Rolling Country 2009 Thread

Also worth noting that the Shooter best-of omits "Little White Lines" and "Hair of the Dog," my two favorite tracks on Electric Rodeo, which increases its pointlessness quotiet even more.

More marginal blues-rock that doesn't quite make it: Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears on Lost Highway.
I like when he pretends to be Mitch Ryder, Wilson Pickett, Howlin' Wolf, and Slim Harpo more than he pretends to be James Brown. But not that much more.

Best old-school soul-revival I've heard in a long time is Betty Padgett's Luv N' Haight on Ubiquity -- real good covers of "My Eyes Adored You" (smooth reggae) and "Rockin' Chair," plus "Sugar Daddy" is the catchiest, warmest, most propulsive early (as in mid '70s) disco facsimile in recent memory. Also, the gal can sing. (Apparently this is a comeback, but if I skimmed her bio right and she did indeed record in the '70s, I never heard her.)

Songs I may well like even more than the Joan-Jetty single "Do It For Free" on the new Sarah Borges: "Yesterday's Love" (which totally gets the hookiness of 1978 Costello sound pub-wave down), "I'll Show You How" ("Hey Little Girl"/Sonics-riffed sex-predator garage rock from a gurl's point of view but with singing that doesn't try to sound garage), "It Comes To Me Naturally" (early Nick Lowe power-pub-pop with Yardbirds/Zevon "A Certain Girl" backup call and response), aforementioned cover of Smokey's "Being With You." Which makes five tracks I like a lot out of ten: a real good batting average.

Still trying to get the hang of Austin radio. Weird being in a place where you can hear not just Alan Jackson but Robert Earl Keen on the air. There's what seems to be a fairly mainstream commercial country station, but also another station (98.1) that mixes commercial country hits with more old classics and plenty of "Texas music" that I doubt gets much airplay in any other state. (For instance, they played Joe Ely's "Honky Tonk Masquerade" the other day, a song I've loved for nearly three decades but don't think I've ever actually heard on commercial radio before.) And there's also a Triple A station that seems to mix in country on occassion.

And oh yeah, Black Joe Lewis should not be confused with the similarly named and similarly marginal Soul Of John Black, who I reviewed for Rolling Stone here:

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/25823377/review/25895699/black_john

And a Brooklyn-boho old-school folk-country prankster album I liked more (though not that much more) than the Defibulators' one is the one by Andy Friedman, which I reviewed for emusic here:

http://www.emusic.com/album/Andy-Friedman-Weary-Things-MP3-Download/11371123.html

i'd guess the shooter jennings best of is contract filler. he's done okay album-wise, but hasn't had a hit single since "4th of july." depends on what, exactly, universal thought they were getting.

you need a copy of Mendocino, Chuck. that's the Sahm to start with.

yeah, the Defibulators are tiresome over the long haul, but I do like a few of those "songs." I guess I hear it as too much music, though, instead of not enough; the same old guitaristic obsessions and formalist winks getting in the way of, you know, the basics.

thinking of going to this Keith Urban Press Conference next wk at BMI here. will keep you informed, maybe Nicole will be there.

Favorite songs on Aaron Tippin's way tougher than I remembered him Greatest Hits...And Then Some from 1997 which I bought for $3 on CD at Austin's "Citywide Garage Sale" today: "A Door," "I Got It Honest," and "The Call Of The Wild," the latter of which may well be the most Cramps-like wolf-howl I've ever heard from a modern Nashville country singer. (Aaron's howling about a woman who gets loud at night, and I'm guessing he and the Cramps share inspiration of some wild-haired old rockabilly I can't place.) Xgau wrote at the time that Tippin was "as prole as Music Row gets," which may or may not be true, though I'd say "Working Man's Ph.D" is more prole than Bob's own two faves, namely "Cold Grey Kentucky Morning" and "There Ain't Nothin' Wrong With The Radio," both (actually all three) of which I also like. Also want to note that Tippin's down-and-out ballad-singing voice reminds me of John Conlee sometimes. And his mustache on the front and back cover reminds me of a '70s porn star.

Upcoming album by Martina McBride sounds better (ballsier, bluesier, darker, more energetic, more involved) than her last couple, at least after a couple listens, but that's all I can claim so far. Except that I read on line that Martina was one of the people (Sheryl Crow was another) attending a record preview party this week by some new band of Jack White (which also includes one each person from the Greenhornes, the Kills, and Queens of the Stone Age.) I don't have especially high hopes for the band, but I still think it's cool Martina was there.

Turns out on subsequent listens that Betty Padgett is maybe a more average B-or-C-level soul voice than I implied in my post yesterday (and her covers of the Frankie Valli and Gwen McRae are less astonishing than I may have implied), but I still like her album, especially her very convincingly disco-bubbly single "Sugar Daddy" (incl. its second version with background party voices), where I'm pretty sure I read in an email press release earlier this week that she's backed by Detroit indie-rock Afrobeat nine-piece Nomo (whose first couple albums sounded funky enough, but whose upcoming one doesn't hold my attention for some reason. Never heard their third. Do like where they're coming from, however.)

George might also like some stuff on the upcoming Mick Fleetwood Blues Band live album, which I've actually played all the way through four times, strangely enough. Ultimately too stodgy, and it takes too long to get going, but the backloaded six/seven-minute "Black Magic Woman" and especially "Shake Your Moneymaker" crank. Don't mind the more boogie-woogie/New Orleans r&b/"My Toot Toot"- rhythm tracks scattered through, either.

Yeah, probably good percentage, if I ever see it. "Black Magic Woman" never cranked, though. "Shake Your Moneymaker" did, illustrating the split personality of Fleetwood Mac as one of the most successful during the Brit white boy blooz boom. Jeremy Spencer fronted the band on the Elvis-flavored stuff like "Moneymaker". Peter Green took over for everything else. Be interested to know if Fleetwood dug up Bob Brunning to play on this, since he was one of the first members of Fleetwood Mac.

Actually, the best buy for blooz boom stuff now is the 3-disc reissue of Mike Vernon-produced Chicken Shack, originally on Blue Horizon. Two thirds of it has Christine McVie singing every other number, alternating with Stan Webb. By the third disc, McVie --then Perfect -- has left and Webb has taken Chicken Shack heavy for Accept Chicken Shack. The band would spin off into Savoy Brown and UFO.

And if it's remakes/revisits you like in this vein, the new Foghat live album kills. Even though half of Foghat, including Lonesome Dave, is dead. Hard to figure how this is done, but everyone in the band is all on the same page, spiritually, I guess. Thirty five years later, they do "Fool for the City" like their lives depended on it. And I saw the originals do it many times.

Huhx, my fave Sir Doug is mostly from the 70s or late 60s, def Mendocino, as Edd says, though don't know how its baked wired mellow sound comes across on CD (it's more consistently focused than some of his, though). Also (these are all billed as Sir Douglas Quintet): The Return of Doug Saldana, with more actual Chicano scientists than usual in SDQ albums; Together After Five (skoal yall); Rough Edges ("Doin' It Too Hard," which might have inspired the Tex-Mex section of "Sister Ray", plus Tom T. Hall's "The Homecoming," many other lost wages rescued by Paul Nelson, for a new grab bag). Also ragged and rugged is 1+1=4, with horns (which turn up here and there on various other albums)This takes Gatemouth Brown's Texas blues-bop toward Coltrane on one track, which is still mostly funky, and 2-man high school marching band overall. More horns, getting a little Texas lounge-y at times, but with tight small group tracks too, on The Sir Douglas Band's Texas Tornado. Most tracks from this and Doug Sahm And Band, plus prev unissued from the latter sessions, can be found on Rhino's The Best of Doug Sahm & Friends: Atlantic Sessions. I liked the And Band stuff a lot more than expected, considering what Marcus and xgau's sympathetic but low-ish ratings (xgau's pretty good on Doug overall, though)Border Wave was the SDQ comeback, in the heyday of Rockpile etc; their Day Dreaming At Midnight is marred by the hair metal licks of son Shawn Sahm, according to some, but I like it, esp vs some of the songs' Dad commentary (although they Texas psych punk out on an sncient track by Mother Earth, who I had no idea ever did such thangs, thought it was all about Tracy Nelson's waves of gravity)Oh yeah, other excavations: Norton Records' Doug Sahm, San Antonio Rock: The Harlem Recordings 1957-1961 --I haven't listened that it much yet, but I dig Edsel Records' She's About A Mover-The Best of Doug Sahm and the Sir Douglas Quintet, which is I think a volume in a series, The Crazy Cajun Recordings. Anyway, 60s tracks, like prob original "Mover" (which gets "that freaky guitar--you musta learned that in San Francisco," he informs himself on the excellent Mendocino re-make). And some great prev unissued, like extended "Funky Side of Your Mind," more VU-bait, though it's also a studio zen forensic. In fact--xhuxx I'll send you an email

And of course we mustn't forget the hits 'n' tits of the Texas Tornados!

The LP referred to as 1+1=4 is actually 1+1+1=4, and I meant it employs the approach I associate with Gatemouth Brown, not his actual presence, alas.

xhuxk wrote: Pretty certain by now that I like the new Pat Green and Rodney Atkins (which sounds great, and hasn't been mentioned here before) more than the new Eric Church

I haven't heard the Rodney Atkins album yet, that "America" single kind of turned me off from hearing it. I'd love to hear more about why it sounds great.

This is what I said on my livejournal today about the recent Rascal Flatts and Carrie Underwood songs (according to Wiki the Underwood isn't being pushed to radio yet but is doing big business as a download, thanks to its American Idol tie-in):

Rascal Flatts "Here Comes Goodbye": I like the specificity of the lyrics, how he knows he's losing her: her ringing the doorbell where previously she'd come right in. The high-pitched twang of the singing against the strings and pedal steel has a neutralizing effect, however, like white against a white sky. BORDERLINE NONTICK.

Carrie Underwood "Home Sweet Home": Placid ballad to kiss American Idol losers goodbye with. Given weightier instrumentation and heavier singing than is good for it, but her voice is warm. BORDERLINE TICK.

On fourth listen or so I'm liking "Home Sweet Home" less and less. Carrie's singing is strained on a song that I'd have thought would have been a simple glide for an excellent mimic like her. And "placid" here means "wet blanket." But I think it's a good song, and I say this without having any memory of the Mötley Crüe original.

The Singles Jukebox is back, though no longer associated with the defunct Stylus, obviously. Four different reviewers per track, they haven't done any country yet but "Home Sweet Home" is in the hopper, should be up in several days.

When you type "love and theft" into the YouTube search box, the suggestions YouTube gives are:

love and theft
love and theft music
love and theft band
love and theft stephen
love and theft bob dylan
love and theft it's up to you
love and theft taylor swift
love and theft you to miss
love and theft download

Hey erasingclouds, I should actually save my longer Atkins notes for my Voice roundup piece, but yeah, I find "It's America" fairly irritating too -- starting with its idiotic, bigoted idea that only in America would neighbors help neighbors when there's a natural disaster -- but it's not nearly the best track on the album. Which has many good Stones riffs.

Glanced through this week's charts, and nothing is startling me -- "High Cost of Living" and "Blue Jeans And A Rosary" start to dip slightly, Love and Theft slowly climbing, Carrie debuting with her Crue cover, etc. -- but am wondering what these three at the bottom of the list are. Anyboy out there know?

58 NEW 1 Boy Like Me, Jessica Harp
J.Flowers (J.Flowers ) Warner Bros. DIGITAL | WRN | 58
59 56 2 Keep The Change, Holly Williams
J.Neibank (H.Lindsey,L.Laird ) Mercury DIGITAL | 56
60 NEW 1 Address In The Stars, Caitlin & Will
C.Lindsey (C.Lynn,C.Lindsey,H.Lindsey,A.Mayo ) Columbia PROMO SINGLE | 60

I've been listening to Southern soul on the radio in Austin; commented on songs called "Southern Soul Party" and "I Need A Bailout" here in recent days:

Chitlin Circuit Double-entendre -filled Soul 2004 (and onward) Theodis Ealey's "Stand Up In It" is a song of the year

Last week was Grand Ole Opry week on American Idol. Adam Lambert's "Ring Of Fire" was indescribably terrible, but still one of only two performances this week worth hearing more than twice, and I urge you to listen. The guy has ideas, even if putting them together produces a misshapen mess. And I actually liked Kris Allen doing "Make You Feel My Love"; gave it a light step, turning it into gentle slush and ignoring the lyrics' buried aggression, which is fine with me. (I have a little more to say about last week's Idol on my livejournal.

"Boy Like Me" is Jessica Harp (of the Wreckers) saying that she's the kind of girl who likes the kind of boys who like the kind of girls who like to drink and fuck on the first date, but not saying it quite like that. Has a nice rocking crackle and strong slide playing in the break; the arrangement ends up overwhelming her voice, but the track isn't bad.

I don't know Caitlin & Will's "Address In The Stars," but their "Even Now" is a good duet where a couple sing about playing breakup and infidelity games to hurt each other and to get even with each other and without knowing how to stop the hurtfulness or stop loving one another, but the way I've said it is clumsier than the song's way; has got good reworkings of the title phrase (they're even now, meaning they're getting even with each other, but they love each other even now, and aren't they finally even now, so they can stop the love wars?). Caitlin's got a good half wail, and the song does a good job of trading points of view, starting with them singing separately and then bringing the vocals together as they try to keep the relationship together.

First I ever heard Caitlin & Will was a few days ago. Here's their MySpace, which I'll listen to in the next few days. "Even Now" is the first track up.

Love & Theft's "Runaway" is one of my favorite tracks this year; I wouldn't say it's anything special; it's confidently off-hand in its harmonies and rhythms, sets its hooks nicely and then just keeps rolling along.

Have to check those. White against white doesn't have to be self-cancelling, if you get the textures right. Lucinda Williams and yacht rock, for instance

Still need to peruse those Jessica Harp and Caitlin & Will numbers. (The latter duo are said to be Can You Duet alumni, like Joey + Rory before.)

Thought Adam Lambert's quasi-middle-eastern-undulating hush-goth elongation of "Ring Of Fire" was interesting enough for one time, though not as entertaining as Randy Travis's reaction to the guy , or Wall of Voodoo dooing it in the early '80s (or Celtic Frost dooing Wall of Voodoo in the late '80s.)

Did not manage to catch any of the many Those Darlins sets during SXSW (hard to leave home early enough to get to a bar by noon, or even 3 pm), though I expect I'll have other chances now that I'm in Austin. Also didn't catch the Saturday night set by reportedly "country metal" Rascal Flatts-hit songwriter Jeffrey Steele. Did make it to a 4 pm Friday set by Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles, though, and thought they rocked both exuberantly and hilariously; what most took me by surprise was the dominant-submissive on-stage rapport between Sarah and her scraggly little bassist Biggie (who had some good goofy one-liners, like one about how he would put a wallet in each back pocket next time after Sarah took him to task for his lack of booty.) They sure don't seem like a Boston band, and that's a compliment (unless you're the Dropkick Murphys I guess.) (Or okay, the Cars or J. Geils or, uh, Boston. But you get the idea.) Some local giveaway sheet takes their new album to task for having songs that sound like Joan Jett and the early Pretenders (which I guess makes them not alt-country enough), but I hear the harder rocking stuff as an improvement. Had no idea they were covering Magnetic Fields and Lemonheads numbers on their new CD along with Smokey Robinson (not to mention Any Trouble, who turn out to be the source of the pub-rock track I like so much "Yesterday's Love"), and I honestly don't think I'm any worse off for learning the truth.

Like upcoming albums by Texas songsters I never heard of before and will inevitably confuse with each other Ryan Bingham (on Lost Highway) and Scott
Biram (on Bloodshot) more than the upcoming album by hypster-hyped Texas garage band Strange Boys. The former two have more boogie than I would have predicted, though I haven't decided if they have any worthy songs. The Strange Boys once in a while slip into some semblance of mid '60s Dylan groove, but their songs would be a lot more memorable if they didn't insist on slopping them to hell all the time. Just makes the record hard to sit through, though they might have potential if they drop the schtick.

Way better than any of those: Heavy Chevy ZZ-style blooze-metal from Rufus Huff, Kentucky men featuring Headhunters guitar killer Greg Martin. George and Frank and Don should all check out that one when it comes out in April. (And George needs to hear Ian Gillan's new One Eye To Morocco, which I also like a whole lot, but it's not country at all. Parts might make sense on a jazz-fusion thread, though.)

And speaking of Don, thanks for all the Doug Sahm burns (+ Steeldrivers, too.) I'll get to them sooner or later, I promise. Will report back when I do.

Yeah, probably good percentage, if I ever see it. "Black Magic Woman" never cranked, though. "Shake Your Moneymaker" did, illustrating the split personality of Fleetwood Mac as one of the most successful during the Brit white boy blooz boom. Jeremy Spencer fronted the band on the Elvis-flavored stuff like "Moneymaker". Peter Green took over for everything else.

In addition to the rock & roll oldies, Spencer handled vocals on all the Elmore Jams throwdowns. Also, Danny Kirwan handled vocals on numerous tracks. Whenever I want to play Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac for somebody I start with the three volumes of live material recorded at the Boston Tea Party in 1970. I then play them a smattering of the singles: "Oh Well," "Green Manalishi," "Man of the World." They are one of my all time fave bands and really quite versatile: Chicago blues, psych-pop, folkie stuff, Flamin' Groovies-like oldies, extended hippie jams (23-minute version of "Rattlesnake Shake), boogie rock and even some proto-metal.

xp I'm actually getting the idea that the Strange Boys' even-looser-than-Black-Lips slacker routine -- the impression that they're too stoned and layabouty to bother making their songs coherent -- is probably actually very Austin (though obviously it's also been an aesthetic running through indie-rock forfuckingever, from Flaming Lips and Dinosaur Jr. to Sebadoh and Pavement and Beck to No Age and Times New Viking etc.) And while the aesthetic doesn't always preclude making good records, it's usually an irritant at this late date, maybe even more than a decade or two ago. (Got tired of the new Black Lips after a few listens, and couldn't get into this new CD by Wavves either -- more indie kids who got a lot of SXSW hype tossed at them this year. Though maybe not as much hype as now ten-years-gone Doug Sahm.)

Anyway, here's a piece on music from a couple few-years-old collections of (often countryish) music from the Great Depression that I wrote for a mag called Good. The theme is probably more forced than I wish, and the ending's kinda flat. Plus I wrote it before John Rich's Detroit song:

http://www.good.is/?p=15807

Teen-pop stoner revives me-decade yacht-rock classic for space-buddy movie (# 20 on Radio Disney countdown this week, apparently):

Btw, Caitlin & Will's mushy new ballad single about unsuccessfully attempting to mail a letter to a dead loved one is not nearly as good as their cheating-on-each-other song (which is indeed great. And it's been a while since a country couple hit with one of those, hasn't it? Except I have no idea if Caitlin & Will are a couple, in the romantic sense. Plus "Even Now" wasn't actually a hit, apparently. I do like how neither duo member seems physically attractive in any traditional American sense, however.)

I'd probably like Carrie Underwood's "Home Sweet Home" better if it was "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" or "I Won't Forget You" instead. But it's okay.

Come to think of it, I'd also probably like Alyson Stoner's "Dancing In The Moonlight" better if it was "Moonlight Feels Right" instead. And that techno-y part toward the end freaks me out. But it's okay, too. I enjoy her inflections, and any record that reminds today's kids of the early roots of country-disco is nothing to complain about. Though I sure never took "they don't bark and they don't bite" as literally as the directors of her video seem to.

Intriguing excerpts from Black Key Dan Auebach's solo album in Ed Ward's NPR review. As he says, end-of-60s psych bluesoid--with some pop in there somewhere, not too far from the (post-end-of-60s) ZZ Top (although I never heard the Moving Sidewalks, American Blues, or other pre-ZZ bands that the Toppers were in, maybe some catchiness there too) Not exactly hooks, not in these excerpts, but some nice beardo stuff that hops around the room: I wouldn't put it past him to cover Blues Image's "Ride Captain Ride." Both Keys did recently do a good version of Captain Beefheart's "Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles"(one of his more "commercial" tracks, or that seems to have been the idea) for a Warners anniversary comp.

Oh, and xhuxx, be sure to start (or get to, while you're still at it)Best of Doug Sahm and The Sir Douglas Quintet (1968-1975), the one on Polygram with him holding stringed instruments like they'd just sprouted from his outer thighs, which maybe they did. Be in a Random Play state of mind, and pretend it's a whole carousel of dif discs, rather than just one.(QuantumNoise, I hear you on early F.Mac)

"Auerbach," that is.

Caitlin & Will's "Even Now" was slated as their single and had been released with a video and everything and then to the duo's surprise the record company pulled it in favor of the mushy dead letter song.

As many of you know 'Even Now' has been our new single for 4 weeks...well my Aunt Lisa up in heaven didnt like that and decided there should be a change (of course Columbia decided this, but I'm sure La had a hand in it)...



We have CHANGED our single that radio will play. 'Address in the Stars' is now the NEW single. Honestly it was a huge shock to Will and I, but we have had such an amazing response from EVERYONE in radio that it was hard to ignore.



I do have to say I called my family individually to tell them and I believe each one of them teared up or started crying. Honestly I can just see my Aunt La sitting in heaven with her legs dangling over some edge just giggling about the turn of events down here. Address was her last word I think.



My Aunt Tae said on the phone "I guess she got your letter" I then started sobbing because I didnt think of it that way. I guess she did after all. I guess its just one more way of telling my Aunt Lisa that I love her.

My rule is, if there's a vid, it's eligible for my singles list, so "Even Now" can contend. The Caitlin & Will EP is out today; most of it's up on their MySpace, which is still geared to sell "Even Now." According to a fan on YouTube, the "Even Now" video is "is just incredible, the best country video in years and probably the best ever made! WOW! Like OMG WOW!"

Jamie O'Neal album is due today too, according to Wiki. Have only heard the title track, "Like A Woman." Strangely, unless the tracks are mislabeled, there's a "radio edit" on the single that's longer than the "album version," has an extra verse at the start about working hard and feeling hemmed-in as a housewife. Instructions to husbands. (The melody is only average, but she's got a killer voice.)

Billboard article confirming what Don said upthread about the Drive By Truckers and Neil Young playing on the forthcoming Booker T. LP (due on April 21). It'll be all instrumentals, including a version of "Hey Ya."

I made this livejournal post referencing this livejournal conversation in regard to Lily Allen's countryesque "Not Fair," though our posts are also somewhat about this jukebox conversation about "Not Fair," and my post touches on country music's own uneasiness with its vocabulary.

(Oh, and there's a tiny bit of poptimists conversation about "Not Fair" in this week's Yet Another Year In Pop. Also, the crucial question is raised once again but not answered: who started the meme "Who let the dogs out, woof woof woof"? We can't trace it any further back than Gillette's "You're A Dog" in 1994, but that hardly means it's not from earlier.

Posted this on my livejournal (as part of my first quarter top 22):

Jamey Johnson, "High Cost Of Living": Exuberantly grim! It's a drunkalog, basically, and the apparent grimness is to try to fend off the call of the wild. The title and the lyrics in the chorus are built around a pun, and the track ends with Jamey laughing encouragement to his guitar player.

I need to check out most of the songs on Frank's Top 22-so-far. I like Shystie feat. Deekline and Timberlee feat. Tosh. Actually reviewed the Ryan Leslie and Mavado albums for Rolling Stone, believe it or not (I'll review whatever they assign me, and they've been assigning me some stuff way out of my ballpark); liked them both okay, though not enough to recommend them (and the Leslie/Jim Jones single isn't on Leslie's album anyway.) Listened to Lily Allen's twice over Rhapsody on my laptop, which never lets an album seep in as much as if I had physical copy, and it irritated me more in a Nelly McKay-type cabaret way than her debut (which I liked a lot) had, but I probably need to listen to it more.

I've actually got a copy of the MC Lars album here; didn't make it very far into it (after being amused enough by an EP he did several years ago to still own a copy), but I'll check out the track with the Donna singer and the Therapy? riff at least. (Amazed that Frank could identify a Therapy? riff; doubt I could, and actually sort of used to like them once.)

Anyway, since we're doing quarter-year best ofs, here's how my top 10 county singles and albums would probably look, if the entire year were to end today:

COUNTRY SINGLES

1. Jamey Johnson – “High Cost Of Living”
2. John Rich – “Shuttin’ Detroit Down”
3. Sarah Buxton – “Space”
4. Love and Theft – “Runaway”
5. Caitlin & Will – “Even Now”
6. Floyd Taylor --- “Southern Soul Party”
7. Trace Adkins – “I Can’t Outrun You”
8. Jamie O’Neal – “Like A Woman”
9. Megan Munroe - “Moonshine”
10. Sarah Borges And The Broken Singles – “Do It For Free”

Floyd Taylor's song makes the list on the basis that it makes Southern Soul feel country partly by saying they're serving cole slaw at the golf course. Sarah Borges's song makes the list despite sounding like Joan Jett on the basis of most of her songs sounding more country than this one does. "I Can't Outrun You" qualifies the same way "Even Now" does -- though apparently not released as a single per se', it's got a video anyway (a few references to it on the web), though I've never seen it. John Rich's song would rank lower if it wasn't about Detroit.

ALBUMS

1. Megan Munroe – One More Broken String (Diamond)
2. Pat Green – What I’m For (BNA)
3. Rufus Huff – Rufus Huff (Zoho Roots)
4. Sarah Borges And the Broken Singles – The Stars Are Out (Sugar Hill)
5. Rodney Atkins -- It’s America (Curb)
6. The Flatlanders – Hills And Valleys (New West)
7. Eric Church – Carolina (Capitol)
8. (Various) – The Man Of Somebody’s Dreams: A Tribute To The Songs Of Chris Gaffney (Yep Roc)
9. Buckwheat Zydeco – Lay Your Burden Down (Alligator)
10. The Boxmasters – Modbilly (Vanguard)

Something interesting is that, if the year were to end today, my top six or seven country singles would make my overall top ten singles list, but only my top one or two country albums would (if that.) Which means I've been paying way more attention to non-country albums than to non-county singles, I guess.

Convo last week re Buckwheat Zydeco from the Rolling Hard Rock thread:

the new Buckwheat Zydeco album Lay Your Burden Down on Alligator includes songs previously done by Led Zeppelin ("When The Levee Breaks,"originally Memphis Minnie), Brownsville Station ("Let Your Yeah Be Yeah," originally Jimmy Cliff), Gov't Mule (the title track), and Captain Beefheart (his long-ignored-probably-due-to-its-normalness Southern soul move "Too Much Time," always one of my favorites by him) -- though only the five-minute "Levee" really sounds like hard rock, at least so far. Anyway, I never cared at all about Buckwheat before (he's been around forever it seems, and his voice seems pretty average), but I like this record. Best original so far: "Throw Me Something Mister," which basically sounds like mid '60s funk-band instrumental with party-chant interjections.

― xhuxk, Thursday, March 26, 2009

By "mid '60s funk band" I guess I mean Meters, duh. Who didn't actually chart til the late '60s. Also, I get the idea that, in general here, Buckwheat employs his accordion like an organ, so I'm not sure how "zydeco" any of it really sounds. (Not that I'm a zydeco expert myself, and not that anybody reading a hard rock thread might care one way or the other.)

― xhuxk, Thursday, March 26, 2009

Buckwheat Zydeco
cranks up his accordion
like a metal god

Saw him close a show
with "Hey Joe" back in the day
Shredding feedback hell

― Haikunym Mark II (Dimension 5ive), Friday, March 27, 2009

(Actually, re-eyeballing that very rough singles list, I think I'm overrating the Jamie O'Neal track a little -- like Frank suggested a few posts up, the song and tune don't quite equal her singing power. So it's entirely possible Sugarland's "It Happens" or Pat Green's "What I'm For" or Kid Rock's "Blue Jeans And A Rosary" or Trace Adkins' "Marry For Money" or Carrie Underwood's "The More Boys I Meet" or something deserves to be in the top 10 instead.)

I "recognized" the Therapy? riff, which I don't remember having heard before, because when Moggy linked the MC Lars track she said "oh dear i just wrote a thing about how this song sounds like 'screamager' by therapy? and then realised it actually samples it when the chorus kicks in. I R SMRT. 'screamager' is a fucking awesome song, obviously. i'm not totally sure this song completely works but it's quite fun." Wiki says that "Screamager" was the hit track off the EP that made Therapy? popular and made it into the UK top ten in 1993. But believe it or not, the MC Lars track kills it, though I don't know how much credit to give Lars since his rap on it is a bore. And now I'll shut up about it because it's not country.

xp In completely unrelated news, I have made the entirely ill-informed decision (based soley on their stray tracks on 1978's far-from-great but occasionally entertaining Every Which Way But Loose soundtrack, which I bought for 75 cents at a thrift store last month and which features Clint Eastood and an orangutan on its cover) that I like Hank Thompson (whose "A Six Pack To Go" is quite boppily almost-Western-swinging trucker fare) way more than Mel Tillis (whose "Send Me Down To Tucson" is a rather creepy cheating ballad and whose "Coca Cola Cowboy" is worse and neither of which contain many or maybe even any of the stutters I was under the impression Mel was known for.) Anybody who knows more of these guys' music than me (which is to say, anybody who knows their music at all), please tell me whether I'm right or wrong about my preference. (Not sure why it's never occurred to me to check either fellow's music out before; just never have.)

Also notable on the soundtrack is an instrumental called "Eastwood's Alley Walk" which pays explicit homage to Morricone's Spaghetti Western music for a few notes at the end, whether Edd likes it or not.

And there's another "instrumental" that actually consists of doo-wop voices, not unlike the doo-wop homage toward the end of the Move's rocking nine-minute "Feel Too Good" off their very fun 1971 Looking On LP, which I bought for $1 at a garage sale last month. Makes me think somebody should do an EMP project on ironic/nostalgic doo-wop homages on '70s non-doo-wop records someday. (Though not me.)

(Neither the Mavado nor the Leslie albums clicked for me overall, though I think I'm going to give the Leslie several more chances because he's a good producer and I think "How It Was Supposed To Be" and its vid aren't bad and I'm wondering if, like The-Dream and Ne-Yo, he'll be a grower. Funny thing, this trend in r&b singers with little projection or immediate charisma who are making interesting music (Ne-Yo, The-Dream, Ryan Leslie, Keri Hilson). (With the exception of Ne-Yo I'd probably say "sporadically interesting," though the new The-Dream album has a lot going on, even if you have to wait six songs for it to start happening.)

SPOILERS: I remember quite liking Every Which Way But Loose, the movie, the Eastwood character taking forever for it to get through his noggin that the Sandra Locke character wanted sex with him but not a relationship, but I didn't even know there was a soundtrack album. (And then I wouldn't even see the sequel to Evey Which Way But Loose, since it completely abandoned the premise of the first movie in order to create a sequel with Eastwood and Locke. Wouldn't see any of the Rocky sequels for the same reason. I admit that the reason's dumb, that I should take the later movies on their own terms, and Rocky 2 has a good reputation, but I hate the fact that the series abandoned ideas that were integral to their conception. The thing is, Rocky Balboa was never going to be a great fighter, his achievement was to get himself in shape and persevere so that he could survive in the ring against Apollo Creed and not be the patsy he'd been set up to be.

"How It Was Supposed To Be" and its vid aren't bad

Fwiw, that song and "Valentine" were my favorite songs on Leslie's album. Favorite by far on Mavado's album was the extremely bats-in-belfry Gothic-doom sounding "Welcome To The Armageddon," followed maybe by "Money Changer," though I should probably relisten to the single Frank likes so much.

Have never actual seen Clint's monkey movie myself; maybe I'll add it to my Netflix queue.

Orangutan

Boxmasters -- Modbilly (Vanguard)

What, already? That makes three, including the Xmas special?!

Yep, and it's a double (with the second disc all covers) again. Which sort of makes FIVE, if you want to count them that way. Pretty sure I like the covers disc better than the one last year (only "As Tears Go By" seems completely wtf pointless); originals disc seems on par so far. (Best song title, and one of the best songs: "That's Why Tammy Has My Car." Also great: "Heartbreakin' Wreck.") May or may not go into more detail about it here or elsehwere sometime. (Though I will say I really like Modbilly as an album title, too.) (Didn't like the Xmas album at all, for what that's worth.)

But izzit exactly the same style and tone?

Yep. I dunno, possibly less off-hand "incidental music" between songs, but same voice, same sound, same middle-aged fuckup who drinks too much persona. I'm realizing now that, while Billy Bob is just adequate as a singer (which I'm fine with), he is probably one of my favorite country songwriters (in terms of lyrics and melodies) at the moment. And one of the funniest songwriters working now, period. (Should've voted for him in the songwriter category in last year's Nashville Scene poll.)

CMT has a video up for "Shuttin' Detroit Down"-- with Kris Kristofferson as a laid off auto worker and Mickey Rourke as his buddy.

http://www.cmt.com/videos/john-rich-country/367274/shuttin-detroit-down.jhtml?

Wow -- Right wing populist rage; sabotage on the deadend streets, police cars overturned. Can't think of another country video that's ever bleeped out the word "fuck," either. It occurs to me that the "they" shutting Detroit down in Rich's song is as undefined as the "they" in any old hardcore song. (Guess it's "Congress," or "rich assholes who own banks" or just "people who live in New York City and Washington D.C. and aren't like us here in the real world"; how long til the New Depression gets its own Father Coughlin? Not that I'm, uh, implying anything.) So who's the congressman who makes the split-second cameo appearance on the TV news in that video, anyway? On first viewing I was thinking Kucinich -- can't get more lefty than him, right? But I'm probably wrong. Anyway. Great song, great vid. But that doesn't mean it doesn't make me uneasy.

By the way, if anybody missed it, Jon Caramanica ran an interview of John Rich in the Socialist NY Times a couple days ago, and called "Shuttin' Detroit Down" "the first great song of the bailout era." Judging from the sparse quotes, it didn't look like Rich gave Caramanica a whole lot of his time, though he did mention that Merle Haggard had compared the song to "Okee From Muskogee" (which it isn't nearly as good as, but still.) And when Caramanica asked him about another song on his new album where he says "we'd all be speaking German, living under the flag of Japan" if it wasn't for our WWII vets, John told Jon "I mean it completely literally." (Which leads me to wonder whether the Japs would be speaking German too, but never mind.)
Anyway, here it is. (I haven't heard the whole album myself; got sent a download link, but I'm lazy when it comes to the evils of modern technology. And I still wonder where Big Kenny stands on all this):

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/arts/music/31rich.html

(By the way, my use of "right wing" is pretty amorphous, too. Obama and Democratic Congresspeople supporting a bailout of course make for easy right wing targets, but the video and song are explicitly critical of big business and at least implicitly pro-union. So Rich is obviously walking a fine line. And if the song had come from somebody who wasn't so vocal in his support of McCain last year, I'm not sure I'd be saying which wing he was flying with.)

Also wonder whether the ultimatums Obama gave auto companies this week makes the song more or less relevant; not bailing them out could shut Detroit down, too, right? If me and you run to the rescue, isn't there a chance that might save Kristofferson's job? So the message is confused, too. (Rich only explicitly mentions bailing out bankers, but he also talks about bossmen jetting out of town, which clearly refers to the auto execs -- who most Michiganders I know seem apologetic for.)

You're correct--that was Kucinich. A big WTF moment for me. But Kristofferson is such a well-known lefty I guess the video was meant to be bi-partisan.

So what do people here know/think about O.B. McClinton? Unsuccesssful soul singer/semi-successful soul songwriter from Mississippi, crossed over to country (sometime calling himself "The Chocolate Cowboy") in the early '70s and had a passel of not-very-high-charting hits between 1972 and 1987 (most promising title: "Honky Tonk Tan," 1984), the not-so-big biggest of them coming at the very beginning -- "Don't the Green Grass Fool You" (#37) and "My Whole World Is Falling Down" (#36) in '72. Apparently recorded three country albums for Stax subsidiary Enterprise, and a few later ones for a few other labels. Died of cancer at age 47 in 1987.

Got his 1974 If You Loved Her That Way for my usual going price of $1 at a flea market last month, and it's good. Two songs about good wanton women, though in one of them ("Clean Your Own Tables") she's just called a barmaid instead, but that's okay because (I'm paraphasing from memory) "She' not what you'd call an All-American girl" and "I'm not what you call an All-American Boy, I've done time in San Francisco and L.A."; in the one where the woman is actually called wanton, her name is Dixie, and she was like a Mama to O.B., so he's not going to stand for anybody running down Dixie -- a pretty twisted metaphor, somehow, coming from a black country singer, not unlike the minstrely blackface phrasing ("when my self is feelin' low") in "Little Green Apples" by O.C. Smith, another early '70s black country singer I often confuse O.B. with (and you can throw Southern soul guy O.V. Wright in there too.) There's also "If You Loved Her That Way" (where O.B. blames the infidelity of a friend's wife on the friend's inattention to her), a decent cover of "Lean On Me" that reminds me that Bill Withers had country leanings as well, and a great cut called "Hallelujah" that seems like an example of its own unnamed genre -- spoken more like a sermon than a gospel song; a few verses detailing bad stuff going on in the congregation (a marriage splitting up, a man looking down on the neighbors in his new neighborhood), separated by a recurring chorus about "hallelujah -- save us again" (the chorus of which reminds me of "Hallelujah I'm a Bum," but I have a feeling it might be related to some other template I've just never noticed before). And O.B. has more soul music in his singing, overall, than Darius Rucker or Cleve Francis (maybe even Charlie Pride) if not Lionel Richie or Ray Charles or Dobie Gray or Big Al Downing when they made country moves.

Also been listening to the car radio a lot in the past few days. Love Kenny Chesney's "Out Last Night" -- seems like the most fun thing he's done in years, after he starting getting a little depressing and rolling up in an acoustic ball in his blue chair and I stopped paying attention so much (which means I may have missed something, but this is still good.)

Have come to truly hate the ubiquitous George Strait hit about "rolling down the river of love," but I've come to like Montgomery Gentry's unusually laid-back, somehow almost early '70s Grateful Dead-feeling (though melodically partly Counting Crows reminscent) "Roll With Me" a lot, which proves I have nothing against rolling per se'. And I also have nothing against George Strait per se' -- I've come to like his hit "Troubador," too (even though K'Naaan has a way better Troubador album.)

Then there are songs they probably only play on the radio here and not anywhere else. Jason Boland and the Stragglers' '08 album track "Comal County Blues" is on the air enough to count as a legit hit in my mind (seems to be about an Austinite who moves south to the Texas country but comes back into town at night to drive the streets and relive old good times when he feels depressed), and I like it, though I've never heard Boland otherwise. Heard a song on the Triple A station the other day that sounded kind of like James McMurtry and had the guy talking in a gruff voice over a killer "Symphathy For The Devil" groove (with rock guitars building like a coastal storm) about how much he liked the bayou, but they didn't back-announce it, and I'm not even sure what title to google to find out. Also don't think I ever heard this great old honky-tonk song "Bloody Mary Morning" before -- Google says Willie Nelson has the most famous version, but I'm fairly positive the rendition I heard on the air last week wasn't him.

Also heard an awesome, apparently '80s local late-new-wave bar-band dance-craze hit "Earthquake Shake" last night by a band I never heard of before called the Skunks (link below.) Shades of, I dunno, "The Meltdown" by Root Boy Slim and His Sex Change Band" or something dumb like that. Plus they apparently cover "Sister Ray" on the MySpace, it looks like:

http://www.myspace.com/theskunkstx