Saving Country Music, along with Muddy Roots and Cracker Swamp have teamed up with Hillgrass Bluebilly’s 5th Annual XSXSW showcase to create a two day, three stage event for the edification of the underground roots fan, and to help represent the independent roots community to the rest of the independent music world.
So Al Jourgensen, the Cuban-born front man and founder of the Industrial band Ministry has made himself a country album under the pseudonym “Buck Satan & The 666 Shooters”. An overall take on this album would be that it is a rushed, tracked-out, wank-off, studio vanity electronico side-project with little heart.
Whether it is punk bands that simply interchange their electric instruments for acoustic ones, or bands that have a more traditional country sound, but overload it with “whiskey, devil, and drug” references, parody in the “punk gone country” movement has become a problem primarily by the way these artists can typecast other country punk bands, fans, and entities.
The Anderson Family Bluegrass Band from Grass Valley is an inspiration, and this live album recorded right in their hometown community is an excellent reminder and example of how strong family and community built through music can have such a greater impact on the soul and heart than just music itself.
Every once in a while a song comes along in country music that really inspires you. ..and then there’s Toby Keith’s toast to the onset of idiocracy, “Red Solo Cup”. But believe it or not, the song did inspire Bo Phillips, brother of Stoney LaRue, whose video of a “Red Solo Cup” parody called “Blue Dixie Cup” recorded at the legendary Gruene Hall in Texas is making the rounds.
Farmageddon Records, home to such roots acts as Rachel Brooke, Jayke Orvis, and The Goddamn Gallows, has announced they’re throwing a full-scale, 3 day festival this summer, July 20-22, just outside of scenic West Yellowstone, Montana, behind the Longhorn Saloon on Hebgen Lake.
This music comes at you like some crazy berserker dude kicking and swinging nun chucks, or a rooster with razor blades tied to its talons flying at your head. You may not exactly know what’s going on at first, but it certainly will get your heart pumping. Restavrant doesn’t play music for you, they beat you over the head with it.
The premise appears to be to ship a bunch of yahoos from the South up to The Hamptons in New York, and have them behave like a troupe of Barnum & Baily hillbilly oddities for the bemusement of New England’s sniveling upper crust, all while middle class suburbanites sit at home and live the stereotypical corporate country life vicariously through these redneck caricatures.
This weekend, former guitarist for the Drive By Truckers and current solo artist Jason Isbell accused Dierks Bentley of ripping off his song “In A Razor Town”. This is only going to become more and more common, and much harder to sort out as every single pattern and possibility of notes and chords gets occupied by the unnecessary amount of songs, albums, and artists out there.
Old’s New Year’s Poem opens up a new chapter in his music, and name’s his most complete album yet; at least of the ones I’ve heard. There’s a great balance between his balls-out fuzz jams and heart-straining ballads, and a good flow from stem to stern. Like anything that good poetry comes from, New Year’s Poem is inspiring.
Now Saving Country Music has learned from a reliable source close to Waylon Jennings’ estate that the estate has “distanced” from the choosing of some of the artists on the tribute, especially on the second disc. The Waylon Estate says the family still supports the release of these volumes, but if it was left to them, a different set of contributors would have been chosen.
Wow. My little country music heart was sent reeling this morning when I rolled up to the track list and list of contributors for the new Waylon – The Music Inside, Vol. 2 compilation due out January 24th. The thing read like my lampoon of the unfinished Hank Williams songs, but unfortunately it is all too real folks.
And I don’t care if you don’t like Justin Townes Earle’s music. And I don’t care if Justin Townes Earle, his management or label, or anybody else gives a damn about my dumb little award. He probably thinks I’m an asshole, and you know what, I’m OK with that too. All I know is that in 2011, no other artist, none, inspired me more than Justin Townes Earle.
On Tuesday night (1-3-12) Jashie P Nutting, podcaster of Outlaw Radio Chicago, and operator of the Outlaw Radio Chicago network on Shooter Jennings’ blackcountryrock.org site, as well as a contributor’s to Shooter’s new “Moonrunners” blog site and an advocate for Shooter’s XXX music movement, threatened assault towards me, The Triggerman.
I think at this point it is pretty much a forgone conclusion that in 2012 we’re all going to die of death. You know, that whole Mayan thing. But I thought just to be on the safe side, just in case we all don’t die, we’ll probably want to listen to some music, so wouldn’t it be cool to know what some of your favorite artists have planned for 2012.
Late Night Lover’s tracks are quite strong. We have watched as Rachel Brooke has evolved from the conflict of her punk and country roots trying to mix and blend, to a classic, cohesive style that is all her own, and compliments one of the most naturally-blessed voices in country today. Late Night Lover is a gift that I am grateful for.
It may be years before something impresses us like this again. I’ve given many albums two guns up, and have and will hand out many Albums of the Year. But there’s only two albums I’ve reviewed that I’ve ever felt confident enough to refer to as masterpieces, and Slackeye Slim’s El Santo Grial, La Pistola Piadosa is one.
2012 will go down as the year that the roots music revolution went transcontinental, as the Muddy Roots Festival heads over to the Old World to storm the beaches of Europe with a ridiculous lineup of talent. Though the festival is happening in Europe, it will mostly feature American acts.
Alright, so we all had a good chuckle poking fun at the 6 Pop Country Archetypes, now let’s see what happens when I turn the poison pen towards the folks much more likely to frequent Saving Country Music; those folks that live on the fringes of the greater country music world.
It was an unbelievably strong field, and they all deserve to be recognized. But in the end what Willie Tea Taylor’s “Life Is Beautiful” had that no other candidate could match was poignancy. It’s also hard to deny a song that can make grown ass men cry, but Willy Tea’s poignancy is what really put him over the top for 2011.
Despite the safety, there is a good flow to this music, and a patience. In most music, you have a group of guys doing their best individually, hoping it fits in the context of the song. With Velvet, everyone is on board, listening to the music and what the song is calling for. It’s the difference of four horsemen riding side by side across the plain, or four horses yoked together.
As the headlines were making people wonder why anybody would ever sign with Curb in the first place, here was a big country star re-signing with the label he’s been with since 1996. We would later find out the potential reason for the curious move. On November 21st, police were called to the home of Rodney Atkins…
Well here it is, the end of December. The last few moments of 2011 are counting down, and yet completely unbeknown to us, right under our noses, one of the most expansive, imaginative, engaging, and inspiring projects all year is finally coming into full bloom. It is called Year of the Horse by the Cold Spring, KY-based Kentucky Struts.
Have you ever wondered who actually listens to those songs they play on pop country radio? Here are the six primary Archetypes, or as Music Row refers to them, “target demographics”, that make up the audience of the pop country world: The “Affliction T-Shirt “New Outlaw” Doucher”, “Bored Suburban Soccer Mom”, “Glitter-Faced Pop Country Girl”…
