Rolling Country 2006 Thread

(1) It's one of maybe about 12 "best" songs on that album, which doesn't have a bad one and would have made my Pazz & Jop ballot if I'd listened to it a couple of days earlier (it's the Burmese album I shoehorned onto my Nashville Scene reissues list).

(2) I just listened to 30-second streamed clips of Brownsville Stations', Hanoi Rocks', and Commander Cody's versions of "Lightnin' Bar Blues," and damned if I don't think you're right, Chuck (though "Lightnin' Bar Blues" may possibly be a knockoff of some earlier rockabilly track). The way Saing Saing Maw sings it reminds me of Ricky Nelson: Relaxed. As Dylan says, not rootin' the mountain down.

(3) Chuck, did the Robyn CD arrive?

Oops, the waltz is "Heart Over Head Over Heels." "That's the Way" is more like a zigzag (at leat that's what Samantha says: "gotta zig gotta zag gotta travel my jagged road." To Mexico with Romeo, maybe. But she also says she changes direction like a pendulum, and this song doesn't, and nor does it swing like England and a pendulum do.)

I did get Robyn, Frank, thanks! I like it, especially "Konichiwa Bitches," though I doubt I like that anywhere near as much as "Jam On It" or "Attack of the Name Game." Enjoy the rest; not sure yet how much. (CD-Rs are always hard for to motivate myself to listen to!)

Shawn Camp *Fireball* on now; he wrote "Two Pina Coladas" for Garth and "How Long Gone" (which I don't remember off the top of my head) for Brooks and Dunn. He sounds like Ricky Skaggs with (sometimes, when he's good) John Anderson's or Blake Shelton's self-effacingly cornball sense of humor (though Skaggs himself could be self-effacingly humorous too, come to think of it). He's got as much bluegrass in him as Dierks Bentley, I guess; i.e., not enough to make him seem like a priss, but enough to make things interesting. Not a purist, in other words, and plenty of fast catchy songs. Leaning toward liking "Fireball" (about a gal), "The Way It Is" (is the way it was is the way it's gonna be, or something like that) "Hotwired" (multifaceted title metaphor), "Beagle Hound" (about his dawg), and "Drank" (about drinking) most, at least so far. Seems like he's not so good with the dark deathbound stuff, but I could be wrong.

Second song ("You Can Have Me") they're doing pretty much the same, the melody is almost as good, though the arrangement is more ordinary and less garage; and oddly enough I hate this track - falls into the category of "some guy trying to sing soul." I hear all the weaknesses that didn't bother me on track one, the singer not quite hitting the notes (the rough-hewn delivery masking the misses), out-of-tune backup singing. New Jersey white soul? They're a Chicago band, but they feel like Jersey.

I may report further when I listen more. Probably my liking for track one will diminish somewhat, and my tolerance for track two will increase.

(You know, Jagger and Sinatra were never quite hitting the notes, either, but despite this they hit thought and emotion on the noggin - when they were at their best, anyway. I wonder why something works in one situation and not another.)

I wonder if fewer people voted for singles than albums in the Scene poll. This could explain why singles I like did better than albums I like; people with my taste have more of an impact.

(But I also usually prefer the singles to the albums that place in Pazz & Jop, and though there are fewer singles voters there, this is not enough to give people like me a special impact. Rather, people's taste gets better when they go for singles, and maybe the best singles artists clutter up their albums with ballads and stuff that drive away the album voters.)

Also, they seem to have truncated the section overall this year, used fewer comments, though I haven't compared the column inches.

Maybe the alt-country types are less likely to vote for singles? That would be my guess. (Also, wasn't there one guy who said he voted for alt-country albums, but let his 19 year old daughter pick her favorite pop country singles? Or did I just dream that one up?)

(But I don't see that preferences based on power-rotation airplay disallow critical latitude as to what counts as country.)

got several things to assess here, I've been playing catchup for the past week, just can't shake this flu. including the new Hank III, which came today, and the new Rhett Akins. but tonight, excited to be seeing Bettye LaVette!!

Hmmm...heard their new album a month or two ago and didn't think it was that good. Are these the same guys who put out an all bluegrass album of AC/DC covers a few years ago? Or was that somebody else? Either way, seems like a way too obvious shtick that wasn't funny in the first place, being the same kind of joke indie bands have worn into the ground since the Replacements two decades ago, plus like all joke-metal it's completely redundant, somehow missing the fact that you don't need to *make* hard rock funny, because it was funny on purpose in the first place. Anyway, grumpiness over with, I actually thought the two least annoying songs on the new Hayseed Dixie album were their version of Green Day's "Holiday" and an original called "Kirby Hill," mainly because their energy was better when I can't remember a version of the song that's way more energetic, and it's been a long time since I played that Green Day album. "Black Dog," "War Pigs," "Ace of Spades," and a couple other originals ("Mountain Man," "Marijuana") seemed tolerable (once), but the shtick wore out its welcome way too quick. On the other hand, I *can* kind of see how they'd be fun to be in a room with while drinking beer, especially if they cracked wise about *Deliverance* between songs.

Well, yes and no. Looking at the poll again, I see that seven of my albums made the list (which is way more than ever make the P&J list) while only four of the singles. But my four singles were all bunched at the top, in the top six, whereas my albums spread throughout the top 25. But given that I have heard most of the placing singles I didn't vote for, whereas I haven't heard most of the albums, I'm really not in the position to judge whether the singles list was better than the albums. I just normally assume that singles lists are better than album lists.

Got the in-print copy of the Scene; this year it came without a T-shirt, and none of our comments were in the print version. That and no numbers listed with the votes makes this the ever-shrinking critics poll. (And I'm damned if I can figure out why the Scene thinks a boot on the cover would be more enticing than Lee Ann's warm, engaging mug and upper torso.)

Also listening to a pile of Southern soul discovered via CD-baby channels. The album by a jowly guy named Jimmy Taylor leans toward the blues end of things (with lady backup vocals not far from the ones on last year's Bobby Bare album); the EP by the lady named Candis Palmer ("All Men Ain't Dawgs,* since some are electric boogie dawgs apparently) leans toward the disco end; the single by Harold, "Chill Step Party," is steppin' music. He mentions Milwaukee, Chitown, Harlem, and Atlanta in it. More fun than R. Kelly, as far as I'm concerned, but mainly all this stuff obviously has a connection to county music too.

candis palmer, as i said, gets even more disco, but her disco is maybe 1975 where taylor's is 1973. (i think i wrote on the '05 thread that shannon brown's disco sounded 1979, but maybe that was hyperbole; i'm not sure. these two soul singers FEEL more disco.) but even at her most disco, in a song called "don't let someone else come and jingle my bell" or something, palmer gets backed by HARD blues guitar riffs, so the music really rocks. if i had to compare her vocal style to anybody, it'd be the staple singers in "i'll take you there."

the esquire story i was talking about, about tim mcgraw, was mostly good ol boy wanking, but it said a couple of things, he said that he can sing the hell out of any shit, and the only way tht he can ever hit it out of the ball park is to chose decent writers, which is really obvious, but remains unstated, and this was said by an anon nashville exec. the other thing is that he not only outed himself as a centerleft democrat, and he wants to run for senator of tennessee--what do we think about tht, what are his chances?

has anyone heard the new roseanne cash, as well, can we talk about that

And in what may be a stunning upset at the Poptimists World Cup, Trinidad & Tobago are (is?) currently leading their group; if they hold on, this will mean that at least one of highly regarded Sweden and highly regarded England will not pass forward to round two. Paraguay, managed by our own Anthony Easton, may be overmatched, but gutty performances by a duo who seem to be Spanish-language equivalents of Glen Campbell and Bobby Goldsboro are keeping them still in contention.

And, right on cue, the day after I described the Paraguayans as like Campbell and Goldsboro, the Time-Life classic country Sweet Country Ballads CD arrived through the mail, featuring our heroes Glen ("By the Time I Get to Phoenix") and Bobby ("Honey"). This is appropriate in so many ways, especially given that my Pazz & Jop commentary was all about Pazz & Jop's - and my - inability to come to terms with ballads. The antho has also done me a service by reminding me that the first Top 40 I song I ever loved was Skeeter Davis's "The End of the World," and that one of the first 100 Top 40 songs I ever liked was George Hamilton IV's "Abilene." And that even after having listened to "Detroit City" 20 times in the last several months, I still love "Detroit City" the 21st time.

Also has Ray Price's "For the Good Times." What intrigues me is that this full-scale stringed-up and orchestrated sorrowful ballad doesn't remind me nearly as much of Johnny Ray as do the two old honky-tonk tracks of his I'd mentioned upthread. In the honky-tonkers he seems ready to ramp up into Johnny Ray–type blazing teardrops, whereas "For the Good Times" sounds more conversational and intimate, like Sinatra.

(Can teardrops blaze? I think Johnny Ray proves that indeed they can.)

What I know of Tennessee politics amounts to about zero, so I can't predict. What's McGraw's political organizing and experience been so far?

I think everyone who participated in the Country Critics poll is due a paper copy of the Scene, assuming they have your mailing addy.

Pazz & Jop gets posted online around midday (Rocky Mountain Time) this coming Tuesday, January 31.

I suspect most of the fireworks that my Angolan team will ignite in the Pop World Cup are in my banter with the hapless lunatic attempting to forge a talentless Iran squad into something that can avoid base humiliation (I refer to one Mark S). We go head to head week after next (ha, and I might easily think that something to do with football would be among the few areas where I wouldn't be laughably outmatched! Shame this actually has almost bugger all to do with football...).

For The Good Times has to stay conversational because it is so hard to wring a tune out of it. Even Al Green struggled.

I like the Rosanne Cash album. It's therapy, sure, but the songs feel necessary and the memories deeply recollected ala Wordsworth. I'll write about it more after I finish a review of the Amelia White album, Black Doves, which I also like, but not as much (the title track, though, is good anti-war imagism; someone tip off Christgau).

Roy, as our resident Ray Price expert, what would you say about "For the Good Times" in relation to whatever else he was doing around then?

i know this isn't the right thread to defend the replacements on, but i'm not sure what this means unless it's a reference to their kiss cover -- and i'm pretty sure they did the kiss cover because they were (like a huge percentage of the white male population of their age) big kiss fans. and i think their version rockx. you're most likely right about hayseed dixie, tho. i've never listened to them because i've been put off by their shtick. (but if alison krauss ever makes the '70s hard rock album she's threatened, i might bite.)

meanwhile, in case anyone's wondering, neko case's new album is a.) pretty good and b.) even less a country record than anything else she's done. and i think i like her better without the twang affectations. she's a torch singer, and she can do country torch as well as any other kind (and gospel too, there's a great gospel tune on there), but her natural affinity is for a kind of noirish pop that falls somewhere between owen bradley and david lynch. (and the album still has some duds, but i think maybe less than the last few.)

Brownsville and Cub Koda whether they know it or not. But only Teenage Head comes close to being as crunching while any style from the first five or so BS albums is in the same area. Standard but always astute observation in "Stone Cold Sober" that the object of assessment was more lively, intellectual and fun when a drunk, as opposed to a teetotaler. A band that could do justice to "The Martian Boogie."

"1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9" is also a fair Van Halen/DLR rip, only superior.