Rolling Country 2011

Yeah, I was taken about by his "Five Years" assertion, too; had no idea he loved it that much. (After I googled to figure out which Bowie song Old 97s actually covered.)

NYTimes cover story from this morning about much of rural America still lacking broadband access; haven't tried yet, but I'm hoping it's possible to zero in online on the map they included in the paper. Anyway, for the time being, it's obviously just one more huge factor in the marginalization of the poor. Curious, music-wise, in how the lack of web access will affect the future of certain outlying genres that still rely almost entirely on brick and mortar (and even mom-and-pop) retail -- not so much country, which has obviously conquered suburbia and is coming to terms with the digital age, but say Regional Mexican and, presumably, Southern Soul. Anyway:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/us/18broadband.html

What I mean is -- and this is obviously just conjecture -- I'm thinking the audiences for those genres might lie disproportionally in more remote areas unlinked to the web. And as brick-and-mortar stores disappear, access to the music could go with it, followed ultimately by that music itself. (Unless, in web-inaccessible areas, real record stores are having fewer problems than elsewhere. Which is possible, but I seriously doubt it, especially given diminished purchasing power of poorer fans.)

Also seems like you'd need internet access just to run a record store these days -- since I imagine that's how all the distributors do business, for instance.

hey, i never have posted in this thread & i don't really listen to country but i just wanted to pop in & say that the luke bryan track "someone else calling you baby" is one of my favorite singles of the year so far

i randomly caught it on a pop morning show that was doing a round up of #1 songs in the country & it's great -- some brief perusing shows that y'all were not feeling one of his other singles from last year -- this is the first i've ever heard of him tho

"All My Friends Say" was a jam.

Don't know that I ever wrote either way about them here, but I like Luke Bryan's singles. "Do I" repeats those words so much they become some kind of mantra or even riddle, and lose their meaning in a way that I like. "Rain Is a Good Thing" (and a couple of the other non-singles on that album, if I'm remembering right) has an agricultural focus that always strikes me as more specific than most on-the-farm country songs. And yes, I've been enjoying hearing "Someone Else Calling You Baby" on the radio lately, though I think mostly for the melody.

Broadband's not so hot in Pasadena. AT&T and Charter are pretty crappy. The former is always throttling access on the margins. It would not seem cheap to people in that section of Alabama. You'd need to explain to them they could then steal most of the music they'd like to listen to so that the country CD at the bigbox store or whatever passes for it near the county seat would seem exorbitant.

Cynical -- but it's the truth. Paradoxically, Nashville seems to defend a lot of its stuff more aggressively than others.

Luke Bryan's pretty much always shot blanks to my ears; don't hate his stuff, but I don't think any of his hits have struck me as particularly special either, and so far with the new one his track record's still intact.

Longish NYTimes Arts & Leisure feature today about this Providence band called the Low Anthem said to use old-timey instruments and who have fans in Emmylou Harris and on WNYC's Soundcheck. Sounds like they'd be horrible ("the Low Anthem draws people in by going quiet and underplaying," puke), and doubt I'll get around to investigating with my own ears. But mixing folk influences and artsy fartsy sounds has worked a couple times in musical history I guess, so I'd be curious if anybody here has actually head them:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/arts/music/20low.html?_r=1&ref=music

Meanwhile my own favorite rural-and-western song on the radio lately (I've heard it twice in the past month or two on Regional Mexican stations here) is "Mueveme El Pollo" by Banda San Jose Mesillas, which apparently concerns chickens and seems to have technically come out late last summer, judging from posting dates on three youtube clips I'm finding. (There may be earlier versions of the number by other acts, too; still trying to figure that out.)

And let’s not forget about “Wire,” a midrecord dip into a classically inflected piece for three clarinets composed, and played, by Ms. Adams, who was an intern for NASA before joining the band.

Clarinets and working for NASA, even for free, would be enough for the shitcan in my book. Anyway, Avett Brothers also name-dropped.

Believe it or not, there was a guy at our gig last night who came to me after the show to buy a CD. He let slip he was an Avett Brothers and Arcade Fire fan. Astonishing, really.

Yeah, I wrote that post above before half finishing half the Low Anthem feature, and once I reached to the jump page I realized that no fucking way would I like that band, if my life depended on it. They just sounded worse and worse as the piece went on.

And George, your show story reminds me of this guy Jesus, who was the art director at the Voice when I was there. Awesome guy, about my age or a couple years older I guess, and you were by far his favorite writer in the music section because sometimes you wrote about Uriah Heep, Yes, Savoy Brown, Robin Trower maybe, other '70s bands he loved. But somehow he wound up liking the first Arcade Fire album a lot when somebody played it for him, and, I think, Coldplay? Somebody like that. Perplexed the hell out of me.

I didn't tell you that he told me he'd bought a new Stratocaster and was starting a band and wanted some tips on how to get "the Rolling Stones sound." He -- in his late Fifties -- also said that both he and his wife, also along, now felt a little odd being among the only old people at soCal Arcade Fire shows. I sympathized completely. I asked him of he liked the Black Keys. Said he had the new album and liked parts of it.

Anyway, re Low Anthem again. The culture of NASA hasn't rocked since the days of "The Right Stuff." Now, if a member had been someone related to the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo astronauts, different matter.

Well, a hunk of people think that Arcade Fire may owe their career to a future Ashlee Simpson fan, so you never know. (See here for elaboration.)

Funeral holds up pretty well, though thinking it's one of the great albums of all time is like thinking, I don't know, that Radio City is one of the great albums of all time. I realize that people do, and it's good and all that, but still, it's missing a certain amount of fire (and it's kind of not all that arcade-y either, when you come down to it).

"Someone Else Calling You Baby" was on my country singles long list for 2010, which I haven't yet posted anywhere (and at the moment I don't remember how the song goes).

The Low Anthem album is a chore, and I'd take the Vegas odds that it's something Chuck would hate if he heard it in full. My review of it is here, but the short version is that it plays out as an album for people who think the Avett Brothers are too fun.

Your review makes me think they must have taken far-miking in the empty spaghetti factory way too seriously.

Big Hair And Plastic Grass: A Funny Ride Through Baseball And America In The Swinging '70s; that "funny" in the title is mainly just to sell books

Uh, no it's not -- the word in the title is "Funky" (which makes more sense), not "Funny." Oof. Guess I'm due for another vision checkup.

Singles Jukebox reviews current countrified singles by:

The Band Perry

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=3121

Thompson Square (have a feeling George might like at least one or two of the other tracks I mention on their album, btw):

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=3158

And, uh, The Decemberists

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=3129

Two northern West Coast female-led (one of them all-female) alt-ish/folk-ish/roots-ish country bands whose imminent new albums I've been listening to this week and, well, not hating. Not sure yet whether I "like" (or would recommend) them, but they're both at least okay, so far. Assume marginal, though, unless I say otherwise.

Zoe Muth and the Lost High Rollers, from Seattle

http://www.zoemuth.com/

Blame Sally, from San Francisco

http://blamesally.com/

Also been liking the upcoming new Those Darlins album -- which is way less country, more garage rock, than their first one, but I still hear some country in it -- more than I expected to. Favorite tracks so far are "Boy" and "Be Your Bro." Don't want to overstate things, though; definitely overrated the first one, at first.

[i]Thompson Square (have a feeling George might like at least one or two of the other tracks I mention on their album, btw):<?I>

Yeah, the big jangle. Mostly on "Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not." "Let's Fight" sounds like something the Big Kenny side of Big & Rich would come up with. Or a Jack Ingram tune. Haven't heard the rest.

BTW, those jukebox evals, they kinda miss the point since guitars, including the jangle, are like, so boring.

There's a better way of getting at what I meant. On YouTube there's the vid/studio album version of the Thompson Square single and a rendition of them doing it acoustically. Shoving aside the bare presentation and the environment, it's a good song, but the acoustic guitar just doesn't transform it like the electric chiming line on the single. The latter embeds the hook a lot more.

JaneDear Girls "Wildflower" didn't do that much for me on CMT. A live performance on Jimmy Kimmel had the backing sounding like a boogie band, better. No idea what the CD is like.

Yeah, I've been meaning to check out that JaneDear Girls album.

Wound up liking Blame Sally's album more than Zoe Muth & the High Rollers', a surprise since Blame Sally are clearly more folkies. Wouldn't swear by their lyrics, which sometimes make me cringe, but I like the multi-girl harmonies, and they have more interesting arrangements (from minor key to catchy almost-rock) in general.

Xgau on Carolina Chocolate Drops and Baseball Project (both sort of Americana, he says, though I categorized the Baseball Project under "powerpop" on Rhapsody):

http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/expert-witness-blog.aspx

Me on the Baseball Project:

http://www.rhapsody.com/the-baseball-project/vol-2-high-and-inside#albumreview

Me on Left-Lane Cruiser (third straight album by them that I like more than Black Keys, and they are getting more country as they go on):

http://www.rhapsody.com/left-lane-cruiser/junkyard-speed-ball#albumreview

Singles Jukeboxers on Aaron Lewis from Staind's dumb tea-bag country crossover single:

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=3179

Some thoughts on Jerry Reed's 1982 LP The Bird[, and especially the song "I Get Off On It":

(vintage) country-disco

I think we all agreed on last year's thread the Staind guy's thing was pretty contemptible. But I thought it had a chance on the charts if they gave him a pass on CMT for getting beaten with the ugly stick which is now in vogue. The video hit all the phonus-bonus pieties, had guns in it and shit. And sure enough it is high in the CMT 20 countdown now.

Thought 24 Hr by Left Lane Cruiser sounded a bit like stoner rock, only faster. Lotta pig fuck in the vocals, something you can't accuse the Black Keys of. I don't really get the appeal of the hayseed douchebag hollering from the shed out back vocal technique. No one, no matter how far out in redneckville sounds like that, not even in Deliverance, right? But it's not uncommon. Decent shuffles and boogies, though.

BTW, did Worley ever come through with a record after his Tea Party single? My estimate is that genre's opportunity has peaked, come and is now mostly gone.

The not-so-invisible hands of the Koch brothers don't rock and after November the GOP overplayed its hand. White people who can actually spell holding signs in Wisconsin have taken the air right out of Tea Party protests.

I'd be real interested in knowing how many heartland peeps who deserted the Dems in a fit of misdirected anger in November are now having real buyer's remorse.

Having said that, count John Rich now among the ranks of the certifiably desperate, playing one of the assorted new toadies to the Trump in the new "Celebrity Apprentice."

He is apparently willing and ready to be a lickspittle for the right sums, probably much less than you'd think.

I probably like Thompson Square much more than xhuxk, thanks to his tip. It's an album that could have done without all the pedal steel and been better for it. Very poppy hard rock explaining the bad reviews I saw for it in various country web pubs. About half of it sounds influenced from the Big Kenny rock side of Big & Rich, more generally with Everly Bros. vox on classic rock with shining guitars.

Except it's a guy and a gal with voices in virtually the same register, perfect for the arrangements.

Besides "Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not," the cream of the crop, the next few -- My Kind Of Crazy, As Bad As It Gets, Who Loves Who More and Getaway Car, make it a keeper. Only underlines the hard reality that you can only sneak into classic rock/hard pop rock by laundering through CMT and such.

Read in the reviews that it was Jason Aldean's band furnishing the rock. The only lesson to be learned being that Aldean's tuneless party-hearty ersatz Bad Company with cowboy hats thing isn't the only thing they can play.

That album's been growing on me, actually. So has Steel Magnolia's album, which I think will always be connected with Thompson Square in my head, since they're both harmonizing married couples who put out their big-label-distributed quasi-indie breakthrough debuts -- one more pop-rock-influenced, the other more pop-soul -- within just a couple weeks of each other. They sound like two sides of the same coin to me, and really, I'd have to flip a coin to figure out which I like more. They're both pretty darn good. (By the way, though everything you'll read will tell you the new hit one is their debut, Thompson Square actually self-released an earlier, also self-titled, album four years ago, on a local Tennessee label called Sixgun. Entitely different tracklist, and presumably without Aldean's band backing them up. I haven't heard it, though.)

That makes me curious enough to scrounge for it on the net. Did it have any title?

Thompson Square's back end doesn't do much for me but the first two-thirds makes up for it.

I actually like the last cut, "One Of Those Days," and cut #10 "As Bad As It Gets" is one of my favorites on the album.

Rhapsody is carrying the first Thompson Square album, which confusingly like the new one is called Thompson Square. (That's how I found out about it.) Unfortunately, the shared title seems to have mixed up the site's electronic data tools, which mistakingly pasted my review of the new album to both records. I'll try to get that fixed; meanwhile, here's a link to the 2007 one:

http://www.rhapsody.com/thompson-square/thompson-square

Hmmm, anyone who buys that thinking "Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not" is gonna be in for a big surprise.
I doubt if it's possible to stumble into a purchase anymore since digital makes taste and try before you buy almost automatic.

They took the bottle of Romilar away for the major label. Actually, that's too harsh. It's much much more country, almost all slow mood pieces and ballads. Except "Not Far Enough" which sounds Neil Young-ish, or moreso Tom Petty and Co. doing Neil Young. And "Kennesaw." The rest is OK if you're big on the singing but the songs aren't nearly as good. Not bad tunes per se, just pretty but meh.

Heard "Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not" on the car radio for the first time today (either Austin country radio is lagging behind everybody else, or I just don't listen much anymore, or both), and wow -- what a great car song. Big clanging supermelodic Mike Campbell style jangle all through it, basically what George has been saying all along I guess, not just at the end, which I'd implied in my Singles Jukebox writeup. Definitely had been overrating that one. Guess I need to play the whole CD in the car.

Curious what people think of Sierra Hull's new stuff (http://www.sierrahull.com/daybreak/) - ostensibly bluegrass, but clearly shooting for some cross-over appeal...?

xp "Definitely had been underrating that one," I meant.

Of no concern to anybody who doesn't live here, but I enjoyed reading this Austin Statesman article yesterday, grading local dive bars and dancehalls on their Texas-ness, even though it's annoying that the writer seems to dismiss just about any country music that isn't decades old (and especially isn't Willie, Waylon, or Cash) as "generic pop country." (He also doesn't mention that Texans have really bland taste in beer -- seriously, Lone Star and Shiner Bock are kinda gross -- but that's OK.) Anyway, I don't think I've been to any of these establishments, including the three on Burnett, which are very close to here.

http://www.austin360.com/music/in-search-of-the-real-texas-experience-in-1299546.html?printArticle=y

Got a CD by Pieces by an upstate NY Southern rock five-piece creatively calling themselves The Steven L. Smith Band in the mail; sounds decent so far -- recalls Kentucky Headhunters at points (though the KH's rocked "Big Boss Man," only cover song here, a lot harder, and these guys seem to have more piano and sax parts, which sound pretty good.) Backup vocals in one song each by Jimmy Van Zant (Ronnie/Donny/Johnny's cousin apparently -- can't keep all those guys straight) and Crystal Gayle.

http://music.slsmith.info/

"CD called Pieces," I meant.

A new 1550-word roundup/overview piece I wrote for the Voice on current Southern Soul (much of which is certainly lower-case, if not upper-case, country):

http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-03-09/music/southern-soul-guide-sweet-angel-mel-waiters-and-luther-lackey/

Hee, hee...

AARON LEWIS’ DEBUT SOLO CD ‘TOWN LINE’ DEBUTS AT #1 ON BILLBOARD COUNTRY ALBUMS CHART AND #7 ON THE TOP 200 ALBUMS CHART

AARON LEWIS has been resoundingly welcomed into the Nashville community as his debut solo CD TOWN LINE enters the Billboard Country Albums Chart at #1.

For all the atrocities on display in "Country Boy" - the auto-tuning of George Jones bothered me the most...

http://new.music.yahoo.com/programs/the-new-now/19407/justin-biebers-girlfriend-lands-viral-hit-for-14-year-old-michaela-wallace

The latest atrocity, placed here because of the pro Nashville-songwriter product giveaway buried in the story. Which was delivered on my Yahoo news landing page as some kind of amateur effort that just happened to go 'viral' on Yahoo.

What was that record I reviewed made around the concept of the dolls that were in competition with Barbie a few years ago, xhuxk? Oh yeah, Bratz. Sounds just like that.

I'm patently sick of the Taylor Swift cadence. Which is the same for every semi-ballad she does, climaxing in "Back to December" which ties it to a tremolo guitar line. Dub it the home girl West Lawn/Wyommissing/Governor Mifflin Pennsy rhythm. Which means nothing to you if you weren't living there. But I was.

Crystal Bowersox makes me ill. It's the tattoo on her back that looks like someone sicked up their lunchmeat on her shoulders while she's singing about "God" and "mentioning you."

Oh god, she just sang, "Mommy dear" and "bourbon breath."

And why aren't we talking about the Band Perry more? I'm beginning to thing that out of two tunes I there's the possibility they're as good pop rock through-Nashville-launderers that Thompson Square.

Take out the fiddle applique which just traces the vocal, turn up the guitar, or add a Hammond or a piano.

This is another one blown in the singles column because it was white, rock, and the lyrics weren't up to literary snuff again, right?

The thing that bugs the shit out of me, and I know it's just because it's a Kentucky thing, about the Bowersox line ("And you'd come home with bourbon breath/Jack in the air") is that Jack isn't bourbon. It's whiskey. So not only does the line scan poorly on its own merits, it's also *wrong*.

That said, for all the gross tats and white-girl dreds, I do think she has a better voice than some of the women currently on country radio.

I honestly don't think I've ever heard a Crystal Bowersox song.

Have liked both Band Perry singles (though the first one didn't hit me until I finally heard it on the radio -- somehow, listening over shitty laptop speakers doesn't bring out the rock sound in country-pop songs for me like car radios do); haven't heard the whole album yet, but one is supposedly being sent to me. Will opine here once I get it.

Listened to the JaneDear Girls album this week, albeit over shitty laptop speakers (via Rhapsody.) Hit me as lightweight, consistently catchy, not really all that memorable, but maybe it just needs more listens, which I may or may not get around to. And yeah, John Rich's presence (as producer) is insescapable in the sometimes slightly dancey rockpop. One song uses AutoTune T-Pain-style. They seem to do the Taylor Swift cadence thing a couple times, too. Seemed okay, overall (I'd definitely pay a buck for the CD if I see one 10 years from now), but not probably nearly as good as Thompson Square (or Steel Magnolia or Stealing Angels.)

I'm not sure how much Berks County I actually hear in Swift's phrasing, by the way. But George has spent more time there than I have, I'm sure.

So far I'm pleasantly surprised by Teddy Thompson's new Bella. Kid's got his own unpretentiously 50s-based vocal approach (and richness), somewhat like less daring but enjoyable Orbisonic, plus Del Shannononian, Everlysesque, Billy Swannese etc phrasing, with deft, not specifically retro arrangements (do include singing strings, but not too often).

http://www.smartchoicemusic.com/store/files/details/16/40001271617.jpg

Exciting new box from Bear Family...

Details, please!