Rolling Country 2014

hey let us know if there's any other music you almost listen to but don't

All right, I went back and listened. You'd think a guy so wound up about authenticity would have rounded up a live drummer. The voice is very Waylon to my ear, and since I'd been listening to that Nashville Rebel box from 2006 or so recently, I was OK with that.

"I feel SLIGHTLY less baffled (in the 'did I get the same CD I read about in the reviews?' sense) and ripped off after this purchase than I did after buying the first Big & Rich CD. Slightly. I guess the lesson here, which I fortunately only have to re-learn once a decade or so, is to never take advice on country music from pop critics."

You posted this on Facebook a few days ago, and I'm baffled why you're posting it here when just about everyone on this thread has written at length about country.

Seriously: xhuxk, dow, Kogan, a few others here review country albums all the time and probably send Nashville Scene ballots yet they're "pop critics" reviewing country music? And you condescend to (a) them (b) pop music?

They weren't the critics I was talking about. I was talking about Powers, Harvilla, and all the other people who've suddenly bubbled up to rave about Eric Church's new album.

Of course it was xhuxk who sold the world on Big & Rich...

http://www.savingcountrymusic.com/scathing-jason-aldean-concert-review-censored

man there's already a lot being written about that without stooping to that SCM bullshit

and under armour didn't complain (they can get fucked anyway tho)

I'd call myself a rock critic writing about country. But I wouldn't object to the designation "pop critic writing about country."* Face it, my sensibility isn't country's, and I don't want it to be. (Not that country has but a single sensibility.) And maybe my not being country makes me a better critic of country.

Fwiw, I think many or most country critics started off writing about rock and pop, though actually I don't really know a lot about who writes or wrote about country. The three books I have about country are by Nick Tosches, John Morthland, and Bill Malone, only the last of whom I'd designate more a country critic than a rock critic.

As for authenticity, I'm all for it, and think as a writer and thinker I'm authentic, in that I seek the truth, challenge assumptions (incl. some of my own, sometimes), take account of good counter-arguments, don't lie, don't write in bad faith. When I think of what underlies most people's idea of authenticity, and why arguments over the "real" just will never ever go away, and shouldn't, I think of the Big Youth line, "Marcus Garvey say... black people will never know themselves until them back against the wall," meaning you don't know who you are until you've been tested, and you don't know whether an idea's good until it's been tested, and so forth - i.e., you're willing to stand up for something when it costs you to do so. The trouble is, people take a shortcut, make a fetish of paying a price, so they think paying a price for a stance makes the stance right, and paying a price for a belief makes the belief true. And they take further shortcuts, making being downtrodden and persecuted a mark of authenticity. So they mistake the markings of authenticity for the rightness of a stance and the truth of a belief, and their test for whether something is right becomes a tallying of what sort of person supports it and what sort of person opposes it, rather than whether (if it's a belief) it matches evidence or is consistent with one's other apparently true beliefs (if it's not, you gotta rethink something) or, when it's a stance or action, what its consequences are, what it builds and what it tears down. But as long as power is unjust and truth is corrupted, people will find authenticity in whatever looks to be embattled, whether it's old gone masculinity or sneered-at girlie pop. All this is understandable. I think Sturgill Simpson is lazy in donning the mere trappings of "authenticity," which ironically makes him seem phony to me in his presentation, but that doesn't mean there's no value in his singing and no truth in his experience.

Also find the word "authenticity" to itself be too much of a shortcut, that it waves its hand at issues without spelling them out, and I prefer the adjectival form, "real," attached to some noun. (Also think I wrote at more depth and therefore better about this stuff here and here, basically about why I'm not an antirockist.) But I really have no respect for people when they're saying, in effect, "It's these other people who are all hung up on authenticity, but we know better than to care about it." I know better than not to care about it.

*And my number one country singles of various years have included songs by Miley Cyrus, Marit Larsen, and 2Yoon (my justification for my Marit vote included the statement, "Norway's a country").

is that what simpson is doing, donning trappings? i kind of thought that the number of songs about him as a performer/songwriter and the music business were sort of meant as a stab at threading the needle between being inauthentic by choice (ruled out) and being authentic naturally, as if there were a way of doing the latter that he had in mind but could not do without the reflexive me-and-this-business self-consciousness. but his way of doing it -with- that stuff seems like it's not exactly reducible to 'donning trappings'. sometimes it seems to me like even a matter of deliberate incongruity with the expectation that as a performer he'll only 'perform' country-unhappiness, country-life-problems etc. that first verse of 'some days' doesn't sound performed: it sounds like the kind of uncomfortable admission that a songwriter operating under a more conventional/stylized form of 'authenticity' might have looked askance at, and taken simpson aside to say, hey, look, if we could change this to make it more… soulful, heartfelt… wouldn't that be better? but he leaves it that way.

Talking about "authenticity" is difficult. Frank says it quite well above. You do got to think about it, "realness." Of course there is that aspect to music, and all art. It seems rather basic, but you do have to remember that art is both subject matter and an attitude toward subject matter, as well as an attitude toward formal elements which themselves become the subject matter, in many cases. I suppose this is why writing or thinking about country clearly can be so difficult for people. Of course I give a damn that Merle Haggard really lived the life he writes about, but Merle Haggard cares about how well he can make up stuff. So I think there's a disconnection between artists' intentions and audience expectations now, when "pop" or "rock" critics think about this stuff, that perhaps did not exist back in the olden days of country music.

Here's me on Jerrod Niemann's new record, which raises some of these authenticity questions, in its comedic way.

i think the general ILM position on "authenticity" is fairly well understood, and i am in general agreement with that piece of the hivemind. but this is an interesting place to at least try talking about it, as country and hip-hop seem to be the two genres where the elusive idea of "authenticity" seems to be a core value that is as important to the music as it is to discussion of the music. there are plenty of "real country" radio stations out there. not sure if there are any "real pop" stations. i'm fascinated by sturgill simpson, who i saw for the first time at sxsw. he stood between a guitarist and bassist who both were dressed head-to-toe in two very different takes on authentic country dress. guitar guy looked like a longhaired southern rock acolyte. bassist looked like he was auditioning for the lead role in a tv show about an alt-country band from brooklyn. and standing in the middle, sturgill himself, in short hair and dad jeans, looked like a dental equipment salesman in a breakfast buffet line at a convention. he didn't seem like he was trying at all. which maybe is just a different way of trying. i loved his voice and the sound of the band. don't remember a single song, though. (and then i was surprised to go online and see the cover of his upcoming album, on which he looks like the very picture of an authentic country outlaw.)

frank k's take on authenticity is great.

country and hip-hop seem to be the two genres where the elusive idea of "authenticity" seems to be a core value that is as important to the music as it is to discussion of the music.

Well, don't forget metal. That fits, too.

Also want to mention that the first reference to "authenticity" on this thread had to do with Eric Church, not Sturgill Simpson (who I've barely paid attention to myself, but then again I've never had much stomach for Waylon's singing, either).

Told Edd on facebook that the new Jerrod Niemann is a major disappointment for me, seeming both dumbed down and reined in after his first two (the second of which made my Pazz & Jop ballot a couple years back.) I like the new David Nail and Eli Young Band albums more, though they've both done better in the recent past too. Beyond that, country is drawing a blank for me so far this year like it hasn't since I don't know when. (New alt-country/folkieish one by Mary Gauthier -- who I think Frank has mentioned before, though I forget in what context -- actually sounded tolerable enough in the background that I'm committed now to figuring out whether there are actually any memorable songs on it.)

I did do these 3 mixes for Rhapsody in the past month or two, though:

http://app.rhapsody.com/blog/post/square-dance-tronica-mix

http://app.rhapsody.com/blog/post/country-dance-remixes

http://app.rhapsody.com/blog/post/rnb-covers-country

Wow, those look weirdly appy when clicked on; I had no idea. Direct links to the actual complete playlists, fwiw:

http://app.rhapsody.com/playlist/pp.139659102

http://app.rhapsody.com/playlist/pp.141201242

http://app.rhapsody.com/playlist/pp.136642041

More discussion of Eric Church (don't think this March 12th piece was mentioned upthread):

http://www.popmatters.com/column/179709-the-outsiders-of-country-music/

A recent CBS Sunday Morning interview with Church depicted him, purposely or not, as a popular kid, the class president, who learned that dark sunglasses, stubble and drug references brought the biggest cheers from audiences. So he decided to turn up the “outlaw” aspect of his persona.

Might sit down on my diamond plate tailgate
Put in my country ride hip-hop mixtape
Little Conway, a little T-Pain, might just make it rain

Luke Bryan 2013 video still getting airplay

No talk in here about the "lost" Johnny Cash album?

it's pleasant

No talk in here about the "lost" Johnny Cash album?

― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Monday, March 31, 2014 2:55 PM

Alas, after one's wilderness years, much shit is left behind.

That refer to the Cash album, btw, not your ILX handle.

I wanted more chatter about the Jerrod Niemann album; what I've heard is pretty damn anonymous. Last album was a breakthrough, maybe the most ambitious bro country album of the last three years.

The Cash album is worth checking out---after all those death's door and beyond albums (although The Man Comes Around was really good), it's startling to hear him hale and even sassy---not that the lead-off, suicide-by-cop song is sad on the bridge, but otherwise he gets caught up in the vicarious thrill (singing about those who will take any kind of release), his trademark empathy with dark underdawgs now (in early 80s, when album was cut) enhanced by career and marital tumult. He's pretty chirpy throughout--what the hell, he can still do this, even if little else is working out---and he and June are still cool together in the studio; Waylon shows up too---however, the only tracks so far grabbing me are the sleaziest: when he and she are going over Lover's Leap in a Cadillac he ain't nearly paid for, cheering like Slim Pickens riding the Bomb; and a tale told by a guy who claims to have banged a country star---he ain't no groupie, he's just bold and lucky (JC has this kind of barroom BS down cold). Could be too creepy, but has a novelty punchline. But maybe Columbia agrees that the best tracks were the ones with NO country radio chance back then, and likely now. I'll listen some more; whole thing is a nice pick-me-up.
Really been enjoying most of these recent posts---oh, and this just in from Cary Baker (HW's live radio work, especially on the Health and Happiness Shows, really have a pleasing range, so looking fwd to this)

http://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20140328/49/3f/b9/d8/eb1cdb0e87a1c03c0689e42a_440x314.jpg

PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED MUSIC FROM HANK WILLIAMS
SURFACES IN THE GARDEN SPOT PROGRAMS, 1950
On May 20, Omnivore Recordings will issue 24 songs and jingles recorded
in Nashville, and last heard generations ago.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Omnivore Recordings will soon release the full-length version of The Garden Spot Programs, 1950, featuring 24 performances, unheard for 64 years, from country music legend Hank Williams. Rescued from obscurity, these shows originally aired more than six decades ago; The Garden Spot Programs, 1950 collects material from the four episodes now known to exist. Due out May 20, 2014, the set follows the release of Omnivore’s collectible 10” vinyl Record Store Day EP sampler.
From hits to standards to songs rarely (if ever) performed, this is pure Hank Williams, including playful between-song banter. Featuring fully restored audio, The Garden Spot Programs, 1950 is an exceptional listening experience. Painstakingly transferred, restored and mastered from original transcription discs by Grammy Award winning engineer Michael Graves. Williams’ daughter, Jett, is excited that her father’s lost material is not only seeing the light of day decades later, but will be available on CD, digital and LP.
The CD packaging contains rare photos and liner notes from the collection of set co-producer and Williams biographer Colin Escott. Also available on LP, the first pressing will be on limited edition, translucent red vinyl (with black vinyl to follow), containing Escott’s informative notes and a download card.
Escott writes in his notes: “Set the time machine for early morning on KSIB-AM, Creston, Iowa. February 1950. Country radio was beginning its slow transition from live music to DJ shows. Live music and DJ shows were augmented by transcribed shows. After buying 15 minutes of airtime on small-market stations, sponsors would prerecord shows with well known artists, duplicate them, and ship them out on 12 or 16-inch transcribed discs.”

“That’s how Hank Williams came to be on KSIB in February 1950. Sandwiched between the local ‘live’ acts, it was almost as if he were visiting with Skeets and those Radio Rascals. His sponsor was one of the nation’s largest plant nurseries, Naughton Farms, seven hundred miles south in Waxahachie, Texas. Given that Naughton was a big player in the nursery business, Hank’s shows were almost certainly shipped to many small stations, but only KSIB’s copies survived. Those of us who have studied Hank’s life and career had no idea that these recordings existed.”
Any music from Hank Williams is worth celebrating. Discovering material that has been unheard for generations is monumental.
“It’s incredible to me that we’re still finding new recordings by my dad — great ones at that,” says Jett Williams. “No one even suspected that these recordings existed. We partnered with Omnivore Recordings for this release, and I especially love it that they’re taking my dad back to vinyl.”
Track Listing:
1. The Garden Spot Jingle
2. Lovesick Blues
3. A Mansion On The Hill
4. Fiddle Tune
5. I’ve Just Told Mama Goodbye
6. Closing/Oh! Susanna
7. The Garden Spot Jingle
8. Mind Your Own Business
9. Lovesick Blues
10. Fiddle Tune
11. At The First Fall Of Snow
12. Closing/Oh! Susanna
13. The Garden Spot Jingle
14. I Can’t Get You Off Of My Mind
15. I Don’t Care (If Tomorrow Never Comes)
16. Fiddle Tune
17. Farther Along
18. Closing/Oh! Susanna
19. The Garden Spot Jingle
20. I’ll Be A Bachelor ’Til I Die
21. Wedding Bells
22. Fiddle Tune
23. Jesus Remembered Me
24. Closing/Oh! Susanna

Tracks 1 - 6 taken from Naughton Farms Garden Spot Show #4
Tracks 7 - 12 taken from Naughton Farms Garden Spot Show #9
Tracks 13 - 18 taken from Naughton Farms Garden Spot Show #10
Tracks 19 - 24 taken from Naughton Farms Garden Spot Show #11
Here's the trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr6-DuFS0aE&feature=youtu.be

"not that the suicide-by-cop song *isn't* sad on the bridge" and tastefully earnest all through, but yeah a trace of "let's do it!" too.

I wanted more chatter about the Jerrod Niemann album; what I've heard is pretty damn anonymous. Last album was a breakthrough, maybe the most ambitious bro country album of the last three years.

― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, March 31, 2014 9:42 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

Need to hear it, but so far have just read about it-- how he records in his home studio and uses auto-tune and rap and then brings that to his producer who reels him in a bit on some songs. He's getting married and has a song or 2 for his fiance also.

Rolling Stone contributor said:

he does take his brand of country music to sonically innovative and admittedly polarizing levels. Take, for instance, "Drink to That All Night," the album’s first single. Its lyrics alone read like a good, old-fashioned drinking song that the Luke Bryans and Toby Keiths of the country world have cut a million times. But Niemann throws listeners for an Auto-Tuned loop by practically rapping two verses over an electronic dance beat. The track travels into a more familiar, country-rock neighborhood by the chorus, but it remains one of the most unique songs to crack the country singles chart’s Top 20 in a long time.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/jerrod-niemann-on-his-innovative-and-potentially-polarizing-new-lp-20140324#ixzz2xaGLDyE6

I'm guessing the writer is not giving enough credit to listeners who at this point, may not be stunned by autotuned vocals and rapping

I liked the first and loved his second album.

Just listened to "Drink to that All Night." It is catchy pop, and that verse referenced in the Rolling Stone piece is not "polarizing" and likely doesn't throw anyone for a loop.

Need to hear the whole thing a few times to see whether I agree with Edd's Nashville Scene piece closing lines from his review:

With its high-grade instrumental backdrop, High Noon never lets up on the studied eclecticism. But as Jones could teach you, keeping it simple can often let the real insanity of country come through, and Niemann seems far too sane to approach that level of expression.

Niemann's "Come On, Come On" from the new one is kinda nice. "Donkey" uses old-school rapping and goofy lyrics --ride my donkey to the honky-tonkey. I like the line in one song about "I'm not Shakespeare or Kristofferson..."

But I hear less "studied eclecticism" on this one than Edd. Lots of standard pop-country with a few songs ("Drink...", "Donkey") nodding to other genres. But the eclecticism on those cuts does sound a bit studied.

And as for the other country singer getting press, Sturgill Simpson has apparently meshed his more traditional sounds with lyrics:

Inspired by the writings of American psychonaut Terence McKenna and Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos,” Simpson sings about the bardo of Tibetan Buddhism in the baritone of Waylon Jennings.

“I’ve been reading about the idea of cyclical lives — it matches up to the idea of string theory and a multiverse,” he says in a deep, dead-serious voice. “So I wanted to write a record about that instead of another song about broken hearts and drinking.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/sturgill-simpson-a-country-voice-of-and-out-of-this-world/2014/03/31/46277cce-b8f9-11e3-899e-bb708e3539dd_story.html?tid=hpModule_1f58c93a-8a7a-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e

Hook it up to Joe Diffie's "Third Rock From The Sun," which xhuxx IDs as a country song about chaos theory.
Good points on the aforementioned prev. unreleased Cash album, and this somewhut chaotic stage of his career--had forgotten about Johnny 99 and "The Chicken in Black":
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2014/03/johnny-cash-eighties-man.html#entry-more

Rat off, der Jerrod has nice sub-audiophile headphones appeal. But I know what Edd means about mebbe being "too sane": he certainly sounds too sober to call us us all aboard the bro-country party train. So he does better when he just takes his place on the bandwagon, settling in for some cool, low-key salesmanship, dispensing with the expected yeehaw on "Donkey" and "She's Fine," the latter being one of the most appealing, maybe seductive, as he undulates over the steady banjo and bass, with Colt Ford's rap adding a little more counter-rhytmic appeal ("undulates" like some of the prev. album's Carribbean-associated tendencies getting assimilated/re-emerging just a bit, as happens on a couple other of these tracks). The relatively bluesy "The Real Thing" also has some suavity, its bent-note reflectiveness fits with the one negatory track, "I Can't Give In Anymore," where he's tired of rolling around, having gotten the "Space" he wanted (good opening track, with electric stars spangling the chorus, but as always, no over-selling). I suppose he might establish himself as an older bro Chesney for the electrically inclined, but even several of the better tracks plateau in attention-keeping, even though all are under four minutes. I'll listen some more, but seems like (ahead of any cherrypicking, to put the ones I've mentioned with keepers from prev. albums), this setseems like less than the sum of its parts, kind of a (sub-)Nashville Skyline.

Also NS re quite reasonable, underwhelming follow-up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/07/business/media/losing-a-few-hay-bales-country-music-goes-mainstream.html?emc=edit_th_20140407&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=31119931&_r=0

Now America's most popular music radio format. Country's live concert audiences have grown, and Rolling Stone is looking to cash in:

Rolling Stone recently opened an office on Music Row, a formerly residential strip in Nashville, and is preparing to introduce Rolling Stone Country, a new website. “I am convinced Rolling Stone will provide a lens into the genre that currently doesn’t exist,” said Gus Wenner, the director of RollingStone.com and a son of Jann Wenner, the magazine’s founder.

While country broadcasters typically give their stations names like “The Wolf” or “The Coyote,” suggesting rural stereotypes, Lew Dickey, chief executive of Cumulus, said his new brand captured a broader and more upwardly mobile audience for the genre.

“We wanted to eschew the conventional stereotypes in the format and go with something more aspirational,” Mr. Dickey said. “Nash is cool; Nash is fun; Nash is relevant.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/04/07/acm-awards-big-winners-best-and-worst-performances-most-awkward-moments/

list of some of the winners and nominees:

Entertainer of the Year
Luke Bryan
Miranda Lambert
Blake Shelton
George Strait (winner)
Taylor Swift

Male Vocalist of the Year
Jason Aldean (winner)
Lee Brice
Luke Bryan
Blake Shelton
Keith Urban

Female Vocalist of the Year
Sheryl Crow
Miranda Lambert (winner)
Kacey Musgraves
Taylor Swift
Carrie Underwood

Vocal Duo of the Year
Big & Rich
Dan + Shay
Florida Georgia Line (winner)
Love and Theft
Thompson Square

Vocal Group of the Year
Eli Young Band
Lady Antebellum
Little Big Town
The Band Perry (winner)
Zac Brown Band

New Artist of the Year
Brett Eldredge
Justin Moore (winner)
Kip Moore

Album of the Year
“Based On A True Story…” – Blake Shelton
“Crash My Party” – Luke Bryan
“Here’s To The Good Times” – Florida Georgia Line
“Same Trailer Different Park” – Kacey Musgraves (winner)
“Two Lanes Of Freedom” – Tim McGraw

Single Record of the Year
“Cruise” Florida Georgia Line
“Highway Don’t Care” – Tim McGraw feat.Taylor Swift and Keith Urban
“I Drive Your Truck” – Lee Brice
“Mama’s Broken Heart” – Miranda Lambert (winner)
“Wagon Wheel” – Darius Rucker feat. Lady Antebellum

Song of the Year
“Every Storm (Runs Out Of Rain)” – Gary Allan (Written by Gary Allan, Hillary Lindsey, Matthew Warren)
“I Drive Your Truck” – Lee Brice (Written by Jessi Alexander, Connie Harrington, Jimmy Yeary) (winner)
“Mama’s Broken Heart “– Miranda Lambert (Written by Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally, Kacey Musgraves)
“Mine Would Be You” – Blake Shelton (Written by Jessi Alexander, Connie Harrington, Deric Ruttan)
“Wagon Wheel” – Darius Rucker feat. Lady Antebellum (Written by Bob Dylan, Ketch Secor)

lmao at justin moore winning, or even being nominated for, new artist. his first country #1 was onoly what, 5 years ago?

Yep. I guess the ACM's are like the Grammys, who similarly decide someone is a new artist years after the fact.

Sorry I've not visited in a while. I love j's image of "threading the needle," and would like to spend more time with Sturgill's lyrics to see if I think the image is apt or not. But I haven't made the time yet. Even if I eventually decide j's wrong, I like the image, enriches my sense of what Simpson could be doing, what potential lies within his music, whether or not the potential's actually expressed.

"i think the general ILM position on 'authenticity' is fairly well understood, and i am in general agreement with that piece of the hivemind"

I find this statement baffling, since I don't think people at ILM (or anywhere else, mostly) have gotten much beyond square one in their thinking through their "position(s)" or concepts of authenticity; but to the extent that there is an ILM hivemind on the subject, I believe I'm against it. I think making judgments about what's real (in two senses, real versus imaginary and real versus fake) is an inescapable part of being alive, just as making judgments about being true is inescapable. But the tendency at ILM (at least back when I was paying a lot more attention to the overall ilX/ILM than I am now) has been to go, "oh, those people are all hung up on authenticity, but we know better than to be hung up on authenticity." Which means the ILM people's own authenticity ploys and judgments go unrecognized as such, and don't get examined or understood. I don't know. Is my memory wrong? Or has ilX changed? In any event, I don't know better than to be hung up on authenticity. And I still urge you guys to read those two pieces I wrote for the Las Vegas Weekly about why I'm not an antirockist. At least read the last four paragraphs of the second one. Money quote, with some emphasis added: "Antirockism is rockism with a few of the words changed, and I don't mean that it shouldn't be like rockism or that the antirockists uncritically like pop and sneer at rock, which they don't, but rather that they're trying to get out from under the drab and the false just as much as the rockist is, they just place drabness and falseness in somewhat different locales."

Rockism And Antirockism Rise From The Dead

Where The Real Wild Things Are

Hitting me real despite some falsity--Dierks Bentley tune from the new one where he gets on his knees to believe, vocals wavering off into some negative zone, U2 guitars droning on in nagging fashion as he sings how there are no answers down here on earth. It's almost as spiritual a tune as the next one, my favorite on the record, "Drunk on a Plane."

just as making judgments about being true is inescapable

I meant to write "just as making judgments about what is true is inescapable."

Haven't taken the time to click other people's links yet, so I'm probably a hypocrite in asking people to click mine.

I enjoyed that, on the one hand Humorist was immediately driven away from the Simpson bandcamp site when he read the statement, "Sturgill Simpson's authenticity stands out like an island of hope in a sea of tacky. Pure and uncompromising, devoid of...," but then, on the other, right away challenged in effect the authenticity of pop critics writing about country. Not that one necessarily shouldn't challenge the authenticity of such critics, or that one shouldn't be put off by the fatuousness of "Sturgill Simpson's authenticity stands out like an island of hope in a sea of tacky." But all this just underlines my point that to make judgments regarding what's real and what's not is inescapable.

These are my top three country singles for the first quarter of 2014. They comprise 43 percent of the new country songs I've heard this year. Haven't yet listened to the 4minute EP to see if either of the two Yoons, or any of the remaining three 4's, followed up on the country experiment of "24/7."

1. Brantley Gilbert "Bottoms Up"
2. Rascal Flatts "Rewind"
3. Eric Church "Give Me Back My Hometown"

Still haven't heard the Church alb you've all been grousing about, but the single is hummable enough.

Dwight Yoakam and Eric Church are touring together in October and they're playing Madison Square Garden. I am really gonna try to get to that show.

anyone heard Martina McBride's new covers album?

New Miranda Lambert record's tracklist was announced a couple days ago. Looks to be in the same wheelhouse as the last two records. Quite a few tracks penned with Natalie Hemby ("Fine Tune," "White Liar," "Only Prettier," "Airstream Song"), one with Luke Laird & Shane McAnally, one with Brandy Clark, and two with Ashley Monroe.

http://www.countryweekly.com/news/miranda-lambert-reveals-platinum-album-track-list

I'm not exactly optimistic about the trend toward guest spots and away from clever cover choices (e.g., "Easy from Now On," "Getting Ready," "Time to Get a Gun," "Kerosene"--which I count), but I'm glad she keeps going back to Frank Lidell's well. She's been in remarkably trustworthy hands behind his production, and it's good to see his continued success shaping the sound of modern country through Pistol Annies, Kellie Pickler, et al.

It's strange how Travis Howard's name isn't in these credits. The guy wrote some of her most defining songs--"Mama, I'm Alright," "Famous in a Small Town," "Guilty in Here," "Heart Like Mine"--but hasn't had a tune on either of the last two records.

And as for the other country singer getting press, Sturgill Simpson has apparently meshed his more traditional sounds with lyrics:
Inspired by the writings of American psychonaut Terence McKenna and Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos,” Simpson sings about the bardo of Tibetan Buddhism in the baritone of Waylon Jennings.
“I’ve been reading about the idea of cyclical lives — it matches up to the idea of string theory and a multiverse,” he says in a deep, dead-serious voice. “So I wanted to write a record about that instead of another song about broken hearts and drinking.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/sturgill-simpson-a-country-voice-of-and-out-of-this-world/2014/03/31/46277cce-b8f9-11e3-899e-bb708e3539dd_story.html?tid=hpModule_1f58c93a-8a7a-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, April 1, 2014 9:31 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The first track and single, "Turtles All the Way Down," is now up on Spotify (http://open.spotify.com/track/5AlmqxIrxgiNBKItTM5L5J). Per the article linked above:

During the album’s opening track, “Turtles All the Way Down,” he encounters Jesus Christ, Buddha, a hit of DMT, an angry God and “reptile aliens made of light.”

@nn P0w3rs (who thinks it's a great record) told me on facebook that she thought "poptimists" would have trouble with the new Church album, since (she says) he's obsessed with being "authentic" (or something like that). (I didn't know whether that meant she thought I was a poptimist or not. I also still don't believe there's any such thing, but that's old news.)

Well, the words "poptimists" and "authenticity" are broad, vague, confusing, and contested, which doesn't mean that they're necessarily defective. (I'd say that words like "rock" and "pop" and "country" are just as broad, vague, confusing, and contested and that for them these are virtues.) By "broad" I mean they refer to a lot of disparate content, by "vague" that you can nail them down to a set of characteristics, by "confusing" that people mean different things by the words and the various things they mean are sometimes at odds with one another, and by "contested" that people use the words in arguments, that they argue about how to use the terms, and that one of the uses of the terms is to start arguments over how to use the terms. But it does mean that if you yourself use the words "poptimists" and "authenticity" you very likely will have to elaborate further if you want to actually say something that will get us thinking. Fact checking cuz's "i think the general ILM position on 'authenticity' is fairly well understood, and i am in general agreement with that piece of the hivemind" just screams for elaboration -- e.g., what is the hivemind's position on authenticity?

What happens with the words "poptimists" and "authenticity," though, is that they way too often get used as buzzwords, so that the people who use the words will often just wave them around, feeling that by doing so they've identified a position or a set of people or a set of characteristics and feeling as if they've made a point; and the conversations that follow go round in narrow circles. Anyway, I've stated that there's no such thing as "poptimism," and Chuck quoted this in Rock And Roll Always Forgets -- though note that what I said was conditional ("unless by 'poptimism' you mean every interesting critic ever"), so I'm not saying that the word "poptimism" is meaningless, even if there's no such thing. But I'll set that discussion aside, to focus on a different point, which is that I don't think we can get away with saying there are no poptimists.

The analogy I use would be that though there are jocks, there isn't a "jockism" or a jock ethos or a jock ethic. Of course, you can claim that there is one, but my point is that there doesn't have to be for "jocks" nonetheless to be a meaningful term and for it to potentially identify actual human beings. And back in the late '60s and early '70s there were freaks who used to hang out in front of the drugstore across the street from my high school, smoking cigarettes -- it was as if they were on stage -- without there being a freakism or a freak dogma etc. Which didn't mean that, e.g., John Koniar and Tim Page and Winn Biesele had nothing in common, but it did mean that you couldn't predict from the attitude of one of them what the others' attitude would be, and you couldn't predict in advance what their common attitudes would be. They were perfectly capable of challenging each other.

So, in the '00s (and occasionally still, I think) there was a club night in London called "Poptimism," many of the attendees having first come to know of each other on ILM or Freaky Trigger. And both Freaky Trigger and ILM were started by Tom Ewing, who had a column at Pitchfork called "Poptimist" and I think was also the person who started the (now moribund) poptimists community on LiveJournal, though Kat Stevens and Starry and several others were as important to that general LiveJournal cluster as Tom was. But certainly there are actual, identifiable people who posted at "poptimists" and who did and do frequently converse with Tom and crew online. And I was/am one of them, even if people like me and Lex Macpherson tended to be cantankerous and at odds with others on many subjects (and Lex actually made a point of leaving the community at one point); but that just means we're human beings. So in that sense I'm a "poptimist" even if I don't identify with a lot of positions that get attributed to poptimists. I mean, I wouldn't call myself a "poptimist," but someone else calling me a poptimist because I run with other people they also call "poptimists" isn't exactly being ridiculous in doing so. Anyway, there's one nexus of "poptimists" consisting of people who hang with Tom, and then there's a different set, people like Ann Powers and Jody Rosen, who also embrace the word as a self-description (or at least did so in the past), this set maybe including Carl Wilson and some others. I'm not as up with Ann as I used to be, so don't know where she much less they are now with the word.

So there are identifiable people you can locate as "poptimists," whether the word helps or hinders our understanding of what this set or sets of people actually do and say. I probably need to expand on this subject more, but not right now. But anyway, it's -- obviously -- not a given that a "poptimist" would dislike the Eric Church album, or, if she did, would do so on the grounds that Eric is attempting to be "authentic," if indeed that's what he's doing. (I still haven't listened to the thing.)

by "vague" that you can nail them down to a set of characteristics

I meant to type "by 'vague' that you CAN'T nail them down to a set of characteristics."

Rodney Crowell's Tarpaper Sky starts with a stilted Big Sky perspective "The Journey Home," which come to think of it, fits with this set's family resemblance to the kind of Dylan album, like most of 'em this century, for instance, which occasionally backfires but then glides along the scenic route as gracefully as a Model T, or Model A, anyway. He doesn't sing Dylany, but he's got a taste for juicy, sometimes dusty notes and seemingly offhand words that fall into place, like over drinks, on postcards, or maybe elsewhere: sure would like to hear Pistol Annies cover "God I'm Missing You," but it's not strictly necessary, considering the way he does it, conversing with someone who may be next to him, or miles/years away--then there's "Somebody's shadow/Is making me erect/Somebody's shadow/Like a noose around my neck." "Jesus Talk To Mama" mostly plays it straight, lyrics-wise, though a few bits like "Last night I beat the Devil to the draw" and def. that bone-rolling guitar have me thinking 'bout the kind of Saved gunmen to be found in Boardwalk Empire and Justified. "The Flyboy and The Kid" incl. a light-fingered skim/improvement of "Forever Young."
Mind you, this is unmistakably a Crowell album, but does suggest Dylan as a mostly good influence, not so far in effect from RC's actual collalbums with co-writer Mary Karr--their Kin also recruits a rich variety of other singers--and of course Emmylou (oh yeah, and his production of Chely Wright's Lifted Off The Ground, in which they display mainstream pop-country, fully-formed and new and true and gay as and when and how it wants to be, minus excess drama or dilution).
Streaming here, with good 'uns by Carlene Carter, Jon Langford, and others I haven't checked yet:http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/arts/music/pressplay.html?_r=0

That there Carlene album, Carter Girl, is something I'm not totally into yet. but it certainly is better than I feared, when I heard she was going to salute the roots, with Carter Family chesnuts. I mostly know her from my ancient, scruffy-sounding twofer, Musical Shapes & Blue Nun, where she and Nick Lowe tried for Bakersfield/Beatles (and I guess Rockpile)appeal: rocking country, rather than country-rock, Also, she had a rave-up with NRBQ-to-Nashville guitarist-songwriter Al Anderson on Austin City Limits. This album, produced by Don Was mixes old and new songs and beats in an overcast atmosphere, never anachronistic nor murky. The rhythm can be a guide, though not a cheerleader, in "Lonesome Valley 2003," where she goes to and from several funerals, and even slaps butts on "Me and the Wildwood Rose," a road song about childhood rolling with Carter ladies and little sister Rosey, later a true desperado (track record not mentioned, but the song visits her funeral). Carlene and Elizabeth Cook leave a life of crime to settle down, attended by angels and what sounds like a tumbleweed full of mechanical bulls. Elsewhere, she may lope or trot or (once) waltz through variously challenging situations, incl. those associated with outlaws, but she's always adapting, with no self-congratulation.
Hey:just give her those flowers right now, even if you think, with her own track record, you might not have long to wait for yet another send-off; and furthermore, "Kind words are no good/In a bed too narrow." Lots of family, incl. Johnny and June, sing along on the finale, "I Ain't Gonna Work Tomorrow," where she's ditched again, but on the other hand, see title; and also, "Pretty girls are dancin' on the cold, cold ground," so that helps too (far as I'm concerned).

Eric Church's xpost latest isn't on Spotify, but migt check the 2013 live album they have, since I enjoyed piecing The Outsiderstogether on YouTube, from official studio and exemplary audience recordings. Fun band, springy tunes, some Zep-hop and (on "Devil Devil") bar band metal distilled to one-note solos for the climax. But the voice, even with studio padding, is really thin and so nasal he seems to be trying to reassure--himself?---that this is still country, not goin' too wild, despite all the slightly distanced, kind of tentative portents of storms and wrecking balls (saw a couple interviews where he mumbles something to the effect that he wasn't too sure, early on, about some of the producer's ideas).

Listened to Angeleena Presley's American Middle Class, giving it the added advantage of contrast with arty artisanal artful Rosanne. It does grow on me, but still got mixed responses.

― dow, Wednesday, December 24, 2014 6:02 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Agreed, this was one of the more disappointing releases of the year for me. Gave it the benefit of the doubt and returned a number of times, but nothing grabbed me quite like her best work for the Annies. Sadly, the best of the bunch for me are the ones with serious talent co-writing (“Grocery Store” and “Surrender”).