Rolling Country 2009 Thread

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/

I'm sorry, you can't have the Groundhogs' James Road thing and NOT at least one album or collection by Savoy Brown. And where's Ten Years After? "I'm Going Home" is the sword in the stone of the genre. Now, technically, Foghat was Savoy Brown minus Kim Simmonds and Chris Youlden, but SB's most successful US boogie record was Street Corner Talkin' which came right after Foghat was replaced by a new band.

Here's Edd Hurt's list from that No Dep poll. (I post it not only 'cause I respect his writing but 'cause I'd wondered, after he stopped posting here in September and his email address only got bounces, if he were still alive. Presumably this is proof that he is. Either that, or he's got a lot of sway with the postal service up in heaven.)(Also has been getting published in various Nashville papers, another possible sign of being not dead.)

Jamey Johnson, That Lonesome Song – 10
Chuck Prophet, Dreaming Waylon's Dreams – 9
Randy Newman, Harps And Angels – 8
Ross Johnson, Make It Stop – 7
Various, Thank You Friends: The Ardent Records Story – 6
Linda Perhacs, Parallelograms – 5
Walter Becker, Circus Money – 4
Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs, /Dirt Don't Hurt – 3
Como Now: The Voices of Panola Co., Mississippi – 2
Raphael Saadiq, The Way I See It – 1

Hadn't heard of the Perhacs. A Google search reveals this to be the second reissue of a gentle psychedelic album from 1970 by a Topanga Canyon dental hygienist/folkie. In an interview with Andy Beta she says she was depressed when she heard the album because the sound compression got rid of the highs and lows and made it sound dead. Don't know if that was rectified in the reissue (the writeup on her MySpace implies that it is but isn't altogether clear on the subject.) My Web browser is being a pain about loading the songs from her MySpace, so I haven't listened yet.

Nice to know Edd's alive and well (and also that he voted for the same two Johnsons that I did!)

George, you are probably right about Savoy Brown and/or Ten Years After belonging on that Spin boogie-rock list. What can I say? Limiting those Essentials things to eight albums is tough. And the Groundhogs are such an entity unto themselves that I wanted to include them. (Anyway, you should cut me a break despite my neglect, since I finally got around to listening obsessively this week to that pub-rocky Big Balls And The Great White Idiot CD-R you sent me last year. It was definitely worth drinking a few beers to.)

Edd's been real busy, for inst writing notes for a couple of worthy Caroline Peyton reissues. He turned me on to Thank You Friend, which I would have listed, but not quite country enough even for my ballot (I don't go afield on purpose, just slim pickins in mainstream--the flashing rise and mebbe peak of Chicks! Keith! Wilson! Big & Rich! Lambert! Etc!-seems like a dream now). Also turned me on to that Chuck Prophet, which almost seemed a little too VU Loaded for country, but too good for the list to resist. I turned him on to der Perhacs, and yeah its sonics are much improved, track list much lengthened, and she writes a lot of pleased, icky-positive notes, almost the whole thing is is icky-positive, with her proudly genteel folkie voice very centerstage (you can tell she thinks she's the sultry cosmic handmaiden). I do like a couple tracks not so voice-centric, but guess that's why they're outtakes.

(Although he and Peyton and everybody else whose opinion I'm aware of loves it.)

Marty update!
"THE MARTY STUART SHOW"
CONTINUES TO CELEBRATE
TRADITIONAL COUNTRY MUSIC IN 2009
NASHVILLE, TENN - Jan. 12, 2009 - Country music icon Marty Stuart continues to pay tribute to traditional music this year as he begins
taping The
Marty Stuart Show with episodes airing every Saturday at 8pm on RFD-TV. Performers set to appear include John Rich, Dierks
Bentley, Gretchen Wilson, The SteelDrivers, Mel Tillis, Buck Trent,
The Oak Ridge Boys, Chris Scruggs and Chuck Mead, Del
McCoury, Connie
Smith and The Sundowners, Wanda Jackson, Duane Eddy, Kathy Mattea,
Quebe Sisters and more.
"I love this show," said Stuart. "It's everything that country music was designed to be and it is such a joy to be a part of. As I
suspected, there
is a world of people out there waiting on this kind of entertainment and the response has been off the charts."

Stuart's other ventures include his renowned private country music memorabilia
collection entitled "Sparkle and Twang: Marty Stuart's American
Odyssey" on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio through March 1, his recently-released second photography book titled
Country
Music: The Masters, and his weekly XM Radio show titled "Marty Stuart's American Odyssey" that explores music unique to the United States.
To watch clips from the show, visit www.youtube.com/user/MartyStuartVideos.

Surprisingly good: Connor Christian & Southern Gothic, 90 Proof Lullabies -- with that title and band name I was expecting drab alt-country, but it's got hooks and he's got a radio-friendly (not necessarily "great" but certainly not indie) voice. Southern Gothic is a pretty hot band, nothing fancy but some sting in 'em nonetheless. Bad idea to cover "One Toke Over the Line" (always a snooze to me) but forgiven for good songs like "Sunday Suit" and "Let Ya Slide."

Lots of discussion of the rural/country end of late '70s German schlager pop in the past couple days here:

I Have Never Heard Entire Albums By These Bands Who Have Excellent Songs On Late '70s/Early '80s European K-Tel-Style Compilations

For instance, posted by me this morning:

Super 20 Hitparade (Ariola West Germany, 1977)

WENCKE MYHRE "Lass Mein Knie, Joe" (Deutsch cover of Bonnie Tyler's great "It's a Heartache," not sung in a ravished Rod Stewart-like voice but still good. Pretty sure I liked a 45 by Wencke on that Metal Mike thread. And pre-heart-eclipse years of Bonnie Tyler herself are another topic for future research. She was from Wales; probably in the Abba-country ballpark.)
ROLAND KAISER "Sieben Fasser Wein" (oompah fur bier trinken)
BENNY "Skateboard" (Awesome. Seemingly takes its "ooh-ah-ah" hook from David Seville's "Witch Doctor," one of my favorite songs of my grade school years, which as far as I know has never influenced any other music in the half century since its existence. Also, this is a song about skateboards!)
MARTIN MANN "Strohblumen" (Catchy guitared and whistled country-pop tune)
GUNTER GABRIEL "Komm Charly Fang Mich Charly" (Dark-melodied talk-rhythm country with girlie-girl backup singing; possible Johnny Cash influence?)
ROBERTO BLANCO "Wer Trinkt Schon Gern Den Wein Allein" (another ale-hoister for the Hofbrauhaus, as its title makes clear, but this one with Mexican-music-like "ay yi yi" interjections, especially interesting given Blanco's possibly Spanish surname and the fact that, in his picture, he seems to be a black man. Which doesn't add up to Mexican, obviously, but what the hell do Germans know? Also makes me wonder about the connection between German music and regional Mexican music, which is also frequently based on polka rhythms, and has its own internal urban pop-vs.-rural trad culture division.)

All in all, probably the most "country" Schlager comp I've heard. There's also a German cover of Kenny Rogers's "Lucille" by MICHAEL HOLM, plus two more songs that seem to be trying to combine Latin or Caribbean rhythms with German ones -- one by LENA VALATIS that starts out quasi-Latin, goes oompah, then comes back, and one actually called "Tanze Samba Mit Mir (Liebelei)" by REX GILDO. Maybe there was a Latin fad in Germany then or something.

Also, if anybody's interested, I got in a cranky pissing contest about current country with the 9513 blog guy in the comments section here last Friday:

http://idolator.com/5127490/the-9513-works-hard-to-prove-country-music-still-has-a-pulse

Limiting those Essentials things to eight albums is tough. And the Groundhogs are such an entity unto themselves that I wanted to include them.

Granted. Next time suggest to design they limit the pic/art to less rather than hog a third to half of the space on the page. Anyway, the James Road comp is an oddball. I liked it but it's definitely from the less traveled part of the Groundhogs catalog -- the time after McPhee had broken up the original band, then found out he couldn't draw as much under his own name, and brought back the name and concept for a more mannered and traditional sound. Of all Groundhogs material, it's probably the most rustic.

Nashville Scene poll results are up:

http://www.nashvillescene.com/2009-01-15/news/the-ninth-annual-nashville-scene-country-music-critics-poll-jamey-johnson-captured-the-critics-taylor-swift-topped-the-charts-and-sugarland-conquered-them-both/

"Never before has a newcomer dominated the Country Music Critics Poll the way Jamey Johnson has this year's edition."

Here's the actual results, they've got some funny link issues going on:

http://www.nashvillescene.com/2009-01-15/news/the-ninth-annual-nashville-scene-country-music-critics-poll-the-results/

Albums
1. Jamey Johnson: That Lonesome Song (Mercury)
2. Hayes Carll: Trouble in Mind (Lost Highway)
3. Lee Ann Womack: Call Me Crazy (MCA Nashville)
4. Sugarland: Love on the Inside (Mercury)
5. Patty Loveless: Sleepless Nights (Saguaro Road) 2
6. Lucinda Williams: Little Honey (Lost Highway)
7. Taylor Swift: Fearless (Big Machine)
8. George Strait: Troubadour (MCA Nashville)
9. Alan Jackson: Good Time (Arista Nashville)
10. Kathy Mattea: Coal (Captain Potato)
11. Rodney Crowell: Sex & Gasoline (Work Song/Yep Roc)
12. Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson: Rattlin' Bones (Sugar Hill)
13. Brad Paisley: Play: The Guitar Album (Arista Nashville)
14. The SteelDrivers: The SteelDrivers (Rounder)
15. Randy Travis: Around the Bend (Warner Bros.)
16. James McMurtry: Just Us Kids (Lightning Rod)
17. Emmylou Harris: All I Intended To Be (Nonesuch)
18. Dolly Parton: Backwoods Barbie (Dolly)
19. Ashton Shepherd: Sounds So Good (MCA Nashville)
20. Charlie Haden Family & Friends: Rambling Boy (Decca)
21. Willie Nelson: Moment of Forever (Lost Highway)
22. Glen Campbell: Meet Glen Campbell (Capitol)
23. Shelby Lynne: Just a Little Lovin' (Lost Highway)
24. Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis: Two Men With the Blues (Blue Note)
25. Carlene Carter: Stronger (Yep Roc)
26. The Drive-By Truckers: Brighter Than Creation's Dark (New West)
27. Mudcrutch: Mudcrutch (Reprise)
28. Darius Rucker: Learn to Live (Capitol Nashville)
29. Robert Plant/Alison Krauss: Raising Sand (Rounder)
30. Justin Townes Earle: The Good Life (Bloodshot)

Singles
1. Jamey Johnson: "In Color"
2. Lee Ann Womack: "Last Call"
3. Miranda Lambert: "Gunpowder and Lead"
4. Hayes Carll: "She Left Me for Jesus"
5. George Strait: "Troubadour"
6. Trisha Yearwood: "This is Me You're Talking To"
7. Carrie Underwood: "Just a Dream"
8. Darius Rucker: "Don't Think I Don't Think About It"
9. Ashton Shepherd: "Sounds So Good"
10. Randy Travis: "Dig Two Graves"
11. Trace Adkins: "You're Gonna Miss This"
12. Kid Rock: "All Summer Long"
13. James Otto: "Just Started Loving You"
14. The SteelDrivers: "Blue Side of the Mountain"
15. Little Big Town: "Fine Line"

Reissues
1. Hank Williams: The Unreleased Recordings (Time-Life)
2. Johnny Cash: At Folsom Prison: Legacy Edition (Legacy/Columbia)
3. Willie Nelson: One Hell of a Ride (Legacy)
4. Roy Orbison: The Soul of Rock and Roll (Monument/Orbison/Legacy)
5. Bob Dylan: Tell Tale Signs (Columbia/Legacy)
6. Toby Keith: 35 Biggest Hits (Show Dog)
7. Reba McEntire: 50 Greatest Hits (MCA Nashville)
8. Ernest V. Stoneman: Ernest V. Stoneman: The Unsung Father of Country Music 1925-1934 (5 String)
9. George Jones: Burn Your Playhouse Down: The Unreleased Duets (Bandit)
10. Various artists: More Dirty Laundry: The Soul of Black Country (Trikont)

Male Vocalists:
1. Jamey Johnson
2. Alan Jackson
3. Brad Paisley
4. George Strait
5. Randy Travis
6. Trace Adkins
7. Hayes Carll
8. Keith Urban
9. Willie Nelson
10. Toby Keith

Female Vocalists:
1. Lee Ann Womack
2. Patty Loveless
3. Miranda Lambert
4. Alison Krauss
5. Trisha Yearwood
6. Taylor Swift
7. Emmylou Harris
8. Jennifer Nettles
9. Kathy Mattea
10. Lucinda Williams

Live Acts:
1. Robert Plant/Alison Krauss
2. Brad Paisley
3. Miranda Lambert
4. Sugarland
5. Keith Urban
6. Kenny Chesney
7. Lyle Lovett
8. Willie Nelson
9. Cherryholmes
10. Little Big Town

Duos and Groups:
1. Sugarland
2. Robert Plant/Alison Krauss
3. The SteelDrivers
4. Little Big Town
5. Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson
6. Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis
7. Lady Antebellum
8. Montgomery Gentry
9. Dailey & Vincent
10. Joey & Rory

Songwriters:
1. Jamey Johnson
2. Hayes Carll
3. Rodney Crowell
4. James McMurtry
5. Brad Paisley
6. Taylor Swift
7. Dolly Parton
8. Bruce Robison
9. Miranda Lambert
10. Alan Jackson

New Acts:
1. Ashton Shepherd
2. Lady Antebellum
3. The SteelDrivers
4. Jamey Johnson
5. Darius Rucker
6. The Zac Brown Band
7. Justin Townes Earle
8. Hayes Carll
9. Randy Houser
10. Joey & Rory

Artists of the Year:
1. Jamey Johnson
2. Sugarland
3. Robert Plant/Alison Krauss
4. Brad Paisley<
5. Alan Jackson
6. Taylor Swift
7. Lee Ann Womack
8. George Strait
9. Miranda Lambert
10. Kenny Chesney

Actually think the comments this year are generally pretty good (and the results aren't bad either -- has commercial Nashville stuff ever done so well in that poll? I guess 9513 is alt-country's last gasp.)

Surprised to see Ashton's "Sounds So Good" score on the singles list, rather than "Takin' Off This Pain." Was really under the impression that the latter was her signature song; am I wrong, or do people just have short memories? Figured her album would do better, to (though I didn't vote for it.)

What did Deep Purple do at CMA Awards? (Maybe some band started playing "Smoke On The Water" as an intro or something? First I've heard of that.)

Ernest V. Stoneman: The Unsung Father of Country Music 1925-1934 (5 String) sounds cool! I'd never heard of that reissue before. Really like my old thrift-store vinyl copy of Ernest V. Stoneman and His Dixie Mounataineers 1927-1928 (on Historical), and compilation tracks I've heard.

Also, what do the SteelDrivers sound like -- bluegrass, Southern rock, what? Never heard them.

Still not getting what people hear in that Darius Rucker song. (I know, he's a black guy, which is wonderful, but I swear I hear more soul music in Toby Keith. I may have heard more in Hootie and the Blowfish, too, to be honest. Didn't hate the Rucker album, though; it was pleasant, and he's a competent enough singer. If it actually had an interesting song or two, it might not even have bored me.)

Joke of the poll: Mudcrutch.

Btw, also from that reissue list, not as good as it sounds (I had hopes, which were dashed): George Jones: Burn Your Playhouse Down: The Unreleased Duets (Bandit)

From a different list universe, a email Don forwarded me the other day:

Club (Nashville, TN - Jan. 14, 2009) Marco Club Connection has announced its list of the ten most requested and played country dance club songs of 2008.

For the fifth consecutive year, a panel of more than 215 nightclubs and dance instructors throughout the country were surveyed during the last four weeks of 2008 to compile the data.

#1 - Alan Jackson "Good Time" - Jackson's G-O-O-D T-I-M-E was the runaway favorite for 2008, garnering up to three spins a night during the peak of the song's popularity in the summer last year.
#2 - The Zac Brown Band "Chicken Fried" - Interest in this song grew from its initial support in the Southern clubs and spread nationwide within weeks of its release.
#3 - Kid Rock "All Summer Long" - This mash-up of Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London" and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" was an instant success on country dance floors.
#4 - Matt Stillwell "Shine" - Stillwell's debut single has remained on club playlists for more than six months as interest in this newcomer continues to grow.
#5 - Toby Keith "She's a Hottie" - Clubs were ecstatic to have a new up-tempo Toby Keith song last spring. The success of this single reserved Keith a spot in the Top Ten Country Dance Songs for the fifth year in a row.
#6 - Lady Antebellum "Love Don't Live Here" - This fresh new act exploded on the dance club scene last February with their unique fusion of country and rock.
#7 - Sugarland "All I Wanna Do" - Jennifer Nettles' catchy vocal hook and pop appeal made this song destined for success in the clubs.
#8 - James Otto "Just Got Started Lovin' You" - Otto struck a chord in club patrons across the country with this soulful breakout hit.
#9 - Adam Gregory "Crazy Days" - Gregory's dance remix of his first U.S. single, "Crazy Days," was used in clubs for a classic line dance called "walk the line."
#10 - Craig Morgan "International Harvester" - Morgan chugged into the #10 spot with this heartland hit.

So who are Matt Stillwell and Adam Gregory? And does "International Harvester" have a "tractor dance" that goes with it? That'd be cool, if it does.

What did Deep Purple do at CMA Awards? (Maybe some band started playing "Smoke On The Water" as an intro or something? First I've heard of that.)

Yeah, Brad Paisley and Keith Urban threw part of "Smoke on the Water" into their "Start a Band" thing at the start of the show. Part of "Layla" too I think.

Pat Green "What I'm For" title track...reminds me a lot of Alabama's "40 Hour Week (For a Livin')"

Bizarrely, another song it's been reminding me of is "Manifesto" by Roxy Music ("I am for a life around the corner/That takes you by surprise...I am for a life at time by numbers/Blastin' fast and low"), but a way mushier version -- like, if Dan Fogelberg covered it or something. Album is hitting me as mooshier in general, in fact. Definitely has some okay Mellencampy parts here and there, though.

One upcoming album I've been liking more, for what it's worth, is The Man of Somebody's Dreams, a tribute to the Hacienda Brothers' late Chris Gaffney due in March on Yep Roc, with renditions of his songs by lots of notable names: Joe Ely, Boz Scaggs, Los Lobos, Dave Alvin, James McMurtry, Freddie Fender (recorded a few years ago I assume), Alejandro Escovedo, John Doe, etc. So far, I prefer it to any of the Haciendas' albums I've heard, though I'm not sure which tracks are my favorites yet. On first couple listens, oddly, one that jumped out at me was "Get Off My Back Lucy" done by the Iguanas, who I've paid no attention to at all before.

You know, 74 voters isn't a lot for a national poll, so some of the lower-rated results might not be all that meaningful (there were 41 voters in the Poptimists poll, and two high votes for "Duri Duri" were enough to get it into the top twenty).

Geoff's not being altogether stupid when he's saying that Taylor isn't country, since what he means by "country" is pretty ancient (context must be rural, neck must be red or collar blue, or at least you must be speaking on behalf of those collars or necks7), but he's still very wrong, and you have to decide not to count Tim McGraw, Deana Carter, the Dixie Chicks, Jamie O'Neal, Garth Brooks, and scads of others that you guys could probably list more readily than I could. Taylor's eighteen and she's already done two retrospective songs about what it was like to be a teenager, "Tim McGraw" being the fiftieth or five hundredth variation on Deana Carter's "Strawberry Wine" (and McGraw himself had sung a couple of those variants, "Red Ragtop" and "Something Like That"). And teen heartbreak in country wasn't exactly unknown to Skeeter Davis and Brenda Lee way back when. I doubt that Taylor'd be scoring so high on the country charts if she was getting not only the teen girls but also the suburban housewives and the small-town, divorced, blue-collar wastrels who Geoff thinks need country as their very own genre and whose experience of love I'd wager isn't too far from Taylor's, actually. In fact, the difference between Jamey and Taylor may have less to do with a difference in experience than with Jamey writing more of the behavior and the outer details in order to evoke what's going on inside while Taylor writes more of the emotions and inner monologue. In other words, he's the strong silent type on a weep, while she's, you know, a girl. But it's not like Jamey doesn't do the inside and Taylor doesn't do the outer, and "I start a fight because I need to feel something" is a line that could have come from either.

I think that country is getting more singer-songwriterly in its lyrics, and this is hardly strange.

My good friend Leslie says that I'm just being Miley is a huge George Strait fan who travels down to New Mexico or wherever she can to hear Strait in concert, and she saw Taylor Swift opening for Strait a couple of years ago and has become a Taylor Swift fan too - she's a structural engineer and her boyfriend is a rugged man's man who's lived something of a Jamey Johnson life and I don't think it has occurred to her to think that Strait and Swift don't belong in the same genre. She's from the Michigan 'burbs and now lives in the a working-class 'burb north of Denver, but she's in business for herself, so I don't know whether or not she counts as the stereotypical country fan, but just who do we think listens to and buys the stuff? The 'burbs and the cities are where people live, and the 'burbs are where the consumers of country live, by and large.

I doubt that Taylor'd be scoring so high on the country charts if she was getting not only the teen girls but also the suburban housewives and the small-town, divorced, blue-collar wastrels who Geoff thinks need country as their very own genre and whose experience of love I'd wager isn't too far from Taylor's, actually.

Sentence is long and complex and I think I left out a "not" or something: I doubt that Taylor'd be scoring so high on the country charts if she wasn't getting not only the teen girls but also the suburban housewives and the small-town, divorced, blue-collar wastrels etc.

And the Scene just has its head up its ass when it runs a little chart that shows that Miranda Lambert and Jamey Johnson got critical but not commercial success.

(But they're like this every year.)

Hadn't realized that the Raconteurs did a version of "Old Enough" with Ashley Monroe and Ricky Scaggs. I'm still frustrated that no Ashley Monroe album was ever released.

Stephen Deusner comparing Jessica Lea Mayfield to Taylor Swift inspired me to go to Mayfield's MySpace, where her album is streamed. I'm four tracks in and don't know if I'll stick much longer. I don't hate it, but she's got a Lucinda Williams drawl-of-tragedy voice recorded in a Mazzy Starr clinical-depression soundscape, and my eyelids and earlobes are drooping.

and you have to decide not to count Tim McGraw, Deana Carter, the Dixie Chicks, Jamie O'Neal, Garth Brooks, and scads of others that you guys could probably list more readily than I could

I mean Geoff has to decide not to count these people in order to make his argument, which means he's discounting a whole hunk of trends in country since, oh, you all can tell me better but I'd say since 1954, if not 1914.

Haven't looked at Reynolds' post (yet?) owing to my getting ever-more-irritated at his tendency to project ideas onto people that they don't actually hold, but as for what Xhuxk said about having more-and-more reservations about the albums on his list as he goes further down, my reservations about the albums on my list start with the album I listed at number one (Danity Kane Welcome To The Dollhouse). There are rarely good albums that I don't have reservations about, given that most good albums (and most mediocre albums and most bad albums) are made by people with sensibilities very different from mine. Also, I love some albums lower on my list more than I love the Danity Kane (Scooter's Jumping All Over The World and CSS's Donkey, for instance), since I took the poll to be about what albums I thought were best, not what albums I loved the most. "Best" and "love" are different concepts.

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