Jon_Oh, here is my review of that Appalachian blues reissue CD (scroll up for the actual track listing):
http://www.rhapsody.com/album/classic-appalachian-blues-from-smithsonian-folkways-2?artistId=42653#albumreview
And here is something much, much longer, where I compare Taylor Swift and Ke$ha:
http://blog.rhapsody.com/2010/12/taylorkesha.html
And here is my review of Kid Rock's new album that I wrote for Spin, which for some reason wound up in the magazine in slightly edited form (the version below is pre-edit), but never seems to have wound up on their website:
Kid RockBorn FreeAtlantic
History has proven writing off Kid Rock imprudent – His albums always seem to mosey out the gate, but then months later get jumpstarted when some midwestern country station picks up the fourth single. Next thing you know, he's moved another three million units. His new Born Free already has Big Event written all over it: Rick Rubin production, Martina McBride and T.I. swapping spit on the noncommittally pandering protest "Care," Bob Seger tinkling keys behind Sheryl Crow on the "Picture" redux "Collide," Nashville musclemen and adult-alternative musos lending more hands. Chances are, not even Kid's clunkiest similes and unfunkiest drums ever will stem the demographic outreach.
Michigan, as always, will love it – In the longest of several longish songs, Kid references both Seger's "Against The Wind" and John Rich's "Shuttin' Detroit Down" as he unspecifically cheers the Motor City's resilience. But though Born Free 's dusky highway choogle provides plenty of wind-in-the-hair nostalgia for middle-aged Sons of Anarchy, it lacks jokes and raunch. And while the guitars unfurl, they never crunch, unless "God Bless Saturday"'s blue-collar BTO-lite counts. Plus, strained Neil-Young-cum-blue-eyed-soul falsettos probably aren't the best solution to Bob Ritchie's bark feeling more painful as he pushes 40. That said, he's never let his vocal limitations get in the way before. By next summer, he may well have manipulated more megaplatinum out of his fedora.
― xhuxk, Wednesday, 15 December 2010 19:20 (thirteen years ago) link
Said nice things about Kenny Chesney's "Somewhere With You" over on my lj:
Kenny Chesney "Somewhere With You": Soul-jazz chords at the start, Kenny sounding just as comfortable with smoky longing as he normally does at the beach. Thanks for saving the week, Kenny. TICK.
(The week needed saving from the Glee Cast and Coldplay.)
Also, apparently Martina or someone shortened the title but not the song when they released "Wrong Baby Wrong Baby Wrong" as a single; for no good reason I want to list it by its full title on my ballot. Assume that won't hurt its small chance of making the top tracks, as the Country Critics Poll is small enough that Geoffrey will figure out to add up the votes to each.
― Frank Kogan, Thursday, 16 December 2010 00:51 (thirteen years ago) link
Musically, and in terms of singles-worthiness, I like "Care" and "Collide" pretty well; "Rock On" is the most affecting. Speaking of Mumford, Frank, here's my show preview & take on their album, though it's mostly a matter of art appreciation (but as such, and though it takes some repeated listening the album holds up, while def taking me from my rut of preferred listening):
"Tremble, little lion man /Your boldness stands alone/Among the wreck." Drawing on their reputation for poetically rowdy shows, UK folk-rockers Mumford and Sons' "Little Lion Man" is a shrewd point of risky departure for their debut album, "Sigh No More." The little penitent waits for musical shots of tough love's grace. He gets enough to break away, through rising cycles of obsessive drama. These can turn bleak; that's the risk. But the little immigrant does a "Dustbowl Dance" while hometown love and war renew their vows.
― dow, Thursday, 16 December 2010 04:17 (thirteen years ago) link
And while I'm at it, here's Marling too (haven't heard the EP, they might well be at their best there, esp, since this seems like a year for EPs, intended and in albums that require and reward cherry-picking):
At 17, British singer-songwriter Laura Marling released "Alas, I Cannot Swim," powered by a teenage appetite for folk-flavored melodrama and mischief. If your castle explodes, it might be justice, or just because. Marling's new "I Speak Because I Can" conjures with spontaneity, stagecraft, complex subtexts and direct address. Concerning her banished lord of disorder, she confides, "We write, that's all right/I miss his smell." Sounds promising. Ditto when Marling, now 20, also muses, "I wouldn't want to ruin something that I couldn't save." Let's hold her to it.
― dow, Thursday, 16 December 2010 04:26 (thirteen years ago) link
Nashville Scene ballot looking like this I think -
TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2010:
1. Jamey Johnson - The Guitar Song2. Taylor Swift - Speak Now3. Laura Bell Bundy - Achin' and Shakin'4. Keith Urban - Get Closer5. Little Big Town - The Reason Why6. Alan Jackson - Freight Train7. Reba McEntire - All the Women I Am8. Kenny Chesney - Hemmingway's Whiskey9. Easton Corbin - Easton Corbin10. Merle Haggard - I Am What I Am
TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2010:
1. Taylor Swift - Mine2. Jamey Johnson - Playing the Part3. Kenny Chesney - Somewhere With You4. Martina McBride - Wrong Baby Wrong Baby Wrong5. Brad Paisley - Water6. Trace Adkins - This Ain't No Love Song7. Tim McGraw - Still8. Laura Bell Bundy - Drop On By9. Sunny Sweeney - From a Table Away10. Toby Keith - Bullets in the Gun
― erasingclouds, Monday, 20 December 2010 15:51 (thirteen years ago) link
Looks good erasing. Anybody heard the True Blood soundtrack? I got a press release about a show in the Louisiana cafe where the show is filmed, featuring Jace Everett, C. C. Adcock, a bunch of other contributors, maybe all of em. Thanx to xhuxk for linking stream of Jace Everett's Red Revelations upthread. Also wondering about True Grit soundtrack (seen a couple good reviews already, but no mention of music. Apparently it's closer to the book; a good piece on the suthor, Charles Portis, in recent NYTimes: a truly deadpan comic novelist, it sez, unlike most, who signal when they're trying to be funny, but also blends the seriously serious into the comments of unwittingly amusing characters, True Grit a bit more shadowed than his others, apparently)
― dow, Wednesday, 22 December 2010 02:50 (thirteen years ago) link
Yo Indexed, speaking of the Loretta Lynn tribute, here's xgau, with good excerpts of tracks in the podcast:http://www.npr.org/2010/12/22/132206305/singers-have-a-ball-on-album-dedicated-to-honky-tonk-girl-loretta-lynn
― dow, Thursday, 23 December 2010 00:55 (thirteen years ago) link
Rolling Country 2011
― xhuxk, Monday, 3 January 2011 18:12 (thirteen years ago) link