Rolling Country 2014

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).

Oh yeah: it's the rhythm, mainly the bass, not Carlene personally (unless she's playin' bass, thus) slappin' butts on "Wildwood Rose."

From the EMP Pop Conference 2014 thread:

I dunno who else was at Carl Wilson's country panel, but the back and forth between the panel and audience was among the most intelligent and edifying experiences I've had in four years of attending these things.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, April 27, 2014 6:27 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Sounds like a good panel, Alfred

Heartlandia
Anthony Easton, "Hurry to Get Done: Chasing Deer and Chasing Class in Contemporary Country Music"
Jewly Hight, "Drag and Slide: Country Connotations, Clogging Steps, and the Power of Breaking Routine"
Tom Smucker, "When Michigan Moved to Tennessee and Texas: Regionalism and Globalism, the Rust Belt and the New South in the Music of Toby Keith and Brad Paisley (and Ted Nugent and Kid Rock)"

― curmudgeon, Sunday, April 27, 2014 3:59 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Guessing it was much better than the Lefsetz emails I just read on the huge Stagecoach country music fest out in Cali (where Coachella is held)

― curmudgeon, Sunday, April 27, 2014 6:00 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I admit that that country panel was the one time all weekend that I switched rooms mid-panel, as I was just not processing Anthony's lexicon at all. But it was clear to me that that was me, so I'm very glad to hear that other people made sense of it!

― glenn mcdonald, Sunday, April 27, 2014 6:26 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well, the discussion ooncretized, if you will, Anthony's paper. The discussionists by the way: Ann Powers, Jody Rosen, me, Josh Langhoff, Jewly Hight.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, April 27, 2014 9:37 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Would like to see a summary of your comments, Alfred.
So far, the folk country of Hurray For The Riff Raff's Small Town Heroes has me thinking "Snorah Jones" more often than not. While the actual Norah invokes her nickname while diligently trying to get past it, Alynda Lee Segarra tends to steer her capable l'il crew right into the warm milk lullabies. Some reference to "Southern Gothic" in their Wikipedia etc; maybe this is meant to be more normal.(Live sets, like in NPR's Newport archive, can be perkier.) Still, it's got its moments, like a perfect version of "San Francisco Bay Blues," floating like a blooming branch, in the beauty of memory and desolation (see what you're leaving behind, Babe). Also, the title song and a couple others toward the end, where she, almost as an afterthought, mentions how and where the bodies are, traces of who screwed who, guess you could call that Southern Gothic, or local history, or just small town talk, don't believe a word, though the way she undersells it when she's really cooking, is something I can't dismiss. What a flukey gift.

I was underwhelmed by my sole listen to Ann Powers' fave Hurray for the Riff Raff. Nice backstory about Segarra's move to and life in New Orleans (with ocassional busking on the street), but yeah "Snorah Jones" folky-country that is only intermittently impressive

Lefsetz with more emails about the Stagecoach Fest:

BEST T-SHIRT

"Stagecoach is Coachella with SONGS!"

http://www.npr.org/2014/05/04/307746474/first-listen-sturgill-simpson-metamodern-sounds-in-country-music

I only heard Sturgill for the first time a few weeks ago when I finally clicked on this thread. This one looks interesting - eye-catching title anyway.

I meant to pop in here last night and ask if Rolling Country thinks Sturgill's album is as great as I do. Man...it's great.

Alpine, I was just listening to a Sturgill track off his upcoming record, over at Nashville Scene.

As I've said before, I've talked to Sturgill, good guy, and I also wrote about his old band, Sunday Valley, whom I quite liked. But so far, I'm just not getting what is all that distinctive about his voice or delivery--it's good country singing (reminds me as much of Jerry Lee as it does Waylon, and maybe that's part of my problem with Sturgill: I am not a big Waylon fan) but...it seems like another version of retro country, to my ears, well done. Americana. I guess I could say the same thing about Carlene Carter's new one, which I enjoy, but does it bring anything new to the discussion? Not sure about that.

I don't follow the discussion, so I have no idea. What I'm hearing is great singing and really cool light psychedelic touches. It isn't experimental, but there's a kind of retro-experimentalism (an evocation of past experimentation, like maybe the White Album) that I like.

That may be overstating it though. It's really just "It Ain't All Flowers" that has the spacey backwards guitar. Most of this stuff is straightforward.

Yeah. and like I said, there's a refreshed quality, incl the rhythmic appeal, and she's seen her way through various losses, acknowledged directly and somewhat indirectly (the latter being more traditional and traditional-sounding, involving violence and romance), with stoicism and vitality, some cautious hopefulness, wryness. Her version of wised-up outlaw country, matter-of-fact rather than flaunting what a badass she is (of course I'm mixing in vague memories of tabloid headlines and gossip, but she allows for that, invites it, anyway finds it inevitable, sounds like).

(My posts there were on SS not CC)

Yes, sorry about that, jmm, Carlene's album keeps cueing up again in my headbox; dunno why.
Just checked that xpost First Listen stream of Sturgill. Initially, I'm put off by the way he loses the end of lines, especially on the early originals: why make an effort to write distinctive lyrics, his own true testimony of outlaw country zigzag wanderin', if you're gonna drop 'em into [unintelligible]. I thought of Jerry Lee several times before I saw that Edd picked up on the similarity too: it's a slightly louder or higher, anyway harder, rising attack (no Waylon vibrato, although that's also true of the mellower tracks that sound more like Waylon). Still, neither of those guys had a diction problem. It's def not part of the country tradition, any of 'em.
Really, really liked the one about hearing voices, the main prob being that they don't have much to say, and will go on talkin' 'til the end of time. I know those voices (in terms of social commentary, that is). Perfectly followed by the truck tape chestnut about being "somewhere, tryin' to find the end of that white line."
Thee weirdness times realness of these two is seen and raised by "It Ain't All Flowers," where he cogently reflects on mental-emotional-logistic traffic jamz, eventually resolving into a hick-hop groove with somewhut Pink Floydian morphology, also country-appropriate, since Dark Side of The Moon is a trailer park favorite from way back, fairly frequently replaced after parties. I know this from having worked far too long in record, tape and CD shops (also not-working in trailers). "Pan Bowl" is poignant, but emphasizes the looking-back overview a bit generically. Oh well, as he says, "Me and the boys are still workin' on the sound," and I'll listen some more, workin' on gettin' used to the diction, for a little while longer, anyway. look forward to his next, and will check out previous (incl. xpost Sunday Valley, hopefully; thanks for the tip).

Speaking of weirdness times realness, there are five or six keepers on Dolly Parton's Blue Smoke, also streaming at First Listen. Following current post-Album Age album protocol, the worst ones are all up front: run the gauntlet and it gets better--in this case, not just by comparison. Once she slows down a little and thinks the verses out loud, it works, especially in that silvery, pinpoint delivery, which don't hurt a bit, though she knows you know it so could. But life hurts enough, so why get redundant. "If I Had Wings" and "You Can't Make Old Friends" have as many airborne shades of blue as necessary (also "From Here To The Moon and Back," with Willie, which is also a good wedding ballad, as xhuxx noted in Rolling Stone last year, when it first showed up on Willie's To All The Girls). "Put Your Hands On Me" is an erotic gospel song, riding the supernal mountain freeway tide, with the populist goddess's more reassuring inspirations.

She cranks up some good mainstream country/rock anthems too.

I'm with Edd re Sturgill:

I'm just not getting what is all that distinctive about his voice or delivery--it's good country singing (reminds me as much of Jerry Lee as it does Waylon, and maybe that's part of my problem with Sturgill: I am not a big Waylon fan) but...it seems like another version of retro country, to my ears

Starting to get caught up with xxhuxx's March postings of his Rhapsody playlists, starting with the electro-hoedown:http://www.rhapsody.com/playlist/pp.139659102"> http://www.rhapsody.com/playlist/pp.139659102
I see by this outfit that I'll have to check out the rest of A3's Exile On Coldharbour Lane, among quite a few of others. "Sweet Home Alabama" sounds perfectly at home on the Moog. "The Safety Dance" is the only one that seems out of place here (although I've never welcomed it anywhere). Got some of these, and sure wish I hadn't sold that 90s Rednex-led comp of Euro country techno pop, supposedly evidence of a whole scene, with girls dancing on hay bales in strobe lights (and dazzy duks). It seemed too harsh and trebley, which may well have actually been the fault of my neurotic 90s speakers. Sure hope the Mekons get back to their jokey smokey take on this approach, one of these decades.
(Those Electro Shine mixes on my Scene ballot's singles list, posted upthread, still sound pretty good too.)

Don't know why the hell xxhuxx's list got pasted twice; click on the second.

I really like the second Sturgill Simpson album much more than the first.

Agghh I need help! There's this country song by a woman/women's group that references Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings. Not sure in which way but there's clear references to those guys. The song is about 2/3 years old (i think?)

I was thinking that it was either an Ashley Monroe or a Pistol Annies tune, but cannot find it on their albums. Desperate to find it!
Hope someone can help :))

not sure if it mentions Kristofferson, pretty sure Waylon and Cash are though...

Loving the Highwaymen right now. Not sure if that's credible enough for y'all but it's fantastic. Need more of it.

Try the expanded reissue of Wanted: The Outlaws, which was the flagship of the Outlaw Country campaign in the mid-70s: Nelson, Jennings, Tompall Glaser, and (yay) Jessi Colter. If you like her tracks, check her comeback, Out of the Ashes. I'm not that big on Kris, but look for a couple of his early albums, The Silver-Tongued Devil and I and Jesus Was A Capricorn. Nelson, Haggard and Kristofferson have been working on a new album, out this year, mebbe.

Oh yeah, Cash & Jennings did one called Heroes, apparently along the same lines as the Highwaymen series. Haven't heard it, but told it's good.

Gonna look those up, thanks much!

I like this song from Nikki Lane's new album, answering the musical question: "Nikki, when is the right time to do the wrong thing?" https://soundcloud.com/newwestrecords/nikki-lane-all-or-nothin-right/s-l71iv
Also digging the title song from her 2011 EP, which I was totally ignorant of!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlwzdQRfM-4

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19386-sturgill-simpson-metamodern-sounds-in-country-music/

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/15/arts/music/sturgill-simpsons-metamodern-sounds-in-country-music.html?_r=0

expecting wire and complex reviews soon

wow, dow otm

Just checked that xpost First Listen stream of Sturgill. Initially, I'm put off by the way he loses the end of lines, especially on the early originals: why make an effort to write distinctive lyrics, his own true testimony of outlaw country zigzag wanderin', if you're gonna drop 'em into [ unintelligible ].

yeah so i found the song i was looking for! Is it country? Don't know. But it's First Aid Kit - Emmylou
http://youtu.be/PC57z-oDPLs

phew

congrats on finding it

re sturgill simpson losing the end of his lines: ding ding ding. i like the new album quite a bit, but that's one of the things that's keeping me from loving it. also, in addition to the other comparisons that have been made in sturgill literature so far (waylon, jamey johnson, etc.), something about the particular way his voice drawls reminds me of early dwight yoakam.

LEE ANN WOMACK PREMIERES FIRST SONG FROM
THE WAY I'M LIVIN' ON WSJ.COM

Album Produced by Award-Winning Frank Liddell,
First New Music in Over 6 Years
The Way I'm Livin' was produced by Frank Liddell (Miranda Lambert, David Nail), and features the songs of Chris Knight, Mindy Smith, Buddy Miller, Mando Saenz, Hayes Carll, Neil Young, Bruce Robison and one cagey cover lifted from Roger Miller. The album will impact at radio in June

Haven't heard that song yet. List of songwriters makes it seem too alt to "impact" radio, but yea, haven't heard it yet so who knows

Yes, "WSJ.com" is Wall Street Journal...

impact AT radio

We need Alfred to teach them grammar

I'm still recovering from the Nunn daughter in Georgia using "to architect"

Speaking of xpost Nikki Lane (still haven't heard the whole album, but so far so cool)
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/nikki-lane-the-rise-of-a-country-rebel-20140523?google_editors_picks=true

Well, no hobbling vocal mannerisms (Church as well as Simpson) from John Fullbright: he's got the flair of fellow Okies Garth Brooks, Toby Keith, and sometimes carried-away Carrie Underwood. But also, maybe with an ear to the longevity of Okie-once-removed Merle the Hag's best work, he knows about the appeal of self-restraint, when you've really got something to restrain. So, he breaks his projection into succinct sincerity, applying the reins as he starts to rise (a little wry twist, tightening the jaw and nostrils as he starts to wail, biting the words to make sure they jump a little more).

Good thing, because he knows he could make it on this sound times glib sentiment, each one alibi-ing the other.Especially since, when he adds drums, and keeps the keys, he doesn't even need a balancing act, he could just hit like country-as-early-70s-Top Forty, in there between Tumbleweed Junction Elton John and, say, Albert "It Never Rains In California" Hammond. We know he knows, because, early on Songs(May 27), he's got this song within a song within a song, seems like, where he starts out hoping to get by another day without a cliche, and then goes into several cliches, culminating with "keep hope alive." Then brood on a while, and suddenly he's "Little Lord Fauntleroy/In a La-Z Boy/Tryin' to keep hope alive." But past the irony and self-mockery and self=pity, he seems like he does want and feel the need to keep hope alive.

So, I'm thinking this, and *then* he actually comes up with one about "Writing a song/About a song/Write a line about the line within the line"! But again, not just round and round the navel, he's also thinking about "living the life you wanna live," like implying, is this--which amounts to living a life that's about living a life---The Purpose_Driven Life, yes thank you Rev. Rick Warren--is this any more or less something than writing a song about a song etc.? Maybe too good a question!
Anyway, he then hauls out the drums for good radio bait relief, then gets kind of abjectly romantic while of course still sounding good(but not quite good enough to cover the weepier lines), and then, just as my increasing discontent became aware of missing the perspective-finding shifts between first and third person, re the sometimes scary and always ambitious From The Ground Up(2012), he (spoiler alert) got his gears back together. But it was a close call, and there's still-smelly valentines in some of the previous songs, which may drive me away from many future listens. Though at the very least, it's yet another good(in this case, good-to-killer) EP trapped in an album's body. We'll see.
Oh yeah, it's still streaming here for a little while (and maybe on Spotify later, like the 2012 set) http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/arts/music/pressplay.html?_r=4&

What's Willie Nelson's best album? Or is that too broad of a question?
Can't get enough of The Highwaymen and Waylon, need more like this. Again!

8-song preview (does not include "Automatic") of Miranda Lambert's new record:

http://www.cmt.com/artists/miranda-lambert/

Maybe it's just the initial rush of getting new music from one of your favorite artists, but this sounds great. The production is similar to the last album (which I thought had both pros and cons), but there are some big, memorable melodies, more reminiscent of the first two albums. Standout for me is "Oh Shit," but there really aren't any obvious missteps in these 8 tracks. The Little Big Town guest spot could have been a train wreck, but instead is a lovely, anthemic singalong.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/arts/music/country-music-opens-its-ears.html

Jon Caramanica's overview of country's interest in rap

What's Willie Nelson's best album? Or is that too broad of a question?
Can't get enough of The Highwaymen and Waylon, need more like this. Again!

Shotgun willie is one of my faves

Yeah, Shotgun Willie and since you like Waylon too, try Waylon and Willie, that's the best of their several I've heard, although Take It To The Limit is good too. Phases and Stages is an usual breakup album: he writes the first side from the woman's point of view, the second from the man's. Both do go through various stages, incl. "Oh well, what the hell," and back to the bars (uh spoiler alert--but it's cool that it's not all weepers, though there are def some of those too; real good ones). Also, his other big concept album is The Red Headed Stranger; then check Pancho & Lefty,with Merle Haggard, and Me and Paul(a non-duet album, despite the title). All these add up to the best of his 70s, maybe early 80s sets with Outlaw and Highwaymen-appeal(of the ones I'm familiar with).

If you want to range further afield, try Face of a Fighter(demos, but awesome); the western swing album with Asleep At The Wheel,Willie and the Wheel; Stardust, which is prob his best exploration of The Great American Songbook; the all-instrumental Night and Day and mostly-instrumental Let's Face the Music and Dance, plus his collaborations with many good-to-great female singers, To All The Girls....

Any opinions on the band "Exile"? They had a country career that I know utterly nothing about, but their pre-country "Kiss You All Over" just came up on one of the local oldies stations* and struck me -- musically -- as "Walk On The Wild Side" repurposed as mainstream love slush, and not bad at that.

*KCKK, owned by a company in the Denver 'burb of Lakewood; interesting playlist, as they seem to go for a good deal of the nonobvious: mid-level hits from the mid Sixties to mid Eighties, on a middle path (e.g., I'm not expecting to hear Motley Crue or Sugarhill Gang but right now they're playing the O'Jays "Used Ta Be My Girl"), for an audience that's probably middle-aged at the youngest. And now they're playing the album version of Johnny Rivers' "Poor Side Of Town."