Rolling Country 2020

Good on Childers for that. Gonna cost him some fans ... which is fine, of course.

that last song is powerful damn

Video is great. Song is great. Good on him. Twitter comments are predictably awful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ3_AJ5Ysx0

https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/victoria-bailey-jesus-red-wine-and-patsy-cline.jpg

Digging this today. Makes me think of Like a Rose. More honky tonk though.

I've held off on reading Edd's xpost Elizabeth Cook coverage, not wanting to be influenced while trying to wrap my own ears and brain around Aftermath, which I *think* I'm getting/is blowing mah mahnd: right off, and the more I listen, it sounds like de- and reconstructed (might be some historical irony in there) country, the keyword being "country"---her voice: accent, timbre, phrasing, also phrasing of countriod words, themes, narrative, along with elements of tune and instrumentation---all getting the sonic patent medicine treatments---Hank and co. back on the Hadacol Express, comin' round the mountain ("They'll all come to see her when she comes"? Cook sings something like that), via some kind of style-associative space-time warp/refraction (A Wrinkle In Time, minus L'Engle's Granny Jesus kisses *maybe*, although we do get something of a John Prine homage-answer-companion-song at the end, great bent ten cent stor paper valentine).
Edd mentions Bowie in his post of the link upthread, yeah, could see that, like Bowie cutting up the 70s and some of his favorite sounds---also Sturgill, especially on Sound and Fury, with his own unmistakably country voice and 'tude, bringing a "vintage" sound that never quite was, an alt.universe electro-pop-boogie express that I tagged ZZ Rex when it passed through here last year.
And if Aftermath is Bowieod futuristic, a future that never quite was, tapped for its kozmik sexy space suit flotation appeal, as he did it, why not now, when we know, as Bowie said, yet more than ever, that whatever future there will be, won't be this cool, for the most part, if any. Suspect Cook's got that in there too, one way or another.

Of course country, born as a genre in the 1920s, has traditionally had to respond to the existence of other genres, either making room for/re-adjusting elements of those, or making them conspicuous absences---meaning, you know, pop country, and the kind more likely favored by No Dep, and the kind that plays county fairs and cover-song bars etc. These Cook and Simpson albums are good examples of how to do it, how to make use of rock etc.--not the only way, but good--unlike most of That's How Fleetwood Mac and 70s Third Tier Top 40 Rumours Get Started, which works sometimes, but bad on you for producing, Sturgill, even if you were just doing what she wanted.

childers seems like a decent, thoughtful guy; that video essay is good stuff. i gotta give that album a listen.

yeah, the Childers album is great. I was unfamiliar with this guy; is his earlier work worth checking out as well?

Yeah, he won me over last year, still need to re-check his earlier stuff.
From my 2019 Nashville Scene ballot:
COMMENTS:
Top Ten Country Albums
I had the blurry, ancient impression of Tyler Childers as sounding like an (alternate-universe) Sturgis Mini-Me, humble and homespun in the way SS never was, not on this side of the line---unless you count the way he gave up on them voices in his head,"ain't got nothin' to say," but he soon lit for the territory. On Country Squire, Childers is never that resigned, or that bold, just insecure, without whinin'---full-throated even when high lonesome---and he seizes on the good times like he does the bad, knowing it could all blow up, will turn again---oh well, "Honey don't cry, you're married to a Gemini"---and even the fella who "guards the rusty missiles" tonight like he does every night, daydreaming of rustic weekend adventures, sounds like he's 'bout to fiddle-waltz over the mountain, even though he must be down below the holler, also way out West of it, unless there's something our Government never told us.
Keep trying to keep up with the words, and catching more bits every time I listen---he's playing down at the bar every night, "turnin' songs into 2 by 4s": first I thought he meant he was making them very functional, down to the essentials, but come to think of it a 2-by-4 is a humble thang: is this bar gig reductive? But he's always resourceful, and diligent: The Country Squire is an ancient camper, the basis of "a temple" for his loved one---putting up "rafters" in a camper?? I know about making trailers into ex-mobile homes, building all around those tin walls, but---anyway the music is very solid and mobile, with enough variety and continuity to pull me along, in a plausible, not-quite-"universal" way, like the words "House on Fire" has an organ burning through, around and with string band instrumentation, "All Your'n" is the most Sturgill-esque in terms of early 70s R&B crossover appeal, yet country as its title, and overall there's a good balance of acoustic and electric, incl. choice and placement of microphones.
9 songs, 35 minutes, and I've listened four more times in the last couple of days--could prob listen that many times a row.

Absolutely. Start with Purgatory.

Country Squire still sounds good.

Cool, i'll get through the new one and start exploring.

Yeah, you've probably learned this by now but the new album isn't really representative of his established sound. Purgatory and Country Squire are both pure, near-perfect country music ... if country music had stayed in Appalachia and never moved to Nashville.

He also has *a lot* more fans than most people realize, I think.

not quite as many fans as he had a week ago, though, if the twitter comments under his "long violent history" video message on are any indication!

then again, maybe he made enough new ones to balance that out?

i loooooove everything about the album.

Finally listed to Gillian Welch's Bootlegs Vol. 2 Pt. 2 on bandcamp, exclamatory response on her thread.
This is good---she, like many other colleagues, still feels the loss of Busbee, as do I, mainly because, as intro to article reminds me, although he produced two albums for her, only got one co-write on the s/t, which may well be why it seems like a letdown to me---production's got its tasty trailmix here and there, but songs just don't provide enough to work with, maybe half the time:

https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/culture/story/carly-pearce-pens-heartfelt-letter-friend-mentor-busbee-73290499

The great Iris DeMent quietly released a rousing new song in support of BLM in early September. All proceeds go to the Poor People's Campaign.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wWm5YKGfgg

https://ffm.to/id_howlong.otw

Maren Morris new rootsy song in support of immigrants and BLM is called "Better than We Found It"

Saw it discussed here:

https://marissarmoss.substack.com/p/a-few-thoughts-on-better-than-we

Got the CD of E. Cook's xpost Aftermath, to wrap my head around it w/o the distactions of YouTube, although it sounds---great? on there, not sure, so freaky, despite the fact that it's only country-as-hell phrasing (vocal and writing) tropes, mashed in w other perspectives on female experience in what's left and right of the Land o' Cotton (incl. Mather, also mentions Daddy Increase), with the aforementioned familiar instrumentation, and yes she latches on to thee rootsier rhythms of Zep, also "Don't Fear The Reaper" etc.--all of which works okay on the mp3 that came w CD, but on the boombox I must have lots of bass with enhanced treble "surround"---so the words get crowded, but she's got 'em all on her site (also those of Exodus of Venus), and they deserve clarity---as I read while I listen, I hear 'em perfectly, imagine that---also better later, but haven't memorized all yet, as I want to---check here:
https://www.elizabeth-cook.com/aftermath
Oh yeah, and the closer, "Mary, The Missing Years," sounds quite different---she says it's inspired by Prine's "Jesus, The Missing Years," amen to that.

CD is totally worth getting, if you still get any CDs.

Okay, turned off the boombox SFX, that works too.

Maybe modern CDs don't need 'em, they've become overkill. (CD yet another example of a. technology being perfected as settles into obsolescence.)

Oops, still missed some of this song:
They could kinda play but they could really drink

Somebody’d finally say exactly what they think

And sawdust Pine-Sol and last night’s beer

And a bolo tie on a rear view mirror

There’s a fighter in every dancin’ fool

I watched it all as a baby from a black barstool---still need the cheatsheet sometimes. (Sound clear enough that I could tweak a couple of those lines as posted, which were not quite as sung.)

And then, speaking of Mather(s) matters, there's "Half-Hanged Mary," "based on a poem by Margaret Atwood":

Ladies who lunch stood around watchin’

Counted on her to cover their debauchin’

Tying her dress with a tattered sash

Now her necklace is a ropey rash

Had to put her down with them wicked rabies

‘Fore she made more black cat babies

Can’t serve antiquated charms

Please your countrymen with them marked up arms

When you’re spookin’ the cow, spillin’ the hay

Boilin’ bedsores and forgettin’ to pray

Blow, Blow

https://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2020/10/07/morgan-wallen-appears-party-maskless-ahead-snl-debut/5907167002/

Morgan Wallen now will not be on SNL due to maskless behavior.

xpost I tried the E.Cook CD in a more modern boombox, more options (playing and recording from MP3 etc.)---tried several EQ presets and they all sound good, bringing vocals into the foreground w no instruments too close. Panasonic RX-D55. Not every word is crystal clear, but might be intentional, so as to encourage more listening. The overall effect always has been expressive.

Also, speaking of John Prine's birthday, I tweeted Cook's new "Mary, The Submissing Years," inspired by JP's 'Jesus, The Missing Years." I don't trust ilx to let me post the YouTube, but it's a good 'un.
Also, speaking of John Prine's birthday (today), Steve Earle tweeted this:

John and I were doing one of Emmylou Harris's CONCERTS FOR A
LANDMINE FREE WORLD in London. It was a "guitar pull" all of the
artists seated on the stage, taking turns singing songs and telling
stories. Halfway through my guitar break in HOMETOWN BLUES, I
quipped, "Ladies and Gentlemen, at no time do my fingers ever leave
my hands." I'd forgotten, not only where I'd stolen that bit from, but
who I was sitting next to. John glanced over with a knowing twinkle
in his eye and mouthed,
"STEVIE GOODMAN"
Busted.
Happy Birthday, Maestro
-Steve Earle

I was at that show I think! Prine, Earle, Emmylou, Elvis Costello and Nanci Griffith IIRC.

Ah. EC has a new 'un, what little I've heard was pleasantly surprising. Nanci Griffith hassn't surfaced in quite a while, or did I miss it?

Never have really followed this venerable act, but the following round-up will be worth checking out:

Asleep At The Wheel Partners with Austin City Limits For Five-Decade Career Retrospective On October 31st
Includes footage from the band’s eleven appearances on the show; from the very first episode of ACL to more recent performances with Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, and the Avett Brothers Meh on Avetts own TV and radio sets, but maybe they'll be better, anyway can listen around them; they're not that loud.

ACL Presents: 50 Years of Asleep at the Wheel setlist:
“The Letter That Johnny Walker Read” - 1976
"Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens” - 1978
“Get Your Kicks on Route 66” - 1996
"Roly Poly" ft. The Texas Playboys - 1993
“Hesitation Blues” ft. Willie Nelson - 2009
“Nothing Takes The Place of You” - 1976
“Blues for Dixie” ft. Lyle Lovett - ACL Hall of Fame 2015
“Let Me Go Home Whiskey” - 1976
“After You’ve Gone” ft. Willie Nelson, Freddy Powers, and Johnny Gimble - 1981
“I Can’t Give You Anything But Love ”- 2015
“Boogie Back to Texas” - 1988
“Milk Cow Blues” - 2015
“Miles and Miles of Texas” - 1996, 2002, and 1980
“Choo Choo Boogie” - 1978, 1988, and 1996
“Pancho and Lefty” ft. Willie Nelson - 2009
“Take Me Back to Tulsa” ft. The Avett Brothers and Vince Gill - 1996, 2015, 1978, and 1976
“Cotton Eye Joe” - 1980

ACL Presents: 50 Years of Asleep at the Wheel is only the kickoff of a coming year-long celebration of the band’s five-decade milestone. This past week, Asleep at the Wheel’s fearless leader and founder Ray Benson took part in “Thriving Roots,” AMERICANAFEST’s virtual conference, announcing the coming special and screening an hour-long interview and documentary produced by the Texas Music Office for all digital festival attendees to enjoy. Additionally, Benson and Asleep at the Wheel are currently being featured in the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Outlaws and Armadillos exhibit and as part of the Whitliff Collection at Texas State University’s museum.

Fans, new and old, should stay tuned in to asleepatthewheel.com in the coming months because Benson and Asleep at the Wheel are just getting started with their big celebration.

Not Country, strictly speaking, but def Related, with several acoustic stringed instruments---also one electric that I've so far noticed as such, the steel guitar---being switched around from track to track, 15 of which, average time prob about 3:00 or a little shorter, fully equipped scenes and situations and thought trains rolling through, from headphone to headphone, so it's like I said about this fall's continuing volumes of G.Welch's Boots 02: The Lost Songs, though the unified effect is maybe even more striking because of the variety, which also incl. Haitian Kreyòl folk songs, like it says in the notes: perfectly compatible w Leyla McCalla's original composing, arranging and co-picking, on Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute To Langston Hughes(2014 album, reissued 10-16-20, I think).
Traveling man LH worked and saw and heard a lot and thought it about long enough to see how to make his latest take concise, so he and his readers could keep going with fellow feeling expressed in a personalized, one-to-one way, and senses refreshed.
(His metrics are also personalized in an accessible way, and in any case she makes adaptation seem easy.)
It's a blues life too, with hope in there as well, certainly liveliness, though the New Orleans background of McCalla comes out in a leafy urban-folk-country-old-time way that isn't too nostalgic; the subject matter sure isn't.
stream etc.it here:
https://leylamccalla.bandcamp.com/releases
Stream/download/order LP, CD here:

Stream/download it all here (vinyl and CD also available):
https://leylamccalla.bandcamp.com/releases

Oop thought that first ending had disappeared

I’ve lost touch with Costello and Griffith, for good or ill.

The show in question must’ve been in the very late 90s or early 00s.

what did yall think of the charley crockett record that came out this year? didn't see it mentioned in here

Hadn't heard of it, how is it?

i like the charley crockett record though i wanted to like it a little more. he's like a countrypolitan dave alvin.

Including that you wanted to like it more than you did, or *despite* the fact that he's like a countrypolitan Dave? Don't think I've ever heard Dave go in that direction.
To me, he's been on a roll in recent years, at least counting the duet albums and the current studio odds&sods, which is as good as any reg. release of his, as I talked about upthread. Will check out Charlie, thanx for mentions yall.

Also most of his live Yep Roc at 15 EP is good. Might be more stuff on his bandcamp page by now, hmm.

Including that you wanted to like it more than you did, or *despite* the fact that he's like a countrypolitan Dave?

two separate thoughts. his songwriting and vibe reminds me of d alvin. the countrypolitan production does not. but both of those things are in wheelhouses of mine. songwise, it's a little less consistent than it could have been.

i too like it but wanted to like it more. there's something about his voice being a regular-guy voice that i like, and that meshes with that production style well. the songwriting for me is good, but not great. whoever played steel guitar on this rules tho

Oho, that last bit decides for me, I'll check it out for sure!

however much i wanted to like it more, i did find myself craving to listen to it again today for whatever that's worth

RIP and Rat On:
@bill_knapp
Replying to
@BillClinton
Grateful for all the wild Saturday nights w Mr. Walker. Blessed to have seen him with Jimmy Buffett in a dirt floor county fair livestock barn outside Eugene. Jerry Jeff fans had brown liquor. Jimmy fans had white. We shared our libations with great joy. Adios, amigo.

The first edition of this was pretty good, looking fwd to expando:

Johnny Cash - Forever Words (Expanded Edition), a digital edition of the original album plus 18 new songs (16 previously unreleased) by various artists including Chris Cornell, Ruston Kelly & Kacey Musgraves, Rosanne Cash, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Brad Paisley, Kris Kristofferson & Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Elvis Costello, Carlene Carter, The Jayhawks, T. Bone Burnett, Jewel, Dailey & Vincent, I'm With Her, Robert Glasper featuring Ro James and Anu Sun, and Jamey Johnson with words by Johnny Cash.

In the timeless spirit of songwriting collaboration, the album's lyric content is drawn from poems, lyrics and other writings--many previously unpublished--by Johnny Cash while the music is newly composed and performed by contemporary artists inspired directly by Cash's words.

The album's new tracks are digital-only and made available on all Streaming Audio Services in a series of four waves beginning today.
Link to streaming options in this Web post of press release, also to trailer etc.:
http://view.fans.legacyrecordings.com/?qs=feed92a551632f5922371e3b5eff587fda5099cc631bde1605a2aa6bc1fe45e37d7c60858c102bc9d950fa01363c86538db47f43e181295a5356a7ece115a2bea0d90e15c93b82e7aed035b08412df2a

Rolling tribute thread, watch this space:
https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/jerry-jeff-walker-remembered-by-lyle-lovett-lucinda-williams-dan-rather-and-many-many-others/
Meant to paste a quote, but impossible to choose---lots of eyewitness testimony, going waaay back.

That xpost Wynonna covers EP is up now, my fave is "Ramble On Rose"---would like to hear her do an alb of Dead, or at least "Ripple" and "New Speedway Boogie, " both of which would fit rat in here:
https://wynonna.bandcamp.com/album/recollections

So Cam's album is finally out; I listened this morning, some tracks a couple of times: half of it got me right away; the rest didn't hold my attention. She always sounded like she'd been there, but sonically sometimes seemed too limited, a little too earnestly tasteful--although I loved that she never ruins by overselling, even on the eternal-flame-ov-namechecked-romeo-and-juliet "Til There's Nothing Left" ("Praying to God please don't save me")(why did I think upthread that this went into something about growing old together? Because press release quoted her re something about this being a song for her husband? Here it's death by orgasm in the teen backseat 4ever).
Okay, so she's not really all that restrained in writing, which she does with Lori McKenna on here several times, also Natalie Hemby, in with others, usually, and tonight I get it, the sound and the fury and the sweetness and bitterness and been-there insight, that last most striking in the one that's just by her and Hemby, no other team members needed:

You think you’re the girl who doesn’t know how to say she’s sorry
Doesn’t know what to believe, but you wanna believe somebody
You’re not the only one, hidin’ in the corner of a party
Disappointed with
Who you call a friend.

Well they’re gonna give up on you
You’re gonna give up on them
And if it’s somebody you really love you’re gonna find a way to love ‘em again
You’re gonna have to learn to forgive yourself and not take it so personally
Yeah take it from a girl like me

Take it from a girl who takes things to take the pain away
Can’t look in the mirror ‘cause there’s always someone else to blame
She gives more than she’s got, thinks everyone should do the same
It’s hard to see
In the middle of a dream

Also, she can get loud, no prob, and sometimes double-tracks her vox with no blur or padding, which can happen for sure.
Covers Sam Smith's "Happier For You," which thematically is like Laura Nyro's "Wedding Bell Blues," also with the same kind of vitality surging around self-torture, as she thanks him for inviting her to the wedding, surprised the bride 'llowed him to: she's all dressed up in black, with nowhere to go but here. Also, Sam's guys work with some of her people on other tracks.
(His "Palaces" was one of her breadcrumb singles several years ago, also good, wouldn't mind more---just as long as he doesn't duet with her, crying all over the place, and dragging his choir in there.)
And she's got a Harry Styles co-write with his own team, none of it by Camaron Ochs, but suits her very well (He writes bitter small town country? This is pretty much the afterlife anticlimax of the aformentioned backseat Rome-O and Juli-et.)

Dawn Landes & band livestream Thurs. 7 pm Central, on Music City Roots' Facebook & YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/c/MusicCityRootsMCR

Just saw this, haven't listened yet:
https://brothersosborne.bandcamp.com/album/skeletons

November 6, 2020—A lifelong bluegrass and country music fan, legendary singer, songwriter and producer Barry Gibb has long dreamed of a project that would bring him together with some of the artists he admires the most. With the help of Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb, that dream has become a reality with GREENFIELDS: The Gibb Brothers Songbook, Vol. 1—out January 8 on Capitol Records (pre-order/pre-save). Watch the album’s official trailer HERE.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqxTqkR_qRM&src=Linkfire&lId=e40f836f-7414-4ee5-9fe1-2590d9902d40&cId=1f3b0af4-1f64-49b5-9848-7d1b3c9a4c3e
Across twelve of the Gibb Brothers beloved songs reborn, the album features collaborations with Alison Krauss, Brandi Carlile, David Rawlings, Dolly Parton, Gillian Welch, Jason Isbell, Jay Buchanan, Keith Urban, Little Big Town, Miranda Lambert, Olivia Newton-John, Sheryl Crow and Tommy Emmanuel. In advance of the release, “Words of a Fool,” featuring Grammy Award-winning Jason Isbell, is out today (listen HERE).https://barrygibb.lnk.to/wordsofafoolPR
GREENFIELDS: THE GIBB BROTHERS SONGBOOK, VOL. 1 TRACK LIST
1. “I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You” with Keith Urban
2. “Words of a Fool” with Jason Isbell
3. “Run to Me” with Brandi Carlile
4. “Too Much Heaven” with Alison Krauss
5. “Lonely Days” with Little Big Town
6. “Words” with Dolly Parton
7. “Jive Talkin’” with Miranda Lambert, Jay Buchanan
8. “How Deep Is Your Love” with Tommy Emanuel, Little Big Town
9. “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart” with Sheryl Crow
10. “To Love Somebody” with Jay Buchanan
11. “Rest Your Love On Me” with Olivia Newton-John
12. “Butterfly” with Gillian Welch, David Rawlings
For more information, please contact
asha.goodman at sacksco.com or carla at sacksco.com.
Or Ambrosia Healy at Capitol Music Group, ambrosia.healy at umusic.com.

Trailer is on youtube

"Jive Talkin" better be some country disco--maybe songs from Saturday Night Fever will be on some ltd. edition or killer sequel. But where are "Massachussets" and "New York Mining Disaster 1941" dammit? You telling me they're not country enough? Guess "Islands in the Stream" would be too obvious.