Rolling Country 2011

"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!

Heard the new solo album by Tara Nevins from Donna the Buffalo this week; probably too folksy and reverent (and it’s not like I go back and listen to whatever Donna the Buffalo CDs I still own much anymore), but I got through it painlessly, which doesn't happen with folk-country albums often, and it could conceivably grow on me.

Favorite country song I heard this week that I'd never heard before was "Country Mohammed," by immigration-obsessed Seattle-based Bosnian-Bulgarian-Japanese-American world-prog-metal band Kultur Shock, who Frank wrote about for me once at the Voice but who I'd basically forgotten about. Said Middle-Eastern hoedown was on their 2009 Integration; new album, Ministry Of Kultur is even better. (For a brief unsavory description, see the Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock thread.)

Haven't listened to the new Tara yet, but solo debut Mule To Ride had some pretty fiery wiry dizzy comin' round the mountain outbursts, far beyond any Donna The B I've heard. Meanwhile, I'm smitten by Miss Willie Brown, a duo jumping into the Dixie Chicks gap, re bringing hearts and minds under stress through popwise whirlwinds of observation and expression--four songs of concise expansion and uncommon range for such a brief set can be found here http://www.misswilliebrown.com and another is linked in the following press release, which also heralds a four-song EP containing none of the ones on their site's jukebox, far as I can tell--so haven't heard those yet--but the ones I have heard are also rec to fans of (for instance) the cable series Army Wives, Little Big Town and um Van Zant I think (thinking of those last two while "The Bible" surges from verse to chorus again). Here's an excerpt of the press release:

-----Original Message-----
From: Mary Hilliard Harrington <maryhilli✧✧✧@thegreenroo✧✧✧.c✧✧>
To: bamall✧✧✧@a✧✧.c✧✧
Sent: Mon, Mar 14, 2011 9:05 am
Subject: Miss Willie Brown Releases EP And Hits The Road!

If you're having trouble viewing this email, you may see it online.
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A&M/OCTONE’S MISS WILLIE BROWN RELEASES FIRST MAJOR LABEL EP

Spring Tour With Country Music Star Dierks Bentley Begins March 17

2011 Tour Kick-Off Show Planned For
Tues. In Nashville


Nashville, TN - March 14, 2011 - A&M/Octone Records’ first country act Miss Willie Brown is set to release their first major label EP digitally tomorrow. Kasey Buckley and Amanda Watkins—usually found finishing each other’s sentences, talking over each other, making each other laugh and cry—are the two singers and songwriters who make up Miss Willie Brown, and the release of their self titled EP marks the arrival of a dynamic new duo in country music.

Produced by award winning producer Keith Stegall (Zac Brown Band, Alan Jackson, George Strait), the four track EP includes the up-tempo and funked-up tracks “Sick of Me,” “Good Fight” and Couyan Crazy.” It also covers tender emotional territory with “Freeland,” the story of two women waiting for their men to return from fighting overseas. Kasey and Amanda wrote and both sing lead vocals on all four tracks.

“Keith really jumped into our heads in terms of knowing what we like,” says Amanda, while Kasey adds that, “Amanda and I made a promise to each other a long time ago that we would do whatever was best for the song. It’s hard to do a lot of the time, because interests conflict and collide...but the song is everything to us. And now we’ve put some of those songs we love to play live on this EP, so we could get out on the road and hopefully start building a fanbase show by show. We want to tour hard...like the guys do!”

To preview “Sick of Me,” click here:http://www.thegreenroompr.com/misswilliebrown.html

Miss Willie Brown will celebrate the EP’s release and the start of their first major tour with a special show Tues. at the Rutledge in Nashville at 6 P.M. Immediately following the show, the duo will head out for a 30 date run on the JAGERMEISTER COUNTRY TOUR FEATURING DIERKS BENTLEY.

For a full list of tour dates and more information, visithttp://www.misswilliebrown.com

###

Since I've mentioned it here a bunch of times, I should now mention that I've decided Steel Magnolia's album is in fact definitely not as good as Thompson Square's album. Still like most of it okay, especially "Bulletproof." But though their voices sound richer in general to me than, say, Lady Antebellum's, they also partake in a certain kind of commercial-post-jam-band ickiness (a la Dave Matthews? John Mayer? Maroon 5? somebody like that) that can really make me wince, especially in their way beyond embarrassing faux-reggae tune "Rainbow." Haven't yet decided whether the line "I'm not Jamaican/but Jamaican me lazy" (in a different song!) is racist.

My recent favorite country singles so far

Someone Else Calling You Baby Luke Bryan
I Can't Love You Back Easton Corbin
Colder Weather Zac Brown Band

And Jamey Johnson's record from last year is nice, esp the song Front Porch Swing Afternoon

(oh sorry - that Bonnie Owens 4CD box came out in '07 - I guess it's back in print is all)

Goldy Locks takes on Ted Nugent on CMT

After some production stops and starts, Running Wild with Ted Nugent is set to air on CMT on March 23rd. Four consecutive episodes will air beginning at 1 a.m. central time. (Lady pro wrestling personality) Rock singer/songwriter Goldy Locks appears as one of the contestants in the raucous series which features Nugent as a survivalist trainer who then hunts his own students. “I eat maggots on the show!” – Goldy

Set your TiVo and enjoy. Thanks in advance for watching and if you want to see more of Goldy on network, TV, tell ‘em so! Call 615.335.8400 or PLEASE email i✧✧✧@c✧✧.c✧✧ with your comments and ask for more Goldy Locks!

So, I finally got around to hearing the Band Perry album from late last year this week, and I think I like it a lot. Haven't been able to give it totally undivided attention yet, but for several plays in the background (at home, and in the car on the way to and from SXSW), the cuts that regularly jump out at me are tracks five and six, "Miss You Being Gone" and "Double Heart," which also seem to be the two real rockers on the record -- might well have missed a couple others so far, though.

Tara Nevins' new album has been growing on me too. Agree with what Don seemed to suggest about a previous solo record, that this is more sonically and emotionally intense than what she generally does with Donna The Buffalo. Cuts grabbing me most are probably "Tennessee River" and the fast reeling instrumental "Nothing Really."

The Band Perry -- deserving of some points for being a lot more pulled back that usual. Dependent on Kimberly Perry, who steals the entire show in the way of a vocal phenom like Noddy Holder. Of which none exist in Nashville.

She's right in the range of Slade's Noddy re "Play It Loud" which isn't that loud an album. But which the vocal rips through all the tunes based on country themes. With Slade it was cruel treatment of horses and the poor. The Band Perry makes it more self-obsessed American. The signature tune being about having to die to get people to notice you.

"Miss You Being Gone" is train beat country, which was most of Don Powell's beats on the hit Slade tunes in England.

I call The Band Perry glam country. With production pulled back, the emphasis being on the singer all the time. There are people doing hoo-hoo-hoo's and Kimberly Perry doing rock n roll emphases. So when the beats are legitimately country like on "fortune teller" the country instruments added aren't phony appliques, as usual. They're only gratuitous (the mandolins, accordion wheezes, fiddles and banjo strokes.)

Which is to say The Band Perry is one of my fave records this year. Probably a bit more than Thompson
Square although I can't tell you why precisely right now. It's not because there are more jangle classic rock guitars. It's the personality of Kimberly Perry.

Might have to walk The Band Perry record back a bit. There's a universal solvent character to KP's voice that wears me out a bit depending on the mood.

And if you get cable maybe you've seen the ubiquitous General Electric commercial with the line dancing set to Alan Jackson's "Good Time." Good time for GE, indeed, until the frontpage New York Times on the company's tax dodging.

That was the last affront. ;)

So I did a song on it, "GE & Jeffrey" country-style, borrowing Jackson for a couple seconds.

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/2011/03/29/ge-jeffrey-the-tax-cheat-boogie/

frontpage New York Times on the company's tax dodging.

This was a great, if absolutely depressing piece; was actually thinking of linking it here a few days ago, because of that Alan Jackson commercial (which is now inescapable during Sunday morning political talk shows). Anybody who hasn't read it, really should:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/business/economy/25tax.html

I want someone to glue "GE & Jeffrey" to the line-dancing video. Windows Movie Maker on my pc won't do it because of some software glitch having to do with memory size.

Shockingly, 60 Minutes took the opposite tack than the Times, giving a lot of time to some flack from Cisco explaining that the alleged 35 percent tax rate was what was causing the exodus. So he offered a bit of blackmail in the form of give us a 5 percent tax rate on the money and jobs we've already taken overseas and we'll come back. Stahl meekly added that the US government had already tried that bribe in 2004 and been rooked. No jobs were brought back.

Before the corporate police drag it away for being truth in advertising.

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