Rolling Country 2010

Or I dunno, undoubtedly there are artists whose sounds maintain more stylistic reference points to country of distant previous decades than Taylor's sound does, even if the ultimate result doesn't sound exactly like old country in their cases. I suppose that's people's point. It's just that, to me, acting like pop crossover is some new thing in hit country music, when really it's been going on longer than the almost half-century I've been alive, is really willful. (But I'm obviously not saying anything here that I haven't said a zillion time before.)

Oddly, I was actually listening to Gordon Lightfoot's Complete Greatest Hits (Rhino, 2002) yesterday morning, before I read Edd's post, wondering where he might fit into Frank's story of confessional songwriters evolving through the post-Dylan/Joni ages.

He probably fits in around '68 or '69; '67 or '68 is when my brother gets Judy Collins' Wildflowers and then we go backwards and forward from there, to Judy Collins' Fifth Album, In My Life, and Who Knows Where The Time Goes?, which for me and a lot of music listeners is the first we hear songs written by Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell (though Noel Harrison has a minor hit with Cohen's Suzanne before I heard Collins' version). Who Knows Where The Time Goes is the first I hear a song written by Sandy Denny. Collins' version of "Mr. Tambourine Man" may be the first time I hear that song as well, since I hadn't been listening to top 40 radio in '65. I have no idea why or how - I don't think it was through my brother, who'd now gone off to college - I hear of Gordon Lightfoot and buy his second or third album, the one with "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" on it. Some of that album feels beautiful and moving, at least for several months - I remember getting into a fight with my parents, and afterwards stomping off to my bedroom and putting my head between the speakers and listening to the album and thinking, "Well, here, this guy is doing something beautiful," which contrasts with whatever I feel my parents have just done to me. But eventually I decide that Lightfoot is simply too weak and soft-headed (though that might mean he ought to be now ripe for re-evaluation).

Oddly, the only thing I now remember from the record is "Canadian Railroad Trilogy," which I recall as being more rousing than pretty. The songs that come to mind from the guy don't strike me as confessional (and I'm sure I wasn't using the word "confessional" then in regard to music). But then, the only ones I remember other than "Trilogy" are "That's What You Get For Loving Me," which is a young-man-as-charming-rake genre exercise, and pretty funny, "Black Day In July," about the Detroit riots ("It wasn't just the temperature/And it wasn't just the season"), was dramatic and really good, I thought, and then "Sundown," whenever that hit, which again isn't him opening his heart, particularly; when I think about it "Sundown" might be the character in "That's What You Get For Loving Me" but addressed in the second-person by a rival. Doesn't it go "Sundown you better beware/If I find you creepin' 'round my back stair"? (I feel it would be cheating for me to Google or Wiki for this info, since I'm trying to say what my memory is telling me.) In any event, I didn't keep up with Lightfoot but my impression is that he evolved from "folkie" to "folkie for smoochers" or something, and I imagine him playing supper clubs with rustic fireplaces, though I'm sure he actually played regular old folk clubs.

In the post-Garth world there's no reason to assume that a latter-day Lightfoot might not cross to country, if he had decent enough songs, but I think the reason country radio is so comfortable with Taylor is that she feels like the heartland in a way that folkies don't, even if her chords and riffs don't flaunt antiquity. As for those chords and riffs, they actually don't scream Sugar Pop* in the way that, say, Lady GaGa and Britney Spears songs do, and Taylor doesn't come across as crossover diva in the way that LeAnn Rimes and Faith Hill sometimes do; I think the country listener is pretty used to women singers with one foot in adult contemporary, and vice versa; I'd say AC's been a part of the language of country radio for the last couple of decades, though you guys know more about those previous decades than I do.

*Well, "You Belong With Me" does, somewhat, and more power to it.

my impression is that he evolved from "folkie" to "folkie for smoochers"

This might be true, especially if you're trying to smooch widows of guys who died in Edmund Fitzgerald. (Actually, Gordon may well have smoochier material later in career; I've just never heard it. "Sundown" is clearly about smooching a wayward prostitute, however, and "Go-Go Round" about smooching a go-go dancer. "If I Could Read Your Mind" maybe about smooching a ghost from the wishing well in a castle dark or a fortress strong with chains upon your feet; "Early Morning Rain" about the memory of smooching fast women and drinking liquor the night before but now you're smooching wet grass out on runway number nine. Why the hell is here, anyway? I've never figured that out. He's only got a dollar, and he knows you can't jump a plane like freight train.)

Meant "If You Could Ready My Mind," obviously. (And "died on the Edmund Fitzgerald." You know, on that big lake they called Gitchie Goomie. Doubt any better geography lesson about the Great Lakes has ever hit the pop chart. Still waiting for somebody to do a doom-metal version.)

I never even noticed the words to "Go Go Round" before yesterday, fwiw.

And come to think of it, why have I always "clearly" thought the hard lovin' woman in "Sundown" is a prostitute, anyway? (Just because she's lying back in her satin dress in a room where you do what ya don't confess? Or because she looks like a queen from a sailor's dream?? Not nearly enough to go on!)

Neat trick, for a confessional singer-songwriter: He does what you don't confess, then he indirectly confesses it to us anyway!

xpost (Yeah, come to think of it I don't remember the lyrics to "Sundown" at all, other than that one line, so what I said about it might have been pretty stupid.)

These days country tends to define itself sonically more by instrumentation and accent than by notes and chord progressions; at least that's how I hear it. A difference between Taylor Swift and Fearless is that on the latter Taylor decided to forgo the twang and the blatant mandolins and fiddles (though they appear; as do violins), probably said, "Fuck it, I'll sing in my own voice."

On the other hand, I do think that the melody and chords to "Our Song" and the chorus to "Teardrops On My Guitar" sound more country - in a way that I can't put my finger on - than anything on Fearless, but those more typically country notes make those two songs worse than they'd be without them. (I suspect that Xhuxk'll disagree. Isn't "Our Song" one of your favorite Taylor songs?) But as I've been saying, what I think gets her across to country fans - beyond the fact that she's really good - is that people in the mainstream of country listening* are willing to attune themselves to her sensibility, and therefore even willing to let her take them to new places.

*I'm using that awkward phrase to differentiate them from someone like me, who listens to mainstream country radio and is a fan of the music but isn't in the mainstream of such listeners; "primary audience" might be another term. But "mainstream of such listeners/primary audience" doesn't denote a single type, either; just doesn't include me. (Of course, she's crossing big to noncountry fans as well.)

Meant "If You Could Ready My Mind," obviously

Uh, obviously not. (At least the "Ready" part.)

why the hell is here, anyway?

why the hell IS HE THERE, anyway? Jeez...

Simon Frith, contrasting Celine Dion to Barbra Streisand:

Dion is, by contrast, a populist. Her voice is as rich in timbre as Streisand's and as flexible, but her approach to balladry draws on different traditions, on soul and country music. From soul she takes a method of direct expression, sound as physical feeling; from country she takes the sense of the everyday, cutting emotions down to size.

This isn't about "idiom," the musical language, so much as about the result, how one uses one's language. I don't think genres are idioms, at least not at the expense of sensibility and results - not just the "vocabulary" you employ, but also what do with it, and people with different vocabularies can find themselves doing similar things. (Not that a genre can be limited to a set of results either.)

I wouldn't say that Taylor cuts emotions down to size, but then I wouldn't necessarily have associated "everyday" and "down to size" anyway. Some people go from drama to drama every day. What Taylor does is to show big emotions arising within the details of everyday life.

In any event, I started off thinking of Taylor as Ashlee South, so it's not my particular issue whether Taylor is or isn't country - though it sure makes country richer and better if she is. But I wonder how much music of the last fifty years or so that has been created by people in or near country is considered "not country" for being too pop, but it isn't that the sound came from somewhere else, The Land Of Pop, but rather it came from these people, who helped create modern country and therefore modern pop. (Again, someone else will have to give this argument flesh, since I don't know the music's past well enough.)

helped create modern country and therefore modern pop

Well, obviously didn't help create all of modern pop, just pieces of it.

Here's a link to Geoffrey Himes' 100 Best Albums of 2009

http://sonicboomers.com/albumreviews-0

Drunk-dialing masterpiece "Need You Now" is number 5 on Billboard's ringtones chart!

Meanwhile Skaggs tells the Washington Post he likes some bluegrass

Ask Ricky Skaggs about his favorite contemporary bluegrass acts and he'll rattle off a mighty list: Cherryholmes, The Infamous Stringdusters, Mountain Heart, Blue Highway, Sierra Hull and many others. But ask him about his favorite new country artists and... crickets. Skaggs thinks the genre has "lost its way."

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/clicktrack/2010/01/be_specific_bluegrass_great_ri.html

Caramanica on banda singer Jenni Rivera (whose new album is said to be an all-mariachi affair on which she covers country singer Freddie Fender's "Before The Next Teardrop Falls"); some indie band called Wild Yaks (who Jon says play "country-rock", though since he said the same about indie band Girls I'm skeptical, and since he calls their country-rock lackadaisical I assume I'd hate anyway); and the Huntsville, Alabama hip-hop scence (featuring the hit "Fresh" by 6 Tre G, which I'm pretty sure I heard on the radio a week or two ago and actually liked):

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/arts/music/10play.html

Jenni Rivera has been covering Tex-Mex for years; still prefer her banda version of "I Will Survive" with its wailing clarinets though. She's awesome.

Although in "Ala-Freakin-Bama" Trace Adkins says he grew up on Skynyrd, the song sounds at least as much (or a lot more) like he grew up on Gary Glitter or Joan Jett doing the Standells.

Kara DioGuardi about writing for country artists:

It's lyrically heavy in a way pop music isn't. It's got to be the perfect way to put it, but it's also got to have emotion [that resonates]. It's poetic in a way that pop music isn't. It really tests me. It makes me go back to songwriting 101. It's not just describing an emotion at face value, it's more like, "Here's the emotion -- how do I say it in a way that's interesting, so that someone gets what I'm trying to put across but it's also a twist on it?"

[For instance], "I Hope You Dance"? What an incredible metaphor. I hope you take that risk, I hope you take that chance, I hope you live life to the fullest. The way they paint that picture, when they get to the chorus you know exactly what they're talking about. I'm very drawn to the genre because I feel like I've become a better writer by going down there, and I'm always learning in the sessions.
--Billboard Interview

(I don't think it's such an incredible metaphor, myself.)

You're not terrified of dancing the way some of us are.

Christgau wraps up 2009 (year in music):

http://bit.ly/6wSxv7

Here's a new Voice piece I wrote on the music played at PBR (that's Professional Bull Riders) events.

I'm here to warn people off the new Jason Boesel album, which I'm currently streaming. He's drummed for Rilo Kiley and Conor Oberst, so it's ironic that Hustler's Son is completely devoid of memorable beats. Or memorable tunes, or singing voices, or words... CMT blog says he sounds like Chris Martin, which I don't hear at all. If anything, he's a less-distinctive and sometimes pitchy Jack Johnson. No way is he a hustler's son, unless he's overcompensating. You've been warned.

Also ungood, though still listenable, is Freedy Johnston's Rain On the City. I'll say he counts here since he recorded it in Nashville and "It's Gonna Come Back To You" sounds country. (And the guitar sound on "Livin' Too Close to the Rio Grande" is what I imagine Uncle Tupelo sound like.) I'm sad it's not good because I really like some of his songs, but he seems to have smoothed a lot of the interest out of his voice. There's a point in the second song where he sings "tried and tried and tried and tried" etc., and if you can imagine Freedy Johnston singing that, you can maybe picture the unusual way he used to shape vowels--very round and throaty. Unfortunately, that's almost all gone. Some of the tunes are pleasant, but nothing compelling. So all you've got left is the least interesting part of his arsenal--the Evocative Lyrics. On about half the songs, he tries to amp up the evocativeness by playing slowly, bleh. I may listen again in case I missed anything. Got an alarmingly high score from Ann Powers.

Nice article, unperson--real colorful.

OK, Freedy Johnston sounds better today. It's still not setting the world on fire and I still miss his idiosyncrasies, but the tunes have grown on me. He's rhythmically competent enough that most of the songs hit some sort of relaxed groove, and his drummer knows how to work with his melodies. Best song probably "The Other Side of Love," which has a BeMyBaby beat. "Don't Fall In Love With a Lonely Girl" (the "tried and tried and..." song) is also good. Worst may be the bossa nova exercise "The Kind of Love We're In." Still borderline overall.

My five favorite country singles of 2010 so far; order very fluid:

1. Jason Aldean – The Truth
2. Trace Adkins – Ala Freakin Bama
3. Martina McBride – Wrong Baby Wrong Baby Wrong
4. Brian Burns – Rattlesnake Tequila
5. Colt Ford featuring Jamey Johnson – Cold Beer

Weirdest 2010 country album I've heard so far: Shooter Jennings & Hierophant, Black Ribbons (due out March 2 on Rocket Science Ventures), which has very little or no country music on it whatsoever (well, maybe some very occasional very sublimated melodic twang in the guitars), but it does have a whole bunch of doomsday recitations by Stephen King as a radio announcer calling himself Will O' the Wisp, plus theoretically apocalyptic songs somewhere in the general vicinity of Alice In Chains/Queensryche/Soundgarden/'90s Metallica/Use Your Illusion/Buckcherry. Not sure yet if any of them are remotely worth a shit, but at least the concept seems boderline audacious on paper.

Still didn't get even halfway through the new Lady Antebellum album.

Another constipated and leaden new country-goes-off-the-grunge-deep-end record: 7DayBinge, Muzik Mafioso Jon Nicholson's eight-songer (last song 10+ minutes long, and most others in the four-to-five-minute range, so an album not an EP) with assorted Twisted Brown Trucker (a/k/a Kid Rock's backing band) and 3 Doors Down dorks. Maybe a little rustic blues rock in something like "I'm No Good" or "Cold Dark Grave," but mostly it sounds like bad Nickelback (or Creed, or whatever) to me.

Stephen King as a radio announcer calling himself Will O' the Wisp, plus theoretically apocalyptic songs

End of the world/apocalypse stuff is the new emo mall punk. One new movie a week now, sometimes more on apocalypse, particularly if you get extended cable.

In the meantime, we'll always have Haiti.

End of the world/apocalypse stuff is the new emo mall punk.

Yeah, the new Ray Wylie Hubbard LP (which has been getting lots of press around these parts, and which I actually like, though it sure does plod a lot) definitely fits in the 2010 doomsday country category, too. Probably also the Legendary Shack Shakers' Agridustrial, due out c. Income Tax Day, which I've been liking even more even though Hubbard's abum is probably more immediately comprehensible, vocal/song-wise. Shack Shakers have more energy, more humor, more hooks, probably more variety. Both have some tough blues riffs and touches of gospel.

Good time for me to mention Shooter's excellent duet with Ike Reilly on the latter's Hard Luck Stories (digitally 2009, "real" disc 2010, has a shot at being my favorite album of two straight years). Song is a funny country blues song about the awesomeness of smalltown girls with daddy issues, until it takes a characteristic Ike turn into lyricism. Shooter ain't got no voice at all but he can sing all right.

Ray Wylie Hubbard album gets especially doomsday-dirgy toward its tail-end (titles "Every Day Is The Day Of The Dead"/"Opium"/"The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse" an obvious clue -- more or less metal, delta blues, and Celtic sluggish drones respectively.), and I actually like those, so far, more than most of the other trudging before them. Favorite track so far though is probably the relatively upbeat (well, at least midtempo) "Drunken Poet's Dream," which talks about mescaline, gasoline, naked women, and Judgement Day (and which I just realized was also the lead cut on the last Hayes Carll CD, where both Texans got co-writes). Also liking "Loose," which notably rhymes with Bruce, though I haven't decided yet if it's trying to sound like early or recent Bruce.

Well, this thread was cooking. Where'd everybody go?

Anyway, finally made it through the new Lady Antebellum -- albeit in the background, while reading the morning papers. Not sure what it will take for me to determine whether there's another ballad anywhere near the level of "Need You Now", which I'm ashamed to say made me shrug in the first place itself. Ballads often aren't immediate impact for me. Right now I'd say the closer, "Ready To Love Again," has the best shot, but that's just a wild guess, and overall I'd say the boring-ballad ratio here is even higher than on, uh, the new Vampire Weekend album (which still has nothing nearly as great as "Need You Now" fwiw.) Second favorite song on Need You Now so far would be "Stars Tonight," an insistent two-chord pop-rocker about joining a rock band because rock people dress really cool. At least, that's what I think it's about. "Perfect Day" has a bit of bounce to it, too. But mostly the album's making me shrug (and I liked their first one, by the way. Liked Vampire Weekend's first one too, but liked Antebellum's more.)

Best country album I've heard in the past couple months, maybe in the past couple years, heck maybe ever almost, is a 20-song 1981 Warner Special Products vinyl mailaway compilation called Motels And Memories that I got for a $1 in San Marcos last month. All cheating songs, only a few I was familiar with before (John Anderson "She Just Started Liking Cheating Songs," John Conlee "Friday Night Blues," Gary Stewart "She's Acting Single [I'm Drinkin' Doubles]," Barbara Mandrell's "Married But Not To Each Other" which is basically an r&b song I swear, maybe Crystal Gayle "Talking In Your Sleep" which I really love), and a lot by artists I've barely ever listened to before, often to my shame (Conway Twitty, Stella Parton, Vern Gosdin, Jeanne Pruitt, Earl Thomas Conley, Carmoll Taylor, Bill Anderson, Margo Smith, Mel Street, etc.) Tails off slightly toward the very end, maybe, but still makes me wonder why, if cheating (and even more, being cheated on) was such a major obsession of country singers for so long, when and why did that change? Or did it? Only really great one I can think of in the past year would be "Even Now" by Caitlin & Will (cheating both ways), and that didn't hit big at all. Probably there's some I'm not thinking of. Anyway, did the moral majority's influence over country ensure at some point that songwriters would stop dealing with the topic? Or were the '70s really just one big Ice Storm key party? Or what? (Also been listening to Billie Jo Spears' 1975 Blanket On The Ground, another $1 find, which just strikes me as way more sexy than country nowadays, even though Paisley also sang about doing it outside in "Ticks" couple years back I guess. Getting the idea country lost something along the way, and maybe it's worth talking about here.)

And oh yeah, played the Mavericks' 1999 CD Super Collosal Smash Hits Of The '90s: The Best Of The Mavericks yesterday, and can I just say that, despite the frequent warm mariachi lilts and Raul Malo's equally warm and very smooth singing, those guys were kinda booooring. Lacking almost any memorable songs probably had something to do with it.

And remembered yet another '90s country star with a seemingly good best-of on my shelf, which might have had good '90s albums I've never heard backing it up: Pam Tillis (Greatest Hits, Arista 1997.)

The track listing on that Mavericks comp looks boring but they weren't quite that boring; "Pretend" off What a Crying Shame is a pretty memorable honky-tonk with Latin-flavored vocals as their hype promised (but often did not deliver; "Dance the Night Away" a nice exception); and their cover of "All That Heaven Will Allow" is excellent and better than the already great original. So all in all, a very minor band but you could make a better comp than the one you got.

Played the new Easton Corbin (his debut) and Gary Allan albums. The Corbin was pleasant at best; nothing really jumped out at me. But I'm liking at least four songs on the Allan -- masochism metaphor "Get Off On The Pain" and "That Ain't Gonna Fly" for their toughness; "We Fly By Night" and mercy fuck/breakup sex number "Kiss Me When I'm Down" for the specificity of their lyrics. Like this line in the latter, listing stuff she left behind at his place when she dumped him: "A stack of mail/a tube of toothpaste/An empty Zeppelin III CD case."

x-post. Yea, I think there are some memorable Mavericks songs and would not dismiss the group. I never saw them live, but I saw Raul Malo solo and with a band live several times and recall some of the Mavericks songs working. Xhuck, he's got quite a voice as you acknowledge. For some fans that's enough (also noticed that women were especially charmed by him live).

Regarding cheating songs, that's interesting that country has largely abandoned them (if that's true). They still dominate Southern (Chitlin Circuit) soul to the point that they are formulaic and predictable and I am sick of them. Actually I never liked that lyrical theme much to begin with.

Surely "White Liar" is a cheating song, and quite good. Not definite on what counts as a cheating song; is it only a cheating song when the protagonist cheats (which might disqualify great tracks about a lover's cheating like John Conlee's "She Can't Say That Anymore," since it seems to be through the guy's eyes, but is really about the gal)? In any event, Taylor Swift's "Should've Said No" is about not forgiving a cheater, and if you take account of the video, so is "White Horse." Doesn't Gretchen Wilson have a few? (Well, maybe I'm thinking of the one on the Barbara Mandrell tribute album, which would only confirm your point.) From a few years ago we've got Toby's excellent "Stays In Mexico" and Lee Ann Womack's excellent "There's More Where That Came From."

Yeah, "Stays In Mexico" occurred to me, and most of those others make sense -- duh. Not sure why it seems like there's fewer now; maybe just because I don't have them all compiled in one place. (Most obvious one we haven't mentioned: Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats"! So yeah, cheated-on songs, as I suggested above, definitely count; "She Can't Say That Anymore" is even more blatant about that than "Friday Night Blues," which only implies Conlee's a cuckold but was included on that cheating song compilation regardless.)

Of the songs I listed above, maybe most of them -- definitely "She Just Started Liking Cheating Songs and "She's Acting Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)" -- obviously revolve around the protagonist's spouse cheating.

Xhuxk you know how much I love Gary Allan. Can't wait to hear it...although no chance I'm gonna get a promo, I'm deader in Nashville than Charlie Robison or Robbie Fulks.

Miranda Lambert & Brad Paisley place in Top 40 in 2009 Pazz & Jop.

http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/

Lots of country in Jane Dark's top 25 singles of 2009:

http://janedark.com/2010/01/top_25_songs_of_2009_in_a_sing.html

Sarah Buxton to open for Martina McBride and Trace Adkins on the Shine All Night tour, so possibly she won't disappear commercially in the way that Ashley Monroe disappeared.

I bumped into a few interesting websites and thought I'd share the links.

This guy comes to country from an alt perspective, but he's clearly got a lot of curiosity about Nashville proper. Impossible to search but fun to browse, with tons of album reviews from all eras of country.

http://www.slipcue.com/music/country/countryindex.html

This one's got to be the definitive David Allan Coe review page.

http://www.roctober.com/roctober/greatness/coe.html

Just heard "Ala Freakin Bama"

Wow.

They call it the crimson tide!

Hey everyone. Just catching up with this thread. RE the Brad Paisley discussion above from a few weeks back, some of which mentioned me explicitly: it's possible to love Paisley (and Taylor and Miranda and Jamey Johnson and other critical darlings) *and* to love country that's not on the mainstream rock-crit radar. Not all Paisley lovers are by definition idiot arrivistes. The know-it-all territorialism around country that rears its head on ILX and elsewhere is embarrassing. There are certain critics who want own the genre, and reflexively lash out at anyone who dares venture on their "turf." Sorry--you have to share.

Also, for the record: I do love "Then," but it's not my favorite song on ASN. (That'd be "Anything Like Me." I'm soft like that.) "Then" is my favorite of the singles released so far.

That said: I love the country talk on ILX generally. I come here every once in a while just to read and always learn a lot. FWIW totally co-sign on "The Truth" and I think the new Gary Allan is a grower. All his records have taken a while to open up for me...

Hey Jody, great to see you here. And point well taken on the guarding country-critic turf issue, though I'm fairly sure you overstate the extent to which it occurs here -- Only once, to my knowledge, by me, and I was pretty self-critical about it, to wit: "...increasingly 'the country singer it's okay for critics to like.' Honestly, that's a good reason to be skeptical...Not sure why it bugs me, except that there are country artists this decade who I've liked more. (Probably just a kneejerk reflex, part of my chemical makeup from way way back.)"

That said, I've been surprising myself this week by liking "Why Don't We Just Dance" by Josh Turner, who've I never particularly cared about before. Starting to understand, a little, why people might consider his deep voice so sexy. Guess I should listen to the rest of the album...

Also, Lady Antebellum's new album is growing on me. At least a little.

Rolling Country 2011