Rolling Country 2013

Your take on Monroe is much more edifying and edified. He thinks this is her first album, and seems to think co-writes are a sign or limitation, but he already said she's better off, in a group, so maybe she knows that and that's why she's mainly known for co-writes and one-off duets and the occasional trio (Jack White re-worked a Raconteurs song with her and Ricky Scaggs)
Re your mention of "chicanery", Satisfied never did come out anywhere near the same year as the original version was promo'd, but several of us RC irregulars did end up Nash Scene Top Tenning "Satisfied." But return with us to those thrilling days of yesteryear:

New in town: Ashley Monroe, small, intense, blonde; looks and sounds in there between needy McReady and latterday Womack. T-R-O-U-B-L-E.
― don, Wednesday, 29 March 2006 17:12 (6 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, I really like the single, "Satisfied." More demure than Miranda, with a sweet voice that reminds me of Kasey Chambers, but she doesn't play the little girl card too hard. She's, what, 19? I hope the single gets a push, as country radio hasn't been happening for me of late. Every song I like seems to be from last year or the year before.
― Roy Kasten (Roy Kasten), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 18:13 (6 years ago) Permalink

don -- cute lil ashley monroe came into the office yesterday. has the sharp nuance of dolly. she's 19 and i really wanted to hate her but could not.
― katie, a princess (katie, a princess), Thursday, 6 April 2006 18:58 (6 years ago) Permalink

Ashley Monroe "I Don't Wanna Be," first track on her album Satisfied. Strong vibrant accent, maybe Kentucky or Tennessee (not that I know shit about accents.) The voice is strong, the slide guitar is strong. The lyrics are a bit incongruous in relation to the voice: a woman without a man telling us that for all the time men can be disappointing and fail to mow the lawn or take out the garbage, she'd rather be with a man than be without. My one-song first impression is that this woman could be due Lee Ann Womack–size respect, though I'd like more interesting lyrics.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Thursday, 6 April 2006 20:43 (6 years ago) Permalink

chuck what say you of ashley?
the lyrics weren't cringe-worthy but they did make me tilt my head into the upright and locked "huh" position considering she's 19 and she did the majority of the writing for this album when she was 17 (and sometimes younger). i guess that's a popular ageist complaint, but at the same time its hard for me to invest in her sincerity in lovers lost, etc. when she's my lil cousin's age. and i'm a dour old lady at the age of 24!
― katie, a princess (katie, a princess), Friday, 7 April 2006 13:19 (6 years ago) Permalink
>chuck what say you of ashley?<
first impression (i.e., two and a half songs in to her album)? she sounds kinda slow and lacks bounce, and i'd take many of the unknown cdbaby acts on this thread over her easy. also, i think it's rather odd that she says desperate housewives both complain about their husbands no longer mowing lawn AND that the grass is always greener on the other side. this implies that lawnmowing increases green-ness, which is certainly not always the case. (my opinion may well change, though.)
― xhuxk, Friday, 7 April 2006 18:15 (6 years ago) Permalink
Album seems to finally wake up a little from its torpor toward the three-quarters mark (i.e., track #8, the song where the guy's calling her from san jose or whatever's happening -- though the one after that, where she does the eddie rabbit talking blues things and gets wacky like a shania for ONE WHOLE SECOND, isn't really working for me despite being not slow, maybe not even midtempo), but I gotta say there's something tastefully teacher's pettish about ashley that's bugging me. she's hitting me like a nostalgia act, and not in a very fun way. she needs leann womack's producer or something (unless she already has her; I didn't check). I dunno, probably she'll click eventually, that's how these things work. Right now, though, she's honestly having trouble holding my attention. (But yeah, I can imagine the Good Taste Brigade loving her. Which is maybe why I'm resisting.)
― xhuxk, Friday, 7 April 2006 18:44 (6 years ago) Permalink

On my way to Ashley, sidetracked by Black Sage. They remind me of a countrypoprocking Wide Right: robustly uncommon "everyday people." Also like WR in seeming at first to veer from sparse to spare, but turn up the bass. So far, Leah Archibald grabs me a bit more, because she's confrontational like that (re sex and death, for inst, but Black Sage's Kathy deals with those too)thx xhuxx
― don, Friday, 7 April 2006 19:10 (6 years ago) Permalink

Okay, Ashley: funny how Black Sage, those lovable no-budget back room locals, pick up the tempo, while Monroe’s moneyed mentors produce Nashville tracks whut don't know how to sustain initial interest---so many ballads, so much time. The neediness sounds convincing enough. Reading the bio after listening, re what "she still sees as an idyllic life," before her father suddenly died when she was 11 ("often the age of puberty for today's youth", says Dr Joyce Brothers), and how her family went "into freefall" after that, and "with few friends among often callous classmates," how she could look so hungrily at taken-for-granted, supposedly sweet deals of ungrateful married women. And covering Kasey Chambers' "Pony," with come-hither-when-I'm-legal drawlpretty much to the tune of Peggy Lee's "Fever"), before stalking the guy (who has a grown woman, way ahead of her)to verses that sound like Neil's "Old Man," before reaching out, falling short, trailing with a few more notes anyway, in "Satisfied."(But in between she's still sounding young and damaged, she's been "Used, passed around")Then she does find a guy! Who's as little ol' as she is, and "That's Why We Call Each Other Baby," goo-goo--but he's--Dwight Yoakam, old, bald, and a dirt sandwich (this last according to Sharon Stone). Oh man. Lucinda's "It's Over" is faster, but needs some false stops or something to go with it's thing about she can't let go. Not enough titles provided so far, but there's one that is faster and works like that should: a Terri Clark-type blowing up her self-image of poor poor pitiful me like Harry Smith's headlines, til it's lying in the street, underneath a white sheet (do a video of that). And she's in the back of "Hank's Cadillac," making him drink his coffee black, cos you just gotta make that next show, be fair to the folks, but it's not working, she's clutching his little skinny carcass to her bosom, and--oh god,maybe this thing will brainwash me, but right now it's dropping most of these High Concepts. At least "Hank's Cadillac" has some narrative. The one that sounds like it's intended to be the followup to "Satisfied" makes the usual sargasso seizure irrelevent, cos (as with "Satisfied") the chorus sounds so nice, I don't need to go anywhere else.
― don, Friday, 7 April 2006 21:58 (6 years ago) Permalink
And speaking of so much time, it ain't out til June 27. So maybe it will brainwash me by then.(Thaat's why Country Majors release things so slowwly, now I get it...)
― don, Friday, 7 April 2006 22:02 (6 years ago) Permalink

I mentioned in another group in which I'm a member that xgau has an unexpected...sensitivity about the self-sufficiency of country artists. He often dwells on writing and co-writing on country artists.

Actually more surprised, though, by how much I've been liking the new Mavericks album, which is one of the most beautifully sung country albums (or really, any albums) in recent memory. Rhythms are Latin-derived throughout; vocal melisma moves from Latin to, eventually, completely over-the-top Middle Eastern, in an eight (!)-minute long song near album's end.

Sold! At least to the extent that I will check it out, at least that one song, am in fact streaming it right now. Funny, I never really click on this thread, but for some reason Alfred's new handle + the recent talk about the Eagles seemed to prime me to do so, and now I feel I have been rewarded.

Also, xhuxk, I read your Mindy McCready obituary. I was not familiar with her and what I checked out of her music didn't pull me in, but you certainly can write. But you, and others, knew that.

Thanks Rudi! Now if only Spin would get my Ashley Monroe/Kacey Musgraves piece up...

I listened to the Mavericks album. I ended up liking "Ven Hacia Mi (Come Unto Me)" better than "(Call Me) When You Get to Heaven." I don't think I feel whatever it is I'm supposed to feel from their slow burn songs, which seems to be where they spend a lot of their time.

Is "Ven Hacia Mi" a cover though? Sounds familiar even to me, though I couldn't say where I would have heard it before.

I found a review that referred to the first song as sounding Cuban. I guess the Cubans invented ska along with everything else. Oh I get it, maybe it's the trumpets. (This critic should have tried a little closer to the border than Cuba for a source.)

As far as Spin, maybe try walking into the editorial offices with a shotgun.

God damn it that Mavericks record is tearing my heart in half and handing it back to me with a smile and a beer.

Now if only Spin would get my Ashley Monroe/Kacey Musgraves piece up...

if spin doesn't, maybe car and driver will.

Me on Ashley and Kacey:

http://www.spin.com/reviews/ashley-monroe-like-a-rose-kacey-musgraves-same-trailer-different-park?utm_source=spintwitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=spintwitter

really love the ashley monroe - "used" and "you got me" are my favs on a couple of listens. POW opening lines to the album, too. gonna check out kacey musgraves too (great review, chuck) but it doesn't seem to be on uk itunes and i can't ~find it~ anywhere either yet

Actual Musgraves release date, at least in the U.S., is next Tuesday -- So just give it a few days, Lex.

Ashley Monroe is pretty damned great. That makes four great country albums I've heard this year: Mavericks, Gary Allan, Monroe, and I'm counting Carrie Rodriguez here too because Give Me All You Got is freaking amazing. I'd put Emmylou Harris/Rodney Crowell here too but it's not grabbing me yet. Can't wait for Musgraves.

Haven't heard the Rodriguez -- Remember being meh on her stuff last time I listened to her, but it's been a few years and it's possible I never really gave her a fair chance in the first place. Might check that out, if I find time. I've heard people say good things about the upcoming LeAnn Rimes album too. And I can personally vouch for the new Pistol Annies, due out in May, which by my count so far has at least five great or near-great songs (out of 12) on it. Guess that makes Ashley Monroe my artist of the year so far.

Nate Cavalieri on spin.com also gave Caitlin Rose's new album 9 out of 10 last week, by the way, which really surprised me, since when I'd just listened to it and wrote up something short on it for Rhapsody, it barely held my attention at all. I'm told she has a bit of a critical following in the U.K.; no idea why. Anyway, here's my mini-review:

http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/caitlin-rose/album/the-stand-in

And here's Nate's very different opinion:

http://www.spin.com/reviews/caitlin-rose-the-stand-in-ato-rca

NEW PISTOL ANNIES???????? OMGGGGGG I had no idea

encouraging to hear it's so good

the single is out! i am dropping everything and getting ON THIS

Musgraves is streaming here--March 19 release, so prob til 18th. Better to listen straight through (can pause o course) rather than track by track, cos might get brief NPR IDs w the latter
http://www.npr.org/2013/03/10/173745915/first-listen-kacey-musgraves-same-trailer-different-park Still down on the first single (see comments upthread, from Nash Scene ballot), but she's got fine stuff on Nashville-the-TV-series soundtrack, so I'll keep an open mind. Will read xhuxk's review after I've had time to listen to this, ditto Monroe (on her MySpace, for those, like me, against having to access Spotify via Fecebook)

Carrie Rodriguez' Give Me All You Got streaming here http://www.carrierodriguez.com/albums I'm mainly familiar w her live, as duet vcalist/multi-instrumentalist w Chip Taylor, on her own Live in Louisville, and backing Jeff Bridges on Austin City Limits (good set, might still be on the ACL site or YouTube). This is good, track by track, but sometimes a bit slow for me--she always seeks some cool distance from/for perspective on emotional chaos, even says "I gotta get a little bit bored/To get to the core", in "Brooklyn", a non-boring song about what she seems to consider a good ol' boring place. Its wry turns of phrases and tempo suggest a friend who dances around the core, and checks in for confidential updates: allusive, but I get the drift pretty quick. This approach lso works well on the first single, "Lake Harriet," a rueful hop-skip, like Prine in good folk-pop mode (she doesn't sing too much like Prine, which is fine by me). Likewise the other one she wrote without collabs, "Whiskey Is Thicker Than Blood", but the slower ones are growing on me too, I think (shoulda put the headphones on sooner).

Not that I really had time to listen to that whole thing, but she got me, which says something, even for the slower ones.

anyone heard the new Shooter Jennings? I dipped out on him after Black Ribbons, was kinda curious

Listening to Shooter right now on Spotify. First song is prog as hell!

Okay this is a great album too. "Mama, It's Just My Medicine" is total Steve Miller Band groove; "The Low Road" is dirty country stuff; "Outlaw You" is a great rant against wanna-be outlaws with baseball caps, totally influenced by Ike Reilly but also just a rowdy good time.

finally listened to the Musgraves, still streaming on NPR til Tues. 19th release, or maybe they'll take it off on Mon, so mebbe better listen again tonight--howsomever, can already tell it's not gonna thrill me, might get a little further into art appreciation though. Can hear why Ann Powers mentions it in terms of novelists like Ellen Gilchrist, also bout Willie as early hero, so this is also kinda organized like his Phases And Stages. There, Side One was how the woman experiences the break-up, and its aftermath; Side Two was her man's experience. Here, she mopes and sometimes hopes, all around a nowhere/everywhere town (full of drained cliches), 'til finally takes off for Side Two (with wisecracks from a blessedly other, though still cliche character's POV, in "Blowin' Smoke"), thence to mope and hope in a bigger town, and eventually, actually get pissed off enough to crank it up in "Step Off", and keep some of that energy to burn in "Keep It To Yourself" (would pick this as a single). Said energy even sparks "Straight As An Arrow", even though it's way into her aphoristic tendency--again re the Nelson thing, ditto, the "conversational" delivery Powers mentions, but usually minus Nelson's simple-subtle turns, as writer and vocalist. And the song seems even better, or even more okay, when its rallying of the troops, especially incl herself, leads to "It Is What It Is"--"'til it ain't, then it's gone". Which, for the narrator, is the spark of a crucial, hard-won insight: acceptance of small potatoes is actually acceptable, if you also accept that small potatoes will soon be gone-- and that's part of their appeal. ditto for some one-night stands, like this 'un, which inspires her most appealing singing. So, I'm cautiously optimistic about her, as she would approve, apparently, hopefully. But don't turn up your nose at vocal support and co-writes ,kid, unless you get offers from Mindy Smith or Kacey Chambers, speaking of reflexive/anemic etc

caramonica on musgraves & monroe

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/arts/music/new-albums-by-ashley-monroe-and-kacey-musgraves.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Heard Will Hermes reviewing Musgraves on NPR radio last night--he had a line about "some are saying Musgraves is the future of country music but to me she sounds like the present." He was not being critical with that. It was part of a very favorable review. He focussed a lot on the lyrics, maybe too much.

Of course that line I paraphrased was about the music and the lyrics. Some discussions of "Follow Your Arrow" just seem too predictable to me--liberal critic likes country song lyrics that kind of reflect his/her view. Not sure about the best way to avoid that type of phrasing, but it can be done.

to change subjects for a moment: Luke Bryan's "Buzzkill" is my song of the week.

There's a "Blues You're A Buzzkill" song on the next Pistol Annies album, too -- Must be country's new buzzword. Anyway, that Bryan song didn't kill me, but maybe it'll grow on me. Here's what I briefly wrote about his new album a couple weeks ago, when Rhapsody's usual country critic was on vacation. (Usually I stick to metal for them these days):

http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/luke-bryan/album/spring-breakhere-to-party

Sons of Fathers: harmonizing semi-acoustic country rockers, or at least unexpectedly robust in this video (on headphones anyway)
http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-615/1554276/sons-of-fathers-roots-and-vine-exclusive-video-premiere

Kind of surprised how lovely the Holly Williams album is. Are we supposed to not like her?

Will check it out; heard her early stuff, which was good, though seemed more folkie than country, in a mellow, rueful way---relatively recent performance on (I think) The Tonight Show was tougher, sharper (good with her band). Several albums on her MySpace, where I just now finally listened to the new Ashley Monroe. Can see how xgau wandered into the weeds with this'un, mumbling about co-writes. There is something maybe a little mediated, a tad distanced, somewhut writerly 'bout it, allowing, sometimes inviting more contemplation or wandering than putting actual sonic experience up front. The opening title track does this well, writing-wise: she's sitting in a diner, musing over sad beginnings, but instead of just confirming all this with a sad present tense, she comes out of it all "like a rose"--not smelling like, nothing so triumphant, but we're quietly invited to consider: nice smell, purty flower, goes away in the winter (or does it? see Emmylou's Roses In The Snow), got thorns, can be cut, have its petals scattered, or presented in very meaningful ways, like with dung coating, aflame etc. Very cool, although the music melts away. "Two Weeks Late" and "Weed Not Roses" come off more like reviewer-bait, or too conceptual here, although the trad update does work for "You Ain't Dolly/You Ain't Porter." Hell, I'm carping: most of the tracks do grab me right off, they just don't take me that much further--although "Used" does, as she starts rushing the beat and/or cramming more words in: she's used, sure, but take a chance on her baby, some things get better with--don't call it age, just listen to her saga. "The Morning After" is the one to reach a peak early and keep me there, as her voice hovers--yeah, I'm carping; most of it's good, but she needs more than seven (out of nine total) tracks to wow me, with this overall so tasteful, perfectly reasonable spproach. Not that I should expect a 26-year-old pro to channel the prodigious ghost town waif-with-questor/stalker-tendencies of the ironically titled Satisfied. But for all its suit-imposed stumbling blocks, that still seems like a more compelling set, so far. Although I do like most of this (which will prob grow on me). and looking fwd to whatever she brings to the new Pistol Annies. Also, she's a way more dependable writer than Musgraves (gasp!).

"Like A Rose": we're invited to fill in the blanks, that is. Who does this? Miles Davis etc, but who now. Thanks Ashley.

Been listening to the Kacey record--so far, I'm underwhelmed more than I'm impressed, but I do think she can write...words, the music isn't doing it for me. Just got the new Paisley in the mail, haven't spun it yet. I'm working on my country column for the Scene, and hope to have it up and running pretty soon.

Xhuxk mentioned Caitlin Rose: "Nate Cavalieri on spin.com also gave Caitlin Rose's new album 9 out of 10 last week, by the way, which really surprised me, since when I'd just listened to it and wrote up something short on it for Rhapsody, it barely held my attention at all. I'm told she has a bit of a critical following in the U.K.; no idea why."

She's always been a cause celebre in the U.K. Because the English are convinced they know what country music is, perhaps? And Rose represents what they think is "countrypolitan." Maybe there is some kind of connection, but countrypolitan was generally not so tasteful, was it? Super-schlock. And Rose is just too polite to traffic in anything so potentially dirty.

I've followed her since her first EP, seen her play around town. What I kinda can't get is why anyone would think she sings country--as Xhuxk points out in his review, it's pure indie, she don't put out vocally like a real country singer would, seems to me. I think she sounds like the Roches or someone like that, and if she were as good as, say, the McGarrigle Sisters, I'd be able to listen to her. Or Bonnie Koloc or any number of folkies. She's also a local hero in town--I just find it pale and wan myself.

Musgraves' "Stupid" has to be my favorite track on the new album, though--words match music, such as it is, and it does communicate stupid effectively. I also am interested in the backing vocal commentary technique on the record, and the whistling on "Follow Your Arrow" is a nice touch. Her songs don't provide any contrast in the verse-chorus way, seems to me, they're perhaps too straight and that's OK if that's what you're into. As a technique, quite savvy and appropriate. To my ears, the banjo shit she includes is also nicely doleful, the outward sign of some kind of muffled ambition and provincial greyness that the whole record follows to its logical conclusion. Perhaps the way she shuffles cliches in "Silver Lining" is symptomatic of some kind of fatigue--"hoo hoo hoo, ooh-ooh," in that song, says more to me than all the words previous. Irony. I hear the record as ready-mades done with deliberate fatigue, all tired out. The ricky-tick chord changes in "My House"--the one that accompanies the "chorus" bit when she sings the words "electric" and "wagon" bothers my ear every time I hear it, there's just something uncommitted about it--are a nice change and I like the deadpan way she sings it and the way everything drops out before the very end. Some kind of new minimalist country, and what I'm taking away from it, apart from the words, which are good, is a kind of ambivalence in the music itself, as if she is inhabiting two distinct worlds--one where stuff develops and has shadows and shading, as in the chord changes of "Merry Go Round," the other where it's pure stasis. So maybe she's some kind of genius after all.

The difference between Kacey and Caitlin Rose is the difference between someone actually trying to express some kind of alienation or disquiet, by holding back, and someone simulating emotion via all the slide guitar and organ parts and tricky little bridges--the very things I was saying Musgraves' record lacks--without having anything much to say, unless you think songs about how playing a particular record equals emotion equals emotion itself. Rose never gives me the feeling of truly letting go--her throaty voice stops short of cutting through the instrumentation. So here's maybe a good example of the limits of formalism and musical knowledge itself, both of which I'm a fan of in the right context--"Pink Champagne" has some real nice shit in it, harmonic structure that is elegant and even sophisticated, but it's not only less interesting than the work of someone who really knows how to manipulate those augmented chords and so forth, like Judee Sill or the McGarrigles or Randy Newman, it's far less interesting than Musgraves, and far less in the true line of country music, no matter how much people want to say it's a modern version of countrypolitan...I mean, Mandy Barnett is a formalist in her Owen Bradley mode, but even she sings full-out in her most formalist moments.

if rose weren't from nashville and didn't have some pedal steel, wouldn't 'americana' (or just plain rock, or indie) be a better fit? there was a ton of her sort of sound in the 'americana' bin at my old college radio station.

i'm still in love with 'stupid'. the notes edd picks up on (tired out, muffled ambition, provincial grayness, etc.) seem like the main point of the whole album to me. and generally the songs read like admissions, whereas e.g. ashley monroe's 'weed not roses' somehow sounds like it's performing fuck-decency debauchery, perhaps aware (perhaps not) of how tired and joyless its catalogue of let-loose behaviors and props sounds (not just, let's get wasted and let loose, but a square / provincial idea of what that entails: let's just do it all at once, get drunk high cuffed to the bed etc.) and perhaps not canny enough to capitalize on that suggestion of joylessness to make it amount to some kind of admission that a relationship in need of that particular way of letting loose, imagined with that sort of excess, might not be repairable or even made more bearable by the debauch. in musgraves i get more notes that are like: what use is there in pretending things aren't how they are?

yes, if she'd really delved into muffled ambition, growth vs stasis as Edd puts it, mixed motivations, coming from a depressive background---she gets some mileage out of all that, and could turn out to be her great subject, but meanwhile, like xgau says, I get tired of those shine-it-on homilies, and "playing it safe." Another uneven album that could've been a strong EP (sure are a lot of those), especially if she'd bothered to include "Undermine", but maybe that was somehow too competitive with the Nashville soundtrack version (or she didn't wanta invite comparisons with that album and this).

And now, time for something suffiecently different: the mind-mine-meld of two old hippies, male. Todd Snider's Time Itself: The Songs of Jerry Jeff Walker, now playing at Snider's MySpace, like most of his other albums. Starts out calmly receciting his parents' warnings about going nowhere with that no-count guitar, and then musically refutes them, not with a merry axe, but a genially robust honky tonk/cathouse piano, which he can well afford to hire. In the same sociable way, he gives an anti-pity party for his brand new ex, advising her to get real about always picking men (pickers or not) who are bound to leave soon. It doesn't come off like sexist self-justifcation here, because he seems disarmingly evenhanded about it, and because I had to admit I was picking women who were bound to leave--once I did that, and learned to pick women who knew they were picking men like that, cool, back in the day, and these of course are back in the say songs. Also, other songs extend his candor to his own reckless tendencies, incl, sometimes, candor, incl not only tomcatting and substance abuse, but even musical slacking, which didn't always need pointing out in Walker's original tracks, but as he reminded us, "Just be glad you don't have to hear/The take after this." Not too much reliance on nudge-nudge-wink-wink in the delivery of Snider's own tightly loose/loosely tight crew, although "Sangria Wine" should not be 4'50", and there are few takes/song selections I could do without. But overall, pretty good.

"Stupid" inspired good writing here! It's my favorite track.

As for Monroe the final track is too arch for mh taste; neither Shelton nor Monroe sound particularly ivested in history.

maybe that's deliberate? it's about karaoke contenders, more hollow-bodied than Dolly/shorter than Porter, they know enough enough history to trade those musical zings, which have their own history amidst the hits (which will prob not be joined by this track)

my fave two songs so far on kacey musgrave's album are "keep it to yourself," which strikes me as a pointed rebuke to the booty-call fantasy of lady antebellum's "need you now," and "it is what it is," which de-romanticizes the same booty-call fantasy in a very different way, saying basically "come on, let's do it, but don't get your hopes up, dude."

yeah, great closer, especially.

Her functional voice works in that context.

my favorite track on the kacey musgraves record is probably the weakest lyrically, "back on the map," but i'd say it's another instance of "words match music"—it's got this lovely drifting quality, and the lyrics lack the detail of the rest of the record because there is no detail to pin.

she could have titled the album Famous in a Small Town.

Boy, I am sure glad I weighed in on Musgraves' and Monroe's albums early; if I'd waited, I'd be too overwhelmed by everybody else's opinions by now to come up with one of my own. That said, this is an interesting discussion -- I'd been thinking since I first heard the thing that the (comparatively) weaker part of the Musgraves would've been the middle section (more or less tracks 6 through 10), so I didn't expect people would be singling those out as their favorites. Also don't get preferring Monroe's slower/quieter songs to "Weed Instead of Roses" or the Blake Shelton cover (the latter of which, by the way, hadn't been added yet back when I got my advance CD -- so it sort of was an EP at first, almost.) But then, I wouldn't -- ballads almost always take longer to really sink in for me. (These are still my two favorite albums so far this year, though -- no more uneven than any others I've heard, and I've heard plenty. Including, yeah, Pistol Annies.)

the other thing about "it is what it is" is it's such a dead-ringer for a rayna jaymes song i'm surprised i haven't heard her sing it yet.

xp Blake Shelton duet I obviously mean. (And obviously preferring that cornball thing to her slow ones just means I'm opting for energy over emotion as usual. Or comedy over tragedy. But again, I do realize that emotion/tragedy is frequently better at long distances, even when the fun stuff wins the sprints. So we'll see.)

The duet is fun! Are there any references to The Voice that I missed? Hope so; talent shows are still an underexploited subject. Would be great to have some of the Nashville kiddies get herded onto to such a show-within-the-show by some of those biz savants (incl. Rayna, now that she's signing 'em to her very own new label)