Rolling country 2007 thread

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Amy Dalley had a hell of a single a few years ago called "Men Don't Change." I credit it as the single that really got me listening to country radio (the late KZLA in L.A.). Bizarrely, it and every other Amy Dalley single (and there've been a bunch of them) have never been commercially available. Curb has had an album of hers in the can for years, and I'm sure she's recorded at least a subsequent album's worth of material since then. But until she has a top 5 hit, it's apparently not worth their while to put actual product out there.

― Willman, Thursday, 26 April 2007 17:16 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, I just listened to that one too on her Myspace and it was also terrific (there's another great one on her web site called "Gossip" where the rumors in question concern a slutty cheerleader, a grocery store tryst, and exchanging sex for good grades). I found an interview online where she says the album's coming out this year, so hopefully that's a good sign. tracking if and when this record is coming out may end up turning into an obsession.

― JoshLove, Thursday, 26 April 2007 18:29 (nineteen years ago)

The video, which I wrote about on that year's Rolling Country, seemed perfect, and CMT played the hell out of it, and yes, album's still in the can, and the same thing is happening to Ashley Monroe (they did manage to send out a promo early last year, then noticed it needed some more work, so they did that, and meanwhile the vid kept showing up, and album's gotten pushed back, pulled fwd, last Sony told me, might be this fall)

― dow, Thursday, 26 April 2007 22:23 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think I've ever heard an Amy Dalley song! And I clearly need to. Sounds like she'd be great.

Chronic insomnia (no longer a laughing matter, to be honest) has made me fall behind on this thread this week, among others. I'll catch up eventually, I'm sure. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to grasp the appeal of that Amy LaVere record. I mean, it's okay -- or at least "That Beat"'s Slavic two-beat and "Washing Machine"'s laundry rock are okay -- but beyond that, I'm either drawing a blank from it (most of it) or outwardly cringing at it ("People Get Mad" and "I'll Remember You," the latter of which takes her way too pervasive shrinking-violet routine to an extreme I just can't stomach.) (Not sure why Edd thinks she's so gorgeous, either, to be honest -- I mean, she looks comely enough on the CD cover I suppose {actually, how she looks on the CD cover reminds me of Neko Case, which makes me wonder whether her sound should also remind me of Case, who I've never gotten the appeal of either}, but then lots of ladies look comely on their CD covers, right? Martina McBride's a lot cuter, in my book, and I'm still not convinced her crummy new album isn't better, to be honest.) All in all, as folky girly country goes, I'd say I'm preferring the new album by Jan Bell & the Cheap Dates, Songs For Love Drunk Sinners -- especially "January Morning" and "Given" so far, which have a prettiness LaVere just can't touch.

Also in my CD changer this sleepy morning: The Best of Acoustic Jethro Tull (which seems quite useful in this freak-folk/jig-metal age) and Big Al Downing's XM Satellite Radio Live, which I just got, and is the closest thing to a Big Al best-of I own, not that it actually has any competition.

Links to the latter two:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/jbcheapdates

http://cdbaby.com/cd/bigaldowning2

― xhuxk, Friday, 27 April 2007 11:54 (nineteen years ago)

"a doomy prettiness" (in re: Jan Bell, I should say).

As for LaVere, maybe the great songs just aren't coming up in my fickle and picky CD changer? Always a possibility. Which ones are they, Edd?

― xhuxk, Friday, 27 April 2007 11:59 (nineteen years ago)

Oh yeah, I like LaVere's "Overcome" polka, too. Probably a good chance I'll wind up keeping the album despite my misgivings, which means it is probably better than McBride's after all (unless I wind up keeping that one, as well, though it'll take me longer to decide.) And Amy's fetchiness may well me on par, too -- I've never seen her (or McBride, actually) in person, so what do I know?

Also in yesterday's mail, btw: Advance of new Big & Rich album! Complete with Wyclef Jean and John Legend guest spots and AC/DC remake! But it's one of those daunting looking copy-protected and water- marked (so I couldn't file-share it even if I knew how) Warners advances that never play in my stereo, so I haven't even bothered to try to put it on yet.

― xhuxk, Friday, 27 April 2007 12:05 (nineteen years ago)

(And it should also be noted that Jan Bell's got her own wallflowery vocal tendencies that bug me sometimes as well, so I'm not dead set on the winner of that contest either. I do think, though, that Jan has a knack for dark melodies -- as demonstrated on both her 9-11 single from a few years back and her Maybelles album from a couple years ago maybe more than her new one -- that I'm not hearing from Amy, who does seem to be trying.)

― xhuxk, Friday, 27 April 2007 12:15 (nineteen years ago)

i've expressed my disdain for the new fountains of wayne album on their own thread, but seeing them perform the song "I-95" the other night sent me back to the album which made me realize what an utterly fabulous ballad that is, and it sounds very much like a classic country love song. it's full of great local detail, dry humor and longing.

coffee mugs and tees
that say 'virginia is for lovers'
but it's not
'round here it's just for truckers who forgot
to fill up on gasoline
back up near aberdeen

also onstage, chris collingwood switched to an acoustic guitar after two or three songs and said something like, "see, it didn't take very long to go all country on your ass." at which point they played the new "fire in the canyon." which is kinda pretty but also kinda goes nowhere.

― fact checking cuz, Friday, 27 April 2007 12:21 (nineteen years ago)

agreed on the McBride, it seems like the ones with interesting words ("House of a Thousand Dreams," "Love Land") are dull musically while the more melodically engaging ones ("Everybody Does," "How I Feel") are lyrically inane.

much much better is Sarah Buxton's album; we covered her in the Stylus Jukebox a couple of months back with the terrific "That Kind of Day," which to me sounded more like teen-pop than country (even though she's at least in her mid-to-late 20s), just typical girl-pop stuff that's rich in specifics, about maxing out credit cards and hearing that mom thinks you've gained five pounds. the rest of the record holds up too - the concepts behind the songs might be fairly generic, but her verses are full of great details and a lot of humor - references to Kansas Jayhawks basketball, grandma watching Sex and the City, not to mention a ridiculously delightful song about crazy dreams brought on by too much wine, chocolate and pizza, one of which involves making mud pies with Kevin Spacey (?!).

she also wrote Keith Urban's hit "Stupid Boy" and tacks on her own version here, which is fine, though Urban's is still better.

― JoshLove, Friday, 27 April 2007 12:29 (nineteen years ago)

the latter two:

well, not exactly the LATTER two.

Amy's fetchiness may well me on par

= Amy's FETCHINGNESS may well BE on par.

(blame the lack of sleep.)

― xhuxk, Friday, 27 April 2007 13:01 (nineteen years ago)

good to see ya back, Chuck. As for LaVere's record, I guess she didn't really write any of my favorites here--I quite like "Tennessee Valentine" - and Carla Thomas' "That Beat." And Paul Taylor's "Pointless Drinking." the possibility that she just wants to be a comedian has crossed my mind. but yeah, pictures don't quite do her justice--she's a long tall drink of water and extremely striking in person. nice to talk to, unaffected.

anyone heard the Koch Dale Watson release Little Darlin' Sessions? Apparently he did these a while back and he's not happy with the results. I still have to play "You Always Get What You Always Got" from his new Hyena record like once a day. Anybody got a contact for Koch, if you have a second and can hit me offline here, would be great, don't think I've ever gotten anything from them and I'm doing something on Watson when he comes here to the Midnight Jamboree. Which again, if you find yourself in Nashville on a Saturday night and someone like Watson or Mel Tillis is playing out there, it's worth seeing--a slice of country music that you won't see anywhere else.

Listening again to the funk of LaVere's "People Get Mad." Sounds like an attempt to do a Rick Hall-style Muscle Shoals track, they obviously understand a thing or two about the funk but the track just dribbles away with not much of a point.

― whisperineddhurt, Friday, 27 April 2007 13:11 (nineteen years ago)

O Brother, shut up with that Midnight Jamboree, it's killing me: June 6, at the Ryman, Marty Stuart & Superlatives host Neko, John Rich, Ashley Monroe, Eric Church, Pam Tillis, Porter Wagoner, Charlie Pride...

― dow, Friday, 27 April 2007 14:39 (nineteen years ago)

Good assortment of new tracks on Amy's MySpace. The conversational delivery is risky; think I'm missing some of the details in the verses, but she's got enough pop smarts to keep the momentum going, without working the choruses to death, as so often happens in pop country (and other approaches). She knows when to shut up and let the "Moroccan" fiddle have its way with Carla's "That Beat."("Moroccan" is what Dickinson calls it in a YouTube discussion of the album, also with Amy's comments, linked from the MySpace; it also reminds me of Scarlett or Scarlet Rivera's playing on Desire, and this song is kinda like those, but probably better). I think Edd originally said she was better live, and I'll try to check her on site archives of Woodsongs, but I remember liking the original broadcast, got a tape around here somewhere. Anyway, i don't see the problem with her so far, and have just asked for the promo.

― dow, Friday, 27 April 2007 16:55 (nineteen years ago)

"Morrocon"? That doesn't look right either.

― dow, Friday, 27 April 2007 16:57 (nineteen years ago)

"Boogie Woogie Saturday Night" by Big Al Downing = crazy wild-haired Jerry Lee-style rockabilly by a black man who keeps namedropping Reba Mcentire and David Allen Coe, for some reason. Pretty dang cool.

― xhuxk, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:17 (nineteen years ago)

I quite like "Tennessee Valentine"

I dunno, that one and "Train Is a Train" seem like they'd be a lot better with a more awake singer. But I do hear some semblance of something in those tunes, I suppose. Not sure I get the "possibility that she just wants to be a comedian" part; are you saying there are punchlines in her songs? Compared to, I dunno, Miranda and Gretchen (or even Sunny Sweeney) (or Lantana, or Bomshel, just to name some 2007 distaff country competition) Amy sure sounds humorless, though again, maybe I'm missing something she's hiding. (And then again, I tend to prefer short glasses of water myself. 5'2" is about perfect. But that's just a matter of personal taste of course.)

― xhuxk, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:40 (nineteen years ago)

what's that Big Al song on, Chuck?

so finally figured out where I'd heard the name Calvin Owens (he's the bandleader on the greatest cut on the new Johnny Bush, the amazing, amazing big-band freakout "Free Soul," which just kills me). the rest of the record is real good but that song...wow. anyway, Owens was the bandleader for B.B. King for years. I guess I've always been about as immune to claims of Texascentricity as I am to anything else, but Kashmere Gardens makes me take at least some of my skepticism back.

Oh, I guess I mean that LaVere is trying to not take her "sources" seriously, which might also mean that she's a bit half-assed about what she's doing. Like on the CD cover she's holding some kind of spangled gun but she doesn't look threatening at all. In that first song her guy didn't come home until daybreak so she declares she'll have to kill him to make him stay, which the way she delivers it strikes me as some kind of joke. It could be I have just as strange a sense of humor as taste in women, who knows? and as Don points out, the gypsy fiddle in the Carla Thomas song is kind of funny, weird, something. Chuck points out something real interesting about the record I've noticed about other stuff, like the Cook record--the songs might just be better delivered with another voice that was more expressive, I get hung up on the sheer sound of the voices and it distracts me from what the songs might actually be saying. I know that Gretchen Wilson really sounds like she means exactly what she's saying on her new record, and I get the impression Gretchen is holding back in a way she's conscious of as if to say, don't fuck with me because I'm in a good mood and that could change, and if that's not a great trait in a woman--short, tall, bony maronie--I don't know what is. I've listened to LaVere's records a lot lately and my take on them changes every time I hear them. If I were King, I'd make her cut a far more rocking, rockabilly-type record, so this might be some typically out-of-step Memphis take on alt-country. There's some kind of potential there that might be submerged in an attempt to be a torch singer? I mean "Pointless Drinking" could be really grim or really funny and it sort of falls inbetween, if I'm making any sense this late in the day.

― whisperineddhurt, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:58 (nineteen years ago)

Of course it does, and so does the one about killing her husband! And that's what I like about 'em.But the online bio says she was a punk singer in Detroit, in a band called Last Minute. That's pretty hard to imagine, unless it was really like Blondie or The Go-Gos, and not in their punkier early stages.

― dow, Saturday, 28 April 2007 00:33 (nineteen years ago)

I linked to the Big Al Downing album just this morning, Edd; check upthread 15 threads or so.

Punk rock singer in Detroit, ay?? Yeah, pretty hard to believe. Reminds me I need to play the new Gore Gore Girls album that just came in the mail, though.

― xhuxk, Saturday, 28 April 2007 00:42 (nineteen years ago)

"I'm not an actor but I act like I am/I might be awful but I act like I'm not...will I unharden and stop showing my ass" (or something like that)--"Pointless Drinking" totally reminds me of either Nellie McKay or Marit Larsen, I'm not sure which. And eh, you know, I'm just not that big a cabaret fan, you know? Detached cleverness for detached cleverness's sake, but not all that clever. I don't hate it or anything. But I really don't get this gal. She just sounds completely constrained to me.

― xhuxk, Saturday, 28 April 2007 00:50 (nineteen years ago)

oh why oh why is that johnny bush record taking one million years to get to my house

― Dimension 5ive, Saturday, 28 April 2007 03:22 (nineteen years ago)

Damn that Big Al Downing album is mad great -- He really does not seem to acknowledge genre distinctions; rockabilly (Jerry Lee style or gospel-turning-Elvis stule in "Don't You Want to Go In Love With Me"), honky tonk cheating and cheated-on laments almost verging on ZZ Hill Southern soul, New Orleans r&b ("Blueberry Hill," "Let The Good Times Roll," an insanely great Professor Longhair style version of "Boll Weevil"), it all comes from the same place, and it all sounds as proudly country as his cowboy hat. "Father Number One" is a tribute to stepdad somewhere between the Winstons one and the Blaine Larsen one; even the patriotic tribute to our boys overseas "Hometown America" is pretty great for three for its first five and a half minutes or so. "Mr. Jones" is about "an old black country farmer" who happens across a family that mostly died in an accident; the white family takes him in as a sharecropper, and he's the only person the boy can turn to when he robs a bank and kills a man in Oklahoma. And his song introductions on the live disc, like the one where he talks about how when he was growing up his mom had 1200 mouths to feed but as you can see (he's extremely roly poly) he definitely got his fair share, are so funny and endearing that I actually think I'll even listen to the interview disc. (A couple times he cites Fats Domino as a big influence, which makes a lot of sense, obviously, and makes Al an anachronism in a very cool way. Or he was, I mean.)

Here is my review from the Voice of an album by him from a few years ago (I believe his last new one before he died, but it was hard to keep track):

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0337,eddy,46856,22.html

New Blake Shelton album in the mail today, Pure B.S. I'm looking forward to putting it on (and didn't even know until I read Jon Caramanica's Miranda Lambert piece in Sunday's Times that they're an item. I am so out of it sometimes.) (Just put the album on; first song that came up sounds great, nostalgia about the Beatles and Johnny Unitas and Martin Luther King and class reunions and disco sucks and ZZ Top that goes from 1963 to 9-11 in a couple minutes, with a melody way more effective than "We Didn't Start the Fire.")

― xhuxk, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:39 (nineteen years ago)

Second Blake song to come up also sounds great, and rockingly like "Already Gone" by the Eagles until John Anderson and George Jones show up (though what does "this land was our land but now it's their land" mean? Who the hell are "they"? It's called "The Last Country Song" apparently. (But then I put the CD changer back on random play.)

― xhuxk, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:44 (nineteen years ago)

BTW, Country-rock on fine new all-covers Poison CD: "Can't You See", "Dead Flowers" (unless "You Don't Mess Around With Jim" counts -- "from South Alabama come a country boy," so maybe?) (I still need to go back and check what the lineup is.) (Mostly it's glam and powerpop, though. Fave track so far is a cover of Tom Petty's "I Need To Know.")

― xhuxk, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:53 (nineteen years ago)

gotcha, Chuck. for a nice piece on Big Al where he talks about himself, chapter on him in Country Music Saved My Life, edited by my pal Yuval Taylor and written by Ken Burke. good book, btw, gets at some stuff most country books don't--the moment when the music takes over, I guess. great chapter as well on Freddie Hart--why on earth you can't get his Kapp stuff on CD is beyond me.
haven't gotten the Shelton record. wonder how the non-Bobby Braddock-produced stuff compares to the Braddock. now maybe we can agree that Miranda Lambert is pretty darned cute? and yeah, I have to admit that LaVere's record is mostly blah, as strenuously as I've tried to hear more in it--which I do sometimes. and D5, I think the Bush record will be worth the wait. I believe it's Johnny Bush Day in Houston this Sunday.

― whisperineddhurt, Saturday, 28 April 2007 20:18 (nineteen years ago)

agree that Miranda Lambert is pretty darned cute?

Let's just say Blake Shelton is a very, very lucky man. (And first track on his album, "This Can't Be Good," about getting caught with the sheriff's daughter dancing with an empty bottle on his car hood, has a TOUGH blues riff worthy of, well, the toughest blues riffs on Miranda's album. So she's been a good influence on him, too, it sounds like.)

― xhuxk, Saturday, 28 April 2007 20:24 (nineteen years ago)

So, sad news: First cursory listen (or "tracking through," I guess you'd call it -- I only played a couple of the songs from start to finish, so I could well be missing something) to the new Big 'N Rich album on my better half's stereo (as expected, it wouldn't play on mine) pointed toward a MAJOR fucking disappointment. The Wyclef Jean collab "Please Man" (rhymes with "don't call the policeman") reminded me of some jokey reggae-rap-inflected sub-Sublime '90s "alt rock" act, like, I dunno, Cake or whoever, with rap where Wyclef compares himself to Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson and Kenny Rogers and Charlie Daniels that's so clumsy it's embarrasing. And that's followed by the bluegrassed slowed-down de-rocked AC/DC cover, which I guess is supposed to be cute, and winds up being as dumb as when doofus nonentities like Hayseed Dixie or whoever do the same thing. (I mean, it's not even remotely an original idea for crissakes.) The actual AC/DC-like hard rock riffs in "Loud" and (if I'm remembering right) "Radio" seemed more useful, and also as loud as anything then band's done, yet not half as rocking as they've often been; the momentum (and the songwriting) just didn't seem to be there, though maybe it'll kick in. One of those two had some pretty blatant wah-wah; the other one, unless I'm getting mixed up with a different track entirely ("High Five" possibly? I wasn't taking notes), had a dancey, semi-synthesized beat that suggested mid '80s radio rock of some sort; another cut -- "Between Raising Hell and Amazing Grace, I think -- had a similar post-disco '80s CHR rhythm with a more light-r&b vocal style, I guess. And there seem to be plenty of dull ballads, though none of them as dull as John Legend's acapella intro to "Eternity." Also a gratuitous intro or two where Big Kenny rails preacher-style against "prejudice in music" or whatever, and by now it just sounds forced and tired. As does, at least on first listen, their whole damn shtick -- it's like they're already well on the way to becoming the joke/novelty band that morons and idiots and nincompoops and retards thought they were when they first came out. Unless I'm being a moron myself right now. Which I kinda hope I am.

― xhuxk, Saturday, 28 April 2007 23:44 (nineteen years ago)

The slow songs on Blake Shelton's album generally seem a few levels below the fast songs (album would seem to be about 50/50, is my uncalculated guess), but I'm finding the '70s soft/country-rock breeze (Glen Campbell, maybe? Somebody like that) of "She Can't Get That" (as in "a shame she can't get that at home" -- Blake's okay with the girl cheating since she needs it, see) quite stirring. "Don't Care" seems okay, too. Beyond that, I'm not sure, but with the rockers he's basically batting 1.000.

― xhuxk, Sunday, 29 April 2007 15:27 (nineteen years ago)

Okay, this probably does not belong in this thread, but I respect you guys a lot, so I'm going to lay it on the line here and tell you all that I think the new Ike Reilly Assassination album, We Belong to the Staggering Evening, is fucking amazing. It's got a lot to do with electric Dylan but also a lot to do with country blues and fuzzed-out rock, lovely surprising poetic lyrics sneered out by a non-singer who knows his limitations and turns them into strengths. There's one song where he pulls the old switcheroo on us, a song about sex turns into an indictment of the war like ka-BLOOEY. Oh my god so in love with this record. One of my favorites of all time probably after two listens (small sample size I know but damn).

― Dimension 5ive, Sunday, 29 April 2007 16:50 (nineteen years ago)

And there seem to be plenty of dull ballads, though none of them as dull as John Legend's acapella intro to "Eternity." Also a gratuitous intro or two where Big Kenny rails preacher-style against "prejudice in music" or whatever, and by now it just sounds forced and tired. As does, at least on first listen, their whole damn shtick -- it's like they're already well on the way to becoming the joke/novelty band that morons and idiots and nincompoops and retards thought they were when they first came out

I get the same feeling from their production of the new John Anderson, which is a disappointment to me--dull ballads and all. so I dunno. I was listening to "8th of November" the other day and I realized what it reminded me of was a Frank Zappa song, sort of like one of those strangely affectless 3/4 time songs on We're Only in It for the Money. overwork maybe, or they're not being Challenged?
D5, you make the Reilly record sound cool...
listening to some Nashville soul right now, this really excellent best-of on Clifford Curry...and saw some amazing Homer and Jethro footage last night, those guys were Compleat Entertainers and Jethro a monster mandolin player, all jazzy and refined...

― whisperineddhurt, Sunday, 29 April 2007 21:34 (nineteen years ago)

Strange, I actually remember "Bonnie Blue" being a pretty great ballad on the John Anderson album; also really liked "Weeds," "Brown Liquor," and I forget what other cuts off the top of my head. I'll pull it back out this week, but I'm fairly certain it's a whole lot better than the Big'N'Rich album.

My hip-hop single of the year (probably), "Lip Gloss" by Lil Mama, has a country connection, it turns out, since it (along with much of her upcoming album, apparently) was masterminded by James "Groove" Chambers of Nappy Roots, who I think somebody voted for in the Nashville Scene poll once.

Crime Mob do not have a country connection, it turns out, but I like their new album after all anyway. Favorite cut: "Circles," for the sad soul samples, sad melody, and 3-6-Maffia-style st-st-st-st-st-st-st-stuttering production. Lotsa other fun cuts, too many to mention, and the crunk-shout/girl-verses mixture is often quite tasty, and they just seem really good-natured to me in general, somehow.

― xhuxk, Sunday, 29 April 2007 22:39 (nineteen years ago)

Now, see, Chuck, if you read EW (not that I'm doing a pitch here), you would have known about the Miranda/Blake thing sooner than if you waited for the NYT. I quoted her a week or two ago to this effect (well, it was all condensed down from this): "Poor Blake—I always tell him, “’Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ could be your life story, so just know that.” And, when I asked if they'd ever tour or duet together, "We keep our careers really separate. We’re really, really competitive. Actually, I think our records are coming out on the same day, which is interesting. I already told him I was gonna kick his butt. So I’m doing a lot of press, hoping I’ll win."

― Willman, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 05:33 (nineteen years ago)

So was I the only one who got the Big & Rich advance and didn't know it had an "A" side (ballads) and "B" side (uptempos)? I sat there for the first half of the album kind of slackjawed with the thought that they were actually putting out an all-ballads album. Well, I did see the AC/DC cover on the track list, so I knew something had to give eventually. Of course if you put it on random play you won't be struck by any such alarm bells. I have mixed feelings about this--as the defender of thoughtful song sequencing, I wonder if it might work better on random after all. (Apparently not, according to Chuck.)

― Willman, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 05:38 (nineteen years ago)

Also, if you don't want to hear Kenny in preacher mode, be sure to avoid the new Bon Jovi, which has a random cameo of him doing just that. It's billed as a Big & Rich "duet" (I thought duets had to be two people--what do I know), so I guess that's John Rich doing the harmony vocals on the song to justify the billing. I can't remember the name of the track, but it sounds exactly like you would expect a Bon Jovi/Big & Rich mashup to, except that it's probably a low point for both acts. The duet with LeAnn Rimes also sounds like the parts were recorded in separate universes, and something about the lyrics, where they sing about being in bed together, is icky; I don't know if it's just because I still picture her as 16 or because there is something incestuous-seeming about their past or present hairstyles. I will admit to liking the partner-free opening and closing tracks, even if "Lost Highway" is yet another song title BJ probably shouldn't be lifting from a legend.

― Willman, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 05:47 (nineteen years ago)

John Anderson's "Brown Liquor" rules. I got a little unofficial sampler of the then unfinished album last year, with that as track one. It's the kind of track that makes you stand up in your seat--even if you're driving--and say, yeah! So of course on the finished product they put it nearly at the end of the disc, hidden away as part of the Great Track Protection Program. (Fortunately, I like the nine or ten that come before it, too.) Or maybe you could call it "Suds in the Bucket" syndrome, since that classic was also tucked at the very end of a CD in hopes that no one would accidentally listen that long. I mean, quite deliberately.

― Willman, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 05:52 (nineteen years ago)

yes, "Brown Liquor" is the cut. I need to get that Anderson record out again but I remember thinking it sounded vaguely dishonest, compromised, and goopy in the balladry. "Come to Bed" with John Rich works on the new Gretchen record (best stuff there are indeed the Detroit-meets-Charlie-Daniels rockers) in the context of the record I guess but it makes me think that B&R have no talent for the looove ballad. Icky.
did this interview w/ Marty Stuart yesterday as preview for his big collection of music memorabilia that'll be on display at the Tenn. State Museum. got to see Clarence White's psychedelic blue leather vest and his guitar, handwritten Johnny Cash lyrics, Emmylou's boots (no panties), lots more, about 1000 pieces out of 20,000 on display. Marty was cool, talked about the new Porter Wagoner record and "Rubber Room" and suchlike. got a copy of the Wagoner Anti- record and guess I'll spin it today.

― whisperineddhurt, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:40 (nineteen years ago)

Man I love Marty Stuart, dude is awesome.

Here's a stream of Ike Reilly's first single from this record, "When Irish Eyes Are Burning": http://vista.streamguys.com/jspiewak/ira_irish.wma

― Dimension 5ive, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:03 (nineteen years ago)

Jimmy Draper says there are four Miranda Lambert tracks not on the basic release:

--Target's version has: "I Just Really Miss You and "Take It Out On Me"
--iTunes' has "Girl Like Me"
--Best Buy has "Nobody Used To Be"

Anybody heard any of these?

― Frank Kogan, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 17:01 (nineteen years ago)

Think Ike Reilly is appropriate for this thread. The song reminds me of Springsteen in a good way: story teller, open hearted, the romanticism of normal guys in normal fuckups. And lacks Bruce's bellow, fortunately. Don't know yet if I'd say he turns his flaws into strengths, but he does know how to make his nondominating voice have at least some impact. Think the track would have been better without the Irish chorus, the tunefulness of which interrupts the headlong nature of the music.

― Frank Kogan, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 17:20 (nineteen years ago)

But that is his whole thing, interrupting his own flow, going back to his first record, the elegantly fucked-up Salesmen and Racists. Also, "Irishness" rearing its ugly/pretty head at the completely wrong time is the theme of the song, more or less. So yeah, maybe "better," but very un-Reilly.

This is only about the fourth-best track on the record, by the way. It starts with a rockabilly gospel number about how Jesus and the Devil are fighting over him and how the whole thing's gonna end in flames. It also has an instrumental track called "Bugsy Salcido Has Fled the Desert" and a Phil Spector-sounding song about hot plain girls and a song that reminds me of the Del Fuegos covering Nirvana or maybe the other way around.

― Dimension 5ive, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 17:37 (nineteen years ago)

MIRANDA LAMBERT OH MY GOD!!!

i know you've all had the miranda album for weeks (months, maybe) but i just got it and it's the best record i've heard in a long time. of the singles i'd already heard, i kinda like "famous in a small town" and i kinda don't like "crazy ex-girlfriend" -- a little bit too on-the-nose for her -- but neither of 'em came close to preparing me for the album.

favorites so far are "dry town" -- how on earth did that one emerge from the pen of gillian welch? -- "gunpowder & lead," which is kinda like kerosene times three (what's she gonna kill him with on her next album, an A-bomb?), "love letters," which musically is very gram parsons and which i played about 11 times in a row yesterday, and "guilty in here."

― fact checking cuz, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 18:15 (nineteen years ago)

so, the John Anderson ballads on the new one aren't quite as bad as I remembered, he pulls them off relatively OK. I guess I find Big and Rich's production just cold, somehow, and featureless (although there's a nice eerie steel bit on one of the slower ones). the whole trick of the ominoso fiddle they use I find tiresome, and anyway John Anderson needs to be more soulful--I just find the whole presentation synthetic, in the bad old Nashville manner. but a couple of great tracks. I give it a B.

Lacy Younger's "Still Wild" title track (Big Deal Records) starts off with an obvious Stones rip, a hanging-in-mid-air Keef riff and basic rock and roll chord progression #5, and she sings not like a country singer but she kinda sounds tart like Bettye LaVette or someone. She used to be a tough girl and took the curves at 95. She's still wild, and I suppose this is no Banger Sisters shit, she looks pretty young. Definitely a species of oversinging but it's not bad. I guess she's supposed to be a "mature" rock chick. More rueful self-knowledge on "Here's to You," which is another Stones rip circa Sticky Fingers except she's not on smack or coked out, altho her voice throughout is just ravaged enough. Nice gams on the back and that's a drawing (I think) of a flower around them but at first it looked like barbed wire. Recorded in California and the insert has more pictures of Lacy, another leg shot, one of her running along a pier of some sort at dusk or sunup in shorts and a white sort of underwear top and a crucifix, judging from the gams she runs a good bit. wrote most of the songs herself and tell the truth I enjoy this, just basic rock and roll with occasional cowbell and it sounds like she really wants to be a soul mama. pretty interesting.

― whisperineddhurt, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 18:41 (nineteen years ago)

)"Pointless Drinking" totally reminds me of either Nellie McKay or Marit Larsen, I'm not sure which.

Yeah, I was going to say. Of course Marit is way way better: better timing, the fact that she's used to being shy and playing second fiddle so she's developed this skill of flicking drops of small-voiced sulfuric acid at you. I think LaVere has moments where she could half do this, when the song is good ("Killing Him" yes, "Pointless Drinking"* no). The quietness isn't mere restraint, but she needs more nonquietness to play off of. I'm going solely by what's on her MySpace. And indeed I'd class her more with Fiona and Bjork and even PJ than with country, I'd say.

(*As opposed to purposeful drinking?)

― Frank Kogan, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 19:16 (nineteen years ago)

And in the MySpace battle of the Amys, I'm not sure if LaVere loses to Dalley. I'm more moved by Amy Dalley's voice by a long shot, but Dalley doesn't have the songs - I mean, they're good, but not great. (But listening to them now, she clearly does beat LaVere.) Where Dalley's songs go country they're at their weakest, lose impact. Maybe my hearing has shifted, what with all these rock riffs and Sheryl-n-Jewel-voiced singers these days, but when Dalley jumps from the rock to the wailing country chorus in "I Built The Wall," the chorus sounds like just a style she's putting on. (Not quite sure what I'm saying. Maybe I simply think the melodies get wanky in the choruses.)

Haven't heard either of the Dalley songs mentioned upthread, mind you.

― Frank Kogan, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 19:36 (nineteen years ago)

I never really remotely understand what Edd means when he says country albums sound "dishonest" to him (though to be fair he did explain more later about why he thinks the production gets in the way), but you know what? I've been playing the John Anderson album the past couple days, and it's fine. At least as good as, say, the new Pam Tillis album; probably better. And the best ballads on it ("Bonnie Blue," somehow about race and the South and maybe orchestrated too long at six minutes but still lovely; "Weeds," just really dejected == "don't wanna hear how times are hard gotta pull the weeds from my own backyard"; "Something To Drink About," a vaguely calypso-lilting marriage warning -- "if you like the nightlife more than a good wife...") stack up to most of the non-ballads, my favorite of which, yeah, is easily "Brown Liquor" (makes me crazy quicker than an old red fox on the run and I get t-t-t-tongue tied and lose my mind and everything comes undone), but "Easy Money" (what musicians make on the road, which is a lot of hard work) is not far behind, maybe "Funky Country" too. The Hawaiian sound of "Willie's Guitar" almost makes up for its obligatory album-ending-song-about-Willie-why-would-anybody-give-a-fuck pandering, and the only song I come close to actively disliking, I think, is probably "You Already Know My Love," which despite its sogginess at least has half a melody reminiscent of "Easy" by the Commodores. Need to listen to the remaining cuts (especially the remaining ballads) a little closer, still, but all that adds up to a pretty good album in my book--especially with Jawn's honeyed whiskey drawl, which still really hold up to my ears, singing it all. So why complain, guys?

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 11:55 (nineteen years ago)

As for "Funky Country" (which to my ears actually isn't as funky as "Easy Money" or "Brown Liquor"), it's still a really good idea, and I'm glad that it exists. And "A Woman Knows," "If Her Lovin Don't Kill Me" (very timid first single choice) and "I Can't Make Her Cry Anymore" are fairly generic, but also all fairly crafty, not bad. (And now I'm realizing that the opening orchestrations of the strange "Bonnie Blue" kinda bring to mind the opening of the admittedly superior "Seminole Wind," another stretched-out song about the south.)

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:11 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, "Funky Country" sort of gets at what I grope toward when I say "dishonest," Chuck, as I sometimes do. there B&R's shtick has hardened a bit--got it. but Anderson rides right over the lyrics, he really makes them come alive. I find the obvious homage to '80s production styles (the piano sound in "Bonnie Blue" for example, and this is also a higher-grade Alabama song that is also somehow good) not to my taste, and the calculated dishonesty of that '80s country shit I hate, like Alabama, seems to me part of Big & Rich's aesthetic, a big part. what's honest about this record, though, is its sentimentality, which Anderson earns on virtually every cut. I mean "Bonnie Blue" actually works, in the end; the high-gloss production overall strikes me as relatively depthless--and that's a complaint about Nashville mastering, really, as well as production I think I'm well justified to make. what made the last B&R record not quite work (for me; I did like the big-beat shit and thought the phased-out pop was also real interesting) was the tension between what they kinda sorta want to be as populists and what they kinda sorta are trying to do that's "subversive" but it's only only subversive by the standards of Nashville, which once kind of rejected them. so I think they're frustrated like subversive '80s artists (or early '90s artists, like Beck or someone) taking their revenge on Nashville. so they compress the vocals too much just to put that idea in your face, and they're comin' to yr. shitty. anyway I've been listening to Easy Money and its overstatement mostly does really work and the goopy ballads aren't really ballads but Anderson's story-songs and it breathes fairly well. just wish there seemed to more ideas than combining a kickdrum with the ominoso fiddle (and "Something to Drink About" does go somewhere even in the arrangement), but I guess that's their idea of sending up or celebrating something or another.

― whisperineddhurt, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:42 (nineteen years ago)

saw the video for Martin McBride's "Anyway," where she's kind of in this Lynchean blue-lit celestial bar, and it appears she can read the minds of all the yearning searchers she sees from up above. one woman's word baloon is "I want to be famous," a guy's is "I miss her," and so forth. she looks handsome, a gamine of a certain age. so I finally pulled out Waking Up Laughing and it's her big certainty-of-life move and lotsa modal rock guitar on the first two songs, and definitely she's trying hard to be a liberal, trying to find a reason as she sings, but that's about her guy who thinks she uses too much makeup. the opening riff of "For These Times" communicates that bad-news-in-the-morning-coffee fake angst that pop can do so well ("Five o'Clock World" and for that matter the opening to "Ask for Jill" by the dB's, and I mean "For These Times" is like a good Peter Holsapple or Gin Blossoms song, nice warm chord substitutions and a polite mandolin obliggato in there. I think she's saying the Redeemer is the man for these times we live in. boy, she hits some doozies of a note in this one, I mean the breath control is amazing but she also sounds just kind of worried about her artistic direction so she's going all sisterly and serious and soulful (nice female backing vocals on the fade of "For These Times," maybe Mavis Staples could've done it). "Anyway" has childlike piano plinks and sure enough, "one storm could go and blow it all away" just like a house of cards. "Dream it anyway," so that's it, and she is definitely working the Jesus side of the fence here, genteel Calvinsim: "God is great but sometimes life ain't good," but she perseveres. the video is more creepy than the song although the strings are really nice on this, this is better than Coldplay by a mile.

― whisperineddhurt, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:44 (nineteen years ago)

also, on the closing track "Love Land" McBride renders "modern medicine" paired with "Thomas Edison" and it's a song about how God is the ultimate healer despite all progress, I think, and it's apparently also about her mate? so, a sexy enough Christian if no Amy Grant.

― whisperineddhurt, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 16:09 (nineteen years ago)

they compress the vocals too much

I'm embarrassed to say that I've never learned what "compressed" means in the context of recording. Any easy way to explain it?

― Frank Kogan, Thursday, 3 May 2007 02:45 (nineteen years ago)

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