Rolling country 2007 thread

I got the Paisley but just haven't listened to it yet.

Kinda stumped so far about what people are hearing as so great on the Paisley record. Most of it, again so far (could change) is seeming fairly meh to me in the way Brad usually seems fairly meh. The extended (five minute) Lonnie Mack or whoever style guitar instrumental at the end, "Throttleneck," is pretty cool. "Online," about a middle-aged web nerd (maybe web perv?) who lives in his mom's basement and tells lies about himself to girls on his Mac after mom fixes him a snack, struck me as sort of funny until Lalena pointed out that the character in the song is a way-too-obvious cliche done way funnier by Weird Al last year. "Mr. Policeman" has some okay so-what auctioneer-spiel-as-chase-scene momentum I guess, but still seems pretty pro forma all the way down to its "In the Jailhouse Now" (Mississippi Shieks etc) quote at the end. And there are some fulminating cleancut down-get-any-on-you guitar parts at the ends of some songs, but in general I'm shrugging my shoulders like I usually do with this guy. Not sure I'm even impressed by "Ticks" yet (again, guitar ending seemed better than the song), though that may change after I've heard it a few times. Carrie Underwood ballad seemed like a snooze; "If Love Was a Plane" and maybe "Some Mistakes" seem like okay semi-ballads; 16 songs is way too long for a country album, though I'm no doubt missing some good ones. (Two of them feature the "Kung Pao Buckaroos," which is apparently Little Jimmy Dickens, Vince Gill, and Whisperin' Bill Anderson; if I heard those, they went right by me.) I dunno, probably lots of the songs will grow on me. But today the imminent Columbia debut by Cole Deggs & the Lonesome (which I'll post about soon) was sounding a whole lot more exciting. (Weird coincidence, though: First song on Brad's album is "All I Wanted Was A Car"; chorus of fist song on Cole Deggs etc.'s album goes "all I wanted was the girl next door." Who apparently does reckless things with her car, and with Marlboros.)

DON'T-get-any-on-you guitar parts, I meant. (In general, I'm not yet a convert to the Paisley guitar cult; I think I'd take Keith Urban over him, easy. Though "Throttleneck" does help in Brad's regard.)

got an early paisley out of the library, with a 4 minute bluegrass instruemtal called nervous breakdown, its kind of awesome

Have read the Breihan, not the Mazor. A wrong assumption is (or isn't) that "alt" is the only alternative to "mainstream." Miranda is a bit left field for Nashville country, just as Big & Rich and Cowboy Troy are left field. But it's a different field from alt's. Is too bright and poppin' for alt. But Miranda is the sort of non-alt that alt types'll like, owing to the blatancy of the twisted-revenge tales and the, well, hard rock of her stomps.

The critic embrace will probably neither hurt nor help her airplay. She's not gotten much airplay for her previous album, either.

Not sure why I think her rock is more "rock" than, say, Montgomery Gentry's rock is, since MG rocks at least as hard as she does.

Okay, more thoughts on more stuff:

COLE DEGGS AND THE LONESOME -- Looks like country "bands" (who apparently sometimes play actual instruments) are on the verge of becoming more visible in the next couple months. Not sure I've heard Emerson Drive yet; liked Lynville Train's track or three on the Broken Bridges soundtrack last year. Didn't know what to expect of these guys, and my first reaction was somewhere in the neighborhood of "lite southern rock so what" or maybe "Rascal Flatts so what." But a bunch of tracks are really starting to grab me -- "I Got More," jazzy in the tradition of Marshall Tucker Band; "Huggin' in the Blacktop," beautiful desert-at-dusk ballad that might have as much Gary Allan in it as anything on Blake Shelton's album; "Do You Think of Me," with a nostalgia mood somewhere between Night Moves and Against the Wind Bob Seger; "I Haven't Stopped Hurtin," jazzgrass soft/hard rock that might match anything on the last Dierks Bentley album; "Out Of Alabama," another good lonely road song (like Dierks, that seems to be these guys' specialty) and possibly the best song to call Alabama the Crimson Tide since Steely Dan's "Deacon Blues." "Girl Next Door" appears to be a pretty sweet pop-rocker -- sounds like the single to me, and it'd be a good one (basically mom and dad try to keep fixing him up with respectable marrying types but he's always been in love with the wild girl who grew up in 305 whilst he grew up in 303 on the same street). "Everybody's Beautiful" is a sappy one for the ladies and maybe James Blunt fans, but the girl in the song works in an office (her job is very boring she's an office clerk?), and working woman rock rules (plus this one has cool mandolin fills or something). And that's just be the start.

THE PLAIN DEALERS -- Northern Exposure country rock from way up in Edmonton (Anthony, you're up near there somewhere right?), and maybe even a better shot that Cole Deggs etc. at being a Marshall Tucker Band for our time, judging from their great EP, one of the best cdbaby releases I've heard this year. Apparently the people in the band were prog-rockers before they went hard country, so they've definitely got chops, but with a way jazzier groove than most prog ever has. Singer sounds like a tough guy but that somehow doesn't bug me -- reminds me of Dale Watson, I think. Now all I have to figure out is why they're named after a daily newspaper in Cleveland.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/theplaindealers

CAROLINA COTTON - "The Yodeling Blonde Bombshell"; recorded and did a radio show between 1946 to 1952; now her daughter runs (or at least has a connection to) a recording studio in Bakersfield and has put together a CD of Bombshell Mom's work and put it up on cdbaby. "Western Swing," we're told, but I'm not sure how much swing I hear in the actual instrumentation; I need to listen more to figure that out. Western Swing's definition then might be wider than my definiton of it now. But Carolina's signing has something that, say, Anita O'Day or Keely Smith or Rosmeary Clooney had (I am no expert on that kinda stuff, so those are probably far from the best comparisons), and they were jazz vocalists, right? So maybe that is the swing part. Also, she yodels. A lot. I'm not sure how much yodeling I can take; 19 tracks (including a long segment from her radio show, complete with banter and jokes with guys and snippets of songs like " Red River Valley" all through it) might be a bit of an endurance test, but I am trying. Lalena swears by "You And My Old Guitar" already; I gotta go back and check that out.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/carolinacotton

COWBOY TROY -- New album is kind of depressing me so far, so I took it out of my changer a week ago and haven't put it back in. The old old old school DJ Hollywood type rapping in "Blackneck Boogie" seemed kinda fun I guess, but Troy's idea of hard rock seems to be Limp Bizkit stick-up-the-butt gnu-metal (though John Rich I believe has said this album sounds like "Motorhead on a horse," which sounded really promising!) Proggy parts in "Paranoid Like Me (Tis the Season of Discontent)" might be a Metallica attempt. "Hick Chick" has an obvious Gretchen Wilson lyric connection plus some redneck wimmin singing in the background. "Buffalo Stampede" has Avenged Sevenfold on it but has left no impression at all so far. There is also a "Barn Dance Mix" of "I Play Chicken With The Train", I just noticed. We'll see. It can't be as bad as it's seeming so far, can it?

COUNT BISHOPS -- Been playing Speedball + 11, released on 1995 on Ace Records UK and containing EP and outtake tracks recorded by the hardest-rocking band in UK pub-rockdom, mostly in 1975, when they were just starting out. Man, they totally just wanted to be early Stones then, I'm realizing, and they were great at it -- "Route 66," "Teenage Letter," "I Ain't Got You," "Cry To Me," "Sweet Little Sixteen, "Carol," "Mercy Mercy," "Reelin' and Rockin," "Down the Road Apiece" (most country track here, and it's awesome), "I'm a Man" -- how many of those songs (including three Chuck Berry ones, right?) had the Stones done first? A bunch I think. Frank Kogan would probably know off the top of his head. Anyway, this might just be my favorite Bishops CD of the large pile I've been delving into lately.

KORPIKLAANI -- Finnish hummpa/folk/forest-metal, getting ever more beautiful as it gets ever jiggier. Last track "Nordic Feast" is like a great Pogues instrumental circa "Red Roses For Me." "Vesilahden Verajilla" on now, just tearing my heart apart.

"Huggin' in the Blacktop,"

No "in". The blacktop is what is being hugged.

JOHN EDDIE -- Oh yeah, wanted to ask if anybody had an opinion about this guy. Too bad Rob Sheffield isn't here; I'm pretty sure he has a John Eddie opinion somewhere. Anyway. Jersey guy, I think. Cool last name, but he spells it wrong. Mid '80s album (just reissued on American Beat Records) features Max Weinberg, Ian Maclagan, Mitchell Froom, Nils Lofgren, and David Lindley, but it just sounds like a sub-sub-John Cafferty/Corey Hart hack Springsteen imitation, and doesn't hold my attention at all. But "Jungle Boy," which went to #52 on the pop chart apparently though I don't think I've ever once heard it on the radio, is weird! Not nearly as good as "Tarzan Boy" by Baltimora from around the same time, which I'm sure some people must have confused it with back then, but still: A blatant Gary Glitter "Rock and Roll Part Two" rip via Bruce, basically. What the hell? It would not be hard to make a Jimmy Ray connection, if I really wanted to.

if you were on the jersey shore in the mid-'80s -- and probably other parts of the northeast -- you heard lots of "jungle boy" on the radio. and even a little bit of "pretty little rebel," from the same album.

started out as john eddie and the front street runners, who i think were more of a south jersey/philly club phenomenon than a jersey shore phenomenon, but the springsteen/southside/beaver brown fans looooved them. eventually dropped the band name and settled on the shore, where he hit with those two songs immediately and then was never able to follow up. his biggest weakness, i think, was his bland, powerless voice. but he kept trying, with a bit of a kinda sorta dance album if i recall correctly, and at least one country/folk/acoustic/singer-songwriter album, speaking of this thread. at least until recently, he was still playing the shore fairly regularly.

and, oh yeah, since you were seeking an opinion: "jungle boy" and "pretty little rebel" were very much the peak, and not much of a peak, though they were fun summer beach songs back in the day. the sundry followup attempts weren't anything to write homoe about.

home. d'oh.

I had Paisley on while cleaning the house, and it struck me about like the last one, except I didn't hear anything as undeniable as "Alchohol." He still likes the nice deliberate waltz and he still comes across to these ears as Sly Shmeagle With Trick Guitar, don't underestimate this man or he'll give your girlfriend a back rub, invite his country friends over for Kung Pao and then leave you with a frozen pizza, and drive away in a bigger car than you can afford. Mild pleasures. Excellent guitar playing.

Went to see the Porter Wagoner 50th-Anniv. show at the Opry last night, got to go backstage. Dolly was there reading off the teleprompter, Little Jimmy Dickens had a very tall beautiful blonde with him who could've just picked him up and carried him like a bowling ball. Good enough. Porter sang a couple and had Dolly Parton sing "I Will Always Love You" to him. Porter looked his age but got out there like a trouper. As to the new Porter record, Wagonmaster really does re-create the sound of stuff like "Rubber Room" and it's grown on me some. The voice is a bit shaky but hell the man's nearly 80 and he's had some serious health issues. I like the uptempo numbers and "Committed to Parkview" and the stories and recitations. Stuart and band get the loopy and harder-than-you-might-think-bub sound of the originals well enough, but then I listened to the original of Wagoner's "My Many Hurried Southern Trips" and the new one sounded a bit superfluous.

Danny Flowers' Tools for the Soul belongs here--first cut is a harmony duet with Emmylou Harris and throughout he balances rockin' folkieism with something a bit darker. He's a Nashville artist who's in his 50s, I think, and at first listen I think, another folkie. But actually he's got a voice--some would say he sounds like Clapton but I hear Andy Fairweather Low and maybe even some Ronnie Lane or for those of you who remember this obscure but fine record, Coulson, Dean McGuinness Flint's Dylan songbook Lo and Behold, from 1973. Something English folk-rocker and modal about him, and he does play good guitar in a style somewhere between folk and country blues. Maybe a little bit like Buddy Miller, too, in religious preoccupations. It's a pretty nice little record, and for what it's worth it's better than Richard Shindell's superficially similar South of Delia, because you can hear what Flowers is trying to express right up front in the voice.

I'll mention that I have a piece on the great Johnny Bush coming out in the Nashville Scene this week. I really admire Bush and have been listening to his Stop singles and to some of his comeback stuff from the 00s, and it's all pretty damned good, and his RCA stuff ain't bad either. The original version of "Whiskey River" might be an interesting thing to hear if you only know the innumerable Willie versions.

The Best of The Count Bishops (Chiswick/Ace, including seven tracks recorded "Live at the Roundhouse 18/02/78") in the changer now, and it might be even better than Speedball + 11, come to think of it. Their best regular issue LP is Choice Cuts from 1978 (which I now own on both CD and LP), edging out The Count Bishops from 1977. Honorable mention: Rollin' With The Count Bishops EP, Ace reissue w/outtakes, 2006.
My favorite song by them overall is their version of "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonite" by Fleetwood Mac, which Cowboy Troy should hear. It really does sound like Motorhead on a horse.

Oops, Cross Cuts, I mean.

Now that you develop, Edd, or maybe now that I read more carefully, I don't disagree with you at all.

Saw Ray Price Thursday night at the casino in St. Charles MO. I had fears. He sounded creaky and lost on that pointless geezer-weed-party-cash-in Last of the Breed. Thursday night he was stoned stoned stoned--but his voice! Lord that voice. Cool and warm and uptown soulful. His band read off charts all night, probably because he's doing the hits twice as fast as he should--and it's not a Ray Price shuffle if it's too fast--but that's ok, because that way he fit more in to a set without going all medley crazy. He's 82 or something, so don't don't don't miss him.

Cuz, I didn't mean to imply that "mordant wit" etc. can't be found in mainstream, just that a mainstream/"major" label would prob get nervous about it, esp. re young female artist, esp. if it's in a song from writer perceived as "out," to any degree. (Notice that young female artists always to include a song about how family and hometown will not be forgotten, not that guys don't have to do that too, at some point, but it's required for female debuts, seems like)Not that handleers wouldn't let her do it,esp. after "Kerosene,"just that would want some image-tweaking. Notice the first single, which she didn't look too thrilled to be performing on TV lately, and think it was Edd she mentioned her reservations to, first-single-wise. Lo And Behold is indeed excellent!

Andy Fairweather Low too, at least his 70s albums; haven't heard him much since then. Speaking of UK country-folk-rock (although Andy did other stuff too), anybody ever heard Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance?

yeah, Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance is good, I've heard that stuff. the Count Bishops stuff sounds fantastic. good you saw Ray, Roy, I've been off into Price's Night Life for some time now, and the whole Ray Price mythos vis-a-vis the Cherokee Cowboys and Johnny Bush, and wondered if he could still cut it at 82. They're all up there who have survived: Porter's 79, I think, and Charlie Louvin will be 80 this summer, Ray, Mac Wiseman...so he was swinging fast, Ray Price was?

the Lambert record, yeah, it is definitely something to make the whole alt- vs. mainstream discussion moot. I'm not a huge Gillian Welch fan, dunno if she's a schoolmarm as Chuck says (schoolmarms can be sexy!), but Miranda really does her song up, that works great, and "Dry Town" and "Famous in a Small Town" really work together, I mean she doesn't sound stupid doing that usual small-town country trope, she sounds kinda real to me and that's what matters. Now back to watching the extra scenes on this DVD of Desperate Man Blues, as great a character study of collectormania and fruitful tunnel vision as I've ever seen.

KORPIKLAANI "Vesilahden Verajilla" on now, just tearing my heart apart.

Guess it doesn't hurt that its melody is largely swiped from "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" (or whatever pagan tune ancient Goth Christians stole "God Rest Ye...") from, also utilized by Faroe Island Viking metallers Tyr last year and David Banner a few years ago. Then at the end the melody changes to "Fade to Black" by Metallica, and if you want a sad metal melody, that's about the best one you can steal. But most of the rest of the new Korpiklaani album is a great drunken swirl, polkas round and round the campfire in the middle of the snowy Finland woods, with your trusty and loyal wolf by your side. First song (and one of the few English titles) pretty much sums up the mood: "Let's Drink."

Best sampled with ale in a stein made of wood:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=92023174

And the more I play their EP, Edmonton cdbabies the Plain Dealers turn out to be somewhat more leaden and alt-country than I stated above (and also less jazzy, though "Before The Fire" is almost Marshall Tucker-worthy in its cowboy guitar uplift and "Away From the Trains" has a good railroad rhythm with twang sounds serving as whistles blowing), but I'd still recommend them to fans of the Bottle Rockets.

Heard the studio release of the Reba "Because Of You" and her singing is heavy and weepy and inflexible; Kelly C., who harmonizes and who sings lead on the second verse, is great as ever, and the song now overwhelms me with feeling anyway, no matter what; but I doubt I'll find much reason to listen to this version.

(But note that Anthony and I were saying last year that this song belonged on country radio.)

I've italicized the Count Bishop songs in Xhuxk's list previously covered by the Stones:

"Route 66," "Teenage Letter," "I Ain't Got You," "Cry To Me," "Sweet Little Sixteen, "Carol," "Mercy Mercy," "Reelin' and Rockin," "Down the Road Apiece" (most country track here, and it's awesome), "I'm a Man" (perhaps the Stones also covered "Reelin' and Rockin," but I may be confusing that with "'Round and 'Round," which they definitely covered).

Song I almost defintely overrated on the Cole Deggs & the Lonesome album: "Do You Think About Me," the one I compared to turn of the '80s Bob Seger. And it might not be alone in overratedness, and at least three tracks ("Twelve Ounces Deep," "The One That Got Away," "Girl Like You") pretty much draw a blank. So caveat emptor. But I still think it's a very solid album, much better than a Paisley record, and I'd say it has a fairly good shot of making by Nashville Scene top ten at the end of the year, especially if a few songs really sink in as hits.

And actually, a few of the guitar parts (e.g., in "I Got More") remind me of Tom Keifer's explorations on Cinderella's Long Cold Winter. (A compliment!)

Their mice pace page:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=110041553

Is it just me, or does Jason Aldean have no definable personality, on record, at least? I'm about to go on record saying as much, but I really wonder if I'm missing something.

I wouldn't have a problem reading that take on Aldean--never have figured out where the guy's coming from, if he's coming from anywhere.

http://www.lefthip.com/review_detail.php?reviewID=740&PHPSESSID=4dcbcd65d9783bd1c3952e3e761149e0

So, Anthony's description suggests to me that the escapism of "Last Dollar" is meant to be understood as another moment in the life of a restless, sometimes unsettled guy, who's determined to express each mood, go with it, but delve into it too. "Live like you were dying" in a more observational, less "inspirational" way. Like Womack went from "I Hope You Dance" to a more earthly mode, but with mixed results, commercially (and otherwise). Just heard xgau's review of Last Of The Breed on NPR. He said they def aren't last, there's plenty of geezers peddling new CDs "to the download-impaired," but he thinks this is some of the freshest geezer-bait he's heard in a while. Most of the excerpts he plays feature Merle most prominently, but lots of voices; I hope it doesn't have the old cowboy backup chorus all the way through. Fun and contemplation and good song choices etc, he says, and excerpts do seem to bear this out. I couldn't get into the last Willie & Ray set, Run That By Me One More Time, but with Merle this sharp, hey.

can someone explain Like Red on a Rhodes to me? I see these smooth jazz references upthread, but what I heard first was Garth, which made me feel funny.

also, I see him as a very subtle, cagey mostly good guy, but then again I think everyone I like is a liberal who would agree with me most of the time, and the facts differ

I guess my take on Anthony's contextualization of "Last Dollar" (which he doesn't seem that thrilled with),could be summed up with his line about the video's texturing: "Shit on purpose." Shit but signif shit, re the many moods of the narrator, when you hear it on the album, or so I hope.

to get further into Alan Jackson, start with his volumes of Greatest Hits, or any singles you can listen to online, cos he seems like more of a singles artist, at least before this album.

i'm already into him; i meant can someone explain this album in the context of his prior body of work (tho, ok, i mostly know the hits)

Just heard the Gretchen Wilson. Unlike the Lambert, it doesn't have a lot of obvious standouts*, but it still feels really nice all the way through, might even be a steady-going wonderful like last year's Toby Keith and Alan Jackson, and I like her a lot more now that she isn't jabbing her demographic elbows into everyone's ribs all the time. Probably her best album, even if there's no "When It Rains, I Pour."

*Though the Lambert has so many standouts that they don't really stand out (on the alb, that is; would on the radio).

Okay, I've checked with someone who would know, on a personal and musical level, and it has been affirmed for me: Aldean = lights not on and nobody home. Settled, at last!

I'm not even sure I've ever heard any other Jason Aldean songs besides "Hick Town," though I probably have. (Oh wait, I think I heard "Johnny Cash" on the hotel room TV when I was on vacation.) Those two songs are both good. How typical are they for him?

Definitely I heard weak spots on Gretchen's new album, though I agree it's at least as good as her other two, if not better. I should pull it out again.

Have to write a review of the new Cowboy Troy album for work this week, and I wound up liking it more than I thought I would, now that I've listened to it more. Give or take the '70s prehistoric-school DJ Hollywood/Fatback/Bohannon rap over '70s funk-rock guitar and disco strings (and rhymes of "record exec" with "get a crick in your neck") in "Blackneck Boogie," which is probably my favorite track, the roots of his rap flow seem to triangulate somewhere in the area between Coolio, Crazytown, and the Fun Lovin' Criminals, as far as I can tell. Which makes him kinda clueless, but so what? And I overstated the gnu-metal influence earlier; the album isn't really oafish in a Bizkit all that often. ("Lock Me Up" is the worst offender, I guess.) "How Can You Hate Me?" is a well-meaning rap-ballad response, I guess, to racists who've threatened Troy on the web or whatever; he actually talks about lynching and getting dragged behind a truck, though I wouldn't say he makes that much out of it. "Take Your Best Shot Now" is another ballad ("I never lived in the 'hood but I used to work there"!?), similar sonic vintage. "Man With the Microphone" is a drowsy and vaguely depressed piece of pysch-pop in Big Kenny mode; not too bad. "Paranoid Like Me," the proggy parts of which I compared to Metallica above, is actually sort of pretty as pop ominiousness goes, with a nice guitar solo. Outside of "Blackneck Boogie," my picks are probably the crazy-froggy Eurosynthdanced remix of "I Play Chicken With the Train" and "Cruise Control," a hazy days of summer picnic basket blaster in which Troy does his best Shifty Shellshock imitation. Last couple have plenty of Kid Rock in them, too. Second half of the album is better than the first. All in all, not as fun as the debut, but too silly a mess to complain about.

Shoot, I fucked that up -- a bunch of words got erased. "Cruise Control" is the summer one, but also has shout-outs to Guns N Roses and John Anderson and good funky 16th note drums at the start; "My Bowtie" has the Shifty Shellshockish part, but also a convincing '70s hard rock riff. Or something. (And the more I read my descrption of the album, the more I realize how ambivalent I am about it all. But I don't hate it. More people should make albums this scattershot; the world would be a better place.)

I'll admit Aldean's debut won me over, thinking he was developing a rather winning persona as a sorta shlubby, sweetly faithful, nose-to-the-grindstone kind of Everyguy.

This new one though is utterly charmless. I should've expected it after "Johnny Cash," which I know some people like but I think is one of the most hilariously cliched, witless hits to come down the pike in some time. I could only make it through about half the record before losing interest completely, but all I heard were endless crappy platitudes, the inevitable song about his own unlikely rise to fame, and some soggy relationship stuff that wasn't nearly as endearing as his debut.

Gretchen's album is way better, but I don't understand Frank's claim that "I like her a lot more now that she isn't jabbing her demographic elbows into everyone's ribs all the time." If "There Goes the Neighborhood" doesn't fit that bill to a T, I don't know what does. "You Don't Have to Go Home" and "There's a Place in the Whiskey" sound equally generic, but there's some dynamite stuff here too like the title track and especially "If You Want a Mother."

xp: I also just realized that barely a single word in my Cowboy Troy album description had anything whatsoever to do with country music! Well, there are fiddle fills in some (if not most) of the songs. And "Blackneck Boogie" has Troy saying do-si-do bow-to-your-partner; square dance calls were rap before rap existed, after all. Elsewhere, he calls out to redneck women and dixie chicks. And there are sort-of-country-ish background voices -- James Otto in "Cruise Control" is probably best. (Uncle Kracker fans, if any exist, would totally love that song.)

Johnny Cash," which I know some people like but I think is one of the most hilariously cliched, witless hits to come down the pike in some time.

This might be true. Having only possibly overheard it one time in a hotel room, I probably shouldn't have claimed it to be a good song; how the hell would I know? Though I'm pretty sure it sounded okay at the time. (On the other hand, I was on vacation. Lots of crap sounds good when you're on vacation.)

Maybe I just liked that it didn't try to sound like Johnny Cash! Which was probably a pleasant surprise.

anybody out there heard this Beverley Knight record? Music City Soul? I saw a little piece in a recent Billboard on her, she done it here and I think at Mark Nevers' (another one). apparently it's UK-only at this point.

just got the Big & Rich advance, finally, so once I get time today that's the first thing I'll put on. I've been writing about the new Porter last couple of days, listening to his old shit like "Rubber Room" and "Carroll County Accident." on some of those circa-'70 songs, Wagoner sounds like a prophet of acid consciousness straight out of a vintage American International dope movie. Great stuff, and the comp, The Rubber Room, covers all that prime material and even reproduces the wild cover images from those albums, where Porter is a cuckold, a bum, a convict, a farmer a lech (can't see his hand in a shot with Dolly but I bet I know where it is) and in triplicate, twice, on some decent acid but still wearing the same clothes.

so this guy I know here had hiccups, for a day, and it was getting worse, nothing helped, and they tried everything: scare tactics, ice cube on the neck below the ear (that almost always works). what eventually cured them was the ultimate scare tactic: a montage of Amy Winehouse close-up photographs, some with fangs drawn on them, others just as they are/she is. scared the hiccups right out the guy, for real, the curative picture is up on the wall at Grimey's Records in Nashville, so if you have hiccups that won't go away or just need a jolt in general, check it out. I'm still trying to figure out the appeal of Winehouse myself.

Gabneb, there was a lot of discussion of Like Red On A Rose on Rolling 2006 Country, and maybe the beginning of this one.

Josh, I didn't say she was never jabbing her demographic elbows. You're right about that song, but she doesn't sing it nearly as obnoxiously as she would have a couple of years ago. Her singing has gotten better - less blaring. The reason I like the Eurobosh remix of "Redneck Woman" so much is that it transforms an assertion of identity into a chimpmunk-voiced woman making it sound like it's a lot of fun to be a redneck chipmunk.

New Kelly Willis album Translated From Love: Don't dwell on the synths (much as I love them here): this isn't new wave Americana pop: this is just a Kelly Willis album, but one on which she has more fun with phrasing, sounds more alive, so gets more out of her voice (which I'll soon argue in print is one of the most purely fetching voices in country) than she ever has. It's also a Chuck Prophet album, which means I like it 100 times more than the Nels Cline Wilco record.

did Jim Dickinson produce a Chuck Prophet record, or cover some of his songs? on the Wilco, twin guitars rule! I wish they'd just done it as an all-instrumental record, maybe with some Jeff Tweedy Singers doing a few ooh-la-las.

So Cold Eggs is a weird name for a singer, isn't it?

Pulled Gretchen's new one back out in light of Frank's rave, and I'm still not convinced it's all Frank says it is -- not sure how she's singing better (she sounds pretty much the same to me), and her ballads are as dull as they've always been. Why do her slow songs never have hooks in them? I don't get that. Other people's do, sometimes. Hers just go right by me, leave no effect at all. I don't get if her singing just always winds up sounding thinner when she slows down, or that's when producers turn her into a purist bore, or what. Well, "Come To Bed" and "Painkiller" are okay, I guess. I can live with them. But though "You Don't Have to Come Home" might read dumber, it definitely sounds a lot better -- I'd take it over those two on the basis on its beat alone. (Also, I mentioned before that "If You Want a Mother" sounds exactly like "Okee From Muskogee," right? And "Place in the Whiskey" sounds a lot like "Call Me The Breeze," Skynyrd version at least. Don't think I ever heard J.J. Cale's own version.)

Posted this on the metal thread this morning:

Finished getting though the Count Bishops pile, and finally decided that, although tons of the tracks are great, they were also too samey to make for truly great albums. I'm happy to own everything I've got by them, but over album length, the tough r&b cover after tough r&b cover gets a bit wearing, and kinda stodgy too. Someone wrote on some other thread a few days ago that some Dr. Feelgood album I'd never heard was the best pub-rock album ever give or take Eddie and the Hot Rods, and I realized that, if I'm gonna be honest, I might like the one Feelgood album I own (Malpractice) and the two Eddie and the Hot Rod ones I own more, not to mention the one Ducks Deluxe album I own, more than any of the Count Bishops albums I own. They were just sort of one-dimensional. Though it was a very cool dimension.

"You Don't Have to GO Home"

Okay, "Come To Bed" on now. It's nice. Breakup to makeup song, take the grand tour. And yeah, there's some semblance of a hook. But it still doesn't tear me up, which is what it's aiming for, and fighting-during-marriage should do it easy. (I actually like it less when John Rich shows up).