Rolling Country 2011

Well, he seems to have put all of his solo album on YouTube -- Quiet Times of a Rock 'n' Roll Country Boy -- where no one listened to it there, either. Maybe if he'd actually rocked more on it...rather than have something like "Go Your Own Way" and its full orchestra in a church let's drown in the lugubriousness of love stuff.

Probably being a bit harsh. Big Kenny deserves some points for giving away the album on YouTube.
And it's probably at least as good as Big & Rich's third, even without the benefit of the overexposed wedding video song.

Article at Salon, pretty much part of the omnibus overkill coverage of trying to tie everything into Osama bin Laden and the ten years since 9/11. This one makes the argument, poorly, that country is as popular as anything else now because of 9/11.

But the legacy of country music is bigger than the individual. Once the dust has settled, what will people see when they look back at country music in the aughts? Taylor Swift, the CMT Awards, the CMA Awards (completely different), Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum, Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert, Keith Urban, Gwyneth Paltrow and "Country Strong"; just in the past year the popularity of the genre has allowed its stars to overtake the Grammys, both in nominees and interest in other music award shows.

Perhaps we can attribute the rise in popularity of country music as much to Swift, Underwood, Miley Cyrus and "American Idol" as we can to the attacks on Sept. 11. But I'd wager that these fresh faces in the industry flocked to country music specifically because it resonated with the first historical event they were alive to witness.

Don't hear much 9/11 in any of them. So Hannah Montana was a result, in some way, of 9/11? And Gwyneth Paltrow and Country Strong was so marginal and ignored as a product it's irrelevant.

Currently, I'll make the argument again that modern country is merely a reinforcer of white heartland delusions and myths. If Aaron Lewis is at the top of CMT's rotation with "Country Boy," and he is, that's just an exhibition in decadence and pandering, part of the sullen reaction to any intimation that the country has gone rancid in the last ten years. If bow-hunting, a Tea Party Flag, US flag tattoos, showing off your old army truck and ending the thing with an image of how you take your guitar and gun into the woods at the same time, has more in common with an intrinsic US citizen overcompensation that looks laughably phony, rather than sincere, to people who don't suffer from it. It's message: "I'll beat you up, run you over with my big truck or shoot you in the woods if <strike>you're not a real American</strike> you dis me."

And it's an inward, not outward, complaint because I guarantee he wasn't thinking about Osama bin Laden when he wrote it and the producer thought about getting Charlie Daniels to deliver his old white coot speech as a voice-over end.

No link. Meh.

Condensed press release:
CMT DISASTER RELIEF CONCERT SET TO PREMIERE LIVE ON
THURSDAY, MAY 12 AT 9 PM ET / 8 PM CT

Talent line-up includes Hank Williams, Jr., Alabama, Keith Urban,
Lady Antebellum, Ronnie Dunn, Sara Evans and Tim McGraw

NASHVILLE – May 5, 2011 – CMT and its pro-social initiative CMT One Country
will air a live, 90-minute concert special featuring Hank Williams, Jr.,
Alabama, Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, Ronnie Dunn, Sara Evans, Tim McGraw
and many others to raise awareness and funds for those affected by the
recent devastating storms, flooding and tornadoes. The fundraising special
will air live from Nashville on _Thursday, May 12 at 9 pm ET / 8 pm CT on
CMT_ and will be simulcast on [2]CMT.com. Additional artists to be
announced; all money raised will benefit the American Red Cross Disaster
Relief efforts.
**CMT DISASTER RELIEF CONCERT is available for simulcast, free of charge,
to outside media. Satellite coordinates and restrictions will be available
early next week.

**CMT One Country encourages you to support our neighbors affected by the
recent devastating tornadoes and floods. Please text “REDCROSS” to 90999 to
make a $10 donation to support the American Red Cross Disaster Relief
efforts.

Okay, put on your thinking caps, feeling caps--Sweepstakes is high! (like to see how the family therapist is faring on their reality show too)

WYNONNA SURPRISES NAOMI WITH SPECIAL NEW SONG “LOVE IT OUT LOUD” ON “THE
JUDDS” OWN SEASON FINALE THIS SUNDAY_

_“How Do You Love it Out Loud?” Facebook Sweepstakes Starts Tomorrow!_

Nashville, TN (May 5, 2011) – Curb Records recording artist _Wynonna Judd_
has released a new song titled “_Love it Out Loud_” which is available now
on iTunes and Amazon.com. Beginning tomorrow Clear Channel Radio will be
streaming the track exclusively on all of their country radio sites.

Wynonna co-wrote and produced the track with Cactus Moser to honor the love,
affection and appreciation she has towards her mother. As the cameras were
rolling throughout _The Last Encore_ tour, Wynonna would sneak away to work
on creating this special tribute song which she presented to Naomi on the
final show of their tour in Phoenix, AZ. The surprise performance will take
center stage on the finale of “The Judds” this _Sunday, May 8th at 10pm ET_
on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).

Starting tomorrow fans can enter the “_How Do You Love it Out Loud?”
Facebook Sweepstakes_ for a chance to win an exclusive chat with Wynonna via
Skype. To enter the contest, go to Wynonna’s Facebook page and post a
comment or photo in response to the question, “How do you Love it Out
Loud?” Do you give your mom a card every day to tell her you love her? Or
put a special note in your child’s lunchbox? Whether you love it out loud
in your community, with your family, friends, kids, or spouse…Wynonna wants
to hear about it!

One grand prize winner will get to spend 10 minutes with Wynonna via a
private Skype chat in June. Ten runner-up winners will each receive a
Wynonna Judd merchandise package. Winners will be randomly selected and
announced on May 18th.^. For official rules, visit [2]www.wynonna.com.

Haven't been nearly as excited by any country this year as I was at this time last year; but I also haven't been exploring it as much. Here'd be my top 10 singles if the country critics poll were held today. It's a reasonably good set of records except that four of my top 5 were tracks I'd already heard last year (in fact, I voted "Mean" in the 2010 poll, when it was a promo single; now that it's an actual single I'll vote it again, only 'cause Geoff doesn't carry over votes from year to year like Xgau did, Geoff not having the order in his mind for that sort of thing that Xgau has). Anyway, the track in my top 5 I hadn't heard proves my point about my not being excited by country this year, that I'm willing to be moved enough by it to give it the time of day. Do think the Singles Jukebox crew underestimated by quite a lot how powerful the singing is (or ignored or didn't want to credit the power, for understandable reasons); also think there's a little more feeling and poetry in the words than anyone there is giving credit for, even if the anti-sellout ideas and survivalist stomp are strictly grade d scripts from backlot zeitgeists. Not that the poetry is even one-zillionth as poetic as Montgomery Gentry's "She Couldn't Change Me" or Shooter Jennings' "Daddy's Farm," and I don't tend to think "poetry" when I listen to those, either. And I can't say I don't share the impulse to give it a 0, its ideas being ignorant and stupid and destructive. But the singing and words combined hit me harder than the also-problematic-and-noxious-but-not-nearly-as-noxious-as-this-is "Homeboy," which I put at number six. Maybe if everyone else in my neighborhood were giving "Country Boy" a 7 or 8 I'd be the one to give it a 0, but they're not, so I'm not.

Don't know if I've ever heard a track by Staind. Maybe I should.

1. Taylor Swift "Mean"
2. Reba McEntire "If I Were A Boy"
3. Jamey Johnson "Heartache"
4. Aaron Lewis "Country Boy"
5. Reba McEntire "When Love Gets A Hold Of You"
6. Eric Church "Homeboy"
7. The Band Perry "You Lie"
8. Trace Adkins "Brown Chicken Brown Cow"
9. Carrie Elkin "Jesse Likes Birds"
10. Gretchen Wilson "I'd Love To Be Your Last"

From the little I've heard, Carrie Elkin is a restrained country bore with an OK voice, the voice getting lost in standard arrangements; on "Jesse Likes Birds" the voice manages to quietly dominate.

Can't really defend "I'd Love To Be Your Last"; needs some quiet domination, some steady, soft force; Gretchen can't hold it, and she's no Taylor Swift so can't work her tatteredness for drama and power. So, more pathos than intended, but the pathos reaches me.

To my surprise, Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina are the last two standing on American Idol. I was sure that James Durbin would win it, he being a mediocre rocker with enthusiastic performing, just what's won the last few years. Think Lauren sings with vastly more life, subtlety, and passion than Scotty; but I also think I mischaracterized her a little upthread when I said she had a big blustery voice. I think she has a big blustery talent, but the voice isn't strong enough yet for all the bluster, and she often goes for wallop she can't reach. Scotty's got a strong love-man demeanor and goes for richness that his tonsils lack, though he's nice to listen to on a talent show. The out-of-character "Candle In The Wind I already linked is still the best thing she did. A weak field, so the overreaching sexpot Hayley Reinhart reached third place and to my surprise occasionally grabbed what she was grasping for, "House Of The Rising Sun" in particular being a song to reward all that stretching.

I'm still bitter about Didi Benami being knocked out in the tenth spot last year. Her "Play With Fire" is up there in feeling and smarts with anything Kelly, Carrie, Brooke, or Jordin sang on that show.

I was thinking earlier today about how this thread seemed to have died, and then I couldn't really muster up (m)any real reasons why it shouldn't have. Really dire, uninspiring year for country so far.

I honestly don't think I could come up with a full 10 singles for the year that I would stand behind. I guess Miranda Lambert's "Heart Like Mine" would still count, and there's Sunny Sweeney's "Staying's Worse Than Leaving." I love the melody and production on "Mean" but find its entire premise problematic and sloppy based upon Taylor's overall persona, but I know that's not something that's an issue for everyone, and I'll probably end up voting for it by year's end anyway. "Barton Hollow" by the Civil Wars has a pretty great stomp behind it, as does G Love's "Fixin' to Die." I'll probably end up voting for Little Big Town's cover of "Born This Way," but I'm pretty sure Geoff Himes' head will explode. Or maybe even Gaga's "Country Roads" version of "Born This Way."

The only impression Lauren Alaina has made on me is that she needs a vocal coach, because she has possibly the worst breath control of any contestant to make it to the AI finale. There's potential there, but she needs a lot of work. I've yet to hear anything in Scotty's voice that the judges insist is there. The Josh Turner comparisons are obvious, but the only kind of presence I get from him is smarminess. The facial expressions don't help.

Meant to call Carrie Elkin a restrained folkie bore. I ain't typin' fast, it's just I think slow.

Well, today I saw/heard the midly nauseating tableau cast by the Sheryl Crow/Kid Rock video for "Collide" which was in at 16 on CMT Top 20 Countdown. After why I turned the show off.

Yeah, SC in a dive bar entertaining ol' greasy hair in his on backwards baseball cap. Urgh -- gurgle.

It's probably been at least a decade (back to the late '90s) since I've been as bored by country as I am this year. Basically don't listen to the country station in the car at all anymore. Writing about it a lot less, too -- Though that's partly because Rhapsody's lately been having me review more metal, of all things. Also, judging from what I've picked up from albums added to Rhapsody at least, it seemed like three or four months went by when, week after week, there were basically no high- (or even middle-) profile new releases. (Keep meaning to check and see if anybody at Billboard ever did a story on that weird phenomenon, but I never managed to get around to it.) Guess that's turned around some in recent weeks (with Paisley anyway), but the genre/format seems to have entered into one of its periodic phases when it seems scared to be anything else but dull. That said, I guess if I did a top 10 singles so far for 2011, it would probably look something like this (though I'd be surprised if I'd list "Mean" on a Pazz & Jop ballot; like "Heartache," it feels too much like a 2010 song to me):

1. Taylor Swift - Mean
2. Martina McBride – Teenage Daughters
3. Thompson Square – Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not
4. Eric Church – Homeboy
5. Rosehill – Midnight America
6. Randy Montana – 1,000 Faces
7. Jamey Johnson – Heartache
8. Reba McEntire – If I Were A Boy
9. LeAnn Rimes – Crazy Women
10. Toby Keith – Somewhere Else

Top 10 country 2011 albums so far would shake out something like this -- Though seems like the Montana and Stealing Angels have maybe been postponed indefinitely, and I'd be stretching the year definition on another album and the genre definition on several others; really, if I'm going to count most of these, maybe I should count the Southern Soul albums I've liked this year too, or even the Dunn Boys' passable Pogues/Dropkick-style Irish folk punk from Nova Scotia for that matter.)

1. Randy Montana – Randy Montana (Mercury)
2. Stealing Angels – Stealing Angels (Skyville)
3. Thompson Square – Thompson Square (Stoney Creek)
4. The Band Perry – The Band Perry (Universal Republic ‘10)
5. Too Slim and the Tail Draggers – Shiver (Underworld) -- more hard rock/Southern boogie than country really
6. Blame Sally – Speeding Ticket And A Valentine (Ninth Street Opus) - more folk than country
7. Those Darlins – Screws Get Loose (Oh Wow Dang) - more garage/indie/"thrift store rock" (as George put it) than county
8. Left Lane Cruiser – Junkyard Speed Ball (Alive) -more Southern boogie/blues-rock/garage/pigfuck than country
9. Tara Nevins – Wood And Stone (Sugar Hill) - more folk than country
10. Steel Magnolia – Steel Magnolia (Big Machine)

Possible (though actually pretty marginal) semi-honorable mentions: Ashton Shepherd, Colt Ford, Janedear Girls.

Also like John Waite's new album, and he made the country chart with his Alison Krauss duet update of "Missing You" a half-decade or so ago. But I'm not hearing anything remotely country on his new one, so I don't think it qualifies. (If it did, it'd be somewhere near Thompson Square and Band Perry on the list above.)

A new career milestone, being officially named "Best Donald Trump Suck-Up" a week or so after the Trump is made a laughingstock on national tv.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/05/23/celebrity-apprentice-winner-john-rich/

Almost all the Colt Ford album is on YouTube. "Every Chance I Get," "Work It Out," "Titty's Beer," "Country Thang," "This is Our Song," -- the last one is genre standard really phoned in-sounding white trash doing hip hop hard rock. It may be the he-man rapping & metal record with fiddles he wanted to make but after three or four songs -- no interest in the remainder of it. One supposes he thinks there's some link to Charlie Daniels in this but six months from now it won't be on any rotation lists unless something is force-fed through CMT.

What's missing this year is mostly any trace of the elusive quality, fun.

Thompson Square's "I Got You" video, as corny as it is with the Sonny & Cher Show homage, has fun in it. Even if they weren't alive then. It goes with the record.

There's no fun in a lot of this high quality rote product. LeAnn Rimes' "Crazy Women" is not fun. Colt Ford's definitely not fun unless you're really into the 10,000th mediocre iteration of getting smashed with ugly people at a dive bar, playing cards and overeating.

Brad Paisley's album didn't look like much fun in the BestBuy racks. There he is, outstanding in his field, before the sunset or sunrise on the back cover.

The Band Perry flirt with not being fun. Particularly on those parts of the album where she bares her teeth and really works up a fury at mostly nothing. The other half where she doesn't do that I still like.

JaneDear Girls wanna be fun and probably are. I just don't like them more than a third.

Anyone hard rock as country slumming that I've heard this year hasn't been fun, mostly.

I keep getting stuck on the idea that the girls do it better than the guys. And I've come to the conclusion I tend to like them more because they're not ever hellbent on flinty or manly.

And the one thing Colt Ford has in common with Charlie Daniels is obvious and gratuitous, as a shot I'm gonna take anyway. They're the same size.

Xgau on new Brad Paisley:

http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/expert-witness-blogpost.aspx?post=937a5e57-8e48-45fb-9d4b-edd570dbde56#ic-anchor

doesn't mention any hot-shit guitar playing unfortunately. what's the word on that front?

Dunno yet. Have only heard the title track and the one with Alabama -- the latter of which was also done live with a guitar showcase tacked on. Neither do anything for me.

If my Chrisgau 180 rule is still reliable -- and it almost always is -- based on his grade, A minus, I'm probably not going to find anything on it.

Two of his most underwhelming singles.

My discussion on a particularly boneheaded editorial on copyright infringers at the LA Times:

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/2011/06/07/todays-laugher-on-copyright-infringement/

Posted here because I've noticed how YouTube doesn't do much about entire country albums posted to the service if the star isn't really much of a money-maker and doesn't merit label enforcers/fixers.

Just started paying attention to NBC reality music show The Voice, which has Blake Shelton as one of the show's four judges/coaches. The two guys on Team Blake are both rockoid countryoid manly voiced bores (though I'll give Jared props for auditioning with "Not Ready To Make Nice" and for Blake picking him on that), while the two gals are potentially very good, Xenia a kid with an expressive scratch in her throat whom I can imagine finding a way to deepen and darken a lot of soft pop; the other, Dia Frampton, is getting a lot of attention for her twisting and half wispy, half guttural version of Kanye West's "Heartless." Judge Cee Lo Green called it "probably the greatest rendition of a song I've ever heard," which seems to be a bit of an exaggeration, but she was fairly riveting. Anyhow, the rendition is not really relevant to country other than the fact that Blake Shelton's her mentor; but what's getting under my skin is that Carson Daly keeps carefully introducing Dia as "a shy singer-songwriter and novelist" from Utah, and judge Christina Aguilera always - very irritatingly - talks about how cute and cuddly Dia is, and yes, I suppose Dia is a shy singer-songwriter and novelist WHO ALSO HAPPENS TO BE THE LEAD SINGER OF A LOUD-ASS SHEMO BAND THAT USED TO HAVE MAJOR-LABEL DISTRIBUTION AND THAT'S RELEASED AS MANY ALBUMS AS TAYLOR SWIFT and they've done the Warped Tour and I reviewed them 5 years ago on Paper Thin Walls, so she's not exactly a stranger to the big scary stage, even if she is only 23.

Anyhow, it's a big year for Korean-Americans on talent shows, what with Dia getting lauded on The Voice and twinkle-toes Hines Ward winning Dancing With The Stars.

And I'll say that Dia plays right into the sweet shyness thing.

Here's a better link for "Heartless," though you'll have to juice the volume:

http://www.nbc.com/the-voice/video/week-seven-dia-frampton-sings-heartless/1332424

And here's Xenia's audition:

http://www.nbc.com/the-voice/video/week-one-xenia-audition-breakeven/1322692

And this is probably the best of the show's country guys, Jeff Jenkins:

http://www.nbc.com/the-voice/video/week-one-jeff-jenkins-audition-bless-the-broken-road/1322699

I tried digesting some of that Meg & Dia rot. There must be at least a hundred bands with that slathered in squeaky clean and cute corporate mall punk emo whatsis.

Couldn't stand it when I was getting Damone records, her brand sounds incrementally worse. If cute were like gamma radiation you wouldn't be able to stand within three feet of her without being burned to a cinder.

Hey, I actually pulled out that second Damone album a month or so ago -- Out Here All Night from 2006, the one with the Iron Maiden cover that I never noticed was an Iron Maiden cover until somebody told me -- and I was really surprised how well it held up. Can't think of many pop-rock albums in the past decade or so that I've liked more. (Their debut, which George had reviewed for me in the Voice, was a lot worse though, iirc.)

Probably still have an advance of the first Meg & Dia CD in a box in the closet. Kept trying to get into that at the time, but it never much clicked. Definitely didn't find it as unstomachable as most shemo/emo/screamo rot, but that's very small praise.

Have heard basically no new country I particularly care about in recent weeks, but then it's not like I've been hunting too hard, either. Got halfway through an advance of the new Connie Smith album on Sugar Hill; thought it was all at least pleasant but I haven't exactly been chomping at the bit to finish the thing, either. (I had never given her a second of thought before; know basically nothing about her old country hits, which seem to have been biggest in the mid to late '60s, then smaller and smaller through the '70s. If I'm reading Wiki right she never got higher than #101 on the pop chart, and that was with her first charting single, in 1964.)

Caramanica gave a good review to the new Ronnie Dunn solo album in the Times the other day, but the one single I heard was a snooze -- and given that Jon perplexingly seems to think Brooks & Dunn peaked with the likewise boring "Believe," he didn't quite persuade me to check that new album out. Maybe eventually.

Can Miranda Lambert's new side project, Pistol Annies, bring this thread back to life?

The Ronnie Dunn album is serviceable enough, but there aren't any songs that are as good as his voice would have you believe they are. "Cost of Livin'" is the second single. Can't get on board with the idea that Brooks & Dunn peaked with "Believe." But for a couple of singles, I'd say they peaked with "Neon Moon," which I still love, and then it was all downhill for the next 15 years.

I like the new Ronnie Dunn record, and I'm impressed by Blame Sally's folkie power pop. the latest Nashville Scene has my thoughts on Sally and on local act KORT, who are the Lambchop dude and Cortney Tidwell doing stuff off of Chart Records label in the '60s. Wagner sounds like an anemic, a more anemic Cat Stevens, but I think "Penetration" is an interesting and effective track. anyway, I've been absent from posting anywhere for a while, including here, but have been doing my usual thing for the Scene, and you guys may have read me on Those Darlins in the Voice a couple months ago; they're playing with Old 97's here next month. (Whose Grand Theater records I quite like, altho I am not sure if the first one is better than the second.)

But, want to check out what y'all have been saying before I pitch in much more, except to say I hung out with Charlie Louvin at a Nashville eatery where his guitarist Ben Hall was playing, a month before Charlie passed, and Charlie drove himself to the gig in his Cadillac from 50 miles south of Nashville!

And that I got on a Wynette and George Jones kick and listened to every Tammy LP from '67-'80 with a detour to her '87 bluegrass album, and at last count I think I've listened to 20 Jones LPs from Musicor era thru '92 and the "Walls Can Fall" LP. What a body of work. And Cal Smith, don't forget about Cal Smith...finally, in the vein of the great country past, I've seen now TWO clips of Gary Stewart on the "Pop Goes the Country" show from the '70s, one where he played the piano and scared Minnie Pearl and cut Jerry Lee's cousin to pieces, the other where he played electric guitar and looked totally cool.

See you guys soon...

But for a couple of singles, I'd say they peaked with "Neon Moon," which I still love, and then it was all downhill for the next 15 years.

Disagree with this -- my favorite albums by them are easily Steers & Stripes and Red Dirt Road, probably followed by Hillbilly Deluxe and Cowboy Town, so I tend to think they improved with age until they started slipping a bit -- but I never understood until I moved to Texas the extent to which "Neon Moon" (which I've always liked fine but never loved) is their "Stairway to Heaven" or "Smells Like Teen Spirit" or whatever. That two-decade-old song is on country radio here ALL THE FUCKING TIME, and I could live without hearing it again. Seriously though, even as far as early B&D hackwork goes, I'd probably take any number of tracks over it -- "Lost And Found", "Brand New Man," "Mexican Minutes," "Texas Women (Don't Stay Lonely Long)," "Boot Scootin' Boogie." Maybe I'm just sick of it.

I'm impressed by Blame Sally's folkie power pop

Me too - mentioned them a couple times upthread already, and it's taking me several listens until I heard the powerpop part (minus much "power," but for once I don't seem to mind much). Real eureka moment was hearing the single, "Living Without You," apart from the album and over the P.A. at a Starbucks, of all places, and thinking "damn I really really like this tune" but not being able to place where I'd heard it before; when I googled it, I was all, "oh yeah, duh, it's on that Blaming Sally CD!" Now it's in the running for my best singles of 2011 list, and the album's been climbing my album list some, too. Last time I played it, something in its sound was even reminding me of what I liked about Chely Wright's album last year. I don't think it's as good as that -- too precious and wimpy, probably -- but it's growing on me. I need to remember to check out your Scene piece -- feel free to post a link here to jog my memory if you want. (And oh yeah, welcome back, Edd! -- though, to be honest, when it comes to this thread, you haven't missed a whole lot. We've all been almost as absent as you.)

In other country news, Randy Montana's album (my favorite of the year) finally has a solid release date, apparently, in late July. Also heard Eric Church's new one, out around the same time, and so far it's as frustratingly uneven as his other two, but it does seem to have at least a few real corkers. I'm starting to think though that I may overrated both Church's "Homeboy" and Martina McBride's "Teenage Daughters" a bit. And otherwise, I've been trying to figure out whether I like or hate Katie Armiger's hit Taylor Swift imitation, "Best Song Ever."

Also, the country album I've been liking the most, by far, this month, is eye-patched Dick Curless's old trucker-song LP Tombstone Every Mile, which I got sent free in the mail from Metal Mike Saunders, and which Joel Whitburn seems to say country-charted in 1965, though the cover of mine calls it "a Capitol reissue formerly titled Hard, Hard Traveling Man", which title doesn't seem to have ever hit the chart. (The 1998 Razor & Tie CD comp I've got by him, The Drag 'Em Off The Insterstate, Sock It To 'Em Hits, is also really amazing.)

Hey Xhuxk, here's the text of the Blame Sally pick, a shortie. I really think this is close to a great record, and while I quite like the uptempo numbers, and the r&b one that reminds me a little bit of Los Lobos at their best, and the Spanish-language number ditto, I think the "modal" "Appalachian" folkie guitarisms and harmonies are excellent, and to my ears beats a lot of similar stuff Nashville does. Caroline loves it as well but as usual descries some vocal problems the singers are having, but I don't hear that so much.

I really want to write something here about my adventures in Wynetteania and Jonesboro. My feeling is that the Musicor LPs such as If My Heart Had Windows ("The Stranger's Me" and "Between My House and Town" are just amazing), Sings the Songs of Dallas Frazier and I'm a People and Mr. Country and Western Music may have his best singing, but then '70s records like Alone Again and The Battle and I Wanta Sing (the one with a Jones face on the front of a careening tour bus full of whiskey and cocaine and Donald Duck comics) are just ace too, and I perceive no falloff on One Woman Man and Still the Same Ole Me and even '92's Walls Can Fall. And the 1980 Wynette/Jones reunion Together Again strikes me as a really fine record. (The only Wynette LPs I think are substandard are the covers-filled D-I-V-O-R-C-E and maybe a couple from the later '70s, where the production got a bit gloppy. (And from my interviews with Norro Wilson and others who participated in those Sherrill recordings, I believe the intention of those Wynette records was to update '50s pop--which is what Norro, Sherrill and those guys really liked, not country so much--with, as Xgau rightly says, the most soulful female vocalist in country history. But that's another post, I guess).

Anyway, here's the Blame Sally shortie:

The perfection of Blame Sally’s new full-length Speeding Ticket and a Valentine lies in the record’s brilliantly idiosyncratic appropriation of various pop and rock ‘n’ roll idioms. From folk-rock to power-pop, the San Francisco quartet has their own method — their lustrous harmonies and probing piano parts combine with gorgeous acoustic-guitar figures, and these four women write amazing songs. “Living Without You” is a slice of post-Beatles pop that puts you in mind of Matthew Sweet and The Bangles, while “Throw Me a Bone” takes folk-rock into new areas. iSpeeding Ticket is a surprising, funny and quotable record from start to finish: “You might not want to take this melody apart / But I feel changes coming on,” they sing in “Wide Open Spaces.” This is the great folk-pop-rock-country hybrid the world has been seeking, lo these many moons.

as for Those Darlins, I think it's a really good record in many ways. Their manager is a friend of mine, and I heard the record way back late last year as they were homing in on the final mix and track order. So I lived with it a lot before it came out in March. I said this in my Voice review, but I really think they'd benefit from a different (better?) producer; too much goddam echo on the voices, esp. on Kelley's "Boys." The singing falls into my amateur category in some ways, not that I expect studied harmony singing from a garage band. It makes it--I am picky, I know. But I do think "Tina Says" is quite an amazing song and that their hearts are in glam rock. They're really good live, too--a zillion times better than they were back a few years ago.

Doing a lot of shorties these days on quasi-country bands. Here's one that ran briefly in Scene before the show got cancelled, so here it is in its entirety:

[COUNTRY ROCK GRAB-BAG]
CHAMBERLIN
Country rock continues to mutate in fascinating ways, and the Vermont quintet Chamberlin pulls off an intelligent updating of the form on their new full-length release Bitter Blood. Produced by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals guitarist Scott Tournet, Bitter Blood mixes slow, sad country shuffles with ingeniously constructed songs that recall everyone from Van Morrison and The Band to Band of Horses. With Mark Daly's pained, soulful vocals leading the way, Blood amounts to a post-modernist grab-bag of alienation and glorious fatalism--not to mention weird guitar licks and oddball chord changes. The record has a communal vibe: a track such as "Paper Crown" combines its swamp-rock guitar figure with overtones of gospel music, while "Turn Around" examines ennui and finds it wanting. Chamberlin is an ambitious, experimental band for whom the telling musical detail is as important as the content of their songs. 8 p.m. at fooBar EDD HURT

and here's my piece on Emmylou Harris' latest, which I thought was either over- or under-produced, take your pick.

Finally, before I get out of here, I just want to brag a little and say I got to interview Kris Kristofferson recently--the Nashville Film Festival screened the movie Bloodworth, which stars Kristofferson and Val Kilmer and Frances Conroy. (Despite that, it has to be one of the worst films I've ever seen, sub-Lifetime channel coming-of-age crap based on William Gay's sub-Faulknerian novel set in 1950s Tennessee. So bad the film never opened in Nashville, and my piece on Kristofferson and the movie got kilt.) Anyway, I was real impressed by Kristofferson's easy manner and sense of humor, a real regular guy, and I got to ask him about the film Life and Times of Guy Terrifico, the slapstick mockumentary of Gram Parsons I've mentioned here before, as well as his authoring one of my favorite Faron Young songs, "Your Time's Comin'." He remembered writing the Faron Young song but affected memory loss about Terrifico until I prodded him. But there really aren't any KK solo records worth hearing.

Thank you Kung Pao Buckaroonies.

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/2011/07/18/retraining-camp/

Something I wrote about the new Randy Montana and Eric Church albums:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-07-27/music/eric-church-randy-montana/

Thank you YouTube for posting an entire pirated copy of Eric Church's Chief so elegantly for us to hear.

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&source=hp&q=mp3+from+youtube+converter&aq=1&aqi=g5&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=9c6af194b895644e&biw=1024&bih=639

Probably almost iTunes ready.

The Eric Church album is definitely a pleasant surprise. He's damn near insufferable in interviews, and I still find "Homeboy" problematic, but the album is solid.

It's also far better than the albums by Chris Young or Blake Shelton. Shelton, in particular, seems to be coasting on the public goodwill he's built up thanks to his Twitter feed and his gig on The Voice. There have been rumblings that, after "Honey Bee" took off faster than anticipated at radio, his album was rushed for a July release after having initially been slated for September; either way, it's just inert, and most of the songs wouldn't have been any better-written in the fall.

Still just a terrible year for country. At least Taylor Swift released "Sparks Fly" as a proper single, but there's not much else to get on board with.

"Homeboy" is serious crap. Not only for the pandering video but, y'know, the heavy metal crunch guitar -- I know something about this -- no guitars ever sound effective like that live.

I won't record stuff that sounds that way although a number of country artists besides Church seem to like it and it has some ability to impress idiots. I can do without anything that sounds Colt Ford-er-ized.

"Country Music Jesus" uses this same contrived supermetal guitar thing. Wow, it's so ... like ... heavy, especially when mixed with the knee-jerk banjo. Ludicrous.

"Drink In My Hand," "Springsteen," "Like Jesus Does" sound like a human being did them.

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

Revive.

Interesting reads -- the Washington Post has been running a ubiquitous banner ad which, if you click through it -- leads to pages selling made-in-China counterfeit Gibson Les Paul electric guitars.

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/2011/07/29/made-in-china-les-paul-counterfeits/

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/2011/08/01/the-post-wont-do-the-right-thing/

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/2011/08/01/counterfeit-gibson-les-pauls-continued/

Gibson's domestic Les Paul manufacturing is, of course, in Nashville.

ebbjunior, please post (at least an excerpt of) yr kilt KK piece here. I've always much preferred him as an actor (Cisco Pike, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Trouble In Mind for inst), but used to listen to The Silver Tongue Devil and I from early 70s and liked some of that okay, ditto the one where he let young Larry Gatlin sing a track (should've sung 'em all of course). also, paste of a gen, shoutout:
Hey yall, this year's webcast starts 8/13 at 5 Central, so according to this schedule (which could change), looks at the moment like we'll miss for instance Ray Price (who might reasonably expect Willie to guest) and Billy Joe Shaver. Among those prob past the dinner bell, I could live without Jakob Dylan and Jason Mraz. But even if perennials Willie-Neil-Dave-Mellen do the same old thing (maybe Neil will do something from A Treasure, though), worth checking are somewhut cosmic country picker Lukas Nelson, and roots-popster Will Dailey. Here's the lineup:
http://farmaid.blogspot.com/2011/08/farm-aid-2011-schedule.html (all times CST)
and here's some Will Dailey-- the video tagged Craig Ferguson is a fun place to start (no, not a song about Craig Ferguson, which would be a good idea, but anyway a good hot shot and worthy, rare exception to Ferg's no-music format)
http://www.willdailey.com/Music/index.html

and re xpost link to ebbjunior's Emmylou review, here's my Newport Festivus 2011! threadtakes on her Newport set:

I'll catch up with a bunch of downloads etc of these sets later in the week, but back now for Emmylou & band: opening with a Stonesy groove, though milder vocal at the moment on "Six White Cadillacs." Now her cover of Gillian Welch's "I Am An Orphan", with good bass and accordion, drums kicking in.

― dow, Sunday, July 31, 2011 5:18 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

So, Emmylou's mostly killer set, with her versatile Red Dirt Boys (incl Will Kimbrough). A few wishy-washy ballads, but mostly spirited, uptempo or not "Hello Stranger", for isnt) New song for/to Gram Parsons is the most immediately engaging of her originals (that I've heard, anyway, although this version of "Michelangelo" very strong; she's mostly and wisely pitching lower in her range in this set), followed by GP's "Luxury Liner", a gospel quartet, "Sin City", "Wheels", Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight", Steve Earle's "Goodbye" (one of the best on her Wrecking Ball), brought out the Civil Wars for "Evangeline", brought out Pete Seeger, who led us through his and God's hit "Turn Turn Turn" as a shuffle, ditto "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?", with a verse I didn't remember: "Where have all the graveyards gone/Covered with flowers every one/When will they ever learn?" Zing! George Wein: "We stahted this festival in 195? with Pete Seegah, and he's still heah. Come to Newport Jazz next weekend. Thank you." Meanwhile, catch the posted stream/download (get your NPR while you can)

― dow, Sunday, July 31, 2011 7:01 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

one more, on western swing x bop, which we've talked about on prev years of Rolling Country, re Gatemouth Brown, Charlie Parker jamming with Slim Galliard etc, here's guitarist Bruce Formam's band, Cow Bop:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/05/PKC51KG0M6.DTL&type=music

Anybody heard Pistol Annies' upcoming debut album? Miranda Lambert, Angaleena (sic) Presley, Ashley Monroe, whoo-hoo! Brief interview here:
http://tasteofcountry.com/pistol-annies-interview-2011/"> http://tasteofcountry.com/pistol-annies-interview-2011/

Dunno what happened with that. Click the second posting of the link.

Pistol Annies album is really good. Surprised there's not more talk about it here. I wish it *sounded* a *little* messier, but the songwriting is really strong beginning to end -- colorful without being cartoonish.

Trying to decide whether to get the full albums from Ashton Shepherd and Sunny Sweeney. Do they hold-up beyond the singles?

I'm wondering too. On a different subject here's Caramanica's NY Times article on Luke Bryan and some other country guys not wearing cowboy hats and what that means

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/arts/music/in-nashville-luke-bryan-and-others-forgo-cowboy-hats.html?pagewanted=all&smid=fb-share

Hmmm, mulling over the fact that male country artists are strong-looking milchtoasts. Not the most daring observation.

And class rage to boot. “Bossman can shove that overtime up his can,” Mr. Church sings on “Drink in My Hand,” his tart sneer in overdrive. “I got a 40-hour-week worth of trouble to drown.”

Only a true tough guy could come up with that in 2011. Actually, it'd be more honest to sing about how you're stuffing all your frustration up cuz you can't afford to be fired in the new labor market knowing it's a fifty/fifty prospect, or worse, that you'll never work for the same miserable pay again.

In the context of contemporary Nashville, this qualifies as extreme bravery

Where have Mr. Adkins’s country bona fides gone? Here, at least, they’re buried in the bonus tracks: “Semper Fi,” a choked-up Marines love song, and “More of Us,” which, by the time you read this, may already have been adopted by Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential campaign. “Don’t you think we’ve taken enough of all this giving in?” Mr. Adkins says, surlier than ever. “It’s about time for pushing back.”

One assumes the record was finished before someone could write a song about Seal Team Six, too.
I'd think the New York Times could afford to be a little more assertive on country music's increasingly delusional status as everyman patriotic wallpaper.

<img src=http://www.dickdestiny.com/texaspsychopaths.JPG />

I'll prob take a chance on Sunny Sweeney again, given the first album (uneven but def worth checking: the young and the restless in Bumfuck TX) and "From A Table Away"(so calmly devastated--her heart is composed and decomposed).

The Pistol Annies album is great. One of my favorites of the year.

The new Sunny Sweeney isn't bad at all - it definitely starts out strong. If you merged her debut and "Concrete" you could create one hell of an album.

She does have one song in which she advises a friend, Amy, that her husband would be loyal if she only treated him right. Seems he's been sleeping with Sunny. I eagerly await Sunny's next album where we hear about her being sent to Fist City.