Rolling country 2007 thread

>>Two Times picks for the Krauss/Plant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What surprised you in country music this year?

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

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

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

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

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

Jessica Simpson Going Country On New Album
Jessica Simpson

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

by Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

>>The people are friendly and kind.

Particularly so when you pay them.

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

Country stuff that surprised me this year:

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

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

http://www.myspace.com/mechanicalbullpen

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

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

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

Influences Dysfunctional marriages, alcoholism and the american dream

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

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

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

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

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

i just got the new trisha. xcited.

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

Conversation continues on the Rolling Country 2008 Thread.