Rolling Country 2022

And I 'ppreciate that he doesn't blame other people more than himself--it's much less about brooding on a barstool than keep a-goin', one hand on the wheel, the other holding a drink (phone on in holder, so can record life's demos on the fly).

From Big Ears Festival newsletter:

Rarely do we find Big Ears Festival artists featured in year-end lists for best country albums. Adeem the Artist is an exception, landing on many end-of-year lists including Billboard Magazine staff picks for 2022 for their new record "White Trash Revelry." As a resident of Knoxville, Adeem's singular talent captured our attention a while back and now the whole world is catching on. A couple of weeks ago, Grayson Currin penned a wonderful profile for the New York Times.

xp+xxp, great posts! It's sprawl is a big part of its appeal for me. Unruly in the best sense of the word. Take its 12 best tracks, and it may not make my top ten of the year. As it stands, it'll definitely rank.

Wilson's 2021 album is one of the decade's best.

Who Wilson? Lainey Wilson? Or someone else I'm overlooking?

Lainey's 2021 album was def. in my Top Ten, as I think I listed and described way upthread. still gotta check this year's follow-up.
Also need to find my copy of this 2012 Top Ten pick, which got its Tenth Anniversary reissue this fall:

James Hand's Mighty Lonesome Man tracks the fine print white line of life's little ups and downs with mighty fine timing--unafraid to venture beyond deft wordplay into details that could easily keep him orbiting in mental and emotional rituals eternally--but 12 items, 34 minutes, as Windows Media Player sums up, hand him off, pass him along in the alone-together jukebox of honky tonk pop (where he can be alone-together with Billy Joe Shaver, for instance). Good in the background or foreground; I'm tempted to say he'll be there when you get there--he's a stand-up guy--but whatcha say James? "Let's do it now, before they use a plow, 'cause then I won't be no earthly good to you."

Oh yeah: came out Oct. 14, up to 15 tracks now, and he's also on this Johnny Cash trib, with Austin Lucas, Chuck D feat. Bob Log III, Left Lane Cruiser, Charlie Parr, and a bunch of people I never heard of, which isn't unusual for tribs:
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/johnny-cash-tribute-james-hand-reissue-coming-from-hillgrass-bluebilly/

Another one that works in the foreground and background (somewhut simultaneously, since headphones suddenly expired and I'm listening on tiny laptop speakers), is the new Lainey, whose voice thrives on rockin'-country/not country-rock sound designs, which also inform well-paced ballads, poignant enough despite titles like "Weak End"(with "leak in" and "bleed in" enhancing been-there tone), "You And Me and Jesus," and even "Heart Like a Truck."

Yeah, Lainey.

the new Lainey, whose voice thrives

Pony Bradshaw has an album coming out 1/27/23, will tour---more info, links here:
https://mailchi.mp/eca127076fe9/new-album-north-georgia-rounder-15596832?e=57613df00d
What I said last year, on the first annual not-ballot (since Himes fucked up)

For Further Study (everything here, but especially this)

Pony Bradshaw, Calico Jim: "I'm a time-traveling bush in a barrel of poo"? He could be singing that, in this context, but he doesn't sound worried about it, maybe because he's still traveling; he does mention "wrecked in a tireless life" a couple of times soon after, but doesn't say who's wrecked, though maybe he means it in a vehicular, not narcotic sense; one is likely as the other here, but he always sounds lucid, in a usually murmury way, but also like a more dynamic Jackson Browne, usually with toe-tapping, fingerpicking melodies (while insisting that the counterpoint under those "has to breathe": not hearing any in the usual sense, think he's thinking about a stubborn way of life, counterclockwise even to itself at times, it seems). Voice and arrangements can rise, grow drums, hard chords; steel and/or slide answers the call for a "Sawtooth Jerico." The people in these songs of shamelessly flamboyant Southern Gothic environments, seeing and raising expected themes and terms, try not to fall off of or slide down "Dope Mountain" 'til they want to, and it's a real place, with stolen copper wire stashed in the old mine, finally good for something again, and lots of vines and lines and lives to get tangled.

Spirituality is another common interest. A hillbilly preacher sucks poison from the ankle of the young widow, as their faces turn different colors—he's a snakehandler, and apparently prepared to do that in certain cases, although seems like it defeats the point in church? But they're on a date,, and I guess she just stepped where she shouldn't have been stepping (further study needed; all this precarious detail makes me want to be careful too).

Things get ecumenical in "Guru," where we start out bonded "in the bowels of a coma." Must be good stuff, also leaving room for (true-to-life)'billy self-awareness: "Stretch out your vowels, son, and show your pedigree." But soon enough, maybe by the next course, "We got high as Heaven, tweaked on God and crystal meth," oh yeth. Also mellow moments of romance, out under the North Georgia stars; "I ain't no shaman, " but bring it on babe. Hmm. So many lines, images rippling by, it seems impossible to bring up a satisfyingly representative dipper, so far.

I expect us to get burnt out on the road. I even welcome it. The edge is where we find truth. I always seem to be looking for a human/mankind truth more than a personal truth. Personal truths are shaped by our own ego, our own wants and needs, and I just don’t find myself that interesting or trustworthy. I hope to see y’all out on the road next year. We’ll be carving out these songlines across the country, singing our world into existence.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-country-americana-albums-2022-1234648516/kane-brown-different-man-1234648559/ A fairly wide-ranging round-up, and some of these I agree with, some I really really don't, several that I haven't yet heard seem implausible, based on previous offerings, but several more are intriguingly described, will check.

A few more appealing possibilities I hadn't heard of, w reminders of others, and some I have heard: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/19/1134907922/the-best-roots-music-of-2022

One of the Stone picks, Paul Cauthen's Coming Down Country. does have the "funk 'n' twang" arrangements, as promised, but these usually seem earthbound, keeping Cauthen's wobbly Waylonisms on a short leash, though he manages to sound out of breath anyway. 10 songs in 30 minutes usually seems like a good idea, though here it may be that the tracks aren't given enough time/pressure to develop--either that or they're mercifully brief. However, "Til The Day I Die" works as what I think of as International Country, with *kind of* a Romance Language 50s-60s phrasing brushing by, as written, but the short leash keeps it from being lavishly oversold, and Cauthen is poised here, in an unpretentious way---ditto on "Roll on By," with Elton-McCartney piano hooks, and "Country Coming Down" relaxes the Waylonism into warm, sing-along descending melody. But usually, he's fronting. "Country as Fuck" seems to work alright, though, wobbles in the trailer park-associated imagistic entrophy and all (he sounds old or worn here,but still got tattoos and whiskers by cracky.)

Have not heard the Crockett album at 2 on the RS list. Any good?

https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/the-best-mainstream-country-albums-of-2022/

Have not heard the Crockett album at 2 on the RS list. Any good?

― Indexed, Wednesday, December 21, 2022 bookmarkflaglink

Yes, it's good. Given how prolific he is I have other albums by him that I like a lot more, though it might just be that I heard them first and the novelty is beginning to wear off. I don't think the actual quality has dropped off at all.

Some of these lists are the EOY content I was most looking forward to. But they also are coming at a point where my ears might be a little too burned out on binging other lists to give any of it a fair shake.

xpost The Charley is very good in its way but yeah, I feel more detached from this particular set than I want to be, so far (will listen more). Variations on, maybe scenes from the fantasy life of someone who would kinda like to be The Red-Headed Stranger, but mainly he's thinking about heading to/through Texas (he's from Waco, but passing through Atlanta etc.?). with this Pioneer Days/rocking horse Western cadence (at one point singing about "Cowboy Candy"), and I like the way his gruff voice rolls around in his head, not that tight dry Texas thing, and sometimes he goes sideways into a 60s-type Black jazz-blues-folk groove like Oscar Brown Jr. meets terse Ramsey Lewis and makes it fit thematically---but the revenge-ish themey-ness is very persistent and something I have limited interest in to start with.

Although the protagonist's limited enthusiasm is entertaining and credible (in a mostly conceptual, limited way): sounds like he knows he reallly isn't gonna get any satisfaction from this relationship, even if he goes through with his plan of sorts

Well I scanned through the Rolling Stone and NPR lists and the one that's really jumped out at me is Anna Tivel, Outsiders, totally up my alley. She's got a lot of albums--this looks to be her fifth or sixth--but I've never heard of her before. Really enjoying it.

She is, indeed, great, but is best known in the Northwest, for sure.

Her significant other (unless things have changed) is Jeffrey Martin, who is also a terrific folk singer based in Portland. This is my favorite record of his, and the first track is (imo) a stunner: https://jeffreymartinportland.bandcamp.com/album/one-go-around

Listening to the Adeem record. Can't believe "Books & Records" isn't a Lori McKenna tune.

that is a terrific record ... good the first time, and growing on me, too.

Yeah, I wanna check Tivel too, thanks for the encouragememt!
Good point about McKenna, wonder if she's heard Akeem? The word is spreading among Akeem-inclined listeners, for sure.
Reminds me:the McKennaesque combo of kitchen sink realism x dynamics has been growing on me every time I listen to the Kaitlin Butts EP.
(Warning! Do not do this on a Windows 7 Dell laptop---go straight to the library and TURN IT UP on a Dell Windows 10 desktop. On the former, her voice sounds little and thin and crowded by the band.)

Properly heard (via new $30.00 Koss over-ear cans), she has no prob finding room, even when in the nasty, roiling, rippling regular guitar and steel guitar hallways of "Jackson." The band even saves the one substandard script, the title song, which is as static as the life it describes. The backing drone and guitar break of "She's Using Again" have a narcotic trace, and Butts esp. scores w mention of "getting straight," getting normie functional enough to do whatever you gotta do, esp. re: scoring again, and again. This not so much scolding or even complaining, just once again observing (to someone who really isn't listening) how you're doing this again: the observer, who seems to have a close connection (now changed) to the user, has to some extent become part of the routine, the normalization.
Which goes well with "Blood"'s "You're in my veins, " as the cyclic music rises, like xpost "So This is Christmas" ("And what have you done"), yes, and "Stewball" before it. This is the one where I also started hearing her as filling the Iris DeMent gap---suffering a little by comparison, since she doesn't have DeMent's somewhat impulsive way with phrasing, like she's thinking about driving the County Bookmobile somewhere way off---but Iris ain't here, so I'll take it, and would anyway.

Nevertheless, also can't help noticing, from the first minute of the first listen, that Ingrid Andress sounds like nobody I can think of but herself, while leaping from peak to peak on Good Person (she's suddenly struck by that phrase, even wheels around to ask somebody what that's like, and did they ever do anything bad [sounds like she's wondering if you can do that and what is it if you can also still be good, as considered by yourself and others: she does give you room and inclination to think about stuff like that, with breadcrumbs in the whirlwind).

Also bounces phrases off intractable and/or impassive love-hate objects (and even ones that ask wtf: well, since you've asked, she'll come out of her shell)(for instance busting a steady for cheating on her with her younger self), also bouncing them off intractability itself: "My parents have lived in the same house for almost 40 years now, and the only time they were ever on the same page, it was in their high school yearbook." Ha, good one, next (what are they gonna say to that? "No!" "I tried!" "Duh!" Anything?)

But the real test is, will the country pop sonic revelry (sorry, Akeem) turn to mush when she starts being breadcrumbed back to the new love experience? No. Although I won't say just how that goes (Merry Whatever, Happy New Year, and good luck to all concerned, as always).

This is the one where I also started hearing her as filling the Iris DeMent gap---suffering a little by comparison, since she doesn't have DeMent's somewhat impulsive way with phrasing, like she's thinking about driving the County Bookmobile somewhere way off---but Iris ain't here, so I'll take it, and would anyway.

Well I'll be..

Wow, yall right about Anna Tivel, damn. People at a crossroads, living there, wherever they go, incl. back to bed. Despite some small electric appliances with the finger-picking, sounds less like Americana per se than Oregon country: the rain, the city, timberland, desert, roads, schoolbook images of the Trail not too far away. Wondering if some songs will seem too similar, but so far I notice that each one has its own details, as written, performed (incl. by uncredited players), recorded. Bandcamp has the lyrics, which aren't strictly necessary--what a sound---but good to get more detail right away:
https://annativel.bandcamp.com/album/outsiders

https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/zach-bryan-drops-live-album-titled-all-my-homies-hate-ticketmaster-while-vowing-to-find-ticketing-work-around-for-2023-tour/ar-AA15EJDi

No Dep Readers Poll:
https://www.nodepression.com/no-depression-readers-50-favorite-roots-music-album-of-2022/ 50! That's a lotta unpaid work.

Their Writers Poll:
https://www.nodepression.com/critics-poll-nd-writers-favorite-roots-music-albums-of-2022?utm_source=No+Depression+Newsletter&utm_campaign=212c25f0a4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_12_27_22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_659325596f-212c25f0a4-226384157&mc_cid=212c25f0a4&mc_eid=b850f832a1

Hot on the heels of our annual Readers Poll, we checked in with No Depression’s staff and contributors to get their takes on the best roots music albums released in 2022.

As usually happens, there’s only a little overlap between the two polls, but the good news is everybody’s right, and everybody wins.

Put cursor over title, see vid:
https://folkalley.com/top-25-favorites-of-2022-listener-poll-results/

Heard Anna Tivel's "Heroes" on the Saving Country Music SOTY playlist -- truly excellent, and am excited to dig into the album.

Have spent more time with Adeem -- can't shake this feeling that a few of his tunes are straight Lori McKenna knock offs.