Rolling Country 2009 Thread

So yeah, as much as I like the idea of Those Darlins, truth is they just sound too tinny and thin (at least on record, but in most live clips I've watched too) to manage the wild and raucous stomping their songs clearly strive for. You could blame that on production budget, except that white country blues guys like Charlie Poole and Frank Hutchison (whose "Cannonball Blues" they cover) somehow managed to get a raucousness into their sound that Those Darlins don't --- even though those guys were limited to the recording technology of the '20s or '30s (Alternately, play Those Darlins' "DUI Or Die" against either Bo Diddley's or the Dolls' version of "Pills" -- which it basically rewrites. They're not even close to the same league. I wish they were.)

New Xgau CG -- Honorable mentions for Joe Nichols and Black Crowes ("Finally the lyricism their South deserves--sometimes even the songs" hmmm -- haven't heard it, but now I'm at least slightly curious); Big Dud for new Skynyrd though he says one cut would make a decent Darius Rucker B-side (haven't heard that either); handful of choice cuts from Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift ("Jump and Fall" -- zzzz), and, surprise, Toby Keith -- "Ballad Of Balad" (which is pretty awesome actually, middle-eastern tinge on up, and would've been a "bus song" in earlier days) plus the smooth-jazzed eulogy for Wayman Tisdale (which is kinda sweet).

http://music.msn.com/music/consumerguide/

(Link will switch to a new guide next month, like always)

The 9513 is listing their top 100 Country albums of the decade:

http://www.the9513.com/top-country-albums-of-the-decade-100-91/

Looking over the list so far, I realize I have no Dale Watson CD's in my collection, yet I've always wanted to buy something by him. I've heard enough to be curious, but years pass and I forget about him. Still, I'm intersted in the 2006 album that the 9513 site ranks.

Have barely skimmed their list, but I assume that'd be Whiskey Or God? That's from 2006, anyway, and it's the one I'd vouch for -- made by Nashville Scene list, and almost my Pazz & Jop, that year. I've heard a couple others by him, though, that'd didn't quite cut it.

Yeah, it's Whiskey or God. I think I'm going to go look for a used copy of it. Has me intrigued. Thanks.

They've also got From the Cradle to the Grave on there.

I'm really liking Keith Urban's 'Til Summer Comes Around.

I think it's his strongest single from his new album, which I haven't felt compelled to play much.

Yeah, I thought it was the best song on the album, which I haven't felt compelled to play at all since I reviewed it for the Voice when it came out. The previous singles have done absolutely nothing for me.

In other news, I think I have my Nasvhille Scene ballot figured out, but I'm procrastinating on sending it in, in case anybody posts lists here containing songs or albums (or better yet, songwriters) that somehow have slipped my mind. Sadly, that seems increasingly unlikely at this point. But I'll give it a couple more days, I guess.

I think my end of the year singles would go something like this.

1. A Little More Country Than That - Easton Corbin
2. Need You Now - Lady Antebellum
3. Living For The Night - George Strait
4. Satisfied - Ashley Monroe
5. People Are Crazy - Billy Currington
6. Seven Vern Gosdins Ago - Darren Kozelsky
7. Do I - Luke Bryan
8. I Told You So - Carrie Underwood
9. White Liar - Miranda Lambert
10. Things To Do In Wichita - Mark Chesnutt

Also really enjoying these albums;
Sarah Darling 'Every Monday Morning'
Owen Temple's 'Dollars and Dimes'
Kirsty Lee Akers 'Better Days'

Listening to Darius Rucker's singles is odd. Sometimes he lets Hootie out and it's almost laughable. Not that I dismiss his attempts at country simply because he was in Hootie and the Blowfish. In songs like It won't be like This For Long, he fits right in with lots of new country's family themed songs. I'm actually getting tired of this theme in country singles. I think something hurting him is the lyrics can be long winded. Maybe I don't want a song to spell the whole story out to me.
I also just listened to Jamey Johnson's High Cost Of Living. I'm surprised at it's honesty and forthrightness. Does it get played on G.A.C. or CMT? A new outlaw country? In Colors was one of my favorite singles of last year.

It won't be like This For Long, he fits right in with lots of new country's family themed songs. I'm actually getting tired of this theme in country singles

And even more so, the whole pervasive "You're Gonna Miss This"/"Don't Blink" theme. Those three songs have been making my wife want to throw the car radio out the window all year because, she says, if they're enjoying the present as much as they say they are, how come they're so obsessed with how they'll be thinking about it in the future?

No idea if "High Cost" gets played on the video channels (which I only see when I happen to be in a hotel room, which isn't often.) I've only heard it on the radio one time (documented upthread somewhere, I think.)

So when are other folks besides jetfan going to post their country favorites of the year here?

I'm going to start cramming albums now; was working on a piece for the Las Vegas Weekly that I thought was due today so everything else got ignored including relatives' birthdays. Turned out that the piece is put off for a week (and I'm keeping my fingers crossed) but I'm treating it as done - LVW is owned by Greenspµn Media Group, which just laid off over 40 writers across a range of publications including the Las Vegas Sun. This is not good. The editor of LVW does care about writing quite a lot, so I hope something survives...

I'm skeptical I'll ever stay awake through an entire Brad Paisley album, but will give this one a chance. Played the Collin Raye earlier in the year and liked the voice and the sound a lot but wasn't connecting to many of the tunes. Will definitely spin it again. Love the Borges single, which sounded new wave, but the album stalled, but should try it again too. Thought the Holly Williams album had four solid tracks and the rest was blah but that might be enough to make my list, and I'll give her another twirl. Singer-songwriter leanings. Oh yeah, and there's Taylor Swift, whom nobody talks about anymore: I've had the Platinum Edition of her last year's album atop my country albums list as a placeholder - she's 3 for 6 on the new tracks, the best of which, "Come In With The Rain," has been floating around the Web for two years, the second best is an acoustic version of a song already on the album, and the second worst was chosen as the single; for Taylor 3 for 6 is not a good percentage and the new tracks are basically just an excuse for me to reassess the album, 'cause I fundamentally missed the boat on it last year, though did give it third place.). Second on my list is Ashley Monroe's Satisfied which was in the can for three years before getting an official release, and that was digital only. Might vote an EP of hers too, if it's this year.

Got scads of songs on my singles list, however, despite barely listening to country radio all year.

new tracks are basically just an excuse for me to reassess the album, 'cause I fundamentally missed the boat on it last year

I put her seventh on my Nashville Scene ballot last year, and she deserved better, and she was never not on the radio or in the media this year. But Fearless still feels like 2008 not 2009 to me, and I'm going to keep it that way. Which is unfair to Taylor since I'm considering Lady Gaga 2009 for Pazz & Jop purposes, but then again I barely noticed Gaga's exitence in 2008, so there's a difference. Also, Taylor is guaranteed to make plenty of my non-album Scene lists. So it's not like I'm leaving her to flap all by herself out in the wind. She'll do fine in life without being on my album ballot, I'm sure.

Toby's Wayman Tisdale song sounded better than I would've predicted over the car radio today, but maybe I just like smooth jazz. Also heard, for the second time, "Bonfire" by Craig Morgan (#5 on the country chart as we speak), which is basically an imitation of Jason Aldean pretending to be Bad Company. Still don't like it much, though.

"Need You Know" by Lady Antebellum is coming into my room from my housemate's radio. Seriously dope song imo.

My Nashville Scene ballot (which I just filed):

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2009:

1. Collin Raye – Never Going Back (Time Life)
2. Brad Paisley – American Saturday Night (Arista Nashville)
3. Mac McAnally – Down By The River (Show Dog Nashville)
4. Ashley Monroe – Satisfied (Sony)
5. Miranda Lambert – Revolution (Columbia Nashville)
6. Pat Green – What I’m For (BNA)
7. Tim Carroll – All Kinds Of Pain (Gulcher)
8. Charlie Robison – Beautiful Day (Dualtone)
9. Megan Munroe – One More Broken String (Diamond)
10. Rufus Huff – Rufus Huff (Zoho Roots)

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2009:

1. Jamey Johnson – “High Cost Of Living”
2. Love and Theft – “Runaway”
3. John Rich – “Shuttin’ Detroit Down”
4. Sarah Buxton – “Space”
5. Rascal Flatts – “Summer Nights”
6. Caitlin & Will – “Even Now”
7. Lady Antebellum – “Need You Now”
8. The Flatlanders – “Homeland Refugee”
9. Phil Vassar – “Bobbi With An I”
10. Taylor Swift – “You Belong With Me”

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2009:

1. Richard Thompson – Walking On A Wire Discs One And Two (Shout! Factory promo)
2. Kentucky Headhunters – Live/Agora Ballroom Cleveland, Ohio May 13 1990 (Mercury)
3. (Various) – Winter Dance Party: 50th Anniversary Special: The Day The Music Died (El Toro)
4. The Scene Is Now – Burn All Your Records (Lexicon Devil)
5. 16 Horsepower – Secret South (Alternative Tentacles)

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2009:

1. Collin Raye
2. Mac McAnally
3. Toby Keith

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS OF 2009:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Ashley Monroe
3. Miranda Lambert

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST SONGWRITERS OF 2009:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Chris Gaffney
3. Mac McAnally

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST DUOS, TRIOS OR GROUPS OF 2009:

1. Rufus Huff
2. Blackberry Smoke
3. Brooks & Dunn

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2009:

1. Tim Carroll
2. Rufus Huff
3. Megan Munroe

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST OVERALL ACTS OF 2009:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Collin Raye
3. Brad Paisley

Will probably put Martina McBride's Shine on my ballot. Warm voice, good tunes, nothing totally outstanding but I like every song and the rockers rock; choice cut would be rocker "Wrong Baby Wrong Baby Wrong," co-written by (among others) Stephen Barker Liles of Love And Theft and Robert Ellis Orrall, who's had his hand in the first Taylor Swift album and the first and only Love And Theft album.

(Didn't mean to italicize that Love And Theft album; I doubt that Orrall had anything to do with the album entitled Love And Theft, just with the band. Btw, has anyone here heard the Love And Theft album?)(Which is called World Wide Open.) The other two writers of "Wrong Baby Wrong Baby Wrong" are the Warren Brothers, whom I think Xhuxk once voted for.

I have no time to read this whole thread, so I will ask a quick question. I like George Strait and I like Dwight Yoakam. Can you offer me 3-5 male performers doing similarly trad/stone-face material? I don't want anything even slightly wannabe-rock/crossover-ish (I've already listened to Montgomery Gentry and I don't like them) or suburban housewife radio crap (Paisley, Chesney); nor do I want alt-country. I want old-school shit of the George Strait/George Jones/Dwight Yoakam/Buck Owens school, but by younger or lesser-known dudes. Many, many years ago I remember reading favorable reviews of a guy named Marty Brown. That's sort of the type of thing I'm looking for. Got anything for me?

Try Justin Townes Earl " The Good Life" or Midnight At The Movies" But you might think of him as alt country, I don't. John Anderson's new album "Bigger Hands" or his 2 disc anthology. Mark Chesnutt"s newish album might that "old school shit" feel you want.Vince Gill's "These Days" might be your best bet.

Though if I were you I would reconsider your feelings toward new country as just wannabe-rock/crossover suburban housewife radio crap. Go out to a honky tonk that plays radio country, ask someone to two step or waltz, dance to it, have a few beers with it. Hearing the music in the right context and it might open you up to hearing it different. Just saying.

This is what I've got for an expanded singles list, and I won't have time between now and Monday to rethink it much. Best year easy for singles since I've been doing the poll; a lot of these are unabashed dance numbers - possibly are a more typical reaction to the Great Recession than "Shuttin' Detroit Down" is.

1. Love And Theft "Runaway"
2. Jamey Johnson "High Cost Of Living"
3. Taylor Swift "You Belong With Me"
4. Sarah Buxton "Space"
5. Lady Antebellum "Need You Now"
6. Caitlin & Will "Even Now"
7. Sarah Borges And The Broken Singles "Do It For Free"
8. Taylor Swift "White Horse"
9. Brooks & Dunn f. Reba McEntire "Cowgirls Don't Cry"

10. Miranda Lambert "White Liar"
11. Jack Ingram "Barefoot And Crazy (Double Dog Dare Ya Mix)"
12. Rascal Flatts "Summer Nights"
13. Brad Paisley "Welcome To The Future"
14. Randy Houser "Boots On"
15. John Rich "Shuttin' Detroit Down"
16. Jamie O'Neal "Like A Woman"
17. Taylor Swift "Fifteen"
18. Kenny Chesney "Out Last Night"
19. David Nail "Red Light"

20. Dierks Bentley "Sideways"
21. The Parks "As Long As You're Going My Way"
22. Holly Williams "Keep The Change"
23. Phil Vassar "Bobbi With An I"
24. Collin Raye "Mid-Life Chrysler"
25. Flatlanders "Homeland Refugee"

(I have a strange way of dividing things into tens. I still haven't caught up on my lost sleep from earlier in the week, I guess.)

x-post to Unperson-- As for Strait-like recent artists (or neo-trad, at least), there's Chris Young (The Man I Want to Be) and Josh Turner (Everything Is Fine). Both of those guys get played on the radio, but aren't going for any rock crossover. From a few years back there was Mark Chestnutt's Savin' the Honky Tonk and Daryl Singletary's That's Why I Sing This Way. Then of course there's Dale Watson--all of his stuff fits the bill.

Serious business Youtube comments on Jamie Johnson's "High Cost of Living"

26 days clean now.... this song means more to me than most of you will ever know....always been a counrty fan but this is the truth

i love this song it reminds me of my mom she was on drugs...

I'm surprised at the enthusiasm for Brad Paisley on lists. He must have the most unintentionally fucked and annoying lyric of the year in his "Welcome to the Future" video: "Look around it's oh so clear/Wherever we were goin' well we're here" -- quick cut to idiot robot, two IED-maimed guys running on their spring feet, all of it framed like product placement.

If there's anyone who really screams for a cream pie to the face onstage and in front of the TV camera, it's Paisley. Big jangly guitars and magnificent airs swelling in the background. Glory, glory hallelujah.

I haven't quite ordered my list of favorites yet, but some that might make it (and I haven't seen mentioned much here):

Chuck Mead- Journeyman's Wager
Dailey & Vincent- Brothers From Different Mothers
Darryl Worley- Sounds Like Life
Dean Brody- Dean Brody
Patty Loveless- Mountain Soul II
Radney Foster- Revival

(Emphasis on much since I wouldn't be surprised if Xhuxk has already written on all of them.)

Just got Love And Theft's World Wide Open, and while I'm not one who concentrates on lyrics to the exclusion of everything, the words right at the start are rather inauspicious:

Roads, which one will I take
With this world wide open, this world wide open
Marks, which one will I make
With this world wide open, this world wide open

Also, every day is an open page, apparently, though I'd always thought it was a winding road. (According to Google, everyday is (1) a saturday, (2) a winding road, (3) a holiday, (4) a saturday soundtrack, (5) a day of thanksgiving lyrics, (6) a struggle lyrics, (7) a holiday calendar, (8) a saturday torrent, (9) a lifetime without you, and (10) a thanksgiving song. Every day spelled correctly is pretty much the same thing, though it's also a saturday trailer, a saturday ski movie, and a new day lyrics.)

Man, go away to San Antonio for a couple days, and the thread comes back from the dead. How 'bout that. Anyway, "briefly" (or maybe not):

-- Seems to me the obvious Stoneface that Phil should be seeking out might be Randy Travis; Old 8 x 10 and Storms Of Life from the '80s seem to generally acknowledged as his best albums, and they're definitely the best I've heard, though his one from '08 wasn't bad. Mark Chesnutt probably a good choice too; sounds good when I hear him on the radio, but I've never explored him much. Dale Watson more trad than those guys, and more wildass when he's not just leaden; I like Whiskey And God a lot, but maybe not stonefaced enough. Clint Black and Ricky Van Shelton might be boring enough, I dunno; I've never liked anything by either of them enough to pay close enough attention, but George Strait fans seem to like them sometimes. Among young guys, maybe Blaine Larsen, at least on his first album? (I like both his first and second, but Phil might think him too wimpy.) Jawn Anderson blows all these guys out of the water on about half of his albums (couldn't get into the new one), but he definitely has rock tendencies, and when he's good, he's no stoneface at all -- he likes to laugh a lot. (Also worth mentioning that I don't think Montgomery Gentry's rock leanings mean they're trying to "cross over" to anywhere -- well, maybe to aging rock fans, but even Strait does that at times. And Dwight Hokum is sometimes less a purist or a stoneface than he's given credit for. I always thought Marty Brown was dullsville, though I'm not sure how much time I ever gave him. And I've long been on record as a skeptic when it comes to country stonefaces, so maybe I'm not the best person to ask.)

-- I got the idea when it came out that Martina McBride's '09 album was being slept on somewhat; struck me as...not bad at all. But couldn't get excited about much of it regardless, give or take "Wile Rebel Rose."

-- Never got around to checking out the Love & Theft album, for some reason, maybe because the non-"Runaway" tracks I did hear seemed bleh.

-- Though Paisley's "Welcome To the Future" was definitely worth making fun of lyrically for its entertainment-technology-means-the-future-is-here silliness among other things (and I did so both on this thread and the Paisley piece I wrote for the Voice), but damned if I've heard a Tom Petty single that jangled that fun or catchy and in the past, oh, couple decades or so. There's just something perfectly timed about the hooks; it didn't quite make my country singles top 10, but it just missed, and I haven't gotten tired of hearing it on the car radio yet, which is sure more than I can say for, say, "You Got Lucky" or whatever. (Which makes me wonder why people who can sit through an entire Petty box set that doesn't even end in 1979 like it probably should've can dismiss Brad as music for housewives, but that's another question.) Anyway, I've never been a huge Paisley fan at all (as perusing a couple years' past Rolling Country threads can attest), but his current album holds up. What the naive optimisim of "Welcome To The Future"'s lyrics always remind of, weirdly, is Donald Fagen's "I.G.Y. (What A Beautiful World)" from 1982 (though Fagen was imagining what it would've been like to believe the future is here in 1957/58, and Paisley doesn't even provide himself that distance.) Also, somehow, "Calling America" by ELO. And as dorky as I think a lot of the song is, it still somehow manages to grab my heartstrings every time; guess I'm just a sucker. (What does stump me is that I've been seeing Paisley's pleasant so-what ballad "Then" show up on best-singles-of-the-year lists, like Jody Rosen's at Slate. That song is eveything that makes me cynical about Paisley. But the album's still real good.)

-- Of those last few albums President Keyes listed, the Chuck Mead is the only one I probably mentioned here. Got maybe a couple songs into the Loveless before getting bored like I almost always do with her; don't think I heard anything on the rest of those. Here's me on Mead (basically, I liked some songs, but think he's a snooze of a singer):

http://www.emusic.com/album/Chuck-Mead-Journeyman-s-Wager-MP3-Download/11452405.html

Okay, I lied about the "briefly," duh.

Lotsa typos in that Paisley spiel ("Though" instead of "thought", noun and vowel disagreements re plurality and singularity, etc); oh well.

And I probbaly shouldn't be so skeptical about that Petty box (which Phil recommended on Rolling Hard Rock) without actually hearing it, but what I can I say? I hate box sets pretty much on principle, and I've only loved a few Petty songs since Damn The Torpedoes. So it will always be hard for me to believe the first three albums, his 1993 Greatest Hits CD, and my 45 of "Jammin' Me" aren't all I'll ever need. Might be wrong, though. I just think lots of country hunkapapas beloved by suburban housewives (Chesney too sometimes, and Keith Urban and Jack Ingram) do Petty better than Petty has in a really long time.

Some Fagen "I.G.Y." lyrics, for those unfamiliar. (Title stood for "International Geophysical Year"; single went to #26 pop in 1982; Fagen appropriately dressed up Mad Men style on album cover):

Standing tough under stars and stripes
We can tell
This dream's in sight
You've got to admit it
At this point in time that it's clear
The future looks bright
On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
Well by seventy-six we'll be A.O.K.

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

etc.

I just think lots of country hunkapapas beloved by suburban housewives (Chesney too sometimes, and Keith Urban and Jack Ingram) do Petty better than Petty has in a really long time.

I don't come to country for Tom Petty; I go to Tom Petty for Tom Petty, and country for country. I agree with what Joe Carducci said about "countrypolitan" singers: "Let Frank (Sinatra) be Frank; you just be Gomer."

Lots of old country LPs (and a couple chitlin' circuit soul ones) among the $1-bin finds I found in San Antonio and San Marcos this weekend:

"I'd buy that for a dollar!" Great purchases for a buck or less

Summary of the weekend's force-feeding:

Mac McAnally album was short on great songs but grew on me as it went onward; liked it most at its sloppiest and bluesiest, though I've kinda forgotten its character; I do recall it seeming more antique than I'd anticipated (but my anticipations were entirely based on associations with the name "Mac," as in "Mac, you're standing in my light," or Connie Mack, or the swordfight between Macbeth and Macduff).

On the Collin Raye LP, loud fast rules, 'cause that's when he's closest to "Fast-Lane" Eagles. His slow and sentimental side goes flaccid, unfortunately. I'm not against the sentiments themselves, in fact there are some touching stories in there, even if Jesus ends up as too much of a buzz word; I just wish the flaccidity wouldn't accompany them.

Charlie Robison. Thought this was more consistent than either Raye or McAnally but I've forgotten its character so need to relisten between now and the deadline.

On the couple of tracks of Sarah Darling that stood out for me ("Whenever It Rains" and "Jack Of Hearts") she manages to sound weepy and tough simultaneously in a way that I find cute, but the rest seems to evaporate into the mist.

Brad Paisley: For the first three songs this more than meets the buildup it got here, what's special not being the lyrics particularly (though I'm touched that a country guy would write what's essentially a pro-immigrant song in which he suggests that our cultural diversity has improved our ability to party) or the symbolic synthesizer, but the sense of color he injects into the music, something I'd never noticed from him previously. Maybe he's been listening to psychedelia. But the album does go on for quite a bit, the best bits later on being when he reprises "Welcome To The Future" in a couple of different guises.

Pat Green: Hard but lite strumming, sorta reminds me of Dierks in its cheerful rocking way, and far better than the album of his that I heard back in '05 or so. But I'll need to hit refresh a few times to let this penetrate further.

Jack Ingram: Double dog dare ya mix of "Barefoot And Crazy" is a bit brighter and thumpier and better than the album version, but either version is Ingram's great track of the year. Album dull for its first half, but does effectively hunker down dark and hard later on.

Love And Theft: Resolutely mediocre, platitudes piling upon platitudes and the harmonies that worked so well when they massed together on "Runaway" tending to neutralize the impact of everything else. Huge disappointment.

Miranda Lambert: Gave this year's alb another listen and it continues to fall short, though is sure to make my ballot. Her voice is still a whip and she's effectively sly on the sly tracks, but her touch on the soft thoughtful songs has vanished utterly.

Willie Nelson American Classic: At album's start, with Willie's old wavering voice, "Nearness of You" is interminable, Willie sounding like he's about to collapse from frailty. But by "Angel Eyes" in the middle of the set those wavers are sounding beautiful again. I doubt I'll figure out what I think of this by deadline.

Dailey & Vincent: Think the singing needs to be more piercingly intense to deliver this, but the songwriting seems good.

and far better than the album of his that I heard back in '05

Far better than the album of Pat]s that I heard back in '05, that is.

Re: Robison's character; this link to something I wrote a few months ago about the album might help. I never got around to per se' reviewing either the Raye or McAnally (both of which I much prefer) for anyone, and probably won't get around to defending them here (though I talk about the Raye quite a bit upthread I think). Anyway, my Robison review:

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

Looking down Frank's top 25 singles, I do see a bunch of songs-for-dancing it had never occurred to me to specifically classify that way (partly maybe because "Sideways" pretty much still leaves me shrugging despite basically thinking it's okay, plus I still haven't heard the Ingram remix.) Not sure I'm convinced, though, that country had more good dancing songs this year than recent previous years (partly maybe because I don't two-step myself.) Need to give that more thought.

Also, some briefs I hacked out (which I may not entirely agree with now, especially the gospel and jazz line in the Sugarland one) about a couple '09 albums that some people might want to consider; none came anywhere near my Top 20, but I'd say I liked them all more or less as much as I liked Martina McBride's album. (Scroll down for blurbs):

Bomshel Fight Like A Girl

http://www.rhapsody.com/bomshel/fight-like-a-girl

George Strait Twang

http://www.rhapsody.com/george-strait/twang

Sugarland Gold And Green (Christmas album):

http://www.rhapsody.com/sugarland/gold-and-green

(Sorry about the redundancy if I'd already linked to any of those upthread somewhere.)

Also curious if Frank ever checked out the '09 Eric Church album (since he had been a big champion of the guy's debut album way back when.)

Yacht-rock-wannabee special:

Phil Vassar, Traveling Circus

http://www.rhapsody.com/phil-vassar/traveling-circus

Uncle Kracker, Happy Hour

http://www.rhapsody.com/uncle-kracker/happy-hour

Actually, just replayed the '09 George Strait album for the first time in several months. Has some surprises (the Spanish cut, for instance), and "Livin' For The Night" is truly a beauty. But I can't imagine ever playing the album again. Would definitely rank it well below the McBride, the Sugarland Xmas, and the Vassar (just because I love "Bobbi With An I" so much in his case.) Don't much care about the Kracker.

Ha, I'm going to vote for the Robison without having really taken in its lyrics or their bearing on the former Mrs. Robison.

Never did get to the Eric Church; rather hated the single, and it wasn't getting much enthusiasm on this thread.

I like the Otis Gibbs album more than Chuck does; is relentlessly gruff, but there's beauty in the gruffness, and good-sounding songs. Probably won't make my ballot, which I have to finish in the next half hour, before I go out.

The Gibbs album was released in October 2008, but got re-released in Jan. '09. It ended up at #7 on my ballot, but early on I knew it would end up somewhere in my Top 10. Among other names mentioned lately the Eric Church was a disappointment coming off his debut. Charlie Robison's was okay but just that. Strait was as usual good for a few songs, but got filed quickly. I've heard the Megan Munroe but didn't think much of it at the time (will have to go back someday), and I liked Sarah Borges' better. I had a chance at the Collin Raye via a Promo, but the company never sent it. Patty Loveless' album was a good followup. And what about the Tanya Tucker covers album? Not bad and where's she been? Also worthy are albums by Holly Williams, Levon Helm, Keith Urban and Todd Snider. I'd lump Snider's and Robison's album in the same category. Competent but missing something. Oh, and the Sugarland Christmas album is worth a Holiday spin.

Fwiw, in the past week or two I've heard "Feelin' Good" from Robison's album a couple times on the car radio here -- presumably on whatever station focuses on Texas country rather than whatever station focuses on commercial country (though I don't pay much attention to button-punch specifics when driving, since it'd take my eyes off the road.)

Curious what other people wound up voting for. (I.e.: Post yr lists!)

Okay (comments to follow
Don Allred’s CMCP Ballot
intro: whatever other genres it may pass through and vice versa, country has to have a certain feel, but the main thing is a certain obsessiveness (no matter how cheerfully, how brightly presented) “Beat” as in “Man I’m beat” and “beatitude” too: blues and blue sky. Paul Goodman observed, “William Faulkner is Beat too, in a complicated way.” Nik Cohn’s mid-60s mention of country’s “elaborate sentimentality” also still applies, despite the no-b.s. inspections and reports delivered tolerably often these days.
Top Ten Albums
(just in the order they come to mind)
1. David Hidalgo & Los Cenzontles (with Taj Mahal): Songs of Wood & Steel
2. Carrie Rodriguez: Live in Louisville
3. Hot Club of Cowtown: Wishful Thinking
4. The Flatlanders: Hills and Valleys
5. Patterson Hood: Murdering Oscar (and Other Love Songs)
6.Willem Maker: New Moon Hand
7. Tim Easton: Porcupine
8. John Doe and the Sadies: Country Club
9. Ha Ha Tonka: Nouveau Sounds of the New South
10. Deer Tick: Born on Flag Day
Singles:
1. Gary Allan “Today”
2. Toby Keith “Cryin’ For Me (Wayman’s Song)”
3. Jamey Johnson “High Cost of Livin’”
Top Reissues:
1. Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys: The Tiffany Transcriptions
Best Male Vocalists:
1. Willie Nelson
2. John C. McCauley (Deer Tick)
Best Female Vocalists
1. Emmylou Harris
2. Dolly Parton
3. Elana James (Hot Club of Cowtown)
Top Live Acts
1. Willie Nelson with Asleep At The Wheel (Austin City Limits concert)
2. Taylor Swift (CMT Crossroads with Def Leppard and other TV performances)
Best New Acts:
1. Sarah Jarosz
Most Pathetic (song and video)
1. Toby Keith "American Ride"
2. John Rich "Shutting Detroit Down"

Ballot comments (and some on albums not listed)
mostly thumbnail sketches for show previews
Justin Townes Earle
So far, singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle's post-rehab albums
don't have the range (or ranginess) of his father Steve's own prodigal
peaks. No problem: the reflective alertness and hopeful smoothness of
Midnight At The Movies strongly suggest that the younger Earle is his
own kind of escape artist, thankful for the breathing room he's
earned, and the floor plans he's committed to memory. He’s learned not
to get too crazy, and thus distract himself from the female spirit who
always shows up to hold his hand, then “leaves before the credits
roll”, on Midnight...'s title track. More expansively, on 2008's The
Good Life Earle is striding through honky-tonk neon shadows,
thoughtfully singing to passing lovers and friends, while exercising
his still-young lungs with that bracing night-life air.
Phosphorescent
Phosphorescent’s Matthew Houck loves his rolling psych-country
imagery, while he and the band also know their way to and through the
end of a line, adding beats and syllables, even to a monosyllable, as
needed. Such sure footing on a cloudy staircase helps Phosphorescent’s
album of Willie Nelson songs, To Willie, find another mellow mental
ghost town, in the dusty sunshine of lost love. And why not? As with
Houck’s more complicated compositions, Nelson’s songs hum like old
houses, still ready to be slipped into, as Phosphorescent investigate
both sources on tour.
Tim Easton
"Woke up this mornin' with a sranger in your bed/Those boots were haunted/The sheets were burgundy red." For Porcupine, current Joshua Tree CA chrocnicler Tim Easton re-enlisted early Columbus OH cohorts like New Bomb Turks drummer Sam Brown, who does extreme housecleaning on "Burguny Red", Porcupine's opener. Meanwhile, Marty Stuart/Lucinda Williams' touring guitarist Kenny Vaughn's deepening twang keeps echoing through discreet conversation with "The Young Girls."
Tim Easton can get pretty denin-jacket folkie on some sets, but here be pacemakers and jumper cables for his
compulsively mobile characters, who mostly fear getting "too cold to
sweat the dark out", as Easton says of himself. Mainly, you don't need
to catch all the sly-to-wise-to-blunt words to get the points of
Porcupine (cute little critter)
Willem Maker
Willem Maker's not much for burying meanings. They might poison him
like the dioxin dump did in Georgia, before he reached his Alabama
mountainside trailer. He's got one song specifically about that, but
it's as short as the others. Bare facts have to be quickly
re-gathered, re-twisted up the neck of his guitar, peeled by his slide
into images flying by, all around the rising gravity of Maker's "New
Moon Hand." He's also gnarling sonic sense through charred
impressions, somwwhere between Astral Weeks-era Van Morrison,
backcountry Kevin Coybe and young Gregg Allman (more lockjawed
eloquence than moan) Chewing the juice loose again, cryptically vs,
the crypt, "Saints drink wine" and other info. He's singing his truth
through bad and good dreams: learning to "leave the fever in the
past," starting at the end of the line.
Jason Isbell and the 440
The Drive-By Truckers’ Jason Isbell went solo with Sirens of the
Ditch, where poignant, sometimes tragicomic situations rolled their
ow gravelly grooves. On Jason Isbell and the 440, Isbell’s road-tested
band drives further into the cloudy electric horizons of “Sirens”,
still piloting by the lights of homely detail. Isbell’s restless
people are even more souled on stoneful memories (“She’s down deep in
me still/Rolled up like a 20 dollar bill”), but the music knows the
way. “Maybe I’ll flag down a car/I’m not going too far/And I’ve got
cash.” Good plan!
Deer Tick (this is before Born On Flag Day came out)(see followup
email for that)
Deer Tick is the tag applied by John McCauley to himself and his
band—appropriately so, judging by the tenacious midnight bite of his
recently reissued 2007 debut, War Elephant” Points of disorder spark
the leather-lunged lyricism that can harsh his mellow campfire
strumming into toasted constellations. Buckskin-fringed flurries of
fury keep the dust flying, no matter how persistent it it is (damn
persistent) Mr. Tick also knows how and when to propose that you
“Spend The Night”: “I know you’ve heard it all before/But not from me”
rings and rasps gently true. Ditto the Vegas anthem, “What Kind Of
Fool Am I?” It’s no longer a rhetorical question.
Joan Baez
“Every day that passes/I’m sure about a little less/Even my money
keeps tellin’ me/It’s God I need to trust/And I believe in God/But God
ain’t us.” “God Is God” sets the unsettled tone of Joan Baez’s latest
album, “The Day After Tomorrow”. Producer Steve Earle seeks to keep
the Queen of 60s Folk Music’s quest on a solid spirit level, with
compact cadences and carefully selected songs. Further along, Patty
Griffin’s “Mary” is “covered in roses…covered in slashes”, finding her
(and/or Her) way through the story’s edits, somewhat like everybody
else.
Gypsy Dave and the Stumpjumpers
Stumpjumpers are what some residents of far northwestern Pennsylvania
call each other. On A Bucketful of Ghosts, David Washousky takes his
pensive Pennsy roots and their distance along, while sharing his name
in art (and "wandering faith") with an archetypal folk figure. He
sometimes gets a little too fascinated with old people, but his voice
and guitar, times the Stumpjumpers' fiddle and bass, slip tunefully
and thoughtfully through all weather, as "The right slips by, in the
moving light/Of paintings and suppertimes." Is that political? Either
way, "A black 'n' white/Violet summer sky" gently/boldly follows,
bonding differences sensuously. (Stumpjumping indeed, by cracky!)
Ha Ha Tonka
Ha Ha Tonka takes its name, and some of its duties, from a Missouri
State Park in the Ozarks. Listeners get strange tours. "Buckle In The
Bible Belt" bounces taut and twangy, through twists of fate and
choice. The drawl of "Up Nights" shadows a tired parent beating his
kid; the "Falling In" falsetto traces a lovelorn, low-gravity mood
swing (at least). Their new "Novel Sounds Of The Nouveau South" ups
the ante and the amperage, wiring the weather vane into a lighting
rod: "Violence in the crowd/We bled it out!"
The Devil Makes Three
The Devil Makes Three make the kind of pre-bluegrass, mountain-bred
music that traveled through vaudeville halls, carnivals, radios,
alleys and less hygienic vantage points. On DM3's Do Wrong
Right,ragtime bounce and contemporary commentary ride boxcars with the
eerie likes of "Working Man's Blues." The workingman's steadfast, even
militant, though subterranean musical undercurrents may be undermining
(and/or guiding) this miner. Even on less inspired tracks, preachiness
always arrives with some generation of devilishness, often ramblin'
'round leader Pete Bernhard's sense of moral and verbal limits.
Carrie Rodriguez
On young singer-songwriter Carrie Rodriguez's new "Live in
Louisville," atmospherically detailed stories are told boldly, as
variations of key phrases veer through the resolutely shivery delivery
of her violin and other instruments, including the evocative electric
guitar of current accompanist Hans Holzen. Rodriguez also steps up to
the Loretta Lynn-worthy "I Don't Wanna Play House," and briskly
uncovers sexy subtext in Bill Monroe's magisterial "You Won't Be
Satisfied That Way." Micro-epic outbursts and mercurial ballads never
chase the nice clouds away, or the slow male she's usually addressing.
The Flatlanders
"With a backpack full of yesterdays/On a freeway full of smoke and
haze/Where the power lines and fault lines double cross." From country
cliché, to California evening news, to righteous wordplay that
eventually slips deeper, the dustbowl soul of the Flatlanders' Hills
and Valleys rolls on, through all zones. Alternative country icons
Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely and Butch Hancock, mostly writing
together, are philosophical scavengers, poised and antsy. Years and
miles definitely (sometimes densely) add up, but meanwhile, "If time
is money/Space is credit/They're talkin' 'bout it all over town!"

xp Speaking of those last two pathetic songs on Don's ballot, here's something I wrote about backlash/tea-party country in the '00s:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2009/11/countryteaparty.html?pcode=RN&rsrc=null.null&cpath=CNT

Also want to mention that, despite keying my emusic Charlie Robison review around his Dixie Chick divorce, that autobiographical theme really does not figure much, if at all, into my own liking the record either. (And I've yet to hear a better album by the guy, though I'm not sure how many I've even tried. Liked Good Times from '04 okay.)

more of Don Allred's Country 2009 comments:
Deer Tick, Born On Flag Day:Great title, because Mr. Tick does have
some of that ravaged bravura of book and movie of Born On The Fourth of July,
but his testimony and attitude and cadence and imagery are closer to young
Bobby D.s "Ma Rainey and Beethoven once unwrapped a bedroll/Tuba players now
rehearse around the flagpole, " the combination of youth and what Virginia's Tom
Wolfe ID'd as "those old jack-legged chants" from the mountains-but Deer Tick
(John C. McCauley III x his band) are already way into Dylan's later and
recurrent romantic obsessions, in a Southwestern Gothic way, also reminding me of
Townes Van Zandt, who (as with Dylan) and McC's only namecheck, Hank Williams
(McC studied the singles) had the tunes and catchiness as spry, watchful
little beasts of burden for his words; plus, Tick's got this voice that's always
waiting to squeeze through and erupt from his old man shit: it's the musical
equivalent of the incandescent mcguffin found when the funky old trunk gets
prised open in Repo Man and Pulp Fiction-we just see/feel the effects, as even
Tarentino's scuzzers are awestruck by its beauty, and Repo Man's rats are beamed
up through the smog into sweet nothin', by its mighty light. It's articulate,
and when it does devour the form always belches the spirit of his words, but
as a force of nature as much or more than poetic justice (which is why maybe it
isn't catharsis for him, except maybe for the moment, but his shadows come
creeping back, either way).So if I let myself get much into comparisons as
high-concept formula in print, I'd say something like "Roky meets Townes," and
indeed Tick might've also studied that two-disc Roky comp that from a few years
back, with so much of Roky's folk-rock side. But "Flag Day, " his second album,
departs from Roky re less grotesque and otherwise reflexive/refracted
imagery, and his tendencies in
that direction never did seem as compulsive as
Roky's.
Otis Taylor, Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs Otis Taylor is one of
the most (one of the few) creatively distinctive blues singer-songwriters
today. He adapts country blues, with a more regular beat than Delta blues, but it's
an adjustment of that, more than a John Lee Hooker boogie drive. His phrases
are repeated, seeming fragments of memory that gradually meet up and accrue,
sometimes skewed or elliptical narrative, but the ear has to spot the spaces as
well as the connections, just has to do that, when it works out right, as
words and his shifting tone and volume move around his driving (sometimes
shifting) picked and strummed rhythm guitar. This is the basis of the new album, his
first collection of love songs (with some wars back in there, like the title
also says), which, like P.Hood's new set, develop through implication of
detail and atmosphere, and both sets can come to seem like developed
photographs, more than movies. But the figure is the ground, at times, as Otis further
develops deep focus via his own voice being joined by his daughter Cassie's
younger and even more flexible, looping through the jazz of Jason Moran whose
piano knows how hip-hop accents blues and jazz, here, as on his own great Same
Mothers set) and cornet player Jason Miles; while the drum kit of Nasheet Waits
is ground for African percussion figures, or sometimes vice versa (plus,
occasional passing cello, violin, whatever fits the view). Even without Jason's
surname and horn, I'd be thinking "Miles," not that Jason imitates him, but just
this whole approach (which is also a less wordy version of Dylan's and Deer
Tick's deep co-ordination of elements and functions: ensembles, yo, not
entourage.) Can trave
l way into those musical snapshots, way into the travelling
itself, but it's a train, not a showboat.
On Patterson Hood's Murdering Oscar, the narrator of the first and title song celebrates his
victory over Oscar and those who proffered/remonstrated re salvation, "I
saved me, and life forgave me." He may be on Death Row or wherever, but he still
insists, a little too insistently somehow. Ah yes, the well worn Unreliable Narrator device, but it works here.Notes stretch and trail and hold.
He can't let it go, can't let cruel Oscar go, and vice versa. It' an
Oscar-winning performance. Clear enough, but more subtle/subject to interp than
expected, and the dramatic stasis that Hood evidently tends (so often) to go for on
Truckers albums works here, the sense of somebody rattling his chains and
shivering his freezeframe, as we're kept watching the figure's deep focus/fixation.
Which is overtly the point of the next track, "Pollyanna", and Hood (with
another surprise move, making seemingly unprecedented use of his voice's high end,
by simply chirping) goes from rolling Neil Truckers doom of "Oscar" to Who
Sell Out pop scenario over expansive, open-G-sounding Stonesiness, as Pollyanna
rolls on(or has rolled on, since all of these songs are aftermath, ho get it
Stones/Aftermath), having gathered his mossy heart. "It's a little sticky,she's
a little sticky, I'm a little sticky too, I was just something stuck to her
shoe, now I'll have to find something else to stick to." His characters are
always doing or getting themselves ready or not to do the aftermath, and "Pride
of The Yankees" in a third stylistic change, starts as a ballad raising a mug
to Lou Gehrig, then w
ithout a blink to King Kong falling off the building, to
passing mention of 9/11, and wishes he could go hide in the mall, and indeed he
sounds like he's swaying along in an echoing mall with a hole (and a nice
breeze) in it, talking to his little daughter about carrying, clutching "packages
so shiny, and you're so tiny," and it's all the tenderness and fuckedness of
and in the world, in him as he's somehow unsurprised(it fits with the
fuckedness previously experienced, after all or a while) if in a bit of aftershock,
afterglow, afterlife, half-life; the next sudden transition being the next song
o course."I Understand Now" is shorts-deep in the midst of domestic
battlegrounds, old and moldy and comfortable for the moment anyway, as the narrator
gets some kind of 40 watt insight, and really the cumulative thing in just these
first four songs also has me thinking of foo like "9/11 changed everything"
and "All is fair in love and war" and how they're part of the wadding of
changes and transitions, not that all his situations x moments shown don't have
their own internal detail and framing distinctions/lifespans, as characters try to
get creative in doing the aftermath on the train or frame or sidewalk crack,
or playing in bedhead traffic etc It's all about their and their creator's
wise use of familiar and strange elements, reshuffling or ripping or lurching or
padding or jangling along.(Those last two just listed: "She's a Little Randy"
is the stealthy passage of a cougar and the male person studying her, getting
her number sympathetically and then some, as Hood makes good use of the high
voice again, not chirping this time but like a little tight, mostly dry
smoker's voice, with some rheum around the corners, emph by guitar, as he squints
over his cig, and maybe drops it to approach her after that last line (steps out
of his frame, as can be tricky/lacking in Hood songs) "Foolish Young Bastard"
ruefully/hopefully jangles along with a banjo almost hitting him in the nuts,
empty cantee
n percussion def tapping his butt (a bit envied perhaps, by the
somewhat exasperated but unsurprised, family-type person watching him go) then
"Heavy and Hanging" and "Walking Around Sense" are expressive but stuck inside
a way too familiar Neil Truckers doom (which the title song redeemed and
"Range War" took to maybe non-doom,[as expressed in playing]more about rich
shifting currrents of tenderness/fuckedness and war again) Like "Heavy and Hanging"
and "Walking Around Sense" heavy up because he thought he needed something
between "Foolish Young Bastard" and the young heart who sings about writing you
a love song in the "Back of a Bible" (not to be eveel, but cos "there were
some blank pages") A shuffle mainly suggesting white boys of 50s til builds
seamlessly to a solo that obliterates the pro forma of the past two tracks, and in
call and response with other instruments. This final passage is brief but
deep, like the best bits of most of the other songs ("Screwtopia" trails the
afterglow through basically obvious faster/softer recurrences, and makes it work;
makes me think of the traces of "Grandaddy" 's innocently plotted future and
"Belvedere" 's twisted past, and the other character's traces, notions, smoke)
Didn't think he'd carry a whole album without other writers, but he does,
given that it's also got a couple of duds like Truckers albums, and most of the
Truckers are here, and that certainly helps, and he's seamlessly joining a set
of songs from 1994 to much more recent ones (each set or subset benefitting
from proximity to the others, for the most part) with accumulated experience as
writer, player etc as well as other aspects of life, and that comes across in
the adjustments, inclu disruptive moves, within the plot lines and
performances of songs (Oh yeah, this album also features really apt and startling use of
piano which he says startled him too)

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2009:

1. Taylor Swift - Fearless (Platinum Edition)
2. Ashley Monroe - Satisfied
3. Martina McBride - Shine
4. Pat Green - What I'm For
5. Brad Paisley - American Saturday Night
6. Miranda Lambert - Revolution
7. Collin Raye - Never Going Back
8. Holly Williams - Here With Me
9. Willie Nelson - American Classic
10. Charlie Robison - Beautiful Day

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2009:

1. Love And Theft "Runaway"
2. Jamey Johnson "High Cost Of Living"
3. Taylor Swift "You Belong With Me"
4. Sarah Buxton "Space"
5. Lady Antebellum "Need You Now"
6. Caitlin & Will "Even Now"
7. Sarah Borges And The Broken Singles "Do It For Free"
8. Taylor Swift "White Horse"
9. Brooks & Dunn f. Reba McEntire "Cowgirls Don't Cry"
10. Jack Ingram "Barefoot & Crazy (Double Dog Dare Ya Mix)"

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2009:

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COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2009:

1. Ronnie Dunn
2. Toby Keith
3. Jamey Johnson

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS OF 2009:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Miranda Lambert
3. Jamie O'Neal

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST LIVE ACTS OF 2009:

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COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST SONGWRITERS OF 2009:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Ashley Monroe
3. Brad Paisley

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST DUOS, TRIOS OR GROUPS OF 2009:

1. Brooks & Dunn
2. Caitlin & Will
3. --

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2009:

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COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST OVERALL ACTS OF 2009:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Ashley Monroe
3. --