Rolling Country 2006 Thread

"If only I was the president, I'd paint the white house pink and never have to pay the rent."

I will say that Dierks' being on a major meant there was money to throw at the recording, which may ultimately have been why his record held up for me more than the McQueen or the Maybelles, whose ideas were at least as interesting as Dierks'. Dierks' album had a nice round easy professional motion, and this motion spoke to my body.

xpost (as usual)

The Jeremiah alb is a killer guitar album, too.

In general I like music that overspills its container, though for this to work well there has to be a good container in the first place.

It's like Black Oak Arkansas meets a (white) booty video with the Skynyrd 'turn it up' at the start and a bit of a techno backing thing. I've only seen it as a video and am wondering how it stands up as a song.

and yeah, I did kinda like Carrie Underwood's "The Night Before" (that's the one about the girl leaving home, rhymes "Baton Rouge," "LSU" and "in my rearview?), but for me, that song demonstrates where that whole record falls down--every chorus just seemed *too* overblown and mannered to me, always going for the big place-name drama. She kind of gets around that on "I Ain't in Checotah" but it still feels like a couple of songs tacked onto each other to me, it almost works. I think the Diane Warren songs are better than the other ones they found for her, and seem to be about what happens after she gets successful, with the overblown drama a bit more, uhm, aestheticized I guess. "Wasted" isn't bad either, but I would've liked the record even more if they'd tried to lay back just a little bit. But that wouldn't have played into the whole drama of her ascension.
xps

Huk-L: I hope you give the Bocephus King album a listen. My tastes don't align well with Xhuxk's, either.

woah, xp!! I swear I wrote my entire post before seeing Roy's!!

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2005:
>
> 1. Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives, Souls' Chapel
> 2. Gary Allan, Tough All Over
> 3. Deana Carter, The Story of My Life
> 4. The Del McCoury Band, The Company We Keep
> 5. Ezequiel Peña, Nuestra Tradición: La Charreria
> 6. Jon Nicholson, A Little Sump'm Sump'm
> 7. Marty Stuart, Badlands
> 8. Freddy Fender & Flaco Jimenez, Dos Amigos
> 9. Dallas Wayne, I'm Your Biggest Fan
> 10. Jessi Alexander, Honesuckle Sweet
>
> TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2005:
>
> 1. Gary Allan, "Best I've Ever Had"
> 2. Jo Dee Messina, "My Give a Damn's Busted"
> 3. Dierks Bentley, "Lot of Leavin' to Do"
> 4. Intocable, "Aire"
> 5. Lee Ann Womack, "I May Hate Myself in the Morning"
> 6. Del McCoury Band, "She Can't Burn Me Now"
> 7. Grupo Montez de Durango, "Quiero Saber de Ti"
> 8. Robbie Fulks, "Georgia Hard"
> 9. Bon Jovi, "Have a Nice Day"
> 10. Carrie Underwood, "Some Hearts"

i think he and bruce
were more "influential" than
the eagles (or kiss)

plus xhuxk if he did
you would be 'i hate his voice,
it is SO LEADEN'

xp!

Another bet on Womack to win the country poll; voters just visiting country from a rock place and some pure ND sorts (whatever THAT sort would be) vote out of proportion to those who actually follow country closely, in all polls. When somehting scores on both sides of that fence, as Lee Ann's CD does--put your money there. Gary Allan will do well for similar reasons. (I happen to find both albums very deserving, so no arguments here.)

As for the basis of the riff on Lambert's "Kerosene"; you don't have to look further back than Steve Earle's "I Feel Alright "...But she uses it well!

2 1 DIERKS BENTLEY Come A Little Closer 97 93 4 0.8681
1 2 JACK INGRAM Wherever You Are 96 98 -2 0.8678
3 3 CARRIE UNDERWOOD Jesus, Take The Wheel 96 91 5 0.8639
4 4 BILLY CURRINGTON Must Be Doin' Somethin' Right 50 49 1 0.4497
5 5 TOBY KEITH Get Drunk And Be Somebody 48 48 0 0.4289
7 6 RASCAL FLATTS What Hurts The Most 47 42 5 0.4283
6 7 GEORGE STRAIT She Let Herself Go 47 45 2 0.4292
15 8 BON JOVI Who Says You Can't Go Home 33 28 5 0.2968
8 9 LITTLE BIG TOWN Boondocks 32 34 -2 0.2741
9 10 TRENT TOMLINSON Drunker Than Me

That would be me, but I'm actually fairly tepid about the Womack. (And I'm also coming from a disco place, since disco rocks harder than rock; also from a hip-hop place, 'cause hip-hop rocks harder than rock; and a teenpop place, which rocks harder than rock. I guess country rocks harder than rock, too.)

Yes, I'm definitely coming from a rock place (though as a wee-un I was coming from a folk place; that's 'cause in 1963, folk rocked harder than rock).

Such statements always frighten me, as I foresee this follow-up: "OK. Got the Bare. Will never use you as a basis for album purchases in the future."

You used to love her, but it's all over now?

Xgau told me he thought Lee Ann's album was bland; he'd been a fan of "Dance," I think, however. Has he ever liked her otherwise? I think he's also felt both Lee Ann and Deana Carter are overrated, in general. I don't want to put words in his mouth, though.

Am I the only person, by the way, who has trouble thinking of Lee Ann's album as a "roots" move, or whatever people call it? It sounds so pop; I'm not sure she's had a catchier album. Though yeah, obviously, there are throwback string sounds in the production etc. It doesn't *feel* like a throwback album to me, either way. More importantly, though, critics were sent the vinyl version -- So it definitely *looks* like a throwback album to them, if nothing else.

----

Oh wait, here goes:

http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=lee+ann+womack

http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=deana+carter

and yeah, Frank, I thought your Bare/Watson piece was dead-on, at least you seem to be in agreement with me re Bare's voice and the general winding-down aspect of "Moon Was." anyway, I give Mark Nevers a lot of credit for that record--he also worked on Silver Jews' "Tanglewood Numbers," altho apparently he and Berman had a disagreement and Berman took the project away from Nevers in the final mixing stages or something. I had always really disliked Silver Jews but damned if I don't like the new one, even voted for it this year. But as with Bare, not so much the songs--altho Bare's Shel Silverstein take is fine, probably the best thing on the record--as the overall sound of it, is what I like about Berman's record. which isn't something I wanna listen to all the time, too painful somehow, but I sure admire it in spite of myself, and I feel the same way about Bare to a much lesser extent.

xps

Clever and expensive move. I didn't get the vinyl. Can I have yours?

My favorite thing on the Bare is "Everybody's Talkin"--it's not as good as the original, but not much is. Something in the thick vocal dissipation merges so well with the lyrics and melody. When he hits the chorus, the cumulative effect is impossible, unreal.

And Pitbull's El Mariel didn't make the ballot in the "Hip-Hop" category. And Ms. Peachez "Fry That Chicken" didn't make the ballot under videos.

The Kentucky Headhunters – Flying Under The Radar (CBUJ reissue)*
Becky Hobbs – Best Of The Beckaroo Part 1 (Beckaroo reissue)
Shawn Camp – Fireball (Skeeterbit)
Hacienda Brothers – What’s Wrong With Right (Proper)
Terry Lee Bolton – American Man (MRC)
Alan Bros. Band – Brick By Brick (Alan Bros. Music)

New Bill Kirchen album sounds pretty dang good so far, too. Kentucky Headhunters just made the top 10 (not just country, everything) album list I submitted to the poll for my current employer. As did Leanne Kingwell's album, but we decided she's not country despite being indie right? As did Victory Brothers, who are definitely both, but they are not from A to L in the alphabet. As did Montgomery Gentry and Toby Keith, who are country but not indie (and Huck Johns, who may or might be country and/or indie, but probably not). And so on.

Bill Kirchen's album is more rock and soul and blues than anything I've heard by him before. Great title (and rocking title track): Hammer Of The Honky Tonk Gods. He does "Devil With A Blue Dress On" as a slow shuffle, closes with an Arthur Alexander song.

Oy vey. Me upthread:

I finally listened to this here Kasey Jones album of Mickey Newbury songs. Uggh. Useful if only to have all the worst versions of Newbury's songs in one place.

I think genteel is the best thing you can say about it. To my ears it's basically Mancini Americana, with a vocalist who may as well be parsing a phone book from Kazakistan, for all she seems to understand what she's singing.

The best Newbury album from the '70s remains Frisco Mabel Joy (and the tribute to that album that came out a few years ago >>>> than this Kacey Jones record). Most of his '60s and '70s stuff gets swamped in confused, faux-Sherrill arrangements (and I love real Sherrill), so buyer beware. But Mabel Joy is classic. Also, the double album, Live at Montezuma Hall anticipates his most intense and purely beautiful album, from the late '90s, the solo/live Nights When I Am Sane. This is not background music; he sings the living fuck out of every line.

Alejandro Escovedo - The Boxing Mirror (Back Porch)
Band Of Horses - Everything All The Time (Sub Pop)
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Letting Go (Drag City)
Calexico - Garden Ruin (Quarterstick)
Califone - Roots & Crowns (Thrill Jockey)
Drive-By Truckers - A Blessing And A Curse (New West)
Eef Barzelay - Bitter Honey (SpinART)
Horse Feathers - Words Are Dead (Lucky Madison)
Jenny Lewis w/ The Watson Twins - Jenny Lewis w/ The Watson Twins (Team Love)
Jolie Holland - Springtime Can Kill You (Anti-)
M. Ward - Post-War (Merge)
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood (Anti-)

(the Plug Independent Music Awards link, if you're interested in voting.

Well, actually...Freaky Friday must be over now because the Kirchen album's sounding a lot duller to me today than it was a couple days ago. Just kinda stodgy and slow and colorless, and the title track doesn't really kick all that hard after all, and why the hell would anybody want to slow down "Devil With a Blue Dress On," come to think of it? So right now, I'm on the fence, but maybe it'll kick back in, or maybe it won't. What basically keeps happening is, well, it's in the five-disc changer now with the Game (clunky rap voice, ocassionally tasty and tasteful retro-soul backup, sounds very Dr. Dre a lot of it no matter what Dre's involvement was or wasn't, but I never gave much a shit about Dre give or take a couple songs so I doubt I'll have much more patience with this thing), Yabby You (who sounds warm and dubby and greater than I would have guessed), Borat (just saw the movie, which was slightly disappointing though still frequently hilarious but maybe the disappointment was just that it had been built up so much by so many people, but at any rate i also just realized today that the soundtrack is a compilation, and track #7 is beautiful, and i think it's by o.m.f.o. but it's hard to tell because there are not the same number of titles on the cover as tracks on the cd, since some of the tracks are just snippets of dialouge and stuff, so you can't just count down to the seventh title, which is "grooming pubis", and also "o kazakhastan" which ends the movie sounds more like laibach than most of the national anthems on laibach's own new album) and joe gruschecky (ex of the iron city houserockers, and his new album features bruce springteen on a few tracks and while i have no doubt that this album must blow out of the water that springsteen seeger covers album which must be the most boring idea for an album of the year even though i didn't listen to the thing since life is too fucking short, but gruschecky is still not writing them like he was in 1980 or 1981 and his band barely rocks at all, dude really needs to befriend kenny aranoff or somebody, though sometimes there's some passable drama in joe's oily sobersided sincerity and the guitar buildups in a way that a couple of the tracks like "safe at home" for instance might sound decent in a "rescue me" episode or perhaps a scene from "the wire" with mcnulty fucking up again), and oftimes when a kirchen song comes on i think it's gruschecky by mistake, which is frankly not a good sign.

and the more I hear of the new Intocable album Cruce de Caminos a.k.a. Crossroads the more I fall in love with it. Johnny Lee Rosas might have the best voice in America, because it's not quite perfect but DAMN he delivers the goods. hilariously, when they do a "pop" version of huge hit single "Por Ella," it lays on the country signifiers so thick that I think maybe they actually consider modern country to be the real sound of "pop" in the U.S. but sadly for y'all, it's all in Spanish, so you won't really care about it. (P.S. I am an asshole tonight.)

The Game and Gruschecky now replaced in the changer with Fairyland (French-I-think metal band on Napalm) and new Ying Yang Twins.

"One More Day" on the Kirchen album does have a nice Dock Boggs era white country blues feel to it, I guess. And I do like the Arthur Alexander cover. So I haven't written the thing off quite yet.

I've been considering springing for the Intocable CD, actually. I probably won't mind the Spanish of it if the tunes are catchy enough.

Sounds like a hell of a lot of work to get through...(What do they think they are, a hip-hop group or something?) (I hate great values!)

Kirchen's "Hammer of The Honky Tonk Gods" title cut kicks (or at least "signifies kicking") in a Junior Brown kind of way, I guess. There's something sorta deluded about it -- half of Nashville rocks harder; hell, Kellie Pickler might rock harder -- but it's not bad.

kirchen's record has the same faults as his show i saw this fall. he's real good for about two songs. his supposedly awesome guided tour of pop where he interpolates all the licks he knows is actually pretty great, but seemed empty even with a couple beers in me. you kind of wish he'd go johnny guitar watson and write more songs about more interesting and perhaps raffish reality. the songs blur in my mind. the curse of reverence and "americana" and all that, but he's been at it for a while just like nick lowe, who used to write about more interesting and raffish reality but now is a very good genre artist. we all love arthur alexander, man. (i love nick lowe, but the last record of his i found remotely interesting was "party of one," which is what, 1990?)

(Hey Frank brought the album up! I guess I should put all this on the world music thread too. I'm not sure what it has to do with country, though yeah, there's a twang in the music now and then, and didn't one of you guys vote for Gogol Bordello in a Nashville Scene poll once? This CD belongs on a shelf near them, Kultur Shock, Balkan Beatbox, etc, unless like me you file in alphabetical order.)

And my new maybe-favorite on Kirchen's CD is "Skid Row in My Mind."

ha ha, for me it was labour of lust in 1979! (though i guess i gave nick the knife or whatever a fairly mixed review for my college paper in missouri when it came out, a few years later.)

ghostfinger, a nashville (actually murfreesboro, tn.) band, does really cool country-rock pastiches. the singer sounds like jagger or arthur lee or some white guy trying to be soulful, and it's mostly funny. they get doleful and sometimes the rockers don't quite work, but "moon" alternates sections of fake-rock and country-rock quite effectively. can't make out what it is they're exactly trying to express, but get the feeling they're a bit more than the usual history lesson. it's been a good year for nashville pop bands--lone official, the features, ghostfinger and i guess lambchop, too, have all released good records. certainly, lone official's "tuckassee take" made my no depression top 20 new releases.

and i have to say that i've listened to neko case's record (which also made my ND list) as much as i have anything this year; the songs are better than i initially thought, and she sustains a *mood* throughout that sorta skirts desolation--the line about driving past the beautiful flooded fields resonates as they say with my experience. and it's one of the great records in 6/8, a time signature she manipulates savvily and which suggests, i guess, the timelessness (or the immersion in memory) she's going after.

So this Dixie Chick flick, Shut Up and Sing, is playing in town. Should I go? That whole brouhaha seems like decades ago.

did the ND Ballots go out already?

Do we know yet if the Scene poll is dead? Is Himes gonna do it elsewhere? I mean, he's got the rolls...

And I know this has been chattered about elsewhere, but I never got a clear answer: what's to become of Pazz n Jop?

New George Strait album Twang. The First single "Living For The Night" is so classic. Any thoughts?