You’re not quite sure exactly what message Angaleena Presley is trying to drive home when you first pull up the track. But things get turned up a big notch when Nashville resident and hip-hop artist Yelawolf, who is a well-known critic of arena rap and corporate country, goes careening into a tirade.
Is it wrong that every time I think about brothers Matthew and Gunnar, known collectively as the 90’s glam metal raid-your-sisters-closet bubblegum rock band Nelson, I think of a pair of overly affectionate and mostly albino Afghan hounds falling asleep with their heads on each others shoulders?
If you’re looking for names to populate your most anticipated projects to be released in 2015, putting Mo Pitney at or near the top would be a savvy choice. With a one in a million country voice conveyed in a smoothness we haven’t heard since Don Williams, Mo Pitney is a chill-inducing traditional country artist with a succulent pentameter and delivery, and a songwriter’s pen engorged with stories.
Last week Bieber, shirtless and bored, and joined by B-level rapping prospects—like he always seems to have hanging around him in an attempt to make it look like he has friends and any semblance of street cred—decided to take to Instagram and post a snippet of his mocking rendition of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.” Then later he posted a picture of himself wearing a cowboy hat sideways…
In the mid 2000’s, Tommy Ramone formed an old-time band with Claudia Tienan of the band The Simplistics called Uncle Monk. They released a self-titled album in March of 2006, and did numerous shows and tours around the country. Tommy played mandolin and some banjo, and in the old-school style, would lean into the microphone for solos instead of playing through a pickup.
Back in July of 2012, I placed my chips on the square that said that sometime in the future pop star Ke$ha would be a big player in the country music realm, and that when she did, she would be huge. Ke$ha’s mom is country songwriter Pebe Sebert that wrote the #1 hit “Old Flames (Can’t Hold a Candle To You)” for Dolly Parton amongst other notable compositions, and Ke$ha has professed her love for country music in the past.
Last month Justin Timberlake got the country music universe titillated when he said he may take a stab at country music in the future. Well now Timberlake is doubling down, and delving even deeper into the country music conversation, and what he’s saying is hinting that his move would be a more “adult” approach to country, even more akin to the classic modes of country he grew up with
There still is a very long way to go here, and much more to be revealed. I still remain speculative of the platinum blonde hair and where Jamie Lynn’s heart truly lies, and how easy it would be for her to make the first single one that allows her to slide past the guard of the country music gatekeepers only to later spring a big pop surprise. But I’ll be damned if her first single “How Could I Want More” is not bad at all.
“The country format is more pop than pop was when I came up two decades ago,” Sheryl explained to Reuters late last week when being interviewed about her new album, illustrating the degree of country’s move to pop in recent years. Of course Sheryl isn’t saying anything that some country fans haven’t been clamoring about for years, but Crow’s perspective and honesty speaks to the degree of change in country.
Over the last few years, country fans have come to expect a mixed bag from Hank3, whose veered more towards punk and heavy metal as time has gone on. His first two albums became staples of the early 2000’s neo-traditionalist movement, while 2006’s “Straight to Hell” was the beginning of a much harder sound. Hank3 is calling his upcoming album “Brothers of the 4×4” a traditional country record.
Where the country world comes in is in the heavy-handed and stark use of country and Southern influences in Paul’s Boutique, made by hip-hop pioneers from New York City. In many ways, country and Southern sounds and themes are the foundation for Paul’s Boutique. The problem with Paul’s Boutique was that it was not very popular in its time, and was considered a flop compared to License to Ill.
This Saturday, April 21st with be the 2012 installment of Record Store Day, the annual event started in 2007 to help the struggling independent record store. 2012 will go down as the year when country came busting through the Record Store Day scene with full representation, with so many projects being released taking stock of it all can be dizzying. So here is your 2012 Country Music Record Store Day Field Guide.
As simply as I can put it, making the case that spoken word and rapping in music are the same thing is an ignorance-based insult to the artistic integrity and creativity of both spoken word and rap artists, and to the intelligence of anyone who that case is being made to. Battling the infiltration of country rap is hard enough without revising history.
Hey Ryan, it’s me, Country Music. I’ve been hearing some interesting things lately, about how you’re eager to dispel that your music is country. This puts me in a weird position, because I’m used to people using my name to call things “country” that are not. But I heard your first two albums, and though I wouldn’t say they are solidly country…
Well, at least REM guitarist Peter Buck, and Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody. And hell, throw in movie starlet Zooey Deschanel as well, why not, and you have the supergroup Tired Pony. I already have tired head thinking about this. On July 12th the band will be putting out an album called The Place We […]
I love that pop country has become so contrived and transparent, that even other pop stars and people like Kid Rock can see right through the sham. Some people have been waiting for Billy Ray’s daughter to join the ranks of pop country, surmising that it’s not if, but when. But instead Miley Cyrus joined […]
On March 3rd, Shooter Jennings, son of Waylon Jennings will be releasing his fourth album, and it will be about as country as concrete fields. It is entitled Black Ribbons, and the first single “Wake Up” will premier on Dec. 22nd. ““Black Ribbons” features the debut of Shooter’s new band Hierophant, who inspired him to […]
When Newsweek published an article calling out pop country a while back, I declared this was an important moment: a mainstream news outlet shining a big light on the sham of Nashville. Another reason I knew it was important was because Nashville took it like a shot right across the bow and came out swinging. […]
In my last post I talked about how singer/songwriter Six Gun Britt had decided to try out for American Idol. Inspired by her residents and co-workers at the nursing home she worked at in Kentucky, Six Gun Britt went out a grueling journey to Atlanta and back, and this was the conclusion in Six Gun’s […]
When I think about a good way to personify pop country, I think of a pig; a big, bloated, lazy, garish and gluttonous pig laying around in its own filth and slops. And this pig recently had piglets, with swollen nipples dotting its underbelly. And fighting for a chance with the sweet, sweet nectar of […]
When I first asserted that Shooter Jennings was quitting country music, there were some that said good riddance, others saying “say it ain’t so,” some that outright disagreed with the premise that Shooter could do such a thing, and a few who were looking forward to this potentially new direction. There were also some hoping […]
First thoughts that Shooter Jennings might be calling country music quits surfaced when Shooter’s label, Universal South announced that they were releasing a Greatest Hits album, Bad Magick: The Best of Shooter Jennings & 357’s. Since it hasn’t been even five years that Shooter has been doing the country thing, this release seemed a little […]