Rolling Country 2023

i saw Corb live over the summer and he was amazing

Mount Mariah's H.C. McEntire released a new record in January that I completely missed:

https://hcmcentire.bandcamp.com/album/every-acre

Love this slow burn with S.G. Goodman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afS99vgbLus

*Moriah

Thanks Indexed---do you know SG's 2022 Teeth Marks? OMSGG:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQGxjdHaGW0

oh yeah I did hear H.C.'s 2020 release, as mentioned on ballot, soon after Goodman:

H. C. McEntire: Eno Axis----title refers to North Carolina's Eno River, though the Brian is also apt: as w Goodman, there's a psych-country quality, here more horizontally spacious, a luminescent river plain, with those little changes all along that river boat pilots factor in---it's earthy and fluid, watchful and ruminating and confident, like a bit more propulsive Cowboy Junkies effect, gathering around a strong voice with a lot to say, which will also take a while to sink in, but appealing sound right off, and she doesn't keep her players on too short a leash/does know when to shut up, always preacheated. https://hcmcentire.bandcamp.com/album/eno-axis

(that SG link is to the whole album, not just the video, she's got some hellacious mountain gothic video though)

Another one I am better late than never on, Jess Williamson’s resplendent Time Ain’t Accidental sounding utterly magnificent this evening. A typically excellent write up from Laura Snapes:

They became Williamson’s fantastic fifth album, a mid-career arrival. The confident, breezy Time Ain’t Accidental sounds as wide and fresh as a dewy dawn horizon, pairing classic country choruses with strikingly spare production. Many songs feature the iPhone drum machine that Williamson demoed on, kept at the encouragement of Bon Iver producer Brad Cook, who also did Plains’ album. The lightning-strike artwork nods to Smog’s spooked Knock Knock and the Judds’ glorious River of Time, references that encapsulate the sound well; you might also imagine Taylor Swift’s take on Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/31/i-did-not-want-to-be-small-any-more-jess-williamson-on-fate-plains-and-her-breakout-fifth-album

Have not heard any of Williamson’s prior solo albums but liked a lot of her record with Waxahatchee under the name Plains a year or two ago.

I listened to several JW solo posts on Bandcamp after getting into Plains: really a vivid sound, although Snapes had me until Taylor Swift redoing Car Wheels, esp. because I've never made it through a whole Swift track, though no prob w Williamson herself so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BinH9aMYro4

Catching up on the CMA news...What to make of Lainey Wilson's big night? I'll need to give her catalog another listen -- "solid" is what I recall. Also, Tracy Chapman winning for Song of the Year is a pleasant surprise.

Agreed. I was kinda shocked they gave SOTY to a 40-year-old hit. But also glad ... it's obviously the best song of the bunch.

I loved Lainey Wilson's 2021 album enough to top ten it, last year's almost as strong. "Watermelon Moonshine" is one of the few songs by a female country act getting a lot of airplay.

She doesn't need my hype, but this is what I said way upthread: an musical journey through the unexpected (resistance, learning, getting into it---then the whole thing over again later, which may well say a lot more about the current-recent me than her, but overall it's both---no regerts, though)

'm still, believe it or not, doing a round-up of re-re-etc.-listening objects for a blogpost about the music of 2022. There are just a few sticking points left, with Lainey Wilson's Bell Bottom Country somewhut unexpectedly among same. It had taken several listens to reach a peak of enthusiasm---seemed too contrived, and also I belatedly discovered that increased volume revealed more conviction in tone and details---but I assumed that I had gotten it, and could come back to said peak several months later: no. Same process, same learning curve, all over again, even though it seemed reasonably loud at first---it's not all about the volume, this elusively problematic aspect, but for sure, if you want your sensitive arena rock country, you gotta be ready with the volume (to ride it back a little for the double-tracked armor or scar tissue, a signifying part of the looking back in candor in the finely written "Watermelon Moonshine,"but still a little too loud), ready, often enough, to throw your headphones into the maelstrom ov fun like she does her head on "This One's Gonna Cost Me," title and chorus of which become this album's thee most explicit expression of her exciting dynamic: persistent self-image of a good girl, raised right, looking for love and self-empowerment, who rat now wants to have a good good good time.
Here we have a recurring sort of Zep-hop beat at its heartiest, swaying that big horned head one more time, but now it also occurs to me that producer Jay Joyce also appreciates Led Z.'s mix of the heavy and brash with the fingerpicking side of life, and Wilson responds, going barefoot down a b-melody line to the ripples of Molly Tuttle's banjo, or for that matter under an intro of what sounds like some kind of mellotron-banjo.

― dow, Tuesday, June 27, 2023 1:57 PM (four months ago) bookmarkflaglink

(Jay Joyce's only misfire: "Wildflowers and Wild Horses" starts with a mysterioso Lee Hazlewoodesque instrumental scrim, but then turns Lainey loose to gallop through big loud bravura rhetoric, losing Lee's control and tension.)
Beats vary, but clock gentle intensity in ballads, like when she credibly salutes "Daddy's Boots," with a bit of atypical toe-tapping added, then strips away the usual roots-view to "Momma's crazy and Daddy's mean," when it's down to "Me, You and Jesus" getting through: "Me" first, part of the candor again, "Jesus" the only mention, that's how young and desperate she is in this flashback, "You" can be anybody she trusts, trying to hold on to this isolated, shared undercurrent of faith and hope and getting by is the point, and not so loudly that Momma and Daddy will hear.
Followed immediately by "Hold My Halo," cause cuz she's paid her Dew Drop Inn dues, gonna ride that electric bull one more time tonight. See there always has to be a justification, which could get annoying in the uniquely narrowcast "Weak-End" (yes we know you're lookin' for love, but that's not all, not in them places), if not for distraction of the gently antsy beat), with need for alibi and recreational therapy at its funniest and near-rowdiest in "Smell Like Smoke" ("It's cause Ah been, through, Hellll.")
Wiki sez that one was "tacked on" to streams and downloads: too bad for CD and LP buyers, because it and the other tackee, "New Friends," are antipodal highlights. After the 4-Non-Blondes cover--where she conscientiously delivers teeming verbosity rushing to the accidental but still stupid comedy of anticlimatic "Whut's going on?"---Wilson returns to the vibrant twilight of "You, Me and Jesus," now resolving to find new friends, rather than just moping over that guy---atta girl, as she says in song of that title, also a gentle one, though given the louder ones, one might wonder just what kind of friends. TBA.

― dow, Tuesday, June 27, 2023

always more rare or rarer

For those of you who like raggedy, ramshackle country rock, Florry's "The Holey Bible" is the ticket. riyl: Wednesday, Pinegrove, MJ Lenderman's Boat Songs, maybe Big Thief's Dragon New Warm Mountain, etc.

exact same description but for a different new album, Dusk's Glass Pastures:

https://countrydusk.bandcamp.com/album/glass-pastures

Indeedio, thanks! And speaking of MJ:

MJ Lenderman Announces New Live Album,
And The Wind (Live and Loose!), Out November 17th On ANTI-

...MJ Lenderman writes songs that are amorphous and elastic, rising to fill the venue they’re in, generous to accommodate the numbers of players on stage (an often unpredictable affair), less concerned with replicating the studio version than they are with meeting the crowd where they’re at. On his records, Lenderman handles most of the playing, but with And the Wind (Live and Loose!) it’s a multi-headed beast. With the help of guitarist Jon Samuels (Friendship, 2nd Grade), drummer Colin Miller, plus fellow Wednesday bandmates Xandy Chelmis (pedal steel) and Ethan Baechtold (bass), And the Wind (Live and Loose!) builds out a number of beloved MJ tracks into something else entirely.
MJ Lenderman And the Wind (Live and Loose!) is culled from sold-out summer 2023 shows on a brief headline run during what some might call a wild-ass couple of months. A nine-week international Wednesday tour, stints in studios with a number of other artists, and Lenderman’s own signing with storied indie label ANTI-. Taped live at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall and Los Angeles’ Lodge Room, And the Wind (Live and Loose!) captures a near-euphoric moment in time — dizzying and exhausting and, most of all, having some real true-blue fucking fun with your best friends.
nd the Wind (Live and Loose!) is also available for pre-order on a limited edition cassette from Dear Life Records. Pre-order here.

Pre-order And the Wind (Live and Loose!)

And the Wind (Live and Loose!) Tracklist
1. Hangover Game (Live)
2. Knockin (Live)
3. You Have Bought Yourself A Boat (Live)
4. TLC Cagematch (Live)
4. Rudolph (Live)
5. Toon Town (Live)
6. Dan Marino (Live)
7. Under Control (Live)
8. Dan Marino (Live)
9. SUV (Live)
10. Catholic Priest (Live)
11. Live Jack (Live)
12. Someone Get The Grill Out Of The Rain (Live)
13. You Are Every Girl To Me (Live)
14. Tastes Just Like It Costs (Live)
15. Long Black Veil (Live)

MJ Lenderman Tour Dates
Fri. Dec. 8 - Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon +
Sat. Dec. 9 - Ojai, CA @ Deer Lodge +
Sun. Dec. 10 - San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop +
Tue. Dec. 12 - Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios +
Wed. Dec. 13 - Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern +
Tue. Feb. 27, 2024 - Perth, AU @ Perth Festival *
Thu. Feb. 29, 2024 - Sydney, AU @ The Factory *
Sun. Mar. 10, 2024 - Meredith, AU @ Golden Plains Festival

+ Karly Hartzman & MJ Lenderman Solo Show w/ Dan Wriggins
* supporting Wednesday

Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter

For more information, contact:

jessica at pitchperfectpr.com, jacob at pitchperfectpr.com, 773-942-6573

New Vincent Neil Emerson album out today.

Yeah, he sez “There’s a few country-inspired songs on this one, a few stripped-down acoustic songs, and a few songs inspired by that 60s folk rock movement.”
Produced by Shooter Jennings, w input from Steve Earle and Rodney Crowell. For inst,

Emerson wrote “Man From Uvalde” after the horrific and tragic mass shooting in the city of Uvalde, Texas, and he was initially hesitant to include the track on The Golden Crystal Kingdom. “It's a daunting thing to try to dive into social issues in songwriting because I wasn’t sure how people would really take it,” Emerson says. “I recorded a rough demo version of the song, and I sent it to Steve [Earle]. I just wanted to get his thoughts on it and see if it was worth anything. He got back to me, and he said he really liked the song and thought it was great. He gave me a few ideas and ways to look at the subject differently, and it really helped me finish the song. That encouragement gave me the confidence to include it on the album.”

atch Vincent Neil Emerson On Tour:

NOV 10, 2023 - Elkton Music Hall - Elkton, MD

NOV 11, 2023 - Mercury Lounge - New York, NY

NOV 15, 2023 - World Cafe Live - Philadelphia, PA

NOV 16, 2023 - The Southern Café and Music Hall - Charlottesville, VA

NOV 17, 2023 - Motorco Music Hall - Durham, NC

NOV 18, 2023 - New Brookland Tavern - Columbia, SC

NOV 19, 2023 - Charleston Music Hall - Charleston, SC

NOV 21, 2023 - Eddie's Attic - Decatur, GA

DEC 9, 2023 - Antone's Nightclub - Austin, TX

For more information, please visit vincentneilemerson.com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHC9f5ICNJ0

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQVNLI9IFDk

That second one was supposed to be title song, try again:

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

enjoying Florry! happy if this thread has room for non purist country adjacent stuff

LA Times on Grammys nominations snubbing country music. NY Times also said similar

The Grammys had many paths to acknowledge country music’s outstanding year. Luke Combs had a massive crossover hit with a cover of Tracy Chapman’s beloved “Fast Car.” Zach Bryan topped the streaming and Billboard charts with a thoughtful, ferocious album that featured a hit duet with Grammy fave Kacey Musgraves. Lainey Wilson just cleaned up at the CMA Awards, a victory lap after a decade in the Nashville trenches. And Morgan Wallen sold out stadiums and easily outstreamed Swift and SZA, to name two powerhouses.

And yet country came up almost totally empty. Jelly Roll and the War and Treaty got nods for best new artist, but otherwise, the genre was shut out in the four general field categories. Overall, Combs has one nomination, Wilson has two, Bryan has three and Brandy Clark has six — almost all in country and adjacent genre categories. Voters might still be ignoring Wallen for his N-word indiscretion, but it’s now clear they don’t seem to care much for country as a whole, even in a banner year.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/arts/music/grammy-awards-snubs-surprises.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Did Brandy Clark get 6 noms for the milquetoast s/t?

given that wallen was snubbed at the CMAs & was generally treated like an ancillary figure throughout the proceedings, the lack of grammy nominations isn't very surprising. but i figured zach bryan would get looks in the major categories. and you'd think the grammys would love any opportunity to celebrate tracy chapman. it wouldn't surprise me at all if the grammy voter base was not really slanted towards engagement w/ country music esp if you tried to isolate the young, country focused voters among the academy. can't imagine that's a legion of any sort

Grammys rules also play a rule per Caramanica in NY Times link above:

If there were one song with the best chance of bridging contemporary country to the Grammys, it would be Combs’s cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” which went to No. 2 on the Hot 100 and earlier this week won song of the year at the CMA Awards, making Chapman the first Black winner in that category. But in part because of Grammy rules — it isn’t eligible for song of the year because Chapman was nominated for her original in 1989 — Combs’s version has been relegated to just a single nomination, in best country solo performance, a snub that feels unexpectedly pointed. JON CARAMANICA

The Billboard Music Awards had no qualms about giving Morgan Wallen a bunch of trophys

Top Male Artist &
🏆 Top Hot 100 Artist
🏆 Top Streaming Songs Artist
🏆 Top Country Artist
🏆 Top Country Male Artist
🏆 Top Country Touring Artist
🏆 Top Billboard 200 Album “One Thing At A Time”
🏆 Top Country Album “One…

Not saying it's good, just noting it

Last night they let the liquor talk

heard "watermelon moonshine" on the radio. it's nice but i can't help but note that it a lesser version of "strawberry wine" which is one of my favorite country songs ever

Had to school myself and look up your fave, but yeah you're right

Not saying it's good, just noting it

― curmudgeon, Monday, November 20, 2023 9:31 AM (five hours ago)bookmarkflaglink

you should do some research into how they choose the winners of that show

They use Billboard data, not surprising and yeah I know Wallen is popular

From NPR music newsletter:

Garth Brooks has a new album…for Bass Pro Shops customers

by Stephen Thompson, NPR Music

...there remains about Garth Brooks a little-known fact: On Nov. 7, he released a new album. Titled Time Traveler, the record came out with notably little fanfare — a TV appearance here, a Billboard profile there, and that’s about it. News articles about the record have begun to pop up as word has spread, most of which focus less on the music than on the method of distribution: The only way you can get Time Traveler is to buy it on CD, as part of a seven-disc box set sold exclusively at Bass Pro Shops.

You can’t stream Time Traveler — not even via Amazon, which has otherwise-exclusive rights to Brooks’ catalog. You can’t even buy it as a single disc, though fans who’ve lost track of Brooks’ recent work might be glad to catch up on the box set’s remaining contents: everything the singer has released since coming out of retirement in 2014. (That’d be 2014’s Man Against Machine, 2016’s Gunslinger, 2019’s three-disc live set Triple Live and 2020’s Fun.)

If you’re wondering how one of the biggest stars in the world wound up releasing an album via Bass Pro Shops outlets, consider another fact about Garth Brooks: The guy really, really hates streaming. And, since he’s amassed the fame and fortune to do (and not do) pretty much whatever he wants — and remember that this is a guy who, at the height of his power, released a 1999 album under the guise of a brooding, soul-patched pop-star alter ego named Chris Gaines — Garth Brooks has decided to release albums his way, leaving heaven-only-knows how much money on the table in the process.

So, you might ask, what about Time Traveler itself? Is it any good? In the spirit of reportorial intrepidness — not to mention 30-plus years of accumulated goodwill toward the singer and his work, plus a fondness for physical media — I plunked down $30 plus shipping and ordered a copy from Bass Pro Shops, no doubt to the great confusion of my search engine’s algorithms. (It’s worth noting here that $30 for a seven-disc box set, even a bare-bones one, is a good deal, especially if you haven’t heard Time Traveler’s recent predecessors.)

What I found was an album that’s pretty deeply uncompromising in its own way. It’s not a lavish production, but it nods in directions that place it well outside the mainstream of modern bro country. “Rodeo Man,” a duet with Ronnie Dunn — no stranger to duets with guys named Brooks — would’ve fit right in on Garth Brooks’ terrific early-’90s best-sellers. “The Ship and the Bottle” pairs the pop-curious country star with country-curious pop star Kelly Clarkson, culminating in a vibe that would have made Jimmy Buffett proud. Dispensed with maximum agreeability, “Only Country Music” celebrates the greatest loves of Brooks’ life. And “The Ride” covers a 1983 hit from a country star whose iconoclasm exceeds even Brooks’: David Allan Coe.

Time Traveler closes with a track called “We Belong to Each Other,” which calls for national unity while celebrating our shared humanity. And, though none of its sentiments should qualify as revolutionary — “We belong to each other / We are sister and brother / Born to love one another” — it’s a far cry from the seething revanchism of Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” or the omnidirectional resentment of Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond,” both of which topped country charts in 2023. It’s a reminder that we need more Garth Brooks in our lives and on our radios, and that there’s nothing wrong with venturing into Bass Pro Shops to get it.

Shared in the EOY list thread -- Holler's Top 25 of 2013. Have not yet heard about a third of these (including the #1) but like a lot of what I have. Cannot for the life of me make my way into the new Isbell record, and I've tried repeatedly. Ian Munsick is a huge headscratcher for me, too. But very happy to see Brit Taylor, Kelsea Ballerini, and Charles Wesley Godwin who all had excellent releases this year that I don't believe I've commented on here.

The link would help

https://holler.country/lists/hollers-albums-of-the-year-2023

The way a whole lot of people who ought to know better have bought into Megan Moroney is absolutely maddening to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JY5pC7a2Ew

Loving this, discovered via this list:
https://www.stereogum.com/2244742/the-10-best-country-albums-of-2023/lists/year-in-review/2023-in-review/

Nice song there - Jordyn Shellhart “Who are you mad at”

Rest of the album didn't do much for me, unfortunately. Kacey with the edges sanded way, way down.

Bandcamp's best country (and "country-ish") of 2023:

https://daily.bandcamp.com/best-of-2023/the-best-country-music-of-2023

That's an excellent list. Margo Cilker, Drayton Farley, Brennen Leigh, Nick Shoulders, and Bella White would all make my top ten.

like them all, but Bella might just land in my top 5 ... that album is entrancing.

The Nick Shoulders is a ton of fun. Hope to catch him when he comes through here next year.

Margot Cilker “Remember Carolina” is so frickin great. such a great song about travelling and being in a band

“How could I forget Texas, where everything says ‘Texas’”

Speaking of which---RIP one of the original Dixie Chicks:
https://variety.com/2023/music/news/laura-lynch-dead-dixie-chicks-1235850102/ Good article.

Observes that the "We're ashamed to be from Texas" blasphemy would not have happened if she were still the sole lead singer during Iraq War, because she and Bush were mutual admirers (and he used to catch Chicks shows), But since she evidently got dumped for not having Natalie's charisma, I suspect that they would not have been such huge, mega-Diamond-selling targets with Laura---more likely ignored by most of the media, as some other lower-profile dissenting country artists were.

such huge, mega-Diamond-selling targets with Laura-

I didn’t know the Chicks had that whole backstory, that’s interesting.