Rolling Country 2009 Thread

I like the Paisley album too. Here's my favorite review, by Ben Ratliff in NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/arts/music/29choice.html

The review's funny and sort of odd, but I like that it's just about the only review to:

1. focus on Paisley's cleverness rather than his funniness, and
2. not mention Barack Obama.

The cleverness seems more operative than the funniness on this album. I can't remember if I laughed out loud at all, but like Ratliff, I'm amazed at the guy's ability to make songs out of anything. He should cover "Death May Be Your Santa Claus."

I also like that Ratliff, like Paisley, didn't mention Obama. All the other reviews find ways to connect verse 3 of "Welcome to the Future" to Obama. (I don't mean to insult anyone's review!) I'm sure Paisley has Obama and Election Day in mind when he thinks about his friend the football player and all the racial progress we've made, but that verse has a couple problems, even if it does make me cry.

For one thing, it's clumsy. Paisley wants to wake up Martin Luther instead of MLK. Maybe it's just that I'm Lutheran, but isn't the original Martin Luther still a well-known enough personality that this imagery seems incongruous to people? There's nothing in the 95 Theses about racial equality.

Also, the verse seems to participate in the fallacy that "all our racial problems are solved now that a black man is president." I mean, I might've cried on Election Day too, but I'm not sure writing this verse qualifies Paisley as a progressive, which was the claim of at least one review I saw. If anything, such a claim could play into the hands of the less-progressive elements of Paisley's audience. So maybe my problem is more with Paisley's press. Even so, he never specifically makes the claim that we're now living in "the future" because Obama got elected. But if he's NOT thinking of Obama, it's even more troubling, because that means he's just looking around at the country and seeing a panacea of racial justice. Is anyone else troubled by this song, maybe in a more articulate way?

Though I guess I'm the only one claiming that "progress" has to = "panacea." It doesn't have to be all or nothing. We've definitely made racial progress, insofar as most black high school quarterbacks can date whomever they'd like, though I'm sure there are exceptions. Still troubled.

What I like about that verse is mostly the way it comes as a surprise the first time you hear the song. I don't think it makes him politically progressive, but I think it's a cleverly written song, the way the awe at little things like 'now I can play a video game on my phone' is tied together with a sense of awe that there's a black president (and, later in the album, tied to his own awe about having kids, etc). I know what you're saying about the 'all our racial problems are solved' fallacy, but the tone of the song to me is more surprise. I like the uncertainty of the line "wherever we were going / well we're here". That sounds like stumbling into the future more than everything's perfect now. As far as critics relating that verse to Obama, I don't know, that's how I heard it right away (before reading that Paisley wrote it on Election Night after seeing how excited people were, and before seeing the music video where he has a black kid saying "when I grow up I want to be president" right before that verse). I definitely mentioned Obama in my review, right at the start, though noting that the song doesn't mention him or the election (http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/108697-brad-paisley-american-saturday-night/). Part of what I like about the song is the way it evokes that election-night feeling of anticipation without getting too specific. But at the same time, how will this song come across in a few years, outside of that recent memory of election-night, is a good question.

The interesting thing for me about WTTF is that Paisley (being 36) must have been in high school in about the 1986-1990 years--which places this cross burning well after the height of the Civil Rights movement and at a point in time when "The New South" was already a major concept. At that point people were already speaking of overt racism as a thing of the past--nice to see an acknowledgment from a white southern artist that things weren't so clear cut.

And Paisley has been pushing the Obama election night thing in interviews. I've even heard them mention it on the radio when introducing the song.

The verse definitely confused me the first time I heard it -- seemed to sort of be about Obama, except the famous guy with a "dream" was MLK; I guess I figured Brad was implying Obama, but too chicken to get more specific (and right, "Martin Luther" just seemed like a ignorant mistake.) Still like the song, though; like how it runs against the current country grain by explicitly arguing that a changing world is a good, not bad, thing.

I also like how the Future is musically represented by a synth riff that could have come off of an ELP song from 1971.

Singles Jukebox review roundups of recent singles by:

Toby Keith

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1196

Wilco (who were considered "alt-country" back in the old days, remember?)

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1217

Heartland

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1241

I think Matos and Miccio are probably right about that one Heartland riff being more "Jessie's Girl" than "Summer Of 69." If so, my bad I guess...

Of course "Welcome to the Future" isn't the first Paisley-related song about Obama:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lV1mIggoqE

Speaking of jokes, you really have to see "Blazing Saddles" with all the uses of the word 'nigger' in the dialog bleeped out on Country Music Television.

Was watching the CMA arena fest last night and Miranda Lambert's version of The Faces' "Stay With Me" was the pits. Plus, about half the arrangement was left out. And her band of hacks -- two guitarists -- in now way got down like Ron Wood, who really isn't known for being much of a commanding presence, anyway. (Although the song is one in which the guitar is just about as important as Rod Stewart's vocal.)

And Taylor Swift was her usual self -- pop rock or Def Leppard-real lite for those who found "Hysteria" a really heavy sound.

Jason Aldean did his Bad Company imitation and there were a lot of girls in the front row. For such a cock rock style song, he is really the total square.

And I guess Darius Rucker is now officially the Cleavon-Little-in-Blazing-Saddles of country music.

There -- four slurs in a row.

Lots of country in the new consumer guide:

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

CMA sound quality was bad all around. Especially for a show that was JUST performances without the pretense of awards. I could barely hear the lady in Lady Antebellum.

Favorite track on the Paisley: "You Do The Math"

I'm way behind on this thread, among other things. Some thoughts:

-- I still need to listen to the new Paisley and new John Anderson. Interesting that Xgau choice-cutted Anderson's version of "Shuttin Detroit Down" but not the hit version (which he may or may not have heard.)

-- Xgau dead wrong about Billy Currington album, but right about Bottle Rockets album (which I didn't really give the time of day until I noticed that Honorable Mention. Their drummer is really kicking now, and so is their songwriting; not sure I've ever heard a better album by them. A lot easier to get through than the new Drive By Truckers outtake thing, too, Zevon/Petty/Dylan covers on the latter or no.) I'm not as inspired to defend the Rodney Atkins and Jason Aldean albums against dudding as I was several months ago, though.

-- Every time I go to that Msn.com consumer guide link, a virus tries to climb into my laptop (which I just got serviced.) So be careful.

-- Saw a country radio sampler CD from c. 1995 in Half-Price Books last week that had a Hootie and the Blowfish song on it, along with obvious country stuff. Wasn't aware that Rucker had been unsuccessfully marketed to the country demographic years before he pulled it off.

-- Keep hearing two songs on country radio here (well, three or so times each) that I assume may not be new ("Texas country" classics maybe?), but google isn't helping me figure out who or what they are. The woolier, more outlaw one (and the one I kind of like) is about "smoking that pachuco weed" and going crazy and stuff; the more annoying and cloying one is about going to Mexico and throwing dinerrrros at the happy citzenry, reminding me of that old Saturday Night Live Weekend Update schtick where the newcasters would roll their r's and exagerrate their accents ridiculously whenever they said "Nicarrrragua." Anybody have any idea what those songs are?

-- Some discussion of old Georgia Satellites and new (and old) Drivin & Cryin albums on the Rolling Hard Rock thread last week, if anybody who's interested didn't notice; starts right about here:

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2009

Darius Rucker is now officially the Cleavon-Little-in-Blazing-Saddles of country music.

Where is Cowboy Troy when we need him?

Re: MSN Consumer Guide virus. Haven't noticed anything on my computer. But I wish they would go back to the original setup of Christgau's MSN Guide. Now, you have to stroll through each page to read one of his main reviews.

R-rolling-dude also calls Mexicans "muchachos," as I recall, and says something about they "don't care-o when I throw pesos their way." Or something like that. And tosses in a couple shoutouts to "seniorrritas" too, natch. All over your usual "Marrrrgarrrrritaville" lilt.

$1 album I liked more than I thought I would: Rattlesnake Annie, self-titled, Columbia 1987. Native-American-style-ponytailed no-makeup Willie Nelson hippie-trad protege; apparently sold big in Europe and flopped here. Best song "Somewhere South of Macon" could almost be Terri Gibbs; a few others could almost be Lacy J. Dalton, at least.

$1 album I liked less than I thought I would: Gary Stewart, Your Place Or Mine, RCA 1977. A Christgau A-, and Stewart only got one more of those in the '70s, over several albums. But beyond "Ten Years Of This" (great tired heading-for-divorce song which I already knew from the Greatest Hits album), I'm not hearing anything else great on it. All sounds fine, though Stewart's vocal mannerisms can get wearing. All in all, I'm not sure I'd take it over the Stewart/Dean Dillon album from five years later (an Xgau B-).

Xhuxk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB8Nkn3Xjes

Zac Brown?

Does he sing "ass" on the radio?

Yeah, that's the song obviously. Still have the ZB CD around here too, actually (on which it's the first track); just haven't played it since December or so, and I guess the specifics didn't hit me until the radio got to it. "All the muchachos they call me Big Poppa when I throw pesos their way" -- Country's first Notorious B.I.G. reference? And the music is at least as much James Taylor "Mexico" as "Margarittaville." Not sure whether he says "ass" on the radio (I'll listen closer next time if I'm can bear to sit through the thing); definitely rolls himself "a fat one," though -- no idea whether country stations outside of Austin can get away with that. Anyway, somehow, the patronizing minstrel Mexican accents don't quite creep me out so much, hearing them on youtube, as they do hearing them outside of my own volition in the car.

Personal to Brad Paisley, re "She's Her Own Woman," fifth track on your pretty-good-so-far new album (I like "Water" a lot btw): Tarragon, according to an immediately refrigerator-magnetable "Herb Highlights" chart in the August 2009 issue of my primary recipe bible Cooking Light, has a "licorice notes" (whatever that means - sounds yucky) taste; can be useful with seafood, chicken, eggs, sauces; and can be substituted with chevril and parsley if you don't have any on hand. (Strangely, tarragon itself can in turn substitute for dill if you don't have any of that on hand. No idea why the reverse doesn't also hold.) Anyway, if you want to know where your wife keeps the tarragon, you might consider first checking the spice cabinet. Just a thought.

Also, "Welcome To The Future (Reprise)" kind of freaked me out at first. I couldn't figure out why you used the exact same melody for two different songs. But then I realized they weren't exactly different.

(Oops, actually the tarragon song is Brad's sixth track, not fifth. Whatev.)

My local supermarket chain has a fantastic tarragon chicken salad.

I make fantastic rosemary chicken salad (w/ scallions, kalamata olives, almonds, shredded carrots, spicy mustard, anchovies). So there!

I did like that line, because at the time I heard it my wife and I'd been tearing through our tarragon like motherfuckers. We had to buy more! How often does that happen? I think it's this French cookbook... Brad should learn how to incorporate it into a sauce for all those fish he catches.

Out of morbid curiosity I listened to Billy McKnight's "Sweeter" f. Mindy McCready, which highlights Mindy at least as much as Billy. Despite Mindy fucking up everything else in her life, her voice is as steady and strong and warm as ever. This is a mush ballad that reaches for the sky, and in the soft parts before all the mountain climbing Billy's voice is inadequate - not awful but not giving much. He just doesn't have it. But when the strings build and the ascent starts, all the molten noise compensates for him, and Mindy melts the glaciers. I would definitely want to hear an album by her, if she can manage one.

As for Mindy and Billy being in the same room together... well, as for Mindy's everything, I'm thinking of that old Flipper song, "Get Away." Go Mindy, get away. Go go GET AWAY.

(For the curious, here's the Mindy McCready Wikipedia page.)

What I said about "Toes" over on my livejournal:

Folk guitar picking that starts with a slightly new age roll to it, then adds frills and goes Latin, the deep south's fascination with the farther south. Cheerful enough, the song can't quite lift itself above the singer's mediocrity. BORDERLINE NONTICK.

Via email; the xenophobic headline cracks me up. New Gene Watson album on Schanachie, A Taste Of The Truth (which is okay but not nearly as good as his Sings album from six years ago), also has a Trace Adkins duet on it; I wonder of Capitol will "ban" that one, too.

RONNIE MILSAP / TRACE ADKINS DUET BANNED FROM COUNTRY RADIO BY FOREIGN OWNED COMPANY

Nashville, TN (Sept. 16, 2009) Independent American-owned BLEVE Records got some devastating news today. The label’s first single, ”My First Ride,” a rockin’ feel good song performed by legendary entertainer Ronnie Milsap and featuring Capitol recording artist Trace Adkins was rapidly climbing up the country radio charts and garnering national attention in the press.

But that all stopped with a single phone call from Capitol Records Nashville President Mike Dungun. BLEVE Records has been ordered to “cease and desist” with any further unauthorized promotion of this single. Capitol Records has threatened legal action if BLEVE Records does not immediately halt any further publicity or sales of “My First Ride.”

BLEVE Records was created to benefit the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of Firefighters. This song was to be the first release from a multi artist compilation CD due out Nov. 1.

BLEVE’s mission is to raise money to help replenish the disaster relief funds of the FOP and IAFF. These funds aid firefighters and police officers and their families experiencing financial hardship after a natural or man made disaster or in times of need due to injury or death in the line of duty. These funds were in the millions prior to 9/11 and recent hurricanes, but are now severely depleted. The proceeds from the sale of “My First Ride” and the compilation CD were slated to help replenish these funds.

Ronnie Milsap was excited to have his long time friend, Trace Adkins, perform on the song with him. Firefighters and police officers were thrilled to have such high caliber artists donate their time and talent for the cause.

Capitol Records, however, sees things a little differently. BLEVE Records President, Mickey Milam, a retired Metro Nashville police officer, has trouble understanding it. “I’ve known Mike Dungun for years. He has a reputation of being fair, so I didn’t see this coming. Trace was gracious enough to sing on this single, not only as a favor to his good friend Ronnie Milsap, but also because he believes in our cause. “

Capitol Records Nashville is owned by the conglomerate company Terra Firma out of Germany. Milam believes that pressure from this foreign- based company is what has slowed his song at radio. “It’s unfortunate that we Americans are being told by a foreign country what music we get to hear on the radio, “says Milam. “We are a very small company, with a handful of dedicated employees. We do not have an enormous marketing budget or a large promotion team. What we have is 600,000 FOP and IAFF members nation wide and in Canada that want to hear this song on the radio. What we have is a desire to raise money for firefighters, police officers and their families who are in need. My hope is that Americans and Canadians embrace our cause and demand that this song be played. “

What else? I like the new Cross Canadian Ragweed album more than the new Jack Ingram album, not what I would have expected. And new Rosie Flores and Kendell Carson albums are not bad, I guess. And the new Brad Paisley one is almost as good as everybody says it is. That's about it.

not heard the new Miranda Lambert yet, i take it?

Yeah I have, actually; I say some things here:

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1339

Also, a couple emusic reviews I wrote in the past few months:

Charlie Robison

http://www.emusic.com/album/Charlie-Robison-Beautiful-Day-MP3-Download/11487591.html

Alice Peacock

http://www.emusic.com/album/Alice-Peacock-Love-Remains-MP3-Download/11413187.html

Andy Friedman

http://www.emusic.com/album/Andy-Friedman-Weary-Things-MP3-Download/11371123.html

Almost always avoided watching Hee Haw as a kid, really couldn't stand it, but I had some vague recollection of Junior Samples when I saw this old Pickwick Records LP Moonshining for a dollar a couple months ago, plus the back cover with some nerdy traveling musicologist interviewing near-400 pound overall-wearing redneck Junior into a tape recorder on the porch of some shack was too weird to resist, so I bought it. And what a strange record: One-third obvious Hee Haw style country comedy corn (first track, "It's a Hee Haw," is all dumb one liners); one-third (accidental?) mock Alan Lomax Folkways document with the musicologist guy asking Junior leading questions; one third dead-on throwback to absurdist depression-era comedic white talking blues, including still timely routines about insurance salesmen, stock markets crashing, and price of medical care. Whole thing lasts under 25 minutes, total. According to Wiki, Samples was a former stock car racer from Georgia who became a fish-tale-telling radio comedian at age 40 (c. 1966), "and created a bumbling personality." BR-549 apparently took their name from some recurring Hee Haw sketch where he played a used car salesmen begging you to call that number. Doesn't explain to what extent his clueless backwoods yokel character is based on his actual life. Also, "In 1974, Samples announced that he was 'seriously considering' running for lieutenant governor of Georgia on a Republican ticket with then-mayor Ronnie Thompson, who was seeking the party's gubernatorial nomination. The media at first presented Samples' announcement as a political story. However, Samples was pulling a practical joke for publicity purposes."

First Steve Forbert LP, Alive On Arrival from 1978, supposedly the highlight of his career, also purchased for a dollar, was not nearly as entertaining. Did places like Rolling Stone really single him out as "the next Dylan" then, or is that just my imagination running away again? I'm pretty sure they did, though. And if they did, they must have been very desperate. He's not even the next Tom Petty! Might be the original Conor Oberst, though, not sure. Anyway, I never realized that "What Kinda Girl?" from Rosanne Cash's Seven Year Ache was originally a Forbert song called "What Kinda Guy?" Definitely prefer her more powerpoppish gender-altered version. And I'm pretty sure my college radio station in Missouri used to play "You Cannot Win If You Do Not Play," which is not a horrible little choogle I'll admit. But nothing here is half as memorable as his one pop hit (and future Keith Urban cover), "Romeo's Tune," from his next album, which critics all called a letdown at the time. Mostly the debut seems to be songs actually about busking, evidently because that's the only thing he knows about. I wouldn't be surprised if his followup was catchier, not that I plan to spend a $1 to find out. (I do see it around a lot.)

Wow, this thread is totally on life support, isn't it?

Anyway, some potentially useful recent additions to Billboard's country song chart that I don't think I've heard, though maybe somebody else has:

11 11 18 4 Cowboy Casanova, Carrie Underwood
M.Bright (C.Underwood,M.Elizondo,B.James ) 19 DIGITAL | Arista

19 19 19 31 Red Light, David Nail
F.Liddell,M.Wrucke (J.Singleton,M.Peirce,D.Matkosky ) MCA Nashville DIGITAL | 19

28 35 49 3 Southern Voice, Tim McGraw
B.Gallimore,T.McGraw,D.Smith (T.Douglas,B.DiPiero ) Curb DIGITAL | 28

32 33 36 14 Today, Gary Allan
M.Wright,G.Allan (B.Long,T.L.James ) MCA Nashville DIGITAL | 32

37 38 42 9 Beer On The Table, Josh Thompson
M.Knox (J.Thompson,K.Johnson,A.Zack ) Columbia DIGITAL | 37

46 51 2 Sara Smile, Jimmy Wayne Featuring Daryl Hall & John Oates
D.Huff (D.Hall,J.Oates ) Valory PROMO SINGLE | 46

47 49 3 Keep On Lovin' You, Steel Magnolia
D.Huff (C.Stapleton,T.Willmon ) Big Machine DIGITAL | 47

48 48 51 8 Love Lives On, Mallary Hope
D.Bason (M.Hope,S.Stevens,M.West ) MCA Nashville DIGITAL | 48

49 50 56 3 Everywhere I Go, Phil Vassar
P.Vassar (P.Vassar,J.Steele ) Universal South DIGITAL | 49

50 57 59 4 Stuck, Ash Bowers
B.Cannon (F.J.Myers,B.Montana ) Stoney Creek DIGITAL | 50

52 55 2 19 And Crazy, Bomshel
M.Irwin,J.Kear,K.Omunson (M.Irwin,J.Kear,K.Osmunson,K.Shepard ) Curb PROMO SINGLE | 52

56 NEW 1 How Far Do You Wanna Go?, Gloriana
M.Serletic (M.Serletic,J.Steele,D.Myrick ) Emblem/Warner Bros. DIGITAL | WRN | 56

59 58 58 3 Mister Officer, Jypsi
N.Chapman (E.M.Hill,J.Kear ) Arista Nashville DIGITAL | 58

And Singles Jukebox reviews of current singles by:

Boys Like Girls feat. Taylor Swift

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1421

Jason Aldean

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1413

Taylor Swift

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1373

Michelle Branch (actually now on the country chart)

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1357

Katie Armiger

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1293

Uh, guess I did already hear Steel Magnolia's "Keep On Lovin' You" after all. Mentioned it upthread a spell. Didn't like it much. And it is apparently (and unfortunately) not an REO Speedwagon cover.

19 19 19 31 Red Light, David Nail

I like this song better than anything else on his album, which is rather bland (going for a train/matchbox 20 ballad thing most of the time). This song may not be any more interesting musically than the others, but I like the detail in the story the lyrics tell. He's at a red light in his car with his girlfriend. She leans over to tell him something. He thinks she's going to say 'look at the guy across the street' or 'look at that kid over there', and instead she breaks up with him.

Cowboy Casanova, Carrie Underwood = Bond-theme glam rock, with a pinch each of Nancy Sinatra and Joan Jett. (Latter because title character leans against record machine.)

Red Light, David Nail = As erasingclouds says, more or less. Not awful.

Southern Voice, Tim McGraw = Lite Southern rock list-song: Rosa Parks, Aretha Franklin, Chuck Berry, Pocahontas, Michael Jordan, Billy Graham, Bear Bryant, Hank Williams, "Dr. King," Tom Petty, Jerry Lee, etc.. "Don't let this Allman Brothers (later Charlie Daniels) T-shirt throw ya, we're just boys making noise with a Southern voice." Not bad; may or may not grow on me when I catch all the other names.

Today, Gary Allan -- Dad's daughter gets married. Or starts to date. Oh wait, no I'm wrong -- guy's wife and/or girlfriend leaves instead. I think. Oh wait, nope, I think his ex-girlfriend gets wed to somebody else. Heartfelt, of course. But he's done much better. Actually seems more like a Tim McGraw than a Gary Allan song, when you get down to it.

Beer On The Table, Josh Thompson -- Watered-down-Seger via Garth working-for-weekend talking drinking boogie, passingly clever and fun.

Sara Smile, Jimmy Wayne Featuring Daryl Hall & John Oates -- Definitive proof blue-eyed soul is now country, I guess. Couldn't find a version on youtube or Rhapsody with Hall and Oates helping out; the live busker renditions with Wayne on youtube seemed okay but too slow. Will To Power version (with Donna Allen) was way better. Have never heard Boyz II Men, Big Mountain, Joan Osbourne, Latimore, or Boney James versions.

Love Lives On, Mallary Hope -- Big ballad to her ex; learning to live without him type song. He died, and surviving mom and daughter visit his grave on his birthday. Maudlin, forgettable, generic. But still big.

Everywhere I Go, Phil Vassar -- Good singing, nothing song. (And nobody around here likes him anywhere near as much as I usually do, anyway.)

Stuck, Ash Bowers -- Butt-rock country about working the assembly line, watching hours get chewed up. As loud as anything Jason Aldean's done, and maybe a smarter song. Except long about now, I have a feeling most guys still on the line are just relieved they haven't been laid off.

19 And Crazy, Bomshel -- Can't find this, which sucks, because it's the one I was most looking forward to. Though supposedly one of the two Bomshels changed since their album that never came out three years ago.

How Far Do You Wanna Go?, Gloriana = Hearts-and-hormones-racing teenybop sex metaphor, more blatant about it than their previous single, and probably better. Also a runaway-from-this-town song, not as good as Love & Theft's from earlier this year but in the same general vicinity. Not sure it lives up to its opening stomp, and not sure why it keeps slowing down (though there's a talk part that kinda suggests early Tom Petty.) But almost definitely the best song on this list...

Mister Officer, Jypsi -- ...Unless this one is. But with this one, I might just really like the video. Very new wave. Or modern rock. Or psychedelic. Or just plain slutty. Anyway, a catchy song about distracted driving. Not because of a cellphone, but because a guy's on their mind. I like when they say they yes they realize this isn't the Autobahn. What other US hits since Kraftwerk have even used that word?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyh3DSbr1_I

Thanks for the Jypsi clip. Don't know if I'd call it country but that's ok, it's an excellent tune.

wow! man, these are some hot chicks! just take a look at those gams!!! (oh, and the song is fun too.)

So, here's a question: How stupid would it be if I were to buy a Best Of CD by Lonestar? I've heard their 2000 #1 "What About Now" on the radio twice this month, had no idea what it was, but liked it a lot -- just a real pumping slice of Springsteen-country. Always thought "Mr. Mom" from 2004 was kind of cute, too. Beyond that, I have no idea, though I've always been under the impression that their repertoire was 85 percent mush. Might've been good mush, though. (And both of those songs, fwiw, were after John Rich got fired from the band in 1998.)

Anyway. That new Carrie Underwood song above is not as glam-rock (or as good) as I made it out to be. The elements are kind of there, but they don't add up to a song that's at all fun to sit through. (Also, I realized lotsa Shania Twain '90s hits could also be described as "Bond-theme glam rock, with a pinch each of Nancy Sinatra and Joan Jett," but pretty much any of them did it way better than this song.)

Frank Kogan does't like the song much either, but surprisingly enough he does like the new Lady Antebellum ballad, which I dismissed above:

http://koganbot.livejournal.com/172572.html#cutid1

And speaking of gams, this is the video for the single off Those Darlins' CD (which has yet to hit the country chart, and probably won't -- single or album both), but don't hold that against it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P0XBgSNZEQ

Legs more realistic live, though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C6vgIX25_Q

Aaaaand...a dicussion (in which I take part) of Miranda Lambert's new album can be found here:

miranda lambert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C6vgIX25_Q

Oops, sorry about those duplicated Darlins; not sure how that happened.

Those Darlins tune is about a minute and a half too long for the ramalama which is monochrome monotonous.

Is the entire album like that? In style reminds me of the sometimes good but mostly mediocre to poor cowpunk indie records that came out of LA in the late Eighties, stuff like the Screamin' Sirens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-LP8qmsQFc

Hmmm, cowpunk-style do on Pirates' Shakin All Over. Probably was louder in person. Still could use a bit more Link Wray, maybe a lot more.

Yeah, it's possible I just really miss fair-to-middling '80s cowpunk (which I really wasn't a real big fan of at the time, go figure.) That'd explain me paying $1 for the first Jason and the Scorchers LP (the one after the EP, which I already had) last month. Anyway, "Red Light Love" definitely wouldn't have been my choice for the single off Those Darlins' album -- more like the fourth or fifth choice (think I liked "Hung Up On Me," "The Whole Damn Thing," "Snaggletooth Mama" and "DUI Or Die" more last time I checked), and it's also one of the longer songs (only one of four -- out of 12 -- over three minutes; only "DUI or Die" is over four.) But they're definitely missing something; album seems consistently likeable to me but never quite loveable. Probably it's partly just that they don't have the chops (vocal and instrumental) to match their personalities, which are clearly there. Have no problem with their songwriting, or their sense of humor. And the music has as much energy as anything out of Nashville lately. It'd be interesting to hear what major-label production would do for them, but I have a feeling that's not going to happen.

xp And yeah, they could really use an Amy Surdu (Gore Gore Girls) on guitar to beef up the sound. That "Shakin' All Over" is still kinda hot, though. (And actually, going back and looking at the album, "Red Light Love" might've been more like my eighth choice for a single. Wonder if it was picked partly 'cause other cuts seemed too short?)

Speaking of Steve Forbert (not that this is relevant to Rolling Country, and I'll admit that I've never heard a Steve Forbert album in full), I recently called Drake the Steve Forbert of nice-guy hip-hop superstars (though Fabolous would be the Steve Forbert of all of hip-hop, unless it's Pitbull).

I was as surprised as Xhuxk at my liking Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now." I'm sure I didn't like the first album as much as Xhuxk did, or anything on it as much as this. Seems to be holding up to multiple listens, though who's to tell if I'd like it surrounded by similar mush on an album.

If Rickie Lee Jones belongs on this thread (sure she does; even if she's "jazzy," she's a singer-songwriter folkie), I embedded her on my lj and discussed her doing really hard rock (live mid '90s).

(As Xhuxk says, Rickie Lee was in her post-grunge and jam band phases, neither of which we'd previously known had existed. But I never knew much about Rickie Lee.)

Major milestone today: Over a year after the album it's on came out, and at least six months after it was released as a single, and right on the verge of him releasing his next album, I finally heard "High Cost Of Living" by Jamey Johnson on the radio for the very first time ever! (Take 290 from Austin toward Houston, and the stations you hear around those little towns like Elgin and Giddings and Brenham get pretty outlaw -- I swear, I heard the following three songs, on three different stations, all between around 105.5 and 107.0 FM, right after after each other: Montgomery Gentry "Long Line Of Losers," David Allan Coe "The Ride," Jamey Johnson "High Cost Of Living." Probably not a good place to knock over somebody else's beer, if you go to a bar.)

Best album of the 2010s so far: Ray Wylie Hubbard A. Enlightenment B. Endarkment (Hint: There Is No C) (Thirty Tigers/Bordello), due out in mid January. (I've never listened to him before; in fact, I'm pretty sure I've heard more country songs where he's mentioned by other people than ones he actually sings. But here at least, he's got a tough blues-rock sound, and the songs really churn, and the words sound smart. Not sure whether I'll like it more or less as time goes on, but at least I made it through the thing on first listen -- way more than I say for the latest albums by Guy Clark and Robert Earl Keen, fellow Texas country elder-statesman cult heroes who I've at least been making a point of trying to listen to since I moved down here. Those two albums struck me as really drab; Hubbard's doesn't hit me that way at all. Would be curious about other folks' thoughts about the guy.)

why are people who are inclined to hate nashville auto-twang country interested in Miranda Lambert?
is she better than everything else?