Rolling country 2007 thread

2007
Bomshel – Bomshel (Curb)
John Anderson – Easy Money (Warner Bros./Raybaw)
The Greencards – Viridian (Dualtone)
Daryle Singletary – Straight From The Heart (Shanachie)
John Waite – Downtown—Journey Of A Heart (No Brakes/Rounder)
Bill Kirchen – Hammer Of The Honky-Tonk Gods (Proper)

John Waite's CD counts as country since it's on Rounder and features an Alison Krauss duet. Also, I really like the following metal album from France, which somebody on the metal ILM sandbox thread said sounds country to them, though I'm not completely sure why they say that; maybe the claimant was from England and never heard country before, but I need to go back and listen to it in a country context. Sounded more like Noir Desir to me, so maybe they meant gothabilly (which could conceivably count as country, for its billy-goat part)?:

Phazm – Antebellum Death ‘N Roll (Osmose Productions)

Also, there's a new Travis Tritt Very Best Of comp on my shelf that looks good, but I haven't put it on yet. And also, last week in Houston I bought the following '90s CDs in a 20% off Half-Price Books sale:

Faith Hill Faith, 1998, $2.40: More mush than her three later albums (unless I missed one), but two great singles on it ("This Kiss," "The Secret Of Life"), and I also like "Better Days" on it a lot. The rest is sometimes okay, sometimes unbearable. You can hear her trying plenty of r&b melisma, which is kind of interesting when it's not boring. She also sings songs by Sherly Crow and Aldo Nova.

Little Texas, Kick A Little, 1994, $1.80: "Amy's Back In Austin" is still great, "Redneck Like Me" is semi-tough Southern rock," "I'd Hold On To Her" is half as good as an '80s .38 Special album track, the rest is kinda boring me so far, but who knows.

Little Texas, Big Time, 1993, $0.90: Didn't play this yet.

Ronnie Milsap, Greatest Hits, 1988, $1.80: Not really his greatest hits at all, but only nine songs, so relatively painless. Haven't noticed any great ones yet, but it's all okay. "Daydreams About Night Things" not as good as Loretta's version. Overall album not as good as the album of new stuff he put out in 2006.

Kim Richey, Bitter Sweet, 1997: $1.80: A keeper. Previously I only owned her best-of CD. "Lonesome Side Of Town" on now, and it sounds wonderful, though "I Know" with the Tom Petty-like guitar riff might be my favorite so far. She's easily one of my favorite alt-country/Americana singers -- way more listenable than Lucinda Wiliams. But I'm not sure that I can quite formulate why just yet.

Pam Tills, Greatest Hits, 1997: $1.80: Includes the three by her I really remember liking when they were new ("Shake The Sugar Tree," the proto-Ricky Martin ""My Vida Loca," the great Egyptian-walking "Cleopatra, Queen of Denial"), and only 11 tracks compared to the more unweildy 16 on her 2002 Country Legends, so maybe more user-friendly though I just noticed that the longer comp has a song called "Betty's Got a Bass Boat" that's not on the shorter one so I should go back and listen to that before I settle. (Longer one also has a track called "Mandolin Rain," so I'll listen to that too.)

Rick Trevino, Rick Trevino, 1994, $1.80. Damn he's baby-faced on the cover. All the okay English-language tracks on this one seem to show up on his later Super Hits which also has the far superior Mellencampish "Bobbie Ann Mason," so maybe the debut's not worth hanging on to. What makes it kinda intersting though is the two Spanish-language tejanos (which are prettily sung, though fairly generic) at the end. There was another Trevino album at Half Price from a year or two later with no Spanish tracks, so I'm wondering whether Columbia gave up quick on the idea of him crossing over to the regional Mexican charts. (Emilio was crossing the other way around the same time, right?) A subject for future research, maybe.

(Various), Country Dance Mixes, 1993, $1.80: Best find here, probably. Nine dancefloor (and often borderline disco-fied) remixes of Confederate Railroad, Ray Kennedy, and John Michael Montgomery tracks. The Railroad ones I had already, and they're great, but the rest are pretty awesome too, especially "All She Ever Wants Is More" by Kennedy and "Life's A Dance" by Montgomery, though I've never given either artist a moment of thought before. Apparently Kennedy and Brad Smith produced all the remixes here except the two Railroad ones. I wonder if they sold this at linedance clubs, or what. The liner notes also call it "really cool headphone music, man." Nifty.

and yeah that mextape is pretty good, my #10 album of 2006 but i listen to it a lot more than most of my higher pickxs

just got the two Farmer Jason CDs--that's Jason Ringenberg on the tractor on his farm west of Nashville. Good fun for the kids with Todd Snider guesting on a couple and Fats Kaplin guiding the proceedings. My favorite so far on the new one, "Rockin' in the Forest w/ Farmer J.," is "Opossum in a Pocket." Almost as good as his Scorchers stuff!

I'm a bit let down by the John Anderson record--some of that material is blehh. However, "Brown Liquor" is just about my favorite song of the moment by anyone, great stuttering a la Tillis (Mel).

And the Viridians' record is fine, but after the title track, which is just incredibly addictive, nothing quite matches it.

Don turned me onto the George Soulé record "Take a Ride," and it's country-soul, they say. Could've been fleshed out a bit more, and there are times when you wish George could've built a touch more drama into his vocals--and for my money, he sings better than 99% of all the people who are hailed as "country-soul" like Dan Penn, Eddie Hinton, et al; in fact, he's in a different league altogether--but it's good, and it says something that he does best with a song not his at all, on a record by a "neglected songwriter": Greg Cartwright's "Wait and See," a classic pop-gospel ballad in 6/8.

Tony Furtado's "Thirteen" is too mild for its own good, but he does a nice cover of "Won't Get Fooled Again," and it's pleasant enough as neo-folkie-bluegrass.

Southern Culture on the Skids show some brains in their covers on their new "Plays Countrypolitan Hits." Decent enough on "Muswell Hillbillies" and the Byrds' hoary "Have You Seen Her Face," but they don't bring much to anything, and they're a one-joke band, seems to me.

for an eloquent defense of Lucinda Williams, that doesn't totally convince me, Bill Friskics-Warren in the new No Depression. He thinks she's a great singer, I don't, but it's a good piece that made me, at least, re-think her. The Hal Willner production on her new one ought to be something...new. But I haven't heard it ("West") yet.

I've been enjoying "Heartbreaker's Hall Of Fame" (although I'm not absolutely sure about the placement of that apostrophe, surely the Hall of Fame would belong to more than just one heartbreaker?) by Sunny Sweeney, which is a CDbaby thing, and doesn't appear to have come out on any kind of label. Jim Lauderdale guests on one song and wrote a few others. SS herself has an oddly appealing voice, considering how piercing it is. I'm not making a very good job of selling this, am I? Anyway, I've been enjoying it.

I went back to Holland while ILx was down and returned with another haul of delightfully cheap country vinyl. I now have more Susan Raye records than:
(a) I ever thought I'd even see and
(b) any sane human could ever need.

Bless those Dutch and their ways.

xhuxk, is there a release date for the John Anderson? I was wondering if Raybaw had dropped him since nothing's been heard since "If Her Lovin' Don't Kill Me" (which flirted with my Nashville Scene ballot) sadly flopped.

And is the Tritt best-of a single or double?

thomas, the date I have is May 15. apparently there's also a big & rich book, "all access," set for around the same time.

Oh, that hurts. I've clearly gotta find my way on someone's promo list...

And since the 2006 thread died prematurely, anyone up for posting their '06 ballots, lists, etc. here?

Anyone heard a release date for the McGraw? For that matter, how's the single? I heard the video was supposed to premiere at 12:01am 1/1/07, but since stupid TimeWarner bumped CMT to the digital line-up, I missed it.

Chuck Eddy’s 2006 Nashville Scene Ballot

TOP 10 COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2006
1. Montgomery Gentry – Some People Change ( Columbia )
2. Toby Keith – White Trash With Money (Show Dog Nashville/Universal)
3, Victory Brothers – Kowboyz De Loz Angeleez (victorybrothers.net)
4. Dale Watson – Whiskey Or God (Palo Duro)
5. Rodney Atkins – If You’re Going Through Hell (Curb)
6. Eric Church – Sinners Like Me (EMI)
7. Trent Willmon – A Little More Livin’ ( Columbia )
8. Keith Urban – Love, Pain & The Whole Crazy Thing (EMI/Capitol)
9. (Various) – She Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool: A Tribute To Barbara Mandrell (Sony BMG/BNA)
10. Shooter Jennings – Electric Rodeo (Universal South)

TOP 10 COUNTRY SINGLES (OR TRACKS OR WHATEVER) OF 2006
1 Carrie Underwood – “Before He Cheats” (Arista)
2 Rodney Atkins – “Cleaning This Gun (Come On In Boy)” (Curb)
3. Trent Willmon – “Surprise” ( Columbia )
4. Samantha Jo – “Time For Summer” (samanthajomartin.com)
5 Shooter Jennings – “Hair of the Dog” (Universal South)
6. Ronnie Milsap – “Somewhere Dry” (RCA)
7. Bomshel – “Bomshel Stomp” (Curb)
8. Alan Jackson – “The Fire Fly's Song” (Arista Nashville )
9. Toby Keith – Get Drunk And Be Somebody” (Show Dog Nashville/Universal)
10, Redhill – “All Night Long” (redhillrocks.com)

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2006
1. The Kentucky Headhunters – Flying Under The Radar (CBUJ)
2. Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys – Legends Of Country Music (Columbia/Legacy)
3. Little Feat – The Best Of (Warner Bros./Rhino)
4. (Various) – Classic Country: Sweet Country Ballads (Time Life)
5. Dean Martin – Swingin’ Down Yonder (Collector’s Choice/EMI)

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2006
1. Toby Keith
2. Eddie Montgomery
3. Troy Gentry

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS OF 2006
1. Carrie Underwood
2. Natalie Maines
3. Shannon Brown

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST DUOS. TRIOS, OR GROUPS OF 2006
1. Montgomery Gentry
2. Victory Brothers
3. Bomshel

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2006
1. Victory Brothers
2. Bomshel
3. Eric Church

ALBUMS
1. Jessi Colter, Out of the Ashes (Shout Factory)
2. Casey Driessen, 3-D (Sugar Hill)
3. Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience, Across the Parish
Line (Aim)
4. Dixie Chicks, Taking the Long Way (Open Wide/Columbia)
5. Darrell Scott, The Invisible Man (Full Light)
6. Intocable, Crossroads: Cruce de Caminos (EMI Latin)
7. Chris Knight, Enough Rope (Drifter's Church)
8. Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives, Live at the Ryman
(Superlatone/Universal South)
9. Allison Moorer, Getting Somewhere (Sugar Hill)
10. Bruce Springsteen, The Seeger Sessions (Columbia)

SINGLES
1. Los Tigres del Norte, "Ingratitud"
2. Gary Allan, "Life Ain't Always Beautiful"
3. Carrie Underwood, "Before He Cheats"
4. The Wreckers, "Leave the Pieces"
5. Dixie Chicks, "Easy Silence"
6. Eric Church, "Two Pink Lines"
7. George Strait, "It Just Comes Natural"
8. Allison Moorer, "Fairweather"
9.Intocable, "Por Ella (Poco a Poco)"
10. Dixie Chicks, "Not Ready to Make Nice"

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2006:

1. Dixie Chicks - The Long Way Around - Sony
2. Johnny Cash - American V: A Hundred Highways - American
3. Rosanne Cash - Black Cadillac - Capitol
4. Solomon Burke - Nashville - Shout Factory!
5. The Hacienda Brothers - What's Wrong With Right - Palo Duro
6. Jessi Colter - Out of the Ashes - Shout Factory!
7. Vince Gill - These Days - MCA
8. Todd Snider - The Devil You Know - New Door
9. Various Artists – She Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool - Sony
10. The Wreckers - Stand Still Look Pretty - Maverick

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2006:

1. Dixie Chicks - I'm Not Ready To Make Nice
2. Rodney Akins - If You're Going through Hell
3. Dierks Bentley - Settle For a Slow Down
4. Amelia White - Black Doves
5. Bob Dylan - Working Man Blues #2
6. George Strait - Give It Away
7. Gary Allan - Life Ain't Always Beautiful
8. Marit Larsen - Only a Fool
9. Hacienda Brothers - What's Wrong With Right - Palo Duro
10. Ashley Monroe - Satisfied

1. Pat Green- Cannonball
2. Alan Jackson- Like Red From a Rose
3. Toby Keith- White Trash With Money
4. Todd Snider- The Devil You Know
5. Keith Urban- Love, Pain...
6. Dixie Chicks- Long Way Around
7. Montgomery Gentry- Some People Change
8. Sugarland- Enjoy the Ride
9. Vince Gill- These Days
10. Rodney Atkins- If You're Going Through Hell

Tracks

1. Keith Urban- Once In a Lifetime
2. Todd Snider- Looking For a Job
3. Pat Green- Wayback Texas
4. Montgomery Gentry- Hey Country
5. Wreckers- Leave the Pieces
6. Toby Keith- Get Drunk & Be Somebody
7. Alan Jackson- Like Red on a Rose
8. Sugarland- Settlin'
9. Carrie Underwood- Before He Cheats
10. Dixie Chicks- Not Ready to Make Nice

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2006:

1. Alan Jackson, Like Red on a Rose (Arista Nashville)
2. Various Artists, She Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool: A Tribute to Barbara Mandrell (BNA)
3. The Wreckers, The Wreckers (Maverick)
4. Jamey Johnson, The Dollar (BNA)
5. Hacienda Brothers, What’s Wrong with Right (Proper American)
6. Jessi Colter, Out of the Ashes (Shout! Factory)
7. Darryl Worley, Here and Now (903 Music)
8. Blaine Larsen, Rockin’ You Tonight (BNA/Giantslayer)
9. Keith Urban, Love, pain & the whole crazy thing (Capitol)
10. Montgomery Gentry, Some People Change (Columbia Nashville)

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2006:

1. Trent Willmon, "Surprise"
2. Jessi Colter, "Starman"
3. Dierks Bentley, "Every Mile a Memory"
4. Alan Jackson, "The Fire Fly's Song"
5. Keith Urban, "Once in a Lifetime"
6. Darryl Worley, "I Just Came Back from a War"
7. Marit Larsen, "Only a Fool"
8. Howard Tate, "Louisiana 1927"
9. Carrie Underwood, "Before He Cheats"
10. The Wreckers, "Leave the Pieces"

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2006:

1. Willie Nelson, The Complete Atlantic Sessions (Atlantic/Rhino)
2. Tony Joe White, Swamp Music: The Complete Monument Recordings (Rhino)
3. Terry Manning, Home Sweet Home (Sunbeam)
4. James Talley, Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, But We Sure Got A Lot Of Love: 30th Anniversary Edition (Cimarron)
5. Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, Legends of Country Music (Columbia/Legacy)

6. Tom T. Hall, The Definitive Collection (Hip-O)

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2006:

1. Marit Larsen "Only A Fool" (EMI)
2. Carrie Underwood "Before He Cheats" (Arista)
3. Taylor Swift "Tim McGraw" (Big Machine)
4. Eric Church "How 'Bout You" (Capitol)
5. Ashley Monroe "Satisfied" (Columbia)
6. Dierks Bentley "Settle For A Slowdown" (Capitol)
7. The Dixie Chicks "Not Ready To Make Nice" (Sony)
8. LeAnn Rimes "And It Feels Like" (Curb)
9. Toby Keith "A Little Too Late" (Show Dog/Universal)
10. Little Big Town "Good As Gone" (Equity)

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2006:

1. Taylor Swift - Taylor Swift (Big Machine)
2. Various Artists - Totally Country Vol. 5 (Sony BMG)
3. Eric Church - Sinners Like Me Capitol)
4. Alan Jackson - Like Red On A Rose (Arista Nashville)
5. Toby Keith - White Tra$h With Money (Show Dog/Universal)
6. The Wreckers - Stand Still, Look Pretty (Maverick)
7. Montgomery Gentry - Some People Change (Columbia)
8. Shooter Jennings - Electric Rodeo (Universal)
9. The Dixie Chicks - Taking The Long Way (Sony)
10. Jessi Colter - Out Of The Ashes (Shout! Factory)

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2006:

1. Various Artists - Classic Country: Sweet Country Ballads (Time Life)
2. Todd Snider - That Was Me: 1994 - 1998 (Hip-O/Universal)

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2006:

1. Alan Jackson
2. Toby Keith
3. Dierks Bentley

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS OF 2006:

1. Natalie Maines
2. Taylor Swift
3. Julie Roberts

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST SONGWRITERS OF 2006:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Liz Rose
3. Toby Keith

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST DUOS, TRIOS, OR GROUPS OF 2006:

1. Montgomery Gentry
2. The Dixie Chicks
3. The Wreckers

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST INSTRUMENTALISTS OF 2006:

1. Mark Wright
(Gonna keep voting for this guy until you add a producers category)

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2006:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Eric Church
3. Jace Everett

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST OVERALL ACTS OF 2006:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Eric Church
3. Alan Jackson

I'm fascinated by the question "What is country?" but at the same time it's not my question, since I've never thought for a moment that I myself am country. So my ballot is loose-limbed and ready to dance around the question, without caring about the answer. Germany's entry in the Eurovision contest was Texas Lightning's "No No Never," a country song, or more accurately a good little Europop tune dressed up in country hats. Is that country? It's the country of someone's imagination, would have made my list somewhere around 35 or 40, if I'd gone that long. My number one is by Marit Larsen, a playful, impish Norwegian ex-teenpopper, now a singer-songwriter who's bookish and explores the complexities of her own mind, the small self-torments that magnify and confuse. And for her one and only country song she knocks out this little hoedown that's light as angel food cake, but it's cake that's spiked with a bit of hard rum. And it's perfect and it's wonderful. Would the American country audience be interested if they heard it? Won't happen, but maybe Marit's what they're waiting for; because they've embraced the Wreckers, consisting of another two ex-teenpoppers, one of 'em, Michelle Branch, being the woman who sang modern teen confessional's first big hit in 2001. Despite her confessional sound, Michelle never had anything particularly interesting to confess-she's no secretly brilliant Ashlee-and on the page the Wreckers' lyrics are weepy and empty. But heard through the Wreckers' harmonies, the songs have the same beautiful teenpop ache as always, now welcomed in country. And girly teen Taylor Swift may be the genre's new master, creating scenes with perfect detail, sung with an unerring balance, not too heavy, not too light, but whipsmart.

[Reissues were limited to what I'd heard. I'm sure there were way more better than the Snider. Sent this with 30 seconds to spare before the deadline tolled, so didn't do right by Taylor Swift. Also, an argument over on my livejournal as to whether "Only A Fool" is Marit's only country song. Certainly there are country elements in other Marit tracks, but they only reach a critical mass in "Only A Fool."]

I have no idea where to post this and I'd do it on ILX if still up. But you mentioned somewhere about the possibility of Jewel being accepted into the country mainstream thanks to the new young artists being influenced by her. And, what do you know, just now I saw a commercial on TV for Nashville Star (the country version of American Idol), and what do you know, but who are the hosts this season? Cowboy Troy and Jewel. You don't have a TV, so you might not know that and I thought you might be interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C_bw3aDSOI

xp

For the record, my top 3 singles were Cash's "God's Gonna Cut You Down," Hank Jr.'s "That's How They Do It In Dixie," and Carrie's "Before He Cheats" - I wonder if the last might win the poll, but then remember that the Chicks are likely to sweep it, sadly. (I'm of the their-politics-got-in-their-music's-way camp.)

I'm surprised though that nobody else seems to like Rodney Atkins' "If You're Going Through Hell." It stomps near as hard as "Kerosene," his vocals--which usually annoy me to no end--get the laughing at disaster tone right, and has a mean hook on the chorus. And as support-the-troops-sublimations go, it's crafty. Then again, I neglected to mention it till now, oh well.

Single--at least on the advance promo I have. But 20 songs, which is probably twice as long as the stodgy old cuss deserves, unless the thing was a lot more well-chosen than this one seems to be. Let's see...I remember liking "Here's A Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)," "Country Club," and "Lord Have Mercy On The Working Man" in their day; if there are seven more approaching that level (and I don't LOVE any of those), I'll be surprised. Always kinda hated "T-R-O-U-B-L-E," but maybe that's just 'cause I was a grump back then. I feel like he's had minor hits I've liked more than these whose titles I don't see on here, but damned if I can remember their names.

TOP 10 COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2006
5. Rodney Atkins – If You’re Going Through Hell (Curb)

TOP 10 COUNTRY SINGLES (OR TRACKS OR WHATEVER) OF 2006
2 Rodney Atkins – “Cleaning This Gun (Come On In Boy)” (Curb)

"If You're Going Through Hell" is, at best, the album's fourth best song -- behind the one I voted for, "These Are My People," and "In The Middle." And while he's got his cloying moments ("Watching You," about his little boy learning to say naughty words and pray just like Daddy, gag), the words there not his voice are the culprit.

His debut album was good, too, though not quite as good as the followup (which for a while I was considering for my Pazz & Jop ballot, though it slipped a bit on my list in '06's waning weeks):

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0350,eddy,49290,22.html

http://koganbot.livejournal.com/11711.html

Bill Kirchen's album is more rock and soul and blues than anything I've heard by him before. Great title (and rocking title track): Hammer Of The Honky Tonk Gods. He does "Devil With A Blue Dress On" as a slow shuffle, closes with an Arthur Alexander song.

-- xhuxk (fakemai...) (webmail), November 17th, 2006 12:04 PM. (xheddy) (link)

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This is like Freaky Friday or something. Totally agree with xhuxk on the new Kirchen. Good song selection too.
-- Roy Kasten (rfkaste...) (webmail), November 17th, 2006 2:50 PM. (Roy Kasten) (link)

Well, actually...Freaky Friday must be over now because the Kirchen album's sounding a lot duller to me today than it was a couple days ago. Just kinda stodgy and slow and colorless, and the title track doesn't really kick all that hard after all, and why the hell would anybody want to slow down "Devil With a Blue Dress On," come to think of it? So right now, I'm on the fence, but maybe it'll kick back in, or maybe it won't.
-- xhuxk (fakemai...) (webmail), November 19th, 2006 12:53 AM. (xheddy) (link)

"One More Day" on the Kirchen album does have a nice Dock Boggs era white country blues feel to it, I guess. And I do like the Arthur Alexander cover. So I haven't written the thing off quite yet.
-- xhuxk (fakemai...) (webmail), November 19th, 2006 1:45 AM. (xheddy) (link)

"Working Man" and "Soul Cruisin'" very nice on the Kirchen album too. I should just shut my mouth and stop second-guessing everything.
-- xhuxk (fakemai...) (webmail), November 19th, 2006 2:25 AM. (xheddy) (link)

Kirchen's "Hammer of The Honky Tonk Gods" title cut kicks (or at least "signifies kicking") in a Junior Brown kind of way, I guess. There's something sorta deluded about it -- half of Nashville rocks harder; hell, Kellie Pickler might rock harder -- but it's not bad.

-- xhuxk (fakemai...) (webmail), November 19th, 2006 2:54 AM. (xheddy) (link)

---------------------------------------------------------------------
And my new maybe-favorite on Kirchen's CD is "Skid Row in My Mind."

-- xhuxk (fakemai...) (webmail), November 19th, 2006 3:19 PM. (xheddy) (link)

So yeah, in the end, I'd say the Kirchen album squeaks by more on its real good song selection than its better-than-competent performances (and singing). But it still bats at least .500 in my book. I even wound up liking the track called "Heart of Gold," which is not a "Heart of Gold" I've known before. (It's credited to one T. Johnson). Best original is "One More Day," which turns out to be more Bob Wills than Dock Boggs, more Western swing than white blues. Anybody know who Blackie Farrell, who wrote "Skid Row In My Mind," or J. New, who wrote "Soul Cruisin'," are? They're both really great. "Devil With A Blue Dress" is totally dreary in this version, though maybe I'd forgive it here if I didn't grow up on Mitch Ryder.
-- xhuxk (fakemai...) (webmail), November 19th, 2006 10:45 PM. (xheddy) (link)

great comp, on Time/Life: "Gloryland: 30 Bluegrass Gospel Classics." Don Reno/Red Smiley, Rhonda Vincent, Country Gentlemen, The Seldom Scene, two discs, mighty nice Sunday-morning music.

...namely their "Missing You 2007" remake, which is now at #43 on the country singles chart

I see that Josh Love mentioned Sarah Buxton upthread; she had an EP this year, and a couple of singles. From her Website:

"I suggest EVERYONE sit down and try to write a quick and honest assessment of their life. Can you say 'therapy'?"

"I never had a problem making friends, but I did spend a lot of time feeling like I didn't fit in. I wasn't cute and I didn't like P.E. class..."

(Calling Brie Larson.)

"Stevie Nicks' lyrics were like poetry, so I started to write poetry of my own... full of angst and confusion, mainly related to my poor mother."

Four of the five songs from her EP are up on her MySpace page, including "Stupid Boy." Her version is pretty great, really emotional, though the one by Keith Urban has that extra frisson when you realize that Keith as narrator is directing the song at himself, implying that he himself is the stupid, critical, spirit-destroying boy.

Great line from "That Kind Of Day," inspirational verse for compulsive debtors and spenders everywhere: "When times are tough it's time to shop/And your credit card will buy a lot/What's another bill to pay/When it's that kind of day?"

xp

I meant Kid Rock's "rock songs have tinges of both country and rap."

Matt, I'll send you a copy of a ballot. They do it all by email, none of those electronic gizmos that Idolator and the Voice use to keep out imposters. If you send one in, Geoff will probably think he sent you one. Maybe he did, and it just never made it to your inbox.

(You're right Xhuxk, I am liking the Little Big Town album more today than I did yesterday. But remember, I was the first kid on my block to hate Crosby, Stills & Nash, and when "Take It Easy" hit I felt the same hatred for the Eagles that Xgau famously did. (I later was won over by "New Kid In Town" and "Lying Eyes" and "Life In The Fast Lane.") So I definitely have a number of James Taylor Marked For Death moments when listening to Little Big Town.)

Jon Pareles: "Leslie Feist's gracious voice make 'The Reminder' a pop album, but never a shallow one."

Jeesh.

(M.I.A. got a singles pick from Pareles. The only overlap between my ballot and the four Times lists was both me and Sanneh voting for Linda Sundblad's "Lose You" - though I did vote for the Rihanna album, and a couple of the Times critics chose "Umbrella."

Two Times picks for the Krauss/Plant (from Ratliff and Pareles).)

No, you're right, Frank -- Little Big Town are not as good as Fleetwood Mac or the Eagles at their best. But then, nobody else in 2007 was either, so when it comes to picking the best music of the year, not being as good as Fleetwood Mac or the Eagles is sort of a moot point. (Also, those co-dependency lyrics of "Fine Line" I quoted above are sort of mush. But I like them anyway, and I especially think the "I'm holding on, you're holding back" dichotomy is pretty clever, and the line about "You consume what you'e able/I get crumbs from your table" sort of turns Michael Jackson's they-eat-off-you-you're-a-vegetable on it head, and as with the other songs I love on the Little Big Town album, I hear plenty of hooks in the emotion and emotion in the hooks. (And someday I will die without understanding why so many people hate the Eagles so much, and even then I will believe that what's hated is what they theoretically stood for, and has nothing to do with their music.)

Other country artists who put out good albums this year who may or may not qualify as "new" for Nashville Scene ballot purposes: Lantana, Sunny Sweeney, Laidlaw, Glenn Stewart, Pete Berwick, Daniel Lee Martin. Lantana and Laidlaw would also qualify as "duos, trios, or groups." But with that list, I'm not sure off hand if all the albums those people put out this year were debut albums. (I could check, but I don't have time.) Weirder, though, is the fact that even if they are debut albums, they might not qualify, since the Scene poll defines a new artist as "any artist whose first album with national distribution (i.e. on a major label or on a major independent such as Sugar Hill, Rounder, Bloodshot, etc.) was released in 2007." Since a few of those acts put out albums that apparently don't have major label distribution, maybe they have to wait until later in their careers to qualify as "new"! Which doesn't mean I might not vote for one or two of them anyway. (I voted for Bomshel as a new artist last year, and they're a group too, but their album never came out. And then there's Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles -- she may or may not qualify as her own, or as part of a group, not sure.)

Another thing that makes Kid Rock country: One of the songs on his album steals its riff from "Sweet Home Alabama." And in 2007, music that sounds like Skynyrd is more country than rock by definition, even though it probably rocks more than rock does.

Actually, though, come to think of it, there is at least one band whose 2007 album I never got around to hearing that may have been as good as the Eagles at their best, and that is, duh, the Eagles themselves. If their previous full studio album The Long Run had come out in 2007, it probably would have deserved a spot on my top ten, so who knows, maybe someday I'll hear The Long Road Out Of Wal-Mart and be surprised. Not that I really expect that, but the song I saw them play on the CMA Awards seemed halfway decent, actually. (Best Billboard headline I ever wrote, fwiw: "Life In the Express Lane.") And come to think of it, there still is much to despise about the people in the Eagles. (Well, except Joe Walsh; I can never hate him.) But I've never seen how that's stood in the way of their music (which may well stink now.)

Album that came out in November which might possibly have qualified for some of my 2007 country lists (including new act and group categories) had I heard it earlier, but I didn't hear it until this week, so I think I'll save it for my 2008 lists instead: A Million Yesterdays by Mechanical Bull. Myspace below; more comments one of these days, no doubt:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=87087289

looking back (and spending yesterday listening to some truly weird mid-'60s/late-'60s Nashville Liberal Art Music--Bobby Bare '66 song suite w/ Jack Clement called A Bird Named Yesterday and John D. Loudermilk's Open Mind of J.D. Loudermilk, the latter where Loudermilk sounds like the guy from the Beau Brummels [who recorded in Nashville], while the Bare is also folk-rock w/ recitations inbetween where Bare plays Everyman and the songs are about the Corporations coming to town), I voted for Elizabeth Cook's "Balls" and Miranda Lambert's "Famous in a Small Town" as singles; the albums themselves just seem overrated to me now. Lambert's is listenable, more so than Cook's, but neither one ultimately makes it for me, altho Lambert's does indeed "rock." I dunno, it just seems simulated to me, meta-music or something like that.

Borges made one pretty fair record previous to her Sugar Hill effort, on Blue Corn label. Sarah Johns gets my vote for best debut record, though--she looks like a waitress and sings like one and that's fine and even sexy and good enough for me.

Jim Lauderdale's Honey Songs has some ferocious pickin' from the likes of James Burton. Lauderdale's a good songwriter, a bit thin in the vocal dept. Chalk this one up to honorable genre effort.

re Yoakam, the No Depression reviewer did his and the Derailers' Buck tributes together, giving Dwight the nod. I haven't heard it. But the Derailers do well by Owens, real well, sound just like him. I like it. And yeah, I despised "Take It Easy" even when I was a teenager; I despise the Eagles except for Joe Walsh, right, but do like not "Lyin' Eyes" (which isn't bad cocaine music) but "Take It to the Limit," their best single ever, country-soul at its most deracinated. Beyond that, and maybe shit like "James Dean," I hate 'em, hate their spirit--only a fool would deny that they made great records or were (are) great players and singers.

I don't think I've ever hated a performer where my hatred didn't have something to do with what he or she stood for.

My Idolator ballot, if you're interested. My ballot's rather hate-free this year.

Edd, I've complained a bit about the Miranda Lambert lyrics (and voice too, I guess) containing stock characters, and nothing on this year's Lambert is as touching as 2005's, so I'm guessing I have a sense of what you mean about "simulated"; but the driving rhythms and the fierce singing and the tunes and the songs and the wit of the lyrics overcome my wishing for something warmer. "Down," "Guilty In Here," and "Getting Ready" are a great blazing, brooding three-in-a-row to almost close out the album.

Just realized that if I'm going to vote for Ashley Monroe's unreleased album this year, I can also vote for her as best new artist; I voted for her single "Satisfied" last year, when it was actually promoted to radio.

(I meant to say that Miranda's driving rhythms etc. overpower my wish for something warmer - or, for that matter, overpower my liking for something warmer, e.g. the LeAnn Rimes album, which just doesn't have enough great songs to beat Miranda. But I would have liked the Miranda album itself to be warmer. It's still better by a good deal than her previous album, despite that one's warmth.)

>>Honestly, if I were to award a "hardest rocking album of 2007" award, >>it would probably go to American Dog's appropriately titled Hard-->>which, at last count, was my 45th favorite album of the year.

C'mon now, how do you tell? Are the distinctions in centiles? Ergs? I thought five or six years ago I should keep a piece of paper in my pocket and put a strike on it beside the name of every album I played for every play. Then I figured I could do it my head.

You should know that one piece of working scientific wisdom concerning memory handling and numbers, is that if you're among the best, you can keep seven in your head at one time. And if you can do that, you're good abstractly and logistically with numeric values and their places in slots. It also jives with the way I have always filled out my end of year ballot, which was to go with the things I played the most. And that filled out 70 percent of a Top Ten with little error every time.

But 45? You're a way better listmaker than I.

And, no, I didn't get no confirmation from VV on the net interface, to answer a different question.

Plus American Dog's Hard made my Top Ten even though no one would let me review it. Big surprise.

>>Two Times picks for the Krauss/Plant

The knee-jerk ass-kissing of the upper middle class music journalist. How did John Waite get no credit? Someone might have noted that as for duets with a rock singer, Krauss was definitely second class next to Mr. Waite.

Gorge, you could prob get Rob to check on your ballot; I did that last year, and he responded pretty quickly. If Assholes, haven't heard the whole Dwight singing Buck set yet, but the tracks I've heard sound like a natural fit, and pretty sure the single, "(I Don't Care) As Long As You Love Me," will be on my Scene ballot. Xhuxx, I think the Big Machine re-release of Sunny's album happened around the first part of this year or close enough, Himes ain't gonna fine you, and even if he does, she's worth it. Frank, what are your thoughts on the Neil Young live album you've apparently committed to, or do we have to wait for publication?

I'm sure it's fine. If not, que sera sera.

a few of those acts put out albums that apparently don't have major label distribution

I meant "national" distribution here, not "major label" (as Geoff Himes expressly stipulated "major independent" labels.) Doesn't matter anyway; I gave my three "new artist" votes to Flynnville Train, Cole Deggs & the Lonesome, and Sarah Johns, all of whom do have actual major label distribution.

how do you tell? Are the distinctions in centiles? Ergs?

Nah, the metric mainly tends to revolve around quantitatively verifiable measurements such as "hunches." But I'm the guy who wrote Stairway to Hell, remember; I've been doing the "is the 343rd best album or merely the 344th best" thing forever -- doesn't even take that long if you, say, keep a running tally through the year, then print the list out, maybe at the end do some half-hearted relistening, then decide "Travis Tritt seems like he should be higher" or "Einsturzende Neubauten seem like they should be lower" (both of which actually happened this year.) And of course, five minutes after I send such a list in, I'll inevitably second-guess it. But that's my own neurotic cross to bear.

the way I have always filled out my end of year ballot, which was to go with the things I played the most

Yeah, that's more or less how I do it too -- though "how much sticks with me from the last time I played it" and "how much do I like what stuck with me" figure in too. Anyway, the "records I played most" rule is what Lester Bangs always claimed to have done with his top 10 ballots, too, and now I actually get the idea (esp. with singles lists) that the method is becoming more popular, since download and social networking sites frequently do keep precise count of how many plays X and Y tracks get. But that just seems cold and clinical to me -- seems like it would take the fun out of a list. At very least, I should have the leeway to guess what I played most, and fudge a little.

I think, back when I played more for recreation than review-bait, some things were mainly default: not that I didn't continue to enjoy them, not that they were just background music, though they could (usually)work as background music, because they weren't too involving, just like they weren't too boring--and judging by how many items are so very handy for such default, at least for a while, it seems like a favorite aspect of marketing, a favorite of major and minor labels (not the only favorite, caos you gotta have the OMG Elvis Beatles etc to reboot overall interest periodically)

Caroline Kennedy, promoting her Christmas book on MSNBC, showed a letter from JFK, to a little girl who worried about Santa getting nuked over the DEW Line: "I just spoke to Santa, he's fine." (Quoted by Barry Goldwater, during the Cuban Missle Crisis: "So you want this fucking job.") Ho-Ho-Ho, 1962 was a fine time to be a child, or an anything, as I am reminded by th hovering tremolo of Roebuck Staples' guitar, of the Staple Singers' blues gospel harmonies, on re-issued The 25th Day of September. Foreboding and joy, and the pleasures of warmth in winter, of light from the GE bulb in the crib. The spookiest, slowest, most savored-by--Mavis "Go Tell It On The Mountain" ever.Get it while you can, thouh also good to know their music was still developing, some hits ahead. But right now, this is good. Mostly p.domain I hadn't heard of, arr. by Roebuck Staples, who also adjusts "O Little Town of Bethlehem","Silent Night," Thomas Dorsey's "The Savior Is Born," and some R. Staples originals. Saw Toby Keith and Miranda Lambert do a pretty good "Go Tell It On The Mountain" (in the familiar, more upbeat tempo)with Miranda Lambert on CMT, an except from his Christmas special.

Frank, what are your thoughts on the Neil Young live album you've apparently committed to, or do we have to wait for publication?

Not many thoughts. 1971, back when Neil wrote good melodies all the time, sang in the same quaver he did before and does now, "Down By The River" sounds just as bent on acoustic as it does on electric, "Ohio" got long sustained applause, the last two remind me irrevocably of high school, this much madness is too much sorrow, four dead in o-high-o.

Top 10, Z-100 in New York
LW TW Artist Title TW lw +/- Reach/Mill
4 1 RIHANNA Don't Stop The Music 95 74 21 8.7413
2 2 ALICIA KEYS No One 92 95 -3 8.5443
1 3 CHRIS BROWN Kiss, Kiss (f/T-Pain) 78 95 -17 6.9371
7 4 MILEY CYRUS See You Again 78 57 21 7.4272
11 5 ENUR Calabria 2008 (f/Natasja) 63 43 20 6.0612
5 6 PARAMORE Misery Business 62 62 0 5.9815
6 7 FERGIE Clumsy 57 60 -3 5.4613
10 8 FLO RIDA Low (f/T-Pain) 51 44 7 4.5005
13 9 JORDIN SPARKS No Air (f/ Chris Brown) 49 40 9 4.4648
12 10 JORDIN SPARKS Tattoo 48 43 5 4.2235

(Er, meant to post that on Rolling Teenpop, not here; but note Miley at number 4.)

I finally really attended to Cole Deggs' record. The song about how he's got to get his woman back from Florabama beach to Texarkana truckstop--but he allows as to how he ain't got nothin' against Alabama per se, but he would like her back if you don't mind, and I will kick 'Bama's ass if it comes to it--is choice.

murder, insanity and terminal loneliness are all bubbling under the 5 John Anderson reissues from Collectors' Choice. fills out his '80s WB stuff, with John Anderson, 2 and Wild and Blue already out there. except for Countrified, obviously cobbled together from what they had lying around (and with a cover of a Tony Joe White song about sex with the aid of garter belts that might show the limits of Anderson's poetic erotics), all great records. I Just Came Home to Count the Memories really establishes his distance from his roots and rolls out one piece of haunted Southernism after another; definitive New Traditionalism with brains. All of the People Are Talking is his pop move, and the closest I can get to an analogous record is Lee Dorsey's Night People, where the geniality is mixed with something colder and even saturnine, yet the pop moves are totally assured. Tokyo, Oklahoma is his, I guess, Tallulah (with All the People his 16 Lovers Lane)--more distance, more quick narrative, and, hard to judge in such a consistent artist, but perhaps his greatest song ever, "Down in Tennessee." There are hints of George Jones and Levon Helm in his singing, but you get the sense that Anderson is just laying back so that he can stretch out every now and again and surprise us. This is some of the most perfectly judged singing in country history, in every respect, on these records.

now, why'd you have to make that Go-Be's analogy???

Okay, so, a whole buncha ketching up to do:

KIM RICHEY: Took me months to get to it, but Chinese Boxes is really really pretty, and Kim still manages one of the clearest pure-pop guitar jangle-melody sounds on the planet. I like when her lyrics free up and get a little less straightforward, like when she compares somebody to "chinese boxes, one inside the other" in the title cut (which is probably my favorite cut, just great clippity-clopping upbeat summer pop), or when she starts out "I Will Follow" (not the U2 song) with "I saw you in a dream I had/Doing dishes at the laundry mat." "Not A Love Like This" verges on rockabilly (and sounds good doing it), but most of the songs are slightly slower. But except in rare cases where they start to drift a bit too listlessly (for example in "Drift," the title of which at least suggests a self knowledge about it), they're lovely and often really sexy in a grown-up way. "Something To Say" ranks with the most effective sad songs I heard all year, too. One of the best singer-songwriter records I heard in 2007 (also, short -- just ten songs), and Metal Mike Saunders is a fan (he's said he hears Tom Petty in Kim's sound before, which makes sense), so she's not pretentious, either!

WILLIE NELSON -- Tracked through his new one, which is produced by Kenny Chesney of all people. I like his cover of Big & Rich's (mostly Big Kenny's, I assume) "The Bob Song" (from B&R's unjustly ignored Super Galactic Fan Pack EP from a few years ago) -- song's kinda dorkey, about how we're all eccentric monkeys in our way; I can see Jimmy Buffet fans who fancy themselves being free-thinkers when they're on vacation from their investment banking jobs enjoying it, but it makes me chuckle anyway (and I don't even like margaritas). Willie also covers Randy Newman's flood song "Louisiana" and Dylan's born-again song "Gotta Serve Somebody" -- competently, I guess. They're both good songs; he's a good singer even if he does sing almost every song exactly the same (which is one reason I never connect with his albums, probably.) But I said almost: He actually employs his rare low register when interpreting the Dave Matthews Band's "Gravedigger" (which tracks from their gravestones the birth and death years of three apparently unrelated individuals who died in the 20th Century, and they all ask to be buried in shallow graves so they can feel the rain, and then there's a ring-around-the-rosey-pocket-full-of-posies plague part); Willie probably improves the song, but I haven't heard DMB's version in years (and only once or twice then), so I'm not really sure. It's okay, I guess; interesting words. (I've always assumed Matthews is a smart guy; he's just never made me care about his smartness.) Beyond that, not much on the Willie album drew me in -- there's one sort of jazzily sung and instrumented cut in the middle (maybe "Keep Me From Blowing Away"?) that had some jauntiness to it, and "When I Was Young and Grandma Wasn't Old" is a halfway decent memory song....but beyond that, shrug. Given all the covers, I'm wondering whether this a Johnny Cash style critical respectability for the country legend move. If it is, I guess it's not an awful one. But I can't imagine I'll be playing it again.

CHUCK WICKS -- This one grew on me. "If We Loved" has lyrics that are vague utopian bullshit about how much better the world would be if we all got along, but it's got a melody worthy of a great Brooks & Dunn ballad, and singing to match. "Good Time Comin' On" is a sexy song about taking a summer road trip with a girl you're just getting to know and making moves on her while you're driving; his hand's on her knee; he's rounding second and heading for third. And Wicks knows his way around big aching ballads, and even the mushy tearjerker about the 12-year-old boy (or however old he is) who takes care of his single mom while his dad only calls on weekends got to me after a while; maybe my hormones were acting up that day, who knows. Still don't get "Stealing Cinderella," which is the actual hit single on the thing, but maybe that will sink in eventually, too. (For some reason, the album reminds me of Jason Michael Carol's debut from a year ago, which seemed to have a similar mix of sap and okayness to it.)

DR. HOOK, Greatest Hooks -- I voted for this in my #5 reissue spot in my Nashville Scene ballot, even though their coked-up schmaltz is frequently unbearable. But "Cover of The Rolling Stone" is one of the funniest songs ever written anywhere and therefore what Nickelback's "Rockstar" (which has nonetheless been growing on me even more since I saw its goofy video) should be, and "Sylvia's Mother" is like OutKast's "Ms. Jackson" only better, and I honestly think Dr. Hook's later country-disco sellout-sleaze period (best exemplified by "Sexy Eyes" and the very funkily riffed "Baby Makes Her Blue Jeans Talk", though the Ray Parker Jr. imitation "Girls Can Get It" is cute too) may stand up as a completely original hybrid that should have turned into its own genre but somehow never did. Otherwise, "A Little Bit More" appears to concern sexual stamina, "Sleeping Late" appears to concern masturbating, and "A Couple More Years" appears to concern being older than your partner (not that she's a little teenage blue-eyed groupie or anything of course.) But I'm pretty sure she dumps him anyway.

FINN AND THE SHARKS -- Weirdly, the the last song on Breakfast Special, an apparent gospel singalong apparently called "Down to the Well" or something, opens up with guitar chords from "Cover of A Rolling Stone," but then it always lets me down by not being "Cover Of A Rolling Stone." "Rhythm and Ruin," meanwhile, opens with guitar chords from "Smokin' In the Boys Room," so I guess these seeming Teddy Boys actually grew up on '70s AM radio (I bet Fonzie and Sha Na Na were inspirations, too). Also, some of the better tracks ("Tell Your Mama," especially, and "Growing Up Evil") are really more dark sleazy AOR blues-rock than rockabilly, and "I Don't Want To Die Unknown" has a monster hard rock riff and reminds me of the MC5, and "Drugstore Cutie" sounds like a '70s hard rock band going new wave in 1979, always a good thing. But some of the more obvious greaser-jitterbug revival stuff ("Rockabilly Bop," gawd) is more so-what, and "Every Day" annoys me even more by reminding me of the Cherry Poppin' Daddies/Royal Crown Revue '90s swing revival (which reminded me a little of the Blasters itself, so that kinda makes sense.) Still, more hard stuff ("Fed Up" is another fast tough one) than wussy stuff here, and the Led Zeppelin cover kills.

ATOMIC BITCH -- Tuneful self-released La.-via-L.A. band, led by a strong-voiced gal named Ursulla, plenty of glammy '80s Cali pop and glammy '80s Cali rock color in their sound (I liked the EP they put out in '06 too); not a lot of country on Promnite, but one of the best songs (at least partially about lemon merengue pie and getting tied up) is called "Hillbilly Swing," and it has a bit of a twang to it (along with some Bowie glam in the high notes), so that's a way in. I also like "Suspicious Hair Dryer," which is a good fuzzy dancey song (with some Blur or Pavement in its woo-hoos but not in a bad way) about a household appliance (possibly used as a weapon), with brand names (Maytag, Sunbeam) and pink hair curlers adding speficity. And in another song Ursulla shares a leather jacket with a boy, and in "Easy There Tiger" she tells a boy to slow down. And "Rock'n'Roll High School" is not a Ramones cover but that's okay, as is the fact that the hooks might pop out more if they were more slickly produced.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=3619977

ELIZA NEALS -- Husky-voiced self-released rustic-soul pop singer from Detroit via N.Y.; I liked her previous record as well. Triangulates somewhere between Sheryl Crow, Joss Stone, Melissa Etheridge, maybe. "Motown legend Barrett Strong Jr." gets a few co-songwriting credits. Melodies partially come from "Ain't No Sunshine" (in "About Her") and "To Love Somebody" (in "Let Go"). The cover of Neil Young's "Southern Man" has a really cool guitar buildup. "Forgotten Town" seems to be about homeless people abandoned on Detroit's desolate streets. Hard powerchords in "Snakes," some jazziness in "U Can Bet," but I still wish the songs were hitting me more; nothing here totally grabs me, at least so far.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=27994940

>>since download and social networking sites frequently do keep precise >>count of how many plays X and Y tracks get

Doesn't align. Too much pooching, the oxygen of the Internet, going on.
How many people stick around on their own sites, logging in through anonymous servers, or just deleting their browser caches, to pump up their numbers? Everyone. Those who say they don't are liars.

Plus, I've found that if I actually take the trouble to download something I want to listen to, I don't listen on the PC, I burn it and play it in the stereo later. That means downloads can get played hardly at all before I delete them, depending on my opine.

And then there's the phenom, unquantifiable but common to all parts of the digital world, of downloading free and pirated stuff just for the sake of having a big pile of stuff. And lots of that doesn't get listened to much at all, if at all, I reckon.

Xhuxk, I do like Cole Deggs, or, that is, liked him when I played months ago and instantly forgot him, then liked him again when I played him again this week. He has a light touch on fast rockers that doesn't prevent the guitar lines from whipping out at you, and he can also do some gentle jazz-tinged smoochers; oddly, that description makes him sound like Toby Keith, whom I find not-the-least forgettable. Anyway, I think Deggs needs more good songs. His lightness is fine, when lightness is what I want, but he probably could use more distinctiveness. Or maybe he just needs more listens from me.

"not-the-least forgettable" = I never forget his stuff

But a lot of people on this thread seem to be forgetting Toby this year, as Xhuxk's the only one who's had much to say about the record. So I only finally searched it down today. And I think it's good. The single is strong, so are the rock-along rock 'n' rollers (though oddly this year's most intense Chuck Berry move comes from Rihanna on "Lemme Get That," which is one of the most ambitious-strange songs I've heard this year). I'm listening to "High Maintenance Woman," and one of the reasons I like it, I'm realizing, is that its riff reminds me a lot of Cinderella's "Gypsy Road" (which Xhuxk once listed in Radio On as his number one single ever, iirc), a fierce but cheery guitar line.

Problem is that last year's White Tra$h With Money was lovely from start to finish, whereas I'd call this one likable most of the way (with a couple of dull spots), and it doesn't elicit nearly the same passion from me. But "Walk It Off," which Xhuxk was rather meh about upthread, achieves a bit of the slow storm loveliness of White Trash, without losing its walk. Nice album. Don't know if it'll make my chart, though.

I'm realizing that, unlike last year, I've got more than ten country albums I want in my top ten list. There's also a lot of parity; last year my number seven album was Montgomery Gentry's very good Some People Change but there was no way it was interchangeable in quality with the albums above it, whereas my number seven at the moment for this year, John Anderson's Easy Money, could easily rise to number two, or fall off the list altogether. Last year I included a Totally Country comp to pad the list. This year I'll probably declare Ashley Monroe ineligible (given that her album never was released) to free up an extra space, but there are four or five albums that could compete for that one space (Toby, Little Big Town, Kid Rock (but I'll probably declare him ineligible), Black Angel (whom I'm deciding are eligible as "country" because it's not like there are a lot of <i>other</i> markets for their Stonesish choogle-groove)(not that country is a market for them either), and all those albums from earlier in the year that I've forgotten what they sound like (John Waite, Richard Thompson, Jack Ingram).

But anyway, my real puzzlement is singles. It's not that I can't find ten I like, but that I get the feeling that there's a lot more out there.

Also, a question similar to one I posted on the teenpop thread (except there it wasn't about country):

What surprised you in country music this year?

My lack of interest in it, to be honest. But that's not really a helpful answer.

Sugarland. I never thought I'd like their record more than just about everything else I listened to this year. There were only two other "new" pieces I probably enjoyed a bit more. Foghat's Live II -- which isn't strictly Foghat but which nontheless killed -- and The Sirens' More is More.

I like the Sirens (though they push the competence-envelope; good groove though, especially their Slade cover)! I can't remember when last I heard Foghat. I haven't heard this year's Sugarland, but I'm skeptical.

Another Christmas album I've been playing is from late last year. Especially good when the ritual visitors keep trickling in (last blast on New Year's Day, whoopee)(deadlines trickling in, but so is my diligence): Christmas Time Again, by the The dBs & Friends. It's been reissued several times, with bonus tracks of quality trickling in too. Moody, vibey, horny in several senses, Jack Daniels in the eggnog if you please. And simpler sugars. Big Star and solo Chilton: one track each, familiar enough and available elsewhere, but that's part of what we got at (and gave for)Christmas. Just a bit of low-budget Spector echo (with girls up front, and Stamey gets them twice!); Don Dixon doesn't overdo the Prima bits; stray Whiskeytown re letters in the attic (Ryan without much Caitlin, and about the best from him or them I've heard); good self-pity from Marshall Crenshaw; you can read more about it and still hear the spotlight track:
http://www.paperthinwalls.com/singlefile/item?id=373

On that same page is a link to a rat nice 'un Gorge picked last year, "Pease Daddy Don't Get Drunk," by Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison:
http://www.paperthinwalls.com/singlefile/item?id=357

Jessica Simpson Going Country On New Album
Jessica Simpson

Billboard, December 28, 2007, 11:15 AM ET

by Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

Believe it: Jessica Simpson has decamped to Nashville to begin work on her debut country album, due sometime in 2008 via Columbia Nashville.

Simpson declined to name songwriting collaborators, but tells Billboard.com she will most definitely be involved in the creative process. "Writing is a release for me," she says. "It's a way for me to tell my story. That's not to say I wouldn't record a song that I didn't write. It's just that it has been a while since I have opened the book."

But why country, and why now? "I am a country girl," she says. "I grew up in Texas, and country music was what I listened to. I always wanted to make a country album, but I wanted to wait until the time was right."

"I think there is a strength in female country artists," Simpson adds, citing Martina McBride, Shania Twain, Faith Hill and Reba McEntire as some of her inspirations.

Asked what has surprised her most since starting the follow-up to 2006's "A Public Affair," Simpson says, "Nashville is a very warm city. The people are friendly and kind. There is a sense of community, which thrives on music. There is no animosity ... only respect for one another's talent."

It's unclear if Simpson will hit the road in support of the as-yet-untitled country project, but she says, "Since the record is in the beginning stages, there hasn't been much talk about a tour just yet."

Is there nothing Jessica Simpson cannot do? I can only hold my breath until she decides to take on global warming, malaria and the tragic problem of raging obesity in American school children.

>>The people are friendly and kind.

Particularly so when you pay them.

But she couldn't help the Cowboys beat the Eagles. (Maybe she was secretly in cahoots with the Eagles.)

Country stuff that surprised me this year:

1.) Better Bellamy Brothers and Kid Rock albums (assuming the later counts as country) than I'd ever thought I'd hear again in my lifetime; John Anderson too, I guess. (Maybe I should throw in Drive-By Truckers' imminent early '08 album too, but I'm bored by a lot more of it than I thought.)
2.) Better Travis Tritt and Brad Paisley albums, this late in the game, than I'd ever heard before period (and I still don't like Travis's anywhere near as much as Frank does, or Brad's anywhere near as much as lots of other people seem to.)
3.) Country bands (though not all of them are technically as self-contained as I at first thought) on major labels, with hints of having hits, almost.
4.) Big N Rich surprised me twice -- first, by making a worse album than I'd ever expected they would; then second, by making me like it anyway.
5.) Most recent surprise: Listening to Amanda Shaw's new album (which, granted, doesn't come out until January '08) again the other day, I realized that who she really reminds me of (at least in her more new wavey moments) is Rachel Sweet, who also put out her nationally distributed debut when she was 16.
6.) Also wound up liking the '06 albums by Alan Jackson and Taylor Swift more than I'd expected I would when '06 ended. Voted for Taylor, who accrued most of her sales and chart action in '07 anyway, on by Idolator and Pazz & Jop ballots (but not my Nashville Scene ballot, since their release date requirements are much more strict.) Didn't vote for Alan Jackson this year; that would have been silly --I just lamely came late to it, is all. If I had to do my '06 ballots over, though, it'd probably be on there. (And since Alan had never even hinted at doing anything even approaching that level of ease and warmth and beauty and humanity and playability before, Like Red On A Rose still ranks as one of the country surprises of the decade, easy.)

Mentioned Mechanical Bull a few paces upthread; like them even more now. Advance CD sleeve shows a young hipster looking guy (apparently Adam Widoff on guitar/bass/ drums/B3/clavinet/shaker) and young hipster looking girl (apparently Avalon Peacock -- great name, or annoying one, take your pick) from Woodstock, NY; so maybe they're considered a duo, but the cover credits also list six more musicians (on mandolin, pedal steel/dobro, guitar, guitar/vocals, dums, banjo/sax), plus John Medeski (jazz/fusion/jam band guy from Medeski Martin and Wood who I've never really listened to, right?) playing B3 on the song "Luke Warm Coffee," which is one of the ones Avalon sings, or rather purrs, and is an attempt at a seedy sort of smokey-lounge torch ambience ("lukewarm coffee and a filter cigarette" -- I don't smoke, but doesn't that just mean one you didn't roll yourself?), and therefore cornball by definition, and one of my least favorite songs on the album, but that said I still like it okay; it does the ambience as well as, I dunno, Amy Winehouse or Devil Doll or Sarah Borges do, maybe better.) But on this album, it is also, fortunately, atypical. And Annette (who does ethereal to the male singer's earthy -- good match) only sings a few of the songs (incluing "Desert Air," where she manages a good Grace Slick quiver amid some ominous spaghetti western psychedelia and the chants turn almost Gregorian by the end, so yeah, they get a good desert sound indeed); the rest are sung by a guy, who I had been assuming was Adam until right this second but I just noticed that "vocals" are not among his credits, so maybe it's Chase Pierson? Need to check, I guess. Whatever; whoever it is has a good deep voice with plenty of gravity -- reminds me of Cooley in the Drive By Truckers (yes, I am finally able to tell the DBTs' voices apart; sorry it took me so long.) And Southern Rock guitar jams like "Crazy Lady" would doubtlessly appeal to Truckers fans, too, but the other act the male voice and songs keep bringing to mind are much less authentic Brit techno-country collective A3 (at least on their late '90s-ish debut album that had the Sopranos theme on it), except without the techno. (The hipster boy/girl duo acting rustic thing might also put Mechanical Bull in the White Stripes/Kills/ Raveonettes genre, whatever that's called these days, but I don't really hear sonic similarities to any of those acts.) Anyway, songs I like I a lot (1) "Debts" ("...that no honest man can pay" -- that's a cover, isn't it? Though here, like most of the other songs, it's credited to guitarist-vocalist Chase Pierson, who okay, if he writes the songs, I wouldn't be surprised if he sings them too, and maybe that's even him not Adam in the photo, which is really confusing seeing how Adam's name and all his multitudinous credits are right under the photo); (2) "The End" (existential country -- I just made that probably meaningless subgenre name up; it also includes certain early Joe Ely songs like "Bhagavad Decree" and "I Think I'm Gonna Go Downtown" and yeah some A3 too, okay? -- about how you're good at starting things but not finishing them); (3) "Find A Home" (more existentialism about how "I don't look for trouble/trouble finds me on its own," very Cooley actually and the guy ain't got no home); (4) "Biggest Nerd In The Class" (closest thing to a blatant novelty joke here, except it's not, really; concerns the eternal high school popularity contest and the kid who gets picked last for kickball and carries the big bookbag falls in love with the girl who doesn't pay attention to what anybody thinks of her and they both wind up attactive people; very Revenge of the Nerds obviously and maybe Nada Surf's "Popular" too I'm not sure and okay there's probably some connection to White Stripes' walk-to-school songs on their first couple albums too come to think of it); (5) "Left Turn in Jersey" (= nearly impossible just like understanding the girl the singer is singing to: great metaphor, and "you've got your barbs in me like a porcupine" is a great line; anyway, this two-step is the second most blatantly "funny" song on the album and it's funny to me anyway and by the way did I say that these mostly all have really good melodies? well, they mostly all have really good melodies -- with hooks and energy and plenty of prettiness attached); (6) "Million Yesterdays" (good wistful memory drone with more Gregorian sighing in it; Avalon is watching the children in the park going round and round on their merrygoround while she herself goes round and round on the windmills of her mind and voices in her head as tears go by -- too bad Lee Hazlewood died; he would have liked this song I think); (7) "Goodbye Woodstock" (nice summers but harsh winters there and every year is the same so where will they move now? -- reminds me a little of that song on the new Vampire Weekend debut album, only song I like on there really, where they leave Cape Cod, but this song is better). So anyway, those are my notes, and sorry there are so many of them. Good album. Their myspace page, again:

http://www.myspace.com/mechanicalbullpen

(Actually, those two songs I call Joe Ely songs are quite possibly actually Butch Hancock songs, but Ely's versions are the ones I know, assuming Hancock ever actually sang them. Also, with the Bhagavad one -- assuming I even spelled it right -- I realize that conflating Eastern religion with existentialism may well be a contradition in terms, but so be it. It still feels existential to me, somehow.)

And okay, Mechanical Bull's myspace page (which for some reason also only shows two people in its photo) says the lead male singer is definitely Piersen:

Band Members CHASE PIERSON-Lead Vocals/Guitar CHRIS ZALOOM-Steel Guitar/Electric Guitar ADAM WIDOFF-Electric Guitar/Bass/Drums DAVID MALACHOWSKI-Electric Guitar GEORGE QUINN-Electric Bass JBIRD BOWMAN - Drums/Vocals AVALON PEACOCK-Vocals

Influences Dysfunctional marriages, alcoholism and the american dream

By the way, I also noticed yesterday that Sarah Buxton, who Frank was raving about last week, also is the person who dueted with Cowboy Troy on "If You Don't Wanna Love Me" on his debut album a couple years ago. Does that mean she is a Muzik Mafioso too?

And I've also been wanted to proclaim my love, or at least like, here for the upcoming early '08 album by the Horror Pops, lady-led Eurogothskasurfabillies on Hellcat; as with labelmates Tiger Army earlier this year, they'd never hit me before but somehow seem to have finally come into their own. Good glam-rumble bottom underneath, and the singer (sorry, don't have her name in front of me) does a good Lene Lovich hiccup on top, and she likes exciting movies (as evidenced by the excellently surf-guitared "Thelma and Louise" and the somewhat torch-kitsched but still real good big ballad "Hitchcock Starlet" as in "tonight I'll die in black and white like a Hitchock starlet") and other tales of girls living or at least driving fast and dying young ("Highway 55," probably my favorite), and "Missfit" has cool Madness "Our House" quotes and "Boot To Boot" has cool oi! shouts and "Horrorbeach Part 2" has cool Link Wray style guitars and "Kiss Kiss Kill Kill" has a cute '80s modern-rock melody, and the schtick dates way back to the Cramps at least but all told I sure don't recall No Doubt ever being this much fun. (Qualifies for thge country thread thanks of course to the rockabilly element, which No Doubt lacked.)

Apparently the singer's name is Patricia Day; HorrorPops is only one word; they are from Denmark but currently based in L.A.; and have Warp Toured:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=6058446

This Is Chris Cagle, 10-song press promo best-of; I wonder how many of these Captiol sent out, and of those, how many writers they actually expect to listen to the thing, especially this time of year, and especially when Chris supposedly has an actual album coming out soon even though now I'm wondering whether his tabloid headline a couple weeks ago might postpone said record. (Wikipedia: "On December 13, 2007, Cagle was cited by Tucson, Arizona police for assulting a man after a benefit concert at a local Tucson night spot. After the concert, Cagle signed at least one autograph for the man's girlfriend. She became aggressive after he declined to sign anymore for her, which led both the woman and her boyfriend to call Cagle names. The boyfriend declined to press charges and police reported that Cagle and his manager were both cooperative with the investigation.") Anyway, who cares; it's a good record, probably the best Chris Cagle album you'll ever hear if you ever manage to find a copy. (Though how would I know? I've only heard a couple of his albums. Just a hunch.) Opener "My Love Goes On and On" sounds a lot like John Anderson's "Black Sheep" and while it doesn't rock as hard (or smart) as said song it rocks hard and smart enough; "Laredo" isn't as good as Joe Ely's Laredo song but is stil Western border cowboy country with nice windswept guitar; "Chicks Dig It" is another rocker about playing the fool and maybe even auditioning for Jackass (not that he says that explicitly) by crashing into mailboxes (ghost ride the whip!) because, uh, that's why ladies find attractive (a deluded theory, I'm guessing, but who cares, demolishing mailboxes is always worth writing songs about): "Hey Y'All" (tough heartland rhythm-rock about blasting Skynyrd and saying "hey y'all")/"Wal-Mart Parking Lot" (high school social geography lesson about competing cliques etc.)/brand new "What Kinda Gone" (another tough heartland rhythm-rocker wherein Chris talks about the many competing and ambiguous definitions of said adjective) sound real good one after the other. Most of the rest is fairly competent ballads I have trouble caring about, some of them building up with a smidgen of oomph and at least one of them ("What a Beautiful Day") with intriguing orchestrations and lots of three-digit numbers (counting blessings or days since he met somebody I gather) in its lyrics, but it's still a good batting average. No copies on amazon.com or ebay.com (I just checked)--so: a collector's item!

i just got the new trisha. xcited.

I got the Cagle too. Like the uptempo numbers, not so hot on the slower ones myself, just like Chuck says. I haven't heard whether his little contretemps will delay the record.

Conversation continues on the Rolling Country 2008 Thread.