Rolling Country 2006 Thread

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xpost Did you read Edd's xpost Scene piece on Blaine, it's good.Yeah, I used to avoid Mac Davis like the plague, the moreso cause he was all over the place for a while there. But saw North Dallas Forty on TV later, really enjoyed that, and he seemed born to play the Bill Clntonesque smoothie, way in with the sleaze crowd. He and Glen Campbell were supposed to be big buddies, the next Newman and Redford, Orlando and Prinze, but then Glen stole his wife, and seems like that's the last I head of Mac. Wrote "Rock 'N' Roll I Gave You The Best Years Of My LIfe," but didn't realize he wrote "In The Ghetto"! Really struck me as a seriously boring singer, though. xpost Anthony, re yr Leftie Country, what about "Take This Job And Shove It"? (And we were talking about "Plane Wreck In Los Gatos" AKA "Deportee" a while back(and come to think of it, I guess the levelling, equal-oppportunity threat/prophecy of xposts "Long Black Train," and especially that earlier "Little Black Train" I quoted, could be considered leftie. Or Anarchist, when that was an upper-case concern. The Pentecostal movement originally refused loyalty oaths and singing the National Anthem and participation in World War I, some went to prison for the latter)

― don (dow), Sunday, 11 June 2006 15:05 (twenty years ago)

And okay, coming to my senses a little (partly it's just that I liked the album so much more than I *expected* to) blaine larsen's album is probably more "really good" than "really great," I admit it. "Someone Like Me" is probably better in theory than in reality; not much of a hook, and the premise (that he's gonna clean up the weeds and swastika and butts himself, I guess) is kind of stupid. I seem to like "I'm in Love With a Married Woman" more and "Spoken Like a Man" less than Edd does; the latter's gotten a much smarter lyric, but never really kicks in musically, though I agree, they are a matched pair about fidelity in marriage, not very mawkish about it. "Let Alone You" and "Lips of a Bottle" on the other hand are a matched pair about a washed-up guy's midlife crisis, or at least that's how they sound to me (mood reminds of Tim McGraw's *A Place in the Sun* more than Travis or Strait, come to think of it, so maybe Blaine's more pop than I suggested), and it's kind of amazing such a young turk could pull them off -- in fact, I swear, the bottle one would be better *without* Gretchen, who I continue to believe has no business singing ballads. And "Let Alone You" and "No Woman" are also a matched pair that start out talking about watching football on TV (e.g. Tampa Bay vs Carolina -- you can tell he's young; aren't those both expansion teams?) What else: Oh yeah, best moment on the album is halfway through "I Don't Wanna Work That Hard," when the music speeds up while dropping almost to just Blaine over a drumbeat, talking about how it's not worth dealing with his girl's mama and saint bernard and bully ex-boyfriend. Second best moment on the album: When he tells the gal he's singing to in the Mac Davis cover "you're a hot blooded woman child." (He should know!)

― xhuxk (xheddy), Sunday, 11 June 2006 15:48 (twenty years ago)

"he should know!)" What qualifies him especially?

― don (dow), Sunday, 11 June 2006 17:45 (twenty years ago)

yeah, I keep listening to Blaine for the singing, actually, and while I still think this record's a little simple-minded in comparison to his first one, and I still can't stand "I'm in Love with a Married Woman" (not that I don't believe in great marriages or sexy marriages or anything, or that a good woman don't deserve exactly the kind of plane-ride Blaine gives her, but I wish there were more real dramatic tension there, I guess), I totally am with Xhuxk about "Don't Wanna Work That Hard," a great, funny song. And right, Gretchen almost fucks up "Lips of a Bottle," which Blaine and Johnson, I think, wrote! What grasp of country classicism! Amazing. But she doesn't really screw it up.

Overall, I think it's better than Jamey Johnson's record, which I still like a lot--shit, both guys are really fine singers, where they comin' from? Larsen looks too young to be so savvy, and to be flyin' around in a plane...but like I say, I think he's great, smart, and he's doing well, moving to Nashville and building a recording studio in his house, he says. And he's a good guy, put his mom thru school with his advance...

And, Chuck--I got a spare copy of Larsen's first CD that I'd be more than glad to send to ya. E-mail me your address, if you want it...

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Sunday, 11 June 2006 17:51 (twenty years ago)

("The dominoes are standin' in a line." Joe Ely's doing a dusty outlaw ballad on Prarie Home Companion, with Jo-El [sounds like?]Guzman's accordion rolling around the almost empty streets.)

― don (dow), Sunday, 11 June 2006 18:01 (twenty years ago)

(ha, got "dominoes," missed "Prairie")

― don (dow), Sunday, 11 June 2006 18:03 (twenty years ago)

C-sharp is a cutting kind of key, Frank, so may be you on to something. The relative minor is A-sharp, though.

Yeah, but I wasn't talking about the relative minor. But then again, I have no fucking idea what I was talking about since looking back I don't see where I'm making any sense. Did I mean to write that the key was C-minor (not C-sharp, which it most certainly isn't)? I don't know if it is C-minor though; seems to be one of the things where initially they're suppressing the "mi" not altogether. But they do pass through E-flat (which is the C-minor's relative major, assuming the key is C-minor, which... oh I don't know, this is one reason I gave up as a musician; maybe Ian will return and set me straight), and the quiet pang comes from that E-flat. They also do some nice stuff in sometimes giving you an F and sometimes giving you an F-minor (it that is what they're doing); maybe the word "modulate" is relevant. Damned if I know.

Yeah, I was considering "Not Ready to Make Nice" as the other angry rocker; I'll concede it's something of a slow rocker, but it's a rocker nonetheless, emotionally; ironically enough, it's the sort of slow burner that Trivis Tritt would totally nail. (Wasn't Tritt one of the guys who piled on the Dixie Chicks?)

You guys' referring to the Dixie Chicks as DC always confuses me, since over at Poptimists and related LJ sites DC means one and only one thing, not Dixie Chicks and not District of Columbia but Destiny's Child.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Sunday, 11 June 2006 23:00 (twenty years ago)

John Boyd (San Angelo Standard Times): So again, I go back to the Dixie Chicks. After (singer) Natalie Maines made her comments about Bush, country fans were in an uproar. Are you getting a free pass here that the Dixie Chicks didn't get?

Merle Haggard: There's a lot of difference between the Dixie Chicks and me.

But then, what's new about momma and grandma not liking war? I'll criticize the country audience and say it to them. Grandma didn't like war when Bob Wills was alive. I don't see the shock factor in what the Dixie Chicks did, and it makes me afraid that America thinks that way. You can't even criticize the United States without ruining your credibility. Haven't we gone too far? Doesn't that make you afraid?

They want to wiretap us. They want to listen to all our conversations. How can you find that good? Are we happy to give up these freedoms? Are we happy for people that have to fight all over the world?

The counter decisions that are being made don't seem to be lining up with each other.

Boyd: I want to give you a chance to talk about your new album. There's a lot of duality to "Chicago Wind." You've got this very political side that we've talked about, and then you've also got the side that is just classic Merle - the sweeping ballads, and the barroom singalongs.

Haggard: That's probably what I should do - just sing my songs and not speak my mind.

Boyd: Now why do you say that?

Merle Haggard: I don't feel safe to make my opinions known. I fear of somebody bombing my house.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Sunday, 11 June 2006 23:11 (twenty years ago)

* cue "politically uncorrect" *

― j blount (papa la bas), Sunday, 11 June 2006 23:33 (twenty years ago)

disappointed to see that apparently the chix tour is bombing (esp since their stance was always 'we make our money on tour/the records just exist to promote it' and the tour holding strong in the midst of the incident was a nice showing that the situation was maybe more complicated than it appeared. releasing yr weakest album yet couldn't've helped on top of everything else (and at this point is there anyone who sincerely believes that the reba comments et al aren't more responsible for the shape their career is in at this moment right now than The Incident?)(ie. you really think bush and the war are more popular now than 3 years ago?).

― j blount (papa la bas), Sunday, 11 June 2006 23:41 (twenty years ago)

passing through the relative major (E-flat) on the way to the fourth (F)

Except I think it's really on the way to D-minor (which is F's relative minor), or to some variant. But the E-flat is definitely an E-flat.

Don't pay me any mind.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Sunday, 11 June 2006 23:41 (twenty years ago)

The previous tour was (pretty much)already sold out before The Incident. So, even if everybody had burned their tickets, the money was already made. And the CMT focus groups and the people polled by and calling up radio stations were holding fast, before "Not Ready To Make Nice" came out, and before Reba's remarks (which were defensive as shit, like "Hey, maybe I been doing stuff like with them yankee TV suits, but at least I ain't no Dixie Chick")(like my fellow Alabamans saying "Thank God for Mississippi," cos supposedly they're even lower-achieving than we-uns). Despite Bush's low point, I do think it's a matter of being prematurely publicly anti-, and sayin what we were thinkin, and how dare you (almost, "How dare I?!)(again, that identity-anxiety)Even Toby said a while back that he never did quite aee how Iraq fit with the overall War On Terror. But to say it first, and to say you're ashamed to be from Texas, for any reason! When Texas is such a bigass country market, too. And there's a lot of political operatives still determined to keep them Made An Example Of, to keep them Dixie Chicked. And maybe some of it is the album's quality, but the album's still doing a lot better than the tour, so far.

― don (dow), Monday, 12 June 2006 02:12 (twenty years ago)

well, anyway, fuck a relative minor, as the man in jail told me...

more later--but right now, listening to ronnie milsap's new keith stegall-produced "my life." optimist meliorist pop at its most soulful; something very false and falsely antic, maybe the word is, about ronnie, yet he's very good. can't quite figure it out--the first song starts with a jewsharp-fueled rhythm track; another one about how americans move too fast mentions grande lattes; yet another, called "local girls" and the first single (not graham parker's song) mentions "ol' carlos santana." still, this is really ace songwriting nashville-style and for instance i quite love ronnie doing one called "somewhere dry" where he has to get out of the humid south and out to dry california. he's overly professional yet there are moments when i identify with him totally, and wish i were in his world of immaculate surfaces and many braille-coded custom Ronnie Milsap Koffee Kups with his picture on it. in short, charlie rich is dead but ronnie does just fine.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 12 June 2006 16:43 (twenty years ago)

well, anyway, fuck a relative minor, as the man in jail told me...

more later--but right now, listening to ronnie milsap's new keith stegall-produced "my life." optimist meliorist pop at its most soulful; something very false and falsely antic, maybe the word is, about ronnie, yet he's very good. can't quite figure it out--the first song starts with a jewsharp-fueled rhythm track; another one about how americans move too fast mentions grande lattes; yet another, called "local girls" and the first single (not graham parker's song), mentions "ol' carlos santana." still, this is really ace songwriting nashville-style and for instance i quite love ronnie doing one called "somewhere dry" where he has to get out of the humid south and out to dry california. he's overly professional yet there are moments when i identify with him totally, and wish i were in his world of immaculate surfaces and many braille-coded custom Ronnie Milsap Koffee Kups with his picture on it. in short, charlie rich is dead but ronnie does just fine.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 12 June 2006 16:44 (twenty years ago)

so does anybody have any trent willmon opinions? (jon caramanica seems to have a couple in his amusing new mtv urge informer country blog posting, but they mostly involve what vintage of wine trent drinks.) don't remember his older stuff; new album strikes me as forgettable macho sap, for the most part. track five is a not awful morning after the domestic squabble song; track 10 is a hard blues number with no other distinction to make me care. on the front and back CD cover, trent's standing in the desert. beyond that, shrug.

― Charles Joseph Tarcisius Eddy (xheddy), Monday, 12 June 2006 17:06 (twenty years ago)

also he does a couple lazing around alone in hammock with a cold one in the lazy hazy daze of summer sorts of songs that might be fun if kenny chesney (or, in the case where trent gets dumped for a laywer, toby keith) covered them, but they probably won't so never mind. (if you're out there, though: kenny, you do track #1; toby, you do #4.)

― oops i mean xhuxk (xheddy), Monday, 12 June 2006 17:19 (twenty years ago)

Nope, haven't gotten that promo. xpost the Crossraods with Ronnie Milsap and Los Lonely Boys was totally unexpected, by me anyway, and totally cool! (think I wrote about it on Rolling Country 2005, or mebbe earlier this year, but I've got this thing set to only show the 50 most recent posts). Their vocal and instrumental phrasing turned out to be totally compatible, which might have in part to do with crypto-latin sleeper cells in country (John Storm Roberts to thread!). But also, LLB were really on, even when performing without Ronnie, which was a first for them, in my experience (some pretty weak sets on other shows). Just saw a CMT commercial for Best Of Crossroads, every Friday night this summer, so hopefully will show that, see the Crossroads subsite or whatever you call it at cmt.com.

― don (dow), Monday, 12 June 2006 17:32 (twenty years ago)

i dont think i have ever heard ronnie milsap, and i think the only place ive heard him, is in that nasty robbie fulks song

― anthony easton (anthony), Monday, 12 June 2006 20:38 (twenty years ago)

so i've been listening to this 20-song 2004 compilation called *life and times* by a louisiana singer-songwriter named butch hornsby who apparently used to write songs (in the '90s i guess) for john fred, formerly of the playboy band fame. first nine tracks are identified as "malaco rough mix"es; not sure if that means he was making demos for the southern soul label, or recording in their studio (if they have one) or what. other stuff was apparently connected to a label (studio?) called deep south, and four songs are "mandeville bathroom session"s. anyway, the guy's pretty eccentric, a country soulster closest vocally to a young david allan coe (the similarity is most noticeable in "suddenly single"), but with a few wacko titles like "i ain't no chauffeur" and "don't take it out on the dog" and (my favorite so far) "rock bottom on romaine," which seems to concern being strung out in hollywood, and romaine rhymes with cocaine, so draw your own conclusions. except the liner notes allude, somehow, to hornsby meeting some kind of tragic end, and this bizarre cryptic part might be ABOUT romaine: "butch hornsby made people uncomfortable. tommy lorio tried to warn butch's wife carol. he use dried lettuce and food parts that were petrified upon his ceiling as a visible manifestation of that warning. carol didn't listen." what the? but carol's note (and john fred's) don't mention lettuce, and a google search to find out more left me high and dry.

also liking (speaking of southern soul) *candy licker: the sex & soul of marvin sease* (jive/legacy) not all of which concerns muff diving, and at least "hoochie mama" of which has zapp-style robot-funk freakazoids reciting the names of several of the united states.

― xhuxk (xheddy), Monday, 12 June 2006 21:03 (twenty years ago)

actually there's also something about bruce hornsby that reminds me of terry allen. (he even does a song called "the smithsonian," so there's a fairly good chance he appreciates art. "i have seen the universe," too.) and he sings way too good to just be a demo singer.

― xhuxk (xheddy), Monday, 12 June 2006 21:11 (twenty years ago)

BUTCH Hornsby, not Bruce (who reminds me of Tupac Shakur instead).

― xhuxk (xheddy), Monday, 12 June 2006 21:15 (twenty years ago)

tupac and his magic piano. well, the guys who started malaco bought one of the studios in the muscle shoals area, when they started the label, I believe. I'm guessing Deep South studios were maybe in Jackson (Ms., not Tenn., the latter of which is known for ugly women and Carl Perkins and being a pee-stop between Nashville and Memphis...). Mandeville is where the Louisiana "insane asylum" (do we call 'em that any more? don't want to offend anyone who's sensitive on this issue...) is. I obviously need to investigate this: rock bottom on rogaine, I mean romaine...

And Anthony, you never heard, like, "Any Day Now" by Milsap? One of those hits that's so squishy and ubiquitous, you're always shocked when you learn it's a real thing with a real name.

xps

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 12 June 2006 22:10 (twenty years ago)

>Merle Haggard: Grandma didn't like war when Bob Wills was alive<

And Bob Wills was big during World War II, right? I'll refrain from joking about Western swing bandleader Adolph Hofner, who may or may not have been against our involvement in the war then as well. (But I do recommend *South Texas Swing: His Early Recordings, 1935-55* on Arhoolie.) (And actually, he was more Czech than German, apparently.)

― xhuxk (xheddy), Monday, 12 June 2006 22:26 (twenty years ago)

i dont think i have

― anthony easton (anthony), Monday, 12 June 2006 23:31 (twenty years ago)

(My fave Tupac is "California," with Roger's magic keyb and vocoder.)Yeah, I think Uncle Adolph had an album titled Tex-Czech!, and that's the first I knew of that term. One of Bob's musicians said that Bob was drafted into WWII, despite being in his late 30s, or even early 40s, they did nab some guys who were that old (and didn't throw 'em back, unless they had the wrong sort of chronic condition). And the musician said that Bob's health was never the same after that. Of course, the big bands were never the same either, and music business had been socked by wartime recording ban (to save chemicals used in records, I think). And other changes, of course. On the other hand, other musicians have been quoted as saying Bob developed quite a drinking problem, though this could have been connected with wartime experiences. Course, if he'd refused to go, prob have ended up in a prison camp, lke Robert Lowell, and his fellow conscientious objectors.

― don (dow), Monday, 12 June 2006 23:47 (twenty years ago)

"People said John was a slacker, ’cause he wouldn’t fight in their war
A man wasn’t much if he wouldn’t fight back in 1940 and 4
The doctor said John was just too sick to go, but the people said that he was a coward
And one of the men makin’ fun of him was a fellow named Milton Howard."
-- Tom T Hall, "Turn it On, Turn it On, Turn it On"

― xhuxk (xheddy), Monday, 12 June 2006 23:56 (twenty years ago)

Wow, should have thought of that!

― don (dow), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 01:13 (twenty years ago)

*Most of the Marvin Sease album is gloppy ballads which aren't all that good, but some of it is kinda fun. (The first track is awful though.)
*Trent Willmon's first album was pretty good, song-wise, but I haven't heard the new one yet.
*Dixie Chicks album is really interesting. Still sorting it all out.

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 02:16 (twenty years ago)

From Pennsylvania with roots in Windsor, the most explicitly Journey-influenced country album ever made; i.e., the singer actually used to sing in a Journey tribute band (and their cdbaby page also lists bands like Kansas as an inspiration), he was one of the highest voices of any male country singer I've ever heard, and he does Steve Perry type corkscrewing toward heaven melisma stuff all over the album, most blatantly in "Gonna Leave a Mark." There are also little proggy filigrees. And boy band harmonies. And in the yuckily titled "My Life is A River," '80s Police keybs. And endearing liner notes about their Lord and Savior Jesus and some "little man" and "Alan M appears courtesy of he new truck" and "Bert appears courtesy of his mom." And two attempts at funkiness ("No Where to Run," "Throttle Up") that wind up sounding a little bit too much like Blind Melon for my comfort, but I don't mind. "Feel These Arms" (where they get a real good dance chug going, with horns) is probably my favorite track, followed maybe by "No Where to Run" despite its Melonness and "Hood of That '81 Ford" (one of the more country tracks) but even the mawkish stuff kicks in before too long:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/alanbros

Marvin Sease CD is way less gloppy and ballady than Matt suggests (or maybe I just have a higher glop tolerance than he does; see also the Alan Bros!); most of it gets a good '70s smooth-jazzy funk disco groove going. And lots of the songs have pre-old-school "raps" (i.e., talking as singing, sometimes like a preacher's sermon) in them, which are really fun. And sure, the opening track "Do You Want a Licker?" is awful if you want it to be, but it's just too silly to complain about; ditto the other bookend, a five-minute live "Candy Licker 2005." Also, the ballads are pretty good, for the most part. "Don't Forget to Tell On You" sounds kind of like "Tell it Like It Is." But my favorite cuts are probably "I'm Mr Jody," the backdoor man song that starts with an ominous phone call, and the 12-step fix-your-life number "I Gotta Clean Up." (Has anybody ever written a good essay about Jody? He's the guy back on the block who's having sex to your girl while you're in the Army, and I get the idea he shows up in lots of Southern soul songs: Doesn't Johnnie Taylor have one about him, too*? As do, I would assume, other folks.)

* - yep, I just checked Whitburn: "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone," went to number 28 in 1971. (Hey, sounds like a good EMP proposal!)

― xhuxk (xheddy), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 12:19 (twenty years ago)

having sex WITH (or) making love TO.
and courtesy of HIS new truck.

Ha, just noticed this on the Alan Bros page, how cool!

>Mel "Alan" Pachuta brings to the band awesome natural ability and years of Bass playing. With his band the "Human Beinz" Mel enjoyed great success and toured the world with hits like "Nobody but Me".<

Also sounds like their r&b/boy band harmonies might come from gospel music, judging from their page (though they're also blues fans).

― xhuxk (xheddy), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 12:29 (twenty years ago)

(Not to be confused with '20s white blues country duo the Allen Brothers, who were great: They've got "Maybe Next Week Sometime" on the *Mr. Charlie's Blues* comp on Yazoo and "Drunk and Nutty Blues" and "Chatanooga Mama" on *White Country Blues: 1926-1938 A Lighter Shade of Pale* on Columbia/Legacy, and if you can track down their 1973 Old Timey Records reissue LP *The Chatanooga Boys*, you should.)

― xhuxk (xheddy), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 12:39 (twenty years ago)

Johnnie Taylor was the king of Jody songs. "Standing In for Jody" and "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone" are just two; I mean every song he does is kind of about Jody-ism in some way or another. I am a nut for Johnnie Taylor (I like Johnny Taylor a lot, too, and Ted Taylor, the Louisiana soul singer, is also excellent--so I think an EMP paper on the Sooper Taylors would be good!!), and Taylor is also the king of fucking-around songs. There are these nifty new Stax reissues that includes stuff by Frederick Knight, the Dramatics, etc., and if you ask me one of the very best Stax albums-as-albums is Johnnie's "Who's Making Love," which is the typical collection of singles but which really has variety and which totally hangs together. "Hold On This Time" has a great Cropper riff, cubist guitar, and "Woman Across the River" is one of the best Stax blues ever.

I only know the older, cunnilingual and happy to oblige, ma'am, Marvin Sease stuff--he's really good. "Marvin Sease" on London from late '80s is a good 'un. One of those artists who've been working the I-55 corridor from Memphis to the Louisiana border, forever.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 14:04 (twenty years ago)

Well, a Taylors EMP report would probably be really interesting, but I was thinking (theoretically, not volunteering!) more in terms of one about Jody himself. Who was he? And how far back do Jody songs go? Did Johnnie Taylor invent them? Or does Jody show up in blue songs during World War II or something? Was he a real person, like maybe Stagger Lee? (Was Shine who swam the Titanic a real person? I forget.) Seems like real *Mystery Train* mythology stuff, and I'm surprised nobody has tackled the research (unless they have and I just didn't notice, which is very possible. I haven't even done a google search.) (Also, do I only associate Jody with making cuckolds of military guys stationed overseas because I was *in* the military, and he was always showing up in cadences used while marching and/or running? Or is that his main deal? And otherwise, to what extent if any does he exist outside of the culture of Southern blacks--who, when I was in, seemed to make up a sizable portion of the Army?)

― xhuxk (xheddy), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 14:33 (twenty years ago)

This could really be hella interesting, absolutely. Is "Trapped in the Closet" the Ulysses of Jody songs?

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 15:34 (twenty years ago)

Trent Willmon's debut was one of my faves of last year (though it actually came out October '04). "Beer Man" is kinda by-the-numbers but still worth a kick; "Dixie Rose Deluxe's..." is a brilliant list-y thing with a different spin on just what a man will do for a pretty girl; "Home Sweet Holiday Inn" is effective enough of a tearjerker that Holiday Inn actually licensed it (after the fact) (even though it's about custody agreements and divorce!). The rest of the album is sprinkled with equal parts good Texas honky-tonk - well, as much as Sony Nashville'd allow, at least - and some sub-Billy Currington blandness. But overall, great stuff. The first single off his new one is kinda in the same blandness ballpark, but I'm just happy as hell he even got to make another one; I picked up the first one in a cutout bin for $0.99, and there were at least 10 more copies there after I picked mine up.

― Thomas Inskeep (submeat), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 15:45 (twenty years ago)

Here's some info I found while googling Jody songs:

http://soulfuldetroit.com/archives/10238/9918.html?1079610632

― Sang Freud (jeff_s), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 15:53 (twenty years ago)

x-post. Taylor didn't invent the Jody song. Jody / Jodie / Joe the Grinder are pretty common figures in blues tunes.There's Louis Armstrong's "Jodie Man" which makes the "GI Joe de man" connection explicit. I wouldn't be surprised if that military connection is at the origin, though it's obviously gone through lots of transformations.

― Roy Kasten (Roy Kasten), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 16:17 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I'd forgotten Joe The Grinder. I used to own a copy of that *Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me* prison-rap comp (on Smithsonian or Rounder or something?), and I think there might even be a Joe the Grinder rhyme on there (I *may* even have mentioned it in the pre-rap rap chapter of my second book). Anyway, this link from the link above has great stuff about Jody Army cadences; also says Johnnie Taylor himself learned about Jody while in the military:

http://p211.ezboard.com/fwordoriginsorgfrm4.showMessage?topicID=153.topic

― xhuxk (xheddy), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 16:47 (twenty years ago)

Matt and Thomas, interesting that you both like Trent Willmon, or liked his last album anyway. His new one just strikes me as really stodgy and immobile. Like I said, the songs are there; I'm just not convinced the singer is. Dude just plain doesn't seem like he'd be much fun to have a beer with. He seems all work and no play, no matter how much the words try to convince me otherwise. But if you hear it and like it, definitely tell me what I should go back to.

― xhuxk (xheddy), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 17:18 (twenty years ago)

Willmon's new one came out yesterday, xhuxk? If so, I'll pick it up this weekend. I won't be entirely surprised if I agree with you on this one, considering I wouldn't be surprised if the label (Sony Nashville) straitjacketed him into a bunch of more "commercial" songs to get some sort of return on their investment (nothing from his first record went top 30 on the country singles chart, and they tried four different singles). I'll be sad - I think his first one showed plenty of personality, and I liked that he wrote little liner notes for each song on the CD - but I won't be shocked.

― Thomas Inskeep (submeat), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 19:59 (twenty years ago)

Just got an announcment from Universal Nashville, they're going to all-download-only promos.

― don (dow), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 23:18 (twenty years ago)

was that in an email, don? i don't think i got one (but then, i may not be on universal nashville's emailing list now; i'm not sure.) either way, an ominous omen for the future, as far as i'm concerned.

three things i learned while reading a kelefa sanneh review in the times this morning:
1) "someone is me" on blaine larsen's album (the clean-up-exurbia song, which for some reason i kept calling "someone LIKE me" above when really its title means "i AM somebody") is apparently also a track on the new kenny rogers album.
2) a cover of "girl next door" by saving jane, the original of which i still don't think i've ever heard, has apparently been added to the new julie roberts album, though it's still not on the advance CD i have, which i've barely listened to at all because i keep forgetting i have it because it was sent in one of those long skinny cardboard greeting-card-like sleeves that record companies send advance promos in sometimes and that hides it from my eyes.
3) trace adkins apparently also did a version of "break down here," off julie roberts's first album. i bet it wasn't as good as hers.

― xhuxk (xheddy), Thursday, 15 June 2006 12:47 (twenty years ago)

"Hello to all, Universal Music is proud to announce, effective immediately, the digital distribution of all advance and final music via email and the Promo Only program/player. Most of you are probably familiar with this delivery in working with our sister labels (Interscope, Geffen, Verve, etc...)" Goes on to say we will "receive a 'welcome' email that will walk you through registering. Should you have any questions or problems with the system, feel free to submit your feedback through the specified links that will appear at the bottom of each email notice." I'm sure that will work like a charm. Oh, speaking of ol' obsolete promos, anybody ever get a new release date for Ashley Monroe???? (Yeah, I keep forgetting about Julie, got that about the same time as Ashley; seen Julie's new vid a couple times, looks and sounds pretty undistinguished)

― don (dow), Thursday, 15 June 2006 15:22 (twenty years ago)

Wait, but that doesn't say promos will *only* be sent via download, does it? Only that you *can* download them. I mean, it doesn't say they're going to stop snailmailing them. Or am I reading it wrong?

― xhuxk (xheddy), Thursday, 15 June 2006 15:27 (twenty years ago)

im listening ot the new blaine larsen, i like the writing, but im not sure i like the rest...

can we talk about the sexual politics of the new toby video

― anthony easton (anthony), Thursday, 15 June 2006 20:49 (twenty years ago)

Anthony, why do you always ask permission to talk about everything?
No offense, but that really drives me nuts. Just talk about it, like everybody else! (I mean, do you really think anybody is going to say, "No! We definitely CANNOT talk about the sexual politics of the new Toby video"?)(I dunno, maybe it's a Canadian politeness thing.) (Riddle: How do you get 50 drunken Canadians out of your swimming pool? Answer: Ask them nicely to get out of your swimming pool.)

So I just got got emailed the new Julie Roberts CD from Mercury, downloadable via links. So maybe Don is right. A wave of the future. There goes my daily walking-to-the-mailbox-down-the-block exercise.

― xhukx (xheddy), Thursday, 15 June 2006 21:01 (twenty years ago)

Hell no, you can't talk about it, unless you voted for the new Canadian Conservative regime, and are going back to Iraq with Toby! I assumed, when they xpost said "all advance and final music via email and Promo Only program player," they meant ALL, ONLY--but, now that you mention it, maybe not! Let's ask! Although I never got that much from them anyway, I did review what I got, like Shelly, Terri. So would be good not to have to screw with downloads, since this ol computer don't digest 'em very well. They've been sending those regular email downloads for a while, but those were just individual tracks, weren't they. Anyway, I'll ask Amber.

― don (dow), Thursday, 15 June 2006 21:27 (twenty years ago)

Wait, that Toby video, you mean where he's sealing her in behind a brick wall, only turns out he's bricked HISSELF in? And she gets all disgusted at his male incompetence and goes upstairs. That's the stupidest thing I've ever seen, although the song is okay. (I nail his sexual politics in "Friendly Ghost Of A Mullet," see Voice archive.)

― don (dow), Thursday, 15 June 2006 21:32 (twenty years ago)

hmmm....doesn't seem to be up on youtube yet (though the song title might help), but speaking of sexual politics, i did find this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqbGru-1sq0&search=toby%20keith

― xhuxk (xheddy), Thursday, 15 June 2006 21:43 (twenty years ago)

all advance and final music via email and the Promo Only program/player

Why do you guys even care? It's not like you're going to do anything about it, like write something pointed and critical. "Here, take this shit and eat it" -- is what that p.r. statement says. Why not ask how much and what color?

"Promo Only program/player" is another piece of digital rights management software you get to download to your machine for the "privilege" of listening to a promotional copy. Yeah, sure, the company is going to make available unencumbered digital music files.

You're so used to having sand kicked in your face, now you've come to like it.

Oh, heavens, they'll take me off their e-mail list if I complain, then I won't even get the tips to the promo links.

You wanna bet they continue sending CDs to newspapers? They know the people on staff get flooded with material and, boy, isn't it smart to just give them a reason to ignore your product because the day's already too long and corporate network rules frowns on the downloading of outside executables to the system?

Some of you might want to consider, once you've downloaded a bunch of different firm's "audio content managers," what that means to your operating system when you're trying to listen to music that ISN'T mediated by either of them. Or what if the same piece of music is mediated by both at the same time?

Oh, my computer acts squirrelly now! Even more than usual! It runs slower and slower. It crashed and I had to get someone to make it work again. Now I can hardly play any music at all on it.

Yes, ask the P.r. person. They'll certainly tell you the unadorned truth and make your life easier.

Don't be mean, now. Don't say you're doing a story. You'll get taken off the digital promo list. You'll be deemed not cost effective and sub-worthless. Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow!

xpost

I want to know where the youtube post of "Haji Girl" is.

― Urnst Kouch (Urnst Kouch), Thursday, 15 June 2006 21:45 (twenty years ago)

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