Rolling country 2007 thread

But there are a couple good songs on the album; I just wish he'd get over flaunting/exploiting his ignorance.

Listening to the new Toby Keith (barely a week after I finally got his previous one), and holy shit it is sounding great. He split with DreamWorks, got Lari White (who put out her completely slept-on more-soul-than-country-and-it -said-so *Green Eyed Soul* on an indie label last year) (how many female producers are there in Nasvhille or anywhere else for that matter, especially producing macho men like Toby??), and she's filled it up with Dixieland horns and put *Dusty in Memphis*-style orchestrations here and there and she's emphasizing the laid-back *ease* Toby's always been capable of in his singing, and what you get is his most soul-music album ever, as far as far as I can tell. That laid-backedness might mean that some of the songs will detonate less on immediate impact the way his hits always have in the past, but they *sound* so good that they'll have no problem seeping in before long -- Toby's just a way more assured singer than Lari (or probably any other would-be Dusty this decade I could name), so this won't wind up just perty background music. "Note to Self" on now; sounds great. "Get Drunk and Be Somebody" is *less* laid-back, but almost in an old minstrel jazz kind of way; I can't place who it's reminding me of but I will -- one thing I *will* say though is that the way he says "BE somebody" makes me think he''s listened to Ol' Dirty Bastard at least once or twice. Damn, I'm going to be playing this a lot this summer. Could wind up being his best album, period, but I don't want to go out on limb. Right now, I'd say his best since *Unleashed* at least. (Though okay, I just noticed "Ain't No Right Way," partially written by Dean Dillon, which says ethics are black and white and seems to be anti-choice and anti-"people saying our kids aren't allowed to pray in school", what horseshit. So maybe I won''t wind up liking that one. Or maybe I will. With Toby you never know.) (And okay, "Brand New Bow" now, this is country jazz like Merle... what is that, a kazoo? Hoosier Hotshot revival in full force!) (Last song, about sex with an overweight girl, might also be iffy, but again, iffy in a country-jazzy way. Not sure if it's good-hearted yet.) (Last three songs are more of his "bus songs," I just noticed.)
-- xhuxk (xedd...) (webmail), April 4th, 2006 1:15 PM. (link)

Or uh (listening to Toby again), maybe the reason Kelefa didn't talk about the music being such a departure is because the music is NOT as much of a departure as I suggest above? I dunno. Now all the parts that *aren't* more soul or jazz than Toby's been before are jumping out at me (and, to be honest, it's not like even the jazziness, where it exists, is entirely new; he did that on *Shock n Y'all* some too, as I recall.) Still loving a lot of it, though "Ain't No Right Way" is offending me as much for the soggy-dish-rag-ness of its sound as the soggy-dish-rag-ness of its politics now. "Runnin' Block," the song about the chubby girl, is actually about playing the wing man for a buddy, still not sure what I think of it overall beyond its moral assholitude, but I actually really like the sound of its chorus, which reminds of something from the '70s and which always confuses me into thinking it's about football (which maybe it is, sort of). Something in its jazzy storytelling also somehow brings to mind Tom T Hall, and I think there are other moments on here when I think of Hall too. (He could be as jazzy as Merle, actually--and in a Dixieland minstrel way. Also as good natured as any songwriter ever; no wonder Jimmy Carter was his pal. Though his sense of ethics clearly put Toby's to shame.)
-- xhuxk (xedd...) (webmail), April 6th, 2006 3:37 PM. (link)

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.
-- xhuxk (fakemai...) (webmail), June 28th, 2006 5:46 PM

i dont see anything wrong with working the star mechancism, and what elvis, jerry lee, etc did is viewed as a good or value neutral thing, when johnny cash did it, hes what selling out, hes smarter then to beleive that shit...

--and the last american recordings album and black cadilliac were pandering to the extreme...but im okay being pandered to, im okay being sold to, as long as it is done well.

and i think roseanne had a difficult job, someone was expecting an album as eulogy, it was de rigeour, and her daddy did the classic one for her mommy, she used her gifts and gave as much as she could, and well why shouldnt we reward that?

(biggest suprise: josh turner)

Because it was a lousy record, maybe? Because good intentions aren't enough? And because some of us don't really care at all about her personal life, and we're tired of people assuming we should? (Also, we wish she still had her new wave haircut and did powerpop songs.)

The line in "Picture To Burn" Anthony's referring to, which I hadn't noticed because I rarely read lyric sheets unless somebody is holding a pistol to my head (since it's cheating, see) (or I'm just lazy, same difference) and I was busu getting off on the great fast rhythmic rush of words in that first verse instead, is: "State the obvious, I didn't get my perfect fantasy/I realize you love yourself more than you could ever love me/So go and tell your friends that I'm obsessive and crazy/That's fine, I'll tell mine you're gay." Which is...interesting. And may well be libel (well, if he wasn't gay, that is) (sung it'd be slander, but we're talking about a lyric sheet here remember.) Yet I'm not entirely convinced it challenges his masculinity. Off the bat, it reminds me of Tony Basil's "Mickey" or Josie Cotton's "Johnny Are You Queer." I'll have to ponder it some more before I decide if I'm offended.

i pay too much attention to the lyrics, but since its about humilating an ex lover, how could one assume calling him gay was anything but impuging his masculinity

it sounds to me like a dead ringer for bruce springsteen circa "nebraska" ("open all night," say) and "born in the usa," or maybe huey lewis circa the same time.

i agree with the complaints about jmc's hair upthread -- he should get a haircut or join gov't mule -- but what fascinates me most about his looks is how that very adult baritone comes out of that baby face that looks like it couldn't grow a beard if it tried.

i'd say that that idea explains each of the top nine albums of the poll, dixie chicks through dylan. call it press-release country. this works in pretty much all genres. press-release rock and press-release hip-hop do quite well in critics' polls, too. some of 'em happen to be really good; i like the dixie chicks and alan jackson albums a lot. but to try to ascribe this to a new trend toward artists "who demonstrated an ability to connect with a broad country audience but who are also determined to challenge that audience rather than pander to it" is rather silly.

i'm also interested to know what exactly about the dixie chicks album (which, again, i liked a lot) is alleged to have "challenged" the country audience. onstage comments about george bush don't count, because last i checked, they weren't to be found anywhere on the album itself.

Er, so is pining for Johnny Cash. Even more so. But I'd rather nostalgically pine for something entertaining that added life to Rosanne's music than something "significant" that drained life from it.

We went over this aplenty last year, but "Not Ready to Make Nice" obviously challenges those in their audience (and there were a lot) who sent hate mail, boycotted their shows and smashed their CDs.

Pining for someone you love who died is not nostalgic. Jesus.

People were pining for Cash long before he died, and long after he'd stopped having hits. If that wasn't nostalgia, it was certainly a really good imitation. (I'm not talking about his daughter, who hasn't made a good album for two decades; I'm talking about critics. Hey, I miss my dad dead, too. I'm not saying that's not allowed.) And it's not like the sanctimoniousness of it all hasn't skyrocketed since Johnny Cash did die, either. With critics, it's usually just a way to avoid current music because, you know, popular country was so much better back when legends walked the earth. And it gets more irritating ever year it goes on with another comeback album that we're supposed to be reverent to no matter how stodgy and leaden it sounds. Usually it doesn't bug me much, to be honest. Usually I just ignore it, no matter how necrophilic it gets. But when people start complaining about how this stuff is better than what comes out of Nashville nowadays because what comes out of Nashville does nothing but pander to what people want to hear, the hypocrisy creeps me out. (If you pander to actual fans who tune into country radio, that's reprehensible. But pandering to folks who are above it all is okay.)

it obviously says "fuck you" to a certain segment of the audience, but that's not quite the same thing. it says fuck you to them in the context of a mainstream pop/rock song (and the country charts are full of mainstream pop/rock songs) that very much adheres to a core country value of staying true to yourself no matter what people say. it engages the country audience in an ongoing conversation. i imagine there's a challenge implied in simply not saying "we're sorry." but being country means never having to say you're sorry, doesn't it? (unless you're toby keith, who seemingly spends half his 2006 album apologizing for missed birthdays/anniversaries/etc., but that's a whole 'nother ball of wax.) (p.s. i was not around when this was being gone over aplenty last year, so if this is an argument that doesn't need to be had again, i'm happy not to have it!)

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Roy is obviously right about Rosanne Cash voters voting for current music ("current music" being a rather broad category, for one thing, but yeah, I'm probably full of it to suggest none of them also voted for "Before He Cheats" or whatever; point well taken). I'm talking more the entire gist of the Johnny Cash Death Cult -- I mean, compare where his post-humous albums have finished in Pazz & Jop to, I dunno, Tim McGraw's or Faith Hill's or Kenny Chesney's or Joe Dee Messina's. But yeah, I probably did open a can of red herring there I should have avoided. And I wasn't too clear, either.

my guess is these posthumous Cash albums rarely get played. for that matter all his Rick Rubin produced albums are little too "death cult" for my tastes. I didn't even listen to Rosanne's latest cause I knew it would just remind me of my late parents and bum me out.

I've been digging some of the Jason Michael Carroll this evening, about which edd s. hurt wrote upthread "some of this is big & rich, too, he almost raps, it's a typically wordy nashville country album. not bad!"

I totally agree! His cadence on "Waitin' in the Country" rhymes across the barlines like Andre 3000, and apparently he doesn't mind "parkin' lot jumpin' cars thumpin' hard mixin' those rhymes," though he'd rather listen to country. "I Can Sleep When I'm Dead", "Anywhere USA," and "Honky Tonk Friends" are also pretty rockin'. "Lookin' At You" is pure craft and likable for it. The Jewel song sux. As do the ballads, though I seem to remember a nice one where he went into falsetto.

You totally don't expect that voice to go with his photo. I thought he'd be a Hanson brother.

Also, I have moral dilemmas about "Alyssa Lies," because it employs a cutesie country pun to describe a schoolgirl getting beaten to death. I'm trying to think of an analogy with a hypothetical 9/11 movie, but I can't come up with one.

Old 8x10 seems to be the one people swear by, that and maybe Storms of Life. I don't own any albums by the poor guy, have always been extremely skeptical (and voiced such on threads like this), but if I saw copies of those for a couple bucks I'd try them.

Is the new Dale Watson CD as dreary and dull as the couple cuts that have come up in my CD changer so far suggest? God, I hope not. Last album and other old songs I've heard have been rocking and funny....

Press release quotes for Gina Villalobos's CD liken her to Kathleen Edwards and Lucinda Williams, so I do not have high hopes. Then there's the John Morthland plug that compares her to "Honky Tonk Woman"-era Stones, which I predict is baloney on the level of when critics liken Shelby Lynne to music of that ilk, but we shall see.

I like Jason Michael Carrol, and I said so up above, but I still hear more Eddie Rabbit than Big N Rich in his rocking and rhyming.

just kidding. nah, whiskey or god was last year's, and i loved it (see my nashscene top 10 up above.) this year's is called from the cradle to the grave, and it seems less fun. though there does seem to be at least one good truckers song so far. which no doubt has the usual political problems. not that i'll mind.

Though the problem with Gina, just like with Shelby and Lucinda and Kathleen before her, is that her voice tends to fade into the throb, inasmuch as it exists, way more than Dale's does. She's just not in the forefront enough to really put the songs over. So I predict I may end up thinking his album is better in the long run. (Track #4 on his, the partially talked one about the hillbilly in Hollywood, actually has some humor and energy to it, though it still doesn't seem to be near the level of the best tracks on his previous album.)

I think the KE and LW comparisons are misplaced. The sound has crossover potential though she's too old and outside the machine for it too happen. As an homage to CE, here's what I wrote on RC06:

Has Gina Villalobos been mentioned yet? I just heard her new record "Miles Away," and a lot of it kicks, not unlike Miranda or Gretchen, but with a scratchy still wide-open voice. "Somebody Save Me" would sound great on country radio.

The Sara Evans show itself was very good, but a bit short. She's a great performer though, she was working the crowd very nicely. I was worried she'd be touring her latest, not-as-good album, but it was pretty much just a compendium of all of her hit singles. Which means no "Bible Song" :(. Huge crowd reactions: "Born To Fly" (whatever, not her best), "Real Fine Place to Start" (she brought Radney out to sing this with her), "Cheatin'" (Heh, for obvious reasons), and "Suds in the Bucket" (of course). The girl next to me started crying during "There's No Place That Far". Playing her newest singles in the context of her older ones kind of highlighted how much stronger albums Restless and Born to Fly were. From her first two albums she played only "There's No Place That Far"; the show focused heavily on her last 3 albums.

The show highlighted how great a singles artist Sara Evans has been (in my opinion at least), even if her albums aren't consistently great. Anyways, worth the money despite the brevity.

That is as willful, and skillful, a misreading of Johnny Cash as I've ever heard.