Rolling Country 2006 Thread

I didn't hate Timeless the way some did. It feels a little clinical, a little lacking in imagination, but it sounds good in the background and Martina has rarely sung so craftily.

New No Depression showed up today. Just started Edd's long feature on Frank Black. Also long pieces on Candi Staton, Irma Thomas, Elvis and Allen, and Los Lonely Boys.

Timeless seemed useless to me -- A good singer following the rules, playing teacher's pet to the Defenders of Good Taste. Her previous album was infinitly more interesting. But I've said this before.

New Ronnie Milsap album is great, for his singing if for nothing else. I'm astounded. Has he always been this good? My favorite cut is "Somehwere Dry," but at least four other cuts ("It's All Coming Back to Me Now," "My Life," "Time Keeps Slipping Away," "Local Girls") are on the level of "A Day in the Life Of America," which Edd rightly raved about up above. Most of the others aren't bad; only one I can't stand is the closer, "Accept My Love" (= "except my love," yuck), which my CD changer naturally kept graviting toward. One of these days I'll get more specific songwise; right now, I'd say it's got a shot at my top ten on basis of listenability alone. And as far as ease of r&b soul emoting goes, I'd say Ronnie's right up there with T. Graham Brown, at least judging from this album.

Nowhere near as good (which might say something about how great the Milsap album is): Johnny Rodriguez's new hits CD, which mostly just passes right by me innofensively; not much to like, not much to dislike. The one great cut is "Ridin My Thumb to Mexico," which has only the slightest hint of Mexico (mere seconds of mariachi-like guitar) in its music; there's no Tex-Mex anywhere else (so much for Freddie Fender comparisons), though in "Love Put a Song in My Heart," where said stealer of goats comes closest to Christgau's Englebert Humperdink comparison in his '70s book, he does sing a line or two in Spanish. I also like the Mann/Weill penned "We're Over," and also "(Just Get Up And) Close the Door," and it's hard for me to dislike any version of the Eagles' "Desprado," I guess. Beyond that, shrug. Most of these were apparently # 1 c&w singles, bizarrely. Someday maybe somebody will explain how that happened.

The Tom T Hall best-of is a weird selection, schlockier and way less eccentric (since there's way more later stuff, and only one track from *In Search of a Song* for instance) than *The Essential Tom T Hall.* Only a couple of the cuts ("I Care," "You Show Me Your Heart I'll Show You Mine") make me cringe, though, and most of the later stuff would be pretty special coming from most anybody else. So, a pretty good intro for people who don't know him, and still pretty informative for me. A keeper. But not the one I'll usually put on.

Has that 2 CD Storyteller box of Tom T gone out of print? That's a pretty solid selection.

the t ribute album is also shockingly excellent.

i dont hate mcbride usually, i dont like her, and i often find her middle class melodramatics either patronising, silly, or batshit insane (and only independce day worked), and people keep telling me that im wrong--and you know what, techincal singing doesnt mean shit to me, and shes too precise in her covers for the album to be interesting

Those two live-on-TV listening experiences I xposted are by far my best impressions of her, though never heard a whole album. She should do a live album, seems like. Nick Tosches wrote a Creem feature on Johnny Rod, who was then (the late 70s, I think) one of the very few non-geezer country stars, or male starlets, as T. pointed out. So maybe that's why they let him do "Desperado" as a single or at all, and why it was a hit (he was an oasis/forerunner of the Young Country trend? Though when Hank Jr.led that "We Are Young Country" singalong single he was young mainly in comparison to Willie, etc) But also maybe why he had to cover the bases by sounding like Englebert, so as not scare off geezer (and geezerwashed) listeners? Just speculating. Also, country Biz wisdom was at lose ends then, not like now of course.

This new Ray Wylie Hubbard album is nasty and funny and loud electric blues. It's like an early ZZ Top album with a warped Okie preacher gesticulating about the animal kingdom and other sacred and sinful subjects. Like how "there are two kinds of people in the world: the day people and the night people. It's the night people's job to take the day people's money."

speaking of him ( the "Up Against The Wall, Redneck Mother" connection), I'm writing about Jerry Jeff Walker (yep, he's still around). Any thoughts, anybody?

i want to know more about him, what ive heard i love to peices.

new povertyneck hillbillies album on rust records turns out to be pretty much exactly the same as their album from last year on cort records, almost exactly the same song order even, with only the negligible "go crazy with my heart" and the non-negligible fastball cover "the way" (which i'm assuming they may have hit a legal royalties snag or something with) removed. the songs sure don't *sound* like they've been re-recorded or anything, though i could be wrong. bonus disc is a dvd, presumably the same one they'd put out on their own before (track listing looks very similar, and it's got a mini-documentary about them just like the earlier one did, but damned if i'm going to view them back to back to make 100 % sure...) anyway, it was a good album then, which means it's still good now.

I've always had a soft spot for JJW's early records, Driftin Way of Life and the self-titled album that has "Her Good Lovin Grace" and "Hill Country Rain" on it. He's the most folkie of the three-named Texans, and that can be kinda refreshing at times. Still, he's never really seemd to try very hard, which I suppose is better than trying too hard, but his songs (with the exception of Bojangles) are just really really light, like invisible air light, which, again, might be one of the appealing things about him. I have no clue if any of his post 80s records are any good.

yep, Ronnie Milsap sings so damned well on the new 'un. I wish the songwriting were just a bit better, but shit, this is a good record. unfortunately, the first single "Local Girls" has stalled. Plans afoot to do an "Essential" on him later this yr. And, The Most Intelligent Use of Jew's-harp in a Country Song (This Year) in the first song. I even like the stoopid south-of-border thing he does where he mentions banana Moon Pies and Carlos Santana and a super-woman with year-round tan and limes (I heard it as "lines" the first time I heard it, shit, Ronnie, watch the drugs man!) in her purse. (Altho I am Eating Better these days, occasionally I gotta get a banana Moon Pie and microwave that thing; they're, like, enough calories for a third-world person for a day, but mighty good.)

I have never even *listened* to Jerry Jeff. But I'll ask anyway, even tho I am no fuckin' help: I'm interviewing Guy Clark next week, doing a thing on him for a brand-new outlet I'm beginning a Relationship with. What about 'im, anyone? I got about half-a-dozen of his records from various places, including the new one on Dualtone, and of course I got "Old #1" amongst them--so, are those 2 RCA records his best? I got some listening to do over the weekend!

Finally, Roy's obit of Grant McLennan might be the single best thing I have ever read on the Go-Betweens. "They sound rootless, nearly immune to the pleasures of R&B, soul and country." Beautiful. I have to say, I get sorta lumpen throat when I hear "Darlinghurst Nights" these days, because I'm sorta living with memories and death a bit too closely right now. Great tune. And Barry Mazor on Shawn Camp is just superb, too, as I pointed out above, I think.

Lone Official at Springwater last night here in Nville were just amazing. Not country, not even rock and roll, jazzy in that post-skronk way but just fucking tensile and intelligent, and above all heartfelt, even visionary. Whatever obsessions are fueling their leader, Matt Button, keep at it; and their new package of 3 45s he graciously gave me at the show is just amazing, too--graphically and musically briliant, suggesting: some kind of new post-Southern southern mythopoeia, Robert E. Lee ain't dead at all and staggers drunkenly thru a subdivision that sits on the Battle of Nashville site and makes a collect call to bet on the Preakness, and when he loses his money shoots himself outside the Ryman Auditorium. Again: I think their "Tuckassee Take" is some kind of brilliant record, definitely on my top ten of the year at this moment.

yeah, Edd, ask Guy about Jerry Jeff, apparently they met in Houston, waaay back, and collaborated in various senses at various times, according to various accounts (lots of shit talked about JJW, but some of it is true, apparently). Good Guy tracks on the Heartworn Highways comp, listening companion to the early 70s doc, expanded on recent DVD, I think (CD and DVD each have songs that didn't make the original movie, and the DVD has some the CD doesn't, but not sure how that applies to Guy specifically; then again, it was filmed in his and Susannah's house and yard, so def worth checking out). One of his songs on the CD is about pirates along the Texas coast: picaresque, even! Lots of funny songs on that album, but didn't know he ever did stuff like that (tend to agree with comments on robertchristgau.com about tendencies toward sonic tightness and dryness on his own albums, esp. his voice; one of those good writers who can be too self-censoring, seems like)(but some good material for others, of course)(though always bugged me how often the chorus of "Desperados Waiting For A Train" keeps slamming into the mood of the verses--I know, it's supposed to be jarring, but becomes annoying/moneyshot, like in "Angel From Montgomery," though some vocalists have made those work anyway)I will def have to check out Lone Official!

Edd, stop. But gracias all the same. Anyways, Guy Clark: worst phone interview I've ever had in my long short life. I swear to god there was a point in between questions that I could hear the ice clink in his bourbon over the line. I wanted to crawl into a hole and croak. I bailed and asked if I could speak to Susannah. That went better. Which album is the best? Impossible to say. Old Friends means a lot to me (has one of Emmylou's greatest harmony parts on the title cut) and Boats to Build is terrific. But that live overview, Keepers, is pretty remarkable. When he's on, he can cut more performers than you'd guess. Email me if you need stuff. And, fuck, email me anyway with contact for Lone Official. I need to hear these guys.

thanks, Don and Roy. Roy, I'll stop; I just kinda fell in love with that last Go-Betweens record, quite unexpectedly, like when you see a woman you thought was plain and then one day you realize you can't get her out of your head, and she looks beautiful. And ditto "Horsebreaker Star," which is just great.

I got that LO record from Mark Nevers; it's apparently only out as a UK Honest Jons import, altho I think Astralwerks is planning a release sometime later this year. I'll see about burning you a copy, Roy; I have no idea how to get a promo from Honest Jons, and I guess I need to find out in Astralwerks has any they can send.

Guy Clark: yeah, I think it's a bit pinched, sonically, and "Desperadoes" does kinda strike me as clunky. I mean I have to confess, that whole Austin myth, I've never bought it, and I just don't know about any song with "Desperadoes" in it. But he's good, and I think I get why so many love him, and the Austin thing. I hope he's not drinking bourbon when I talk to him (if he is, he'd better go ahead and offer me some!), the interview's supposed to happen at noon so who knows.

the *verses* of "Desperadoes Waiting For A Train" were good: kid gradually coming to see the limitations of his childhood idol, and then...But the chorus is overdone: maybe overwritten, esp compared to verses, and contrast, which could be jarring to good effect, gets annoying. Same deal with "Angel From Montgomery": one of the best verses I've ever heard in any song is, "How the hell can a person/go to work in the mornin/come home every evenin/and have nothin to say?" To that tune, especially. Be interesting to hear both choruses maybe just at the end of the song, that could be killer, Ah suspect. Turns out Jerry Jeff's got a song, "Blue Mood, " that seems to be a letter to Guy, saying he's heard they ripped off Susannah's songs, just like they did Fred Neil's. Maybe that's why she never seemed to write amny, as far as I knew. "I'll Be Your San Antonio Rose," and-? That's the only one I can think of now.

I'm sure there are more but Sussana also wrote or co-wrote "Come From the Heart" ("Dance like nobody's watching..."), "Black Haired Boy," "Old Friends" and one of my favorite Guy songs "The Cape." I gotta dissent from the dissent about Desperados. I think it's one of the most moving and vivid and honest songs about growing up and growing old I've ever heard. And the refrain is perfect. How could it be anything but an ironic take on Texas/Western myth? It's hardly glorification and it's a mistake to separate that refrain from the narrative. Growing up, the boy felt like he and the old man were cool desperados, and the boy wants to go on believing that. But no, he finds out. An idol who the boy once saw as a legend from a Western movie turns out to be another sad, pathetic old man with tobacco juice dripping down his chin. But a man still worth loving. The man, by the way, is a real person: Clark's grandmother's boyfriend, a wildcat well driller, who taught Guy how to "whittle, spit, cuss, drive a car and sit up straight."

Yeah, I get what he's trying to do, and does do, basically. I've probably heard too many of the wrong (tearjerking and/or labored) versions. But Coe does it pretty well, in the midst of other songs about trying to face mixed feelings/images re heritages, a good theme for the time especially, on Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy.

This has nada to do with country, but: Jesus H. Christ. THE BELLRAYS. Believe the hype, even if there isn't any. I just saw one of the best live shows in like forever.

heard good things about them, tellus about it! Speaking of Jerry Jeff speaking of Susannah Clark's songs, here's a bit of her "We Were Kinda Crazy Then," which he recorded:
We were kinda crazy then, needin lovers more than friends,
Songs on my guitar, you said were like flowers for your scars,
May you find a friend tonight, may he finally treat you right,
Can you find the same moon I been starin at all night.
Always keep your moon shinin, like some bullet bright,
While this old world wears its heart like a big bullseye,
Don't you ever let them teach you the right from the wrong,
But did you ever find out who wrote that pretty song.
We were kinda crazy then, needin lovers more than friends,
Songs on my guitar, well they're there for you, they always are,
May you find a friend tonight, may he finally treat you right,
Can you find that same moon I been starin out tonight.
There's a man in the moon, darlin'.

> THE BELLRAYS. Believe the hype<

Not on their records, you shouldn't. (Live, I've been told otherwise. But the idea that she's a "soul singer" or "Tina Turner" or whatever people call her these days is totally wishful thinking.) (And are people still comparing her band to the MC5? Jeez...)

I've only heard a few cuts from the new album, which I like, and I think Lisa Kekaula can be called a "soul singer" without doing violence to the term. I wouldn't go so far as "Tina Turner" or the MC5 though. They were hellacious last night--gnashing and thrashing and crashing about on stage, jumping into the crowd--but I'd had a few beers!

Well, I suppose she's got more soul music in her singing than the chick in The Gossip (or the guy in TV on the Radio), I'll give her that. (But actually, I liked Lisa K's album with Now Time Delegation a few years back more than any of the Bellrays stuff I've heard.)

Either way, glad you had fun at her show! I should see her sometime.

Well Tina x MC5= Good Idea, anyway. xpost hey Thomas, you review for Stylus, that should be legit enough to qualify you for promos, if all your own blogs aren't. Don't you get any that way, since they have a "Promos Director" and all...?

Not from major labels.

I've decided that I've been drastically overrating Carter Falco's album (which nobody else has even noticed existed, so no harm done) on this thread. I still like it -- he's a ramblin' man with decent tuneage -- but the dude just plain doesn't have much of a singing voice. Which might explain why he's buddies with Shooter Jennings.

gary bennett human condition, i really like.

actually i might not, im confused by it

also anne powers is a genius:
http://www.calendarlive.com/music/cl-et-kenny19jun19,0,4820682.story?coll=cl-nav-music

Apropos of nothing in particular I was listening to "The Bumper of My SUV" last night and it occurred to me that the little piano figure at the start (it's repeated later in the song) sounds just like the opening notes of the French national anthem, which may be some kind of melodic Freudian slip.

On a soul-country thing, (which I know we were for a little while a while back) while in the States I picked up an LP by Diana Trask called "Miss Country Soul", produced by Buddy Killen in 1969, as far as I can tell featuring largely Joe Tex-related material, sleevenotes by Joe himself. It's about as convincing as Joe's "Stone Soul Country", i.e. not completely but has some fascinating bits and some brilliant bits. Diana sings fairly straight country 1969 style (i.e. a mixture of pretty much every singing style available to humanity). She tends to fall down with the uptempo numers: SYSLJFM is a worse version even that the Q-Tips', and that's saying something.

Seeing George Jones play live to a mostly-pensionable Lancaster, PA audience was an experience, I can tell you.

Toby Keith's *White Trash With Money,* which nobody else has much talked about, really holds up. Just played it this morning for the first time in over and month or two, and I'm now rating it as the year's best Nashville country album, hands down. Is "A Little Too Late" the new single (with the reportedly antifeminist dungeon six-feet-under video, which I still haven't seen)? If so, people should try to hear it apart from the video, because to my ears it's got some of Toby's most explicit soul phrasing ever. Also, I don't think I'd noticed before how good "Can't Buy You Money" is. Only real sore spot: the obligatory numbskull political statement "Ain't No Right Way," which sounds more lame ever time I hear it, and also naggingly sincere, hence way less fun than Tony's usual numbskull politics.

Tim, you're right that that's a real good Kenny Chesney article by Ann Powers (though "Jump" is hardly Van Halen at their most metal!)

All this talk (much of it by me) of soul-country obviously makes me feel very stupid for getting rid of the Charlie Rich albums I used to own; he's clearly the father of this stuff if anybody is (though late '60s Memphis Elvis clearly figures, and I bet Glen Campbell, too.) Also, what about Joe South? I need to research him one of these days. And how good was O.C. Smith' non-green-apples stuff??

TOBY'S not Tony's numbskull etc, duh.

New video still doesn't seem to be up on youtube (country youtubers are slow! or maybe just busy in the summer), but I did enjoy this description by "jerryleekersey" of the video for "He Ain't Worth Missing" (which I don't recall ever hearing/seeing before, myself):

"man, this chick in this video is HOT! i mean HOTTT! video is from toby's early days, video is about this girl sitting at the bar with her ex in the same bar and she keeps looking at her ex with his new girlfriend, while toby is just hoping to get sloppy seconds from her. video is pretty good, what would have made this video great was them two girl cats fight and toby break it up and get both of them chicks later. Be sure to check out my other videos."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57Mp4zFo7PI&search=toby%20keith

ha ha, more from jerrleekersey:

"loverboy-this could be the night
04:12
i absolutely love this song!, cant get better than this one. i wished the radio station played tunes like this again. things i miss are stone washed 550 strait leg levis, velcro wallets, izod, dirt-shirts and most of all i miss my mullet!"

"rosanne cash-i dont know why you dont want me
03:21
good video, damn shes a cutie! great song, great on the eyes as well. love that spike hairdo. rare video here/ Be sure to check out my other videos.If you'd like a cd of my RARE VIDEOS for FREE you pay the shipping of the cd, let me know."

"quarterflash-take me to heart
03:32
its 4 in the morning and i am posting videos for all to see. i hope you enjoy this one, i noticed it wasnt on here, so here it is! enjoy. Be sure to check out my other videos. If you'd like a cd of my RARE VIDEOS for FREE you pay the shipping of the cd, let me know."

"lita ford-lisa
04:15
she was a babe in the day!"

"heart-stranded
04:00
This is off the brigade album. great video and song. Nancy's voice on this one equally matches Ann's. I think I actually like this song above all heart songs. NOTES: drummer looks like he's bored out of his mind. also nancy gives thumbs up at the end as if to say hey i dig that you bought this album, then she points as if to say hey security, theres the guy who is currently "stalking" me. cause i left him STRANDED! Be sure to check out my other videos. If you'd like a cd of my RARE VIDEOS for FREE you pay the shipping of the cd, let me know."

"air supply-making love out of nothing at all
05:03
soap opera acting at its best. i dig this song though. listening to air supply is like riding a moped, fun to ride just dont let your buddies catch you! girls melt when you play air supply, pour her some iced cold coke a cola with secret hint of crown royal. boom your the man! thank you air supply! blame your 1st kid on "slipping a mickie""

"julian lennon-valotte
04:16
great song and video, this is one of those songs that you can sit on park bench and watch birds poop on your lunch basket and not care. relax and enjoy this great video."

"richard marx-dont mean nothing
04:26
video is great, cynthia rhodes is one hot babe in this video, richard got the hit, got the girl, he got the money, dang! just goes to show you the mullet wasn't that bad! it worked for him, it still works for gloverboy, i say if you can grow it, go for it, you may reap the riches"

"huey lewis and the news-if this is it
04:28
recently saw huey and band, great show in memphis in may. gloverboy and i and our ladies got a little wet from rain, but IT WAS WORTH IT! i owe huey a christmas card, his show got me some from the ole'lady later that night. thanks huey! Be sure to check out my other videos. If you'd like a cd of my RARE VIDEOS for FREE you pay the shipping of the cd, let me know."

"cliff richard-we dont talk anymore
03:58
i remember hearing this song on the radio in 1981 and thought it was cool. its still cool! great all around. I used to have a shirt like that one he's wearing. I never danced like that though. but who cares, what i remember about those days is if you didnt have a jacket with the sleeves that zipped on and off you werent cool. i didnt become cool until last year when i "FINALLY" got that jacket. LOL. Be sure to check out my other videos. If you'd like a cd of my RARE VIDEOS for FREE you pay the shipping of the cd, let me know."

okay, I will stop now, I guess.

MORE PLZ - that dude's awesome. i'm gonna hafta try that 'air supply + iced cold coca-cola with a secret hint of crown royal' trick.

ok, james asked for it; here's a few more by jerryleekersey (but I'm gonna leave out all the "get my CD of RARE VIDEOS" stuff this time). (Seeing how this is the country thread, I should note that his favorite country band seems to possibly be Little Texas. I have no Little Texas opinions, but should maybe watch their videos sometime):

rick springfield-human touch
04:31
video reminds me of a prefab buck rogers except rick and some of nasa's best jumpsuit beauties break out into dance and then captain rick pushed the wrong buttons and they have to go back into shower glasses only to emerge when rick can write another hit song.

rick springfield-rock of life
03:49
video i think rick is saying in 1988 i hate my lfe as a married man, he is also saying i miss getting young chicks so i guess i wont cut my hair! great video! pyromaniac director though!

rick springfield-bop till you drop
04:54
bop till you drop video is about "the man" deciding if you can do a good job singing than you can stay and work, maybe cleaning java the hut urinal later. great classic! i first saw this video on night flight and friday night videos back in the 80's when all we had was 5 channels on tv. dang im old!

kiss- i was made for loving you
03:56
kiss doing disco song. whats the big deal, they didnt sell out then. its a great song, great drum beat. if anything they sold out when they put back on the makeup and had a farewell tour that lasted for 10 yrs, the only thing worst is an ex girlfriend saying im leaving, im leaving, then is still standing in your doorway 15 min later. I love kiss. they are a great band.

martika-toy soldiers
04:53
when i first heard the song, i didnt know it was a song about being hooked on drugs.

lou gramm-midnight blue
03:41
classic one here, man it was hard to find this one. the person i got this video from was from australia, he said "good tidings mate"!

anita baker-caught up in the rapture
01:54
cool video all around, video is kinda short, but great song, anita baker is great, i have always been a fan, nothing better after banging out to quiet riot then play anita for your headache, easy listening!

reo speedwagon-that aint love
04:37
great song here, did i mention that all my videos i am posting are rare, well this one is rare like finding your old pair of jimmy conners adidas's in the shed and washing them and wearing them again. gloverboy knows which shoes im talking about "the green mesh ones".

The Outfield-All the love in the world
03:40
Finding this video was like finding a $20 dollar bill in an old jacket, and not telling your wife about it! just take the money and buy yourself some taco bell, hell go on a splurge with the $20.00, buy the supreme.

Since he's down with the cool vudeeyo, Jerlee knows from Yacht Rock, surely? (Though according to the Yacht Rock thread, it's over, gentlemen! Can't be, now that Taylor Hicks is Takin It To The Streets.). Anybody got a Rhino publicist addy? if so, please email me. I'm writing this big thing about Willie, and trying to score his Complete Atlantic Sessions, at least CD-Rs (though not CD-RWs), a best-of-the-box sampler, even. So, if yall got those or that, let's powwow. And stay smooth, in this street life.

Tim, I found that Diana Trask LP of Joe Tex songs, "Miss Country Soul," for a dollar last year. It's pretty unlistenable except for a couple tracks, but it's fun to listen to if you're in the right mood. and the liner notes by Joe himself make it worth the money. (In my case, a buck--if you ever go into the Great Escape on Broadway in Nashville, make sure to bend down and scrounge thru the dollar LPs they have on the floor--you'll find some great stuff. Actually, I found John Anderson's awesome "Tokyo Okla." LP for a dollar, at Grimey's, our local indie shop.) I just saw an amazing clip of Joe doing "The Love You Save" from this Hullabaloo comp! Wow.

Don, I might have a Rhino person for you--I'm doing something on their new Wilson Pickett two-disc bestof, and I believe someone sent me a publicist e-mail. I'll jump off here and see if I can find it; and Chuck, I just got the Toby, so I'm gonna see if you off the beam or not (what I've heard so far is pretty darned good, I have to admit, so if it's as good as you say it'll be a pleasant surprise).

Haha I paid TWO BUCKS for my copy! Ever get the feeling you've been cheated etc etc.

jerryleekersey deserves his own ILM thread. And his own column somewhere.

Yikes! I haven't posted here in 18 days.

My Review for Left Hip, will be on site sometime in July

Garry Bennett
Human Condition
Longside Records

I am young man, and I have a different set of situations then Gary Bennett. Lets say that off the bat. For me there is no one to marry, few to love, and everything is in flux. This album is a lovely artifact, about marriage, love, stability, and desire. Even in the melancholy edges there is an agreement in the general direction of the world. My lizard brain wants to call it politically suspect family values bullshit, projecting outside anything that exists with in the album.

Ignoring that reactionary tendency, and listening closer: the album's strength is to escape the rhetoric of marriage, an incredibly difficult thing to do in a culture that loathes and worships it equally in either measure. When a coal company uses 16 Tons, and more people shack up then get hitched, any album that is mostly about working class love affairs, is going to get under your skin one way or the other.

Sometimes the skin-popping fear of pair bonding can be assuaged with cheap nostalgia (Toby Keith's song The List comes immediately to mind) or hard irony (the entire of Robbie Fulk's brilliant but problematic album Georgia Hard.) Bennett's work is incredibly banal, that banality works in its favor, it is not about the grind of every day domesticity, nor is it about making the women goddesses, the situations seem real to me.

Authenticity is a bear trap, especially fort this guy. His old band (BR5 49) was all about old country being more emotionally real then anything on the radio. What I assume to be emotionally real here may be a clever rhetorical exercise. There is something too formal about the album and that makes me a bit nervous. The words come to quickly, and there is no ambiguity or start-stop stuttering that one comes to expect from the dumb struck and in love. (Even the solos, that should be used to take over when words fail, show a technical proficiency that appears removed pure feeling; the exception is Pat Henderson's subtle, melancholic accent of mouth organ on the track Heading Home)

Caught in that trap, moving my leg and bleeding out, I listen to the album on repeat for a week, remaining confused. There are lines that are moving, sections that refuse to settle, spots so tender that to poke them causes internal pain. In Steel Ball, he extends clichéd metaphors about love into something more dangerous. This time love being a gamble, he makes himself violently shook up by it "like the steel ball in a roulette wheel/ tumbling tumbling rolling down hill/searching for the number that will give him the thrill." That thrill leaves him broken and broke. My Illusion is a grown up, whiskey soaked; break up song, about how faking it is impossible. The two songs that bookend the album, are about songs that outline the working mans condition here and now, including oblique threats towards physical violence against ones employer.

Its intended for the workingman, but the workingman is buying White Trash With Money or No Shoes, No Shirts No Service. Its an NPR yuppie album, a kind of high toned slumming but sometimes work that ends up like that packs a sucker punch. I wonder if I was 30 something, worked 40-hour weeks at a job I hated, and the only thing that ever made me survive was thinking "maybe things will be getting better some day" then it would be on my top ten list. I feel trapped by it, and not released from it. That's got to count for something.

xpost

From the teenpop thread (and I doubt that anyone else here cares nearly as much about this as I do, but "Lucky 4 You" on the first SHeDAISY album was brilliant not only in concept - the three Osborn sisters acting out a woman with multipersonalities who runs taunting and salacious rings around the man who dumped her - but in sound too, new suburban country doing fool-around multiparts as if it were doo-wop; and Hilary Duff's "Come Clean," which Shanks wrote with Kara DioGuardi, is one of those songs like "I Can See Clearly Now" that the second you hear it you think has always existed, the melody seems so right; and the Ashlee Simpson albums that Shanks produced and co-wrote and played on, while fundamentally being mainstream rock, are full of nonstop inventiveness, melodies from lounge to glam, subtle shifts in guitar timbre, etc.):

I'm doing about as poorly with this year's SHeDAISY album as xhuxk is with the Jonas Bros. Where are the hooks, where's the passion, where's the ambition, where's the wordplay? It's got powerful enough playing, the guitars ringing out, strong pop-country voices, but what's there to care about? How did this woman (Kristyn Osborn) ever create "Lucky 4 You"? How did this guy (John Shanks) ever create "Come Clean" and "Undiscovered"? You can't tell from this record.

-- Frank Kogan (edcasua...), June 24th, 2006. (Frank Kogan)

I could definitely use a second opinion on SHeDAISY's Fortuneteller's Melody. I've found a few things to interest me, such as a savvy turnaround in the meaning of the title phrase of "She Gets What I Deserve": "she" is her boyfriend's husband, first time you hear the phrase it means "she gets the man and the family I deserve," the last time it means "she gets the pain and suffering I deserve." (But that's a conventional enough country attitude; no surprise, really.) And "Kickin' In" does kick bright and hard whenever I hear it. But by the end of the track I'm still "so what" with it, as I am with the whole album.

The thing is, with any new Shanks product I have insanely high expectations, but unless he's working with one of the teenies, I also get secret satisfaction from believing its mediocre, since I can then say, "See, without Ashlee and Lindsay and Hilary he can't do it. Their talents are crucial to the enterprise."

By the way, Sheryl Crow is a co-writer on a couple of the SHeDAISY tracks, again with a so-what result.

-- Frank Kogan (edcasua...), June 27th, 2006. (Frank Kogan)

"she is her boyfriend's husband" - er, now that would be interesting; but "she" is merely her boyfriend's wife.

David Cantwell on the new version of "I Hope" on the new Chicks' album: "This is like trading in the Roman Candle you bought to celebrate our nation’s independence with a pack of those goofy charcoal snake pellets."

He goes over the top on the single, but right about the rest of the album, I think: http://www.livinginstereo.com/

That's excellent, Anthony. What's "Left Hip"?

from teenpop thread (though i just noticed that her myspace inflences list is much less country than her cdbaby influences):

vaguely country-leaning (i.e., her cdbaby page lists miranda lambert as one reference point, though hardly the only one) teenpop singer-songwriter music from an asian-american girl (album title: *american girl*) who apparently grew up in oklahoma and the phillipines and is now based in l.a. (i thought hawaii figured in there somewhere too, though i'm not sure how i got the idea -- oh wait, i guess it's the hawaii t-shirt she wears in the CD booklet); frankly, most of the CD isn't hitting me (her voice is smaller than i wish, for one thing), though i'd be curious to hear what the more shemo-tolerant (/vanessa carlton tolerant/michelle branch tolerant) of y'all think. closest thing to a great song seems to be "i'm in the way," about being drawn to bad boys (and it's got a really familiar pop melody i can't place); "2nd street" has the most r&b in it; "405" seems okay too:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/mylin

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=70795638
---------------------------------------------------------------------Actually, her cdbaby page says "Sheryl Crow and The Wreckers meets Miranda Lambert and Keith Urban," which makes her at least 75 percent pop-country supposedly, but she only sounds maybe 20 percent pop-country if that. I don't think I hear much Miranda, Sheryl, or Keith in her sound. She sounds how I would IMAGINE the Wreckers (who I haven't heard) might, though. Her look is maybe a much softer Pink.

Diana Trask looks lovely on the cover of her Tex-t.

Hacienda Bros. new one, just thought I'd mention it. Country-soul, pretty pro forma, but quite pretty in spots. They do not do badly with "Cowboy to Girls" (Anthony, just think of the gender-fuck time-travel possibilities of this one if someone came along and gayed it up...it'd be the real companion to Keith Anderson's tale of jailed pedlophilia "Clothes Don't Make the Man.")

And they put an accordion in producer Dan Penn's "Cry Like a Baby," which they sound too old to sing. Gaffney and Gonzalez aren't the world's best singers. This would've made a nifty EP--it sounds really good, really warm, and I do quite like about three/four songs, including their nice take on Charlie Rich's "Rebound" and one they wrote themselves that's the title track, and I like their approach to tempo. They're good, but they never quite transcend the notion of soul-with-pedal steel, and they could sound a little more greasy and stoned, I guess, and get into real Sir Dougas territory.

New Guy Clark, "Workbench Songs," isn't bad, either--he writes a real sly one called "Cinco de Mayo in Memphis" and plays the blues on "Walkin' Man." What's interesting about Clark is that he doesn't seem to draw conclusions, and sometimes I think his narratives are uninflected. Hard to pin down what it "means." I actually think his singing has improved since the days of "Texas Cooking" (which is a really fine record). I guess I just wish his music were less received, more interesting, but he's just not interested in that.

xhuxk - and any others interested - I finally got to the new Trent Willmon, and it's great, definitely my country album of the year so far. It's cut from the same cloth as his debut, only much better. The songs are stronger - that's the main thing. Single "On Again Tonight" is kinda limp on CMT, but in the context of the album sounds great. Album kinda alternates a little annoyingly between rowdy-ish lovin'/drinkin' songs and ballads, and admittedly it trails off a bit at the end. But then there's the surprise smack dab in the middle, track 6 (of 11), titled (whaddaya know) "Surprise." I first heard it on my discman on the train home from work, and actually sat there with my eyes bugged out to the point where at least one person was staring at me. Trent's subject arrives home to find his wife playing the dominatrix to his best friend - I'm not kidding, he even references leather and spikes! - and then he takes up with his buddy's (now ex-)wife. It's the kinda song that Toby wouldn't do because, I think, it goes too far even for him. (Maybe, considering "Stays in Mexico," I'm wrong.) This is the country single (if it was a single, which I doubt it'll ever be) of the year. xhuxk, you really owe it to yourself to at least hear this one song, though I recommend the whole album heartily. (Great production from Frank Rogers, too.)

I think you're right about Clark's voice, Edd, and I love "Cinco de Mayo in Memphis," which could be an album cut for Chesney or whoever. Didn't he write that one with Chuck Mead? (I think the BR549 album will make my top ten country albums of the year. So light and quick and the songs are really good.) But man is that "Analog Girl" or whatever it's called song a stinker.

xxpost thanx for the Rhino contact, Edd, and I just emailed you about that (everybody, be sure to read the faq at rhino.com/media before trying to get anything from theeyumm) Great, Anthony, and that's a classic description of a kind of honorably confused or at least conflicted 90s/00s country album, usually under the wire, as far as good descriptions go (also sucesswise, except for small followers, many of them bargain hunters, God love us).

and I just finished, anyway delivered the Jerry Jeff piece. His collection of songs from his Tried & True label, 90s/00s is a model of how to put something like that together, to carry the lesser songs via sequencing and context, and they've all flowing (smoke-cured) shades 'o blue.(Although I've never listened to him, or to this kind of album, much before, and maybe I'll get sick of it.) Just wish he still picked some nervier covers, like that Susannah Clark upthread.