Rolling Country 2020

Is it rolling Bob

Now then: Chuck Eddy's account is still messed up, despite requests---mods too cool---so here's his Nashville Scene ballot re 2019:

Chuck sez:
Sent in my ballot a few weeks ago, before I heard the album by Mike and the Moonpies, which may well have made my list if I had.

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2019:

1. Miranda Lambert - Wildcard (Vanner/RCA)
2. Heathen Apostles - Dust To Dust (Ratchet Blade)
3. The Rails - Cancel The Sun (Psychonaut Sounds)
4. Kalie Shorr - Open Book (Kalie Shorr)
5. Tom Russell - October in the Railroad Earth (Frontera)
6. Tara Thompson — Hillbilly Christmas (TDT Enterprises)
7. Granville Automatic - Radio Hymns (Granville Automatic)
8. Reba McEntire - Stronger Than the Truth (Big Machine )
9. Billie Davis - Rosie's Cantina (Market Square)
10. Tone Bringsdal — Prologue (Mother Likes It EP}

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2019:

1. Blanco Brown - “The Git Up”
2. YelaWolf - “Opie Taylor”
3. Lil Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus - “Old Town Road (Remix)”
4. The Highwomen - “Highwomen”
5. Merle Hazard - “(Gimme Some of That) Ol’ Atonal Music”
6. Michael Salgado - “Honky Tonk Education”
7. Meat Puppets - “Nine Pins”
8. Paul Cauthen - “Cocaine Country Dancing”
9. Dillon Carmichael - “99 Problems (Fish Ain’t One)”
10. RaeLynn - “Bra Off”

TOP ONE COUNTRY REISSUE OF 2019:

Lone Justice - The Western Tapes, 1983 (Omnivore EP)

Seems kind of perverse to not rank The Highwomen album (a better LP than Miranda’s, by any measure); and to choose the one song from that album which is essentially a rewritten cover of a “classic” tune... but whatever.

My ballot, as sent---the blogged version (with comments, although most so far were on RC 2019) will prob have some adds, incl. some from Chuck's list, most likely):

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2019:
(just in the order they come to mind)
1.Tyler Childers: Country Squire
2.Rodney Crowell: Texas
3. Caroline Spence: Mint Condition
4. Willie Nelson: Ride Me Back Home
5.Kalie Shorr: Open Book
6. Sturgill Simpson: Sound & Fury
7.Kelsey Weldon: White Noise/White Lines
8. Justin Townes Earle: The Saint of Lost Causes
9. Allison Moorer: Blood
10. Patty Griffin: s/t
Hon. Mention: Bruce Robison & Kelly Willis: Beautiful Lie
About Half Good (60-45%), in descending order of Goodness or goodness:
Maren Morris: Girl, Highwomen: s/t, Hayes Carll: What It Is, Tanya Tucker: While I’m Livin’

Trivial Pursuit: Miranda Lambert: Wildcard

Milk Dud: Amanda Ann Platt & The Honeycutters: Live at the Grey Eagle

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2019:
(in descending order of relevance)
1.Bob Dylan (Featuring Johnny Cash) Travelin Thru, 1967-1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 15
(Cash incl. In credit on bobdylan.com listing)
2. Reggie Young: Guitar Session Star
3. Sir Douglas Quintet: The Complete Mercury Masters
(digital-only re-reissue https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07M6X5HJ8/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp)
(scroll waaay down for re-reissue date)
4. Link Wray: Rocks (Bear Family beast).
5.
RELATED:
1.Sheryl Crow: Threads
2.Hot Club of Cowtown: Wild Kingdom
3. Matana Roberts: Coin Coin Dance Chapter Four: Memphis
4.Lillie Mae: Other Girls
5.Arthur Russell: Iowa Dream
6.Lost Bayou Ramblers: Asteur
7. Peter Stampfel & Atomic Mega-Pagans: The Ordivician Era

My take on that Link Wray collection was posted on this redoubtable thread, which I recently discovered:
Rockabilly - essentials?

(a better LP than Miranda’s, by any measure)

you got this backward, hoss

or at least put an "imo" somewhere

Feel free to mentally place an implied "IMO" into every one of my posts, "hoss" ;)

I so suck for typo in Kelsey *Waldon*'s listing on sent ballot. My Matana Roberts comments are on Rolling Jazz Thread 2019
My and other comments on, good discussion of AR's latest here: Ok . MORE Arthur Russell (But This Is Great)

Post more Top Tens!

My most strictly thread-relevant Reggie Young comments are on RC 2019, but these are def. Related---from the Sweet Soul Music thread:

First listen to Reggie Young's Guitar Session Man has my headphones spinning: so much to take in, so much goodness coming at me from all directions, and would be so even if there weren't 24 tracks on one CD. Most thread-relevant elements noticed so far:
The only Muscle Shoals-recorded track is Little Milton's '02 version of Vince Gill's '90s country hit "Whenever You Come Around," here with a questing soul orchestra, layered and strong as the ones released like hounds in '60s Memphis, on the Box Tops' cover of Hank Snow's "I'm Movin' On" and Elvis's run with Percy Mayfield's "Stranger In My Own Hometown."
Most of this is from Memphis, incl. duh Dusty Springfield's performance of Gerry Goffin & Carole King's "Don't Forget About Me," which was on a single w the Fritts-written "Breakfast in Bed."
Fritts' KK bandmate Billy Swan rolls out of Nashville with a fast version of his own "Lover Please," a big late-doo wop hit for Clyde McPhatter :this take is more like what Ringo was doing at his 70s solo peak.
We also get the prime of James Carr, Solomom Burke, Bobby Blue Bland, and many others---my absolute fave rave at the moment is Jackie DeShannon's departure with "I Wanna Roo You," here a fast crashy waltz, mostly (slowing down for the bridge, but it's a set-up, like the mellow verses on "I'm Movin' On), and she's often, though not always, wailing the chorus as "I want to ruin ruin ruin you. Ruin you tonight."

― dow, Monday, October 21, 2019

Wow

― Beware of Mr. Blecch, er...what? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, October 21

Yeah! And Ace Records annotator Bob Dunham mentions Young's hot solos on the Swan track as prob not the sort of thing released on Nashville product since Mac Gayden's previous work with Area Code 615, which reminds me that this selection is immediately followed by the Gayden-written "Morning Glory," vigorously presented by James & Bobby Purify---they and the Box Tops also did versions of "I'm Your Puppet," right?

― dow, Monday, October 21,

Yes. They had the hit on that one.

― Beware of Mr. Blecch, er...what? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, October 21,

thanks discogs:

Tracklist
1 –Eddie Bond & His Stompers* Slip, Slip, Slippin' In
2 –Bill Black's Combo Carol
3 –Bobby Bland A Touch Of The Blues
4 –Jerry & Reggie* Dream Baby
5 –The Box Tops* I'm Movin' On
6 –Willie Mitchell The Champion - Part 1
7 –Solomon Burke Meet Me In Church
8 –Joe Tex Chicken Crazy
9 –King Curtis & The King Pins* In The Pocket
10 –James Carr More Love
11 –Dusty Springfield Don't Forget About Me
12 –Elvis Presley Stranger In My Own Home Town
13 –Jackie DeShannon I Wanna Roo You
14 –Dobie Gray Drift Away
15 –Sonny Curtis Rock'N Roll (I Gave You The Best Years Of My Life)
16 –Delbert McClinton Victim Of Life's Circumstances
17 –Billy Swan Lover Please
18 –James & Bobby Purify Morning Glory
19 –J.J. Cale Cocaine
20 –Merle Haggard I Think I'll Just Stay Here And Drink
21 –Waylon Jennings / Willie Nelson / Johnny Cash / Kris Kristofferson Highwayman
22 –Natalie Merchant Griselda
23 –Little Milton Whenever You Come Around
24 –Waylon Jennings Where Do We Go From Here

― dow, Monday, October 21

The Joe Tex track is not up to several of his hits mentioned in the notes, where Dunham says they would have picked "Skinny Legs and All," but it's already on another Young-inclusive Ace comp, Memphis Boys. Damm it, whiiiine

― dow, Monday, October 21

Re single from upcoming Brandy Clark album, with link to video:
https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/nashville-cream/article/21109697/brandy-clark-releases-who-you-thought-i-was-album-details

Also advance track from Ashley McBryde:
https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/nashville-cream/article/21110103/tensions-boil-over-in-ashley-mcbrydes-martha-divine

yooo this little big town record

Big thing on them in yesterday's Wall St Journal, which I haven't read yet.
Here's this: https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/cover-story/article/21110118/20th-annual-country-music-critics-poll

"throw your love away" on the little big town record is so fucking good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCYsnofk3K4

yeah this album is so good

leans hard into the "lost in california" vibes <3

it's produced by the golden hour duo

Weed & Cannabis?

hehe

Merle Hazard - “(Gimme Some of That) Ol’ Atonal Music”

ok, my music geek kids got a huge kick out of this

Long, interesting article:

https://variety.com/2020/music/opinion/women-country-radio-tweet-reignites-firestorm-kacey-musgraves-kelsea-ballerini-1203472923/

other amazing songs on the little big town record:

next to you
title track
over drinking
questions
the daughters
river of stars
sugar coat
trouble with forever

ok most of 'em

re: "sugar coat"

and one of these nights i'll meet you in the driveway
and tell you to go to hell
go to hell

the first 5 songs go so hard i've had trouble getting to the rest of the album

the lord did bless us with another wonderful song titled "bluebird" tho

'river of stars' is so beautiful

Effective immediately all music video hours on CMT and CMT Music channels will have complete parity between male and female artists. That means 50/50. #CMTEqualPlay

— CMT (@CMT) January 21, 2020

Wonder if that will have any impact on country radio ( where stations can’t even play 2 songs in a row by female acts)

Howdy, Edd Hurt here. Wrote a couple things about Reggie Young, mentioned above, last year: https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/nashville-cream/article/21044397/reggie-young-19362019 and this (listen to "Mercy," referenced below, good example of Young's tact):

Reggie Young
Session guitar legend

Reggie Young, who died in Leiper’s Fork on Jan. 17 at age 82, played guitar on a huge number of recordings that have become country, pop and soul classics. Young added his fluid licks to Dusty Springfield’s 1969 album Dusty in Memphis, and he played on sessions with Elvis Presley, Joe Tex, James Carr, Billy Swan and Dobie Gray. Many of Young’s best-known recordings feature a lick, invented by Young, that defines the performance. Like his fellow Memphis rhythm-guitar masters Teenie Hodges and Bobby Womack, Young was a structural thinker.

Young was born Dec. 12, 1936, in Caruthersville, Mo. He made his name in pop and country, and he lived and recorded in Nashville for decades. But I like to think of him as a quintessential Memphis musician. Like Hodges, who devised unforgettable licks for records by Al Green and producer Willie Mitchell, Young knew how to lay back in a rhythm section. You can hear his restraint on an obscure 1967 Willie Mitchell record, “Mercy,” in which Young plays strict rhythm guitar behind Memphis ax man Clarence Nelson’s brief, stinging lead.

I saw Young demonstrate some of his signature inventions at a 2008 program at the Country Music Hall of Fame. He played his intro to Swan’s 1974 track “I Can Help,” and he made it look easy. For Young, it was about the total effect — he never showed off, because he didn’t have to. —Edd Hurt

Didn't know he'd died, damn!

From Mary Gauthier's Feb. enewsletter:

David Olney
1948-2020

The world lost a great artist on January 18th. We songwriters lost a dear friend. David Olney was a man with genius and wide-reaching vision. He was the master of perspective. Point of view in his songs was forever original and brilliant. Unparalleled Mastery.

He wrote from the viewpoint of the Iceberg in "Titanic." From the point of view of the huckster ripping people off on the hill next to Jesus in "Jerusalem Tomorrow." From the viewpoint of the dummy, talking to the ventriloquist, in "Who's The Dummy Now?"

I cannot pick a favorite Olney song, but I do come back to this one over and over, written from the viewpoint of a French prostitute, in "1917."
(if this doesn't show up here, it's on youtube)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoqXmR_npUs&fbclid=IwAR3BH3ggKomdimJR-KE9zKjcd16ClpZewwILACnFIWTVcBxRR2lnMnh9TeE

Wow to "Throw Your Love Away"! Excited to hear the rest of the album.

Here were my 2019 favorites in roughly the order I'd rank them:

ALBUMS
Michaela Anne - Desert Dove*
Miranda Lambert - Wildcard
Ian Noe - Between the Country
Jon Pardi - Heartache Medication
Emily Scott Robinson - Traveling Mercies
The Highwomen - s/t

SONGS
Emily Scott Robinson - The Dress*
Jon Pardi - Old Hat
Madison Kozak - First Last Name*
Miranda Lambert - Mess With My Head
Jon Pardi - Heartache Medication
Joy Williams - The Trouble with Wanting*
Tyler Childers - All Your'n
Hailey Whitters - Ten Year Town
Mike & The Moonpies - You Look Good in Neon
Maren Morris - The Feels
Ashley McBryde - One Night Standards
Midland - Let It Roll
Luke Combs - Even Though I'm Leaving
Ingrid Andress - More Hearts Than Mine
Joshua Ray Walker - Canyon
Caroline Spence - Mint Condition

*Gut-punchers

Just put on the LBT. Holy hell "Next To You"!

This is p cool:

“I’ve really never seen any four people work as well together as they do,” says singer-songwriter Lori McKenna, a longtime collaborator. “I’ve also never seen four people write songs to the harmonies. When I watch them write a lyric around a note that they all can sing, it’s mind-blowing. It’s almost like a kind of sign language; they use their hands, point to one another. I don’t know if they know all the names of what they’re doing [when they work together]. But together, when they sing, they flow like water, like liquid.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/little-big-town-new-album-tour-dates-946655/

"next to you" is amazing

also i interviewed LBT once for a story that wasn't about them and they were very generous w/ their time even when they didn't need to be, so that makes me like them a little extra

LBT is one of the bigger acts not to have their own ILM thread which makes sense bc i think they're underrated round these parts and maybe operating in a style that isn't one to cross over to other audiences. despite them being generally extremely good especially on their past several albums, which i rarely put on but always enjoy listening to.

i first was impressed w/their chops on Pain Killer, which was among other things evidence that whatever type of song they wanted to pull off, they could do it. in addition to their way with close harmonies they can really tear shit up when they choose to do so.

When my wife and I did our Southern road trip to Nashville, Muscle Shoals, Clarksdale, and Memphis, Little Big Town were on the multi-act bill at the Grand Ol Opry. Impressive harmonies. At times a bit too polished for me, but I generally like their country meets Fleetwood Mac sound.

When we were just up in NYC, they were at the Apollo for a couple of shows! We just noticed it after the gigs had already happened when we were touring the Apollo.

@RScountry
Whitney Rose previews her new album 'We Still Go to Rodeos' with a compassionate spin on the cheating song in "Believe Me, Angela" https://rol.st/31tidvk Cosmic Canadian cowgirl rolls on

Anyone have a recommendation for a country station, podcast or show worth streaming?

New York's Country, 94.7: Haven't listened a whole lot, but seems okay, am told it's usually pretty good; Maura posted link on a previous RC---and hey, commercial-free Mondays!
https://newyorkscountry947.radio.com/blogs/joe-cingrana/commercial-free-mondays-on-new-yorks-country-947?utm_source=second-street&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Sam+Hunt+Tix%2c+Martina+Tix%2c+CFM%2c+Troops%2c+Miranda+News%2c+Aldean+News%2c+Oscars+Best%2c+Listen+App

Thanks!

Grady Smith's youtube channel is worth keeping an eye on

http://www.youtube.com/GradySmith

Maren Morris “The Bones” is the first solo song by a woman to hit #1 since Taylor Swift “You Belong with Me” in 2009, per @chartdata on twitter

X-post- for a guy with hundreds of thousands of YouTube followers, that Grady Smith guy didn’t seem that smart or charismatic in his episode on country music TikTok. He seemed clueless that young folks would do karaoke like videos there, and he mocked country songs that have rap inspired vocals .

Can't say I've seen that one but I used to read his writing in The Guardian and thought he had a good ear for talent and an unpretentious style. Now primarily follow him on Twitter but occasionally watch his album review videos.

He’s unpretentious, which is good, just has those flaws I mentioned.

new jason isbell is predictably great
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPek7jto9l0

After spending a week with New York 94.7 (thanks, dow!), I wanted less "10,000 Hours" so I looked for local owned stations and came across KBST in Big Spring, Texas. Pretty good station with waaay more character that so far seems to only be about 1/2 current hits. The stream doesn't sound as good, but that seems appropriate. Plus local ads for laundromats and mineral rights consulting!

Cool, and speaking of Texas, should have thought of https://kutx.org/about-kutx-music

Maren Morris “The Bones” is the first solo song by a woman to hit #1 since Taylor Swift “You Belong with Me” in 2009, per @chartdata on twitter

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, February 11, 2020 9:56 AM (one week ago)

this is not correct. it's the first solo song by a woman to hit #1 on country airplay AND go top 10 in all-format airplay since "you belong with me"

other songs by any artist to have done the same since "you belong with me":

lady antebellum "need you now" (2010)
florida georgia line (ft. nelly) "cruise" (2013)
sam hunt "body like a back road" (2017)
bebe rexha ft. florida georgia line "meant to be" (2018)
dan + shay "speechless" (2019)
dan + shay & justin beiber "10,000 hours" (2019)

and now "the bones". so this stat is more about crossover than acceptance at country radio alone (which, yes, is paltry for women, but not quite THAT horrendous)

this kicks ass

alee - "no one like you"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJrVn_2QoYg

canada stand up

Excerpts from press release about new Maren Morris tour:
Grammy-winning artist Maren Morris will embark on “RSVP: The Tour” throughout North America, including festival dates at Governors Ball Music Festival and Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience and headline stops in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Colorado’s storied Red Rocks Amphitheatre and many more. Supporting acts James Arthur, Ryan Hurd and Caitlyn Smith are confirmed for select dates. The tour kicks off in June following Maren’s headlining appearance at the Houston Rodeo on March 7, her biggest show to date.
,,,Last week marked the second consecutive week at #1 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart for Maren’s song “The Bones,” making it the first solo female back-to-back #1 since 2012 and her fourth #1 single to date. It also marks the first solo female Billboard country #1 since her single “GIRL” topped the chart last summer. In addition, Morris recently appeared on the 50th season of “Sesame Street” in an episode titled “Let’s Draw”—watch here.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O08nNZt074&feature=emb_title
MAREN MORRIS LIVE
March 7 Houston, TX Houston Rodeo
May 24 Napa, CA BottleRock Napa Valley
June 5 Boston, MA Rockland Trust Bank Pavilion*‡
June 6 Gilford, NH Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion*‡
June 7 New York, NY Governors Ball Music Festival
July 10 Calgary, AB The Scotiabank Saddledome
July 24 Boca Raton, FL Mizner Park Amphitheatre*‡
July 25 Jacksonville, FL Daily’s Place*‡
July 30 Cleveland, OH Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica*‡
August 7 Kansas City, MO Starlight Amphitheatre*‡
August 8 Indianapolis, IN Farm Bureau Insurance Lawn at White River State Park*‡
August 21 Atlanta, GA Ameris Bank Amphitheater*
August 22 Raleigh, NC Red Hat Amphitheater*‡
August 22-23 Lexington, KY Railbird Festival
August 27 Detroit, MI Freedom Hill Amphitheatre*
August 28 Grand Rapids, MI Van Andel Arena*
September 4-6 Aspen, CO Jazz Aspen Snowmass
September 7 Morrison, CO Red Rocks Amphitheatre†
September 10 Abbotsford, BC Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre†‡
September 11 Portland, OR Moda Center – Theater of the Clouds†
September 17 Charlotte, NC Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre†‡
September 18 Charlottesville, VA Sprint Pavilion†‡
September 19 Columbia, MD Merriweather Post Pavilion†‡
September 25 Montréal, QC Corona Theatre‡
October 1 Tuscaloosa, AL Tuscaloosa Amphitheater†‡
October 9 Rogers, AR Walmart AMP†‡
October 15 San Diego, CA Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre at SDSU†‡
October 17 Los Angeles, CA Greek Theatre†
*with Ryan Hurd
†with James Arthur
‡with Caitlyn Smith
For more information, please contact
Carla Sacks, Cami Opere, Reid Kutrow or Asha Goodman at Sacks & Co., 212.741.1000;
carla at sacksco.com, cami.opere at sacksco.com, reid.kutrow at sacksco.com or asha.goodman at sacksco.com

Loving this. Very impressive debut. Fleetwood Mac vibes, at times.

Katie Pruitt - Expectations

https://cdn.nashvillescene.com/files/base/scomm/nvs/image/2020/02/640w/katie_pruitt_cover2.5e4c5b08c0293.jpg

https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/features/article/21116886/katie-pruitt-is-herself-on-expectations

https://americansongwriter.com/katie-pruitt-elevates-herself-on-expectations/hal-horowitz/

https://youtu.be/mG1JsSh951U

There's also a new Secret Sisters album out today. I'm a sucker for great harmonies, and they're as good as anyone. Looks like Brandi Carlile produced this one, too.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/58c2329c29687f4f845d04d0/1573786946140-SGMM23TKNA5YRMWZAPI9/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kOyctPanBqSdf7WQMpY1FsRZw-zPPgdn4jUwVcJE1ZvWQUxwkmyExglNqGp0IvTJZUJFbgE-7XRK3dMEBRBhUpwwQIrqN0bcqL_6-iJCOAA0qwytzcs0JTq1XS2aqVbyK6GtMIM7F0DGeOwCXa63_4k/SecretSistersCover_600.jpg

The fourth album from Alabama sibling duo the Secret Sisters is the stunning country-soul opus their talent has always promised. Laura and Lydia Rogers have been at it since 2010, making solid LPs with high-profile producers (T Bone Burnett, Dave Cobb) while lending their Southern church harmonies to legends like Willie Nelson and Elvis Costello. In 2017, the pair enlisted singer-songwriter Brandi -Carlile to co-produce their third LP, You Don’t Own Me Anymore, helping them up their game in a set of songs about piloting life’s hardships, delivered with tender -intimacy. Carlile is back for Saturn Return, a spare, -gorgeous, relatably realistic set. “Late -bloomers on parade” is how the group put it on the Elton John-meets-Dusty Springfield declaration “Late Bloomer.” That well-chosen sentiment is truth in -advertising.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/the-secret-sisters-saturn-return-959155/

Here's the single they released in November:

https://youtu.be/uCC6vcgEASg

the katie pruitt is lovely

It really is. The songs are unhurried and the production suits her perfectly.

The background "ooohs" on the opener "Wishful Thinking" sounds just like Miranda's "Running Just in Case" to me.

Stream the new Brandy Clark album on NPR:

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/02/809688824/first-listen-brandy-clark-your-life-is-a-record

https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2020/02/26/brandy_clark_cover_sq-9980232010f7a76c7ea651090fbc586e9934b7fc-s700-c85.jpg

"Not only did I have some soul searching — I think Jay Joyce, who I made this record with, had a similar (experience). He took some time off and I think he had gotten kind of burned out. I got him in an amazing season for him, because he had just come back and was really, really excited. Somebody like him, who's so known for an electric, kind of heavier sound, I thought, "What would happen if I challenged him to only cut with acoustic instruments?" I didn't expect him to get so excited. He called me with this whole idea to cut it with just four of us: myself, him, Giles Reaves, who plays percussion and piano, and Jedd Hughes, who kind of plays anything with strings. I loved that idea."

yeahhhhh boy

Secret Sisters/Katie Pruitt/Brandy Clark really my life lately

Secret Sisters didn't do much for me on first listen but I'm with you on Katie & Brandy.

Love how honest Pruitt is in grappling with belonging and exclusion. She has lived these songs, their characters, and emotions, most notable on queer anthem "Loving Her":

If loving her's a sin, I don't wanna go to heaven
There's nothing else up there I could need
And if I'm sinning every day, I guess I'll sin all seven
If I can still have her by the end of the week

If loving her's a drug, then I wanna be addicted
Why would I get clean, when the high's this good?
She says I'm the only one who can hit it
And all the other druggies just wish they could
They wish they could

You see I used to be ashamed
To write a song that said her name
'Cause I was too afraid
Of what they all might say

But if loving her is wrong
And it's not right to write this song
Then I'm still not gonna stop
And you can turn the damn thing off

for Secret Sisters, Cabin / Hold You Dear / Late Bloomer / Hand Over My Heart are really hitting my corny AM rock sweet spot; feels like this is catnip for the brandi carlisle crew

xp about Pruitt, "Normal" is great with that too:

Marchin' in line in the halls of my Catholic school
Seven Hail Marys if I copped an attitude
And God was a word I had spoken but I hardly knew
Kneelin' down at the altar with no clue who I was talkin' to
Stumblin' 'round Athens with frat boys in hot pursuit
Left me starin' at the ceilin', pissed off and feelin' used
Wasted and worn out and wonderin', "Where do I fit?"
And scared as hell 'cause I knew I was different

Did they want what's best or did they want what's easiest?
'Cause I tried my best, but God damn, was I curious
And she had me high as the sun on a Saturday afternoon
With no way to unsee this side of me that she introduced

What's it like to be normal?
To want what normal girls should?
God knows life would be easier
If I could be normal, then trust me, I would

Curled up on the couch, you look just as worn out as me
Tryin' to act certain in a world of uncertainty
And one night, the moonlight took over and I kissed your lips
The world told us to fit in, but we did the opposite

loving katie pruitt's record so much.

yeah, i think it's time for a thread.
Katie Pruitt

Hope recovery efforts in East Nashville and elsewhere from tornado are progressing

So yall may know that Willie's got an album due in April, Dixie Chicks (studio set) in May; first singles from both are out. But this is as far as I've gotten in catching up with email:

STEVE EARLE & THE DUKES RETURN WITH GHOSTS OF WEST VIRGINIA MAY 22nd, 2020 VIA NEW WEST RECORDS

TO APPEAR IN COAL COUNTRY AT NEW YORK CITY’S PUBLIC THEATER NOW THROUGH MARCH 29th

ROLLING STONE COUNTRY PREMIERES “DEVIL PUT THE COAL IN THE GROUND” TODAY
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/steve-earle-new-album-ghosts-of-west-virginia-958755/
Steve Earle & The Dukes will release Ghosts of West Virginia on May 22nd, 2020 via New West Records. The album was produced by Steve Earle and engineered by Ray Kennedy at Jimi Hendrix’s legendary Electric Lady Studios in New York City. The 10-song set is Earle’s 20th studio album and was mixed entirely in mono, lending a sonic cohesion and punch. In recent years, Earle has experienced partial hearing loss in one ear and can no longer discern the separation that stereo is designed to produce. The recording features his latest incarnation of his backing band The Dukes; Chris Masterson on guitar, Eleanor Whitmore on fiddle & vocals, Ricky Ray Jackson on pedal steel, guitar & dobro, Brad Pemberton on drums & percussion, and Jeff Hill on acoustic & electric bass.

Ghosts of West Virginia centers on the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion that killed twenty-nine men in that state in 2010, making it one of the worst mining disasters in American history. Investigations revealed hundreds of safety violations, as well as attempts to cover them up, and the mine’s owners were forced to pay more than $200 million in criminal liabilities.

Today, Rolling Stone Country has premiered the first single, “Devil Put the Coal in the Ground.” The song is a tough-minded recognition of the dangers of the mining life and the pride of doing such a demanding job in the face of danger. Rolling Stone Country says, "...in 'Devil Put the Coal in the Ground,' Earle employs a heave-ho work-song rhythm to conjure the pride of working men as they descend into the mines. With a bluesy, hypnotic musical backdrop, droning fiddle, and pounding percussion, Earle drawls his lyrics in a way that almost sounds like a taunt: 'The good lord gimme two hands/Says is you an animal or is you a man.' It transforms into a psychedelic guitar odyssey, thrilling and anxiety-ridden all at once." Hear "Devil Put the Coal in the Ground" HERE.

Earle started working on the album after being approached by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, a playwrighting team that would create Coal Country, a theater piece about the Upper Big Branch disaster. They interviewed the surviving West Virginia miners, along with the families of the miners who died, and created monologues for their characters using those words. Working closely with Oskar Eustis, Public Theater’s Artistic Director, they workshopped the songs and text for nearly four years. Earle functions as “a Greek chorus with a guitar,” in his words. He is on stage for the entire play and performs seven of the songs that lead Ghosts of West Virginia, including the powerful “It’s About Blood,” in which Earle blazons the names of all the men who died. “The actors don’t relate directly with the audience,” Earle explains. “I do. The actors don’t realize the audience is there. I do.” The songs provide personal, historical and social context for the testimony of the play’s characters. Currently in previews, Coal Country officially opens on March 3rd at The Public Theater in New York City and runs through March 29th. Tickets and more information can be found HERE.

In ten deftly drawn, powerfully conveyed sonic portraits, Earle explores the historical role of coal in rural communities. With Ghosts of West Virginia, Earle says that he was interested in exploring a new approach to his songwriting. “I’ve already made the preaching-to-the-choir album,” he says, specifically alluding to his 2004 Grammy Award winning The Revolution Starts...Now. As anyone politically attuned as Earle understands, there are times when the faithful need music that will raise their spirits and toughen their resolve. But he came to believe that our times might also benefit from something that addresses a different audience, songs written from a point of view that he is particularly capable of rendering.

To be sure, Earle’s politics have not changed. He believes in sustainable energy sources and ending fossil fuels. “But that doesn’t mean a thing in West Virginia,” he says. You can’t begin communicating with people unless you understand the texture of their lives, the realities that provide significance to their days. That is the entire point of Ghosts of West Virginia.

“I thought that, given the way things are now, it was maybe my responsibility to make a record that spoke to and for people who didn’t vote the way that I did,” he says. “One of the dangers that we’re in is if people like me keep thinking that everyone who voted for Trump is a racist or an asshole, then we’re fucked, because it’s simply not true. So this is one move toward something that might take a generation to change. I wanted to do something where that dialogue could begin.” He adds, “I said I wanted to speak to people that didn’t necessarily vote the way that I did, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have anything in common. We need to learn how to communicate with each other. My involvement in this project is my little contribution to that effort. And the way to do that — and to do it impeccably —is simply to honor those guys who died at Upper Big Branch.”

Steve Earle & The Dukes suffered a major loss when, not long before the band went into the studio, bassist Kelley Looney, who had played with Earle for thirty years, passed away. Beyond the death of a longstanding musical partner, Earle was faced with the prospect of finding someone who could share the telepathic musical communication so characteristic of the band. Happily, Jeff Hill, recently of the Chris Robinson Brotherhood, joined the band on bass. “Earle says, “Jeff stepped into the breach, but it was hard. It was really hard.” In addition to the 29 miners killed at Upper Big Branch, Ghosts of West Virginia is dedicated to the memory of Kelley Looney.

Steve Earle & The Dukes' Ghosts of West Virginia will be available across digital retailers, on compact disc, and standard black vinyl. A limited Yellow & Blue West Virginia Swirl colored LP edition will be available at Independent Retailers. An extremely limited to 500 Smoke/Coal Colored Vinyl Edition autographed by Steve Earle is available for pre-order now via NEW WEST RECORDS.

Steve Earle is one of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters of his generation. A protege of legendary songwriters Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, he quickly became a master storyteller in his own right, with his songs being recorded by Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, The Pretenders, and countless others. 1986 saw the release of his debut record, Guitar Town, which shot to number one on the country charts and is now regarded as a classic of the Americana genre. Subsequent releases like The Revolution Starts...Now (2004), Washington Square Serenade (2007), and TOWNES (2009) received consecutive Grammy Awards. Restlessly creative across artistic disciplines, Earle has published both a novel and collection of short stories; produced albums for other artists such as Joan Baez and Ron Sexsmith; and acted in films, television (including David Simon’s acclaimed The Wire), and on the stage. He currently hosts a radio show for Sirius XM. In 2009, Earle appeared in the off-Broadway play Samara, for which he also wrote a score that The New York Times described as “exquisitely subliminal.” Each year, Earle organizes a benefit concert for The Keswell School, for which his son John Henry attends and which provides educational programs for children and young adults with autism. Ghosts of West Virginia is Steve Earle’s 20th studio album.
Steve Earle & The Dukes Ghosts of West Virginia Track Listing:
1. Heaven Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere
2. Union, God and Country
3. Devil Put The Coal In The Ground
4. John Henry Was A Steel Drivin’ Man
5. Time Is Never On Our Side
6. It’s About Blood
7. If I Could See Your Face Again (featuring Eleanor Whitmore)
8. Black Lung
9. Fastest Man Alive
10. The Mine

Steve Earle & The Dukes On Tour (More Dates To Be Announced Soon):
May 10th - North Charleston, WV Culture Center Theater / NPR Mountain Stage * Solo
May 31st - Grand Prairie, TX The Theatre at Grand Prairie - The Lonestar Landfest
June 8th - Kent, OH The Kent Stage
June 9th - State College, PA State Theatre
June 10th - Phoenixville, PA Colonial Theatre
June 12th - East Greenwich, RI Greenwich Odeum
June 13th - North Turo, MA Payomet Performing Arts Center
June 14th - Riverhead, NY The Suffolk Theater
June 18th - Salisbury, MA Blue Ocean Music Hall
June 19th - Plymouth, NH Flying Monkey Performance Center
June 20th - Portland, ME Aura
July 4th - Enoch, AB River Cree Casino & Resort
July 26th - Paso Robles, CA California Mid-State Fair w/ Eric Church * Solo
August 7th - Burnaby, BC Burnaby Blues & Roots Fest
August 29th - Shipshewana, IN Blue Gate Theatre * Solo
September 8th - 11th - Big Indian, NY Steve Earle’s Camp Copperhead
November 16th - 20th - Punta Cana, Dominican Republic All The Best Fest * Solo

Earle's theatrical experience also incl. writing (and maybe producing) an off=Broadway play about Karla Faye Tucker, born again on Death Row. Other contemporary albums re coal country seem to mine too narrow a vein; he might should have brought in somebody from that neck of the woods, like Angeleena Presley. But concert presentations should be pretty powerful, at least judging by Dukes when they had Looney and Will Rigby.

I am seeing coal country this week and v much looking forward to it. Will report back.

So what can any of you tell me about Kelsey Waldon? She's opening for the DBTs this weekend.

Her latest made my Scene Top Ten, posted above, and here's blogged ballot comments, orig on RC 2019---they do on a while; she's a trip, in her unassuming way:
Another pulsating combo, sonically suggesting proximity to a two-lane blacktop through the mountains: Kelsey Waldon's moderate-budgeteers, especially the unusually prowly but not too nosey pedal steeler Brent Resnick (who performs live "Powderfinger" with her on YouTube) bass guitarist Alex Newnam (sic), and drummer-percussionist Nate Felty, who plays, as does everybody here, with the unobtrusive precision of get-on-with-it confidence, just like their fearless leader, on her latest album, White Noise, White Lines. 2016's I've Got A Way was enthusiastically discussed on Rolling Country, but wasn't quite as together as this, seemed like. (They're both on her bandcamp, with an earlier one I haven't heard yet.) She sounds young, but she's been around---not too much of either: born in "Kentucky 1988," and Daddy don't always do right, she's on record about that, but so is he, and they love each other*. As for the rest, here she jumps right into it: When the sun sinks down and dreams start to drown/And you still don't know who you are/Workin' the ground, pace like a dog in a pound And you still only get so far/And I'd do it again, even if I didn't know how.! Kind of her theme song, because she thinks trying to know it all is a big mistake. Which goes in several directions, like "Sunday Children" ("are bein' lied to"), which sounds like Gil Scott-Heron, although the guest Wurlitzer piano helps .Fave so far is "Very Old Barton": My life is a song; my mind's a picture show/You are the real thing, when you are alone/Drinkin' Very Old Barton with the country radio/Always lonesome, and won't let it go. And if I knew any better, I'd know it's a sin/ But some things are just better, without you knowin' them...How can I be happy, how can I Iove today? Take hold of my own life, and not wish it away? Keep your loved ones close, don't stay far behind...Drinkin' Very Old Barton with the country radio/Always lonesome, and too prideful to show/Have another go-round, don't mind if I do/It's just one of those things we all go through
*daddy's on the/this record, yes---not agreeing/disagreeing with her that he don't always do right, but telling somebody that he heard her on the radio, and sounding moved by that.. The only cover is the closer, "My Epitaph," by the late great Ola Belle Reed (with eerie, hospitable guitar reverb making me think of Pop Staples): When I go from this life, let me go in peace/I Don't want your marble at my head and feet/Don't gather around me oh just to weep and moan/Where that I'm going I won't be alone/The flowers you give, please give them today/Don't waste their beauty on cold lifeless clay/One rose with love could do so much good. https://kelseywaldon.bandcamp.com Oh and Ola Wave, Ola's songs performed by her nephew, Zane Campbell, yet another mavericky mountain citizen:https://zanecampbell.bandcamp.com/album/ola-wave
From this blog's 2016 round-up:
Kelsey Waldon, I've Got A Way: amen to that. Although don't agree w Powers' First Listen intro: "deadpan"? She's right that it be a pan full o' feeling, but Waldon sounds pretty upfront emotional, without ever emoting---she's still indignant when she thinks about people who have fucked with her, or tried to, but mainly impatient, cos she's on her way, so get out of it---unless you've got some endearing young or old charms; she can take a detour while looping back to where "Life Moves Slow", although she's only passing through and doesn't slow down that much herself, and what she really likes about it is it's where "folks still speak their minds": her true roots, or the ones she wants to claim. Also see freewheeling discussion on thread Rolling Country 2016

Yeah, bandcamp for the studio albums, YouTube for some good live bits.

how the fuck does Willie Nelson's voice still sound this good?!

Maren Morris “The Bones” hit #1 on country charts.

Totally recommend KBST's daily lunchtime all-requests show, Call-in Cafe.

Streaming now: https://streamdb5web.securenetsystems.net/v5/KBST

Willie is joining Luck Reunion for Luck Presents: ‘Til Further Notice, a free live streaming event taking the place of what would’ve been this year’s Reunion taking place in Luck, TX. This is a hard time for our industry and fellow artists, so we’re banding together to give the fans a show and rally support around our community - all from our respective quarantine locations. Join us today, March 19 from 6-11 PM Central for a concert to fit the times. You can access the stream via http://luckreunion.com/tilfurthernotice and https://www.twitch.tv/luckreunion #tilfurthernotice #stayhome https://manage.kmail-lists.com/subscriptions/web-view?a=HyyMmC&c=JHTXpz&r=qkGsFkJ&g=HnFx3Z&k=97faa58695796ebf0b4e6e5e97d74243&m=NJnjbc

Katie Pruitt starting now

SCHEDULE
*SUBJECT TO CHANGE

6:15 PM - Ida Mae
6:25 PM - Nikki Lane
6:35 PM - Thomas Csorba
6:50 PM - Tami Neilson
7:00 PM - Lucinda Williams
7:15 PM - Devon Gilfillian
7:25 PM - Ian Ferguson
7:35 PM - Katie Pruitt
8:00 PM - David Ramirez
8:10 PM - Paul Cauthen
8:20 PM - Randy Houser
8:30 PM - Lucius
8:40 PM - Tré Burt
8:50 PM - Early James
9:15 PM - Margo Price & Jeremy Ivey
9:30 PM - Kurt Vile
9:40 PM - Sunny War
9:50 PM - Paul Simon & Edie Brickell
10:10 PM - Jewel
10:50 PM - Nathaniel Rateliff
11:15 PM - Willie Nelson, Lukas Nelson , and Micah Nelson

Hosted By: Ray Benson

Holy Crap, I instantly heard why you guys are swept away by Pruitt, gotta get the album.

Will also have to check more David Ramirez: gearshifting (solo acoustic) melodies, strong vox wothout oversinging, deft twangy vibrato, reminds me of Steve Young, but a little mellower, Chris Smither maybe?

Ramirez is gonna be on the ACL benefit tomorrow too.

https://www.acl-radio.com/acl-stands-with-austin/

Thanks, will check that too: 8 pm Central. Listening to station stream now.

does that Willie livestream live anywhere accessible now? I'd like to send it to my mother-in-law

Maybe at least some of it somewhere. Also liked brief isolation set by Pau Cauthen: very Southern voice x Elton John Lennon piano, then Randy Houser, even more Southern, like he was gonna quaver but too thick an accent, but was agreeable enough for another setette (think he's known more as a writer?) Computer crashed and I went back to medicare.gov. Next night checked the xpost ACL benefit for a while: David Ramirez got really sub-Dylan mumblecore on verses, better on choruses (another Dylanette effect, come to think of it). But, based on the Luck's Reunion performances, will still check his albums (on spotify, anyway).

Oh yeah, a couple of Lynn Anderson reissues, Sony Legacy press release here:
https://mailchi.mp/2911/legacy-recordings-re-releases-lynn-andersons-classic-albums-cry-and-listen-to-a-country-song-to-all-digital-providers?e=2d74d5e1e7

Just saw this---if you can't see it, it's Sunny Sweeney livestreaming tonight, 7 Central, on facebook and instagram: http://sunnysweeney.com/livefromquarantine/

http://sunnysweeney.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Web-Home-1024x683.png

Also sunnysweeney.live/youtube

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/grand-ole-opry-vince-gill-marty-stuart-brad-paisley-970267/

I missed this stream. Read good things about it

I saw a photo. They social distanced on stage!

I don't really know where to post this because it's not really country, but damn if this ain't the best album I've heard this year: https://danielromano.bandcamp.com/album/visions-of-the-higher-dream

I mean, it's definitely country in parts.

And other parts, not.

The isolated Opry set made me v drowsy (as Vince Gill in particular usually does), but this should be a wake-up call---if it doesn't show, it's BRANDI CARLILE, of the so-far healthy lungs, livestreaming during ACM presentation (which may be all livestreams) April 5:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EUCp57jUcAAzc6j?format=jpg&name=medium

Joe Diffie, a Grammy Award-winning country music hitmaker, died Sunday from coronavirus complications. He was 61. https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/2936782001 And Jackson Browne has tested positive.

John Prine's bad off with it too.

Fuck. I love Joe Diffie. Prine too, for that matter (everybody does, I guess).

I am so sad about Joe Diffie. 8yo crüt was a big fan

Kalie Shorr released an amazing album last year---now she says she got c-19 while in quarantine (tho did go for groceries):

@kalieshorr
Despite being quarantined (except for a handful of trips for groceries) for three weeks, I managed to contract COVID 19. I'm feeling significantly better, but it's proof how dangerous and contagious this is. It's endlessly frustrating to see people not taking this seriously.

This McBryde album is loud. I'm impressed.

Wow...came out last year, but Koe Wetzel's "Ragweed" coulda been commercial alternative top 10 circa 1993

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMkAkfPWEA0

That aforementioned AMC livestream fest w Brandi Carlile and many others is tonight:

What is ‘ACM Presents: Our Country’ about?
According to the official CBS website: ACM Presents: Our Country will feature intimate conversations and at-home acoustic performances with top artists, along with clips of their favorite moments from the Academy of Country Music Awards’ 55-year history. Stars will appear from their homes via video chat to share heartfelt thoughts and perform acoustic versions of country hits.

Among the performers at the event will be Kelsea Ballerini, Dierks Bentley, Kane Brown and John Legend, Luke Bryan, Brandi Carlile, Eric Church, Luke Combs, Sheryl Crow, Florida Georgia Line, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Tim McGraw, Old Dominion, Brad Paisley and Darius Rucker, Thomas Rhett, Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani, Shania Twain, Carrie Underwood, and Keith Urban.
Thanks nj.com, more incl various ways to watch w links to same:
https://www.nj.com/tv/2020/04/how-to-watch-acm-presents-our-country-concert-live-stream-guide-start-time-schedule.html

Think I might skip most of the acoustic at-home etc.; a little bit goes a long way.
But here's one more, re that Steve Earle project upthread (saw it too late for the Fecebook stream, but will be rerun and maybe posted somewhere):
Steve Earle is set to perform a special live stream this Sunday, April 5th beginning at 3pm Eastern via his Official Facebook page as well as the Sirius XM Outlaw Country Official Facebook page as well. The solo performance will commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion that killed twenty-nine men in West Virginia on April 5th, 2010, making it one of the worst mining disasters in American history. The audio from the live stream will also air via Earle’s weekly Hardcore Troubadour radio show on SiriusXM Outlaw Country, Channel 60, next week (premiering April 11th at 9pm Eastern).

Earle’s live stream performance will feature the songs he wrote for and performed in Coal Country, a new play with music based on the disaster written by Jessica Blank and Erik Jenson and directed by Jessica Blank. Opening on March 3rd to critical acclaim at The Public Theater in New York City, the production was postponed after two weeks due to COVID-19.

announcement from Michael Timmins---seems like it should go on a Rolling thread for recurring exposure:

... we have some new music for you to listen to and hopefully provide you with a small distraction. It's a set of songs that we've been working on for the past year and which we were set to launch when our worlds turned upside down. The plan was to release a very limited edition, audiophile double-album made up of a re-mastered, re-cut version of All That Reckoning along with a second disc that contains the new music, Ghosts. We have the test pressings and they sound beautiful. But, as you all know, logistics are difficult right now, so we are delaying the release of the vinyl (there will be no CD) until the world returns to something resembling normal.

In the meantime we have decided to release the new music on streaming sites everywhere. It's an intense set of songs, but that's probably not a surprise to you....read on if you are interested in the genesis of Ghosts.

****

In July of 2018 we released our album All That Reckoning. Two months later our mother died and we realized that there was more reckoning still to come. Ghosts is the result of that realization; a suite of songs revolving around grief, pain, fear, anxiety, beauty; a set of songs examining the complexity of emotions that subsume us after losing a parent. We were writing and creating these songs while we were touring ATR and as they took shape it became clear to us that they belonged as part of, or at least as an addendum to, the songs that make up All That Reckoning. They deal with the ultimate reckoning, the reckoning that comes with the death of a loved one and the reassessing that one goes through as one tries to process such a loss.

The concept behind this project was to present it as a two disc vinyl-album set. All That Reckoning and Ghosts work best as two bodies of work, reflecting off of each other, but you know what they say about the best laid plans of men....so in the meantime enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. You can stream Ghosts here (the music is being added to more streaming sites every day):
stream
https://cowboyjunkies.lnk.to/Ghosts

sam hunt album... thoughts? i pretty much love it

Farm Aid, the non-profit organization whose mission is to build a vibrant, family farm-centered system of agriculture in America, and AXS TV, the premier U.S. cable channel for music programming, presents a special broadcast of At Home With Farm Aid, featuring performances by acclaimed artists and Farm Aid Board Members Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews, on Saturday, April 11, starting at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

The hour-long live event reunites Farm Aid president Willie Nelson, joined by his sons Lukas and Micah, with fellow music legends and Farm Aid board members Mellencamp, Young, and Matthews for an intimate performance to raise funds and awareness for farmers impacted by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The unique concert captures the quartet as they each tune in from their own homes and studios to deliver an unforgettable night of music that viewers will not want to miss. At Home With Farm Aid airs as part of AXS TV's new "@Home And Social" initiative-an ongoing series giving artists a platform to broadcast live performances from their homes and studios directly to their fans, with proceeds supporting those in need as a result of the coronavirus. Viewers can enjoy the simulcast on AXS TV and at https://www.farmaid.org/, as well as across the Network's various social media platforms.
...Additionally, viewers can relive powerhouse performances from Nelson, Mellencamp, Young, Matthews and more when AXS TV presents The Best Of Farm Aid 2019 on Sunday, April 12, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. The two-and-a-half-hour special compiles footage from AXS TV's live broadcast of the 2019 festival, giving viewers the best seat in the house for hit-packed sets from Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Tanya Tucker, Margo Price, Yola and Lukas Nelson & Promise Of The Real, among others, as well as Bonnie Raitt's previously-unaired performance of "Devil Got My Woman"-seen now for the first time on television.
http://www.axs.tv/ https://www.farmaid.org/

Tyler Mahan Coe
@TylerMahanCoe
· Apr 7
How has there never been a tribute comp from women artists to Merle, called Girl Haggard?
Show this thread

Margo Price
@MissMargoPrice
Okay, when this is all over, I want to start this cover band. I’ll play drums and sing. The line up is all ladies and we only play Merle Haggard songs. GIRL HAGGARD. Who’s in?

Margo Price
@MissMargoPrice
·Apr 7
This is obviously a joke y’all Face with tears of joy but maybe we’ll play *one* show

(Also says there will be a new Margo album out this summer.)

Yeah, it got bumped from May(?). Sturgill produced. I started a thread for her that didn't take off: The Margo Price c/d

X-post — I want to hear the Sam Hunt album but haven’t gotten to it yet

i like it a lot! "young once" is my shit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3KT-2fBIZo

honestly reading about it, i feel like the hip hop narrative is pretty overplayed. just think it's a really good modern country record w/ some slight affectations

I have really, really enjoyed Aubrie Sellers' album from this year.

aubrie's record features steve earle and is pretty psychy and has a lot of surprising touches, like a squealing theremin on one song, and one song starts off with a legitimate scream. it's very kacey though aside from that

Tre Burt is folk and not country but it's Prine-adjacent so I'm putting it here
https://treburtmusic.bandcamp.com/album/caught-it-from-the-rye

i like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L9obo3cuas

Realized while listening to "2016" that Sam Hunt's voice has quite a bit of Richard Buckner in it.

That Sam Hunt “Young Once” song does not have the hiphop signifiers he has been labeled with. Just modern country that utilizes the formula in a good way.

The Caylee Hammack one is a tad more traditional but still formula country that works.

Just started watching the xpost farmaid special: Willie and his boys in a limber set-down set--pick it, Paw!

Oops, looks like they're fixing to continue or rerun on axs.tv----meanwhile https://pitchfork.com/news/sturgill-simpson-tests-positive-for-covid-19/

https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/9358004/coronavirus-complicates-nashville-fragile-studio-business

dunno why ilx won't let me post youtubes on chrome, trying firefox
If you can't see this, it's one of my fave later Rosanne tracks, "Biloxi," written by Jesse Winchester:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDhV5SscEgc

https://www.cavenders.com/on/demandware.static/-/Sites-Cavenders-Library/default/dw4e4f8b8e/images/image-promotions/Farming%20Singing%20Horizontal%20copy.jpg

A VIRTUAL CONCERT
BENEFITTING TEXAS FFA FOUNDATION
SATURDAY, APRIL 25 AT 7PM
100% of proceeds will benefit the Texas FFA Foundation.
Streaming on Billy Bob's Texas Facebook Page

The full lineup of performances will be announced throughout the week, beginning Tuesday, April 14 at 10 AM on Billy Bob’s Texas Instagram stories - @billybobstexas. All of the performers are proud to call the great state of Texas their home and several of them have a personal history and connection with the FFA.

Performances by:
Aaron Watson
Casey Donahew
Cleto Cordero of Flatland
Cody Johnson
Jack Ingram
Josh Abbott
Kevin Fowler
Koe Wetzel
Mike Ryan
Neal McCoy
Parker McCollum
Pat Green
Randy Rogers
Tracy Byrd
Wade Bowen
William Clark Green

more info here: https://mailchi.mp/2911/billy-bobs-texas-cavenders-announce-lineup-for-virtual-concert-april-25th?e=2d74d5e1e7

Well now, Smithsonian Folkways has acquired the Western Jubilee label---sampler here incl. Peter Rowan & Don Edwards, Norman & Nancy Blake, also Don & Norman and each in other configs and solo, plus Katy Moffat, Tom Morell, Sons of the San Joaquin. Michael Martin Murphy, many more:
https://smithsonianfolkways.bandcamp.com/album/take-me-back-to-the-range-selections-from-western-jubilee-recording-company.
Note on left side this page: links to other recent Smithsonian Folkways releases...

Hadn't seen this good thread 'til recently:
Keith Whitley

Finally listed to Expectations, and duh hear even more of what y'all were carrying on about Pruitt than I did via the brief livestream mentioned above, with even more of the same qualities. As with her Rounder labelmate Caroline Spence, there's the sheen, not too slick, of cohesive, flexible small-group sound (wiki lists lots more instruments than I consciously heard: all about the total effect, yet with no sense of blur or poderosa). It's centered, but there's always room for her to wheel around and hit a note over the plate, when that's called for. She (maybe) never goes arena, even in my headphones, though certainly loud enough. There's an increasing sense of (not straining but) striving, traveling the layers of self-and-other-realization, through the releases and tensions of credible relationship realness (best video : "Loving Her, " with Pride Day Parade x one KP, thankful and thoughtful and thinking some more in the backyard, joined then by gf).
So, this is compatible with shelter-in-place sociability, streaming bonding, and with Chely Wright's Lifted Off The Ground, re a new, true, btw gay, country pop mainstream---well, country pop mainstream for Rounder, but that kind of accessibility, anyway.
The grand finale even conjures Golden Age of CMT--not in video, but no need for that: not with audio evocations of slow-dancing couples in cowboy hats, lit by flaming Zippos of appreciation---yes, the good kind of arena---but, it does go on awhile, and I hope she doesn't develop some of Rufus Wainwright's tendency to longwindedness--just bccause they can both hold notes for---quite awhile---doesn't mean they should do it all that often.

Your Life is a Record seems like a trite title at first---oooo, The Soundtrack of Our Lives---and there's Brandy Clark in her big bells, standing by a jukebox , with a Western-type backdrop, and it's twilight time, awww---but she quickly proves her point: especially on headphones, it's a vessel--not a shot glass, or a flute---the instrument, occasionally, but not the glassware---something more spacious, like a goblet, or a tumbler, jar---of some sonic fluid---goes down smoothly, warms and energizes or doesn't lower the level anyway, with some notes, other details I may catch up with on the next round---it's a meta-mechanism, a way to cope, as she gets through the days and nights of what is, despite the attraction to present tense tributes, not even a break-up album, but further down the road---and yet not. You know. "The Past is The Past," here's where that happens, and she's cruising through it, end of the record, back to the beginning.

So she wrangles, traffic manages the insights/momentary summaries and plateaus, slight return of what if I had, what if we were to, coming back after casting aside the scorekeeping: "We loved each other, so---fuck the rest." But still---what if we--nope, so "Can We Be Strangers?" Ehhh, maybe, maybe not, the record keeps turning, and also there's more of the outside inside world, "We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat", with Randy hewman, sounding better than he has in a long time.
"Pawn Shop" could be a tearjerker, the way she co-wrote it, but not the way she sings it (sounds like she knows that having to go there isn't the worst fate---she's been around).

Marshall Chapman, Songs I Can't Live With Out---so look at the set list, and think "OK Boomer," even if you are one, but she makes them her own/shows how they are. Not only does she decline "to write my way out" of something or other one more time," she declines to sing some of the high, and some of the low, maybe some of the middle notes too; I don't know, declining so far to do any comparative listening, to the originals or many preceding covers of these well-roasted chestnuts, because it just doesn't seem necessary/does seem like too much work. Never thought of her as having a vocal style, but apparently she does: an expressive near-minimalism (near enough, without losing any of the words), and the musos play just the right notes in the right way, though instrumentation isn't always just the same---a little more Rock on "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?", which she doesn't sing with remembered ingenue-ity, like Carole King, but just as an honest, straight-forward question, kind of startling for a non-ingenue, but so candidly concise that you know she's mature enough to do that, however vulnerable otherwise.
"Don't Be Cruel" has some piano notes, just the right ones of course, and I could almost swear Willie Nelson and Sister Bobbie are backing her on "Tennessee Blues," and JJ Cale must approve of this "After Midnight" even more than Clapton's, despite the difference in royalty checks: you can't take it with you, so it seems.
Was prepared to skip "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands," but it's an effective finale, esp with speaking her mind:"I worry about the people I love. Hell, I even worry about myself!"

Dow, thanks for keeping this thread alive and highlighting some good new tunes.

Thanks! Here's another covers album: The Night You Wrote That Song: The Songs of Mickey Newbury, by Gretchen Peters. Cut to the chase: most of the time, when Newbury's words reach an emotional dead end/are misty and bleached out, floatin' on the clothes line one too many times---now he's got me doing it--but most of those times, the music keeps going, unpacking and setting things up on the um consolation medicine shoe truckbed---anyway! Peters and her crew bring out the richer colors and other signs of life in the melodies and rhythms---opener "The Sailor" is restless and murky, sometimes a little too much of the latter, but mostly in good proportions, especially when top-of-game Newbury words emerge, "I never met a stranger/'Til I'd known him for a time."
She also lines them up well, so, for instance, when the "She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye" guy. who's been dumped one more time, and know's he'll soon be surrounded by pitying eyes--no merciful murk this morning, fumbles his way to "It's not her heart, it's her mind"--she ain't mean, she just crazy, so forgive her, Lord, he does seem pitiful, sticking that little poison pin in
---but then, he finds his own mind in a paper bag, in thee excellent "Just Dropped in To See What Condition My Condition Was In," annd his unsatisfied mind is. frankly, quite a mixed blessing and bag all through this set: oh he'll show you alright, but his heart, Lord, means so well, so we can all be alone together, taking solace in the sounds (radio-ready, as written).
Desperate times call for desperate measures, so sometimes he even rocks, or this album does, given the material: "Tell Me Why You Been Gobe So Long" could be Jerry Lee, "Leavin' Kentucky" could be Pistol Annies.
And I like the way hopeful little folks of successive decades barely get a chance to set out in the verses, before the choruses of "Heaven Help The Child" come swooping back, look out! So many radio-ready songs make me sick of that money-shot chorus, no matter how good it might be in relative moderation---but this works, it's even the point, I'm pretty sure.
"San Francisco Mabel Joy" works technically, except the tear-jerking twist at the end is one way too many, ack puuuke, but I think that's the only song/track that's entirely indigestible, once you know where it's going (fairly sodden even before that).
Not sure about "Saint Cecelia," since Peters swallows a bunch of words again, but suspect it's just as well.
Damn if "Three Bells for Stephen" doesn't work as finale: Mickey Newbury, in the role of---Stephen Foster, ladies and gentlemem, AKA "Deeear hearts, and gentle peeeople"---yes, it suits him, and he's got the chops to get away with it, at least when Peters and them are channeling Newbury channeling ect.--I think. Check it out maybe.
https://gretchenpeters.bandcamp.com/releases (Seems like all of her albums are here.)

Ashley McBryde, Never Will: now that I've listened several times, the title reminds me of Sun Ra's Nothing Is, only more so, because it's a grower---not a grabber, but a taste worth acquiring. Also, her second , self-released set was Elsebound, oooo---but don't get thee wrong idea, bub, she ain't no Star Trek gyrl---arrival on Warner Nashville was---tah-dahhh!---Girl Going Nowhere.
This is so country that it may be post-country, not in terms of tunes and arrangements, but lyrics and singing. especially considering what's expected of young female artists, incl. the sassy ones: Notice of "One Night Standards" is served, take it or leave it, with no show of conscience or wounds or revenge sex or giving up on love or even brass, just, this is how it's gonna be, and mostly what we won't do, which is mostly not to talk about our pasts or futures or even much of the present, except mebbe "That's all, " or "Move over" (well that will have been for the better-be-immediate future).
So, a lot of bad and some possibly good memories and other possibilities are excluded, *almost* conspicuous by their absence, but her motel room is solid.
Hell, even "Shut Up, Sheila" ("Why don't you and Jesus go take a walk down the hall") is smack-down as brush-off: the hospital room machinery around "my mother's mother" is already loud enough to compete with the family discussion; they don't need any more noise. Secular no-frills values phrased in a way that recalls Hank Jr.'s "We say grace, we say ma'am, if you don't like that, we don't give a damn," although they'd only agree with him about that last part, and even then def. minus his agonized sonic martyrdom. She's putting in just enough effort to spell it out, for somebody who can't take a hint, that's all.
The relatively softer, lighter (gray) "Stone" ("You and me are cut from the same stone," she muses to someone gone) spells a possibility just enough for me to think that her telling said goner that she's "shy like you," but not so it shows, is one reason for her solid-to-heavy vocal tendency, her black hole for the usual country sunshine and moonshine: it's sonic armor.
But solid can be stolid, inert, even, on some tracks---like the less-good works of Tracy Nelson---and her accompaniment should never just rumble along inpassively, cos she can do that. She can sing higher, as on Stone"-- also seems to be overdubbing some self-harmony tracks at times---and on "Velvet Red," where the music does change it up (as happens often enough, really: seems like 7.5 keepers out of 11 songs), into sweet tattoo popgrass: her parents got drunk on Velvet Red and made a baby, so they named her Velvet Red, awww---like The Band Perry looking at family pictures.
Family stuff comes back to life and death in the heavier "Martha Divine," addressed to Daddy's sidepiece: "My Mother is an angel, my father--is not--and some of him's rubbed off on me...How can it be murder, if I bury you alive," and if the 'thoratahs don't agree, "I'll say the devil made me do it." ("Rubbed off, " eh?) And "Voodoo Girl" is slamming toward country metal (couple power ballads here too maybe? But if so, with no mullet nostalgia, believe it or not)
Was thinking she's taking the Gretchen Wilson stance further, though she doesn't claim to be a redneck, and even, in the spoken word intro to "Styrofoam" (which cruises along to an ain't no-big-electronic- groove-thang), she easily reads what she says are her notes re origin of good substance, pronouncing words like "extruded" with no show of effort or achievement, then with a satisfied mind lists many ways you can make use of the sty, would go well with "Red Solo Cup."
Still--the stolid selections, though not that numerous, leave a lingering impression, so far: why I said it it's a grower, not a grabber--overall, I do get into it more than I ever did Girl Going Nowhere, but maybe now I'll go back to that, and look for her indies.

Search suggests mentions of Nicole Atkins on ILM (and there ain’t many) are largely confined to the Rolling Country threads, so bumping this one to say her new LP, Italian Ice is really good.

Thanks for the reminder, Jeff! Yeah, here she is on bandcamp: https://nicoleatkins.bandcamp.com/album/italian-ice
Will prob be more Related than Country when it's time for ballots, ditto Shelby Lynne's s/t, although it is romantically fixated, maybe self-torturing enough to qualify for real country. Musically, seems like she's absorbed Dusty In Memphis (less the vocals than basic combos, some of the writing and what makes both of those cohesive, regardless of source), maybe Irma Thomas, Bonnie Raitt, Barbara Lewis---but, aside from her own "I Got You," it never comes off as yet more classy sincere retro: everything goes where she needs it to, right now, to stand and express herself---idiomatically, sometimes idiosyncratically, but clearly enough.
(True even when Cynthia Mort's words go riding with Lynne's music, which is about half the time.)

So usually she's thinking out loud/bumping around the bulbs and walls of her head, but she's never mumblecore, can and does project, even before "Here I Am," the showstopper---or so it could be--- but is easily followed by the eeriest track, "The Equation," a surefooted sleepwalker, sleep prowler.

She's cool, or at least keeps the air conditioner on, never complacent---another time, she confesses:
Trapped inside my stories keeps me going/Don't count the days I've been gone/Dark glasses shield me from my intentions/And loneliness/Puts me in my place/Another West Coast sun is going down...

Oh yeah, speaking of growers-not-grabbers, I've been getting (not too slowly) into Steve Earle's aforementioned Ghosts of West Virginia more than expected. POV character works hard, plays hard, eventually gets "Black Lung," which he's well aware he wouldn't have if he stayed out of the mine,"but then I wouldn't have nothin." Spends it all, incl. on Saturday night (cue for hillbilly rockabilly "The Fastest Man Alive"), because it won't do him no good "on Judgement Day"(later "under the ground," which he prob means both ways). The balance of electric and acoustic music adds dimension and direction, also balancing his limited voice, which he's learned the hard way not to strain, even when he's calling out the names of dead miners, on "It's About Blood," with the Dukes swelling into a thundercloud that never bursts.
The vocal that I can't get out of my head is by Eleanor Whitmore, whose fiddle may have taught her how to sing up and down the walls like that, while her man is gone (she's used to it, but doesn't like it).
Wish there were more songs from her point of view, also other non-miners, for instance commenting on what minecentric living does to a community---especially when a lot of natives (even before John Prine's Daddy) got the hell out.
Also, he doesn't go near the Trump-favoring tendencies of some left-behinders---for a bit of that, and other stuff like mountain meth and getting "Knocked up, my-my," see solo albums, esp. debut, of knockee Angaleena Presley.

Three comparatively humdrum tracks out of ten, but they gain by context, especially "The Mine," which is hopeful in a Springsteeny way, which means sing-songy yet empathetically ironic---sure, kid, things'll be all better when you got a job down in there.

i love the Earle album, it's very on point for the moment

Yeah, man---what is it about that mountain-associated music that gets this Houston-to-Nashville-to-NYC guy going like that? Train A-Comin', with Norman Blake and Peter Rowan, The Mountain, with the Del McCoury Band, and now Ghosts of West Virginia.

as a Nashville-to-NYC guy myself, I'd say that you should never be against an ethically-sound, thoughtful urbane hayseed but that's likely just my upbringing talking

Update from xpost Marshall Chapman:

Tomorrow (Friday) I'll be doing a special livestream compliments of Country Standard Time on FaceBook starting at 4pm CT (5pm ET, 2pm PT). I'll be playing songs, telling stories, and taking your requests.

Then on Saturday at 3pm CT (4pm ET, 1pm PT), it's back to my regular weekly livestream (also via FaceBook) from Springwater.

As some of you know, my new CD Songs I Can't Live Without is out and running. So if you haven't already, you may order it by clicking here. All orders will be mailed within one week of purchase. And as a bonus, each order will include a signed essay I wrote about the recording of this album ... why I chose each song ... what each song has meant to me over the years, and so on.

It's been great hearing from everyone. We need to all stick together during these turbulent times. Here's wishing you strength, peace, and love.
Visit Marshall's new Website
https://www.tallgirl.com/

oho--words of prisoners set to music by various artists:
https://www.nodepression.com/album-reviews/on-long-time-gone-prison-music-project-gives-voice-to-those-society-dehumanizes/?mc_cid=8c11eb8572&mc_eid=b850f832a1

Diplo's country-pop-hip-hop-etc album, with Thomas Rhett, Young Thug, Zac Brown, others:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/diplo-nashville-country-album-thomas-wesley-1010729/

i hate diplo's country production; particularly unhappy with the direction he's pointed Cam in.

WTF happened to Cam? She's working with Diplo now? Made one great album 5 years ago that was a smash radio success - seemed to have cracked the contemporary female pop country puzzle while still having some substance to the songs. "Diane" was pretty good, too. It was surprising not to see her make another album with Bhasker in 2017-2019 range.

She did "So Long" with him last year, also her own acoustic version, with just 2 or 3 Nashville cats. Another Cam album is coming out this summer, according to Rolling Stone, but I haven't found a title or date. According to this coverage, her recent co-writers incl Natalie Hemby, Liz Rose, Lori McKenna:
https://www.songwriteruniverse.com/cam-songwriter-interview-2020.htm

Video of her new track, "Til There's Nothing Left," embedded in that article: very nice! Still cracking country media guardrails for females, hopefully.

Oh, and while we're still waiting for yon studio Margo, this is mostly pretty fahn as in fine:
https://margoprice.bandcamp.com/album/perfectly-imperfect-at-the-ryman Though I must wanr yall that she does "Proud Mary," and it's the slow-fast "PM": like the Ike & Tina def w/o Ike & Tina. Otherwise, in descending order of complaints, she sometimes extends the ends of lines with bah-bah vibraaato (Shakira does it better), the drinkin' medley seems maybe(?) a tad awkward, like she and the Price Tags needed to rehearse this bit of their old club act maybe(?) a tad more, and some words fall down a well---but the overall momentum and emotional relevance don't. In other words, it's one live album that doesn't seem to have gotten any tweaks, and needed hardly any. (But I'd skip that "Proud Mary" if I were you).

i think Cam is a major talent; she's a monster live and more than half of Untamed is absolute top level pop country. I'm just flummoxed by her many lacking crossover misfires: the boring Sam Smith track (which undoubtedly got her real paid), the unnecessary Christine and the Queens cover, the obligatory generic Christmas song, the Diplo thing. Both of the new singles sound disposable to me, but I could give "Nothing Left" another try i guess? I'm hopeful there's more there there but i need to hear it.

"Nothing Left" seems pretty poignant and sexy to me, low-key and flashy in all the right places, testifying to a relationship that still works. She wants it to go on and on, 'til there's nothing left, sounding like she implicitly recognizes that such a day will come, because death if nothing else. But my first time was with the video, so I'm influenced that way. Here's hoping the album is good.

Strung out once again on Whitney Rose, while replaying her latest, We Still Go To Rodeos: songs, like the budget-mindful, but not cowed, title track, about getting through this and that, but also sometimes he (not nec. always the same he) drops the ball. On first listen, I thought the guitar might be too much with us, but listening again I got that instruments always respond to her, often writing in short, punchy phrases, although her vocal approach is more float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Structures seem like she might have been listening to good early Elvis Costello, especially in "Believe Me, Angela"---looks like one of his old titles, doesn't it---but this is strictly woman-to-woman, warning the other one not to take her man, because he sucks. But wait there's more: narrator might be over-eager, overselling "Angela! I like that nane." And still more, maybe--this simple male mind will have to lean in.
"Thanks For Tryin'" gets into a building recurrence that somehow reminds me of "Crimson and Clover," while "You'd Blame Me For The Rain" is this album's "Can't Stop Shakin'" Southwestern groove thing, the shrug of a strong shoulder. But there's also room and time enough for real-enough country feel, even a little bitty tear she won't let go, won't let it let her down, can't afford to, she thinks (budget-mindedl like she's learned to be).

(PS: Reasonably good audience recordings on YouTube indicate that the guitar volume can be a problem via club sound system, just because she doesn't have the biggest, loudest voice, but I'll take my chances when feasible; meanwhile, maybe she'll livestream, with control over the mixing, or just with her own acoustic guitar, that could work with her songs too).

https://whitneyrose.bandcamp.com/releases

Margo has a sad little thread of her own here: The Margo Price c/d

Her new studio set is due now in early July, which-iirc-was when it was initially supposed to be out?

I believe she pushed it back from early May

That sounds right. I'm probably mixing it up w/her summer tour with Chris Stapleton that's been pushed back/cancelled.

May 8th it was.

"til there's nothing left" is probs my favourite song of the year. just sounds so glorious

with the windows UP
spending all my LOVE

and those final chorus adlibs. mmmmmmmmmmmmm

need another album so bad - "road to happiness" was also great

Dear fans... pic.twitter.com/7JlcH2NMl6

— Lady A (@ladyantebellum) June 11, 2020

Lady A isn't a very good band name. They should keep brainstorming. I wonder if The Beguiled is taken?

Agreed that Lady A is a bad call... we can't say this, so we'll abbreviate it? Maybe just "Lady"?

they can tour with lady g!

practical question: how did they get the "ladya" twitter handle in 2020?????

$$$$$$

check this shit out, it's 1996 and I'm a writer for Norm MacDonald's Weekend Update:

In music news this week, country music group Lady Antebellum changed their name to Lady A in order to avoid racist connotations with Civil War history. The meaning of the A in the new name? ANTEBELLUM.

The group's manager says the new name was their second choice, after their record label rejected their first choice: Lady Racist.

Didn't they try unofficially doing this 5 or so years ago? Using Lady A in different settings and talking about being ashamed of their name. Maybe it didn't take with people and they think it'll go better in 2020?

In other country groups with unfortunate names for the times news

#GASLIGHTER pic.twitter.com/Cieo4vBNZC

— Dixie Chicks (@dixiechicks) June 11, 2020

Their name comes from "Dixie Chicken," not the Johnny Reb-associated anthem, which itself (aothorship of which has been disputed by descendants of black string band musician---that's def an old time thing; the Carolina Chocolate Drops met at a convention of like-minded African-American pickers 'n' pluckers) references Dixie as an already-existing area-name (for that matter, the seldom-performed introduction, at least the version I heard on a Civil War comp, is from the POV of a jiltee who is about to head South, or at least takes solace from the resolution to do so, by cracky---in that context, it's not regional anthemy-type anthem per se, and could imagine the Dixie Chicks covering that version).
Of course, some say that "antebellum" is a purely historical term, but----
So far on Twitter, DCs have often been defended for their anti-Iraq-Invasion stance (and Natalie added that George W "makes me ashamed to be from Texas"---how could you be ashamed to be from Texas, On YOUR KNEES INFIDEL), But, if they change it to the Chicks, the D Chicks, De-Chicks, fine, whatevs.

When I first heard of Lady Antebellum, the cheesy name made me not want to listen, but then I had to write show previews, and they didn't sound so bad---v. young, clean-cut, Southernish, nothing to make me think of rebel flags etc. But why such a name, sheesh. Wonder if Confederate Railroad is still around?

"The* De-Chicks, that is.

hey, ***THEE DEECEES***, or """THEE DCS***, that's American (but will DC Talk object)

dexys chicks

Pretty sure Confederate Railroad is still chugging somewhere on the Sports Bar/Honky Tonk circuit.

confederaterailroad.com is still chugging along without a functioning "Fun Stuff" link on their site header.

but who needs a Fun Stuff page when you've already got a Photos page chock full of fun stuff!!!

https://i.imgur.com/EsMT4fv.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/951cz17.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/J0Is3Fr.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/GrABxLd.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/AAWzbc8.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6V5tlN6.jpg

Fourth pic from the top rules (despite stiff competition from 1 and 5)!

x-post

But according to Seattle’s Lady A, neither the band nor any members of their team reached out to her before making the change.

This Lady A — a 61-year-old black woman whose real name is Anita White — has been playing the blues under the name for more than 20 years. She began singing as a gospel performer at church and started going by Lady A for karaoke nights in the Eighties. She’s released multiple albums with the name, and on top of her day job working with Seattle Public Utilities, she’s gearing up to release another album, Lady A: Live in New Orleans, on her birthday on July 18th.

https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/lady-antebellum-lady-a-country-blues-1013919/

Oh man. Good luck to her and them getting this all sorted out.

Meanwhile, this might be the right way to present concerts, if also *masks* people

Billy Bob’s Texas And Lone Star 92.5 To Host #GIVEFORLIFE Blood Drive June 25

New shows announced for July along with rescheduled concerts for 2020
FORT WORTH, Texas - The legendary Billy Bob’s Texas, located in the heart of the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District, first opened in 1981. While concerts for June have been postponed due to social distancing as a result of the COVID-19 virus, the colossal Billy Bob's Texas will continue hosting concerts as soon as possible.

Though “The World’s Largest Honky Tonk” will remain closed for the time being, per the latest executive order from Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Billy Bob’s Texas along with Lone Star 92.5 will be hosting a #GIVEFORLIFE blood drive on June 25 from 6am - 7pm (CT). Parking is complimentary in the main Billy Bob’s parking lot, and in the lot to the east of the building. Call or text 800-366-2834 to make an appointment.

For more information on the #GIVEFORLIVE blood drive, visit HERE.https://billybobstexas.com/news/lone-star-92-5-summer-blood-drive-2020

Just Announced! Tickets will go on sale Tuesday, June 16 at 10AM for new concerts in July such as Randall King (7/2), Neal McCoy (7/3), The Bellamy Brothers (7/4) and Mike Ryan (7/10 & 7/11).

Though the current mandates listed in Phase 3 of Governor Abbott’s reopening plan states that bars can open at 50% capacity, we feel that in the interest of health and safety for our staff, guests, and entertainers, we will be opening at HALF of the restricted capacity.

Therefore, these newly announced concerts will be limited to 1,500 tickets.
1000 socially distanced Reserved Seats
500 socially distanced General Admission

There are a number of concerts that have been rescheduled such as Roger Creager (7/17), Robert Earl Keen (7/18), Cory Morrow (7/24), Gary Allan (8/1), Drake White (8/14), Tracy Byrd (8/21), Chad Prather (8/23), Sammy Kershaw (9/11), Justin Moore (9/26), Shane Smith & The Saints (10/17), "Hold My Beer" with Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen (10/23), Lonestar (10/30), Josh Ward (11/13), Colter Wall (11/19), Easton Corbin (11/27), Stoney LaRue (12/5), Jon Pardi (12/10 & 12/11), Flatland Cavalry (12/26).

For more information on all rescheduling and future announcements, visit HERE.
https://billybobstexas.com/news/lone-star-92-5-summer-blood-drive-2020?utm_source=2911+Media+Alert&utm_campaign=61a504a8df-2020-06-12_BBT_June-release&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6ce95af186-61a504a8df-55168218

Circle airing Live At Billy Bob’s Texas!

Live at Billy Bob’s Texas gives the listener a front row seat to concerts at the World’s Largest Honky Tonk. The music series has compiled powerful performances featuring hits from legendary country music artists like Willie Nelson, Charlie Daniels, Eddy Raven, Gary Stewart, Asleep at the Wheel, Janie Fricke and more.

Circle network is carrying Live At Billy Bob’s Texas! Launched in January, Circle Media celebrates the country lifestyle and puts fans inside the circle of everything country. Circle offers entertainment news, documentaries, movies, archival, new and licensed programming, Grand Ole Opry performances, and more. Based in Nashville, Circle includes a linear network as well as a companion over-the-top (OTT) premium entertainment service which is expected to launch in spring 2020. Circle is a joint venture between Opry Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of Ryman Hospitality Properties, and Gray TV.

Go to CirclePlus.com for shows, schedules and a simple guide to getting the channel.

Visit BillyBobsTexas.com/live-at-billy-bobs for more information.

Location:
Billy Bob's Texas
Historic Fort Worth Stockyards
2520 Rodeo Plaza
Fort Worth, Texas 76164
(817) 624-7117
DIRECTIONS

About Billy Bob's Texas:
Located in the heart of the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District, the 100,000 square foot cattle barn became Billy Bob's Texas in 1981. Since then more than 17 million visitors have enjoyed live entertainment and real bull riding at "The World’s Largest Honky Tonk".

The facility can hold 6,000 rowdy patrons on a given night and has been host to hundreds of musical acts, from Alan Jackson to ZZ Top. On Fridays and Saturdays, the venue also features live bull riding – a step up from the mechanical variety. It seems like an unlikely source for a series that has sold millions of albums.

Billy Bob’s has been named the Country Music Club of the Year 10 times by the Academy of Country Music.

To buy Billy Bob’s Texas merch, or any of the Live at Billy Bob's Texas CDs and DVDs, click here to visit the online store, or to buy tickets for special events and concerts, go to billybobstexas.com.

For important updates and more information visit Billy Bob’s Texas social channels linked below.
Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/bf141dbbd818f4f933816b13a/images/d95809f1-a6b4-4eff-8460-350e81eddd37.jpg

"linear network": The Circle is on digital antenna TV where I live, but haven't yet gone to antenna.

In same email: virtual benefit concert for KNON, local listener-supported radio:

https://mcusercontent.com/bf141dbbd818f4f933816b13a/images/dd7a5a9b-e122-45c3-b6b1-e65eb719bded.jpg

Smith Entertainment Group's Live At Billy Bob's incl. some I heard, thought were pretty good: ones by Merle, Coe, and Gary Stewart (although that last was pretty eerie, and came out around the time he killed himself), but didn't know there were 50! Incl. artists famous at the time at least, and even still alive in some cases, others not so much. What a time trip. Wonder if Cross Canadian Ragweed are still around?
https://billybobstexas.com/live-at-billy-bobs

Mainly remember the single they did with Lee Ann Womack.

new Colter Wall single, a little more pep in his step suits him well

https://youtu.be/_P0q4AC02Io

Wonder if Cross Canadian Ragweed are still around?

They broke up in 2010, but leader Cody Canada has a solo band called The Departed that's basically been doing the same thing (Red Dirt Southern Rock) since then.

Those Billy Bob's live albums are staples of Texas truckstop CD racks.

That sounds right. Good to know Cody Canada is still around, which reminds me---just got this:

For Immediate Release—

Colter Wall’s Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs
Self-produced, 3rd full-length album out August 28th via La Honda Records/Thirty Tigers
First track "Western Swing & Waltzes" out now

June 16, 2020 - Swift Current, Saskatchewan - The music industry is no stranger to cowboys—but it’s been a long while since any with an authentic affinity for the North American West came along and carried around a love for heroes like Ramblin’ Jack Elliot and Ian Tyson. Enter 24-year-old Colter Wall, whose dusty baritone voice and deep well of stories are almost single-handedly carrying traditional western music into the future. Wall’s approach is that of a preservationist, pure as the prairie wind, and is on full display on his new self-produced album Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs. Available from La Honda Records/Thirty Tigers on August 28th, Wall’s 10-track ode to the themes and labors of western life picks up where his last album left off, with a reverence for his “working cowboy kin” and a whole mess of cowboy songs. Fans can pre-order Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs here and listen to the album’s first track, “Western Swing & Waltzes,” here.

Along the Blanco River bank, outside the small town of Wimberley, Wall rounded up his band, hot off a North American tour, to lay down these ten new songs at Yellow Dog Studios, deep in the heart of Texas. From his previous recording sessions with Dave Cobb at the helm, Wall began to take in what it meant to produce a record; the decision making, risk-taking, and band-leading all learned along the way. With Western Swing & Waltzes, it was Wall’s turn to take the reigns. His band. His choices. And the finished product is diverse and effortlessly cool, with an extra log or two on the fire.

Songs like “High & Mighty,” cowboy poet and rancher Lewis Martin Pederson III’s ode to a legendarily tough bronco, showcase Wall’s well-curated and hard-working touring band—Patrick Lyons (pedal steel, dobro, mandolin), Jake Groves (harmonica), Jason Simpson (bass), and Aaron Goodrich (drums); joined by Emily Gimble on piano and Doug Moreland on fiddle—while others like Wall-penned “Talkin’ Prairie Boy” feature just Wall’s voice and guitar. However arranged, there’s an earnestness to these songs, roughly half of them written by Wall and half by Wall’s direct influences and fellow purveyors of honest, hard-earned tunes for the prairie and beyond.

About the album, Wall said, “These songs are punchier than I am.” Giving credit where credit is due however, Wall is no slouch on the ranch. As any new cattleman would, he adds to his herd, as he does his musical legacy with Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs.

Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs Track listing:
Western Swing & Waltzes
I Ride An Old Paint/Leavin’ Cheyenne
Big Iron
Henry and Sam
Diamond Joe
High and Mighty
Talkin’ Prairie Boy
Cowpoke
Rocky Mountain Rangers
Houlihans at the Holiday Inn

More About Colter Wall: From the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada, Colter Wall, is known for his songwriting and unparalleled voice. Steeped in Western tradition and historic influence, the music of Colter Wall has soundtracked movies such as Hell or High Water, Peanut Butter Falcon, and Deadwood, in addition to TV series Damnation and HBO’s Run, while catching the ears of celebrities, critics, and fans worldwide. His recent appearance on Austin City Limits TV set the direction of Country & Western music’s future. Still a young artist, Colter Wall’s discography includes the breakout Imaginary Appalachia, two acclaimed full-length collections, Colter Wall and Songs of the Plains.

Media inquiries: IVPR/Maria Ivey, maria at ivpr.co

Elizabeth Cook album Aftermath out 9/11, according to Australia Rolling Stone. Produced by Butch Walker. New single (w link to video in article): In “Perfect Girls of Pop,” Cook mines a vein of restless, jangling college rock, but Bevis & Butthead might not object: bass & drums sound upfront here, guitar also goes to deeper twang at times (and her voice keeps it kinda country, ditto sad frustrated lyrics, given strong broody ominous support by music) Also has track list etc. (did not know that she has a fishing and interview show): https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/elizabeth-cook-perfect-girls-of-pop-new-album-aftermath-12987/

joint memoir
Me and Sister Bobbie: True Tales of the Family Band arrives later this year
https://link.pitchfork.com/view/5be9cb902ddf9c72dc17acfdcbt13.fo4/6ec40f78

Dixie Chicks pivot to "The Chicks" should be noted here as well as their solid new single.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwBjF_VVFvE

https://ecp.yusercontent.com/mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffiles.constantcontact.com%2Fcc8c3328701%2F97fa8794-7b46-487a-adcc-83ba7cb1e772.png&t=1593226941&ymreqid=50d5b170-e206-80ee-2fbf-f20054018300&sig=x17XqIhAO36va.qYk7yCow--~C

Willie Nelson’s Iconic 4th Of July Picnic To Air As Epic Hybrid Concert Film
Live virtual performances to tell the story of the Picnic’s past and where it’s headed; Tickets available now via Luck Productions

June 26, 2020 - Nowhere, TX - As Luck would have it... we’re bringing Willie Nelson’s annual 4th of July Picnic to the people this year; part Picnics past, part what’s to come, and all in the spirit of the Picnic’s storied history. On July 4th, starting at 3:30 pm Central, fans will be able to enjoy interviews with characters from the Picnic’s past, and see new, live performances from their favorite Luck Family artists.

This year, Luck Productions was set to host the 47th annual event, welcoming the Picnic back to its hill country home. While the droves of sweaty Texas hippies and extended family members—blood kin and musicians alike—won’t be crowding into Willie’s Luck, TX, ranch this summer, the man himself will be performing alongside his band from his nearby recording facility, Pedernales Studios. In addition to Willie, performers will include the likes of Sheryl Crow, Ziggy Marley, Margo Price, Steve Earle, and Kurt Vile. A full list of confirmed performers can be found below. Tickets for digital admission are $35 ahead of the event and $45 day-of-show and can be purchased www.williepicnic.com.

This July 4th, the Picnic will kick off with a Prime Cuts episode with Chef Scott Roberts of Salt Lick BBQ and special guest Ray Benson, followed by live-streamed performances from Luck’s Saloon and Chapel stages before leading into a 90-minute concert film segment. The film will feature remote performances from Picnic artists, an all-star house band curated by The Texas Gentlemen’s Beau Bedford (featuring Charlie Sexton, John Michael Schoepf, and Josh Blue), and interviews and Picnic memories stitched in throughout. Additionally, SiriusXM’s Willie’s Roadhouse will broadcast the 90 minute stream to subscribers.

Tickets to the event grant access to highly curated food and beverage delivery packages from Assembly Kitchen, Austin Food and Wine Alliance grant recipients, and Sourced Craft Cocktails.

One dollar from each ticket sold will support The Luck Reunion Fund, managed by the Austin Community Foundation, directly benefiting five designated organizations. Budweiser, Michelob Ultra, and Karbach Love Street will also be matching donations. Beneficiaries for this event include All Together ATX, Six Square, Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, SIMS Foundation, and Central Texas Foodbank.

“Our goal with the 2020 Picnic is to bring it back to what it was—in the only way we can during these times. We were set to host this year's event at Luck, to welcome the Picnic back to its hill country home,” says Ellee Fletcher Durniak, co-founder of Luck Productions. “The Picnic is really one of a kind, it has always been scrappy. Cars on fire. Mass arrests. You name it...it happened at the Picnic.”

What: Willie Nelson’s 4th of July Picnic concert film experience and live stream
When: July 4th, 2020 at 3:30 pm Central
Where: www.luck.stream and www.williepicnic.com
How: Tickets can be purchased here; $35 pre-event, $45 day of show
Who: Willie Nelson & Family
Asleep At The Wheel
Charley Crockett
Devon Gilfillian
John Doe
Johnny Bush
Kinky Friedman
Kurt Vile
Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real
Lyle Lovett
Margo Price
Matthew Houck (Phosphorescent)
The McCrary Sisters
Particle Kid
Randy Rogers & Wade Bowen
Ray Wylie Hubbard
Robert Earl Keen
Shakey Graves
Sheryl Crow
Steve Earle
The Peterson Brothers
Vincent Neil Emerson
Ziggy Marley

For more information, please visit www.williepicnic.com.
Media inquiries: IVPR/Maria Ivey, maria at ivpr.co

Clint Black's new Out of Sane is totally likable-- Maybe could use some more levels or gimmicks or angles or variety but tight lil combo w the drums and slide gtr and fiddle and steel and he’s idealistic at times, pretentious never, straining never, maybe still kinda gullible but learned to be cautious too, trying to balance---still among the hopefuls, as he goes out once again in a minor key, to “Find Myself”: “If I get back before I return, do me a favor and keep me there,” sounds like he’s not kidding. He may joke but never kids, one of those guys.

There's sometimes a little bit of honky-tonk-ish piano, some liquidy electric keys too---and backup female vocals just a little bit on one track, could use a little more of that, or guest duet, but still it's pretty good.

Been listening to The Tender Things, lotsa twang and steel guitar fun. Gary Newcomb plays with them, as well as Ricky Jackson and Robert Ellis. it's NICE

loving that Tender Things album. extremely my shit

Hah great! Been listening to that every day of past week.

New Gillian Welch and David Rawlings joint released today:

https://gillianwelch.bandcamp.com/album/all-the-good-times

ah, thanks for the heads up!

Been diggin' this Western Centuries 2020 joint
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNB0ARs-QH0

Need to dive into their new LP asap

Yeah, gotta check that, Tender Things too---meanwhile:

“Anybody see a problem,” he wrote, alluding at the fact that people can wear masks on crowded airplanes, but are not allowed to gather in live music venues.

https://www.countrynow.com/randy-housers-instagram-post-sparks-debate-jason-aldean-and-miranda-lambert-weigh-in/

Two probs: picture of masked people crammed together like eels in an airplane can is rong; pic of empty theater is because so far apparently no promoter wants to separate seated patrons and enforce staying in seats, also they might get mad if try to make or ask to wear masks. But surely some people would be reasonable; enough to suit promoters?

Speaking of Gillian, did yall see this on her thread?

Unearthed from a cache of home demos and reel-to-reel recordings, Boots No. 2: The Lost Songs is the second release of archival music from the vault of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. This remarkable 48 song collection, spread over three volumes, was recorded between the making of Time (The Revelator) and Soul Journey. It is an intimate glimpse at the artist’s sketchbook, containing some lifelong themes as well as some flights of fancy. The versatility and quality shown here greatly expand the Welch/Rawlings canon, and confirm that the acclaimed studio albums from the pair have never been an accident but a clear artistic choice. So far digital only:https://store.aconyrecords.com/products/boots-no-2-the-lost-songs-vol-1
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0675/9735/products/1e9dc3af-4c0d-4fc5-8021-3524e0dc0f449320812402375070028-LARGE_27348fde-d2f3-4b10-a43c-b0bca7c27f17_grande.jpg?v=1594828134

Midland Get Hardsonned In BBQ Beef

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news/midland-sams-bbq-photo/

Heard a new Mike & The Moonpies record yesterday, Touch of You: The Lost Songs of Gary Stewart. Had never heard of Stewart before but digging these covers a lot. Should I delve into Stewart's discography?

Yes! “Out of Hand” is my favourite (not sure if this is a canonical choice), the run of LPs that he made for RCA in the mid-late 70s is fantastic.

Nice, will check it out asap

Another fine set of choonz is the new album by The Western Terrestrials, called Back in the Saddle of a Fever Dream. This, with The Tender Things and Western Centuries new albums are my fav (alt)country albums this year. It's a good year so far!

Yeah, look for Out of Hand/Your Place Or Mine, two of his best LPs on one CD, like it says below. Also You're Not The Woman You Used To Be, think that might have been on another twofer later. Greatest Hits on RCA and on Hightone, where he came back, at least artistically, much later. Also Best of the Hightone Years (is Hightone still around? Thanks Hightone!). And the spooky Live at Billy Bob's I mentioned upthread. As for the true Gary Experience, and why I doubt good ol' Mick & The Monnpies can come close, although I'll check it out, here's my testimony in the Voice, long ago (it's short):

Out Of Hand

A bar-stool freebird of yore avoids a million nights alone
by Don Allred
January 28 - February 3, 2004 Issue 04

His songs flash by like whole lives.
photo: Andrew W. Long
Gary Stewart
Live at Billy Bob's Texas
Smith Music Group

(The following paragraph was written for a country music poll ballot in
December, right before I glanced up from my laptop, and saw the chyron crawl
beneath Larry King: "Singer Gary Stewart has just been found dead in his Florida home."
[Wife died, and he shot himself in the neck, a fairly slow way to go.])
On Live at Billy Bob's Texas, Gary Stewart is but a ghost of himself. Now
fitting the "quiet ones you gotta watch" barkeep's pro-file, this
free(dom'sjustanotherword)bird of yore (once hyped as the "Springsteen of country," when he
and the new Boss were go-cart Mozarts versus mid-'70s murk) no longer shivers
and wails, but leaves dusty fingerprints all over gleaming, surging
honky-tonkcore, the Lost City of his Greatest (mostly shouldabeen) Hits. The band's
eager, but also well disciplined, and totally unannotated, like ghost riders in the
sky.
(Later): Yeah, another dead guy. Once upon a time, he was Dr. Fun and Mr.
Doom (and self-awareness, and headlonging), simultaneously. Gary still sounds
like an impossibly corny, truly inspired evangelist, on Out of Hand/Your Place or
Mine, his two best LPs on one CD. Songs flash by like whole lives, but really
they're just his moments, ticking away.
Live cuts like "An Empty Glass (That's the Way the Day Ends)" turn the tides
down like blankets, till I'm bathed in (pace tua, St. Sade!) the *truly* sweetest taboo (of self-pity).
Tiring, soothing. I just stare through his stare, on the rocks, as he
imagines/avoids/follows her stare. "Maybe you feel cheated, for having married so young,"
he mutters to himself and his significant other, while shifting on his bar
stool, in the still-rousing "Ten Years of This." ("A million nights alone!") So:
Mebbe getting married is cheating? No! Not always!
The Live CD is labeled with Gary's chipmunky, half-quizzical half-smirk.
("Crazy world, haint it.") Vividly painted. Like one of those commemorative plates
advertised on late-night basic cable. I try to put it away, but then a-l-l-l
his damned drinkin'/cheatin' songs start swirling through their rounds again.
Scores unsettle themselves, in Gary's man-made afterlife. (Reminding
25-years-teetotaling me: For the first time in eight years, I gotta find another job,
and now Bush wants Mars.) Art sucks.

.

new Lori McKenna sounded nice after one late-night listen

Dow, fwiw I have never come across You’re Not The Woman You Used To Be on CD - I think they were pre- Out Of Hand recordings that MCA put out after OOH did alright. Edd H used to say on here that YNTWYUTB was his favourite Stewart material, I’ve never heard it. It’s one of those records I keep an eye out for.

Yes, according to discogs, you're right: almost all of it was prev. on the Kapp label. Never on CD, also according to discogs, although they do list the 80s cassette reissue that a friend of mine had, that's how I heard it. Amazon's got the vinyl for $7.79---tape for $68.35!
https://www.amazon.com/Youre-Not-Woman-You-Used/dp/B000002QD0/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Gary+Stewart+You%27re+Not+The+Woman+You+Used+To+Be&qid=1595632840&sr=8-1

Discogs marketplace has several, though looks like only one is US:
https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?artist_id=264158&ev=ab&sort=title%2Cdesc&q=You%27re+Not+The+Woman+You+Used+To+Be Prob somewhere else online, but I don't even have a working turntable, don't know most places to look for records.

It was rumored that all the Kapp label masters were destroyed in the Universal fire.

In better news, Hightone is apparently part of Concord Music Group now.

I could buy it - I’m in the UK as it happens - but one day I’ll find a copy in a shop and it’ll be excitement!

Lori McKenna makes it sound so easy, man

Retweeted by Ned:

http://d1w8cc2yygc27j.cloudfront.net/-3424050904899577017/4542045592072958183.jpg

Wait

I think I’ve listened to enough contemporary Americana and left-of-centre country LPs to conclude that almost everybody making them listened -a lot- to the first couple of Sheryl Crow albums, Tom Petty’s Wildflowers and John Mellencamp’s Human Wheels growing up.

— Thierry Côté (@tcote) July 29, 2020

Loving the Lori McKenna - thanks for flagging, as I only seem to hear about her albums through word of mouth.

Also, how is there not an ilm thread dedicated to her work? Think there's enough fans for an albums poll?

Regulars to the thread will enjoy streaming TexasFM out of Lubbock.
https://www.texasfm.com/

Recently played:
Ashley Ray - "Dirty Work"
Steve Earle - "Guitar Town"
Flatland Cavalry - "No Shade of Green"
Koe Wetzel - "Sundy or Mundy"
Chris Knight - "It Ain't Easy Being Me"
Turnpike Troubadours - "Every Girl"
Josh Weathers - "Before I Met You"
Jarrod Morris - "Stampede"
Robert Earl Keen - "Amarillo Highway"
Parker McCollum - "Pretty Heart"

Am I the only one who likes the country grunge stylings of Koe Wetzel?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqYB32IReWo

I love this song
https://youtu.be/Hw4MiegZxsU

wow, good song john

the Caylee Hammack album has some very good songs and several i will not be listening to again.

new morgan wallen song is really good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db_mZ_2gtLg

Rip Justin Townes Earle

Was gutted to hear about JTE last night. Though I'd lost track of his recent releases, his first two albums hold up and were among my very favorites in their release years. By all accounts he was a genuine character and a sweet guy who understood pain and estrangement firsthand, and his songs were imbued with stories that reflected those experiences.

I once quite literally bumped into him and Jason Isbell unloading on the afternoon of a show at the Double Door years ago, and they were both sweet and happy to chat for a minute. I remember his scarecrow smile and the way he filled up the stage with humor and stories that night...RIP.

Such sad news. RIP. Bummer we keep losing guys to addiction (I assume...sorry if I'm wrong). I'm so glad Isbell got out on the right side.

Yeah, I posted this on ILE's Rolling Obituary 2020 last night, don't go there unless you want to risk losing your shit:

O shit. The first album of his I heard, Midnight at the Movies, seemed like a well-negotiated rendezvous with somebody who brought a degree of balance, sanity, replenishment into his life, minus the drugs he'd run with since boyhood---and he was happy, he was, with a sense of wonder and nervous vibrancy, not letting himself run away---and the albums that soon followed (and The Good Life, which preceded) could be a lot moodier, Harlem River Blues, for instance, but he kept finding new ways to make music, new turns---but then gradually they got wearier, more fragile--until The Saint of Lost Causes, released at the end of May, 2019, seemed to me like his best in a decade, a return and a leap forward, developing from some of the best bits, glimmers and sparks, of prev. 2010s efforts. RIP. I suspect old traveling companion Isbell will write some more songs about him.

― dow, Sunday, August 23, 2020 9:53 PM

Frequent tour colleague Samantha Crain's good thread of memories, click post below for link:

Some of my best memories of Justin Townes Earle

1) upon finishing our first tour out with him in 2009, standing outside Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, TX saying our goodbyes, Justin hands me $400 (apart from our payout) and says "$100 for each of ya, I know it's hard out there"

— Samantha Crain (@sjcrain) August 24, 2020

@JasonIsbell
Justin bought the suit I got married in.
9:08 PM · Aug 23, 2020

Sad news, RIP. "Harlem River Blues" is the album I know the best. Would like to check out some of the more recent ones.

Bandcamp's got some, other places maybe more. The last one in his lifetime, The Saint of Lost Causes, roolz among later works, I think: https://justintownesearle.bandcamp.com/album/the-saint-of-lost-causes

Pic posted by Steve

Justin Townes Earle 1982-2020 pic.twitter.com/AzerqkUZa1

— Steve Earle (@SteveEarle) August 24, 2020

GRAMMY-WINNING ICON WYNONNA ANNOUNCES ‘RECOLLECTIONS’ EP

FEATURING INTIMATE RENDITIONS OF CLASSIC SONGS BY
JOHN PRINE, FATS DOMINO, GRATEFUL DEAD + MORE

OUT OCTOBER 30 VIA ANTI-

"Wynonna is the latest left-field addition to the eclectic roster of Anti- Records, where she expects she’ll have the freedom to explore her musical instincts.” – Boston Globe

“Wynonna was in perfect form and seemed utterly reinvigorated by her new
artistic surroundings.” – Rolling Stone on 2019 AMERICANAFEST set

Recollections, the captivating new EP from Wynonna, marks both a literal and a figurative homecoming for the GRAMMY-winning songstress who recorded much of the collection while quarantining on her Tennessee farm in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Forced off the road for the first time in years, she found herself reconnecting with her roots as she sang once again for the sheer joy of it, performing a series of loose and lively covers with her husband, former Highway 101 drummer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Cactus Moser.

The gritty “King Bee,” a half-century-old blues tune Wynonna and Moser have been performing live together for years, gets an extra boost of swagger from the couple’s palpable chemistry, with Wynonna bouncing swampy, distorted harmonica riffs off of her husband’s searing slide guitar. “ ‘King Bee’ reminds me of why I love the blues so much,” Wynonna said.

“I’ve learned a lot being at home these last few months,” Wynonna reflects. “When there’s no touring, no concerts, no band, no lights, no action, all that’s left is you and the song. All that’s left is your gift.”
‘Recollections’ EP

1. I Hear You Knocking (Fats Domino)
2. King Bee (Slim Harpo)
3. Feeling Good (Nina Simone)
4. Angel From Montgomery (John Prine)
5. Ramble On Rose (Grateful Dead)

"KIng Bee" is streaming somewhere, but my browser won't go there, says insecure. I liked Wynonna and The Big Noise in studio and live, hope they'll be back some day.

It's on Youtube ffs---if this doesn't show, it'll pop right up on yon 'Tube, or should:
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=pyFHsmzgOq8&feature=share

I have never been a big fan but this review piqued my interest

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/mary-chapin-carpenter-the-dirt-and-the-stars/

Thx for sharing. I never read Pitchfork anymore but that review is both intriguing (as you say) and actually gives a pretty good idea of what the record might sound like. Is that how pitchfork works these days??

Not sure about other writers but Sodomsky knows his stuff and is always worth reading in my experience. He's become their go-to folk/country writer in the last few years (along with Stephen Deusner) and is doing a really nice job of filling in some gaps they had. This year alone he's reviewed Katie Pruitt, Brandy Clark, Lucinda Williams, Jaime Wyatt, and Kathleen Edwards, and he's also done the retrospective Sunday Review a few times - for The Dixie Chicks' Home, Elliott Smith's s/t, and Miranda Lambert's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

https://pitchfork.com/staff/sam-sodomsky/albumreviews/

I like how much ink he gives to the ballads in that Crazy Ex Girlfriend review, even if the score is TOO LOW. "Love Letters" and "Desperation" have long been favorites of mine and seem to get forgotten in the typical narrative hubbub around the shotguns and pool hall confrontations.

Good 'un on Gillian's latest installment (16 tracks, streaming on bandcamp):
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/gillian-welch-boots-no-2-the-lost-songs-vol-1/

August 27, 2020—Starting Over, the highly anticipated new studio album from Chris Stapleton, is out November 13 on Mercury Records Nashville and is now available for pre-order/pre-save. Listen to the title track: https://strm.to/CSStartingOverSinglePR

Written by Stapleton and Mike Henderson, “Starting Over” begins an album of startling prescience—completed in late February only days before the shutdown began. Across its fourteen tracks are songs that examine life’s simplest joys and most serious struggles. Alongside eleven written by Stapleton with both longtime friends and new collaborators are three carefully chosen covers: John Fogerty’s “Joy Of My Life” and Guy Clark’s “Worry B Gone” and “Old Friends.” The resulting album—both timely and timeless—speaks to and transcends the current moment in ways unimaginable even while it was being created.
The album finds Stapleton back in his second home, Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A (with additional work done at Muscle Shoals Sound and Compass Sound Studio), surrounded by his trusted collaborators as well as some new faces. Produced by Dave Cobb (who also plays acoustic guitar), the record features his beloved wife, Morgane Stapleton (vocals, tambourine), with longtime bandmates J.T. Cure (bass) and Derek Mixon (drums). Special guests include legendary musicians Mike Campbell (electric guitar), Benmont Tench (Hammond B3 organ) and Paul Franklin (pedal steel) as well as the All Voices Choir who are featured on “Watch You Burn,” written by Stapleton and Campbell.

Stapleton’s “All-American Road Show” tour is planned to resume next year. Highlights include headline shows at Washington State’s Gorge Amphitheatre, Chicago’s Wrigley Field, New York’s Madison Square Garden and “A Concert for Kentucky”—a special performance benefitting his newly created Outlaw State of Kind Hometown Fund to be held at University of Kentucky’s Kroger Field on April 24. Presented by Live Nation, the performance is the first concert ever held at UK’s Kroger Field and will feature very special guests Willie Nelson & Family, Sheryl Crow and Yola. 100% of the concert’s net proceeds will go toward Chris and Morgane Stapleton’s Outlaw State of Kind Hometown Fund. Established in partnership with the Blue Grass Community Foundation, the fund will specifically support local and national organizations directly impacting Kentucky, with initial grant distributions focusing on music and arts education. See below for complete itinerary.
STARTING OVER TRACKLIST
1. Starting Over
2. Devil Always Made Me Think Twice
3. Cold
4. When I’m With You
5. Arkansas
6. Joy Of My Life
7. Hillbilly Blood
8. Maggie’s Song
9. Whiskey Sunrise
10. Worry B Gone
11. Old Friends
12. Watch You Burn
13. You Should Probably Leave
14. Nashville, TN
CHRIS STAPLETON’S “ALL-AMERICAN ROAD SHOW”
November 21—Arlington, TX—Globe Life Field*
April 21—Toledo, OH—Huntington Center†
April 22—Columbus, OH—Schottenstein Center†
April 24—Lexington, KY—A Concert for Kentucky – Kroger Field‡
June 5—San Bernardino, CA—Glen Helen Amphitheater§
June 10—Boise, ID—Ford Idaho Center Arena#
June 11—Portland, OR—Sunlight Supply Amphitheater#
June 12—George, WA—The Gorge Amphitheatre#
June 17—Bakersfield, CA—Mechanics Bank Arena#
June 18—Sacramento, CA—Toyota Amphitheatre#
June 19—Mountain View, CA—Shoreline Amphitheatre#
June 24—Salt Lake City, UT—USANA Amphitheatre^
June 25—Denver, CO—Pepsi Center^
June 26—Denver, CO—Pepsi Center^
July 8—Milwaukee, WI—Summerfest at American Family Insurance Amphitheater+
July 10—Camden, NJ—BB&T Pavilion°
July 17—Chicago, IL—Wrigley Field%
July 23—Holmdel, NJ—PNC Bank Arts Center**
July 24—Syracuse, NY—St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview**
July 28—Gilford, NH—Bank NH Pavilion††
July 29—Gilford, NH—Bank NH Pavilion††
July 31—Minneapolis, MN—U.S. Bank Stadium‡‡
August 5—Cuyahoga Falls, OH—Blossom Music Center°
August 7—South Bend, IN—Notre Dame Stadium§§
August 12—Charlotte, NC—PNC Music Pavilion°
August 13—Raleigh, NC—Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek°
August 19—Des Moines, IA—Iowa State Fair^^
August 20—Tulsa, OK—BOK Center##
September 18—Biloxi, MS—Mississippi Coast Coliseum++
September 23—Knoxville, TN—Thompson-Boling Arena++
October 1—Atlantic City, NJ—Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall++
October 2—Mansfield, MA—Xfinity Center++
October 8—New York, NY—Madison Square Garden++
October 14—Columbia, MO—Mizzou Arena++
October 15—Lincoln, NE—Pinnacle Bank Arena++
October 16—Sioux Falls, SD—Denny Sanford PREMIER Center++
October 22—Nashville, TN—Bridgestone Arena++
October 23—Nashville, TN—Bridgestone Arena++
October 28—Lubbock, TX—United Supermarket Arena°°
October 29—Albuquerque, NM—Isleta Amphitheater°°
October 30—Phoenix, AZ—Ak-Chin Pavilion°°
November 4—Austin, TX—Frank Erwin Center°°
November 11—Estero, FL—Hertz Arena**
November 12—Orlando, FL—Amway Center**
“ALL-AMERICAN ROAD SHOW” SPECIAL GUESTS
*with special guests Willie Nelson & Family, Jamey Johnson and Yola
†with special guests Margo Price and Yola
‡with special guests Willie Nelson & Family, Sheryl Crow and Yola
§with special guests Dwight Yoakam and The Dirty Knobs with Mike Campbell
#with special guests Margo Price and The Dirty Knobs with Mike Campbell
^with special guests Sheryl Crow and The Dirty Knobs with Mike Campbell
+with special guest Sheryl Crow
°with special guests Elle King and Kendell Marvel
%with special guests The Highwomen, Mavis Staples and Mike Campbell
**with special guests Sheryl Crow and Kendell Marvel
††with special guests Elle King and Nikki Lane
‡‡with George Strait and Little Big Town
§§with George Strait and Brothers Osborne
^^with special guest Nikki Lane
##with special guests Willie Nelson & Family and Yola
++with special guests The Marcus King Band and Yola
°°with special guests Jamey Johnson and Yola
For more information please contact
Asha Goodman or Carla Sacks at Sacks & Co., 212.741.1000, asha.goodman at sacksco.com or carla at sacksco.com

Did not know he had a new one coming out. Debut is absolutely gorgeous, classic countrypolitan. Excited to hear this.

Today is the day! Heartfelt thanks to all who were involved in making this record. These are unprecedented hard times for so many of us. It’s my hope you’re finding solace in music, and can take some time to enjoy this collection of songs.
Thank you for Listening To The Music pic.twitter.com/S0MRBilh0F

— Zephaniah OHora (@ZephaniahOhora) August 28, 2020

mega merle haggard vibes on that zephaniah ohora album.

That's a good album, listening to it now. Serves as a good enough companion to the Tender Things album, which is, still, very very awesome

Yeah, think the TTs provide little musical jolts in there, while listening to the whole Ohora at once is maybe too snoozy sometimes, despite effective individual tracks, several of which could be good singles. But I'll keep listening. Do especially like the closer, "Time Won't Take Its Time With Me," which ticks along like a Don Williams song, slipping in some well-aware candor, on his way to wherever. The Merle vibe goes good with this too, and the yodel at the end---I like that he doesn't sound bother to sound *so* much like Merle, doesn't depend on that, unlike---well you can think of several examples.

The little musical jolts is what sets them apart yeah - well put - very relaxed in their playing, amazing guitarist.

Just listened again, and the playing is even more intense and detailed than I remembered----"New Mission Bell" is starting to make me think of the Grateful Dead at their very best, the way it just keeps building, without going on too long.

Maddie & Tae big streaming hit "Die Froma Broken Heart" is formulaic but not in a good, catchy way. Maybe I need to listen to it again and again some more

Not being sexist, Maddie & Tae have other songs I like better.

Yeah----I've listened to The Way It Feels several times, seems pretty uneven.

Dammit---what's a good female-sung country pop album this year? A big glitzy production that doesn't suck, or not too much too often?

(Also, I'm wondering whether to check out hat-bro parody act Hot Country Knights, or whether it would just sound like more of the "real" thing)

Carly Pearce - s/t and Caylee Hammack - If It Wasn't for You

I'd be remiss if I didn't rep for the less big and less glitzy:
Katie Pruitt - Expectations
Brandy Clark - Your Life is a Record
The Secret Sisters - Saturn Return (not too poppy, not too country, but still great)

Brandy Clark’s is immaculately produced

for sure but i wouldn't call it "glitzy"

Thanks y'all, but I thought after I left my post that I should have ruled out the Carly Pearce s/t, which so far has grown on me a little, but still seems like a disappointing follow-up to Every Little Thing. And yeah, Brandy Clark, Katie Pruitt, Lori McKenna, Shelby Lynne, Gretchen Peters, all well-produced singer-songwriters (well Peters' Mickey Newbury trib can get kinda mumblecore, but it works), but yeah that's not what I'm hankering for. Thanks for reminding me of Caylee Hammack, though (spelling-wise that also reminds me that Cassadee Pope has a quarantine-recorded acoustic EP out now).

Not sure how relevant Travis Tritt is in 2020 (or if he ever was relevant since he doesn't even have an ILM thread about him), but he's currently trending on Twitter for ganging up on the libs with his pal James Wood.

Per my friend @RealJamesWoods, type #resist in your Twitter search bar. Block at least twenty of these accounts per day. We will soon make them as irrelevant as they have tried to make the rest of us.

— Travis Tritt (@Travistritt) September 5, 2020

yeah, just saw that . ugh

#resist...make them irrelevant: do they think they're blocking invaders from Twitter itself? Oh well, TT's on yon expost Hot Country Knights parody album too, so maybe he's a full-time parody now (or still? Not that familiar with his work).

he's suggesting EVERYBODY do this i guess

Anyone familiar with Billy Strings, or Circles Around The Sun? They have a single out covering All the Luck In the World by Neal Casal, which sounds pretty great. Maybe need to investigate Billy Strings further

Will check that. Thanks again for mentioning Caylee Hammack, FTNRA: If It Wasn't For You is a lot to take in, flying by, but right away, it's obvious that she doesn't need xpost glitzy production of the kind I had in mind: this is is tight, badass country pop, riding with big sister Ashley MacBryde and classmate cousin Kalie Shorr--- wants to know how to get her wings as a phoenix, and she says "shit" a lot, but always to a point: ""'m so tired of the shit I'm talkin', I just wanna be something, mean something," later she "put my plans in a box" to please the man she loved, "but it didn't mean shit, I'm a small town hypocrite," but so is he, and things are outta control, "You said you'd be runnin', runnin', runnin' this town, but you're still runnin', runnin', runnin' around," and now so is she (I think she adds that). Still later, there's a brief solo acid folk lament from the canyon, "Gold," then re-focus, back to the beat, "Spent all that money in the last two weeks, and it don't mean shit": she's "On A New Level of Life," in the sky Lord in the sky, "Champagne on the plane and I don't mind, champagne on the plane and I don't mind."

Hammack's album is a lot of fun when it works and features some good songwriting... "Looking for a Lighter" could have fit in just as well on the Brandy Clark album imo. The duet with Reba brings out the best in both of them and "Small Town Hypocrite" as you note is the definite high point.
She loses me when she goes too heavy into "NEXT ON ABC!" territory, as in "Family Tree" and "Preciatcha" but get that money i guess.

I should have mentioned "Looking for a Lighter," and Reba too. As a Southerner, Ah 'preciate "Preciatcha"---never heard that in a song before, and any such fresh turnings in presumably mainstream-aimed usage or topics are always worth a gold star or two in the Country Vacation Bible School crown. But I may get sick of it, sure, while playing this set quite a bit.

Swamp Dogg's Sorry You Couldn't Make It is a slightly, yet appropriately weirder return of Memphis-Muscle Shoals country soul, like some of the Stax Country collection. I wasn't expecting his proto-alt.r&b milestoneds like Total Destruction To Your Mind, but at first this seemed like mainly for digging the formal pleasures of vintage style, incl. this version of "Don't Take Her (She's All I Got)," which he co-wrote with Gary US Bonds; it was a Johnny Paycheck hit in the early 70s---main prob on these first tracks is mild-mannered vocals, settling down into the ballads for a snooze (although got some lines, like "Good, Better, Best" keeps sounding like "good, better in bed,"which fits the context better, and might grow on me)---then he picks up the tempo with "Family Pain" ( houseful staying together, "smokin' crack and doin' cocaine"), and when he slow it back down for "I Lie Awake," his voice is still awake and then some: this is true country soul, Doggedly climbing Insomnia Mountain in compulsive country self-torture---Otis Redding and George Jones could sing the shit out of it, but Dogg does it fine.
"Memories," featuring John Prine, is where the appropriate weirdness first appears (I think), with Doggtronics swirling around Prine's jaunty heels (as he repeats the chorus again and again, like old folks sometimes do), even distorting his voice towards the end, like memories sometimes do.
"Billy" I'd seen referred to as a tearjerker, but differently interesting than expected: he's got nice musical flowers, but "The neighbors think I'm crazy," so apparently not a normie gravesite? "You should see Billy, he looks just like you, he doesn't remember you, but I guess that's just as well." Like with Opie's Mom? Memories can be too paniful, I reckon--anyway it leaves a few more little such gaps to fill in, not overselling.
Rude retinue of soundz around the edges of "I'd Rather Be Your Used To Be," which is otherwise vintage Willie-style graceful indignation, but maybe louder.
"A Good Song" ("has universal appeal"), then back to riding the swirl with Prine, for "Please Let Me Go Round Again," where they agree that, "I could build a better mousetrap, from a far mo'better plan." "Hey John, could you build a better mousetrap?" "I gotta better mousetrap right here in my mind!" Also wonders if Somebody might put them on a 2-for-1 plan.

i like the new carly pearce single quite a bit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRvs_oqQQHQ

Holy Moly---some ads in here, but worth the scroll (will have to check her EP, comes out Friday): https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/mickey-guyton-what-are-you-gonna-tell-her-black-like-me/2020/09/07/9dd5ee20-f11d-11ea-999c-67ff7bf6a9d2_story.html

guyton is a solid vocalist and songwriter but "black like me" has entirely too much incremental progressiveness and syrup for my ears... maybe that's the most the contemporary country audience can handle? I'm still hopefully waiting for her breakout moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-vsF0sHVRA
solid AM country in 2020!

that morgan wallen song is great

right? i tend to not be a fan of the sweet nashville sound but somehow dude's growling voice nicely offsets the treacle.

The Zephaniah OHora album is really superb. Band is so tight and better singing than the first one.

love the metaphor work in these lyrics:

Lauren Alaina - If I Was A Beer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8FaU2WGazY

I like Elizabeth Cook's new one. She finally escaped Nashville gravity, suited up like Bowie in the empty spaces of our great country. https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/features/article/21143243/elizabeth-cook-takes-country-music-as-her-subject-on-aftermath

Guyton's "Bridges" seems pretty solid if entirely too diplofied pop country for my taste. Could see it crossing over though!

Hammack's album is a lot of fun when it works and features some good songwriting... "Looking for a Lighter" could have fit in just as well on the Brandy Clark album imo.

Really good song... she reminds me of Amanda Shires a little bit.

Btw – per dow’s request above, I’d also appreciate recs of big, glitzy pop-country (assume that Maren Morris’s “80s Mercedes” is my favorite country single of recent years, and go from there). Thx!

This in today from New West:

Steve Earle & the Dukes announced today that they will be recording an album of songs written by Justin Townes Earle with 100% of artist advances and royalties going to a trust for Justin's daughter, Etta St. James Earle. It is expected that the album will be recorded in October and released in January, 2021, around the time of what would have been Justin's thirty-ninth birthday. More details to be announced shortly.

fuck...just, fuck.

man

Sorry to bum yall out---here's something that might reverse the trend temporarily: this morning, Fresh Air is replaying the 2014 interview with Marty Stuart, who sings and tells some great stories---stream/download: https://www.npr.org/2014/10/01/352991803/marty-stuart-country-musics-historian-goes-to-church

Which reminds me of this exchange on Rolling Country 2018:

roger mcguinn, chris hillman and marty stuart & his fabulous superlatives, sweetheart of the rodeo full album show, los angeles, tuesday night. opening night of a short-ish tour. it was ragged, loose, occasionally awkward and more than occasionally great. they did one set of truncated versions of hits and deep cuts, and then the sweetheart of the rodeo set, played in full but out of order. i got the sense that stuart and the superlatives rehearsed thoroughly on their own and mcguinn and hillman maybe not so much. they missed cues left and right, were looking down frequently for chords and lyrics, and while hillman's voice was in good form, mcguinn was having a little trouble cutting through. but their instincts for harmony are still dead-on, and stuart fit right into that. i felt like i was watching a band still working out its sound, and as a result, when something gelled, when they hit a sweet spot, it was magical. like watching a band discover itself in real time. and that second set was way better than the first. it felt like having a piece of my own dna read back to me. maybe they felt the same.

encore: two byrds classics and three tom petty classics. i was wondering if maybe they would be able to coax david crosby (who i assume still lives here though i have no idea) onto the stage for a song or two. instead we got mike campbell, who joined for "american girl" -- after which they kicked him off and, strangely, played more petty songs without him. marty stuart did a bluegrassy take on "runnin' down a dream" (thumbs up) and hillman did a fairly faithful "wildflowers," which apparently petty produced for him for an album he put out last year.

they also told some stories. they're not particularly good storytellers. damn those harmonies though.

― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, July 25, 2018 9:08 PM (one month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Was already hoping for an album from that tour, even more while reading your dispatch. Marty and His FS have the drive and expertise to keep those geezers functioning onstage for as long as possible.
Yeah, Hillman's always seemed better in bands, all the way back to the Hillmen, but the Petty=produced set has keepers; my comments from the most recent Nashville Scene ballot:
"Have not yet made it through Chris Hillman's The Asylum Years---some hideous harmonies get wasted on the way---but will give it another shot. Some nice tracks on the new Bidin’ My Time, especially "Walk Right Back," one of the many under-covered Everly Bros worthies, seeds of West Coast country rock at its best (he credits inclusion of this song to producer Tom Petty, who did what he could all over--Hillman's not the strongest solo artist among his peers, but has his moments, when the setting's just right, or just about). McGuinn and The Croz show up; some Heartbreakers, still radio-ready, also appear."

― dow, Wednesday, July 25, 2018 9:43 PM

Mickey Guyton did an amazing performance of “What Are You Going To Tell Her” on the ACM Awards last night

https://youtu.be/TcBwsOPmNLA

Surprise new Tyler Childers album https://pitchfork.com/news/tyler-childers-surprise-releases-new-album-long-violent-history-listen/

Good on Childers for that. Gonna cost him some fans ... which is fine, of course.

that last song is powerful damn

Video is great. Song is great. Good on him. Twitter comments are predictably awful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ3_AJ5Ysx0

https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/victoria-bailey-jesus-red-wine-and-patsy-cline.jpg

Digging this today. Makes me think of Like a Rose. More honky tonk though.

I've held off on reading Edd's xpost Elizabeth Cook coverage, not wanting to be influenced while trying to wrap my own ears and brain around Aftermath, which I *think* I'm getting/is blowing mah mahnd: right off, and the more I listen, it sounds like de- and reconstructed (might be some historical irony in there) country, the keyword being "country"---her voice: accent, timbre, phrasing, also phrasing of countriod words, themes, narrative, along with elements of tune and instrumentation---all getting the sonic patent medicine treatments---Hank and co. back on the Hadacol Express, comin' round the mountain ("They'll all come to see her when she comes"? Cook sings something like that), via some kind of style-associative space-time warp/refraction (A Wrinkle In Time, minus L'Engle's Granny Jesus kisses *maybe*, although we do get something of a John Prine homage-answer-companion-song at the end, great bent ten cent stor paper valentine).
Edd mentions Bowie in his post of the link upthread, yeah, could see that, like Bowie cutting up the 70s and some of his favorite sounds---also Sturgill, especially on Sound and Fury, with his own unmistakably country voice and 'tude, bringing a "vintage" sound that never quite was, an alt.universe electro-pop-boogie express that I tagged ZZ Rex when it passed through here last year.
And if Aftermath is Bowieod futuristic, a future that never quite was, tapped for its kozmik sexy space suit flotation appeal, as he did it, why not now, when we know, as Bowie said, yet more than ever, that whatever future there will be, won't be this cool, for the most part, if any. Suspect Cook's got that in there too, one way or another.

Of course country, born as a genre in the 1920s, has traditionally had to respond to the existence of other genres, either making room for/re-adjusting elements of those, or making them conspicuous absences---meaning, you know, pop country, and the kind more likely favored by No Dep, and the kind that plays county fairs and cover-song bars etc. These Cook and Simpson albums are good examples of how to do it, how to make use of rock etc.--not the only way, but good--unlike most of That's How Fleetwood Mac and 70s Third Tier Top 40 Rumours Get Started, which works sometimes, but bad on you for producing, Sturgill, even if you were just doing what she wanted.

childers seems like a decent, thoughtful guy; that video essay is good stuff. i gotta give that album a listen.

yeah, the Childers album is great. I was unfamiliar with this guy; is his earlier work worth checking out as well?

Yeah, he won me over last year, still need to re-check his earlier stuff.
From my 2019 Nashville Scene ballot:
COMMENTS:
Top Ten Country Albums
I had the blurry, ancient impression of Tyler Childers as sounding like an (alternate-universe) Sturgis Mini-Me, humble and homespun in the way SS never was, not on this side of the line---unless you count the way he gave up on them voices in his head,"ain't got nothin' to say," but he soon lit for the territory. On Country Squire, Childers is never that resigned, or that bold, just insecure, without whinin'---full-throated even when high lonesome---and he seizes on the good times like he does the bad, knowing it could all blow up, will turn again---oh well, "Honey don't cry, you're married to a Gemini"---and even the fella who "guards the rusty missiles" tonight like he does every night, daydreaming of rustic weekend adventures, sounds like he's 'bout to fiddle-waltz over the mountain, even though he must be down below the holler, also way out West of it, unless there's something our Government never told us.
Keep trying to keep up with the words, and catching more bits every time I listen---he's playing down at the bar every night, "turnin' songs into 2 by 4s": first I thought he meant he was making them very functional, down to the essentials, but come to think of it a 2-by-4 is a humble thang: is this bar gig reductive? But he's always resourceful, and diligent: The Country Squire is an ancient camper, the basis of "a temple" for his loved one---putting up "rafters" in a camper?? I know about making trailers into ex-mobile homes, building all around those tin walls, but---anyway the music is very solid and mobile, with enough variety and continuity to pull me along, in a plausible, not-quite-"universal" way, like the words "House on Fire" has an organ burning through, around and with string band instrumentation, "All Your'n" is the most Sturgill-esque in terms of early 70s R&B crossover appeal, yet country as its title, and overall there's a good balance of acoustic and electric, incl. choice and placement of microphones.
9 songs, 35 minutes, and I've listened four more times in the last couple of days--could prob listen that many times a row.

Absolutely. Start with Purgatory.

Country Squire still sounds good.

Cool, i'll get through the new one and start exploring.

Yeah, you've probably learned this by now but the new album isn't really representative of his established sound. Purgatory and Country Squire are both pure, near-perfect country music ... if country music had stayed in Appalachia and never moved to Nashville.

He also has *a lot* more fans than most people realize, I think.

not quite as many fans as he had a week ago, though, if the twitter comments under his "long violent history" video message on are any indication!

then again, maybe he made enough new ones to balance that out?

i loooooove everything about the album.

Finally listed to Gillian Welch's Bootlegs Vol. 2 Pt. 2 on bandcamp, exclamatory response on her thread.
This is good---she, like many other colleagues, still feels the loss of Busbee, as do I, mainly because, as intro to article reminds me, although he produced two albums for her, only got one co-write on the s/t, which may well be why it seems like a letdown to me---production's got its tasty trailmix here and there, but songs just don't provide enough to work with, maybe half the time:

https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/culture/story/carly-pearce-pens-heartfelt-letter-friend-mentor-busbee-73290499

The great Iris DeMent quietly released a rousing new song in support of BLM in early September. All proceeds go to the Poor People's Campaign.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wWm5YKGfgg

https://ffm.to/id_howlong.otw

Maren Morris new rootsy song in support of immigrants and BLM is called "Better than We Found It"

Saw it discussed here:

https://marissarmoss.substack.com/p/a-few-thoughts-on-better-than-we

Got the CD of E. Cook's xpost Aftermath, to wrap my head around it w/o the distactions of YouTube, although it sounds---great? on there, not sure, so freaky, despite the fact that it's only country-as-hell phrasing (vocal and writing) tropes, mashed in w other perspectives on female experience in what's left and right of the Land o' Cotton (incl. Mather, also mentions Daddy Increase), with the aforementioned familiar instrumentation, and yes she latches on to thee rootsier rhythms of Zep, also "Don't Fear The Reaper" etc.--all of which works okay on the mp3 that came w CD, but on the boombox I must have lots of bass with enhanced treble "surround"---so the words get crowded, but she's got 'em all on her site (also those of Exodus of Venus), and they deserve clarity---as I read while I listen, I hear 'em perfectly, imagine that---also better later, but haven't memorized all yet, as I want to---check here:
https://www.elizabeth-cook.com/aftermath
Oh yeah, and the closer, "Mary, The Missing Years," sounds quite different---she says it's inspired by Prine's "Jesus, The Missing Years," amen to that.

CD is totally worth getting, if you still get any CDs.

Okay, turned off the boombox SFX, that works too.

Maybe modern CDs don't need 'em, they've become overkill. (CD yet another example of a. technology being perfected as settles into obsolescence.)

Oops, still missed some of this song:
They could kinda play but they could really drink

Somebody’d finally say exactly what they think

And sawdust Pine-Sol and last night’s beer

And a bolo tie on a rear view mirror

There’s a fighter in every dancin’ fool

I watched it all as a baby from a black barstool---still need the cheatsheet sometimes. (Sound clear enough that I could tweak a couple of those lines as posted, which were not quite as sung.)

And then, speaking of Mather(s) matters, there's "Half-Hanged Mary," "based on a poem by Margaret Atwood":

Ladies who lunch stood around watchin’

Counted on her to cover their debauchin’

Tying her dress with a tattered sash

Now her necklace is a ropey rash

Had to put her down with them wicked rabies

‘Fore she made more black cat babies

Can’t serve antiquated charms

Please your countrymen with them marked up arms

When you’re spookin’ the cow, spillin’ the hay

Boilin’ bedsores and forgettin’ to pray

Blow, Blow

https://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2020/10/07/morgan-wallen-appears-party-maskless-ahead-snl-debut/5907167002/

Morgan Wallen now will not be on SNL due to maskless behavior.

xpost I tried the E.Cook CD in a more modern boombox, more options (playing and recording from MP3 etc.)---tried several EQ presets and they all sound good, bringing vocals into the foreground w no instruments too close. Panasonic RX-D55. Not every word is crystal clear, but might be intentional, so as to encourage more listening. The overall effect always has been expressive.

Also, speaking of John Prine's birthday, I tweeted Cook's new "Mary, The Submissing Years," inspired by JP's 'Jesus, The Missing Years." I don't trust ilx to let me post the YouTube, but it's a good 'un.
Also, speaking of John Prine's birthday (today), Steve Earle tweeted this:

John and I were doing one of Emmylou Harris's CONCERTS FOR A
LANDMINE FREE WORLD in London. It was a "guitar pull" all of the
artists seated on the stage, taking turns singing songs and telling
stories. Halfway through my guitar break in HOMETOWN BLUES, I
quipped, "Ladies and Gentlemen, at no time do my fingers ever leave
my hands." I'd forgotten, not only where I'd stolen that bit from, but
who I was sitting next to. John glanced over with a knowing twinkle
in his eye and mouthed,
"STEVIE GOODMAN"
Busted.
Happy Birthday, Maestro
-Steve Earle

I was at that show I think! Prine, Earle, Emmylou, Elvis Costello and Nanci Griffith IIRC.

Ah. EC has a new 'un, what little I've heard was pleasantly surprising. Nanci Griffith hassn't surfaced in quite a while, or did I miss it?

Never have really followed this venerable act, but the following round-up will be worth checking out:

Asleep At The Wheel Partners with Austin City Limits For Five-Decade Career Retrospective On October 31st
Includes footage from the band’s eleven appearances on the show; from the very first episode of ACL to more recent performances with Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, and the Avett Brothers Meh on Avetts own TV and radio sets, but maybe they'll be better, anyway can listen around them; they're not that loud.

ACL Presents: 50 Years of Asleep at the Wheel setlist:
“The Letter That Johnny Walker Read” - 1976
"Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens” - 1978
“Get Your Kicks on Route 66” - 1996
"Roly Poly" ft. The Texas Playboys - 1993
“Hesitation Blues” ft. Willie Nelson - 2009
“Nothing Takes The Place of You” - 1976
“Blues for Dixie” ft. Lyle Lovett - ACL Hall of Fame 2015
“Let Me Go Home Whiskey” - 1976
“After You’ve Gone” ft. Willie Nelson, Freddy Powers, and Johnny Gimble - 1981
“I Can’t Give You Anything But Love ”- 2015
“Boogie Back to Texas” - 1988
“Milk Cow Blues” - 2015
“Miles and Miles of Texas” - 1996, 2002, and 1980
“Choo Choo Boogie” - 1978, 1988, and 1996
“Pancho and Lefty” ft. Willie Nelson - 2009
“Take Me Back to Tulsa” ft. The Avett Brothers and Vince Gill - 1996, 2015, 1978, and 1976
“Cotton Eye Joe” - 1980

ACL Presents: 50 Years of Asleep at the Wheel is only the kickoff of a coming year-long celebration of the band’s five-decade milestone. This past week, Asleep at the Wheel’s fearless leader and founder Ray Benson took part in “Thriving Roots,” AMERICANAFEST’s virtual conference, announcing the coming special and screening an hour-long interview and documentary produced by the Texas Music Office for all digital festival attendees to enjoy. Additionally, Benson and Asleep at the Wheel are currently being featured in the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Outlaws and Armadillos exhibit and as part of the Whitliff Collection at Texas State University’s museum.

Fans, new and old, should stay tuned in to asleepatthewheel.com in the coming months because Benson and Asleep at the Wheel are just getting started with their big celebration.

Not Country, strictly speaking, but def Related, with several acoustic stringed instruments---also one electric that I've so far noticed as such, the steel guitar---being switched around from track to track, 15 of which, average time prob about 3:00 or a little shorter, fully equipped scenes and situations and thought trains rolling through, from headphone to headphone, so it's like I said about this fall's continuing volumes of G.Welch's Boots 02: The Lost Songs, though the unified effect is maybe even more striking because of the variety, which also incl. Haitian Kreyòl folk songs, like it says in the notes: perfectly compatible w Leyla McCalla's original composing, arranging and co-picking, on Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute To Langston Hughes(2014 album, reissued 10-16-20, I think).
Traveling man LH worked and saw and heard a lot and thought it about long enough to see how to make his latest take concise, so he and his readers could keep going with fellow feeling expressed in a personalized, one-to-one way, and senses refreshed.
(His metrics are also personalized in an accessible way, and in any case she makes adaptation seem easy.)
It's a blues life too, with hope in there as well, certainly liveliness, though the New Orleans background of McCalla comes out in a leafy urban-folk-country-old-time way that isn't too nostalgic; the subject matter sure isn't.
stream etc.it here:
https://leylamccalla.bandcamp.com/releases
Stream/download/order LP, CD here:

Stream/download it all here (vinyl and CD also available):
https://leylamccalla.bandcamp.com/releases

Oop thought that first ending had disappeared

I’ve lost touch with Costello and Griffith, for good or ill.

The show in question must’ve been in the very late 90s or early 00s.

what did yall think of the charley crockett record that came out this year? didn't see it mentioned in here

Hadn't heard of it, how is it?

i like the charley crockett record though i wanted to like it a little more. he's like a countrypolitan dave alvin.

Including that you wanted to like it more than you did, or *despite* the fact that he's like a countrypolitan Dave? Don't think I've ever heard Dave go in that direction.
To me, he's been on a roll in recent years, at least counting the duet albums and the current studio odds&sods, which is as good as any reg. release of his, as I talked about upthread. Will check out Charlie, thanx for mentions yall.

Also most of his live Yep Roc at 15 EP is good. Might be more stuff on his bandcamp page by now, hmm.

Including that you wanted to like it more than you did, or *despite* the fact that he's like a countrypolitan Dave?

two separate thoughts. his songwriting and vibe reminds me of d alvin. the countrypolitan production does not. but both of those things are in wheelhouses of mine. songwise, it's a little less consistent than it could have been.

i too like it but wanted to like it more. there's something about his voice being a regular-guy voice that i like, and that meshes with that production style well. the songwriting for me is good, but not great. whoever played steel guitar on this rules tho

Oho, that last bit decides for me, I'll check it out for sure!

however much i wanted to like it more, i did find myself craving to listen to it again today for whatever that's worth

RIP and Rat On:
@bill_knapp
Replying to
@BillClinton
Grateful for all the wild Saturday nights w Mr. Walker. Blessed to have seen him with Jimmy Buffett in a dirt floor county fair livestock barn outside Eugene. Jerry Jeff fans had brown liquor. Jimmy fans had white. We shared our libations with great joy. Adios, amigo.

The first edition of this was pretty good, looking fwd to expando:

Johnny Cash - Forever Words (Expanded Edition), a digital edition of the original album plus 18 new songs (16 previously unreleased) by various artists including Chris Cornell, Ruston Kelly & Kacey Musgraves, Rosanne Cash, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Brad Paisley, Kris Kristofferson & Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Elvis Costello, Carlene Carter, The Jayhawks, T. Bone Burnett, Jewel, Dailey & Vincent, I'm With Her, Robert Glasper featuring Ro James and Anu Sun, and Jamey Johnson with words by Johnny Cash.

In the timeless spirit of songwriting collaboration, the album's lyric content is drawn from poems, lyrics and other writings--many previously unpublished--by Johnny Cash while the music is newly composed and performed by contemporary artists inspired directly by Cash's words.

The album's new tracks are digital-only and made available on all Streaming Audio Services in a series of four waves beginning today.
Link to streaming options in this Web post of press release, also to trailer etc.:
http://view.fans.legacyrecordings.com/?qs=feed92a551632f5922371e3b5eff587fda5099cc631bde1605a2aa6bc1fe45e37d7c60858c102bc9d950fa01363c86538db47f43e181295a5356a7ece115a2bea0d90e15c93b82e7aed035b08412df2a

Rolling tribute thread, watch this space:
https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/jerry-jeff-walker-remembered-by-lyle-lovett-lucinda-williams-dan-rather-and-many-many-others/
Meant to paste a quote, but impossible to choose---lots of eyewitness testimony, going waaay back.

That xpost Wynonna covers EP is up now, my fave is "Ramble On Rose"---would like to hear her do an alb of Dead, or at least "Ripple" and "New Speedway Boogie, " both of which would fit rat in here:
https://wynonna.bandcamp.com/album/recollections

So Cam's album is finally out; I listened this morning, some tracks a couple of times: half of it got me right away; the rest didn't hold my attention. She always sounded like she'd been there, but sonically sometimes seemed too limited, a little too earnestly tasteful--although I loved that she never ruins by overselling, even on the eternal-flame-ov-namechecked-romeo-and-juliet "Til There's Nothing Left" ("Praying to God please don't save me")(why did I think upthread that this went into something about growing old together? Because press release quoted her re something about this being a song for her husband? Here it's death by orgasm in the teen backseat 4ever).
Okay, so she's not really all that restrained in writing, which she does with Lori McKenna on here several times, also Natalie Hemby, in with others, usually, and tonight I get it, the sound and the fury and the sweetness and bitterness and been-there insight, that last most striking in the one that's just by her and Hemby, no other team members needed:

You think you’re the girl who doesn’t know how to say she’s sorry
Doesn’t know what to believe, but you wanna believe somebody
You’re not the only one, hidin’ in the corner of a party
Disappointed with
Who you call a friend.

Well they’re gonna give up on you
You’re gonna give up on them
And if it’s somebody you really love you’re gonna find a way to love ‘em again
You’re gonna have to learn to forgive yourself and not take it so personally
Yeah take it from a girl like me

Take it from a girl who takes things to take the pain away
Can’t look in the mirror ‘cause there’s always someone else to blame
She gives more than she’s got, thinks everyone should do the same
It’s hard to see
In the middle of a dream

Also, she can get loud, no prob, and sometimes double-tracks her vox with no blur or padding, which can happen for sure.
Covers Sam Smith's "Happier For You," which thematically is like Laura Nyro's "Wedding Bell Blues," also with the same kind of vitality surging around self-torture, as she thanks him for inviting her to the wedding, surprised the bride 'llowed him to: she's all dressed up in black, with nowhere to go but here. Also, Sam's guys work with some of her people on other tracks.
(His "Palaces" was one of her breadcrumb singles several years ago, also good, wouldn't mind more---just as long as he doesn't duet with her, crying all over the place, and dragging his choir in there.)
And she's got a Harry Styles co-write with his own team, none of it by Camaron Ochs, but suits her very well (He writes bitter small town country? This is pretty much the afterlife anticlimax of the aformentioned backseat Rome-O and Juli-et.)

Dawn Landes & band livestream Thurs. 7 pm Central, on Music City Roots' Facebook & YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/c/MusicCityRootsMCR

Just saw this, haven't listened yet:
https://brothersosborne.bandcamp.com/album/skeletons

November 6, 2020—A lifelong bluegrass and country music fan, legendary singer, songwriter and producer Barry Gibb has long dreamed of a project that would bring him together with some of the artists he admires the most. With the help of Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb, that dream has become a reality with GREENFIELDS: The Gibb Brothers Songbook, Vol. 1—out January 8 on Capitol Records (pre-order/pre-save). Watch the album’s official trailer HERE.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqxTqkR_qRM&src=Linkfire&lId=e40f836f-7414-4ee5-9fe1-2590d9902d40&cId=1f3b0af4-1f64-49b5-9848-7d1b3c9a4c3e
Across twelve of the Gibb Brothers beloved songs reborn, the album features collaborations with Alison Krauss, Brandi Carlile, David Rawlings, Dolly Parton, Gillian Welch, Jason Isbell, Jay Buchanan, Keith Urban, Little Big Town, Miranda Lambert, Olivia Newton-John, Sheryl Crow and Tommy Emmanuel. In advance of the release, “Words of a Fool,” featuring Grammy Award-winning Jason Isbell, is out today (listen HERE).https://barrygibb.lnk.to/wordsofafoolPR
GREENFIELDS: THE GIBB BROTHERS SONGBOOK, VOL. 1 TRACK LIST
1. “I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You” with Keith Urban
2. “Words of a Fool” with Jason Isbell
3. “Run to Me” with Brandi Carlile
4. “Too Much Heaven” with Alison Krauss
5. “Lonely Days” with Little Big Town
6. “Words” with Dolly Parton
7. “Jive Talkin’” with Miranda Lambert, Jay Buchanan
8. “How Deep Is Your Love” with Tommy Emanuel, Little Big Town
9. “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart” with Sheryl Crow
10. “To Love Somebody” with Jay Buchanan
11. “Rest Your Love On Me” with Olivia Newton-John
12. “Butterfly” with Gillian Welch, David Rawlings
For more information, please contact
asha.goodman at sacksco.com or carla at sacksco.com.
Or Ambrosia Healy at Capitol Music Group, ambrosia.healy at umusic.com.

Trailer is on youtube

"Jive Talkin" better be some country disco--maybe songs from Saturday Night Fever will be on some ltd. edition or killer sequel. But where are "Massachussets" and "New York Mining Disaster 1941" dammit? You telling me they're not country enough? Guess "Islands in the Stream" would be too obvious.

oh man i cant wait for this!!

After Biden was done talking tonight and while the fireworks were going they played Eric Church “Springsteen “

Adios, Jerry Jeff and Billy Joe---here's a couple of little things I wrote---first is from Charlotte Creative Loafing:
Keep Texas Beautiful

Jerry Jeff Walker, still swingin' on a Lone Star

Jul. 12, 2006

"Mr. Bojangles," Jerry Jeff Walker's most famous song, is about a man waking up in a New Orleans jail in 1968 so "down and out" that a fellow inmate tries to cheer him up, by tap dancing.
The old street performer tells his tattered story, in descending melodic lines that jump up and turn around, right before they end. It's not just what he says, but how he says it, and he's ready to show any audience that he isn't finished quite yet. Jerry Jeff Walker, who will appear at the Neighborhood Theatre on July 17, evidently learned a lot from this guy. Also from the likes of Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, in early '70s Austin, before they all hit the road again, under a new Outlaw banner.
Which was very cute 'n' colorful, but, in Jerry Jeff's case, especially, such a banner could be a dark and dusty backdrop for the dancer's jumps and turns.
Anthems like "Pissin' in the Wind" and "Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother" are still as potent as they always were ironic. But now the former (red-nosed) "Jacky Jack Snowflake" seems to dance on the grave of his bad(der) self, where once he was closer to dancing into it.

Jerry Jeff's recent collection, Best of the Rest (Tried & True), sometimes floats some very mellow material, but his voice is well-preserved (smoke-cured, a tad raspy: can dry ripe imagery nicely), and even the lesser songs keep an eye on time's tricky gifts. My favorite, "Keep Texas Beautiful," is a celebration in a minor key: There's a sense of the cost, of what has been and is still there to be lost, if we can't "keep it free." As even George W. and the Dixie Chicks, hearing this, might agree. And Mr. Bojangles too.
Jerry Jeff Walker and his Gonzo Compadres play the Neighborhood Theatre on Monday, July 17, at 8pm; no opening act. All tickets are $30. See www.neighborhoodtheatre.com for more info.
Ha, that wistful thinking ending maybe won't seem like such a novelty punchline too much longer. Think JJW kept going for quite a few years after that, as long as he and the times were able.

Thought I'd written more about Billy Joe Shaver, but all I can find is this Nashville Scene ballot comment (this was one of my Top Five Reissues of 2o13):
Shaver's Jewels are a family affair, and though blood is still thicker than mud, good thing late son Eddy's electric slide 'n' pick times paw Billy Joe's honky-pop sense can shear and veer through the druggy detour that will claim the younger (they sing about it, with BJ busting the woman who took E. one shot over the line), and the equally inertial tendencies of relatively ex-desperado old dude's righteously flashlit path. Does not preclude or anomalize a finger-salute to Amarillo, or the immortal "I been to Georgia on a fast train honey, I wasn't born no yesterday/I got a good Christian raisin' and a Eighth Grade eddjycation and I ain't gon'/Be treated thisaway."

From Bandcamp Daily, re: African country music:
Cowboys hit the African continent in the late ‘20s, before country music itself did. Around southern Africa, in colonial mining camps, companies arranged screenings of silent (and heavily edited) American westerns “to entice potential laborers, serving as an inexpensive distraction from the brutal working conditions and the allure of potentially toxic home-brewed alcohol,” according to Gordon Ashworth’s liner notes to Olvido Records’ wondrous recent collection, Bulawayo Blue Yodel. After the movies came the new and dangerous local archetype of the “Copperbelt Cowboy,” local men emulating on-screen behavior. And alongside that came popular, imported 78s by early American country star Jimmie Rodgers, the Mississippi-born singing brakeman and iconic yodeler.
https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/african-country-music-list
See also: https://olvidorecords.bandcamp.com/

Due to @CountryMusic’s failure to mention John Prine, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Billy Joe Shaver at the CMA’s last night, @amandashires and I have decided to return our membership cards. I doubt anybody will care, but we cared a lot about our heroes. pic.twitter.com/UmplzD0Z7p

— Jason Isbell (@JasonIsbell) November 13, 2020

Maren Morris took home female vocalist of the year at the CMA Awards on Wednesday night, and used her acceptance speech to make an important statement. After thanking a handful of people, the 30-year-old singer took a moment to pay tribute to all the incredible Black female artists in country music. "There are some names in my mind that I want to give recognition to because I'm just a fan of their music and they are as country as it gets, and I just want them all to know how much we love them back," she said before shouting out Linda Martell, Yola, Mickey Guyton, Rissi Palmer, Brittney Spencer, and Rhiannon Giddens
https://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/maren-morris-2020-cma-awards-acceptance-speech-video-47964231

Morgan Wallen won best new artist ( he is the singer who got bumped from Saturday Night Live for not following COVID rules)

That seems fitting, since what I saw (and later heard/read) of the festivities was maskless and not very distanced---no wonder CMA would even let the AP use screen shots of the audience. Also, of course, Lee Brice, Lady A, Rascal Flatts, Florida-Georgia Line, and others cancelled because of testing positive.
Pretty bad when even what's left of the LA Times has your number:
Even the moments that worked — Ingrid Andress’ teary “More Hearts Than Mine,” Jimmie Allen’s sweetly joining 86-year-old Charley Pride for “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’,” an intimate “Starting Over” by Chris Stapleton and his wife, Morgane — just made you wonder why the CMA proceeded with the show in this fashion, given that Tennessee is reporting a 26% spike in new cases, according to the New York Times.

Couldn’t the Stapletons have done their thing remotely from home? And didn’t anyone consider the wisdom of inviting a man Pride’s age into a potentially dangerous environment?

More to the point, was any of this worth even the slightest risk to someone’s health? In fairness to the artists, performing in a less-than-jam-packed room — not to mention one populated by peers and executives rather than fans — can make it hard to muster the enthusiasm needed to get over on TV. So what’s the argument for doing it?

And nary a mention of covid from the stage, which might have been one reason for no mention of Prine and Joe Diffie, among others.
Wish Isbell and Shires would mention that, or maybe they have by now; he's always on Twitter when I check in.

"from the stage" incl. Morris and Church.

Luke Combs rolled up on stage for his second award literally hugging every person in sight, def a bad look all round

John Pardi did a tribute to Joe Diffie

but zero mention of Prine, Billy Joe Shaver or Jerry Jeff Walker which sucked

isbell & shires announced they are returning their cma memberships

Due to @CountryMusic’s failure to mention John Prine, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Billy Joe Shaver at the CMA’s last night, @amandashires and I have decided to return our membership cards. I doubt anybody will care, but we cared a lot about our heroes. pic.twitter.com/UmplzD0Z7p

— Jason Isbell (@JasonIsbell) November 13, 2020

no wonder CMA would even let the AP use screen shots of the audience

the AP thing was weird because the broadcast spent plenty of time focused on the audience, and all the AP could have done is take screenshots of what the CMA itself had decided to show on the air. and it was unclear if they didn't want screenshots of mask-less artists going around or if maybe they actually didn't want screenshots of masked artists going around. v v strange.

ashley mcbryde was great.

good for isbell and shires!

i felt bad for Darius Rucker having to duet on In The Ghetto. that was awkward af

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5602fb1fe4b0ad0093a01aec/1605556578869-KN4SD8K7Y9FVOTKL8GIB/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kPTrHXgsMrSIMwe6YW3w1AZ7gQa3H78H3Y0txjaiv_0fDoOvxcdMmMKkDsyUqMSsMWxHk725yiiHCCLfrh8O1z4YTzHvnKhyp6Da-NYroOW3ZGjoBKy3azqku80C789l0k5fwC0WRNFJBIXiBeNI5fKTrY37saURwPBw8fO2esROAxn-RKSrlQamlL27g22X2A/Steve+Earle+2020-02.jpg?format=1500w

6th Annual John Henry's Friends Benefit
Join Steve Earle & The Dukes for the 6th Annual John Henry's Friends Benefit Concert, presented by Luck Productions & City Winery, celebrating The Keswell School's work in providing education for children and young adults with autism.

The virtual concert will take place on December 13th at 7:30pm EST at luck.stream/johnhenrysfriends

With Special Guest appearances by Emmylou Harris, Graham Nash, Jackson Browne, Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires, Josh Ritter, Lucinda Williams, Matt Savage, Shawn Colvin, The Mastersons and Warren Haynes.

i never really got into gillian welch but i'm completely obsessed with her "lost songs" series, especially vol 3, which just came out.

this is a perfect three minutes:

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

Oh yeah. Good discussion of these three vols. on her thread, and they're all on her bandcamp, along w the also awes Boots No 1: The Official Revival Bootleg, and, uh, everything else she's done, I think.

will check out her thread, thanks!

In the forthcoming album, J.T., Steve Earle & The Dukes pay tribute to Steve’s late son, Justin Townes Earle (J.T.), who passed away on August 20, 2020 in Nashville. The album will be released digitally* on what would have been Justin’s 39th birthday, January 4, 2021, via New West Records.

J.T. finds Steve Earle & The Dukes covering 10 of Justin’s songs – from “I Don’t Care,” which appeared on his 2007 debut EP, Yuma, and a trio of selections from his full-length debut album, The Good Life (“Ain’t Glad I’m Leaving,” “Far Away In Another Town” and “Lone Pine Hill”) to later compositions like 2017’s “Champagne Corolla” and 2019’s “The Saint Of Lost Causes,” which was the title track of Justin’s eighth and final studio album. J.T. closes with “Last Words,” a song Steve wrote for Justin.

100% of the artist advances and royalties from J.T. will be donated to a trust for Etta St. James Earle, the three-year-old daughter of Justin and Jenn Earle. While somber in parts, the album is ultimately a rousing celebration of a life lived with passion and purpose. The recording features the latest incarnation of Steve’s backing band, The Dukes – Chris Masterson on guitar, Eleanor Whitmore on fiddle & vocals, Ricky Ray Jackson on pedal steel, guitar & dobro, Brad Pemberton on drums & percussion, and Jeff Hill on acoustic & electric bass. *Will also be available on vinyl and CD.
More info, audio: http://www.steveearle.com/

this one’s def going to be a heartbreaker

Sadly this alternate take is more exciting than anything I heard on my first listen to the Cam record. Would kill for a whole album of this.

80’s version of Classic. Kids, there is NOTHING you can’t do with a green screen in a garage @CMT pic.twitter.com/PNFoyY0PW7

— Cam (@camcountry) November 22, 2020

The Cam album seems pretty amazing to me, but like I said upthread, took a cpuple (or maybe like 1.5, 1.3) listens to get it.

For Immediate Release—

Bluegrass Pride Presents “Fireside Pride” Holiday-themed Streaming Celebration On December 5th
Performers include Ani DiFranco & Zoe Boekbinder, Leyla McCalla, Mary Gauthier & Jaimee Harris, and more

November 23, 2020 - San Francisco, CA - As the cold, gray winter months set in, LGBTQ+ roots music non-profit Bluegrass Pride is gearing up to stoke the fire and warm the cider with Fireside Pride, an online, winter- and holiday-themed celebration. Hosted by emcee Marlene Twitty-Fargo and featuring performances by Ani DiFranco & Zoe Boekbinder, Leyla McCalla, Mary Gauthier, AJ Lee & Blue Summit, Stephanie Anne Johnson, and a non-religious holiday sing-along led by Nate Lee, Fireside Pride will bring all parts of the BGP community together on December 5th, beginning at 3pm PST and running until 6:30pm PST. A full schedule can be found below.

The event can be streamed via the Bluegrass Pride Website, their Facebook page, or their YouTube channel. Admission to the party can be accessed in the form of a suggested donation of $10, but a statement from BGP reads: “If you’re a part of the Bluegrass Pride family, or if you’re just here to enjoy the show, we’re suggesting a $10 donation. But, if you’re able, please give generously – and consider giving to Bluegrass Pride monthly as we continue to support artists and our community all year round!”

Earlier this year, in the fresh wake of the pandemic, Bluegrass Pride found itself in the same position as many of the talented musicians with whom they work; facing the cancellation of an entire season of events. They said goodbye to their San Francisco Pride float and marching armada, the annual Bluegrass Pride Concert that follows the parade each year, their annual Portland events, and their inaugural Nashville celebration, too. But BGP wasn’t satisfied with an empty calendar and a clean slate, without events, gatherings, and music. Furthermore, they understood that LGBTQ+ and Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Asian musicians and creators have been disproportionately impacted by the economic devastation of the pandemic, so BGP knew they had to adapt their mission to meet folks wherever they’re at during this time.

In June, Bluegrass Pride carried off their first ever Porch Pride: A Bluegrass Pride Queer-antine Festival, a digital program featuring more than 10 hours of live music over what would have been Pride weekend, and raised over $22,000 for their artists. BGP also pivoted their annual LGBTQ+ Musicians Showcase online during IBMA’s Virtual World of Bluegrass, featuring five acts of bluegrass, folk, and old-time from around the world during the conference. And, in October, they began a monthly livestream series that features creators and artists from the Bluegrass Pride family.

“Time and again, our audience has shown up for Bluegrass Pride and our mission, despite all of the barriers thrown our way by 2020!” say Executive Director Kara Kundert. “We’re asking you to show up again for our musicians and our community. Musicians know how hard the winter months can be, when opportunities dry up seasonally, as the weather changes -- and this year, flu season and returning indoors will inevitably increase COVID transmission and close off more gig and work opportunities for artists. Now is such an important time to give!!”

All profits from Fireside Pride will be shared evenly between the artists playing the festival and Bluegrass Pride. BGP is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization; these funds will go towards supporting their ongoing, year-round operations, allowing BGP to continue hosting paid performance opportunities for artists during these uncertain times, while also investing in long-term resources that will benefit both musicians and fans beyond the pandemic (such as the forthcoming Safe Venue Directory), helping to create a safer, more inclusive bluegrass community for all.

“Thank you for your continued support!” the organization adds. “Whether you’re a Bluegrass Pride veteran, a chance passerby, a longtime donor, or a curious newbie, we’re so pleased to have you as part of Bluegrass Pride. We hope you enjoy Fireside Pride (safely!) with your friends, loved ones, and families and we cannot thank you enough for helping to spread the word about Bluegrass Pride, Fireside Pride, and the important work of making bluegrass a place for everyone.”

What: Fireside Pride
When: December 5, 3:00pm - 6:30pm PST
Who: Ani DiFranco & Zoe Boekbinder, Leyla McCalla, Mary Gauthier & Jaimee Harris, AJ Lee & Blue Summit, Stephanie Anne Johnson, and a Holiday Sing-Along with Nate Lee. Presented by Bluegrass Pride, hosted by Marlene Twitty-Fargo.

Full schedule (in PST):
3:00 PM Holiday Sing-Along with Nate Lee
3:30 PM Stephanie Anne Johnson
4:00 PM AJ Lee & Blue Summit
4:30 PM Mary Gauthier & Jaimee Harris
5:00 PM Leyla McCalla
5:30 PM Ani DiFranco & Zoe Boekbinder

More About Bluegrass Pride: Our mission is to recruit, encourage, and support LGBTQ+ bluegrassers of all levels, promoting their advancement and acceptance within all areas of the bluegrass music industry and musical community. We aim to uplift the genre of bluegrass as a whole to receive LGBTQ+ folks openly, and to promote allyship with all marginalized peoples within the industry and musical community. We do so by creating opportunities for community building and resources for musical skill development, such as concerts, jam sessions, showcases, festivals, parades, tutorials, recording, and more! Bluegrass Pride is a Section 501(c)(3) charitable organization, EIN 83-3224672. All donations are deemed tax-deductible absent any limitations on deductibility applicable to a particular taxpayer.

More About The Artists:

Zoe Boekbinder & Ani DiFranco: Widely considered a feminist icon, Grammy winner Ani DiFranco (she/her) is the mother of the DIY movement, being one of the first artists to create her own record label in 1990. While she has been known as the “Little Folksinger,” her music has embraced punk, funk, hip hop, jazz, soul, electronica, and even more distant sounds. As an iconic songwriter and social activist, she has been the inspiration for woman artists and entrepreneurs for over two decades. She has been featured on the covers of SPIN, Ms., Relix, High Times, and many others for her music and activism.

Ani has been the recipient of many honors and awards, including a Grammy, the Woman of Courage Award from the National Organization for Women, the Gay/Lesbian American Music Award for Female Artist of the Year, and the Woody Guthrie Award. At the 2013 Winnipeg Folk Festival, she received their prestigious Artistic Achievement Award and an honorary doctorate from the University of Winnipeg. In 2017, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from A2IM (a nonprofit trade organization that represents independent record labels) and the Outstanding Achievement for Global Activism Award from A Global Friendship.

Zoe Boekbinder (they/them) was born on an Ontario farm into a family of four children. While music wasn't very present in their upbringing, Boekbinder recalls some of their first memories as making up songs. Boekbinder’s music career began when they formed a band, with their sister Kim Boekbinder, called Vermillion Lies. Over the five years that they played together, they released two albums. 2009 saw the release of Boekbinder’s first solo album, Artichoke Perfume, recorded with friend and producer, Cesar Alvarez, in Brooklyn, NY. They went on to release two more albums, as well as 100 songs in 100 days in the midst of 2013, before their most recent release, Shadow (2018), which was both bravely political and deeply personal.

Boekbinder continues using their music as a vehicle to bring light to stories and voices otherwise unheard, lost or forgotten. Based out of New Orleans, LA, they perform both as a solo artist and in collaborations with empowering artists including Ani DiFranco, Amanda Palmer, Jason Webley, Neil Gaiman, Mal Blum, and Mirah.

Leyla McCalla (she/her): Leyla McCalla is a New York-born Haitian-American living in New Orleans, who sings in French, Haitian Creole and English, and plays cello, tenor banjo, and guitar. Deeply influenced by traditional Creole, Cajun, and Haitian music, as well as by American jazz and folk, her music is at once earthy, elegant, soulful, and witty — it vibrates with three centuries of history, yet also feels strikingly fresh, distinctive, and contemporary.

Leyla McCalla’s Vari-Colored Songs is a celebration of the complexity of Black culture and identity, and a tribute to the legacy of poet and thinker Langston Hughes. A songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, McCalla sets Hughes’ poems to her own spare yet profound compositions. She juxtaposes these with arrangements of folk songs from Haiti, the first independent Black nation and the homeland of her parents, tapping into the nuances of Black experience. McCalla’s music elegantly weaves Haitian influences together with American folk music, just as Hughes incorporated Black vernacular into his remarkable poetry and the way the Haitian Kreyòl is a beacon for the survival of African identity through the brutal legacy of colonialism. This is music of reclamation, imbued with a quiet power that grapples with the immense weight of history.

Mary Gauthier & Jaimee Harris: Mary Gauthier (she/her) is a singer-songwriter, an author, and a songwriting teacher. She travels the world as a troubadour and lives in Nashville, TN. Gauthier’s first nine albums presented extraordinary confessional songs, deeply personal, profoundly emotional pieces ranging from “I Drink,” a blunt accounting of addiction, to “March 11, 1962,” the day she was born — and relinquished to an orphanage — to “Worthy,” in which the singer finally understands she is deserving of love. Maybe that's where the confessional song cycle ends, for she has mid-wifed these eleven new songs in careful collaboration with other souls whose struggle is urgent, immediate, and palpable. And none are about her. Each song on Rifles & Rosary Beads is a gut punch: deceptively simple and emotionally complex. From the opening “Soldiering On” (“What saves you in the battle/Can kill you at home”) to “Bullet Holes in the Sky” (“They thank me for my service/And wave their little flags/They genuflect on Sundays/And yes, they'd send us back”), while “Iraq” depicts the helpless horror of a female military mechanic being dehumanized and sexually harassed by fellow soldiers.

Jaimee Harris (she/her) is poised to become the next queen of Americana-Folk, a slightly edgier Emmylou Harris for the younger generation. Her debut album, Red Rescue, draws comparisons to Patty Griffin, Lucinda Williams, and Kathleen Edwards – all writers who know how to craft a heartbreakingly beautiful song with just enough grit to keep you enthralled. Harris writes about the basic human experience in a way that is simple, poetic, and often painfully relatable. Harris’s talent has impressed artists and critics alike. Jimmy LaFave deemed her his “new favorite” and Peter Blackstock of the Austin-American Statesman called her “one of Austin’s most promising young singer-songwriters.”

AJ Lee & Blue Summit: AJ Lee (she/her) and Blue Summit, a bluegrass band led by singer, songwriter, and mandolinist, AJ Lee, has been the darling of the North Bay, California bluegrass scene since their first appearance in Santa Cruz. Drawing from influences such as swing, folk, blues, jazz, country, soul, and rock, their undeniable talent and insatiable passion for bluegrass harks back to traditional classics while remaining uniquely modern. Over the years, AJ Lee and Blue Summit's performed all around the country as well as in the UK, Ireland, and France. They've accrued many devout followers and distinctions including the Freshgrass 2019 Band Contest Winner, IBMA 2019 Momentum Vocalist of the Year, 2nd Place at the 2019 Winfield Guitar Competition, and numerous awards in Northern California. In 2019, AJ Lee and Blue Summit came out with their debut album, "Like I Used To," which consists entirely of AJ's original songs. Equipped with these new songs and their archive of nostalgic tunes, they'll continue playing to both familiar and new audiences, endearing themselves to the country and the world.

Stephanie Anne Johnson (they/them): A singer’s talent is complete when they can bring a crowded dive bar to a collective hush and also get one of the biggest audiences on the planet to a collective standing ovation. Stephanie Anne Johnson is that special singer. The front person for the Tacoma-based band, The Hidogs, can don a cowboy hat and sing over a slide as old timers weep. And they have wowed judges on the immensely popular NBC TV series, The Voice, showcasing their gifts. The Hidogs, which is comprised of touching pedal steel player Dan Tyack, swinging drummer Ivan Gunderson, pocket-perfect bassist Jesse Turcotte and the prolific Johnson, is a nimble quartet equal parts capable of shaking the shingles off a rooftop as making any stage feel like a Sunday service. The group’s latest LP, Take This Love, is a blend of Loretta Lynn and Valerie June. It’s a stunning catalogue of surprise and satisfaction." Stephanie Anne Johnson has opened for acts that include Mavis Staples, Cedric Burnside, and Black Joe Lewis.

Nate Lee (he/him): ​​Nate Lee is an International Bluegrass Music Association award-winning instrumentalist and renowned teacher of private lessons and music camps. A veteran performer, Nate has played with the best, including Alan Munde, David Grier, Irene Kelley, Town Mountain, and the Jim Hurst Trio. In 2017, Nate joined the award-winning Becky Buller Band as their mandolin player and twin fiddler.

​Although Nate is in demand on stage and in the studio, his first love and finest skill is teaching. Teaching professionally since 2003, Nate has gained a loyal following of students who enjoy his comprehensive teaching methods and relaxed, encouraging demeanor. With an affinity for turning beginners into jammers, and jammers into professionals, Nate has developed a curriculum that teaches you to play well with others, and become the player you’ve always wanted to be!

This year, Giant Sand's psych-country-etc. classick Ramp got expanded reissue, but fave track is still the most trad: Pappy Allen's geezer-inspirational lungpower & musicality--- "Welcome To My World!" Holiday cheerz yall:
https://giantsandmusic.bandcamp.com/track/welcome-to-my-world-3

Anyone listened to Loose Koozies this year? They have a great album out called Feel a Bit Free. Played it a lot along with Tender Things, Zephaniah and Western Centuries. It swings like a real good bar band, pedal steel solo's, Crazy Horse bits of raw guitar and an overall great vibe.

Will check them, thanks.
Here's my Folk Alley ballot---I've talked about most of these on this thread:
Wish they hadn't listed each vol. of Boots No. 2 sep! I'll have it all-in-one on the Scene ballot; can buy it that way now of course.

Brandy Clark: Your Life Is A Record
Dave Alvin: Songs From An Old Guitar: Rare and Unreleased Recordings
Elizabeth Cook: Aftermath (write-in)
Gillian Welch: Boots No. 2: The Lost Songs, Vol. 2
Gretchen Peters: The Night You Wrote That Song: The Songs of Mickey Newbury
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: Reunions
Katie Pruitt: Expectations
Lucinda Williams: Good Souls Better Angels
Swamp Dogg: Sorry You Couldn't Make It
Willie Nelson: First Rose of Spring

Jake Blount's Spider Tales is in the black Appalachian tradition, title referring to a subset of stories in song and vice-versa, w spiders making their way through all kinds of situations. Although it starts with some fairly humdrum instrumentals, and then begs comparison with many good versions of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night"---but, past those first four tracks (which I may warm to, now that I know what's up ahead), "Move Daniel" moves good, with the confluence of his voice and fiddle also striking on "Brown Skin Baby," "The Angels Done Bowed Down, " "Boll Weevil," and the killer finale, "Mad Mamma Blues," a sexy murder ballad, Appalachian swing blues. Instrumentals work better when fiddle-led and fed, with his banjo's percussive support, esp. on "English Chicken," "Rocky Road To Dublin," which is not of black origin I take it, but fits, also "Beyond This Wall," which seems like it might be a modern original or recent trad.-arr.
https://jakeblountmusic.bandcamp.com/album/spider-tales

Another one new to me
Ashley Ray, Pauline:
Country songwriting pro, on the team w Lori McKenna etc. This 2020 alb is first of hers I've heard: wild 'n' blue munchkin hop on otm uptempo tracks, a bit mumblecore on ballads so far, but that can work when I catch up, like imagery moving out of the murk on some of xpost Gretchen Peters' comsic country Mickey Newbury trib. Also, at least one of the ballads already works: "Rock and Roll," not Zep's or VU's, but another original, kinda spooky, with two hooks, one in the chorus, the other in a recurring banjo lick.

Don't know the backstory and haven't listened to the whole thing but Luke Dick's "Red Dog (Music from the Documentary" features an excellent song with Miranda Lambert called "Polyester" that I needed to fill the upsetting "no Miranda Lambert project" gap on my EOY playlist. Guess this came out a couple months ago but didn't see it posted.

https://open.spotify.com/album/33tcvg35cWhYwHFzNVH8j3?si=Au6mNLeuSomAkMWcJb24vw

Absolutely love the "there it is hanging on the wall" callback in each verse, as well as this earwormy chorus:

Hail hail trailer park hero/
Got a new car and used tuxedo/
Aw, hell, look at you now/
You got your first comma in your bank account/
Well you made it out but your still in/
We still remember when your momma was smokin' in the third trimester/
Yeah you might wear leather but you're made of polyester

Dick was a big collaborator on Wildcard. Cowrote White Trash, Mess With My Head, Settling Down, Bluebird, and Pretty Bitchin (some of the best tracks, IMO). Also cowrote Highway Vagabond and Pink Sunglasses on Weight of These Wings.

Oh wow, thanks for the tip---led me to this, on his site:
NEW ALBUM, MUSIC FROM THE DOCUMENTARY RED DOG, AVAILABLE DEC. 4
13 Track Project Features Superstars Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley, The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney, GRAMMY-winner Natalie Hemby and Rising Country Artist Jackson Dean

“Polyester” Performed by Luke Dick Featuring Miranda Lambert Out Now

NASHVILLE, TN (Oct. 23, 2020) – Earlier this year, chart-topping songwriter and artist Luke Dick brought his unconventional childhood story to the big and small screens with the release of the documentary “Red Dog” to Hulu, Amazon and other digital platforms. The film which premiered at SXSW, follows Luke’s journey to learn more about the Red Dog, an Oklahoma City-based topless bar where his mother Kim worked while raising him. It features interviews and stories with former dancers, employees and patrons of the Red Dog. Luke carefully wrote, performed and curated the songs that appear in the film featuring some of his superstar friends and will release MUSIC FROM THE DOCUMENTARY RED DOG via UMG’s Ingrooves on December 4, 2020. Pre-save HERE.

The album features 13 songs plus nine interludes from the film that help guide the story. This includes the lead track “Polyester” featuring Multi-Platinum artist and frequent collaborator Miranda Lambert. “Polyester” is now available on all streaming platforms and digital retailers as well as on Sirius/XM’s “The Highway.” Get “Polyester” HERE. Additionally, GRAMMY-nominated Dierks Bentley is featured on the second focus track, “Blazer,” which will be released to streaming partners on November 13. The project also features The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney as a songwriter and producer, The Highwomen’s Natalie Hemby and rising country artist Jackson Dean.

“This soundtrack is directly inspired by the lives and characters in my documentary,” said Luke. “For over 10 years, I interviewed my mother, fathers, dancers, musicians, cops and even some ghosts about the infamous Oklahoma City topless bar. They worked there, led their young lives there and most of them lived to tell the tale. I’m forever thankful to those who shared their memories, as it is somewhat of an origin story for me.”

He continued, “It’s been a long, long road for all these songs to travel. The concepts for the songs originated through so many personal experiences – through lives and hearts – and come out the other side of my weird brain. I am extremely proud of every single note of this music. The record reflects the history of real people, wrapped up in backbeats and ballads, presented through swagger and sadness. On top of it all, it encapsulates joy, pain, hope and laughter.”

An ACM and current CMA-nominated songwriter (Miranda Lambert’s “Bluebird”) and formidable musician, Luke wrote and performed every song on the soundtrack as a solo artist or with his band Hey Steve. And in addition to the aforementioned featured artists, chart-topping, award-winning songwriters Rick Brantley, Rodney Clawson, Jessie Jo Dillion, Chris Dubois, Rosi Golan, Jeff Hyde, Joey Hyde, Jason Lehning and Laura Veltz, also contributed to the track list.

MUSIC FROM THE DOCUMENTARY RED DOG Track List

1 – Red Dog Intro

2 – ”Oklahomie” – Performed by Hey Steve featuring Patrick Carney (Written by Luke Dick and Patrick Carney)

3 – Prison Tat (Interlude)

4 – Tattoo – Performed by Luke Dick (Written by Luke Dick, Laura Veltz and Jessie Jo Dillon)

5 – Got An Average (Interlude)

6 – Polyester – Performed by Luke Dick featuring Miranda Lambert (Written by Luke Dick and Chris Dubois)

7 – Plain White T – Performed by Luke Dick (Written by Luke Dick, Jeff Hyde and Laura Veltz)

8 – It Wasn’t Normal (Interlude)

9 – Blazer – Performed by Luke Dick featuring Dierks Bentley (Written by Luke Dick, Joey Hyde and Jeff Hyde)

10 – Guy Named Rachel – Performed by Luke Dick (Written by Luke Dick and Rodney Clawson)

11 – Henceforth (Interlude)

12 – Nasty Kathy – Performed by Luke Dick (Written by Luke Dick and Chris Dubois)

13 – Kool – Performed by Luke Dick (Written by Luke Dick, Jeff Hyde and Jessie Jo Dillon)

14 – Solar Dryer (Interlude)

15 – B Level Hustler – Performed by Luke Dick featuring Jackson Dean (Written by Luke Dick and Chris Dubois)

16 – Vegas (Interlude)

17 – Dance Like Me – Performed by Luke Dick (Written by Luke Dick and Rick Brantley)

18 – Five O’Clock Shadow – Performed by Luke Dick (Written by Luke Dick, Natalie Hemby and Rosi Golan)

19 – I Won (Interlude)

20 – Tiny Dreams – Performed by Luke Dick (Written by Luke Dick, Jason Lehning and Patrick Carney)

21 – You’re Beautiful (Interlude)

22 – Mothers and Sons – Performed by Luke Dick featuring Natalie Hemby (Written by Luke Dick and Natalie Hemby)

Luke is a musician, songwriter, filmmaker and artist with over two decades of creative accomplishments. He’s released multiple solo singles plus an assortment of music with his band Hey Steve, formerly known as Republican Hair. He’s written songs for Miranda Lambert, The Highwomen, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Kacey Musgraves, Kip Moore, The Cadillac Three, Eli Young Band and more. For more information on Luke and to watch “Red Dog,” It cuts off there, but we can find it all I reckon.

Feel like I never got around to a lot of the big country albums this year. What should I prioritize / what are the top albums you all would recommend?

My short list would be:

Katie Pruitt - Expectations
Lori McKenna – The Balladeer
Zephaniah OHora – Listening to the Music

Sam Hunt, Ashley McBryde, and Brandy Clark didn't do much for me, sadly.

If McBryde and Clark didn't do it for you, hard to say, maybe just look at comments on this thread, but possibly Marshall Chapman, Songs I Can't Live With Out (familiar titles, but def done her way), The Night You Wrote That Song: The Songs of Mickey Newbury, by Gretchen Peters (speaking of balladeers!), Whitney Rose, We Still Go To Rodeos, Margo Price, Perfectly Imperfect At The Ryman (but I never got with most of That's How Rumors Get Started), Cam, The Otherside, The Tender Things, How You Make A Fool, Willie Nelson, The First Rose of Spring, Pam Tillis, Looking For A Feeling (glorious return of PT), Waylon Payne, Blue Eyes, The Harlot, The Queer, The Pusher, and Me (also speaking of balladeers).

Oh yeah, and even more (after midnight) ballads: Shelby Lynne's s/t.

Thx Dow - really enjoyed the Jake Blount recommendation. Keep it coming.

Thanks! This is the only old-tymey etc. album I've heard this year, pretty good:
Doc Watson and Gaither Carlton is a new album of old-time music produced from archival recordings by two legendary musicians. These largely unheard tapes were recorded at Doc Watson’s two earliest concerts, presented in New York City’s Greenwich Village in 1962. Those shows were among the rare appearances Doc’s father-in-law, fiddler Gaither Carlton, made outside of North Carolina. The instrumental pieces, including Gaither’s signature tune “Double File,” include intricate musical interactions developed through years of family music-making. On the songs and ballads, Doc’s instantly recognizable baritone voice is accompanied by his own guitar and Gaither’s fiddle, or by the traditional combination of fiddle and banjo. Shortly after these recordings were made, Doc Watson embarked on a career as one of America’s premier acoustic guitarists, earning the National Medal of Arts and eight Grammy Awards.
credits
released May 29, 2020
https://docwatsonandgaithercarlton.bandcamp.com/album/doc-watson-and-gaither-carlton

Only *other* old-tymey etc.

"Dicked Down in Dallas" is better than it should be. Actually a pretty ripping guitar sound.

Hailey Whitters made the top 15 for Washington Post critic Chris Richards

oh man, i've been sleeping on this Nicole Atkins album haven't i.

Brandy Clark: Your Life Is A Record
Gillian Welch: Boots No. 2: The Lost Songs, Vol. 2
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: Reunions
Katie Pruitt: Expectations
Willie Nelson: First Rose of Spring

I saw RED DOG the movie and it's a good time!

John Anderson?

I'm getting to the Katie Pruitt at last.

It starts well and gets better, one of the more awesome debuts of the decade.
xp John Anderson's album seems pretty uneven to me, but some keepers.
Good thing I hadn't heard Waylon Payne before I started yon Folk Alley Top Ten---dunno who I would have kicked out of the lifeboat.
I wanna see Red Dog too!

The Tender Things are gonna end up in my top 5 EOY, Zephaniah is a solid jam-in-the-car-sing-along album but more like top 20 for me

The Katie Pruitt album is my favorite of the year I think, country or otherwise.

it's up there. would like to mobilize the ILX crew to vote for it in the yearly poll for sure.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71YE7tpRLBL._SY355_.jpg

This title will be released on February 26, 2021.

Honoring the enduring inspiration of Frank Sinatra, That’s Life is Willie Nelson’s second album of classics made famous by The Chairman Of The Board. Willie’s first ode to Frank, 2018's My Way, earned Willie the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Solo Album, and That's Life finds Nelson (who has penned a few standards himself) inhabiting 11 more of the most treasured songs in the Great American Songbook including the title track, "Luck Be A Lady,” "Nice Work If You Can Get It," "I've Got You Under My Skin," "You Make Me Feel So Young," and "I Won't Dance" (a duet featuring Diana Krall).

Produced by Buddy Cannon and Matt Rollings, That's Life was recorded at Capitol Studios in Hollywood--where Frank Sinatra, created a string of album masterpieces--with additional recording at Pedernales Studios in Austin, Texas. Willie delivers 11 new studio performances, coming alive in a musical landscape animated by lush string and vibrant horn arrangements on an album mixed by recording industry legend Al Schmitt (who's recorded and mixed more than 150 gold and platinum albums and won more Grammy Awards than any other engineer or mixer). The album cover features a brand new painting of Willie and his iconic guitar, Trigger, standing in the glow of a twilight streetlamp, evoking classic Sinatra album covers of yore. With one of those Gene Krupa cigs.

this motherfucker is immortal

xxxpost reminder
(THIS EVENT IS FREE TO WATCH WITH RSVP*. PLEASE CONSIDER SUPPORTING THE KESWELL SCHOOL BY MAKING A DONATION.)
LUCK PRODUCTIONS & CITY WINERY PRESENT: 6TH ANNUAL JOHN HENRY'S FRIENDS
A BENEFIT FOR THE KESWELL SCHOOL
On December 13th, 2020, Luck Productions, City Winery and Steve Earle will join together to host the 6th annual John Henry's Friends benefit concert to raise funds for children diagnosed with autism. In this first virtual fundraiser, Steve Earle & The Dukes will be performing, along with sets from an incredible lineup of guest artists including Warren Haynes, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Josh Ritter, Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Shawn Colvin, Matt Savage and The Mastersons for an unforgettable night of music.
*RSVP yall:https://luck.stream/johnhenrysfriends?utm_source=Mailing+List&utm_campaign=ab4c45c0e5-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_12_11_02_23&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9d7f017887-ab4c45c0e5-415586925&goal=0_9d7f017887-ab4c45c0e5-415586925&mc_cid=ab4c45c0e5&mc_eid=3ce2be0c08

Hailey Whitters made the top 15 for Washington Post critic Chris Richards

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, December 9, 2020 10:37 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

The lyrics on "Ten Year Town" impressed me in 2019, but the album's got some serious hooks. "Dream, Girl" sounds a bit like Maren Morris. Great record.

Yeah this Whitters album was the knock out I was sure was out there that I'd slept on. Was thinking, wow "Janice At the Hotel Bar" sounds a lot like Lori McKenna's best tunes, and then "Happy People" came on -- didn't know that was cowritten by Whitters. There are also apparently cowrites with Brandy Clark and Hillary Lindsey, but I can't find detailed credits.

Anyway, RIYL: Maren Morris, Miranda Lambert, Lori McKenna, Brandy Clark, etc.

#1 on Marissa Moss's list: https://www.stereogum.com/2110043/best-country-albums-2020/lists/year-in-review/2020-in-review/

Any other good country-specific/heavy year-end lists you've seen?

Rolling Stone
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country-lists/best-country-albums-2020-1095488/

Bitter Southerner
https://bittersoutherner.com/feature/2020/best-southern-albums-of-2020

SCM Album & Song OTY Noms
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/saving-country-music-2020-album-of-the-year-nominees/
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/saving-country-musics-2020-song-of-the-year-nominees/

"Janice at the Hotel Bar" is "Humble and Kind" redux in the best of ways:

And stay off the pills
But get on the pill if you ain't ready to start a family
And pay all your bills
But give some away
All that money won't make you happy
Make good love, good company
Drink good wine, make good coffee
Keep your chin up, but every once in awhile
Have a good cry
Go on and make a good livin' girl, don't forget
To make a good life

I also like the "Heartland" double meaning - kind of thing Kacey Musgraves would do.

Her voice actually reminds me of Kacey's

Unless Musgraves is increasingly your go-to guru, and/or The Golden Hour is your touchstone or wellspring or Sgt. Pepper's, I'd say not to waste time with most of this---although "Red White & Blue" is a keeper: here she actually seems to push back against her chronic sluggishness, in a way I don't think I've ever heard (that wordless, rec cry is not a hook in the usual sense, but keeps me waiting for its return), and "Dream, Girl" is a little sneaky, and "The Devil Always Made Me Think Twice" has that stalkin', smokin' beat and riff, the kind of thing she needs way more of---or a sax solo, steel guitar, hick-hop beats--anything to distract from the drab vocals, trite tunes, triter advice, that the people who might possibly benefit from are not likely to hear, because not enough sweetening for the pill to go viral---also, does she really listen to herself? "Happy people don't cheat"? Well, maybe if the cheatee has already made them happy and ready to take things further---but then, also, just to touch all the bases, "do whatever makes you happy"---so that includes, I dunno, cheating, mass murder, shoplifting, gtfo
RIYL: Maren Morris, Miranda Lambert, Lori McKenna, Brandy Clark, etc I do, but this don't.

Sorry yall, it's just hitting me rong (been listening all afternoon, per your recs)

i will try whitters but i wanted to say a big THANKS for the Jake Blount album, which hit on all cylinders. Solid lo-fi, down homey bluegrass all the way through with some very able playing and just the right attitude. Aces stuff, makes for a great companion to the Tyler Childers album.

Dunno dow - it's right in that Musgraves/Morris/Pruitt pocket of young upstart songwriter with lots to prove; smart and sly lyrics with a clear pov; and loads of hooks. I like that she mixes sounds and styles and would hate if the whole thing was your typical Nashville overproduced mess. The simplest tunes ("Ten Year Town" and "The Faker") are two of the best, but the new wave influence on "Dream, Girl" and the Stapleton swagger of "Devil" keep things moving.

As for the trite advice, as I mentioned upthread I think this is a hallmark of McKenna ("Humble and Kind") and crops up in the two songs they cowrote, "Janice" and "Happy People." Maybe a bit on "The Days," too, but that feels more like her take on Musgraves' "Follow Your Arrow."

If I've got a gripe it's her voice is very thin and doesn't touch Morris/Pruitt; though I agree with bunny slopes that Musgraves is closer, she stays in more of a pocket, and some places on the Whitters definitely grate a bit like the overdubs on "Heartland."

Pruitt album is solid, though lugubrious. Maybe I'm not built anymore to endure a song like "Normal."

xxp glad you enjoyed Jake Blount, forks---I still need to check this year's Childers set (have you heard Country Squire? That's the one that really sold me on him). Also Sturgill's current bluegrass chunks, right there on bandcamp---but so far I've liked his unmistakably country voice and attitude the more contrasty thee setting, esp. last year's Sound and Fury, wnich I tagged as "illin' ZZ Rex." The great example of that in 2020 is xpost Elizabeth Cook's post-sadcore silver spacesuit tequila surveyAftermath. And don't sleep on the lyrics, which come across best (or at least benefit from confirmation) on her site--wotta sound, though.
xpost Yeah, if you really like recent Musgraves and that side of McKenna's writing, Whitters is okay, although we agree on the thinness of her voice, the need for more production solutions to that.
Pruitt's voice tends to remind me of Ronstadt's, and this is all new to her, part of her big upfront earnest breakthrough testimonial, still in early chapters----Chely Wright and Waylon Payne are considerably older, and on record the gayness is more allusive, part of the world view in their mood rings---hard to imagine Pruitt getting to that any time soon---will she be more like, say. Taylor Swift for girls who like girls---?

pruitt sounds fucking great to me. i can understand hearing "normal" as po faced but it's also tremendously heartfelt; she's coming from an honest place i think.

Good list of 2020 songs here:
https://dontrocktheinbox.substack.com/p/dont-rock-the-inbox-issue-3

I nom'd and will be voting for Emily Scott Robinson's "Time for Flowers" in the ilm song poll -

“Time for Flowers,” Emily Scott Robinson: An exquisite meditation on how to find the strength to keep going when it feels like the walls are crashing down (or holding us captive), “Time for Flowers” is also a reminder that the good things always come back around, if we wait patiently - but we have to make sure we tend to the garden, because beauty can only grow out of despair if we give it what it needs to thrive. —MM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d1Xp1wzWZM

Oho, didn't know about this song or list, thanks. Yeah forks, i can understand hearing "normal" as po faced but it's also tremendously heartfelt; she's coming from an honest place i think.

Time will tell whether she's said it all here, but still.

Whoah---just now played Kelsey Waldon's covers EP, which is not one of your covid-alibi barebones potboilers: it's well-produced, swirling around and further shading, supporting her deftly deployed Appalachian inflections---and dig this track list:
1.
The Law Is For Protection Of The People 04:33
2.
Ohio 04:01
3.
Mississippi Goddam 04:54
4.
Sam Stone 04:29
5.
They'll Never Keep Us Down 02:51
6.
With God On Our Side 07:30
7.
I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free 03:11
So the righteous weary narrator of "The Laws" is too close to home, ditto Kent State and the whole of MS, where now I'm especially struck by how this "hillbilly"-tagged Kentucky woman audibly relates to
Yes you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
Also Dylan's entrophic balladeer setting out on a new day's slog:
Oh my name it ain't nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
7:30 minutes of that, no more or less relentless than the razor detail of "Sam Stone," remembered, as a matter of fact, by the local junkie's offspring, with a brittle briskness more effective than the relative weepiness of Prine's original track---would like to see her do more by him, for sure.
Ends with the atypically upbeat "I Wish..." providing some refreshment, but not letting nobody off the hook: https://kelseywaldon.bandcamp.com/
(The inner warpage of continuing citizens here reminding me of several on Johnny Cash's recent Easy Rider: Best of the Mercury Recordings, incl. some that might be The Man In (or near) The Diner, getting head set for another visit from the New York Times---not all of the material is equally good, but it's all done his way and pulled me right through)(incl. some speedy remakes of Sun-era classics)

Should have edited this before posting on savingcountrymusic.com, where some are going after Maren Morris etc. etc.:

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CMA set itself up for all this via inconsistency: on the one hand, testing and , maybe, exclusions (though no doubt some of those would have happened anyway, with the more cautious performers staying home), on the other, televised lack of social distancing and masking, onstage and off (seems likely that’s why the AP photog wasn’t allowed to take lasting evidence). If they’d had a mask mandate, would have been trouble with that audience, but a virtual event (though taken as an insult by many) would have saved them from the present controversy, and won new defenders, representing the saner side of country. *some* new defenders, but still catching it from the kneejerks and worse.

Just listened to Pruitt's album againL holy crap, what a *sound.* So many facets, right off---some have associated it w Fleetwood Mac, but here's how to assimilate and *learn* from that (Margo, producer Sturgill), as you're rolling along your own path. Always to a purpose, which is never just a show of strength, though that's part of it, rallying herself as much as anyone, while dealing with the doubts and other shadows, like "How did I get through all that, how am I still getting through it, and yet here I am with you, how did and does that happen---like this!"
So the well-chosen details, incl. still-recent memories, come to the foreground and confirm impressions of the words that found their way through the boom-boom of the first half, and "Normal" sounds forthright, incl. the problematic "If I could be normal, trust me, I would." Not abject, not anything reassuring, either, just how it is in her.
But right now, wow: https://rounderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/expectations

one of my great covid concert regrets of 2020 was the cancellation of her tour

Emily Yahr on Charley Pride and Covid issues in country music in Washington Post. Here's part of it:

A CMA spokeswoman said: “Out of respect for his family, we do not have further comment.”

And yet it’s hard to imagine country music’s year in the pandemic ending on a worse note. The genre has made a slew of unflattering headlines over the past 10 months, from Chase Rice’s not-socially-distanced summer concert to Morgan Wallen being dropped as the “Saturday Night Live” musical guest after violating the show’s coronavirus protocols. Then there was the strange tone of the CMA Awards, the format’s biggest night in the national spotlight to celebrate music known for capturing real life and “three chords and the truth,” trying to project an image of cheerful normalcy in a tragedy-filled year.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/country-music-covid-charley-pride/2020/12/26/ac51bd2e-4566-11eb-975c-d17b8815a66d_story.html

Not sure how I missed this but Ingrid Andress had a cover of Charli XCX's "Boys" on the deluxe edition of Lady Like that's surprisingly good! I guess Andress was a cowriter of the song? Curious to know more about how she got looped in on that project if anyone knows more.

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

cool, thank you!

Mandolin a surprisingly good replacement for the Super Mario Bros coin sound

https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/cover-story/article/21145509/21st-annual-country-music-critics-poll-the-results

: 1. Mickey Guyton, “Black Like Me” (Capitol Nashville)
2. Chris Stapleton, “Starting Over” (Mercury Nashville)
3. Ashley McBryde, “One Night Standards” (Warner Music Nashville)
4. The Chicks, “Gaslighter” (Columbia)
5. John Prine, “I Remember Everything” (Oh Boy)
6. Eric Church, “Stick That in Your Country Song” (EMI Nashville/Big EC)
7. Tyler Childers, “Long Violent History” (Hickman Holler/RCA)
8. Mickey Guyton, “What Are You Gonna Tell Her” (Capitol Nashville)
9. Miranda Lambert, “Bluebird” (Vanner/RCA)
10. Sam Hunt, “Hard to Forget” (MCA Nashville)

Lists go further , but here’s cut and paste of top 10 album choices

Albums
1. Ashley McBryde, Never Will (Warner Music Nashville)

2. Chris Stapleton, Starting Over (Mercury Nashville)

3. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Reunions (Southeastern)

4. Brandy Clark, Your Life Is a Record (Warner Music Nashville)

5. Margo Price, That’s How Rumors Get Started (Loma Vista)

6. The Chicks, Gaslighter (Columbia)

7. Waylon Payne, Blue Eyes, the Harlot, the Queer, the Pusher & Me (Carnival)

8. Sturgill Simpson, Cuttin’ Grass, Vol. 1: The Butcher Shoppe Sessions (High Top Mountain)

9. Elizabeth Cook, Aftermath (Agent Love)

10. Hailey Whitters, The Dream (Pigasus)

More on the 2021 thread

god, "Hard to Forget" still slaps so hard

i just realised that justin townes earle is dead. kind of reeling from it. his songs feel so personal, it feels like i know him.

You do.