, Ms. Underwood is still preoccupied with power, not texture or finesse. She largely picks songs that serve as launch platforms for her ballistic-missile voice, but they don’t cohere into a whole identity. Her voice is pure, lean, potent — it doesn’t have multiple settings. By tone alone, it can be difficult to divine when she’s ecstatic, or aggrieved, or wretched.

That means Ms. Underwood sings with equal intensity on the insipid “Heartbeat” and “The Girl You Think I Am,” an unrelentingly treacly song about being daddy’s little girl, as on the breathy, sly “Relapse,” about falling back into old habits. She calls her lover, in quick succession, “time that I’m wasting,” “some wine that I’m tasting” and “a high that I’m chasing,” in a voice that recalls Lita Ford more than any country singer.

psssh Caramanica, never put stock in his opinions

Maura, Jewly Hight and S. Erlewine all reviewed it well

it can be difficult to divine when she's ecstatic, or aggrieved, or wretched: maybe, but that's what cues are for, pop-settings-wise. Never heard a whole Underwood album albums, will try to listen without prejudice.

Also without typos, unusually enough.

As though sounding like Lita Ford is a bad thing...

Interesting; Eric Church just physically mailed a new album, Mr. Misunderstood, to select fans.

Maybe I'm overrating this, after being bored shitless by several albums in a row, but at the moment totes infatuated w Ryan Culwell's Flatlands: immediately takes the rein with nervous energy willed into focus (minus strain or excess melodrama)on tensile Texastenial tunes. He's young, he's spooked, but he's determined to "find my mountains in the flatlands, hallelujah!"--followed immediately by "I Think I'll Be Their God." Where he sounds like he's acquainted with the megaphone tape legacy of the Rev. Jim Jones. Yes, he's wary of hope, even self-mocking at times---"Ah am just a young man, with piss down in mah bones"---but he's tasted more than the grape Koolaid, tracks different flavors of hope and hopelessness. I'm also influenced by first hearing this while first reading Winesburg, Ohio: both consider the flavors of twisted roots, with spare but never bare presentation (12 songs, 40 minutes here, and, as in the book, weaker or slighter tracks are carried by the overall momentum). Especially like when sustain and a little bit of distortion appear on the horizon behind battered acoustic rhythm, and there's the occasional desert siren (of the female persuasion).
Rec also to selective fans of Townes Van Zandt, esp. "Red River" ("She's cleaning the red dirt off the life he give her...he ain't my uncle no more") and "Horses" ("Sometimes tough ain't enough/Bow down the head that Jesus raised"---addressed to a woman, not a horse, I think).

"Texastential," of course!

Eric Church is gonna be on that country awards program tonight too. With Hank Williams Jr ....

"Mr Misunderstood" sounds good.

Little Big Town just won CMA single of the year for "Girl Crush"....Plus host Brad Paisley said "cray" cray" and Carrie Underwood did the "nae nae"....The fun will be continuing for a few more hours.

Kacey Musgraves is playing her hokey, obvious song.

eric church's new song sounded fantastic. kacey musgraves sounded not only hokey, but really ... off. ashley monroe got three or four seconds of airtime in the audience early in the show. chris stapleton seemed truly unaware that he was going to keep winning. brad paisley played acoustic guitar without a strap. keith urban played bass. very very happy for little big town.

the crazy sparkly chris stapleton t-shirt that miranda wore while accepting her female vocalist award was kind of fantastic.

CMAs sending message to bros, I guess.

So do I need to hear Chris Stapleton's album?

You might like it? Rorschach test album -- some hear impressive rocking country while others hear barband cliches

The AMG review makes him sound like Jamey Johnson without the showy moroseness, and I could go for that.

I didn't like it, and last night's performance with Boy Wonder was still leaden.

that little big town album is great imo, though most of the album tracks are better than the singles.

this npr tiny desk concert is my favorite chris stapleton thing.

Well, I tried Traveller on Spotify, and the first four songs I clicked on were boring dirges, so I'm done.