Rolling Country 2006 Thread

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.)

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!)

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).

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

truly odd

I've been listening a lot to Toby's "Pull My Chain" as recommended upthread and I like it a lot, which is only really strange because each successive song seems to be am essay in the kind of thing I don't relly like. But I can persuade myself that the strength of the material pulls it through. I should probably stop worrying about it really and get on with enjoying it.

I thought Kelefa did a good job on Blaine and Julie, but don't know about "Someone Is Me" as "fogeyish." I guess I don't get "exurbia" exactly, either, but more "lower middle classville" or something, which might be more or less the same thing in the Pacific Northwest where Laren's from? And of course I find the bit about folks looking askance at BL as he prays in a diner a bit perplexing, like Blaine's gonna strike a big blow for acceptance of Christianity in exurbia? Which for me really locates Blaine in some other place than the traditional country-audience area--like the Pacific Northwest, where I'm sure there are far more agnostics and "freethinkers" than here in Tennessee or Indiana or wherever. Or am I offbase here, can we talk about it...?

I cannot bring myself to listen to Julie Roberts right now...but I do kinda like this Hacienda Bros. record, "What's Wrong with Right," where they cover "Cry Like a Baby" and the Intruders' (?) "Cowboys to Girls." not much of a singer, but a good groove.