Rolling Country 2014

"Fantastic"? "Elegant"? No.

interesting thoughts! i'll have to give it a listen

I've been to Montevallo and have friends who went to school there. It's in the middle of nowhere in the middle of Alabama.

hmmm i listened to the album and it's pretty boring front-to-back. :\ i wanted to like it b/c i love some of the songs he cowrote that other artists recorded.

actually the opening track is slightly interesting

Caramanica in the NY Times is excited by this tune from the latest Little Big Town album Pain Killer:

Finally, in “Girl Crush” — by the songwriting power threesome of Liz Rose, Lori McKenna and Hillary Lindsey — Little Big Town delivers one of the most devastating country songs in recent memory, a scorching and pained meditation on jealousy delivered with heavy resignation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/arts/music/music-from-little-big-town-mila-j-oc-maco-and-ex-hex.html?ref=music

gorgeous song. i had no interest in hearing the album after "day drinking" which is such a terrible and shameless "pontoon" retread

Country Music Association Awards are on ABC tv now. Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood are hosting and have already started with bad jokes and Paisley strumming a fake song about George Strait, last year's entertainer of the year

They just gave out single of the year already--Miranda Lambert "Automatic"

The Paisley & Underwood ebola quarantine and leaked selfie joke songs were forgettable of course

Rather watch this, also live (incl. commercials): http://musiccityroots.com/roots-tv/

Yea maybe. But Kacey Musgraves just won "song of the year" (as oppose to single of the year) for "Follow Your Arrow"

Lady Antebellum's performance was ok

There's Dierks Bentley doing "Drunk on a Plane" . I like that song. Its catchy.

Miranda Lambert and 2 guys she writes songs with just accepted her/their award for something...

Checking out that Roots tv thing. Its on every Wednesday I see

Back to the CMAs. Miranda won for best album. She justt did a nice version of "Smokin' and Drinkin" with Little Big Town accompanying her

Vince Gill just got all choked up watching the video endorsement of him from Merle Haggard as part of the video tribute to him. He just got the Irving Waugh Award of Excellence

George Strait's baritone still sounds good. He dueted with Eric Church. Luke Bryan won entertainer of the year. But now they're letting the Doobie Brothers close out the night with "Takin' it to the Streets" with Brad Paisley on guitar. Oh country, you love those old pop folks. Michael McDonald is getting gospelly now with all of the backing singers...

I missed a couple of the other veteran with younger act duets--saw in the paper that Loretta Lynn did one.

A picture from life's other side (so this 'un ain't fair neither, butt its funny):
http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/archives/2014/11/06/48th-annual-cma-music-awards-fest-oh-balls-2014

Oh, I see on the Paisley thread some discussion of one of host Paisley's "jokes".

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/06/showbiz/cmas-highlights-brad-paisley/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Nikki Lane: still good. Prob in my Scene ballot Top Ten Albums.

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She's on a US tour now. Gonna be away tho and will miss my East coast gig

Also touring: Wine Women & Song, AKA Matraca Berg, Suzy Bogguss, and Gretchen Peters. Covered a WWS show in Columbus OH years ago. Purty cool: seasoned personal hits and more recent, well-placed co-writes, plus covers of Stones, Parsons, etc. What's that curled around Matraca's elbow? I asked but haven't heard back from her yet.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B2GyNhNCUAEHukb.jpg

Tonight on Music City Roots, from 7 til some time prob a bit before 10 Central, Angeleena Presley and Mary Gauthier will be among the performers, with sets prob 25-27 minutes long, plus brief interviews. Scroll to the bottom of this page for livestream video and live radio links. For archived shows (back to 2010), click media, audio, downloads. http://musiccityroots.com/events/

Nikki Lane ‏@nikkilanemusic 2h2 hours ago

I literally just pissed all over myself in a traffic jam in Boston while trying to pee out of the side… http://instagram.com/p/vUYIbKOVC-/
0 replies 2 retweets 5 favorites

Really liked Holly Williams' 2013 The Highway and some earlier music.

Holly WilliamsVerified account ‏@hollywilliams1

Mama, Daddy, Waylon, Jessie-all legends in their own right ❤️❤️ #1979 #weddingday

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Fine presentation: life & music of the late great Gary Stewart, country-rocker like no other---thx to @rekkidoftheday Phillip Overeem 4 alert http://bit.ly/1sW1bMU

He's *kind of* like if Jerry Lee Lewis had first emerged in the 70s, having to deal with all that and vice versa, but some wild desolate Hank Williams in there too, what if Hank had made it to middle age---here's my take, written right before/after his death, a decade ago: http://bit.ly/1uC1dh6

Minton Sparks is a story-telling poet with an ear for the music in spoken words. She's often held forth with guitarist John Jackson, who toured with Dylan long enough to be prepared at all times, so Live At Station Inn is a good place to start.
Studio arrangements ride along nicely too, and she's sure got a way with a beat. This fall's Gold Digger delivers more downhome truths in itchy empathy: "Every line is written on the body," and how. (If had to pick one for a comp, might possibly be "Tennessee Prison For Women," which is like a slice of Orange Is The New Black, although seems even more like based on her teaching there, or is that just a illusion of her deft realness)

That is, I don't know if she actually has taught there (could read the bio, but the music's the thing).

Cool convergence at the CMAa

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B25oAC3IQAAC-cF.png

Make a note

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Starting a new series of Xmas EPs:
"I wanted to do an EP and spread it around over the next three years. I love it. I miss making Christmas music, so I'm happy."

Rimes says she felt very free to experiment with her sound on the release. "There's a little bit of dirty south kind of sound, but it's also very intimate. It was nice to do some songs that haven't been covered as much, so it was nice to set the tone with something a little different than what normal Christmas records have been." Nuthin too weird tho:
http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-615/6327687/leann-rimes-one-christmas-ep-interview?utm_source=twitter

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81v8plqSy8L._SY355_.jpg

Yep, Willie's Stash, a mixed bag which actually continues the zigzag grooving of most albums he's released in this century. But these 18 tracks, new recordings of vintage covers and (mostly) originals, from "Alexander's Ragtime Band to "Ou-es Tu, Mon Amour/I Never Cared For You," lyrical and blunt, well-remembered and impulsive.
He seems a little short-winded at first, but vocal levels shift as needed: he's scrawny, full-bodied, nasal, well-rounded, etc. Ivories are also flexible, while the geetar darts, jabs, practices Djangology (he said recently he'd been taking lessons in that, but sounds the same). She contours and solos too, given more space than usual (though also check last year's Let's Face The Music and Dance).
Each song lives in its own story, its own moment, streaming here for now http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/arts/music/pressplay.html?_r=0

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Pretty and spooky without being Southern Gothic, the current Cantrell vibe is "that's just how it is," cos love & music will only take you so far, no matter through what and for what (incl "Turn Down For What," not stylistically, but this music's into pleasure too). Sounds she knows she's on a roll, so why stop now, pick up some more sorrow and happiness on the way. Also sounds like She might be mildly surprised that I'm surprised at her unpretentious mastery and ambition (no dis on Brandy Clark, but those who think she's the best should hear the way Cantrell does less-is-more, vocally: "I'm gonna get these ol' clothes clean, do you know what I mean?")

Xgau pretty much nails it (think by "helpmeet" he means "co-writer"):

Laura Cantrell: No Way There From Here
(Thrift Shop)

Now in her mid forties, Nashville-born, New York-based Columbia grad Cantrell has always been one of those intensely likable, not necessarily female Nashville helpmeets whose own music is a quantum too mild to break out of their circle. But on her first album of new songs since she stepped back to have a kid, two cowrites with the darker and sharper Amy Allison are intensely flavorful: the pan-feminist “All the Girls Are Complicated” and the pining-for-my-guy “Can’t Wait.” Great melodies too from Jennifer O’Connor on the songwriter-centric “Beg or Borrow Days” and Franklin Bruno on the dislocated “No Way There From Here” and, hey, Laura Cantrell acting alone on the calmly bereft “Letter She Sent.” That’s a lot. Welcome outside the circle, ma’am. A MINUS

Also, despite the shifting songwriting credits (which I haven't checked), it's seamless, without being too smooth. A touch of the old Hoboken denim lilt in there too, so one for us Amy Rigby fans (first track even has a dbs feel).

Not that this is, eh, jangle-country.

Not pandering to her fellow fortysomethings' hip nostalgia, that is.

At long last I was able to put the dreaded Crowell/ Willoughby sense of shame and disentitlement to proper use. Recent adventures of Rodney C. (Lon Chaney Williams?)
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1siqmba

Chris Richards end of the year list in Washington Post has Sam Hunt, Miranda Lambert, sturgill Simpson, plus Lori McKenna and Hiss Golden Messenger

Methinks that Sam Hunt one is kinda uneven

i wanted to like it/him but i thought it was pretty boring throughout. i actually love "cop car" but somehow found the version on his album fairly dull.

Yeah, that track started well, but petered out. Overall---mehhh---anyway, note to self: get the following

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Have they done one for Oklahoma yet?

Thanx to all-weather publicist Cary Baker for pic of his new copy.

Country album noms at the Grammys:

Dierks Bentley - Riser
Eric Church - The Outsiders
Brandy Clark - 12 Stories
Miranda Lambert - Platinum
Lee Ann Womack - The Way I'm Livin'

brandy, miranda and lee ann :D :D :D

so happy that brandy's gotten some recognition

Best New Artist noms:

Bastille
Iggy Azalea
Brandy Clark
HAIM
Sam Smith

!

whoa that is pretty big especially given that her album wasn't exactly a hit. SO DESERVING! so unusual to be excited about grammy nominations!

!!!

only grammy noms to make me happy so far

The chronology of these ballot choices always weirds me out: voted (see way upthread) for Clark in Nashville Scene poll re alb was released---last year. Na ga vote for anything twice, wouldn't be prudent.
Best recap & comments in the history of time:
http://www.nashvillescene.com/countrylife/archives/2014/12/04/nashville-recap-two-sides-to-every-story