Rolling country 2007 thread

Loving The Essential Charlie Rich (two discs, new on Epic/Legacy) this morning, especially "I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water" so far.

Liking the new Elizabeth Cook album okay so far, which was more than I could say for her last one, which struck me as more tepid than its trappings promised, as I recall. This time she covers the Velvet Underground's "Sunday Morning" and it sounds very pretty, and ends with a song called "Always Tomorrow" that takes its chorus melody from the part in Hank Williams's "Honky Tonk Blues" (a song I've never totally loved, to be honest) where he says "lord I got 'em..."

Only got a few songs into the new Norah Jones, the new Rickie Jones, and the Baille from Baille and the Boys CDs last night before I wondered why I was wasting even that much time with them.

Am nearing that point with The Good, The Bad & The Queen, who are sounding more vaguely folky than I expected so far; for some reason I figured they'd be more dub or world-beat or something. They'd be more interesting if they were, probably.

Drakkar Sauna (who sent me three CDs, only one of which I've put into the CD changer so far) are sounding only slightly less vaguely folky so far; in fact, I'd probably be dismissing them as just more interchangeable anti-folk twits if Frank didn't express fondness for their alleged humor and harmonies upthread. So I will try to listen more. So far they seem more precious than funny. Ditto their song titles. But it's not like I've given them much of a chance yet.

Rhino reissue of Warren Zevon's The Envoy is sounding pretty (as in "ain't that pretty at all") good, though both "Looking For The Next Best Thing" and "Jesus Mentioned" are less lively and more boring than I'd remembered. (Rhino also sent Excitable Boy and Stand In The Fire reissues, both of which I expect to rock harder, though I may or may not like them more.)

The new album by Lucinda Williams, whose sound was no doubt instrumental in making it okay for country-oriented lady singers to cover Velvet Underground songs, has not been put on yet. I've been avoiding it. I never liked her all that much even when I liked her okay.(i.e., Car Wheels, the only album by her I've ever kept.)

Okay...Good Bad & Queen's "The Bunting Song" on now. Headline: Brit-Pop Still Sucks. Forget these twerps.

...Rickie LEE Jones, that is. (who this time does no songs about Chuck E. Also I liked her more when she had more saxophones.) (i.e., her debut album, only album by her I've ever cared about.)

don't have time to look it up now, but a Charlie Louvin feat. George Jones track was recently reviewed on http://www.paperthnwalls.com. You can at least stream it, even if the free download has expired.(maybe visible down the front page, or in archive, but not far down, you'll see it on the calender in there) Anthony, if you're still backdelving into acid folk, you might also consider Nirvana's MTV Unplugged, esp. covers of Vaselines, Meat Puppets, Leadbelly, not that Nirvana's own lyrics can't be pretty torturously surreal, esp. in this context, denuded of boom. Also (not so much the country connection, except as country & Leadbelly etc. also concerned with mortality etc), but more as to why any non-specialist might find *some* acid folk (incl. proto- & other predecessors)worth checking out, see my "Barred Bards" in Voice archive.

re charlie louvin's voice: on the new album, he sounds very much like current george jones. old and weathered and creaky, for sure, but it's a nice late-night or early-morning country album. and his old and weathered and creaky voice sounds a lot better than, say, that of his middle-aged and blustery duet partner elvis costello.

been picking up a lot of charlie rich lately. the smash stuff might just the best he ever did, which is not to say that he wasn't almost always great. (ok, the later sherrill things are kind of cloying, and i for one find his last record, "pictures and paintings," a bit underwhelming. but he was sick, i think.)

what's interesting about that louvin record is how superficially cl and george jones do sound alike. but then you hear just how full jones' voice really is, even on those couple of cameos he does--he might've learned how to sing at least in part from the louvins, but jones far outclasses charlie louvin. it's a far better record than one might've thought. even with costello in there, and i have to admit that elvis sings better now than he used to, but i just basically find his voice annoying, you know?

new incredible stringdusters record "fork in the road" is excellent neo-grass; good songs in there, some they wrote, some they found, and then there's a really lame one (great idea: don't take pictures of landscapes, just remember it real well for your Beloved One; but basically lame in its final form) by john mayer. and they actually seem to halfway mean them. the instrumental stuff has its share of surprises. real listenable for this basic non-fan of bluegrass.

xp

i treasure my charlie rich smash compilation (the complete smash sessions) and don't let anyone else near it. and i loathe pictures and paintings, which just sounds wan to me. not sure what you mean by the later sherrill things, but despite the great smash sides and the rocking sun sides, it's the classic billy sherrill hits that i love best about charlie. those are such relaxed, assured, graceful, perfect records.

Complete Smash Sessions yeah, and the 2-LP collection, Fully Realized (title from Guralnick's evaluation of these 60s sides, as hism most FR up to early 70s; maybe they weren't his absolute best, but in terms of producers, labels, his own inner demonds not fardling delivery, quite a set of milestones)(Guralnick also OTM re "Milky White Way," although it's only on his gospel album, far as I know; the rest of it sounds OK to me, but just a warning) The link for the PTW review (by Jesse Jarnow) of Louvin feat. George Jones rendition of "Must You Throw Dirt In My Face," which you can still stream: http://www.paperthinwalls.con/singlefile/item?id=390
Also, on there today, not country, but of interest re our discussion on here of rare soul etc., in today's PTW, Steve C. reviews Broadneck's "Psychedelic Excursion, " from The Birmingham Soul of Neal Hemphill Vol.1. Sure wish I'd heard of Hemphill's operationwhen I lived in B'ham; obviously., the local tradition of bluecollar visionaries did not end with Arthur Hardrock Gunter. Also, in the Comments, Whiney G. provides more backstory (and of course you can still downlowd as well as stream the track): http://www.paperthiwalls.com/singlefile/item?id=523 (Also today: I review a track by Amnesty, Nate reviews one by Bob and Gene.)

my own inner demonds fardling typing: Hemphill's actual link: http://www.paperthinwalls.com/singlefile/item?id=523

Er, obviously retro stuck-in-ancient-history production is not bad in and of itself (he says while a real good new stoner-metal CD by Hidden Hand and a pretty good new boogie-rock CD by Dirty Sweet* are also in his CD changer). It's that the particular history Elizabeth chooses either didn't have that much life in it in the first place, or if it did (which is more likely -- Dolly did!), it's been lost somowhere along the way. (But this complaint is ancient itself, duh.)

* -- their tracks that sound like Black Crowes and Jet are okay, but it's the longer, heavier stomps like "Red River" I'm really liking.

and speaking of Drakkar Sauna, review & track just now showed up (with somewhut related tracks reviewed by Andy Beta, Jesse Jarnow, Reed Fischer, Marc Masters): http://www.paperthinwalls.com/singlefile/item?id=505

the Sherrill Rich records I mean are "Behind Closed Doors" (album) and "Very Special Love Songs," both of which are monstrosities, in my opinion. but then the Epic stuff from earlier in the decade--"Boss Man" and "Fabulous Charlie Rich"--are just great.

the other Rich stuff I got includes "Big Boss Man: The Groove Sessions," '63 to '65, all done at RCA in Nashville. "Are You Still My Baby" kills. And then the Complete Smash Sessions, which includes the insane "Santa Claus' Daughter" and the amazing "Just a Little Bit of Time" and the even more amazing "Blowin' Town." And then I picked up the Koch reissues of "Set Me Free" and "Fabulous."

Sorta on the fence about Cook. Doesn't rock hard enough, and why not do "Lonesome Cowboy Bill" if you wanna do Lou Reed and shock the rubes? It is retro. Dunno, I guess I want to like it more than I do; I really liked it first time I played it, but then I got distracted. In fact, I'm gonna listen to it again this morning.

I was just coming to the thread to say that I have trouble deciding whether I prefer Rich's Groove Sessions or the Smash sessions, and that on balance I think Groove wins out. The Hi sessions are pretty good too!

I always return to Behind Closed Doors thinking "this time I'll get it", and I never do. I haven't really investigated the post-Behind CLosed Doors stuff.

Except, that last LP he made - "Pictures and Paintings", something like that? - was surprisingly fine also. I love Charlie Rich.

i love all of those koch reissues of charlie rich, especially the fabulous charlie rich, which has his masterpiece, "life's little ups and downs." but i must disagree with you, edd, on behind closed doors, which i think is nearly as good. the two big singles, especially "the most beautiful girl," are towering poop moments, and there's lots of other good yacht-rocky and bluesy country going on there ("sunday kind of woman" and "i take it on home," for example). (and yeah, it has its cloying moments, no doubt about that.)

my fave moments on the complete smash sessions are probably the upbeat, garage-rocky "just a little bit of time" and the slow, somewhat complicated "the best years."

Listening to the Drakkar Sauna track that's streamed and Allred-reviewed over on PTW. Similar to earlier Drakkar Sauna I'd heard except that it lasts for nine minutes without any pretence of going anywhere. I paid vague attention to the lyrics, which seemed humorous once again (or "humorous," depending on how much you like 'em) about going various places and shooting oneself. Occasional interludes where the guitars leisurely drift in and out of dissonance. Once again, the tongues are supposed to be in cheek but the tunes and harmonies seem not to know this and go for straightup prettiness.

Not my cup of meat usually, but the harmonies and lyrics kept jumping out of the murk, or jumping up and down in it, on their branch (a tree grows in Kansas)

listening to bedtime story by tammy, i can hear a bit of peggy lee, is it just me?

Hi Anthony, when are our comments gonna be on lefthip.com, or did I miss them? If so, got a link?

don, ive been meaning to email you, they will be going up as part of a seires, and the editor wants photos

No way to send a photo, just substitute a public domain cartoon face or something, please thx

So I finally just a half hour ago heard Johnny Cougar's "Our Country" whilst sock-shopping in a discount store down the street (three pairs grey plus three pairs black for $3.98 -- good deal!), and inasmuch as I could evaluate it there (only heard the last half I think), I have to say it did not sound as horrible as I had been warned. Which is not to say it sounded good. But at least I could tell immediately who it was, and I figured out in about two seconds what it was. Which counts for something. The chorus's words are basically a defanging of Woody Guthrie telling us from the redwood forests to the gulf-stream waters this land is our land, right? Maybe too blatant for anybody to have pointed out? I suppose.

don

do you have a cartoon face in mind

chuck
i dont wear socks

Don't your feet get cold? (This time of year sometimes I wear two pairs at once myself.)

Waitin On A Train = old-timey bluegrassy strums played speedily but not especially tunefully or skilfully in any other discernible way. Boring singer with no special aptitute for power or beauty. From Pennyslvania, aparently. On The Left and George Brigman's label Bona Fide. Reputedly doing for bluegrass what the Pogues once did for Irish jigs. Not true. Basically remind me of Old Crow Medicine Show.

(Though I think even Old Crow Medicine Show have/had more rhythmic talking-blues sense. At least on their debut. Followup was a snooze.)

(Though er, ah, the album I think of as their "debut" wasn't per se' actually their debut, was it? O.C.M.S.M I mean. I vaguely remember that they had a couple before that, but I never heard them.)

Album by Glenn Stewart in the mail today. His cdbaby page indicates that he used to be in an '80s band (rock, I assume) (actually, hair metal I assume even more) that had some success, but he doesn't name what the band was, and a quick google search didn't help, so maybe he's embarrassed. Nowadays he wears a cowboy hat. So far I heard one love ballad I didn't like on the album (not sure its name), one Southern rocker ("Dance Little Donna") I liked a lot, and one Bon Jovi solo style power ballad ("Love Comes Knockin'") that convinces me I was right about the hair metal part. (Also he has one track intriguingly titled "My So Called Life," but I've yet to hear it.)

the elastic bugs me more then my feet getting cold.

i really like randy travis.

via metal thread, though it has nothing to do with metal actually:

Black Angel (cdbaby Stones-rock, sufficently DFX2-like so far though the song now "American Wedding" is nicely drawled late '70s Stones-country quoting "crimson and clover over and over" in its lyrics).
...

Wow, Black Angel's "One Beer" on now, even better Stones-country Some Girls style; dude's singing about being a country boy down at the 7-11 on Desolation Row drinking a beer for the devil and in love with the queen of hip-hop soul. (Guess I should be posting this on the country thread instead; sorry folx.)

Anyway:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/bangel

Now they're mentioning George Jones in a song called "Country Symphony."

also first published on metal thread:

From Glenn Stewart's myspace page:

Influences 1- Part JoDee Messina, for all the inspiration she has given me through her music and her being. To the fact she made me think out side the box when it came to my song writing. Part Cinderella, for if you stripped the "hair band" title and the gargling with razorblade vocals, they provided, raw, meaning full southern rock influence with a great feel ( especially Long Cold Winter.

His album is so far seeming too ballady for its own good, but "Brand New Day" is powerchorded hair-metal for sure.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/glennstewart

Personally, I miss the gargling with razorblade vocals. But "Freight Train -- Here I Go" is good, too.

Anthony: if you could find a cartoon face with a mullet, that would be good, since I write about Seger's collection from 70s on, or a 70s Have A Nice Day smiley face (with a mullet if possible!) or a teddy bear head.

Posted this on the teenpop thread and might as well post it here as well, taken originally from my Songs Of The Day posts on my MySpace page:

let's just end with the song of the day for December 6, 2006, Taylor Swift's "Tim McGraw." The subject matter's been run into the ground (memories of first love, coming of age), but her words are exceptionally precise and evocative - no line in particular, just the way the details pile up: little black dress, box hidden under her bed, etc. "September saw a month of tears/And thanking God that you weren't here/To see me like that." Very skillful, makes not-quite-in-the-vernacular phrasing ("saw a month of tears") feel normal in context (ditto for "the moon like a spotlight on the lake"). She's canny in balancing wistfulness and self-assertion. She hopes that when the boy thinks of Tim McGraw he thinks of her favorite song. She leaves a letter on his doorstep to make sure he does.

let's just end with the song of the day for December 19, 2006, Taylor Swift's "Tim McGraw," which I already did a couple of weeks ago, but the song keeps getting richer and richer the more I hear it. She uses the word "bittersweet," and she's not kidding. The first time she sings the chorus, "When you think Tim McGraw, I hope you think my favorite song," it means "I hope you have warm memories of me," but by song's end it also means "I hope I haunt you, fucker, the way you haunted me. Sincerely, your discarded girlfriend, Taylor." It doesn't abandon the first meaning, just layers another one on top.

But this is what I wrote on a comments thread in my livejournal:

Best new lyrics I heard all year, I think. They balance so perfectly that anything I say probably overstates the mood one way or another; but in the first chorus when she goes "When you think Tim McGraw, I hope you think my favorite song" it's simply sweet, but by the third chorus those words carry hurt and bitterness and a whole expanse of sadness, and a hint of aggression, as well (as if to say, "may that song haunt you," though that overstates it) - while retaining the sweetness.

Keith Urban sounded pretty great on SNL tonight.

And this is what I wrote about the Wreckers:

let's just end with the song of the day for December 16, 2006, the Wreckers' "Stand Still, Look Pretty." "You might think it's easy being me/Just stand still, look pretty," sing a couple of gorgeous exteenpoppers. With looks like that they don't know if they have a right to their distress, but they're falling apart anyway. Interesting premise, which they don't take anywhere, so the lyrics feel whiny and empty. But with a quiet rasp in the voice and with the melody hanging around an irresolute "mi" note, the sound delivers some of the sadness that the words aren't up to.

(You can find my MySpace blog here.)

in a whole different direction, reviewing the new alasdair roberts, adn its a collection of traditional ballads, plus work hes done, but the work hes done is lyrically so close to the childe model, that it is impossible to tell the difference, and i dont know if thats a good thing or not

from rolling metal:

Bay City Rollers quote in Glenn Stewart's otherwise Heartbreak Station-worthy "Freight Train--Here I Go": "Yes, no, maybe so, Oh no, I gotta go." Thanks to the new Sirens album for reminding me.

Hey all, Charlie Louvin is in Nashville this week, and he was on WRVU on Hipbilly Jamborree last night, talking about his new album, Ira, etc. It was really fantastic. I think it starts around 8 and 1/2 minutes in.

http://wrvu.org/schedule.html

(click below the show name to stream)

He was really delightful and telling me all sorts of blonde jokes. He also sang Eddy Arnold's "Molly" to me, and I almost passed out.

Louvin's signing CDs at the Country Music Hall of Fame on 2/24 at 2 p.m. in Nashville, before he heads down to Grimey's. Really grown fond of the record, esp. his take on Jimmie Rodgers.
Now, got to see how Miranda Lambert's new one is...

WHILE ILM WAS OUT:

FRANK:
Just posted this on my mice pace profile as my song of the day (loved
the
Babys cover as well; thought the "Missing You" duet with Alison Krauss
was
tepid, though not bad):

let's just end with the song of the day for February 16, 2007, John
Waite's
"Highway 61 Revisited." It's a full-scale Chess blues reimagining of
the
song, as grimey and forceful and funny as a Muddy Waters track, but of
course w/ Dylan's collage-and-paste comic terror words, sung by Waite
with
no attempt to sound the least bit Chicago but instead using the same
late
'70s-early'80s high-pitched hair-rockpop delivery he'd used back in his
late
'70s-early '80s high-pitched hair-rockpop heyday. So it's impassioned
and
ingratiating while the blues grinds away underneath. He lets loose with
"Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah" at the end. Inspired. I can't say I was
expecting this.

[Not that I ever paid enough attention to Babys-Waite-Bad English to
have
fully formed expectations anyway]


FRANK:
The Waite is a new album, on which he reworks some of his old songs and
also
covers some other people; you would have read about it on the rolling
country thread, where Xhuxk mentioned it a few times. The duet with
Krauss
(now a Rounder labelmate) is #42 with a weak bullet on the Mediabase
country
airplay chart: a negligible jump of 50 plays nationally over the last 7
days, so my guess is that at most it goes to the mid 30s unless the vid
suddenly takes off on CMT or VH1. On the chart, it's Alison's name atop
the
marquee, not John's. Don't know where the song is on the most recent
Billboard country chart (other than it's not in the Top 25).

Here's the video, if you're interested. Alison walks into the studio,
John's
singing on one side of the glass, she's singing on the other, then
they're
on the same side but on separate mics, looking across at each other, at
the
end of the session they leave, shake hands outside the studio, she goes
off
in one direction (perhaps some stress in her face and a glistening of
the
eyes), he goes off in another direction, he's walking down a narrow
passageway, after a while he turns around, starts to head back, video
ends:

http://mp.aol.com/video.index.adp?pmmsid=1841805&referer=http%3A//music.aol.com/artist/alison-krauss/647/main&mode=1

Set in some southern city, obviously; something about it says New
Orleans,
where I've never visited so I don't know. (Would add another layer of
meaning to the phrase "missing you.") Also, the song now seems better
than
the "tepid" I labeled it in the previous email (or seeing Alison makes
*me*
feel less tepid), though it's not up there with "Highway 61" or "Isn't
It
Time."

DON:
Yikes,
not only
did I read about Waites's Rounder set on RC, I think I have that promo!
Dig I
must. (PS: Elana James's s/t solo debut is hot and cool in all the
right
places. She used to be in Hot Club of Cowtown, but is better off
without them,
seems like.Have to dig up my HC too.)

ROY:
Whenever the sand-free ILM is back--I'm sure it's futile to even ask if
anyone knows anything about an ETA--I'm certain I'll be talking about
the new Pam Tillis, which is shockingly good.

I do not get Rounder publicity. I've been writing about their records
for years--but some I get, some I don't. I'd very much like to hear the
Waite.

CHUCK:

Tillis album is okay. Haven't played it beginning to end, but in the CD changer so far it strikes me a bit too much as a folk-is-better-than-pop move (not that Pam didn't always have a few toes in folk in the first place, of course, and not that folk often *isn't* better than pop, but still.) I keep thinking "Over My Head" is going to be the Fleetwood Mac song and I'm always disappointed when it's not but I wind up liking it anyway. "Down By The Water" seems okay, too, and the John Anderson duet where he talks about purple cows. "Something Burning Out" and "Someone Somewhere Tonight" seem less good, but I haven't had time this week to pay close attention to the thing, so my thoughts could entirely flip-flop.

My country song of the week, my song of the week period, was "One Beer" on the great Dec '06 CDBaby album by Black Angel, since it predicts the Grammy Awards by toasting with one beer both "Mary J Blige the queen of hip-hop soul" and "the Dixie Chicks the queen of Texas soul." (I don't think the nominations had been made by the time the CD came out, but I could be wrong.) Like I said, though, the whole album is great, though I wish the track the steals that tough "Nutbush City Limits" riff ("Kiss It") turned into more of a song, and I wish the song that mentions (pretends to feature?) (*does* feature? though I dont' think so) Dwight Yoakam ("Drinkin' Woman") didn't sound so much like Tom Waits.

Country tune of the past couple days has been on the Detroit Cobras' new *Tried and True*. They never struck me as country before, but every time "On A Monday" (a total rockabilly two-step) comes on, I mistakingly think I love a track on the new Tillis album (which I might regardless, I just don't know yet.) "Try Love" seems fairly country too. But for all I know that might be where the Cobras' country ends; I'm not sure yet. Album is on Bloodshot, so a country move would make some sense maybe. (Bloodshot's doing the new Gore Gore Girls album, too, due out in couple months.) So far my favorite track is "Nothing But A Heartache"; that's an old Motown cover, right? Not sure if the others are covers or not. Problem is with the Cobras I've always gotten tired of their albums rather quickly; their previous one had a good song about eating hot dogs, but it's not on my shelf anymore. Though *Mink Rat or Rabbit* still is. Their singing seems to be improving, but I still tend to think they're no Gore Gore Girls for some reason. Which probaby has something to do with the lack of Amy Surdu's guitar.

That John Waite album is pretty good. And yeah, the Babys updates "Isn't It Time" and "Head First" rule. I think I also liked "New York City Girl," "St Patrick's Day", and especially "The Hard Way" (which sonically earned its title as I recall), none of which I'd ever heard in any version before. But I think I marked the tracks I liked most on the advance copy I sent to Frank, so I can't be completely sure.

MATT:
Well, at least you LIKE the Pam T. record, kinda. I don't hear 'folk' in it as much as I hear her beloved 1970s country-rock (which had a lot of folk in it natch) and some weirder stuff. Predictably, my favorite song is "Crazy by Myself," the one written by Matraca Berg; it makes emotional sense to me, even though it really ends up not making any internal sense. But yeah that duet, where they're getting all nostalgic about "Eat a Peach", and yeah the Bruce Robison song, and yeah the whole thing really.

I'm reviewing the new Tin Hat record for AllAboutJazz.com and I think they make a crucial error by going away from their occasionally-country-ish jazz sound. They've hoed down before but the new one is more like freak-folk jazz and That Will Not Stand with this reviewer. It's fine, but it's just not my flavor.

EDD:
yeah, Pam Tillis made a good record I don't find very exciting, which as usual might be the point. The players are all the same a-listers--J.T. Corenflos, who in my opinion is what makes Dierks Bentley cool to listen to, among them--and as Matt points out, the Berg song is real good. I dunno, I find myself totally in sympathy with what they're trying to do, but it does strike me as retro. Very 1974. And so this is her "personal statement" she could not sell to Music Row? She does look pretty good in that pink hat on the insert. All I know is, John Anderson is always good to hear--maybe he's a bit wasted. (Haven't gone back to his Easy Money, except to groove on "Brown Liquor," which the whole record probably should've sounded like instead of Big & Rich's lame-ass ballads. Not their strength. ) So maybe Pam's "austerity" in contrast is better?

ROY:
Edd and I talked about this in a non-group email, but I don't hear it
as especially retro; it's less retro than her tribute to her-r-r-r
fa-a-ather from a few years back. And when was the last time she had
Music Row hot and bothered? She's old enough to know better. What I
like most about the album are the songs and the way her voice, such a
cool instrument, gets all the nuances, or maybe it's the other way
around. To me it's more country-is-folk-is-pop if anything, so perhaps
it's not that far from 1974 after all.

FRANK:
On MySpace, listening to the Black Angels, who probably aren't the
Black
Angel that Chuck's talking about, but they do list 'selves as
Psychedelic,
Folk-Rock, Experimental. First track, "Black Grease" starts with the
riff to
"20th Century Boy" which is great but then the voice is more like Jack
White's jangled tonsils - which can also be great but this time isn't
(and
anyway it isn't Jack), and the track hangs back as a lethargic lysergic
drone. 'S OK, maybe. Def Leppard's "20th Century Boy" (on *their*
MySpace
and last year's covers CD) is far better.

OK, went to CDBaby and found the right "Black Angel" - "One Beer"
sounds
like country by people whose first love Stones Stones Stones ahead of
country, and that's fine with me; funny *Exile* murk (that's a
compliment,
by the way, even if the murk is one of the reasons *Exile*'s not in my
top
ten Stones albs [also self-effacement, also shortage of songs]). Not as
good
as the Stones, unsurprisingly, but worth a second listen.

Unrelated to the topic at hand and not in itself related to country,
but I'm
listening to 10 songs I dl'd for the Stylus Jukebox Sophisto-Pop
special
('80s tracks by Curiosity Killed the Cat, Bryan Ferry, Aztec Camera,
the
Style Council, etc.) and with exactly one exception - Sade's "Smooth
Operator" - they are dull dull dull dull, and not just dull but cloddy
(sayeth Simon Frith at the time: Brits can't sing!) (though I'm too
busy to
head to Wikipedia and find out which of these performers are Brits),
but
also a bad choice given the subgenre (ABC has done better stuff than
"When
Smokey Sings"; I have no idea if Blow Monkeys and Swing Out Sister did
anything better than their shitty tracks here, and I'm not likely to
find
out). And doing cloddy music in a style that draws on stuff that had
been
done more smoothly by nonhip anonymous pros in America twenty to thirty
years earlier is not "sophisticated." It may be poignant, it may be
worth
doing, it may even be passionate or pretty in spots (I like the Bryan
Ferry
track "Don't Stop The Dance" reasonably well, and he's done better;
also
like "Shattered Dreams" by Johnny Hates Jazz), but it's to
sophistication as
Jewel is to poetry. Bringing my thoughts countryward, when Alan Jackson
went
smooth jazz 'n' blues on his last album there may have been a bullshit
"respectability" element but indeed it is beautiful smooth jazz 'n'
blues,
and Toby Keith basically doing creamy quiet-storm soul (did anyone
outside
of the rolling country thread notice that that's what he's doing?) is
equally beautiful, and Gene Watson doing "What A Difference A Day
Makes"
etc. is better still.

MORE!

FRANK:
Remember the opening scene in *Blazing Saddles* where bosses tell the
black
convicts on the chain gang to sing a work song to help with their
labor, so
the convicts break into an elegant version of "I get no kick from
champagne"? Well, the start of Christina Aguilera's "Candyman" is this
in
reverse: the lyrics start "Tarzan and Jane were swinging on a vine
(candyman, candyman)/Sippin' from a bottle of vodka double wine (sweet,
sugar, candyman)," but the music is a bona fide work-song or march-song
chant (sampled? recreated?). What follows steps halfway between Andrews
sisters swingbrat pizzazz and Stick McGhee's glug-glug party blues, but
doesn't feel retro so much as feels like Xtina being omniverous. Her
voice
still has way more chops than personality, but the songs are getting
personality. I hope Katharine McPhee is taking notes.

CHUCK:
"Since I Fell For You" by Charlie Rich on now: soul music. Third to last track on new two-CD *Essential* set, which is the best album I've heard in 2007 by far if reissues count. This is going to sound completely nuts, but I actually think the opener "Lonely Weekends" is one of my *least* favorite songs on this thing; it's totally great, but strikes me (is this idiotic?) as a fairly blatant Elvis rip, where Charlie doesn't really seem to develop his own real vocal personality until a few songs in. I guess what I'm saying is that, judging from this collection, I prefer him doing soul, blues, jazz (even "Pictures and Paintings," on now, which people on the ILM thread seemed to have mixed feelings about), countrypolitan, maybe even gospel, than rockabilly. In general anyway. Or maybe I just like him doing grown-up music more than teen music. Not that "Lonely Weekends" is (obviously) necessarily a teen song. Anyway, I could go on and on. Didn't notice til today that "I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water" is about breaking out of prison. Wonder what is wrong with Charlie's baby (and in turn Charlie) in "When Something's Is Wrong With My Baby" (am I confusing things, or did Marsh or Marcus or somebody say this was a sexual dysfunction song once? Could be.) Wonder if anybody put "River, Stay Away From My Door" on any Katrina playlists. Wonder if there are countrypolitan-hating purists stupid enough to hate "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl." Etc. But the song that really gave me a quiet storm's worth of chills today was "Nice 'N' Easy." which I seemed to recall somewhere deep in my subconscious hearing ages ago, but I'm not sure where (okay, it was on a Charlie CD than Edd burned for me last year, but why do I feel it was something more than that? Like I heard it as a kid or something? Whitburn tells me it did not cross over pop.) Anyway, even more than lots of stuff here, it is what Alan Jackson and Toby Keith want to be, I think.

Speaking of Toby, picked up his 1997 *Dream Walkin'* at Princeton Record Exchange yesterday (along with a bunch of other other $2 to $4 country CDs from the '90s or early '00s: *The Tractors* self-titled [somebody compared them to Big N Rich on ILM a couple years ago, but the stuff I've heard on line is just passing sub-boogie, but who knows], *Coyote Ugly* soundtrack, *Rebecca Lynn Howard* self-titled, Tim McGraw *All I Want* and *Not A Moment Too Soon*). Toby's the only one I've gotten to so far; did anybody know that he did a duet with STING once? Divorce ballad with slight Police-reggae lilt parts called "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying"; not bad. Most of the cuts I liked more than that ("Jacky Don Tucker" about a wild melon-stealin cop-a-feelin' uncle, "She Ran Away With A Rodeo Clown" [we also watched "freestyle bullfighting" out of Cheyenne, Wyoming. last night on TV -- it's fun and the bull doesn't get hurt!), "I Don't Understand My Girlfriend") is upbeat with a sense of humor. Also like "Dream Walkin',", and the uncharacteristically spare and forlorn "Tired," about how life winds up being a drag when, unlike Jacky Don Tucker," you *do* follow all the rules. Way better album than I'd have guessed -- I need to catch up on the rest of his early albums. (Oh yeah, also picked up some $1 vinyl, including best-ofs by Bobby Bare and Crash Craddock -- the latter of whom I'm not sure I've ever heard before -- plus the Jean Knight album with her version of "My Toot Toot" and the Henry Gross album with "Shannon," a hit about his dog dying.)

Also decided I liked Charlie Rich's rockabilly way better than the Detroit Cobras', rockabilly despite raving about the latter yesterday morning. Played all the way through, their new album is sounding thin to me, just like most of their previous ones, as I said. But I'll try more. I'm not sure why I keep hitting a wall with them.

Two other quick things: Frank wondered where Waite's/Krauss's "Missing You 2007" was in Billboard; it's #34 on the country chart, as it turns out. More curious is Big N Rich's "Lost In This Moment" at #41 -- curious because I don't *think* I've heard it (new album due May-ish, apparently), unless it's the song called "Caught Up In The Moment" from their previous album with just a slightly different name.

CHUCK:
Ha ha, the Aguilera lyrics below remind me of Toy Box and Aqua at the same time. (Frank's description does make me want to hear the song, though.)

Tractors' "Fallin' Apart": Okay, unison harmonies; sad sack sense of humor. So I do see a slight Big N Rich connection there. But only a connection to one *facet* of Big N Rich. (Or two.) (Ditto Drakkar Sauna. Who are growing on me. When I like them they remind me of the Holy Modal Rounders. Though I wish they reminded me of Holy Modal Rounders more, and more often. Lalena keeps pronouncing their name "Drunk In A Sauna," for some reason.)

New Detroit Cobras album by the way has plenty of *good* songs ("Leave My Kitten Alone," which has very cool meows; "Green Light," which is good in part because all red light green light TNT songs are good.) But something is missing.

*Coyote Ugly* soundtrack features, in addition to plenty of dancey Leann Rimes apparently, EMF and Snap and "I Need You Tonight* by INXS. The latter funks like "Shakedown Street" by the Grateful Dead or, best version, "Nighttime In The Switching Yard" by Warren Zevon. Which I just realized last week is a train song than sounds like a train, duh; why did that take me three decades to figure out?
(His live *Stand In The Fire* reissue in the CD changer now, by the way. Reminds me that "Play It All Night Long" may well be the best Drive By Truckers song of all time, and Zevon did it a couple decades before the Truckers even existed.)

ROY:
Is this Charlie Rich Essential different from the 2 disc on
Columbia/Legacy: Feel Like Going Home which came out in 97? Amazon and
Allmusic don't list any new Essentials...
Also, you're not completely nuts about "Lonely Weekend" sounding like
Elvis; he was tagged with the Elvis soundalike thing for a very little
while. Didn't take long to leave that in the dust. You gotta get the
Complete Smash Sessions, which documents how he did that most
awesomely.

I love the Sherrill stuff. But you don't have to be a purist to hate
"Behind Closed Doors." Just ask Edd. :)

DON:
Yeah, Toby complained later that the label made him record "a sucky
song"
with Sting, but I thought it was a good track. (Sting kind of stretched
his
thinner voice around Toby's sensitve brawn, which was wise.) As did all
of his
early albums, back to the first, though I haven't listened to 'em in a
while. He
sure did jump from label to label, but it all worked out pretty well,
from this
listener's point of ear, anyway.


CHUCK:
And yes, Black Angel >>> Black Angels. The former are indeed Stones-country, as I said, 90 percent of the time; besides "One Beer," my favorite songs on their newest album (apparently they have three; haven't heard the other two) are probably "O'California," "Shadows," "Soldier Boy, Soldier Girl," "American Wedding," maybe "Goodby Angelina" (about Jolie maybe), maybe "Betty's Farm." As for Black Angels, "Black Grease" is just about as good as they get, either that or "The First Vietnamese War," both from their debut EP; their full-length followup (which I probably talked briefly about on rolling metal last year) was too much of a merely okay thing. Saw them live last year; they were fine. I'd classify them with the Raveonettes in the post-Jesus and Mary Chain sweepstakes; a vaguely interesting drone-rock-pop sound; not very many real songs., Or something. And yes, Def Lep glam it up way better; no comparison.

Tractors seem to be primarly a post-Western-Swing/proto-rockabilly country boogie band transposed briefly to the country charts in 1994. They seem good-spirited in an NRBQ way. Somewhat an anamoly if they got much radio play at the time,, but not as tough as the Kentucky Headhunters, who were more or less the same era. But I like them. Last cut on their album, "Tulsa Shuffle (Revisited)," is dance-remixed Western Swing with party voices in the background.

Speaking of Black Angels, their label, Light In The Attic Records, is reissuing the two '70s albums by Betty Davis, who was married to Miles and dated Hendrix, at least as the legend goes. The label sent me an advance, promo CD that combines both albums, though they're actually being released separatelty. Most of what I wrote in *Stairway To Hell* about the marginally better of the two, *They Say I'm Different,* (which coincidentally is the only one of the two I *don't* own on vinyl now) still stands: She has way too thin a voice, can't carry a melody to save her life, and the songs mostly lack hooks, but when she just the rides the groove, she can be really good, and in songs like "Come Take Me" and "Don't Call Her No Tramp" the groove can get fairly monstrous, almost in a Jimmy Castor Bunch funk-metal way. On the other hand, white rock bands from Nazareth to Foghat to Black Oak Arkansas rocked funkier at the time, in part because they were way catchier and had way stronger singers, so big, deal, right? Though sometimes her big-afro attitude help, too, of course, though not nearly as much as people who wind up reviewing the reissues will pretend, I bet. Funniest song: Still "He Was a Big Freak," where she whips the guy with a turquoise chain. "Steppin In Her I. Miller Shoes" is both a great title and a good track. "If I'm In Luck I Might Get Picked Up" and "Game Is My Middle Name" and "Shoo-B-Doop and Cop Him" are not as good as their titles. but a few other cuts come close maybe.


EDD:
actually I don't hate "Behind." it's a deserving hit--it's the other
Sherrill stuff on the albums I don't much like. Charlie sings well,
altho
sometimes he sounds depressed, and Sherrill's overkill just isn't my
thing.

CHUCK:

Maylene and the Sons of Disaster: Good rustic thrash playing with plenty of boogiefied groove in it; invariably hard-to-take sore-throat yelling that at its *most* tolerable sounds like Alice in Chains or somebody, which means still pretty shitty (and kind of emo, even). More often the vocals are just ugly, which is a shame, since supposedly the album is a concept album about "the true tales of 1920s gangster Ma Barker and her prohibition era real-life crime family," not that you can tell, and sadly they don't cover "Ma Baker" by Boney M either. They list Willie Nelson among their influences, which is not remotely audible, but the Skynyrd influence might not be total bullshit (or at least less bullshit than in the case of Clutch, Pantera, Corrosion of Conformity, etc.), at least as far as the rhythm is concerned. Best track by far is a reasonably lovely guitar blues tapestry instrumental called "The Day Hell Broke Loose At Sicard Hollow." But Wino Weinrich's new band Hidden Hand does this backwoods kind of legend-of-wooley-swamp metal stuff a lot better on their new album, and Wino has a voice.
Flying Eyes from Maryland call themselves "pyschodelic-blooze-rock" at CDbaby; list Pink Floyd, Hendrix, Cream, Doors, Dead Meadow, Radiohead, among their influences, but none of those let you know that Allison Weiner is actually a real good lady singer (from another room, Lalena was liking it and asked if it was a country record); actually, I hear more Grace Slick or Jenny Haan from Babe Ruth or whoever sang for Curved Air (who, okay, I barely remember) in the vocals, or even the Gathering with the goth and metal taken out. Lots of beautiful psychedelic guitar solos, especially in "Song For Empy Rooms," and "Dreaming Eyes Awake," which I think is the best track on their myspace page. My other favorites are "Devastating Fire," which has an extended wah-wah solo coming out of some punchy, sinewy hard rock with real gravity to it, and "Caravan," which progresses from space rock to hippie jazz fusion with non-gloomy words trying to come to terms with dying (or something like that) ,"Also in "Our Blues" a Humvee eats somebody's family, which is not humorless. And the thing about all the solos is that Allison's singing lets them emerge naturally from songs; they don't just stand there and pointlessly noodle into the empty sky.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/theflyingeyes

CHUCK:
So yeah, I count five or six good songs out of 11 on the Pam Tillis CD, a pretty decent batting average -- "Band In the Window" (featuring a gal with '80s hair), "Train Without a Whistle," the John Anderson duet (which seems to be about a couple getting older who may or may not have stopped being a couple along the way as the countryside turned more citylike), "Crazy By Myself" (swings!), "Bettin' Money On Love" (probably my favorite -- a funny football-widow song, as talked as it is sung), maybe "That Was a Heartache" (which is the Robison song). So yup, good album after all, though I'm not sure what 1974 country-rock y'all think it sounds like -- Ronstadt? Or who? Not much rock in at all, near as I can hear. (Playing Rebecca Lynn Howard's 2000 bubble-country debut-I-assume now, and "When My Dreams Come True" feels more rock than anything on the Tillis, easy.)

John Waite album sounds like if Keith Urban liked Johnny Thunders, I decided. (JW even hears JT's "You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory" on the radio in "Downtown"!)..well, *solo* Thunders. I prefer the Heartbreakers, but I'm not complaining. (Also, Urban and Thunders might even have certain addictions in common.) High point of "New York City Girl": guitar solo. High point of "St. Patrick's Day": When you can hear the marching band drums in the background.

The Tractors can be too kitschy cornball for their own good, but they have some good jokes, too -- So far my favorite is when they start their cover of Chuck Berry's great "Thirty Days" by aping the acapella part of Humble Pie's "Thirty Days In the Hole," get it? And I think I sort of hated "My Baby Likes To Rock It" ("like a boogie woogie choo choo train," gawd) on CMT at the time, but now I like how it kinda sounds like "Sea Cruise" by Frankie Ford. They do New Orleans rhythm pretty well in general. And they have famous friends -- guest spots on the (I assume debut) album from Leon Russell, JJ Cale, Bonnie Raitt, James Burton. What the hell? (Unchecked theory: Are they studio hands who started a country band, to play bars and climb on the charts? That'd explain it.)

EDD:
I hear some GP and Grievous Angel in (Pam Tillis' Rhinestoned): , was what I was thinking of.

So, I keep playing the Dale Watson record. Sort of addicted to "Time Without You" and the amazing "You Always Get What You Always Got" (friend who is deep into AA confirms that this song would go over bigtime at meetings, and says Dale has obviously been thru some shit and come out the other side with help from various Higher Powers and so forth).

"Hollywood Hillbilly" is a bit obvious, or weak--who's it about, Dwight Yoakam? The way this record's played really shows how country of the outlaw kind derives from rockabilly, I mean the chicka-boom here, and the really great way Watson's band gets the two-stepping thing down. To me, this record is a combination of Waylonisms (and late-'60s Cash on the Barrelhead) and the Bakersfield thing, which seems just post-Beatles to me somehow. Was the Bakersfield sound in the '60s a conscious response to the British Invasion?

ROY:
At some point, yeah, but initially it was the other way around. The
Beatles were huge fans of Buck ("Act Naturally" obv) as he was of them.
But he and Don Rich had pretty much gone all electric and established
the classic Bakersfield sound before the invasion

New country albums in my changer now: Lantana (three Shania Twains in one band! sort of! okay not as good at that but still! plus they cover '70s REO Speedwagon!*); John Prine "& Mac Wiseman (okay, I guess I'd like just about anybody singing "Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine" and "Saginaw, Michigan" and "Pistol Packin' Mama," and these old geezers sing them real purty I suppose, but most of the other songs aren't that good and even the ones I love don't make this any less pointless I don't think); Little Rachel With the Lazy Jumpers (more rockabilly than jump blues no matter what her cdbaby page implies and just as pointless as the Prine-plus-pal platter no doubt but at least her leopard skin top is more fun to look at, plus "bull ridin' mama" is dirtier than anything on the prine album I think):

http://cdbaby.com/cd/littlerachelcd

* favorite songs so far: "no tresspassin," "ride 'em cowboy." followed by "country as a city girl can be," "what turns me on." best title on the album, easy: "the juice ain't worth the squeeze," hey tell that to robert plant!

http://cdbaby.com/cd/lantanamusic

So do links no longer work here anymore, or what? wtf?

And okay, Little Rachel's bullridin' song is jump blues, I guess.

I just found this forum by accident trying to find Fred Neil songs - this is a goldmine! I'm happy!!!

I think you have to bracket your links now. Check formatting help at bottom of screen.

Glad RC 2007 is back. Tonight I'm listening to the new Two Cow Garage CD; a Springsteen move that I like, less because of the keybs, and more for the songwriting. Guitars still loud. I do plan to write something about the new Pam Tillis, which is the best country album I've heard this year.

Er, okay, I was probably wrong about Little Rachel, who turns out to be at least as jump blues as she is rockabilly, if not more so. Today I'm for some reason convinced that (at least for the duration of "It's Always A Blonde" and "Bartender Baby" and "Panic Attack") she is considerably more engaging and less offensive than, um, Cherry Poppin Daddies or the Royal Crown Revue (neither of whom I hated as much as most people do) were, but I can't guarantee that opinion will last very long. So caveat emptor.

Meanwhile, on a related topic, "Candyman" by Christina Aguilera (which I have only so far heard in its Ellen Degeneres show performance on youtube version) reminded me right away of Dr. Buzzard's Original Savanah Band at least as much as it reminded me of Madonna circa Dick Tracy (wasn't that when she did her swing-band move?) I like the song, either way. Though probably not as much as most of Cory Daye's Cory And Me album.

Progressing back from jump blues to country boogie (which were always related, obviously) the Tractors turned out to have a commendable populist streak ("The Little Man," "The Blue Collar Rock," "Badly Bent" which is about not quite being broke but being very close) I didn't notice right away.

Rebbeca Lynn Howard's aforementioned 2000 debut-ish thing is, not surprisingly, best at its most bubblegum -- namely "When My Dreams Come True" and the erotically oohed and aahed "Heartsounds," plus the blatant Juice Newton poppabilly of "Tennesee In My Windshield." Most if not all of the rest of the album is slower, however, and is merely okay, though pretty.

I think you have to bracket your links now. Check formatting help at bottom of screen

I see "hyperlink" instructions, but no just plain regular link instructions.

But nope, I will not complain about how damnedably unreadable and user-unfriendly this board has become. That would be unseemly. Though I do have a headache, regardless.

I couldn't get it to work when I first tried it on the SXSW thread, but if you ignore "My Link Title" in the formatting instructions, you can make links:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/lantanamusic

http://cdbaby.com/cd/littlerachelcd

cool! assuming this works.

and i am sitll liking little rachel despite my reservations about such retrofied stuff. she has a voice! and hooks, and bawdy words. and gurls singing such stuff is almost always by definition more fun than if boys were singing it.

oops i mean:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/littlerachelcd

Miranda Lambert's "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend." Like her voice--she really sounds like the manager of the Fresh Foods section of the Dollar General store, and the backing seems about perfect for it. Like the one about being stuck in a dry town without a beer, and she seems sensible, maybe even essentially secular in some ways on the waltz "Love Letters." And I find it cool that the coolest song, aesthetically, on the record is called "Desperation," which advises "there's danger in frustration." She just seems like a total natural to me, which means I'm probably being fooled. Doesn't seem frustrated in the least, buy this woman a six-pack and the most she'll allow is that it's "Guilty in Here," but wonders "is it just me," since she apparently just wants to get out and have a good time in a world where the old 'uns all have a wedding ring and the young ones are just too dumb. She ain't crazy, needs to find a new and better club that suits her really fucking snazzy beats and great bridge on "Guilty in Here," perhaps move out west and make really good sandwiches in a nice, clean health-food joint in a resort town, and keep on shaking it. Fine record.