Rolling Country 2020

Now then: Chuck Eddy's account is still messed up, despite requests---mods too cool---so here's his Nashville Scene ballot re 2019:

Chuck sez:
Sent in my ballot a few weeks ago, before I heard the album by Mike and the Moonpies, which may well have made my list if I had.

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2019:

1. Miranda Lambert - Wildcard (Vanner/RCA)
2. Heathen Apostles - Dust To Dust (Ratchet Blade)
3. The Rails - Cancel The Sun (Psychonaut Sounds)
4. Kalie Shorr - Open Book (Kalie Shorr)
5. Tom Russell - October in the Railroad Earth (Frontera)
6. Tara Thompson — Hillbilly Christmas (TDT Enterprises)
7. Granville Automatic - Radio Hymns (Granville Automatic)
8. Reba McEntire - Stronger Than the Truth (Big Machine )
9. Billie Davis - Rosie's Cantina (Market Square)
10. Tone Bringsdal — Prologue (Mother Likes It EP}

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2019:

1. Blanco Brown - “The Git Up”
2. YelaWolf - “Opie Taylor”
3. Lil Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus - “Old Town Road (Remix)”
4. The Highwomen - “Highwomen”
5. Merle Hazard - “(Gimme Some of That) Ol’ Atonal Music”
6. Michael Salgado - “Honky Tonk Education”
7. Meat Puppets - “Nine Pins”
8. Paul Cauthen - “Cocaine Country Dancing”
9. Dillon Carmichael - “99 Problems (Fish Ain’t One)”
10. RaeLynn - “Bra Off”

TOP ONE COUNTRY REISSUE OF 2019:

Lone Justice - The Western Tapes, 1983 (Omnivore EP)

Seems kind of perverse to not rank The Highwomen album (a better LP than Miranda’s, by any measure); and to choose the one song from that album which is essentially a rewritten cover of a “classic” tune... but whatever.

My ballot, as sent---the blogged version (with comments, although most so far were on RC 2019) will prob have some adds, incl. some from Chuck's list, most likely):

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2019:
(just in the order they come to mind)
1.Tyler Childers: Country Squire
2.Rodney Crowell: Texas
3. Caroline Spence: Mint Condition
4. Willie Nelson: Ride Me Back Home
5.Kalie Shorr: Open Book
6. Sturgill Simpson: Sound & Fury
7.Kelsey Weldon: White Noise/White Lines
8. Justin Townes Earle: The Saint of Lost Causes
9. Allison Moorer: Blood
10. Patty Griffin: s/t
Hon. Mention: Bruce Robison & Kelly Willis: Beautiful Lie
About Half Good (60-45%), in descending order of Goodness or goodness:
Maren Morris: Girl, Highwomen: s/t, Hayes Carll: What It Is, Tanya Tucker: While I’m Livin’

Trivial Pursuit: Miranda Lambert: Wildcard

Milk Dud: Amanda Ann Platt & The Honeycutters: Live at the Grey Eagle

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2019:
(in descending order of relevance)
1.Bob Dylan (Featuring Johnny Cash) Travelin Thru, 1967-1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 15
(Cash incl. In credit on bobdylan.com listing)
2. Reggie Young: Guitar Session Star
3. Sir Douglas Quintet: The Complete Mercury Masters
(digital-only re-reissue https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07M6X5HJ8/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp)
(scroll waaay down for re-reissue date)
4. Link Wray: Rocks (Bear Family beast).
5.
RELATED:
1.Sheryl Crow: Threads
2.Hot Club of Cowtown: Wild Kingdom
3. Matana Roberts: Coin Coin Dance Chapter Four: Memphis
4.Lillie Mae: Other Girls
5.Arthur Russell: Iowa Dream
6.Lost Bayou Ramblers: Asteur
7. Peter Stampfel & Atomic Mega-Pagans: The Ordivician Era

My take on that Link Wray collection was posted on this redoubtable thread, which I recently discovered:
Rockabilly - essentials?

(a better LP than Miranda’s, by any measure)

you got this backward, hoss

or at least put an "imo" somewhere

Feel free to mentally place an implied "IMO" into every one of my posts, "hoss" ;)

I so suck for typo in Kelsey *Waldon*'s listing on sent ballot. My Matana Roberts comments are on Rolling Jazz Thread 2019
My and other comments on, good discussion of AR's latest here: Ok . MORE Arthur Russell (But This Is Great)

Post more Top Tens!

My most strictly thread-relevant Reggie Young comments are on RC 2019, but these are def. Related---from the Sweet Soul Music thread:

First listen to Reggie Young's Guitar Session Man has my headphones spinning: so much to take in, so much goodness coming at me from all directions, and would be so even if there weren't 24 tracks on one CD. Most thread-relevant elements noticed so far:
The only Muscle Shoals-recorded track is Little Milton's '02 version of Vince Gill's '90s country hit "Whenever You Come Around," here with a questing soul orchestra, layered and strong as the ones released like hounds in '60s Memphis, on the Box Tops' cover of Hank Snow's "I'm Movin' On" and Elvis's run with Percy Mayfield's "Stranger In My Own Hometown."
Most of this is from Memphis, incl. duh Dusty Springfield's performance of Gerry Goffin & Carole King's "Don't Forget About Me," which was on a single w the Fritts-written "Breakfast in Bed."
Fritts' KK bandmate Billy Swan rolls out of Nashville with a fast version of his own "Lover Please," a big late-doo wop hit for Clyde McPhatter :this take is more like what Ringo was doing at his 70s solo peak.
We also get the prime of James Carr, Solomom Burke, Bobby Blue Bland, and many others---my absolute fave rave at the moment is Jackie DeShannon's departure with "I Wanna Roo You," here a fast crashy waltz, mostly (slowing down for the bridge, but it's a set-up, like the mellow verses on "I'm Movin' On), and she's often, though not always, wailing the chorus as "I want to ruin ruin ruin you. Ruin you tonight."

― dow, Monday, October 21, 2019

Wow

― Beware of Mr. Blecch, er...what? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, October 21

Yeah! And Ace Records annotator Bob Dunham mentions Young's hot solos on the Swan track as prob not the sort of thing released on Nashville product since Mac Gayden's previous work with Area Code 615, which reminds me that this selection is immediately followed by the Gayden-written "Morning Glory," vigorously presented by James & Bobby Purify---they and the Box Tops also did versions of "I'm Your Puppet," right?

― dow, Monday, October 21,

Yes. They had the hit on that one.

― Beware of Mr. Blecch, er...what? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, October 21,

thanks discogs:

Tracklist
1 –Eddie Bond & His Stompers* Slip, Slip, Slippin' In
2 –Bill Black's Combo Carol
3 –Bobby Bland A Touch Of The Blues
4 –Jerry & Reggie* Dream Baby
5 –The Box Tops* I'm Movin' On
6 –Willie Mitchell The Champion - Part 1
7 –Solomon Burke Meet Me In Church
8 –Joe Tex Chicken Crazy
9 –King Curtis & The King Pins* In The Pocket
10 –James Carr More Love
11 –Dusty Springfield Don't Forget About Me
12 –Elvis Presley Stranger In My Own Home Town
13 –Jackie DeShannon I Wanna Roo You
14 –Dobie Gray Drift Away
15 –Sonny Curtis Rock'N Roll (I Gave You The Best Years Of My Life)
16 –Delbert McClinton Victim Of Life's Circumstances
17 –Billy Swan Lover Please
18 –James & Bobby Purify Morning Glory
19 –J.J. Cale Cocaine
20 –Merle Haggard I Think I'll Just Stay Here And Drink
21 –Waylon Jennings / Willie Nelson / Johnny Cash / Kris Kristofferson Highwayman
22 –Natalie Merchant Griselda
23 –Little Milton Whenever You Come Around
24 –Waylon Jennings Where Do We Go From Here

― dow, Monday, October 21

The Joe Tex track is not up to several of his hits mentioned in the notes, where Dunham says they would have picked "Skinny Legs and All," but it's already on another Young-inclusive Ace comp, Memphis Boys. Damm it, whiiiine

― dow, Monday, October 21

Re single from upcoming Brandy Clark album, with link to video:
https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/nashville-cream/article/21109697/brandy-clark-releases-who-you-thought-i-was-album-details

Also advance track from Ashley McBryde:
https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/nashville-cream/article/21110103/tensions-boil-over-in-ashley-mcbrydes-martha-divine

yooo this little big town record

Big thing on them in yesterday's Wall St Journal, which I haven't read yet.
Here's this: https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/cover-story/article/21110118/20th-annual-country-music-critics-poll

"throw your love away" on the little big town record is so fucking good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCYsnofk3K4

yeah this album is so good

leans hard into the "lost in california" vibes <3

it's produced by the golden hour duo

Weed & Cannabis?

hehe

Merle Hazard - “(Gimme Some of That) Ol’ Atonal Music”

ok, my music geek kids got a huge kick out of this

Long, interesting article:

https://variety.com/2020/music/opinion/women-country-radio-tweet-reignites-firestorm-kacey-musgraves-kelsea-ballerini-1203472923/

other amazing songs on the little big town record:

next to you
title track
over drinking
questions
the daughters
river of stars
sugar coat
trouble with forever

ok most of 'em

re: "sugar coat"

and one of these nights i'll meet you in the driveway
and tell you to go to hell
go to hell

the first 5 songs go so hard i've had trouble getting to the rest of the album

the lord did bless us with another wonderful song titled "bluebird" tho

'river of stars' is so beautiful

Effective immediately all music video hours on CMT and CMT Music channels will have complete parity between male and female artists. That means 50/50. #CMTEqualPlay

— CMT (@CMT) January 21, 2020

Wonder if that will have any impact on country radio ( where stations can’t even play 2 songs in a row by female acts)

Howdy, Edd Hurt here. Wrote a couple things about Reggie Young, mentioned above, last year: https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/nashville-cream/article/21044397/reggie-young-19362019 and this (listen to "Mercy," referenced below, good example of Young's tact):

Reggie Young
Session guitar legend

Reggie Young, who died in Leiper’s Fork on Jan. 17 at age 82, played guitar on a huge number of recordings that have become country, pop and soul classics. Young added his fluid licks to Dusty Springfield’s 1969 album Dusty in Memphis, and he played on sessions with Elvis Presley, Joe Tex, James Carr, Billy Swan and Dobie Gray. Many of Young’s best-known recordings feature a lick, invented by Young, that defines the performance. Like his fellow Memphis rhythm-guitar masters Teenie Hodges and Bobby Womack, Young was a structural thinker.

Young was born Dec. 12, 1936, in Caruthersville, Mo. He made his name in pop and country, and he lived and recorded in Nashville for decades. But I like to think of him as a quintessential Memphis musician. Like Hodges, who devised unforgettable licks for records by Al Green and producer Willie Mitchell, Young knew how to lay back in a rhythm section. You can hear his restraint on an obscure 1967 Willie Mitchell record, “Mercy,” in which Young plays strict rhythm guitar behind Memphis ax man Clarence Nelson’s brief, stinging lead.

I saw Young demonstrate some of his signature inventions at a 2008 program at the Country Music Hall of Fame. He played his intro to Swan’s 1974 track “I Can Help,” and he made it look easy. For Young, it was about the total effect — he never showed off, because he didn’t have to. —Edd Hurt

Didn't know he'd died, damn!

From Mary Gauthier's Feb. enewsletter:

David Olney
1948-2020

The world lost a great artist on January 18th. We songwriters lost a dear friend. David Olney was a man with genius and wide-reaching vision. He was the master of perspective. Point of view in his songs was forever original and brilliant. Unparalleled Mastery.

He wrote from the viewpoint of the Iceberg in "Titanic." From the point of view of the huckster ripping people off on the hill next to Jesus in "Jerusalem Tomorrow." From the viewpoint of the dummy, talking to the ventriloquist, in "Who's The Dummy Now?"

I cannot pick a favorite Olney song, but I do come back to this one over and over, written from the viewpoint of a French prostitute, in "1917."
(if this doesn't show up here, it's on youtube)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoqXmR_npUs&fbclid=IwAR3BH3ggKomdimJR-KE9zKjcd16ClpZewwILACnFIWTVcBxRR2lnMnh9TeE

Wow to "Throw Your Love Away"! Excited to hear the rest of the album.

Here were my 2019 favorites in roughly the order I'd rank them:

ALBUMS
Michaela Anne - Desert Dove*
Miranda Lambert - Wildcard
Ian Noe - Between the Country
Jon Pardi - Heartache Medication
Emily Scott Robinson - Traveling Mercies
The Highwomen - s/t

SONGS
Emily Scott Robinson - The Dress*
Jon Pardi - Old Hat
Madison Kozak - First Last Name*
Miranda Lambert - Mess With My Head
Jon Pardi - Heartache Medication
Joy Williams - The Trouble with Wanting*
Tyler Childers - All Your'n
Hailey Whitters - Ten Year Town
Mike & The Moonpies - You Look Good in Neon
Maren Morris - The Feels
Ashley McBryde - One Night Standards
Midland - Let It Roll
Luke Combs - Even Though I'm Leaving
Ingrid Andress - More Hearts Than Mine
Joshua Ray Walker - Canyon
Caroline Spence - Mint Condition

*Gut-punchers

Just put on the LBT. Holy hell "Next To You"!

This is p cool:

“I’ve really never seen any four people work as well together as they do,” says singer-songwriter Lori McKenna, a longtime collaborator. “I’ve also never seen four people write songs to the harmonies. When I watch them write a lyric around a note that they all can sing, it’s mind-blowing. It’s almost like a kind of sign language; they use their hands, point to one another. I don’t know if they know all the names of what they’re doing [when they work together]. But together, when they sing, they flow like water, like liquid.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/little-big-town-new-album-tour-dates-946655/

"next to you" is amazing

also i interviewed LBT once for a story that wasn't about them and they were very generous w/ their time even when they didn't need to be, so that makes me like them a little extra

LBT is one of the bigger acts not to have their own ILM thread which makes sense bc i think they're underrated round these parts and maybe operating in a style that isn't one to cross over to other audiences. despite them being generally extremely good especially on their past several albums, which i rarely put on but always enjoy listening to.

i first was impressed w/their chops on Pain Killer, which was among other things evidence that whatever type of song they wanted to pull off, they could do it. in addition to their way with close harmonies they can really tear shit up when they choose to do so.

When my wife and I did our Southern road trip to Nashville, Muscle Shoals, Clarksdale, and Memphis, Little Big Town were on the multi-act bill at the Grand Ol Opry. Impressive harmonies. At times a bit too polished for me, but I generally like their country meets Fleetwood Mac sound.

When we were just up in NYC, they were at the Apollo for a couple of shows! We just noticed it after the gigs had already happened when we were touring the Apollo.

@RScountry
Whitney Rose previews her new album 'We Still Go to Rodeos' with a compassionate spin on the cheating song in "Believe Me, Angela" https://rol.st/31tidvk Cosmic Canadian cowgirl rolls on

Anyone have a recommendation for a country station, podcast or show worth streaming?

New York's Country, 94.7: Haven't listened a whole lot, but seems okay, am told it's usually pretty good; Maura posted link on a previous RC---and hey, commercial-free Mondays!
https://newyorkscountry947.radio.com/blogs/joe-cingrana/commercial-free-mondays-on-new-yorks-country-947?utm_source=second-street&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Sam+Hunt+Tix%2c+Martina+Tix%2c+CFM%2c+Troops%2c+Miranda+News%2c+Aldean+News%2c+Oscars+Best%2c+Listen+App

Thanks!

Grady Smith's youtube channel is worth keeping an eye on

http://www.youtube.com/GradySmith

Maren Morris “The Bones” is the first solo song by a woman to hit #1 since Taylor Swift “You Belong with Me” in 2009, per @chartdata on twitter

X-post- for a guy with hundreds of thousands of YouTube followers, that Grady Smith guy didn’t seem that smart or charismatic in his episode on country music TikTok. He seemed clueless that young folks would do karaoke like videos there, and he mocked country songs that have rap inspired vocals .

Can't say I've seen that one but I used to read his writing in The Guardian and thought he had a good ear for talent and an unpretentious style. Now primarily follow him on Twitter but occasionally watch his album review videos.

He’s unpretentious, which is good, just has those flaws I mentioned.

new jason isbell is predictably great
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPek7jto9l0

After spending a week with New York 94.7 (thanks, dow!), I wanted less "10,000 Hours" so I looked for local owned stations and came across KBST in Big Spring, Texas. Pretty good station with waaay more character that so far seems to only be about 1/2 current hits. The stream doesn't sound as good, but that seems appropriate. Plus local ads for laundromats and mineral rights consulting!

Cool, and speaking of Texas, should have thought of https://kutx.org/about-kutx-music

Maren Morris “The Bones” is the first solo song by a woman to hit #1 since Taylor Swift “You Belong with Me” in 2009, per @chartdata on twitter

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, February 11, 2020 9:56 AM (one week ago)

this is not correct. it's the first solo song by a woman to hit #1 on country airplay AND go top 10 in all-format airplay since "you belong with me"

other songs by any artist to have done the same since "you belong with me":

lady antebellum "need you now" (2010)
florida georgia line (ft. nelly) "cruise" (2013)
sam hunt "body like a back road" (2017)
bebe rexha ft. florida georgia line "meant to be" (2018)
dan + shay "speechless" (2019)
dan + shay & justin beiber "10,000 hours" (2019)

and now "the bones". so this stat is more about crossover than acceptance at country radio alone (which, yes, is paltry for women, but not quite THAT horrendous)

this kicks ass

alee - "no one like you"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJrVn_2QoYg

canada stand up

If McBryde and Clark didn't do it for you, hard to say, maybe just look at comments on this thread, but possibly Marshall Chapman, Songs I Can't Live With Out (familiar titles, but def done her way), The Night You Wrote That Song: The Songs of Mickey Newbury, by Gretchen Peters (speaking of balladeers!), Whitney Rose, We Still Go To Rodeos, Margo Price, Perfectly Imperfect At The Ryman (but I never got with most of That's How Rumors Get Started), Cam, The Otherside, The Tender Things, How You Make A Fool, Willie Nelson, The First Rose of Spring, Pam Tillis, Looking For A Feeling (glorious return of PT), Waylon Payne, Blue Eyes, The Harlot, The Queer, The Pusher, and Me (also speaking of balladeers).

Oh yeah, and even more (after midnight) ballads: Shelby Lynne's s/t.

Thx Dow - really enjoyed the Jake Blount recommendation. Keep it coming.

Thanks! This is the only old-tymey etc. album I've heard this year, pretty good:
Doc Watson and Gaither Carlton is a new album of old-time music produced from archival recordings by two legendary musicians. These largely unheard tapes were recorded at Doc Watson’s two earliest concerts, presented in New York City’s Greenwich Village in 1962. Those shows were among the rare appearances Doc’s father-in-law, fiddler Gaither Carlton, made outside of North Carolina. The instrumental pieces, including Gaither’s signature tune “Double File,” include intricate musical interactions developed through years of family music-making. On the songs and ballads, Doc’s instantly recognizable baritone voice is accompanied by his own guitar and Gaither’s fiddle, or by the traditional combination of fiddle and banjo. Shortly after these recordings were made, Doc Watson embarked on a career as one of America’s premier acoustic guitarists, earning the National Medal of Arts and eight Grammy Awards.
credits
released May 29, 2020
https://docwatsonandgaithercarlton.bandcamp.com/album/doc-watson-and-gaither-carlton

Only *other* old-tymey etc.

"Dicked Down in Dallas" is better than it should be. Actually a pretty ripping guitar sound.

Hailey Whitters made the top 15 for Washington Post critic Chris Richards

oh man, i've been sleeping on this Nicole Atkins album haven't i.

Brandy Clark: Your Life Is A Record
Gillian Welch: Boots No. 2: The Lost Songs, Vol. 2
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: Reunions
Katie Pruitt: Expectations
Willie Nelson: First Rose of Spring

I saw RED DOG the movie and it's a good time!

John Anderson?

I'm getting to the Katie Pruitt at last.

It starts well and gets better, one of the more awesome debuts of the decade.
xp John Anderson's album seems pretty uneven to me, but some keepers.
Good thing I hadn't heard Waylon Payne before I started yon Folk Alley Top Ten---dunno who I would have kicked out of the lifeboat.
I wanna see Red Dog too!

The Tender Things are gonna end up in my top 5 EOY, Zephaniah is a solid jam-in-the-car-sing-along album but more like top 20 for me

The Katie Pruitt album is my favorite of the year I think, country or otherwise.

it's up there. would like to mobilize the ILX crew to vote for it in the yearly poll for sure.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71YE7tpRLBL._SY355_.jpg

This title will be released on February 26, 2021.

Honoring the enduring inspiration of Frank Sinatra, That’s Life is Willie Nelson’s second album of classics made famous by The Chairman Of The Board. Willie’s first ode to Frank, 2018's My Way, earned Willie the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Solo Album, and That's Life finds Nelson (who has penned a few standards himself) inhabiting 11 more of the most treasured songs in the Great American Songbook including the title track, "Luck Be A Lady,” "Nice Work If You Can Get It," "I've Got You Under My Skin," "You Make Me Feel So Young," and "I Won't Dance" (a duet featuring Diana Krall).

Produced by Buddy Cannon and Matt Rollings, That's Life was recorded at Capitol Studios in Hollywood--where Frank Sinatra, created a string of album masterpieces--with additional recording at Pedernales Studios in Austin, Texas. Willie delivers 11 new studio performances, coming alive in a musical landscape animated by lush string and vibrant horn arrangements on an album mixed by recording industry legend Al Schmitt (who's recorded and mixed more than 150 gold and platinum albums and won more Grammy Awards than any other engineer or mixer). The album cover features a brand new painting of Willie and his iconic guitar, Trigger, standing in the glow of a twilight streetlamp, evoking classic Sinatra album covers of yore. With one of those Gene Krupa cigs.

this motherfucker is immortal

xxxpost reminder
(THIS EVENT IS FREE TO WATCH WITH RSVP*. PLEASE CONSIDER SUPPORTING THE KESWELL SCHOOL BY MAKING A DONATION.)
LUCK PRODUCTIONS & CITY WINERY PRESENT: 6TH ANNUAL JOHN HENRY'S FRIENDS
A BENEFIT FOR THE KESWELL SCHOOL
On December 13th, 2020, Luck Productions, City Winery and Steve Earle will join together to host the 6th annual John Henry's Friends benefit concert to raise funds for children diagnosed with autism. In this first virtual fundraiser, Steve Earle & The Dukes will be performing, along with sets from an incredible lineup of guest artists including Warren Haynes, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Josh Ritter, Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Shawn Colvin, Matt Savage and The Mastersons for an unforgettable night of music.
*RSVP yall:https://luck.stream/johnhenrysfriends?utm_source=Mailing+List&utm_campaign=ab4c45c0e5-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_12_11_02_23&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9d7f017887-ab4c45c0e5-415586925&goal=0_9d7f017887-ab4c45c0e5-415586925&mc_cid=ab4c45c0e5&mc_eid=3ce2be0c08

Hailey Whitters made the top 15 for Washington Post critic Chris Richards

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, December 9, 2020 10:37 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

The lyrics on "Ten Year Town" impressed me in 2019, but the album's got some serious hooks. "Dream, Girl" sounds a bit like Maren Morris. Great record.

Yeah this Whitters album was the knock out I was sure was out there that I'd slept on. Was thinking, wow "Janice At the Hotel Bar" sounds a lot like Lori McKenna's best tunes, and then "Happy People" came on -- didn't know that was cowritten by Whitters. There are also apparently cowrites with Brandy Clark and Hillary Lindsey, but I can't find detailed credits.

Anyway, RIYL: Maren Morris, Miranda Lambert, Lori McKenna, Brandy Clark, etc.

#1 on Marissa Moss's list: https://www.stereogum.com/2110043/best-country-albums-2020/lists/year-in-review/2020-in-review/

Any other good country-specific/heavy year-end lists you've seen?

Rolling Stone
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country-lists/best-country-albums-2020-1095488/

Bitter Southerner
https://bittersoutherner.com/feature/2020/best-southern-albums-of-2020

SCM Album & Song OTY Noms
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/saving-country-music-2020-album-of-the-year-nominees/
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/saving-country-musics-2020-song-of-the-year-nominees/

"Janice at the Hotel Bar" is "Humble and Kind" redux in the best of ways:

And stay off the pills
But get on the pill if you ain't ready to start a family
And pay all your bills
But give some away
All that money won't make you happy
Make good love, good company
Drink good wine, make good coffee
Keep your chin up, but every once in awhile
Have a good cry
Go on and make a good livin' girl, don't forget
To make a good life

I also like the "Heartland" double meaning - kind of thing Kacey Musgraves would do.

Her voice actually reminds me of Kacey's

Unless Musgraves is increasingly your go-to guru, and/or The Golden Hour is your touchstone or wellspring or Sgt. Pepper's, I'd say not to waste time with most of this---although "Red White & Blue" is a keeper: here she actually seems to push back against her chronic sluggishness, in a way I don't think I've ever heard (that wordless, rec cry is not a hook in the usual sense, but keeps me waiting for its return), and "Dream, Girl" is a little sneaky, and "The Devil Always Made Me Think Twice" has that stalkin', smokin' beat and riff, the kind of thing she needs way more of---or a sax solo, steel guitar, hick-hop beats--anything to distract from the drab vocals, trite tunes, triter advice, that the people who might possibly benefit from are not likely to hear, because not enough sweetening for the pill to go viral---also, does she really listen to herself? "Happy people don't cheat"? Well, maybe if the cheatee has already made them happy and ready to take things further---but then, also, just to touch all the bases, "do whatever makes you happy"---so that includes, I dunno, cheating, mass murder, shoplifting, gtfo
RIYL: Maren Morris, Miranda Lambert, Lori McKenna, Brandy Clark, etc I do, but this don't.

Sorry yall, it's just hitting me rong (been listening all afternoon, per your recs)

i will try whitters but i wanted to say a big THANKS for the Jake Blount album, which hit on all cylinders. Solid lo-fi, down homey bluegrass all the way through with some very able playing and just the right attitude. Aces stuff, makes for a great companion to the Tyler Childers album.

Dunno dow - it's right in that Musgraves/Morris/Pruitt pocket of young upstart songwriter with lots to prove; smart and sly lyrics with a clear pov; and loads of hooks. I like that she mixes sounds and styles and would hate if the whole thing was your typical Nashville overproduced mess. The simplest tunes ("Ten Year Town" and "The Faker") are two of the best, but the new wave influence on "Dream, Girl" and the Stapleton swagger of "Devil" keep things moving.

As for the trite advice, as I mentioned upthread I think this is a hallmark of McKenna ("Humble and Kind") and crops up in the two songs they cowrote, "Janice" and "Happy People." Maybe a bit on "The Days," too, but that feels more like her take on Musgraves' "Follow Your Arrow."

If I've got a gripe it's her voice is very thin and doesn't touch Morris/Pruitt; though I agree with bunny slopes that Musgraves is closer, she stays in more of a pocket, and some places on the Whitters definitely grate a bit like the overdubs on "Heartland."

Pruitt album is solid, though lugubrious. Maybe I'm not built anymore to endure a song like "Normal."

xxp glad you enjoyed Jake Blount, forks---I still need to check this year's Childers set (have you heard Country Squire? That's the one that really sold me on him). Also Sturgill's current bluegrass chunks, right there on bandcamp---but so far I've liked his unmistakably country voice and attitude the more contrasty thee setting, esp. last year's Sound and Fury, wnich I tagged as "illin' ZZ Rex." The great example of that in 2020 is xpost Elizabeth Cook's post-sadcore silver spacesuit tequila surveyAftermath. And don't sleep on the lyrics, which come across best (or at least benefit from confirmation) on her site--wotta sound, though.
xpost Yeah, if you really like recent Musgraves and that side of McKenna's writing, Whitters is okay, although we agree on the thinness of her voice, the need for more production solutions to that.
Pruitt's voice tends to remind me of Ronstadt's, and this is all new to her, part of her big upfront earnest breakthrough testimonial, still in early chapters----Chely Wright and Waylon Payne are considerably older, and on record the gayness is more allusive, part of the world view in their mood rings---hard to imagine Pruitt getting to that any time soon---will she be more like, say. Taylor Swift for girls who like girls---?

pruitt sounds fucking great to me. i can understand hearing "normal" as po faced but it's also tremendously heartfelt; she's coming from an honest place i think.

Good list of 2020 songs here:
https://dontrocktheinbox.substack.com/p/dont-rock-the-inbox-issue-3

I nom'd and will be voting for Emily Scott Robinson's "Time for Flowers" in the ilm song poll -

“Time for Flowers,” Emily Scott Robinson: An exquisite meditation on how to find the strength to keep going when it feels like the walls are crashing down (or holding us captive), “Time for Flowers” is also a reminder that the good things always come back around, if we wait patiently - but we have to make sure we tend to the garden, because beauty can only grow out of despair if we give it what it needs to thrive. —MM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d1Xp1wzWZM

Oho, didn't know about this song or list, thanks. Yeah forks, i can understand hearing "normal" as po faced but it's also tremendously heartfelt; she's coming from an honest place i think.

Time will tell whether she's said it all here, but still.

Whoah---just now played Kelsey Waldon's covers EP, which is not one of your covid-alibi barebones potboilers: it's well-produced, swirling around and further shading, supporting her deftly deployed Appalachian inflections---and dig this track list:
1.
The Law Is For Protection Of The People 04:33
2.
Ohio 04:01
3.
Mississippi Goddam 04:54
4.
Sam Stone 04:29
5.
They'll Never Keep Us Down 02:51
6.
With God On Our Side 07:30
7.
I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free 03:11
So the righteous weary narrator of "The Laws" is too close to home, ditto Kent State and the whole of MS, where now I'm especially struck by how this "hillbilly"-tagged Kentucky woman audibly relates to
Yes you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
Also Dylan's entrophic balladeer setting out on a new day's slog:
Oh my name it ain't nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
7:30 minutes of that, no more or less relentless than the razor detail of "Sam Stone," remembered, as a matter of fact, by the local junkie's offspring, with a brittle briskness more effective than the relative weepiness of Prine's original track---would like to see her do more by him, for sure.
Ends with the atypically upbeat "I Wish..." providing some refreshment, but not letting nobody off the hook: https://kelseywaldon.bandcamp.com/
(The inner warpage of continuing citizens here reminding me of several on Johnny Cash's recent Easy Rider: Best of the Mercury Recordings, incl. some that might be The Man In (or near) The Diner, getting head set for another visit from the New York Times---not all of the material is equally good, but it's all done his way and pulled me right through)(incl. some speedy remakes of Sun-era classics)

Should have edited this before posting on savingcountrymusic.com, where some are going after Maren Morris etc. etc.:

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

CMA set itself up for all this via inconsistency: on the one hand, testing and , maybe, exclusions (though no doubt some of those would have happened anyway, with the more cautious performers staying home), on the other, televised lack of social distancing and masking, onstage and off (seems likely that’s why the AP photog wasn’t allowed to take lasting evidence). If they’d had a mask mandate, would have been trouble with that audience, but a virtual event (though taken as an insult by many) would have saved them from the present controversy, and won new defenders, representing the saner side of country. *some* new defenders, but still catching it from the kneejerks and worse.

Just listened to Pruitt's album againL holy crap, what a *sound.* So many facets, right off---some have associated it w Fleetwood Mac, but here's how to assimilate and *learn* from that (Margo, producer Sturgill), as you're rolling along your own path. Always to a purpose, which is never just a show of strength, though that's part of it, rallying herself as much as anyone, while dealing with the doubts and other shadows, like "How did I get through all that, how am I still getting through it, and yet here I am with you, how did and does that happen---like this!"
So the well-chosen details, incl. still-recent memories, come to the foreground and confirm impressions of the words that found their way through the boom-boom of the first half, and "Normal" sounds forthright, incl. the problematic "If I could be normal, trust me, I would." Not abject, not anything reassuring, either, just how it is in her.
But right now, wow: https://rounderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/expectations

one of my great covid concert regrets of 2020 was the cancellation of her tour

Emily Yahr on Charley Pride and Covid issues in country music in Washington Post. Here's part of it:

A CMA spokeswoman said: “Out of respect for his family, we do not have further comment.”

And yet it’s hard to imagine country music’s year in the pandemic ending on a worse note. The genre has made a slew of unflattering headlines over the past 10 months, from Chase Rice’s not-socially-distanced summer concert to Morgan Wallen being dropped as the “Saturday Night Live” musical guest after violating the show’s coronavirus protocols. Then there was the strange tone of the CMA Awards, the format’s biggest night in the national spotlight to celebrate music known for capturing real life and “three chords and the truth,” trying to project an image of cheerful normalcy in a tragedy-filled year.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/country-music-covid-charley-pride/2020/12/26/ac51bd2e-4566-11eb-975c-d17b8815a66d_story.html

Not sure how I missed this but Ingrid Andress had a cover of Charli XCX's "Boys" on the deluxe edition of Lady Like that's surprisingly good! I guess Andress was a cowriter of the song? Curious to know more about how she got looped in on that project if anyone knows more.

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

cool, thank you!

Mandolin a surprisingly good replacement for the Super Mario Bros coin sound

https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/cover-story/article/21145509/21st-annual-country-music-critics-poll-the-results

: 1. Mickey Guyton, “Black Like Me” (Capitol Nashville)
2. Chris Stapleton, “Starting Over” (Mercury Nashville)
3. Ashley McBryde, “One Night Standards” (Warner Music Nashville)
4. The Chicks, “Gaslighter” (Columbia)
5. John Prine, “I Remember Everything” (Oh Boy)
6. Eric Church, “Stick That in Your Country Song” (EMI Nashville/Big EC)
7. Tyler Childers, “Long Violent History” (Hickman Holler/RCA)
8. Mickey Guyton, “What Are You Gonna Tell Her” (Capitol Nashville)
9. Miranda Lambert, “Bluebird” (Vanner/RCA)
10. Sam Hunt, “Hard to Forget” (MCA Nashville)

Lists go further , but here’s cut and paste of top 10 album choices

Albums
1. Ashley McBryde, Never Will (Warner Music Nashville)

2. Chris Stapleton, Starting Over (Mercury Nashville)

3. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Reunions (Southeastern)

4. Brandy Clark, Your Life Is a Record (Warner Music Nashville)

5. Margo Price, That’s How Rumors Get Started (Loma Vista)

6. The Chicks, Gaslighter (Columbia)

7. Waylon Payne, Blue Eyes, the Harlot, the Queer, the Pusher & Me (Carnival)

8. Sturgill Simpson, Cuttin’ Grass, Vol. 1: The Butcher Shoppe Sessions (High Top Mountain)

9. Elizabeth Cook, Aftermath (Agent Love)

10. Hailey Whitters, The Dream (Pigasus)

More on the 2021 thread

god, "Hard to Forget" still slaps so hard

i just realised that justin townes earle is dead. kind of reeling from it. his songs feel so personal, it feels like i know him.

You do.