Rolling Country 2023

the Mavericks are fantastic

In Time was a peak: RIYL Los Lobos and early The Band, in terms of drawing all or many of their roots and interests into the signature sound---and now they've got a 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, with bonus tracks (Blue Vinyl Ltd. has sold out, but there's digital, CD, maybe another LP at some point)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnaoZ64VeyQ

RIYL Los Lobos and early The Band

I'd also maybe add Chris Isaak, for obvious reasons.

Yeah, and I didn't mean that they ever, as far as I know, actually sounded like The Band, but, for In Time anyway, had more signs of that syncretic Big Pink process going on, drawing deeper from the well for more colors, more shades at least, not radically altering their style, but doing it in a way that seemed like a logical development and a refreshing, exciting one. Big Pink was kind of high strung, while the Mavericks and Los Lobos are usually cooler with it, taking a variety of roots etc. as a given (Exception: to me, The Mavericks En Espanol sounds like Mario Unchained, Mario practically busting a gut at a talent show, and being awesome! But I wanna hear more of The Mavericks.)

Also they sound like they probably like the Texas Tornadoes and some other bands and recording situations involving Flaco and Doug Sahm, who was never shy about musical variety, while always sounding unmistakably like himself (that voice, that weed)

And prob should have left out The Band, but yeah Isaak, so Orbison, and his Latin inspirations, whoever they were.

Official name: Texas Tornadoes (spellcheck making me look like Dan Quayle)

Now it's leaving out strikethrough! Too klever of me: sorry, Texas Tornados (as Flaco has noted,"Now there's just me and Augie, two tornados")(although Shawn Sahm pulled together at least one more album)

The Band

Yeah, I don't think the Mavericks sound like them at all, but at times Los Lobos sure has. Perhaps the only band I've ever heard really bring to mind the Band, intentionally. But of course, Los Lobos are pretty much capable of anything.

So I'm disappointed in most of Flaco's latest, but Eva Ybarra's La Reina Del Accordéon rules OK! (and then some): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3F7qrqwnZ0

And now I see that I misplaced the acute mark in the word misspelled: should be La Reina Del Acordeón.)

"Lake of Fire" was the highlight of a mostly disappointing Bruce Robison album several years ago. He misspelled the writer's name, Christy Hays, but I tracked down her River Swimmer, which was and is a trip, though I learned how to go with the flow, how to swim it, and there's a striking, somewhat countervailing version of "Lake" on her latest, the reductively-titledSad Songs For Lonely People: there's a playful, old school country feel, as she even gets the sometimes scary steel guitar to shuffle along in a sincerely horny way: the Lake of Fire is her heart, babe, "in the dark of the light," and now it occurs to me that this is a drinking song, a having-drunken song, in which such confidences make total sense, or enough of the right kind.

Another good version of this effect comes on one of her more mumblecore productions---she's already told somebody she knows she's hard to handle but still doesn't feel doing nothing else on this long-ass day, I just wanna ride around": that's "Ride Around"---and now, she's nailed by those "White Crosses," the little ones, with "fake flowers," by the side of the road, and she's taking them personally, that's clear enough, and seems like she might have been a killed or killing traveler, perhaps both, or at least relates re tendencies. Meanwhile, the steel guitar keeps floating around the curve, its degree of brightness never entirely predictable, while she's hunched over her acoustic.

Lots of atmospheric character studies here, with enough discernible detail, and even an intriguing personal-historical Western trilogy in the home stretch (she lives in Butte, Montana).

new Tyler Childers video/song is gorgeous despite the video's reliance on certain tropes, also love to see Silas House was involved

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II-L8Hq0_i4

Thanks---at first, discs 2 and 3 of Childers' opus were growing on me quite a bit, then receded---but glad he's still trying---and Silas House! I enjoy his interviews, should check his books, and maybe he'll try his hand at lyrics, if he hasn't already.

Also for further study: Sara Evans, who I didn't know could be this good.

She was in the back yard
Say it was a little past nine
When her prince pulled up
A white pick-up truck…

Speaking of so many country and adjacent acts with names that start with the letter "M," My Morning Jacket just played the Newport Folk Festival and was joined at various times by Maggie Rogers, Margo Price, and Animal (from the Muppets).

Pop-country alert: Stumbled on this because she's playing here in a few weeks as an opening act. I was initially charmed by the blatant pseudo-Swiftness of it, thinking about how many hundreds of Swiftian writers there are yet to come. But the chorus sold me. Interesting that she's keeping a country affiliation while absorbing a lot of the stuff Swift did only after she "left" country.

Also, it's not six minutes long, it's just the song looped twice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJKlxl4yJ0M

lol from YouTube it looks like Tana Matz has been making music for 10 years and sounding like Taylor Swift the whole time.

Taylor Slow

x-post re: Sara Evans

She's only rarely ever been that great; "Suds in the Bucket" is (one of?) her best singles, and it's because she leans hard into the more trad-country phrasings and her thick drawl. Evans has never seemed to know what her actual strengths are: She fancies herself more of a Faith Hill / Martina McBride type when she's better suited as a Lee Ann Womack / Patty Loveless.

The covers album she released a couple of years ago is honest-to-God one of the worst albums I've ever heard. There's a particular iteration of Hell that's just Sara Evans, bleating her way through "Come On, Eileen."

Suds in the Bucket is a certified hit, one of the best of that era for sure.

Also would like to read the think piece about how the balkanization of all other genres and musical fandom has led to a resurgence in the cultural significance of a few select (male) country stars. When was the last time 3 of the top 4 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 were male country acts?

Thanks for the xpost Evans warnings!

Finally saw this splendid 2022 work-out---get it while you can:

Terry Allen & The Panhandle Mystery Band
Season 47 Episode 4712 | 54m 6s
|

Enjoy an hour with maverick Texas singer/songwriter and artist Terry Allen and the Panhandle Mystery Band. The Guggenheim Fellowship winner performs songs from his lauded LP Just Like Moby Dick, as well as classics from his back catalog.

Aired: 01/29/22

Expires: 08/27/23

Rating: TV-G

Continuous Play Settings

oops, here's link:
https://www.pbs.org/video/terry-allen-sgfb6f/

Deep summer bonus track from The River and The Stream, later on a Jesse Winchester tribute album, Quiet About It:
Rosanne Cash, "Biloxi"---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDhV5SscEgc

Maybe a controversial opinion, but I think Ro. Cash's three album run from Black Cadillac to The List to The River & The Thread is as strong as anything she's ever done, and I'm someone who thinks she already had at least 3 canon-ready albums during her commercial heyday.

I remember being a bit distracted by what I heard as the arty (pastoral woodcuts vs. country) lyrics of The River & Thread, but liked some of it, if not as much as those first two.
Emily Nussbaum tries to come to grips with today's blue Nashville under assault from within and without, but I was mainly struck by her conversation with Adeem, starting about 20-25 minutes in:

Nussbaum also speaks with Adeem the Artist, a nonbinary country singer and songwriter based in East Tennessee, who has found success with audiences but has not broken through on mainstream country radio. “I think that it’s important that people walk into a music experience where they expect to feel comforted in their bigotry and they are instead challenged on it and made to imagine a world where different people exist,” Adeem says. “But, as a general rule, I try really hard to connect with people even if I’m making them uncomfortable.”

Also, Adeem plays "Books and Records" by request, at just the right point in the interview.

re: Sara Evans, pretty sure Suds in the Bucket is one of her two best songs, the other being the near-title track from her best album Real Fine Place ("A Real Fine Place To Start".) SITB is on a pretty decent album too, but RFP is the place to uh start.

Lori McKenna's new album is solid as ever. Seeing her in a couple of weeks so need to do a bit of a back catalog review.

Also, seeing Eric Church this weekend. Not sure what to expect. Anyone seen him live?

Church put on a solid show this weekend. Though his last couple of albums aren't very consistent, he played what would be considered his "greatest hits," much of Chief and Mr. Misunderstood especially, which I consider two of the best country albums of the 2010s. He blends outlaw, swamp, and southern country rock, liberally borrowing from R&B, gospel, and soul in the mold of CCR and the Stones. He did two covers, Little Feat's "Sailin Shoes" and a rousing "Ophelia" in tribute to Robbie Robertson, both bands that seem like the kind of antecedents he models himself after.

Content-wise, he likes to walk in two worlds, playing to his audience with ample songs about drinking and getting stoned--"Livin Part of Life," "Drink in My Hand," "Round Here Buzz," and "Smoke a Little Smoke" all made appearances--and unfurling a giant American flag to rousing applause late in the set. But the songs rarely if ever seem to be plainly patriotic or about the type of macho masculinity that Aldean and others traffic in. I was struck in particular by "Never Break Heart," in which he repeats "It's okay to cry" four or five times; maybe I'm misinterpreting, but he recited the line as if addressing his male fans directly.

One topic that he returns to again and again is music itself: "Mistress Named Music," "Country Music Jesus," "Pledge Allegiance to the Hag," and "Springsteen" were all played, the latter of which remains his best track, the rare understated song that became a fan favorite and a sing-along anthem. I like how often he name checks his heroes or nods to their work in his own songs: Merle Haggard, The Boss, Elvis, Stevie Wonder, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Elvis Costello, and Jeff Tweedy to name a few, whose "Misunderstood" he interpolated for the aforementioned "Mr. Misunderstood."

“Rich Men North of Richmond” is an archetypal example of right wing populist ideology—there’s a vague gesture against elites keeping working people down, but the alleged mechanism by which they are keeping them down is by giving their tax dollars to “undeserving” poor people

— Armand Domalewski 🍌 (@ArmandDoma) August 14, 2023

I still love Eric Church like he was an ex-boyfriend with whom I remain on good terms. I roll my eyes at his mistakes, forgive him.

Eric Church remains the only arena country show I've been to honestly, it was fantastic from what I remember

xp he seems like a bit of a dork, tbqh. At one point he switched up some of his lyrics off the cuff to reference Chicago, rhyming the city with "not wanting to go home," and then bashfully felt the need to explain to the audience mid-song that he "just made that up!" as though that wasn't obvious to everyone lol.

I love him because he's a dork!

Is that "Rich Men..." song that thing with the bearded dobro dude? I saw a muted recut on FB of that video where he was intercut with clips of Trump dancing and I don't think it came off like the creator intended.

Yah, or "Lucky Charms Mumford and Sons" as Tyler Mahan Coe dubbed him.

Ah. Every generation gets the "Welfare Cadillac" it deserves then.

Not one of my core interests, no more than a sunset is a dog's, but after 2 hours ofI’m Gonna Sing: The Mother’s Best Gospel Radio RecordingsI believe that there is balm in Hank, Audrey(!), and the Drifting Cowboys. Some of the words are otherwise too other, but they do fly and waltz and traipse and discreetly boom-chick by---and this SPOILER finale fits perfectly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3mY_xdjAG8

There's also an amazing bluesiness, layers, seams, veins of loss (often mentioned) and decay and struggle and surging and searching, also the sense of justice in judgement applied to self and others, the worn poise of witness, for a moment (these are mostly v. short), on the sunny, stormy road to death and Glory, hopefully (Hank requests a little cabin in the shade of the Tree of Life, where he can maybe "shake hands with Jesus") Then there's there the one where "Death comes down, an angel from Heaven," gathering flowers for the Master's bouquet: a lovely waltz.

New Jessi:

Edge of Forever, coming Oct. 27 on Appalachia Recording Co. The project was produced by Margo Price and mixed by Shooter Jennings, Colter’s son with the late Waylon Jennings. It includes never-before-heard songs written by Colter and Waylon in the 1970s, songs drawn from sheet music discovered in an old briefcase, newer compositions influenced by Colter’s gospel leanings, and collaborations with her daughter, Jenni Eddy Jennings, and Price.

Zach Bryan just dropped his new album

My 16-year-old daughter just asked me this morning if I had heard that album yet, and I'm trying to figure out why. I mean, I like him, but that would be like her asking me if I'd heard the new Jason Isbell.

idk how many 16-y/os listen to jason isbell

Zach Bryan is way more popular than Isbell.

bryan's duet with musgraves is on track to be the #1 song on the hot 100 next week.

haven't heard the song or album yet. ian cohen said something about how zach bryan shares some emo-adjacent properties (he mentioned conor oberst and dashboard confessional) that separates him from other country folks of today. then again, he *would* say that.

Well, both albums are in essence Drake-esque mix tapes.

(I may have said so to Ian on Twitter, I don't remember)

i've only listened to the song w/ musgraves so far. i'll give the album a go since it isn't 2 hours like his last one (which i did listen to and enjoy, but you know). anyway the song is... fine? beautifully produced, to be sure. but, like, the verses sound exactly like the verses to the majority of his songs from the last album. iirc he quips about 'real writing' or w/e at one point on the album and it's like... maybe you could stand to accept some pointers from some 'fake writers' about how not to rely on the same tricks/formula for 80% of your songs

to be sure it can be remarkably effective -- "something in the orange" was the first song i heard by him and it basically stopped me in my tracks -- but, idk, despite not disliking it exactly i'm still struggling to see why this musgraves duet in particular is resonating so much. hopefully there will be other stuff on the album that i'll prefer

Because once a singer (Musgraves) is crowned a pop queen or whatever then people pledge fealty for life(style).

Zach Bryan is way more popular than Isbell.

Yeah, I knew this; he's big enough that he plays arenas, and Isbell (one of his biggest inspirations, iirc) is opening for *him* on a couple of upcoming dates. I guess I had no idea how much pop crossover he has going for him, though I suppose that's a thing right now with country music. Better Zach Bryan than fucking Morgan Wallen.

bummed he's going again with Ticketmaster for his upcoming tour after making a fuss (righteously so) about not using them on his most recent tour

The Musgraves duet stood out because for once one of those guest appearances is appropriate to the song; she sounds like she belongs.

it's like... maybe you could stand to accept some pointers from some 'fake writers' about how not to rely on the same tricks/formula for 80% of your songs

idk this template works for me? The unfussy production or non-production fits these stories about damaged lives. Hell, the mariachi horn on "Overtime" came outta nowhere.