Country Universe – A Country Music Blog

Single Reviews: June 18, 2005

Saturday, June 18th, 2005

The new Rodney Crowell single is by far the best of the bunch this week. It might be the best single of the year so far.

AARON LINES “It Takes A Man” (BNA)
Once again, he surprises me. This record about a surprise pregnancy is thankfully subtle and restrained; bonus points for not saying definitively whether or not he sticks around.

AARON TIPPIN “Come Friday” (Lyric Street)
He’s always been one of my favorite male vocalists – instantly recognizable from the first line he sings. These working-man anthems are what he does best.

ALISON KRAUSS & UNION STATION “Goodbye Is All We Have” (Rounder)
Not the best of the potential singles off of Lonely Runs Both Ways, but still a good listen. Her voice soars on this one.

CARRIE UNDERWOOD “Inside Your Heaven” (Arista)
I believe Simon was right, and that she will be the biggest-selling American Idol winner ever. Her voice is unbelievable, and perfectly suited for country music. She can sell even a trite love song like this; once she gets great material for her voice, she’ll be unstoppable.

COWBOY TROY & SARAH BUXTON “If You Don’t Wanna Love Me” (Warner Bros.)
I can’t believe what a great record this is. Buxton’s voice interacts perfectly with the lyric and Troy’s rap, if that’s what you can call it. He’s calling this hick-hop, but the roots of those old spoken country records are surfacing more prominently than any hip-hop roots here.

JESSICA ANDREWS “Summer Girl” (DreamWorks)
She’s developing into a fine artist. This is very well-written, and captures being in your early twenties pretty well. Any record where a girls says “boys, don’t get more than your hopes up” is worth a listen.

JO DEE MESSINA “Delicious Surprise (I Believe It)” (Curb)
I’m a bit disappointed that Curb went with this as the second single instead of the stellar “Where Were You”, but on its own merits, this is a catchy and motivating little record.

KEVIN FOWLER “Don’t Touch My Willie” (Equity)
I think even Willie Nelson himself would have to be very, very high to find this funny; I’m assuming the crowd that’s laughing along already was.

LEANN RIMES “Probably Wouldn’t Be This Way” (Curb)
What a heartbreaking song; possibly the best thing she’s ever recorded.

LISA BROKOP “Big Picture” (Asylum/Curb)
Soccer moms rejoice – you have an anthem.

RODNEY CROWELL “Dancin’ Circles ‘Round The Sun (Epictetus Speaks)” (DMZ)
Mind-blowingly good – a good fifteen or twenty life lessons in under five minutes. A genius walks among us.

Single Reviews: June 4, 2005

Saturday, June 4th, 2005

This week, the clear leader of the pack is Sawyer Brown, with their best single in a good decade.

CLINT BLACK “Rainbow In The Rain” (Equity)
Back in his prime, his name could’ve carried a weightless ditty like this into the top five. Now, it will probably fall on deaf ears.

DREW DAVIS BAND “Back There All The Time” (Windswept)
Did this guy run 50 laps before putting down his vocal track? He sounds out of breath.

JACE EVERETT “That’s The Kind Of Love I’m In” (Epic)
A dull rewrite of “Daydreams About Night Things.”

KENI THOMAS featuring BLACKHAWK “Gloryland” (Moraine)
They’re on their way to Gloryland. Hopefully, this won’t be playing there.

LILA McCANN “I Can Do This” (Broken Bow)
Sure you can. But do you have to?

SAWYER BROWN “They Don’t Understand” (Curb)
A powerful case for patience with others, particularly strangers. The second verse manages to articulate in moral terms why I hate tailgaters and people who honk others who drive too slowly in front of them.

VAN ZANT “Help Somebody” (Columbia)
Like the Sawyer Brown track, this also appeals to the best of human nature. A Southern Rockers’ take on the golden rule that is very satisfying.

Dwight Yoakam, Blame the Vain

Saturday, June 4th, 2005

Dwight Yoakam
Blame The Vain

When Dwight Yoakam releases a new album, one thing is certain: you’re going to hear a lot of different variations on the singular theme of heartbreak. In just about every song he writes – and he wrote them all here – he’s been dumped, or is about to get dumped, or is doing the dumping himself. Blame The Vain is no exception.

What is new, and refreshing, is the decidedly retro flavor that has Dwight using the simplest and cleanest production since his earliest records. The songs are strong enough to pull this approach off – a classic country weeper like “Does It Show” needs no bells and whistles (or Mariachi horns, which have saturated Yoakam’s recent work.) His dry wit shines on the title track and “Three Good Reasons.”

I have no idea what the hell is going on in the first minute of “She’ll Remember” – Dwight speaking in fake British accent over what sounds like a soundtrack to a B-level Sci-Fi film – but I can offer no insights, just that it made me laugh out loud.

Other than that 60-second detour, this is just another Dwight Yoakam album – well-sung, well-writtten and well-produced. Twenty years and nearly as many albums into his career, he’s as good as ever. In this one-hit wonder era of country music, a legend still at the top of his game is both comforting and immensly satisfying to hear.