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.

Somebody sent me a Kendalls track from YouTube, which reminded me of this Jeannie K. solo set (with two tracks featuring her Dad, who died backstage soon after---the album was supposed to be comeback or at least return of the Kendalls)---David Cantwell does a characteristically thoughtful profile of where things stood then with her, and backstory of the Kendalls, their lives in music--goes on for about four pages, credibly enough:
https://www.nodepression.com/jeannie-kendall-of-missing-persons/

Another friend responded with memory of a little club they had for a while in Gulf Shores, incl. "a country music museum of sorts", none of which lasted long--she said Dad Royce was already pretty depleted, but his demise apparently came as a shock to Jeannie (and he did insist on going back out on stage that one last time).

All I knew from The Kendalls was “The Pittsburgh Stealers,” but am curious to read that article.

Guess there is no “The” there,

Pony Bradshaw (yep) has made a good and fun album called Calico Jim. Coupla good ol' storytelling songs with fun rhythms and imaginative guitar work. Recommended

Whoa---just got a hard-charging, massive press release about this guy---will spare yall that, but here's his basic bio and links to much very favorable coverage:
https://www.ivpr.co/pony-bradshaw

(IVPR a "narrative-based" firm, check their clientele of venerables and risings, incl. some you might have been wondering about:
https://www.ivpr.co/music)

Very slick looking agency

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/us/ozarks-mcclurg-jam.html

In the Ozarks, the Pandemic Threatens a Fragile Musical Tradition

The older fiddlers and rhythm guitar players don’t rely on sheet music, so their weekly jam sessions — now on hiatus — are critical to passing their technique to the next generation

I like Luke Combs and Billy Strings, but the last thing I want to hear on the first day of Black History Month in the year 2021 is another "why can't we all just get over it and get along?" song from two white dudes. Just...stop.

— Charles L. Hughes (@CharlesLHughes2) February 1, 2021

The older fiddlers and rhythm guitar players don’t rely on sheet music, so

i'm not sure not that not relying on sheet music is unique to the old-timey musicians of the ozarks!

Good point

The article references that someone filmed some of the Ozarks jam sessions and has uploaded them to YouTube. The sessions are on hold for now but may resume in the spring in an open-air barn

Rodney Crowell and Friends:
Songs From Quarantine

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2871083772_10.jpg

Today Rodney is thrilled to share “Rodney Crowell and Friends: Songs From Quarantine” – a 13-song collection of rarities available for two weeks only on Bandcamp. All proceeds will benefit Music Health Alliance, who offers support to the music community nationwide, including critical mental health and COVID-19 resources in addition to access to healthcare, medicines, diagnostic tests, health-related debt relief and more. Every $1 raised equals $30 in Healthcare Resources to #HealTheMusic!

A very special thanks goes out to Ry Cooder, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Jeff Tweedy, Keith Urban, Taj Mahal, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Rosanne Cash, John Leventhal, The Milk Carton Kids, Joe Henry, John Hiatt, and Ronnie Dunn for offering their music for a great cause.
https://rodneycrowell.bandcamp.com/album/songs-from-quarantine"> https://rodneycrowell.bandcamp.com/album/songs-from-quarantine

Drag City's idea ov folk-pop-country, haven't heard it yet:

JURKEN ON IT

I Stand Corrected is the debut of a new talent AND a new label, Country Thyme. When a label's formed to release a record, you'll usually hear something crucial upon dropping the needle: in this instance, the sounds of an honest-to-god, old-school song cycle in best riches-to-rags style. Classically uneasy, this claustrophobic journey rises and falls on the songs of E.R. Jurken and his spectral tenor, haunted via multiple overdubs, making heart stopping orchestral pop with the orchestra mostly muted.

I Stand Corrected took some time to stand up. During the 20-teens, E.R. Jurken – known to friends 'n fams ('n us) as Ed – drifted through his thirty-somethings, doing not all that well. This directionless course came to a head in 2012 with a traumatic series of events that hung over subsequently like a mist. Ed sold his belongings and began a series of moves, leading back to his former home of Chicago, where, seeking to rally, he bought a guitar off a stranger and got a referral from an old friend to longtime Drag City factotum Rian Murphy, who was interested in the sound of what Ed had in mind. From wounds just beneath the surface of his skin for so long, songs poured forth, with Ed demoing one per week on his mobile phone, featuring guitar and extensive vocal arrangements. After a few months, it was clear the cycle was complete.


Sessions at The Loft with Murphy and Mark Greenberg (engineer/secret weapon of hundreds of sessions, including Wilco, Andrew Bird, Edith Frost, Mavis Staples, Eleventh Dream Day and Richard Thompson), slowly drew the album into full-fleshed form. The sound of I Stand Corrected is often just acoustic guitar, offset by Ed's tableau of vocal arrangements. Murphy and Greenberg added just a touch of rhythm in spots and Paul Mertens (Paul McCartney, Elton John, Stereolab, The Sea and Cake, Brian Wilson) provided several horn arrangements that exquisitely complement the play of Ed’s guitars, keyboards and vocals.

Throughout the process that made I Stand Corrected, Ed's sense of release from an "erroneous" state to a "corrected" one was a powerful energy pointed suddenly outwards as music, which can now be transferred to the listener through the magic of recording technology. In the field of freaky records made by sensitive folk, E.R. Jurken's I Stand Corrected stands to stand tall.
To Be Released 2021-04-23

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/17/arts/music/black-women-country-music.html

Thanks, will read that when get away from email. Considering how many country albums have applied the Mellentemplate of yore, before he started changing it up w various rootsier moves, guess this update is thread-relevant on both counts:

New York, NY (February 16, 2021) – Today, John Mellencamp announces he’s set to unveil his new live album and documentary titled: The Good Samaritan Tour this spring. The documentary, which will be narrated by Academy® Award winner Matthew McConaughey, chronicles Mellencamp’s historic free tour in 2000 when he performed on street corners and in public parks across the country.

In addition, Mellencamp will soon return to the studio to finish recording his 25th album. Prior to the onset of the Global Pandemic, he had already cut ten tracks and plans to record another 17 for the project. Teasing what’s to come, he shared a clip of one new tune, “I Always Lie To Strangers.” Listen to the new track here. Look out for more news on the release date and touring information soon.

The new music is just one of many new projects Mellencamp has been working on including original plays, paintings and more.

His documentary It’s About You is now available to be viewed in full at www.mellencamp.com. The documentary, which came out in 2012, highlights his 2009 No Better Than This tour with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson.

In addition to music and film, Mellencamp will resume production (Covid pending) for an untitled original play directed by Kathleen Marshall, produced by Scott Landis, and written by Naomi Wallace. Setting the stage, he dropped a video of Connor Antico and Morgan Pereira rehearsing virtually. Watch it HERE.

During the past year-and-a-half Mellencamp has continued to devote much of his time to painting.
Visit www.johnmellencampart.com to see his original artwork.

More release dates for all of the above coming soon!

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Taylor Vaughn
Taylor.Vaughn at umusic.com

thanx to forks for this tasty item on Brandy Clark 12 Stories thread:

n celebration of the one-year anniversary of her critically acclaimed album, Your Life is a Record, eight-time GRAMMY nominee Brandy Clark will release a special new deluxe edition, Your Life is a Record (Deluxe), on March 5 on Warner Records. In addition to all eleven songs from Your Life is a Record, the deluxe album will feature six bonus tracks including “Remember Me Beautiful,” a new song Clark wrote earlier this year as part of NPR’s Morning Edition Song Project. The album will also feature special collaborations with Brandi Carlile (“Like Mine” and “Same Devil”) and Lindsey Buckingham (“The Past is the Past”) as well as live renditions of two album tracks: “Pawn Shop” and “Who You Thought I Was."

Moreover, in honor of the album’s anniversary, Clark will perform her first ticketed Livestream concert Saturday, March 6 at 8/7 CT via Mandolin. Tickets for the show are available now with a selection of purchase options, including a limited number of VIP packages with signed merchandise and a virtual meet & greet. Fans will also have the option to add a digital download of the deluxe album to their Livestream ticket, to be delivered on release day. Full details can be found at https://boxoffice.mandolin.com/collections/brandy-clark.

i'm mostly curious about the live tracks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CH-ANhSFBA

New Ashley Monroe song “Drive “ from her upcoming album. I like the country- surf guitar and her breathy vocals are ok but the composition kinda feels unfinished

From Miranda Lambert's enewsletter:

Announcing The Marfa Tapes

A project by Jack Ingram, Jon Randall and me. Recorded in Marfa, TX. They’re raw. You can hear the wind blowing, the cows mooing... We wanted you to feel like you were right there with us, sitting around the campfire, escaping the world, disappearing into the music. The first song “In His Arms” is out now. Full album arrives May 7th. Song is streaming in the usual places.

Oh yeah, speaking again of SG Goodman, she's on the first new Mountain Stage show since Before Times, with Chuck Prophet, Kim Richey,and Sierra Ferrell. It started airing/streaming March 5, and if you miss that, the downloadable podcast (full show, w songs cut from broadcast for time, ditto full all-hands-on-deck finale) will soon be in their archive.

https://mcusercontent.com/b5194773f4906d9b6b906584a/images/e190197d-e103-4868-87d4-c34fb1a78b4b.png

Without Getting Killed or Caught: Rodney Crowell sez: I'm happy to have been a part of this documentary about my friends Guy and Susanna Clark. This early virtual screening will be the first public showing of the film after its SXSW Film debut. Join me for the film and for a post-show conversation between myself and the filmmaker. Presented by my friends Kessler Presents, the screening will air on March 23 at 7 Eastern, 6 Central.
Kessler sez:
Screenings will happen in real-time on a device of your choosing. Each will feature an introduction from the filmmaker, the full 90 minute film, and a post-show Q&A with artists near and dear to us.

I'd like to see the ones w Crowell and Steve Earle, since they were part of the Clarks' scene and circle, as shown in the sleeper milestone doc Highways and Heartaches

Screenings continue through April:
https://www.withoutgettingkilledorcaught.com/tickets

I'd never heard Mickey Guyton before, but my wife put on her latest stuff today and ... it's not even a little bit country? Like, it was fine, but I was surprised. More pop than anything else. Apparently she had a good performance last night?

Yeah, I appreciate what she's doing but it's not my cup of tea

The Guy & Susanna Clark documentary is premiering at SXSW. Anyone know if it will get a wider release or picked up by a streaming service?

https://americansongwriter.com/the-story-of-guy-and-susanna-clark-unfolds-in-new-documentary-without-getting-killed-or-caught-the-life-and-music-of-guy-clark/

Not yet available 24/7, but scroll up a little bit and see links for streaming-screening dates, this month and next. I heard that SXSW is going to be largely (maybe all?) virtual this time, so may be more opps to see it then.

lol, i should have read back a few days. i'll get tix to one of the screenings.

that american songwriter article is very good.

Can I just say that I’ve always liked that scene but really dislike Guy Clark. Am I alone here?

I know him mostly via xpost-xcept-I-bungled-the-title Heartworn Highways, 70s various-artists anthologies, an 80s Austin City Limits set, the awes all-star 2011 trib This One's For Him, and his last album of new material (released in his lifetime), My Favorite Picture of You, all of which I like very much.

You might like the tribute---Crowell sounds atypically stiff and self-conscious on the opener, but other scencesters of various generations do purty cool.

Brandi Carlile was on Fresh Air today: 42 minute interview (w good-audio music excerpts), and the part I heard was very engaging---whole thing is here, for streaming and downloading, and adds video of her and the twins in gorgeous three-part harmony that doesn't gloss over the point of the song. The interview references her new memoir, Broken Horses, which I'd like to read:
https://www.npr.org/2021/04/05/983815671/singer-brandi-carlile-talks-ambition-avoidance-and-finally-finding-her-place

new Rhiannon Giddens/Francesco Turrisi album "They're Calling Me Home" out today.. very nice.

anyone checked out Ashley Monroe's two new singles?

First of Erich Church's 3-part album Heart & Soul (1 Heart, 2 &, 3 Soul) is out.

This is surprisingly good

https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/post-malone-covers-sturgill-simpson-w-dwight-yoakams-band/

anyone checked out Ashley Monroe's two new singles?

(Seems pretty likely this is gonna be a disco country album)

Good idea!
First listens: maybe I'm overrating it in comparison w the listless Heart (which does have a few maybe-keepers), but am initially relieved and refreshed by E. Church's also-recent Soul, which is not the bourgie nostalgia I feared, but his own brand of poignant, well-focussed musicality (coulda done w/o last line of Lynyrd Skynyrd Jones," but can't kill the overall good impression).

omg Rose Gold is cosmic country electropop lit yall:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyMoM1unzKg

Whole alb is there (10 songs, about 30 minutes, all she needs)("Gold" is the least of it, but gives a taste) Oh sorry YouTube slipped some othr shit in there, listen elsewhere)
"The New Me" //www.youtube.com/watch?v=wva9nvii7ik&list=PLf1hrOwqId83LYpuM4QZWTb7yr35372LU&index=3

"See": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IPjdZs-QdY

"Silk": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aybIsyGTzc

I wish I were this enthusiastic.

May 14, 2021—Acclaimed singer, songwriter and musician Kalie Shorr’s new EP, 3x3, Vol 1: The Chicks, is out today on tmwrk records.
Produced by Eric Mallon and recorded in the midst of quarantine, the project features new versions of three songs from The Chicks’ 1999 album Fly: “Cowboy Take Me Away,” “Cold Day In July” and “Hole In My Head.” Today’s release is the first installment of a special three-part series celebrating albums that have greatly impacted Shorr’s life and career. Additional details to come.
Of the EP, Shorr reflects, “The forced solitude of quarantine led to a lot of self-discovery, and rediscovery. My records became my friends, and my living room became a concert hall. I fell back in love with the albums that made me want to be an artist. When the idea came to pay homage to them, I listened to my personal mantra: why the f*** not? The Chicks were the first country artists I ever heard. Fly was the only CD played in my sisters ‘98 Chevy Cavalier, and I remember spending hours reading the lyric booklet and falling in love with the stories they told. They were my first concert when I was 9 at Madison Square Garden. I swore then that I was going to play there one day, and I’ve been trying ever since.”
This in the wake of new single "Amy," for which the term "power-pop" is bandied about. Open Book stormed my Scene ballot, but didn't get memo about the Deluxe Edition 'til this latest news round-up.

Update re the aforementioned and awesom SGG:
Verve Forecast artists Madison Cunningham and S.G. Goodman will embark on a Fall tour with Cunningham as headliner and Goodman as support. The two singer-songwriters will each bring their own unique style and substance to the tour: California native Madison Cunningham is “poised and precise in her singing and ace guitar playing” (NPR Music) and Kentucky born-and-raised S.G. Goodman is an “untamed rock & roll truthteller” (Rolling Stone)
More cosmic country than rock & roll I say, but okay. Is Cunningham good?

Also: new Rhonda Vincent out 5/28---never heard one of her solo albums, though much liked the one w RIP Darryl Singletary.

And, according to Taste of Country: "The album came quicker than I thought," Carlile tells Good Morning America in a new interview. "It's done."

As she's previously mentioned, the process of writing her memoir also helped Carlile write new music. She describes her next record as "very dramatic." What a surprise. No date yer. Wanna read the book too.

My wife listened to the Carlile book as an audiobook - which includes covers and other songs in between chapters. She really enjoyed it.

Wow, hadn't seen it described that way, thanks! Will check it out.

love the idea that Carlile's new album makes her previous work seem *not* very dramatic

(not saying "oooh i'm excited" i'm saying "that's hilarious")

I've only recently begun listening to her music. (Is there really not a thread about her on ILM??) Actually thought the first track on her first album sounded like it could've been on The Bends.

Hey you're right, she doesn't seem to have her own thread! Seems wrong. I liked her singles and some radio-TV performances, but don't think I ever heard a whole album before this one, mentioned on Rolling Country 2015:

One much fresher, only in part because she's much younger: Brandi Carlile, The Firewatcher's Daughter. Nominated for an Americana Grammy; keep thinking she did a CMT Crossroads session with Elton John, but (she and EJ did something else, right?) but no, CMT was Eltie and Ryan Adams. Same idea, though: catchy drama in denim--this is maybe mostly acoustic, but pushy and electric where it counts, especially on "Mainstream Kid< which burns its way through to the floating, observant, recuperative "Beginning To Feel The Years," and "Blood Muscle Skin and Bone," which somehow natcherly follows the pioneer workbreak of "Wilder (We're Chained"---"and when everything else is gone, our love will still remain"--with something like The Band Perry mixing their glam handclaps, and maybe some cowbell, with post-punk rhythm guitar durr-durr-durr, little train chugging by (not too far from the "Petticoat Junction" theme, come to think of it)
It's all hard-won wisdom, philosophical, sometimes rationalizing, sometimes declaiming, clawed back from the brink, while chasing love, and still capable of extravagant (brandy-rich, costly) moves. Rueful and even twangy enough, occasionally, to qualify as young Americana, if not quite young country, as much (but if CMT ever does another Crossroads, I wouldn't be surprised to see her on there---with---?)

― dow, Tuesday, December 22, 2015 9:12 PM (five years ago)

Also there was some talk of the next one on RC 2018---at one point I typed it as By The Way I Frogrive You, and got some Muppets responses, but this is the Rolling Stone mention I pasted in:

She's always sounded like she probably likes Elton John, David Bowie, Patsy Cline: "Americana"? OK!

Album: By the Way, I Forgive You
Release Date: February 16th
On her sixth studio album, Americana heroine Brandi Carlile ramps everything up a notch, working with Waylon Jennings' rebel-yell son Shooter, who co-produced with Dave Cobb. She takes deep dives into her family history ("Most of All") and offers up an anthem for the downtrodden ("The Joke," a chin-up call to arms for anyone feeling oppressed, was blasted out in a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!). While largely adhering to her unplugged, modern-Appalachian approach, Carlile also pushes a few musical envelopes: "Harder to Forgive" is swoony, luxurious pop, "Hold Out Your Hand" has a wall-of-drums wallop and "Party of One" wraps up with shivery orchestration. D.B.

She did some good stuff on the Highwomen album too, although overall it seemed uneven, considering all the talent and skill involved---too many cooks, maybe. Some people love the whole thing, and it's def worth checking out.

Carlile's ultra-earnest music has never been the kind of thing internet cool kids paid much attention to, but she flew right past 'em through sheer force of will and a lot of talent ... the Highwomen thing didn't hurt either, of course.

i know how much P4k has changed but even still i did a double-take when they published a review of By The Way, I Forgive You. would be interested to know if Alfred pitched her to them or if she was on their list or whatever.

Thanks for pasting all that. I’ve been listening in chronological order, so far have listened to the first four. All of them are like-not-love but admittedly have not done deep listens of any. The one I listened to today, “Bear Creek”, is the most country-leaning of the ones I’ve heard so far - which scratches the itch I’m most looking for right now. I don’t really know how people rate the overall discography.

You might like this too:
Brandi Carlile was on Fresh Air today: 42 minute interview (w good-audio music excerpts), and the part I heard was very engaging---whole thing is here, for streaming and downloading, and adds video of her and the twins in gorgeous three-part harmony that doesn't gloss over the point of the song. The interview references her new memoir, Broken Horses, which I'd like to read:
https://www.npr.org/2021/04/05/983815671/singer-brandi-carlile-talks-ambition-avoidance-and-finally-finding-her-place

― dow, Monday, April 5, 2021

Stumblin' in after breaking limbs in the hot sun (unexpected bonus session with a tornado tree), I'm especially appreciative of the restorative powers of xpost Ashley Monroe's Rosegold (not, as I'd thought, Rose Gold, which coulda been her emerging alternate identity, going w this new sound and the Prince association, which I'll mention again). It's not, as I impulsively said upthread, cosmic country electropop lit yall in the get-this-party-started sense: here, the candles are lit, all around the tub,, in the love spa, for relationship maintenance, or---if he's a no-show so far, at least, at most (this is crucial!) keeping yourself tuned up, no matter what else is down the road, in the "Groove," of the "Drive," and it's a total sonic experience, not just about the songs per se, which some reviewers are disappointed by---it's the risk of seductive philosophizing in which notes as sung and played) fill in what the words leave out---but again, risk: she never goes for the big extended bedazzlement between the lines, it's all careful dosage (like I said, 10 songs in about 30 minutes), brushing or swooping by, already gone, as the Eagles say. Yes, this is a kind of country, bits of Beatles (little maybe-mellotron here, little cello there) and Prince (Beatles student too, and the different ways conversational phrases go with the beats, which aren't big, but big enough)aside, she sounds like somebody who might have been swirling around behind or beside any number of male country singers from the mid-60s to early-80s, discreetly still, but now assertive enough (also some acoustic guitar picking)(also the breadcrumb brevity is classic country, from when records didn't cost much, and now streams don't have to cost anything, so shuddup and listen).
Anyway, so far, I find it refreshing, also the way she keeps changing it up, to suit where she's at, from The Blade to the somewhut mysterious Sparrow to this (although could do without "Gold" and the mumbklecore finale).

"mumblecore," that is.

And of course the guarded hopefulness of it seems country.

Ashley Monroe's Rosegold: On very first impression, as (Don's words) "modern art-pop country," it's at its best when sounding "art" and evading "pop" and "country," so stronger downplaying or avoiding hooks and refusing to resolve into pretty melody. Might've been better more austere though I don't know that (perhaps without prettiness gooping the thing up, the art'd be monotonous). I like "Siren" best, "Gold" was great when guttural but lost force rising to the upper register. "Til It Breaks," "I Mean It," and "See" are probably keepers, maybe "Drive" too. "Til It Breaks" works as a conventional song, the others'd probably be better uglier. Anyway, the thing's touching me most when I'm perceiving or imagining a low-pitch rumble and an unwillingness to get on with the tune.

I don't know much about American Aquarium, other than (A) they got their name from Wilco, and (B) I'd been under the impression they were kinda a cross between Isbell and a Red Dirt Party Band.

But I just got FB sponsored post for their latest, Slappers, Bangers, And Certified Twangers Vol. I, which-contrary to suggestions of the title-is not a compilation but 10 newly-recorded '90s Country covers.

The tracklisting is <immaculate>, so many pre-Shania era stone-cold classics given fine readings. Kudos also for resisting the urge to hambone their way through some of these (the opening cut is a tongue mostly removed from cheek version of Sammy Kershaw's "The Queen Of My Double-Wide Trailer"). Feels like a nice night out at the Honky Tonk.

Here's to a Vol II with "Small Town Saturday Night", "Wink", "Sacred Ground", "A Good Run Of Bad Luck" and "The Wrong Side of Memphis".

https://americanaquarium.bandcamp.com/album/slappers-bangers-certified-twangers-volume-one

The Pony Bradshaw album is so good.

Yeah that's an album that I like a lot!

Will check those thx

Legendary songwriter James McMurtry is set to release his new album, The Horses and The Hounds, on August 20.

This first collection in seven years spotlights a seasoned tunesmith in peak form as he turns toward reflection and revelation.

“There’s a definite Los Angeles vibe to this record,” McMurtry says. “The ghost of Warren Zevon seems to be stomping around among the guitar tracks. Don’t know how he got in there. He never signed on for work for hire.”

First track from it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPYWcdrQPxg

No surprises, but sounds pretty good on first listen.

Can anyone suggest some good websites for country music album reviews? I’m looking for something that covers all forms — from contemporary mainstream to alt-country to reissues of traditional, for example. I’m less interested in folk and Americana, though some of that would be okay too. I’m aware of No Depression, of course, but it leans too much toward “roots” music rather than true country music, at least for my tastes. It’s especially hard to find decent reviews of the bigger contemporary artists — most sites seem to thumb their nose at that stuff or review it ironically.

Good question---I don't keep up that well, but suspect you'll have to hop along from site to site, although Rolling Country is pretty well-rounded---you might check up through the middle of this decade; we really used to go to town w the reviews & discussions---also archives of villagevoice.com. But nowadays? I've occasionally looked at savingcountrymusic.com, and seen plausible coverage of for instance Garth's most recent offering by Trigger, who I think is the only poster (also going for center-right editorial comments re country issues on the news). Comments section gets pretty godawful. Taste of Country is mainly or all news, seems like---there must be more---well, Rolling Stone Country is fairly good, and Pitchfork is trying to get with the program too, some thoughtful reviews in the last couple of years--jump around those and No Dep and you'll get some range...

On this date in 1964, Connie Smith signs her first recording contract with RCA Victor. "The Cry of the Heart, her 54th album, comes out August 20th on @FatPossum Records. Pre-order yours here:https://t.co/LlkPaCWLTs pic.twitter.com/zpj4XKXpqw

— Connie Smith (@RealConnieSmith) June 24, 2021

Connie Smith has a new album out this August on Fat Possum.

I’m enjoying the new Vincent Neil Emerson. Just some plainspoken throwback kinda stuff but doesn’t feel like pastiche. Really liked his debut from a couple years back too - nothing on the new one is as instantly catchy as “Fly on the Wall” but I’m still enjoying it.

Yeah--"I'm like a bird caught in a store, lookin' for the door"--but it's not just catchy little phrases, he uses them to tell stories, convey a sense of sometimes complex situations and what he thinks and feels about them, in as few words as possible, for the sake of clarity and realness, with no added drama; he's lived, is living, through enough of that already.
The music has just enough variety to keep the songs distinctive, and suit whatever he's singing about--even a little bit of fluid modern jazz balladry at the beginning and end of "Learnin' To Drown," about his father and himself. A little bit of piano on that one, organ on another, mostly it's fingerpicking guitar, fiddle, bass, no need for drums. Maybe tin whistle and Irish-y fiddle on "White Horse Saloon," and why not, plenty of Irish people went West. A song about Indians getting screwed, also from his family's (on his mother's side) experience. Western swing on the closer, but not a vintage cover; it's another of his lived-in-sounding originals.

Some people online think the debut was better, for the most part, or entirely, so it must be pretty damn good. Will check it out too.

The debut is definitely great and mostly more upbeat than the new album.

I’m still just a few listens in on the new album but it’s growing on me. “Learning to Drown” is a stunner. So straightforward in its devastation. It’s disarming.

Never heard Emerson before. This new one is beautiful. Thanks for the tip. I gotta check out his debut too. Great stuff.

I wonder how he takes to being called just "Vince"

His parents named him for Vince Neil, according to the Internet. From what he's said and written about his father, seemms plausible--but I'm gonna stick to "Vincent" if I ever address him d'rectly.

Just now, upside ooh my head: Kalie Shorr's refreshing, somewhut startling country pop singles in 2021, "Amy" and "Love Child," both self-writ. Her xpost Dixie Chicks 3-song EP is prob okay too, but why beg comparisons. 2019's blazin' Open Book was Top Ten for me, haven't yet heard 2020's Unabridged edition of that. Meet her at the crossroads, braced: http://www.kalieshorr.com/

Checked out Bobby Dove's Hopeless Romantic yesterday and was very impressed.

Lead Single:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Mvfrnxdzs

Coverage from Country Queer:
https://countryqueer.com/reviews/song-review/hopelessly-in-love-with-bobby-doves-newest/

liking that Bobby Dove, thanks!

Yeah!
And here's the latest from the aforemenioned S.G. Goodman, with her purple state Kentucky jittery flair:
My Townes Van Zandt cover of "Lungs" is now available to stream everywhere!

I'm not normally one to do covers, they often scare me. I feel it's easier to do a cover poorly than to add to something that was already probably perfect. So when the good folks at Amazon Music offered for me to take part in their Amazon Music Origial series, I was honored, but at a loss for what to do, I chose Townes Van Zandt's "Lungs" because of the odd connection he has to where I live.

Like all small towns, we have our legendary stories, and one story from Murray, KY could be found in a little lemonade stand in the middle of town. You'd drive up to Mr. Jimmy Gingles, ask for a Ginger (Fresh squeezed Lemonade, Orange Juice, and Lime) and you would see a picture of Townes hanging over Jimmy's head while he made your drink. Mr. Jimmy and Townes were friends and running buddies. He's often tell you about all the times Townes visited him in Murray and how he'd passed out on that very floor in the lemonade stand. Townes also play a few times in a bar where I cut my teeth as performer. It was a thrill to record this with my band and Matt Ross-Spang at the legendary Fame Studios. Hopefully I added to the story of Townes and my home with this cover, but like I said, it's hard to put your spin on something you've always felt was perfect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ufqEsByELM