Rolling Country 2009 Thread

"Other stuff is going down too. Possibly even the guy."
--Chuck Eddy, ILX

So how come nobody has ever told me about David Lee Murphy's "Dust On The Bottle," which apparently (according to AMG) topped the country chart in 1995? "Love Potion No. 9" plot (though actually the love potion is well-aged homemade wine, which is consumed by two frisky young lovers in a vehicle a la Megan Munroe's moonshine) set to a funky "Sweet Home Alabama" riff/groove, and with an opening line about what seems to be an old black man (one Creole Williams who lives down the back road) in the great tradition of Merle's Uncle Lem or Tom T.'s Clayton Delaney. Okay, not as great as those. But still good.

Not sure if I've ever heard any other songs by David Lee Murphy (who apparently hasn't had a hit for a few years.) Anybody know how good is oeuvre is/was?

Read Frank's review of the Aldean single, and while I basically agree there's nothing interesting about the singing and words, I do get the idea that riffs in a few of his hits seem to be reaching a density (or whatever) that even Big N Rich's and Montgomery Gentry's guitars haven't, quite. Which isn't to say his songs are anywhere near as good as their best (though John Rich helped write "Hicktown.") "She's Country" does sound great on a car radio, though.

Anybody who hasn't read the Boxmasters writeup on George's blog, should. It's inspired. Hope Billy Bob gets to read it and takes note of the Mott stuff.

Frank mentioned The-Dream's album above, which has nothing to do with country otherwise. But so what, I tracked through it on Rhapsody the other day anyway, to try to figure out what the big deal is. I didn't figure it out, though. It's nice The-Dream has a high voice, I suppose; it'd be better if he used it to make his music as pretty as, say, Ne-Yo's (much less Debarge's, or the Stylistics', or any number of more forgetten soul hacks.) There are "interesting production touches" here and there, maybe, but none that kept me all that interested. And Bobbie Gentry did a way better song called "Fancy" (Reba McEntire, too), and the Angry Samoans did a way better song called "Right Side Of My Brain." (They said "Mind" instead of "Brain," but why split hairs?) So: shrug.

And the Police did a better song called "Walking On The Moon," duh. Pretty sure some soulish reggae woman did a good cover of that in the '80s, too -- Sheila Hynton, maybe? Was that her name? -- but Google is no help. Did learn that Janie Fricke, another '80s/'90s country singer I know nothing about, had a song with that title, though. Can't vouch for whether it was better than The-Dream's.

Ah...found it. Right artist (Sheila Hynton), wrong Police cover ("Bed's Too Big Without You.") Still stand by the rest, though.

For current momentary but timely musical entertainment, The Internal Revenue Boogie, done a couple years ago, but undated.

Thanks, think I'll pass on that one (just like a kidney stone) Megan sounds like my kinda gal (musically too). As uaual a lot of my list frontrunners so far are reissues, but not of anything that was really all that prev issued: Death's ..For The Whole World To See; The Tiffany Transcriptions (first time all ten volumes/150 songs have all been in one set, rat? May not have all been on CDs before-- great remastering, anyway); Chris Darrow's twofer, s/t with Under My Own Disguise. from the early 70s, post- or late-psychedelic folk/country rock I'd say: he reaps the whirlwind, under inpenterable cloud cover, but re-orientation is no prob: dense but clear, as xgau said of Meltzer's best writing, And no up-in-lights oh wow factor, cause no lights. Lots of stuff going on, but mainly what gets me is voice-keyboards-bass-drums in the pocket, like on Fotheringay 2, Jessi Colter's Out Of The Ashes, Tell Tale Signs (and some other Dylan tracks, much older than Tell Tale Signs' outtakes, like "Ballad of a Thin Man"/"Dear Landlord"/"Down Along The Cove"/"If Dogs Run Free"/"Dirge") Vocally, a bit like Michael Nesmith, but this guy can hold a note as long as he wants to, and flex it too (might be some of that Middle Eastern in his alma mater, Kaleidoscope, but he always sounds like a cowboy, incl in UK with maybe some of the same people on Fotheringay 2, come to think of it-- although some of the "UK" vibe turns out to be from the L.A. sessions,a nd vice versa)

So does Cal Smith (or Hank Thompson, or Bill Anderson, or all of the above since they all apparently sang it) have many other songs as great as "The Lord Knows I'm Drinkin'," which the Boxmasters cover on their new album? If so, I have clearly been neglectful in not teaching myself about said fellows, since it is my new favorite song that's been around forever without me hearing it:

Hello Mrs Johnson you self righteous woman
Sunday School teacher what brings you out slummin'
Do you reckon the preacher would approve where you are
Standing here visitin' with a back slidin' Christian in a neighborhood bar

Well yes that's my bottle and yes that's my glass
And I see you're eye ballin' this pretty young lass
It ain't none of your business but yes she's with me
And we don't need no sermon you self righteous woman just let us be

Goodbye Mrs. Johnson you self righteous biddy
I don't need your preachin' and I don't need your pity
So go back to whatever you hypocrites do

Also curious whether it's Mel McDaniel's or Amazing Rhythm Aces' arrangement of "Big Ole Brew" that Billy Bob and his bros are interpreting. (Any recommendations on any of these artists are welcome.)

Ah suspect Amazing Rhythm Ace's first LP was best (blanking on title); best I've heard, although all had some good stuff (worth digging through 99c crates) and I got a Russell Smith promo several years ago was pretty decent; he's still got that tight little--voice.

One obvious thing that nobody mentioned in our discussion above about Southerners moving to Detroit is that there have actually been songs about it -- most obviously "Detroit City" by Bobby Bare (by day he makes the cars and by night he makes the bars then dreams of the cotton fields back home), and now I've got this Isaac Payton Sweat LP called Cotton Eyed Joe And Other Bandstand Favorites and it's got a song on it called "Goodbye Motor City" where the guy says he's been installing windshields on the assembly line for 18 years but, again, misses the cotton fields, and is about to quit his job and move to Mobile. (Not sure if Sweat did it originally, or it's a cover, like most of the other tracks on the Sweat LP. Google is no help.)

Google's not much help in finding out more about Isaac Payton Sweat, either. He doesn't even have a Wiki page, and he's not mentioned in the country album guides I've got. AMG lists a couple albums, but has no writeupd. Did just find a myspace page, though, that says he died in 1990; the album I bought for $1 last week is the second one down:

http://www.myspace.com/isaacpaytonsweat

The album looks really homemade, cut-rate. Back cover is basically an ad for Lone Star beer. At the Austin Record Convention one dealer had about 40 sealed copies, which makes me theorize maybe it was sold at dancehalls here but nobody bought it. Thing is, Sweat's version of "Cotton Eye Joe" was seemingly some kind of hit, since it's one of ten country line-dance songs this K-Tel compilation CD from 1995 I've got called Country Kickers, and most of the rest are actual familiar hits. I guess the idea is that in the middle of the song everybody yells "bullshit!," and in Sweat's version, the bullshits are actually audible. Lalena says, growing up in Houston, they'd teach the song to kids in gym class (!), and even the kids used to yell it.

Looks like there's a informative Wiki entry for "Cotton Eye Joe," by the way; haven't read the whole thing, but this stuff seems pretty interesting:

The precise origins of this song are unclear, although it predates the American Civil War...Cotton-eyed Joe, on occasion referred to as "the South Texas National Anthem", was played for minstrel-type jigs, and has long been popular as a square dance hoedown and a couple dance polka. During the first half of the twentieth century the song was a widely known folk song all over English-speaking North America. One Discography lists 134 recorded versions released since 1950...A list of the possible meanings of the term "cotton eyed" that have been proposed includes: to be drunk on moonshine, or to have been blinded by drinking wood alcohol, turning the eyes milky white; a black person with very light blue eyes; someone whose eyes were milky white from bacterial infections of Trachoma or syphilis, cataracts or glaucoma; and the contrast of dark skin tone around white eyeballs in black people...A 1967 instrumental version of the song by Al Dean, who recalled the song called "The Gingerbread Man" in South Texas, inspired a new round dance polka for couples.

I swear somebody told me once that the song was actually about an abortionist, but I don't know where that information came from. Wiki is silent on the issue:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton-Eyed_Joe

Otherwise, pretty hilarious exchange about the band Alabama's classic fashion sense on another thread this morning:

sort of appreciate a band that dresses as if a VFW league softball game was going to break out at any minute

― 4,000 hoes in blackburn, lancashire (M@tt He1ges0n)

yeah i think a VFW softball game is OTM. or maybe a VFW pancake breakfast.

― tylerw, Friday, 17 April 2009

whenever I drive through Muscle Shoals I'm tempted to stop at the Alabama Music Hall of Fame because they claim to have an Alabama (the band) tour bus inside, which I bet has awesome koozies and some seriously comfortable furniture inside.

― Euler, Friday, 17 April 2009

Most Horribly Rong One Star Rating from the 1982 Rolling Stone Record Guide, Part 1

From Isaac Payton Sweat's myspace:

Ikey played bass on the Johnny Winter's Columbia Record release "White, Hot & Blue", a very successful album. Then he went "psychedelic" in the days of blacklights, posters, and long hair. Those days found musicians jumping from band to band without much loyalty or fear of unemployment. When he switched to country music he considered himself the original country "outlaw" when he had the beard and Willie Nelson was still in Nashville with a military haircut. Sweat cut his hair and began playing conservative country. In 1981 he had his own band, but preferred to be a singer and not a leader.

MR "COTTON EYED JOE" Sweat cut a vocal version of the Al Dean instrumental standard "Cotton Eyed Joe" which became a big regional hit. In 1980 everyone was doing "The Cotton Eyed Joe". Isaac WAS "Mr. COTTON EYED JOE".

Ikey did not like, or understand the business side of the record industry and felt that he didn't get what he deserved from his best selling recording. However, it was said that he had recorded the song for a flat fee and no royalties were due. Without a valid contract he was free to re-record the song for PAID RECORDS in 1981. When he got his first royalty check from PAID RECORDS he said that out of all the recordings he had made, that was the first time he had ever received any royalties.

"I find the most unusual thing is that the gun, sunglasses and keys all were near the left hand," Geick said. "If he were to commit suicide, he certainly wouldn't use his left hand, holding the sunglasses and keys, if he were right-handed.' Friends and relatives said recently that Sweat, despite some regional success, sometimes was despondent over his failure to make it big in country music. But they said the 25-year musician would not have committed suicide.

His widow was arrested, but murder charges were dropped two years later for lack of evidence.

http://userpages.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/song.html

Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2000 10:43:06 -0500
From: Amelia Carr
Subject: Re: songs about abortion

Michelle Shocked's song Prodigal Daughter on the CD Arkansas Traveler is about a woman who had an abortion. The reference is a little bit obscure,
and involves her reading of the old folksong "Cotton-Eyed Joe." When I heard her sing this in concert, Michelle went through a long and pretty convincing rap about the Cotton-Eyed Joe with its verses like:

I could have been married a long time ago
If it hadn't a-been for Cotton eyed joe

However, I've heard lots of versions of Cotton-Eyed Joe, and I think it's one of those songs that can absorb improvised verses that might take it far away from Shocked's interpretation. A number of current rock-a-billy versions turn the Cotton-Eyed Joe into an actual person, a temptation to women. Perhaps it boils down to the same thing?

Holy shit, new album by country singer Colin Raye starts out like a cross between "American Band" and "Urgent" -- he lets the hard rock guitar and cowbell play for half a minute at the beginning before he even starts singing. Total butt-rock, and "Mid-Life Chrysler" (great title) later throws its butt around, too. Also covers Nilsson ("Without You") and Stealer's Wheel ("Stuck In The Middle With You"). And sings like Don Henley throughout. Who the hell is this guy? He had hits in the '90s, right?

New albums by Meat Puppets and Steve Forbert not so hot, though. Former has a couple perty guitar solos, I suppose, but just seems majorly lacking in energy otherwise. Latter may deserve another listen; "Beast Of Ballyhoo (Rock Show)" and "Labor Day '08" didn't sound that bad, plus he covers that old Anthology Of American Folk Music ditty "Coo Coo." And sounds more like Arlo Guthrie than I'd remembered.

Hot Country Songs: "Shuttin Detroit Down" #14, Kenny "Out Last Night" #16, "High Cost Of Living" #40, "The Climb" #41, "Runaway" # 43, Jack Ingram "Barefoot and Crazy" (still need to check that out) #46, Trace "Til The Last Shot Fired" debut at #50 (with "Marry For Money" still at #17), Hank Jr. "Red White and Pink Slip Blues (haven't heard, assume it counts as recession country) #60.

Steve Forbert album sounds good somehow. It has a kind of groove, and seems to pull off its darker, more minor-key parts convincingly; haven't figured it out yet. And actually he sings more like a more relaxed (but somehow not lethargic) Tom Petty (sort of the way he always did) than like Arlo; it's just that "Stolen Identity" borrows its melody from "City Of New Orleans." If there are memorable songs here, it's entirely possible this could be a good album. No idea if Forbert's ever made one before; maybe he's one of those rare old pros like Rick Springfield who has actually improved with age. Or maybe he was just inspired by Keith Urban covering "Romeo's Tune" (and Taylor Swift rewriting it?) Or maybe the album stinks; still not sure yet.

Collin Raye album doesn't stink, and seems to have actual songs with interesting plots and stuff to go with the funky music. "Where It Leads" sounds great so far, too. Good chance this is the best album I've heard all year, at least based on three listens.

National Record Store Day has its own thread now, and good for it, but I'll mention a couple of country-oriented press releases: the first is really just an excuse to plug Dale Watkins' new The Truckin' Sessions: Volume Two, available tomorrow (ahead of street date) at Waterloo Records in Austin and Cactus Music in Houston. And Dale's two-hour "trucker appreciation" concert at Willie's Place in Carl's Corner, TX will be re-broadcast tomorrow (Sat) night 10 P.M. CST on Sirius XM Outlaw Country. I dunno, I couldn't get in to that album last year or was it 07, where he sang about "Yellow Mamma" (the 'electric chair at one of our fine Alabama institutions [Kilby, I think], although he didn't bother to explain the reference and the intended vibey enigma just seemed vague). Mainly, he wants to sing about some Very Bad Things but too obviously also just wants to be liked, to be a bro. But he might do okay with truckin' songs, and vice versa (at least as edutainment, since I don't have many truckin' songs, except "Truckin'" of course.)Big endorsement from Willie Nelson also included. Also a plug for Seth Walker, whose new album, Leap of Faith "packs in Sam Cooke soul, Kansas City jump blues, rustic country blues, Percy Mayfield and Bo Diddley rhythms." Any good at it though?

The other press release, from Lost Highway Records, has more about National Record Store Day festivities and sez, "Find partipatiing stores here. For you Nashvillians out there, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears will be performing at Grimey's New & Pre-Loved Music this Saturday at 3:15! And stick around for other bands performing Yazoo Brew, No Name Barbeque (are these bands or brands? since we're gonna have a list of other bands in just a sec)and meet the fine people from United Record Pressing. Also performing: The Avett Brothers, Stardeath and White Dwarfs (led by nephew of Wayne Coyne, but debut full-length The Birth is a bit psych-proto-metal sometimes, or at least fearlessly logging bad with good trips, more than Uncle Wayne's Flaming Lips; pretty slick though), Michigan City Vandals, DeRobert & The Half-Truths, Charlie Louvin, Del McCoury, Royal Bangs, Mute Math, The Ettes (blue ribbon for best name!)

re "Cotton Eye Joe"
I guess the idea is that in the middle of the song everybody yells "bullshit!," and in Sweat's version, the bullshits are actually audible. Lalena says, growing up in Houston, they'd teach the song to kids in gym class (!), and even the kids used to yell it.

This is true, and I could have lived the rest of my life without the memory. What I really don't remember is what the hell was going on in gym that we needed music, and I'm starting to be afraid that the answer is "Square Dancing". maybe it was 'parachute dancing'.

Parachute dancing? As in parachute pants? Can't touch this!

http://www.pecentral.org/lessonideas/ViewLesson.asp?ID=8735

this is relevant to the thread because the link suggest Brad Paisley.

There is a great big Parachute. I don't know where they came from or why they are at schools. I really didn't want to remember.

everybody holds around the edges, and then it is raises and lowered? sometimes you stand outside and sometimes inside? right foot out? other foot in?

wtf, IDK.

I'm starting to be afraid that the answer is "Square Dancing". maybe it was 'parachute dancing'

Lalena (who tried to explain parachute dancing to me as well -- maybe you went to the same school) says the song "Cotton Eyed Joe" was played to teach kids neither square nor parachute dancing, but rather -- not surprisingly -- the Cotton Eyed Joe (dance) itself.

Forbert album not gonna kick in after all; forget I mentioned it. (More interesting than the new Tanya Tucker, though.)

Okay, this is going to sound really dumb, but in "South's Gonna Do It Again" when Charlie says "Barefoot Jerry and CDB," I always just assumed Barefefoot Jerry was a nickname for Jerry Jeff Walker. But I was just paging through the All Music Guide To Country (print edition -- website always way too slow anyway) to read the entries on Collin Raye, David Lee Murphy, Hank Thompson (most popular Western Swing musician of the '50s and '60s, I had no idea!), and I accidentally stumble across the entry for Barefoot Jerry, and it turns out they were a '70s band in and of themselves, some kind of spinoff of Area Code 615 (who I've also still only heard one song by I think). So...has anybody ever heard them? Were they any good? And is there a more obscure band mentioned in a country song that famous?

And incidentally, the new Collin Raye isn't all butt-rock, though I'll be surprised if the three most butt-rockin' tracks don't wind up being my favorite cuts, seeing as how they also seem to have the most interesting plotlines: one (I think) about a couple smuggling drugs across the border, one about a guy who works out his midlife crisis with his wife of 25 years while all his buddies his age are sowing wilder oats, one where a guy and gal hit the road west semi-successfully hunting for dancing jobs for her in Vegas and wind up on a riverboat outside Cincinnati instead. And in all three songs, details flesh out the plots and make them more interesting than I just have. Plus there's the two decently done covers (Nilsson classic** I always mistake for "All By Myself" by Eric Carmen, Stealer's Wheel classic I always mistake for "Mama Told Me Not To Come" by Randy Newman). Plus three slow and possibly sappy but halfway promising anyway songs involving Jesus which I so far have mixed feelings about, including one involving a convenience store holdup and one that I think might involve a handicapped child* but I'm not sure yet. Plus what I assume so far are love-type ballads (12 - 3 - 2 - 3 = 4 of those I guess), though they will inevitably take longer to sink in.

Lalena, who likes Raye's phrasing too, says it's probably only the grain of his voice that's reminding me of Henley, not so much how he sings. Though I swear there's something blatantly '80s- Henleyesque about the drug-smuggle song, i.e., lead cut that starts out cowbelling like "American Band." Something about the dancing-girl one. "Where It Leads," keeps bringing to mind mid-period (i.e., when they were good) Drive-By Truckers, but I'm not sure yet whether it's the melody, the pacing, or what. (Worth noting the album was recorded in Muscle Shoals, and Raye gets considerably more funk into this music than Jason Isbell got into his this year, Sings better, too.)

* -- Just checked press one-sheet; says "his severely neurologically ill granddaughter." It's the closing cut, sparest and most reserved music on the album. And so far, it hasn't made me gag.

** - "Duet with Grammy nominee Susan Ashton," whoever she is

-----

Also, surprised to find (especially after what I wrote here a few days ago), that I'm liking the new Pete Berwick album a lot more than the new Black Angel album, which feels too long and too redudant and too lackadaisical. Not sure whether it's that Berwick's voice isn't deadwood after all, or whether he just knows how to give his deadwood bite anyway -- at least enough bite to make the songwriting, which has a lot of hard-assed renegade fuckup humor that somebody like Eric Church could relate to, sink in. (His album cover, visible at the link below, should give you a pretty good idea where he's coming from):

http://www.myspace.com/peteberwick

Actually, seven love and Jesus ballads (eight when you include the Nilsson "Without You" cover) out of 12 is not a promising percentage, obviously. So far they haven't gummed up the works, though, which isn't to say they won't down the line if they don't sink in. (Can always skip over them either of way, of course, which I've already done a couple times.)

And don't think Henley solo ever rocked as hard as Raye's "Never Going Back" -- well maybe that "I Will Not Go Quietly" song he did with Axl; I'm not sure.

Collin Raye's Myspace (where you can hear most of the songs I've been talking about, though the album doesn't street until 4-28):

http://www.myspace.com/collinraye

His last top 10 country single, according to AMG, was "Couldn't Last A Moment" nine years ago. Had four #1's and a bunch of other top 10's in the '90s. Assume I must have heard some of those; just wasn't paying attention to who was singing, probably. AMG writeup refers to Extremes from 1994 as "harder rocking" than his other albums; so maybe beyond a best-of album, that's the one to look for.

Another '90s-associated country guy I didn't pay much attention to at the time but feel I should go back sometime and investigate is Hal Ketchum, who my mailman here is a big fan of. In 1992 I wrote the following review of one of his singles in Radio On, which rereading it makes him sound possibly intriguing, but I've never checked him out further:

Hal Ketchum, "Past The Point Of Rescue": Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to talk to you again. (Hal feels even more depressive than John Anderson -- his guitar-drone is on par hauntingness-wise at least, and that title could almost be a Stacey Q line. But John beats Hal in the tunefulness department.) (7.5)

The depressive John Anderson song I was referring to is the first one below:

John Anderson, "When It Comes To You": Achieves the gloom Alan Jackson merely aims for, and does it with Dire Straits blues guitars (7.5); "Straight Tequila Night" (6.5).

I underrated "Straight Tequila Night," which I heard on the radio the other day. Great song; I'd probably give it an 8.0 now. And, uh, the gloomy Alan Jackson song I was referring to is the second one below:

Alan Jackson, "Don't Rock The Jukebox": George Jones suckup bullshit (1.5); "Midnight In Montgomery": Neotrad goth-rock (5.0).

So far, Booker T's new Potato Hole, with backing by Neil Young and Truckers, is flipping my wig: crunch 'n' roll, with keyboard from sea to wine-dark sea. Ah say as a fan: I didn't know the Truckers had it in 'em, and "it" incl such heartflecks as Booker T selects from his cover of their "Space City," the Grand Finale, no less, though it doesn't lose any of the rocking chair reflections of those big lights far off. (That's way after "Hey Ya" takes the top of my head off, and "Native New Yorker" keeps it off) Guess the most of these spoils me enough to take or leave a few, but so what. So far, dayyyyum.

I listened again to some of their other stuff, and of course the Truckers had it in 'em, and sometimes they gave it up--I just forgot (sorry)

More questions about '80s/'90s country artists for everything to ignore! Anybody know these artists?

These are from a singles column ("45 Revelations") that Ken Barnes did in Creem when it was on its second-to-last legs in the late '80s. I have never heard of either singer, but he makes the songs sound really inticing:

Jay Booker "The Mule Won't Move": It isn't news anymore when country mines a rockabilly vein, but when it starts recalling the Rolling Stones covering Solomon Burke ("Everybody Needs Somebody To Love," to be precise), then you've got something extraordinary.

David Lynn Jones "Bonnie Jean": As rockin' a trucker song as you could want, with a nasty reverb guitar and hard-driving sax. Mick Ronson's entry into country production is a winner (and a hit).

(It went #10 country, according to AMG, and Jones's only three subsequent charting singles went #14 then #36 then #66. Booker's#61 hit was a different song, called "Red Hot Sweater." AMG doesn't even list an album for Booker, and there are none for sale on amazon. Jones's '87 Hard Times On Easy Street apparently went #28 country in 1987, not too shabby, but the copies on amazon cost a pretty penny.)

Barnes also says he's obssessed with Baillie & the Boys, who I have vague memories of hearing back then. He calls "He's Letting Go" "a slow-building, taut and tense tale of disillusion/disolution, very much like co-writers Pam Rose and Mary Ann Kennedy's magnificent 'Somebody Else's Fire' (a Janie Fricke hit a couple years back)."

I don't think hardly any other "rock" critics were even paying attention in 1988. I sure wasn't, and more and more I feel like I might have missed a lot.

Interesting stray Pazz & Jop column from the same year (1988) that I thought was completely ridiculous at the time. Maybe it was; maybe it wasn't:

I've been listening seriously to country because it seems to me that the 'new country' contains more of the elements of true rock & roll than most of what's on the pop charts: the simiplicity, the immediacy, the commitment to a feeling. Even formally speaking, there are more TRUE rock & roll records on country radio today than on CHR or AOR radio. (Who rocks more: Highway 101 or Rush; Patty Loveless or Whitney Houston?)

ANASTASIA PANTSIOS
Cleveland

Except I'm pretty sure I've never fully believed that "simplicity" is a hallmark of "true" rock & roll. And I also never really liked Patty Loveless much (though maybe I just missed her best stuff).

Highway 101 was okay, though tried to replace the lead singer *after* establishing selves with her; does that ever work (not talking about early-ass lead singers, like the guy before Bloom in BOC). But "rocks more"? if it mattered, Rush (though a Canadian female label person tells me they were always " boys' band," so I would pick them, except I often prefer female lead singers). Patty Loveless can be pungent on occasion (although a lot of country music was most popular on cassettes, which tended to have typical 80s cheese, like the synth on Dolly Parton's version of Woody G.'s "Deportee," although it kind of worked anyway. Either that, or it would be intended as Real Country, thus thin beer on 80s cassettes, not that I don't have good 80s cassettes, but usually not ones aimed at toppermost of the poppermost)

Bluegrass alert: I've been spinning Brothers From Different Mothers, the new album from Dailey & Vincent, released at the end of March by Rounder. These guys have fantastic harmonies. While they possess a touch of modern Nashville, they also recall the classic brother duos: Louvins, Blue Sky Boys, Monroes, Everlys, etc. Great fusion of past and present. I'm just really blown away that they AREN'T brothers.

http://www.myspace.com/thedaileyvincentband

I wrote about Keith Urban's newest album for PopMatters: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/73078-keith-urban-defying-gravity/

It's a spiel about the album as romantic fantasy. I've been enjoying hearing it on that level, as a dream.

okay, what the fuck is happening with john rich?

Um...Welcome back, Anthony! But care to elaborate on what precisely you're referring to? (There's lots and lots on John Rich upthread. Still haven't heard the whole album myself, though.)

re: john rich

a) the fights, the law suits, the drinking, the sneaking underage girls into lower broadway bars, the ambigious marriage, the coke, the whole mccain stuff, the whole homophobic daddy stuff, what ever is happening with john anderson, etc etc i read the upthread john rich stuff, but this seems like the possbility of a book, or at least one of those late 70s rock exposes no one ever writes or publishes anymore.

and since i am here:

adam gregory is a nice suburban kid, from st albert, who has been flirting with american success for half a decade, he has been playing since he was 12. not v. interesting, thought charting on a dance remix is nice.

sissy's song by jackson, is there anything interesting there at all?

i really love eric church, and have written about him a bit, i think it is is voice more then his politics.

my review of the john rich should be up this week, the only real country writing i have done all year, though i got a big interview with the (niche/cult) lutheran singer songwriter johnathon rundman at killing the buddha--nice guy, brilliant writer.

i got into graduate school and moved to toronto, and decided ilx was a time dump that made me lazy, and chart/alt country both have really bored me, it seems to be in a semi major lull, and my ears must be broken because i am genuinely confounded by all the love for jamey johnson. (i also sort of realised how reactionary most of the genre, at least politcally, and i sort of got sad by that and took a break)

chuck, when i am next in austin (maybe next year) (gonna be in slc next year, and detroit in october, and upstate ny this year) can we go to cinch or the rainbow cattle company.

i presented this at the pop culture assoc of america conference this year, in new orleans (i love new orleans, more then any american city i have been to, a lot like montreal, cheap and fun, with handsome men, drinking on the streets, and an overlay of catholic aesthetics.

http://pinkmoose.blogspot.com/2009/04/in-last-few-years-country-music-has.html

not jon anderson ashley jordan

the fights, the law suits, the drinking, the sneaking underage girls into lower broadway bars, the ambigious marriage, the coke...the whole homophobic daddy stuff...ashley jordan

I know basically nothing about any of this stuff (assuming any of it has any actual truth to it); tend not to read the tabloids. Any way to give us a thumbnail rundown of what allegedly has happened when, or at least a link where one can read about it?

one of those late 70s rock exposes no one ever writes or publishes anymore.

I read Hammer of The Gods a long time ago. But mostly I don't care much about rock stars' personal lives. (Never read The Dirt, even -- really, what's more boring than coke and groupies?) Not sure if I'd make an exception for John Rich.

i really love eric church... voice more then his politics

He seems really uneven to me, but yeah, when he's good he's really good. (About third to half of his new album, maybe, which isn't as good as his first one.) Know basically nothing about his politics, beyond that completely cryptic (to me) "little more right and little less left" line on his new album.

cinch or the rainbow cattle company

Don't even know these places (I'm really new here, and don't get out as much as I probably should), but sure, I'll meet up somewhere.

i always like sexy scandals, the lurid, and god knows country could use some roughing up.

i loved the dirt!

did you ever hear the eric church song "she won't leave my willie alone", naughty record styore double entendre song, really funny.

two big gay country bars.

Do they serve Stella on tap?

Anyway, my wife was asking me about a song called something like "She Won't Leave My Willie Alone" that she heard a couple times on the Texas-country (as opposed to commercial country) station here, but she thought it was by somebody other than Eric (who she knowsmainly because of my T-shirt that says "I Don't Like To Fight But I Ain't Scared To Bleed" on it, which I embarrassingly wore to the 20th Annual Cotton Gin Festival in Burton over the weekend, where the cotton and hay made my allergies go crazy and the local sausage was disappointing -- not kraut, wtf? -- but the polka band was kinda cool.)

Haven't heard the song myself...

Oops, correction -- Lalena says the song she heard was actually "DON'T TOUCH My Willie," by Kevin Fowler. Whole lotta willies going on apparently.

(And I meant "no kruat, wtf?", obviously.)

Also better than those Buck Cherry albums (which were ridiculously spotty, truth be told -- they could use a best-of someday if that ballad hit last year didn't suck so bad): Michael Stanley Band, Heartland (1980, $1). George had made me a real good CD-R called The Thumbnail Michael Stanley a few years back, highlighting what I took to be his hardest rocking songs, but the only one from this LP that's on there seems to be his early-Bryan Adams/Rick Springfield-type hard pop smash "He Can't Love You" (Stanley's biggest hit -- went to #33) -- which might not even be the best track here, and definitely isn't the hardest rocking. Really like the tough Diddley beat "Working Again," the even bigger-rhythmed "Voodoo," and the midwestern praire rocker (as in Head East/REO) "Save A Little Piece For Me" (where "save a little piece" sounds more like "sentimental bitch"). And "All I Ever Wanted" hits me as some kind of middle ground between Mitch Ryder (he's listening to a Detroit station, like when Mitch covered the Velvets' "Rock and Roll") and Eddie Money nostalgia classics like "Take Me Home Tonight" from a few years later. A couple extremely furry mustaches in the band, too. Still doesn't seem to have broken them far beyond Cleveland much more than momentarily, though. (On the CD-R that George made, last time I checked, my favorite tracks were "Rosewood Bitters" -- Joe Walsh on guitar I believe, "Heavy Weight," "He Can't Love You," "Hard Time," near-hit "My Town," and "Fire In The Hole.")

(Oops, that was meant for the rolling hard rock thread! Still kinda applies here though, in a way.)

In 70s Guide, xgau called the Michael Stanley Band "Cleveland's answer to Pere Ubu." Also, QuantumNoise, thanx for the fresh 'grass link, and speaking of that and Rounder, here's an early example of something much rarer at the time, 'tude-wise, and also rare at any time, xgau-bluegrass-approval-wise: (this is an excerpt)
"Breakfast Special:(s/t)(Rounder '79)...among citybilly archivists (bluegrass)only magnifies the usual folkie escapisms---purism and pastoral nostalgia---by encouraging mindless virtuosity. Which makes this virtuosic but eclectically streetwise record a small miracle that should delight anyone more spiritually attuned to the genre than a faithless wrietch like me. B+" So prob A- for others, unless it's been surpassed by updates. Oh yeah, and that Amazing Rhythm Aces LP I was thinking of is Stacked Deck, def the one to start with, though I liked Too Stuff To Jump more than xgau, made me think of a prematurely country radio-aimed Steely Dan (thinking a country alt-univese path for first-album-maybe-real-band Dan)

http://www.lefthip.com/albums/1187

So, here's the "what the fuck is happening with John Rich" link that Anthony posted to from poptimists. Haven't read it all (and have no idea if any of it is true), but Anthony's right -- it's pretty juicy:

http://www.nashvillegab.com/2009/03/john-rich-in-action.html

My favorite part of the recording is the end when Rich tells the guy, "Pay your taxes!"

Finally saw the "Shutting Detroit Down" video: the whole pore ole man gettin' canned bit slopped a ton of sobs on, cos lay-off of a younger guy (or gal) just wouldn't have conveyed the true sadness. And jeez, Kristofferson's played many a cooler geezer (shoulda made the foreman his final stop on the assembly line)

Agree with Don. Song's fine, video is mediocre. Kristofferson playing a wounded fired old man -- now that's a stretch. And Mickey Rourke doing a body block from "The Wrestler." Must've taken all of thirty minutes to write, block and shoot.

The entire thing was too scruffy. The plants are very modern and robotic now. Video seemed a bit like the look from "Roger & Me," only not really as good. Only "Roger & Me" was lefty voxpop and John Rich is righty voxpop, correct? Hmmm, now I'm all confused. Or more likely country is more confused, kind of like Republicans, not really getting that it's been the mass voting for right-wing policy and worship of entirely unregulated markets, crony big business and capitalism for the past eight years that's built the mess Rich is singing about.

That said, the video is great cornpone mythology for CMT and GAC.

Speaking of "Roger And Me," there was an interesting piece in the Times the other day about how Flint wants to condense its mostly barren 75 neighborhoods in 34 square miles into just a few neighborhoods to save money on municipal utilities, etc., and bulldoze the rest and reforest it. The mayor and city council members are proposing to offer that the city relocate to bigger homes residents who are still hanging on in doomed 'hoods.

Heard the Flatlanders' great Guthrie-flip-flopping recession song "Homeland Refugee" on an actual commercial radio station today (an Adult Alternative station, but still), which means it now officially qualifies as a 2009 country single by my definition (even if it's quite possibly not being played anywhere else -- in Austin, the Flatlanders count as a local band). Still haven't heard "High Cost Of Living" on the radio even once, fwiw. Also heard Pat Green's "What I'm For" for the first time on the radio today; sounded real good segued into a a live Merle "Okee," then Confederate Railroad's "Trashy Women," which has got to be most bawdily sung male country hit of the past 20 years or so, with burlesque-grind lyrics about brazen broads to match.