Rolling Country 2010

Maybe -- Did he actually write that song, though? I haven't checked, but on the best-of I got (which isn't in front of me), I'm pretty sure he didn't write any. As Xgau said above, most songs are credited to Bob McDill and Wayland Holyfield. So I wouldn't be sure that "Good Ole Boys" (which I'm guessing is atypical of his work) is autobiographical.

Btw, the one Don Williams LP recommended in The Blackwell Guide To Country Music is also the one I bought, Best Of Vol. II. But in Heartaches By The Number: Country Music's 500 Greatest Singles, Cantwell and Friksics-Warren list just "I Believe In You" at #417. They like lines about inflation, gas shortages, and closeminded churches, and one they quote as saying "I don't believe...that right is right and left is wrong." (Writers were Roger Cook and Sam Hogin.)

Barbara Mandrell gets zero mentions in the index of that singles book, fwiw. And also fwiw, I haven't decided yet how much I like her, though as I said it's definitely more than Christgau does. On the Best Of from 1979 I've got, as far as I can tell, turns out that only a few songs -- definitely "Woman To Woman," maybe "After The Lovin" or "Love Is Thin Ice" -- actually evince much r&b influence. And what surprised me just now, looking at Joel Whitburn, is that this was her first album to chart in the Billboard 200, and it only got to #170; I think of her as being this big '70s crossover star, but I've been wrong, obviously, and her TV show didn't go on the air until 1980. "If Lovin' You Is Wrong (I Don't Wanna Be Right)," previously done by Luther Ingram in 1972 and Millie Jackson in 1975 (and a #31 pop hit for Mandrell, her only Top 40), charted in March 1979, a month after the Best Of (which it's not on) came out. So it's not clear how much soul was in her sound, before and after the songs on the best-of.

John Morthland lists two Don Williams albums:

Don Williams: Greatest Hits (MCA). As a collection of 1972-75 songs, this is a staggering album. But somehow, it doesn't quite hold up; emotions that are supposed to be standing naked sound like posturing - or reverse posturing, to be more precise. But those are minor quibbles when the songs in question are along the lines of "Amanda," "She's in Love with a Rodeo Man," "The Ties That Bind," "I Recall a Gypsy Woman," and other early hits.

Don Williams: The Best of Don Williams, Vol. II (MCA). Williams keeps everything so low-key that he makes you concentrate on his music, the way someone who speaks very softly makes you listen more closely. For that reason, he can also wear thin; after the initial glow wore off his sound, his albums became less rewarding. But this volume covers his peak years of 1975-78, when Wayland Holyfield and Bob McDill were giving him songs like "Some Broken Hearts Never Mend," "(Turn Out the Light and) Love Me Tonight," "'Til All the Rivers Run Dry," "Rake and Rambling Man," and "You're My Best Friends." These are all direct sentiments, expressed simply, and the intimate backing of the band, complete with strings, combines with Williams' muffled baritone to create warmth and empathy. Williams' recurring suggestion that the emotional problems men and women struggle through are not all that different is a shocking admission coming from a male country singer.

A 12-second sound clip of John R. (either from his radio show or from a later re-enactment). According to Wikipedia and other online sources he played almost nothing that wasn't r&b. He was Caucasian, but in the early years most listeners assumed he was black. Went from the mid 1940s to the early '70s.

"After retiring, Richbourg produced cassette tapes featuring reconstructions of his shows, together with the music. Some of these still circulate among traders, as do 'bootleg' recordings from the radio broadcasts."

and a #31 pop hit for Mandrell, her only Top 40

Really? Wasn't she country before country was cool? That wasn't Top 40?

Nope. Just checked her Wiki discography, too -- it went #1 country, but didn't chart pop at all. Looks like her cover of Aretha's "Do Right Woman Do Right Man" went #128 pop in 1970, and after that she didn't chart pop again until "Woman To Woman," #98 in 1977. Six more singles charted #105 or better between then and 1980, but of those, only "If Loving You Is Wrong" went higher than #89. Which again, really surprises to me, too -- especially for somebody who seemingly had some mass-culture presence (thanks to network TV) during the Urban Cowboy era, when I get the idea country pop crossovers were hardly uncommon.

George Smith on Little Jimmy Dickens (goes for a few posts):

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2010

Taxonomic inquiry: Kat asks over on the poptimists' Best Song Of 2005 Heat One thread whether "Hotel Yorba" counts as country (she's thinking of doing a special country compilation post for 2000-2004). See my answer there, and add your own, if you're so inclined.

Anybody else but me see Gretchen Wilson with an electric guitarist do the national anthem at the NBA Allstar game in Dallas the other night? Not bad. Usher did a mini-concert pre-game show.

hey, chuck, how's the Haggard album?

Really good, and a lot better than I expected -- honestly, on initial perusal, it's easily among the one or two best albums of new music (any genre) I've heard so far this year. That could change, obviously, as I listen more. But it has jazz and blues and a duet, and a good song about the world changing beneath his feet and a song about Mexican music (that incorporates some) and a song about staying a couple after your kids are grown and one about sticking to his guns. (Title: I Am What I Am.) His voice definitely sounds older (even compared to the couple good albums he put out in the '00s), which I would expect to bug me. But he's carrying his, uh, haggardness surprisingly well.

Definitely better than the new Jason and the Scorchers (which has at least one song I like -- the one at the beginning about a moonshine guy living in a six-pack world wherein he loves the Stones and hates the Doors and thinks the Beatles are for girls -- but soon after starts to drag and just keeps dragging) and new Chely Wright (which has a song or two that might conceivably kick in, but I'm not gonna hold my breath.)

So, here's the MySpace page for the Austin alt-country band that mad-as-hell-and-not-gonna-take-it-anymore Joe Stack apparently played bass in, before flying his plane into an IRS office building here this morning:

http://www.myspace.com/billyeli

music is influenced by the Byrds, Rolling Stones, Gram Parsons, Buck Owens, George Jones, Kris Kristofferson, and all the underground cosmic cowboy bands of the early 70's

I just heard a newish Toby Keith single called "Cryin' For Me (Wayman's Song)" . It's a very odd song for Toby, featuring a extended saxaphone solo, that wouldn't be out of place on a 70's soft rock song. Actually the sax part kind of reminds me of a Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band song called 'Coming Home' off The Distance. Maybe it's not too odd, but it's very smooth for a country boy like him.

Well, Toby's definitely done smooth songs before. But that one's a eulogy for his friend Wayman Tisdale; hence, the smooth jazz parts.

And speaking of smooth, turns out my wife's parents are huge fans of Don Williams. I had no idea. They pulled out my copy of the LP I bought when I was upstairs, and started singing along to the songs, calling it real cry in your beer Texas country, proclaiming the classic status of "Some Broken Hearts Never Mend," and trying to figure out whether Don ever did any happy ones. They decided, yeah -- a couple. And they were amazed that I'd never really known anything about him until a couple weeks ago. Anyway, they're selling me, I think. He's clearly a romantic soundtrack to what it means to be together for the long haul, even if lots of his songs are about how that's not so easy.

Listened today to Old Familiar Feeling by the Whites, who lukevalentine mentioned here seeing live a couple weeks ago -- their Ricky Skaggs-produced album from 1983. AMG says it's their debut record, but Wiki lists a few before it that AMG says were actually released under a different group name, the Down Home Folks. A couple years later, they apparently went gospel and switched to Christian label Word; Buck White, the trio's patriarch, had had a career that dated back to the late '40s, when he was doing Western Swing -- which is probably why his one real solo turn, "Pipeliner Blues," sounds like such an authentic distillation of old white country blues and hillbilly boogie-woogie. It's also pretty raunchy tomcat stuff -- he's gonna lay his pipe on you, and he always sees some gal walking the street like she's a policeman on the beat. Which makes it a real anamoly on what's primarily an album of pristine squeaky-clean bluegrass harmonies from his daughters Sharon and Cheryl. Apparently they got a couple top ten country hits out of it too, and a few more through the '80s, and were later on the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack. Anyway, the daughters are fine here, but I don't know how much more I care about hearing by them. Am curious, though, about Buck's own early stuff -- he was apparently born in 1930, and I get the idea he'd lived a little.

So, here's the MySpace page for the Austin alt-country band that mad-as-hell-and-not-gonna-take-it-anymore Joe Stack apparently played bass in, before flying his plane into an IRS office building here this morning:

Something of a career-ender. Time to sack pathetic MySpace webpage, change name, etc.

Yeah, more messages to come like this, meanwhile, I'm sure:

green bracelet
Feb 18 2010 6:37 PM
Dude. I met you in Austin thru Kenneth when we played SXSW. What a tragedy about Joseph Stack. It has been all over the news today.

Let the record show that they also claim to have been influenced by David Allan Coe, the Gin Blossoms, Jackson Browne, Gary Stewart, and Jason and the Scorchers. (And that the plane crashed just up Research Boulevard North of Mopac, just a couple miles from where I live.)

I'd never thought of this (though also never saw the De Palma movie, nor read the King novel): Over in Heat One of the poptimists Best Of 2005 competition, Meserach calls Carrie Underwood "the appropriately monikered psychotically wronged Carrie," for the relish with which she performs "Before He Cheats."

Joe Stack's other band, apparently. (Name: Last Straw. Album title: Over The Edge):

http://www.myspace.com/laststrawmusic

Explanation of what Southern Soul singer J. Blackfoot and Ricky Skaggs have in common, followed by investigation into recent soul-blues songs about fishing holes:

Chitlin Circuit Double-entendre -filled Soul 2004 (and onward) Theodis Ealey's "Stand Up In It" is a song of the year

Discussion of Dion DiMucci's vocal influences, and related questions. (He was a Hank Williams and blues fan, and may have in turn influenced some country singers, so tangentially related to this thread):

Dion and the Belmonts- classic or dud?

When I saw that about Carrie Underwood being "appropriately monikered," I started wondering "What does she have in common with deviled ham?" And then I remembered, "Oh yeah, she has a first name, too." (You should rent Carrie, Frank. Haven't watched it in years myself, but it always seemed pretty archetypal as far as teenage social outcast revenge flicks go. Then again, I was in high school myself at the time.)

Jeezus, this is awful even without knowing who's playing jazzy keyboard. Went to HACC in Harrisburg, never graduated. Milton Hershey student. In SoCal where the Franchise Tax Board was after him although people reading the stories may not understand that if the IRS audits and finds unreported income it automatically sends that to the FTB which inexorably bills for that, so you can't have the latter without the
former. And if you don't pay fines or bills to the government in California it eventually sanctions you anyway.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/laststraw/from/payplay

Didn't hear the Billy Eli stuff -- the page immediately locked up my browser. But for all the rage bottled inside him, he couldn't express it in the music at all.

I guess he could be the subject of a song. How the American crackpot rails against the evil greed of the corporations and government, draws his plans, and upon carrying them out only manages to take down people in his own class or family.

The weekly example are guys who send powders in envelopes to government buildings around the country, sometimes with threatening letters, where they are always opened by secretaries.

I blog about Josh Turner's "Why Don't We Just Dance?" (am borderline on it; that track is a tad too comfortable with what ought to be an easy-flying "Your Mama Don't Dance" groove). And if you scroll up on that page you'll see me being awestruck over how on "We Are The World 15: For Haiti" everyone from Bieber to T-Pain fits in seamlessly except for Miley Cyrus, who sounds raw and off and out of place in group contexts no matter what.

So....first off I should note that I am a late convert to David Nail's "Red Light." I really like the details about what's going on in all the other cars surrounding him in the sunny Sunday afternoon traffic jam, while his girl is dumping him before the light changes.

Found a copy of the Desert Rose Band's Curb/MCA debut from 1987 for $1, and have since absorbed it. Went #24 on the country chart, with singles going #1, #2, #6, and #26; they had a few more top tens over the next couple years, then did a slow radio fade through the early '90s. Chris Hillman, the Byrds/Burritos guy, is on lead vocals and acoustic guitar, along with two other main guys and assorted helper-outers. Longest liner notes I've ever seen on a non-reissue / regular-issue mainstream country album, I think, by one Paul Clois Stone, apparently a historian and musician from Texas; he devotes a whole paragraph, even, to analyzing the LP's cover artwork, "discerningly linked to contemporary Western art through the lens of noted landscape and portrait photgrapher Jay Dusard." Music is jangly non-hard country-rock with moments of light Nick Lowe (post-sense-of-humor era) powerpop ("One Step Forward," the #2 hit) and Ricky Skaggs crossover bluegrass ("Time Between," apparently re-recorded from the Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday.) "Glass Hearts" quotes Buddy Holly's "True Love Ways" and sounds very very slightly Tex-Mex maybe. A few pretty good broken heart songs ("He's Back And I'm Blue," the #1, and "One That Got Away," a cheating song I think, and "Leave This Town"); one sunny one about having fun in a bad economy ("Hard Times".") It all sounds nice enough, but it's not sung or played with tons of urgency or passion, so none of it totally kills me -- If you're talking '80s proto-alt-country guys reviving the Bakersfield sound, Dwight Yoakam probably did it better.

Some of it makes me think "the country side of pub-rock," but that might just be because Brinsley Schwarz wanted to be the Burrito Brothers themselves. I played Desert Rose back to back with ex-Schwarzer Ian Gomm's Gomm With The Wind from 1979, possibly the most easy listening notable pub-related album this side of Ace (of "How Long" fame), and Gomm actually sounded edgier to me (in "Chicken Run," especially, and maybe "24 Hour Service" and his cover of Chuck Berry's "Come On.") Also didn't think Desert Rose had any songs as memorable as Gomm's "Hold On," which went Top 20 pop in the U.S. in 1979 and tracked so close to "Baker Street" that I doubt anybody who didn't know Gomm used to Lowe's bandmate considered it new wave at all.

Country-rock album I've really been obsessing on in the past 24 hours though is a new one, albeit recorded in 2000 to 2001 -- Buried Behind the Barn by Slim Cessna's Auto Club on Alternative Tentacles, apparently early previously unreleased (except on CD-R) versions of eight songs (totaling a half hour, good length) they later released on subsequent albums, none of which I've ever heard. Sound is somewhere in the gothic uptempo rustic hoedown territory of Red Swan and Woodbox Gang, two bands I liked a lot in the '00s without anybody else paying attention to them. (Woodbox also on Alternative Tentacles, which makes Cessna etc. only the latest evidence of a disconcerning realization I've had in recent years that Jello Biafra and I apparently have really similar tastes -- weird.) Lyrics frequently concern ghosts and dead bodies and people getting shot in the head and alcoholic mineworking in-laws falling off the wagon, not necessarily in that order. "Angel" takes the melody of the Everly Brothers' "Bye Bye Love," and my wife commented that another song sounded to her like something off of Hole's Celebrity Skin. In one of the catchiest songs (though they're almost all pretty catchy), somebody wants to blame something on the Port Authority Band, though I haven't figured out what yet, and I never knew the Port Authority had a band in the first place.

Here's how their Wiki page describes Slim Cessna et. al: "a country music band formed in 1993 in Denver, Colorado. The constant in the band has been Slim Cessna, formerly a member of The Denver Gentlemen along with David Eugene Edwards and Jeffery-Paul of 16 Horsepower. Their music includes elements of country blues, Southern gospel, gothabilly and other forms loosely grouped as Americana or alternative country. The Auto Club is sometimes labeled 'country gothic' due to the juxtaposition of apocalyptic religious imagery with stories of alcohol, violence, and relationships gone awry." (I also liked the 16 Horsepower archival set that Alternative Tentacles sent out last year, though not as much as I like this Slim Cessna one.) Here's their myspace page:

http://www.myspace.com/slimcessnasautoclub

Playing Elizabeth Cook's new album (not due out til May, on 31 Tigers); sounding surprisingly good to me so far, considering her previous album really bored me. (Though I did like the album that her husband, Tim Carroll, formerly of Indiana punk band the Gizmos, put out last year. And he's credited with guitar, slide, bango, harmonica, etc., here.)

http://www.myspace.com/elizabethcook

Speaking of the Belmonts (whom Xhuxk alluded to upthread), any thoughts about B.J. Thomas, who did the original - or at least the hit version of - "Rock And Roll Lullaby" which made it a year later onto the Belmonts Cigars, Acapella, Candy? Don't know much about Thomas, except that in its day "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" was the sort of thing that would make me throw bricks at people's heads. I'm sure I'd have a more benign attitude now. I'm streaming one of his hits collections <a href="http://music.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music.artistalbums&artistid=17988937&ap=0&albumid=10416969";>on MySpace</a> right now, though haven't gotten to "Raindrops" - I started in the middle with "Rock And Roll Lullaby." His version isn't as exquisite as the Belmonts' but it's just as good: starts with guitar twang, rolls along as a deep AC track but gets ever more doo-wop as it continues. The song was written by Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, and not surprisingly there's a bit of class awareness in it: the woman who's singing the rock and roll lullabies to the narrator back when he was a tyke is a struggling, unwed teen mother.

Thomas started with one foot in country, his first hit being "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." Then he veered adult contemporary. A couple more strong, rich songs follow "Rock And Roll Lullaby" ("Back Against The Wall," "No Other Baby") then we're stuck with treacle like "You Can Call That A Mountain" and "What's Forever For." But the man's got a nice MOR voice, a lot less pushy than Neil Diamond's, say, and more flexible than Gordon Lightfoot's. "Ballyhoo Days" is a gentle track where he's a former star ("Once my name had swept the nation/Now my job is sweeping cafes").

Hadn't realized he'd done the original "Hooked On A Feeling," though I realize I've heard his version plenty, thought I'd forgotten the totally incongruous sitar. The track is built on soul, for all the weirdness, could be the Four Tops bass player. "Raindrops" is inoffensive, not bad. (Fast Forward.) "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" has a rigidly clipped rhythm, very strange, and an organ halfway between church and skating rink. He's smoother than the percussion, that's for sure.

Anyway, in the '80s he ends up back in country, according to Wikipedia, though I don't know that period of his at all.

Grumble grumble format conversion grumble grumble Hooked On A Feeling um um etc.

I do have some thoughts about B.J. Thomas (or I have before, anyway, possibly even on some previous Rolling Country thread), but I'm not sure I can precisely conjure them from memory, beyond the fact that his adult-contemporary clearly had both country and soul in it. (I also have two LPs by him on my shelf, purchased cheaply of course in recent years, both released in 1970: Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head and Everybody's Out Of Town. Not to mention his own "Rock And Roll Lullaby" 45 from 1972, which Joel Whitburn informs me has Dave Somerville from doo-wop strollers the Diamonds singing backup and Duane Eddy playing guitar on it, which might partly explain why Greil Marcus listed it in the discography in the back of Stranded. Anyway, I will hereby move the two LPs back into the waiting-to-be-played pile.)

Also. "Today" by Gary Allan (#18 country hit now) = Girl-who-got-away-married-somebody-else-today country, like Toby Keith's "She Never Cried In Front Of Me" or Billy Ray Cyrus's "Could've Been Me" (or Brooklyn Bridge's "Worst Thing That Could Happen" or Nick Lowe's "I Knew The Bride When She Used To Rock'n'Roll" or the Fools' "Dressed In White," minus the "country" part.) Except it's way less good than any of those.

Rest of Gary Allan's new album isn't killing me either. I like the two tough rockers near the beginning, "Get Off On The Pain" and "That Ain't Gonna Fly." "Kiss Me When I'm Down" has some clever lyrics (which I quoted up above), and beyond that there's some high lonesome singing and high lonesome guitar parts now and then. Closer "No Regrets" is a longish waltzy thing about how Gary wouldn't trade away the past he had with his ex, and sounds like something that might eventually kick in, though probably not. But little of the set is grabbing me now.

Speaking of currently charting singles, anybody know if any of these are any good (or bad)?

47 52 56 4 Free, Jack Ingram
J.Joyce (J.Knowles,T.Summar ) Big Machine DIGITAL | 47
48 53 2 Blue Sky, Emily West Featuring Keith Urban
M.Bright (E.West,G.Burr ) Capitol Nashville DIGITAL | 48
52 59 2 Bring On The Love, Coldwater Jane
W.Kirkpatrick,K.Kadish (K.Kadish,B.Jane,L.Crutchfield,W.Kirkpatrick ) Mercury DIGITAL | 52
53 60 2 Giddy On Up, Laura Bell Bundy
M.Shimshack (L.B.Bundy,J. Cohen,M.Shimshack ) Mercury DIGITAL | 53
55 58 59 10 Over The Next Hill, Brooks & Dunn & Mac Powell
T.Brown,J.Carter Cash (J.R.Cash ) Essential DIGITAL | Arista Nashville | 55
57 NEW 1 Kiss Me Now, Katie Armiger
B.Daly (K.Armiger,S.Buxton,B.Daly ) Cold River DIGITAL | 57
58 NEW 1 A Woman Needs, Jessica Harp
J.Flowers (J.Harp,J.Flowers,J.Mowery ) Warner Bros. DIGITAL | WRN | 58

Fast, or what?

BJ Thomas, "Little Green Apples": White soul-country guy deftly covers huge hit by black soul-country guy, making what I assume must be the most minstrel-music-worthy line in any chart-topping hit in the past several decades ("when myself iz feelin low") seem even more blackface. Still sounds great regardless, of course. (He also does "This Guy's in Love With You," "Suspicious Minds," "Guess I'll Pack My Things" [who made that one famous? I was thinking it must be Charlie Rich; it's somebody I was listening to recently, but it's not on Rich's reissue CD, hmmm..], assorted Jimmy Webb and Joe South numbers whose titles don't look familiar, and of course "Raindrops Keep Fallin On My Head," which is pretty great even though as a kid I may well have hated it as much as "Candy Man" by Sammy Davis Jr [which may have had minstrel leanings of its own, come to think of it.]) (And I just now realized that I don't know if I've ever heard BJ's "Rock and Roll Lullabye," which critics have forever sworn is genius. Is that possible? Or maybe I've heard it and I just forget what it's like?)
― xhuxk, Sunday, April 8, 2007

listened to a five-song sampler from the new BJ Thomas album. Best song is a hard rockabilly cover of Travis Tritt's cover of Elvis's (apparently, though I can't remember ever actually hearing Elvis's version) "Trouble" (you know: "There goes T-R-O-U-B-L-E"), but the rest is a lot schlockier, theoretically interesting when BJ goes into Luther Vandross mode, less so when he goes into Tom Jones mode, but not enough to hold my attention either way.
― xhuxk, Saturday, September 8, 2007

bj thomas - everybody's out of town LP - 75 cents

the bj thomas album has a bacharach-david number called "send my picture to scranton, PA"! best song, though, is the title track, about gentrification. cool LP cover. he covers nillson and simon and garfunkel and soul songs, and bacharach/david also produced it. better than the used raindrops keep fallin' on my head i bought by him last year.
-- xhuxk, Sunday, April 27, 2008

Now I think BJ Thomas's "Everybody's Out Of Town" is neither about gentrification nor suburbanization, but more about everybody leaving the city for the weekend, like a long holiday weekend in the summer. Still a good song, though. And the Scranton, PA, song is sung from the point of view of somebody who grew up an outcast there and wants everybody back home to know he's made it big elsewhere. They really should play it on The Office sometime I think.
― xhuxk, Tuesday, April 29, 2008

new Chely Wright...has a song or two that might conceivably kick in, but I'm not gonna hold my breath

Maybe I should have. Couple listens in, a few tracks started to kick in bigtime, turns out: "Notes To The Coroner" (most hookful song about imagining one's one death I've heard in a while); "Snowglobe" and maybe "Heavenly Days" ('60s pop meets modern country confections Deana Carter might approve of, the latter with a sweet windmills-of-your-mind swirl); "That Train" (acclerating train song with train rhythm since said train is what Chely says she wants to be, with cascading acoustic guitar parts); "Damn Liar" and "Object Of Your Rejection" (revenge songs seemingly directed at the same guy who maybe dumped her and she sounds very pissed about it, the former a simple primal perhaps Miranda Lambert-inspired stomp, the latter more shimmering Suzanne Vega/Amy Grant '90s pop sung in a little voice since Chely's "that little voice inside your head" reminding you "you can get away with treating people like shit" -- direct and unguarded emotion, these two); maybe "Shadows Of Your Doubt" (soft-spoken six-minute closer, pretty gondola lullaby possibly addressed to same guy she still wants back --actually not sure I'm following that one yet, so don't quote me on it.) The press release says Chely wrote all the songs, except one Rodney Crowell co-write.

Actually, "Snowglobe" is the windmill-swirl one, not so much "Heavenly Days." And Crowell also produced the album, fwiw. And I'm pretty sure I heard at least one other rare-for-country swear word (besides "shit") on the record; just didn't take note of where. (Release date is May 4.)

Okay, found it -- toward the tail end of "Damn Liar" (which actually starts out more a drone before evolving into a stomp while building in intensity) she switches to "fucking liar" once. So much for radio play.

imagining one's one death

One's own death: "I hope I haven't been lying here long/I'd say I told you so but I'm long gone." Hopes it wasn't her sister who found the corpse. If you start reading the details of her demise she wrote back in December, you'll learn the cause of death. Which turns out to be variations on a broken heart, but still -- Kind of morbid and funny.

"Giddy On Up" by Laura Bell Bundy = modern-day jig-pop with soul horns and Rednexy fiddle breaks and a readymade silly title chorus and a cowboy whorehouse saloon floor-show video, plus cute drawling turning into deep growling and spoken verses that flirt with rapping. Recalls Dolly Parton in dance mode. Thumbs up.

"Bring On The Love" by Coldwater Jane = One each long-haired blonde and brunette Sheryl Crow impersonator drive from California to Virginia, assisted by Petty/Adams powerchords, and apparently experience some car troubles which aren't terribly hard to fix. Another thumbs up, I think, though needs more hearing to figure out what's going on in the lyrics.

Getting the idea that the best (or least worst?) songs on that ambitious, interminable, completely ridiculous new Shooter Jennings album are toward the end: "Summer Of Rage" (1990 collage-metal-style political centerpiece about wearing gas masks in a police state -- only song that explicitly coincides with all of Stephen King's silly apocalpyse rant interludes, as far as I can tell); "California Vs. Tennessee" (probably the most pumping and melodic hard rock on the album, about traveling cross country to get away from some girl); "The Illumninated" (thickest nuclear winter Sabbath doomsday trudge attempt on the thing); "When The Radio Goes Dead" (okay that goes along with King's concept too obviously, but mainly it just has a pleasant guitar cascade to it.) Whole record's a mess, but I'm starting to feel a small affection for it -- As conceptual age-of-darkness bullshit goes, it's certainly no less coherent than, say, the new Gil Scott-Heron. (Though that one's about half as long as this, which does work in its favor.)

Also should mention that that Slim Cessna's Auto Show CD I mentioned above does have a couple fairly depressive, downtempo tracks -- maybe three or so, out of eight. (For goth-country, not a bad percentage!)

Actually, I'm guessing that some of Jennings's other songs on the album are maybe meant to deal with the apocalypse concept; but if so, I'm just not picking up on their words through all of the grunge murk.

Because there was a discussion about him, here's some Don Williams news regarding him being a new member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Other 2010 inductees: Jimmy Dean, Ferlin Husky and Billy Sherrill.

http://www.pollstar.com/blogs/news/archive/2010/02/23/710775.aspx

"Snowglobe" is the windmill-swirl one

And the psychedelic pop one, apparently. Chely takes a pill she shouldn't have but says she doesn't regret it; talks to her mom about the planets; watches circles and squares fade in and out; floats in a snowglobe and watches apostrophes and commas in space; wonders if it's a dream. Or at least that's what it sounds like she's saying.

The next song “Like Me”, is sung to someone who likes the color green, but doesn't like tomatoes, and is close to his or her maternal grandma, and can count all the time he or she's lied on one hand, and drinks beer after gardening, and isn't sure whether he or she will end up holding the hand of a tall handsome man or a beautiful woman. Thought it might be Chely herself, but she says the person's closet is filled with Levi's and dress pants, so conceivably it's a guy, maybe the same guy she’s split up with in other songs. Unless it isn't.

Starting to think she's a pretty interesting songwriter – or at least she seems willing to take some risks not many other country-pop songwriters are taking. (She also apparently has a biography coming out, for what that’s worth.) The only other album I have by her, Single White Female from 1999, which I mainly kept for its excellent title track, credits only one and a half songs to her. ("Single White Female" itself was written by Carolyn Dawn Johnson and Shaye Smith. But she did apparently write “The Bumper Of My S.U.V.,” her song that pissed me off in 2005 where a liberal soccer mom in a mini-van flips the bird at her for her U.S. Marines bumper sticker.)

Singles Jukeboxers consider Trace Adkins' "Ala-Freakin'-Bama":

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1974

Heard Josh Turner's "Me And God" from a couple years back on the radio this afternoon, and remembered one reason he used to bug me so much. I swear, every time I hear that, here's what it sounds like he's singing:

There ain't nothing that can't be done
By Mean God
Ain't nobody gonna come in between Mean God
One day we'll live together
Where the angels trod
Mean God...

He rules the world
With a staff and rod
We're a team
Mean God

So hey, where'd everybody go?? This place was totally hopping just a few weeks ago. Weird.

Anyway, heard an amazing song from I don't think I ever heard before on the radio over the weekend -- "Kay" by John Wesley Ryles, which is sung from the point of view of a guy who sells all his stuff so his girlfriend can try to make it in Music City, and she becomes a big star and tours the country and (I think) dumps him, and he winds up driving a Nashville cab. Apparently went #83 on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1968, then #50 in a different version on the country chart 10 years later. Not sure which version I heard; in fact, since the DJ didn't announce it and I had to Google it when I got home, it's also possible I heard Daryl Singletary's 2002 cover. (I heard an all-covers album by him a couple years ago; "Kay" wasn't on it, though it did apparently have a version of Don Williams's "Some Broken Hearts Never Mend.") Anyway, Joel Whitburn says John Ryles came from Lousiana and later worked in Dallas and Fort Worth. And Wiki lists him as having lots of mostly low-level country hits between 1968 and 1988 (including one that went #14 in 1979 called "Liberated Woman"), but his name is completely new to me.

Jon Caramanica on Danny Gokey (who I'm clueless about) and Ben Ratliff on new Shooter Jennings album, in the NY Times. Latter review made me chuckle. Ratliff compares the music to Ministry and Pink Floyd. Also says Shooter samples conspiracy theorist Myron Fagan, which I wasn't aware of (uh, maybe I should've read the press release.) I also hadn't connected "The Illuminated" with The Illuminati til now, duh...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/arts/music/01choice.html?sq=&st=cse&%2334;shooter%20jennings=&%2334;=&scp=1&pagewanted=all

Legendary Shack Shakers actually have more Ministry-reminiscent clanking on Agridustrial, if you ask me, and at least they go Shooter one better by trying to cross Ministry with ZZ Top, in "Sin Eater" for instance. Definitely a few good hearty backwoods-barbecue slide-boogie riffs on the record -- "Greasy Creek" might be the thickest. Favorite track so far, though, is "Dump Road Yodel," which is also as close as they get to Woodbox Gang or Red Swan (see Slim Cessna notes above), with old timey banjo-jig picking and yodelling parts -- probably the least ugly thing on the album, too. Wish I could hear its words better though; seems to have a intriguing yarn about what happens down said road attached, but the singer's murk forces you to strain to hear the words, and that's the biggest barrier to the album as a whole in fact. His spoken part at the beginning of "The Hills Of Hell" about women being crucified in Kentucky in the late 1800s connects better than most of his singing. They do a right sprightly version of "Sugar Baby" by Dock Boggs, though. (The only cover song on it, far as I know.)

"Sin Eater" is probably a ZZ Top tune. At least my memory says ZZ renamed "Pin Cushion" as that.

"Kiss Me Now" by Katie Armiger = More Bryan Adams/Tommy Tutone-style-powerchord country powerpop, from a girl begging for affection. Probably just generic, but too catchy to hold that against it too much.

"Over The Next Hill" by Brooks & Dunn & Mac Powell = Ronnie Dunn end-times-are-near country gospel duet with the apparent lead singer of apparent Christian fake grunge act Third Day, though actually at least a little more uplifting and less dreary than that description implies.

Now on Billboard's country singles chart (though from '09 albums):

39 51 2 The House That Built Me, Miranda Lambert
F.Liddell,M.Wrucke (T.Douglas,A.Shamblin ) Columbia DIGITAL | 39
47 RE-ENTRY 3 Every Dog Has Its Day, Toby Keith
T.Keith (T.Keith,B.Pinson,J.Waples ) Show Dog-Universal DIGITAL | 47

Haven't heard these (which may or may not be worth hearing):

50 54 2 Chillin', Blaine Larsen
J.Ritchey (B.Larsen,E.M.Hill,P.O'Donnell ) Treehouse PROMO SINGLE | 50
51 1
Tell Your Sister I'm Single, Tyler Dickerson
J.Rich,C. Pennachio (J.I. Rich,A.Williams,T. Rosen ) Lyric Street PROMO SINGLE | 51
52 53 2 Ain't No Stopping Her Now, Ash Bowers
New Voice Entertainment (A.Bowers,K.Jacobs ) Stoney Creek PROMO SINGLE | 52
59 NEW 1 Just Knowing You Love Me, Jimmy Wayne With Whitney Ducan
D.Huff (J.Wayne,B.Beavers,T.Martin ) Valory DIGITAL | 59
60 NEW 1 Blossom In The Dust, Mallary Hope
D.Bason,M.Bright (M.Hope,J.Henderson,J.Doyle ) MCA Nashville DIGITAL

"Blossom In The Dust" by Mallary Hope = Girl named Rose in tattered dress born in weed-strewn trailer park to teenage Mom with a presumably drug-related "habit", winds up with a "real nice" and presumably higher class couple "across the county line" who haven't had much luck coming up with offspring of their own; blossoms like a rose growing through the concrete in Spanish Harlem except this is the white trash version, not to mention a do-gooder adoption (hence implicitly anti-abortion) P.S.A. that Martina McBride could be proud of. Given all that, I like it - has a pretty upswoop; one of 2010's better country singles so far.

"Tell Your Sister I'm Single" by Tyler Dickerson = John Rich writing in man-slut mode. Girl tells boyfriend she wants to see other people; guy says "I'll trade you tit for tat, I like the sound of that," tells her he's open to her Mama too. "Let's keep it in the family, yeah you can call me Daddy" -- huh?? Yuck. Sounds like: John Rich in hackwork mode.

"Chillin'" by Blaine Larsen = Hazy lazy summer cliches, lazily sung, but Blaine's pretty decent at that; makes a halfway decent surrogate Kenny Chesney. He's out by the lake, I think, "singing Seger, Cash, Bo Diddley, and Bob Dylan." Interesting list. Kinda boring song regardless.

Okay so the funniest thing about the new Rosanne Cash is that when Rufus Wainwright starts up his backing vocals on Silver Wings, I totally thought it was Michael Mcdonald.

Singles Jukebox jury on:

Brad Paisley "American Saturday Night"

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1990

Josh Turner, "Why Don't We Just Dance"

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1995

Martina McBride, "Wrong Baby Wrong"

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2018

10 '80s Country hit artists who fell through the cracks, from the 9513 blog (including sometime disco singer Deborah Allen, Baille And The Boys, blind country blues woman Terri Gibbs, Becky Hobbs who sounds interesting, and Barbara Mandrell's younger sister Louise):

http://www.the9513.com/forgotten-artists-ten-from-the-80s-pt-1/

Also, a 9513 discussion on whether EPs (like the new one Blake Shelton just put out last week) are a good idea. (I think they're cute, myself):

http://www.the9513.com/your-take-to-ep-or-not-to-ep/

Roughstock blog on University of Rochester a capella group making a same-sex crush Taylor Swift parody video:

http://www.roughstock.com/blog/a-cappella-group-from-university-of-rochester-parody-taylor-swift

Kevin Coyne* from Country Universe on Little Big Town's "Little White Church," which I haven't heard yet ("A few more records like Laura Bell Bundy’s and this one, and country radio just might get interesting again.") He also has a piece on there called "The Success of Taylor Swift is Not a Moral Issue," which isn't as entertaining as its title:

http://www.countryuniverse.net/2010/02/25/single-review-little-big-town-little-white-church/

* -- Not to be confused with eccentric British singer Kevin Coyne, recently discussed on the Rolling Hard Rock Thread

Okay, no idea why I'm even still bothering with this thread anymore (just obsessive compulsive I guess), but Frank asked about B.J. Thomas up above, so I pulled out Everybody's Out Of Town again, and B.J.'s still standing all alone on the cover like me on this thread most of the time, and by far the most uncompromised soul track is his cover of Jr. Walker and the All Stars' "What Does It Take." Don't hear any tracks having more than a tinge of country; you'd think that might not've mattered in the age of Glen Campbell, but apparently B.J. didn't chart country until 1975, when "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song" went #1. This album was just '70. Fave tracks are "What Does It Take," and the first two, Nilsson's (actually Fred Neil's) "Everybody's Talkin'" and the comparably existential Bacharach-David title cut. He also does one Mann-Weil (plus "Bridge Over Troubled Water," who cares.) Best song title is "Send My Picture To Scranton, PA," another Bacharach/David, which is really ornate and almost show-tuney -- seemingly with some fancy time signatures that'd put over the revenge of the former class geek returning to Scranton to show all his old classmates he's a big deal now story better if they were less fancy.

Okay, no idea why I'm even still bothering with this thread anymore

Don't give up! I'm still enjoying reading your posts, though I haven't had the time to offer any thoughts of my own lately.

ditto.

At any rate, don't give up while you're talking about B.J. Thomas, because I'm kind of interested in B.J. Thomas talk and you have me curious about "Send My Picture to Scranton, PA" now; plus I didn't know specifically that he was the one who did some of those songs. I can be very hazy about 70s pop artist IDs since it was all just a transistor radio blur at the time.

maybe everyone else already knows this, but i just learned today that ke$ha's mom, pebe sebert, is a nashville songwriter of some renown (and an ex-punk singer). her biggest claim to fame, besides the three songs she co-wrote on her daughter's album, is "old flames can't hold a candle to you," a kinda sorta country version of "in my life" that dolly parton took to #1 country in 1980 and that has also been done by johnny and june carter cash and merle haggard among many others. i'm liking it quite a bit, particularly the johnny & june version.