Rolling Country 2015

Never saw xpost Urban Cowboy, but, despite a few duds, the soundtrack still seemed pretty decent the last time I heard it (not recently). Think they got all the songs in there; most soundtracks leave some off, for financial reasons, I guess. But this double-LP had several radio hits, and may have been a hit its own self.

Gretchen Peters, Blackbirds[:
Maybe especially this time of year, some days are just naturally darker than others, and this album can help them slide in there a little darker still, without overdoing it. Although the title track comes a little close, with violence getting more physical "I stink of kerosene" etc---in a way the other songs don't seem to bother with (although it's more about the immediate overall effect, so who knows yet), as they usually track bad (self- and other) love through the woods, and "that green suburban plain" at least one citizen is zoning on. Not country- or folk-rock, although there's usually an electric guitar and/or drums among the otherwise acoustic combo, usually with medium-to-brisk tempos, not much decoration, and steady rhythms building nicely, like on "Black Ribbons," co-written and background sung by Matraca Berg and Suzy Bogguss, her fellow members of Wine Women & Song.
Ballad-wise, sounds like she's been listening to Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson, but not too much; for instance, I've never heard anything quite like the beautiful death spiral skywriting of "Pretty Things"---heard the musical pattern before, maybe, occasionally, but not with this kind of storyline.
Good duet with Jimmy LaFave, too, and the only cover, "Nashville"--as written and performed, a cogent swirl of memory, anticipation and apprehension---makes me want to check out the writer, David Mead, and has me thinking even more that several of these would fit Nashville, as did Season 2's "How You Learn To Live Alone," the one she wrote with Mary Gauthier.

I guess there's a *bit* of folk- and/or country rock in there sometimes, when the electric guitar takes a solo.

thanks for that recommendation, sounds good

Rolling Country regulars, should I watch the 1980 film Urban Cowboy starring John Travolta?

― welltris (crüt),

Sure, but it's not that good.

holy shit that gretchen peters record is incredible and intense

Glad yall liked it. This isn't "wild-eyed" etc like the live set Jerry Wexler happened upon, but he's got an amiable delivery---crisp, little rough, confident, never overselling--and the band's tight, even got some gouging guitar at times (and note James Booker on keys!) Not a terribly distinctive approach, even in the early 70s (they def like Waylon, also Willie, Hank, etc), but some good, maybe original lines), and Outlaw was still fresh.
Jimmy Rabbitt & Renegade
The Texas Album
St. Roch Av. Recordings
24 June 2015
Jimmy Rabbitt was an outlaw before being an outlaw was cool.

Beginning as a deejay in the '60s, Rabbitt has spun records from coast to coast and all points in-between, kickin' ass and taking names not only over the airwaves but also in every roadhouse and backroom dive from Dallas to The Apple and, of course, El Lay with the equally dangerous backing band Renegade.

These were the guys your mama warned you about.

Fate would have it that on one particular evening in 1972 while returning home from a concert, Jerry Wexler stopped to get a slice at a Pizza Parlor in Saugus, California. Jimmy Rabbitt & Renegade were playing their barn-burning, wild-eyed & country-fried outlaw music in the next room and were offered a recording contract with Atlantic Records on the spot. The master tapes collected dust for over 40 years, unreleased until now.

Recorded at Sound City Studios, 1973
Produced by Jerry Wexler
Engineered by Keith Olsen
Mixed by John Porter and featuring James Booker on keyboards
Half-Speed lacquer mastered by Stan Ricker.

This release contains all material from the recording session. Full album Download card with 5 additional songs included.

These guys were promoted as a fun alternative to ineptly trendy mainstream and stilted alt-country (or at least that's the way I took the pitches), but somehow they went in one ear, out the other, in my sad case. Like most bands, they were said to be better live, so maybe:

BR5-49 DELIVERS ONE LONG SATURDAY NIGHT
OF RED-HOT COUNTRY MUSIC FUN
ON THIS ARCHIVAL CONCERT CD/DVD
FROM BEAR FAMILY RECORDS,
OUT IN U.S. NOVEMBER 20th
This 1996 German TV show recording
contains several songs that never appeared on a BR5-49 album

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Country-music renegades BR5-49 made their name as a live band in the mid-’90s, when their high-spirited shows at Robert’s Western Wear, a boot shop and sometime bar in the Nashville’s then-still dicey Lower Broadway district, turned them into the talk of Music City. Performing there several nights a week for tips, the band would do four- or five-hour sets loaded with country classics, rockabilly gems and their modern traditionalist originals.
After the group — bassist Smilin’ Jay McDowell, drummer “Hawk” Shaw Wilson, multi-instrumentalist Don Herron and pair of singer/songwriter/guitarists: Chuck Mead and Gary Bennett — signed with Arista Records in 1996, the label released a live EP, Live at Robert’s. This six-song recording, however, only gives a glimpse of the band’s on-stage magic. The new Bear Family CD/DVD BR5-49: One Long Saturday Night, provides a broader picture of why they created such excitement on Lower Broadway. U.S. street date is set for November 20, 2015.
BR5-49: One Long Saturday Night captures the young band at peak form. Shortly after their self-titled studio debut, they toured in Europe, where their authentic brand of American roots music had already developed a following. In October 1996, they appeared on the German TV program Ohne Filter, which let bands play live in the studio. Chuck Mead states that this performance “really captured us at the top of our game and I look back on that time as an experience of a lifetime.”
For nearly an hour, BR5-49 tore through a spirited set where they mixed rejuvenated classic country hits like Johnny Horton’s “Ole Slewfoot,” Moon Mulligan’s “Cherokee Boogie,” Webb Pierce’s “I Ain’t Never” and even Gram Parsons’ “Big Mouth Blues” with their own timeless-sounding tunes, from Mead’s honky-tonkin’ “My Name Is Mudd” to’s country boogie number “Even If It’s Wrong.” The guys’ fun-loving sense of humor cuts loose on their punk-rock-girl-gone-country ditty “Little Ramona (Gone Hillbilly Nuts)” and “Bettie, Bettie,” their ode to a certain pin-up icon.
“We saw it as our duty to bring the spirit of Robert's Western World to every place we went,” explains Mead. “When I see and hear this DVD and CD set, it feels like we actually did that.” One Long Saturday Night, in fact, features several songs that were Robert’s show staples but never made a proper BR5-49 album. Hank Williams’ “Lone Gone Lonesome Blues,” Ray Price’s “Heartache by the Numbers,” Carl Perkins’ “Gone, Gone, Gone,” Carl Smith’s “Go Boy Go,” Hawkshaw Hawkins’s “Lonesome 7-7203” and a two tunes Bob Wills popularized — “Right or Wrong” and “Take Me Back to Tulsa.” There is even a previously unreleased Chuck Mead song, “Hometown Boogie.”
The DVD and CD both contain all 19 songs BR5-49 played on Ohne Filter, and the CD adds four soundboard recordings taken from a concert the band played in Japan one week after their German TV show appearance. These bonus tracks include three standards that were regulars in the BR5-49’s concerts — “Knoxville Girl,” “Settin’ the Woods on Fire” and “Sweet Georgia Brown” (the latter two are on a BR5-49 album for the first time) — along with Gary Bennett’s “Hillbilly Thang.”
BR5-49’s own “Hillbilly Thang” began after Bennett met Mead at Nashville’s Bluebird Café. While Bennett hailed from Washington state and Mead from Kansas, they found themselves to be musical compatriots. The two started playing at Robert’s Western Wear with a loose ensemble of musicians that formalized as BR5-49 with Mead’s old bandmate, drummer “Hawk” Shaw Wilson, Bennett’s roommate, multi-instrumentalist Don Herron, and “Smilin’” Jay McDowell, a buddy of Mead’s, on standup bass.
BR5-49 (their name taken from an old Hee-Haw sketch) made two studio albums and a live one for Arista before moving on to Sony/Epic’s Lucky Dog Records. After one album there, where they went by BR549, Bennett and McDowell left the band. Mead led the group through a couple more CDs before they went on hiatus, although they have had periodic reunions.
One Long Saturday Night offers a chance to why they were such a breath of fresh air in the country music scene when they appeared in the mid-’90s, and how they helped blaze the trail for the Americana music movement.

I remember the hype re them, more than I remember what they sounded like, too

they were super solid live, couldn't name a single song.

Listening to Old Dominion's Meat and Candy and I'm not sure what to make of it. Mostly I dislike it, but I think like their single, it will worm it's way in me and I'll love/hate it.

Yeah like I said upthread, really liked the drunk-dialing one, "Said Nobody" and 1-2 others, but doesn't really hold my attention overall, might grow on me though.
Ditto, I hope xpost Eric Church's Mr. Misunderstood I do like about 5/12 tracks so far (somewhere in the middle, "Mistress Called Music" goes from prematurely celebratory to reflective, which seems more convincing). But jeez, there's only 10 total, so not that much more potential. However, I'll keep listening. No problem to do that, although the intermittent country mellensteen moves are annoying; his voice isn't (even) good enough to pull 'em off, nor are the words. His band can do anything, but are kept on a short leash here; if you're gonna be that kind of corny, go all the way and then some, like on The Outsiders.
Still, "Chattanooga Lucy" is my fave so far, because it builds musically, as the reach-out lyrics call for. And all the best songs here draw on personal-cultural history for reaffirmation, refueling for the present and future, hopefully, in different situations.
(re the 'steen, if you want bemused ol' twangboys prowlin' the mean streets with time, blood and/or grease etc. on hands, try the Deluxe Edition of Tim McGraw's Sundown Heaven Town---it's uneven too, but lots more good songs, in part because lots more songs).

"Chatanooga Lucy" disturbingly reminds me of Yello's "The race"

Uh-oh, good thing I was gonna listen again. He does sound more at home here, for better and worse, than on some of The Outsiders. No surprise to see him quoted as wondering if producer didn't push him too far, "Oh Nashville, you great Babylonian bitch" or whutever, and his reservations/resistance made his voice/vocal approach seem even more limited that it does otherwise.

Not that he can't be effective with more intimate material.

Or maybe less intimate/more tasteful but also less-BS away (hard to balance those last two at once)

found a cheap copy of the new lindi ortega album "Faded Gloryville" and i've been listening to it a lot. found the chris stapleton for the same price and am enjoying with some reservations, but it's not bad at all.

New York Magazine headline: Is Eric Church the First Modern Country Star to Truly Get Rock ’n’ Roll Culture?

Striking Matches, Nothing But The Silence: songwriting duo, contributors to Nashville, and even though they're sonically easier to take for a whole album than Gunnar/Sam and Scarlett/Claire probably would be, still a bit too thin and earnest for my taste, especially when the words are too, and need stronger/less ingenue vox to put 'em over the top---and that's despite the bass and drums, always stepping up, never showboating (ditto electric rhythm guitar, given the chance). Still, it all works out sometimes---the in-too-deep, wanna go deeper "Make A Liar Out of Me" is my fave, and def. hoping for several cogent covers.

i saw them opening for ashley monroe about two years ago; they are polished and talented and crazy enthusiastic and yes thin and earnest but it wouldn't surprise me if they got rascal flatts big

that Church record sounds pretty good!

can't figure out
1) what that NYMag headline means
2) if it's a good headline
3) if I should read yet another piece on the cultural politics of genres (THINKING NO)

my office likes the Church record, nice

too many acoustic numbers on the Church, but, boy, he can sing

can't figure out
1) what that NYMag headline means
2) if it's a good headline
3) if I should read yet another piece on the cultural politics of genres (THINKING NO)

I read the piece, and as near as I can figure, Eric Church "gets" rock 'n' roll culture because he released his new album on vinyl.

It's not a bad article when it concentrates on the music, but I'm struck over and over again by how surprised writers are when country uses rock as if it never has.

If you don't pretend the thing you're writing about is wild and unprecedented, you've got no pitch.

(Of course, there's also a strong possibility the writer is too young to have any concept of history.)

Don't want to read that, even though he didn't write the headline, but let me guess: he's struck by title track, EC whining about being persecuted in high school for liking Elvis Costello and omg ***Jeff Tweedy***

Also: EC knows about black people, black music!

Edd interviews Kinky, likes new album, guess I'll check it out:
http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/archives/2015/11/10/kinky-friedman-the-second-cream-interview

eric church truly gets rock 'n' roll culture in that he realizes it's mostly a tryhard image-driven act

not like country

Bob Dylan's Shadows In The Night tracks a worn but sometimes surprisingly poised, limber, white-bluesy growl---in effect like the later Sinatra's shrewd conservation and investment of remaining resources (look for the 1980s cable concert from Wolf Trap, for inst) through the moonlight, with acoustic bass and steel guitar navigating, Cap'n D always at the wheel. The romantic ritualism could just seem like the "elaborate sentimentality" tag that young Nik Cohn applied in passing, but this is the sound of conviction, beyond excuses for getting wasted: the opener, "I'm a Fool To Want You" is spooked realization--this time is like the first time, and now he can't shake the chil. Dittono matter how many times those "Autumn Leaves" have drifted by, and how mellow the sadness they can bring, he dreads the the sign of their coming once more(oops, spoiler, but I never noticed the dramatic climax written in before, maybe because I never listened to the end before, so give the grizzled tones more points for that).
And love songs can be like work songs here---another old-school country association---nevertheless, somehow he gets into a drift that gradually spins him around, in his spacey, autumn leafy way---"I go away for the weekend, and leave my keys in the door"---which leads to a happier realization, "I've always been your clown"---happier because, hey "Why try to change me now." He enjoys the quest, the cruise, the growlin' prowl in the blue moonlight (and shadows, yes)! So the second half reflects this, at least 'til "That Lucky Ol' Sun" flips the light on: more work ahead, but he sounds ready for it, even if complaining and jealous of the Sun (can't get too happy, or it wouldn't be country).

Nice

Are those reviews in print?

As we move into December, I'd like to drop a quick note to encourage any readers / lurkers / ilxors to post their favorite as-yet-unmentioned pop country and bluegrass tracks from this year to the thread so that I can hoover them into the ongoing spotify playlist. Last chance for any accessible stragglers that may not already be in the lexicon.

Traveller, by Chris Stapleton just got nominated for album of the year by the Grammys. Maybe I will give it another listen and see if it can finally win me over.

Was listening to Eric Church' latest this weekend. Some good tunes there, but yes, don't get that "Jeff Tweedy" line

chris stapleton's album is the sort that doesn't need to be any good to be appreciated by the grammy people

the cam album!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/12/07/cam-untamed-stream-listen?hootPostID=6371636dbc30f05d3c88251e2c6b96fb

i like the ep quite a lot.

Oh sweet, thanks for the stream! Yeah, EP got me.
xxpost thanks niels, but I missed the boat on covering Dylan's Great American Songbook album; didn't think he could pull it off (o me of little faith, once again).
This playlist is uncredited, but I highly suspect it's the work of Rolling Country alum and longtime Rhapsody blogger Chuck Eddy, who probably created that venerable ILM country-disco thread. This isn't country-*disco* only, and while the intro cites all kinds of worthy precedents, the tracks listed and linked here are at least relatively recent, some current(haven't had time to check functionality of all so far, but I'm sure forks will hook us up if nec., thanks again forks)
http://www.rhapsody.com/blog/post/country-gets-its-groove-on

Cam album is really great. Dixie Chicks-esque with a lot of swagger. Production team of Jeff Bhasker (most famously cowrote most of Kanye's 808s) and Tyler Johnson (anyone familiar with him?) did a great job--the whole album bounces with life and rhythm. Tracks like "Want It All" seem destined for the Billboard charts...if there's any justice in this world.

Favorite track is "Half Broke Heart," which has a cowrite from the seemingly untouchable Luke Laird.

Leaving aside outsiders like Kacey Musgraves, the most promising debut from a female country artist since Kerosene?

"half broke heart" quietly overtook "burning house" as my favourite on the ep in recent months, the chorus works so well

always quite odd hearing an album when so much of it is familiar but yeah, very strong release

x-post re Tyler Johnson, co-producer

A Grammy nominee two years in a row in the “Album of The Year” category, Johnson’s credits include Taylor Swift’s Red and Ed Sheeran’s X. He moved to Los Angeles from Steamboat Springs, CO to pursue his passion for music,

http://pulserecordings.com/news/tyler-johnson-signs-publishing-deal-with-pulse-creative-nation/

Johnson left for school in Los Angeles in 2004 to study philosophy and political science, but that passion for music never left him. After graduating, he started working as an assistant for Grammy-winning producer Jeff Bhasker, who has worked with the likes of Beyonce, Taylor Swift, The Rolling Stones, Bruno Mars, P!NK, Kanye West, Rihanna and Jay Z.

#About four years ago, Johnson met Cam in Los Angeles, and the two began working together, selling their songs.

http://www.steamboattoday.com/news/2013/dec/19/rising-country-music-star-backed-steamboat-locals/

Struck by the thoughtful, sometimes wry or rueful turns and shading in with the high spirits and sheer vitality; production supports and mirrors her balancing act as young voice of experience, coming out of at least one bad relationship, as she's acknowledged. Could be risky, starting off with a post-breakup album, but no enigmatic personal references etc (although that can work too, with the right production---really like the way Torres' undertow is countered and polished by the Portishead dude etc., though wouldn't work without just the right songs, ditto Cam).
Struck by "Runaway Train"'s bit about after after she's transformed herself into an effectiveinstrument of revenge, maybe she'll feel human again (and the way she sings it---never over the top sounds on top of flamboyant lyrics, like somebody else might do it).

Interesting to see the Taylor Swift connections. A sign of things to come?

Undecided on order, but my top 4 country albums of the year right now are Stapleton, Eric Church, Cam, and Musgraves.

Catching up, I seem to be higher on Church than ILM. Being There is an all-time personal favorite of mine, so the nod to "Misunderstood" charmed from the outset. The transition of "Round Here Buzz" > "Kill A Word" is the best moment of the album; those are melodies that few could carry so effectively today. The former is the same small town country song that's been written a thousand times, but there are very sweet, affecting personal touchpoints that make it work for me. The bite of the latter is more original, but then there's still that sweetness to his delivery. Tough to say if it tops Chief, but it's close. Shame that it kind of got lost in Stapleton's coming out party. Mr. Misunderstood works better than Traveller for me as a front-to-back album, as Traveller seems to get bogged down in 5 and 6-minute tracks in its closing run.

xxp, since you asked nicely:
Country Gets Its Groove On Spotify Playlist

happy to see Ashley Monroe get a grammy nom for best country album

Cam's "Hungover on Heartbreak" has been stuck in my head for two days. Love: the way the guitar switches from finger picking to strumming when the drums kick in; the phrasing of "I get sick when you mention her name"; the warmness of the synth that the second verse is built on; how rhythmic the thing is--has such a great feel of life and momentum, as does the whole album.

That Nashville Sound has their AOTY list up, and as usual, there's lots of stuff I need to explore. Totally slept on that Will Hoge release.

http://thatnashvillesound.blogspot.com/2015/12/that-nashville-sounds-top-40-albums-of.html

1. Chris Stapleton - Traveller
2. Will Hoge - Small Town Dreams
3. Courtney Patton - So This Is Life
4. Pat Green- Home
5. Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen - Hold My Beer Vol. 1
6 Whitey Morgan and the 78's - Sonic Ranch
7. Ashley Monroe- The Blade
8. Logan Brill – Shuteye
9. Statesboro Revue - Jukehouse Revival
10.Eric Church – Mr. Misunderstood
11. Cody Jinks - Adobe Sessions
12. Chris Roberts- Way Out West
13. Daryle Singletary – There’s Still A Little Country Left
14. Jason Isbell – Something More Than Free
15. Lindi Ortega- Faded Gloryville
16. Haley Whitters- Black Sheep
17. George Strait – Cold Beer Conversations
18. Don Henley – Cass County
19. Mavericks – Mono
20. SteelDrivers - The Muscle Shoals Recordings
21. Ray Wylie Hubbard - The Ruffians Misfortune
22. John Anderson - Gold Mine
23. Kacey Musgraves - Pageant Material
24. Elenowen - Pulling Back the Veil
25. Emily Hearn – Hourglass
26. Jamie Lin Wilson - Holidays & Wedding Rings
27. Aaron Watson - The Underdog
28. Alan Jackson – Angels and Alcohol
29. Darrell Scott - 10 - Songs of Ben Bullington
30. Levi Lowrey - My Crazy Head
31. T. Graham Brown - Forever Changed
32. Wade Hayes - Go Live Your Life
33. Maddie and Tae- Start Here
34. Carrie Underwood - Storyteller
35. Corb Lund – Things That Can’t Be Undone
36. Reba McEntire - Love Somebody
37. Stoney LaRue – Us Time
38. Zac Brown Band - Jekyll and Hyde
39. Dwight Yoakam - Second Hand Heart
40. Special mention- Emily West- All For You

Listening to the Stapleton again. Eh, some cuts are ok, but others are too 70s bar band southern rock for me.

the cam album doesn't disappoint, i think the strongest cuts were on the EP but "country ain't never been pretty" and "mayday" are quite something