Country Universe – A Country Music Blog

Review: Danielle Peck, “Bad For Me”

Saturday, July 28th, 2007

Danielle Peck, “Bad For Me”

As with her previous singles, I just can’t shake the feeling that I’ve heard it all before.  Peck has a decent voice, and she does her best to sell this laundry list of vices that predictably is topped by the man in her life, but the record never rises above mediocrity.

Grade: C

Listen: Bad For Me

Buy: Bad For Me

Review: Billy Ray Cyrus, “Ready, Set, Don’t Go”

Saturday, July 28th, 2007

Billy Ray’s quite aware that his daughter’s huge success provides him an opportunity to restart his own musical career.   He’s crafted a single that could be heard to his country audience as a plea for his lover not to leave, but to his daughter’s fans as a father’s reluctance to let go of his little girl who is off to chase her dreams.    There is not one single line that clearly defines it as one or the other.

I’m happy to say that the song is pretty good in the end, though I wish his vocal was more lively.   What always made Billy Ray stand out as a singer was his intensity, not his precision, so he really should’ve let loose a bit more.   As comeback attempts go, though, it’s a solid one.

Grade: B

Listen: Ready, Set, Don’t Go

Buy: Ready, Set, Don’t Go

Review: Andy Griggs, “Tattoo Rose”

Saturday, July 28th, 2007

Building an entire song around trying to get a girl to show you her tattoo?   It wasn’t a great conceit for a song when Gibson/Miller Band did it more than a decade ago, and it isn’t any better when Andy Griggs takes a shot at it.   “Mason-Dixon tan line” is supposed to be the clever play on words that powers the chorus, but it simply doesn’t work.

Grade: C-

Listen: Tattoo Rose

Buy: Tattoo Rose

Review: Ty Herndon, “Mighty Mighty Love”

Saturday, July 28th, 2007

He was one of the better B-list singers of the mid-nineties, so it’s no surprise that Herndon gives a passionate performance here.   The song itself, however, is so filled with cliches and lines heard a million times before that it’s instantly forgettable.

Grade:  C

Listen: Mighty Mighty Love

Buy: Mighty Mighty Love

Yesterday’s Songs: July 20, 1991

Tuesday, July 24th, 2007

No wonder I got into country music in 1991. What an awesome collection of songs. I could actually enjoy country radio if this is what was in the rotation! Sorry this is four days late, but there was no way I was going to find a new list for July 24 when this collection was so damn good.

Top 20 Country Songs
July 20, 1991

#20
“Small Town Saturday Night”
Hal Ketchum

Ketchum’s breakthrough hit is a detail-laden celebration of the mundane social lives of small town teenagers. He didn’t write it, but it’s so intelligent it’s hard to believe he didn’t. Witness the explanation that the world is flat, and drops off sharp at the edge of town, because “when people leave town, they never come back.” A

#19
“Hopelessly Yours”
Lee Greenwood & Suzy Bogguss

Greenwood’s last top ten hit was Bogguss’ first, and she elevates the proceedings by her mere presence. He mercifully keeps his vocal histrionics in check. B+

#18
“Down to My Last Teardrop”
Tanya Tucker

Smart, vivacious and sung with fire, Tucker’s rarely sounded better. This is one of her best singles that isn’t from the early seventies. A

#17
“Liza Jane”
Vince Gill

Gill does a little rockabilly number that sounds pleasant, but doesn’t really go anywhere. B-

#16
“We Both Walk”
Lorrie Morgan

Morgan growls her way through this insistent kiss-off number, as she tells her man, “Don’t you try to come through my door. I can’t watch you leave anymore.” A-

#15
“She’s a Natural”
Rob Crosby

Unbelievably sappy. Crosby lays it on thick. It’s hard to believe that he was among the prodigious early roster of Arista Nashville, which featured Alan Jackson, Pam Tillis, Brooks & Dunn, Diamond Rio and Lee Roy Parnell. C

#14
“One of Those Things”
Pam Tillis

Speaking of Tillis, her second hit single was a re-recording of a song she wrote that failed to chart when she was a Warner Bros. artist. Janie Fricke covered it soon after, but it wasn’t until the newly confident writer ripped into it on her Arista debut that it was finally a hit. A-

#13
“Fallin’ Out of Love”
Reba McEntire

McEntire does her very own “Woman to Woman”, whispering in the ear of a female friend who has just been done wrong, but in a demonstration of how things have changed for women, she celebrates with her friend as the man who left her behind comes crawling back, and she turns him away. One of the best singles in a very illustrious career that’s been full of great, great singles. A+

#12
“Til I Found You”
Marty Stuart

Even Marty filler is pretty good. But this is Marty filler, no doubt. B-

#11
“You Know Me Better Than That”
George Strait

Love this song. Hilariously true to life. We put on airs, but eventually people see us as we really are. A

(more…)

EW names “Fifty Greatest Love Songs, #50-#26

Monday, July 23rd, 2007

#30: Shania Twain, “You’re Still the One”

Sappy, perhaps, but also irresistible, as proven by wedding DJs worldwide. As the perfectly processed Nashville-pop chorus points out, Shania’s still the one that brides love, the only one they dream of.

That’s the only country song so far.  Any guesses of one that might end up in the Top 25?

Trisha Yearwood, “Heaven, Heartache & The Power of Love”

Tuesday, July 17th, 2007

Trisha Yearwood, “Heaven, Heartache & The Power of Love”

You know how I’m always saying that Carrie Underwood is the most gifted female vocalist in country music since Trisha Yearwood?

This is why I say “since Trisha Yearwood.” What a tour de force. Her bluesy, fiery vocal rips into this redemption lyric with such a relentless power it could bring an old-time tent revival to its knees. As is always the case with a Trisha record, the song is rock-solid and Garth Fundis’ production supports and enhances but never overwhelms. But it’s Trisha’s vocal wonders that elevates this from a good record to one for the ages.

Turn it up. Play it loud. Testify. Trisha Yearwood is back.

Grade: A

Listen: Heaven, Heartache & The Power of Love

Gary Allan, “Watching Airplanes”

Tuesday, July 17th, 2007

Gary Allan, “Watching Airplanes”

Surprisingly boring and uneventful. I wouldn’t expect his new stuff to match the emotional intensity of Tough All Over, but he’s just phoning it in here. That said, Gary Allan phoning it in sounds better than most guys trying their best. He has such nuance to his voice that he could sing any mediocre song and sell it. This record proves just how true that is.

Grade: B-

Listen: Watching Airplanes

Buy: Watching Airplanes

Jake Owen, “Something About a Woman”

Tuesday, July 17th, 2007

Jake Owen, “Something About a Woman”

A good opening verse leads to a chorus that confesses, “There’s something about a woman, some kind of sweet little something that I may never understand.”

Which reveals that there’s not really a wizard behind the songwriting curtain here. A better song would capture what the something is. A lazy song with an equally lazy performance to go with it. Meh.

Grade: C-

Listen: Something About a Woman

Buy: Something About a Woman

Brent’s Back! & Other Great Happenings in the World of Country Music Blogging

Saturday, July 14th, 2007

How happy I was today to click on one of my favorite bookmarks, and find a shiny new post! Yes, friends, Brent Hecht has returned from a too-long sabbatical, and Liberal Country Fan is back in business, with a preview of Garth & Trisha’s Live Earth performance of “We Shall Be Free.”

Brent let me do some guest blogging on his site last year, and I have to say that if he hadn’t done so, Country Universe would never have grown into the blog that it is today. He’s also a genuinely nice guy, able to remain above the fray when his beliefs are attacked. When I couldn’t keep my cool as the Halfway to Hazard groupies descended on the site earlier this year, I admire his ability to remain good-natured as he writes about country music from an angle that provokes hostility and derision from some of the people who don’t share his values or world view. He doesn’t censor his comment threads, even when he’s personally attacked, and that’s not an easy thing to do!

While one blog returns from an extended absence, others have been going strong, becoming essential daily reads. I suspect I’m not the only one who now gets most of their country music news from The 9513. Their daily news roundups are indispensable, and the addition of single reviews and even academic analysis have made it the most well-rounded country music website out there, and I’m not just saying that because I won a cool t-shirt!

I’m also loving the continuing saga of Linda at Still is Still Moving, as she keeps track of Willie Nelson. How awesome that she got to hang out with Willie on his tour bus, and that he checks her site every day so he knows where he’s been? One of the best things about blogging is that you can write about what you love the most, and that enthusiasm is contagious. Every time I check out Linda’s site, I end up listening to some Willie Nelson that day. I wish fans of other artists would follow her lead and create blogs like hers. She’s the gold standard!

I have to send a big shout-out to City Girl, Country Girl (a.k.a. Caitlyn), who has kicked her blog in to a higher gear, launching a mySpace page as she celebrates the 30k milestone. Check out her insightful post on the media fascination with veteran country stars like Porter Wagoner and Charlie Louvin. I’ve noticed the “indie kids love country oldies” phenomenon myself, and given her proximity to the Big Apple, she’s seen it in full force. She’s also succeeded in making me feel old because I don’t have a mySpace page for Country Universe!

Finally, I know I’ve raved about Twang Nation before, but I’m gonna do it again. Baron Lane is funny as hell, so if you’re going to check out his site, don’t drink while reading. You’ll have to replace your keyboard. I didn’t even bother reviewing the new Ryan Adams CD, because I couldn’t top this:

This is most mainstream release Ryan Adams has ever done. That not to say it’s mainstream, we are still talking about the guy that channeled Beck and posted dozens of faux hip-hop and punk tracks like “Awww S—, Look Who Got a Web Site”

Is he brilliant or nuts? Who cares?

This guy uses naked ladies instead of stars for his album ratings, and finds YouTube videos of Porter Wagoner praising prostitution as a talent worth celebrating. It just doesn’t get any better than that.

All this good stuff, and you can see why I don’t care very much that CMT now has an “official” blog. Chet Flippo ain’t got nothin’ on these guys and gals!