Archive for April, 2007
Friday, April 20th, 2007
Jason Michael Carroll, “Livin’ Our Love Song”
This is cool. I’m used to anniversary-type songs being ballads, like “Look At Us” or “Remember When.” The main conceit of the song – they didn’t think we’d make it, but we did – is reminiscent of “You’re Still the One”, but it’s hardly a retread. I love that it’s an uptempo celebration of a love that’s beaten the odds. I wasn’t a big fan of his child abuse-themed debut single, “Alyssa Lies”, but I’m digging this.
Grade: B+
Listen: Livin’ Our Love Song
Buy: Livin’ Our Love Song
Friday, April 20th, 2007
Clay Walker, “Fall”
Clay Walker was the mid-nineties radio king when it came to sappy romantic songs, taking over for Doug Stone when his stock fell. Sap like “Rumor Has It”, “Watch This”, “Hypnotize the Moon” and the like. So I always get nervous when I hear him kick off a romantic ballad.
But what’s different about Walker these days is that he’s quite a bit older, and a better singer to boot. So “Fall” comes off as sincere rather than cloying, as his vocal is so much more believable. He sounds like a husband trying to support an overwhelmed wife, rather than an earnest kid trying to charm a girl’s pants off. This is another good single from an artist who has fully come into his own.
Grade: B+
Listen: Fall
Buy: Fall
Wednesday, April 18th, 2007
Bucky Covington
Bucky Covington
The latest American Idol castaway to wash up on the shores of country radio is 2006 eighth-placer Bucky Covington, who sees his debut album hit stores a little over a year since he was sent home. That’s a lot more time between leaving the show and hitting record stores than we usually see for an Idol debut; Carrie Underwood and Kellie Pickler both released albums before the end of the year, with only months to both finish the summer tour and record the project.
Listening to Covington’s debut, it’s easy to make the case for taking more time, as this is a very consistent album, despite a few stumbles here and there. He kicks off the album with a hard country-rocker “American Friday Night”, and he sounds fantastic. His voice has rough edges without sounding forced, and he is fully believable celebrating small-town living it up. But he sounds like a completely different singer on the second track “A Different World,” the lead single that irritates the hell out of me. The difference is jarring, with Covington singing in a high-pitched, overdone twang. If I heard these two songs on the radio, I would think it was two different artists.
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Tuesday, April 17th, 2007
I can’t believe I did this two nights in a row.
Final Thoughts: Country night was much better than usual, and I credit Martina McBride for being a fantastic coach, along with better song choices. I actually think the contestants showed more respect and even understanding of country music than those who were on the CMT Awards last night. My guess for the bottom two: Chris Richardson and Lakisha Jones, with Richardson going home. I think Sanjaya will be in the bottom three but sent to safety. Guess I’ll blog the results, too.
As it happened:
8:00 Ryan Seacrest gives a shout-out to the victims of the Virginia shooting immediately, already showing more class than Jeff Foxworthy last night.
8:01 Fantastic intro for Martina McBride. Even I was surprised that she’s been around fifteen years, and I bought The Time Has Come when the “That’s Me” video was in rotation.
8:03 Phil Stacey starts things off, and he’s picked a Keith Urban song that isn’t very singer-friendly, “Where The Blacktop Ends.” McBride notes Stacey’s biggest strength and weakness immediately, yet still comes off sounding constructive. So far, she’s good at this.
8:04 Before the judges pipe in, I’m going to say it sounds like Stacey followed McBride’s advice and put more soul in the beginning. They always seem to bash him, though.
8:05 Let me add, he looks like Kevin Sharp.
8:06 Randy thinks he should sing country, Paula notes that he did what Martina said without giving her credit for it, and Simon says it’s his genre as well. I worry that they’re just saying that because they haven’t found one for the genre yet and need one for the money, but he was pretty good.
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Tuesday, April 17th, 2007
Pam Tillis
Rhinestoned
Rhinestoned, the first album of new material from Pam Tillis in nearly six years, once carried the subtitle High on Country Music. The title may have been shortened, but its spirit remains. Rhinestoned is more than just a stunningly well-crafted album from one the genre’s most consistent talents. It is a timely and much-needed reminder that country music is an art form, not just a radio format.
Tillis has always made fantastic albums, but good as they were, they often lacked a full cohesion. Tillis was interested in and good at so many eclectic styles that she tried to squeeze in as many as she could, resulting in very entertaining albums that showed her versatility, but lacked a unifying theme.
With Rhinestoned, she has accomplished what has eluded her in the past: a focused, cohesive album that is deliberately paced, and explores one specific style of country music in depth. This is country music that finds its roots in the seventies folk-country of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, with a streak of Glen Campbell’s polished California sound for added flavor. But rather than mimic the sounds of the artists who came before her, she applies the lessons that they taught her instead.
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Monday, April 16th, 2007
Kris is here to keep me calm.
Good God, what an astonishingly tasteless evening. A nasty host with an insult for everybody, music that barely resembles country, and women spoken of with no respect, whether they’re cheerleaders, talk show hosts, country music superstars or songwriting legends. Not to mention a pot-shot at Stonewall Jackson. I’m going to go listen to some Kristofferson, Tillis, Cash and Loveless, and remind myself that this twisted trainwreck is not what country music is; it’s just a cable channel’s tawdry attempt to be the hillbilly MTV. You can read my running thoughts below for the evening. Know that they’ve been heavily censored. HBO wouldn’t broadcast my inner monologue from the past three hours.
Oh, and I will never, ever, ever, do this again. Not live blogging, mind you: I’m going to do that for Idol country night if I’m home for it. But the CMT Music Awards? Never again.
As it happened:
8:0o Are You Smarter than a 5th Grade Country Music Star, eh? Would’ve been cooler if they asked one of the aging pop/rock stars to name a Webb Pierce song.
8:03 This skit was longer than an SNL bomb.
8:04 Then again, I’d rather watch that than Rascal Flatts. I wonder if their cover of “Life Is A Highway” has Tom Cochrane thinking he could do country?
8:09 I’m glad Foxworthy has a hit to pimp again. Doesn’t have to drag out the redneck jokes.
8:10 Martina McBride doesn’t strike me as thinking Thomas Jefferson is related to George and Wheezy.
8:11 Now you’re mocking Dolly Parton? Lay off the chicks, dude.
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Sunday, April 15th, 2007
Jack Ingram
This Is It
Jack Ingram may seem like a new artist to country listeners, but he’s been releasing albums since 1995. In 2005, he attached two new studio tracks to a live album, and they both hit the top twenty. “Wherever You Are” made it all the way to #1, while its follow-up “Love You” reached #12.
Big Machine is trying to build on the success he’s had at radio by including both of those songs again on his new studio album, This Is It. The excellent “Lips of an Angel”, which technically is the lead single, means that three of the first five songs on the album have already garnered wide exposure, with a fourth, “Measure of a Man”, hitting airwaves now. It’s a smart marketing tool for an emerging artist, but it makes the album feel more like a compilation at first.
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Saturday, April 14th, 2007
Tracy Byrd, “Better Places Than This”
Byrd’s drinking funny-man songs have become his signature over the years, with his most popular songs these days being “Ten Rounds With Jose Cuervo” and “Drinkin’ Bone.” His 2006 album Different Things showcases his ability to handle deeper and darker material, but he still finds room for his humor to shine through. As he’s getting out of the bar he’s had one too many in, he lets the bartender know he’s been thrown out of better places. He’s not talking about an uptown bar, but rather the loving woman who showed him the door.
There are some strong emotions hiding just underneath the surface here, and Byrd is able to acknowledge them without overwhelming the cocky spirit of the song. Check out the song, but I recommend the whole album. Byrd was still a kid during his big hit-making days, but he’s fully matured as an artist and is making the best music of his career.
Grade: A-
Listen: Better Places Than This
Buy: Better Places Than This
Saturday, April 14th, 2007
Jack Ingram, “Measure of a Man”
A well-written story about a man who leaves home young because of a volatile relationship with his father, but reaches out to fix things with him when he becomes a father of his own. Songs like this often cast the son as the prodigal kind, who rejects the traditional, small-town values of his family but returns to them after getting burned in the real world. Ingram’s song is much more realistic, and believable because of it. The father really wasn’t as good as he should’ve been to his son, but the son has also let pride get in the way of restoring the relationship. In other words, it sounds like something that actually might have happened in real life.
Grade: A-
Listen: Measure of a Man
Buy: Measure of a Man
Thursday, April 12th, 2007
Carrie Underwood sold nearly 54,000 copies of her late 2005 release Some Hearts this week, a remarkable sum for an album that’s hardly new. That sales total was good enough to land her at #18 on the pop albums chart, and #6 on the country chart. All the albums that are above her on the country chart have been released in the last two weeks, and she’s outselling newer albums by Rascal Flatts, Keith Urban, Dixie Chicks, Sugarland, Dierks Bentley, Gary Allan, and George Strait, among others.
In fact, Some Hearts has been so well-received by consumers that it now ranks as the second-biggest country studio album of the century. So far, Carrie’s debut CD has sold a stunning 5,209,148 copies. The only studio album to sell more units this century is Home, by Dixie Chicks, which has moved 5, 916,559 units to date.
Can Carrie close that 700k+ gap and have the top-selling country album of the century? If you’d asked me six months ago, I’d have said no, but now I think it’s an inevitability. The reason? “Before He Cheats.” The song revitalized the project at retail when it became a country smash, and now it’s become Carrie’s first crossover hit, soaring up the Mainstream Top 40 and Adult Top 40 radio charts. She didn’t even remix the song to get the crossover spins; it’s being played in its original form.
Add on the massive exposure she’s gotten from her Grammy wins, her probable domination at this year’s ACM Awards, plus her new #1 country hit “Wasted”, and it’s easy to imagine her selling more than six million units of her debut CD, maybe even by the
end of 2007. That would place it as the top-selling country album of the century, and also make it the top-selling American Idol-related project; currently, Underwood’s debut trails Kelly Clarkson’s sophomore effort Breakaway, which has sold more than 5.7 million units to date.
Bright as the future is for Underwood, one record that looks way out of reach for her is top-selling country album of all-time. Currently, that record is held comfortably by Shania Twain, who has the top-selling album of any genre of the SoundScan era: Come On Over. As of this week, it has scanned 15,420,945 units.
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