Archive for April, 2007
Sunday, April 29th, 2007
The original version of “I’ll Stand By You” by The Pretenders is a love anthem that is part tenderness, part defiance. In covering this standard from the early nineties, Carrie Underwood transforms it into a vulnerable, passionate country song. Rather than do a paint-by-numbers cover, she strips the song of its original piano and power-chord theatrics and sings it with just an acoustic guitar and gorgeous fiddle, a choice that should by all laws of reason and logic make it impossible for her version to match the emotional impact of the original, since all she has to sell the song is her voice.
But good Lord, what a voice. It’s not just being able to hit the notes that makes an effective singer, but knowing when to hold back and when to let go. Carrie Underwood is a stunningly effective country singer because she lets the lyric guide the way; she understands that it’s the song is what counts, and the singer just the messenger delivering it. The result is a transformation of a song we’ve all heard countless times into something brand new. She drops the rough outer skin of the original that was needed for it to be an effective rock ballad, and the song is reborn as a fearless declaration of true love, country style.
It’s time to stop dancing around the obvious. Carrie Underwood is clearly the most gifted female vocalist to grace the country charts in a generation, and there’s no point in pretending the jury is still out on that claim. Please, no more caveats that she’s too new or unproven to stand among the greats. It didn’t take two albums for Trisha Yearwood or Wynonna Judd to prove their talents were otherworldly, and Carrie Underwood is the first woman in a decade and a half that is worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as those two legendary vocalists. We’re witnessing the early recordings of a woman who will be one of the definitive country artists of our time. Start taking notes and paying close attention. History is being made every time she sings.
Grade: A+
Listen/Watch: I’ll Stand By You
Buy: I’ll Stand By You
More Carrie Underwood:
Carrie Underwood, Dixie Chicks Claim Top Digital Country Crowns
Country Rocks the Grammys as Chicks, Carrie Clean Up
Carrie Underwood Joins the Five Million Club
Single Review: Carrie Underwood, “Wasted”
Friday, April 27th, 2007
Here’s what’s been catching my attention today:
Album Reviews
City Girl, Country Girl has high praise for the new John Prine & Mac Wiseman release Standard Songs For Average People:
The sound of the album is refreshing. The traditional country instruments — dobro, mandolin, fiddle, guitars of all varieties — are allowed to shine without the over-processed, overwhelming production values that mar much of modern country music. (Though the cover art depicts Prine and Wiseman playing guitar, the liner notes indicate that they both play guitar on only “Old Rugged Cross” and Prine plays guitar on “Don’t Be Ashamed of Your Age.”) The background vocals on “Saginaw Michigan” and “Old Cape Cod” create a retro, polished feel like the women who sang the call letters for 1940s radio stations.
Meanwhile, Entertainment Weekly friggin’ loves the new Miranda Lambert, and slips in a subtle dig at Taylor Swift while praising the project:
Crisp-voiced Texan Miranda Lambert’s breakout single, 2005′s ”Kerosene,” gave her a homicidal rep that she embraces on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, her second CD. In ”Gunpowder & Lead,” she waits with a shotgun for her abusive man; the title track has her toting a pistol to confront her ex’s new flame. But fear not, gun-control advocates: The nonviolent side of small-town yearnings is here too (love the lazy back-roads hum of ”Desperation”). And even if her fiery temper’s not for everyone, she never stoops to teardrops-on-my-guitar banalities. A-
And I love seeing the praise roll in for Rhinestoned, the Pam Tillis album that earned five stars from me last week. Nashville Scene is the latest to send up the hosannas:
Pam Tillis’ Rhinestoned sounds well-mannered upon first listening, but reveals itself as a series of meditations on time and innocence, and as a sumptuous recasting of the country-rock of Gram Parsons and The Gosdin Brothers. It’s a brilliantly sequenced set of songs that looks at success from the vantage point of someone who has seen through all the deception and emerged with a functioning sense of humor.
Politics, Anyone?
Via The 9513, here’s the latest Chet Flippo column, which details how presidential politics are spilling over to country music:
This week, candidate John Edwards’ campaign announced that a new country CD will be sent out to anyone who donates $50 or more to his campaign. The CD, Moneyland, includes a number of country artists. Here’s his campaign message about it:
“If you chip in $50 or more, you’ll receive a free advance copy of the not-yet-released CD Moneyland. Moneyland tells the story of the plight of rural America, through a collection of recordings, both old and new, from legendary country and bluegrass recording artists, including: The Del McCoury Band, Merle Haggard, [Gillian] Welch, Marty Stuart, Emmylou Harris, Bruce Hornsby & the Fairfield Four, Mac Wiseman, Patty Loveless and more.”
I’m not a huge Edwards fan – he’s a bit heavy on Crest White Strips smiles and light on actual substantive experience for me. But he’s got a hell of a mix CD.
Haggard’s playing both sides of the fence though, as he’s also pushing Hillary in a song by the same name:
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Friday, April 27th, 2007
Joe Nichols, “Another Side of You”
Nichols is the perfect singer for material like this. The song manages to sing of loving a woman’s weaknesses without condescension and of her daily challenges with quite a tinge of sympathy. The emphasis is more on how overwhelmed the woman is and how the man can’t believe she gets it all done, so the lines about her burning the coffee and waking up in a pissy mood don’t have that “I love my little idiot” tone that’s been around since Bobby Goldsboro’s “Honey.” It’s a great song for Mother’s Day, come to think of it. Good stuff.
Grade: B+
Listen: Another Side of You
More Joe Nichols:
CMA Flashback: Horizon Award
Friday, April 27th, 2007
Carmen Rasmusen, “Nothin’ Like Summer”
Sweet and nostalgic, the debut single from season two American Idol finalist Carmen Rassmusen bounces along pleasantly. Her vocal is actually stronger when she isn’t squeezing in the high note trilly runs that are supposed to be the hook. Unlike last year’s summer anthems by Kenny Chesney and Faith Hill, “Nothin’ Like the Summer” is a lot more about looking back at summers gone by than getting ready for the one ahead. It’s a bit like Wynonna’s “Flies on the Butter” without the melancholy.
Grade: B
Listen: Nothin’ Like Summer
Monday, April 23rd, 2007
Too much good stuff out there to wait. Here’s what’s caught my eye around the net today:
Slant Praise for Dale Watson, Twang Nation Joins CMT Awards Backlash
One week after awarding four stars to Pam Tillis for Rhinestoned, Slant writer Jonathan Keefe is similarly enthused for the new Dale Watson album:
From The Cradle To The Grave is an album of remarkable depth and complexity (that is, with the exception of the atonal “Hollywood Hillbilly,” a shout-out to Johnny Knoxville), tackling issues of spiritual and intellectual resonance. And, with only one of its 10 songs exceeding three minutes, it’s also an incredibly dense record (Watson puts more into a single line than most Music Row acts put into a whole career’s worth of albums), making it just that much more forceful a gut-punch.
I’ll be checking that album out tomorrow on his recommendation. Keefe also slips in a jab at the CMT Music Awards last week, calling it a “vile, hateful spectacle.” That’s tame compared to Baron Lane’s take – CMT Music Awards: Still Blows - over at alt-country haven Twang Nation:
There was a moment of true grace and emotion on the program, but it had nothing to do with the three-ring pyrotechnic circus of bland performances by Toby Keith and Rascal Flatts. It was when Rosanne Cash presented Kris Kristofferson the Johnny Cash Visionary Award. Kritofferson was visibly moved, gracious and his amazing life and legacy was briefly detailed before he accepted. It was a brief moment of sincerity in an otherwise facile showcase of mediocrity.
While you’re checking out the archives of that awesome blog, take note of his recent review of the new Elizabeth Cook album, Balls – as in, “Sometimes it takes balls to be a woman” - and his opinion of Shut Up and Sing, a documentary about three Texas women with some pretty big balls of their own.
More Reviews at The 9513, iCF Music
The 9513 has chimed in with a review of Bucky Covington’s debut CD – Brady gives it three stars - and a fascinating write-up of Dale Watson’s show at the Broken Spoke which is as much a celebration of the artist as it is the venue.
The spotlight turns to Waylon Payne over at iCF music, where “Her” from Payne’s 2004 album Drifter is discussed in depth. The format at that site has inspired a new feature here called Choice Cuts, which will spotlight album tracks from older albums. I’ll refrain from pimping a Pam Tillis cut until iCF covers her first!
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Monday, April 23rd, 2007
Martina McBride, “How I Feel”
This is the most generic love song I’ve heard in a long, long time. She sings it beautifully, and with more restraint that she’s been known for recently. It’s just not a very interesting song. The best part of the record are the Beatlesque strings towards the end.
Grade: B-
Listen: How I Feel
Buy: How I Feel
Monday, April 23rd, 2007
Keith Urban, “I Told You So”
Kick anything off with a tin whistle that has a Celtic feel, and you’ve got my attention. I love Urban’s most recent album because he expands on his basic signature sound. Doesn’t hurt that the material is stronger, either. Here, Urban makes a pact with his wayward lover who has returned: “Don’t say that you’re sorry, and I won’t say I told you so.” The instrumental bridge is like nothing I’ve ever heard before, on a country record or otherwise.
Grade: A
Listen: I Told You So
Buy: I Told You So
Monday, April 23rd, 2007
Keith Anderson, “Sunday Morning in America”
Remember that Craig Morgan hit “That’s What I Love About Sunday”? How about the Johnny Cash classic “Sunday Morning Coming Down”? Two completely different portraits of the Lord’s day from two completely different perspectives. This new Anderson single has both those outlooks and then some, imagining what the morning is like for everybody from a mother who takes the Lord’s name in vain while looking for a church parking space, to a homeless man being ignored by the joggers that run by him. It’s patriotic without being pandering, and captures a wide swath of the American experience. It’s pretty darn good.
Grade: B+
Listen: Sunday Morning in America
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Worth Reading:
April 21, 2007
There are some interesting stories, reviews and opinion pieces floating around the ‘net this week, many of which deal with what’s been talked about on Country Universe in recent days.
CMT Music Awards
The CMT Music Awards that I live-blogged on Monday were apparently not only despised by me. Check out this Tennessean piece that Roger flagged in the comments of the Idol live blog. Some highlights:
To Jeff Foxworthy: You might be a lousy host for the CMT Music Awards if …
• You launched into a needlessly exclusionary rant near the end of an otherwise decent awards show Monday night, telling viewers that country music is only for people who don’t question wars and regularly attend church.
• You gratuitously — and humorlessly — piled on to a heap of worn-out jabs against the Dixie Chicks as well as a down-on-his-luck Opry veteran, just the thing to rile up an auditorium partly filled with college students who have never heard of Stonewall Jackson.
I think the writer nails it when he adds, “He Wasn’t Just Not Funny”:
Award shows have had, of course, lots of hosts who are just not funny. But Foxworthy went from simply lacking humor to something bordering on a bizarre burst of defensiveness or anger.
Here’s a snippet of his introduction to an inspiring Martina McBride performance that ended the show: “You can call us rednecks if you want. We’re not offended, ’cause we know what we’re all about. We get up and go to work, we get up and go to church, and we get up and go to war when necessary.” Um … OK … were you responding to somebody in particular or just the paranoid voices in your head?
Brody at The 9513 thinks this writer is being too sensitive and recommends a “thicker skin”, but I agree with everything that the Tennessean writer said. Foxworthy showed a lack of respect for the genre’s heritage and some of its biggest artists, conveniently those who happened to not be in the audience. I’ve been a fan of this genre for seventeen years, and this new era of nastiness is beneath contempt. My advice: go back and study Vince Gill’s CMA hosting gigs before attempting to be funny. Only the most juvenile and ignorant comedian needs to attack to get a laugh.
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Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Whiskey Falls, “Last Train Running”
Yes. Yes yes yes yes yes. This is what I’m talking about. I get a lot of backlash here when I beat up on a single by a new artist, but the debut Whiskey Falls single is proof positive that you can get it all right the first time out: distinctive sound, fantastic song and a pitch-perfect performance. There are already so many acts out there, new and old, that you have to establish your “reason to be” right off the bat.
Whiskey Falls does that, and then some, on their debut single “Last Train Running.” It’s the story of a man contemplating his mortality long before he’ll ever need to confront it, but he’s asking all of the right questions. Has the good outweighed the bad in my life? Will I be forgiven not only by God, but by my enemies and friends? Will I be remembered, or just another name carved in stone?
This is no weepy piano ballad or dramatic, string-drenched anthem. It’s simply produced, with your standard faux southern-rock backdrop, but it works because it is so understated. Patty Loveless once said that her job as a singer was to not get in the way of the lyric. Whiskey Falls has a fantastic lyric to work with, and they allow it to shine. Their harmonies are reminiscent of a young Alabama. Every single moment is believable.
Here’s hoping that listeners get a chance to hear this amazing debut. If you miss the days when Vocal Group awards went to substantive acts instead of pandering boy bands, the dark ages just might be coming to an end.
Grade: A
Listen: Last Train Running
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