Rolling Country 2006 Thread

OK, getting up and playing "Hicktown" right now, I think the trouble is that it's not slow enough, not spare enough, not obsessive enough. The best part comes 2:15 in, when voice and fiddle shut up and for ten seconds you've got a tough little breakbeat. Someone tell Bambaataa right away.

White, Armond

as for *totally*'s tracklist, yeah, it occured to me that licensing might be an issue. i haven't checked if the older tracks are less likely to be sony bmg, but maybe that has something to do with it. i totally stink at remembering record labels anyway. but maybe sara's, martina's, and dierk's (and brooks & dunn's, come to think of it - their song here came from their best-of album which i never heard) labels don't want their songs here to cut into sales of their current albums. whereas maybe with smaller acts like aldean and anderson (whose album edd says he's going to send me so i finally hear it - thanks edd!) *totally country* is considered a smart promotional tool.

Yeah, it's weird; I've never equated parrotheads with rednecks. And I've always assumed that anybody rich enough to afford a yacht *can't* be a redneck. (Though maybe they're not real yachts, just powerboats or something? Can you fire up tiki torches on a powerboat? I should listen closer to the lyrics, but either way, it seems kind of extravagant by Jeff Foxworthy's definition, I would say.) So part of the feeling I get with the song is boatowners lying to themselves.

anyway, I always saw parrotheads as middle-class good ol' boys rather than rednecks--they can afford to go down to Destin or Ft. Lauderdale or deep-sea fish once or twice a year, and they usually have a Neville Brothers CD and maybe even Lyle Lovett in with their Gentry, Jackson and Urban (for the wife). music, perhaps, aimed at/informed by the coastal Catholic south-- that area in between New Orleans and Pensacola? and of course frats and sororities, maybe they go with their parents to see Jimmy for some controlled drinking.

Volume 2:
1. Modern Day Bonnie and Clyde - Travis TrittMusic
2. I Breathe in, I Breathe Out - Chris CagleMusic
3. Just What I Do - Trick PonyMusic
4. My Town - Montgomery GentryMusic
5. That's When I Love You - Phil VassarMusic
6. Best Day - George StraitMusic
7. But for the Grace of God - Keith UrbanMusic
8. Ten Rounds With Jose Cuervo - Tracy ByrdMusic
9. Ol' Red - Blake SheltonMusic
10. Life Happened - Tammy CochranMusic
11. One - Gary AllanMusic
12. She Was - Mark ChesnuttMusic
13. Wrapped Around - Brad PaisleyMusic
14. Impossible - Joe NicholsMusic
15. I Don't Want You to Go - Carolyn Dawn JohnsonMusic
16. I'm Movin' On - Rascal FlattsMusic
17. Ashes by Now - Lee Ann WomackMusic

Volume 3:
1. Unbroken - Tim McGrawMusic
2. Cry - Faith HillMusic
3. Speed - Montgomery GentryMusic
4. Three Wooden Crosses - Randy TravisMusic
5. Blessed - Martina McBrideMusic
6. Love You Out Loud - Rascal FlattsMusic
7. Beautiful Mess - Diamond RioMusic
8. Baby - Blake SheltonMusic
9. Was That My Life - Jo Dee Messina
10. Not a Day Goes By - LonestarMusic
11. When You Lie Next to Me - Kellie CoffeyMusic
12. American Child - Phil VassarMusic
13. On a Mission - Trick PonyMusic
14. One Last Time - Dusty DrakeMusic
15. Strong Enough to Be Your Man - Travis TrittMusic
16. Life Goes On - LeAnn RimesMusic
17. Tonight I Wanna Be Your Man - Andy Griggs

Volume 4:
1. That'd Be Alright - Alan JacksonMusic
2. Redneck Woman - Gretchen WilsonMusic
3. No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems - Kenny ChesneyMusic
4. Some Beach - Blake SheltonMusic
5. Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy) - Big & RichMusic
6. I Love This Bar - Toby KeithMusic
7. Brokenheartsville - Joe NicholsMusic
8. Little Moments - Brad PaisleyMusic
9. Letters from Home - John Michael Montgomery
10. Tough Little Boys - Gary AllanMusic
11. Desperately - George StraitMusic
12. Let's Be Us Again - LonestarMusic
13. Perfect - Sara EvansMusic
14. Heaven - Los Lonely BoysMusic
15. I Can't Sleep - Clay WalkerMusic
16. Help Pour Out the Rain (Lacey's Song) - Buddy JewellMusic
17. Hell Yeah - Montgomery Gentry

A small surprise, not necessarily pleasant, was that I had to admit to myself that Martina McBride's "God's Will" pulls me in, despite my despising not just its clumsy, blatant manipulativeness, but its stupid cheap way of making its point. (Um, the crippled are God's children and they can bring God to us.) And the point is dreadful itself. And even with totally different words I don't like the sound of such ballads. But I guess there was enough in the ballad, and in the words, and her big warm-hearted voice, to pull me in. Not that I intend to play it much, and I still don't feel it sounds good. But there's power in it.

(If she were really going to face the theological issue - assuming there is one? something along the lines of [to quote Loretta Lynn] "God makes no mistakes"? - she'd have to plump for the abusive father in "Independence Day" also representing God's will, right?)

xpost

I need to get back to "Jesus Take the Wheel." I've heard so much "turn it over to God" crap since moving to Colorado that I just may not be able to give it a fair chance.

Speaking of whom, now that I know something of Shelby Lynne's childhood tragedy, the fact that she recorded John Lennon's "Mother" on Love, Shelby means a hell of a lot more.

(I don't know what it says about me that learning of her trauma makes her more interesting to me, but it does. Wish I hadn't sold those two albums I had.)

worst thing about 'jesus take the wheel': that opening verse sure makes it sound like the reason her life is in need of jesus is that she's got a job and a kid (single mom I guess but not necessarily), it seems like god sent that ice patch to tell her 'you can't do both you silly girl, go get a man and then you can stay home with yr kid & bible, cause there are no icy patches there'

or the second and third anyway (since you didn't list the first)

Whichever one Chely Wright's fascist bumper sticker song was on. (Though did her album eventually come out on a major? I forget. That's another 2005 country album I'd still like to hear by the way.)

xps

FEBRUARY 14, 2006

1 P.M. EST

FOR PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION

WILLIE NELSON RECORDS NED SUBLETTE'S "COWBOYS ARE FREQUENTLY SECRETLY."

YES, HE REALLY DID.

NOW AVAILABLE AS A DOWNLOAD. AND SOON, A RINGTONE.

SPREAD THE MEME.

I was sworn to secrecy until now, but today, on Valentine's Day, it can be told.

In 1981, sitting at a piano in Portales, New Mexico, I wrote a song called "Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly," whose first two verses and chorus go:

There's many a strange impulse out on the plains of West Texas

There's many a young boy who feels things he don't comprehend

Well, the small town don't like it when somebody falls between sexes

No, the small town don't like it when a cowboy has feelings for men.

Now I believe to my soul that inside every man there's the feminine

And inside every lady there's a deep manly voice loud and clear

Well the cowboy may brag about things that he does with his women

But the ones that brag loudest are the ones who are most likely queer.

Cowboys are frequently secretly fond of each other

What did you think all them saddles and boots was about?

There's many a cowboy who don't understand the way that he feels for his brother

Inside every cowboy there's a lady who'd love to slip out.

It was the era of the urban cowboy plague, when the country charts were full of cowboys this and cowboys that songs. Inspired, I wrote this song, imagining Willie Nelson singing it.

"Cowboys" seemed to strike a nerve, and for a time was the thing I was best known for. It took on a life of its own, as songs will do. After the first time I sang it, I got requests for "the one about the cowboys" at the next gig I did, and on and on. I probably don't need to point out that at the time, the term AIDS was unknown. A live recording of the first-ever performance of it by my band appeared on a John Giorno anthology. I made a damn fine recording of it in the 80s, with an A-team of specialist players, that has never come out. It was covered by the queercore group Pansy Division, who changed it from a waltz to 4/4. I tried to place it in Brokeback Mountain, but the word I got was that it was too funny for a tear-jerkin' movie.

My friend Tony Garnier, who played bass on my studio version, passed a copy of the track to Willie Nelson in maybe 1988. After living with the song all these years, Willie has recorded it.

It has just been released as a download-only single on iTunes, and as of this morning, it's available at iTunes.

It was premiered this morning, a few months shy of 25 years since I wrote it, for Valentine's Day, when Willie appeared as a guest on the Howard Stern show. I didn't hear it, since I don't yet get Sirius. The song has the F-word in it (it's not gratuitous, it's structural), and by going over to Sirius, Howard Stern can play it unedited. Satellite radio is the new FM.

It's pretty amazing to hear Willie sing this song. Not just because it has the word "queer" in it. Not even because it's the first time I've heard Willie Nelson sing the word "fuck." But because of his interpretive power. Since I originally imagined Willie singing it, I feel kind of like I already heard it, way back when. But Willie as an interpreter is always surprising, and I learned a hundred things about my own song hearing him give it back to me.

But here's the best part.

There's going to be a "Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly" ringtone. I don't have the link yet, but if you want it, e-mail me and I'll try to keep on top of it. After all, ringtones are the new singles.

I'm told there is also a video, though I haven't seen it.

Please feel free to let all your friends and acquaintances know. And thank you, Willie.

Late-breaking update: An article in the Dallas Morning News today quoted a prepared statement by Willie as saying, "The song's been in the closet for 20 years":

hurricane mason (from tulsa, oklahoma), *cast iron constitution* (2002), *it's only miles* (2005). first CD has the most badass cover of any cdbaby band cd i've come across lately -- a great big american bison buffalo, which is a VERY MANLY ANIMAL. (insert joke here about the difference between a buffalo and a bison is that a bison is what britsh people wash their hands in, etc.) second album cover is a rearview mirror. (insert meat loaf or hootie and blowfish album title here etc.) first album also *sounds* more badass, more ruff and tuff, both vocally and musically: "don't shine me on" a kickass boogie rocker, "head up in the clouds" a good long 8:13 choogle about gettin nekkid in new orleans that stretches out by winding down to a winding allmansesque ending, "killer machine" a gloomy spooky slow heavy one with a nazareth-style buildup; "spare change" an open-road biker ballad with a sped up ending. can't place which second-tier '70s southern rocker the vocalist sings like, but it was an okay one, whoever it was -- though the singer doesn't always grab you with his words like he should (he does better on the buffalo album than the rearview one). though the band is still pretty stodgy overall, which is more a detriment on the more recent album, though "girl across the street" could almost be a garland jeffreys song, "painted smile" has another slow spooky build to it climaxing in "the rich man makes the rules and the poor man writes the songs" and by that point i'm wondering if this is what springsteen's pre-debut-album jersey shore metal band steel mill or whatever they were called might've sounded like, "news man" is about how the TV news lies and has a heavy riff that keeps coming in, "little drops of rain" is their second song to mention new orleans (and you will notice they have hurricane in their name, crazy, huh?), and the closer "soulshine" is "written by warren haynes" (so, a gov't mule cover maybe? i dunno) and has soul singers in the background, and before that there's a song about how every schoolboy's fantasy is to grow up to be angus young and they quote "it's a long way to the top" in it. their cdbaby page likens them to nugent, grand funk, neil young, ac/dc, black crowes, santana, and black sabbath, not all of which i hear myself but maybe you will.

i think that its one of my favourite country songs, and i want them to play it for the first dance at my wedding.

i love willie is doing this, and i wished i could get i tunes to work, cause i want to hear it

I mentioned upthread that Little Big Town's "Bones" draws on Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain." Well, I just listened to the grime compilation Run the Road Vol. 2, and the remix of Sway's "Up Your Speed" cops the bass riff that John McVie uses on "The Chain"'s ending rave-up. The Sway track plays the riff on some orchestral-type keyboard setting, so the sound is of an ominous orchestral motif rather than the big-bouncing bottom that it is on the Fleetwood Mac album. (I'm wondering if there might not be some intermediate track post-FM and pre-Sway that uses the riff and might be Sway's [or his remixer's] immediate source.)

(Yeah, I know the connection of this post to country is tenuous.)

here's part of Jon Weisberger's appreciation of the late Charles K. Wolfe in today's Nashville Scene:

there are scholars whose life and work demand respect, and none deserves it more than Murfreesboro’s Dr. Charles K. Wolfe, who died last Thursday after a long struggle with diabetes and the complications that attend it. No country music writer was more prolific than Wolfe, who published 19 books and was at work on several more projects at the time of his death. And none ranged more freely across the sweep of the music’s history, tackling subjects both broad and narrow. Most importantly, none was more engaged with the object of his study, applying the insights gained from close attention to the music’s early years to the trends and happenings of today.

Those who focused, professionally or not, on the string bands of the 1920s and 1930s knew that Wolfe could be relied on to fill in a blank, or at least to point them in the right direction. But journalists covering country music news, too, knew that he was always ready to provide an informed, clear and pointed context for the latest developments and controversies.

Though country music itself is old, the serious study of country music is not, and it is no exaggeration to say that Wolfe, together with a handful of colleagues, was instrumental in the construction of country music history as a worthy and viable subject. Yet while his research was as thorough as possible, his work was aimed not so much at other scholars as at those who were involved or interested in the music, or who could be persuaded by a blend of passion and knowledge to become so.

By necessity, most of Wolfe’s books were published by academic presses. But he was also a frequent contributor and consultant to both public and commercial television documentaries. His publications in scholarly journals were matched by dozens of liner notes that accompanied contemporary releases and reissues of undeservedly obscure recordings.

The range of Wolfe’s interests—and hence of his knowledge—was simply staggering. The Devil’s Box: Masters of Southern Fiddling, a collection of essays published in 1997, covered subjects ranging from the age of fiddle styles heard on country’s earliest recordings to the career of Tommy Jackson, who played a key role in defining the instrument’s role in the 1950s and beyond. Another collection, Classic Country (2001), offered succinct sketches not only of Hall of Famers like Grandpa Jones (with whom Wolfe co-authored an autobiography) and Bill Monroe, but of forgotten figures like songwriter Arthur Q. Smith and the mysterious Seven Foot Dilly.

With historian Kip Lornell, Wolfe co-authored a book-length study of the great African American blues and folk singer Leadbelly. He also acted as the chief consultant for PBS’ broad American Roots Music series and wrote a biography of gospel legend Mahalia Jackson.

To all of these subjects, Wolfe brought an unalloyed, infectious enthusiasm, and it was natural that the same spirit led him not just to scholarship, but to engagement and activism. Sometimes this manifested itself simply in encouragement and assistance to other students of roots music, including those he taught during the course of more than 30 years at MTSU. At others, it led to lasting collaborations and friendships with a diverse collection of artists and musicians. At still others, it took the form of public commentary and advocacy, perhaps most notably when Wolfe adopted the title of “curmudgeon” to weigh in on personnel changes at the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum.

Given the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Distinguished Achievement Award in 1990, Wolfe also served behind the scenes in helping to create the organization’s Leadership Bluegrass program. The initiative is aimed at shoring up not only the music’s ongoing creative vitality but its commercial survival.

“In an age when country music seems to be shooting off in a dozen different directions, it is important to remind ourselves that there was once, and still is, a broad mainstream that genuinely defined the genre,” Wolfe wrote in the introduction to Classic Country. Ultimately, it’s the assertion of country music’s importance that points to his greatest legacy. For while his work has its own merits, what may count for most in the end is his insistence that music, and especially country music, matters—that not only does it have things to tell us that we need to listen to, and not only does it have intrinsic joys and rewards, but that these can only be enriched by a deeper knowledge of who made it, and how and why. Whether or not they realize it, every denizen of Music Row, every fan and every artist, from the unknown fiddler tackling the “Black Mountain Rag” to the current toast of the town, owes Charles Wolfe a debt of gratitude

Chris Neal did a nice piece today also in Nashville Scene, about the Country Radio Seminar. it's worth reading in full: title is "Radio Interference." some interesting facts: country radio has 2042 stations right now, up from 690 when CRS started 37 years ago--more than any other format, if I read it right. Arbitron says country listenership is at its highest level in 7 years. and good stuff on satellite/subscription stations like XL and Sirius, who have 9 million listeners, a lot but nothing compared to 230 "terrestial" radio stations. Neal maintains that "long-form" programming might prove a boon to country artists and listeners, too, and cites the venerable Nashville station 95.5 FM, now called "The Wolf," as an example of a traditional station that has opened up its programming, playing what you'd expect but also stuff like the Eagles, Commodores, Quarterflash...and he talks about acts like Pinmonkey, who are apparently getting some nice royalty checks thru their play on satellite. there's more, and as I say, worth reading.

"If you’re touring on a grassroots level like we are," explains drummer Crouch, "you can search demographically by age group and pick, say, 19- to 42-year-olds in Winston-Salem, N.C., knowing that you're going to be there in two weeks. Then you send out a message to those people saying, 'Come check it out.' You can micromarket."

Nope. You were right the first time, Edd. The online version of the Scene fucked up the byline. Jon is a good bluegrass bass player and bluegrass critic in Nashville.

-- George the Animal Steele (george_the_animal_steele...), February 15th, 2006.

Double on their other album on CD Baby, 60 Cycle Hum. "Carol Ann" and "Ghost Train" are the big tunes and the Georgia Satellites sound is even more pronounced on the first half dozen out of ten on the record. The blurbs on CD Baby say they have four albums, none of which I'd heard or seen anywhere until they came available in entirety on-line.