Rolling Country 2009 Thread

I make fantastic rosemary chicken salad (w/ scallions, kalamata olives, almonds, shredded carrots, spicy mustard, anchovies). So there!

I did like that line, because at the time I heard it my wife and I'd been tearing through our tarragon like motherfuckers. We had to buy more! How often does that happen? I think it's this French cookbook... Brad should learn how to incorporate it into a sauce for all those fish he catches.

Out of morbid curiosity I listened to Billy McKnight's "Sweeter" f. Mindy McCready, which highlights Mindy at least as much as Billy. Despite Mindy fucking up everything else in her life, her voice is as steady and strong and warm as ever. This is a mush ballad that reaches for the sky, and in the soft parts before all the mountain climbing Billy's voice is inadequate - not awful but not giving much. He just doesn't have it. But when the strings build and the ascent starts, all the molten noise compensates for him, and Mindy melts the glaciers. I would definitely want to hear an album by her, if she can manage one.

As for Mindy and Billy being in the same room together... well, as for Mindy's everything, I'm thinking of that old Flipper song, "Get Away." Go Mindy, get away. Go go GET AWAY.

(For the curious, here's the Mindy McCready Wikipedia page.)

What I said about "Toes" over on my livejournal:

Folk guitar picking that starts with a slightly new age roll to it, then adds frills and goes Latin, the deep south's fascination with the farther south. Cheerful enough, the song can't quite lift itself above the singer's mediocrity. BORDERLINE NONTICK.

Via email; the xenophobic headline cracks me up. New Gene Watson album on Schanachie, A Taste Of The Truth (which is okay but not nearly as good as his Sings album from six years ago), also has a Trace Adkins duet on it; I wonder of Capitol will "ban" that one, too.

RONNIE MILSAP / TRACE ADKINS DUET BANNED FROM COUNTRY RADIO BY FOREIGN OWNED COMPANY

Nashville, TN (Sept. 16, 2009) Independent American-owned BLEVE Records got some devastating news today. The label’s first single, ”My First Ride,” a rockin’ feel good song performed by legendary entertainer Ronnie Milsap and featuring Capitol recording artist Trace Adkins was rapidly climbing up the country radio charts and garnering national attention in the press.

But that all stopped with a single phone call from Capitol Records Nashville President Mike Dungun. BLEVE Records has been ordered to “cease and desist” with any further unauthorized promotion of this single. Capitol Records has threatened legal action if BLEVE Records does not immediately halt any further publicity or sales of “My First Ride.”

BLEVE Records was created to benefit the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of Firefighters. This song was to be the first release from a multi artist compilation CD due out Nov. 1.

BLEVE’s mission is to raise money to help replenish the disaster relief funds of the FOP and IAFF. These funds aid firefighters and police officers and their families experiencing financial hardship after a natural or man made disaster or in times of need due to injury or death in the line of duty. These funds were in the millions prior to 9/11 and recent hurricanes, but are now severely depleted. The proceeds from the sale of “My First Ride” and the compilation CD were slated to help replenish these funds.

Ronnie Milsap was excited to have his long time friend, Trace Adkins, perform on the song with him. Firefighters and police officers were thrilled to have such high caliber artists donate their time and talent for the cause.

Capitol Records, however, sees things a little differently. BLEVE Records President, Mickey Milam, a retired Metro Nashville police officer, has trouble understanding it. “I’ve known Mike Dungun for years. He has a reputation of being fair, so I didn’t see this coming. Trace was gracious enough to sing on this single, not only as a favor to his good friend Ronnie Milsap, but also because he believes in our cause. “

Capitol Records Nashville is owned by the conglomerate company Terra Firma out of Germany. Milam believes that pressure from this foreign- based company is what has slowed his song at radio. “It’s unfortunate that we Americans are being told by a foreign country what music we get to hear on the radio, “says Milam. “We are a very small company, with a handful of dedicated employees. We do not have an enormous marketing budget or a large promotion team. What we have is 600,000 FOP and IAFF members nation wide and in Canada that want to hear this song on the radio. What we have is a desire to raise money for firefighters, police officers and their families who are in need. My hope is that Americans and Canadians embrace our cause and demand that this song be played. “

What else? I like the new Cross Canadian Ragweed album more than the new Jack Ingram album, not what I would have expected. And new Rosie Flores and Kendell Carson albums are not bad, I guess. And the new Brad Paisley one is almost as good as everybody says it is. That's about it.

not heard the new Miranda Lambert yet, i take it?

Yeah I have, actually; I say some things here:

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1339

Also, a couple emusic reviews I wrote in the past few months:

Charlie Robison

http://www.emusic.com/album/Charlie-Robison-Beautiful-Day-MP3-Download/11487591.html

Alice Peacock

http://www.emusic.com/album/Alice-Peacock-Love-Remains-MP3-Download/11413187.html

Andy Friedman

http://www.emusic.com/album/Andy-Friedman-Weary-Things-MP3-Download/11371123.html

Almost always avoided watching Hee Haw as a kid, really couldn't stand it, but I had some vague recollection of Junior Samples when I saw this old Pickwick Records LP Moonshining for a dollar a couple months ago, plus the back cover with some nerdy traveling musicologist interviewing near-400 pound overall-wearing redneck Junior into a tape recorder on the porch of some shack was too weird to resist, so I bought it. And what a strange record: One-third obvious Hee Haw style country comedy corn (first track, "It's a Hee Haw," is all dumb one liners); one-third (accidental?) mock Alan Lomax Folkways document with the musicologist guy asking Junior leading questions; one third dead-on throwback to absurdist depression-era comedic white talking blues, including still timely routines about insurance salesmen, stock markets crashing, and price of medical care. Whole thing lasts under 25 minutes, total. According to Wiki, Samples was a former stock car racer from Georgia who became a fish-tale-telling radio comedian at age 40 (c. 1966), "and created a bumbling personality." BR-549 apparently took their name from some recurring Hee Haw sketch where he played a used car salesmen begging you to call that number. Doesn't explain to what extent his clueless backwoods yokel character is based on his actual life. Also, "In 1974, Samples announced that he was 'seriously considering' running for lieutenant governor of Georgia on a Republican ticket with then-mayor Ronnie Thompson, who was seeking the party's gubernatorial nomination. The media at first presented Samples' announcement as a political story. However, Samples was pulling a practical joke for publicity purposes."

First Steve Forbert LP, Alive On Arrival from 1978, supposedly the highlight of his career, also purchased for a dollar, was not nearly as entertaining. Did places like Rolling Stone really single him out as "the next Dylan" then, or is that just my imagination running away again? I'm pretty sure they did, though. And if they did, they must have been very desperate. He's not even the next Tom Petty! Might be the original Conor Oberst, though, not sure. Anyway, I never realized that "What Kinda Girl?" from Rosanne Cash's Seven Year Ache was originally a Forbert song called "What Kinda Guy?" Definitely prefer her more powerpoppish gender-altered version. And I'm pretty sure my college radio station in Missouri used to play "You Cannot Win If You Do Not Play," which is not a horrible little choogle I'll admit. But nothing here is half as memorable as his one pop hit (and future Keith Urban cover), "Romeo's Tune," from his next album, which critics all called a letdown at the time. Mostly the debut seems to be songs actually about busking, evidently because that's the only thing he knows about. I wouldn't be surprised if his followup was catchier, not that I plan to spend a $1 to find out. (I do see it around a lot.)

Wow, this thread is totally on life support, isn't it?

Anyway, some potentially useful recent additions to Billboard's country song chart that I don't think I've heard, though maybe somebody else has:

11 11 18 4 Cowboy Casanova, Carrie Underwood
M.Bright (C.Underwood,M.Elizondo,B.James ) 19 DIGITAL | Arista

19 19 19 31 Red Light, David Nail
F.Liddell,M.Wrucke (J.Singleton,M.Peirce,D.Matkosky ) MCA Nashville DIGITAL | 19

28 35 49 3 Southern Voice, Tim McGraw
B.Gallimore,T.McGraw,D.Smith (T.Douglas,B.DiPiero ) Curb DIGITAL | 28

32 33 36 14 Today, Gary Allan
M.Wright,G.Allan (B.Long,T.L.James ) MCA Nashville DIGITAL | 32

37 38 42 9 Beer On The Table, Josh Thompson
M.Knox (J.Thompson,K.Johnson,A.Zack ) Columbia DIGITAL | 37

46 51 2 Sara Smile, Jimmy Wayne Featuring Daryl Hall & John Oates
D.Huff (D.Hall,J.Oates ) Valory PROMO SINGLE | 46

47 49 3 Keep On Lovin' You, Steel Magnolia
D.Huff (C.Stapleton,T.Willmon ) Big Machine DIGITAL | 47

48 48 51 8 Love Lives On, Mallary Hope
D.Bason (M.Hope,S.Stevens,M.West ) MCA Nashville DIGITAL | 48

49 50 56 3 Everywhere I Go, Phil Vassar
P.Vassar (P.Vassar,J.Steele ) Universal South DIGITAL | 49

50 57 59 4 Stuck, Ash Bowers
B.Cannon (F.J.Myers,B.Montana ) Stoney Creek DIGITAL | 50

52 55 2 19 And Crazy, Bomshel
M.Irwin,J.Kear,K.Omunson (M.Irwin,J.Kear,K.Osmunson,K.Shepard ) Curb PROMO SINGLE | 52

56 NEW 1 How Far Do You Wanna Go?, Gloriana
M.Serletic (M.Serletic,J.Steele,D.Myrick ) Emblem/Warner Bros. DIGITAL | WRN | 56

59 58 58 3 Mister Officer, Jypsi
N.Chapman (E.M.Hill,J.Kear ) Arista Nashville DIGITAL | 58

And Singles Jukebox reviews of current singles by:

Boys Like Girls feat. Taylor Swift

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1421

Jason Aldean

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1413

Taylor Swift

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1373

Michelle Branch (actually now on the country chart)

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1357

Katie Armiger

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1293

Uh, guess I did already hear Steel Magnolia's "Keep On Lovin' You" after all. Mentioned it upthread a spell. Didn't like it much. And it is apparently (and unfortunately) not an REO Speedwagon cover.

19 19 19 31 Red Light, David Nail

I like this song better than anything else on his album, which is rather bland (going for a train/matchbox 20 ballad thing most of the time). This song may not be any more interesting musically than the others, but I like the detail in the story the lyrics tell. He's at a red light in his car with his girlfriend. She leans over to tell him something. He thinks she's going to say 'look at the guy across the street' or 'look at that kid over there', and instead she breaks up with him.

Cowboy Casanova, Carrie Underwood = Bond-theme glam rock, with a pinch each of Nancy Sinatra and Joan Jett. (Latter because title character leans against record machine.)

Red Light, David Nail = As erasingclouds says, more or less. Not awful.

Southern Voice, Tim McGraw = Lite Southern rock list-song: Rosa Parks, Aretha Franklin, Chuck Berry, Pocahontas, Michael Jordan, Billy Graham, Bear Bryant, Hank Williams, "Dr. King," Tom Petty, Jerry Lee, etc.. "Don't let this Allman Brothers (later Charlie Daniels) T-shirt throw ya, we're just boys making noise with a Southern voice." Not bad; may or may not grow on me when I catch all the other names.

Today, Gary Allan -- Dad's daughter gets married. Or starts to date. Oh wait, no I'm wrong -- guy's wife and/or girlfriend leaves instead. I think. Oh wait, nope, I think his ex-girlfriend gets wed to somebody else. Heartfelt, of course. But he's done much better. Actually seems more like a Tim McGraw than a Gary Allan song, when you get down to it.

Beer On The Table, Josh Thompson -- Watered-down-Seger via Garth working-for-weekend talking drinking boogie, passingly clever and fun.

Sara Smile, Jimmy Wayne Featuring Daryl Hall & John Oates -- Definitive proof blue-eyed soul is now country, I guess. Couldn't find a version on youtube or Rhapsody with Hall and Oates helping out; the live busker renditions with Wayne on youtube seemed okay but too slow. Will To Power version (with Donna Allen) was way better. Have never heard Boyz II Men, Big Mountain, Joan Osbourne, Latimore, or Boney James versions.

Love Lives On, Mallary Hope -- Big ballad to her ex; learning to live without him type song. He died, and surviving mom and daughter visit his grave on his birthday. Maudlin, forgettable, generic. But still big.

Everywhere I Go, Phil Vassar -- Good singing, nothing song. (And nobody around here likes him anywhere near as much as I usually do, anyway.)

Stuck, Ash Bowers -- Butt-rock country about working the assembly line, watching hours get chewed up. As loud as anything Jason Aldean's done, and maybe a smarter song. Except long about now, I have a feeling most guys still on the line are just relieved they haven't been laid off.

19 And Crazy, Bomshel -- Can't find this, which sucks, because it's the one I was most looking forward to. Though supposedly one of the two Bomshels changed since their album that never came out three years ago.

How Far Do You Wanna Go?, Gloriana = Hearts-and-hormones-racing teenybop sex metaphor, more blatant about it than their previous single, and probably better. Also a runaway-from-this-town song, not as good as Love & Theft's from earlier this year but in the same general vicinity. Not sure it lives up to its opening stomp, and not sure why it keeps slowing down (though there's a talk part that kinda suggests early Tom Petty.) But almost definitely the best song on this list...

Mister Officer, Jypsi -- ...Unless this one is. But with this one, I might just really like the video. Very new wave. Or modern rock. Or psychedelic. Or just plain slutty. Anyway, a catchy song about distracted driving. Not because of a cellphone, but because a guy's on their mind. I like when they say they yes they realize this isn't the Autobahn. What other US hits since Kraftwerk have even used that word?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyh3DSbr1_I

Thanks for the Jypsi clip. Don't know if I'd call it country but that's ok, it's an excellent tune.

wow! man, these are some hot chicks! just take a look at those gams!!! (oh, and the song is fun too.)

So, here's a question: How stupid would it be if I were to buy a Best Of CD by Lonestar? I've heard their 2000 #1 "What About Now" on the radio twice this month, had no idea what it was, but liked it a lot -- just a real pumping slice of Springsteen-country. Always thought "Mr. Mom" from 2004 was kind of cute, too. Beyond that, I have no idea, though I've always been under the impression that their repertoire was 85 percent mush. Might've been good mush, though. (And both of those songs, fwiw, were after John Rich got fired from the band in 1998.)

Anyway. That new Carrie Underwood song above is not as glam-rock (or as good) as I made it out to be. The elements are kind of there, but they don't add up to a song that's at all fun to sit through. (Also, I realized lotsa Shania Twain '90s hits could also be described as "Bond-theme glam rock, with a pinch each of Nancy Sinatra and Joan Jett," but pretty much any of them did it way better than this song.)

Frank Kogan does't like the song much either, but surprisingly enough he does like the new Lady Antebellum ballad, which I dismissed above:

http://koganbot.livejournal.com/172572.html#cutid1

And speaking of gams, this is the video for the single off Those Darlins' CD (which has yet to hit the country chart, and probably won't -- single or album both), but don't hold that against it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P0XBgSNZEQ

Legs more realistic live, though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C6vgIX25_Q

Aaaaand...a dicussion (in which I take part) of Miranda Lambert's new album can be found here:

miranda lambert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C6vgIX25_Q

Oops, sorry about those duplicated Darlins; not sure how that happened.

Those Darlins tune is about a minute and a half too long for the ramalama which is monochrome monotonous.

Is the entire album like that? In style reminds me of the sometimes good but mostly mediocre to poor cowpunk indie records that came out of LA in the late Eighties, stuff like the Screamin' Sirens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-LP8qmsQFc

Hmmm, cowpunk-style do on Pirates' Shakin All Over. Probably was louder in person. Still could use a bit more Link Wray, maybe a lot more.

Yeah, it's possible I just really miss fair-to-middling '80s cowpunk (which I really wasn't a real big fan of at the time, go figure.) That'd explain me paying $1 for the first Jason and the Scorchers LP (the one after the EP, which I already had) last month. Anyway, "Red Light Love" definitely wouldn't have been my choice for the single off Those Darlins' album -- more like the fourth or fifth choice (think I liked "Hung Up On Me," "The Whole Damn Thing," "Snaggletooth Mama" and "DUI Or Die" more last time I checked), and it's also one of the longer songs (only one of four -- out of 12 -- over three minutes; only "DUI or Die" is over four.) But they're definitely missing something; album seems consistently likeable to me but never quite loveable. Probably it's partly just that they don't have the chops (vocal and instrumental) to match their personalities, which are clearly there. Have no problem with their songwriting, or their sense of humor. And the music has as much energy as anything out of Nashville lately. It'd be interesting to hear what major-label production would do for them, but I have a feeling that's not going to happen.

xp And yeah, they could really use an Amy Surdu (Gore Gore Girls) on guitar to beef up the sound. That "Shakin' All Over" is still kinda hot, though. (And actually, going back and looking at the album, "Red Light Love" might've been more like my eighth choice for a single. Wonder if it was picked partly 'cause other cuts seemed too short?)

Speaking of Steve Forbert (not that this is relevant to Rolling Country, and I'll admit that I've never heard a Steve Forbert album in full), I recently called Drake the Steve Forbert of nice-guy hip-hop superstars (though Fabolous would be the Steve Forbert of all of hip-hop, unless it's Pitbull).

I was as surprised as Xhuxk at my liking Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now." I'm sure I didn't like the first album as much as Xhuxk did, or anything on it as much as this. Seems to be holding up to multiple listens, though who's to tell if I'd like it surrounded by similar mush on an album.

If Rickie Lee Jones belongs on this thread (sure she does; even if she's "jazzy," she's a singer-songwriter folkie), I embedded her on my lj and discussed her doing really hard rock (live mid '90s).

(As Xhuxk says, Rickie Lee was in her post-grunge and jam band phases, neither of which we'd previously known had existed. But I never knew much about Rickie Lee.)

Major milestone today: Over a year after the album it's on came out, and at least six months after it was released as a single, and right on the verge of him releasing his next album, I finally heard "High Cost Of Living" by Jamey Johnson on the radio for the very first time ever! (Take 290 from Austin toward Houston, and the stations you hear around those little towns like Elgin and Giddings and Brenham get pretty outlaw -- I swear, I heard the following three songs, on three different stations, all between around 105.5 and 107.0 FM, right after after each other: Montgomery Gentry "Long Line Of Losers," David Allan Coe "The Ride," Jamey Johnson "High Cost Of Living." Probably not a good place to knock over somebody else's beer, if you go to a bar.)

Best album of the 2010s so far: Ray Wylie Hubbard A. Enlightenment B. Endarkment (Hint: There Is No C) (Thirty Tigers/Bordello), due out in mid January. (I've never listened to him before; in fact, I'm pretty sure I've heard more country songs where he's mentioned by other people than ones he actually sings. But here at least, he's got a tough blues-rock sound, and the songs really churn, and the words sound smart. Not sure whether I'll like it more or less as time goes on, but at least I made it through the thing on first listen -- way more than I say for the latest albums by Guy Clark and Robert Earl Keen, fellow Texas country elder-statesman cult heroes who I've at least been making a point of trying to listen to since I moved down here. Those two albums struck me as really drab; Hubbard's doesn't hit me that way at all. Would be curious about other folks' thoughts about the guy.)

why are people who are inclined to hate nashville auto-twang country interested in Miranda Lambert?
is she better than everything else?

is she really better*

She's an angel fell to earth, and exactly what nu-country needs right now. Not a song about tequila in sight. I'm quite fond of the ground she walks on.

Just heard a tune by Jimmy LaFave - who I've never heard of before. The song is called "Car Outside" and it detours from the usual Texas yallternative style (which I admit I've a soft spot for) with a chorus that's more Stones than Robert Earl Keen. Awesome tune - wonder what the rest of his stuff is like?

1000 words I wrote about Brad Paisley):

http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-10-13/music/brad-paisley-is-ready-to-make-nice/

(The headlines weren't mine, however.)

He must've been into Merseybeat for a long long time. For the past couple of years he's continually been on in the guitar mags about his old Vox amps and newer small manufacturer-made buys which recreate the circuitry.

Said he was inspired into the tune by someone older who had a similar backline at a time, probably the late Eighties or early Nineties, when everyone else was using Fenders.

It does contribute to his tone, which is immediately recognizable, and distinct from everyone else.
A lot, if not all of that tends to come from your fingers, but your fingers and ears have an almost unconscious ability to pull the best tones possible for specific amps, the better you get.

CMT blog talks about Chuck Eddy's Brad Paisley Voice article
http://blog.cmt.com/2009-10-14/village-voice-fills-the-page-with-brad-paisleyisms/#more-3235

When the story finally comes to an end, I think you're supposed to draw the conclusion that Eddy's Paisley article is good. So while there were words to the contrary spinning in and around every paragraph, the writer ends by saying that Eddy says that Paisley is indeed the "big ol' wuss...

xhuxk, I think you are on a roll with that Jypsi and Those Darlin songs. (Anyway I like both of them a bit, even if they don't sound anything like Miranda Lambert.)

(Not that you said they did--that was just some sort of joke.)

Richard Heene -- "The Contractor"

http://www.tmz.com/2009/10/20/richard-heene-balloon-boy-reality-show-theme-music/

Jimmy Draper just emailed me that Emma Jacob (18-year-old country singer whom I'd not previously heard of) covers Hope Partlow's "Crazy Summer Nights" on her new album. It's first up on her MySpace, and unfortunately it's really weak, but "Juliana" and "Shotgun" are better, and "Wrong" is better than they are. Jacob doesn't seem distinctive, and I think she needs stronger arrangements, but her voice is warm; she comes off better being sad and mushy than rocking, but the weakness of the latter may be owing to her arrangements, or the MySpace rips. Worth keeping track of.

Here's the MySpace of Angie Aparo, who co-wrote "Crazy Summer Nights"; from the tracks I'd describe his genre as singer-songwriterish Adult Top 40, though with rock-leaning arrangements. Something in his voice reminds me of Harry Chapin: a slight vibrato and a tendency to end lines emphatically. He lists himself as rock-indie-pop.

And the MySpace for Kevin Kadish, the other writer of "Crazy Summer Nights." From the evidence his own voice is blah, but he's mainly a writer, arranger, and producer and has posted OK Stacie Orrico track. Besides "Crazy Summer Nights" his other teenpop credits (that I know of) are as co-writer of Lucy Woodward's "Dumb Girls" and "Trust Me."

Interesting mixed-reaction Ben Ratliff NY Times review of Brad Paisley live at Madison Square Garden, focused on his guitar playing as much as his songwriting. Also says he covered "Boys Of Summer" there:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/24/arts/music/24paisley.html

Also been wanting to ask whether country radio has seemed as boring everywhere else these past couple months as it's seemed here (which is to say, maybe even more boring than the rest of music radio has been.) Don't see many promising songs climbing the country chart now, either, though "Chasing Girls" -- my favorite track on Rodney Atkins' current album (which I now admit is fairly mediocre) did enter at #56 this week.

Speaking of mediocre, I think the new Toby Keith album might be his most marginal of the '00s, if not his career, even despite how much I like the title track "American Ride." Only other song on that level seems to be the unplayable-on-radio (because it contains the words "asshole" and "son of a bitches") Middle-Eastern-tinged martial-folk soldiers-in-Iraq number "Ballad Of Balad" ("featuring the Hogliners," whoever they are); a couple years ago, Toby would have called it a "bus song," but now he just closes with it and leaves it there. "Gypsy Driftin," "Every Dog Has Its Day" and the smooth-jazzed Wayman Tisdale eulogy "Cryin' For Me" I can live with, so it's still a keeper in my book, but then I got it for free, and none of thoese rank anywhere near his best work. Curious if anybody else hears anything that I don't. My gut feeling is that producing himself has weakened the quality control process, either that or Toby's just run out of ideas (note that the hit isn't even a song he wrote), but I could be wrong.

Actually, guess another possibility is that this album was just rushed onto the market to capitalize on "American Ride"'s success as a single -- didn't hear much prior notice about it before it came out, but then again Toby's always been a clockwork-reliable album-a-year kind of guy.

Also, last year's That Don't Make Me A Bad Guy (also self-produced) was no monster, either, more evidence for my theories above.

from Ratliffs Paisley piece:

But the lonely insight and the self-deprecating boast aren’t stadium moves. Running between four microphones spaced hundreds of yards apart, and playing thousand-noted solos: these are stadium moves. This tough reality poses a problem, though it’s hard to imagine Mr. Paisley seeing a problem as anything but an opportunity.

stadium country is the new stadium rock?

is this a relatively new thing, Chuck, or has it been going on for a while now?

(and yes, i know about Willie in Texas during the '70s and Farm Aid later on, thanks. i'm just wondering if this is a new approach/opportunity(?) for top forty-type country stars.)

Not since Garth Brooks it's not. (I mean, there may have been others, too. But people always said his live shows owed as much to Kiss and Journey as to, say, George Strait. So anybody's to credit or blame, he is.)

although the Willie shows were outdoor festival-type events, right? so they probably don't count as stadium shows, even if he did get hundreds of thousands of people showing up.

xp

d'oh! yer right, i forgot all about Garth.

He made it to the middle of the arena, then returned to the microphone, still soloing. It was an accomplishment, but a cold one, no better or worse than any other solo he’d played.

Mr. Paisley is a guitar geek posing as a dry wit. His pose is terrific; it just doesn’t adequately conceal the geek. Lots of us put on a blithe and blasé front to hide our inner compulsions, and for a good reason: not because they’re embarrassing, but because they’re dull. Over two hours, Mr. Paisley’s guitar playing — fast, fluid and voluminous — lost its flavor completely. There was just so much of it (mostly on the Telecaster; Mr. Paisley’s style is a monument to that instrument’s lean, percussive sound and country-music tradition) that it stole power from the lyrics.

Fairly accurate. But anyone who's been reading the guitar mags for the last couple years knows it already.

And the CMT concert that aired quite a bit a year or two ago showed he's been doing the arena rock pandering as soon as he got to the arena.

And Keith Urban's live shtick probably preceded that by a couple.

Another way of saying this is that Paisley's instrumental album is never going to be a country pop equiv to Jeff Beck's Blow by Blow, the guitar player's album which probably got the warmest reception from general critics and, for the time period, was never strongly criticized for being dull.

Only hear country radio when my friend Leslie, the structural engineer originally from the Detroit 'burbs, is driving me around, and lately she's found an '80s oldies station that she'd rather play. At home, the only radio I've been listening to has been hip-hop/r&b, though I'm mainly doing that to torture myself, since this is the worst year for that ever; though it is giving me more of a sense of why they Black Eyed Peas are hitting so big. Their stuff stands out on the radio in a way it doesn't amidst all the weird stuff I listen to over my headphones. And the older songs that get played on the hip-hop/r&b stations (more and more of them because artists are forgetting to create new ones) also stand out. But I'll probably be jumping to KYGO (country station) soon for home listening, for a while.

Funny thing is, usually in late November every year I'm saying, "OK, time to really catch up with country music, since I've only got, like, five songs that are top-ten worthy for my country ballot." Whereas this year I've already got 25 songs that are top-ten worthy for my country ballot, without even looking for them. I guess not a lot of them were hits. Caitlin & Will, whose "Even Now" will be in my top ten, never even got their album released, so they called it quits. A shame.

...why the Black Eyed Peas are hitting so big...