Rolling Country 2010

"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.

John, I don't have anything to strongly recommend that you don't know about through Jukebox except that I second Xhuxk's thumbs up for Laura Bell Bundy's "Giddy On Up"; and Jaron And The Long Road To Love's "Pray For You" made me laugh out loud as a send-up of pious forgive-your-enemies sentiments. Jaron has the right reedy voice for it, and I think he might have potential even when he's not joking (assuming that's ever; I've only heard this track).

On the basis of "Bring On The Love," I think Coldwater Jane is worth exploring more; song is a good half-rocker, and the women sing with half-husky voices, will have you rocking in your seat though you'll probably forget about it as soon as it's over. Jason Sturgeon sounds like a poor man's Eric Church on "Simple Life"; the song is no great shakes as a vaguely Mellencampish semi-rocker, but he was strong enough to pique my interest. The tune to Brandi Carlile's "Dying Day" reminds me a bit of "Wild World," which is a compliment, though it would be more of a compliment if the tune reminded me more of "Wild World" and if she didn't fall so heavily into her rich voice. Worth following up to find what else she does with that voice; she's been singing folk and alt country for years with respectable reviews without my hearing her, or, if I have heard her, without my remembering. Interesting that I heard this on a country radio promo compilation, since I can't imagine her ever actually crossing to country radio.

Taylor Swift and Mallary Hope sing a karaoke "Gunpowder And Lead" at a Nashville Christmas party. Taylor sounds totally natural with it, Mallary not bad but trying to figure out which chops to apply, while Taylor just lets the Miranda style take her. Makes hand motions to illustrate the lyrics. Is wearing a black glitter dress.

In-studio vid for Little Big Town's "Little White Church." Good stompin' little stomp. I'd categorize it as Willingly Abstaining From Sex Until The Guy Marries Her Already, which means it's not really eligible for the latest poptimists orgafunnery, which calls for songs on the theme of Willingly Abstaining From Sex And/Or Relationships Until You Find True Love Or A Decent Man/Woman Or Somesuch. (Surprisingly, I could only think of one, "Past, Present and Future" by the Shangri-Las. Surely there must be country songs that qualify.)

Intocable's latest, "Estamos en Algo," moves from dramatic accordion flourishes, to what I'll inadequately call "soul," to something resembling ska with gang shouts in the background, to a groovy beat that resembles "Ode to Billy Joe", I think:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJF3g4M7IXc

But that's not why I bring it up here. No, I mention it because my mother-in-law, a wonderful woman who's fluent in Spanish but not a native speaker, said it was "too country" for her, and she prefers her Spanish music to come from Spain. Plus, hasn't Cibula made the case for Intocable as a country band before?

Anyway, the lyrics are weird. "Estamos en algo" strictly translates as "we are in something," which is either an idiom I don't know or Cartesian poetry. Here's the verse:

Si no estas
Pensando en mí
No estas en nada
Pero yo
Pensando estoy
En tu mirada

Y si estas
Pensando en mí
Estas en algo
Yo por verte
Este día
Se me hace largo

Doesn't it just LOOK beautiful on the page? I think the gist is that our existence is proven when we think of one another, maybe because thinking leads to longing, and longing lets us know we're alive. But I could be reading too much into it.

(Sorry, I meant to just post the link.)

i will hunt those down Frank, thx.

I forget what the "R" stands for in Jody Rosen's DORF matrix,

Retro I think...NPR likes Black musicians that are Dead, Old, Retro, or Foreign

Josh, I love that Intocable song. I'll need to listen to more.

Yeah, me too. And Matt Cibula definitely has called Intocable country before. (Speaking of Cibula, he may be happy to know that my new favorite new non-reissue album of 2010 is Domasa by the Czech prog/goof/rock band Traband, which he recommended -- and not only for the blatant Dylan and Neil Diamond steals, though that's part of it.)

Also loving Intocable's "Hay Ojitos," which I heard on the radio over the weekend. (Finally settled on a Regional Mexican station to pre-set in the car. Not sure why it took me over a year in Texas to do that.) Youtube posting dates suggest the song's from late last year, though I could be wrong about that. Be sure to check out the highly entertaining video, which features skimpily dressed women, guns, and a cock fight.

Caramanica on Laura Bell Bundy's album (scroll down). He prefers the slow half, which is nuts, but at least we agree "Curse The Bed" is the best slow song. Was not aware that the ballads were "produced and written in large part by Nathan Chapman, the behind-the-scenes architect of Taylor Swift’s sound."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/arts/music/12choi.html

My haiku-length Rhapsody reviews of new Colt Ford (liked this a lot more than I expected, btw, but have still yet to determine how much):

http://www.rhapsody.com/colt-ford/chicken-and-biscuits#albumreview

And new Legendary Shack Shakers:

http://www.rhapsody.com/legendary-shack-shakers/agridustrial#albumreview

By the way, Wiki writes this about Colt Ford's debut album, which I still haven't heard and never heard of until a few days ago, but which actually apparently went to #24 on the country chart two years ago: "Ford's debut album also has guest appearances from country singer Jamey Johnson, as well as Bone Crusher and Jermaine Dupri, and Jeremy Popoff of Lit." Bone Crusher behind a 300-pound crunk rapper from Atlanta, for those unaware. A guy at roughstock.com compared the album to Bubba Sparxxx. Also from Wiki: "He also appeared on a rap remix of Montgomery Gentry's late-2008 Number One single 'Roll with Me.'"

And speaking of previous albums that I never knew existed, I also learned recently that, on Laura Bell Bundy's self-released debut album a couple years ago, she covered "Dancing With Myself" by Generation X/Billy Idol. (There are videos of her doing the song live on youtube.)

"Bone Crusher being...," I meant. (I thought Colt Ford's new album was closer to Cowboy Troy than to Bubba Sparxxx, for what it's worth, but maybe with Kid Rock's taste for hard rock riffs -- or okay, Jason Aldean's taste for hard rock riffs, at least -- and maybe a little rapping that hip-hop fans might not dismiss as completely corny.)

rap remix of Montgomery Gentry's late-2008 Number One single 'Roll with Me.'"

This is hearable on youtube, too, and Colt's flow is more like Bubba than Troy in the remix, so I'm guessing they consciously tried to make him more "country" and less "rap" -- hence, less threatening to country fans -- on the new album (his fourth, technically -- second studio one and a live one both charted in the 40s on the country chart last year.) He also does "Roll With Me" live with MG on a couple videos on youtube, but the sound's not good on either. He's definitely a big boy, though.

Aspiring country singer-songwriter and tenth-place Nashville Star finisher Justin Gaston attempts "If I Can Dream" as a guest on American Idol (to help promote some other Simon Fuller-produced reality show he's on). He's anonymous but nicely gentle on the soft bits at the start, is inadequate to the strong emoting he tries for later, achieves some sparks in the last minute in back and forth with his duet partner, who's effectively emotional as always and is the reason I listened.

Colt Ford had a brief guest spot on Bone Crusher's funk-rap "Round" three years ago (shows up about 3 minutes in). Here are "Mr. Goodtime," "Ain't No Trash In My Trailer," "Ride Through The Country, and "Cold Beer," the four singles from his first album Ride Through The Country. I think he's best when the arrangements don't overrun his voice (so "Mr. Goodtime" and "Ride Through The Country"). Xhuxk's right about the Bubba Sparxxx drawl. Album rose higher on the rap chart (#12) than the country (#24), though those two charts probably aren't analogous (rap being much more a specialty chart, as opposed to "r&b/hip-hop").

Jon Caramanica (who I got the opportunity to debate Laura Bell Bundy sides with in Seattle this weeked) on the new Merle Haggard album (which he underrates) and new Willie Nelson album (which I haven't decided what I think of yet -- leaning toward well sung, well selected old songs, but otherwise just another pointless album add to the Willie pile who cares, but I may be wrong about "pointless" and "who cares"):

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/arts/music/19choi.html

My own Haggard review is written but not on line yet.

Also got to spend some time over the weekend talking to University of Wisconsin PhD in history candidate Charles Hughes (who is doing is dissertation on the relationship between country and soul music in the '60s and '70s, and who did a super informative EMP presentation about how FDR's Rural Electrification Act changed music in the '30s) and Kansas City English professor and Heartaches By Number: Country Music's 500 Greatest Singles co-author David Cantwell (whose presentation on log cabin songs of the '20s was also excellent) -- two really nice guys who I'd never met before. Here's the blog they share:

http://livinginstereo.com/

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/04/18/academy-of-country-music-awards-2010-carrie-underwood-wins-entertainer-of-the-year/

Here’s a complete list of the winners at the 45th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards:

ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR: Carrie Underwood

TOP MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR: Brad Paisley

TOP FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR: Miranda Lambert

TOP VOCAL GROUP OF THE YEAR: Lady Antebellum

TOP VOCAL DUO OF THE YEAR: Brooks & Dunn

TOP NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Luke Bryan

ALBUM OF THE YEAR: “Revolution” - Miranda Lambert

SINGLE RECORD OF THE YEAR “Need You Now”- Lady Antebellum

SONG OF THE YEAR: “Need You Now” - Lady Antebellum

VIDEO OF THE YEAR: “White Liar”– Miranda Lambert

TRIPLE CROWN AWARD: Carrie Underwood

HUMANITARIAN AWARD: Montgomery Gentry

The show kicked off with a performance by Miranda Lambert and Underwood in which the women were joined by fiddler Charlie Daniels, Brad Paisley and John Fogerty. “That’s how you start a television show, son,” Daniels said at the end of the number.

HUMANITARIAN AWARD: Montgomery Gentry

This is pretty funny. Maybe they got it for not killing any more domesticated black bears this year?

HEY! Some people change.

Incidentally, Mom-in-Law checked with an ESL student and reported back on "Estamos en Algo":

"Estamos en algo" means there is a connection between us. And "Se me hace largo" means that it seams like a long time (since we were together). Makes more sense.

Just to recap: "we are in something" = "there is a connection between us". I love that. Just got the CD from the library, so I'll report back at some point.

now get me a confirm on watagatapitusberry

I'm a little more country than THAT.

(consults urbandictionary, throws drink in forksclovetofu's face, eagerly looks up song on youtube)

kekekeke

My emusic Merle Haggard review (scroll down):

http://www.emusic.com/album/Merle-Haggard-I-Am-What-I-Am-MP3-Download/11911349.html

Listened to the imminent Dierks Bentley album Up On The Ridge this morning and...I dunno. trad bluegrass move, feels kind of clinical and stiff but then most trad bluegrass moves do, to me. Guests: Alison Krauss, Chris Thile (of Nickel Creek), Vince Gill, Del McCoury, Kris Kristofferson, plus Miranda Lambert and Jamey Johnson on the same song, which didn't jump out at me the first time. Dierks covers "Pride (In The Name Of Love)," interesting because I've definitely heard U2 in his guitar sound before and because it's about MLK, maybe a mildly brave statement in the Obama age (at least people thought so when Brad Paisley made his MLK statement), but I'm skeptical. Also covers a Buddy & Julie Miler song, plus Dylan's "Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)" (from Street Legal, an album I've never actually heard); potential sympathy-with-immigrants/anti-globalism statement maybe? Though I'm conjecturing that just from its title, no idea about the song itself.

Leaning toward deciding the new Elizabeth Cook album only has one song I really care about ("El Camino"). New Bill Kirchen album has less.

Water vs Rain neck-and-neck on Country Songs chart this week:

19 24 25 14 Water, Brad Paisley
F.Rogers (B.Paisley,C.DuBois,K.Lovelace )
Arista Nashville DIGITAL | 19
20 22 23 15 Rain Is A Good Thing, Luke Bryan
J.Stevens (L.Bryan,D.Davidson )
Capitol Nashville DIGITAL | 20

Vaguely curious about these, for their song titles mainly:

50 46 41 16 Jackson Hole, James Wesley
D.Frizsell,R.Clawson (R.Clawson,M.Criswell )
Broken Bow DIGITAL | 41
52 NEW 1 Pound Sign (#?*!), Kevin Fowler
D.L.Murphy (D.L.Murphy,J.Collins,T.Martin )
Lyric Street PROMO SINGLE | 52
57 NEW 1 Hard Hat And A Hammer, Alan Jackson
K.Stegall (A.Jackson )
Arista Nashville DIGITAL | 57

Me on the new Shelby Lynne album (which I liked more than I would have guessed, though I doubt I'll be returning to it much):

http://www.emusic.com/album/Shelby-Lynne-Tears-Lies-And-Alibis-MP3-Download/11900277.html

Hmmm...(No idea what this single is, but still).

60 NEW 1 Here Comes Summer, LoCash Cowboys
J.Steele (J.Steele,S.Minor,C.Lucas,P.Brust )
Stroudavarious PROMO SINGLE | 60

Country album chart this week is more interesting, though:

8 NEW 1 Chicken & Biscuits, Colt Ford
Average Joe's 216 | 14.98 8
62 53 67 20 Live From The Suwannee River Jam, Colt Ford
Average Joe's 214 | 14.98 45
67 56 63 26 Country Is As Country Does, Colt Ford
Average Joe's 212 | 13.98 CD/DVD 41

Rap album chart, meanwhile:

4 NEW 1 Chicken & Biscuits, Colt Ford
Average Joe's 216 | 14.98 4

Working on something longer about the guy; stay tuned.

Liking this album too, actually:

27 NEW 1 High In The Rockies: A Live Album, Jason Boland & The Stragglers
Proud Souls/Apex 7060385 | ThirtyTigers | 12.98 27

Chuck wrote upthread:

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

Was the song gender-specific about who was dumping her? According to TMZ, Chely comes out as a lesbian (or as the TMZ URL says, a "gay lesbian country singer") this Wednesday in People.

http://www.tmz.com/2010/05/02/chely-wright-gay-lesbian-country-singer-coming-out-people-magazine-today-show

Jennifer Knapp, a singer-songwriter who was big in Contemporary Christian Music in the late '90s/early '00s and then abruptly walked away from her career, came out early this year and will resume performing. I'd never heard of her until two weeks ago, when Anthony Easton brought her up on my livejournal. I like the one song I've heard by her, her CCM hit "Undo Me." She's got an Alanis gargle, but without Alanis's gratingness. I should listen to more. Should also listen to more Chely Wright for that matter, since I only really know "Single White Female" and "Bumper Of My SUV" and the two or three tracks by her that were on her MySpace when we were talking about her last year (or was it the year before?). I quite like "Single White Female."

My not-well-informed impression is that evangelical Christianity is a lot less united on this issue than it'd been a couple of decades ago, younger evangelicals less likely to understand why Jesus would want them not to be gay or would want them to discriminate against gays.

(This takes us even further from country music, but I highly recommend Jonathan Bogart's long Tumblr post regarding his Christian rock childhood. While I'm on the subject, my current favorite teengothpop Contemporary Christian Music singer is Krystal Meyers, my favorite song of hers being "Beautiful Tonight.)

Hey Frank, I was just reading *Real Punks...* just like five minutes ago and noticed you posted to this thread. So I thought I'd say hello!

Was the song gender-specific about who was dumping her?

"Damn Liar" no; "Object Of Your Rejection" no. (Just checked the lyric sheet.) So I may well have been presumptuous about their being directed at "some guy." Think I do note some gender-confusion in regards to the song "Like Me" upthread, but I stupidly figured the conflicted person she was singing about was male, not female: "Who's gonna end up holding your hand? A beautiful woman or a tall handsome man?" At any rate, I like how she timed her coming-out to coincide with the album release.

Btw, if anybody's interested, I've played the new Mindy McCready album (I'm Still Here on indie Iconic Records) and new Joe Dee Messina EP (Unmistakable: Love on Curb) one time each, and nothing much has hit me, although a couple of Joe Dee's songs seemed catchy. (Hers mostly seem to be long-successful-marriage songs, as far as I can tell.)

Wright is the first major country artist ever to come out.

What, k.d. lang doesn't count? Though I have no idea when her coming-out happened in relation to her temporary country stardom. Or maybe she doesn't count as "major," though it's not like Chely Wright has had a ton of huge hits herself.

This is a big deal in the country world. Chely is rolling the dice on her career ... it's unclear how traditionally-conservative country fans will react.

Well, given that she hasn't had a single hit the country Top 40 since 2004 or the country top 20 since 1999, it's unlikely that country fans, conservative or otherwise, would've been racing to stores to buy her new album anyway. Maybe now more will. (Maybe the book will help, too.)

Anyway, I've been listening to lots of old albums this weekend. To wit:

Statler Brothers The Best Of (Mercury 1975): Lukevalentine brought them up upthread, and I was curious so I pulled this off. Great album, really interesting. I should probably read more about them one of these days, but I get the idea that their harmonies often shake out somewhere in between gospel jubilee and barbershop (Four Freshmen? how would I know?), maybe with occasional hints of doo-wop; they switch voices line-by-line/pitch-to-pitch alot, like doo-woppers (and, later, old-school rappers) did; the bassman voice often hits me as ridiculous, which might be intentional (were bassmen supposed to be funny, by definition?), or may be a generational thing. What's definitely a generational thing is that four songs out of 11 are list songs, all wondering or bemoaning lost days of yore -- movie stars in "Whatever Happened To Randolph Scott," early baby-boom/post-war/mostly-early-'50s pop-culture fads in "Do You Remember These" (kinda reminds of of Robert Klein's 1973 comedy album Child Of The '50s, especially since there's nothing especially rural about what the Statlers are remembering); classmates who went on to do all sorts of things (including one who kills himself and one who winds up in a mental hospital) in "The Class of '57"; a couple's old photo-album pictures (hence sort of a precursor to Jamey Jonhnson's "In Color") in "Pictures" -- and, especially in the movie star song (which actually calls Hollywood "the industry") and the pop fad song, there are tons of references I don't get at all, and not only because these guys race through their lists really fast. Those kind of songs are clearly precursors to the Bellamy Brothers too (think their "Old Hippie" songs), as probably are the Statlers' humor, and their harmonies. Favorite two other songs are "New York City" (the woman a guy got pregnant goes to NYC and has her baby who the guy apparently never meets and the kid grows up thinking the dad's a real louse and the guy doesn't seem to argue the issue) and, of course, "Flowers On The Wall," which I still can't tell whether it's sung form the point of view of a guy who's cracking up or just a really lonely slacker in denial. (For people who don't know it, he stays up all night playing solitaire with a incomplete deck, and smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo and counting flowers on the wall.) The rest of the songs are mostly good, too; "Susan When She Tried" is kind of weird, because you never quite figure out "when she tried" what -- to leave the singer heartbroken, I guess. Also, 10 of 11 songs -- all but "Flowers" -- are either credited or co-credited to one "D. Reid."

Hank Thompson A Six Pack To Go (Capitol 1966) Another really good one by this guy, maybe not quite up there with Smoky The Bar, but close. On the cover he's pictured six times, on six cans of beer; album subtitle is "...and the Brazos Valley Boys with a program of their beer-drinkin' hits." So that's pretty much what the songs are about obviously, though each side has an instumental polka in the middle ("Beer Barrel" and "Bartenders.") Two songs, "The Wild Side Of Life" and "Anybody's Girl," like "Girls In The Night" on that other album, are about women who make the sad decision to live their lives in bars, often leaving a better life behind. As do the guys, but they usually get funnier songs. Though Hank does do his "St. James Infimary"-styled "Drunkard's Blues" here again. And there's maybe a Western Swingish tint fairly often, but nothing I'd call Western Swing per se'.

Buck Owens The Best Of (Capitol 1964) Has "Act Naturally," which is immortal, but otherwise I'm still not getting what's supposed to be so awesome about him. He always sounds okay, a real distinctive singer, but he always sings more or less the same, and rarely excites me or pulls me in. Part of me thinks he just didn't have Grade A material; or maybe I'd be less bored if he was more rockabilly. Presents kind of a sad-sack persona, but never makes me laugh much. But maybe somebody else can explain what I'm missing. (I've always liked his '88 "Streets Of Bakersfield" with Dwight Yoakam and Flaco Jiminez, if that helps.)

Also, Sylvia's Just Syliva from 1981; posted some notes on it here yesterday:

(vintage) country-disco

Okay, just checked Wiki; sez the Statler Bros "named themselves after a brand of facial tissue (they have joked that they could have turned out to be the Kleenex Brothers[2]). Don Reid sings lead and is the younger brother of Harold Reid, who sings bass. The other members are baritone Phil Balsley and tenor Jimmy Fortune, who replaced original Statler Lew DeWitt in the early 1980s due to the latter's ill health...The band's style is closely linked to its gospel roots. Harold Reid said of the group's style 'We took gospel harmonies and put them over in country music'." Dewitt is the guy who wrote "Flowers on The Wall," and co-wrote a couple other of the hits on the best-of album, which apparently runs from 1965 to 1974. "Sissy, a #75 hit in '68, didn't make the cut.

Lots of typos in that first long Statlers spiel; still halfway comprehensible regardless, I hope.

Oh yeah, also meant to mention Charlie Rich's Rollin' With The Flow from 1977 -- finally, a Charlie album I don't absolutely love! Do love the title track though, which is amazing -- super easy rolling #1 C&W hit about watching everybody else your age mature while you manage not to, for better or worse. (Apparently Mark Chesnutt covered it a few years ago, though I've never heard his version.) Rest of the Rich album though is mostly string-soaked Billy Sherrill sapsucker-ballad mush that reminds me why so many people hated countrypolitan so much; not unlistenable, just ignorable. Only possible warmblooded exceptions I could pinpoint might be "Somebody Wrote That Song For Me" and "Night Talk," both also on Side One with the title cut, which both remind me that the distance between late '70s/early '80s countrypolitan and smooth jazz and quiet storm r&b probably wasn't always so great. Which is cool, and I'd hang onto the LP for the title song alone, but still.

The Statler Brothers were my dad's favorite group, probably because he had a deep voice and liked to sing the the bassman's lines.

Film review in the NY Times this morning about some documentary about the mountain-dancing, murdering, pill-popping White family of West Virginia; says that, after a TV movie about Jesco White in 1991, lots of country songs were written about him. I remember him being name-dropped in a song on Big N Rich's second album, but that's it. Never heard of him before that; had to look him up. So, what other songs?

Which also makes me wonder whether any great country songs are being written now about Nashville's great devastating flood of 2010. Seems like archetypal country subject matter, and if the Ryman and Dierks Bentley's houses are all wet then it's clearly hitting close to home. Maybe even some good economics puns about houses being underwater are in order. Assuming that's not too depressing a country topic these days.

Meanwhile, Singles Jukebox multi-reviews of songs by...

Drive-By Truckers

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2212

And Mallary Hope

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2254

As far as older Country goes, does anyone know anything about a guy named Lee Clayton? Looks like he played w/ a lot of the Highwaymen and wrote one of my absolute favorite tunes "If You Could Touch Her At All" which was done by both Willie and Waylon. Allmusic says he put out a couple of albums in the early 70's, but all I can find on Youtube are these kind of terrible sounding Dylan ripoffs. Did he do any straight up country albums?