Rolling Country 2009 Thread

The Love Willows' MySpace says the album is coming out "Summer 2009." Songs on the MySpace seem simultaneously pale and shiny (don't know what I mean by those adjectives; weak power pop - OK, got to shut up with these oxymorons), but anyway a lot went into the songs compositionally; Hope's got a great, flexible voice, which comes across strongest when she heads towards brassy puttin'-on-the-ritz stylings, but mostly it isn't penetrating through all the popistry. Stuff could be growers, but I'm not betting the farm.

They were touring with the Veronicas and got kicked off. (Also, though they moved back to Nashville, and even though Hope would be a great country singer, they're not particularly country, unfortunately.)

I tried listening to that new Scott Miller album, and just couldn't get past the dry bland stodge of it

yeah, i don't really hear that. (miller's a lot of things, but stodgy isn't one of them. v-roys used to get drunk onstage and do judas priest tunes.) anyway, a few of his albums on sugar hill were sorta tamer, but i think the new one has a nice live sound. i don't know of anyone doing his songs, except kelly hogan a while back did a nice version of "lie i believe."

Okay, I admit it -- I'm a brainfarting idiot. The dry bland stodge I heard was on Buddy Miller's new album with his wife Julie (who were also the interesting couple interviewed in Paste). Duh.) For penance, I will make a point of checking out Scott (even though I kinda hate Judas Priest.)

buddy miller's a great sideman. i saw him and julie live once, opening for somebody, and they were pretty good. but i haven't heard the records.

The first seven seconds of Rascal Flatts "Summer Nights" sounds like Eminem in demon mode. Then it turns into Kenny Loggins trying to sound like the Jackson 5. Real good.

On a six-week trip to SE Asia, so my Country moments may be few and far between. Or maybe not - first day in Bangkok I walked into a restaurant for lunch and they were playing "Islands in the Stream" (and then "Rhinestone Cowboy", John Denver, Neil Young). Also watched some kind of video countdown from my hotel in Phuket, of US/UK pop, and Taylor Swift's "Teardrops on My Guitar" was on there at #10 as "her new single".

Keep us posted, erasingclouds. Tipsy, it's not nec. "lol alt-country" around here 100% of the time, only about 90, by my scientific calculations (or we here tend to think of it as good=indie, bad=alt, with some actual stylistic/attudinal/metabolic differences, though not that many). The following might possibly be good; thinking of old bios that claimed Dierks originally made a name in the grassroots for tours with his band and allegedly jammish-live Cross Canadian Ragweed, and the studio tracks where he gives his band augmented by some sessioneers maybe, room to flourish in between his solemn hunka pronouncements:

DIERKS BENTLEY RELEASES
iTUNES EXCLUSIVE "LIVE FROM
SOHO"

Bentley's Summer Smash "Sideways"
Pushes Towards No. One
NASHVILLE, TN - May 29, 2009 - Award winning country music singer/songwriter
Dierks Bentley will release an exclusive six song EP as part of iTunes' "LIVE FROM SOHO" series on June 2. The intimate performance was
recorded at Apple's flagship Soho store in January.
"LIVE FROM SOHO" Track Listing:
1. Feel That Fire
2. Sideways
3. I Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes
4. Life On The Run
5. Trying To Stop Your Leaving
6. Free And Easy (Down The Road I Go)
Bentley and country superstar Taylor Swift remain the only two country artists to participate
in the program, which has also featured GRAMMY winning artists such as Adele, Kings of Leon and Linkin Park.
The second single "Sideways" from Bentley's No. one debut album FEEL THAT FIRE continues to
plow its way towards the No. one spot at country radio, landing at No. five this week. Fans can catch Bentley perform at LP Field during CMA Music Fest on June 11 and on the CMT Music Awards on June 16. For
complete list of upcoming appearances and tour dates, visit www.dierks.com.

One of my earliest Ashley posts; ref to Black Sage at beginning meant to favorably contrast this very indie, prob part-time band with ability of Music Row pros to keep the thing moving, sev subsequent posts mention frustration with the production and maybe mis-guidance re material, though promo no longer extant, me not know how many songs had co-writers thrust upon her, ect, so maybe any flaws are all her fault but I really doubt they gave a 19-year old female newbie that much room (would rather have the best tracks put with brand new ones than have the version I heard finally issued in all its fardled glory, but glory there be on it)(the terms "waif" "ghostown" and "stalker," meaning her, also apply, but I seem to have applied them only in a Rollung Teenpop post referring to this post)
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Okay, Ashley: funny how Black Sage, those lovable locals, pick up the tempo, while the Nashville tracks don't know how to sustain initial interest--so many ballads, so much time. The neediness sounds convincing enough. Reading the bio after listening, re what "she still sees as an idyllic life," before her father suddenly died when she was 11 ("often the age of puberty for today's youth", says Dr Joyce Brothers), and how her family went "into freefall" after that, and "with few friends among often callous classmates," how she could look so hungrily at taken-for-granted, supposedly sweet deals of ungrateful married women. And covering Kasey Chambers' "Pony," with come-hither-when-I'm-legal drawlpretty much to the tune of Peggy Lee's "Fever"), before stalking the guy (who has a grown woman, way ahead of her)to verses that sound like Neil's "Old Man," before reaching out, falling short, trailing with a few more notes anyway, in "Satisfied."(But in between she's still sounding young and damaged, she's been "Used, passed around")Then she does find a guy! Who's as little ol' as she is, and "That's Why We Call Each Other Baby," goo-goo--but he's--Dwight Yoakam, old, bald, and a dirt sandwich (this last according to Sharon Stone). Oh man. Lucinda's "It's Over" is faster, but needs some false stops or something to go with it's thing about she can't let go. Not enough titles provided so far, but there's one that is faster and works like that should: a Terri Clark-type blowing up her self-image of poor poor pitiful me like Harry Smith's headlines, til it's lying in the street, underneath a white sheet (do a video of that). And she's in the back of "Hank's Cadillac," making him drink his coffee black, cos you just gotta make that next show, be fair to the folks, but it's not working, she's clutching his little skinny carcass to her bosom, and--oh god,maybe this thing will brainwash me, but right now it's dropping most of these High Concepts. At least "Hank's Cadillac" has some narrative. The one that sounds like it's intended to be the followup to "Satisfied" makes the usual sargasso seizure irrelevent, cos (as with "Satisfied") the chorus sounds so nice, I don't need to go anywhere else.
― don, Friday, 7 April 2006 21:58 (3 years ago)

And yeah, like Frank said (and I prev said, in 08 or 07 Nashville Scene ballot comments, if 07, on thefreelancementalists.blogspot.com, if 08, beginning of this thread) she's got stuff on her publisher's myspace and maybe elsewhere, and that Raconteurs track featuring her and Ricky Skaggs is pretty sweet too. Think I liked The Love Willows tracks they posted better than Frank does, but been a while since I listened. Theirs is another album been a longgg time coming. Why did they get kicked off the Veronicas tour?!

Ryan, posting on the Love Willows' MySpace blog:

as you’ve probably heard by now, the veronicas have indeed kicked us off the rest of the spring/summer tour. there were a few myspace bulletin postings from hope and from the veronicas on friday, after we received the final word from our management that we were removed from the tour. the bulletins caused quite a bit of stir on the myspace. the veronicas stated in a bulletin, "we didn't kick them off the tour, we were never even made aware they were ever 'promised' the entire 3 months!!" well, whether they were aware or not, we had contracts with the venues, as well as billing on the venue's websites and promotional flyers. from my understanding, the headlining band has the final word on who is, or who is not, on the tour. the fact that we share the same booking agency should further my point. would our booking agents remove us? we were very much in the dark as to why we were dropped from the tour. maybe the veronicas thought our sound was a little too pop? or maybe because we didn't wear all black? or that we actually had a stage show and took the time to create stage props? or that we had, new ('09) merchandise? we're still yet to get a clear cut reason, answer, or explanation, but by reading through some of the myspace comments and doing a little 'googling' of my own, i found out for myself that they have replaced us with a band called carney. oddly enough, that's lisa's boyfriend's band ;)! is that what we do now?! does that sound like coincidence or a decision made by the veronicas? you tell me. i find all of this very disrespectful and upsetting. we had such a blast on the last two weeks, we were really looking forward to the two months of touring, seeing you guys, and making new fans. we actually had quite a few other engagements in and around these dates that were supposed to coincide with each other, which we'll now have to cancel. we also turned down other tour opportunities to be on the veronicas' tour, which we can't get back, because those spots have already been filled. hopefully we can make up for it and catch you guys soon!

-ryan/tlw

Don't think anyone here has talked about Tim Wilson. For some reason, when I was looking for a stream of Merle Haggard's "Wishing All These Old Things Were New" I got a link to Wilson's "But I Could Be Wrong," which has nothing to do with Haggard other than that they're both country and both purvey attitudes, Haggard's attitudes being a million times more nuanced but not altogether different. Wilson's a country music comedian, and the song from start to finish repeats "I'm tired of ______'s ass" doing something Wilson doesn't like, the blank filled in successively with the names of celeb after celeb that Wilson calculates the country audience will feel alienated from. I find it offensive, naturally enough, but I also find it more powerful than you'd think from my description, the maniacally dogged repetitiveness (both music and lyrics) gathering force as the song goes on, the lyrics edging a bit towards more all-purpose destructiveness. Is from 2007, but I thought I'd link it anyway.

Yeah, he's a cunning one, saw some amazingly messed-up video of his the other day, gotta see it again before trying to describe. For those who might be curious about Hope Partlow's backstory here's my Love Willows preview from an earlier tour:
The Love Willows are Ryan Wilson and Hope Partlow, who scored her first music biz deal in 2002, when she was fourteen. This Virgin Records contract was cancelled two months after her industriously engaging debut album, "Who We Are", finally emerged in 2005. The Love Willows' "Hey! Hey!" set is still pending, but their "Falling Faster" single, posted excerpts and videos further nurture Partlow's ever-budding saga, with tight, bright, empathetically anxious, classic-pop/new wave beauty. The recording duo built a full-band sound, and now tour with three more players.

And here's the Veronicas, from just a few weeks ago, but already sans Love Willows, so I'll punish them by reduction to an excerpt:
...Of course they must quest, must pay youth's dewy dues. "Right now, nothing makes sense but you/I feel so untouched, right now." But the Veronicas remain a double vision of love.

"Falling Faster" sounded great. The rest of the promo on Amazon, up and down. Halfway between Damone and Tsar, only party dress girly. Only fragments posted, some of it worked, some of it didn't. Nothing to do with country. Sounded like it was mixed by one of the Lord-Alges or someone trying to be a Lord-Alge, which is now really exhausted as a tone style. I wish I thought it would not sink without a trace, but my gut feeling is it will.

I need to check that out; pretty much lost track of Hope Partlow after her debut LP four years ago (especially "Crazy Summer Nights," which made my Top 10 singles list despite not being an actual single.)

Liking Brooks & Dunn's "Indian Summer" on the radio this week, maybe even more than "Cowgirls Don't Cry," though I may like it less when I decipher the lyrics' plot, which right now makes me think of Friday Night Lights (the excellent third season of which I just finished Netflixing) mainly by mentioning football. The cornball part about "the wonder/The hunger/And the sound of distant thunder” reminds me of either early '80s Bob Seger or early '90s Garth Brooks or both, and may well be more meaningless than either. And the idea of a song called "Indian Summer" being released as a single in June rather than mid-autumn (which to B&D's credit is apparently when the lyrics take place) makes me think somebody at the label is either stupid or thinks the audience is. But it still sounds good.

My Limbaugh Republican-turned-Ron Paul Libertarian older brother actually mass-emailed me a link (last Christmas, I think) to that Al Wilson video that Frank linked to above. So I think I put it in the mental category "spam from family members" rather than "music" then, and the laugh track may have kept me from listening to the entire thing at the time. But Frank is right about it having some power to it.

Picked up a few really good old country LPs for $2 each at a junk store in Giddings TX over the weekend (more than I usually spend, but hey I talked them down from $4 each!): Tom T Hall's 1969 Homecoming and 1973 For The People In The Last Hard Town, which had way more great songs I'd never heard greatest-hits-anthologized before than I expected, including a beautifully gloomy minor-key attempt at Simon & Garfunkel "Scarborough Fair" type Brit-folk ("Strawberry Farms") and a tragic-comedic talking blues about moving to the suburbs complete with Dylan-style dream scence ("Subdivision Blues"). Also the only country song I've ever heard with New Zealand in its title, and a touring lament called "Last Hard Town" that's almost like Tom T's version of CCR's "Lodi", and the only song I've ever heard sung to a seeing eye dog, and a great cheating song called "Margie's At the Lincoln Park Inn." Also picked up a matched pair of late '80s soul-country albums by T. Graham Brown (I Tell It Like It Used To Be) and Billy Joe Royal (The Royal Treatment), the latter of which opens Side Two with a real good duet with Donna Fargo on Bobby Blue Bland's "Members Only," one of my favorite Chitlin Circuit Southern soul hits of the early '80s. Wonder how many other country guys have covered such sungs in recent decades -- always seems like a good idea to me; also cool when the reverse crossover happens.

I'll have to look for those. I really like his book of memoirs/anecdotes, The Storyteller's Nashville, and his novel, Spring Hill, Tennessee, about when the Saturn plant came to town.

A country-punk Warped Tour?:

http://www.metalinsider.net/touring/mayhem-fest-warped-tour-founder-sets-sights-on-country

I'd pay not to see that.

Yeah, it sounds awful. This is the kicker, obviously: I worked on Down From The Mountain: Oh Brother, the soundtrack and I did a tour around that. I met all these bluegrass people who were basically punkers from the appellations (sic).

Unless he means the Woodbox Gang. Or Th' Legendary Shack Shakers. Neither of whom play bluegrass. But usually when people compare amateur bluegrass bands to punks, I start heading in the other direction.

Guys like this would have called the family polka bands in the Lehigh Valley 'punkers' because they were shaky, from the stix and had teenagers in them alongside the parents.

New Montgomery Gentry quasi-best-of (incl one new and four previously limited-availabilty tracks) released exclusively via Cracker Barrel this week; entered high in Billboard 200 is how I found out. Haven't heard it. Not Cracker Barrel's first country exclusive, but probably their highest charting:

http://shop.crackerbarrel.com/online/shopping/Product.asp?cat_id=89&sku=311055

Looks like it's got their Bon Jovi and ZZ Top covers (from a Professional Bullriding comp and ZZ tribute comp respectively), the latter of which I'd wanted to put on this playlist of hard-rocking '00s country songs I made this week for Rhapsody, but MG's "Just Got Paid" isn't available there. (I'm now doing one of these playlists for them a week, fwiw; with this one, I limited myself to one song per artist):

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2009/06/country-musics-heaviest-songs-of-the-00s.html

Went to the enormous Chatuchak Weekend Market in Bangkok. There's a "Country and Bluegrass" booth, with two guys in full Western attire out front playing banjo along to a how-to-play-banjo instruction tape. They played "Cripple Creek" and then "Take Me Home Country Roads" (which I heard three times in a few days in Bangkok - once the original version and once an instrumental using what I took to be traditional Thai instruments, some kind of xylophone type thing and percussion). Also selling blue jeans, boots, and bootleg country CDs (Bill Monroe, Chet Atkins, and more recent male superstars - Alan, George, Randy, Brad). Otherwise few 'country moments' lately, especially as I moved away from Bangkok. Mostly hearing Thai pop and Muzak versions of random US soft-rock ballads. Lots of Kanye too, he seemed ubiquitous, in Bangkok especially.

xpost

Song I liked the most on that list was Brooks & Dunn's "You Can't Take the Honky Tonk Out of the Girl." A great rollicking tone to it, like something that would have come out of a mid-west band in the late Seventies/early Eighties and made it to regional radio. Tracy Byrd's cover of "La Grange," however, eats it. Perfect illustration of 'country' touches as glue-ons for classic rock style that doesn't need it -- adding a pointless fiddle in this case. Another way of looking at is the sticking of sequins on a black leather jacket, or the repainting of it pink or white, to make it cute.

Jason Aldean's "She's Country," the same way. He so bad wants to do Bad Company, he should just quit the shitting around and do Paul Roger/Simon Kirke/Boz/Mick, and just do it, hang the tinkling banjo in the intro and middle-eight and understand that putting the fiddle in the mix occasionally behind the guitar riff is pointless. What? It won't be a good song if the banjo isn't in it? Same with the Carrie Underwood's blues shouter, "Last Name." There's the plinky-plink banjo and the fiddles mixed behind the guitar riff. It's a trite formula and the lines sound the same like some hack puts them on all the records: "Call the 'Deliverance' plinky-plink banjo guy and the fiddle filler girl, the song's done and we need him to add some stuff.

Here's the vid for "Falling Faster."

My favorite Hope Partlow song is "Everywhere But Here." I don't see how she eventually fails to prosper, given her great voice, though that doesn't mean she'll ever be a pop star. I'd be curious what might happen if she ever tried jazz, given that her voice is flexible enough for it but she's nonetheless got a distinctive timbre that won't get lost in jazz mannerisms.

xp Agree that "You Can't Take The Honky Tonk Out Of The Girl" works way better as a rock song, and song in general, than "She's Country" or "Last Name" or lots of other songs on the playlist, at least in part by not seeming to try as hard -- The Brooks & Dunn song, basically a Stones rip obviously, is actually (along with "Kerosene" and "All Summer Long" and "High Cost Of Living") one of the least "heavy"-sounding songs on the list, which probably helps. (Almost put B&D's "Only In America" instead, but figured the Stones ultimately seem heavier than John Cougar in most cases. Also realized later that I should have included a Road Hammers song, and maybe something off Hank Jr's Almeria Club or I'm One Of You, though I'm not sure which track would have fit best. Don't doubt I missed some other things, too. Also limited myself mainly to more mainstream Nashville stuff, which discounted bands like the Electric Boogie Dawgz and Mighty Jeremiahs, assuming Rhapsody even carries their stuff; the Kentucky Headhunters' '00s albums, it turns out, aren't availble there. Also stretched the truth at least a little in the intro graph, when I called the '00s by far country's heaviest-rocking decade ever -- truth is, a lot of music that came out in the '70s and maybe '80s that would probably be classified as country if it came out now -- Stairway To Hell rule in other words -- rocked a lot harder and louder and heavier than anybody on that list. Thing is, that stuff wasn't played regularly on country music stations, and didn't make the country charts, then. So it's not so much the music that's changed as the definition. But that should probably be obvious.)

Which raises another question which I have no answer to myself: If someone were to put together a country equivalent of Stairway To Hell (as in 500 Greatest Country Albums In The Universe) now, how much sense would it make to include LPs by, say, the Eagles, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, Bad Company, Bob Seger, John Cougar, Tom Petty, Bryan Adams Cinderella, and Bon Jovi, since those are clearly the roots of so much country of the past decade?

Watching CMT for less than an hour in a hotel room Sunday morning, I saw at least three commercials for an upcoming awards show that listed seven acts set to perform on it -- one of whom was Def Leppard, presumably along with Taylor Swift, but the commercial didn't stipulate that; just listed them alphabetically along with the other half-dozen, like there was nothing weird about it at all. Among the performers also said to be scheduled to be appear on the show (presumably as a presenter) was Ted Nugent.

Didn't see many vids that told me anything I didn't know, but there was one one for this young lady named Megan Mullins who sings kinda like Tiffany; pretty sure her song isn't yet on the country chart:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxyuQj7dRZU

Also, driving back to Austin from the Piney Woods yesterday, I heard a (on a public radio station no less) a terrific song from an apparent gypsy band from Serbia I'd never heard of before called Kal. The one I heard had way more crazed fiddles (and hence would be less of a sore thumb on a rolling country thread) not to mention more gang shouts (hence would be less of a sore thumb on a rolling oi! thread) and Middle Eastern-like vocal wailing(hence whatever), but the song below that I found on youtube, also from their new album, is also good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clntM9qyISo

Mexican jumping bean music from Serbia! They'd have an immediate audience out here.

anyone heard the new john anderson album, bigger hands? I'm curious to know what you think. I haven't heard it, I'm still traveling, but I pre-ordered it for when I get back (along with the new brad paisley and some other less-country ones)

Had no idea John Anderson had a new one; it's up on Rhapsody, though, so maybe I'll check it out there when I have time. Label is Country Crossing, presumably an indie, though I never heard of it before. Also looks like he does his own version of "Shuttin' Detroit Down." Most intriguing titles: "Hawaia in Hawaii" and "Cold Coffee And Hot Beer."

i think the story behind his new album is that he's reuniting with the producer of "Seminole Wind", his last really successful album.

So after finally checking out the Love Willows' "Falling Faster" on youtube last night and liking it, I'm in a thrift store today in Austin and I heard it again, playing over the radio -- what seemed like a pop station. Strange....has it hit any actual charts yet? Or is just another weird Austin thing? It's not like they're a local band here...

So the "Hot Shot Debut" on Billboard's Country Songs Chart this week, for some reason I don't know, is "Eight Second Ride" by Jake Owen, which enters the chart at #57 despite being almost exactly three years old. Here's what I wrote about it on Rolling Country 2006, in July of that year:

eight second ride", very hard-rocking biker country (with one guitar part that *might* be deserve to be called psychedelic), and a title that may or may not beat motley crue's premature ejaculation in "ten seconds to love" by two whole seconds, i'm not sure yet. also jake seems to be bragging about how big the rims on his truck are, or maybe that was just his tires; there's a difference, right? but also maybe the most blatant making-of-love in a major label country tune since a different song about riding (cowboys), by big n' rich.

There's something "Half Breed"/"Indian Outlaw" about the guitar too. But what I missed the first time is the line that Jake says at 2:29 of 3:03 (see lyrics-equipped clip below), which if my ears are right, is not "spitting my dip inside," and may well be the most obscene and explicit line in any song ever to make the country chart. Unless it isn't:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9ev93nHuJs

Heard a few songs in the nightly countdown on the commercial country station here last night, and thought "Guinevere" by the Eli Young Band (whoever that is) and "Boots On" by Randy Houser sounded good.

Paid $1 over the weekend for a used Austin Public Library copy of Rank and File's 1984 Long Gone Dead, and am really surprised by how bland and wussified it sounds, especially with Stan Lynch from Petty's Heartbreakers on drums. It's not just that their alleged cowpunk here has no punk in it to speak of; it also doesn't seem to have much country, though once in a while (in "Hot Wind" and "John Brown" say) Chip Kinman gets off some semblance of of a guitar line reminiscent of desert scenes in western movies. I'm not sure which Kinman brother has the high voice and which has the low one, but the former sounds like a real wall-flowery blushing-violet woman to me, and the latter an even dryer and deader than usual Johnny Cash wannabee; amazingly, though I could live without them both, I prefer the latter. What's weird is that I actually remember kind of liking Rank and File's '82 debut Sundown when I had a copy in the '80s; either I really overrated it back then or they really took a nosedive with their followup. Christgau, bizarrely, gives both albums A-'s. But then, he wound up liking alt-country more than me too, so who knows. And I've actually been pleasantly surprised by the copies of Jason and the Scorchers' Fervor and the Long Ryders' State Of Our Union I've picked up cheap in the last couple years, so it's not like I have any bone to pick with '80s cowpunk as a style.

Most pleasant proto-cowpunk (post-pub-rock) purchase this week was Dave Edmunds' '78 Tracks On Wax 4, which is way better, with way harder rocking rockabilly, than I'd remembered -- especially the super fast "Reader's Wives," which seems to concern either prostitutes or strippers or just slutty women in general, though I have no idea what the title itself means. Always liked "Trouble Boys" (about being afraid to mess with the big bad guys in town, then finding a pal who's willing to), but never realized before that the LP had so many good songs. Ends with a tougher version of "Heart In The City" than the one on Pure Pop For Now People.

Tracks On Wax 4 finished #16 in Pazz & Jop in 1978, fwiw, 13 places below Lowe. Long Gone Dead gratifyingly didn't place in '84, though Rank and File's debut had finished #22 in '82, so maybe Xgau was alone in thinking the second album stood up to the first. (Ira Robbins, in the New Trouser Press Record Guide from 1985, says it sounds fussier and retains "only a skimpy portion of the first album's evocative magnificence," not to mention only half the band that played on that one.)

"Spitting my dip" sounds about right. I took away from it that she's supposed to watch out for
tin of spent chaw.

Okay, best I can tell, Edmunds's "Readers Wives" is apparently more about ogling centerfolds which maybe the porno readers imagine as their wives?) or pinups or whatever. As Ian Dury would say, Dave's got a razzle in his pocket. Songwriting credit for that one goes to N. Brown, which I'll take a wild uneducated guess is some old (jump?) blues guy; "Trouble Boys" is credited to one B. Murray (presumably not Bill), who also (along with R. Peters) wrote "Not A Woman, Not A Child," another of my favorites on the album. Other ones I like a lot are "Television" (about wanting to watch it even when it's back, written by N. Lowe), "A-1 On The Jukebox" ("...nowhere on the charts," sounds like Lowe but actually credited to D. Edmunds/W. Birch, the latter being Will Burch from the Records I assume), and "Heart Of (not 'in' as I mis-state above) The City" (N. Lowe-penned, but definitely D. Edmunds-guitared -- last track on the album, really raw take, and he really lets himself cut loose.)

(Damn, lots of typos in that post -- e.g., "wanting to watch it even when it's bad," I meant.)

Here's Taylor/Def Lep "Sugar" from Crossroads, which comes across more powerfully than the one they did on the CMT awards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRgP-C7XU-s

And here's T-Swizzle and T-Pizzle "Thug Story" on the CMT awards (but Viacom will make YouTube kill it any second now). Doesn't really get funny until the last 10 seconds, when T-Pizzle starts talking, and T-Swizzle keeps his AutoTune going.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAzcxUdlvlI

(Probably confused my T-Pizzles and T-Swizzles. Whatever.)

Regarding 2:29 in "8 Second Ride": Xhuxk's ears do not deceive him, though I assume that that part gets modified on radio.

"Here's Taylor/Def Lep "Sugar" from Crossroads, which comes across more powerfully than the one they did on the CMT awards."

Yep, it's better. Still lacking in the Dept. of Backbone and Thud. Also sounds like it's lost a step or two. Plus gratuitous fiddle player. That's how they would have largely rocked it at the bar in Wyomissing, though. Still not convinced Taylor Swift has any business delving in hard rock forms.

XXXPost re Readers' Wives....

RW was a feature in a '70s Brit Porn mag - don't know which one - whose readers sent in pics of their wives in their negligee or less, hence....

The new #59 song on Billboard's country chart, "Jeep Jeep" by Krista Marie, sounds gimmicky in a maybe good way, and its guitar sounds like something new wave, and it may or may not be influenced by Missy Elliott saying beep beep who's got the key to her jeep:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7SdKsyWHhQ&feature=PlayList&p=F0E152DCB2256A00&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=48

Here is how I wish its words went instead:

Last night, I heard my mama singing a song
Ooh-We, Jirpy, Jirpy, Jeep, Jeep
Woke up this morning and my mama was gone
Ooh-We, Jirpy, Jirpy, Jeep, Jheep

In other news, Jon Caramanica reviewed a Toby Keith/ Trace Adkins show in the NY Times a couple days ago, and said the former covered "Stranglehold" by Ted Nugent and the latter did "Higher Ground" by Stevie Wonder. So naturally I searched youtube; found two renditions of the former, but none of the latter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yA3VMxiLHM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbANwO-6MlQ

A version of "Stranglehold" by someone who cannot carry it off in the least, despite his love of Ted Nugent and willingness to put him in the movies. It's a toss up over which is worse, this or Taylor Swift
doing "Pour Some Sugar On Me."

Like the Krista Marie tune but I'll be damned if it's possible to logically explain why the country fiddle is even in that song a little.

Well, she was an American Girl, raised on promises (Swift sings Petty)

New Holly Williams album: country weepy goop, sophisticated-singer-songwriter-in-Paris goop, family confessional goop, more singer-songwriter goop. She's fine when she's in the first category - "He's Making A Fool Out Of You," "Keep The Change," "Let Her Go" - while the others tend towards the mediocre and goopy.

My top country singles, first half of 2009:

1. Love And Theft "Runaway"
2. Jamey Johnson "High Cost Of Living"
3. Sarah Buxton "Space"
4. Caitlin & Will "Even Now"
5. Taylor Swift "You Belong With Me"
6. Sarah Borges And The Broken Singles "Do It For Free"
7. Taylor Swift "White Horse"
8. Jack Ingram "Barefoot And Crazy (Double Dog Dare Ya Mix)"
9. Brooks & Dunn f. Reba McEntire "Cowgirls Don't Cry"
10. Rascal Flatts "Summer Nights"
11. Randy Houser "Boots On"
12. John Rich "Shuttin' Detroit Down"
13. Jamie O'Neal "Like A Woman"
14. Kenny Chesney "Out Last Night"
15. Dierks Bentley "Sideways"
16. Holly Williams "Keep The Change"
17. Collin Raye "Mid-Life Chrysler"

Chuck's list is here, and Anthony's is here.

Parsing down my Top 60 of Everything singles list and then some (and discounting Southern Soul songs though maybe I should actually include them here), here's what I get countrywise for an '09 Top 30 so far. (Top of the list looks kinda similar to Frank's):

1. Jamey Johnson – “High Cost Of Living”
2. Love and Theft – “Runaway”
3. Rascal Flatts – “Summer Nights”
4. John Rich – “Shuttin’ Detroit Down”
5. Sarah Buxton – “Space”
6. Caitlin & Will – “Even Now”
7. Taylor Swift – “You Belong With Me”
8. The Love Willows – “Falling Faster”
9. The Flatlanders – “Homeland Refugee”
10. Krista Marie – “Jeep Jeep”

11. Trace Adkins – “I Can’t Outrun You”
12. Brooks & Dunn – “Cowgirls Don’t Cry”
13. Jessica Harp – “Boy Like Me”
14. Kenny Chesney – “Out Last Night”
15. Billy Currington – “People Are Crazy”
16. Brooks & Dunn – “Indian Summer”
17. Montgomery Gentry – “One In Every Crowd”
18. Megan Munroe - “Moonshine”
19. Sarah Borges And The Broken Singles – “Do It For Free”
20. Eli Young Band – “Guinevere”

21. Lady Antebellum – “I Run To You”
22. Kid Rock – “Blue Jeans And A Rosary”
23. Trace Adkins – “Marry For Money”
24. Collin Raye – “Midlife Chrysler”
25. Pat Green – “What I’m For”
26. Jason Aldean – “She’s Country”
27. Jake Owen – “Eight Second Ride”
28. Hank Williams Jr. – “Red, White and Pink Slip Blues”
29. Jason Boland and the Stragglers – “Comal County Blues”
30. Jamie O’Neal – “Like A Woman”