Rolling Country 2021

Ice Ice baby: https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/willie-nelson-karen-o-under-pressure/

Once again here's Chuck Eddy's Nashville Scene ballot---Chuck sez:

Maybe link to my wordpress blog, as well, since I suspect most ilxors are unaware of it?
https://accidentalevolution.wordpress.com/ Anyway, here's what my Scene ballot looked like; it's possible that, if I were to do it over again, I'd substitute Brett Eldredge and/or Joshua Ray Walker for the bottom album or two, but Monday-morning-quarterback hindsight is 20/20 even in 2020, right? Here goes, and thanks!

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2020:

1. RaeLynn Baytown (Round Here EP)
2. Mickey Guyton Bridges (Capitol Nashville EP)
3. Haley Georgia Lonestar Mixtape (Haley Georgia EP)
4. Kelsea Ballerini Kelsea (Black River Entertainment)
5. Caitlin Cannon TrashCannon (Caitlin Cannon)
6. Ashley McBryde Never Will (Warner Nashville)
7. Elizabeth Cook Aftermath (Agent Love)
8. Hailey Whitters The Dream (Pigasus/Big Loud/Songs & Daughters)
9. Corb Lund Agricultural Tragic (New West)
10. Phil VassarStripped Down (American Soul)

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2020:

1. Borock N Roll “Semesta Menyambut Gegap Gempita”
2. Luke Combs “Six Feet Apart”
3. Taylor Swift “Betty”
4. Parker McCollum “Pretty Heart”
5. Mark Chesnutt “I Found Another You (and She Hates Me Too)”
6. Diplo “Do Si Do”
7. Priscilla Block “PMS”
8. John Anderson “Years”
9. Orville Peck “Smalltown Boy”
10. Hot Country Knights “Moose Knuckle Shuffle”

TOP ONE COUNTRY REISSUE OF 2020:

1. Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers Anthology - The Deluxe Collection (Master Tape)

@LorettaLynn
I am very excited that my new album, "Still Woman Enough" is available to pre-order now! Available 3/19, 4 amazing women joined me on these new songs,
@Reba
, @CarrieUnderwoood,
@MargoPrice
,
@TanyaTucker
. Pre-order it today! #stillwomanenough #womenofcountry #forthegirls
Trailer--check the 'Tube if this doesn't show:

I am very excited that my new album, "Still Woman Enough" is available to pre-order now! Available 3/19, 4 amazing women joined me on these new songs, @Reba, @CarrieUnderwoood, @MargoPrice, @TanyaTucker. Pre-order it today! #stillwomanenough #womenofcountry #forthegirls pic.twitter.com/otlmiIjmCX

— Loretta Lynn (@LorettaLynn) January 4, 2021

cool news!

Really enjoying the new Steve Earle & the Dukes.

Didn't hear about the RaeLynn EP that's #1 on Chuck Eddy's list. Loved WildHorse in 2017 - perfect modern country pop in the vibe of Cam.

xpost do you mean the Justin tribute album, or The Ghosts of West Virginia? Ghosts is real good, kinda wondering about Steve's voice vs. Justin's on the trib, but, to benefit his daughter, it's at least a good reminder to fill the gaps in our JTE collections. And I'm sure Steve's take is worth hearing: he knows how to make an album, duh, and may be even more urgently motivated here than with Townes and Guy/ Not sparing himself with the immediacy of this response to the death.

I was talking about JT, but I like both tbh

Oh yeah, me too, will check out J.T. for sure.

Meanwhile, here's my Scene ballot:

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2020:
(just in the order they come to mind)
1. Elizabeth Cook: Aftermath
2. Ashley MacBryde: Never Will
3. Brandy Clark: Your Life Is A Record
4. Katie Pruitt:Expectations
5. Willie Nelson: First Rose of Spring
6. Waylon Payne: Blue Eyes, The Harlot, The Queer, The Pusher, & Me
7. Whitney Rose: We Still Go To Rodeos
8. Gretchen Peters: The Night You Wrote That Song: The Songs of Mickey Newbury
T9. Pam Tillis: Looking for a Feeling
10. Cam: The Otherside

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2020:
1, Gillian Welch: Boots No. 2: The Lost Songs Vols.1-3
2. Johnny Cash: Easy Rider: The Best of the Mercury Recordings
3. Doc Watson and Gaither Carlton: s/t
4.
5.

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST DUOS, TRIOS OR GROUPS OF 2020:

1. The Chicks
2. The Tender Things
3. Steve Earle & The Dukes

COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2020:
1. Katie Pruitt
2. Caylee Hammack
3.
*************************************************************************************
IMAGINARY CATEGORIES:

SPECIAL CITATION: AUDIO-VIDEO ALBUM:
Chicks:Gaslighter

TOP NINE MORE BEST COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2020:
11. Caylee Hammack: If It Wasn’t For You
12. Marshall Chapman: Songs I Can’t Live Without
13. Lori McKenna: The Balladeer
14. Tender Things: How You Make A Fool
15. Margo Price: Perfectly Imperfect At The Ryman
16. Steve Earle/Dukes: Ghosts of West Virginia
17. Jake Blount: Spider Tales
18. Shelby Lynn: s/t
19. Swamp Dogg: Sorry You Couldn’t Make It

HON. MENTION/BUBBLING UNDER THE TOP 19:
Ashley Ray: Pauline
Clint Black: Out of Sane
Zephaniah Ohoro: Listening To The Music
Wynonna: Recollection EP
Mickey Guyton: Bridges EP

ABOUT HALF GOOD (60-45%):
Carly Pearce: s/t
John Anderson: Years
Chris Stapleton: Starting Over

LESS THAN HALF GOOD:
Margo Price: That’s How Rumors Get Started
Jamie Wyatt: Neon Cross
Hailey Whitters: The Dream

RELATED TOP ELEVEN:
1 Lucinda Williams: Good Souls, Better Angels
2. Jason Isbell/400 Unit:Reunions
3. Richard Thompson: Bloody Noses EP
4. Maria McKee: La Vita Nuova
5. Nancy McCallion: Go To Ground
6. Randall Bramblett: Pine Needle Fire
7. Chuck Prophet: The Land That Time Forgot
8. Dave Miller: s/t
9. Drive-By Truckers: The New OK
10. Drive-By Truckers: The Unraveling
11. Lydia Loveless: Daughter

RELATED HON MENTION/BUBBLING UNDER THE TOP ELEVEN
Becky Warren: The Sick Season
Kelsey Waldon: They’ll Never Keep Us Down EP
Orkesta Mendoza/Carrie Rodriguez: iAmericano!: The Musical

“Dylan Is His Own Category”(Frank Kogan):
.Bob Dylan:My Rough and Rowdy Ways

Good’uns Added After Ballot Deadline/Subjects For Further Study:
S. G. Goodman: Old Time Feeling
H. C. McEntire: Eno Axis
RaeLynn: Baywater EP

RELATED TOP FOUR REISSUES:
1 Grateful Dead: Workingman’s Dead (50th Anniversary Ed.)
2. Dave Alvin:From An Old Guitar: Rare and Unreleased Recordings
3. Leyla McCalla:Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute To Langston Hughes
4. Chris Smither: More from the Levee

“Little Richard’s Reissue Is Its Own Category” (me):
Little Richard: Southern Child

HON MENTON RELATED REISSUES
Dave Alvin: Live at Yep Roc 15
Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin: Live from Austin EP
Neil Young: Homegrown

ABOUT HALF GOOD RELATED REISSUES:
Randall Bramblett: The Meantime (10th Anniversary Ed.)
Take Me Back to the Range: Selections from Western Jubilee Recording Company

RELATED TO RELATED (kissin’ second cousins)
The Third Mind: s/t
Minute2Minute: Travelers, Transients, & Tourists
Bettye LaVette: Blackbirds

Ballot and comments posted here (although most of the comments were on RC 2020 and/or individual artist threads): https://thefreelancementalists.blogspot.com/2021/01/nscene-in-submeme-country-etc-ballot.html
Here's a few more comments for ones added after sending the ballot:

Good’uns Added After Ballot Deadline/Subjects For Further Study:
S. G. Goodman: Old Time Feeling---Appalachoid high lonesome--associated pitch and power rising bullseye from the persistent and fully occupied folds of fog-smog topography: like The Croz before him, on Joni Mitcherll’s debut, Goodman’s co-producer Jim James refrains from loading this launch with heavy big-name guests---just close mics That Voice and jumps back. Oh, it gets a bit of echo sometimes, and the swirl of low-reflective resonance also brushes by reverb-y guitar (which can come apart sideways when appropriate), pedal steel, bass, drums (she told Rolling Stone she was inspired by Link Wray’s ‘71 s/t, one of his chicken coop sets)---but mainly That Voice, which is youthful but also one of experience, like debut Joni, with plenty to remember and offload, seeking some relief, but not miserabilist nor wrecking ball, just personalised fragments, scenes, phrases coming toward the brink of clarity---somewhat like early Neko on Bloodshot, when she was covering and writing between Loretta Lynn and Scott Walker. Could imagine Goodman working with Brandi Carlile, the Highwomen, whomever, though for now is still Murray KY collegetown-based apparently. (Before this solo, worked as The Savage Radley with a collaborator who was also a drummer; she’s gotta have a drummer, as do my ears.)

H. C. McEntire: Eno Axis---title refers to North Carolina’s Eno River, though the Brian is also apt: as w Goodman, there’s a psych-country quality, here more horizontally spacious, a luminescent river plain, with those little changes all along that river boat pilots factor in---it’s earthy and fluid, watchful and ruminating and confident, like a bit more propulsive Cowboy Junkies effect, gathering around a strong voice with a lot to say, which will also take a while to sink in, but appealing sound right way, and
she doesn’t keep her players on too short a leash/does know when to shut up, always preacheated.https://hcmcentire.bandcamp.com/album/eno-axis"> https://hcmcentire.bandcamp.com/album/eno-axis

RaeLynn: Baywater EP---Party already started, pop goes the country in the middle of sumpin-sumpin “drinkin’ with the guys, dancin’ with the girls”--- which we can call sis-step, with no bro autotune or wearing of trucks and beercans on tattooed sleeve, but not like she takes the givenness for granted: “Chasin’ down their dreams….there must be some real girls hangin’ around/This Fake Girl Town.” Sounds a bit haunted. Also, if you were to ask “Me About Me,” she’ll tell you what she had to reach through to Choose Life---the good life, that is, and “Judgin’ To Jesus” is what she’ll leave. I better shut up, too many hook song titles, like “Bra Off,” which is another story.
Let’s see, what did I say here in 2017: RaeLynn’s Wildheart: She was shutdown in The Voice prelims, but that was 2012, and she’s the across-the-diner-table, lower case but never drab voice of experience now, nothing ponderous, just the light-enough blues and beauty of the world as reflected in flexing rootstronic-tending aerial shades: it’s morning in America one more time, whether or not you’ve been to bed yet.

"Judgin to Jesus" has a real Maren Morris vibe to it.

I nom'd "Space & Time" off the SG Goodman album in the ilm tracks poll - heard it on an EOY playlist and it stopped me cold. Didn't know Jim James worked on it, but that makes perfect sense given all the echo and reverb.

i wrote off Sam Hunt after "Body Like a Back Road" but, having found it among the best of 2020 tracks nominations, "Hard to Forget" is absolutely demanding painful repeat listening right now.

Yay for Tender Things :)

From RC 2020

Not sure how I missed this but Ingrid Andress had a cover of Charli XCX's "Boys" on the deluxe edition of Lady Like that's surprisingly good! I guess Andress was a cowriter of the song? Curious to know more about how she got looped in on that project if anyone knows more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCMMYXvWvpA

― Indexed, Tuesday, January 19, 2021 10:25 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

cool, thank you!

― sean gramophone, Tuesday, January 19, 2021 10:29 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Mandolin a surprisingly good replacement for the Super Mario Bros coin sound

― Indexed, Tuesday, January 19, 2021

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/716MCkDXU9L._SL1400_.jpg

Produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb, the record finds Gibb realizing his long-time dream of working with some of the country, bluegrass and americana artists he admires the most including collaborations with Alison Krauss, Brandi Carlile, Dolly Parton, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Jason Isbell, Jay Buchanan, Keith Urban, Little Big Town, Miranda Lambert, Olivia Newton-John, Sheryl Crow and Tommy Emmanuel.
Gibb continues to be widely celebrated surrounding the release, including features this week on NPR Morning Edition and CBS “Sunday Morning,” as well as a recent in-depth profile at The New York Times, who proclaims, “Gibb’s voice on ‘Words of a Fool’ is strong but also spectral…Nearly six decades after he first sang on a record, it remains one of the most otherworldly instruments in popular music.” Moreover, The Wall Street Journal praises the album, calling it “an endearing new salute to the songs of the pop-giant Bee Gees,” while Entertainment Weekly declares, “gorgeous, gospel-inflected, country-kissed.”
In addition to the new album, Gibb is the subject of an acclaimed new documentary, The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, directed by Frank Marshall. Out now on HBO Max, the Washington Post heralds, “magnificent…thorough and beautifully appreciative,” while The Hollywood Reporter calls it, “a warm blast of musical nostalgia.”
Trailers for alb and doc on YouTube (ilx is undependable at allowing my YouTube links)
GREENFIELDS: THE GIBB BROTHERS SONGBOOK, VOL. 1 TRACK LIST
1. “I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You” with Keith Urban
2. “Words of a Fool” with Jason Isbell
3. “Run to Me” with Brandi Carlile
4. “Too Much Heaven” with Alison Krauss
5. “Lonely Days” with Little Big Town
6. “Words” with Dolly Parton
7. “Jive Talkin’” with Miranda Lambert, Jay Buchanan
8. “How Deep Is Your Love” with Tommy Emanuel, Little Big Town
9. “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart” with Sheryl Crow
10. “To Love Somebody” with Jay Buchanan
11. “Rest Your Love On Me” with Olivia Newton-John
12. “Butterfly” with Gillian Welch, David Rawlings

Maybe "Islands In The Stream" and "New York Mining Disaster 1941" and "Charade" and "Stayin' Alive" will be on Vol.2 (Gotta get Garth and The Chicks in there---who else?)

Still making my way through the 2020 albums I missed. Elizabeth Cook's Aftermath is as much rock and roll as country, but the song that stopped me cold was acoustic closer "Mary, The Submissing Years," her response to John Prine's "Jesus, The Missing Years." Full of vivid imagery, wry storytelling, and sharp rhymes, it does John right. Love this line: "There's Barbie lovers and firecrackers, train trackers, Coca Cola makers, insurance takers, and a lotta hot preachers."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCvGO9rj1Zo

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

Thanks for the rec, btw, dow. Checked this out on account of your Scene ballot.

Glad you liked it! Here's the Scene poll results: https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/cover-story/article/21145508/21st-annual-country-music-critics-poll
Of the three they put on the front page, Guyton's EP is a bit too uneven for a Top Ten (of that length), no prob w MacBryde, though I personally would give Cook a slight edge, but then Stapledon may be in some respects Best Male Vocalist, but on Starting Over, he lets/makes his voice carry some very lazy-ass retred songwriting/arrangements too much of the time, although "Cold" and a few others are keepers. Some people have said this all along; I say it now. Oh well, I should read the whole thing.

Also, Stapleton's Songs From A Room really should have been cut down to a single (average LP-length) release. First solo album is still the strongest (before that, he was good w the Steeldrivers, closer to Bob Seger than an expected string band singer).

Stapleton sometimes seems too bar band formulaic to me, but will give him another shot

The new ACL episode that airs this week w/Ray Wylie Hubbard is quite good.