Rolling Country 2006 Thread

country
singles
1) not ready to make nice--dixie chicks
2) running block--toby keith
3) will daddy sing danny boy tonight--hacendia brothers
4) like red on a rose--alan jackson
5) like we never loved at all--tim/faith
6) jesus take the wheel--carrie underwood
7) faith hill--stealing kisses
8) Trace Adkins "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk"
9) josh gracin--Big Brass Bed
10) Willie Nelson--Cowboys are Secretly, Frequently, Fond of Each Other
11) Bubba Sparxx Aint Life Grand
12) Scott Miller Citation
13) Tim McGraw STars Go Blue
14) Chris Cagle--Wal Mart Parking Lot
15) Brady Earnhart--Thank God Virgina is on our side
16) Jamie Johnson--The Dollar
17) George Strait--The Seashores of Old Mexico
18) Aaron Pritchett--Hold My Beer...

albums

1) kris kristofferson, this old world
2) jessi colter, this old fire
3) cyndi boste foothill dandy
4) Roseanne Cash black cadillac
5) josh turner--your man
6) Brokeback OST
7) Gary Bennett Human Condition
8) Bruce Springsteen--The Seeger Sessions

other music
singles
1) fergie--london bridge
2) gwen stefani--wind me up
3) theo blackman--chi chim chi ree
4) jessica simpson--public affair
5) Pharell/Ludacris--money maker
6) max tudnra--so long far well
7) beyonce--ring the alarm
9) alan jackson--like red on a rose
10) kd lang--love for sale

albums
1) alpendub-- jo delay
2) pharell--in my mind
3) gabriel kahune--craigslist leider
4) Marie Antoinette OST

There's another track that made me think of Rick Springfield crossed with Tom Petty, but I didn't take note yet of which one it was.

"Used to The Pain," maybe? Though maybe it's more Dwight Twilley? Phil Seymour? Somebody. Or even, uh, the Bodeans or one of those twerpy anal-compulsive bands that got overrated in Creem in the '80s? Or even later, like that shitty band who did the theme from Friends, or those dorks Del Amitri with the unbearable baby carriage video? With Chris Isaacs high notes, yikes. But suprisingly enough, I find myself liking it. And either way, yeah: Powerpop. ("Got It Right This Time" on now. Is that a drum machine?)

so, too, was "i can't stop loving you" a hit only in europe for leo sayer (and phil collins did it later on)? billy nicholls, whose 1975 "love songs" is an ancestor of the urban record, wrote it.

Melody of "Got It Right This Time" (the apparently drum-machined one) is "Only You" by Yazoo! Damn, this is really shameless...

Also love the guitar explorations at the end of the opening track, "Once In A Lifetime." Keith's finally found space to show off, I guess -- five over-five-minute cuts, one of which goes over six ("Stupid Boy," which hasn't kicked in yet and seems to wait too long to let the guitars kick in, but the title's intriguing so I have high hopes.) Aforementioned opener is also the second longest track on the album -- how often does that happen on a country record? Second track also goes over five minutes, with Elton John orchestrations then more guitars at the end. "Raise The Barn" with Ronnie Dunn, 5:12, start off Stones-like and goes into a cool disco-funk break at the 3-minute mark, plus lots of gospel hallelujahs and stuff tosssed into the mix in tribute (the liner notes say) to New Orleans overcoming Katrina. A really interesting record, even if the John Waite rip does claim that "everybody needs somebody sometimes".

kogan, i think its supposed to be bad, but that said, ive always enjoyed the theme tune things by charollote church, i find them cheeky fun

(Also should add that, what with Jon Tester's victory, this has been quite a week for Montana. I almost imagine Disney planning that way, like they pegged the state as the future before the news media did. Word now is that unemployed Detroit auto workers are moving there...)

And yeah, Knopfler/Buckingham makes obvious sense in re: Keith Urban's guitar.

"Best of Both Worlds" has a pronounced* southern accent in the verses (but not particularly a country way of phrasing). The southern accent is barely present on "Who Said" (which nonetheless has a twangy guitar), except for the twist she puts on a few words at the end of a line: "magazines," "my way." And it seems gone altogether from "I Got Nerve."

*One does tend to pronounce one's accent, doesn't one?

[Haikunym, I'm sure some of the teens who bought the soundtrack noticed the southern (though not all that country) accent. Why in the world wouldn't they? Btw, a large number of teenpop stars were born in the South, though many of 'em ended up in NY or LA.]

A. They wouldn't notice any traces of accent because they don't care about it one way or another, unlike people like us -- even if they do have southern or non-southern accents of their own.

B. They wouldn't notice any traces of accent because the songs' excessive noisiness and brutal futurist onslaught make it very difficult to discern anything about Miley's voice at all.

C. They wouldn't notice any traces of accent because they are too busy chanting the lyrics at the same time as the singer.

D. My daughter doesn't hear any accent. Then again, she and all her 11-year-old friends hate Miley and think she's corny. So the target audience is probably younger than that.

depends on what suburb; closer in, like antioch or north of town, or out east like gallatin, it's reeeall southern. franklin and williamson co. there are just more rich people from other places and songwriters who moved here from new york and l.a. so that's another kind of accent. and shit, you can go to east nashville and sit in the booth at the quite good mexican joint on gallatin pike on a friday night and not hear a southern accent anywhere.

bill friskics-warren compares urban's new one to prince in a washington post piece he did. which makes sense, altho he's no prince. it's sure a frantic record, tho.

listened again to new darryl worley, and this time it sounded a bit flatter, and too many guitars competing in one sonic space. he sings real well and although the songs aren't quite as good as some of the riffs--he does a great faces/stones rip--it's kinda like seeing a really good blues band on thursday night and you go home early and not quite drunk like you would be on the weekend (if you living the blues lifestyle, that is. I had two stella artois last night with my meal and I feel it today, just gettin' old...)

xps

The top 20 have yet to be revealed, but so far no Montgomery Gentry
(though another post suggested that they weren't "really country," though I guess K. Urban is.) Also, a lot of hatred for Brooks & Dunn on that blog, though Brand New Man made the list.

I am hereby interested in checking out Tracy Lawrence and Colin Raye someday (though I don't remember liking them) (and though the guy on that blog, while smart, definitely likes a lot of stuff I don't.)

Here's what I wrote upthread about a Carlene Carter album he loves:

The Carlene Carter album I bought seems consisently kinda fun but never quite fun *enough*, at least so far. Maybe I wish her poppabilly was more rockabilly, "The Sweetest Thing" is slow, and could amost be a Lorrie Morgan hit from around that time; "Goodnight Dallas," which I like more than most of the tracks, has mariachi horns and yodels, so it's "western" I guess. I'm still waiting for at least one track though to jump out at me as much as, say, "Montgomery to Memphis," which jumped right out of the self-titled Leann Womack CD I bought the second I finally put it in the changer today. So right now I'd say Leann beats Carlene beats the Sweethearts, though Carlene could still win this race...carlene's CD doesn't quite make the cut, i don't think, though yeah, maybe as don suggests her new wave era stuff is less perfunctory than what she was doing in '90 (when she was actually having hits, i take it.) even "me and the wildwood rose," about growing up at grandma's and singing for miners with her little sister, doesn't quite connect. i like the rockpile-abilly powerpopsters ("i fell in love," "my dixie darlin'," "come on back," "one love," the mariachified "goodnight dallas") okay but never love them. most surprising cut, just 'cause i never knew carlene did such stuff, is that stately lorrie morgan approximation i mentioned, but i doubt i'll need to hear it again.

#22
I Fell In Love
Carlene Carter
1990

Talk about your legacies. Daughter of June Carter & Carl Smith, stepdaughter of Johnny Cash and stepsister of Rosanne Cash, few artists had to emerge from as many shadows as Carlene Carter did. While she’d been putting out records since the mid-70’s, she still had experienced very little success. When she surfaced on Warner Bros. in 1990, she finally broke through, with an album that paid homage to her heritage while still moving country music progressively forward. The breathtaking creativity on I Fell In Love makes contemporary rockers like the title track and “Come On Back” co-exist with covers of her father’s “You Are the One” and the Carter Family’s “My Dixie Darlin’”, and it actually sounds like they belong together. Despite some excellent covers, Carter best honors her family through her own pen. “Me and the Wildwood Rose” tells the story of growing up as a Carter through her own eyes, and recounts the death of Mother Maybelle, when the family gathered at the grave and “stood in a circle and sang.”

Download This: “Come On Back”, “Me and the Wildwood Rose”, “You Are the One”

saw vince gill on leno last night, with a big band, horns, and doing white r&b. he doesn't get *out* of himself as a singer, but i suppose that worked on this particular song...too suave to externalize his soul and all that. but he sings well, not as well as he plays guitar. he's truly great and played some rippin' stuff. (but, for a lesson on how much better a guitarist can be and still be steeped in the same kind of stuff that any number of country guitarists and r&b guys are, i wish i had a video of robben ford at the ryman a couple weeks ago. he made james burton and steve cropper look like kindergarteners. just think if he got on, say, dierks bentley's record and they just let him loose.)

anyway, it was pretty good and now i have to find a copy of those four discs from somebody.

anyway, on beefheart, i always thought "doc" peaked higher, but "ice cream" had a droll charm, esp. in the amazing interaction of guitars and drums on the title track, which really extends blues rhythms into something new.

xp

Rum, Sodomy and the Lash probably has the greater individual songs, Red Roses For Me has more energy, and I end up skipping forward less when I'm listening to RRFM.

The Poguetry In Motion EP is a marvellous thing, also; not sure where that's been reissued, but two of the four songs "Rainy Night In Soho" / "The Body Of An American" stand with their very best. The other two aren't too bad, either.

sort of gentry or big and rich lite, sentimental, the usual problems with women, playing way beyond their leauge, and arythymic singing, an inability to keep the energy up and wow are the lyrics just awful:
for some red heat real fast picken turbo grass areosmith or cootton eyed joe a little star light moonshine down home party time and let it go with my countrfied show...

these people are from grand prarie alberta, i thnik, which means all of the (innumerable) southern/small town signifers strike me as posing without committing

grand prarie has got 60k people.

(where is the coutnry about being broke and homeless even if you are a rig pig making 100k a year, i mean grand prarie is prime oil country, and with the insane prices, the drinking, the lack of housing, the fucking and the gambling, plus working 70 hour weeks, and thousands of people from newfoundland, you would figure there would be a whole subculture of oil songs...there is one by corb lund, but there should be more)

They're all now on the Rum Sodomy And The Lash CD. I used to own the EP on vinyl, and got rid of it somewhere along the line; nice to have those tracks again. I thought I had another EP, too, with "A Pair Of Brown Eyes" and "Muirshin Durkin" (one of their best tracks ever, now on the Red Roses CD), but AMG doesn't seem to list that anywhere, so it must be long forgotten. And I associate those two EPs with two Fear And Whiskey-era Mekons EPs I had copies of way back in my Army days (whilst reviewing both Red Roses and Fear and Whiskey for the Voice in my spare time): Crime And Punishment and Slightly South of The Border (not to mention the even greater and I assume rarer English Dancing Master, from a few years before, when not even critics cared about the Mekons) Why was I so quick to purge my shelves in those days? Sigh. I will likely never see them again.

I really really wish those faceless dolts would go away.

Now playing: my sleeper pick for country (absurdly broadly defined) album of 2006: The Memory Band, Apron Strings on DiCristina. They've zenned into the Fairport tone and soul, the fiddle player is beyond awesome and "I Wish I Wish" is a beautiful transformation of a traditional ballad that's also the best possible fuck you to re-virginizing evangelicals everywhere.

there first album cover featured shotguns...

i dont know the memory bands

One still bumps into those old Sin Records era Mekons things over here now and again, I haven't played mine in forever, though I think fondly of them. I don't think I've ever even seen a copy of "The English Dancing Master", I don't think many of those CNT things ever made it far south, the indie distribution networks in early 1980s Britain weren't what they later became. I had half an idea that there had been a reissue of CNT-era Meeks stuff, perhaps that was just "The Mekons Story".

It seems that Greil Marcus was the only person alive who cared about "The Mekons Story" when it came out.

And, will point out that the entire Mandrell tribute "She Was Country....Cool" is pretty fine, LeAnn Rimes does fine with the filthy "If Lovin' You Is Wrong" (kinda skips over the line about "married men," like she didn't want to get into that too much!), Sara Evans avows how her gardener or dance instructor or husband, even, can eat "Crackers" in her bed any time, and Blaine Larsen sounds great too. Only clinker is Randy Owen, whose Alabama shit stunk up an otherwise great show, that Cropper tribute I mentioned upthread. Never could abide that stuff.

anne mccue's record, finally gave it a good listen. about a B. sometimes she rocks out and it works, sometimes it just sounds constrained and polite. pretty good overall but nothing to write home about that I hear. more hooks, baby, you got the looks...

Not familiar with Original Sin. I've got a couple hodgepodgy odds-and-sods CDs (I Have Been To Heaven And Back: Hen's Teeth And Other Lost Fragments of Unpopular Culture Vol. 1 and Where Were You: Hens Teeth Etc Etc Vol. 2 that include sundry rare early tracks among sundrier live ones and so on; somewhere in storage I also have Punk Rock, I think it's called, where they entertainingly re-record a bunch of their punk-era stuff -- my Fear and Whiskey CD leaves that great album intact; a few of those early tracks also show up on the two-disc Heaven And Hell: The Very Best of the Mekons, which also has all I'll ever need of their widely acclaimed '90s and '00s stuff, which I've honestly never really understood the appeal of), but anyway, I think with those early EPs, I also miss the actual objects, you know? Though I do think they were doing their best music back then; my favorite album by them {used to have it on vinyl, now on CD} is 1980's The Mekons, a/k/a {for no reason I've ever figured out} Devils Rats and Piggies. And I actually found The Mekons Story fun back in the day; wish I'd kept my vinyl copy of that one too. I assume Lester Bangs liked it too, since he wrote the liner notes, in which he claimed it to be the best album in the world this side of Metal Machine Music and/or something by Black Oak Arkansas, I forget which. So blah blah blah. After Edge of The World, for me, they had more trouble holding my attention.