Rolling Country 2018

However the movie story goes, and I hope it's not this relaxed, Blaze Original Soundtrack (type it that way if you look up on Spotify, although looks like I should check out that guy's Blaze Sountrack playlist) calmly presents the title character as a reflective fella, riding the bus and occasionally venturing into the bar, sitting by the road, frequently dubious of his choices and acutely aware of the gaps in himself and in crowds, distrusting the flow and churn and everything else except his baby. Sounds like she (played by Alia Shawkat, who brings more definition to the better Ben-as-Blaze ruminations) might be what keeps him so sweet (though the real-life Blaze was brave and honorable enough to die defending a friend, trying to defuse a confrontation).
The tumult, incl. the actual lifestyle miles, does come outside in the closer, "Drunken Angel," written about him by Lucinda Williams, sung here by Alynda Segarra, with none of the Snorah Jones tendencies of he Hurry For The Riff Raff breakthrough (guess I better check the follow-up, which is said to be more dynamic, and the previous set had its keepers for sure). She's also good w lead actor-singer Ben Dickey on Blind Willie McTell's "Pearly Gates, " another wake-up change of pace, which gets jokey at one point, without disturbing the overall sense of aspiration and conviction---"When this short life is over," he means to keep fingerpicking through yon portals. Which goes right with the brief glimpse of Robin and Little John bopping through Sherwood Forest, not knowing or caring about bad water or the bad Sheriff, in Roger Miller's brief "Od-De-Lally" (so I guess I better check out that 2018 Roger Miller tribute collection too).
The shadings in Foley's better originals aren't eclipsed by the covers, even of Townes Van Zandt's stark "Marie," a tale of what might have happened to Foley and his Sylvia, did happen to many others, on the street and under the bridge, with just a few wronger turns. Though it's performed here by Charlie Sexton, mainly a guitarist, and his sincere, sometimes soft vocal begs comparison's with TVZ's unrelenting clarity, though they're equally succinct.
Starts and stays snoozey for a while, but seems like 8 out of 12 good 'uns (though maybe I'm too just dried up for "Blaze & Sylvia's Lullaby," another duet with Alia Shawkat, and it's the lone Dickey original, no snoozier than the preceding Foley originals--what the hell, I admire it from afar. Cute couple.)
Grab a coffee and turn it up, or just listen near bedtime.

Yep "Od-De-Lally" sounds good on the Roger Miller tribute too, even though I usually don't like Eric Church's little voice, but he sounds hearty and absurdist here, jumpin' through the hoops of careless and outrageous fortune, incl. good luck and the Sheriff's traps too (bass shadows keep coming up). 37 tracks and I gotta listen some more, but pretty sure Ringo's version of "Hey Would You It Down" is one for my Beatles and Ex-Beatles tape, and overall sense that the Bird of Paradise has long since flown up yore nose and is still flying and bouncing off the dusty walls of all that room up there, which (so far) gets me through some of the more woeful ballads, cos whut does he know other than happy and sad and life and death and bippity dang boppa=me. We'll see. Cool cracks and zesty-old-guesty remakes (not rowdy enough to alarm the caretakers) from the man himself.

Also enjoying Roland White and Friends' A Tribute To The Kentucky Colonels, which comes out Oct. 26 and reworks several tracks from the KC's 1964(before Clarence joined the Byrds) Appalachian Swing. If that title appeals to you, you'll probably dig this set.

Also getting into Mary Gauthier's Rifles and Rosary Beads, songs written with soldiers--had assumed that these last were all vets of Afghanistan and Iraq, but no reason they couldn't have been in Vietnam or elsewhere. Incisive details of experience, Over There and Homefront, keep it grounded, not too anthemy or sloggy, past maybe the opener. MG's got the wiry arrangements, spare and flexible, and enough voice for whatever occasion, without over- or underdoing it (I'm always startled by the various ways she repeats the title phrase of the always startled "It's Your Love." "Morphine 1, 2" gradually turns into something like a country Lou Reed song, but it fits. "I Got Your 6" is a sly little possum, "Iraq" is a furtive message with no time for all the details, but the singer, male or female, is "a mechanic...I try to fit in...what I don't give they take..." Others are def guys or gals, in particular circumstances, incl. marital and professional.
Lots more here, incl, co-writes w SWS co-founder Darden Smith and many others, ongoing:
https://songwritingwithsoldiers.bandcamp.com/

I'm liking the Eric Church record, which is sparer than a country superstar's needs to be.

Just listened to that, and I'm more than pleasantly surprised! The spareness seems relaxed, confident, thoughtful--even "Monsters,", which he has learned are not under the bed, so he's grateful that he also learned to pray, sounds like a humble sop, but is not overundersold, and mention of letting his little son sleep next to him to keep the monsters at bay, does not incl. teaching said son to pray; he seems to be letting him learn at his own pace, as Daddy apparently did (no memories of Churches at church, choirs fading in and out etc. etc.).
The writing and arrangements are usually taut, resourceful, even daring at times, like he's really learned from hippie radio, and not the one in the disappointing track of that title. Most startling moment is when he suddenly starts wobbling that note in "Higher Wire," fixing to take off---also like the quavery verse voice on "Solid," setting up the chorus. and the way the back-to-basics "Jukebox and A Bar" sets up the attempt to chill of "Drowning Man, " in which thinking about politics has driven him to drink once more; weed's not gonna cut it tonight or today.

Because--monsters really aren't under the bed! Well not all of 'em, nosiree.

colter doing a traditional cowboy ballad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zpz5wgwt2Y

I'm convinced: the Church is his best since Chief and when it's on ("Higher Wire," "Solid," "Some of It") his best ever.

Not wowed by big hit “Life Changes,” by Thomas Rhett (from 2017 album still getting radio airplay this year)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/lifestyle/whats-next-thomas-rhett/?utm_term=.c937b9c18932

His country songwriter Dad is proud of him:

“He doesn’t sit down and say, ‘I’m going to write the most different song today.’ His songs just come out pushing the envelope naturally,” Akins said. “You have to learn that Thomas Rhett has always known since he was a kid, since he was old enough to know what was cool and what wasn’t cool, he knows the trends before they’re going to happen.”

Did this on the Watson twins: https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/spin/article/21027316/the-watson-twins-bring-heavenly-vocals-and-special-guests-to-the-basement

and on Austin Lucas: https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/features/article/21023914/austin-lucas-transcends-americana-on-his-new-lp-immortal-americans

Albini production on Austin Lucas....interesting. Will check it out

Eric Church channeling/ripping off "Sympathy for the Devil" on "Desperate Man" not bad

Rhett's 2015 Tangled Up was really fun; didn't nec. think of it as bro country, but if so, as some tagged it, he was the only country bro good for a whole album. Past the duet with Maren Morris, Life Changes was disappointing.
"Lake of Fire," written by Christy Hays, was one of the few good tracks on last year's Bruce Robison & The Back Porch Band (although they spelled her name wrong). 2018's River Swimmer presents her as a true lady of the canyon, with a big chunk of aural atmosphere down and up there, incl. good drummer and/or programming digging in---touchstone might be Emmylou's Wrecking Ball, also the more recent Lucinda Williams albums, though without vocal slurs or drunken angels or ghosts on the highway. Plenty of shadows and light, re sense of time (of day and season and sometimes lifespan) and place (usually out west, but sometimes just east of the Mississippi, and then there's that "Town Under The Ground," where I wanna go).
Some substantial songwriting for sure, restless and grounded, but a couple mostly going for Americana airplay, and the sonics can be too rich for me to digest the whole set in a single listening. That's okay though. It's all here, along with some earlier releases, which I haven't checked yet:
https://christyhays.bandcamp.com/

I really like those Lucinda albums, for the most part, but glad that this isn't too close!

Good to know there's a new Austin Lucas!

Listening to the Hays again: no prob this time w the sound design, which I'm absorbing and being absorbed by/accepting as such, with conversational appeal in the foreground, and lots of good lines in the verses, but somehow they don't pull me in as consistently as the choruses---would rather have it that way than the reverse, if I had to choose, so I just did---but some of that effect comes from the way lines in the verses get me thinking, so that I may miss the next thing she says, as can happen in good non-musical conversations---but some other times my mind just wanders away completely, for the next line or two, and I blame her more than me. Maybe unfairly, and good album overall, but for now I'm going onto something else (the latest Loretta Lynn, most likely, or Garcia's Before The Dead box).

One more bit about Hays and then I'll shut up: For once, the traveler sounds positively proud of herself for reaching a destination. Then gradually not so much, and then, "I hate it when you worry about me!" Settles back down, before sliding into the chorus and title, "Don't let me diiie/In California." A call, not a cry, and commanding, robust (might not know anything was wrong if she didn't imply it, or if you didn't know her too well, as apparently somebody dies). The call keeps rising and falling, staying in place, being answered by a nagging little guitar figure, suggesting a shriveled McGuinn.

Y'all, what is a good 2018 album of Mexican or Mexican-American or other Latin country etc. music? Any style or subgenre, long as it's got something in that makes me say "Country."
Only one I've heard this year is the poetically precise, lithe life study Alma P’urhépecha, by Los Centzontles and this guy:
Atilano López Patricio

Atilano López Patricio is a Native P’urhépecha musician, songwriter, artisan and painter from Jaracuaro, Michoacán, México. In his youth, Don Atilano worked in the fields along with his brothers and father Gervacio López Isidro, and played music in the afternoons. He first came to California in 1999 at which time he began sharing his traditions with members of Los Cenzontles.

Original and translated lyrics on LC site https://www.loscenzontles.com/product/alma-purhepecha. Music's on Spotify: 28 minutes, but not at all skimpy.

Correction: should have been *8 songs in 20 minutes,* but not atall skimpy.

Watching CMA Awards (from last night on tape)....Ricky Scaggs tribute was ok. My fave moment was soul singer Mavis Staples joining Chris Stapleton and Maren Morris on a medley.

Florida Georgia Line & Bebe Rexha’s poppy “Meant to Be” was good, but purists & others online didn’t like it

https://www.countryliving.com/life/a25107823/florida-georgia-line-performance-cma-awards-2018/

Luke Combs sounded good; as did Dierks Bentley with Brothers Osbourne. I like the Pistol Annies but wasn’t wowed by their Miranda Lambert penned “I Want my Name Change Back”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2018/11/15/cma-awards-complete-list-winners-best-worst-moments/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e28138b5e549

Kacey Musgraves was the best album winner. CMAs are radio-friendly country mostly, but sometimes they go for acts without a lot of current chart toppers

Just now discovered that Willie Nelson's taping an upcomimg full-hour Austin City Limits, this livestream started at 8 central:https://www.austin360.com/entertainmentlife/20181119/tonights-night-watch-willie-nelsons-austin-city-limits-livestream-here

I came in on "Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die," then a Djangoesque instrumental, now A Tom T. song I'm unfamiliar with: everything quite perky and limber so far, more about the picking than the singing in that regard, but voice is still good enough, in the Willie way.

Well that was a trip. Hope the whole thing will be posted on ACL's YouTube channel, before editing for broadcast, which may not for inst. incl. Bobbie's coda for the finale,"Will The Cicle Be Unbroken">"I'll Fly Away."

Sweet... I saw Willie and his family show at Red Rocks, around 7 or 8 years ago; I was blown away by his bursts of atonal guitar playing... it was like some “harmelodic,” avant-grade shit. Saw the show again here in L.A., a year or so later. Would love to see him play on TV.

Yeah, the sounds he got from Trigger--- long the oldest, ugliest acoustic guitar I've ever seen---were truly karma chameleon, and always fit---even writhing through "Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground," without breaking vibe or meter, like one of those Old Testament, Milton or Blake angels, not from a greeting card (that I'd be likely to get, anyway).
Can prob find more TV appearances on the Tube---he and his family and friends band were all of the very first Austin City Limits ep, in '74, been on there several times since (his collaboration with Asleep At The Wheel etc), and prob some on the Farm Aid channel. His CMT "Crossroads" episode with Sheryl Crow was ace, especially his electric guitar all over "Every Day Is A Winding Road."

Maybe this goes better somewhere else but here's some electro-country:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpOdJhLvHE8

George Jones and the Jones Boys, Live In Texas: True, some of the classick self-torture serenades, though always ready for the spotlight turns, can seem a bit hemmed in here, where ever'body's having so much brisk-to-frisky fun at Dancetown U.S.A., where the supposedly rock & roll-hating Jones delivers a well-fueled "Bonie Maronie" by request, ditto his own "White Lightning, from way back when he was still recording that greasy kid stuff under duress. The Jones Boys, with steel guitar great Buddy Emmons and ace fiddler Re Hayes guesting, open the first set with Billy Butler & Clifford Scott's "Hold It," close for "liquormisson er, intermission" with Ellington's "C Jam Blues," also we get western swing gems "B Bowman Bop" and "Panhandle Rag"--hell, they even bring out Rufus Thibodeaux ("Two-by-Four," George says it) for "Jole Blond," with Emmons and Hayes right in there, of course; that's one of my favorite songs ever. Jones Boys trusty Don Adams is a totally artificial and strangely satisfying Texas-Nashville crooner while the boss takes another break or three, and, like all the JBs and guests, perfectly supportive when he does show up again, which is often enough for me. Really good mono.

Live In Texas 1965, that is. ace fiddler *Red* Hayes.

Charlie Rich, Too Many Teardrops - The Complete Groove & RCA Recordings: Choirs and strings oops upside your head, but get bearable and even occasionally useful, after or during the first couple listens, although Disc 2 still kills some of the weakest material, and that's what he gets for turdpolishing with his surefire sound (a la Elvis, Sinatra, Willie, etc.) But I like a lot and love some, as expected of Big Ol' Charlie on li'l cat feet---that voice, them keys, which deliver the expected drama and rolling country-plus, also the sassiest "Old Man River" and bluesiest "Twelfth of Never" ever.

And as I said over on Charlie's own thread:
Also a couple of intriguing ballads written by Freddie Hart:"Too Many Teardrops" starts out feeling for a fella who lost his love to the narrator, yet, "I did what any man would do"---emphasis on "man," because the cry guy wasn't "strong enough to play the losing hand"--crying and drinking yourself to death doesn't count as a well-played losing hand, so what does? Revenge, mebbe? Doesn't say.
The other Hart-written track, "There Won't Be Any More, " has a terse, I cut-you-off lilt that somehow reminds me of some British Invasion tracks, like uhhh covers like "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying"? But with more attitude.
The Riches-written (lots of originals here) "The Grass Is Always Greener" advises that, "You may think you're rollin' in clover/But you better think it over." Shaddup with that, I must not think bad thoughts!
The Complete Smash Sessions is the one to start with, but this is def worth checking out.

Re redeeming the less promising material, the way Rich and his hairspray angels do "Nice and Easy Does It Every Time" isn't so nice, and it isn't so easy, except in a not-nice sense.

There Won't Be Any More is the latest reissue of the complete Smash sides: an Ace Import, like Too Many Teardrops, and both are readily available on Amazon (as I know from a recent Rich binge, once I found about 2018's TMT---my wallet doesn't thank you, ilm, but I do).

Onetime ilxor and current City Pages editor Keith Harris has The Pistol Annies as his number 1 album of the year. The Ashley Monroe solo album has appeared on a few too I think

But the awards-show inequity pales to what’s afflicting the country airwaves, and the degree to which Music Row refuses to rock the boat — even when it comes to meaningful progress toward gender parity — in favor of not angering the decision makers at radio. Put simply, the inequality issue is one of which everyone is aware, and yet no entity capable of enacting change — from the CMA to Country Radio Seminar — has publicly floated the idea of country’s own task force.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/women-in-country-music-grammy-awards-768170/

https://www.popmatters.com/best-country-albums-2018-2622402944.html?rebelltpage=2#rebelltitem2

Eric Church #3, Ashley Monroe at #4 . Kacey M won

I have to say the new Colter Wall is a huge improvement on the last album

His voice makes my throat feel good. He should do a tea commercial, wrapped in snowy blankets or his bog coat. I like that he seems to travel or sit around in various centuries, maybe. Just gives me that impression sometimes, just passing through.
I don't know what the title of John Prine's The Tree of Forgiveness means, but "I live deep down inside my head" and yet still goes out on a limb and gets some air once in a while, checks the groundhogs and such, a sociable-enough hermit, not trying to avoid his own shadow, or the lonely friends of science. Prine country.

His *big* coat, not bog coat, jeez. Although could be both.

I included a song from it in my Himes Scene poll I turned in last week but didn't vote for the album itself, which is just underproduced. But Kevin Gordon's Tilt and Shine is a great example of the Nashville Prestige Effort that's also insufficiently populist, and good. Gordon has been a cause celebre for Himes himself and for others, and given a budget, some horn arrangements and a good coaching on vocal presence--making him cut the vocals until he gets it right, or better than what's on this album--he'd be a major guy. Because the songwriting and the musical conception is purt near close to "major"; Gordon's writing, while kinda writing-school stuff at times, can be brilliant. As in the song I picked for the poll, "Drunkest Man in Town."

The other local Nashville guy who, if produced more outgoingly (and made to ditch some of the affectations-mannerisms of his singing and guitar playing), might break thru into something more than cult popularity I've been catching some sets by is Jon Byrd, who sounds sort of like Gram Parsons.

The best sorta local thing I saw this year might be Joseph Hazelwood's recent set at a West Nashville club. Hazelwood, who is sort of a country-blues guy writing about modern things in an intermittently modern way, is eccentric and weird enough without trying, and at his best he's on the edge of an unselfconscious pop-blues-folk synthesis, with "pop" the operative word; one tune he did this month reminded me of Seals & Crofts, some schlock-pop remains from the '70s he used with no sign of strain.

Also filed a Scene piece this week on a real interesting mostly unknown Mississippi-born singer, Chelsea Lovitt, who's around 30 and a garage rocker who twists the form smartly and a quasi-country-Americana artist who comes from the Parsons-Chilton school of modified folk-rock-rock. Were she not so abstract, and literary (songs often use free-floating imagery that glances off their ostensible subject matter), she'd be in the league of Nikki Lane or Elizabeth Cook. The album, cut in Nashville in 2016 and just released in fall 2018 to virtually no notices (on a small Knoxville label, Fat Elvis), is You Had Your Cake, So Lie in It, which includes some post-Wanda Jackson vocals along with a few post-Kinks garage rockers and the weird Parsons-esque (reminds me somehow of "Luxury Liner") tune "De Donna," which someone should work to make Lovitt as famous as she probably deserves to be.

Here's what I said about Kevin Gordon this year: https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/features/article/21014643/kevin-gordon-makes-pop-conventions-work-for-him-on-tilt-and-shine

I also did this on a duo of Ivory Coast Simon & Garfunkel-influenced "country" singers whose excellent 1985 album has been reissued by Awesome Tapes from Africa, and they played a Nashville show as well: https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/features/article/21033204/jess-sah-bi-and-peter-one-revisit-our-garden-needs-its-flowers

Those guys are playing out again, and in America! Thanks, hadn't thought to check. Think I posted the reissue on bandcamp way upthread---from backstory there:
Our Garden Needs Its Flowers was a lush fusion of traditional Ivorian village songs and American and English country and folk-rock music. Jess and Peter sang in French and English, delivering beautifully harmonized meditations on social injustice and inequality, calls for unity across the African continent, an end to apartheid in South Africa and the odd song for the ladies...As well as French and English, Jess and Peter spoke Gouro (a Mande language). They had the shared experiences of loving and drawing inspiration from the traditional and ceremonial songs they remembered their mothers singing in their respective hometowns of Barata and Ono. In addition, hearing imported country and folk-rock music over the radio in the early ‘70s was a lightbulb moment for both of them. Jess recalls DJs playing Kenny Rogers, Don Williams and Dolly Parton on the radio in the morning, while Peter notes the significant presence Simon & Garfunkel, Cat Stevens, Crosby, Stills & Nash and Creedence Clearwater Revival had in his listening life.
https://jesssahbipeterone.bandcamp.com/album/our-garden-needs-its-flowers

x-post- listened to Kevin Gordon after I saw his album in Geoff Himes roots music top 10 at Paste. On first listen I thought his bar band roots rock was just ok but my wife was more impressed. Maybe i will give him another listen. Haven't dug into his Iowa writers workshop lyrics yet either.

Gordon has been a Himes subject for years, and Himes overrates him. Himes did a Scene cover story on him, called him the country's best songwriter or some such. Gordon is like a thousand other people in Nashville--they can't just make a good-sounding record, it has to be this commentary on the South or whatever it is. I've seen Gordon play guitar, and he's a very good Telecaster blues guy, solid down the line. Also a pretty good singer. My problem with him is the fucking production values.

Jewly H year-ender piece on women in country and more:

https://slate.com/culture/2018/12/country-music-women-pop-crossover-nashville.html

A number of newer country acts, the majority of them women, presented themselves as singer-songwriters in the classic sense of the term—not just performers who had a hand in co-writing their material, as has become common in Nashville over the last decade or so, but those connecting with audiences on the strength of their particularized perspectives. I’m thinking of major label signings like Rachel Wammack, Tenille Townes, and Kassi Ashton, and artists like Jillian Jacqueline, Bailey Bryan, and Kalie Shorr, who are either on the rosters of powerful indies or entirely independent. from Jewly H essay. Too much music to keep up with. I don’t know these acts at all

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country-lists/25-best-country-and-americana-songs-of-2018-770295/courtney-marie-andrews-may-your-kindness-remain-3-770333/

Dow, you gonna start the 2019 thread?

Yep.