Rolling Country 2010

My short Rhapsody review of the new Drive-By Truckers album:

http://www.rhapsody.com/thedrivebytruckers/the-big-to-do#albumreview

Some other points of interest about the record: (1) Patterson's "The Fourth Night of My Drinking" is partially similar to America's "Horse With No Name" (the line "first night of my drinking" sounds like "first part of the journey"); (2) second DBTs album in a row with a sad Cooley song about a birthday; (3) Patterson's song about a guy with a shitty job is followed immediately by Cooley's song about a guy with no job; (4) Patterson has called it the band's most rocking album since the second disc of Southern Rock Opera, which I'm not sure I agree with for reasons explained in that review, but I like it more than any album they've done in a long while regardless; (5) still wish their definition of "rocking" hadn't shifted so decisively from "Skynyrd" to "Crazy Horse" along the way; (6) Shonna's two songs -- a draggy Lucinda-style codeine-country lament and a way lighter thing possibly aiming for Motown pop -- are easily the two least lyrically specific and most expendable tracks; (7) I didn't mention "After The Scene Dies" in that review partly because I couldn't think of a word or two that means "the time of the night when the club shuts down and everybody goes home and the equipment gets packed up and the lights get turned off." Best I could come up with was "loudout," like in the Jackson Browne song. But does anybody ever actually call it that in real life?

No idea why I just called Patterson and Shonna by first names and Cooley (who I actually did a short interview with yesterday) by his last.

In other country news, Blaine Larsen's "Chillin'" sounded better over the car radio (just felt basically...very chill) on a lovely spring Austin SXSW evening than I'd have guessed. (Probably helps that country radio sounds so bleh lately, which makes it stick out more.)

And I noticed a song or two on the Dropkick Murphys' latest live St. Patrick's Day album where the guitars almost actually struck me as more "American country" than "Irish folk," if that interests anybody.

I just listened to my old man's copy of "Flowers On the Wall: The Essential Statler Brothers"

They've always been his favorite group, I've always dismissed them as cornpone & maudlin

but, I gotta say I'm been pleasantly surprised. The arrangement of "I Still Miss Someone" is better than Johnny's, "Shenandoah" is really pretty, "Flowers on the Wall" is a classic country tune

Good harmonies too, I think they must have really changed after the 60's when their lead singer died of Crohn's disease & they sang corny songs about 50's nostalgia

Cum On Feel The Texas Two-Step

Found this from Marcello Carlin on a Popular thread from '07:

Noddy talked about the rhythmic "innovations" on the Radcliffe show a while back; he ascribed Slade's "shuffle" to blurred childhood memories of Bob Wills' Texas two-step, halved in speed and right-angled in pronunciation (or something like that; basically Slade's beats are accentuated differently – I think on every third bar as opposed to to the 1-3 of reggae or the 2-4 of rock – and the triplets themselves are divided up erratically JUST LIKE TONY OXLEY), and the Military Two-Step.

First charting version of "Old Flames Can't Hold A Candle To You," by Joe Sun. According to BMI it's been done by the Staples Singers, but in a quick Websearch I couldn't find a stream. Also couldn't find a stream of the version by Hugh Moffat, co-writer, formerly married to Pebe. (According to Wikip he's co-written an opera.) Good song, anyway. Here's a live version by Brenda Doiron, whom I've never heard of, done as an old-style wailer.

John Morthland, in his essential Best of Country Music, mentions a Joe Sun Best of on Warner Brothers. Gives it a good nod, but I've never been able to find much of his stuff. Used to have the 45 of "Old Flames" but can't seem to find it.

Statlers are pretty dope.

Have myself barely even dabbled in Joe South (who I suspect I'd like, given his soul-country reputation) or the Statler Brothers (have a best-of LP around here somewhere -- almost definitely purchased after loving "Flowers On The Wall" on 1994's Pulp Fiction soundtrack.) I'll shift the latter to the play pile, and it'll come up eventually.

Did put on B.J. Thomas's Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head today, though, and I'd say it has an even more pronounced soul vocal influence than Everybody's Out Of Town, which charted just four months later (May to January 1970) but 60 spaces lower (#72 to #12) on Billboard's pop album chart. I'd say Raindrops is at least the marginally more consistently playable of the two albums, too, and maybe shows slightly more country influence as well, though only at the point (i.e., opener "Little Green Apples" and closer "Suspicious Minds") where country and soul merge. Still didn't hit the country chart, though; seems odd they wouldn't at least attempt to market him that way, given that Glen Campbell had had seven #1 country albums in the previous three years, and B.J. doesn't sound all that far from him to me. Maybe he just didn't have the right look. (The LP cover photos, all three of which of which picture him with some long-haired brunette, almost look like a kind of ironic bohemian nostalgia for the Gay '90s or thereabouts. Which I gather may have been a popular look for hipster college boys at the time, at least in popular culture if not on actual campuses; '60s pop-rock bands frequently did something similar right?)

Playing Barbara Mandrell's 1977 Best Of on Columbia right now; earlier and maybe less r&b-infused stuff than on the later best-of LP I talked about upthread, though she does cover "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" on it. Also Roy Head's 1965 Texas boogie-woogie rock smash "Treat Her Right," redone as "Treat Him Right," which makes less sense addressed to a woman (as Mandrell does) than to a man. You can hear why hip people probably thought of Mandrell's covers as square variety-show-type whitewashes; she definitely Pat Boones them, to a certain extent.

LP still has a few great cuts, though -- "The Midnight Oil" is even kind of filthy: She stays after work at the office to give the boss "a helping hand," and later she'll feel "kinda dirty 'cause I'll have that midnight oil all over me," wtf? If Peter Garrett knew what the midnight oil was, would he have named his band that? Anyway, that's the start of Side Two; Side One starts with a great doomed end-of-the-affair cheating song called "Scarlet Water," where they're gonna "sip the scarlet water one more time." Which water may be midnight oil, too.

Hank Thompson Smoky The Bar from 1969 -- okay, this is a great album. Mostly honky tonk more than the after-the-fact Western Swing/ boogie-woogie people say he was known for, though there are definitely more than hints of the latter (especially in "Let's Get Drunk And Be Somebody," which title he beat Toby Keith to by several decades and which has a nifty alliterative part about "a gushing goblet goads my ghostly gloom", and "Cocaine Blues," where he shoots his philandering woman down then goes fugitive after snorting some snow). Some of the drinking songs -- "Pop A Top," "What Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made A Loser Out Of Me)," "Bright Lights And Blonde Haired Women," Jimmie Rodgers's "My Rough And Rowdy Ways" -- are probably more famous by other people, though I'm usually not sure who; "Drunkard's Blues" updates (and quotes) "St . James' Infirmary" and sounds like a goth jazz dirge. "Smoky The Bar" is a joke pun about smokey bars; "I See Them Everywhere" is a joke about seeing pink elephants and other crazy creatures crawling up the walls; "Girl In The Night" is about a sad beauty who soaks in the nightlife every night to kill some past pain the singer hasn't yet figured out (popular theme in glam rock songs a few years later seems to me); "New Records On The Jukebox" hopes somebody will play them because all the old ones choke him up too much.

Weirdest (and maybe the dumbest) song is probably "Ace In The Hole," which is done as a corny showtune cabaret music-hallish number (if that's not a contradiction) and concerns how hippies are lazy and unclean and have friends on the welfare line. (Maybe it's a parody? I get the idea there's some older "Ace In The Hole" song it's based on, but not sure I've ever heard the original tune.) Most of the songs are tragic, but hardly any of them are slow, and most have a beat. Also, Hank's voice sounds surprisingly gentle, somehow, even when he's rowdy.

Followed it up with Buck Owens and the Buckaroos' I've Got A Tiger By The Tail from 1965, which might have as much energy, at least when the tempos pick up, and definitely has a sense of humor (it's right there in Buck's chuckle and drawl obviously, but also all through songs like the title track and "Wham Bam," where he promises not to stick around and get sucked in by some girl -- wish he was comical more and sappy less, actually.) Plus he covers "Streets Of Laredo" and Chuck Berry's "Memphis." But I think Hank Thompson still puts over way more personality, somehow, and I like his album a lot more. The Buck is still real good, though. A dozen songs, all but one under 3 minutes, and two under two, like a hardcore punk LP; might actually qualify as an EP, Pazz-and-Jop-wise. (Question for future research: What was the relationship between the Bakersfield sound and rockabilly, exactly?)

Both albums have long liner notes, too; when did that tradition end, anyway? (Thompson's call him "the Poet Laurette of Beer Drinkers"!)

Actually I think Thompson's gentleness amid the rowdiness might be part of his Western Swing legacy -- I've often found the sweetness of Tommy Duncan's vocals on Bob Wills & Texas Playboys records disconcerting, since it seems to cut into the energy, somehow; it's blasphemy, but I think they might have been even better with somebody rougher sounding on the mic. But Thompson somehow manages to sound sweet and rowdy at the same time, which is a neat trick. (Actually, a trick that Toby Keith can pull off himself pretty well at times; maybe he's a fan.) Or at least Thompson does it on this LP; by the one I got from just five years later, Movin' On, he seems to have lost a lot of his oomph.

Gotta say though, between the two albums I mention above, Thompson is way funnier than Buck Owens, too. But I got three mid '60s Buck LPs for 25 cents each at a garage sale last month, so maybe listening to the other two will change my mind. (Btw, was Buck the first current country guy it was considered cool for hip rock kids to like? Evidence being: the Beatles covering his song and Creedence dropping his name.)

Speaking of the Statlers--there's a new Dailey & Vincent album of Statler Brothers covers.

Got Ricky Skaggs's Don't Cheat In Our Hometown, from 1983, in that same batch of 25-cent garage sale country LPs. Supposed to be one of Skaggs's worthy albums of his post-indie-folk-label-purist '80s Nashville sellout period (or at least one of four Christgau gave a B+ too); doesn't have anything that grabs me as immediately as "Highway 40 Blues" or "Heatbroke" from '82's Highways And Heartaches, but it's still solid. Favorite track might be "She's More To Be Pitied," another one of those sad women wasting her life away in beer halls songs (see Hank Thompson's "Girl In The Night"), except Skaggs makes it more like a church sermon than Thompson would. He's pretty much a goody-goody in general -- doesn't do his women wrong, but they do him wrong, and when they do he just begs that they don't do it in his hometown, apparently since then his neighbors will realize he's a cuckold. That's actually a really good song, too. He's not raunchy enough for Mel Tillis's "Honey (Open That Door)" (which I think was a hit), but it's catchy. Best other stuff is reborn old songs -- traditional gospel bible-story-counting hymn "Children Go"; Bill Monroe's "Uncle Pen"; Stanley Brothers' "Vision of Mother," gloom about Mama's ghost sung as a duet with Dolly Parton. She's on another track, too; Albert Lee plays guitar on a bunch; and Skaggs knows how to shape his own acoustic and fiddle and mandolin chops into hooky hitbound tunes in general, which as far as I can tell is an extreme rarity for a bluegrass guy -- in fact, give or take the Dixie Chicks if they count, has anybody done it better over the past three decades? This album and Highways And Heartaches never stumble into mere show-off crap. But there's still a bluegrassish squeaky-clean-ness that I have trouble getting behind.

saw jamey johnson last night, it was an interesting show. he's weird onstage, sort of diffident except that he's the guy with the microphone. played 2 1/2 hours straight, no breaks or encores. his choice of covers was reverential (jennings and jones, obv, along with keith whitley) and a little combative ("long-haired country boy," hank jr's "dinosaur"). like he's not quite sure what ground there is for outlaw country these days. there were lots of cheers and yee-haws whenever he mentioned pot (or "cocaine and a whore"), but i had the feeling he could've gotten the same response if he'd decided to call obama a socialist or something. not that i think he wants to do that, i sort of doubt it, but that was definitely the crowd.

(it was a sold-out show, fwiw. the men were all bald pates, buzzcuts or ballcaps. women were suburban shag-cut and corn-fed.)

Over on poptimists I'm talking to Jeff about Lady Antebellum if anyone wants to join in and speak more knowledgeably than I can of the last forty years of country-MOR-AC interplay. (I tap Air Supply as a Lady Antebellum touchstone, but no doubt there are country bands that are at least as relevant.)

I said this on my own lj about my disappointment with "American Honey":

Lady Antebellum "American Honey": Nostalgia for childhood, lost promise, a lost country, a lost world. Should be better (Miranda Lambert would give this bite, and smarter words), but is passable; I'd like it more if it didn't shrink next to the great Antebellum weeper that's still riding high. BORDERLINE NONTICK.

Xhuxk, Gretchen Wilson's version of "The Midnight Oil" was easily my favorite thing on the Mandrell tribute LP from a couple of years ago. I like that Gretchen did it without bawling or wailing, is matter of fact and lets words and steel guitars do the crying. I was dumb not to hunt down the Mandrell version, so maybe I'll try.

You've definitely got me interested in Hank Thompson.

And this is what I said about "Hillbilly Bone":

Blake Shelton ft. Trace Adkins "Hillbilly Bone": The rhythm section gives us good bubbling soul-funk, with Blake and Trace up top with a deep reduced drawl that highlights the groove but is a waste of two fine singers, and of the groove. NO TICK.

Definitely meant to blurb it (and Love And Theft's "Dancing In Circles" and Gary Allan's "Today") for the Singles Jukebox, which included it today in its country Monday, but I fell asleep last night instead. I'd have brought down the average; I like Xhuxk pointing out the Bubbah buh-buh-buh stuff, and I hear how they're having fun, but it's tired fun by the time it hits my ears (and though I was just as pissed with "Ala-Freakin-Bama," it grabbed me and tickled me despite my pissy mood).

Here's an alternate take of Elvis's "T.R.O.U.B.L.E.," which is the only stream of it I could quickly find online (Google unfortunately isn't distinguishing between this and the Lieber-Stoller "Trouble" that Elvis did in '58 and then again in '68 for his comeback special).

Gonna link to these Singles Jukebox reviews directly, since Frank only linked to the site itself (which already isn't country at the top.)

Blake Shelton & Trace Adkins "Hillbilly Bone"

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2085

Gary Allan "Today"

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2087

Love & Theft "Dancing In Circles

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2086

As for Frank's Lady Antebellum/Air Supply connection, I'm not sure how much I hear that, though then again I've never listened to Air Supply all that much, so I wouldn't necessarily know. Need to give it more thought. To me, they're as much rooted in recent commercial rock of, say, the Matchbox 20 school as in any Adult Contemporary of three or four decades ago. Or at least they were on their debut; haven't really gotten a bead on the new album (though radio play on sunny days had defnitely led me to grow to like "American Honey" way more than Frank does, and by now I'm pretty burnt out on "Need You Now" -- still agree it's better than the current single, but not that much better.) Anyway, here's what I wrote about their first album a couple years ago:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2008/05/lady-antebellum-helps-country-get-its-grunge-on.html

More on the country EP front (see Blake Shelton's one a few weeks ago), via email:

Multi-platinum and Grammy-nominated Country singer/songwriter JO DEE MESSINA will release her first new material in six years on April 27 with the first in a trilogy of EPs to be issued throughout the year. The initial installment, “Unmistakable: Love”--a nine-track release comprising seven new songs and two live acoustic cuts--will be followed later this year by “Unmistakable: Drive” and “Unmistakable: Inspiration.”

Also, Laura Bell Bundy's debut album, due out April 13 on Mercury, is basically two EPs (which as far as I know aren't being released separately, though it would make a lot of sense if they were). Whole thing is called Achin' & Shakin', "Achin'" being the six slow emotional ballads it starts with (none of which have much hit me yet, though "Curse The Bed" and "Homecoming Queen" have promising titles) and "Shakin'" being the six fast dance songs it ends with (which almost definitely qualify as my favorite half album of new music so far this year; I might like "Rebound," "Boyfriend?," and "If You Want My Love" even more than the single, "Giddy On Up," which I like a lot.)

Actually, maybe this isn't news to some people, but I just noticed that Blake Shelton's Hillbilly Bone EP is presently at #10 on The Billboard 200 album chart, after entering at #3 next week. Also, Justin Bieber's My World EP is at #11. Wondering now if that makes Blake's thing the highest charting EP in Billboard history. Bieber's apparently peaked at #6; Honeydrippers' Volume One got to #4 in 1984; David Lee Roth's Crazy From The Heat to #15 in 1985; U2's Under A Blood Red Sky just to #28 in 1983; Ugly Kid Joe's As Ugly As They Wanna Be (supposedly the first EP ever certified multi-platinum) to #4 in 1992...oh wait, Mariah Carey's MTV Unplugged EP got to #3 in 1992, so Blake ties that one. Anything obvious I'm not thinking of? (Of course, whether these are technically all EPs by Pazz & Jop standards -- i.e., under 25 minutes -- is another question. And no doubt some '60s albums that are that short yet were never called EPs at the time charted higher.) (Billboard is saying Lady Gaga's The Fame Monster EP got to #5 last fall, but I'm skeptical, given that her double album containing the album + the EP has the same name.) (Oops, apparently a Miley Cyrus EP I never heard of called The Time Of Our Lives -- digital only maybe?? -- got to #2. So never mind. Reminds me that Taylor Swift has had a few too; not gonna check those.)

"...entered at #3 last week...", I meant about Shelton, obv.

Three more charting country songs I should try to hear (been totally negligent on still not checking out the first one yet):

40 48 2 Little White Church, Little Big Town
W.Kirkpatrick,Little Big Town (K.Fairchild,W.Kirkpatrick,K.Schalpman,P.Sweet,J.Westbrook )
Capitol Nashville DIGITAL | 40

53 54 2 Jenny, The Harters
K.Stegall (M.Harter,L.Harter,S.Harter,D.Malloy,B.Irby )
Bigger Picture DIGITAL | 53

54 1 Groovy Little Summer Song, James Otto
J.Otto,P.Worley (J.Otto,A.Anderson,C.Chamberlain )
Warner Bros. DIGITAL | WMN | 54

This is the most bizarre thing I've read in a good long while. But I haven't watched country videos regularly in a few months so I don't know if something has changed. However, I don't recall pedal-pumping or anything remotely associated with it ever in all the country videos with trucks in them, or sexy girls doing something. Maybe I just filtered it out.

Anyway, I just thought Jesse James was a shithead biker from reality TV, not some average example:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-03-21/the-red-state-sex-fetish/

Note it's written by the equiv of a coke-bottle glasses-wearing blue state nerd girl with bad hair. And no tattoos on her forehead. I couldn't quite make it to page 2, the first was all I needed.

xp "Little White Church" by Little Big Town = handclapping holy-roller gospel stomp with blues-rock guitars ensuring power then jolting you awake, minor keys and whispered asides about silver-tongued devils adding drama, words demanding if you like it you better put a ring on it (no huggin no kissin -- well no having his baby, actually, which is weird -- til she gets a wedding ring), all in three minutes. Very nice.

Jenny" by The Harters = Opening guitar chords are straight out of Collective Soul's "Shine". And I keep thinking the band is called the Haters; harmonizing two-boy/one-girl (so, post-Antebellum) trio from Arizona. Lyrics concern a rebel boy in trouble with the law and a good girl (how come it's never the other way around? good boys never meet bad girls?) taking the open road against her Sheriff Daddy's wishes, and the harmonies get the open road feeling right, not too unlike Love & Theft in "Runaway" last year. Though I keep expecting them to rob a Texaco clean outside of Abeline, or Billie Joe (not his real name) to shoot a man while robbing his castle, or something, and they never do.

"Groovy Little Summer Song" by James Otto -- heartily deep-sung blue-eyed-soul yacht-rock country for shagging at the clambake. At least as summery as Blaine Larsen's groovy little summer "Chillin'" song, and I like the vocal here better. What Uncle Kracker wishes he sounded like.

Also (after looking at George's link), I should note that the Harters song does not stipulate whether Jenny is driving, and if so, whether her six-inch sequinned white-satin stiletto sandals are flooring the gas pedal. In a video on youtube, though (can't tell if it's official), the girl in the group does have long legs and cowboy boots, however.

Still trying to investigate Mac McAnally, whose album on Toby Keith's Show Dog label was one of my preferred country records last year, and who I talked about otherwise on Rolling Country 2009. Have picked up three old used records for a $1 each or so in the past year. Newest one I have is Finish Lines from 1988, clearly his attempt at an '80s AC/AOR move, seemingly inspired by Don Henley solo LPs like End of The Innocence (except that didn't come out until '89, so who else, David & David maybe?), with a similar slickly produced straining toward making cloudy but cynical statements about Reagonomics and whatnot. Basically, I'm on the fence about it. Favorite track is probably "Hush Money", I guess for its Zevon/Stan Ridgway-style private investigator intrigue. "Remote Control" has a good Diddley beat. Other songs about feeling like an alien and noting how America forces competition on us, plus history and science metaphors for, uh, something. (Not sure what pill "Little Blue Pill" is supposed to be about; did that even exist yet in 1988? Not gonna Google it to try to find out, that's for sure.)

i can never not read his name the way you imagine I'm reading it

Is it apropos to mention a 2009 comp of stuff recorded between 1967 and 1976 here? I picked up Plantation Gold: The Mad Genius of Shelby S. Singleton Jr. and PLantation/SSS Records about a month ago and just put it on. It's pretty cool: story songs very much in the style of "Harper Valley PTA," included of course. They have a gimmicky side but I'm really enjoying the sound of it: comfortable playing, roomy-enough production that's very of its time, a hint of reverb on the vocals, and sometimes Tijuana-ish brass. (And the truly unfortunate "Harper Valley CIA" by Ray "Wong" Riley.) I have to imagine the folks who review country reissues regularly know this already.

Let me ask: how is this stuff considered among country cognescenti? I'm leaning toward a mix of "slight but enjoyable" and "snapshot of era," myself.

Ah, OK, a bit more into this and yeah, it's a ton of soundalikes and gimmicks and novelty. Still interesting as a funhouse view of its period, though.

We write about old records and reissues all the time, so there's no reason you shouldn't. Stick around.

Got back from a Seder too late to review Kenny Chesney's "Ain't Back Yet" for Rolling Country. Would've given it an 8 or so, kicks hard while still treading lightly.

Poptimists is starting theme orgafuns, the first one being "Best Songs About Women Getting Violent And/Or Creative Revenge On Men!." You only get one nominee but you can list and link all you want. So far country is dominating the show.

On a related note, I'm in an interesting convo over on one of Tom's Tumblrs with a woman named Petra on the subject of how angry songs by women are perceived and not perceived (convo inspired by a horrendously bad trend piece in the Guardian). (I suppose that "horrendously bad trend piece" is a redundancy.)

Also, if I understood correctly, there's going to be a country poll tomorrow at Poptimists. (That's the general site link; I'll post a specific one when it appears.)

Frank likes that new Chesney single way more than I do (though it's conceivable I've been underrating it.) Some Jukebox review roundups:

Kenny Chesney "Ain't Back Yet"

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2134

Tim McGraw "Still"

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2135

Miranda Lambert "The House That Built Me"

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2111

still unhappy i didn't post my blurb for the lambert; really like that song a lot.

Here's that Poptimists country poll I was telling you about.

Been liking (not loving, but liking enough to play it a bunch of times) this new white blues album on Alligator, The Devil Is An Angel Too, by Janiva Magness, who I never heard of before. Includes covers of songs by Ann Peebles ("I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down," which I've always thought of as Graham Parker though apparently Paul Young did it too), Joe Tex ("I Want To Do Everything For You"), Nick Lowe ("Homewrecker," never heard it before), Tift Merritt ("Your Love Made a U-Turn," written by a McClinton who may or may not be Delbert), Strong-Whitfield-Penzabene ("End Of Our Road," apparently previously done by Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight), and Jeff Barry ("Walkin' In The Sun," apparently previously done by Glen Campbell), so maybe what I'm liking is that it's as much a soul (or soul-country) album as a blues album. Maybe somebody else can figure out where the other songs came from; lots of different credits. Some warm melodic guitar parts too, and she saves the one torch/lounge schlocker 'til the end, so I don't mind much.

http://www.myspace.com/janivamagness

http://www.janivamagness.com/

Caramanica calls Gary Allan's Get Off On The Pain "the best country album of the year so far" in the NYTimes. I disagree - I'd definitely take Chely Wright, Laura Bell Bundy, and Merle Haggard over it (and Legendary Shack Shakers and Drive By-Truckers, if those count as country, and Slim Cessna's Auto Club, if it counts as country and doesn't count as a reissue); almost definitely prefer Ray Wylie Hubbard and Josh Turner, too, and maybe Willie Nelson, Elizabeth Cook, Lady Antebellum, and even uh Shooter Jennings -- none of which I'd even much recommend, at least so far -- as well.) (Some of which are admittedly not out yet, so maybe they don't fit under the category "so far.") But his blurb will probably inspire me to give Gary Allan one more chance:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/arts/music/04play.html

He makes me curious about Marvin Sapp, too; been on a bit of a gospel kick lately, since Spin asked me to do an Essentials column on the genre, but I know even less about recent gospel than I do about old gospel. Have been liking the three-disc late '09 archival compilation Fire In My Bones: Raw + Rare + Otherworldly African-American Gospel (1944-2007) (Tompkins Square) a whole lot this month, though.

along those lines:
what would you guys say are the best country releases of Q1 2010?

I like the Easton Corbin debut a lot. It's pretty much a top notch George Strait album--you can take that as a criticism or a recommendation depending on taste.

My favorite so far this year is the new Alan Jackson. There's a simplicity to it, a reining-in after his more sprawling, showy last album, that I enjoy a lot.

I didn't hear too much country while lying low for Lent, but I did enjoy Blake Shelton's EP and Josh Turner's concept album about what an awesome husband and father he is.

Also good is the Carolina Chocolate Drops' Genuine Negro Jig, which is getting love over on the "What's Worth Listening To in 2010?" thread. It got reviewed on the 9513, so it counts here. I hadn't heard of them before. They're a black Appalachian string trio on Nonesuch, and the first six songs are fast and fun. They can play, but they're not bloodlessly virtuosic like some bluegrass. They all three sing and trade off on banjos, fiddles, jugs, bones, and whatnot. They also cover "Hit 'Em Up Style," which totally fits in the context of all the old-timey stuff. Second half isn't as interesting, but there's still a couple good barn dance numbers, enough to recommend it overall. The liner notes, like the music, are cheerfully low-key re the impressive amount of research that must have gone into this. Seems more like fun than school.

Also, re this upthread: saw jamey johnson last night, it was an interesting show. he's weird onstage, sort of diffident except that he's the guy with the microphone. Totally--I saw him last summer at the fair, and I think his only onstage patter was the spoken sections of "Give It Away." At one point he raised a cup of beer to the audience, who cheered. His show wasn't that long because he was the opening act, and his only cover was "The Door Is Always Open," but the crowd loved him and man, his band is great. (The sound was great too.) On those slow waltzes, it sounded like he and the drummer were daring one another to see who could go slower, and the pedal steel player generally got to space out at the end of every song.

I reviewed the Carolina Chocolate Drops awhile back live for the Washington Post. They did a fun show, but I haven't heard the newish cd yet. And yes they have researched the history of black banjo and fiddle players thoroughly and have gone and met and played with surviving old-timers, while still staying aware of current music in other genres.

i interviewed them all a time or two; they're real bright people. New disc is great, the title song is awesome. They were obscenely well received in NYC at Bowery; the crowd was crazy into it.

Easton Corbin album left me cold; haven't heard the new Alan Jackson but I'm thinking I usually prefer him when he's less simple (unless Alison Krauss helping him get jazzy counts as simple, which I doubt) so I'm kinda skeptical; listening to Carolina Chocolate Drops on Rhapsody now (lined up in front of new Ted Leo and Titus Andronicus, neither of which I expect to like but I'm going to give them the old college rock try) and thinking they pull off the energy of Mississippi Shieks (or whoever) rhythm more than the energy of Mississippi Shieks or whoever vocals -- overall they sound, well, schooled, yeah.

There's something lackadaisical about the singing that's not grabbing me -- in Depression years, this music had a lot more wildass in it.
Bet they were Arrested Development fans, once upon a time (if they're old enough.) But that doesn't mean I won't like the album. Heard their Blu Cantrell cover; thinking it comes off more adult-alternative Middle Eastern worldbeat than any era of string-band. Not that that's a horrible thing; just not convinced that the song melds with their sound in any way. Some of the more instrumental passages ("Snowden's Jig" on now for instance) strike me arty chamber group that might, say, play in the foyer of your local suburban library; something Penguin Cafe Orchestra about that one. Which again, isn't awful. My wife heard them on NPR and said they reminded her of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, though, ick. "Why Don't You Do Right" now; tasteful torch nostalgia, not buying the schtick but I can't say the girl's voice is entirely devoid of warmth. Might like them more if they just schtuck to their main style. (Actually, you know who their eclecticism reminds me of? The Duhks.)

Matt Cibula listed these '09 albums he's liked on another thread last night; sounds like at least a couple might have some country in them. (Okay, maybe not the Czech guys; I wouldn't know, but I'm intrigued. I think Don Allred -- where is he lately anyway? -- tried to make a case once for Gogol Bordello counting as country, and their new album is starting to grow on me, though at first I thought it was just more of the same -- in the second half, they get into Latin rhythms, cool):

Traband, Domasa (Venerable Czech nutjobs, rollicking Romany rockin')
Brandon Wright, Boiling Point (fun & funky jazz, post-boppery but with an edge)
Big Light, Animals in Bloom (file under power-pop alt.country new wave jam band, but better than that sounds)
Anne McCue, Broken Promise Land (Aussie blues singer/guitarist, compare to Wilson sisters)
Pie Eyed Pete, Lake County All Star (I think he's like Ike Reilly's next door neighbor, good Midwestern songs)

"strike me as an arty chamber group that might..." etc. (Guess the operable adjective for Chocolate Drops is "middlebrow." Not a word I'd apply to, say, the Memphis Jug Band. Definitely prefer the fast songs to the slow ones, either way. "Kissin' And Cussin'" on now, its chorus inexplicably reminding me of "Muskrat Love" by America/Captain and Tenille, except the Chocolate Drops are trying in vain to make it feel "dark." Now "Sandy Boys" -- a cover, I'm betting? How many of their songs are public domain? -- where at least they're kind of doing the vocals as rhythm to go along with the strings. Has a decent bounce to it; think I wrote in my Duhks/Donna The Buffalo/Old Crow Medicine Show roundup in the Voice that these sorts of quasi old-timey bands should do that more often. And now "Reynadine," which takes us to the Renaissance Faire, but the girl's voice isn't quite lovely enough.)

No problem at all calling them "country," though -- they're as country as the Duhks etc. are country.

And oops, meant those albums Cibula listed are '10, not '09. (He should post more about them here!)

re: drops - Dom is more a showman than a singer and Justin is only a bit better but Rhiannon is operatically trained and fully capable of carrying any of these. Her inflection is, I grant you, very specific and may not be for everyone.
The only song on the new album that anyone on the band wrote (as opposed to arranged) is Kissin' and Cussin'.

xp Also didn't mean to disparge Ted Leo & Titus Andronicus (neither of whom might have any country in their music, being from New Jersey, but whatever); if I had something against them, I wouldn't be trying out their albums. And actually, I don't expect to dislike them as much as I expect to find them both potentially interesting but not compelling enough that I'll want to expend much more energy trying to figure then out. (Which is pretty much being confirmed with Leo's album, which is on right now. I know he's supposed to be very political and all, but I can almost never understand why while actually listening to him. For such an intense and committed guy, he's quite the mushmouth. And he never sounds half as much like Thin Lizzy or Joe Jackson as I wish. I really liked "Timorous Me" back on The Tyranny of Distance nine years ago, though. And on the new album, "Bottled In Cork" seems to be an okay touring song and there was one goofy part in an earlier song where Ted yelled out that the means of production are now in the hands of the workers; wasn't sure if he was trying to be funny or not. And the guitars work up a decent jangle now and then. But nothing's making me feel I need to hear it again, and on track #10 out of 13 I'm getting impatient. At least there are a couple fast songs. Maybe I'd like him more if I liked the Jam more. But they were better than him, too.)

Okay, track #11, "Tuberculoids Arrive At the Hop" -- this one has some British folk to its acoustic guitars (which I like -- song itself is pretty dull, but the guitars are really good). Not country, but close. (Just didn't want everybody to think I totally derailed the thread.) (Cut after that, "Gimme The Wire," Ted's rhythm section finally wakes up! And they stay awake for the last song, "Last Days," which seems to have something to do with people claiming the end is near. It's hard to figure out what, but I don't mind much thanks to the "My Sharona" riff.)

The Drops are so NPR it's not even funny. But hey, I gave money to NPR. I forget what the "R" stands for in Jody Rosen's DORF matrix, but they definitely qualify for the "Dead" and "Old" quadrants. Based on their repertoire, of course, not their actual status as human beings. (The DORF matrix explains which black musicians get NPR play.)

Does anyone else subscribe to Josh Turner's theory that homosexuals are loveless aliens?
I wouldn't be a man if I didn't feel like this
I wouldn't be a man if a woman like you
Was anything I could resist
I'd have to be from another planet
Where love doesn't exist

He's like a scientist!

My 600-character Rhapsody mini-reviews of new albums by Laura Bell Bundy:

http://www.rhapsody.com/laura-bell-bundy/achin-and-shakin#albumreview

And Peter Wolf (which has a lot of alt-ish country on it, though not much in the songs I actually like):

http://www.rhapsody.com/peter-wolf/midnight-souvenirs#albumreview

Second heat of the Poptimists 2000-2005 country poll has now started. "Portland Oregon" is leading "Kerosene" by two ticks, which pisses me off, but I ticked both so I shouldn't gripe. "Before He Cheats" won heat one, and "Goodbye Earl," "I Love This Bar," "Alcohol," and "Hotel Yorba" all qualified.