Rolling Country 2013

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)

Guess I should also point out that Monroe's "Used" has already had seven years to sink in for me. Which probably qualifies as long distance. I like it fine, but if it hasn't killed me by now, it probably ain't gonna.

I haven't heard any killer country this year---but I still need to check out the Mavericks, eh?

If it's on a major, that may well be the only unsolicited major label country CD I've received since your Voice editorship, xhuxk---one of the many things I took for granted.

The Mavericks album is so much fun.

this needs to be emphasized

my favorite track on the kacey musgraves record is probably the weakest lyrically, "back on the map"

Funny, but I find "Back on the Map" to have the strongest lyrics on the album.

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"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."

yeah, on Kacey, the banjo is really a depressed banjo part in "Back." Also notice the way the drums start to skip unsteadily when she sings the line about something steady. she's got this built-in response--it's obviously a song about stardom--to her commentary on how fame leaves you behind. "Keep It to Yourself" is banal compared to this. For all the record's angst, I like "My House" because it's a distanced take on those old country tunes like "Milwaukee, Here I Come" or those duet tunes where the duet partners would go from city to city in their old cars and live on love. She may just have an innate sense of the way the chord changes meet your expectations in this one, but even here, it's just a bit compressed, tense, somehow. All so simple, a little chug-a-lug at the end.

I thought my favorite, Dandelion, was the weakest Lyrically!

I know this isn't by any of the big hitters on this thread so far, but I think it's pretty hard to ignore the excellence of the new Terry Allen record "Bottom of the World." He's a semi-legend, but unlike many semi-legends he's far from boring; his voice ain't purty or nothing but songs like "Emergency Human Blood Courier" and "Hold On to the House" are like poking the open wound of America with a sharp stick.

OH SHIT of course DOW already covered this, sorry dude

I'm a Lubbock (On Everything) fan in long, long, long standing (esp. "Truckload Of Art" and "F.F.A.") even if I stupidly sold my copy back in the late '80s, but I'm sad to say I couldn't get half through that new Terry Allen album -- Just felt painful to listen to, though the title track didn't seem awful. (Fun fact: His 1983 -- thought it was a year later actually -- album Bloodlines was the first album I ever reviewed for the Boston Phoenix, who I freelanced for through the rest of the '80s. I didn't like that one much either.)

In other news, I'm going to go against the grain here (unprecedented!) and confess that I actually think "Back On The Map" has easily the dullest, most lifeless music on Musgraves' album. Which isn't to say it's necessarily my least favorite track -- feel like there's something going on there, in the lyrics and otherwise, which Edd and others do a yeoman's job explaining above. Just really wish it had a hook or two, so it wasn't so damn much work.

Curious if anybody here has heard the new Blake Shelton or Band Perry albums. I didn't, yet, though I've seen them getting some good notices.

Less crankily, the two alt-country/Americana-ish albums I do kind of like lately are these:

Shinyribs – Gulf Coast Museum (Nine Mile) -- he's in the Gourds, who've never done a thing for me, oddly enough, though I actually liked his previous album Well After Awhile a couple years back too. Leans toward the, uh, Dr. John/Little Feat/Hirth Martinez end of country, I guess. And this time he covers Harold Melvin & the Bluenotes.

Maggie Rose – Cut To Impress (RPM Entertainment) - Kind of a blues-belting Lacy J. Dalton type badass country-rock gal. Two songs about murders: "Preacher's Daughter" and "Looking Back Now." Also like "Hollywood," which draws not always trustworthy but halfway entertaining parallels between living amidst California glitz and living in a Southern hicktown, claiming they're not so different after all.

New Jason Boland and the Stragglers album, produced by Shooter Jennings (don't have the name handy -- my copy's in the car gathering pollen dust) seemed to have lots of history lessons on it. So maybe he watches the History Channel a lot. Some seemed theoretically potentially interesting too, but so far the music isn't interesting enough to make me care.

Heard on the radio here this week that Dale Watson wants to start calling his music "Ameripolitan" from now on. He says Nashville has co-opted "country," so he can't be that anymore, and "Americana" is too rock these days (which is news to me actually). So he came up with an even dumber name, I guess. Apparently there is a radio show involved too, somehow, but I've been too bored by him in recent years to investigate further.

The Blake Shelton album sounds EXACTLY like you think it would, no matter who you are. It's got some good stuff and some stuff that doesn't work and lots of energy but maybe not enough and some pretty parts but then they get boring. Most memorable thing is the song about his Grandpa's Gun, which is for shootin' and worshippin' and suchlike. Hmmm.

Actually I just remembered that I (mini)-reviewed a different Terry Allen album that I like (and still own) -- plus Cracker covering his best song -- for the Voice 10 years ago:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2003-08-26/music/music/full/

See, I don't mind the fact that Terry Allen can't really sing -- his songs still work for me, plinky-plonky piano and all. (NB: I also like Waylon Jennings, even though he often cannot sing either, but I draw the line at Kris Kristofferson, because ugh.) I decided a few years ago that <i>Juarez</i> is the greatest American concept album, and I'm still gonna stand by that.

I still haven't heard the new Allen (or either of yall's faves), just the live broad linked upthread, w some of the new songs. Forgot to check the one you reviewed there, xhuxk, but that's an intriguing description. Yeah, liked Cracker's Countrysides too, especially their non-campy cover of "Sinaloa Cowboys", about drugs and brothers; it's one of Springsteen's best musical mini-movies.

Inviting description of Juarez too; must get that and Lubbock (On Everything). The best really out-there Texas album I've heard is Jo Carol Pierce's Bad Girls Upset By The Truth. (although I'd also count one by the Mountain Goats, blanking on the title--they were just visiting, but they really got it).

I'm a Lubbock (On Everything) fan in long, long, long standing ― xhuxk

Didn't know Terry Allen had a new release out; thanks

Country loving folks should not ignore the new album by Mexican band The Bright (not really a very Googlable name, ustedes). It's called Estados; it's on Spotify and maybe some other places too. Very country-psych, and includes a lovely cover of "Jolene."

What does everyone else think of the new Brad Paisley song with LL Cool J? I think it starts off OK, but LL's verse sinks it. Plus, when they start the choral part I just think it's a rehash of his last single, where they started singing "Dixie."

I hate that "Dixie" chorus so much.

I hope I'm wrong but the first third of Wheelhouse is the dullest music Paisley's recorded in years.

I have been way too afraid of that song to come anywhere near it. Still trying to hold desperately to my LL fandom but dude is making it VERY difficult (for about 15 years now).

He's good on NCIS:Los Angeles Keeping it country, Kimberly Williams-Paisley is good as important minor (?) character on Nashville.

I knew it--"Those Crazy Christians" had to end up twisting the knife on the guy singing. Those crazy Christians are instead of being outside on a nice day are at the bedside of a dying friend, and, also, "What if they're wrong/right" line in there. Nice sound actuality of a church service in there. Paisley's Wheelhouse has some fun. vocal things at the first of "Beat This Summer" (the fun. vocal things happen again in the record). Glitch-country-rock-banjo thing at the beginning and throughout.

"Outstanding in Our Field" has a Roger Miller sample and a rock 'n' roll guitar lick. lines about Clara Belle and the cafe and the carwashing and the keg. "I Can't Change the World" finds Brad flipping channels while his wife is fixing a brick wall in the back yard. They kind of ripped off "Across the Universe" kind of extended-phrasing thing on the chorus--but he can change her world, just after she mixes up the Quik-Krete and makes dinner. Jesus will look down from the same level as the powers that be.

I do kinda like the electro-beat and mock-classical electric lick and the way the program music mimics the tension of the song, of "Karate." But here's an example of what's wrong with this record--OK, now would a guy really be "chasing" "Cuervo" and "Tecate" in a bar or is this a clumsy way of saying he's fucking around? No, he's really drunk and knocks her around. And wait, Charlie Daniels comes uneasy riding into the song. So it's a joke song about domestic abuse, fair enough, it's basically a comic universe...?

"Southern Comfort Zone" just also seems under-imagined to me. Paisley/DuBois/Lovelace call the South "the land of cotton" which is the wheelhouse of the title, "Dixie" is heard, Grand Ole Opry ads, and it's kind of like a bright tenth-grader creating his own Pro Tooled song at home about Southern Heritage, but tweaked by professionals, as in the chorus, which is about the only good thing about the song. The stealings from U2 or whoever are interesting. And "Harvey Bodine," Paisley/DuBois/Lovelace again, is another comic tune about dying, with whistles, and a defib machine, and I think you could maybe hear how the thing is just spoiled by what I perceive is an uncertainty of tone that pervades the whole album, and I'm sure that Paisley/DuBois/Lovelace had the idea of couching "Harvey" in terms of a Monty Python sketch. Taken piece by piece, some of this works, but the combination of whimsy and kitsch emotion is pretty hard for me to take. "Tin Can on a String" really isn't bad, Paisley/Ashley Gorley/Lovelace, pretty straight.

In my "Southern Comfort Zone" blurb a few months ago I noted that the strain of reaching different audiences finally showed. I'm thinking whether it belongs on the album; instead, it serves as bookends.

I started a thread. Figure he needs his own by now: Anticipate Brad Paisley's "Wheelhouse"

Right after Paisley I put on Jonnny Fritz' Dad Country, at basically the other technological extreme from Paisley. I'd say as a combination of Tom T. Hall and Michael Hurley or whatever, Fritz/nee Corndawg has something about 30% of time time on this record. As a singer, he's lousy, but bravely makes it halfway work a lot, I give him credit for that, and in "Goodbye Summer" he asks the Older Lady he's just picked up to "swing by a CVS, I left my contact solution at home." In "Ain't It Your Birthday" he drives 250 miles in the middle of the night to see his ex and their kids, but she blocks the driveway, which prompts Fritz to meditate on stardom and "all the money they're trying to give me just so sign a couple compact discs." And "Suck in Your Gut" takes a realistic look at the mini-stardom Fritz has presumably enjoyed.

Sometimes the quick little half-assed country tunes he's lifted from wherever work, sometimes his singing is truly funny, and I think he's kinda funny, really. He's trying really hard to be casual and I give him credit for that concept, but he's no Michael Hurley or Hall or Jack Clement or Billy Swan--all his grandaddys, none of whom would have necessarily sung in public about going down there "where her belly ends and her legs begin," altho the bit about her "writing down her numbers on the wrappers of their Almond Joys [truckers she meets that is]" is good. I give it a B minus.

I miss the songs about stuff ("Ticks," "Water").

"Just to sign a couple compact discs."

Yeah, Alfred, Paisley has lost his songwriting touch, seems to me. The extended apology that's in the booklet may contain some clues, though.

I reviewed the Paisley for Rolling Stone (maybe or maybe not coherently -- only had 110 words, and I'm not even sure if all of those made it into the mag; haven't seen the review in print or on line, though I did see it quoted on Wiki already), and I agree with a lot of what's being said here. Just a really mediocre mess of an album, ambitious in its way but totally confused about it; though then again, wasn't his last one pretty mediocre too? I've kind of stopped expecting much from the guy. Best cut is probably "Karate," though he's obviously done much better than that, and I'm not really sure what Charlie Daniels is doing on there (rapping, I guess, sort of -- if so, has anybody mentioned that three songs on the album have rap parts of some kind?) Cool J duet is well-meaning maybe but full of dumb false equivalencies (uh, gold chains do not equal iron chains, guys) and embarrassing escape hatches, and gets worse when Cool J comes in. (By the way, is calling the confederate flag a "red flag" a thing? I'd never heard that before.) Not really sure why the album deserves its own thread here, to be honest -- there have been way more interesting county albums this year. I'm kind of done thinking about it, myself.

I only got through a couple songs on that Johnny Fritz album; at least when he was calling himself Johnny Corndawg last time, I got through the whole thing a few times before chucking it. I get that he's aiming for Hurley (hadn't thought of Hall), but he's just not good enough at it. Who he really reminds me of Jeffrey Lewis, this precious "anti-folk" annoyance in New York a decade or so ago; with a dirtier mind maybe, but with singing this horrible it just hits me as cutesy-poo. If anything, I've become even less tolerant of inept vocals like that lately.

New Band Perry album is not bad, not great. Think I like "I'm A Keeper," "Forever Mind Nevermind," the single "Better Dig Two" from last year obviously, maybe the title track "Pioneer." Maybe others will sink in, but the track I really love -- one of my favorite rock songs of 2013 -- is "Night Gone Wasted," which really could almost pass for a Slade hit from the mid '70s. George Smith had compared Kimberly Perry's belting to Noddy Holder a couple times circa the first album, and I could sort of hear it, but this time I really hear it. Just a huge jolly shouted stomp. At first I could've sworn she'd sneakily changed one of the words in the line "I'll have you home soon and then I'll tuck you in bed" (a la Smokey Wood in "Everybody's Truckin'"); pretty sure I was wrong about that, but the song still shakes the rafters.

Also should add that Paisley implying that those crazy Christians are somehow more likely to help him if he ever needed help than, oh I dunno -- those crazy Jews or Muslims or Hindus or Buddhists or agnostics or atheists, I guess -- really pisses me off. Wanted to work get that into the RS review, but I couldn't figure out how.

"Night Gone Wasted," which really could almost pass for a Slade hit from the mid '70s

at the ACM awards tonight, they played "done," which could almost pass for franz ferdinand's "take me out." unfortunately, kimberly perry was having a really hard time putting it over live.

Not really sure why the album deserves its own thread here, to be honest

This was kind of unfair, I guess -- There's obviously a whole lot going on on the record, even if most of it is fair-to-poor. I just prefer to have all the country talk on one thread; I tend to avoid one-album threads in general. But that's just me, obviously.

I do like "Death Of A Single Man" okay, fwiw. And the short instrumental that apparently has at least three different names --the download the label sent me called it "Onryo," but the promo CD that came in the mail titles it with what I assume are two Japanese characters.

I like "Officially Alive" despite not having a damn clue what he's so excited about.

I saw that The Band Perry performance, and there's one immediate link to glam there, which is that it took me a minute or two to nail down the bass player's gender.

Stevie Wonder doing "Sir Duke" with Hunter Hayes? was it? on ACM over the weekend was pretty awful in its way, and pissed me off as much as the Paisley record does. On FB, I've read that Dave Marsh had bad things to say about "Accidental Racist" on his Sirius XM show, and comments so far have been about 60-40 against Paisley so far. He should team up with the guy from the Meat Puppets, whose new album, Rat Farm I think does some of the same things country is trying to these days, and Curt Kirkwood would make a good foil for Paisley on guitar.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/08/showbiz/country-music-awards/index.html

gretchen wilson's "still rollin'" sounds an awful lot like jackson browne's "running on empty." i kinda like it.

First spins cont.:
Gary Allan, Set You Free---at least half is primo. esp “It Ain’t The Whiskey” (yeah, if only it were, if only one's problems could get with a Program), but then again, the usual shields, however discounted, do take their own toll, and the hole takes a lot of sunshine, tequila, nearby young people, and “Sand In My Soul”; then in “Hungover Heart”, the longer he’s dry more he remembers being her man, goes w dangers of removing those shields, crutches(but also spends sometime begging and suffering from comparison with "Love Is The Drug"); “One More Time Around”, if that’s the title, in orbit w slight phasing and supple beat, worn and yet fresh; “Drop”, even more genre-bending country adventure, watchout Jerrod! “Bones”, good tight Southern Rock. Some others lag, or a little vague re sustaining momentum--so far.
Holly Williams, The Highway---like Allan, a balancing of and on and way in the polarities, of black and white as color, vitality and focus ahead of weariness and meltdowns, by a nose, most of the time, or at least it's a draw (I like more of this than Allan's album so far, but he's got more musical and maybe emotional variety---but she's younger, and looking back keeps curving into the present and immediate future more frenetically, also like that she writes and sings from POV of different ages, gender and other roles). Still, gets a bit soggy and predictable toward end.
Marshall Chapman, Blaze of Glory---vivid small group sound, Tony Joe or other late 60s/early 70s grooves: dig the bass guitar merging with and separating from the left side of the electric piano; Stones-era Coodery guitar, but mainly as punctuation; translucent, somewhat androgynous vocals; not too much of the Boomeristic musing one might expect from a poised 65-year old. "Call The Lamas" even seems like it could have been a groovy crossover Top 40 hit, or gotten her on The Smothers Brothers show anyway.

This weekend's Prairie Home Companion is from Lubbock, featuring Ashley Monroe, the Flatlanders, Buddy Holly's big brother Travis, who gave him some tips re music, and Peggy Sue, who also taught him a thing or two.

Pistol Annies not grabbing me like its predecessor.

I almost definitely like it more (just more energetic, over all), but that's partially because the first one didn't take too long to cool on me once I finally realized how slow most of it was. Plus, the only thing I really love on the first one, in retrospect, is "Takin' Pills"; not sure which other songs on the debut I like more than "Hush Hush," "Being Pretty Ain't Pretty," "Don't Talk About Him, Tina," maybe "Dear Sobriety." That said, I wouldn't say I like the new one all that much more than the new Band Perry or Lady Antebellum albums.

Keep going back and forth on the new Kenny Chesney. Favorite track is probably "Must Be Something I Missed," where he's attempting vocal jazz like Gary Allan in "Drop," which Don mentioned 3 posts (and almost 3 weeks) up. Some of the rest is pretty cringe-worthy, but that doesn't necessarily make it unpleasant to listen to, or uninteresting to think about. There's probably an essay to be written about what that album says about country's current relationship to reggae.

By the way, in case anybody who cares missed this, I wrote 900 words at the link below on country rap before rap existed (i.e., '70s on back to the '20s -- either 1920s or 1820s, depending how you slice it.) And if you keep scrolling, you can read another 3000 or so I wrote about hickish hop and/or hoppish hick from Trickeration, Malcolm McLaren, Bellamy Brothers, Sir Mix-a-Lot, Crucial Conflict, Kid Rock, Toby Keith, Britney Spears w/ Ying Yang Twins, Big & Rich w/ Cowboy Troy, Gretchen Wilson, Trace Adkins, Colt Ford w/ Nappy Roots, Jason Aldean w/ Ludacris, and a bunch of dumb new bands. (And other writers wrote interesting stuff about other songs, too.)

http://www.spin.com/articles/rap-country-uncomfortable-history-accidental-racist/?slide=1

I'm liking the new Pistol Annies album.