Rolling country 2007 thread

(ps: I'm pretty sure that Robert Sheffield once pointed out in print that, while Richard Marx once wrote a song about Hazard, Robert Hazard never wrote a song about Marx.)

(And actually, maybe Dave Loggins's LP and his one huge hit were sort of sonically country. What I meant was that I don't imagine anybody considered them country at the time, though I could be wrong.)

So at my aunt's funeral, an African-American-sounding (words maybe filtered through the 18th/early 19th Centuries hymnists? but "arr. Alice Parker")"Come Away To The Skies: "Come away to the skies, my beloved arise, and rejoice in the day thou wast born." "Wast"? Never heard that , or any of it before, amazing (and graceful, yes). She, once called "the Dolly Parton of classical and Baptist music," in B'ham, anyway, was remembered by the preacher, who's also a musician: "She played forte. One member complained, and she asked what she should do. I said, 'TURN IT UP.'"

as does Jules Shear, who some powerpop nuts mysteriously consider a great songwriter (wait, did both he and Hazard also write early Cyndi Lauper hits maybe? Or am I totally confused?), but I've never really understood Jules's appeal after the second Jules and the Polar Bears album in 1979 or so (which probably wasn't as good as their debut LP).

i've never liked any of jules' albums, with the possible exception of an acoustic disc he did with marty willson-piper, and it's been decades since he had even an ounce of power-pop in him, if he ever did, but he has written a handful of great songs, almost all of which sounded better in other people's hands tommy conwell was the first to record his "if we never meet again," i believe, and cyndi lauper made way more of a song out of his "all through the night" than jules himself ever did.

Conwell was hot stuff in southeastern PA when I was there. Saw him quite a few times promoting Rumble which was essentially a major label redo of an independent LP put out by his management a couple years earlier. Same songs, produced by Robert Hazard and Fran Smith of the Hooters. Conwell's management hoped the same thing would happen for him but it never quite happened.

The album did OK. "Half a Heart" was my favorite from it. "Everything They Say is True," maybe second. Hazard, the Hooters and Conwell were all managed by Steve Mountain. He ran the three Cabarets in the Philly burbs. Are they still in existence?

As for the more frenetic songs on the LP, like "Workout" and "Walking on Water," they never did as much for me as the ones mentioned earlier, which were cowritten by either Hazard, one of the Hooters, or someone named Marcy Rauer.

Columbia kind of silly-fied his and the band's image. Last time I saw Tommy Conwell was as an opener for George Thorogood at the Spectrum. He was wearing a raccoon or fox tail, ala Ted Nugent ca. Tooth, Fang & Claw.

CMT had three hours of concert from Summerfest in Minneapolis. Rather, they had one hour of commercials, and two hours of show from Sara Evans, Sugarland and Big & Rich. On balance, I'd have to say Sugarland was the best. Jennifer Nettles just has THE voice. She has a powerful notch she works relentlessly off all the lyrical ahs and I's (which turn into ahs). I liked the current single more watching them do it than attached to the fruity video of her and Christian riding carts in the supermarket.

Big & Rich didn't devote any time to country, except for the wedding song, which I thought was pretty amusing for CMT. They even did "Loud." It made them come off like a heavier version of the Steve Miller Band, that is if Steve had something like "Rollin'" to close the show, as opposed to "Jet Airliner." Rich loves to riff on his Flying V.

CMT must be the most annoying network on cable. Not only do they sometimes do almost as commercial time as actual broadcast, the reality shows are the worst. One had this 400 lb. truck driver set up on a blind date with a 250-lb. matron. Fifteen minutes of them loathing each other, riding in his semi, eating at the local diner and then going to the pool hall, a true spoiler of your mood. Yesterday, a home video of a fat guy playing hoops with a bowling ball. I'd make foreign students watch it if they wanted to get an idea about why it was so easy for the US to charge into Iraq and blow the war on terror, only it makes us look even worse than things actually are. Outside of the music, it's easily the most disgraceful TV I've seen this year, insulting to a lot of the artists they play, if only by association.

Summerfest is Milwaukee, not Minneapolis. Just so you know.

Robert Hazard wrote "Girls Just Want To Have Fun." Saw him prancing around the stage, singing it in a Robert Goulet baritone, on that mid- 80s show, The Hot Spot (The USA Network, looking to go prime time, past their late night success with New Wave Theatre, Snub, etc--younger people think I'm hallucinating when I say the USA Network used to flaunt such, but they did, before they went to an all-shit-movies format; they've had a few good country concert specials in relatively recent years, like the stage version of the ZZ Top trib album I reviewed in Voice, and Willie& his armies of Friends) Anyway, The Hot Spot just set up shop in various cities for a week at a time, filmed the hottest local acts, mostly (guess Hazard was hot hypewise, and Gorge indicates). The Hooters, at that point(at least on that night), were this awesomely, offhandedly perfect mod-pubrock-reggae act, melodicas, fake Small Faces accents, rooster haircuts and all. Also the band Dick Tracy, which Maria Tessa finally got me some info, via one of her friends; they were hot New Wave, as much as that's possible, but no other Philadelphian has ever known who I was talking about.(They didn't record much.)

Ha, I remember Dick Tracy -- they really blew.

A guy who was a grad student in chemistry at Lehigh while I was there managed a bunch of Philly bands on the side. Dick Tracy was one of them. He also did Quincy -- a band in the same vein who had one major label record, also awful. And Johnny's Dance Band, who were good but essentially over by the time Hazard and the Hooters established themseles although both had been around for years.

I used to have a tape of a Hooters concert at Stabler Arena. My ex-wife recorded it with a lecture cassette recorder hidden in a pocket. It was good a laugh or two because for a short period of time the Hooters had a kind of Beatlemania-esque fanbase of thirteen year old girls. They sold out venues and drowned out the band with their uncontrollable mass shrieking and that's all about you could hear on the cassette made at Stabler.

There was a type of Philly bar band sound and style which I only liked intermittently. It was changeable and trendy. Part of it was you had to write songs which appealed to the girls who came out to the Cabarets. The Hooters and Hazard were a big part of it. The A's were also big locally. Saw them quite a few times and they recorded two decent LPs and one not-so-decent EP, I think. Never caught on outside the southern PA/New Jersey shore circuit.

One you might like: Handful, by Betty. 1971, from Sierre Madre ("Lee Marks appears courtesy the U.S. Forest Service") Forced Ex/Shadoks press sheet calls it "hard psychedelic boogie biker rock," but seems like, with crusty vocals and frequently fuzzy guitars *plus* bouncey bass, drums, guesting keybs (fuzz with organ is good), it's--biker pop? was there such a thing? Reminds me of Ronnie Van Zant saying "We're more commercial than the Allmans," and these guys are like second- or third-tier in that direction, also maybe (more)like when the Doobies were reportedly biker mascots early on. Fairly uneven, esp. considering the whole thing's only 34 minutes, but I especially like "Good mornin', how do you do, I'm lookin for a man runs a sawmill, name of Harley Perdoo." The victim of bill collectors turns the tables: "He's gonna know how it feels to get paid." But what could really make this a forerunner of current old-rock-as-mainstream-country is the last track, "Lights Gonna Shine," where they finally let guitarist Mike McMahon sing ("Everything is cyclin'"), in the kind of baritone that's usually over- and underdone simultaneously. (His name seems familiar...)

Lots of records to hear, not enough money or inclination. Chris Goes immediately ripped it off onto the Internet which must bug Shadoks mightily. I'm surprised even bother's to rerelease these LPs on their own dime, things being what they are. There can't be much of a following for the Betty's of the world and when someone immediately puts the entire LP up for download....eesh.

Don, sorry to hear about your aunt. taking a brief working vacation near Boulder, Colorado; we're enjoying the view of Steamboat Mountain, and a relief from the scorching 97-degree days in Nashville recently, air quality alerts. Lots of magpies, stellar jays and some sort of big-ass woodpecker around.

Speaking of cover records. the Derailers' <i>Under the Influence of Buck</i> works pretty well; they get the credulous but canny tone of Buck down quite well, and everything goes by the book, right down to the skilled imitations of Don Rich and the comic accents by the drummer. Occasionally, they rip off a really good, slightly skewed guitar solo or fill. "Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass" and "Big in Vegas" are my favorites; they also do "Tiger by the Tail" and "Love's Gonna Live Here" and "Sam's Place," quite well. There's a mildness to it that is weird, and I guess I feel the same way about Owens. The version of "Johnny B. Goode" sort of does sound big in Vegas in, again, a very weird way. Anyway, well done, which Owens always was (often brilliantly) and pretty innocuous, which Buck at his best was not. So, coulda used a song or two like Buck's great "Waiting in Your Welfare Line."

Thanks, Edd. Jennifer Nettles' voice most often reminds me of industrial solvent, and not nec. music industrial, except its pungency is def *country* (though usually prefer the scent of Patty Loveless, when my nose is that far open). But sometimes she gets it just right: like, on "Everyday America," this spudsong sure needs some radical seasoning (to ketchup with the Real Everyday America, of disasters and orgasms and whutnot). So she, with shining waitressface,is more'n' happy to oblige (and, though the video is kinda blah in execution, as Gorge says, still the concept is very appropriate, with spuds and rides in shopping carts and gleaming aisles and country music streaming in)

Anybody heard the new Gene Watson? Oldies but goodies.

so far I like the slide guitars on the new Van Zant, My Kind of Country. "These Colors Don't Run" doesn't make me sick--there's a directness to the delivery I like--but so far, this sounds pretty uninspired. And I do recommend the Derailers' Buck record, ultimately; above all, it reveals Owens as one genuis songwriter, a normal guy keeping wild wimmen and other career-threatening situations at bay with a strict but humane musical formalism. So, the uptempo stuff starts to wear in its chirpiness and "Crying Time" comes along and slows things down just enough, and I really like "Big in Vegas" (more justified optimism) and "Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass" (Buck's hippie waltz). Haven't heard the Gene Watson, Roy.

test

Just posted this on my MySpace:

Blake Shelton's "Back There Again": just heard this for the first time five minutes ago. Strong-voiced ballad, seems to be following the plot of "By The Time I Get To Phoenix," Blake driving far along the road, his mind back to the woman he's leaving, imagining her just waking up, sheets entangled, alarm jangling, and Blake recalling she'd never ever believed him all the times he'd told her he'd leave. But he's never going back there again. Except there's a twist, when you find out why he's leaving, which I won't spoil by telling, since it's worth your feeling the feelings yourself, when you hear it.

At this point the Blake Shelton Cd is my album of the year. Miranda's just hasn't clicked in the same way as Kerosene though I keep trying. Tim McGraw's is probably number two.

I got a promo of Putamayo's Americana sampler. Hmm. Not as unlistenable as I'd have expected. Don't know if these songs were made specifically for the disc or pulled off of existing records. I have to imagine that in the next few months more people are going to hear Robert Earl Keen in coffee shops and bookstores than have heard him in his entire career to this point.

Don, I never got around to offer condolences to you about your aunt. Hope your family's been carrying on okay...

My country album of the week is, uh, a new reissue of George Thorogood's Bad To the Bone from 1982, an album I'd never listened to before, possibly because I don't care for beer commercials during TV sports events all that much. Turns out the title cut (which, on a purely objective level, i.e., like if I was a Martian and could divorce it from the world, probably isn't really all that bad) is one of my least favorite tracks on the thing. Favorite is undoubtedly his cover of Dylan via Johnny Cash's "Wanted Man" (see? country!), which I'd forgotten that a guy I went to college with put on a mix tape he sent me when I was in the Army in the early '80s. (It was a good tape, if very proto-NPR/Starbucks! Also had "Spanish Stroll" by Mink Deville, "33 Millimeter Dreams" by Garland Jeffreys, pretty good songs by the Roches and McGarrigles and T-Bone Burnett, I forget what else.) On Bad to the Bone I'm also really liking "Back to Wentzville" and "Miss Luann" (both driven by saxes in the music and specifics in the words), the cover of the Isleys via Human Beinz's "Nobody But Me" (where Geore says nobody can do the hustle and pogo and wop like he can) (honestly, I can't remember if I've ever heard the Isleys' version -- I'd forgotten the Human Beinz didn't invent it), and the John Lee Hooker cover "New Boogie Chillun" -- George always uses obsessive Hooker rhythms to stretch out rap-style. "No Particular Place To Go" is okay. (Reminds me though that the first time I ever heard "Move It On Over" and "Who Do You Love" and "Nadine," they were Thoroogood versions on the AOR stations in Detroit circa 1979; I didn't hear the Hank and Bo and Chuck originals 'til later.) Also, he does a song called "It's a Sin" that isn't a Pet Shop Boys song but must be a blues cover because both of the songwriting credits go to guys last-named Reed, but its music is as much Bobby "Blue" Bland soul if you ask me. And one guy in the band has an Excello shirt.

Also had to review the Travis Tritt album for work this week; hadn't realized when I posted about it above that "Should've Listened" is a Nickelback cover (yet more evidence of a country connection fro them) or (even though Frank had mentioned it earlier) that "You Never Take Me Dancing" is a Richard Marx cover, and must have forgotten that "The Pressure is On" is a Hank Jr cover even though the Hank Jr album it's the title track of is on my shelf and has one of my favorite country single of the '80s (= "All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down") (speaking of TV sports events) on it.
Others featured in songwriting credits on Tritt's new album: Rob Thomas, Kenny Wayne Shephard, Diane Warren (twice, and Richard Marx gets two as well.)

Just put on the new Van Zant today, and yeah, "These Colors Don't Run" doesn't sound completely heavy-handed -- or not all of it does anyway. Liking "Headed South" too, and the very '82 Cougar/'84 Adams "Goes Down Easy", and "That Scares Me" where the singer's kids grow up and he starts getting grey hairs. (Speaking of hair problems: Edd, I posted about Turbonegro's new album on the metal thread; won't repeat it all here, but mainly I'm not liking it much -- really getting tired of their being a joke band who usually aren't all that funny, and whose riffs really don't stick to my ribs as much as they used to back in Apocalypse Dudes days. "Hell Toupee" {= hell to pay} is sorta cute, I suppose. Or at least it's cuter than "Stroke the Shaft" or the one about gals liking chubby guys.)

New Buck 65 isn't country at all, as far as I can tell, and also isn't as exciting as the more country albums he was making a couple years ago (as in Talking Honky Blues), but I still like most of it. It's supposedly a concept album about 1957, and its best when you can tell, as in, er, "1957" (Buddy Holly, Thelonius Monk, felonius punks, the KKK, hello Sid Vicious, goodbye Brooklyn Dodgers, satellites in outer space, Spy Vs. Spy, Buster Crabbe, hula hoops and frisbess and pink flamingos, Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart is dead, no joke hit the low note we all go to heaven in a little rowboat); "The Rebel" (Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Winstons, broken bones, pinball, drag races, running from the law, breaking the law); "The Beatific" (Charlie Parker, Che Guevara, the beats); "Ho-Boys" (= hobos out of the Army). Also like "Shutter Buggin," which basically has the same theme as Van Morrison's "Blue Money" or the Fabulous Poodles' "Tit Photographer Blues," and "Mr. Nobody," which is probably better than the Beatles' "Nowhere Man" for whatever that's worth (divorced, working for a mininum wage, collects old records, hates kids in the supermarket, hasn't had sex in two years). Actually I'm not sure how all that stuff necessarily qualified as being about 1957, but I'm sure Buck does. Sadly the music isn't as memorable as the words, but at least "Lipstick" seems to start with a good sample of drums from Thin Lizzy's "Johnny The Fox" (lots of the rest feels too much like a movie score.) (The promo-CD voiceovers are commendably unobtrusive, though -- for a while I didn't even notice they were there! They sorta blend right in.)

PS: Van Zant's "Train" = more rap-like (in beat and vocal cadence) than Thorogood's "New Boogie Chillun" if not than Thorogood's "One Bourbon One Scotch One Beer." (Or more talking honky blues, anyway.)

Blake Shelton's "Back There Again":...there's a twist, when you find out why he's leaving, which I won't spoil by telling, since it's worth your feeling the feelings yourself, when you hear it.

Just played this song all the way through twice trying to concentrate the whole time, but I've got A.D.D. apparently, and it's one of the most understated -- and, as far as I can tell, one of the dullest -- songs on the album, and I'm still not quite sure what Frank's referring to here beyond the obvious (whatever "the obvious" is.) The part that did catch me off guard was the Iraq metaphor toward the almost-end: Something about they say you shouldn't cut and run, but I know I'm not a coward, and I'm not going back again. Wow. Tried to google the lyrics to get the exact line, but the lyric sites all have firewalls or something. I'm not sure if that's what Frank's referring to, but I think not.

And fwiw, this song that Frank talked about upthread on the Jack Ingram album is also one that has never once jumped out at me, that always goes in one ear and out the other. (And I love both the Ingram and Shelton albums otherwise, oddly.) So: Any hints on how to retool my ears for understated ballads?:

Jack Ingram "Don't Want To Get Hurt":...this track comes along, a slow stomp, fingernails dragging through the gravel. Song holds to that for a relentless minute, Ingram's voice a husk, suppressing the melodiousness of the melody. Then bright chiming guitars enter, and we're in a kind of emo-pop country. Very nice; pretty and sad, though doesn't live up to the low-scraping beginning.

As for Van Zant, I'm thinking that, on the new album at least, I like them more when they sift their Skynyrd through jolly good-natured Confederate Railroad boogie in "Train" and "It's Only Money" etc. than through serious-minded Montgomery Gentry mode in "These Colors Don't Run" and "Headed South" etc. Whole album is pretty dang good, though. Rhythm of "Train" is, duh, a train rhythm, which as has happened in country and other places before, gives the drums permission to get quasi/semi-synthesized post-disco dance-oriented-rock on us, which makes them totally propulsive. "It's Only Money" is about how you might as well spend out 'cause you can't be buried with it, and it's a brothel boogie where the singer actually orders calimari and escargot, possibly a country first. Healthily powerchorded "My Kind Of Country" threathens to take you out back but my favorite line is the one that rhymes camouflage with hunting dogs. "That Scares Me" opens with the singer doing something to the shoe of a field goal kicker from LSU, on a bet, and then he gets scared about how life without his wife would be like, and it chokes me up. "We Can't Do It Alone" is Southern rock for God with Allmans guitars and soul singers at the end, and totally beautiful. "Friend" is a love song to a guy; "It's All About You" is a love song to a wife, with car-stop gridlock and sales-on coupons. "Headed South"'s about being on tour. But my favorite song is still "Goes Down Easy," the one that sounds like John Cougar when he was great.

And okay, can I talk about the new Black Lips album here? Normally I'd talk about it on the metal thread, but I don't want to piss off the lead singer of the Mountain Goats. (If that's crypitc, check said thread to see what's been going on there this week.) Plus the album does have some old-time yodeling country moves on it, so it kinda fits here. Anyway, I think it might be their most songful and funniest and most rocking album, which I totally didn't expect especially giving how their live album earlier this year didn't click for me like their three previous studio albums had. The advance I have doesn't have song titles, and neither does the press release I kept, but I'm really loving their use of almost-doowop bassman-and-high-voice switchoffs in tracks #8 and #4, the latter of which is all about good luck and bad luck and superstitions. Also really like #1, which is trippy and appears to be called "C'Mon Trip" or something; #5 I guess it is (having trouble reading my notes) which is sort of their exuberanly politically incorrect and totally war-whooping version of "Indian Outlaw" (or Don Armando's 2nd Ave Rhumba Band's "I'm An Indian Too" maybe?) with every wigwam peace-pipe tomahawk cliche in the book and possibly the longest laundry list of Cherokee Navajo etc etc Indian nations in any song ever, and maybe especially #6, which has to be one of the most blatant "Louie Louie" rewrites in history, except they do it as "L.A. L.A." as far as my ears can tell, with plenty of party in the background voices tossed in. The Dylany sea-chantey tunes rock and roll, too. As does the yodeling.

Their myspace (which I notice they lead off with a song called "Katrina"; not sure if that's one of the songs I just talked about, or not):

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=3188377

it's been a good week here in Colorado, listening to the Boulder progressive alternative radio station, they play a lot of neo-funk I don't recognize and plenty of Ry Cooder, Richard Thompson, Prefuse 73, and so on and so on. Gorgeous today and just cloudy enough--they're keeling over in Memphis, Nashville and Birmingham from the heat.

Yeah, Xhuhk, Turbonegro's joke has worn a bit thin, but I still think "Hell Toupee" and the last song, where they get all theoretical about the difference between pop and rock, is pretty good. Boogie-shlock that could be better, sure. Sharon gets annoyed when I play the Van Zant. I'm liking it more and guess I'll have to smuggle it outside so I can listen to it. Waiting for some promo stuff to make its way up here, including a bunch of demos from a Nashville (actually Murfreesboro) band called Those Darlins, who are kind of a punk-country outfit composed of three teenage girls. Also listened to some of the new songs the Peasall Sisters have been doing, on their myspace page--I did a Nash Scene critics pick on them in this wk's issue--and one called "Not That Kind of Girl" is about how they're not gonna have sex, or at least how the oldest, Sarah, who's now 20, ain't gonna, nope, not until the Lord says it's all right. It's actually a pretty good song. They can sound a little weird to me and hard for me to separate the quaintness from the good stuff, but they're still the best thing on the recent June Carter Cash tribute--a record I thought was a total waste of time, just as I suspect the new Billy Joe Shaver Christian record is, too. I mean go duet with Jesus if that's what it takes, Billy Joe, but the rest of us are doing OK without him. Heard some more of the Kelly Willis record Roy so eloquently wrote about in the last ND, and I think it's good, but not earthshakingly so. Supposedly, the label is sending me the new Chuck Prophet record (he produced Kelly's), which he cut in Nashville.

and, big piece in this week's Denver Westword on Isbell and his split from the Truckers. Says it really was that cliche, "creative differences." Just mentioned the Peasalls and the June Carter Cash tribute, and Boulder radio is playing it right now. That one and "Peaches" are the only things I can tolerate on that record, altho Patty Loveless sings good. Apparently, you pronounce the Peasall's name as "pee-a-saw."

Xhuxk, nothing super special about the idea in "Back There Again," which is that he's leaving her because he doesn't want to keep fucking her up, except that the song had set me up to expect he was leaving her because she was fucking him up (which might be owing to my hearing the beginning as an echo of "By The Time I Get To Phoenix," which might not have been deliberate on Blake's part).

Haven't absorbed the album deeply. So far nothing's hit me with the immediacy of "Some Beach" and "Good Old Boy, Bad Old Boyfriend." I smiled at the one where not only she don't love him but she don't hate him anymore.

And I'm sure it's not a metaphor for Iraq, but it would make an interesting one, since I haven't generally heard polticians from either side of the "leave now" vs. "don't leave now" debate say "We need to leave because we're screwing them up by staying."

That last verse is pretty loaded: "tour of duty" "hero" "coward" "cut & run." Reminded me of reading in Rednecks & Bluenecks that many of the songwriters are more librul than the artists. Maybe Tom Douglas, who also wrote Martina's "Love's the Only House," was sneaking in a certain sentiment. But since he's written songs about alcoholism before and there's the line here about a "slow motion suicide" it seems more like her momma was telling his drunk ass to take a hike.

Xhuxk, I skimmed the interchange between you and D4rni3lle, didn't seem like he intended to learn anything from it. But I've worked out that all music is either teenpop or country or some combination of the two, so don't worry about it. (Though most of the teenpop discussion seems to have migrated to poptimists or bedbugs.)

"Love's the Only House" transcends politics, transcends sanity, transcends transcendence. "We got teenagers walking around in a culture of darkness living together alone"! Weird thing is I understand what it means.

I've probably quoted that line on this thread before, as well as the opinion that the melody was lifted from Springsteen's "Incident On 57th Street," which he lifted from the Tremeloes.

All music is metal, just to varying degrees of heaviness.

Jack Ingram "Don't Want To Get Hurt":...

Okay, I'm liking this now. Very powerpop, really, though maybe a kind of powerpop that's from after I stopped liking powerpop -- I bet Matthew Sweet fans would like it. Or Bodeans fans. Or, I don't know, Del Amitri fans? Somebody. But though I don't like those acts (maybe I should?) I do like this. Plus the chiming guitars that Frank mentions at the end remind of famous metal band the Byrds (or at least some powerpop mimics of them -- the Records maybe? Let me out of your starry eyes and be on my way.)

Black Lips, on the other hand = wig wam bam, bam-sham-alam. Hiawatha didn't bother too much 'bout Minehaha and her tender touch.

Speaking of which, tracks # 6 through 9 on Ted Nugent's excellently titled new Love Grenade (which I haven't listened to yet, and which probably belongs more on the metal thread than here, whether I happen to be boycotting that one at the time or not) go "Geronimo and Me"/"EagleBrother"/"Spirit Of The Buffalo"/"Aborogini." Yikes. Best song title, though, may well be "Bridge Over Troubled Daughters."

tracks #8 and #4, the latter of which is all about good luck and bad luck and superstitions

And the former of which seems to be about "bad kids" who live out on the strip and take all the pills and have hissyfits and don't give a shit and draw penises on the walls of the bathroom stalls and get bad report cards in the USA like you and me oo-wee.

And oh yeah, Ted's been hanging out with Toby Keith in recent years, right? So: Country may be possible.

Oops, an occupational hazard of using random play on the CD player: That "L.A. L.A."/"Louie Louie" song (in which Hollywood High figures prominently) isn't track #6 on the Black Lips' Good Bad Not Evil at all; instead it's #6 on the 2004 Bomp! CD reissue of Stiv Bators's 1980 L.A Confidential which I've also been listening to. The other song on there that I'd been assuming was Black Lips is "It's Cold Outside," one of a bunch of '60s-style powerpop numbers with actual power on Stiv's CD. Also, I like his version of the Sonics' "Have Love Will Travel" better than his version of the Damned's "Neat Neat Neat", which is just okay. And none of which has anything to do with country. Though track #7 on the Black Lips album -- which I'd been thinking of as a Dylan sea chantey, but which is really more like a Hee-Haw/Ray Stevens novelty tune about how do you tell a child that someone has died, with spoken verse parts to kids bewtixt the choruses -- is country for sure. (Now, though, without those Bators cuts, I'm less sure that the Black Lips album is their best one ever. But it's still really good.)

Trace Adkins "I Got My Game On" -- He's wearing his Armani suit, flashing his platinum card, going to the ballet, impressing ladies, but I'm not sure why. Can't tell if the lyrics are making fun of the protagonist or not. Some semblance of a not-horrible rock riff comes in a couple times past the 3/4 mark, but otherwise, there's not much of a hook. So: no "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk," or "Swing" even. And half-assed enough that it doesn't kill my theory that Trace is better when he's sincere (in "Stubborn Man," say, or the great "I'm Tryin'") than when he's trying to have fun, which he is merely competent at.

("The Stubborn One", I mean. About his grandad.)

Also, since the song's now been brought up, my review of "Love's The Only House" can be found here:

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0010,eddy,13072,22.html

Hi, Frank, I've been reading your last couple of columns. Considering what you get from Ashlee, I wonder if you like The Magic Numbers? What I just wrote about them doesn't come out til next week, but I'll say now that they're equally obsessed with poposcopic delvings into relationships--compared to Mamas And Papas, or I'd suggest a scruffier ABBA, who play their own instruments, which isn't nec. a good thing, except when The Magic Numbers do it (they also dig Guns N Roses, Leonard Cohen, Guy Clark, and their sometime gigmate, Brian Wilson). Studied their F.Mac, their Smith (or was it A Group Called Smith), prob their Howard Tate, or anyway there's a bouncey, bluesy thing, like his pre-Joplin "Piece Of My Heart," esp. on their s/t debut. The 2006 Those The Brokes (sic) just got a US release, with a couple new tracks, incl an unlisted that starts like "Holding Back The Years," but then goes its own way. Both albums have some downhome Eurocountry, which is part of the scruffier (and better-fed) ABBA reference.

Am listening to Candie Payne again. Startling presence to her singing, but she stills seems trapped behind glass - as do Neko Case and Jenny Lewis and Nicole Atkins and any number of strong-voiced singers I end up classifying as "indie" or "alt" in some way. This is not a very useful thing to say, as it doesn't explain why I feel they're trapped behind glass, except it's a Kogan cliché to say such things about indie and alt. But I'm not saying this because they're indie or alt. Rather I'm thinking of them as indie or alt because they're singing is the sort of thing that inspires me to say they sound trapped behind glass. In contrast, I'm now listening to Megan McCauley's "I Will Pay You To Shoot Him" (Fefe Dobson and Jena Kraus absolutely adore their dads, I've decided, compared to Megan McCauley, that is), and she seems to fall between genres - goth or heaving-bosom pop or heaving-bosom rock [I'd have had no trouble calling her rock a decade or so ago but since then a lot of rock has been run out of "rock," kind of in parallel to what happened to Xhuxk on the metal thread], anyway she loves Janis and sounds like Kelly C. and even did a track with Max 'n' Luke that she's repudiated - but she most definitely doesn't feel behind glass, and most definitely isn't indie or alt, though I really don't think there's a difference in kind between her pipes and Candie's-Neko's-Jenny's-Nicole's. Ah, and now I'm listening to Heidi Montag's blank so-what pasted-on voice singing the silly electro discopop "Body Language" and the vocals have more presence and less distance (is that the word?) than those of anyone I've mentioned in this paragraph except Kelly C. (I did not know that Heidi existed until today but apparently she is Paris-like in the way that mention of her name brings out the warmth and cuddliness in the populace; her voice is far more anonymous than Paris's, however.)

Don, I'm now listening to my one and only Magic Numbers number, "Undecided." Ms. Numbers has a slightly bruised soul timbre in her voice, not unlike Candie, which is interesting given that the Magics are playing discursive, recessive eclectic janglepop or neopop or formalist semipop or something. Anyway, they sound more recessive and less energetic than Ashlee does (but then one can say the same about 99.99% of the world's population). Pretty interesting, and it's not played gently, but it does seem to scurry away from attention, maybe 'cause there's so much going on. I'm not taking in their lyrics yet, except right off she says, "This house of cards would be a false alarm from the start," which I'm assuming is deliberately and exuberantly bad and signals a willingness to take liberties, which when done well could be great but usually isn't done well. I'm bad at concentrating on words right off, but I'm not hearing lines that casually and un-self-consciously pack in information the way Ashlee does with, "I spelled my coffee/It went all over your clothes/I gotta wear mine now." The song does seem to delve into the complication of an ambiguous situation (he may love her, he may be bullshitting her, something about him crying and waiting, and her not believing him, and she's heard it all before), no ice-axe-to-the-temple lines on the order of Ashlee's "I'm the one who's crawlin' on the ground/When you say love makes the world go 'round." The Numbers are a different species from the Her Ashness, I'd say, which means that it'll play to the coffee-table crowd (not that I shouldn't be part of that crowd and pay attention to 'em, and my hope for my Ashlee pieces is that some coffee-tablers would to their surprise recognize themselves in this pop phenom girl).

Mira Craig just came up on the playbox, singing, "I'll rip your head off if I get mad: I'm obese!"

(Er, she actually says "I'm a beast," and I'd be surprised if she were obese, though I've never seen a picture.)

Ah, now an Ashlee B-side, "Now you know what it feels like to bite your tongue/Now you know what it feels like to be the one/Who walks around with knots in his stomach/I've been there, and I've done it/And now you know what it feels like to always be afraid/Of everything you wanted to say/Who's sorry now, who's sorry now, WHO'S SORRY NOW?" Not ambivalent/ambiguous this time. "All this time I've been saying I'm sorry; but why should I be sorry for all of your mistakes?"

FYI, my two new Ashlee pieces. I like the second half of the first and the first half of the second. The second refers to country lyric writing, differentiating Ashlee's use of detail from country's use of detail, giving an oversimplistic account of the latter.

The Rules Of The Game No. 10: Embracing The Ashlee Whirlpool

The Rules Of The Game No. 11: Toothpaste And Coffee

"they're singing" should be "their singin," "spelled my coffee" should be "spilled my coffee," etc.

c-o-f-f-e-e

First impressions of this year's Travis Tritt album: I've been saying that in general he's good doing Southern rock, all over the place (good-to-terrible) doing contemporary rock-pop country, and when he's mushy I gag and he usually gets a hit. The first two thirds somewhat reverses the pattern: the Richard Marx cover is good and fun and the choral singers give it a rush, though it doesn't quite hit the home room; the mush gets extra warmth and richness from his old-hewn bluesy voice; whereas when the rhythms veer towards rock and blues, weariness besets my heart. Finally around track nine he starts with some blues-based passion that's actually good, finally ends with a 12-bar ripper that almost justifies its length, and a couple tracks preceding it he does a slow scorcher - "Should've Listened" - that reminds me of why I got excited about him in the first place.

OK, now let's see how my Tritt opinions stack up with Xhuxk's. The musher that I quite like is "What If Love Hangs On," the rub-one-out number would've been OK if it hadn't held its gospel climax for six hours, "The Storm" outlasts its passion by about as long, "I Don't Know How I Got By" is serviceable mush, "I Wanna Feel Too Mush"... er, "I Wanna Feel Too Much" is better mush, "Something Stronger Than Me" is mushy angst and not bad, "The Pressure Is On" raises the pressure nicely, I didn't realize that my fave "Should've Listened" was by Nickelback (whose super-gigantic hit early in the decade was actually fairly moving, and whose super-gigantic hit last year made me want to turn off the radio, but now I suppose I ought to pay Nickelback actual attention, something I've never previously had the urge to do), "High Time For Gettin' Down" is good boogie lite ("hey senorita there's a lonely margarita with your name on it"), "Doesn't The Good Outweigh the Bad" is by Richard Marx and is definitely outweighed by "You Never Take Me Dancin'." (These are initial reactions, mind you.)

Think My Honky-Tonk History had more sparkle in its sparkling moments and more dark agony in its great moments of agony, and worse mush, though I'd have to relisten to confirm.

This guy's horny Western Gothic obsessions have a lot to do with country, in his own peculiar way; the feature track is skiffle-poppier than usual, but combined with sandblasting voice (turned down a few notches)=fried ice cream etc:
http://www.paperthinwalls.com/singlefile/item?id=974

Am I the only one who didn't get that "Brand New Kind of Actress" is about Phil Spector?

"You little greasy guy, I don't care what you did, back in '65, just put the gun away, put the gun away, just put the gun, aw-a-a-ay, hey"--I think you're right! Hadn't thought specifically of him. Wish Zevon could've heard this album, it's great.

that sounds like it's about the Tycoon of Teen, to me.

Found the Deadstring Bros. Silver Mountain pretty sluggish and strained Stones rip #400,001. couldn't get into it at all.

on the other hand, Red Stick Ramblers' Made in the Shade sounds great, really rocking, one of the liveliest records I've heard so far this year. Title track is about drinking bootleg whiskey.

Choice cut on a record that has something to do with country, at least this song you could hear Faith Hill doing maybe: Chuck Prophet's "Small Town Girl" on Soap and Water. I'm waiting to get a copy of the Kelly Willis (I heard it at the record store in N-ville one afternoon, most of it), which Prophet produced. Anyway, Prophet's is a good calibrated pop record with some cool chord changes...