Rolling Country 2008 Thread

So the one halfway memorable song from Danielle Peck's debut last year, only one that really ever jumps out at me, is "I Don't," the chorus of which notably goes "Jesus loves you, I don't." Beyond that, meh: I get the idea she's got a big, deep, sturdy, steadfast very Lorrie Mogan-like singing voice (not what you'd expect to look at her), but needs better songwriting, production, whatever.

New Chris Cagle album, as I said, starts out strong: rocker parsing the many shades of the adjective "gone" (his current hit); partially talked rocker about a guy Chris meets at the bar who wants to hear any kinds of songs (from Chris or anybody else) except love songs; funky country rocker with words working as rhythm (as the sort of do in "No Love Songs" too actually), sounding like it could be from Big N Rich's second album: "Guess who's back in town/Back in my old stomping ground." Most of the rest is okay -- a bunch of power ballads, "I Don't Live" and "My Heart Move On" (hey, isn't that almost a Celine Dion song title) somewhat rousing in their buildups. In "Keep Me From Loving You," Chris gets C's and D's in school and connects with a girl who gets A's and B's. Catchiest song outside of the first three is "Little Sundress, where Chris gets excited about some girl's skirt (see also: "Outfit" by Starz, which I was listening to last week) and her "golden Tropicana tan," which makes it sound like she looks like an orange juice can (doesn't sound like all that natural a tan to me), but hey, whatever suits his fancy. Also, he likes how she dances to reggae. Songs I like least are the final two -- "My Life is a Country Song" (title cut), where he does the usual pandering schtick of dropping names of Older Country Songs You Will Know, none remotely surprising, and "Change Me," sensitive male new-age mush for the laydeez, yucko. Decent album, though -- maybe better than his sampler CD.

(The one song should be "I Don't Wanna Live," actually. And "My Heart Move On" is weird syntax, but that's what it's called on my advance CD -- could be a mistake. And one thing I didn't mention is that "No Love Songs" is actually pretty funnny.) (Also "Keep Me From Loving You" is nowhere near as good as song about school grades as Soulja Boy's new single, or the end of its video anyway, where he gets all F's on his report card then tells the teacher to "throw some D's on that bitch," then ends the video with a disclaimer telling the kids in the audience he really gets all A's, so stay in school.)

Mando Saenz's Bucket is hi-definition rockin' country. "Pocket of Red" proves my long-held point that the Gin Blossoms are a huge and under-reported influence on modern country. Big almost glammy Bowie drag drums, various percussions and those big epic chord changes. Kind of like Freedy Johnston or something--who put out one recently that was all covers and was somewhat under-produced. I hear it as good commercial alt-country, Western Mythos Division. Actually, of course, cut in Nashville with R.S. Field, who also did Justin Earle's new one--which I have yet to hear, he's called Justin Townes Earle now. Anyway, Saenz is really fucking produced, like alt-program music, and tastee indeed. Not sure yet if he's just another sensitive dude mildy rocking into endless space, sounds pretty drugstore cowboy to me.
"I left New England and a sundress was talking begging me for more" he sings in "PIttsburgh," which just sounds like the fucking House of David to me (studio where he made this sappy shit). So I dunno, the songs really are pretty nondescript to my ears--schmaltz-country.

Great cut: Karen Dalton's "It Hurts Me Too" on Cotton Eyed Joe: The Loop Tapes--Live in Boulder 1962.

So the one halfway memorable song from Danielle Peck's debut last year, only one that really ever jumps out at me, is "I Don't," the chorus of which notably goes "Jesus loves you, I don't."

i like danielle's debut a lot more than xhuxk does, despite the fact that she broke my man josh beckett's heart. i really dig her voice. but what was most notable to me about "i don't" was its similarity to lyle lovett's much better "god will," which notably went "god does but i don't / and god will but i won't / and that's the difference between god and me." also notably, it came out around the same time as eric church's great "before she does," which addressed the same relationship from the other side: "i believe the bible is cold hard fact / and i believe jesus is coming back / before she does."

(actually danielle may not have actually broken josh beckett's heart. good info on sports coupling tends to be harder to come by than pop and hollywood coupling.)

"My friend Mark Fenster once told me that the best Shelby albums are the first ones, before she broke free of "country.""

I wish I could say the same thing, but, alas, after I became enamored of I AM SHELBY LYNNE, I found one of her earlier big-hair country CD's in a cutout bin. The only good thing about that disc is her voice, but if it ain't got the good songs to back it up, why fuck with it? I sold that one later on...

Taylor Swift's got a live version of "Umbrella" available on iTunes, though I way prefer her on this other version of "Umbrella," on YouTube, despite its pitch problems.

In this YouTube one Taylor makes the song sound sad and fragile and slightly desperate, as if she's the one caught in the rain, and she needs the guy to come to her as much as he needs her protection.* And Taylor sounding sad, fragile, and desperate still has some sort of... not sure what the word is, "aggression" being too aggressive and "moxie" too plucky. Anyway, some sort of energy, so she's not remotely self-pitying even in her sad songs; there's assertion and even spite in "Christmases When You Were Mine," for instance, and in "Tim McGraw" she's not just wondering plaintively whether she left a mark on the boy, but rather, to make sure she'll leave a mark, she's sending him that letter she wrote three years ago - the letter presumably contains the same combination of bitter and sweet that the song does. (And we know from "Should've Said No" that she's someone who'll dump you in a flash if she thinks you've wronged her.)

Other covers by Taylor that you can find on YouTube: Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable," John Waite's "Missing You," Avril Lavigne's "Anything But Ordinary."

*But then, Rihanna's delivery of the original also has a sadness so that the invitation "come into me" doesn't forget the rain that was used as the pretext for the invitation in the first place.

Kinda digging this Jake Owen tune, "Starting With Me." He needs a makeover to un-Billy Ray himself pronto though

I think Alan Jackson sings beautifully on "Small Town Southern Man," but the lyrics pander to the insecurity of the audience, "And he bowed his head to Jesus/And he stood for Uncle Sam/And he only loved one woman/Was always proud of what he had." The problem here isn't that he doesn't believe exactly what I believe, but that he's content to simply heave the same old signifiers for a predetermined effect. I don't believe in Carrie Underwood's "Jesus Take The Wheel," either, but that song puts out, delivers, explains itself, earns its sentiment.

Speaking of Rihanna, and Chuck Berry, among the ten or twenty things Rihanna's doing on "Lemme Get That" (my second-favorite track on Good Girl Gone Bad) is to insert these half-speaking parts that follow Chuck Berry vocal cadences, so you almost think she's about to break into "Too Much Monkey Business."

I barely remember Panther Burns (they were neorockabilly gone "crazed" and pumped-up and blood-spattered, right? rather than the cowpunk coming out at the same time by Rank And File?), but you've intrigued me with your description of the Ross Johnson alb: "spoken-word-with-rockabilly-mutant-free-jazzoid-Sonny Sharrock-shred-Brit Invasion-fife-and-drum-drum-parade-drumming."

Yeah, that description makes me interested, too!

I had a Shelby Lynne Best of the Epic Years compilation for a while a few years ago, and on balance, I did't think it was markedly better or worse than her more critic-approved later stuff -- livelier, maybe, but also somehow more generic. She had at least a tentative Western Swing thing going on, but I'm not sure how deep she went into the jazz or r&B mixing -- a perusal at AMG shows shows her covering Ellington and Charlie Rich, at least. There was one video she did, off of the Temptation album I think, that I really liked at the time; had her on a riverboat sipping mint juleps, maybe. Good song, too. I wrote about it some fanzine, running down songs on a mix tape I'd made for myself. (The zine was dedicated to mixtapes, back when those were actual mixes you made on tape.) But I'm blanking out on the song title, and youtube's not helping.

Ha, found it! "Slow Me Down" -- off Restless ('95), not Temptation ('93). My description was not exactly right above, either. But definitely has an energy that most of her later "to heck with the Nashville I make my own rules" stuff lacks:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FbmLU6r6PX0

xpost (as many of my posts are)

A couple years ago I heard some of Karen Dalton's early '70s alb, In My Own Time; varied from harsh and haunting to almost unlistenable. I like "Katie Cruel" (first track up on the MySpace for In My Own Time). I may be misremembering, since I don't own the book, but I think Bob Dylan in Chronicles mentions being really taken by her singing back in the early '60s.

And the MySpace for Cotton Eyed Joe streams "It's Alright" from 1962. Voice is more flexible than on "Katie Cruel," and has more nuance and less shtick than, say, Amy Winehouse, but also less oomph. Sings with the same floating Billie rhythms that Amy would later use. (I think Amy's been underrated in these parts - last year's rolling country and rolling teenpop - but of course has been overrated elsewhere. If "Rehab" had defeated "Umbrella" in Idolator/P&J I'd have considered seceding from the universe.)

Fanzine was called Tapeworm, right? Or am I misremembering? In any event I wrote for it too.

And I definitely like "Slow Me Down," but even on that one there's something self-contained, perhaps (still not sure what), about Shelby's voice that makes it good but not all that immediately engaging. Track works well, but I think the background singers are what really give it warmth. Maybe she's going for authority more than warmth.

Okay, this is weird. I just noticed that, in a review of John Anderson's album 10 that I wrote for the Voice in 1988, I quote a song called "I Hope Things Aren't Like That Tomorrow" as going "I don't wanna hear how times are hard/I've gotta pull the weeds from my own backyard." Aren't those the same lyrics as in his song "Weeds," from last year? I wonder if he just changed the title...

"I had a Shelby Lynne Best of the Epic Years compilation for a while a few years ago, and on balance, I did't think it was markedly better or worse than her more critic-approved later stuff -- livelier, maybe, but also somehow more generic."

GENERIC = bingo!

As far as being more "livelier," well lively wasn't the point with I AM SHELBY LYNNE, so that don't hardly make any difference.

"She had at least a tentative Western Swing thing going on, but I'm not sure how deep she went into the jazz or r&B mixing -- a perusal at AMG shows shows her covering Ellington and Charlie Rich, at least."

It was probably always in the back of her mind, though. I seem to remember reading something in Pulse magazine, back when she was still a generic Nashville vocalist, that her tastes and influences ran deeper than whatever country radio was playing at that moment. I could sorta tell, even then, that she was gonna flip out and make a Rebellious Alt-Country Record one of these days.

same lyrics, Chuck, and "Weeds" written by JA and Lionel Delmore, long-time collaborator on many of Anderson's classics (passed away, I believe), so could be an old idea reworked. Great song, very much like the '81 "I Just Came Home to Count the Memories."

far as Shelby Lynne goes--I have yet to receive my copy. So reserving judgement, with the admitted prejuidice that says you can't beat Dusty Springfield, and the question: what did the people who made this record think they were actually doing? Because anyone can interpret anything, as Dusty did, and seems to me we've entered an age where the referent is more alive than the, blah blah blah, you get my point. Dusty in Memphis works because its singing is insanely subtle and perfectionist and because the backing is so spare and insanely subtle. Apparently, the Shelby record is pretty spare, too. I guess jazz singers do it all the time, interpret material in the same way that some mythical jazz singer from the past has done, so a sophisticated audience would hear the new versions with the old ones in mind. I dunno, I guess I need to hear it.

After an afternoon of concerted Web searching I have learned this about why Taylor Swift wears dresses.

"Dresses are my weakness, seriously."

She loves Forever 21 and BCBG. From this I surmise that she's not going for a goth look.

Also, she told CMT that she'd love to perform with Jay-Z, that if she had one record to take on a drive cross-country it would be Def Leppard's Pyromania, and that if she could tour with all women and could choose any genres, she would go on the road with Rihanna and Brandi Carlile. "You say 'random,' I say 'interesting.'"

(I'd never listened to Brandi Carlile until fifteen minutes ago, when I went to her MySpace, but this has me worried. Not awful, but sounds like KT Tunstall and Tashbed singer-songwriter respectability, without Tunstall's dexterity and wit or Tashbed's goofball tendencies. Of course, the wit and the goofiness might be there for me to find if I look, and she's not devoid of passion, but right now she's singing about staring into a starry sky.)

And I won't pretend to have an idea of how such dresses would play in teen life in Nashville and 'burbs; obviously not playing to the sk8ers and the emos, nor to the kids who are scene (if those are relevant terms there), but I'd think dresses and nothing but dresses are too idiosyncratic to necessarily code as "prep." My guess is that even if Taylor felt like an outsider or an oddball some of the time (I remember an interview where she said something of the sort, in regard to "A Place In This World"), she was in the prep sphere of influence. Not only because of the dresses but because she talks of wanting to be a good role model and not disappoint the ten-year-old girl and the girl's mom whom she saw at a recent concert of hers. (Hey, what if the girl grows up and is disappointed that Taylor hasn't turned into a Jean Harlow or a Grace Slick or a Paris Hilton?) And Taylor regrets that her career basically precludes her going to college. (She's home schooling her senior year because touring and stuff make it impossible for her to do high school. But she'll get a diploma.)

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/5784/taylorswiftbellaasgt7.jpg
Bella as Taylor Swift

http://www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/Cover_Story/2008/01/24/The_Eighth_Annual_Country_Music_/

1979 new wave rockabilly!

Bands in the "Rockabilly/R&B/Rock'n'Roll" chapter of the 1980 new wave guide I just bought for http://ilx.wh3rd.net/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=46178#unread off a seemingly homeless guy set up on the sidewalk of St Marks Street

Oops, sorry about that diversion. Nashville Scene critic's poll '07 winners, for easy reference later; iin general, poppier than I would have predicted:

Albums:
1. Miranda Lambert: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Sony/BMG Nashville)
2. Robert Plant/Alison Krauss: Raising Sand (Rounder)
3. Brad Paisley: 5th Gear (Arista Nashville)
4. Porter Wagoner: Wagonmaster (Anti-)
5. Patty Griffin: Children Running Through (ATO)
6. Lori McKenna: Unglamorous (Warner Bros.)
7. Lucinda Williams: West (Lost Highway)
8. Dwight Yoakam: Dwight Sings Buck (New West)
9. Steve Earle: Washington Square Serenade (New West)
10. Trisha Yearwood: Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love (Big Machine)
11. Levon Helm: Dirt Farmer (Vanguard)
12. The Avett Brothers: Emotionalism (Ramseur)
13. Little Big Town: A Place To Land (Equity)
14. Joe Nichols: Real Things (Universal South)
15. Lyle Lovett: It’s Not Big, It’s Large (Lost Highway)
16. Elizabeth Cook: Balls (31 Tigers)
17. Pam Tillis: Rhinestoned (Stellar Cat)
18. Kelly Willis: Translated from Love (Rykodisc)
19. Teddy Thompson: Up Front and Down Low (Verve Forecast)
20. Mary Gauthier: Between Daylight and Dark (Lost Highway)
21. Carrie Underwood: Carnival Ride (Arista Nashville)
22. Ryan Adams: Easy Tiger (Lost Highway)
23. (tie) Merle Haggard: The Bluegrass Sessions (McCoury Music)
23. (tie) Willie Nelson/Merle Haggard/Ray Price: Last of the Breed (Lost Highway)
25. (tie) Amy LaVere: Anchors and Anvils (Archer)
25. (tie) Reba: Duets (MCA Nashville)
27. Tim McGraw: Let It Go (Curb)
28. Gretchen Wilson: One of the Boys (Sony/BMG Nashville)
29. Sarah Borges: Diamonds in the Dark (Sugar Hill)
30. Robbie Fulks: Revenge! (Yep Roc)

Singles:
1. Miranda Lambert: “Famous in a Small Town”
2. Brad Paisley: “Ticks”
3. Dierks Bentley: “Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)”
4. Gary Allan: “Watching Airplanes”
5. Keith Urban: “Stupid Boy”
6. Sugarland: “Stay”
7. Robert Plant/Alison Krauss: “Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)”
8. LeAnn Rimes: “Nothin’ Better To Do”
9. Trisha Yearwood: “Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love”
10. Josh Turner: “Firecracker”
11. Brad Paisley: “Online”
12. Miranda Lambert: “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”
13. Carrie Underwood: “Before He Cheats”
14. Taylor Swift: “Teardrops on My Guitar”
15. Miranda Lambert: “Gunpowder & Lead”

Reissues:
1. Emmylou Harris: Songbird: Rare Tracks and Forgotten Gems (Rhino)
2. Gram Parsons with the Flying Burrito Bros: Archives Vol. One: Live at the Avalon Ballroom 1969 (Amoeba)
3. The Stanley Brothers: The Definitive Collection (1947-1966) (Time-Life)
4. Merle Haggard: Legends of American Music: The Original Outlaw (Time-Life)
5. Alison Krauss: A Hundred Miles or More (Rounder)
6. Garth Brooks: The Ultimate Hits (Pearl)
7. George Strait: 22 More Hits (MCA Nashville )
8. Bobby Bare: Bobby Bare Sings Lullabys, Legends and Lies (RCA Nashville/Legacy)
9. Neil Young: Live at Massey Hall 1971 (Reprise)
10. Arthur Alexander: Lonely Just Like Me—The Final Chapter (Hacktone)

Himes's essay; I am having trouble finding the comments section...

http://www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/Cover_Story/2008/01/24/Blonde_Ambition/index.shtml

This is meaningless and self-aggrandizing, I think; Himes patting the critics on the back for having such daring tastes, for insisting on challenging themselves in a way that regular old country fans refuse to do -- which, sorry, I just don't buy (also not sure what being a virtuoso has to do with it):

Do we want reassurance from art, a confirmation that everything they already believe is true? Or do we want to have our assumptions challenged, to hear something we don’t already know? Do we want virtuosic performances that meet a platonic ideal we can stand back and admire? Or do we want idiosyncratic delivery that marks an artist as one of a kind?

It’s no news that a majority of consumers prefer reassurance and virtuosity. That’s the way it’s always been and the way it always will. But there has also always been a sizeable minority that prefers new challenges to further confirmation. And if you’re going to listen to country music every day and write about it for a living, you’re more likely to be in the second camp than the first. Thus this poll’s critics have flocked to Lambert for the same reasons they flocked to the Dixie Chicks, Rodney Crowell, Alison Krauss, Steve Earle, Patty Loveless and the Soggy Mountain Boys in the past.

His Lambert:Haggard :: Underwood:Bill Anderson dichotomy seems interesting, though (maybe because I know absolutely nothing about Bill Anderson myself.

And I don't really buy this (the Eagles and Benatar and Journey were better than he thinks -- I'll take Benatar over Raitt, actually -- and I don't think I've heard an '00s country hit that rocks as hard as "Flirtin With Disaster" or "Rock and Roll All Night" though I'd sure like to) (well, I can hear "Beth" I guess), but it's an intruiguing theory, too; country could definitely use more Cheap Trick, I'm not going to argue with that one. (Though if I think hard enough, I bet it already has some.)

Country radio’s problem is not that it sounds like ’70s rock but that it sounds like bad ’70s rock—more like Molly Hatchet than Lynyrd Skynyrd, more like Journey than Cheap Trick, more like Firefall than Fleetwood Mac, more like Kiss than Led Zeppelin, more like Pat Benatar than Bonnie Raitt, more like The Eagles than The Byrds.

And I like what he says about Brad Paisley at the end, but I still don't think Brad's as bland as Vince Gill. (He's less humorless, for one thing.)

(Well, I don't know, maybe certain hits by Montgomery Gentry or somebody "rock as hard" as "Flirtin With Disaster" -- they definitely have some hits I like more than "Flirtin Wtih Disaster," though that's probably as much to do with being more nuanced and cutting deeper emotionally. But I still wouldn't say they sound like Molly Hatchet. Who, again, were better than "bad".)

Also seems a little odd to call mostly-'80s Benatar and mostly-'60s Byrds "'70s rock" at all, but that's just me being pedantic. (And I do believe that Benatar's best album -- which I'll take over any Bonnie Raitt album I ever heard -- came out in 1979.)

I'll also take Montgomery Gentry over Journey, for whatever that's worth. (But yeah, not over Skynyrd or Led Zeppelin or Cheap Trick.) (Up against the Eagles or Kiss or Byrds, it would be a hard call. Off the top of my head, Montgomery Gentry strike me as more consistently great album artists than any of those, but it's not like I've ever made a point of hearing every Byrds album. And Montgomery Gentry have never done anything as great as the Byrds' or Eagles' or Kiss's greatest singles, I don't think.)

As for the poll rankings go, I'll probably have more thoughts later, but first I just want to say that I don't think I had any idea there was a new Lucinda Williams album in 2007...Or, even if I was aware momentarily, that anybody actually liked the thing. I'm guessing that's a total resting-on-her-laurels vote, just like P.J. Harvey placing in Pazz&Jop for an album barely anybody mentioned when it came out.

I don't know that I've ever heard Firefall, though maybe I'm hearing a lot of country artists that sound like Firefall. Haven't read the essay. Which ones does he say sound like Firefall? Like Journey? Like Benatar? I don't know. No one on the country charts sounds much like Rocket From The Tombs or the Sex Pistols or the Contortions or Richard Hell & The Voidoids or The Adverts or the Dolls, either. Must not be very good, therefore. (Not enough sound like Donna Summer.)

Which ones does he say sound like Firefall? Like Journey? Like Benatar?

He doesn't.

There are probably some acts on the country chart who sound like Poison sometimes, and Poison could sound like Pistols or Dolls sometimes, for whatever that's worth. But yeah, his logic doesn't wash.

Firefall greatest hits:

"Just Remember I Love You"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=trvtMSoW7dM

"Strange Way"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=j6GXZBHJlYc

"You Are The Woman"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=s7M597TgMwU

The first two sound better than I'd remembered!

I guess it would have been in poor taste for Geoff to mention Dan Fogelberg.

apparently Firefall have a new one out, where they do...the Beatles. they sounded good on the radio.

as for the comment about the Byrds and '" '70s rock," I don't think it's pedantic to say that he's just wrong. The Byrds were a '60s group--they did all their significant work by 1969. and as far as '70s country-rock goes, the Byrds certainly helped pave the way, but the Eagles and Poco and all them didn't really sound much like the Byrds. His comments about bad old '70s rock just sound humorless to me.

as for the winners--I simply fail to understand how the records by Cook, Tillis, Willie, LaVere, Lucinda and Dwight were all that fucking good. Cook's had maybe two really good songs; Tillis made an honorable record that I haven't played once since it came out; LaVere don't cut it; Lucinda, I dunno, I mean go ahead and turn into Joni Mitchell for Austinites or whatever. Dwight's Buck album wasn't any better than the Derailers' Buck album. And I am just baffled at the lack of John Anderson in these results--if he's not the greatest country singer alive at the moment, he's close, and I thought Easy Money was a great modernization of his sound. Maybe it was the participation of John Rich? And shit, OK, Anderson's second record was reissued last year--the 5 Collectors' Choice reissues technically hit early this month. But come on. Wagonmaster was a good record, I guess; and we all miss Porter (and Dan Fogelberg, too, I suppose), but it wasn't really all that good. I'm in the minority for thinking Charlie Louvin's record was kind of great--it was as good as Porter's, easy. I mean I'm one of those people who love the Byrds, but they're one of the greatest harbingers of Americana and alt-country; what do they have to do with mainstream country as we know it right now? Zilch, because they were an experimental, '60s group; and last I looked on Music Row, they weren't doing a hell of a lot of that. Weird.

But the big story was the contrast between Lambert and Underwood, who could only manage the No. 21 album (Carnival Ride), the No. 13 single ("Before He Cheats") and the No. 10 slot as artist of the year.

Writing stuff like this is simple dishonesty, given that "Before He Cheats" was voted number 5 last year, and if Himes were following P&J rules would probably, therefore, be in the top 3 or so this year. If he wants to say that this year's Carrie didn't score so high, well that's true, but it doesn't serve to highlight the supposed dichotomy between Underwood and Lambert, does it? (Fwiw, I like "So Small" more than "Famous In A Small Town," though like a lot on the Lambert and some on the Underwood more than either of those.)

xp And come to think of it, it does seem like a stretch to say that modern Nashville has more Benatar than Raitt in its sound. With that one, I'd love him to name names (not that I can name names, off hand, of Nashville singers who are Raitt-influenced, I admit. But maybe if I listened to Raitt more often I could.)

And this is simple stupidity:

When Underwood describes her broken heart on "Flat on the Floor," she channels Heart's Ann Wilson as she wallows in self-pity: "You can't knock me off my feet when I'm already on my knees." Lambert refuses to give in to her broken heart on "Getting Ready."

Yes, and Carrie refuses to give in to a broken heart on "Before He Cheats." And so what? Since when does doing a song in which you don't give in to a broken heart take you outside of conventionality?

Or how are Montgomery Gentry and Brooks & Dunn (etc.) more influenced by Hatchett than by Skynyrd? (I don't know enough about Hatchett, so maybe he's right.)

and that should be Kelly Willis, not Willie (whose new record's out next week). Many of my colleagues cite Translated from Love as a really good record, but apart from her Stooges cover I simply don't hear it. She sings well enough, but the attempted pop of that record--by producer Chuck Prophet, whose latest record belongs in the winners' list if Lucinda's does--didn't cut it, in my book. and right, Frank--by any measure, seems to me, Carrie was far more in the public eye this year than Miranda, whose record I liked but which seems like product as much as Carrie's does, and I don't mean that in a pejorative way. and, as far as being influenced by Hatchet as opposed to Skynyrd--this is hair-splitting. If you talked to Eddie Montgomery or Troy Gentry they'd say they were just into Southern rock, period; and whatever, "Flirtin' with Disaster" is a stoopid song, but so what? These musicians are not guys who sit around and make distinctions between marginally differentiated Southern rock! They're just trying to make a buck playing what they know, and what they know--MG, at least--is the same thing I knew growing up, where Wet Willie, Marshall Tucker, the Allmans, Skynyrd, Molly Hatchet and .38 Special were part and parcel of the same thing. As for Raitt's influence, there are plenty of vaguely bluesy alt-country mamas plying their trade in Nashville--Jewly Hight, Amanda White. but they're not gonna get on the radio.

Haha I have been buying Firefall LPs (pre-'80), like they're going out of fashion, which is ironic since they went out of fashion a long time ago. (A couple of those Rick Roberts Burrito Brothers LPs > that second Burritos record wiv Gram on it, and > changes to >>>>>>>>>>> if you take "Wild Horses" out of the equation).

Last time I watched CMT, which was a few months back, it occurred to me that the then-current Little Big Town single, whatever that was, sounded like Firefall. Or at least sounded like the platonic ideal of a Firefall, which is to say a c0ke-sheeny smooth country rock. But the only other person I mentioned this to looked at me as sceptically as you would be right now, if you could see me. So, uh.

and, I can't find the poll's comments anywhere online, but I'll try again today. I'll get a hard copy of the paper and maybe we'll see, then.

Comments are only online*, I think.

*If even that.

(Is it against the law for Toby to chart on these polls these days?)

Firefall's "Cinderella" is the bleakest breakup song ever made: a soul-crushing eff-you to a woman pregnant after a one-night stand. The fact that this got played on the radio when I was a kid is just mind-blowing.

"Strange Way" is also a woman-hating blowoff song, fascinating but not quite as bleak. Also a great flute solo.

As for 2008, I have two theories about Cat Power: a) her new one is basically an alt.country record, and b) she is actually a ghost singing from beyond the grave. Anyone?

double xpost

OK, listening to Firefall right now, and I really like the arrangements and tunes! White quiet storm! But the lead vocals don't cut it (maybe that's a bit unfair, since YouTube rips are often inferior). And I actually don't think I've heard these before.

(Yeah, I was noticing the lack of Toby. Do voters really think that Joe Nichols and Josh Turner sing better than Toby? Of course they could simply be preferring the material that those people sing.)

of vaguely bluesy alt-country mamas plying their trade in Nashville

Weirdly, a few years ago (like, mid/late '90s, when I don't believe the country charts were anywhere near as good as they are now, oddly enough), plenty of vaguely bluesy non-alt country mamas were getting played on CMT and, I assume, country radio -- Patty Loveless, Wynona, even Reba had bluesy hits, like one where she played a judge in the video I think. (K.T. Oslin/Terri Gibbs/Lacy Jay Dalton were earlier and better; Joe Dee Messina was later and better, but Joe Dee hasn't had a real hit for a while.) I feel there were other ones too. But my question here is not about distinctions of quality, but something that just occurred to me -- have female country hitmakers become less bluesy over, say, the past 10 years? Or are some names slipping my mind? (Again, you'd think that would make things worse, but I don't think it has. Was Patty Loveless actually ever interesting? I mainly associate her with that song "Jealous Bone," which was tolerable, I guess, but always seemed really pro forma to me.) (But wait, didn't Trisha Yearwood have some middling hit last year with a gospel chorus in it? And uh, what about Leann Rimes? Are they supposed to sound more like Pat Benatar than Bonnie Raitt, too?)

(Is it against the law for Toby to chart on these polls these days?)

Wasn't it always?

xpost: "Cinderella" acoustic, recently: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RPoMAhfxDg

(Actually, I have heard "You Are The Woman." Don't like it nearly as much as the others.)

Rissi Palmer's "Country Girl" is pretty bluesy. (Most bluesy thing on the album, I think.)

Xhuxk, maybe everyone decided to sound more like Pat Benatar than Bonnie Raitt.