Rolling Country 2009 Thread

I think the Eric Church and Chris Young were pushed back from 08.

I Got Your Country Right Here Gretchen Wilson Columbia TBA

I wonder if she'll try anything different this time out.

Anybody interested in more corner cowboys singing r&b, could check what I wrote about Dallas Frazier on RC 2008 (m'mm-m'mm: New Year's Day, with no hoppin' john or hawg jowl, but pork chops, turnip greens, blackeyed peas, cornbread suffice nice)

Raul Malo: ex-Maverick sings consistently mediocre material in consistently excellent voice; dabbles in unfashionable genres.

My advance copy of Lucky One his first cd of new self-penned material in years is not great despite his fine voice. But live I think he is still worth seeing as I like the covers, the old Mavericks songs he does, and his between song chatter is always entertaining.

Here it is--the infamous No Depression critic's poll top 40

1. Alejandro Escovedo, Real Animal (Back Porch/Manhattan) -- 88 -- 14
2. Hayes Carll, Trouble In Mind (Lost Highway) -- 44 -- 6
3. Drive-By Truckers, Brighter Than Creation's Dark (New West) -- 43.5 -- 8
4. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges (ATO) -- 39 -- 5
5. Ben Sollee, Learning To Bend (self) -- 37.5 -- 5
6. Lucinda Williams, Little Honey (Lost Highway) -- 37 -- 7
7. Shelby Lynne, Just A Little Lovin' (Lost Highway) -- 37 -- 6
8. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! (Anti-) -- 37 -- 6
9. Randy Newman, Harps And Angels (Nonesuch) -- 36 -- 6
10. Kathleen Edwards, Asking For Flowers (Zoe/Rounder) -- 35 -- 6
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11. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar) -- 33 -- 5
12. Santogold, self-titled (Downtown) -- 33 -- 5
13. SteelDrivers, self-titled (Rounder) -- 29 -- 5
14. Hold Steady, Stay Positive (Vagrant) -- 28.5 -- 7
15. Glen Campbell, Meet Glen Campbell (Capitol) -- 28 -- 5
16. Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet, self-titled (Nettwerk) -- 28 -- 4
17. Jamey Johnson, That Lonesome Song (Mercury Nashville) -- 27 -- 4
18. Old 97's, Blame It On Gravity (New West) -- 27 -- 4
19. Bob Dylan, Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 (Columbia) -- 26 -- 3
20. Basia Bulat, Oh, My Darling (Rough Trade) -- 25 -- 3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21. Fleet Foxes, self-titled (Sub Pop) -- 24 -- 3
22. Calexico, Carried To Dust (Quarterstick) -- 23 -- 3
23. Various, Como Now: The Voices Of Panola Co., Miss. (Daptone) -- 22 -- 3
24. R.E.M., Accelerate (Warner Bros.) -- 21 -- 4
25. Justin Townes Earle, The Good Life (Bloodshot) -- 21 -- 3
26. Tift Merritt, Another Country (Fantasy) -- 20 -- 3
27. Teddy Thompson, A Piece Of What You Need (Verve Forecast) -- 18.5 -- 3
28. Gary Louris, Vagabonds (Ryko) -- 17 -- 3
29. Caroline Herring, Lantana (Signature Sounds) -- 16.5 -- 2
30. TV On The Radio, Dear Science (DGC/Interscope) -- 16 -- 3
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31. Raconteurs, Consolers Of The Lonely (Warner Bros.) -- 16 -- 4
32. Felice Brothers, self-titled (Team Love) -- 16 -- 3
33. Ani DiFranco, Red Letter Year (Righteous Babe) -- 16 -- 2
34. Buika, Nina De Fuego (Warner International) -- 15 -- 2
35. B.B. King, One Kind Favor (Geffen) -- 14 -- 3
36. Jolie Holland, The Living And The Dead (Anti-) -- 14 -- 2
37. She & Him, Volume One (Merge) -- 13 -- 4
38. Michael Franti & Spearhead, All Rebel Rockers (Anti-) -- 13 -- 3
39. Giant Sand, Provisions (Yep Roc) -- 13 -- 2
40. Raphael Saadiq, Sure Hope You Mean It (Columbia) -- 12 -- 4

Looks...pretty much like a shuffled version of every other critics' poll I've seen, especially once you get past that rootsy Top 10. Except with Ani Difranco instead of Lil Wayne, I guess. (Okay, there are some things I never heard of before on there -- Buika, for instance. And Glen Campbell's disappointing comeback album did way better than I would have predicted. But really, this isn't all that far from, say, the poll at Paste or somewhere like that, right? And a lot of it just supports my longstanding alt-country = indie-rock theory.)

xp I like Malo's version of Charlie Rich's "Life Has Its Little Ups and Downs" on that (otherwise fairly useless) Don Imus compilation last year. So maybe the biggest problem with the new album is that he's just better off not doing his own material? (How much did he write with the Mavericks? I should check my best-of CD, I guess. And how good were his last couple covers albums, which I never heard?) Given all the good songwriters in country who are mediocre singers, it shouldn't be hard for an (apparently) mediocre songwriter who's a good singer to find songs, I wouldn't think. If Gary Allen can cover Todd Snider, or Toby Keith (actually a really good songwriter himself, but still) can cover Fred Eaglesmith and Paul Thorn, a lack of memorable material really shouldn't be Malo's problem.

Another listen to that '83 Ronnie McDowell album this morning; turns out two of the less fun songs remind me of Kenny Rogers's '79 "You Decorated My Life" (partly in how Ronnie stretches out his "yooouuuuu"'s.) Again, probably not a surprise, since Rogers's singing style probably had a certain light r&b-ballad influence of its own (as I expect Lionel Richie, for one, would agree.)

Wait, looking again at that No Depression list, I have a BIG question -- Where the fuck is James McMurtry?? Didn't he, like win the poll a couple years ago? That's really strange; is there a backlash I didn't know about, maybe because he sold out by going '80s AOR or something? (Also strange that Chris Knight and Old Crow Medicine Show don't seem to making any of these alt-country-leaning lists. What's up with that? I wouold think they'd fit right in, and they both made better albums that Hayes Carrl's to my ears.) (Alejando Esovedo's perch atop that ND list is cute too; it's not a bad record, but it's a lot cornier and spottier than people seem to give it credit for. But he was ND's artist of the '90s, right? Nobody can say the people there aren't loyal.) (Well, except in McMurty's case, anyway. And to be fair, that one this year was the best Escovedo album I've ever heard.)

Also nice to see Jamey Johnson as the token Nashville pick, obviously.

By the way, while we're still speaking of '08 lists, Curmudgeon, did you see my explanation on the '08 thread about why Toby's best-of didn't make my Top 10? Did that make sense, or do you think my rationale is full of baloney? Curious...

And speaking of alt-country, I should mention here that, though they've never grabbed me at all before (maybe because I never really tried), I don't hate all of the new (out Jan 5) album by the Gourds, Haymaker. They seem okay when they pick up the tempo and beat a little, like in "Tex-Mex Mile" and the sort of rockabilly "Fossil Contender." But mostly I just can't take the flat singing and lack of energy, even if there are hints of smart songwriting, like for instance in "Valentine," which seems to be trying to be some kind of slow '50s sock-hop stroll, maybe.

Also. Here is me almost exactly a year ago, on Rolling Country '08:

thanks to Miley Cyrus and HorrorPops et. al., rockabilly suddenly may be starting to feel current again. Which seems to happen every 20 or 30 years or so, I guess.

― xhuxk, Monday, 7 January 2008 01:27

Didn't take me long to decide that was a foolish prediction, at least in part because the (not really all [that rockabilly anyway) HorrorPops album didn't really hold up for me. But then I saw this this morning, on another thread about acts who the British press is predicting might become hot new pop stars there this year:

Let's start with the Mail. Why? Well, they would appear to have only tipped the one artist (and you have to dig about on their website a lot to find this out), which means we can knock them off the quickest.

And that tip is... IMELDA MAY! She's a rockabilly artist from Dublin who's already been on Later, where Jeff Beck said he liked her. Songs on her MySpace include "Johnny Got A Boom Boom", "Big Bad Handsome Man", "Don't Do Me No Wrong", "Cry For Me Baby" and "Falling In Love With You Again":

Best of all, she's signed to UCJ, the same label as The Priests, The Fron Male Voice Choir and Thingy Out Of G4. So she'll be in the album chart at some point early this year, say number seven-ish, then proceed to hang about til June or so.

― William Bloody Swygart, Friday, 2 January 2009

Imelda May's Myspace claims that Kirsty MacColl was a fan, which considering she's been dead nearly a decade, would perhaps imply that May's lying about her age.

― Keep Carmody and Carry On (The stickman from the hilarious 'xkcd' comics), Friday, 2 January 2009 10:59

Rolling UK Pop/Chart/"Few people would dispute that Elbow have given us the album of the year" Thread 2009

A pretty decent amount of decent-and-better stuff on that No Dep Top 40, although (except for the track I tagged as disco Eagles) no way is Evil Urges countryoid at all! But it's decent, and occasionally better. Good to see they agreed with me about Truckers, Steeldrivers, Jamey Johnson, and (if I'd ever heard more than the uneven but sometimes inspired live broadcast) I might well agree with them about Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet, especially the stuff she learned while living in China, and applied to her (and their)Armericana. I dunno about Malo, being a country singer starting out in Miami might've made him bold in some ways, too cautious in others...?

Oh yeah,and Felice Brothers made in there too!

Xgau CG (this link will only last a month, but I'm not sure how else to do it now): Taylor Swift A-; Darius Rucker, Randy Travis, Ashton Shepherd honorable mentions; Sugarland, Kellie Pickler (!) choice cuts; Jamey Johnson, Blake Shelton, George Strait duds. (Plus lotsa blues, looks like):

http://music.msn.com/music/consumerguide/

A pretty decent amount of decent-and-better stuff on that No Dep Top 40, although (except for the track I tagged as disco Eagles) no way is Evil Urges countryoid at all!

I like Evil Urges a lot, it's one of my favorite albums of 2008, and I can't even begin to imagine it as country music. It's their least country album, and they've never been very country.

fwiw, No Depression finishers I never even heard of til now (though Don mentioned two of them a couple posts ago). (How country are these?)

5. Ben Sollee, Learning To Bend (self) -- 37.5 -- 5
16. Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet, self-titled (Nettwerk) -- 28 -- 4
20. Basia Bulat, Oh, My Darling (Rough Trade) -- 25 -- 3
23. Various, Como Now: The Voices Of Panola Co., Miss. (Daptone) -- 22 -- 3
28. Gary Louris, Vagabonds (Ryko) -- 17 -- 3
29. Caroline Herring, Lantana (Signature Sounds) -- 16.5 -- 2
32. Felice Brothers, self-titled (Team Love) -- 16 -- 3
34. Buika, Nina De Fuego (Warner International) -- 15 -- 2

I assume the Daptone comp is retro-soul, right? No idea about the others.

By the way, while we're still speaking of '08 lists, Curmudgeon, did you see my explanation on the '08 thread about why Toby's best-of didn't make my Top 10? Did that make sense, or do you think my rationale is full of baloney? Curious...

― xhuxk, Friday, January 2, 2009 10:02 PM (Yesterday)

The explanation made sense in some way for you personally, but if someone did not have any Toby Keith or any Rick Springfield cds, and they only had the money to buy 1 cd, are you saying you'd recommend that they get the '08 new Springfield over the '08 new Toby best-of?

Also as someone else said, I'm not sure how you can discern slight differences among 150 cds as you do. How is number 144 better than 148 and worse than 139?

Buika is of Equatorial Guinea descent but grew up in Spain among gypsies. Her cd was popular with European world music fans and djs. She sounds like Nina Simone singing Spanish ballads inspired by Brazilan bossa nova and Portuguese fado. I like her but others might dismiss her as too staid.

As for Malo, I think he co-wrote a lot with the Mavericks. I like the songs online I've heard from his various covers cd, but his first solo cd seems the most varied (and more latin-sounding). That's my quick opinion based on online listening, I don't have all the solo efforts. He seems to have gotten in a rut when left alone to either write songs himself or select songs by others himself--he's got his supper club ballads, his certain old genres of country, etc. With the Mavericks he seemed (possibly with the help of his cowriters) to have more of a pop aspect. When I see him live I manage to just go with the flow and appreciate his singing, and his enjoyable between song chatter. Plus while he does a long show, its varied enough among all his genres to provide balance.

28. Gary Louris, Vagabonds (Ryko) -- 17 -- 3

Gary Louris was in the Jayhawks. I only heard this solo album once but i wasnt too impressed, him trying to sing beyond the limits of his voice. Not very country, more in a sheryl crow/tom petty direction, but maybe not even that. Produced by the dude from the black crowes i believe.

20. Basia Bulat, Oh, My Darling (Rough Trade) -- 25 -- 3

Basia Bulat is a Canadian indie-pop/folk singer with a pretty voice, lightweight songs. Not country at all as I remember it.

That No Depression list is kind of puzzling: TV on the Radio, Fleet Foxes and the Hold Steady? I heard plenty of stuff this year that would make perfect sense on that list: D. Charles Speer, psychedelic country rock; Black Twig Pickers, Appalachian folk/old time; Jack Rose, instrumental country-folk/ragtime; Moondoggies, roots/country rock; Coydogs, power pop with a dash of Crazy Horse twang; Charlie Parr, country folk/blues...

made sense in some way for you personally, but if someone did not have any Toby Keith or any Rick Springfield cds, and they only had the money to buy 1 cd, are you saying you'd recommend that they get the '08 new Springfield over the '08 new Toby best-of?

Um...Sure, if the Springfield CD interests them more. There's tons of information available, Curmudgeon (including my own reviews I linked to); I seriously doubt that anybody out there is just starting at the top of my list, and buying each album from 1 to 150 when they have enough money saved up. If they are, they're obviously nuts. But I'm not really sure anyody should be using my lists as a buying guide to begin with, to be honest -- One of my favorite reviews of Stairway To Hell called it "one of the best and most useless record guides ever written" or something like that, which is totally fine with me. And I seriously doubt that anybody would argue that a repackaged Beatles or Elvis collection with all the hits in a whole new order should finish first in Pazz & Jop in every year such an album is released, just because there's people out there who might not own any Beatles or Elvis records. As for my explanation making sense "personally," I've never seen a Top 10 list that wasn't personal. Not that I can remember.

as someone else said, I'm not sure how you can discern slight differences among 150 cds as you do. How is number 144 better than 148 and worse than 139?

How is anybody's number 3 better than their number 7? Basically, at the moment I was making the list, given the choice, after months of in-depth research, #139 (Zac Brown Band) seemed more likely to be a rewarding listen than #144 (Cool Kids), which in turn seemed more likely to be a rewarding listen than #148 (Left Lane Cruiser.) (Last year, when sending my top 150 into Idolator, I added "the caveat that I will totally disagree with this list five minutes after I send it." But this year, the metric was made significantly more subjective and precise, and my job was made far easier, by a fine-tuned which-album-is-better calibrating device I got for Christmas. I'm pretty sure it's still classified Top Secret.) Honestly, though, I know some people think making a list this long is "perverse" (I'd just say it's "fun," but they're entitled to their opinion), but I'm just acting in the tradition of Xgau's Dean's Lists and the year-by-year lists at the back of Dave Marsh's Book of Rock Lists and the year-end 100-plus list Thurston Moore did in the middle of his fanzine Killer once in the mid '80s. And I really don't get why more critics don't make lists this long. The main fact of music in the '90s is that there's lots and lots and lots of it, which by definition means lots of it is good, and finding the good stuff makes like worthwhile. And if it takes a 150-album list for somebody out there to hear out about Mechanical Bull or the Reds or Frozen Bears or Killola or Prima J -- and consider that they might actually be more worth checking out than say TV on The Fucking Radio, which they all are -- that seems to me like a good thing.

(Oh wait, it's the '00s now, not the '90s, isn't it? Oops. Well, never mind.)

By the way, I checked my Mavericks best-of CD, and it didn't seem to have songwriting credits. Though I suspect they're out there somewhere.

(And I meant "significantly more precise and objective", obviously.) (Except I didn't really.) (And all that good music helps make life worthwhile. Or at least halfway bearable at times.)

That No Depression list also skimps on the bluegrass. Many quality releases this year, including Chatham County Line IV. Plus, banjoist Ralph White, formerly of the Bad Livers, released a great vinyl-only title on the Spirit of Orr imprint. Now that's pretty darn alternative.

That No Depression list is kind of puzzling: TV on the Radio, Fleet Foxes and the Hold Steady?

Yeah--a few years ago they had Kanye West on their list, but this year seems very indie rock weighted. And they don't stick to just American music either. (Though I guess Nick Cave's stuff has at times been Americana.) Like Chuck said, there's a lot of overlap with Paste's list. I guess the voters are just submitting their generic top 10s rather than their Alt-Country/Americana top 10s. Though I guess that folky, singer/songwritery stuff like Bon Iver and She & Him is close enough. In the past, I would have expected to see stuff like Charlie Louvin's new CD (maybe too recent) on the list.

Quite a few of those blog favorites-- Kasey Chambers, Lee Ann Womack, Joey + Rory-- didn't make their list either. I'm also surprised John Hiatt didn't make it.

Has the staff (and/or electorate) (or coverage, for that matter) changed significantly since ND went web-only? I haven't been watching closely myself, but if so, maybe that's where the differences come from...

concha buika's alright, took a date to see her at gwu a couple of years back, i don't regularly listen though. i think she might be making it in the latin american markets as well now if she hasn't been already, she was on some big award show recently.

Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet, especially the stuff she learned while living in China

i started an abigail washburn thread last year, which obv. went nowhere. i like the album pretty well. i'm not a big bela fleck fan, so this is at least my favorite thing he's been involved in. like i said there, "seems like it might appeal to art-folkies, joanna newsom fans, i don't know." to answer the "how country" question, in other words, not very.

Has the staff (and/or electorate) (or coverage, for that matter) changed significantly since ND went web-only?

not really. and it's not actually web-only; they're doing two book-like publications a year, in partnership with the university of texas. (i have a thing on dock boggs' banjo in the next one.) but as for the oddities of the ND list, it's not like no depression ever has had very firm lines about what is or isn't ND material. otoh, i have never submitted a ballot in the poll despite writing for them for years, because my favorite 10 things of any given year are just mostly so far outside the purview that it would seem silly, and i rarely have 10 things i like enough within the purview to justify a ballot. (i did vote in the "best records of the last 10 years" thing, because i only had to come up with 20 things from 10 years, which was easy.)

(but the video clip i linked there in the abigail washburn thread is worth a look, it's pretty cool.)

Re: upthread discussion of describing a country singer as a traditionalist and wondering what that means-

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postrock/2008/12/best_of_2008_ashton_shepherd.html#more
Ashton Shepherd Wash. Post blog interview by J. F. Dulac

Was there ever any question that you'd make a traditional-sounding album? That's not exactly the easiest sell these days.

It was always just gonna be what it is. I remember when we first started, me and [producer Buddy Cannon] were starting to get to know each other. I remember talkin' to him one day and I was telling him the different music that I love. I said, "Buddy, I love John Anderson's music. I love that sound, with the fiddles driving a lot of his songs." And I gave a couple of other examples of real country music that I like.

I was a little afraid then because I didn't really know Buddy. I knew a little of his history of course and just how legendary he is. But I didn't know what he was going to want to do with my songs. Producin', that's not what I do. I'm just a singer-songwriter. I forget how he said it exactly, but he said: "Ashton, you're country, and I am too. And that's the record we're gonna make." When I got off the phone, I felt like: Gosh, he gets it. He gets what I do. He was sayin': "We're both fans of real country music, and that's what we're going to go in the studio to make."

I haven't listened to the record in a long time. I've kept away from it so I could start to listen through it again at the end of this year and start to think about a third single for radio and everythin'. I forget how traditional it sounds in so many ways. It's still kind of contemporary compared to old country music. But when you listen to it after listenin' to the radio a lot, you go: Wow, this is pretty country! (Laughs.)

You know, I've always been a huge country music fan. In school, I went a little south or whatever you want to call it and listened to a little rap and a little rock because all of my friends did it. They weren't really country music fans. When I was in high school and grade school, whoever Hannah Montana was back then, that's who everybody loved. But I was listening to Clint Black and Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson and Patty Loveless on country music radio.

In school, I went a little south or whatever you want to call it and listened to a little rap and a little rock because all of my friends did it.

Ha ha:

There was a lot of pre-release hype about her being the return of Trad Country has been waiting for--based mostly on her debut at the GO Opry where some old timer was quoted saying "This girl has never heard a pop song in her life" (Yeah right.)

― President Keyes, Monday, 22 December 2008

Jane Dark, in his

http://janedark.com/2009/01/top_40_coundown_2008.html

Meant to copy this, from Jane/Joshua:

mutations within hip-hop proper are massive and astonishing and nothing compared to the mutations within r’n’b, soul, rock, teenpop et al to adapt themselves so they could breathe in hip-hop’s atmosphere. What mostly retained its own genealogy was, clearly enough, country, which continued somehow not to be “pop music” (perhaps for this very reason). As a result, much of what had come to characterize rock had no choice but to flee into country, not the least of which would be the guitar solo, the long melody line, the sing along chorus, ripped jeans, and the narrative of starting a band. Country hasn’t become rock, as some like to say by way of explaining to themselves why they are willing to discuss country now; it has absorbed that part of rock that hip-hop didn’t.

I'm not sure what "some" he's referring too in that least sentence, though.

Criticisms of recent Jane/Joshua postings here

rolling 2009 thread for when critics write something that makes you go o_O

More thoughtful and coherent and less mean-spirited criticisms of recent Jane/Joshua postings (uh, not to mention "Is it really possibly to love 150 albums that came out in a single year?") here:

http://blissout.blogspot.com/2009/01/lists-lists-lists-so-many-lists.html

Except, of course, I never claimed to "love" 150 albums. Like, more like. With increasing reservations as the list progresses, obviously. (And who knows, 30 years ago, this year's #1 Jamey Johnson may well not have made my top 50. But I haven't done that math yet.) Still curious which albums on my list Simon thinks are "Nu-Nu-Country" (okay, lots of them, probably) or "Oughties Oi" (Rose Tattoo? Eddy Current Suppression Ring? Jay Reatard? Thing is, a couple years ago, a real Oughites Oi album by Hard Skin made my Top 10, and I didn't hear any like that this year) or "Post-Neo-Freestyle" (Prima J, I guess?) Not to mention which groups he thought I made up. Which would be funny.

QuantumNoise, I haven't heard Chatham County Line IV--they're back with Stamey? The second album produced by him seemed to choke a little, but the first was great, so this one is too, eh? I'll def have to check it out. I'd like to thing anybody could dig them as a song band, aside from any bluegrass interest (ditto this year's Steeldrivers debut).Here's my take on them, in '06:
http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/both_sides_of_the_line/content?oid=40857
Tipsy, the Washburn and Sparrow broadcast I heard can prob still be found in the Woodsongs archive (and they always have Webcast video of each show as well) Xhux, here's what I mentioned about Felice Bros, in the Scene ballot posted on RC 2008:

Felice Brothers suggest baggy-pants carnies trailing Wild & Innocent-era Springsteen and backroads-backing-band to-stardom The Band, only at the other end of the Album Era. The tide’s gone out, mebbe never to return, so, in the classic manner, they treat records as promotional devices and calling cards, as 20th Century labels strongly urged most artists to do. On the merry-go-round, going to get their ashes hauled. Too darn cute for me sometimes, but it’s not me they’re looking for, babe (though if I buy a ticket they’ll punch it). The men might know, but the little girls understand.

Hilarious Wikipeida entry for an Uncle Dave Macon song I came across while searching a piece on music from the Great Depression a few weeks ago. (Second graph, unfortunately, has since been removed.)

The "Wreck of the Tennessee Gravy Train" is a folk song about politicians and bank failures. It is based on a true incident in Tennessee in 1930. After a scandal involving awarding contracts without bids, Henry Horton was re-elected governor of Tennessee. The Caldwell Company Bank collapsed soon afterward, leaving the state 6 million dollars in debt. An impeachment attempt against Horton was unsuccessful, but he did not run for an additional term. The affair also ruined the career of Senator Luke Lea

The train wreck of the gravy train was a historical event. All of the gravy flew on the residents in tennessee. They sued the gravy train because gravy was stuck in their hair and they couldn't wash it out for a long time. The gravy train never ran again. There still is a mess in tennessee and you can see where gravy spread on the houses of the residents. This historical event happened on December 12, 1998. twelve million people died because of this mess and twenty two people were injured badly by the gravy. Firemen were attacked too by the angered residents.

"twelve million people died because of this mess"? yo Wiki!

Yeah, that was great -- 12,000,000 dead; 22 badly injured.

Just found out that these are viewable on line (though you have to click on them to make them large enough to read) -- Some "Essentials" columns I've written in recent months for *Spin* (8 albums each):

Outlaw Country

http://digital.spin.com/spin/200812/?pg=108

Boogie Rock

http://digital.spin.com/spin/200811/?pg=106

Yacht Rock

http://digital.spin.com/spin/200901/?pg=92

I'll check those out, when I get time again on the good computer (with broadband). Speaking of Stamey, as I did above, this thing he's doing with Holsapple is for a good cause, and some collectors of 45s have told me this seems like a good series, so far.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Pop/Rock Legends Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey to Give Free Concert at Euclid Records As Part of 45 RPM Charity Series

ST. LOUIS: Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey, two founding members of the much beloved 80s pop/rock band the dB's, will be making their first St. Louis appearance together since 1991 at 1 pm Sunday, Feb. 1. What better way to kick off Super Bowl Sunday than a live performance by the masterminds behind such should-have-been monster smash hits as "Ask For Jill," "Amplifier," "Living a Lie" and "I Want to Break Your Heart"?
Stamey and Holsapple formed the dB's in the late 1970s, and released two classic albums, "Stands For Decibels" and "Repercussion" with the original line-up before Stamey left the band behind for a solo career. Holsapple soldiered on for two more dB's albums. In 1991, the pair reunited for an album, "Mavericks," which led to their one and only St. Louis appearance together at Mississippi Nights. In the 90s, Holsapple was a member of the acclaimed Continental Drifters, and in recent years, the dB's have been working on a reunion album in between other gigs. Holsapple also writes his own blog, "Does This Band Make Me Look Fat" (www.halfpearblog.blogspot.com) and contributes to the New York Times exceptional music blog, "Measure For Measure." Stamey has released several solo albums, and produced work by Whiskeytown and Alejandro Escovedo among others.
This will be the fourth in a series of live in-store performances to be followed up by the release of limited-edition 45 rpm singles recorded in the store. Each release will be strictly limited to 300 copies, and $1 for each one pressed will be donated to the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund (NOMRF) to benefit musicians displaced or suffering loss of equipment in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The performance will be recorded live, and Holsapple and Stamey will choose one or two songs to be released on the 7" single.
Euclid Records has just launched a website devoted to the series:
www.euclidsessions.com. Here you can find out about upcoming in-store events, read up on past events, subscribe to the series or order/pre-order upcoming 45's.
Each release will be in a special package with the back sleeve designed by Firecracker Press, a terrific graphic and letterpress printshop here in St. Louis. Each front cover will be a unique 7 x 7" print, signed and numbered by various graphic artists such as Gary Houston, Guy Burwell, and more, suitable for framing or keeping as a front cover to each single.
The 45s will be sold exclusively through the websites of Euclid Records (www.euclidrecords.com) and NOMRF (www.nomrf.org). Pricing will vary, as individual packages will each contain unique elements such as colored vinyl, etched vinyl, or other possibilities.
Euclid Records
St. Louis,MO
www.euclidrecords.com

9513's (well, somebody named Brady Vercher's) overlooked country albums of 2008. I liked a couple songs on the Steve Azar one and the (tragic) Hacienda Brothers one; don't know any of the rest:

http://www.the9513.com/overlooked-albums-of-2008/

Been listening to the new (due 1-27) Pat Green CD -- just ten songs (which is probably enough), produced by Dan Huff. Seems...okay so far. A couple songs have real possibilities, notably a semi-rocker called "Lucky," which is confusing since Green's 2004 album was called Lucky Ones. One clue for what they're going for might be in the AP quote on the top of the press release: "Heartland rock leanings, with strains of Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and John Mellencamp." The only time the word "country" is even mentioned on the press bio is in the title of the "tongue-and-cheek" (sic) song "Country Star." Not sure whether that means they're going for a different audience now, or not.

Also, album title is What I'm For, so I hope subsequent listens will give me an idea of what Pat is for. Maybe even what he's against. Though I'm not really counting on either being especially interesting, even in Springsteen/Mellencamp way.

So, a day later, and a couple more listens into What I'm For and especially its title track, here are a few things that Pat Green says he is for: Laid-off factory workers (though presumably not them being laid off), giving ex-cons a second chance, inner-city teachers who don't give up, the wisdom of old men, getting out of debt, beat-up pawn shop guitars, crackers in his chili. Not exactly going out on many major limbs there, obviously, but I still like the list, and am gratified that he saw fit to acknowledge urban America in a positive way. And it's a postivity song, in general: If you know what he's for, he says, you don't have to ask what he's against. A sign of the post-election times, I'm guessing, and a bid to fill the Born In the USA/Scarecrow recession-rock void (though I bet Bruce's imminent album will go for the gold in that department as well.) The parts where he lists good people with good jobs also remind me a lot of Alabama's "40 Hour Week (For a Livin')", populist Cougaresque country from 1985 (early Farm Aid era.)

And then Pat goes immediately into a song called "Feeling Good Tonight"; haven't paid attention to the words, but the guitars start pretty blatantly at "What's So Funny (Bout Peace Love and Understanding)" (Costello cover of Brinsley Schwarz), then switch toward Mellencamp's "Small Town" for most of the rest of the song (and tracing the sound way back, there's probably some McGuinn and some Townshend in there.) Rest of the album seems to have a decent portion of expansive, nuanced rock on it, sometimes moody. Sounds real good so far.

Wanted to like the new album by Saffire The Uppity Blues Women (who always look like cool biracial lesbian golden girls with grandma-punk haircuts on their CD covers) more than the new album by the Nighthawks, but nope, the latter has two okay Dylan covers and an okay Chuck Berry rip ("Jana Lea") (plus a pointless cover of the theme from The Wire, but what the heck) whereas the latter has 20+ songs that are real hard to sit through plus the usual blandification production that, I swear, has pulled down just about every blues CD I've heard on Alligator Records for the past few years. So Nighthawks win. Not that I'm recommending their album or anything. (Apparently they have about 20. I've never heard one I wanted to keep, but I haven't heard that many, so I wouldn't put it past them. Wouldn't put it past Saffire the Uppities either)

(I mean the former -- Saffire -- has 20+ etc.)

Eight best songs on Jamie O'Neal's Shiver (Mercury, 2000), which I bought for $1.00 last year:

1. "There Is No Arizona" -- the hit!
2. "Frantic" -- bluegassy bubble-rap!
3. "No More Protecting My Heart" -- super boppy pop!
13. "To Be With You" -- hot spacey Spanish-guitar sex fantasy!
8. "The Only Thing Wrong" -- suburban working-woman blues!
9. "I'm Still Waiting" -- big booming AC ballad!
11. "Sanctuary"
1. "When I Think About Angels"

(Oops, I swtiched from numbers-of-preference to CD track numbers three songs in. Should be 1 through 8! Also, I probably should have stopped at five or six.)

Five best songs on Joe Dee Messina's self-titled album (Curb, 1996), which also cost me $1 last year:

1. "Heads California, Tails Carolina"
2. "You're Not In Kansas Anymore"
3. "Walk To The Light"
4. "He'd Never Seen July Cry"
5. Lots of songs tied for fifth place

(Oops, heads and tails were the other way around for those two "C" states. And the coin was a quarter. And the Kansas song might be even better - It's close, and they're both totally great.)

Also, judging from both of those albums, I really like country women who sing songs about states.

(FIVE states among the three best songs, total, if you count both North and South Carolina separately.)

Chely Wright Let Me In (MCA, 1997), also $1 last year I think, not as good as aforementioned O'Neal or Messina albums, plus there's no track nearly as excellent as Chely's '99 "Single White Female" on it, so marginal overall, but I kind of like "Shut Up And Drive" (Drifters rhythm under girl talking to self, maybe or maybe not as good as Rhianna's song of the same name); "Emma Jean's Guitar" (a '50 Gibson which Pat Green would like since it came from a pawn shop); "Feelin Single And Seein' Double" (cover of rockabilly tune that I know as being George Jones's, though apparently Emmylou has done it too, not sure whose is more famous.)

9513's ridiculous list of the top 50 best country songs of 2008:

http://www.the9513.com/the-best-country-songs-of-2008/

Yes.

Judging from Frank's comments, I probably used his all-albums-are-EPs rule on my Nashville Scene list more than he did this year.

Jon Caramanica put Justin Moore's debut album in his '09 top 10 in the NY Times. That's the guy who did the country back-that-thing-up song (with country back-that-azz-up video) last year, if nobody remembers. The single or two by him I heard since went in one ear and out the other, but I'm curious now if anybody else heard the album. (I didn't.)

Caramanica's writeup:

9. JUSTIN MOORE (The Valory Music Company) Modest but by no means dull, the debut album by the Arkansas country singer Justin Moore has traditionalist bones holding together bursts of wry cowboy humor and eyebrow-raising salaciousness. Mr. Moore isn’t winking while playing to type; rather he realizes that there were always winks to begin with, and everyone else has forgotten.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/arts/music/20caramanica.html

He also calls San Fran indie band Girls' album "country rock," which makes no sense judging from the song or two I've heard (neither did the comparisons people make to Elvis Costello and Graham Parker), but maybe it still excuses linking to the Singles Jukebox review of "Laura" here:

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1506

He also calls San Fran indie band Girls' album "country rock," which makes no sense judging from the song or two I've heard (neither did the comparisons people make to Elvis Costello and Graham Parker), but maybe it still excuses linking to the Singles Jukebox review of "Laura" here

I like that band a lot, and I like country music a lot, and I hear no connection. For what it's worh I hear no Costello or Parker in them either. It's more dream-pop/JAMC/shoegaze from people who also listen to a lot of '50s vocal pop, teen idol ballads, Beach Boys, etc

A poll:

2009 country #1's

On which thread an interesting question is raised:

is the co-ed country band (sugarland, lady antebellum) a relatively new phenomenon? i'm trying to think of precedents. i guess it's an outgrowth of the long history of duets, but in terms of an act that has both men and women i can't think of many.

― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 22 December 2009 20:23

xp Well, Trick Pony was one. And now there's also Little Big Town, and Gloriana, and Jypsi. (Probably plenty of others, if I give it a little more thought.) But yeah, there do seem to be more out there lately.

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 22 December 2009 20:30

And actually, obviously, the co-ed country band is a tradition dating back to the Carter Family, and there have definitely been family acts in recent decades (for instance, The Whites). Curious whether anybody else has opinions on whether it's a legit trend or not now in Nashville.

I finally tracked down a copy of Bobbie Cryner today in a second-hand store, an album I haven't heard in 15 years. Holy...if there was a better trad country record made in the 90s, I'm unaware of it. "He Feels Guilty" and "I Think It's Over Now" are devastating, and the Buck Owens cover with Dwight beats the original.

I've never heard it, but Xgau was a big fan:

http://robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=bobbie+cryner

Speaking of '90s country, I killed that country #1s thread last week with the following spiel, which will probably prove just as un-fruitful here, but then again maybe somebody'll have thoughts on it, who knows:

I honestly think what's missing in most discussions of the evolution of Nashville country (and this goes for me too) is that there's this huge historical gap where almost nobody who writes about rock and pop music was keeping tabs on the stuff. Outside of Garth and Shania and a couple others, I'm still fairly clueless about most pop-country from the mid '80s to early '00s -- when, I assume, lotsa evolving was going on.

― xhuxk, Wednesday, December 23, 2009 10:07 AM

I sort of have this theory that Garth and Shania figured out how to make real consistent and varied country albums, like rock bands had been making for years (and had pretty much stopped making my the mid '90s to my ears), and once they did it the rest of Nashville caught on. Which would explain why so many of my favorite '00s albums were country. But it might be just as likely that great pop-country albums were being made in the late '80s and '90s, and I just wasn't hearing them. Not that I've had much luck trying to figure out what they were.

― xhuxk, Wednesday, December 23, 2009 10:17 AM

I mean, obviously there were great country albums before Garth and Shania, going back to the neo-trad and outlaw eras and way beyond. But I definitely got the idea in the '90s (or maybe at least starting back with the urban cowboys in the early '80s?) that even most albums with a catchy single or two on them just tossed in nine perfunctory filler tracks and got it over with. But somehow, for me anyway, that changed. (One change may have been that country started sounding more like the hard rock I grew up with, but going back now and listening to say the Kentucky Headhunters, I'm wondering if that was new in the '00s at all.)

― xhuxk, Wednesday, December 23, 2009 10:23 AM

I'd pretty much concur with your theory; I'm having a tough time thinking of 90s pop-country albums where any artist's personality was allowed to shine beyond a couple of tracks. Terri Clark, Martina McBride maybe. A lot of that had to do with the more restrictive (i.e. "uplifting") lyrical themes that radio was demanding.

Justin Moore self titled album reminds me of Gary Allen or Jason Aldean in many ways, except for the lack of any ballads. Almost every song is an assertion of County livin'. Not enough songs about broken hearts for me.

County=country

Not that affriming ones country roots and way of life in music is a bad thing, but a whole album gets tiring.

Speaking of '90s country, I killed that country #1s thread last week with the following spiel, which will probably prove just as un-fruitful here

Yes, I predict that this thread has but a few days to live.

there's this huge historical gap where almost nobody who writes about rock and pop music was keeping tabs on the stuff. Outside of Garth and Shania and a couple others, I'm still fairly clueless about most pop-country from the mid '80s to early '00s -- when, I assume, lotsa evolving was going on.

Yes. John Morthland's Best of Country Music Guide came out in 1984, and I don't know if any other rock critic tried anything like it subsequently, or what or where Morthland's been writing since then. His book is very good, but on the evidence of it he's probably not the one to appreciate current Nashville trends.

There's a Rough Guide to Country Music that was published in 2000, according to Amazon, and the All Music Guide to Country was in 2003. I've never looked at them. You might want to ask Doug Simmons or Eric Weisbard, since they'd have been keeping their eye out for people to potentially write for the Voice about country in the late '80s and late '90s, respectively. One of the first things Doug asked me when I started submitting stuff to him in 1987 was whether I listened to country.

My source in the '90s for what was happening in country was you, basically, since I wasn't spending much time listen to country radio.

wasn't spending much time listening to country radio, that is

Anthony Easton posted his overall ten bests on my livejournal, included only two country items, Lyle Lovett's Natural Forces album and Corb Lund's "Losin' Lately Gambler" single, which I assume is an alternate title for "A Game In Town Like This," which looks like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITyn99Oa3u4

Seems more bohemian folkie than actual country, which is to say that its aural mannerisms peg it as literary even before I pay attention to the words. Of course, some of my favorite Bob Dylans and Holy Modal Rounders were bohemian folkies at some point in their careers, but it's not a style that's held on for me, even if a Charlie Robison or a James McMurtry makes my country ballot every now and then. Here's what Anthony wrote about the Lund song:

Corb continues to add to the narratives of classic country--as the last album worked through new soldier songs and new horse songs, this one has farm songs and card songs. This is the card song, and it is about betting on home and therefore need to bet from going away. Aside from the world weariness, the sadness of the vocals, the perfect guitar work, there is a processing of the domestic and local over the international. He lives in Alberta, which is losing money and people, and where the money is disappearing, and where the recession is hard. Best song about the disaster of imminent poverty.

Anthony had talked a little bit about Corb Lund a few months back, in the comments section of some folkie's Singles Jukebox review (actually, one wherein Frank had inquired of Anthony about current folk music, but the singer's name slips my mind.) I got the Lund album in the mail, and really wanted to like it -- the idea of some guy (allegedly, anyway) detailing the minutiae of hardscrabble Alberta and Saskatchewan life in his songs really appeals to, uh, the Northern Exposure fan in me I guess. Problem is, as far as I can tell, like so many recent alt-country folkies who may well me good songwriters in recent years before him, Lund sings with no expression whatsoever. He just sounds really wooden and dry -- to my ears, anyway. And like so many good alt-country folkie songwriters with bored demo-singer voices before him, maybe I should have given him more of a chance. I liked a Si Kahn album once, after all. (At least for a year or two, anyway -- Home, from 1979; Doing My Job from 1982 also said to be worthwhile.) But more likely, I'll never latch onto a Corb Lund song until somebody from Nashville covers one. Which may be a doggone shame.

I'm having a tough time thinking of 90s pop-country albums where any artist's personality was allowed to shine beyond a couple of tracks.

I can think of a handful, beyond the obvious Shania and Garth: Mindy McCready If I Stay The Night (1997); Tim McGraw A Place To Land (his best album, 1999); Collin Raye Extremes (1994, just heard it this year); Kentucky Headhunters Electric Barnyard (1991); maybe Joe Dee Messina Joe Dee Messina (1996) and I'm Alright (1998); maybe Brooks & Dunn Hard Workin' Man (1992). Toby Keith Dream Walkin' (1997) is pretty good, if not close to many of the '00s albums. Probably a couple others I'm not thinking of.

Just got into Aaron Tippin (who is basically a honky-tonking hard-country neo-traditionalist I guess, but still) this year, and wrote about him upthread somewhere; his Greatest Hits...And Then Some is really good. But I've never heard any of his regular issue albums.

My favorite country album from the '90s is probably K.T. Oslin's Songs From An Aging Sex Bomb (1993), another best-of. But most if not all of its tracks date from the late '80s, so it shouldn't count.

One guy who wrote pretty well about country in the early '90s, fwiw, was Ken Tucker (the future Entertainment Weekly/NPR Ken Tucker, not the future Billboard Ken Tucker); he did a one-time country-only Consumer Guide in the Voice that I really liked, and wish I still had a copy of. (He was the first critic I read who actually wrote interesting things about Brooks & Dunn.) Also wrote a very entertaining lead Voice review called Country's Sophomore Class: Flex Them Neck Muscles, Boys, rounding up Randy Travis, Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle -- but that was 1987, a little early, and those dudes aren't exactly "pop"-country.

Suspect James Hunter wrote some smart things about country back then, too. And in the early/mid '80s, at least, maybe also Davitt Sigerson, when not recording great Xmas songs for Ze. ("It's a Big Country" on the Ze Christmas Record, 1981 -- if you haven't heard it, you should. I play it several times every year around this time, and it always choke me up. Never heard his album, which came out in 1984.)

But it wasn't until Metal Mike Saunders did a roundup of CMT videos for me (around 2000, I guess) that I obsessively started paying attention.

And uh...how good were Leann Rimes's '90s albums (and does her personality shine through those?) I've always assumed that her albums improved drastically when she sold out to dancier pop structures in the '90s, but I'd be willing to hear somebody try to convince otherwise.

Also, Dixie Chicks' Wide Open Spaces was 1998 and Fly was 1999. so those count. (Have never heard their earlier bluegrass albums.)

"...sold out to dancier pop structures in the '00s," I meant. (Albeit very early '00s, apparently -- Coyote Ugly soundtrack, with "Can't Fight The Moonlight", came out in 2000.)

Really like Confederate Railroad's 2000 best-of Rockin Country Party Pack too, fwiw; they had a bunch of ace hits in the '90s for sure. But don't think I've ever heard any of their regular albums from then.

x-post Speaking of Travis, Yoakam, etc. Those neo-trad guys may not have been pop-country, but they--along with Clint Black, George Strait and others--sold a ton of albums in the late 80s. I'm not positive, but I think Storms of Life might have been the all time biggest selling Country (non-greatest hits) album at one point. Perhaps when Nashville saw that they could make as much money off of albums as they did from singles or compilations they started taking the LP more seriously. And Garth definitely started out in the neo-trad vein.

I suppose the idea of having artists put out an album packed with five or more potential singles became popular in the 90s because some of the artists were becoming international superstars and needed more time to tour the world before they could go back to the studio. The record companies could keep releasing single after single to radio in the year or two it took for a new album to be readied. It seems the norm today, but I don't know how many artists got that luxury in the 90s.

xp McGraw's 1999 album was actually A Place In The Sun, duh. (Title I listed above belongs to Little Big Town, eight years later.)

Also like The Tractors' debut album, from 1994. (Not sure where they fit into this. Seems like there might've been some kinda mini/semi/lite-Western-swing-rock revival on the country charts in the early/mid '90s. Which reminds me I also don't know the Mavericks' individual albums, but their Super Colossal Smash Hits Of The '90s best-of is good.)

In pre-'90s news, here is the very approximate order of how much I've (so far) liked a bunch of old vinyl country LPs I bought for $1 each in the past six months or so:

1. (Various) Motels And Memories (Warner Special Products 1981) (100% country cheating songs, from the mid '70s to early '80s)
2. The Delmore Brothers - The Best Of (Starday 1975)
3. Charlie Rich - I Do My Swingin' At Home (Epic 1973)
4. O.C. Smith - Hickory Holler Revisited (Columbia LP, 1968)
5. David Allan Coe - Longhaired Redneck (Columbia 1976)
6. George Strait - Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind (MCA LP, 1984)
7. The Forester Sisters - Perfume, Ribbons & Pearls (Warner Bros. 1986)
8. Georgia Satellites - Georgia Satellites (Elektra/Asylum, 1986)
9. Gene Watson - The Best Of (Capitol 1978)
10. Jason & the Scorchers - Lost And Found (EMI 1985)
11. Billie Joe Spears - Blanket On The Ground (United Artists 1975)
12. Billy Swan - Rock N Roll Moon (Monument 1975)
13. Merle Haggard and the Strangers - I Love Dixie Blues (Capitol 1973)
14. Bobby Bland - Get On Down With (Dunhill LP, 1974) (w/ covers of Merle Haggard and Charlie Rich songs)
15. Keith Sykes - I'm Not Strange I'm Just Like You (Backstreet 1980)
16. Rattlesnake Annie - Rattlesnake Annie (Columbia 1987)
17. Gary Stewart - Your Place Or Mine (RCA LP, 1977)
18. Dobie Gray - From Where I Stand (Capitol 1986)
19. Hank Thompson - Movin' On (ABC 1974)
20. Gary Stewart & Dean Dillon - Brotherly Love (RCA 1982)
21. Marshall Chapman - Marshall Chapman (Epic 1978)

Marshall Chapman and Stewart/Dillon went right into the "sell" pile; still on fence about the (presumably way past his prime, and not nearly Western Swingy enough) Hank Thompson. The rest appear to be keepers.

Oops (again), actually that Chapman LP (on which she lifelessly interprets both "I Walk The Line" and Bob Seger's "Turn The Page") is called Jaded Virgin; just hard to tell by looking at the cover.

And Stewart's Your Place Or Mine might objectively deserve to be higher on that list, except that I've owned its two best songs (title track and especially "Ten Years Of This") on his 1981 Greatest Hits (one of my favorite country albums of all time) for decades, and most of the rest doesn't leave as much of an impression as I wish.

I'm almost positive Marshall Chapman was marketed primarily to mainstream pop and rock. I remember seeing that LP cover in ads in many places.

Produced by Al Kooper
Album of the Year - Stereo Review

It sez on her website. Not much kindness meted out by Christgau, even on the follow-up in
1979. Course that means they might actually, in fact, rock.

The one I bought sure doesn't. (Interesting, though, who Xgau compares her too: "a lot more confident, clever, and animated than such Northern counterparts as Ellen Foley and Ellen Shipley, but she's a fairly one-dimensional conservative compared to Pearl E. Gates or Chrissie Hynde." But apparently she was based in Nashville, and I'd say she sounds more country than rock -- though I'm saying that with 2009 ears, of course.)

One guy who wrote pretty well about country in the early '90s, fwiw, was Ken Tucker (the future Entertainment Weekly/NPR Ken Tucker, not the future Billboard Ken Tucker); he did a one-time country-only Consumer Guide in the Voice that I really liked, and wish I still had a copy of.

I lurk/skim this thread and I was thinking of mentioning that Ken Tucker was writing about country back in that period you mentioned, but then I thought, nah, they probably don't like the way he covered it or something.

I'm confused by your comment though in regard to whether or not he is still active. I thought he was, but maybe I've been seeing this other Ken Tucker? There are two? I remember Ken Tucker from way back when Fresh Air first started up. I used to listen to it after school, in high school. (Thank god I was doing something intelligent instead of wasting my time feeling up high school girls or going down on them in their parents' garage!)

Sorry to burst in as a "country hater" and everything (although one who will be voting for Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift in this year's ILM poll, which is more than I can say for any rock acts).

Yep, definitely two Ken Tuckers out there -- (maybe even three or four!) And as far as I know, they're both still active (don't think I ever said otherwise, though maybe something I said was ambiguous.) I'm not sure whether the EW/NPR Ken still writes about country, though.

Trisha Yearwood and Lorrie Morgan a couple more '90s country stars who compiled best-of CDs worth keeping in the '00s. (Trisha's is more consistent than Lorrie's, but I was a big fan of Lorrie's '90s "Send In The Clowns"-bombastic marriage-on-skids cabaret-country wardrobe-closet ballad "Something In Red", and also her cover of Journey's "Faithfully" and her new wavey Roxette haircut. Didn't hate the albums I heard at the time, but also didn't like them near enough to hang on to them. But even more than Trisha she was clearly going for the desperate exurban housewife demographic, whose tastes I should probably bend to more.)

John Morthland's Best of Country Music Guide came out in 1984, and I don't know if any other rock critic tried anything like it subsequently

David Cantwell and Bill Friskics-Warren put out Heartaches By The Number: Country Music's 500 Greatest Singles in 2003. It's a good book, and definitely includes assorted late '80s and '90s records, and they make good cases for pop crossover throughout (though they have a definite grudge, it seems, against the Urban Cowboy era.) So there's that. I'd also be surprised if there weren't certain country critics writing intelligently about country; more like, I just wasn't following them. And country records -- especially the more pop kind -- certainly weren't doing very well in, say, the Pazz & Jop poll at the time. (They're still not, but they do better than they used to.)

Relistening to that Corb Lund gambling song from the video that Frank linked, I'm thinking his singing is not as incompetent and wooden as I implied above. It's...functional. But plain, kind of lazy, and not exceptional in any way. He sounds more or less in the same category as any of the (right, mostly folkie/bohemian) "red dirt" guys that I hear on the more alternative-leaning country stations in and around Austin --Jason Boland, Robert Earl Keen, Randy Rogers, Ryan Bingham, those sorts of cowpokes. If I heard that song on the car radio (and around here, if he was from Texas, that'd be possible), I might be less bored by it.

Only '90s LeAnn material I've heard is the stuff on her Greatest Hits, which, to my surprise - it being a hits record - isn't as good as her regular '00s albums. I do like "Blue" and "How Do I Live" and "Can't Fight The Moonlight (dance mix)," which are the first three tracks on Greatest Hits. And as you say, "Moonlight" is 2000, and maybe even 2001 for the dance mix.

Amazingly (to me anyway), Billboard says that Taylor Swift being 2009's Billboard artist of the year (based on cumulative success on chart positions throughout the year) makes her "the first solo female or country act to earn the honor since 1997. That was when Leann Rimes, then herself a young country crossover star, took the honor home."

What's amazing about it is that I feel like I was more or less oblivious to Leann Rimes -- and definitely to how huge a crossover star she allegedly was -- in 1997. (This goes along with something Frank wrote this week on his blog, about how, even with really popular music, you can miss it if you don't make an effort to keep up with it.)

Btw, another '90s country star who put out a solid best-of CD in the '00s is Travis Tritt. I suspect he may have made solid albums in the '90s (and ones that presaged this decade's country-rock crossover), but if so, I don't know that I've ever actually sat through any of them.

I still have Billy Ray Cyrus's Some Gave All (1992) on my shelf, though. As I recall, it's not bad. I should put it back on sometime.

Think I still have Kenny Chensney's 2000 Greatest Hits CD around here somewhere, too; he'd apparently put out five albums by then, none of which I've heard. I get the idea that Chesney and McGraw and Keith didn't really evolve their personalities on record until at least the tail-end of the '90s, but they were around for a while before then. So maybe the country audience detected personalities I didn't.

I was oblivious to Leeann back in the 90s too. It looks like in 1997 she had 2 #1 albums of cover songs, one "pop" and the other "inspirational"--so perhaps she was that era's Groban or Buble (or Streisand.)

Also, Montgomery Gentry's debut Tattoos And Scars was 1999. And though they made albums I loved more later, this is still a real good one, and seems like their personalities were in place from the git-go. (First rock critic I know who noticed them was Joshua Clover, who did a short single review of "Daddy Won't Sell The Farm" for me at the Voice.)

And duh, they just keep coming -- Speaking of Leeanns, Lee Ann Womack's Some Things I Know was 1998. Possibly my favorite album by her, though she got way more acclaim and respect later; definitely has my favorite song she ever did, namely "I'll Think Of A Reason Later."

I still pull down the John Morthland book whenever I come across some artist that I'm not familiar with. But even he dismisses the Urban Cowboy era (and that era was still ongoing when his book came out in 1984)and/or Country Pop crossover one. In a section called Countrypolitan, he says not to look for any info on Kenny Rogers, Alabama, Oak Ridge Boys, John Denver, etc. There is a review in his book of Ronnie Milsap and Eddie Rabbitt, mostly praising their early stuff but looking down on the Pop hits.
BTW- the Countrypolitan artists he does like: Crystal Gayle, Anne Murray and Glen Campbell. But that section of the book is very brief.

There's also The Blackwell Guide To Country Music, edited by Bob Allen, from 1994. I use it as a reference on occasion, but keep it on a secondary shelf in another room for good reason. Anyway, I should re-read Allen's "The 1980s And Beyond" chapter (which does seem to include writeups of several recommended albums toward the end) in the next couple days, but to give you a clue, here's how it starts: "The very early 1980s were, at least from a creative standpoint, a period of relative bleakness in country music." Later; this is awesome: "An even more disturbing barometer of how dismal and directionless country's commercial mainstream had become by the early 1980s was the LA-to-Nashville 'bimbo' invasion. During those years, any number of modestly talented but nubile Southern California pop songstresses recorded half-baked 'country' records which, remarkably, made minor dents in the country record charts. (A California singer named Carole Chase even had evanescent success with a Los Angeles-produced LP of 'country-disco' dubiously entitled Sexy Songs)." Ha -- dollar bins, here I come!

hey chuck this isn't country related, but i asked my parents/friends for stairway to hell for christmas, and they couldn't find it. is it out of print or something? i'm just curious, so as to see if i could find it somewhere else

Loooong out of print, but isn't it on Amazon for really cheap still?

Uh, guess it's considered "collectible" now; wtf?? Hey, I'll sell my copy for $133.75 + $3.99 shipping if somebody will pay me that.

http://www.amazon.com/Stairway-Hell-Chuck-Eddy/dp/030680817X

I wonder what dumb people pay for the first edition these days.

Hey $40 (second edition) on ebay. (Amazon's got several a lot cheaper; I just wanted to brag about that expensive one).

http://cgi.ebay.com/Stairway-to-Hell-:-Chuck-Eddy-(Paperback,-1998)_W0QQitemZ341320660834QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20091216?IMSfp=TL091216217001r32542

haha alright thanks, i checked amazon after christmas, and they had used copies, but i wasn't sure how much i trusted that, quality wise, i mean, but they are cheap, so i might just go ahead and buy one of them. thanks

But they are not cheap anymore! That was my point! I'm not sure when the prices went up. It's not my fault, honest.

Back to hillbilly music -- there is a Link Wray album in that book. And sundry '70s Southern Rock LPs. If I were to update it now, though...

Btw, another '90s country star who put out a solid best-of CD in the '00s is Travis Tritt. I suspect he may have made solid albums in the '90s (and ones that presaged this decade's country-rock crossover), but if so, I don't know that I've ever actually sat through any of them.

Tritt's best album was Down The Road I Go from 2000. It's All About to Change from 91 was his biggest seller - it's the one with "Here's a Quarter". Great voice, but I generally found his choice of material pretty bland.

Actually, come to think of it, calling even Tritt's The Very Best CD (Rhino, 2007) "solid" is stretching it -- at 20 songs, including stinkers like "Can I Trust You With My Heart" and "Tell Me I Was Dreaming," it's about twice too long. (My favorite tracks, last time I checked, were "Where Corn Don't Grow" and "Lord Have Mercy On The Working Man.") I might have even liked his indie-label The Storm album from the same year more, actually -- even had a pretty great Nickelback cover, in "Should've Listened." I'm guessing he's one guy who may have been freed up to do stuff more in tune with what he's best at when he stopped having big hits in Nashville. (Kentucky Headhunters, this decade, would be another one, though as I said their turn of the '90s hits were pretty good at the time. And nobody's mentioned John Anderson, who made consistently great albums in the early '80s, and has made sporadically real good ones since, as a star and then as a post-star -- I assume Seminole Wind would have to rank as one of the best country albums of the '90s, though I don't actually own a copy.)

Rolling Country 2010:

Rolling Country 2010