Rolling Country 2009 Thread

But her backstory doesn't make her sound "authentic" at all: learned about folk music at summer camp in the Catskills while on vacation from the High School Of Music And Art in '48, became the promoter of folk music at "liberal Antioch College" in '52, dated a "black, Jewish and Communist folk singer," wrote "Too Long Blues" after an early boyfriend snubbed her for another gal at a Weavers gig in '53. I swear, the whole plot reads like a parody to me.

Well, the plot is dead-on accurate for the milieu that propelled the "folk" craze in the '50s and early '60s, so in that sense it's very authentic, the very kids who glommed onto the music of a couple of decades back from Appalachia and the Southeast.

I'd say, though, that the music they fixed on doesn't altogether match up with the country music of the '20s and '30s, or the blues; I don't know enough music theory to identify the difference, exactly, but the "folk" music tended more towards the minor key (or suppressing the "mi" note of the chord altogether) and the black-derived music tended more to sound like what I'd vaguely call "spirituals." Someone like Edd could probably be more accurate and articulate as to what I'm trying to say, that is if he's clairvoyant enough to know what I'm trying to put into words.

I know Love did "Hey Joe" at around the exact same time the Byrds did it. A lot of early Love is "Hey Joe" anyway. I think what Frank's getting at is the whole sadness trip of the blues as "folk expression" of good liberal blacks for good liberal blacks, and occasionally a criminal like Leadbelly sneaked in there. They had a hard time telling apart commercial and "folk-expression" African-American music--nothing was more money-oriented than gospel music, because look at the great tightwad soul men if you don't believe me. James Brown, the Womack Brothers, Sam Cooke, Aretha herself. The big-time world of gospel music.
I haven't heard Neila yet. I understand it's from an acetate that was warped and the sound quality isn't great. I'd have to hear the "Hey Joe" template to make a judgment on that, but it sounds just like the "Louie Louie" template. "Hey Joe"'s definitive version is Hendrix', because he had the best rearranged folk thing happening.

So I have an important question. Is there actually any "rockabilly" on that Plant/Krauss album that won all those Grammys last night (the parts of which I've heard were reverent to the point of drabness, with not even enough oomph to be called bluegrass), or was the NY Times headline writer this morning lying? (Hell, "Hot Dog" by Zeppelin sounds more rockabilly than anything I've heard off that album. Not to mention that Honeydrippers EP, maybe. How come the Grammy jokers never gave that one an award? Wasn't it like the biggest selling EP ever?)

Pretty good country performances on the show: Carrie Underwood and (separately) Kid Rock (the beginning of whose medley I missed -- need to check it out on youtube) were so country that they were hard rock. And I swear Miley outsang (outdrawled, whatever) Taylor on their nice "Fifteen" duet. (Loved Lil Wayne w/ the Dirty Dozen Brass Band + Alan Toussaint and M.I.A. with lots of less pregnant rappers, too. And thought Katy Perry's fruit suit and Thom Yorke dancing wackily to the U.S.C. "Tusk" band were a whole lot more entertaining than Kenny Chesney's and Sugarland's boring ballads, the latter of which actually improved but not by that much when Lisa Stansfield I mean Adele came out to help. Did think Jennifer Nettles' award acceptance speech was adorable, however. And while like everybody else I feel sorry for Jennifer Hudson's family tragedy -- and my wife liked her outfit -- I'll be damned if I can understand how anybody can not find her singing a perfect time to take a bathroom break. Thought that during the Super Bowl too, for what it's worth.)

the tapes Frank mentions above also schooled me on the Limeliters, and Kingston Trio's "C.T.A," in which the narrator seems to be singing this little song to himself he sings every morning while commuting, kidding the folk-saga-for/of-white-dayjob-folkies or fans of folkies, deflating himself just a little for perspective's sake (can't go postal when he gets to the jobsite, miles to go and promises to keep), but also sounds kinda proud of himself--it's his own saga after all! And his workadaddy comrades' too.

And if it's more folkies ye be wantin', here they (don't)blow (judging by the music I was sent, but they do have a shipload):
Great Big Sea hail from Newfoundland, with full-sail harmonies that don't obscure the gnarlier details of their traditional and original ballads. On GBS's latest album, "Fortune's Favor," Alan Doyle and co-writer Russell Crowe raise their tankards to the iconoclastic comedy icon Bill Hicks, celebrating "A Company of Fools." In "Hard Case," a siren gets a booty call: "Hold me down/Under the sea/Drag me back to where we used to be." Folkwise, especially live, they can lead us through the hungry shadows, reeling around those old choruses.

More country-folk vinyl fetishism, from the buy-that-for-a-dollar thread. The band in question covers George and Tammy's "The Grand Tour" as well as "Jolene," but on first lesson, I'm liking their restrained and way too quiet attempt at an old-timey backporch drone even less than the Neila Miller EP. I want to like them, though (at least enough to justify keeping this nifty disc), so somebody please explain them to me. (They had something of a rock critic following at one point, as I recall; think they even finished Top 40 Pazz & Jop once):

$2, thrift store, 46th and Queens Blvd, Sunnyside, today:

The Geraldine Fibbers Get Thee Gone (Sympathy For The Record Industry 10-inch EP, c. '90s I guess)

An extravagance, since I am a total fetishizing sucker when it comes to 10-inch EPs (even though it is impossible to find inner sleeves). Plus I've never liked anything by these '90s indie art roots nerds before (not that I've listened much), and why would this be any different? But I used to be (very) mildly curious about the Fibbers, and I figure, if I'm ever going to like anything by them, this'd be about the correct amount of songs. Plus they cover Dolly's "Jolene" on it; how bad could that be? (Pretty bad, but I'll probably keep it anyway.)

― xhuxk, Monday, 9 February 2009 19:19

This record sounds like a frog being choked while someone laboriously puts a guitar out of tune, but I love it; only thing I ever liked by them. Bought it when it came out & would buy a nearly infinite number for $2 each, or half of infinity for $4/ea. It was around the time of Uncle Tupelo's breakup and we were all looking for a new hip alternative country act. Didn't find it; found a choking frog. Still!

― staggerlee, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 01:54

I just have to put in a good word here for the Fibbers' two proper albums, the 1st of which is a favorite of mine.

― sleeve, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 02:14

Posters on that thread also offered helpful advice about inner and outer sleeves for 10-inches, but I'll leave that stuff there.

so I kinda dig old Marianne Faithfull covering Dolly's great "Down from Dover," even tho she sing like a frog--a once-beautiful frog but a frog and who say older wimmen don't still have it? The sonics are VERY good, and you know, I decry sonics and all that shit but of course, I am that sucker, totally.

Dug Carrie U. on Grammys--very sexy and good. Keith backin' up Al Green was interesting, but Al still cuts all those kind of singers, even Timberlake who is actually from (east) Memphis. The Toussaint thing--was that "Whirlaway" or what he played, gotta look it up--was amazing. I really like Lil' Wayne.

Raising Sand has always underwhelmed me; as Caroline points out, Alison outsings Plant by a mile and she wondered if they were playing hide-the-salami on tour? they seem close. anyway, I thought that their take on the Everlys' great "Gone Gone Gone" was underwhelming. I mean OK, folk minimalism and great song choices; but the Everlys' own version of "Gone Gone Gone" is heartbroke, brilliant super-pop of a level unimaginable today and so Raising Sand is just this year's Quality Item that has bored more than a few of the folks who took it home, unless you know the originals then seems to me that frission dissapates. Robert Plant would like to be a combination of Gene Clark and Arthur Lee but instead it just turned out to be another duets thing and exercise in good taste. But for the Grammys, it was pretty stripped-down and that was the point of it I guess, the contrast.

Ah, Marianne--was worried when I heard she had breast cancer and then no more news for the past year, so even if the new album ain't so hot, glad she's still at it. transition: Shel Silverstein's "Ballad of Lucy Jordan" was a highlight of her great Broken English, and: Just finished Lisa Rogak's epic (but not too long) Silverstein bio, A Boy Named Shel. From working class Chicago in the 30s, to Korean War Asia (already peripetatic cartooning chronicler for Pacific Stars & Stripes)back to Chicago and dropping cartoons off at the probably gone-tomorrow office of young Playboy, which soon took off and sent him globetrotting again, when he wasn't hitting the beatnik folkie scenes in Old Town and Greenwich Village; later adding his pads and milieu in Sausilito's houseboat community, Martha's Vineyard, Nashville and Key West (but he could show up anywhere anytime, on yout doorstep, corner cafe or used bookstore, to work and/or play together--and when he was bored, he was gone in a flash). It's all about working and playing hard, cos that's what he was all about, and creatively as possible, in his own sometimes irasible (or axiomatically challenging) way. Lots of great comments from friends and collaborators (Bobby Bare, David Mamet, etc, etc)Some intriguing mentions on robertchristgau.com, but the only albums I've got are the collaborations with Pat Dailey in that Daily show preview I posted, and one with Fred Koller, and an expanded reissue of Where The Sidewalk Ends, which I haven't listened to yet. Any other recommendations,as far as his own albums, songs for/with others,the books?

"Ballad of Lucy" shows up on Bare's neo-politan The Moon Was Blue. dunno a lot about him otherwise, should check out the bio. His country cousin has to be, though, John D. Loudermilk...

The author describes a lot of albums (and books and plays and a screenplay collab with Mamet). But she doesn't really evaluate them, other than how he perceived/presented 'em and reviewers and others reacted, and how they figured in his career, incl his and his team's experience during the projects--without getting endlessly detailed. A couple of sites she lists, that I need to check: (she doesn't list the whole URL, so possible might not be a www. in one or both of these) Carol's Banned Width banned-width.com and Sarah Weinman's Shel Silverstein Archive shelsilverstein.tripod.com

Turns out, at least on that EP, the Geraldine Fibbers are not always totally quiet; like Scott Seward is already telling me, you just have to turn the sound up. Carla Bozulich's croak is indeed very flat (I swear I usually think it's a guy singing, but she's got the only credited vocals), but they halfway pull off the death waltzes of "Outside Of Town" and "Mary" (about someone's pretty face going to hell) anyway, and I like the folk-drone break in the middle of "Get Thee Gone." "The Grand Tour" doesn't work at all, but "Jolene" sorta does (seems weird, again, because it sounds like a man telling Jolene not to take his man), and makes me wonder whether it didn't somehow inspire White Stripes, who covered it five years later on the same record label (the Fibbers EP's from 1994, apparently their debut set if I'm reading their Wiki discography right.) Also, "Blue Cross" is apparently a Beck song, and not one of the better tracks. Still, I was right -- seven songs is all I'll ever want by these people.

found for $5.00 at Grimey's: Haggard twofer, The Way I Am and Back to the Barrooms. Exquisitely sung with some real blues in there--great guitar playing, concentrated licks--and the amazing "Sky-Bo," a ridiculous song worthy of a bad Elvis movie that Haggard sings the shit out of and makes totally convincing, another country song about success that moves from Phoenix to Shreveport in 3/4 time.

A short list of Citizen Band radio songs, in case anybody needs one: C.W. McCall "Convoy"; Cledus Maggard and the Citizen's Band "White Knight"; Rod Hart "C.B. Savage"; Gunter Gabriel "Ich Bin C.B.-Funker"; MX-80 Sound "PCB's"; the Fall "I'm Into CB."

Not aware of any by Dave Dudley, Dick Curless, or Red Sovine, but I sure wouldn't put it past them.

Dave Dudley's '76 "Me and Ole C.B." as Dave says in his own defense of his calling:

Check out my new "American Trucker" CD and find out exactly what I think about the enemies of these here United States of America on "You Ain't Gonna Truck With Us" and "Don't Mess With U.S. Truckers."

Cyndi Boste, a great Australian country-folk-blues etc singer-songwriter, responds to query: "Yes it is horrific what has been happening in our little State down south. Over 200 killed in one afternoon and they're still counting the dead. I can't tell you how eerie it was. 47 degree heat (she mean C or F?) with 100km notherly winds and a landscape bone dry and ready to burn for years. You could sense death in the air upon waking. We were all prepared for a dark day, but I don't think anyone possibly expected it to be so bad. I have only recently moved out of Melbourne and to the countryside myself. I now live in the middle of a State forest! Fortunately it hasn't come our way yet, but no-one is taking any chances and we have all learnt very valuable lessons from the tragedy of others. We won't stay and fight...we'll just grab the animals (maybe my guitar if there's time) and get the hell out...We've got another 6 weeks or so to wait this out, so there'll be a situation of 'high alert' for all of our remaining summer, which now tends to go into March. No such thing as climate change huh?" I wrote about her music here:
http://www.villagevoice.com/2001-05-01/music/alias-in-wonderland/

Glam jeepster Leanne Kingwell also responds: "I've been head down in the studio making new music, so I didn't know much about it until it was well under way. The fires are burning at least 100 miles away from the city and wrecking beautiful small villages and countryside, not to mention killing a lot of people and animals. But ya know what...it sure puts the 'global financial apocalypse' into perspective. Everyone is rallying around those affected. Lots of donations, benefit concerts, volunteer work, stuff like that, really reaffirms one's faith." About her music here:
http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0627,allred,73762,22.html

xgau on the grammys:

http://www.najp.org/articles/2009/02/live-blogging-the-grammys.html

Euler just started a keith whitley thread, though I wish he would have asked this question here instead:

Keith Whitley

I thought Keith deserved a thread of his own, though I'd be happy to talk about him here too.

Am listening to Miranda Lee Richards on her MySpace because MySpace is pushing her and I thought from her name she could be country. She lists herself as "Other / Folk / Pop." The actual sound is pale elocution-school singer-songwriter pop with an overlay of psychodepression. Mediocre, if even that.

Dierks Bentley's "Feel That Fire" single rises to 32 on the Hot 100, the first country song not by Taylor to crack the Top 40 in two months.

Red Sovine's "Teddy Bear" is definitely a CB-radio song; won't tell you the plot so you can experience it for yourself.

Chad Mitchell Trio did Shel Silverstein's "The Hip Song" about a guy who was so hip he was square (the gag being that his lingo was hipster to such a degree that no one could make sense of what he was saying).

Heard on the news that it did indeed get up to 47 degrees Celsius in Victoria, which is about 117 degrees Fahrenheit.

Interesting country-song chart movement this week (anybody know what "Wild At Heart" by Gloriana is?); especially note that intriguing debut at #60. (Wonder which stations are actually playing it...)

26 34 2 Shuttin' Detroit Down, John Rich
J.Rich (J.Rich,J.D.Anderson ) Warner Bros. DIGITAL | WRN | 26
41 38 38 16 Space, Sarah Buxton
S.Buxton (S.Buxton,C.Cannon,L.White ) Lyric Street PROMO SINGLE | 38
46 47 43 11 Like A Woman, Jamie O'Neal
R.Good (J.O'Neal,S.Bentley,J.Femino ) 1720 PROMO SINGLE | 43
53 56 57 3 Blue Jeans And A Rosary, Kid Rock
Kid Rock,R.Cavallo (R.J.Ritchie,M.Young ) Top Dog/Atlantic PROMO SINGLE | CO5 | 53
54 55 55 3 Wild At Heart, Gloriana
M.Serletic (M.Serletic,J.Kear,S.Bentley ) Emblem PROMO SINGLE | New Revolution | 54
60 NEW 1 High Cost Of Living, Jamey Johnson
The Kent Hardley Playboys (J.Johnson,J.T.Slater ) Mercury DIGITAL | 60

From the publicity sheet for the Martina McBride's forthcoming Shine:

In order to dig deep into that creativity, she teamed up with chart-topping producer and virtuoso guitarist, Dann Huff. Admittedly, she struggled to find inspiration on some of her latest releases, but co-producing with someone new forced McBride out of her comfort zone and re-lit the fire within.

...

Ten months later, she is releasing an album not categorized necessarily as a departure, but certainly something fresh and innovative.

I listened to that Miranda Lee Richards album a bunch actually. I wouldn't call it country tho. If anything, I hear a closer parallel to someone like Vanessa Carlton (piano-based female singer-songwriter pop).

117 degrees in Victoria! And Cyndi says they've prob got six more weeks of the danger zone.

Looks like Gloriana do four-part (two boys/two girls) harmonies, not unlike Little Big Town. Studio version of this song (also hearable on youtube, with less to watch) seems to have a drum-machine-like semblance of near-Diddley-glam beat underneath. As of now, I'm officially on the fence about it:

Not on the fence at all about Justin Moore's "Small Town USA" (followup to the country "Back That Azz Up"), the CD single of which came in the mail today. Not John Cougar enough, and your usual bullshit cliches about small-town living in its lyrics. Dude, the rule from here on: No meth labs, no credibility.

Lady Antebellum got nominated this yr for best new group, and maybe in one other category? Sugarland were breathless playing same show with Sir Paulie. I wish they'd done "Mother Nature's Son" or something that would've showed the link with country; I don't see why Sir Paul and Linda Thompson shouldn't make a duets record, an English version of Raising Sand. Did I mention I actually loved Sugarland, that guy is so anonymous but so essential to Jennifer, who is a very good-looking person and seems sorta genuine.

Well, Eric Church sounds smarmy, his vocals, and what I hear here is lack of detail. He idealizes his stay-at-home wife as he tussles with the road and loads up the bong, and the level of musical detail here isn't bad, but every song casts him as this everyman, and he also just sounds like bullshit, in the sense of fake piety, a lot of the time. However, he certainly can write and I did get off on the groovy changes and sonic shit on a couple. Little Feat lives, sort of, and I submit that these old boys, who never lose their accents but get their business degrees early and and gonna make it, and who can write some, and say, in the end, something interesting about a certain kind of Southern male, can be mighty interesting. But Carolina is like eating a spaghetti-and-Wal Mart French bread dinner, made by fervent Baptists. It sounds off to me, like Church is trying to hard, working the dualities rather grossly, I dunno. I like the rock and roll and it's writerly, and some great slide guitar, but the whole thing bugs me a little.

This Spidrift record is like early Beefheart, Kaleidoscope, Love, and so forth, and certainly fits into the country-folk equation. The West.

I mean, maybe it's like going to Chili's when they renovated it and settling for a burger, but you want Chipotle sauce on the side. Ten years ago nobody in Kannopolis, N.C. knew about Chipotle but now it's on fucking everything at Chili's (as in the one in Chattanooga, the only thing open in that town after 9:30). Now everybody knows about Lowell George or something, he's the Chipotle. Or the Band. The old-time stuff that's been merging with country for years, along with glam-rock and all the rest. Anyway, I do think Church tries too hard and I detect an annoying, arrogant tone to his pieties that, as I said, bugs me. And the only thing he writes about is that Baptist duality, and being on the road, and being a regular guy and all that, except in that one song he's just a little different, the kind of cool biz major who smokes a lotta dope and maybe even goes in for a sidecar just to make a little spare change now and then.

Yeah, I can hear all that stuff Edd mentions in the Spindrift album (which he may well like more than me); compared it to some other bands here, though (toward the bottom of a bunch of louder reviews):

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2009/01/science-faxtion-living-on-another.html

if Spindrift were only as (half as) good as Pere Ubu on "30 Seconds over Tokyo." I found it diverting, that's about it, and really do wish folks would stop comparing rock bands to Morricone. I've been listening to Morricone (as much as you can listen to it; Bernard Hermann beats him, altho I do find Morricone's bossa stuff amusing), and so I think such comparisons are way off the point. And I think that the 2 Area Code 615 albums are quite possibly among the most prescient of all time, especially the second one, Trip in the Country, 1970. Their exotico-overall-pocket-with-weed-innit hillbilly-new-age shit got Morricone, or Spindrift, beat by a city mile...

The Area Code 415 twofer is a calmly wild ride, an almost overwhelming slide across one disc (thanks so much for that, Edd!)Posted about it on the Psych Country thread. I dig Kaliedoscope too (the ones from Cali, never heard the UK's).

Area Code 615 that is. Kaliedoscope are the ones who were in the 415 area, rat?

or Kaleidoscope, mebbe...

Keaton Simons' LA pop hints at both Jellyfish (on "Good Things Get Better") and maybe Jules and Polar Bears elsewhere, and a bit of Keith Urbanism in there too. Fairly anonymous, though, despite or perhaps because of Connections the press kit trumpets, which are fairly minor LA too. Sententious but listenable, and if he sang with an accent he might make it out here in Nashville. As on "Misfits," which I don't think is by Ray Davies.

and, if anyone's in the Nashville area on Sat., March 7, ol' pothead Ray Price (great anecdote in the new Willie bio about Ray having to buy back his repoed bus in order to get at some stash within) will talk to Eddie Stubbs about his career, Hank Sr., and so forth. Also that nite, at Ernest Tubb Midnite Jam, a tribute featuring Price and Bobby Bare (Sr.), to Hank's steel player, the late Don Helms. Should be cool. Planning to catch Isbell and co. Monday in town and sit down with him to chat.

the Stubbs/Price is at Ford Theatre at Country Music Hall of Fame, 5th Ave. S., Nashville, btw...2 p.m. Sat., March 7.

if Spindrift were only as (half as) good as Pere Ubu on "30 Seconds over Tokyo." I found it diverting, that's about it, and really do wish folks would stop comparing rock bands to Morricone.

Totally agree about Spindrift; hope I didn't imply that either they or their song comes anywhere near touching the level of Ubu or Ubu's song (or Sabbath or Sabbath's song, for that matter); and right, their album is mildly diverting at best -- not a keeper, even for somebody like me who got it for free, so caveat emptor. As for comparing rock bands to Morricone, yeah, I guess it's kind of a cliche; also, obviously shorthand, since only a fraction of the tracks on those four or so spaghetti western soundtracks (which are obviosuly only a fraction of Morricone's work, which I've never gotten much out of otherwise) sound how people mean when they say some rock song "sounds spaghetti western." So I see Edd's point, I think, but it really doesn't bug me much (and I'll probably continue to say some songs sound spaghetti western now and then regardless.)

Anybody remember the music in the Westerns Eastwood first directed? He took a different approach, which I kinda prefer to most of Leone's big sky horse operas, though I love Morricone's music (much more encompassing than most of what it's commonly compared to, though I get the similar vibe fairly ofteh, like with the Sadies). Eastwood's movies are more--overcast, and delibetately smaller-scale; but (maybe that's why I) don't remember their soundtracks (later, of course, he even sang with Merle Haggard, prob on the soundtrack of Honky Tonk Man or Bronco Billy)

He sings toward the end of Gran Torino, too; seem to work effectively in context of the move (which I liked a lot), though I can't imagine wanting to listen to his song outside of said context. Otherwise, he's been working in more jazz in recent years, hasn't he? As for his Westerns, I remember Phil Dellio joking once in Radio On that Clint's "Unforgiven" vs. Metallica's comparably sluggish and interminable "The Unforgiven" would make for a stirring foot race. (Personal favorite Clint movies, fwiw, are probably Tightrope, The Gauntlet, and Escape From Alcatraz. I've always found staying awake through those old Sergio Leone flicks really difficult, though I also get the idea that might sort of be the point.)

the sound effects in the classic Morricone STs are cool, and appropriate. the ST for Once Upon a Time in America is fine, and I guess, Chuck, I'd have to say, try to attend to Once Upon a Time in the West, '69, the best Leone film and a typically good Morricone ST. (It's the one in which Henry Fonda is a villain.) Jason Robards is great in it.

I remember reading Xgau in the '90s Guide, saying something to the effect that Mercury Rev was what happened when rockers allowed as to how they really liked Morricone, in other words, soundtrack-rock isn't good. I see his point but what does that mean, that musicians wanting to expand their palettes are supposed to follow Christgau's taste in what's Appropriate or not? Or that atmospherics don't a good record make? Just seemed like another example of Christgau being kind of narrow, like his weird dislike of salsa or something. That said, I don't much care for Mercury Rev myself, and the Spindrift record works best when it's kinda psych-Nuggets-blooze/Arthur Lee filigree...

speaking of aural textures, I'm struck by how convoluted the new Jason Isbell is, like the end of "Sunstroke" where it gets sticky and then he has to follow it with how the sunlight makes fools of peoples. "I need some things to look forward to," and I like this record but find it depressing. So maybe he needs the textures. The more straightforward songs, like "Good," sound like retreads to me, good songs but the words are kinda buried.

xp Speaking of free records, the mailman has for some reason been bombarding me with new ones by country-folk-blues-pop-alt-AC-whatever ladies for the past week, but I've mostly been too busy playing old CDs and even ancient mix cassettes I come across while packing boxes to keep up with the deluge. That said, and noting that I've barely made it all through any of these paying attention, this is the approximate order I've been liking them so far (very likely to change when I'm able to devote more time):

-- Sarah Borges & The Broken Singles (on Sugar Hill) Like it better than her previous album so far, and yeah, that single (opening track) has a lot of Joan Jett in it, though also some Sheryl Crow I think. (In fact, I hear Sheryl in pretty much all these women.) Second track is vintage-sounding 1979 pub rock new wave, and she does a real good version of "Being With You," probably my favorite latter day (= '80s) Smokey Robinson song (which actually made my top ten singles list the year it came out; only late-Smokey competition would be "Cruisin'" I guess.)

-- Alice Peacock (on Peacock Music/Rocket Science/Adrenaline) From L.A. and records in Nashville, apparently. Two very detailed and catchy songs I love so far -- "Real Life" and "City Of Angels." The latter is built on early Tom Petty type guitars. 15 songs is a ton to get through, though.

-- Ellen Jewell (on Signature Sounds) More toward the Lucinda or Kathleen Edwards direction it seems. Covers "Shakin' All Over" by slowing it down. Probably not a not a good idea -- and there's a good chance she'll wind up boring me -- but we'll see.

-- Jaden South (self-released I think) Two girls, not one. More rock/Heart-oriented, or at least that's what they seem to be trying for in the first song. Far from convinced they'll pull it off, though.

-- Michelle Malone (on SBS/Thirty Tigers.) More white bar band blues-ish. From NYC, iirc. And still more indebted to Sheryl than anyone else, it seems.

Probably won't wind up liking any of these as much as I like the Megan Munroe album that came out in January on Diamond (and which I still haven't gone into any detail here about what I like about it. Hope to someday.) But they all show some potential.

Anyway, bottom line, Borges and Peacock seem to have the poppiest insticts, and Jaden South and Malone seem the stodgiest. Borges and Peacock sounded the best in a rentavan this weekend. (Btw, it will be interesting to see which shades of my tastes change when I'm back to listening to music more while on the road, in Texas. I've missed that in New York.)

Still, right now I've got Bonnie Raitt's reputed 1982 new wave album Green Light on (see, another old CD pulled off the shelf), and she sounds like might have had better pop instincts than any of those new gals, at least when she was covering NRBQ anyway. (And really, how good can your pop instincts be if they're not even as good as Bonnie Raitt's?)

Also got an advance of a new Los Straitjackets album on Yep Roc in the mail; I know Don was a fan of an album (which I never heard) a couple years ago where I guess they covered old East L.A and Mexican-border Latin brown-eyed soul and rock songs, but I mainly know them for their Nacho Libre surf instrumental schtick, which has always struck me as completely pointless (I mean it's not like I've ever listened to Dick Dale or Johnny and the Hurricanes or Chantays albums all the way through, even; surf instrumentals have always just struck me as a cool change of pace at best. And at least those old bands were inventing something.) So I only got through four songs, then gave up. But who knows, maybe some kind of guitar afficianado finds them entertaining.

in other words, soundtrack-rock isn't good...Or that atmospherics don't a good record make?

But uh...It's not. And they don't. Like, 99 percent of the time or so. I mean, occasionally you'll get an Another Green World or something, but really, how often does that happen? (Honestly, I bet Xgau thinks it happens more often than I do! He even wound up giving the crappy '08 Nine Inch Nails album an A-, calling " background music, there waiting when your mind drifts speakerward, just distracting enough to change up your mood in a useful way.") Or maybe we just like different atmospherics.

(Actually, not sure how much I even agree with what I just wrote. I've liked quite a bit of atmospheric/ soundtrack/background rock in the past few years; usually, strangely enough, it falls under the genre heading "metal" -- which for the past decade or two has been better at sounding good in the background than at writing memorable songs. And usually, I miss the songs. So though I like a lot of it, I don't love very much of it. So maybe atmospherics makes for good records, not just great ones.)

Also, I swear I'm not being difficult here, Edd, but I'm not sure why Christgau not liking salsa much is "weird" -- no more than me not getting African music as much as he does is weird, or me not having much use for shoegaze or Brit-pop or twee indie music or any number of other genres is weird, or salsa fans disliking metal is weird. There are some genres I wish he got more (and some genres I wish he got less!), but seems to me his tastes are fairly broad, compared to most people who write about music (not to mention most people who don't.) And of course he wants musicians to make music that appeals to his tastes. Don't you?

Okay, now somebody get us back to country, please.

Though maybe your point is that, for somebody so versed in so many seemingly esoteric and highly rhythmic types of music from around the world, salsa should be a breeze? (If so, I can maybe see that. Though truth be told, I don't listen to a whole lot of salsa myself, either. Maybe even less than Xgau.)

xp Better pop instincts than Bonnie Raitt, to my ears (even if they lacked hits): Robin Lane and the Chartbusters (whose debut album I was just playing).

The best Raitt I've heard are still Give It Up (1972) and Takin' My Time ('73?), mixing very rowdy old New Orleans and other regional r&b covers with fetching folkie ballads and her moody slide and bottleneck guitars (esp. on Chris Smither's groovestential "Love Me Like a Man" and "I Feel the Same," the latter backed by primo Little Feat). And crazy shit that works, like Jackson Browne's long and winding "Under The Falling Sky," with congas and Paul Butterfield's harmonica galloping between starry-eyed freefall choruses. And I think Smokey Robinson wrote "Girl, You Been in Love Too Long," Allen Toussaint did some others, but that's as pop as it gets. Green Light's good too, and Home Plate, then I'd get Sweet Forgiveness and The Glow from the bargain bin (all of this has finally been remastered, but prob that's in the bin too). That Straitjackets album is creative recastings of ancient American rock hits, xhuxx, like ancient Mexican hipologists used to do all the time ("El Microscopico Bikini" is reworked "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini")

Yeah, figured I'd misconstrued that, somehow. (And earlier meant to say that "maybe atmospherics makes for good records, just not great ones." In the background now: A highly atmospheric 1993 album by the noise band Smegma. Hey, it beats Mercury Rev.)