An outright street fight of mammoth proportions is breaking out on Music Row in Nashville, pitting two of Music Row’s heaviest hitters against each other, Mike Curb of Curb Records, representing the old guard and the heavy-handed restrictive way of handling artists, and the up-and-comer, Scott Borchetta, the Country Music Anti-Christ as the two men release competing singles from Tim McGraw.
This biggest question heading into the release of Don Williams’ And So It Goes was what would change in Don’s sound after an 8-year hiatus from recording, 18 years after last working with long-time producer Garth Fundis, a quasi-retirement, and an induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame? Well the answer is positively nothing, and that’s what makes And So It Goes such a treasure.
Though Americana may be a less-institutionalized and much smaller genre that tends to have better music and promote artists that are easier to respect, sometimes it can seem almost as exclusive as Music Row. So here is a list of artists that even considering Americana’s heavy requirements, could make it big and improve the Americana world if only given a chance.
Sometimes you just have to stop pontificating so much about music and just play it. That is what the Saving Country Music Radio podcast is for. Even if you have no time or desire to listen, please pilfer the playlist for ideas for what we’re listening to right now. This episode is co-hosted by Earl Dibbles Jr. (well, sort of), who just released a new single, and prominently features my favorite new album from Eric Strickland.
A couple of weeks after Jason Aldean’s country rap “Dirt Road Anthem” went triple-platinum, Taylor Swift was in Nashville shooting a video for an upcoming single “Both of Us” with hip-hop artists B.o.B. to be featured on B.o.B’s upcoming album Strange Clouds. Swift first shared the spotlight with the Georgia-based rapper in 2011 during the Dallas leg of her “Speak Now” tour.
Last weekend, former Drive By Trucker turned solo artist Jason Isbell, let fire a tweet that read in part, “I just don’t see how any genre of music needs “saving” or “reclaiming.” I don’t know if this tweet was meant for Saving Country Music or of it was just coincidental, but it raises a point that comes up often on a site named Saving Country Music, will country music ever be saved?
Congratulations Carrie Underwood fans, haters, apologists, and detractors who’ve been swept up by this story, you’ve just been played by a sensationalizing British tabloid with an overt political agenda. Why was Carrie Underwood asked about gay marriage in the first place? Why should we even care what Carrie Underwood thinks about gay marriage or any other political wedge issue?
It is difficult to describe Tongues of Fire without comparing it to Joseph’s first solo album Bury Me Where I Fall which in contrast was very dark from deep and intelligent songwriting and eery chord structures. Tongues of Fire takes almost an exact opposite approach, with a lighter feel to virtually all these songs even when the lyrics deal with dark subject matter.
Granger Smith channels all true country fans’ worst enemy in the character Earl Dibbles Jr. for the new video and song “The Country Boy Song”, exposing the moronic, stereotypical, rehashed, and creatively-vacant world of corporate country’s checklist culture. This is what country music needs. To fight fire with fire.
I first used the phrase “Country Music Antichrist” in reference to Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta about 2 1/2 years ago. I’d like to hold my chin high and say I was being prophetic, but in truth at the time I just thought it was a nasty way to label the guy primarily responsible for the rise of Taylor Swift. Little did I know Borchetta would become one of the most powerful men in all of music.
Tom VandenAvond is one of these wheel guys. They may not be the flashiest of artists, but when you sit back and study the music, you find these wheel guys are essential to it in so many ways; how everything seems to revolve around them. They are the trunk from which so much other music grows. Trace the veins of the music and you find that their songs and work create foundations and inspiration.
Buddy Holly’s father had kept the motorcycle until 1970, when he sold it to someone in Austin, TX. Then in 1979 for Waylon’s 42nd birthday, the two remaining Crickets Joe B. and J.I. tracked down the 1959 Ariel Cyclone, bought it back, and had it hand delivered to north Texas where Waylon found it sitting there in the middle of his hotel room after walking off stage that night.
Some confusion always seems to dog my lists of top songs, because I’m not just looking for that catchy tune you can’t take off of repeat, I’m looking for the song that changes your world. For a song to qualify, it must be original, and barring exceptional circumstances, it must be composed by the performer. These are songs that take you somewhere.
I know I’m late to the party here, but dammit, this video is just so damn good I must expound on it. There’s so much genius in it in fact, I can’t help but think some of it is completely accidental. And the way it plays to both Caitlin Rose’s strengths and weaknesses is wickedly smart. Such depth and attention in music videos these days is too rare.
There are many fair criticisms that I am susceptible to. However other criticisms, many based on assumptions, are completely unfounded. Yet to be fair to the folks that may be making these accusations, I understand that I and this website are polarizing entities and so this comes with the territory. So to answer some of these criticisms, I’ve put together some explanations of SCM’s most common criticisms.
Take the insane punk blues of the two-piece Left Lane Cruiser, add the shirtless, sweat-drenched James Leg from the Black Diamond Heavies, and then put them in charge of reviving some of the most legendary songs in blues music, and you’ve got an album dangerous enough to require a prescription. Painkillers, the new cover album due out 6/26/12 on Alive Natural Sound Records.
It’s pretty simple,” explains CMT spokesperson Harold Frankenfurter. “You can’t have a ‘Male Video of the Year’ winner who is in fact of the opposite gender. We want to be very respectful of Luke Bryan’s sexual persuasion and life choices, but we do feel it is unfair to the other nominees to give him the award with ‘Male’ in the title when he is in fact a woman.”
This is what Saving Country Music is all about. This is the reason I put my pants on every morning. Everything else is just fluff, filibustering, treading water until I come across that one artist, that one album that embodies everything true country fans are looking for but have yet to find. That is what you have with Eric Strickland and his band The B Sides, and their album Honky Tonk Till I Die.
Neil Young’s Americana, his first album with backing band Crazy Horse in 9 years, embodies the full range of feelings I have about Neil Young in general. You see, I hate Neil Young. Positively can’t stand the dude. At the same time I think he is a mad musical genius that deserves all the rights and privileges the moniker “Music Treasure” can bestow.
This week NBC’s reality TV show “America’s Got Talent” showcased a country singer named Tim Poe. Poe claimed to be an 14-year military veteran who had been injured by a rocket propelled grenade in Afghanistan that gave him stuttering disorder. The problem is, according to numerous reports, Tim Poe’s story is a sham.
There’s never been a question in anyone’s mind if Johnny Cash actually shot a man in Reno just to watch him die. But that lyric, and Johnny’s song “Folsom Prison Blues” have gone on to become an iconic piece of country music history. This language was nothing new in 1955. Murder ballads and gunslinger tales trace back to the very roots of country music and America’s Gothic, violent identity.
If 90% of the stuff they play on country radio these days is crap, then Alan represents the 10%. He’s the one respite when the Mrs. or kiddos flip over to 98.1 you don’t want to reach for a 9mm and point it at either your audio interface or your own pie hole. And unlike George Strait, Alan has the skins on the wall of writing a lot of his own material and other memorable achievements for real country fans.
Quick to discount the young songstress, this is the first accusation you will see to why Taylor Swift’s success is a sham. Does Taylor Swift’s dad own Swift Trucking? Did he buy a bunch of albums and park them in a warehouse to artificially bloat sales numbers? Did her dad along with Scott Borchetta con Taylor’s first manager? Or is this all a side show to Taylor’s simple success and appeal?
2012 so far has been a remarkable year for top flight albums throughout the country world. That compelled me to tweak my regular mid-year format to not just include any album that has received a positive review (though these are all listed at the bottom), but instead highlight the ones that I think have a serious chance to be considered for Album of the Year.
