Rolling Country 2014

Pretty good, if brief, country edition of xgau's recently re-revived Expert Witness (AKA Consumer Guide), now posted every Friday: https://medium.com/cuepoint/robert-christgau-expert-witness-6c4d404c51a9

My response to that XGAU EW CG (prev. posted on fb):

I like the Willie way more than I usually like Willies! Put that Shaver best-of on my Nashville Scene country poll reissue ballot last year (fifth spot out of 5), but mostly for lack of competition -- The CD's been in my car ever since but I'm sad to report I only got all the way through it one time. (Love "Georgia On A Fast Train" to death, but after that he has a hard time holding my attention.) Which is more or less as many times as I made it through Hard Working Americans CD too, come to think of it. (Hung onto that one because it's an advance promo.) Well meaning, passable guitars, and songs way better than the singing, but I still have low tolerance for music that stodgy.

As for John Hiatt, I haven't cared about an album by him since *Warming Up To The Ice Age* in 1985 -- and in fact stopped even trying to at some point, though I'm pretty sure I skimmed through the new one unless it was the one before -- but I suppose I'll check out that old people song.

I wonder if John Hiatt has a single fan under the age of 50.

Well, things could be worse, and as a matter of fact they are. I've liked all the Justin Townes Earle albums I've heard, which is most of 'em, and the more recent poetics of weariness were the more amazing for being any good at all, in terms of something I (def not his sponsor) could actually listen to, much less enjoy (shadow imagery of exhaustion countered by engaging arrangements, pretty often). But Single Mothers sounds like a man with no arms or legs in a shoebox in the middle of the road, not one with a lot of traffic, either, so no suspense there. No insult meant to actual men with no arma or legs; no doubt they're more resourceful. Nice drumming, though. (And a few tracks on this 29 minute-and-change specimen sound okay individually, but overall context, yuck.)

― dow, Monday, September 8, 2014 4:05 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

But don't sleep on JTE's non-weary The Good Life and Midnight At The Movies.

― dow, Monday, September 8, 2014 4:09 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Midnight at the Movies is one of my favorites of the last oh-so-many years. The Good Life is not far behind, and Harlem River Blues was a solid if uneven effort.

But the last record, Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now, was a total head-scratcher. A guy who once captured the simple joy of a Woody Guthrie or Lightnin' Hopkins was now leaning on horn arrangements to prop up much weaker melodies. The mixing did him no favors, but it was not half as bad as his singing. There was some talk about his substance abuse affecting his vocals, and when I saw him on tour that year, it was akin to seeing the plastic-y version of John Travolta at the Oscars.

I spun the new one last week, and while it seemed an improvement on the last effort, it certainly did not hook me the way his first few did.

When I turn on country radio in the car and/or a video station at home I keep hearing this (and kinda like it. Yep, it's poppy bro-country)

"Hope You Get Lonely Tonight" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Cole Swindell. It was released on March 24, 2014 as the second single from Swindell's self-titled debut album.[1] Swindell wrote the song with Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard of Florida Georgia Line and Michael Carter.

only halfway through but this lee ann womack album has floored me pretty much

In a good way, I hope (like a gas pedal).
No doubt aided by the coincidence of reading Indexed's post just before cautiously checking out the new Lucinda, I'm floored by a heretofore unglimpsed compatibility of my two somewhut erractic old faves: though I've never thought "rock 'n' roll!" when listening to Justin (well, maybe the attitude of "Harlem River Blues," and the atypically speedy way he enjoys his girl driving him around on that new track), still, dang if otherwise he doesn't fit under the wing of LW's Memphis denim jacket blues-soul-gospel-rock-country (not country rock), with haggard vocals centering the daily struggle, with the patched-up rehab home truths, street sermons, and rebel rhetoric are fuel, along with rusty iron in the blood from bass, drums, and guitars (which also provide some rude punctuation at times, lest this Memphis stuff get too tasteful). The I'm down/gotta-get-up alternation does get familiar, but the groove won't let me go--until, of all things, the J.J. Cale track at the end. Could live without "Burning Bridges," maybe the opener, maybe the other, but no double album has ever grabbed me like this, not right off. (Well, maybe Beatles' white album).
Anyway, she's the Queen of Americana, so who knows if she'll 'llow this on Spotify---listen free while you can:
http://www.npr.org/2014/09/21/348713419/first-listen-lucinda-williams-down-where-the-spirit-meets-the-bone

I already regret the A-word; please listen without prejudice (also sorry for caffeinated typos).

(More first impressions: details of performance, especially guitar notes, sweet and nasty, stand out more than imagery, though points she makes, in conversation etc., are not vague)(vocals center the songs/performances, as I said, but music isn't just setting or highlight for words)

I'm excited to see that the Lee Ann Womack LP has a cut of "Sleeping With The Devil", my favourite song from the Brennen Leigh LP I really liked a couple of years back (and which I'm sure I mentioned somewhere on here).

Wondering whether any shops in London are likely to have a copy in stock so I can get my hands on it today. Can't think of any that will, sadly (unless you know better, The Lex?)

haven't set foot in a record shop in about a decade, sorry!

only halfway through but this lee ann womack album has floored me pretty much

^^^listening to it for the first time right now and, yes, this exactly.

Tim, it's still streaming here for the moment (hopefully added to Spotify)
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2014/09/17/lee-ann-womack-makes-music-she-wants-to-hear-on-the-way-im-livin-exclusive-premiere/ Bonus tracks on the Wal-Mart edition; dunno about any vinyl

couldn't get past the first few songs in the lucinda williams record but dow makes me want to believe

Could do without the first and last one and "Burning Bridges" in between, but momentum keeps building--kind of a Petty thing early on, but she keeps customizing it (thank god, since I'm not big on Petty)

omg the lee ann womack record

so tasteful and so haunted

Much appreciated, dow.

the last Womack record had such wonderful singles

That Lucinda Williams one starts off badly and I haven't gotten the energy yet to keep working all through the rest.

Need to get to that latest Lee Ann

Oh Shakey started his own thread for this guy:

the Sturgill Simpson c/d

listened to the lucinda deep enough to catch the marquee moon reference (2nd song -- "darkness doubled").

http://m.cmt.com/news/1731318/

So Lee Ann Womack did a CMT special singing with John Legend

Pretty good amount of country and compatibles in this Friday's Austin City Limits 40th Anniversary show:

Join us as we celebrate four decades as a music institution with Austin City Limits Celebrates 40 Years, a primetime special airing Friday, October 3rd, 9-11pm ET on PBS Arts Fall Festival. With guest hosts Jeff Bridges, Sheryl Crow and Matthew McConaughey, the two-hour broadcast features memorable moments from the trailblazing show’s remarkable run, while the brightest stars in the series’ history return to the ACL stage for dream duets and choice collaborations.

An all-star lineup of ACL royalty pays tribute to the show’s enduring legacy with unforgettable music performances. Highlights of the special include the show opener as Bonnie Raitt, Alabama Shakes‘ Brittany Howard, Jimmie Vaughan and Gary Clark Jr. team up for the Sam & Dave classic “Wrap It Up.” Incredible pairings include ACL Hall of Fame legend Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris on the Nelson-penned classic “Crazy” and Kris Kristofferson and Sheryl Crow’s moving take on his signature “Me and Bobby McGee.” The Foo Fighters honor ACL with a wild rendition of Texas cult hero Roky Erickson‘s “Two Headed Dog,” recorded at the show’s original television studio especially for the occasion. Host Jeff Bridges performs the late singer-songwriter Stephen Bruton’s song “What A Little Bit of Love Can Do” as a tribute to the influential Austin musician who inspired Bridges’ Oscar-winning portrayal in Crazy Heart. Local legends Joe Ely and Robert Earl Keen showcase their troubadour roots and significance to the Austin music scene. Breakout artists and ACL alumni Alabama Shakes and Gary Clark Jr. give blistering performances that forecast the future of the series. Blues titan Buddy Guy brings it all home with an electrifying take on his “Mary Had A Little Lamb.” The special comes to a close with an all-star reading of two Lone Star classics—a stellar lineup of guitar slingers blaze through the Stevie Ray Vaughan standard “Texas Flood” and the biggest names in music trade verses on the Buddy Holly classic “Not Fade Away,” as ACL embraces its past and hints at what is to come. Haven't gotten the hint yet, but haven't seen the show yet.

Marty Stuart's Saturday Night & Sunday Morning: Sunday morning's actually more fun, and not just cos Saturday's so bad. Although, of these 22 tracks, the ones to ditch are all from the night out or in, often pretty humdrum, and begging comparison to actual or ersatz (catchier either way) jukebox chestnuts, with no drink-my-wife/life-away implosions or abandon, much less sheer YEEHAW--exceptions to the former: good cover of Charlie and Margaret Ann Rich's "Life Has Its Little Ups and Downs" (here as "Life's Ups and Downs"); veering toward look-out-now in "Look At That Girl", which jangles that mid-60s Bakersfield-to-British Invasion connection, Yoakam-style. "Streamline" is okay too--but "Uncloudy Day," with Mavis Staples, is where we step up into the tremolo shadow of Pop Staples, with shards of light from sharp notes, and richer, more fluid singing, often enough, even from Marty, who tends to be too mild in the secular settings (been strictly committed to the life sanitary for quite a while now)
"Boogie Woogie Down The Jerico Road" maybe winks at own selling the roots to Starbucks generations: good job both ways, here and elsewhere; we even encounter some organic Bo Diddly tendencies later on, and "Good News" is a Link Wray-worthy instrumental, at least re the elder and elderly (well-preserved) Brother Link. "Cathedral" is more of that affectionately serious fun. Still here, if you don't believe in Spotify: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/arts/music/pressplay.html?_r=0"> http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/arts/music/pressplay.html?_r=0

meant to say: Charlie and Margaret Ann Rich's great"Life Has Its Little Ups and Downs."

22 tracks, 15 keepers so far--not bad atall.

Commander Cody And His Last Planet Airmen spent the 60s in Ann Arbor, as and professional students and bar band mainstays, then moved to a house in Berkeley and were soon opening for the Dead, apparently because they didn't jam (refreshing, and maybe Garcia was seeing how they were received by his picky audiences, before trying out GD's own country etc sets, then Old And In The Way and New Riders) This show, one of the few good 'uns still unreleased, does have their definitive original trad country-style crossover, "Down To Seeds and Stems (Again)" and bippity revival of "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! That Cigarette," plus 14 others, but not their first and prob biggest hit, "Hot Rod Lincoln," or "Don't Let Go" either---it's not the whole show, but will def give the idear of where they are comin' from (for inst, "Mama Tried" is followed by "Mama Hated Diesels," as well it might).
Also check Geoffery Stokes' Star-Making Machinery, a great book about a lost world, incl. attempt to make these guys into Superstars (seemed like a good idea at the time, to a few)
Oh yeah, the show: http://bbchron.blogspot.com/2014/10/commander-cody-and-his-lost-planet.html

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A. Presley's solo CD can b reductive, and lacks vocal interest for the long haul, but several Pistol Annies-worthy powder burns: "busy as a saddle in a one-hoss town," ouch.

so far it's sepia-brown like the Brandy Clark album

I've played the Lee Ann Womack record two-dozen times in the last three days; it ends, and I just want to hit play again. Such a confident, thoughtful, well made album. It may not be exciting in the same way as last year's standout efforts from newcomers Ashley Monroe, Brandy Clark, and Kacey Musgraves, but I'd echo Lex's "floored" comment.

Thank God for Frank Liddell.

Oh I prefer it to any of those, mainly because she's so much more of a singer---and if she ever covers any of their songs, *that* could truly be something. Here's hoping she teams up w Pistol Annies (check her on Buddy Miller's Majesty of the Silver Strings, despite all the geetar filigree)

By "singer," I mean not just the pipes, but the way she delivers--"confident," "thoughtful," and not too less-is-more.

I'm thinking the Lee Ann Womack and the Miranda Lambert are 2 of the top releases for this year.

But they don't have lyrics like these:

Jason Aldean’s latest steamy single, “Burnin’ It Down” (on his new album out Tuesday), talks about how much he loves being naked in bed with his lady friend. Florida Georgia Line, the popular duo that accompanied Aldean on a stadium tour this year, has a similarly frank new song on their upcoming album (which drops next week) called “Sun Daze.”

...“If I’m lucky, yeah, I might get laid,” lead vocalist Tyler Hubbard sings, describing the perfect Sunday that includes getting stoned. The song takes things a step further in talking about ideal afternoon activities with a girl, including quite the double entendre: “I’ll sit you up on a kitchen sink/And stick a pink umbrella in your drink.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/10/06/jason-aldean-florida-georgia-line-and-the-evolution-of-sex-songs-in-country-music/?tid=pm_lifestyle_pop

XTC wouldn't let him cover "Pink Thing"?

I guess not. Could they have made it bro-ish

And stick a pink umbrella in your drink

good lord

mainly because she's so much more of a singer

she is hella a singer

i must admit i always thought that lee ann womack was lee ann rimes who got married

Came across this interview with Frank Liddell (Womack's husband and producer; also produced all of Miranda's albums):

http://www.rama-info.com/home/producers/13/bio1_text.html

Has some really great little nuggets, including:

"I love records. Going to a live event doesn’t speak to me the way a record does. I never got to see the Beatles live, but I’ve seen footage and it’s not Rubber Sole (sic) and it’s not Revolver."

"If somebody who is good enough to write Crazy can cut an outside song, then don’t walk into this town and say; “I’m too good for outside songs.” "

^ fuck yeah ppl this shit is so good, god bless ilm

http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-CX113_womack_E_20140521230540.jpg

I like the Womack a great deal but the songs aren't as memorable as There's More Where That Came From's, in the middle stretch particularly.

and that album was one of the best of the '00s

welp i don't need them to be as memorable as that because i don't remember that, i only need to play the record

you haven't heard There's More...? Oh man -- you're lucky. Get to it!

well now it sounds like you're advising me to ruin the joy of a new record by listening to an older one!

Call it a complementary listening experience.

well i'm sold on this record. btw beyond miranda lambert and this, which are the best country albums of the year? because i haven't grasped what i should be seeking out yet.

The Angaleena Presley does hold up. Platinum looks like my album of the year. I wasn't crazy about Brantley Gilbert's album but when it shows up on my phone I'll play it. I've got more singles I love than albums.

The Willie Nelson ain't bad either