This is going to be a long one. So for those short of attention, let me summarize by saying that compared to most of the independent/Outlaw/underground country I am used to listening to and reviewing, this album is somewhere between mediocre and average. But compared to the rest of the material coming from major labels in Nashville, this album is remarkable.
The standout in this album is Dale’s voice. He exhibits superlative control and wide wisdom singing his parts that come across confidently, without any sign of weakness or chipped paint even after years of honky tonkin’ and road doggin’. If Nashville had tried to strap an Auto-tuner to him, he would have fried the machine from the complexity of runs, and the diversity of volume and note changes just in a simple, short phrase. Nashville younguns take note of a master…
I think it is important when we talk about saving country music, that we don’t work from a position of envy. In truth the joke is on them. They may have the big money, the control of the radio stations and the media. But we have each other, and true themes mined from real life experiences. Let them have their fake world, we have real music…
On Friday (8-27-10) I saw Ruby Jane Smith perform at The Kessler Theater in Dallas, TX. I was going to write a review for the show, and then write Ruby a fan letter because I was so moved by the performance. As I was writing the letter I noticed I was writing a quasi review as well, and so I decided to post it here in lieu of a traditional review.
The Folk Singer is the exact right movie for this very moment in time. It courageously reaches down to the deepest measure of the human soul and spirit and mines what cannot be expressed in words. It says what we are all thinking, but were incapable heretofore of saying. You watch this movie and say, […]
In one respect, we live in a blessed time in country music. If it was 1986, the superpickers of our generation would be stuffing a sock down the front of their spandex tights as hair designers kink their bangs and perm their mullet, getting them ready to go on stage and pull some ungodly bad […]
On Friday night I was supposed to be long gone from Dallas, TX. But plans changed as they sometimes do, and I was able to cash in the consolation prize of watching two overlords of old school country cross paths at one of the best venues in the country in what turned out to be […]
When maestro mandolin player and songwriter Jayke Orvis left the .357 String Band, some heavy metal transplants were screeching that he took all of their grittiness, guts, and anger with him. Taking that theory to its natural conclusion, I guess a few were expecting his solo project to be some sort of bloodletting ritual that […]
Some might have though that this day would never happen, but with The Reverend Deadeye’s new album The Trials & Tribulations Of…, the Lord Jesus Christ is cool once again. The amount of one man band’s busting out of local scenes and making their way into the national eye has in no way diluted the […]
I’m convinced. Ruby Jane was sent to earth by God to save country music. All accolades I lapped on the 15-year-old fiddle-playing fenom when I said You Need Ruby Jane In Your Life were validated, if not proved to be too tempered after seeing her live at Dallas’s historic Kessler Theater on Friday. Really, I […]
Wow. Well if you head isn’t already spinning from the caliber of recent REAL country music releases, it will be now. Lucky Tubb & The Modern Day Troubadours team up with the legendary Wayne “The Train” Hancock for an old school comic book style dynamic duo one two punch to the gut of mainstream pop […]
I picture a post-Apolcolyptic scene: ghost towns full of crumbling buildings and rubble, smoke filling the sky and blocking out the sun, the result of a society that gave no value to art, heritage, and truth; a vast wasteland of grayness. Then all of a sudden in the midst of all the death and decay, […]
I’m going to have a lot to say about this record, but the upshot is that its damn good. It is an improvement from Hank III’s last offering Damn Right, Rebel Proud. It may not be his best album, or the album of the year, but considering all the different factors Hank had to juggle […]
As part of the Tribeca Film Festival, the long awaited film about the White family of West Virginia called The Wild & Wonderful Whites has been made available through some pay-per-view and on-demand services (check your provider), and through Amazon.com. Just about a year ago this week, this film created high controversy when the trailer […]
When you hear the name Roger Alan Wade you’re likely to hear somewhere before or after “Johnny Knoxville’s cousin.” Not that anything is wrong with being Knoxville’s cousin, or even maybe using that to help your music career, but Roger has songs numbering in the hundreds. He’s written for Johnny Cash, George Jones, Willie Nelson, […]
Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers are proof positive that even bands on the fringes of punk and psychobilly are more country than mainstream country these days. Frontman Col. JD Wilkes has the heart of Hasil Adkins, the body of Lux Interior, and more knowledge and wisdom of the ways of country music than all of the […]
(Note: This is a COUNTRY music website. But because we’ve followed Shooter’s transition from country to rock, because his father is the Flying W, and because he was playing at the Roger Alan Wade show I was at, I decided to write a review. No bellyaching; we will resume our regular countrified programming shortly.) When […]
In some ways, I should hate Hellbound Glory and their new album, Old Highs and New Lows. I’ve been on the warpath lately against artists and bands who think being REAL country means shoehorning as many drug and whiskey references as possible into your songs. And though there’s not a track on this album that […]
Seeing Denver’s Slim Cessna’s Auto Club live is a religious experience. And if you’ve ever seen them, you know that calling it “religious” is less of a descriptive tool, and more of a pun. This is one of those bands that I’d heard for years how I must see live, and without question, they lived […]
For the modern day underground country fan, going to a Hank III show is a no brainer. Even if you’ve gotten sideways with his recent sound, you go. It’s Hank III. It is the one show you make sure to catch that year. And you see people you haven’t seen since that last Hank III […]
Perfect hair is an unattainable goal for many Americans. Forget about genetics for a moment, and just think about the wide varying humidity and barometric pressure that we can experience here in the United States. It can wreak havoc on even the most ideal head of God given locks. And then all those hair products, […]
I’ll be honest with you: Even though some of my favorite country artists right now are offspring of other famous country artists, whenever I see a new one coming up, I always roll my eyes. I’m not sure why, but in my head I think, “How good could they really be?” But time and time […]
I’m gonna start this off with a prediction: Either this album will be some groundbreaking marquee release in rock n’ roll history, or it will be the most curious find in the bargain bin in short order. It is pure genius, or an unforgivable stroking of ego. Either way, Shooter Jennings, son of Waylon, is […]