Rolling Country 2021

This is surprisingly good

https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/post-malone-covers-sturgill-simpson-w-dwight-yoakams-band/

anyone checked out Ashley Monroe's two new singles?

(Seems pretty likely this is gonna be a disco country album)

Good idea!
First listens: maybe I'm overrating it in comparison w the listless Heart (which does have a few maybe-keepers), but am initially relieved and refreshed by E. Church's also-recent Soul, which is not the bourgie nostalgia I feared, but his own brand of poignant, well-focussed musicality (coulda done w/o last line of Lynyrd Skynyrd Jones," but can't kill the overall good impression).

omg Rose Gold is cosmic country electropop lit yall:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyMoM1unzKg

Whole alb is there (10 songs, about 30 minutes, all she needs)("Gold" is the least of it, but gives a taste) Oh sorry YouTube slipped some othr shit in there, listen elsewhere)
"The New Me" //www.youtube.com/watch?v=wva9nvii7ik&list=PLf1hrOwqId83LYpuM4QZWTb7yr35372LU&index=3

"See": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IPjdZs-QdY

"Silk": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aybIsyGTzc

I wish I were this enthusiastic.

May 14, 2021—Acclaimed singer, songwriter and musician Kalie Shorr’s new EP, 3x3, Vol 1: The Chicks, is out today on tmwrk records.
Produced by Eric Mallon and recorded in the midst of quarantine, the project features new versions of three songs from The Chicks’ 1999 album Fly: “Cowboy Take Me Away,” “Cold Day In July” and “Hole In My Head.” Today’s release is the first installment of a special three-part series celebrating albums that have greatly impacted Shorr’s life and career. Additional details to come.
Of the EP, Shorr reflects, “The forced solitude of quarantine led to a lot of self-discovery, and rediscovery. My records became my friends, and my living room became a concert hall. I fell back in love with the albums that made me want to be an artist. When the idea came to pay homage to them, I listened to my personal mantra: why the f*** not? The Chicks were the first country artists I ever heard. Fly was the only CD played in my sisters ‘98 Chevy Cavalier, and I remember spending hours reading the lyric booklet and falling in love with the stories they told. They were my first concert when I was 9 at Madison Square Garden. I swore then that I was going to play there one day, and I’ve been trying ever since.”
This in the wake of new single "Amy," for which the term "power-pop" is bandied about. Open Book stormed my Scene ballot, but didn't get memo about the Deluxe Edition 'til this latest news round-up.

Update re the aforementioned and awesom SGG:
Verve Forecast artists Madison Cunningham and S.G. Goodman will embark on a Fall tour with Cunningham as headliner and Goodman as support. The two singer-songwriters will each bring their own unique style and substance to the tour: California native Madison Cunningham is “poised and precise in her singing and ace guitar playing” (NPR Music) and Kentucky born-and-raised S.G. Goodman is an “untamed rock & roll truthteller” (Rolling Stone)
More cosmic country than rock & roll I say, but okay. Is Cunningham good?

Also: new Rhonda Vincent out 5/28---never heard one of her solo albums, though much liked the one w RIP Darryl Singletary.

And, according to Taste of Country: "The album came quicker than I thought," Carlile tells Good Morning America in a new interview. "It's done."

As she's previously mentioned, the process of writing her memoir also helped Carlile write new music. She describes her next record as "very dramatic." What a surprise. No date yer. Wanna read the book too.

My wife listened to the Carlile book as an audiobook - which includes covers and other songs in between chapters. She really enjoyed it.

Wow, hadn't seen it described that way, thanks! Will check it out.

love the idea that Carlile's new album makes her previous work seem *not* very dramatic

(not saying "oooh i'm excited" i'm saying "that's hilarious")

I've only recently begun listening to her music. (Is there really not a thread about her on ILM??) Actually thought the first track on her first album sounded like it could've been on The Bends.

Hey you're right, she doesn't seem to have her own thread! Seems wrong. I liked her singles and some radio-TV performances, but don't think I ever heard a whole album before this one, mentioned on Rolling Country 2015:

One much fresher, only in part because she's much younger: Brandi Carlile, The Firewatcher's Daughter. Nominated for an Americana Grammy; keep thinking she did a CMT Crossroads session with Elton John, but (she and EJ did something else, right?) but no, CMT was Eltie and Ryan Adams. Same idea, though: catchy drama in denim--this is maybe mostly acoustic, but pushy and electric where it counts, especially on "Mainstream Kid< which burns its way through to the floating, observant, recuperative "Beginning To Feel The Years," and "Blood Muscle Skin and Bone," which somehow natcherly follows the pioneer workbreak of "Wilder (We're Chained"---"and when everything else is gone, our love will still remain"--with something like The Band Perry mixing their glam handclaps, and maybe some cowbell, with post-punk rhythm guitar durr-durr-durr, little train chugging by (not too far from the "Petticoat Junction" theme, come to think of it)
It's all hard-won wisdom, philosophical, sometimes rationalizing, sometimes declaiming, clawed back from the brink, while chasing love, and still capable of extravagant (brandy-rich, costly) moves. Rueful and even twangy enough, occasionally, to qualify as young Americana, if not quite young country, as much (but if CMT ever does another Crossroads, I wouldn't be surprised to see her on there---with---?)

― dow, Tuesday, December 22, 2015 9:12 PM (five years ago)

Also there was some talk of the next one on RC 2018---at one point I typed it as By The Way I Frogrive You, and got some Muppets responses, but this is the Rolling Stone mention I pasted in:

She's always sounded like she probably likes Elton John, David Bowie, Patsy Cline: "Americana"? OK!

Album: By the Way, I Forgive You
Release Date: February 16th
On her sixth studio album, Americana heroine Brandi Carlile ramps everything up a notch, working with Waylon Jennings' rebel-yell son Shooter, who co-produced with Dave Cobb. She takes deep dives into her family history ("Most of All") and offers up an anthem for the downtrodden ("The Joke," a chin-up call to arms for anyone feeling oppressed, was blasted out in a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!). While largely adhering to her unplugged, modern-Appalachian approach, Carlile also pushes a few musical envelopes: "Harder to Forgive" is swoony, luxurious pop, "Hold Out Your Hand" has a wall-of-drums wallop and "Party of One" wraps up with shivery orchestration. D.B.

She did some good stuff on the Highwomen album too, although overall it seemed uneven, considering all the talent and skill involved---too many cooks, maybe. Some people love the whole thing, and it's def worth checking out.

Carlile's ultra-earnest music has never been the kind of thing internet cool kids paid much attention to, but she flew right past 'em through sheer force of will and a lot of talent ... the Highwomen thing didn't hurt either, of course.

i know how much P4k has changed but even still i did a double-take when they published a review of By The Way, I Forgive You. would be interested to know if Alfred pitched her to them or if she was on their list or whatever.

Thanks for pasting all that. I’ve been listening in chronological order, so far have listened to the first four. All of them are like-not-love but admittedly have not done deep listens of any. The one I listened to today, “Bear Creek”, is the most country-leaning of the ones I’ve heard so far - which scratches the itch I’m most looking for right now. I don’t really know how people rate the overall discography.

You might like this too:
Brandi Carlile was on Fresh Air today: 42 minute interview (w good-audio music excerpts), and the part I heard was very engaging---whole thing is here, for streaming and downloading, and adds video of her and the twins in gorgeous three-part harmony that doesn't gloss over the point of the song. The interview references her new memoir, Broken Horses, which I'd like to read:
https://www.npr.org/2021/04/05/983815671/singer-brandi-carlile-talks-ambition-avoidance-and-finally-finding-her-place

― dow, Monday, April 5, 2021

Stumblin' in after breaking limbs in the hot sun (unexpected bonus session with a tornado tree), I'm especially appreciative of the restorative powers of xpost Ashley Monroe's Rosegold (not, as I'd thought, Rose Gold, which coulda been her emerging alternate identity, going w this new sound and the Prince association, which I'll mention again). It's not, as I impulsively said upthread, cosmic country electropop lit yall in the get-this-party-started sense: here, the candles are lit, all around the tub,, in the love spa, for relationship maintenance, or---if he's a no-show so far, at least, at most (this is crucial!) keeping yourself tuned up, no matter what else is down the road, in the "Groove," of the "Drive," and it's a total sonic experience, not just about the songs per se, which some reviewers are disappointed by---it's the risk of seductive philosophizing in which notes as sung and played) fill in what the words leave out---but again, risk: she never goes for the big extended bedazzlement between the lines, it's all careful dosage (like I said, 10 songs in about 30 minutes), brushing or swooping by, already gone, as the Eagles say. Yes, this is a kind of country, bits of Beatles (little maybe-mellotron here, little cello there) and Prince (Beatles student too, and the different ways conversational phrases go with the beats, which aren't big, but big enough)aside, she sounds like somebody who might have been swirling around behind or beside any number of male country singers from the mid-60s to early-80s, discreetly still, but now assertive enough (also some acoustic guitar picking)(also the breadcrumb brevity is classic country, from when records didn't cost much, and now streams don't have to cost anything, so shuddup and listen).
Anyway, so far, I find it refreshing, also the way she keeps changing it up, to suit where she's at, from The Blade to the somewhut mysterious Sparrow to this (although could do without "Gold" and the mumbklecore finale).

"mumblecore," that is.

And of course the guarded hopefulness of it seems country.

Ashley Monroe's Rosegold: On very first impression, as (Don's words) "modern art-pop country," it's at its best when sounding "art" and evading "pop" and "country," so stronger downplaying or avoiding hooks and refusing to resolve into pretty melody. Might've been better more austere though I don't know that (perhaps without prettiness gooping the thing up, the art'd be monotonous). I like "Siren" best, "Gold" was great when guttural but lost force rising to the upper register. "Til It Breaks," "I Mean It," and "See" are probably keepers, maybe "Drive" too. "Til It Breaks" works as a conventional song, the others'd probably be better uglier. Anyway, the thing's touching me most when I'm perceiving or imagining a low-pitch rumble and an unwillingness to get on with the tune.

I don't know much about American Aquarium, other than (A) they got their name from Wilco, and (B) I'd been under the impression they were kinda a cross between Isbell and a Red Dirt Party Band.

But I just got FB sponsored post for their latest, Slappers, Bangers, And Certified Twangers Vol. I, which-contrary to suggestions of the title-is not a compilation but 10 newly-recorded '90s Country covers.

The tracklisting is <immaculate>, so many pre-Shania era stone-cold classics given fine readings. Kudos also for resisting the urge to hambone their way through some of these (the opening cut is a tongue mostly removed from cheek version of Sammy Kershaw's "The Queen Of My Double-Wide Trailer"). Feels like a nice night out at the Honky Tonk.

Here's to a Vol II with "Small Town Saturday Night", "Wink", "Sacred Ground", "A Good Run Of Bad Luck" and "The Wrong Side of Memphis".

https://americanaquarium.bandcamp.com/album/slappers-bangers-certified-twangers-volume-one

The Pony Bradshaw album is so good.

Yeah that's an album that I like a lot!

Will check those thx

Legendary songwriter James McMurtry is set to release his new album, The Horses and The Hounds, on August 20.

This first collection in seven years spotlights a seasoned tunesmith in peak form as he turns toward reflection and revelation.

“There’s a definite Los Angeles vibe to this record,” McMurtry says. “The ghost of Warren Zevon seems to be stomping around among the guitar tracks. Don’t know how he got in there. He never signed on for work for hire.”

First track from it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPYWcdrQPxg

No surprises, but sounds pretty good on first listen.

Can anyone suggest some good websites for country music album reviews? I’m looking for something that covers all forms — from contemporary mainstream to alt-country to reissues of traditional, for example. I’m less interested in folk and Americana, though some of that would be okay too. I’m aware of No Depression, of course, but it leans too much toward “roots” music rather than true country music, at least for my tastes. It’s especially hard to find decent reviews of the bigger contemporary artists — most sites seem to thumb their nose at that stuff or review it ironically.

Good question---I don't keep up that well, but suspect you'll have to hop along from site to site, although Rolling Country is pretty well-rounded---you might check up through the middle of this decade; we really used to go to town w the reviews & discussions---also archives of villagevoice.com. But nowadays? I've occasionally looked at savingcountrymusic.com, and seen plausible coverage of for instance Garth's most recent offering by Trigger, who I think is the only poster (also going for center-right editorial comments re country issues on the news). Comments section gets pretty godawful. Taste of Country is mainly or all news, seems like---there must be more---well, Rolling Stone Country is fairly good, and Pitchfork is trying to get with the program too, some thoughtful reviews in the last couple of years--jump around those and No Dep and you'll get some range...

On this date in 1964, Connie Smith signs her first recording contract with RCA Victor. "The Cry of the Heart, her 54th album, comes out August 20th on @FatPossum Records. Pre-order yours here:https://t.co/LlkPaCWLTs pic.twitter.com/zpj4XKXpqw

— Connie Smith (@RealConnieSmith) June 24, 2021

Connie Smith has a new album out this August on Fat Possum.

I’m enjoying the new Vincent Neil Emerson. Just some plainspoken throwback kinda stuff but doesn’t feel like pastiche. Really liked his debut from a couple years back too - nothing on the new one is as instantly catchy as “Fly on the Wall” but I’m still enjoying it.

Yeah--"I'm like a bird caught in a store, lookin' for the door"--but it's not just catchy little phrases, he uses them to tell stories, convey a sense of sometimes complex situations and what he thinks and feels about them, in as few words as possible, for the sake of clarity and realness, with no added drama; he's lived, is living, through enough of that already.
The music has just enough variety to keep the songs distinctive, and suit whatever he's singing about--even a little bit of fluid modern jazz balladry at the beginning and end of "Learnin' To Drown," about his father and himself. A little bit of piano on that one, organ on another, mostly it's fingerpicking guitar, fiddle, bass, no need for drums. Maybe tin whistle and Irish-y fiddle on "White Horse Saloon," and why not, plenty of Irish people went West. A song about Indians getting screwed, also from his family's (on his mother's side) experience. Western swing on the closer, but not a vintage cover; it's another of his lived-in-sounding originals.

Some people online think the debut was better, for the most part, or entirely, so it must be pretty damn good. Will check it out too.

The debut is definitely great and mostly more upbeat than the new album.

I’m still just a few listens in on the new album but it’s growing on me. “Learning to Drown” is a stunner. So straightforward in its devastation. It’s disarming.

Never heard Emerson before. This new one is beautiful. Thanks for the tip. I gotta check out his debut too. Great stuff.

I wonder how he takes to being called just "Vince"

His parents named him for Vince Neil, according to the Internet. From what he's said and written about his father, seemms plausible--but I'm gonna stick to "Vincent" if I ever address him d'rectly.

Just now, upside ooh my head: Kalie Shorr's refreshing, somewhut startling country pop singles in 2021, "Amy" and "Love Child," both self-writ. Her xpost Dixie Chicks 3-song EP is prob okay too, but why beg comparisons. 2019's blazin' Open Book was Top Ten for me, haven't yet heard 2020's Unabridged edition of that. Meet her at the crossroads, braced: http://www.kalieshorr.com/

Checked out Bobby Dove's Hopeless Romantic yesterday and was very impressed.

Lead Single:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Mvfrnxdzs

Coverage from Country Queer:
https://countryqueer.com/reviews/song-review/hopelessly-in-love-with-bobby-doves-newest/

liking that Bobby Dove, thanks!

Yeah!
And here's the latest from the aforemenioned S.G. Goodman, with her purple state Kentucky jittery flair:
My Townes Van Zandt cover of "Lungs" is now available to stream everywhere!

I'm not normally one to do covers, they often scare me. I feel it's easier to do a cover poorly than to add to something that was already probably perfect. So when the good folks at Amazon Music offered for me to take part in their Amazon Music Origial series, I was honored, but at a loss for what to do, I chose Townes Van Zandt's "Lungs" because of the odd connection he has to where I live.

Like all small towns, we have our legendary stories, and one story from Murray, KY could be found in a little lemonade stand in the middle of town. You'd drive up to Mr. Jimmy Gingles, ask for a Ginger (Fresh squeezed Lemonade, Orange Juice, and Lime) and you would see a picture of Townes hanging over Jimmy's head while he made your drink. Mr. Jimmy and Townes were friends and running buddies. He's often tell you about all the times Townes visited him in Murray and how he'd passed out on that very floor in the lemonade stand. Townes also play a few times in a bar where I cut my teeth as performer. It was a thrill to record this with my band and Matt Ross-Spang at the legendary Fame Studios. Hopefully I added to the story of Townes and my home with this cover, but like I said, it's hard to put your spin on something you've always felt was perfect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ufqEsByELM

Nanci Griffith RIP. This goes over the top at first---comparing her to Elvis?---but then makes a lot of good points, like about her early international following, and emerging thusly for many:
As a teenager in Philadelphia and a college student in Chicago in the eighties, I did not yet know from Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Jeff Walker, or the Flatlanders (except for Joe Ely’s connection to the Clash). I had no idea what Houston’s Anderson Fair was, nor that I’d eventually be spending hundreds of nights of my life at a place called Hole in the Wall in Austin—venues where Griffith played. But long before the terms “alt-country” or “Americana” came along, eighties artists like Griffith, Lyle Lovett, and Steve Earle (as well non-Texans Dwight Yoakam, k.d. lang, and Rosanne Cash) weren’t that far from the post-punk I was listening to on college radio, starting with R.E.M. The same record store clerks who sold me jangly pop-inflected albums by Robyn Hitchcock, the Windbreakers, and Austin’s Zeitgeist (later the Reivers), also put a copy of Griffith’s 1987 MCA debut, Lone Star State of Mind, into my hands.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/nanci-griffith-more-loved-than-she-knew/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Web+Social&utm_campaign=NanciGriffithObit

In more mundane news Maren Morris guest hosted Jimmy Kimmel’s show last night and Willie Nelson was a guest

But yeah RIP Nanci .That farewell does nicely touch on who her songs appealed to

xpost Wish I'd seen that! Good?

I missed it. Got a pr email about it a day late.

Here's Maren talking to Willie

https://www.wideopencountry.com/maren-morris-jimmy-kimmel-live/

Thoughts on Sierra Ferrell?

Will check---meanwhile: RIP psych-folk-country pioneer Powell St. John! Very early TX colleague of Janis Joplin, later Boz Scaggs (both of whom later covered him), also wrote for 13th Floor Elevators. but I mostly know him in Mother Earth, with Tracy Nelson---this article incl link to one of their more thread-relevant tracks, "Then I'll Be Moving On" (& young:
https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/music/2021-08-23/powell-st-john-brought-us-the-message-1940-2021/?mc_cid=a929c1593a&mc_eid=d26b96d866

Sorry, meant to add that the article also includes a link to very pre-fame Janis singing "St. James Infirmary."