The all-new contemporary mainstream country thread

(PS Never mind, I’ll also note that I am totally loving the latest Kelly Willis LP, and am currently warming up to the new Dixie Chicks record, so I might come to even like contemporary country of a more traditional/retro variety. As long as it denies that punk ever existed, I guess – can’t stand alt.country/no depression stuff. Some people on ILX have talked about an exciting bluegrass revival – what should I check out?)

I'll come back when I have more time, but here's a couple of things:
- Are there any country clubs where people dance to this stuff, like in say hip hop/house clubs? Or is it kept to the domain of bars?

Yes, there are clubs. Big-ass clubs.

Also, more ILM country threads (song recommendations in many):
Country Music needs love too!
Nashville Types Who Don't Suck

I think you're right, though - they don't really belong on this thread.

As teeny pointed out, country dancing is damn near a stadium event. At least, it is in Texas. Imagine a windowless building the size of an airplane hangar, packed with 2-3000 "cowboys" and "cowgirls," all wearing red and purple brushpopper shirts and sporting hats, hats, hats. It's a massive theme party every night.

- I seem to vaguely recall some talk from few years back about the first country boyband… has this ever happened?

I haven't heard of that, and I doubt it would take off. Cowboys are supposed to be lonely. Being left by a woman and getting drunk just doesn't require more than one person.

- This is supposed to be rural stuff, but how much is it actually popular in the cities? What kind of audiences/people listen to it? This is basically the only thing that inhabits the Billboard singles chart along with hip hop/R&B at the mo – does it mean that it's more popular, and that its fans are less frowned upon nowadays? (ie have the battle crys such as “it’s horrible evil vulgar redneck trash” & “I like everything but country” become less commonplace?)

It is rural stuff, but that means less than it used to. Even if you drive a tractor all day, if you put on a vaguely fruity costume every weekend and go dancing at someplace where they play mass-produced, mass-consumed pop music, how different are you from the city slickers?

I don't know about other cities, but this kind of thing is huge in Texas. Houston, Dallas... well, you can just imagine. Does it go on in Chicago and New York? Well... yeah, probably. Like I said, it's pop music. The kids are digging it everywhere you look.

- What do videos look like? I’ve only seen the one for Joe Nichols’ “Brokenheartsville”, and it struck me as this strange mix of bling-aspiration (champagne, hot chicks, shiny car) and desperate attempt at down-to-earthedness (beer, shithole bar, token old black drunk) – the Nichols dude is such a hunky posterboy Lothario, he looks totally out of place in said shithole bar in an almost grotesque way!

You seem to have a pretty firm handle on the aesthetic here. It's exactly what it looks like. It's some pretty hilarious shit.

- Could you provide me with any links to good articles about pop country? I’d especially appreciate the ones that shed a light on the way Nashville industry works, since it’s all a mystery to me.

I'd be interested in links like that myself. Anyone?

B&D are semi-legit

I'll admit it, I was skeptical.

Of all the musical genres that I cover, I tend to look the least favourably upon mainstream country. Quite reasonably, I think, I've been turned off by the cavalcade of vacuous divas and pop-chart crossovers. But seeing Terri Clark perform the other night has convinced me that, in dismissing an entire genre, I've certainly missed out on some great music.

Though there were some moments that reflected the cheesier side of modern Nashville (the light show, for example, was hard to bear), Clark's performance overall was, in a word, electrifying. The Alberta-bred singer is possessed of a voice that seems to know no limit. From the all-out rowdiness of Clark's signature kiss-off songs like "I Just Wanna Be Mad" (a recent No. 1 hit on the U.S. country charts) and "Better Things To Do" to quieter ballads, Clark's voice deftly shifted from brassy and sometimes bluesy to powerfully soft.

Clark is no diva. She was dressed as casually as she spoke, in a white tank-top, denim jacket, bluejeans, and her trademark white cowboy hat. She was self-deprecating and humble as she addressed the audience. Where her contemporaries might hide behind vocoders, arena-rock production values, and bombastic power ballads, Clark lets her songs sell themselves on their own merits. She really excels in the hard-driving, uptempo honky-tonkers. She not only let her voice soar during these songs, but she also proved herself a fairly mean guitarist during some of them -- something you're not likely to see from another certain un-named Canadian-born international country superstar.

Songs like "Three Mississippi," the Warren Zevon-penned "Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me" and "You're Easy on the Eyes" really exemplified the best aspects of country music: real emotion, sung in plain words with unpretentious passion.

At one point, the band left the stage, leaving Clark alone on a stool with her acoustic guitar. From there, she recreated her early experiences as a struggling singer in Nashville, when she used to sing for tips at the Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, legendary for a clientele that once included country music giants like Willie Nelson and Harlan Howard. Clark paid tribute to her heroes in a medley that included songs made famous by the Judds and Loretta Lynn, among others.

One of the most gratifying things to see onstage was that Clark's band acted and played like a real band. A talented bunch of players, they seemed to really be enjoying themselves, in contrast to other modern country bands where the players often come across as little more than bored hired hands.

My sole complaint is with the lights. A battery of multi-hued spotlights pivoted about throughout the concert, frequently shining directly into the eyes of the audience. This was at best embarrassing, and at worst painful. But there was nothing at all wrong with Terri Clark's dynamic performance. She gained a fan in me on this night.

Teenaged opening act Adam Gregory also put on a high-energy performance and, without a doubt, delighted his small army of admirers. I know it's been mentioned before in these pages, but it's worth noting again that when Gregory puts aside his guitar, he seems lost, as if he's not sure what to do with his hand that isn't holding a microphone. Somebody get that boy a tambourine. He's not without charisma and talent, but without his guitar he looks like an awkward cross between John Mellancamp and the Monkees' Davy Jones onstage.

One thing I'm curious about country clubbing - are any drugs popular among the punters, or is it just alcohol all the way? I probably already know the answer, but to us Europeans clubbing without drugs is like, I don't know, sex without genitals! Cowboys on E - oh how it would amuse me if it were so...

Nashville Types Who Don't Suck

Ryan Adams, Lambchop and Wilco have sold considerably more albums worldwide than at least most mainstream country acts have, haven't they?

Damn, didn't know they were still around. I like the description of the album because it sounds like what you're also trying to say is, "And it's what Lambchop are trying to do but these guys are better at it, goddammit!"

God I fucking love Yoakum. Anybody heard his new album??

Not to anything in particular, just this entire thread.

1) Whiskey for my men, Beer for my Horses-Toby Kieth and Willie Nelson
(wonderful singalong chorus, almost makes up the qausi facism)
2)Tell Me Something Bad About Tulsa-George Strait
(tulsa is one of those great country locations, and straits vocals make it sound so lonely)
3)Three Wooden Crosses, Randy Travis
it has a hooker, a teacher, a preacher and a farmer, the hooker lives--over the top highway grotesqurie(sp) and a good return to form)
4)Love Letters From Old Mexico-Leslie Satcher
not as much radio play as it needs to, a tammy/lorreta moment of middle age romantic isolation, with some of the prettiest melodies ive heard.
5) whoever sings the karoke song that subtly parodies the politics of fame.

"Beer For My Horses" is reprehensible. It's not quasi-fascist, it's nostalgia for mob rule--better string them "gangsters" up. Has anyone called Willie on this? A shame too, because Keith has had some great singles ("Who's Your Daddy?" esp) but he's developed a fierce commitment to his blackheaded political agenda. It's Charlie Daniels all over again.

brad paisley, i should have known, gr8 voice, good lyrics, and discovered by dolly, who really should be getting more radio play, as she has released some of the best albums of her career.