the Sturgill Simpson c/d

the merle thing... that happens all the time in journalism... a reporter or even editor promises you a cover, there's a last-minute editorial change. it happens, it's a little crummy, but it doesn't seem like synecdoche for nashville's corruption or something. it could happen anywhere. in any milieu.

but a lot of sturgill's criticisms of the country-music establishment seem a bit in bad faith, in part for the reasons earlnash describes.

the merle thing... that happens all the time in journalism... a reporter or even editor promises you a cover, there's a last-minute editorial change. it happens, it's a little crummy, but it doesn't seem like synecdoche for nashville's corruption or something. it could happen anywhere. in any milieu.

yeah that has nothing to do with nashville or the country music establishment at all. and it does happen. but it's still wrong, assuming they made a promise, did an interview based on that promise, and then broke it without telling anyone. that's wrong and shitty no matter how common it might be.

Would think Sturgill and his ilk benefit quite a bit from playing with / rebelling against Nashville's confines/conservatism almost like Madonna did/does w/r/t Catholicism.

David Cantrell's excellent response. I can't recommend his Haggard bio more highly either

David Cantwell's piece does a good job of placing Haggard in the context of country-music history. He offers a solution to Sturgill's problem with Nashville, which is to have modern singer place Haggard in the the context of the past. He says: "For that to happen, though, musicians from all parts of the country music business are going to have to make Merle’s old songs sound brand new for a new generation of fans."
But how would this happen? Cantwell: "That’s how the country tradition, Merle Haggard included, almost always worked. The trick is not to make the new music sound like the old music. It’s to let the music change, often drastically, while doing the work to keep it connected to all that tradition that’s come before."
So who's "doing the work" to link modern country to "all" this tradition? Miranda lambert? Kacey, Brandi, Tomi, Lori, Ashley, or Nikki Lane and Elizabeth Cook and Aubrie Sellers? Or Sturgill and Jamey Johnson? Does singer-songwriterdom, the Eagles, Seger-Fogerty-John Cougar-Fleetwood Mac, et al, constitute the real "past" of country music now? And teen pop? What binds country to the work of past producers like Billy Sherrill or Jack Clement or Jerry Kennedy these days, beyond retro, as in the case of Americana--Daniel Romano. Finally, what does David Cantwell mean by "tradition"? Sonic tradition, songwriting tradition? Or the tradition of the opposition between roots and expansion his piece lays out?
Great piece, and it certainly makes me want to go further into all this.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/06/arts/music/sturgill-simpson-grammy-nominations.html?_r=0

Adele, Beyoncé, Drake, Justin Bieber…Sturgill Simpson?

Bewilderment was the first reaction of many this morning as the Grammy Awards announced its nominees for Album of the Year, pitting four of the most culturally and commercially dominant pop stars of this era against Mr. Simpson, 38, a critically respected but little-known country outsider.

...Are those albums that you’ve listened to?

I loved ‘Lemonade.’ I thought it was genius. I love the Adele record. I really, really wish, honestly, and no [expletive] — I would’ve liked to see Frank Ocean’s name where mine is. But that’s not my place to say. I totally understand [his protest]. I just thought that record [‘Blonde’] was really groundbreaking. I listen to just about everything except country music, so it’s strange.

He's this year's Bon Iver or Beck maybe (surprise Grammy nominee for big award)

quote is pretty pandering afaic. It's like when someone gives you a birthday gift and you're all "you shouldn't have!" even though you know they're not gonna be all "oh, ok, give it back then." Just seems like a gross, hollow-ass gesture to me (and a bit social climb-y to boot).

I just thought that record [‘Blonde’] was really groundbreaking.

wtf does this even mean? I mean, outside of its context in the Spin Alternative Record Guide or some dumb shit

yeah i think the new album is gloppy dross too, no wonder it's getting more attention that the fine little should've-been-private-press psych-country gem that the previous one was

country outsider.

I wish I could summon the Nazgul to do away with whoever uses this dumb fucking appostive

what would you call him? retro rock country ? I'm not a fan either, and yeah his nomination, like last year's for Stapleton is some kind of rockist "real country authenticity" nonsense, but he's not a Nashville industry insider (whether or not that is bad or good)

Stapleton, like Jamey Johnson before him, is no 'country outsider' despite marketing to the contrary. Sturgill, to his credit, is by all accounts every bit the shit-kicking 'outlaw' he appears to be, whatever that's worth

and yeah, the "country outsider" nonsense appeals to the worst kind of rockist, and I enjoy reminding such people that Jamey Johnson is 1/3 responsible for "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk"

None of them get Luke Bryan level radio airplay or media coverage. Stapleton was a Nashville insider songwriter but his own stuff is more barband; Jamey Johnson also can write country pop; but goes in a different direction on his own. Sturgill covers Nirvana...

the whole narrative around him right now is weird considering that the album itself mostly has a soppy '70s MOR sound (not complaining, just observing)

Stapleton was a Nashville insider songwriter but his own stuff is more barband

Generous. To me he sounds like Bob Seger (and not early, raucous Bob Seger, either)

Ann Powers of NPR is calling Sturgill, Maren Morris, Rhiannon Giddens, Lori McKenna and Brandy Clark "third way" Nashville artists in a tweet

Absolutely killed it on SNL. He was not like this at all when I saw him tour behind the last album. Watch the "Call to Arms" clip, it's like they all took whatever EC and the Attractions used to take to get them through the night.

http://www.rollingstone.com/country/news/watch-sturgill-simpsons-fiery-snl-debut-w461175

Country Singer Goes on SNL, Exposes* Afghan Heroin Trade and No One Even Noticed

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/sturgill-snl-military-war-heroin/

*clickbait-y but still...

lol man his bass player is classic-fat-bass-player material, right down to that neck-snapping thing

Country Rock? More like Country Woke, amirite?

Yeah, fat guy with the bass butting against his double chin, the best.

I never got around to listening to this new one based on all the reviews and the Nirvana cover (which I didn't like). I still have hope for this dude though.

I never got around to listening to this new one based on all the reviews and the Nirvana cover (which I didn't like). I still have hope for this dude though.

lol this is me exactly

i didn't like the Nirvana cover either, and i'm not sure i like the new one *quite* as much as the previous one, but it is impressive and ambitious and well-crafted, imo.

i think you can stop having hope for him, he's gonna be ok.

I meant hope in the sense that I have hope he will make some more music I want to listen to

I watched the SNL performance thinking that maybe a live performance would clarify why ppl find this dude appealing. I came away from it desperately wanting a Yarl translator and still wondering why this dude over any other random country person.

i liked the new one a lot btw esp shakey i think you would dig a bunch of it

i don't hate 'in bloom' but it's not among the best stuff on the album fwiw

why this dude over any other random country perso

better songs, unusual POV

he's not better than a lot of the recent crop of female country artists but he's probably a lot better than a lot of the dudes.

I couldn't tell you anything about the POV of either of the songs he did on SNL because it literally did not sound to me like he was singing in English. It was like watching an angry male Ariana Grande.

he's not better than a lot of the recent crop of female country artists but he's probably a lot better than a lot of the dudes.

^^^this

I couldn't tell you anything about the POV of either of the songs he did on SNL because it literally did not sound to me like he was singing in English.

you realize this is how old white guys complain about rap right

Angry male Ariana Grande sounds pretty cool to me. She's the newest character in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, I'll hope for Sturgill Simpson next.

i don't think of him as angry really at all. he just has a lot of intense feels.

you realize this is how old white guys complain about rap right

You realize this is the definition of a false equivalence, right

how so

also idk how much you guys listen to country radio but i listen to it every so often bc my brother has it on in his car and his stuff sounds like nothing on it totally different sound. agreed that some of the women who get radio play are often doing equally distinctive stuff but even there like miranda lambert gets radio play i can't imagine "Brave for Impact (Live a Little)" getting play on XTU

"you can't criticize a singer's diction because sometimes people are racist" isn't a position that actually makes any sense

I'm not talking about ppl who dismiss rap as not being "actual music" or because they're racist or whatever. I am talking specifically about the phenomenon of not being able to understand the diction/slang/vocal delivery of a subculture you may not be directly familiar with, and using that as critical grounds for dismissal. Sometimes understanding stuff takes work. There's plenty of times I've encountered artists where I could not understand a damn thing they were saying until I really paid attention or looked it up or had someone else point things out etc. I get it that you don't like his vocal delivery and that's fair, but saying you can't understand his POV cuz you can't understand what he's saying - which is about *content*, not delivery - that's on you.

slippery slope from criticizing diction to musical theater

or GLEE

I'm not talking about ppl who dismiss rap as not being "actual music" or because they're racist or whatever. I am talking specifically about the phenomenon of not being able to understand the diction/slang/vocal delivery of a subculture you may not be directly familiar with, and using that as critical grounds for dismissal.

No you aren't, otherwise your qualifier wouldn't have been "old white guys", it would have been "people not down with current slang" which does actually include a fair number of people who are not old white men. If you're going to shorthand an argument, you should be pretty confident that your shorthand matches the point you want to make.

Furthermore, nowhere did I say "dude is a bad singer"; I said "I couldn't understand a word this dude said on SNL". It is not actually incumbent upon me to watch the SNL performance multiple times with a lyric sheet before I decide whether this music sounds like something I would want to spend my time on.

you're right I did substitute "old white guys" for "people not down with current slang" and I guess that muddied the waters when really my point was just about dealing with a singing style that draws on a different dialect(?) than the one you're used to. I suppose a more value-neutral (or at least non-racially loaded) example would be British stuff that's heavy on slang/local idioms/accents (the Fall? Dizzee Rascal? idk) that might take a little bit of work for an American listener to understand what's going on.

anyway take my word for it this dude doesn't sing in the usual way about the usual things current country dudes sing about

the fall is a great country band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A91ANoS-_7g

excruciating pedantry on this thread

that's why I listen to Miranda Lambert